Directed by show creator Sam Levinson, the season 2 premiere, “Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door,” transports viewers into another night of Euphoria. That title does more than reference the show’s heavy inclusion of sex, drugs, and more sex and drugs, it’s a nod to its most central theme — that feeling of euphoria is a treasure sought out by most everyone in the series.
Time to leave Rivervale and head back to our prime universe, Riverdale. “Chapter One Hundred: The Jughead Paradox” marks the series’ 100th episode as well as the end of the special five-episode Rivervale event, and its filled with answers, emotion, death, twists, and so much more! For the remainder of this recap, we will be getting into heavy spoilers; so only continue reading if you’ve seen episode 6×05.
Continue reading “NOC Recap: ‘Riverdale’ Hits Its 100th Episode Milestone with a Bang”
In “Chapter Ninety-One: The Return of the Pussycats,” Ashleigh Murray, Hayley Law, and Asha Bromfield are back to give our favorite musical trio the closure they deserve! The series stars KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Mӓdchen Amick, Casey Cott, Mark Consuelos, Charles Melton, Vanessa Morgan, Erinn Westbrook, and Drew Ray Tanner. For the remainder of this recap, we will be getting into heavy spoilers; so only continue reading if you’ve seen episode 5×15.
Continue reading “NOC Recap: ‘Riverdale’ Will Make You Fall in Love With The Pussycats All Over Again”
Wednesday nights were definitely not the same without Riverdale‘s craziness. Luckily, the show has finally returned with “Chapter Eighty-Seven: Strange Bedfellows,” which kicks off the second part of season 5. The series stars KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Mӓdchen Amick, Casey Cott, Mark Consuelos, Charles Melton, Vanessa Morgan, Erinn Westbrook, and Drew Ray Tanner. For the remainder of this recap, we will be getting into heavy spoilers; so only continue reading if you’ve seen episode 5×11.
Continue reading “NOC Recap: ‘Riverdale’ Returns With All Its Glory”
“Hostile Witness” shows events from (approximately) October 3rd, 1993, 1994, and 1995. For the remainder of this recap, we will be getting into heavy spoilers; so only continue reading if you’ve seen episode 1×10 of Cruel Summer.
Continue reading “NOC Recap: The ‘Cruel Summer’ Season Finale Wraps Everything Up and Then Blows It All Up Again”
“As The Carny Gods Intended” shows events from (approximately) July 29th, 1993, 1994, and 1995. For the remainder of this recap, we will be getting into heavy spoilers; so only continue reading if you’ve seen episode 1×05 of Cruel Summer.
Continue reading “NOC Recap: ‘Cruel Summer’ Episode 5 is a Tangled Web of Twisted Games”
“Off With a Bang” shows events from (approximately) July 4th, 1993, 1994, and 1995. For the remainder of this recap, we will be getting into heavy spoilers, so only continue reading if you’ve seen episode 1×03 of Cruel Summer. This episode also gives a warning for images of domestic violence that may be triggering so this will apply to this review as well.
Continue reading “NOC Recap: ‘Cruel Summer’ Episode 3 Brings Fireworks and New Revelations”
Cruel Summer just premiered with two back-to-back episodes — “Happy Birthday, Jeanette Turner” and “A Smashing Good Time.” While many can just chalk this two-hour introduction to the series as a way to truly get fans hooked, it seems to almost be done in a way to really drive all of the storytelling aspects that the series is doing home, basically dedicating one episode each to introducing the two main characters, which you will find yourself torn between as you are forced to pick a side.
Continue reading “NOC Recap: ‘Cruel Summer’ Will Have You Hooked With its Captivating Premiere”
Without spoilers, what I’ll say is: Despite its many problems, I had hope that Game of Thrones would finish strong. That hope pretty much dissipated after I saw the last episode.
Spoilers below.
Welcome back, it’s your humble steward Anna, ever serving in the NOC’s Watch and ready to live tweet episode 2 of Game of Thrones! I’ve read A Song of Ice and Fire twice and have a dog named Daenerys The Frenchie so I swear by the old Gods and new that I am INVESTED in this show.
Continue reading “The NOC’s Watch: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”
Welcome NOC. Our long, boring wait is over, and it’s finally Game of Thrones time!
In Crazy Rich Asians, the character Astrid Leong is a beautiful and kind Oxford graduate, model, fashion icon, and humanitarian. When casting for the role, director Jon M. Chu had to find someone who could embody Astrid, the perfect woman … Continue reading ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Gemma Chan Using Her Fame for Good
So that happened.
We’ve been singing the praises of Into the Badlands all season, but man, that death was disappointing. I’ll keep the spoiler about which character(s) met their ultimate demise until after the jump. Just know that it has made me reevaluate how I feel about this show.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?”
In a fateful example of perfect timing, the airing of Into the Badlands episode nine, titled “Nightingale Sings No More,” coincided with Mother’s Day. So how does the Badlands writing crew celebrate mothers? By ripping their babies away from them, locking them in solitary confinement, and having them duel their daughters in deadly sword-to-sword combat, of course! More on that in a minute…
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Disciplined Dissidents”
There are few nerdy pursuits that bring me a lot of pure joy anymore. Hamilton, of course, is one, and Into the Badlands is the other. And like what the homie Shawn Taylor said, sometimes it just feels better to big up a thing you love than to tear down something you don’t. That’s why I love giving these HamLands recaps to you, the people. One, unwarranted Hamilton references is kinda my thing — just ask my poor family. And two, the hashtag Into the HamLands — which was initially designed to house Badlands-specific Hamilton puns, IS BEING USED BY THE CAST AND WRITERS OF THE SHOW! (Badlands, that is. Still waiting for Lin to chime in.)
So when Veil herself tweeted this gem below, I knew it had to be the title of this week’s ‘cap!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Equal, Opposite Reactions”
Apologies for the delay in getting this weeks Badlands recap out1. I know how much you anticipate my weekly Hamilton references! It was probably a good thing that I didn’t watch this episode live though. Not sure I would’ve been able to sleep had I seen Artemis haunt my television right before going to bed!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: What is a Legacy?”
Despite my better judgement, I went with a Hamilton pun this week rather than straight up lyrics from the show. Couldn’t help it. The fight scene between the Abbots and Sunny’s old and new sidekicks — juxtaposed against a Christmas-y backdrop, no less — was a highlight! Before settling on “A Winter’s Ball” wordplay, the other obvious number to reference was Jasmine Cephas-Jones’ showstopper “Say No to This,” thanks to twitter user @Bespectacled_Cy!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: A Winter’s Brawl”
Another week, another Into the Badlands recap that takes its cue from a Hamilton song. While it’s pretty obvious that I’m quoting Lin-Manuel’s soliloquy from the end of “The World Was Wide Enough” — fittingly about the lead-up and aftermath of a duel not unlike what Quinn and Ryder did last week — this week’s subtitle has as much to do with #GhostRyder as it does with the return of Sunny and Bajie who are just on the other side of the Badlands as well. And speaking of “other sides,” we see some characters aligning with other sides too. But really, it’s all about Quinn’s son on the other side.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: A Glimpse of the Other Side”
Once again, we’re venturing back Into the Badlands as we finally get to see the much anticipated Baron Conclave. Last week, if you recall, we saw Minerva and Waldo arrive at Ryder’s estate to take part in the gathering. Basically, this is when all of the barons in the Badlands come together to sign agreements and hash out differences — without swords. Mostly. This particular conclave has been convened to vote on whether the Widow is allowed to even be a baron. Debates ensue, and all I can think of are the lyrics for both “Cabinet Battle” tracks from Hamilton.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: You Don’t Have the Votes”
In my quest to title each Into the Badlands recap after lyrics from a Hamilton song, the writers did me a solid by letting Nathaniel Moon, played by veteran actor Sherman Augustus, say a line from the classic George Washington showstopper:
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Teach ‘Em How to Say Goodbye”
AMC’s Into the Badlands might have gotten a ten-episode second season (up four episodes from season one), but there’s no slowing down narratively. Episode 2 — which is actually chapter 8, proving just how propulsive the story of the Badlands is — wastes no time getting Sunny out of the mines, after a pretty awesome, and gruesome, fight scene to open the show. I would put the rest of the episode into three distinct buckets, that just so happen to coincide with a line from Hamilton‘s “My Shot.” And yes, I’m keeping up these #IntoTheHamLands recap titles all season!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Young, Scrappy, and Hungry”
After more than a year off the air, AMC’s dystopian martial arts epic Into the Badlands has finally returned! And with it, so have these NOC Recaps. Speaking of which, I’m going to try to title each recap with a line from Hamilton because 1.) seriously, have you met me?; and 2.) the Badlands writers have basically challenged me as much. So, appropriately enough, the Season Two premiere is named after a lyric from “Yorktown.”
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Friends All Scattered to the Winds”
“I ran back in time because Zoom and my dad and things and I got to live with my parents and it was all good but then it wasn’t so I came back but everything is different and I want everything to change back.” – Barry Allen during this week’s panicked voiceover
Barry flips his shit so hard that he flips it all the way to Star City. All over Felicity. Who, like us, is like, “You just, like, run back in time? All the time?”
