Nextflix Reviews - The New Legends of Monkey

Want to know what to 'watch next' on Netflix? Check out my Nextflix Reviews

The New Gods! Pigsy, Monkey,  Tripitaka & Sandy

Ah Monkey, I remember the old show that used to be on the BBC back when I was knee high to a goose. It was great fun, lots of daft humour, overacted voice dubbing and martial arts hi-jinks. It was great and of course based on legends/fables from Chinese mythology/religion? Buddhism and all that karmic kosmoligical klaptrap LOL Monkey had to accompany the monk Tripitaka to India on a pilgrimage. Along the way they pick up Pigsy & Sandy who were demons or monsters or something.

 In this version of the tale the Gods have gone and demons abound. The story starts when a group, (with Tripitaka among them), dedicated to resurrecting the Monkey King are slain by a demon with just our heroine, (Luciane Buchanan), escaping. She locates Monkey but hasn't got his crown that she needs to bring him back to life. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that she gets him out and then lies to Monkey saying that she is Tripitaka and they have to find the sacred scrolls and go on the journey West.

The original team - Sandy, Monkey, Tripitaka & Pigsy

This is a little different from the old series as you'd expect and of course I can not help but to compare it, it'll never match up to the original in my mind and heart but it's not bad at all. I didn't even recognise Sandy and Pigsy when they turned up in the show and this monkey too is nowhere near as iconic as Masaaki Sakai's portrayal, however it didn't take them long to grow on me. Emilie Cocquerel's Sandy is quirky and fun, reminds me of Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter movies somehow. There is also a demon called Princess Locke in the 1st 3 episodes played by Bryony Skillington who is a lot of fun.

So looking this up it says the original 70's/80's show was based on a 16th century Chinese novel called Journey to the West which is one of the 4 great Classical novels of Chinese literature. The original TV show was a cult hit here in the UK as well as in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.  Those last two liked it so much they clubbed together and shot this 10 episode series and it's filmed in New Zealand, which if it's good enough for Lord of the Rings, Xena and Hercules then it's good enough for me! The action fight sequences are similar to the type of action of Xena/Hercules being not too over the top violent for kids to enjoy I don't think. The series is categorized as a 12 though which surprises me.

In summary this is a cool little show, suitable for most ages, maybe not for very young kids if they are a bit on the nervous side or you don't want your children watching fight scenes. The original series ran for 55 episodes, I don't think this has quite the legs to run as long as that but I can imagine at least a couple of more seasons getting the green light. I think it deserves that much at least.

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Here a blog, there a blog, everywhere a blog blog - 1

So I was considering doing a review of the cool Will Smith Netflix movie Bright. I watched it the other night and had seen loads of people posting up, "is this film as crap as the critics say" kind of posts. I checked it out and thought it was pretty damn good actually. BUT I am not going to review it.... nope instead I thought I'd point you all to a cool review by a fellow novice blog buddy. I think it's cool to share a fellow bloggers site with you and in future I will share a cool blog here whenever I see one. 

So without further ado here is the blog of Hartley O'Driscoll called Hartley reviews. He did a post about the movie Bright that pretty much hits the nail on the head as far as I am concerned. 

Check it out and bookmark his page

Game of Thrones

With the release of this new set of Game of Thrones inspired stamps from Royal Mail in January 2018 it gives me the perfect excuse to blog about the books and the TV show. 

Wow, what a sensation it has been this show, nearly everybody has seen it and talked about it. Social media has been buzzing with it and often it's been avoided to save from getting spoilers. It's one of them shows to watch with friends and get carried away with, to gasp, or sigh or scream at the telly in reaction to whatever has befallen a beloved or hated character this time. Also it's a show to talk about with mates down the pub and in work the day after it airs.

2 of the books are so long they got made into 2 books each!

The show is based on the book series A Song of Ice and Fire which are written by George R R Martin. The 1st called Game of Thrones was published in 1996 and was originally planned to be the 1st of a trilogy but has evolved into a septology (whatever it is you call a group of 7!!), a heptology apparently!! Who knew? At the moment the 5th in the series is as far as it has got with A Dance With Dragons seeing release in 2011. It took George 6 years to write so by that reckoning book 6 The Winds of Winter can not be far off now I suppose. The story is very much influenced by events from history, the wars and political intrigues of medieval times. The Lannisters and The Starks for example are likened to the houses of Lancaster and York from the War of the Roses. Martin has said that, "I take [history] and I file off the serial numbers and I turn it up to 11."

I've not read the books myself so I am not getting spoilers and knowing what fates await each of the characters as I watch, nor am I getting annoyed whenever the programme veers from the book storyline or changes characters or merges them into 1 for the sake of brevity. It's kind of good not to have any forewarning in that way. So often you see a movie or a show and as you know the base content from the raw materiel of the book it can vex you when the programme makers vision veers from your own thoughts on what the story and characters should be. Show co-creator David Benioff describes the translation from book to screen like this, its "about adapting the series as a whole and following the map George laid out for us and hitting the major milestones, but not necessarily each of the stops along the way". The TV series has now passed the books in the story too which is pretty strange! I don't know how much input Martin now has with the TV writers, does he give them the bare bones as he envisages it? Does he even know what is going to happen to the characters himself yet? I am sure he must. It is definitely good cause to read the books as well as watch the show, just to find out what parts I have missed in the adaptation.

I do want to read the books at some point but this is one of those rare times when I want to read the books after the show rather than before it. I listened to the 1st one as an audio book and it seemed to be pretty close to the TV show as I remember it, although it finishes before the events of the 1st series of the TV show does which surprised me. The 5 audio books were all read by Roy Dotrice who was originally going to play Grand Maester Pycelle in the HBO television series but had to pull out for health reasons. He later played Wisdom Hallyne the Pyromancer. I've got to say I might even favour the audio books over reading them myself as he read them magnificently. It's a shame he passed away in October 2017, fans of his style will miss hearing him for the last two books when they arrive.

Roy Dotrice as Wisdom Hallyne

Telltale games even made a game for PS4, Xbox One and PC based on the series which I have played and I have to say it has almost as much shocks and tension as the show does, perhaps even more as you are playing the character whose decisions will have so many ramifications and even lead to their own deaths if you choose poorly.

The seventh season of the show has recently ended and we now have a long wait for the final season. Filming began in October 2017. Season 8 is set to be the shortest of them all in episode count, with only 6 planned, (the 1st 6 seasons had 10 and 7 had 7), it is set to air in 2019!! Each episode is going to be a 1 hour long which is slightly longer than normal but not by much. It will largely consist of original content currently not found in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and will instead adapt material Martin revealed to showrunners about the upcoming novels in the series, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. Whatever happens it is bound to be a momentous battle and afterwards and even during there will be bound to be some treachery to be sure and various characters machinations will either come to fruition or be thwarted. Who will live? Who will die? Who will sit on the Iron Throne and why would you even want to it looks very uncomfortable!! We'll have to wait and see, whatever the outcome I am sure it will be talked about for a long time to come.

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