Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Sunday, February 6, 2022

DVD Review: Animal Kingdom Season 5

 


+++Warning: This contains spoilers from Season 4, but no major giveaways from Season 5+++

The fifth season of Animal Kingdom starts out a bit slow and then ramps up in the final few episodes. This season, the storylines jump back and forth between the present day and flashbacks to young Smurf (played by Leila George). While there were flashbacks in season four, they are even more prominent now that present-day Smurf was killed off at the end of the fourth season. The beginning of the fifth season sees all of the Cody boys struggling to get their footing in a world without Smurf calling the shots. Pope and Craig spin out of control in their own ways, and Deran and J engage in a power struggle for leadership. For about the first two-thirds of the season, it seems like the show is trying to figure out how to tell the story without Ellen Barkin and then it really ramps up to a very good ending and sets up a major storyline (that loops back to the early seasons) that is definitely going to play a big role in the final season. 

For those who get the DVD, it is basically a MOD plus set. It does have captions and a few extras, including a featurette on Smurf's end, and a couple of short behind-the-scenes features on the fifth season. Nothing extensive, but what is there is good. But, if you are one of those who only get the physical discs when there are a lot of extras, you may just want to stream it. 

Overall, I liked the season, mostly because of the final few episodes. I do think the present-day storylines suffered without Barkin, but I thought Leila George does a great job as young Smurf. She does not try to copy what Barkin did outright, but sprinkled in things from her performance that showed how she evolved into the person we see in the first season of the show. And Shawn Hatosy deserves all the kudos for his portrayal of Pope and the range of performances he has to give to play that character. I would say if you liked the prior seasons, while this one is definitely going to feel different, it is worth sticking with.  

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