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Sorry for the missed week, but final projects and exams for the semester have taken up all of my time. But here is the review of the second episode.

Summary:

This episode gives us the first real mystery where Ned, Emerson, and Chuck work together as partners, but it takes some time to get to the action.

We first start with a flashback to Ned’s childhood during his time in boarding school after his mother dies. After being annoyed with the bullying against him, he decides to help with that day’s science project, frog dissections, This obviously ends in disaster as he revives all the frogs, leading to chaos. This inspires him to keep his ability a secret.

We then flash-forward to the present where we learn of the living dynamics and inner feeling of Ned and Chuck. While the two wake and up and cautiously prepare breakfast, we learn that Chuck desperately misses her aunts and Ned has difficulty keeping the secret that he accidentally killed her father.

After this, we jump right to the mystery, as Emerson gets a call to investigate the murder of a hit-and-run victim, Bernard. The three head to the morgue with Emerson annoyed at Chuck’s presence and Ned nervous about accidentally touching her. After Ned revives Bernard, Chuck decides it would be better to ask the victim if they had any last wishes. Bernard requests, that they tell his coworker, Jeanine, that he loved her. Chuck agrees and the group learns that he believes he was killed by a crash test dummy, not being able to get any more information as the minute is used up.

Following a group discussion and some heartbreaking news to Olive, the three head to Bernard’s work, Dandy Lion Industries. While trying to deliver their message, Jeanine pretends that she doesn’t know Bernard. The three then follow the CEO to the crash test facility. Here, Chuck finds a dummy without a face or clothes and comes to the realization that the murder was using them as a disguise. This then leads us to another group meeting at the Pie Hole and a wonderful performance of “Hopelessly Devoted to You” by Olive after Ned and the group leaves to check out the company after-hours.

During this trip, Emerson finds dead bodies, which the company had been using as replacements for real crash test dummies. They also come across Jeanine again. They head back to the Pie Hole and Jeanine share the story of her love affair with Bernard. In the flashback, after Bernard becomes more distant with Jeanine, she decides to follow him after work. Jeanine agrees to take the group to see Bernard’s secret after she barters for some pie, but on the way, Jeanine’s Dandy Lion SX explodes, leaving her alive but incapacitated. While in the hospital, Jeanine tells them that there is a mass of bodies in a ditch, which she was going to show them. Once they arrive there, they learn that the bodies are crash test dummies and Emerson realizes that they made the switch to real people because the company was trying to hide data on the tests. Immediately after, a man disguised as a crash test dummy tasers them.

The trio comes to and they find themselves tied up and in body bags in a Dandy Lion SX in the crash test facility. We come to find that the dummy killer is the CEO and he starts to monologue, but group can’t hear him through the body bags and the car. During this monologue we learn that the Dandy Lion SX explodes under a specific, but not improbable set of circumstances. The CEO killed Bernard and used real bodies to hide the truth. The CEO tries to send the car on a collision course, but Emerson frees everyone and they drive off with the car. This leads to a chase, but the CEO gets captured by the police while the group narrowly escapes their own explosion.

At the end of the episode, Ned and Chuck enter Ned’s car and we see that he has built a plexiglass barrier between the two front seats so that Chuck can sit in the front with him.

Pros:

-The love story between Bernard and Jeanine is cute and feels genuine.

-We learn so much more about the characters. It’s unnecessary, but really makes the characters feel alive and unique.

-The performance of “Hopelessly Devoted to You” is great.

-We get to see impressive detective work by both Emerson and Chuck. This allows to better understand why they would work so well on the same team.

Cons:

-The villain and mystery aren’t really engaging. They’re not creative like we will come to see in future episodes.

-The story tries to focus both on the mystery and on character development, but suffers in both respects.

-The fun colors of this world aren’t as prevalent as they are in other episodes.

Overall:

This episode is good, but suffers from lack of focus and a sense that the story doesn’t take place in the same, bright, weird universe that we were previously introduced to. The mystery is a bit underwhelming when compared to other episodes, but is helped by the adorable relationships between Jeanine and Bernard, as well as Ned and Chuck.

By far, the best part of this episode is the introduction of the unique traits of the main characters, such as Emerson’s knitting, Chucks “cheese box” fridge and polyglotism, and Olive’s breaking out into song. This makes the characters interesting and fun to interact with.

At this part, the series is still trying to find its niche, which will be made apparent in later episodes. It’s a good start, but disappointing when one compares it to later episodes.

Rating:

7/10 Daisies

Do you enjoy getting sloppy drunk and moshing to indie music? If so, then Twin Peaks are the dudes you’re looking for. This local Chicago band is bringing back rock ‘n’ roll with a vengeance. Their sound is raw, their live shows are raucous, and they have fangirls like you wouldn’t believe. Since the release of their latest album Wild Onion in the summer of 2014, they’ve toured with Wavves, released some sweet new singles, and are recording their upcoming album in the wilderness of Massachusetts. Cadien Lake James, the group’s charismatic frontman, describes the recording experience as “camping without food or shelter for weeks and recording with the sounds of jungle cats and dragons overhead.” Make of this what you will.

Twin Peaks have been major players in the Chicago music scene for years, dominating DIY venues such as Feel Trip and Animal Kingdom, tons of house parties, and legit venues around the city. Their early sound was gritty and low-fi, lending itself well to out-of-control parties and singlehandedly chugging a fifth of Jack Daniels. Recent singles have reflected a transition to more melodic grooves while Wild Onion serves as a timeless example of .

Wild Onion is a must-listen for anyone who needs a dose of good old-fashioned rock music. Though the songs resemble garage-rock legends such as The Strokes in length and sound quality, they are deceptively complex and intimate. ‘Mirror of Time,’ my personal favorite track on the record, is melancholic in all the right ways, intellectual, and catchy as hell. ‘Mind Frame’ was used on the set-in-Chicago TV show Shameless, and ‘Making Breakfast’ is just a damn good time. You’ll see what I mean.

Though they’ve quickly risen out of the Chicago music scene’s enclave and into international stardom through sold-out European and US tours, they’ve stayed true to their hometown and continue to play underground shows with bands such as The Orwells, The Boxers and The Lemons when they can. Having spent last New Year’s Eve at a Twin Peaks show in an abandoned church, sweaty, drenched in champagne inside and out and bearing a fresh cigarette burn on my arm unbeknownst to me at the time, I have served as living proof of Twin Peaks’ debauchery.

These dudes know how to get down and have a good time while also cranking out some serious tunes and focusing on their art between bouts of partying and touring. They’ve been friends of mine since high school I can vouch for the sincerity of their musicianship and talent. In today’s cutthroat music industry, it’s refreshing to see people with such raw talent getting the recognition they deserve. They’ve worked hard to get where they are, and I don’t see them going anywhere soon. Don’t miss out the Twin Peaks train, because it’s a fuckin’ party.

So, I kept hearing about how good Jeff Lemire is at writing comic books. Specifically, those who hyped up his work to me were talking about his book called Descender. So I flipped through the trade paper back of Descender at the Vault of Midnight. I must say, as deplorable as it may seem to some, the artwork does factor into my decision when choosing to pick of a book or not. Of course I am not suggesting that Dustin Nguyen’s art was bad, because if anything, it is stellar. But something did not feel right to me. It just did not pull me in. Also, I think I left that book on the shelf because I was all sci-fied out at the time. By “at the time”, I mean like, last week.

But I figured that there must be something else that Lemire wrote. There is no way that Descender was his breakout book. Turns out he did some books for DC, Marvel, Vertigo, and Valiant…basically…every other major publisher besides Image. Call me closed minded, but I was not ready to venture outside of Image, especially not into the daunting cluster fuck of a world that is DC and Marvel.

That is when I found Plutona, a new series co-created by Lemire and Emi Lenox, the latter of whom did the art. Lets just cut the story short and just say I dug the art and picked it up right away. Whenever I see an artist capture nuanced emotion in each panel, I just sit back in awe. These are the artists that really know how to observe people. The colors by Jordie Bellaire also contribute to the book by creating a light atmosphere that at once makes you happy, but also creates dread. Something is wrong and the art makes you feel it. A subtle uneasiness.

Of course you know something is wrong from the very beginning. But that is not what I am talking about. On that note, let me talk about the story. Lemire knows that this story is not about the dead superhero, it is about the five children that find her dead body lying in the middle of a vast forest. The world does not overshadow the characters, in other words, these characters just happen to be in a world where super heroes exist. A compelling character can be placed in any setting and they will remain true. Believe me, the characters are very compelling. Sure there may be some archetypes, reminding me of the experience of watching Goonies or The Breakfast Club, but there is an ambiguity about their characterization that makes you wonder which direction they will go.

This does beg the question though, how important is it for super heroes to exist in this book? I am not sure if I can answer the question at this moment because I have only read the first issue. But I do think the book itself is suggesting an answer starting from its debut. Plutona, the superhero, is seen dead from the first page. But the way Lenox draws the panels makes her body feel like an object, using various angles to observe specific parts of her body, never forgetting to include flies to suggest the time that has gone by. Plutona is established as if she is an inanimate object, the way some manga establish a house, with various angles. Then the next page is a view of the vast forest, where presumably, the body is. Superheroes may exist in this world, but they are far removed from our characters. The one character that has any proximity to them from the start, only knows about their activity through the radio and the Internet. He is also seen looking at the city through binoculars while keeping a log of any superhero sightings. Then there is another character that shows some interest about superheroes but other than that, nobody else seems to care.

This gives Lemire space to build the characters that are important, the kids. He puts Plutona in the background from the beginning – which in itself is genius, because like I said about the art, by having the knowledge of the dead superhero at the back of your head, it constantly nags at you as you find out about the kids. I think it is important that this book has superheroes in it, because the story is setting up a world that mirrors our own. What are superheroes to us? Sure they do not exist in our world, but at the same time they do. We read about them, we consume them. Lemire has a little vignette at the end of the book (That features a different art style. I believe he did the art for it) where he gives a little backstory on Plutona. It feels distant, almost foreign, like it does not belong. But at the same time, it demands to be seen, it demands to emerge into the foreground.

Ya, I see what the hype is about now. Lemire knows how to write and I do see myself picking up Descender sometime in the future (haha…future…cause it is a sci-fi book…never mind).