FOREVER

Forever not only shakes up a marriage, but also our hearts. Starring the show are Oscar (Fred Armisen) and June (Maya Rudolph), who live a repetitive married life. Their relationship is fine, according to June. A little bit too fine. It’s a show about marriage, but actually ventures more into depth about existential issues and personal happiness. Oscar craves perfection, but isn’t exactly a perfectionist. He’s satisfied with his life with June, knowing that she is a little out of his league and he’s glad to have her, showing her an astounding amount of support and love whenever he can. He’s a geeky dentist who takes pride in his job as well as an emotional and fragile man.

He’s just very satisfied with where he is in life, completely opposite to June whose emotions of boredom and dissatisfaction are apparent on her face. I wouldn’t call her unhappy since the love between Oscar and June really can be felt with the delightful chemistry they have on and off-set.

Not only that, but the humor Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard were aiming for was perfectly achieved. June’s habit of cursing unintentionally paired with Oscar’s expressive features and subconsciously said words work like magic in erupting laughs.

The half-hour TV series cuts grave topics into little pieces to fit its running time. Regardless, it never gets prosaic, opting to keep you either laughing or somber with its hefty themes. It’s definitely one in a million and distinguishable from the rest of the numerous shows airing these days.

Rating: 4Stars

THE FIRST

The First begins with Vista, a private company, launching a rocket into space for a journey to Mars that actually never reaches Mars. That’s kind of what differentiates The First from The Martian or Mars. The team’s previous commander, Tom Hagerty (Sean Penn), who had been excluded from the mission for reasons that will eventually reveal themselves.

Even though he wasn’t allowed to participate in the highly important mission, he’s still quite involved. Even more so when mission begins to fail. Soon enough, Hagerty starts collecting a completely new group of astronauts like, Aiko Hakari (Keiko Agena), Nick Fletcher (James Ransone), Sadie Hewitt (Hannah Ware) and Matteo Vega (Rey Lucas). Tom engages in a conflict with Kayla Price (LisaGay Hamilton) who feels as though Tom had seized her position as team leader. As Laz Ingram (Natascha McElhone), who had arranged the whole trip, attempts to prepare resources and fix as much of the situation as she can.

The show provides the viewers so much drama that it becomes increasingly annoying when new problems abruptly introduce themselves while the previous ones haven’t been solved. Tom’s journey to Mars isn’t just because it’s a goal. It seems that he’s trying to escape his problems on Earth.

An accented voice tunes in occasionally to deliver voiceovers, a character that lacks background completely. However, aside from appointing an award-worthy cast, The First also shows female domination and power, on and off screen.

It’s definitely a powerful show and with little improvisations, I believe that it’ll succeed.

Rating: 2.5Stars

MANIFEST

Manifest starts off in April 2013, when a Montego Air flight flying out from Jamaica is overbooked, causing Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh), Ben (Josh Dallas), Cal (Jack Messina), Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) and many others to take a later flight. Melissa portrays Michaela as a cop that had recently been involved in an unrevealed incident who takes up the flight in order to steer clear of her unrelenting, fretting parents.

Ben, her brother, chooses to take up the flight with his son Cal who’s fighting a harsh battle against cancer so that he could use the given voucher money for his son’s treatment, allowing his wife Grace (Athena Karkanis) and daughter Olive (Luna Blaise) to get back home in the earlier one.

The flight faces turbulence due to a weather surge not on the radar. All’s going well until they have to land in another runway instead of New York’s, and the crowd’s confusion is heightened when they’re met with FBI cars and detectives on the tarmac. Oh, and guess what? It’s no longer April 2013, it’s November 2018. Apparently, Montego Air Flight 828 had been missing for five freaking years.

Adding to people’s flabbergastation is the fact that no person on the plane had aged a day, neither was there any difference in their health. Unlike them, the significant people in their lives had moved on already, living five years ahead with new technology and whatnot. If you think that the show’s drama end there, you’re wrong, because people who had sat in plane 828 begin hearing strange voices in their heads, leading them to make decisions that unexpectedly lead to good.

Manifest, with themes of mystery and thriller, focuses on Michaela’s mother’s favourite verses from the Bible that were – wait for it – Romans 8:28! If the show wants to shine light on Christianity, it should. But it isn’t, it’s actually just hinting at the Christian background instead of actually zeroing in on it like it should. I feel as though there’s some confusion in Melissa’s character. No one really knows how to show Michaela as a rigid cop. Besides, the Stone’s are extremely monotonous.

It’s a great show regardless, the mystery is definitely the type to have you biting your nails. Hope to see improvisations in this eye-catching show.

Rating: 2.5Stars