Saturday, February 9, 2019

Review Time!



Catalyst
After discovering that she’s really and elf from another dimension and being sent to Russia to deal with an outbreak of deadly mythical creatures, Solstice Winters is trying to settle back into her humdrum everyday life as a photojournalist for “The Spiritualist”.
The thing is, as the Echo drifts ever closer to Earth, sightings and outbreaks of paranormal activity are on the increase and Solstice’s skills are in demand. Her latest case – for instance – involves the disappearance of a mummy from the local museum. A disappearance that just so happens to coincide with a glut of dead bodies and missing persons reports.
It’s up to Solstice to find the connection.
However, her efforts are hampered by the repeated appearance of an amped-up version of the Grim Reaper, and entity that goes all out to cleave her it two with a stunning variety of devilish blades.
Are these events connected? If so, who might be behind it all?
One thing’s for sure, humdrum is a word that doesn’t appear in Solstice’s dictionary.
You have to try this series out. “Catalyst” is an action packed, fast paced read for those in dire need of a fantasy fix! Great fun.





The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
I’ve never read the Archie comic books, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” upon which the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was based. Neither did I pay attention to the TV version that came out in the late 1990s . . . though I did see enough to know that she’s a witch – spooky that – and that she lived with two five hundred year old aunts, Zelda and Hilda.
This latest Netflix series harkens more to the comic book version, but is much, much darker than anything before. Sabrina Spellman (played by Kiernan Shipka), is a half-human/half-witch who, on her sixteenth birthday, must make a choice. Renounce her powers and live among the humans – in which case she will age and die, or, she can embrace the Dark Lord and harness the full might locked away in her bloodline, and the immortality that goes with it.
The thing is, she’s a charming, friendly girl, struggling to reconcile her dual nature while contending with the evil forces threatening to claim her. And therein lies the premise of a rather entertaining show. I was reminded of the style employed by Stranger things and – to a lesser degree – Lemony Snickets – A Series of Unfortunate Events.
One minute you’re tinkering along enjoying the everyday affairs of normal teenagers in love/making friends, and all the warm-hearted good humor of life, and the next . . . POW! You get your throat ripped out with a blatantly evil and brutally gruesome scene. And there’s plenty of that to go round, ramming home the fact that THIS is the existence Sabrina has to contend with.
At first, I wasn’t sure if I’d take to it. Some of the characters are charmingly sweet. Sickeningly so. Others are annoyingly conceited. But as you adjust to the mood each character contributes to the overall concoction, you begin to appreciate what the producer has done. Provided something that is bewitchingly beautiful and wickedly macabre. And it really is dark... you’ll see.

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