NETFLIX
Rick and Morty has returned to Netflix for its seventh season. The series returns to the misadventures of super-genius Rick Sanchez and his pushover grandson Morty Smith across the multiverse.
This season, which has only debuted two episodes thus far has admittedly lower stakes than some of the previous seasons. The season opener puts Rick and some of his alien buddies on a pub crawl with Hugh Jackman – voicing himself as a mercurial substance abuser – while the second pits Rick against his son-in-law Jerry involving a failed “Freaky Friday” switch.
It should be noted that series creator and primary voice actor Justin Roiland is no longer with the show due to a series of controversies. He is instead replaced with Ian Cardoni as Rick – who sounds almost identical to Roiland’s portrayal, though he burps much less frequently – and Harry Belden as Morty, who also sounds much like the original portrayal.
The rest of the cast returns to their respective roles, Sarah Chalke (Scrubs, Firefly Lane, Hailey’s on It) as Rick’s daughter Beth, Spencer Grammer (Greek, Tell Me a Story) as Morty’s sister and Rick’s occasional sidekick Summer and Chris Parnell (Saturday Night Live, Hot Rod, Archer) as Rick’s son-in-law Jerry. Rick and Morty hasn’t changed much, still offering its unique brand of humour about the universe.
New episodes drop on Mondays.
PRIME VIDEO
Prime Video has collaborated with TMS Entertainment and added the live-action Japanese film Daisuke Jigen to their platform. The film, a spin-off of TMS’s long-running anime franchise Lupin the Third focuses on sharp-shooting Daisuke Jigen.
Jigen is a sharpshooter who often aids the master thief Lupin the 3rd who is mostly absent from this movie. Jigen instead spends much of the movie trying to fix his trusted gun. While trying to convince retired gunmaker Chiharu Yaguchi (played by Mitsuko Kusabe) to help him fix his weapon and is dragged into helping an orphaned child trying to escape from kidnappers and abusers who wish to use her blood to make designer drugs.
Daisuke Jigen has a complicated plot, with various threads moving in different directions. There are kidnapped children who are slaughtered to make drugs, an ominous villain who engages in a hostile take-over of a town overtaken by criminals, a shape-shifting assassin (referred to as the “Hide-and-Seek Man”), a retired gunmaker who tries to help a child and our gun-toting lead who finds himself pulled into these events.
It should be noted that Daisuke Jigen only has a few audio options and includes no English dub, it does include subtitles – though the scene in English is left without subtitles – so this film may only be of interest to a dedicated few. Action movie fans might enjoy the various set pieces throughout the movie, as Daisuke Jigen seems to take some inspiration from the John Wick franchises action sequences (though on a much smaller budget).
Through it all, Daisuke Jigen is held together by the performance of Tetsuji Tamayama, who manages to remain an engaging figure throughout.
STAN
The English series Ghosts returns for another season on Stan. Ghosts focuses on Alison Cooper who inherits a dilapidated mansion. Alison has an accident at the mansion and afterwards can see the various ghosts who inhabit the ancient home. Alongside her husband Mike, the two make the best of the situation as they try to repair the house and turn it into a hotel.
The fourth season finds them partway to their success, as they now have a functioning guest house they rent out. The show still makes good use of its cast of ghosts, still elaborating on their past lives and revealing new sides of their personalities.
The series greatest strength is its cast, led by Charlotte Ritchie (Siblings, You) as Alison, Kiell Smith-Bynoe (Cheap Cheap Cheap, Man Like Mobeen) as Mike, Lolly Adefope (Miracle Workers, The Spy Who Dumped Me, Black Mirror), Mathew Baynton (Inside No. 9, The Split, Bill), Simon Farnaby (Paddington, Yonderland, This Time with Alan Partridge), Martha Howe-Douglas (Doctors, Horrible Histories, Yonderland), Jim Howick (Hellboy, Broadchurch, Sex Education), Laurence Rickard (Horrible Histories, Yonderland), Ben Willbond (The Thick of It, Bridget Jones’s Baby, There She Goes) and Katy Wix (Torchwood: Children of Earth, Fried, Ted Lasso) as the ghosts.
Ghosts is an easy watch, showcasing a strong cast and some sharp writing that keeps finding new ways to play with its concept.
