Attack on Titan
If you’re an anime fan, you already know what I’m talking about. If not, you might be looking at the picture above and thinking: A cartoon? For grown ups? Preposterous! Cartoons are just for selling toys. Are you trying to sell me action figures? Stick with me and I’ll explain why you should give this a try.
Okay, it’s unlikely if you’ve found your way to this article that you haven’t seen any anime, but if you haven’t Attack on Titan isn’t exactly a bad place to start. It is also massively commercially successful while also managing to be a pretty good show. Attack takes place on a fantasy earth where humans have built a kingdom behind three massive walls to protect themselves from giant man-shaped monsters called Titans.
Following three teenagers who join a battered army to fight the Titans, Attack tackles some difficult themes surrounding individuality versus collective action, but it is unclear one season in exactly what side the show will come down on. What stands out about the series is that the characters are cut from recognisable tropes without being one-dimensional, and their reliance on one another is believable. They also fight giants with special grappling hooks that allow them to jump around in the air, so that’s cool too. I can’t say much more without dropping spoilers, but Attack’s first season has an excellently paced balance of action and character development.
It’s also able to avoid the trap of over sexualising its female characters, something that becomes off-putting in a lot of otherwise strong animes.
Attack on Titan is available on Netflix.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Unlike dramas, sitcoms are harder to recommend since no one has quite the same taste in comedy. One person’s belly laugh is another person’s nose wrinkle, so this recommendation comes with a caveat: if comedian Andy Samberg doesn’t make you chuckle, this is probably not for you.
Having said that, Nine-Nine has a large ensemble cast that, over time, have nailed their respective quirks and as the series goes on are given better and better material to accentuate this. Taking place in a New York police precinct the show follows the daily lives of an office of police detectives, the characters get into scrapes and play off each other brilliantly.
Samberg’s Jake is the talented manchild, Andre Braugher’s Captain Holt is his stoic foil, Melissa Fumero’s Amy Santiago is the tightly wound go-getter desperate for the captain’s approval, Sephanie Beatriz’s Rosa Diaz is the bad tempered hard ass. But the most important member of the cast is Jo Lo Trulia’s Charles Boyle, whose innocent devotion to Jake serves to make Samberg more likeable to the audience.
What makes Nine-Nine stand out from other American sitcom fare is that it so often manages to squeeze so much into its weekly twenty two minutes. Despite such a large cast it rarely feels like an episode has short changed a character. This is very much a show where the humour comes from the foibles of individuals, rather than the interchangeable jokes that pepper some sitcoms. Even if a character is taking a back seat for a week they’re still usually given a moment to shine somewhere.
Brooklyn Nine Nine is available on Netflix.
Constantine
As long as you can push past the first two episodes here this show is definitely worth your time. Another adaptation, this time based on the DC Comics Liverpudlian exorcist, whether you like the show probably depends on how much you like the performance of the lead actor, Matt Ryan. And there’s a lot to like in his grim and grouchy portrayal of the occult detective.
This attitude is reflected in the show’s attitude to magic too. Where Sleepy treats its magic with a sense of surprise and wonder, Constantine has been round the block and seems to know that the supernatural is both unknowable and commonplace. There are no rose tinted glasses here.
While some episodes slip occasionally slip into standard urban fantasy territory we’ve all seen before, the chemistry between Ryan’s John Constantine and Angélica Celaya’s Zed keeps episodes chugging along at a watchable pace. Filling out the main cast is an angel named Manny who keeps an eye on the titular hero, and Constantine’s best friend Chas.
Constantine himself is a survivor in his adventures, cynical on the outside but always prepared to put himself on the line to help others. His mysterious past is an asset here, allowing for some interesting stories – especially relating to a not entirely clear catastrophe that happened in Newcastle.
It’s likely I’m one of a fairly small fanbase for the show, and its American TV network are still in two minds about whether to give it a second season, but if you’re looking for a supernatural show with a harder edge then Sleepy you could do a lot worse. The show’s low viewership doesn’t do it justice.
Constantine is available on Amazon Prime Instant Video.
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