Reviewing Every James Bond Movie: The Underdogs

I really enjoy the James Bond series and have seen plenty of its films, but I've never ended up going through all of them. I could just fill in the blanks whenever one pops up on a streaming service, but I've always do a full marathon, see all the movies one after the other. And with Amazon Prime getting all of the Bond films for a "limited time", I thought this was as good a time as any to go through the series once and for all. 

There is one issue, however. Spectre, one of the last Bond films, is leaving Prime in like a week. So I decided to give this marathon a bit of a twist. I'm going to watch the James Bond movies in reverse actor order, meaning I'm going to start with the Craig movies, then watch the Brosnan films, and keep going until I end with Connery. So Spectre will be one of the first movies I watch, and I won't have to cram 23 movies into like 9 days. Let's continue things with the underdogs of the series, Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby:

Since I've watched plenty of these movies already, I wanted to mark the ones that I'm rewatching rather than going into blind. To keep things simple, if you see the (R) symbol next to a movie, that means that I've seen it before and that this is a rewatch.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service: It probably may have made more sense to group OHMSS in with the other Connery films, but I didn't want to devote an entire blogpost to Dalton's mere two movies, so here we are, jumping all the way back to the 60s. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a pretty divisive film for being the first Bond movie to replace Sean Connery with another actor, George Lazenby, and seeing as he only starred in this one film, it's easy to figure out that the change wasn't very well-received at the time. And that's a shame, because this is one of the best films in the series.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is quite simply about James Bond hunting down Blofeld to stop his plan to... just a second... use brainwashed woman to threaten all of the plants and livestock in the world. Yeah, kind of a stupid plan, but it's everything around that plan that's great. OHMSS has a similar structure to Goldfinger where Bond spends a long time in the antagonist's lair and slowly uncovers their plan, and it works just as well. OHMSS is actually a pretty slow film, it's nearly two and a half hours long and we don't get our first large-scale action scene until the final hour, yet it does a fantastic job of building up tension. The 40-ish minutes we spend in Piz Gloria especially is tense and gripping, and I found that the film flew by shockingly fast despite its length. Once Blofeld goes full antagonist, he serves as a perfect rival to Bond, only helped by Telly Savalas's smooth performance. Something I really liked about OHMSS is how constantly in danger Bond is, it goes a long way to show off just how dangerous being a spy is. Once Bond is found out, he's relentlessly chased by Blofeld and his soldiers, with never a moment to breathe. From Russia With Love also tries to send a similar message, but OHMSS does it better, especially when the Bond girl is concerned. OHMSS's Bond girl is named Tracy, and she's particularly special because Bond ends up falling in love with her. Not in the usual Bond girl way, though, Bond falls fully in love, to the point where they end up getting married. While Tracy isn't around for the whole film, Diana Rigg makes the most of her screentime, and the character has an impressive amount of agency for a 60s Bond girl. She plays into the theme of how dangerous Bond's work in the infamous final scene where Blofeld abruptly shoots her dead right after her wedding with Bond. It's a jaw-dropping moment that I'd even say is more effective than Vesper's death, partially because Tracy is just simply a better character, and partially because the film ends immediately after her death, with no catharsis ever. Unlike in Casino Royale, OHMSS left me stunned as the credits rolled.

But as much as I love the story in On My Majesty's Secret Service, what really elevates the film is the all-around phenomenal production. It feels like everyone working on the movie is at the top of their game, from the acting, to the directing, to the score. As far as acting goes, I already praised Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas's performances, but how is Lazenby? Personally, I think he's fine. Definitely the weakest Bond in terms of acting, but he's nowhere near as bad as I've heard. Honestly, my issue with the guy is the fact that he looks too much like Sean Connery. All the other Bond actors have drastically different appearances, but here, it feels like the crew tried to get as close a lookalike as they could, which led to a bit of an uncanny valley feel. But in terms of acting, Lazenby's perfectly fine. He's great in the action scenes, but I think his greatest strength is his vulnerability. OHMSS is about an emotional James Bond. A James Bond that falls in love, that fights with M and resigns in a fit of rage, that breaks down into tears. Connery wouldn't be able to pull that off, but Lazenby's Bond is believably emotional. And in that heartbreaking final scene, the son of a gun absolutely kills it. Outside of the acting, Peter Hunt's direction is remarkable. It's hard to believe this movie is from the 60s with how striking and beautiful the cinematography is. To this day, this is the best looking Bond film outside of the obvious Skyfall (which, if anything, makes it look even more impressive than Skyfall). The lighting is consistently dynamic and expressive, the set design is polished as hell, and every scene feels grand. The action is fantastic too. As mentioned earlier, there isn't much at first, but the final hour is nonstop action scenes and they're all phenomenal. While the editing can be a bit chaotic at times, it's always clear what's going on, and if anything, it makes the already brutal and destructive fight scenes all the more visceral. And of course, John Barry's score is absolutely killer. 

Overall, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is probably a perfect Bond film. Sure, I could pick at Blofeld's ridiculous plan or Lazenby's inconsistent performance, but there's no point because the film fundamentally works on pretty much every level. The vulnerability added to Bond's character, the fantastic Bond girl and Blofeld interpretation, the masterful buildup and release of tension, the full realization of its themes, the chaotic but thrilling action scenes, the stunning direction and cinematography, the pitch-perfect score, it all makes for a Bond film that is greater than the sum of it's already fantastic parts. OHMSS truly feels like Peter Hunt's vision of what a Bond film could and should be, and it's a vision that I'm fully on-board with.

5/5 Stars

The Living Daylights: Similarly to OHMSS, Dalton's films are also fairly divisive, this time being because they're a bit darker than your standard Bond film. With the Craig films, they probably don't seem to grim nowadays, but after seven straight Roger Moore movies, it lead to a lot of polarization for Bond fans. While not as much of a homerun as Lazenby's first flick, The Living Daylights is yet another criminally underrated Bond film that deserves reappraisal.

The Living Daylights is a fairly straight-forward Cold War spy thriller about James Bond learning that a KGB agent he helped defect ended up staging the whole thing, and in the process of looking into it, proceeds to get involved in a complex opium trade between Russia and America. While not anything amazing, I really like how grounded and espionage-driven this movie is, with a fairly believable villain plan and a larger-than-usual focus on spy agents in general. The Cold War backdrop also feels more prevalent than usual, even if some moments kinda feel like a product of their time. Although, while I like how grounded the villain's plan is, the villains themselves are honestly pretty unremarkable. It's the henchman Necros that truly steals the show, a brutal super spy who gets some of the best action in the movie. Speaking of which, the action in The Living Daylights is great, especially the fight scenes. There's a balletic sort of brutality to the action in The Living Daylights, every beat flows into the other perfectly, and at its best, we get gems like the kitchen fight, the mountain chase, and of course, that phenomenal cargo plane battle. That last fight in particular is so good that the actual final battle struggles to top it. I also pleasantly enjoyed Bond's romantic subplot in The Living Daylights. It helps that Kara Milovy is actually there for a large portion of the film, so you get a decent amount of time to watch Bond and Milovy's relationship develop.

So great, the film is good. Now's the time that I rave about how fantastic Timothy Dalton is in the role of Bond. I was going into these movies with a bit of a preconceived bias towards the actor, since I already loved him in Hot Fuzz and Chuck, but his more serious and no-nonsense portrayal of the character is fantastic. More than with any other Bond actor, with Dalton it really feels like behind his suave demeanor, James Bond is a sad, broken man. Between Dalton, Casino Royale, and OHMSS, I think this sadness is what makes Bond a compelling character. I also think it's worth noting that while Bond is more serious than usual, that doesn't necessarily mean the film itself is this grim, humorless affair. I'd actually say The Living Daylights had some of the most effective jokes in the series, with Bond's priceless reactions to the madness that occurs around him making for some brilliant dry humor. Not to mention Bond goes to an amusement park and spins around in a bumper car, how the hell is that "too serious"? Anyway, my point is that Dalton makes for a fantastic Bond. He's nowhere near as deathly serious as people seem to suggest, yet his generally more cold and hard-edged demeanor actualy gives the character a bit more depth.

I know I just spent half of this segment talking about Dalton's Bond rather than the movie, but trust me, I probably wouldn't have been defending him as hard if the movie wasn't also pretty great. While the villains are overshadowed by the much superior henchman and the third act is uneven, the tight Cold War-centric plot, brutal and hard-hitting action, and Dalton's strong lead performance makes for an incredibly solid if unremarkable Bond film.

3.5/5 Stars

License To Kill: Oh man, this one was so good! License To Kill feels like a predecessor to the Craig films in the best way possible. It's dark and brutal, with a revenge-centric storyline that gives off some serious Quantum Of Solace vibes. It's a different kind of film, but still one that's unmistakably bond, and an easy new favorite.

License To Kill is basically an 80s revenge thriller starring Bond. When a druglord named Franz Sanchez kills Felix Leiter's new wife and destroys his leg, Bond resigns and goes on a rampage to kill him and all of his associates. In theory, it definitely feels like more of a John Wick plot than a James Bond plot, but I love how personal it is. Felix was always a really important and yet underused element of the Bond mythos, so I'm glad we finally got a film that revolved around him. Even more, the parallels between what happened to Felix and what happened with Tracy in OHMSS (who is even mentioned at one point) gives Bond's actions a fascinating and tragic context. As far as the other characters go, I like the villains way more than in The Living Daylights. Necros was already a pretty good henchman but he didn't have too much time to shine. A young Benicio Del Toro's Dario, on the other hand, gets plenty of time to show off his charismatically psychotic persona. Franz Sanchez is one of the more realistic Bond antagonists, but his terrifying nature in spite of that realism makes him all the more memorable. And I really like Pam as the Bond girl, as I'm a huge fan of whenever the female lead is more of an equal to Bond.

What surprised me about License To Kill was just how brutal it is. The torture scenes are crueler than ever, the action is more violent and bloody, and the death scenes have turned into an art form, with each and every one trying to one-up its predecessor in sheer brutality. I'm perfectly fine with this, by the way, these moments of brutality really help to solidify LTK's darker atmosphere and tone. And speaking of brutality, the action is once again pretty fantastic, probably even better than in The Living Daylights. There's a much stronger emphasis on stuntwork in this movie, with plenty of setpieces containing some really impressive feats, particularly involving planes. In the course of a single film, Bond couples two planes together in mid-air, boards another plane whilst water-skiing, and leaps from a plane onto a tanker trunk. It all culminates in a gloriously balls-to-the-walls final chase sequence, easily one of the best third acts in the series. And it's a good thing LTK sticks the ending as well as it does too, because I actually think its biggest issue is that it goes on a bit long. I feel like such a simple revenge plot would warrant a fairly lean runtime, but LTK is 2h10m and it kinda shows near the end.

Overall, while it definitely could've been trimmed a bit in the middle, License To Kill is a fantastic entry in the Bond series and for sure the better of Dalton's two films. Though a bit different from your standard Bond movie, LTK has a gripping and personal revenge story, some great antagonists, and plenty of brutal action with some truly stunning stuntwork.

4/5 Stars

Since there are only three films here and we're now at the rough halfway point of this marathon, I thought I'd rank all of Bond movies I've seen so far:

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2. Casino Royale
3. Tomorrow Never Dies
4. Goldeneye
5. Skyfall
6. License To Kill
7. The Living Daylights
8. No Time To Die
9. The World Is Not Enough
10. Spectre
11. Quantum Of Solace
12. Die Another Day

See you next time when I review the Pierce Brosnan era of Bond.

The Leftovers (Season 1)

Damon Lindelof is increasingly becoming one of my favorite TV writers ever. Yeah, I know, hot take considering how controversial the Lost finale is, but as a sucker for ambiguity, his style just works for me. Lindelof is a master at using unexplained supernatural events to tell personal, human stories, as shown in all-timer TV episodes like The Constant. The Leftovers feels like an evolution of his craft.

The Leftovers has a simple premise. One random day, 2% of the world's population suddenly and permanently disappears in an event later dubbed the Departure. If you've followed the MCU, it's like a less extreme but a no less crippling version of "The Snap". Unlike in the MCU, however, The Leftovers doesn't focus on how people disappeared or how they could be brought back. The Departure happened, no one understands why, and there's no reversing it. Instead, The Leftovers focuses on a small town called Mapleton as we watch them process their grief over the event. As you might expect given my other reviews, I think this premise is brilliant. The fact that The Departure is a wholly ambiguous and unexplained event allows The Leftovers to explore how people reconcile things that don't make sense. Some people may try to find a scientific explanation, even if nothing necessarily adds up, while others may try to find a religious explanation, even if The Departure was too random to be a rapture. Lost had this "Man Of Science, Man Of Faith" theme that I found really interesting even if it ended up settling for the faith side by the end. The Leftovers further explores that same exact theme but doesn't settle for an answer, at least not in this season.

But more than faith, The Leftovers is primarily a story about grief. I've always found episodes in TV shows where the characters deal with grief to be fascinating, because you can tell a lot about a person by the way they process a traumatic event. The Leftovers is well aware of this, so Mapleton is filled with a wide variety of people dealing with the Departure in their own different ways, and you learn more about them by watching their actions. A testament to the cast's variety is the parallel between lead Kevin and side character Nora, the latter losing everyone to the Departure and the former losing no one, and yet they're both struggling immensely. It's actually really hard to watch considering that there's a single character who's not miserable or rage-filled, but I also can't say any of these characters are not incredibly interesting. The main "plot" of the season involves a nihilistic cult called the Guilty Remnant harassing the town and trying to remind them of the Departure, and while they annoy me to no end, I think they're a good exploration of toxic nihilism. Still, it's unmistakable that the best thing about The Leftovers is the characters, so most of its best episodes focus entirely on a single character. Lost did a similar thing and I think it's for the best considering that the episodes that focus on the entire town can feel like they're spread a bit thin.

Highlights:

Two Boats And A Helicopter: I'm kind of surprised I liked this episode as much as I did. Matt's story here is borderline misery porn, every brief moment of hope ripped from him in the cruelest way possible. I think what makes it manageable is that Matt is an incredibly morally gray character. His noble motivations and Christopher Eccleston's tender performance do a good job at eliciting sympathy, yet he repeatedly makes the wrong decisions to the point where it's hard not to feel he doesn't deserve some of the stuff that happens to him. What's most thought-provoking is the parallels between him and the Guilty Remnant, both forcing the town to remember the Departure for their own reasons.

The Garveys At Their Best: Yet another character-exploration episode, though this time it's a flashback to pre-Departure Mapleton. Most of the episode was honestly pretty predictable, with most of the characters being noticeably happier than they are now, but I did like the hints to Nora's family issues and the fact that the Garveys "at their best" still isn't really all that great. And the real highlight was that final scene anyway, where we see everyone's reactions to the events of the Departure.

The Prodigal Son Returns: With all of its experimental episodes and more slice of life-y moments, I went into this finale a bit wary of what this season of The Leftovers was building towards. I'm really happy with what we got though, The Prodigal Son Returns gives pretty much everything a satisfying, or even hopeful, resolution. The Guilty Remnant pulls off its more controversial protest yet, and subsequently suffers its greatest defeat. Wayne dies for something he probably deserved, but he managed to grant one last bit of hope for Kevin. Nora reaches rock bottom, only to find Christine's child and end the season with more of a reason to live than ever before.

To be perfectly honest, I went into The Leftovers a bit skeptical. I thought maybe it'd be too depressing or too prestige-y for me, but instead it showed me that I shouldn't underestimate Lindelof a bit. While the first season has its rough edges in terms of pacing, The Leftovers has so far been a fantastic character study that takes what Lost did well and expands on it even further.

4/5 Stars

Reviewing Every James Bond Movie: Brosnan Era

I really enjoy the James Bond series and have seen plenty of its films, but I've never ended up going through all of them. I could just fill in the blanks whenever one pops up on a streaming service, but I've always do a full marathon, see all the movies one after the other. And with Amazon Prime getting all of the Bond films for a "limited time", I thought this was as good a time as any to go through the series once and for all. 

There is one issue, however. Spectre, one of the last Bond films, is leaving Prime in like a week. So I decided to give this marathon a bit of a twist. I'm going to watch the James Bond movies in reverse actor order, meaning I'm going to start with the Craig movies, then watch the Brosnan films, and keep going until I end with Connery. So Spectre will be one of the first movies I watch, and I won't have to cram 23 movies into like 9 days. Let's continue things with the Pierce Brosnan era:

Since I've watched plenty of these movies already, I wanted to mark the ones that I'm rewatching rather than going into blind. To keep things simple, if you see the (R) symbol next to a movie, that means that I've seen it before and that this is a rewatch.

Goldeneye (R): Goldeneye was my first James Bond film so I'll always be a bit partial to it, but even on its own merits, this is a joyous movie. It's 90s action movie bliss, fun from start to finish, and a great introduction to Bond and all of the tropes that come with him. If I were to recommend any movie as a starting point, Goldeneye would be an easy pick.

Goldeneye is kind of a movie of two halves in that the first half is fairly slow and methodical, and the second half is pretty much nonstop action and excitement. Not to say that the first half of Goldeneye is bad, but aside from the usual action-packed opening, there aren't any grand setpieces for about an hour into the movie. Let's talk about that opening though because it's already one of my favorites. The first ten minutes of Goldeneye perfectly introduces Brosnan's version of Bond while throwing in a bunch of impressive stunts and a Sean Bean death for good measure. I adore Brosnan as Bond, regardless of the quality of his movies, I think he fits the character perfectly. He's suave, calculated, and quite frankly just really badass. After the opening, however, Goldeneye moves pretty slowly, focusing mostly on Bond spying on the henchman Onatopp as well as setting up the Bond girl Natalya, both of whom are fine characters though not super remarkable. The first half also tries to introduce a theme about whether or not Bond is relevant now that the Cold War is over. It's a super interesting idea, but unfortunately, Goldeneye kind of just drops the concept the scene after it's brought up. While the Craig films' relentless self-reflection got fairly tiring, at least they tried to explore their themes more thoroughly.

All my complaints stop, however, once Sean Bean's character, Alec Trevelyan, shows up again halfway through the movie, as we learn he is the true antagonist. This was already a great boon to the movie because I love Trevelyan as a villain. He's more of a rival/parallel to Bond than a flat-out supervillain and I think that's awesome, not only does the conflict between them feel personal but Trevelyan serves as an example of what Bond would be like if he went astray. I know Silva would later serve a similar purpose, but he feels too different from Bond for that to really work. Trevelyan is like if Bond looked in a mirror, their similarities are part of the appeal. As you might expect, the point Goldeneye gets its main villain is the point where the movie goes full-throttle and never stops. This movie is back-loaded to the brim with action scenes and setpieces, one after the other, and they're all phenomenal. From the ejection seat, to the shoot-out in the archives, to that godly tank chase, to the fight with Onatopp, Goldeneye's second half is relentless. And it all culminates in one of my favorite third acts ever, with the climactic and striking final battle atop the satellite. If a film can stick the landing well and leave a good taste in my mouth, I'm definitely going to be more willing to look at it fondly.

With a fairly slow start and interesting themes that it refuses to do anything with, Goldeneye probably isn't one of the most best-made films in the series, but it will always be one of my favorites. It's a perfect introduction to Brosnan as Bond and a pure fun action movie with bombastic setpieces, a fantastic set of villains, a thrilling second half, and a healthy dose of 90s excess and cheese.

4.5/5 Stars

Tomorrow Never Dies: People tend to say that Pierce Brosnan only had one good film, and having seen Tomorrow Never Dies, that couldn't be further from the truth. TND may not have excelled at too much, but it nailed pretty much everything, from the plot, to the characters, to the action.

When going through these Bond movies, something I've noticed is that the narrative is rarely a highlight, outside of Casino Royale, of course. Tomorrow Never Dies is an exception, I adore this movie's simple but effective story. The premise is simply that an evil news mogul named Carver destroyed a submarine to provoke war between the UK and China, so now Bond and a Chinese agent named Wai Lin have to team up to disprove and stop him before all-out war. Everything in Tomorrow Never Dies's story works. The premise is established early on, and we're given a ticking time limit of 48 hours before war starts, imbuing TND with a lot of tension right from the get-go. Wai Lin is a fantastic Bond girl, not just because Michelle Yeoh is a great actress, but because of her fun banter with Bond and large amounts of agency. But what really makes TND's plot work is the villain, Carver, himself. On his own merits, he's a very fun antagonist, played to hammy perfection by Jonathan Pryce. But what really elevates him to one of my favorites to date is just how shockingly real and prescient he is. A news mogul who incites a full-on war may have seemed a bit goofy in the 90s, but with the rise of the internet and the increased political polarization that's resulted from it, TND has never felt more relevant. Now more than ever, news companies have realized that their words have an impact and can shape the public perception of an issue, whether it's through bias or misinformation. So even with how hammy Pryce is as Carver, he's also incredibly terrifying.

Another thing Tomorrow Never Dies nails is the pacing and the action. Similarly to Quantum Of Solace, of all movies, TND is under two hours and pretty crammed with action. Unlike QoS, however, the movie feels purposefully tight, rather than rushed, and all of the action scenes are spaced out as to not overwhelm you. Also unlike QoS, the action is actually really goddamn good. From the opening where Bond fires an ejection seat into another plane, to the paper factory chase, to one of the most inventive car chases I've seen in a long time, to the handcuffed motorcycle chase, to the carnage-filled finale. Michelle Yeoh even gets a fight scene to herself and it's as fun and well-choreographed as you might expect. Aside from some predictably iffy CGI, the action in Tomorrow Never Dies is tight, bombastic, and wonderfully practical. Honestly, I really don't have many gripes with Tomorrow Never Dies. The only thing I could really criticize would be that the third act was a bit over-indulgent with the explosives, but even then, the final battle with Stamper was tense enough to make up for all of the bombast.

I'm kind of in shock considering my unadulterated love for Goldeneye, but honestly, Tomorrow Never Dies is kind of a better movie? It's tighter paced, the story is more focused, the villain's plan is shockingly relevant today, the Bond girl is one of the series' best, and the action is fantastic from start to finish. It doesn't reach the highs of Goldeneye but it's a more consistently strong movie throughout, and I honestly can't understand why anyone would hate it.

4.5/5 Stars

The World Is Not Enough: The World Is Not Enough is Brosnan's Spectre. It's a movie with all of the makings of a great Bond film, only to be dragged down considerably by a fatal flaw. TWINE doesn't quite top the ridiculous retconning of Spectre in terms of pure stupidity, but it comes really close at points.

The World Is Not Enough has a very promising premise. MI-6 is blown up in the crossfire of an assassination attempt, so now Bond has to stop the assassin from killing the victim's daughter, Elektra King, who unbeknowest to him, was the assassin all along. There's a lot of potential in this storyline, from the personal stakes that result from MI-6 getting blown up, to the fantastic twist that plays around with your expectations of the Bond formula. And when TWINE focuses on Bond and Elektra, it's fantastic. Brosnan gives a more rage-filled performance as Bond that fits the film's attempted tone perfectly, and Sophie Marceau as Elektra masterfully toes the line between Bond girl and Bond villain, making the twist feel believable. The first hour of TWINE is almost entirely focused on Bond and Elektra, and while there are some great moments later on (M getting involved in the plot, everything about Elektra), it's probably the high point of the movie. However, even it has its issues. The action overall is a huge step down from Goldeneye and especially Tomorrow Never Dies. It feels way more sluggish and generic, and even the fairly well-liked opening boat chase felt like it dragged on. I also felt that, since TWINE was initially trying at a more serious tone, goofy moments like Bond playing with his X-Ray Glasses felt a bit out of place. But a few weak jokes and mediocre action isn't enough to truly ruin the film. TWINE's problems go even deeper than that.

The ultimate problem with The World Is Not Enough is that it doesn't commit to its premise. Elektra playing double-duty as both Bond girl and Bond villain doesn't have the same impact because TWINE also has another Bond girl and another Bond villain, and neither of them are very good. Christmas Jones is the obvious low point here, an easy contender for worst Bond girl because she actively makes the film worse whenever she's in it. Denise Richards is already horribly cast as the character, her acting is really lousy and she lacks any chemistry with Brosnan, but what's even worse is that whenever she's on screen, the writing quality plummets. Maybe it's just her delivery, but her dialogue feels clunkier than everyone else's, and all the cheeky "Christmas" one-liners only elicited groans. The second Bond villain, Renard, isn't as bad because you kinda needed a decoy antagonist for the twist to work. But the problem is Renard isn't a decoy, he's on equal footing with Elektra even after the reveal, and he's the one Bond has the final battle with. He's not even a fun character at least, he just comes off as sniveling and uncharismatic (and he can not pull off that turtleneck). What really feels insulting about these two characters is the fact that it feels like the writers wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted to give off the impression that TWINE is something new, but didn't have the confidence to go whole-hog and ultimately fell back into old habits. 

Overall, The World Is Not Enough is probably going to end up being the Bond film that sticks with me the least. I really liked the Bond and Elektra stuff, there was potential here for one of the best films in the series, but with some unnecessary characters that drag the movie down, some weak action, an inconsistent tone, and a feeling that the crew is falling back into old habits, TWINE just comes off as middling.

2.5/5 Stars

Die Another Day: People tend to say that the Brosnan films as a whole are goofy and dumb, but I don't really think that's the case. Tomorrow Never Dies is probably the silliest of the first three thanks to Jonathan Pryce but even that has a fairly grounded story, but otherwise, I spent much of the last two films wondering where they got such a negative reputation. But then I saw Die Another Day... Oh, boy.

Die Another Day is the definition of "throw everything at the kitchen sink and see what sticks". It starts off with a gritty and muted opening where Bond is imprisoned in North Korea for over a year. He's then accused of leaking information while in prison so he goes off on his own to figure out who set him up. Okay, solid premise, unfortunately the first half-hour feels like an entirely different movie from everything else. Bond quickly turns back to normal despite his imprisonment in a fashion akin to Sonic Forces's very similar opening, we learn a North Korean colonel Bond killed is alive and used genetic engineering to change his own race to Caucasian (that's gotta be racist, right? That feels racist), there's a bonkers fencing fight, Madonna shows up as a guest star, Bond surfs an ugly CGI tidal wave, there's an invisible car, a palace made of ice, a mech suit?! Die Another Day doesn't just go off the rails, it goes off the fucking planet. Oh, and don't get me started on the bizarre editing, with its random slow-motion at the worst possible time. And oh my god, there's a scene where Bond goes to London and London Calling by The Clash starts playing? Bond is British, it's not like he's going to some foreign location! Die Another Day feels like a nonsensical collection of random ideas rather than an actual movie. There's no cohesion, no logic, every scene feels entirely disconnected from everything else. It's a mess, plain and simple.

It also doesn't help that Die Another Day is an anniversary film, and unlike other anniversary films like Skyfall and No Time To Die, which pay respect to the franchise through big emotional swings, Die Another Day just stuffs itself with callbacks to previous Bond movies. Even more, the plot references and takes influence from other Bond plots, which ends up really explaining why Die Another Day feels so disjointed. It's not trying to tell a good story on its own, it's taking nostalgic elements from the rest of the series and filling in the blanks. So yeah, Die Another Day is really bad, but that begs the question: Is it a "So bad, it's good" film ala Spock's Brain or a "So bad, it's bad" film ala Star Trek: Insurrection? Eh, it's kinda both. There are some genuinely great moments like the solid cold open, the thrilling sword fight, and literally everything about Miranda Frost, and there are also like some hilarious dumb stuff like Halle Berry and Toby Stephens hamming it up as Jinx and Graves respectively, that ridiculous car chase, and pretty much the entire final battle. I'm a sucker for early 2000s trash, after all, so there are points in DAD when I was really enjoying myself. Unfortunately, that just didn't happen too frequently. Die Another Day also has some really boring stretches, particularly in the notably less weird first half, making for an inconsistent "So bad, it's good" film. This isn't an ironic masterpiece like The Room or Spock's Brain, or a camp classic like Batman & Robin.

Overall, Die Another Day is easily the worst Bond film I've seen yet, and it's not even close. While it does have its genuinely good moments as well as some hilariously bad guilty pleasure moments, the enjoyable parts aren't quite prevalent enough for DAD to cross the line into full-on guilty pleasure. The movie is still bogged down by a disjointed and nonsensical plot, bizarre editing decisions, and horrid CGI.

1/5 Stars

Here's how I'd rank the Pierce Brosnan movies:

1. Tomorrow Never Dies
2. Goldeneye
3. The World Is Not Enough
4. Die Another Day

See you next time when I review the James Bond underdogs, Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby.

Lycoris Recoil

I've watched a lot of anime at this point, but my schedule is still way too busy for me to follow a bunch at a time every quarter. So most of the new anime I tend to watch are ones that I hear good things about through word of mouth. Case in point, I heard a lot of good things about Lycoris Recoil, and I'm very glad I decided to check it out.

Lycoris Recoil is about a child soldier named Takina who gets transferred from her position at DA (an agency that discretely kills anyone who may be perceived as a threat) to work with independent agent Chisato, considered to have once been DA's greatest agent. The two spend the show going on more ground-level missions, working at a cafe as a cover, and trying to get Takina her spot at DA back. On a plot level, Lycoris Recoil is pretty good. The season has two main villains, Shinji and Majimi, and they're both great. The former has a more personal connection to Chisato and her teacher Mika, while the latter is a more entertaining foil for Chisato with grander motivations. I think this was a great call, both antagonists lend something important to the anime, and they're intertwined enough that the dual-storylines didn't feel too disjointed. Even more, I think the anime's pacing in general is spot-on. Each episode can stand on its own, but there's also a serialized plot that slowly gets more prevalent as the show goes on. The last few episodes are never overloaded with plot, and there are plenty of fun bonding moments for the characters. I've voiced my complaints about TV episodes feeling more like chapters in a book rather than their own individual films nowadays, so I'm always happy whenever a show does the latter. With all this praise, I really only have one gripe with Lycoris Recoil, which is its treatment of DA. It's very obvious that DA is flawed, right from the start, with characters like Mizuki and Abe repeatedly criticizing the system. And yet, DA never really faces any consequences for its actions, and as a whole, the anime never does enough to criticize how immoral DA is, especially in terms of its usage of child soldiers.  Instead, it's like the show is saying "Yeah, DA kinda sucks, but it's the status quo". 

Lycoris Recoil appeals to my genre sensibilities pretty much perfectly, it's a cross between adorable and slightly gay slice-of-life, and thrilling John Wick-esque action. I adore the main cast of Chisato's cafe LycoReco. They all have fantastic chemistry to the point where I'd love a second season just so we can see more of them. Of course, the dynamic between Chisato and Takina is the highlight and heart of the show. Even with all the crazy action scenes, my favorite scenes in Lycoris Recoil are the small stuff like the fountain scene in Episode 3 and Takina doing a fish pose to cheer Chisato up. The whole upbeat extrovert meets cold introvert concept isn't super original, but that doesn't mean it can't be super effective. I also like that the ending at the very least hints at the fact that they end up together, considering how common queer-baiting can be in anime. As for the action, it's freaking amazing. I was skeptical when people were referring to Lycoris Recoil as "anime John Wick" give how high of a bar those movies are, but the moment Chisato slammed a car door on someone and shot them through the door, I was sold. Even within the limitations of seasonal anime, the action in Lycoris Recoil is kinetic and fun, and Chisato's ability to practically dodge bullets leads to some pretty great setpieces scattered throughout the anime.

Highlights:

Diamond Cut Diamond: The entire final three episodes was easily the high point of Lycoris Recoil. Diamond Cut Diamond was stuffed with fantastic moments, from the hilarious sequence of Kurumi (lowkey the best character) and Mizuki in the airport, to Majima's shocking public announcement, to some of the best gunfights in the series, to Takina channeling her inner Homura to save Chisato, everything else be damned.

Nature Versus Nature: The first half of Nature Versus Nature is easily the most gutwrenching moment in the whole show, hands down. Shinji forcing Chisato to kill him for the heart was incredibly cruel, and the painful screams from Chisato and Takina's voice actress left me stunned. The rest of the episode couldn't quite top that emotionally, but between the introduction of the LilyBell agents, Erika saving the day, and Kurumi getting Robota arrested, there was still a lot to love.

Recoil Of Lycoris: This was a pretty great finale. While there were a few things I would've really wanted (the DA facing some sort of consequences, Chisato/Takina being explicitly in a relationship), the final battle with Majima was fantastic, the Hawaii epilogue was super cute, and there was enough loose ends that I could totally see this anime getting an even better second season.

Overall, Lycoris Recoil was a ton of fun! While I wish it would've explored some of its themes a bit more, this is still a fantastic blend of action and slice of life, with strong pacing, lovable characters, and some incredibly fluid and kinetic animation.

4/5 Stars

My ranking of the episodes of Lycoris Recoil would be:

1. Nature Versus Nature (Episode 12)
2. Recoil Of Lycoris (Episode 13)
3. Diamond Cut Diamond (Episode 11)
4. Opposites Attract (Episode 6)
5. More Haste, Less Speed (Episode 3)
6. Another Day, Another Dollar (Episode 8)
7. Nothing Seek, Nothing Find (Episode 4)
8. Repay Evil With Evil (Episode 10)
9. Time Will Tell (Episode 7)
10. Easy Does It (Episode 1)
11. What's Done Is Done (Episode 9)
12. The More, The Merrier (Episode 2)
13. So Far, So Good

Reviewing Every James Bond Movie: Craig Era

I really enjoy the James Bond series and have seen plenty of its films, but I've never ended up going through all of them. I could just fill in the blanks whenever one pops up on a streaming service, but I've always do a full marathon, see all the movies one after the other. And with Amazon Prime getting all of the Bond films for a "limited time", I thought this was as good a time as any to go through the series once and for all. 

There is one issue, however. Spectre, one of the last Bond films, is leaving Prime in like a week. So I decided to give this marathon a bit of a twist. I'm going to watch the James Bond movies in reverse actor order, meaning I'm going to start with the Craig movies, then watch the Brosnan films, and keep going until I end with Connery. So Spectre will be one of the first movies I watch, and I won't have to cram 23 movies into like 9 days. Let's start things off with the Daniel Craig era:

Since I've watched plenty of these movies already, I wanted to mark the ones that I'm rewatching rather than going into blind. To keep things simple, if you see the (R) symbol next to a movie, that means that I've seen it before and that this is a rewatch.

Casino Royale (R): Casino Royale is actually a really good place to start a Bond marathon. It's an origin story for Bond and a soft reboot (albeit a slightly subversive one) meant to draw in newcomers to the series. However, I'm also worried it may have set the bar too high because damn does this movie go so hard! Casino Royale isn't just a great Bond film, it's a fantastic movie on its own merits and a tough act to follow for pretty much every other film in this marathon. I liked it the first time I saw it, but I love it even more on rewatch. 

As mentioned above, Casino Royale is basically a James Bond origin story. This is his first mission after making 007, and he's far more rash and clumsy than you've come to expect from the guy. Bond even gets attached to the Bond girl in this one, and it really comes to bite him in the ass by the end of the movie. Casino Royale also does a lot to subvert and play around with the Bond formula to further illustrate the character's inexperience, like when he rejects a drink or when he gets taken out of commission shortly into a car chase. I hate to use this comparison yet again, but this is the Last Jedi of the Bond films, and that's a big risk for a franchise as long as this. Bond is rarely portrayed as this flawed, but I think the writers and crew pulled it off excellently. Bond's character arc is well-done and given the attention it deserves, and I think it gives the movie a stronger emotional core compared to the majority of Bond films. But even outside of Bond himself, the cast is fantastic. Le Chiffre was always one of my favorite Bond villains out of the ones I'd seen solely because Mads Mikkelsen is such a great and intimidating actor. Vesper is an easy contender for best Bond girl because of the depth she gets, her chemistry with Bond, Eva Green's fantastic performance, and the crushing heartbreak of her death. And of course, I also adore Judi Dench as M and Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter, those two are always standouts no matter the movie. 

What I find especially interesting about Casino Royale is the structure. This movie definitely has a three-act structure, but the acts are entirely different lengths and feel like entirely different movies at times. The first "act" is the first hour of the film, a top-tier high-octane spy thriller with some of the best action is the series. That incredibly raw opening, the parkour chase, the Body Works fight, the tanker chase, Bond's cheeky smile, this opening hour is perfection. And yet, the second "act", which takes place almost entirely in a casino, might be even better. Despite most of the action scenes being replaced with sequences of poker, the casino stretch is where Casino Royale really comes alive. From the tender scenes between Bond and Vesper, to the way it eschews series conventions in a variety of ways, to the fantastic poker scenes that are way more tense, gripping, and engaging than they have any right to be. However, then there's the "third" act, the final thirty minutes after Le Chiffre's death where Bond retires only for Vesper to betray him and die. I hated this third act when I first watched Casino Royale because it felt really slow and disjointed from the rest of the movie. I still liked Casino Royale overall, but those last thirty minutes soured it a bit. Upon rewatch, while I do still find it to be the weakest part of the movie, I like this final act a lot more. Vesper's death gives Casino Royale an emotional impact that most Bond films don't really have, and it allows Bond's character arc to be properly completed. And as a whole, it's that character arc that really ties Casino Royale together even with how unconventional its structure is.

Overall, minor pacing issues aside, Casino Royale is a phenomenal movie and a tough act to follow for the rest of the series. Bond's character arc is incredibly well-written, his relationship with Vesper gives the movie a strong emotional core, the action scenes are outstanding and super raw, the poker scenes are tense, the subversions are clever, and everything comes together perfectly. While Skyfall was my favorite Bond movie prior to this marathon for the quality of its visuals and action, Casino Royale's narrative (and also its action) is so good that it might just surpass it for me. Get back to me on that in two movies.

5/5 Stars

Quantum Of Solace: You know that meme with the horse where one half is on fire and super well-drawn, and the other half is a sketch drawing of the horse? Quantum Of Solace is the sketch drawing. In theory, a direct James Bond sequel has a lot of potential, especially coming off of Casino Royale's downer ending. Bond coping with Vesper's death, going on a revenge spree, that's a great idea for a movie! Unfortunately, Quantum Of Solace isn't able to pull that off at all. Instead of being a thoughtful follow-up to the almost too-good-for-its-own-good Casino Royale, it's a poorly-done story strung together by action scenes and duct tape.

Before I start ripping Quantum Of Solace's story to shreds, let me just say that I don't blame the crew for a good chunk of this movie's flaws, because it was being made during the Writer's Strike. Yep, it's that again. Quantum Of Solace has two stories, one of which is easily better than the other. The main world-ending plot involves the villain Dominic Greene trying to create a monopoly on Bolivia's resources, mostly water. While I get that the crew wanted a more grounded story (even more, based on an actual event that was going on at the time), it comes off as really dull especially following Casino Royale. Le Chiffre may have been grounded, but between Mads Mikkelsen's performance, his sick bleeding eye gimmick, and the fact that Bond fights him in an overly dramatic game of poker, he still felt like a Bond villain. Greene could have been in literally any other generic spy thriller, he feels so bland. The other main storyline, Bond trying to get over Vesper, fares a bit better. I feel for Bond, and his struggle flows well off of the ending of Casino Royale. What prevents his arc from really landing though is the fact that unlike in Casino Royale, where every aspect of the story plays into Bond's development, the storyline with Greene feels too disconnected. Bond trying to stop the monopoly in Bolivia doesn't do anything to help him overcome his demons, he just happens to do so while going on this random mission. It's a shame because there was a lot of potential here, exemplified in the surprisingly great Bond girl Camille. Vesper is a tough act to follow, but Camille is a badass character with an arc that parallels Bond's. I love how it feels like they're on equal footing, helping each other overcome their demons, and it culminates in a scene in the climax that surprisingly got to me. Frankly, the whole ending is really satisfying, easily the best part of the movie.

So the story already isn't great, but what really gives off the feeling that Quantum Of Solace wasn't properly finished was the sheer amount of action scenes. In the first 30 minutes of the movie alone, we have four action sequences. In total, there's around 9-10. Add in the fact that even with all this action, the movie isn't even two hours long and it's blatantly obvious that QoS was padded out because the crew didn't have enough material for a full movie. But hey, I'm a sucker for some good action. If QoS's action is good enough, I might able to forgive its story flaws, right? Well, unfortunately, the action is hit-or-miss. As you might expect, the movie goes for quantity over quality, compared to Casino Royale's infrequent but always spectacular action scenes. But even worse is the fact that every action scene goes for a Bourne-esque shaky cam direction, and the quality of that direction is very inconsistent. The close-up hand-to-hand fights are actually really good, like that brief knife fight early on, the fight on the scaffolding, and especially the opera fight. The editors also have a habit of intercutting between multiple perspectives during a fight, which is a trick that I am always a sucker for, and gives certain action scenes (especially the aforementioned opera one) a lot more energy. However, whenever there's a much larger-scale sequence like the boat chase, the car chase, and the plane chase, the shaky cam can be a lot more distracting and clumsy, making the scenes harder to follow. As a whole, there are way worse shaky cam movies out there (helped by several crew members having worked on the Bourne films), but I still wish the action sequences were directed normally instead. Even with the action scenes that are bad though, David Arnold's score really picks up the slack. I already liked his music for Casino Royale but he went so hard here, the music is way too good for this movie.

Overall, Quantum Of Solace isn't very good, and fares even worse coming off the heels of the masterful Casino Royale. The story is weak and thin, and the action scenes are incredibly inconsistent. However, I don't hate it. Bond's arc is solid and bolstered by Camille's great character, the score is fantastic, some of the action scenes are genuinely pretty fun, and I feel like it all somehow manages to come together in the end. 

2/5 Stars

Skyfall (R): As mentioned above, Skyfall was my favorite James Bond film out of the ones I've seen, and it's not hard to see why. Skyfall is a spectacle, an event. It didn't just align with Bond's 50th anniversary, it aligned with the goddamn London Olympics. When watching Skyfall for the first time, it's hard not to get swept up in the grandness of the entire film. But upon rewatch, yeah, I don't know if this one holds up as well as Casino Royale does.

On a presentation level, Skyfall is immaculate. Sam Mendes directed the hell out of this movie, and Roger Deakins delivered some of his most stunning cinematography to this day. It feels like Mendes' full Bond movie vision, which is always something I like to see in big franchises like this (once again, note The Last Jedi). Skyfall looks phenomenal, better than most action blockbusters in general, let alone Bond films. And it really shows in the action, which is already great but enhanced even further by the visuals. A simple brawl atop a skyscraper is elevated by the decision to have Bond and his opponent be silhouetted by a nearby billboard, the final battle is made better by the fact that everything is lit by a blazing fire, and of course, that cold open is like five different action scenes squashed together and it's glorious. As mentioned above, Skyfall is the 50th anniversary movie for James Bond and it's not hard to see why. There's an overarching theme about how Bond will never be outdated, the Aston Martin goes out in a blaze of glory, and Bond mainstays like Q, Moneypenny, and especially M get a lot more focus. M is probably the highlight of the movie, basically being the defacto "Bond girl" this time around, though I also love the snarky banter between Bond and Q. As a whole, Skyfall feels especially British in its comedy, which I kinda admire.

These are the reasons why I loved Skyfall, and I still do. I think it's a great film that I really enjoy watching. However, on a narrative level, it doesn't quite land for me like Casino Royale did. Skyfall's main storyline about a cyberterrorist named Silva who wants to kill M for betraying him. That's a perfectly fine concept for a villain, as a matter of fact, I love this concept for a villain. Having the antagonist going after a main character gives Skyfall more personal stakes, and the resolution is a gut punch that easily surpasses Vesper's death for me. Unforunately, I'm not a huge fan of Silva as a character. Unlike with Greene, Silva is way more colorful and interesting, and Javier Bardem is actually trying to be charismatic here. However, I think he goes in the complete opposite direction and ends up coming off as really annoying. He's also a pretty blatant Joker clone. Like the last two films were obviously based off Bourne, but nothing in them felt as derivative as Silva's contrived prison escape. I'm also not a huge fan of Bond's characterization either for that matter. For this movie, and only this movie, Bond is this cynical aging dude who lets innocent people die and fails at pretty much everything he tries to do. That Sevèrine scene in particular is a stain on the movie.

Overall, though, Skyfall is still a grand spectacle of a James Bond movie. The direction is masterful, the cinematography is stunning, the action is great, the stakes feel personal yet grand, and it leaves one hell of an impact. It's definitely not my favorite Bond story, but the visual craftsmanship still elevates it to being a strong entry in the series.

4.5/5 Stars

Spectre: I feel like Craig's Bond movies tend to suffer from peaking early on a lot of the time, even with most of them still managing to pull off some emotional gut punch in the ending. Casino Royale peaks in that opening hour, Quantum Of Solace was the most enjoyable during that crackhead pacing first half, and Skyfall was definitely at its best before Silva showed up. But none of these movies managed to bomb their final act like Spectre did.

Spectre's first two-thirds is genuinely pretty solid. The opening was pretty great, a lengthy Day Of The Dead sequence with a oner and some pretty impressive shots, but even the story started off with a lot of potential. The premise is that Judi Dench's M gives Bond a mission after her passing, so he goes behind the current M's back to do the mission, discovering Spectre in the process. I like this idea, it's a neat way to introduce the new Spectre, and lends the film a bit of a mystery element. It also helps that Bond spends much of the first half of the movie being pursued by an assassin played by Dave Bautista, who's not only just a great henchman, but it leads to a whole bunch of really fun action scenes. I know a lot of people poke fun at the admittedly slow car chase, but I'd say the plane chase and train fight both make up for it in spades. I also liked how light Spectre is, especially coming off of the heavy Skyfall. It's the first Craig film to really show a willingness to be a bit goofy and silly, while not going all-out camp with it. I will say that Spectre does suffer a bit from following Skyfall in terms of its production. It still looks fine and the score is as great as always, but the sepia filter leaves it looking somewhat colorless and bland. Spectre's cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema is actually really good too, he did a bunch of Nolan movies as well as Ad Astra and Nope, so it's kind of baffling that Spectre turned out looking so drab. I also found the main theme Writing On The Wall to be pretty weak, the first Bond theme in the marathon that I didn't really end up liking.

Once Bautista's character dies, Spectre starts to spiral out of control a bit, though the first sign of badness is actually a bit earlier on. Around the half way point, we learn that all the villains from the previous Craig movies were a part of Spectre (yes, even Silva). That's a really blatant and contrived retcon, the type of storytelling I absolutely despise, but hey, all of these characters are dead so it's not like it matters much. Where things really went off the rails is when we met Blofeld himself. For starters, Blofeld's actor Christoph Waltz is not a good fit for character. He's a good actor, sure, but he plays Blofeld as kind of a nutjob, where he's really supposed to be cold and calculated. Then, we learn that Blofeld is Bond's brother, and that he ended up staging and planned pretty much everything in the previous movie. I don't need to tell you that the brother twist is stupid, but that latter twist ends up cheapening everything that happened in the last three movies. It feels like a forced attempt at tying everything together that just didn't need to be there, and gave off Angel Season 4 vibes (if you know me, you know that's the worst insult I could possibly give it). But hey, Blofeld and Spectre are finally revealed, so maybe we could at least have a big explosive final battle between MI-6 and Spectre? Nope, instead we have a really bland and unfittingly small-scale skirmish in London that bloats the runtime and ends the movie on a bit of a dud note. It's hard not to be reminded of Star Trek: Into Darkness, but at least that movie had a fun final battle, and Cumberbatch made a fine Khan, and there weren't any retcons. But hey, even Quantum Of Solace ended on a good note, maybe Spectre would... why am I even trying anymore? Bond finds a replacement for Vesper who he has zero chemistry with and retires again with her, resetting his development back to the two-thirds point of his first movie. What the fuck happened to this movie?

No seriously, what happened to it? Spectre was so good in its first two-thirds, a few minor issues aside. The opening was a banger, the action was fun, the tone was pleasantly light, the mystery was intriguing, the henchman was fantastic, everything was in place for at the very least a great Bond film. But I've never had a final act ruin this much goodwill towards a movie since maybe Wonder Woman? It's probably even worse to be perfectly honest. The countless retcons, underwhelming Blofeld, weak romance, dull final battle, disappointing conclusion, it all added up to one of the biggest cliff-drops I've ever seen a movie make. And that's a real shame because, once again, Spectre has so much going for it. Pound for pound, it's a better movie than Quantum Of Solace, if only it stuck the landing.

2.5/5 Stars

No Time To Die (R): No Time To Die is yet another Bond movie I'm rewatching, but unlike with Casino Royale and Skyfall, I feel pretty much exactly the same about it, even with the added context of having fully seen Spectre. It's an uneven film, with good stuff and bad stuff in equal measures.

Let's start with the stuff I enjoyed about No Time To Die, because there is a decent amount. As is usual with the Craig films, No Time To Die peaked in its first hour, especially in terms of action. The car chase in Italy in the opening was excellent, Safin's early-film heist was thrilling, the whole Cuba sequence was a ton of fun, and Felix Leiter's death probably hit me the hardest out of anything in the movie. The new characters were also  great, I liked seeing Bond and his new rival 00 Nomi trade barbs, and Ana De Armas's Paloma is so charming and badass that she could've been the best Bond girl in the series had she appeared for more than ten minutes. Cary Fukunaga's direction is a big improvement over that of Spectre, while it still doesn't top Deakins' work, No Time To Die is a beautiful, bold, and incredibly well-shot movie. Obviously, the most noteworthy and divisive part of No Time To Die is the fact that James Bond dies, and you know what? It worked for me. While the final act dragged a bit (more on that later), Bond manages to go out with a pretty stunning oner staircase fight and an emotional self-sacrifice that mostly really works. Granted, I'm not entirely sure that Bond needed to die, it's not like the series is over or anything, but I also can't say it wasn't well-executed.

Unfortunately, No Time To Die has a few issues that prevent me from truly loving it. First is the movie's crushing length. The last two Craig films were already a bit overlong for what should be tight spy thrillers, but No Time To Die is nearly three hours and it shows, especially in the third act. I get that Bond's death is a big event, but it's not like this is Avengers Endgame or anything. It's not a huge crossover with a massive cast that needs a longer length, it's as much of a standard action film as the rest of the series. Another issue I have is with the villain Safin, who I felt was a criminal waste of Rami Malek. Having seen Mr Robot, I know Malek is a fantastic actor, but Safin's confusing motivations, inconsistent screentime, and disappointing final battle made for a pretty mediocre antagonist. But probably my biggest issue with No Time To Die is the fact that the spectre of Spectre is still looming over it. Blofeld shows up again, and he continues to drag down the movie whenever he appears. Madeleine, the Bond girl from Spectre, also gets a lot of focus, but NTTD still isn't able to make her interesting, and even ends up making her backstory even more convoluted by bringing Safin into the mix. And in case the weird soap opera family tree bullshit couldn't get any worse, Bond now has a kid, who's literally only there to make his death more tragic.

Despite touting itself as the grandest movie in the series, No Time To Die is pretty much middle of the pack. It has some fantastic action, great direction from Cary Fukunaga, lovable new characters, and some serious emotional heft, and it doesn't completely fall off the rails like Spectre does. However, it also suffers from its crushing length, weak villain, and having to follow-up the events of Spectre.

3/5 Stars

Since there's a whopping 25 movies in this series to date (no, I'm not watching Never Say Never Again and you can't make me), there's no way I'm going to be able to cram it all into a single post. But for now, here's how I'd rank the Daniel Craig movies:

1. Casino Royale
2. Skyfall
3. No Time To Die
4. Spectre
5. Quantum Of Solace

See you next time when I review the Pierce Brosnan era of Bond.

The Prisoner

We're back in the 60s! I didn't think I'd be watching too many shows from this era outside of Star Trek, but The Prisoner feels like that kind of urban legend show I had to watch at some point. All I've heard about it is that it starts off pretty normal before slowly descending into psychological mayhem before having one of the most controversial endings in all of TV history. It's like British Evangelion, and considering I adored NGE's (original) ending, I'm so excited and also terrified of what that entails. 

And because of The Prisoner's infamy and legendary cult status (as well as its short length), I wanted to bring back the reactions structure from TOS and the MCU shows just so you can see how I end up interpreting each individual episode. Aside from its reputation, I have no idea what this show is about or what ends up happening, I'm going into The Prisoner completely blind. Let's see how this goes...

Oh right, also, I know the episode order is a widely debated topic. I did a lot of research on the matter and looked at the arrangements that most people seemed to agree upon, ultimately settling on this:

1. Arrival
2. Free For All
3. Dance Of The Dead
4. Checkmate
5. The Chimes Of Big Ben
6. The Schizoid Man
7. The General
8. A, B, And C
9. Many Happy Returns
10. It's Your Funeral
    
11. A Change Of Mind
12. Hammer Into Anvil
13. Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
14. Living In Harmony
15. The Girl Who Was Death
16. Once Upon A Time
17. Fall Out

Given how divisive the subject is, I doubt I'll ever pick a perfect order, but I'm sticking with the way it is now.

Arrival: Okay, this was actually really good. I was hooked from that entirely dialogue-less opening, and stayed engaged pretty much the entire time. The first episode of The Prisoner feels ahead of its time in that it's structured a lot like a Lost-esque "mystery box", plopping the main character into this weird new location and raising up a bunch of weird questions. Stuff like what is The Village? Why is the guard a giant white balloon? Why is the main character Number Six if there are way more than six people here? Why was Number Two replaced? It's not just Lost that seemed to have taken from it, though, watching this episode of The Prisoner reminded me of when I saw Casablanca for the first time, and all I can think was of all the later movies and shows that seemingly were inspired by this thing. Even though nothing was really answered here, Arrival also just works as a complete story about Number Six's repeated attempts to escape a place where surveillance is everywhere and no one is to be trusted.

I love how weird The Village looks, I was kinda expecting this show to take place in an actual prison but this is way more eerie and visually-interesting with all its strange and colorful architecture. My mind is already racing about what it could all mean. Is the show simply about public surveillance? Imprisonment? The paparazzi? There are so many strange one-off moments like the square-turned-round peg and the weird experiments in the hospital, along with stuff like those aforementioned white balloons (which are apparently called Rovers) that are goofy on the surface but genuinely kinda scary in action. I keep getting hung up on the Rovers, they're so cheesy, I laugh every time I see them, but they also terrify the hell out of me. The whole pilot felt a bit cheesy at times, between the overdramatic camera angles and Patrick McGoohan's constant eyebrow raising, but given how sincere-averse a lot of media is nowadays, I'm always down for a show willing to be a bit weird and colorful. Though don't get me wrong, I actually think McGoohan's mostly doing a good job. He has that main character energy to him, I think he could've been a great James Bond if he wanted to. So yeah, Arrival was actually really good. Even though it came out in the 60s, it feels so fresh and ahead of its time. The pacing was perfect, the show's already taking some pretty cool structural risks, and I'm fully engrossed in seeing what happens next.

Free For All: While a bit of a step-down, I still really liked Free For Al, and I think it works well as a second episode. Number Six is still desperately trying to escape and start problems in the Village, it's just that this time he's doing so by running to take over Number Two's position in an election. Of course, it's nowhere near that easy since the election is pretty blatantly rigged by the people in charge of The Village. Unlike in Arrival, where things are a bit more ambiguous, the themes of Free For All are pretty obvious. The episode is about how elections can be staged to give the public the illusion of choice, when in reality, the resolution was decided from the very start. It's a solid topic to cover, especially considering that I don't think people really discussed the potential failings of the electoral system in the 60s like this. Aside from the message, though, this is a solid if unremarkable episode, with a pretty great twist.

Dance Of The Dead: Dance Of The Dead is easily the weakest episode so far. There's a decent amount of stuff I liked, but it just didn't quite come together like Arrival did. On one hand, I thought the titular carnival event was really colorful and visually-appealing, Number Six's James Bond costume was a clever way of showing how he thinks he has more freedom than he has, and Mary Morris was a ton of fun in her turn as Number Two. On the other hand, this episode felt a bit aimless. I get some of the themes it's going for, particularly in regards to death, but the actual story beats struggled to really coalesce. In particular, the Dutton thread and the carnival thread, despite sharing that theme of death, felt like two separate episodes, and the connective tissue of the kangaroo court couldn't really fix that disjointedness. I also found the ending to be way too open. Even as someone who likes ambiguous endings, Dance Of The Dead kinda just ends with nothing resolved, leaving me scratching my head as to what just happened. Dance Of The Dead isn't a bad episode, there's still a lot to love, but it just didn't really land for me. I've seen lists that put Dance Of The Dead before Free For All, but I don't think it works as a second episode. Sure, Number Six seems a bit more new here, but DotD doesn't make the best impression, and I doubt Free For All's twist would be as novel if I met this episode's female Number Two first.

Checkmate: And I thought the election episode wasn't subtle. It's pretty obvious what the living chess game recognizes, but the sheer colorfulness of The Prisoner's visual aesthetic made for a really fun opening sequence. The concept of Checkmate is really cool, and follows the events of Free For All really well. Number Six did say he wanted to figure out how to differentiate between the prisoners and the wardens, and in this episode, he figures out how to do just that. Number Six's escape attempts were always some of the most fun scenes in the first three episode, but the sheer amount of preparation he put into finding allies and planning out his escape made for easily the most entertaining one to date. The only thing I didn't really like was the subplot about Number Six's love interest getting hypnotized into being a mole, which already was a bit hard to watch but felt especially frustrating since it didn't really lead to anything. Otherwise, though, I liked this episode, it was generally pretty fun.

The Chimes Of Big Ben: Number Six really does keep upping the ante in his escapes, huh? Like with Checkmate, I don't really have much to say about this one other than it just being yet another pretty good episode with a great escape attempt. Number Six has repeatedly gotten the rug pulled under him every time he tried to escape, to the point where episodes like Free For All and Dance Of The Dead felt a bit too cruel, but I really like the fake London twist here. It was fun and creative, still humiliating Number Six but not in a way that left me depressed after watching it. I also really liked the Number Two in this episode, Leo McKern strikes a great balance of outwardly affable and internally malicious that makes for a very fun opponent for Number Six. My only gripe is the Number Eight twist, it feels like a mix of some of the previous episode's twists and leaves me wondering if the show is already starting to run out of ideas so early on. 

The Schizoid Man: Actually, forget what I said about the show running out of ideas. The Schizoid Man is easily the most fun and creative episode of The Prisoner so far and a great breath of fresh air after the slightly repetitious last few episodes. The Schizoid Man could have so easily just brought in an evil double for Number Six to contend with for the episode, but it went the extra mile by having Six himself be told he's the clone instead. It's such a mindscrew of a plot, but a very well-crafted one and it led to Six's most understated and smooth escape attempt. Patrick McGoohan was especially great here since he had to play both himself and his double, Twelve. Once again, not a super subtle performance, but McGoohan was incredibly fun and played off himself super well. I especially loved how goddamn smug Twelve is throughout The Schizoid Man, making for easily the highlight of the episode. As a whole, this was just a really fun and entertaining episode, easily my favorite one since the pilot. Please give me more weird stuff like this!

The General: The General has an interesting premise, a computer that can instill knowledge and education into people's heads at the press of a button. I think there's a lot you can do with this concept, in particular, maybe have a storyline where The Village tries to use the computer to instill biased information or propaganda into people's minds. Unfortunately, The Prisoner was still made in the 60s, so the episode mostly devolves into a standard dated "computer bad" storyline. Given how ahead of its time this show has usually been, it's a bit strange to see an episode date itself so blatantly. However, I also wouldn't say this makes The General inherently bad, otherwise I'd hate Star Trek episodes like The Changeling and The Ultimate Computer when that's definitely not the case. Unlike Dance Of The Dead, The General is still actually comprehensible, and something I really liked about it is that Number Six finally manages to get a win for once. However, while a decently fun time, the dated story still renders this as one of my least favorite Prisoner episodes so far.

A, B, And C: Well, this episode was a trip. I was literally just praising The General for being straight-forward only for A, B, And C to easily be the most confusing episode in the show so far. But let me try to get this straight, Number Two is trying to get Number Six to reveal why he resigned by bringing people he met outside of The Village into his dreams to interrogate him. It's really hard to tell what's a dream in this episode and what isn't, but on a conceptual level, I do kinda like the three ghosts of Christmas type of structure. It was fascinating to see the differences between the three titular agents along with how Number Six went about dealing with them. But honestly, there were really two things that stuck out to me in A, B, And C. First is the fact that Number Six managed to secure yet another victory, probably even a more powerful one than in The General. But even more, is the fact that this is the first time a Number Two has been carried over from another episode. I didn't find Colin Gordon's Number Two all that special in The General, but he did a really good job at portraying a more panicked and nervous version of Number Two. While most of these episodes somewhat stand alone, I can't imagine not watching The General right before A, B, And C, they fit perfectly together to form a mini-arc of the time Number Six managed to turn the tables on an unsuspecting Number Two.

Many Happy Returns: This was literally just The Chimes Of Big Ben again. Like, literally the same plot. Number Six manages to go to London before having the rug pulled out from under him, yet again. Granted, I do like how this episode actually went further with the concept. The London stuff wasn't just crammed into the third act, and it wasn't an illusion either. Number Six actually went to London, it's just that there are so many Village operatives in London that there was no way he could stay there for long. And that's legitimately a really cool concept too, it gives off a sort of paranoia thriller vibe. The fact that Number Six can't just escape the Village to be truly safe raises the stakes even more. So yeah, Many Happy Returns is a strange episode for me. I kinda hate that it just felt like a copy of a previous episode, but it was also just flat-out a better version of The Chimes Of Big Ben. It showed way more potential and explored the central premise way more thoroughly.  

It's Your Funeral: Every once in a while, The Prisoner tosses out a visual so weird and wonderful that I want to see an entire episode's worth of it. The real life chess game in Checkmate was a big one, but after this episode, I don't think anything with top the utter bizarreness of Kosho, that jousting/trampolining hybrid that took up three whole minutes of the episode. While the Kosho scene probably biased my view of It's Your Funeral, I thought this was a pretty fun if a bit straight-forward. The main premise is about Number Six trying to stop the assassination of the currently retiring Number Two. Assassin-related storylines are always pretty fun, and The Prisoner did a good job at using Number Two's typical mindgames to make this episode all the more enjoyable. I also liked how It's Your Funeral actually took a bit of time to explore and flesh out the revolving door of Number Twos, showing off how Number Twos retire and get traded out. The ending was also interesting in how uncathartic it was, sure Number Six stopped an assassination, but it was meant for the authority that he was fighting against throughout the show. 

Change Of Mind: The Prisoner was always about conformity, Number Six's refusal to just give in and settle down in The Village is an integral part of the show. Change Of Mind brings this to the forefront, with Number Six's rebellious nature leading him to be shunned by the residents of The Village. It's very 1984 with a mix of mob mentality, which ultimately ends up making this episode feel kinda unoriginal by today's standards. Like, don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly fine story but it just doesn't really feel like it adds much to the conversation nowadays. Seeing Number Six turn the table around on Number Two was a fun ending, it's always nice to see Number Six get a win, but otherwise, I really don't have much to say about this one. It was fine, but fairly disposable.

Hammer Into Anvil: It's interesting to watch The Prisoner in this order because it feels like Number Six is starting to win increasingly more. As a matter of fact, the only episode in the last five I watched where Number Six didn't succeed in his goal was Many Happy Returns. I think this is because Number Six has stopped trying to escape and started trying to beat the Village at its own games, more specifically mindgames. Hammer Into Anvil is such a fascinating (and fun) episode because Number Six and Number Two have practically switched roles. Now Number Two is the one being humiliated by Number Six, and seeing the latter's intricate, ridiculous, and frankly hilarious plan to cause Number Two to think he's a plant is nothing less than an utter joy. It also helps that this episode has one of the better Number Two actors, Patrick Cargill, whose slow descent from cruel to paranoid is perfectly portrayed. Add in the glorious return of Kosho, and you get what is easily one of the most enjoyable The Prisoner episodes yet.

Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling: The fuck was that? The Prisoner has honestly not been super crazy up to this point, but all of sudden, we get a body-swap episode where Number Six spends the entire episode played by a different actor? First off, as weird as The Village is, there was rarely anything that wouldn't have been feasible in real life, Rover excluded but I'm sure even they're possible with some clever robotics. The body swap machine feels completely out of place here, and breaks my suspension of disbelief. Next is the fact that the actor they got to play Number Six, Nigel Stock, didn't do a very good job at playing Number Six. From what I'm aware, Patrick McGoohan was unavailable for this episode, so this was how the crew worked around it. I haven't seen anything else Stock is in, so I don't want to judge him too harshly, but he just isn't able to capture Patrick McGoohan's mannerisms. That's a real shame since the joy of body-swap episodes is in seeing actors try to mimic other actors, but it also means that this feels like an episode from an entirely different show. The series couldn't even do the obvious thing and at least allow us to learn more about Number Six's identity. Well, actually, we do learn he has a fiancée, but that feels so out-of-line with what we know about the character that we might as well have been watching someone else. So yeah, this was easily the weakest The Prisoner episode so far by a longshot, and you can tell McGoohan wasn't involved because it lacked any of the charm that the rest of the show had. While I'm excited about the prospect of getting some more weird shit, I can only hope that they're at the very least better than this.

Living In Harmony: Glad to see my wishes were granted. This episode of The Prisoner was definitely weird, and it was in fact better than the last one. One of my favorite episodes from the original Star Trek's mostly bad third season was called Spectre Of The Gun, an episode with a budget so bad that the crew had to resort to using pre-made western props despite it being, you know, a sci-fi show. Despite the limitations though, or maybe because of it, the writers managed to turn what could've been a mess into a genuinely gripping and fun episode about fighting fate. Living In Harmony is basically the exact same thing. It's hard not to imagine that the crew behind The Prisoner was running low on budget and had to use a pre-existing western set because this entire episode is a western. But what keeps Living In Harmony from deviating too far from the series's standard is the fact that the central story at its core is basically yet another The Prisoner episode. Number Six, despite being a cowboy now, is still the social outcast, once again fighting against the episode's Number Two. Living In Harmony is quite simply an encapsulation of The Prisoner's premise, in western form, and I think that's pretty fun. It was also genuinely scary at points, especially The Kid.

The Girl Who Was Death: I was going to start this paragraph with "Damn, that was weird", but I don't think I really need to say that after the last two episodes. The Girl Who Was Death is basically a lighthearted Bond-esque action film with goofy comedy, bombastic action, lots of guns and explosions, and an overdramatic score. It's decently fun if a bit cheesy and surreal, but what I found especially interesting is the episode's implications. We all know McGoohan turned down the role of James Bond, so maybe this episode was a "What Could Have Been?" for if he had been in the role. Or maybe, this episode was a middle-finger for those who wanted him to be James Bond, or wanted The Prisoner to be more of a standard spy drama. The fact that the entire episode ended up being a fairy-tale possibly justifies this theory. As far as the actual episode's story goes though, the bedtime story reveal does border on "it was all a dream", but the fact that it was also revealed to be Number Six thwarted Number Two's plans again did help a little bit.  

Once Upon A Time: Holy shit. Once Upon A Time felt like the perfect "final battle" between Number Six and Number Two, basically a mindwar between the two that trapped Patrick McGoohan and a returning Leo McKern (great choice, by the way) in a room together and basically just had them act their hearts out for 45 minutes straight. Out of all of the episodes of The Prisoner so far, Once Upon A Time feels the most Evangelion. Through Number Two holding plays based on Number Six's life based around Shakespeare's Seven Stages Of Man, we get a much more effective look into Number Six and his psyche than whatever Do Not Forsake Me was doing. My theory about The Prisoner being more about McGoohan and his decision to reject the role of James Bond last episode also got even more credence during this episode, especially when I did some research and learned all of the plays were based off of McGoohan's actual life. But what was the most surprising was just the complete and utter shock of the ending. The Prisoner did have some hollow continuity but it was always fairly episodic and the ties between episodes are left up to the viewer. So Number Two being killed off, Butler changing sides, and Number Six finally being able to meet Number One was pretty surprising, and was a fantastic set-up for the looming series finale. Overall, Once Upon A Time was exactly was I was hoping for from The Prisoner all this time.

Fall Out: Huh... Well, that was interesting. I didn't love Fall Out, though not for the reasons you might expect. Fall Out wasn't a very satisfying finale. Sure, Number Six triumphantly broke out of The Village, but it's not like we got many answers. We don't really know why Number Six resigned or what his name is, we don't know why Number One and Number Six are the same, and the ending is super ambiguous. However, I'm actually perfectly fine with this, and let me explain why. First off, using that "The Prisoner is about Patrick McGoohan" theory, we don't need to know why Number Six resigned. It's not our business to know. The only person who has to know why Number Six resigned is Number Six himself. The Number One reveal adds an interesting possibility, that the Village was all in Number Six's head. Once again, this borders dangerously close to "it was all a dream", but that would explain the inconsistencies and give greater context to Number Six's arc. Hell, maybe The Prisoner refers to Number Six being a prisoner in his own mind. 

And I actually adore the ending for all of the possibilities it could lead to. If The Village was real, the ending would further serve that revelation in Many Happy Returns, that Number Six hasn't yet truly escaped because there are The Village operatives everywhere. Maybe that's why we don't know his name yet, because he's still not free. This even lends to the aforementioned McGoohan theory since he would be proceeded to be hounded with questions about what the ending meant after Fall Out would be aired. If The Village was in Number Six's head, the ending would simply mean that Number Six just hasn't fully gotten over his turmoil over resigning, or that he never will. This is why I love ambiguous endings, because once I finish a show, my mind will be racing to think about the different possibilities of what will happen or what it would all mean.

Unfortunately, while I liked Fall Out on a story level, I kinda hated watching it, because as much as I enjoyed The Prisoner's weird streak, this finale was just weird for the sake of it. Once Upon A Time was a strange episode, for sure, but the weirdness felt purposeful. I could understand the unconventional choices McGoohan made, and they made the episode better. That is not the case in Fall Out, which packed in many strange non-sequiturs that messed with the tone and only served to leave me even more confused. All the strange music choices, the bizarre closeups, the goddamn monkey costume, I feel like they all made for an even worse viewing experience for me, leaving me mixed on a finale that I feel like I could have really loved.

So, overall, what did I think about The Prisoner? Honestly, I'm not all that sure. On one hand, I thought The Prisoner was brilliant and ahead of its time. The pilot episode did the Mystery Box years before Lost did, the last few episodes deconstructed the show's own genre (that being spy fiction) years before Evangelion pulled the same trick, and every episode is rife with symbolism and potential interpretation, ranging from real world issues to McGoohan's own life. The sum of The Prisoner's parts is massive.

However, those parts are also very flawed. The first few episodes with Number Six's escape attempts felt repetitive, certain twists and premises were repeated as well, the ending while clever was dragged down by its tonal inconsistencies, and Do Not Forsake Me is one of the worst episodes of television I've seen in a while. As a result, I feel like The Prisoner is one of those shows I'm going to look back on fondly for its progressiveness and willingness to be weird, even if the process of watching it was inconsistent in terms of enjoyment and, at certain points, somewhat frustrating.

3/5 Stars?

Here's my ranking of the episodes:

1. Once Upon A Time
2. Arrival
3. The Schizoid Man
4. Many Happy Returns
5. Hammer Into Anvil
6. The Chimes Of Big Ben
7. Fall Out
8. It's Your Funeral
9. Free For All
10. Living In Harmony
11. A, B, And C
12. Checkmate
13. Change Of Mind
14. The General
15. The Girl Who Was Death
16. Dance Of The Dead
17. Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling

Episode Rankings: The Americans

The Americans is a really good show with great acting, strong writing, a nice balance of spy action and family drama, and some truly impeccable needle drops. While the last two seasons can drag a bit and the show won't quite make my all-time favorites list, I still really enjoyed The Americans and would definitely recommend it. Here's my ranking of its episodes:

1. The Magic Of David Copperfield V: The Statue Of Liberty Disappears (S4.08)
2. START (S6.10)
3. Echo (S2.13)
4. Stingers (S3.10)
5. Travel Agents (S4.07)
6. Chloramphenicol (S4.04)
7. Jennings, Elizabeth (S6.09)
8. The Colonel (S1.13)
9. Safe House (S1.09)
10. Walter Taffet (S3.07)
11. Arpanet (S2.07)
12. Do Mail Robots Dream Of Electric Sheep? (S3.09)
13. Dinner For Seven (S4.11)
14. The Deal (S2.05)
15. Only You (S1.10)
16. Martial Eagle (S2.09)
17. Harvest (S6.07)
18. Persona Non Grata (S4.13)
19. Dyatkovo (S5.11)
20. Trust Me (S1.06)
21. Divestment (S3.08)
22. The Great Patriotic War (S6.05)
23. Operation Chronicle (S2.12)
24. Glanders (S4.01)
25. March 8, 1983 (S3.13)
26. One Day In The Life Of Anton Baklanov (S3.11)
27. The Oath (S1.12)
28. Comrades (S2.01)
29. The Rat (S4.06)
30. Dead Hand (S6.01)
31. Munchkins (S4.10)
32. New Car (S2.08)
33. The Soviet Division (S5.13)
34. Pilot (S1.01)
35. Pastor Tim (S4.02)
36. The Summit (S6.08)
37. I Am Abassin Zadran (S3.12)
38. The Walk In (S2.03)
39. Duty And Honor (S1.07)
40. The Committee On Human Rights (S5.07)
41. Urban Transport Planning (S6.03)
42. A Roy Rogers In Franconia (S4.12)
43. Yousaf (S2.10)
44. Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow (S4.03)
45. IHOP (S5.09)
46. Rififi (S6.06)
47. Dimebag (S3.04)
48. The Clock (S1.02)
49. The World Council Of Churches (S5.12)
50. Cardinal (S2.02)
51. Amber Waves (S5.01)
52. The Day After (S4.09)
53. Baggage (S3.02)
54. Clark's Place (S4.05)
55. Covert War (S1.11)
56. Tchaikovsky (S6.02)
57. In Control (S1.04)
58. Born Again (S3.06)
59. Stealth (S2.11)
60. Open House (S3.03)
61. A Little Night Music (S2.04)
62. Mutually Assured Destruction (S1.08)
63. Immersion (S5.08)
64. EST Men (S3.01)
65. Pests (S5.02)
66. Gregory (S1.03)
67. Darkroom (S5.10)
68. Salang Pass (S3.05)
69. Mr And Mrs Teacup (S6.04)
70. Crossbread (S5.06)
71. COMINT (S1.05)
72. The Midges (S5.03)
73. Lotus 1-2-3 (S5.05)
74. Behind The Red Door (S2.06)
75. What's The Matter With Kansas? (S5.04)