TV Review: Lucha Underground S3 E09, “Aztec Warfare II”

By Sachin Hingoo

I often say that each week in Lucha Underground is bigger than the last, and this week’s episode, featuring the second chaotic Aztec Warfare match, is no exception. On top of the match itself, we will see the Lucha Underground debut of one of the world’s most famous (if not the most famous) luchadors, Rey Mysterio Jr., as well as his protege Dragon Azteca Jr. As if that weren’t enough, the frightening Matanza is on his way back to the Temple with his brother Dario Cueto and Black Lotus in tow.

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TV Review: Broad City S3 E06, “Philadelphia”

By Sachin Hingoo

Philadelphia, or rather the suburb of Wayne, is the hometown of both the on-screen and the real-life Abbi and is our setting for the episode. Broad City has always couched its identity in its portrayal of New York, as viewed through the weed-haze of Abbi and Ilana’s misadventures, as a character in and of itself. It leans heavily on urban culture—city-specific concepts like pop-up shops, pretentious art shows, and bodega breakfast sandwiches.

Well, not this time. Broad City’s journey into West (of) Philly manages to be a bizarre little slice of Abbi’s suburban life, and also somehow a twisted, and one might say unnecessary, dressing-down of JonBenet Ramsey. Uh, let’s circle back to that last thing.

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TV Review: Broad City S3 E05, “2016”

By Sachin Hingoo

“Abbi. Hello. Proud Demo-crat. College. Aquarius. I pegged.”–Abbi

It’s one of the biggest weeks in Broad City’s entire run so far, and one that’s unlikely to be topped for quite some time. In addition to the announcement that the show will have an entry in the Tribeca Film Festival’s TV section, this week’s show features their most high-profile guest star yet, even in an episode packed with cameos. All eyes are on our girls, and these kweens won’t leave us hanging.

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TV Review: Lucha Underground S3 E08, “Life After Death”

By Sachin Hingoo

It’s a gigantic week in Lucha Underground, friends. After last week’s outstanding triple-threat match between champion Mil Muertes, Pentagón Jr., and Prince Puma, Fenix cashed in his Gift of the Gods title shot which is our main event for tonight. Let’s also hope that the inter-gender content will be handled better this week, because we have a Trios title match between the Disciples of Death and the team of Son of Havoc, Angelico, and Ivelisse that should be pretty good.

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TV Review: Lucha Underground S2 E07, “Death Comes In Threes”

By Sachin Hingoo

Despite watching this show every week, there are some things about the Lucha Underground product that I’ve glossed over a bit since I started writing these reviews. Lucha Underground features stories and matches that I think we can all agree give reality a pretty wide berth; all of their storylines have an outlandish quality to them. Their potentially problematic (to say the least) choice to feature intergender matches even in this unbelievable universe has earned them some flack, however. Lucha’s handling of matches and angles like this hasn’t been perfect, but it’s mostly been OK because the matches between women and men are presented in a fast-paced, more athletic style that’s not as violent as “hardcore” wrestling can be.

Tonight’s episode is different. We all have our lines, and seeing a woman–in this case, Taya Valkyrie–suplexed off the ring apron and through a table, and then again taking Cage’s Weapon X finisher onto broken glass (it is very clearly prop glass, made of sugar, but the visual is disturbing) steps way over that line for me.

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TV Review: Broad City S3 E04, “Rat Pack”

By Sachin Hingoo

“The Rat Pack! With Fred Sinatra! And they’d sing acapella and watch each other fuck!”–Ilana

A rat infestation in your apartment is certainly both a common and disgusting problem to have, but Broad City treats this as a catastrophic event that upends Ilana’s entire life and serves as the catalyst for a medium-sized and hilariously low-rent party. Though we see our titular rodent stealing weed, ruining Lincoln’s masterpiece of a sandwich, and chewing through Jaime’s clothes, ultimately Ilana learns that she has more in common with her unwanted visitor than she realizes.

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Astron-6’s Divorced Dad Teaser Thrills and Confounds!

By Sachin Hingoo

At 2008’s After Dark Film Festival, I was part of an audience that went completely wild for a trailer for a nonexistent full-length feature from the demented minds of Adam Brooks, Steven Kostanski, Jeremy Gillespie, Matthew Brooks, and Conor Sweeney–collectively known as Astron-6. That film was called Lazer Ghosts 2: Return To Laser Cove and ever since then, asking people at these events about their favorite Astron movie is a bit like a secret handshake. If you already have a favorite, and especially if you share mine (it’s 2014’s The Editor), we’re probably going to be friends whether you like it or not.

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TV Review: Broad City S3 E03, “Game Over”

By Sachin Hingoo

“Total transparency: I spent most of the day coloring in my tummy.”–Ilana

There’s been no more enduring question on Broad City than, “What would it take for Ilana to get fired from her job?” This week, that question was finally answered. The first two seasons of the show had Ilana managing to miraculously hold onto her job at an online group deals business, mostly thanks to her ability to steamroll Todd, her meek and easily-cowed boss. Though it seems that Ilana can’t possibly get fired for any of her behavior, regardless of how outrageous, it seems wearing a dog hoodie to the office and tweeting out a hardcore bestiality video on the company’s Twitter account seems to have finally done the trick.

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TV Review: Lucha Underground S3 E06, “The Gift Of The Gods”

By Sachin Hingoo

A very subtle theme in this season of Lucha Underground has been Catrina’s meddling with powers she doesn’t fully understand since wresting control of the Temple from Dario Cueto. Since assuming power, she’s done things like reneging on the stipulations of the Gift Of The Gods title to make Cuerno wrestle Fenix in a Ladder Match instead of giving him his title shot or trying to manipulate Pentagón Jr. (not a good idea at the best of times). She may be a magical teleporting queen of death, but you have to think that these things have consequences.

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TV Review: Lucha Underground, S3 E05, “The Machine”

By Sachin Hingoo

Last week we saw the debut of Joey Ryan, but that wasn’t the most eventful thing to happen to Joey in the last seven days –our hero momentarily threw off the sleaze to propose to his girlfriend Laura James during a wrestling match. (Caution: Not Safe For Work Environments That Discourage Adorable Things).

Tonight, though, is about violence, and our main event of pretty-man Johnny Mundo versus steroid-man Bryan Cage should be a wild one.

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