Future Diary

This is a story I think I will have difficulty fully describing. But we have 26 episodes with the option of English Dub. The show came out in 2011-2012. In Japanese the show is Mirai Nikki.

It all starts out with a friendless boy named Yuki. He created some imaginary friends, except they turned out to not be so imaginary. Deus Ex Machina("God in the Machine") who is the God of Time and Space. Deus bestows him with a Future Diary which as the name implies, tells him his future. At first he just uses it to his advantage with normal kid stuff like getting the answers to tests. But it turns out there are others with Future Diaries.

Deus had set up a Game with 12 people all with their own types of Future Diaries. They must fight to the death. The reward for winning is replacing Deus as God. So the fight begins.

Yuki is joined by Yuno, a girl who is obsessively in love with Yuki. He goes between being creeped out and enjoying her company over the course of the show. But she is important for his survival in this game of death.

Eventually Yuki makes some other friends after narrowly surviving some intense scenarios. Even after his school is bombed and a whole bunch of dogs try to eat him. But Yuno doesn't like him having friends outside of her.

Without trying to give anything away, things get super crazy and fucked up around episode 20. The show goes into a whole new way by adding some elements that change everything. Of course there were hints from the beginning about it, but trust me when I say that you are not prepared for the stuff that goes down.

This was a surprising and thrilling show with a lot of psychological moments. It earns a score of 10 out of 11.

The Wire

Many believe this to be one of the best HBO series to ever exist. And it is not hard to see why. The series came out between 2002 and 2008 with a total of 5 seasons and 60 episodes. Each episode is about 55 minutes long with some of the season finales being 90 minutes or so.

The show follows a few different groups throughout the seasons. But mostly the Cops following the Drug Trade, and the Drug Traffickers. Characters will come and go, with some dying at some points. But as you watch all 5 seasons you will see everything linking together and connecting. We get to see the web of interconnecting cogs in the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

The first season is all about setting up a Wire(an electronic monitoring of phone usages) on Barksdale's gang of drug peddlers. We get to see the inner workings of the police department as well as what goes on in a gang. We get to see the politics of a drug dealing hierarchy. It's not just the kids on the street selling the drugs. Throughout the series we never abandon the characters we meet in this first season. Even when they aren't being directly investigated we still see them in their lives.

Season two deals in the smuggling that occurs on the Baltimore docks. We meet a large variety of new characters. We see some of the issues that come to the working folk of America. Technology and cutbacks taking these good hardworking folk and forcing them out.

Season three gets back into directly hunting down and catching the gangs again. But mostly it gets into the idea of what just might occur if Drugs were to be legalized.

Season four may be the most interesting of them all. This looks into the school systems. It reveals the problems and corruption that the US school systems have. Specifically going into the problems of teaching students only test questions. We don't teach our children to learn anymore. It shows us something that helps to explain why America is so low on the world scales in Education. They of course point this toward just intercity black children. But it hints at so much more.
This season also goes into the politics of the city. A man working toward becoming Mayor and the corruptions and dark dealing that occur in a public race like that.

Season five gets back into taking down the drug dealers. But because of political issues and funding problems the police are unable to fully do their jobs. So a horrible plot ends up being created. This season wraps up everything that occurred in all the previous seasons as well as some new issues that come about here.

This really is an incredible show. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a cop show with some of the most intricate and fascinating story arcs. You will find that over time you will grow to hate then love then hate some characters. One of the things I like most about the series is the Theme Song. It's the same song but performed by different artists for each season.

The show easily earns it's 11 out of 11.