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Shantaram (2022)
If you read the book, you'll likely hate the show but that's not why it got cancelled
I see a lot of these "I cant believe it got cancelled" reviews but I'd like to chime in that I watched the show which I thoroughly enjoyed and as I read the book instantly hated the show. Why?
NOTE: none of the "spoilers" below really ruin the book or show
The show's acting is decent, the pacing is good but then abruptly stalls halfway through in an attempt to approximate the transformations of Lin's way of thinking and adjustments to India that occupy over half the 900+ page book. There's a lot of interplay between characters and arcs that are tangentially connected which make the work compelling not only with Prakabar, Karla, Khader, Lin, but particularly with less important side characters.
I think the screenwriters of this production thought that action/mystery and brief philosophical dialogs would carry the show through a guaranteed renewal... then they could finally take their job seriously in the 2nd and potentially a 3rd if all went well. Unfortunately, it just didn't work and I think this is shown really well with Karla/Zhou tv superficial cat feud (oversimplification) and how little time is spent exploring Lin and Khader's interactions. The former dumbing down and the latter going in a completely different direction banking on it propping up the exaggerated action in the show.
To be fair a lot of adaptations suffer from these problems, but I hope someone reads this and then goes on to read the book. It's not mind-blowing, and I haven't really spoiled anything, but it's a great shame for works like these to not gain broader appeal due to adaptation failures like this. It definitely could have been a lot better by staying truer to the source material's tone.
Tin Star (2017)
All over the place
This is a relatively short show that goes downhill after the first season leaving the remaining 15 episodes a chore to watch. If you just like Tim Roth being himself (or rather the character he usually portrays) then you'll see a lot of that.
The other characters are just there as filler and what killed it for me is the show starts off with him being a sheriff, a former UCD etc. But all that dutybound law-abiding stuff goes out the window in the first few episodes (so why even include it? -- there's a reason ofc but in the interest of not spoiling the first season which imho is worth a watch, I'll only say that the attempts of the writers to explain any of it or have any "natural" reactions from side characters failed miserably).
The show fell off the rails after that simply because even though the storyline was pretty obvious, the writers made no decent attempt to make it enjoyable thinking perhaps that the whole "rush to the end" thing would make the show edgy and allow bingers to over look those flaws.
Night Sky (2022)
Could have been much better.
Unfortunately the show starts too slowly and it's about half way through before it really starts getting interesting. Had this been a two or three season show it may have worked to great narrative effect but in the streaming world it just gets overlooked and dismissed despite any redeeming charm it may have.
If you take it for what it is, a limited series it is watchable and somewhat enjoyable. There's even a little subplot mirroring a man called Otto (and other classic narratives) but the redemption/reconciliation arc comes too late and feels forced in the early show. Other plot arcs are thrown about presumably to drum up a season renewal that never materialized. I'd say it's still worth a watch just don't set that bar too high or you'll be disappointed.
Prisoner's Daughter (2022)
Redemption Narrative without High Stakes
I thought about not finishing it about 10 minutes into the movie. The premise is pretty straightforward, and the writing is decent if you suspend disbelief. I'm sorry but if you're getting beaten up no sane guidance counselor is going to put it on your record unless maybe the parent/guardian is absentee and no one cares (at most they'll make a notation of the incident and move on). Mother while visibly annoyed and pointing this out just sort of takes the guidance counciler repeating the same thing again as the end of that matter lol (oversimplification).
This is pretty indicative of the rest of the story, there's some truth there and a redemption narrative that attempts to flesh out the characters with Cox passing on his worldly knowledge to the boy and repairing his familial relationship. I liked it up to the last say 10 minutes when dipshit dad abducts the boy and for some reason we need to suspend belief again as calling the cops is NOT on the table. It sets up the final redemption arc that puts away dad for good at the expense of Cox's life (I mean he was going to die anyway right?). I'm sure dad will do just fine in THAT prison.
Overall, it seems that the whole redemption narrative was done perhaps halfway through the movie or at the very least fully when they went to that pool... so the ending kind of made sense just because there would have been nothing left to do for 15 minutes. Yet... if you think about it, dad's friend wasn't exactly a fighter, and dad himself wasn't really a threat (no signs of possession of a knife or gun). Even in his delusion, had the cops been called AND he tried to flee to Tijuana the kid would have been recovered, he would have been arrested, potentially mandatory drug counciling/testing and a restraining order put out not to approach the kid till he got his stuff together then ofc granddad dies and where's the eulogy.
A decent movie, but just a missed opportunity to tighten up the script and give it a little more soul. I suppose the only real gem is that since the kid has already proven himself by kicking his two new bestfriend's asses that if anyone picks on him for his party being ruined will think twice.
Earth: Final Conflict (1997)
Watch it, but don't expect miracles from this mess.
OK, so bear with me here but I liked the series up until the end of season 4. I wont repeat what other reviews have said about the frequent writing and acting staff changes aside from saying that it made a steady ship appear to be going through a storm with no end in sight. Fairly weak characters and lack of continuity was patched as it went along and a chemistry developed that kept you watching the series because the series still had a strong premise that the writing staff continued to explore from time to time. The failure of this series came with all sorts of filler episodes that had little to contribute and often repeated things from previous episodes. I kept waiting for Da'an to come out of hiding and slap Zo'or off of his Machavellian ego trip. Sandoval was a character who started out as a nothing prick with little airtime and was put into the driver seat of the antagonist's van to prevent the show from looking like Zo'or was doing everything himself.
Season 3-4 has Sandoval break away from his role as a Zo'or clone and pursue his own agenda even going so far as to have some moments against Zo'or. In my opinion that breakaway carried the show, and the whole thing with the Jaridians and the resistance was just a little back and forth that kept the engine running to the climax of Season 4 which was passable enough to leave me with the impression that the series ended well. I then discover to my dismay that there is a season 5 and it's very hard to describe my horror that the new theme and Renee Palmer as the lead gave me. Palmer was a good secondary character, and really EFC capitalized on the fact that secondary characters could be rotated in and out of the limelight but putting her in the driver's seat after taking away the Taelons and Jaridians and introducing the Atavus just sucked. I had to stop what I was doing and wrap my head around the fact that this was the same show, and I vowed then and there that I would pretend that season didn't happen. I suggest you do the same and watch only the first 4 seasons as this was an overall fun yet bouncy ride that any sci-fi fan would do well to survey--after all, anything Roddenberry is worth watching even if continuity goes out the window. A 6 out of 10 at best.