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Reviews
Whiskey Cavalier (2019)
It really finds its feet after three or four episodes
I didn't like it at the beginning and found the opening scene of Will crying and singing love songs about his ex not at all funny. I only continued to watch it as my English-as-a-second-language partner liked it (he sometimes likes shows where he can laugh at Westerners being dumb.)
However, half way through the series I realised I was really enjoying it. All of the characters seemed to come together, bounce off each other well - especially the two leads - and the ludicrous scenes and stories became entertaining.
So, I went from "What is this rubbish?" to being disappointed to see it was cancelled.
Ed Stafford: First Man Out (2019)
The low scores are unfair
The series is fun. Ed "battles" another survivor expert with a different set of skills and a different personality each time. One of the other reviewers has got it wrong by saying that Ed wins every time - he doesn't.
If you take it with a pinch of salt, have fun watching with someone else and betting who will win, you will enjoy it. If you are unrealistically expecting an unedited life or death survivor experience, of course you will be disappointed.
Having said that, it is always unclear exactly what is going on, how many days the two competitors took to get out, how far each competitor really is from each other and the speed with which they travel as they supposedly race "neck and neck" for the finish line. Some "wins" seem strange - especially episode two when the person way ahead somehow manages to lose. This isn't really explained and as we have no clue as to the real distances and times, we just think, "Huh!"
There are some daft things as others say: both seem to travel for almost two days across a desert without water; I'm not sure that I believed that certain animals were actually caught; someone was sunburnt on day two but not day three; I didn't believe all the supposed crocodiles lurking everywhere and they only seem to sleep two or three times in this "less than a week" they are expected to take to reach the finish.
I guess, if it suffers it is because there are not enough survivor skills/bushcraft shown to be interesting and not enough of real racing to be the focus either.
The American (2010)
Very slow
I think the movie could be summed up as "man makes gun". I knew nothing about the film, so I can't be accused of being misled by the marketing or anything as others have suggested. I just thought a Clooney movie should be good, so I gave it a go. It was under two hours, but felt much longer!
There were lots of cliches: the "tart-with-a heart", the "priest that seems to know what's going on", the "haunted hit-man and his nightmares", the "naked women for the sake of it", the silly nickname - "Mr Butterfly", the "being followed and hiding among little, winding streets" - they would probably have seemed cliched in 2010, when it was made.
It starts off with another cliche - a camera angle slowly moving in on a cabin "Ah, someone is being watched", you think. Then there is some sudden action, something quite shocking occurs which wakes you up, and then nothing as you wait for the predictability of the final 10 minutes to occur.
Others have said that it is supposed to be a character study. The trouble is, there was very little character there to develop. Apparently the film is based on a novel where the protagonist is living in a village and has relationships and a life there in addition to his weapon production and has to decide whether to stay or go. Perhaps that was the problem with this adaptation, the protagonist comes to a village and then just makes a gun.
Violante Placido was good. I was rooting for her and hoping she would give up on "the American" as I couldn't see what she saw in him (aside from him looking like George Clooney, of course!)
Temple (2019)
Enjoyed it more when I realised it was sort of black comedy
I watched the first three episodes and then gave up as it was quite slow. I found the sub-story about the bank robber and his girlfriend a boring distraction. If you don't warm to a protagonist that you are supposed to root for, then it is difficult to care about their story.
About six months later, there was nothing to watch and the series popped up again so I finished it.
The interactions between the two police officers were quite amusing so I realised that is is supposed to be a black comedy rather than a Sci-Fi drama! There are other comedic moments involving Lee, and also the search for a kidney.
Still, I think there was too much going on which meant there was little plot or character development: trying to save Daniel's wife, finding a kidney, operating on other patients, Jamie and his girlfriend, the "baddies" and the police looking for Jamie, Lee's love life, Daniel and Anna's previous relationship, Daniel and his daughter's relationship, Anna and her husband's relationship...
In the final few episodes you start to question Daniel's motives but that is not really explored as there is so much else happening.
Also, Daniel's dialogue was pretty dull: he just seemed to utter one or two words or repeat what the previous person had said. For example, something like:
So, this is your clinic?
- My clinic? Yeah.
- A coffee? Sure.
- Yeah.
American Hustle (2013)
It was OK.
I didn't know anything about this film and found it on a cable channel I rarely watch. My synopsis would be that it was trying too hard and that the ending was predictable.
There are some huge names in it, but somehow, although everyone's performance was good - Bradley Cooper was a bit over-the-top, though - they just didn't seem to gel together.
The opening scene was sort-of funny, but went on too long. There were several episodes where things should have been funny, but just weren't. One instance was the FBI man in hair curlers - it just wasn't that amusing and it really should have been. I imagine other things were thought to be done in a "knowing" way, but it was just a bit cliched.
It felt like they were out to make this decade's Boogie Nights, but fell short.
I didn't even watch it in one go - I watched the second half two days later so it wasn't exactly gripping!
The Enchanted Castle (1979)
Was terrified by this aged 5 or 6.
I know the name after almost thirty years of occasionally asking British people, "Can you remember a TV programme - probably in the late 1970s - where a group of children make some dummies to serve as the "audience" to a play they were putting on and the dummies came to life?" Cue years of blanks stares!
That is all I can remember from the programme but I was utterly petrified. One child rubbed a "magic ring" and said that she wished that the dummies would come to life. You had forgotten that and then the dummies started clapping at the end of the show. I remember them then chasing the children through a tunnel.
I was reading a newspaper article on old children's TV shows and someone mentioned something that sounded like this in the comments. It turned out it wasn't this show but another person suggested this title: The Enchanted Castle. I finally have proof that I didn't imagine or dream this!
I gave it a 9 as it obviously had a huge effect on me at the time: I don't like horror stories even as an adult!
In the Dark (2017)
Generally pretty good
I enjoyed the first two stories more in this four-story series. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't find the first story rushed. I thought the pacing was good.
It was pretty obvious what had happened to Helen and Linda in the past, so it isn't exactly a big reveal. However, I didn't think that the flashbacks added much to the story - perhaps there were just too many of them and neither of the young actress resembled the older ones much. I liked that the resolution at the end included the historic case being reported, though.
I'm not sure that there was much original in the first case - one police officer has to convince another that the wrong person has been charged etc - we've seen this many times before, but I liked the dynamic of having an established couple working together rather than a romantic tension cliche. I thought Ben Batt was really convincing as an excited prospective father, it was interesting that Helen Weeks isn't an entirely likeable character and I thought Matt King's character added quite a lot.
You have to suspend belief a little in the second story - as if a woman about to give birth would rush around investigating a case. The character dynamic also completely changes. I must say, I really wasn't really that interested by the gang-member story and I didn't feel sorry enough for the new gang member's situation. Those parts felt like a distraction or padding.
Some things didn't make sense - why does the criminal Frank take the action he does in light of the information he gives to Helen at the end? He may have made assumptions initially, but his henchman seems to get the full story but the course of action continues. Also, an item is stolen, we can eventually guess who by or, at least, who had arranged it, but why isn't it mentioned during the resolution?
The ending was a little flat: you've kind of worked out some of it by then, I didn't buy the blackmail part and Helen's disgust didn't feel real enough. It was all over in five minutes with an off-camera confession.I felt a bit "cheated" by that!
I thought Matt King was underused in the second story and the David Leon character was woefully underdeveloped.
Still, I'd watch it were a second series made but it would be a different programme out of necessity.
Little House on the Prairie: He Was Only Twelve: Part 2 (1982)
When Little House jumped the shark
What a shame that this weird, out-of-character Charles is the last we see of him in the regular setting.
James is still in a coma and so Charles, literally mad with grief, I suppose, takes the lad off on a journey convinced only he can cure him. He builds a strange stone altar convinced that this is the only way. What? The stoical, practical Charles Ingalls behaving in such a way? He can be very stubborn but dragging the boy away from Caroline and Cassandra? Not being brought to his senses by Caroline as usual? He is God-fearing but would never worship false prophets.
How can this episode possibly end? By the appearance of "God" as an aged traveller and James being cured of course! But not before I wondered whether "God" was going to ask Charles to sacrifice James like Abraham and Isaac!
I spent this and the previous episode convinced James was going to die as the title is "was only twelve" i.e. the past tense. I was relieved he survived but what a strange and anticlimactic way to end the show.
Little House on the Prairie: He Was Only Twelve: Part 1 (1982)
A birthday treat leads to tragedy
My partner and I have a joke about whether an episode is going to be a "happy or sad" one and this starts out as the former and descends into the latter. It is all rich Uncle Jed's fault for sending James too much money for his birthday!
James, Albert, Charles and Mr Edwards head into Sleepy Eye so James can decide whether to spend or deposit the money in the bank. Whilst deliberating, James is shot by a bank robber by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I was horror-stricken as the title suggests James will die - "WAS only twelve". Surely, they won't kill off the boy? We see a scene of the robber who shot James with his put upon wife and young son who seems to be following in Pa's footsteps after being given a gun. So the robber has a boy about James' age who he seems to care about, but he feels no remorse about shooting the boy.
Finally, Charles and Mr Edwards apprehend the robbers and Isaiah has to step in to prevent Charles from strangling the one who shot James.
"Aha!", I think, "The robber's son will decide to try to rescue his father with the help of his new gun, will get shot and die and the robber will exclaim 'He was only twelve!'" A lesson learned too late. But no, they are just taken off to jail!
Does this mean James will die in part two?
Little House on the Prairie: For the Love of Blanche (1983)
Nancy really is vile and the death knell of the series sounds
The story involves Mr Edwards inheriting an orangutan from a man he meets and camps with who suddenly dies - much like how Jack passes away in season 8's The Legacy. It is kind of obvious - in that way Little House can be very predicable - that the "three-year-old girl" will be some kind of animal. The episode is somewhat farcical: an orangutan from "Africa"? An orangutan going to school? However, it is moving in parts, especially at the end. The orangutan is a great actor - so much better than the twins who played Carrie!
Harriet decides that the animal must be put down and notifies the sheriff. Of course she does. Nasty Nancy overhears Jenny telling the other children that Blanche's death was a trick so she runs off to "Mother!" The sheriff comes back to town to make sure that the "dangerous wild animal" really is killed this time. The sociopathic smile that Nancy gives as the other children are upset about Blanche's imminent demise is very unpleasant. You think that she should be locked up! Who on earth would she grow up to be? Lizzy Borden?
I think the end of the run of the show is very apparent in this episode: one, the writers had run out of ideas and, two, Harriet and Nancy have become revolting and almost unwatchable.
Obviously this whole series really misses the Ingalls family and the attempted continuation with James and Cassandra that didn't materialise. However, there are too many clunky story lines - Royal Wilder's sons are never mentioned when Jenny is orphaned and stays with Laura, the Older Brothers' outlaws are too similar to the ones from season 7's The Legend of Black Jake and Sarah's rich father wanting the family to move to be with him is just season 8's Uncle Jed rehashed.
However, I think the real nail in the coffin is the portrayal of Harriet and Nancy. You used to be able to "love to hate" Nelly and Harriet but now Harriet is just disgusting and her creation Nancy is almost psychotic in this one. There isn't enough Laura/Jenny to balance things out. Rather than be amused by Nancy's "Mother!Mother!" I wanted to throttle the nasty little thing! And there was not even the satisfaction of seeing her pushed in the pond! ;)
If it wasn't enough that Harriet and Nancy had tried to give the abused Mathew back to the evil showman for money earlier in the series, they are now responsible for the sheriff trying to shoot Blanche the orangutan because she slapped Nancy after Nancy slapped her. For some reason the entire town is unable to go against Harriet Olesen's wishes. I now find the fact that Nels would stay with her ridiculous rather than bemusing as before.
I thought the attempted reincarnation of Laura and Nellie's relationships with Cassandra/Nancy and then Jenny/Nancy was lazy but understandable as it was a big part of the earlier series' attraction but Nancy is just a big turn off.
Top of the Lake (2013)
I really wanted to like this...
I was looking forward to seeing this and as I don't live in an English-speaking country, I came to it quite late. It didn't live up to my expectations and I think it fell short of what was trying to be achieved.
(Spoilers coming!) I thought that the ending was somewhat predictable. The villain starts off being pleasant enough - well, compared to the other locals - he seems willing to listen to Robin etc and then starts to turn nasty such as when he humiliated the boy in the police station. "Ah, it must be him as now we are being primed to turn against him!" I thought.
Once Al had taken Robin to the café and the camera lingered on the pictures on the wall of the young people who were or had worked there, "Aha! A paedophile menu in plain sight." The fact that he also conducted meetings there with groups of men who didn't really feature in the story was also a hint. The male journalist he met there kept looking at the young staff. Come on Robin, wake up!
It was also obvious that Robin and Johnno were going to have the same father. I remember thinking, "Why soooo many sex scenes?" Of course, seeing them have sex multiple times would supposedly add to the shock/disgust that the viewer was supposed to feel on discovering that they were related.
I wasn't quick enough to figure out that "no one" did this meant that Tui had been drugged and therefore really didn't know what had happened ,but, surely,the kids would have been in pain or bruised and would have discussed it amongst themselves. It's odd that they all happily went off in Al's car without thinking, "H'mmm, why do I feel groggy and in pain after his day trips?" I'm not saying they would come to the conclusion, but they'd think something was not right.
To me, the sick mum and hippy ladies were quite superfluous elements to the story. Of course, losing her parent would make Robin off her game, or crack up and delay the "revelation" by an episode, however, I'm not sure what the women added to the story. It seemed like a missed opportunity. Interesting idea but not really developed enough.
I found the Matt character annoying. Whipping himself by his mother's grave? He was scary but those scenes were just weird and not interesting or revelatory. So he has mummy issues? OK, then.
The scenery was, however, stunning. Especially in the forest when Robin and Johnno were having sex (again!) - it looked like a wonderland. That is what I enjoyed the most.
I can't imagine that season 2 is needed, especially if the action takes place elsewhere and the lake area doesn't feature. It would just be a formulaic police drama.