om-34 Reviews

Welcome to Eden (2022–2023)

No idea what to make of this serial

[4/10 · 18 December 2022]

The serial has so many plot holes that it would not be possible to keep the ship floating longer than a few seconds. At first, I thought it was some sort of Spanish "Lord of the Flies" rip-off as to weed out the weaklies and to pit the participants against each other for the "promotions".

Yet, the biggest turn-off for me was when the leaders spoke so much about the climate changes and the urgent need to act, a.k.a. Brainwashing the young people to act on what is the greatest science hoax (global warming, climate change, CO2, etc.) ever perpetuated on the feeble population. That sounds so much like the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its training programme for the young future leaders to "combat" the climate change, which is nothing but the tyrannic population control. The "promotions" are no different from the "social credit system" as well as "digital ID" that have been deployed in some countries and soon to be deployed in more countries in the future.

Perhaps that's good way of warning the young people about the true intention of WEF and its "climate change" activities that does no good for the population.

Of course, the plots holes are: what happened to 100 participants who showed up on the island (we see perhaps no more than 30 participants at any time); what happened to the police who is supposed to investigate the missing persons or find the connections between those missing persons (only a freelance police officer taking the private contract from one parent); why did Zoa's 16-year-old sister go renegade on her parents and others when looking for her sister, endangering her in the process; what is so special about having a deaf participant at Eden (only one hearing person knows sign language); why didn't the participants turn against the leaders for holding them "hostage" (they could easily overwhelm the staff members and flee); and so forth.

I don't think I look forward to the second series in 2023.

Ancient Aliens (2009– )

Stale bread galore after several series. Please kill the serial now.

[1/10 · 23 July 2022]

I watched the first ten (or so) series and was fascinated with lot of theories and such. However, the serial has "run out of fresh ideas" and started to recycle or repack the already-presented theories again and again in the subsequent series.

A few worst things about Ancient Aliens is Giorgio's persistence in saying "quote unquote" so often that it has gotten overtly irritating. Another this is frequent "perhaps the clue could be found in..." It's as if the scriptwriters couldn't come up with better ways to present the information or ideas. Sometimes, they get the facts wrong such as Abilene being 180 miles EAST (instead of west) of Dallas.

When they came up with the "round table discussion", that was the last straw for me. Poor William Shatner who was one of the participants in the first of many discussions. Three of stalwarts (Giorgio, Ariel Tzadok, and David Childress) blaring at each other nonsensically, and William looked like he was wondering, "What am I doing here? Why did I bother accepting the invitation to come here?"

"Edge of Wonders" is much better and more interesting than "Ancient Aliens".

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Utter Tosh...

[1/10 · 29 May 2022]

I enjoyed The Mandalorian so immensely since the material was so fresh and the characters so likeable, namely The Mandalorian himself and The Child (Grogu) so adorable.

So, I had a good expectation that this serial would be as good as The Mandalorian. However, after the first episode, I pondered whether to continue with the second episode. Of course, the clips from the Star Wars films in the first episode helped in establishing the plot line and in remembering how things came together. I could hardly push myself through the repetition of daily grind and "what's-up-Obi-Wan-Kenobi". Not to mention the overwrought acting by Reva Sevander and irritating Leia as a child.

Half way through the second episode, I decided not to continue with this serial anymore. Easily the worst serial of all Star Wars.

El Deafo (2022)

Realistic Portrayal of Late-Deafened Person during the 1970s

[8/10 · 9 January 2022]

This serial focuses more on the experiences of a late-deafened child rather than the Deaf culture, community, language, and people. Additionally, the story takes place in the 1970s, not the current time, despite some anachronistic elements.

As a Deaf person who grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I recognised two elements that clearly established the storyline in the 1970s. One is Martha's wish that the television programmes had the subtitles (the first programme to be broadcasted with closed-captioning in the US was on 24 March 1980). Another one is the awkwardly bulky hearing aid and microphone systems that began to appear in the classrooms during the 1970s.

The serial does a very good job of showing the biggest issue with the oralism: the difficulties in reading lips, in keeping up with the group discussions (especially at the dinner tables, sleepovers, classrooms, etc.). Not to mention the scenarios where the lip-reading is difficult if not impossible: moustaches and beards; person's face not in direct view when speaking; mumblings; people overlapping each other when talking at same time; person speaking so fast or with strong accent (Americans have hard time reading British or German, for instance); in the dark; and so forth.

Sometimes, the hearing aids (and cochlear implants) aren't the "magic bullet" in compensating for the hearing loss as the character, Martha, found out. The people's voices are often heard as muffled, which is exactly what many hearing aid users experience to the varying degrees. During the PE class, the glaring issue was obvious: the PE teacher wore the microphone, but her classmates were yelling to pass the ball to them, confusing Martha and causing her to play poorly. When the teacher stepped out of the classroom to use the toilet, Martha heard the whole thing. That was exactly what we as schoolchildren experienced in the 1970s! One of my hard-of-hearing classmates could understand the conversation so she took the earpiece out for the whole class to eavesdrop: the teacher mocked about one of us who had what was later labelled as high-functioning autism and about some of us giving her hard time. Imagine her horror when she returned to the classroom! Afterwards, the entire equipment was promptly returned to the manufacturer.

At one point, her microphone was broken and sent to the repair centre in Silver Springs, Maryland. Martha had to make do without it for a several weeks, and it showed badly in her composure and schoolwork. Back then, we didn't have Fedex or overnight service so it took a while for the package to be shipped and returned.

It is also painful to watch Martha feeling so extremely conscious about her hearing loss. My experience with the late-deafened children and adults were not dissimilar from Martha. Some of them would rather pretend that they don't have hearing loss, and it can lead to the awkward, embarrassing conversations or situations. Martha was trying to hide the bulky body-mounted hearing aid and cables because it really stood out prominently and impossible to overlook.

When her mother enrolled herself and her daughter in the ASL class, Martha recoiled and had a meltdown there. That is typical attitude for some late-deafened people. After her meltdown, they had ice cream at the diner where, by coincidence, the deaf couple was signing to each other at another table. Her mother pointed out how beautiful they communicated in sign language, but Martha denounced it because she didn't want people to stare at her when she signs. Seeing her mother's dejection was also painful, too. Back then, it was mostly true with people staring and mocking us when we signed in public.

At one point, the serial is spot on about the so-called "token deaf". Sometimes, the hearing people "adopted" us because we were seen as a novelty and exotic, showcasing their "progressive thinking". Yet, it did more harm than good for us because they tend to focus on our deafness rather than on our persona. Sometimes, they are so patronising and giving me the cheesy praise ("Wow, you can do that!", "How do you do that if you can't hear?!?"). I heard the same from the African-Americans who complained about their white colleagues mentioning, "I have three black friends.", "I used to have a black student as my roommate at the college.", and like.

The part about superhero is common fantasy amongst the deaf/Deaf and hard-of-hearing children who want to dispel the injustice caused by the hearing children and people. I believe that might have been attributed to the popular 15-minute ASL show broadcasted by PBS in 1978 or 1979. One of the show's regular skits on the show had a superhero who would fly out to show people how to sign properly. One hilarious skit showed her being so passionate about signing "I love you" that the guy fell in love with her rather than another woman he was trying to woo.

What's so cool is seeing the character signing in the cartoon show. Of course, using the hearing person as an ASL teacher is considered "taboo" today. Yet, the serial took place in the late 1970s when the ASL classes weren't as common as other foreign languages unless taught by the departments of communication disorders (that's what they were called back then) at the universities and community colleges.

I certainly hope that the serial would be expanded to show whether Martha had softened her perspectives of her hearing loss over the time and whether she had broadened the communication modes to include the sign language and emerging assistive technologies.

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

Sense8 Reformulated as Matrix. Nothing new.

[2/10 · 22 December 2021]

Obviously, Lana was very miffed about Netflix's surprise cancellation of Sense8 due to the massive budget requirement. Thus, reformulating and repackaging unmade episodes into Matrix Resurrections with several actors and actresses plucked from Sense8.

The first third of the film was more of longest "previous episode" clip as to refreshen our befuddled brains what the first three Matrix were about. The second half was a stale buffet of the ground-breaking special effects and stunts from the first Matrix films as if Lana can't come up with new ideas. Even the costume design is so laughably unoriginal.

Nothing new. What a heap of disjointed and fumbling narration and dialogues. I would have given it 1 star, but I added one more star for the CGI visual effect.

In my opinion, Lana should have left Matrix Trilogy alone...

The Wheel of Time (2021– )

Wheel of Nowhere

[1/10 · 14 December 2021]

After fourth episode or so, the serial has lost its bearing...and my interest. I am not giving the serial any chance. Enuff said.

I feel bad for Kate Fleetwood (playing Liandrin Guirale) whose hairstyle dyed blond and pulled back along with glossy makeup and red lipstick massively accentuated her larger-than-life cheekbones. That was the most distracting element and made her look so ridiculous and comical.

Tenderness of the Wolves (1973)

Bizarre Journey of the Maddening Anachronisms

[5/10 · 5 December 2021]

I will leave it to other reviewers when detailling this film, its plot, and the cultural impact of this film.

However, I had to write the review due to the shockingly amount of anachronisms and sloppy attention to the detail. Many people might not care about the "devil's in the detail", but the anachronisms jump out like the 100,000-candela searchlight at you.

Inexplicably, the film production made no attempt to ensure the historical accuracies in the film. Without knowing much about the main character, Fritz Haarmann, I had trouble figuring out the era when I noticed the children wearing the modern clothes, including the colourful rubber boots. That disrupted my "suspension of belief". The German boys during the 1920s mostly wore the Lederhosen and leather shoes. The German girls wore the dresses back then. Then, the US Army general showed up at the police station in the uniform and mentioned the term, "Nazi". Neither the uniform and the term were used in the early 1920s. The train carriages with silver exterior and flush-mounted doors were from the late 1960s. Now, the vehicles didn't resemble anything from the 1920s. When I saw the "1925" at the end, I was perturbed about how much the anachronisms had ruined the film...

Other than the maddening anachronisms, I find the film very creepy and disturbing. Something that will stick to you for a long time.

Generation 56K (2021)

Simply perfect love story and wonderful nostalgia

[10/10 · 29 August 2021]

I lived through the 1990s with Internet connection using the slow 56k dial-up modem. This brought lot of memories about waiting a long time for the modem to dial and connect with the Internet every time and for the data to be downloaded from the Internet. That was before ISDN and DSL.

The serial is marvellous in portraiting the typical Italian family atmosphere and interactions. The love story is about the "missed opportunities" and "regrets" for not taking actions or for misinterpreting the intentions and situations.

What stood out the most was the spectacular locations in Naples.

Highly recommended!

The White Lotus (2021–2025)

Unexpectedly Great Satire!

[10/10 · 19 August 2021]

Based on the reviews, I decided to give the serial a look. Boy, I went from "let's watch one episode then see" to "wow, I just watched the entire serial in one go!"

The character development is instantaneous and relatable. So are the dark humour and satire at the wealthy people who have no idea what to do with their lives and the staff who is desperate for the miracle that the money would solve their problems. Not to mention lot of cringeworthy moments, especially the mother-in-law from hell, the neurotic sister who torments everyone, overextendedly ambitious businesswoman, young married man with baby-man rage, and older divorcée and her looney ideas. One thing that shone is a teenager who finally found his life passion and acted on it. They are what kept me glued to the story and dragged me through their drama.

Hopefully, the second series will happen.

Upper Middle Bogan (2013–2016)

Introduction to the Aussie culture: Bogan (and what NOT to do when filming)

[8/10 · 29 May 2021]

I don't need to repeat what many reviewers are raving about this show. Lot of quirky characters and their interactions. I absolutely love the serial, but...

The only negative thing about the serial is shaky and amateurish camera operations during the first series. It gave me headaches---and eye aches---trying to look at the characters and storylines through the jittery and jumpy "hand-held" camera without gimbals. The operator must be either deeply sleep-deprived or highly caffeine-overdosed, and that showed.

The second and subsequent series changed to smoother and more focussed camera operations, making the serial more pleasant to view.

The Unholy (2021)

Medicore and Offensive

[1/10 · 27 May 2021]

All right, this film has a hearing actress playing the Deaf character. Of course, there are many Deaf actors and actresses who can more or less speak. Marlee Matlin comes to mind. Why was the hearing actress cast for the Deaf character?

The signing skills between two actresses are medicore. They appear to have learn the sign language from the ASL dictionary a few days prior to the shooting. Thus, they do not sign fluently and naturally. Some signs they use are incorrect for the certain words.

What's more, the term, "deaf and mute", is used to describe her. For a long time, the Deaf community has worked hard in educating the hearing community how archaic and offensive this term along with "deaf and dumb" is now. The Deaf people can communicate through the sign language or other forms of communication if they don't use voice or hear. Just don't call them "deaf and mute" or "deaf and dumb"! It's same for the "hearing impaired" in the plot and synopsis. This term denotes the medical condition that indicates something is wrong with them and needs the intervention through surgery (cochlear implants, etc.) or through oralism (speech therapy, lipreading, and hearing training, etc.). Deaf people don't like this term at all because there's nothing wrong with them per se.

Now, about the film. This horror flick is highly formulaic and repetitive: evil spirit is trapped in the object and is released when somebody accidentally or intentionally breaks the seal. The Catholic Church delegates come to investigate the "miracles" and end up exploiting the "miracles" for their own gain. Nothing new under the sun.

This film has higher-than-usual 8, 9, and 10 stars with very short reviews. In other words, those reviewers are paid to post the "excellent" reviews for the medicore film with equally medicore CGI and acting. I would have given the film at least five stars if it wasn't for miscast of hearing actress, for poor signing skills, and for the offensive terms.

Weird City (2019)

Falling flat after the first episode

[4/10 · 1 October 2020]

I see that the producers had arranged cleverly the episode order in a certain way, starting with strong one carried by Dylan O'Brian and Ed O'Neill in hope the audience would continue watching the next several episodes. It is similar to Apple's "Amazing Stories" that started with Dylan O'Brian in the first episode before the whole serial fell apart with second episode that is too "SJW" and has ruined the mystique of "Amazing Stories".

Lot of reviewers have commented about the similarity between "Weird City" and "Black Mirror". I tend to agree, but "Weird City" has lot of pointless "comedy" that fall flat like the bad comedians who couldn't get the audience to laugh. I watched about ten minutes of second episode before skipping to the next episode and repeated the same thing to the subsequent episodes.

I gave the serial one star but had to add three more for the excellent Dylan O'Brian episode.

Amazing Stories: Dynoman and the Volt!! (2020) Season 1, Episode 3

That is what "Amazing Stories" should be!

[8/10 · 26 March 2020]

After the second episode that is very steeped in modern social justice and tragedy, I was about to give up on "Amazing Stories".

I gave the third episode a try after seeing lot of positive reviews. Boy, was I glad to see it because it reminded me of the original "Amazing Stories" serial in the 1980s and because it fit the original concept.

Nothing about social justice in this episode. Just the regular boy going through the changes in the junior high school, the grandfather having his denial about his age and health, and the parents trying to deal with both opposite forces. Toss the "suspended beliefs" about the superheros in the mix. Add the "sentimentality" and "simplicity" to the mix. Presto! One of the "Amazing Stories."

Restaurants on the Edge (2019–2020)

Kitchen Nightmare is much better than this...

[4/10 · 18 March 2020]

I watched a few episodes and realised two things: this serial relies on the strength of beautiful videography and on "feel good" principle of helping the struggling owners.

I had watched the entire "Kitchen Nightmare" serial and thought it was much better and more raw with Gordon being blunt and salty with the owners-in-denial. He also explained what went wrong with the cooking skills or choice of ingredients. I learnt a lot about what set good restaurants from bad.

Yet, "Restaurants on the Edge" fell so flat on its face and royally waste of time.

Ad Astra (2019)

Utter Tosh!

[1/10 · 12 December 2019]

I wish I had read the reviews first before seeing the film. Several times throughout the film, the red flags kept coming up with lot of nonsensical and preposterous plots and actions that ruined the "suspensed belief" many times over.

Let's see...

A massive but thinly skeletal "space elevator" extending from the ground to the outer edge of atmosphere. How is it able to stay firm without swaying due to jet streams and such?

If the "space elevator" is used to ferry the people and cargo to the space, why launch the massive rocket for such a few passengers bound for moon?

Why pick the location of Mars-bound rocket in the "no man's land" where the pirates rule? Is this only place in entire moon that can launch the rocket to Mars?

How come the people in moon base walk normally when the gravity is one-sixth of Earth's? They should be bouncing and such. Same with driving the moon rovers that would fly off if going over the bumps at higher speed.

Landing a massive rocket neatly on Mars would require enormous amount of fuel. Think of Saturn V rocket, and you get the picture. Does Mars have unlimited amount of source for fuel? Ditto for moon as well.

Using the part of radar component as shield when "cruising" through the Neptunian rings? The jet pack attached to the astronaut is uni-directional so how is he able to navigate through the "pebbles" neatly without getting deviated by the multiple collisions with "pebbles"?

Why abandon the small capsule rocket when he could anchor it to the spaceship for the return trip? It was shown that the rockets could recover from the power surge so why can't the small capsule rocket do the same?

Ok, I better stop here because this film is so stupid and waste of time.

Catherine the Great (2019)

Perfect Mini Series for Detention Hall...

[3/10 · 1 December 2019]

...because this mini series is so agonisingly boring and so utterly tedious to watch. I don't mind those "soap opera" dialogues, but the whole film is so dull and doesn't keep me engrossed as other historical mini series, namely "War and Peace" (2016). I gave up halfway through the second episode. I persuaded myself to give it two more stars, bringing the rating to the grand total of three due to the beautiful costumes and interior decorations.

Mr. Mercedes (2017–2019)

The rating is for Season 2 - Utterly Bad Adaption

[1/10 · 19 November 2018]

I read the Bill Hodges trilogy so I am familiar with the plots and charachters: Mr Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch. Since I enjoyed 11.22.63 very much, I had a high hope for Mr Mercedes. The first season started very strongly and was close to the novel, Mr Mercedes, albeit minor scene changes probably due to budgetary consideration. I enjoyed the character developments in the first season.

However, the second season turned out very badly and to be the worst adaption of Stephen King's End of Watch novel. Just like how his "Under the Dome" fell apart afte second season and diverted so much from the novel. The last three episodes were cheap shot at wrapping up the story as quick as possible while stretching out the useless plots and red herrings.

For starters, the first episode of second season already revealed the heinous plot by Dr Bibernau to experiment on Mr Mercedes, using the drugs and procedures yet not approved by FCC. In the book, this is revealed half way the story, adding more suspense.

The tablets used by Al and the high school students were central to the story in the novel. They are given scant attention or dressed down as a gimmick in the adaption. The thriller and suspense of consciousness transfer in the novel is lost in the adaption.

The last three episodes and the conclusion were totally different from the novel. It's as if the producers were getting fed up with the whole project and wanted to hurry up and end it quickly.

Lou the techie girl wasn't even stabbed by Mr Mercedes in the novel . Again, she played a central figure in the third of Bill Hodges trilogy, unintentionally (or intentionally) aiding and abetting the criminal activities of Mr Mercedes by administrating the second set of servers installed by Mr Mercedes prior to blowing up the venue.

In the novel, Mr Mercedes eventually transferred his consciousness to Dr Bibernau thanks to the experimential drugs and used him to manipulate other victims through the "defective" tablets.

The adaption showed Mr Mercedes waking up from coma and walking out of the hospital where he surrendered himself to the police and called for the trial (of the century). Lou finished him off by shooting him with 3D-printed hand gun and ceramic bullet after giving out the testimony in the court. What a patently ridiculous quickie end!

I don't know what is up with Stephen King who wrote lot of excellent novels but always end up with bad television or film adaptions. Whenever there's new film or television adaptions from Stephen King's novels, I will not touch them with 1,000-foot rod forever! How could Stephen King be proud of himself by ruining his novels through the crappy adaptions?!?