Change Your Image
Dfjord
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Leave It to Beaver: Beaver Finds a Wallet (1960)
Excellent
Andy Griffith ripped off this storyline almost wholesale and yet still didn't deliver as well as this one, with its poignant little ending, and that wonderful little twist of the knife in the coda. Again and again the show illustrates with gentleness and humor the importance of morality in a thankless world. First rate TV.
Leave It to Beaver: Ward's Baseball (1960)
Lot of sweet moments...
Lot of sweet moments in this one. But it's the first time I've ever honestly gotten upset by one of Beaver's (and Larry's) antics. In case anyone is wondering, I looked up the value today of a ball signed by Ruth and Gehrig (among others) and, let's just say, the joke's on Beaver. Poor Ward...
Leave It to Beaver: Beaver the Magician (1959)
A gem
Some people seem to take a visceral dislike to this episode, but I think it's one of the best. The show always excelled at getting into the minds of children and rendering it in spare, beautifully observed dialogue, and in this one they go even deeper, into the sweet yet gently warped psyche of five-year-old Bengie. And watching how everyone of all ages tries to grapple with that reality is part of the fun. Such great writers on this show.
Family Guy: Dog Bites Bear (2018)
RIP Rupert I
A grab-bag. Some jokes hit: fist-bumping vultures. The pleasantries with the hikers. Some missed: periods are gross (I've never encountered anyone who thinks this). There were about three or four anal jokes for some reason. I know anuses are automatically funny, but they're not THAT automatically funny. Other material seemed kind of forced, like Chris' quinceanera business--yet another joke about something that is supposed to be ipso facto funny.
But the premise of the show is a good one. Brian chews up Rupert. It's one of those simple and natural story ideas that somehow no one ever thought of before. And the emotions behind it were interesting. So the basic elements for a great show were there. I think all that was missing was the execution. Too bad. Could've been a classic.
Family Guy: Boy (Dog) Meets Girl (Dog) (2018)
First-rate
Just a good, typically strong episode. Funny how Family Guy has turned out to be the sturdiest show, the one where the clunkers are still the exception and not the rule. Some good inside jokes in this one: about how depressing Joe's moments are; or the 9-11 one. It is indeed chilling to think how close we came to losing Brian and Stewie's inimitable voices. And seeing a catatonic Chris was simply a very funny sight gag.
American Dad!: Santa, Schmanta (2017)
Lowering the bar
Derivative, lame, low-bar stuff. The best thing about American Dad is that, even amid all the bedlam, the stories follow a certain inventive logic. The conventionality and laziness of this one is perfectly summed up by Snot's bland closing remark about tradition: it seemed less to do with whatever happened beforehand and more about teaching the audience something about Jewish American culture. Oh what fun it is. Overall the whole episode felt somehow patronizing, the musical numbers were space-fillers, and there weren't even the big laughs to make up for any of it. One star for Steve's voice when he's coyly chiding Snot for hiding things about himself.
American Dad!: Roger's Baby (2016)
Bad TV
This is the kind of unfunny, low-expectations television you can find anywhere. But it's depressing to find it on AD, a show which, at its best, excels at storytelling and character. This episode didn't even have the laughs. I don't know. I felt like it was someone's studied imitation of what they think an American Dad audience likes.
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Go Platt!
So I finally got around to seeing 12 Years a Slave, and now that I've wiped the tears from my face, I can tell you I was a little disappointed! Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I watched it. I liked certain things about the directing (like the fact that McQueen didn't plaster the movie with music) but the whole thing, the whole production, struck me as somewhat empty. There weren't those little details that bring a story, and especially a time period, to life. Life in the slave quarters, in particular, was lifeless. You can argue that that's because all the slaves were reduced to zombies, but I think it might be more a lack of imagination on the writer's part. In general I felt that where the source material didn't give any information, the movie-makers failed to fill in the gaps without resorting to cliché. I definitely want to read the autobiography now, though.
In a weird way it was like a melding of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto (or however you spell it). 12 Years had the lingering sadomasochism of the Passion (Polansky proved you don't need to dwell on torture to make an audience feel it), at the same time it was a rousing survival story like Apocalypto. How can you not root for Platt! Every time he got his hands on some sneering racist villain I cheered! But I was disappointed in the end, because say what you will about Mel Gibson, he knows how to conjure up the weirdness of a different world.
Also, you gotta love how Brad Pitt, who produced the movie, gave himself the best white role.