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theknitbox
Reviews
The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015)
One of the most compelling murder mysteries
The Lizzie Borden story has always been eerily fascinating and I love Ricci's work so I thoroughly enjoyed watching her in this. In fact, well done to all of the actors in this show.
However, shame that the director chose to ruin such a stellar cast and a compelling story which needs the viewer to follow it unblinkingly. Because I found it painful to watch, and that stressed me out for missing any important split second scenes. Can anyone tell me how they can watch such constant shaky-cam effects without getting cataracts? It's ridiculous. I thought bloodline was bad enough but it's worse here! A limited few seconds of effects here and there is fine but, blimey, not every single second from start to finish!
The music was okay, although rocking about cars and things was sort of absurd. Overall, I did think the soundtrack created a good atmosphere, except when it didn't quieten down when people were speaking.
Such a great story, but with so many fine details and clues which need the viewer glued to the screen, what a crying shame for unnecessary effects which make you miss important scenes. It would have been full marks from me if not for the director messing with what isn't broken.
Bloodline (2015)
Excellent acting and quality drama but..
... the shaky camera completely gave me a headache and messed with my eyesight. Why do they do that, why, why? I get that, in the past, it was used to convey the feeling of being watched or followed. But this is almost every scene. It doesn't create mood, it just irritates. These directors need to stop listening to their intern art assistants or whoever it is who thinks this whole "let's shake the camera constantly to um, yeah, convey some bad vibes going down because people who do bad things start having fits and shaking their heads uncontrollably and we have to make the viewer feel that, too." I knocked 1 point off just for that, that's how much it irritated me. This is right up there with the new trend for grey, dark and gloomy, mumbling and whispering and basically anything which will cause rapidly deteriorating eyesight and hearing. Apart from this one issue, I loved the story and the cast. Most of the characters are irritating and selfish. We are probably supposed to find them unlikeable. I personally found it shocking that the father and the siblings were so unrelenting and that Danny was such an outcast, and the sister just hid behind her lawyer identity. I think it was their constant awful behaviour which made him spiral. At the end of the day, he was just a very young kid when it all happened. The parents were completely out of line, no excuses. Especially the one I grew to hate the more I got to know about what happened at the time. All in all, one of those really good shows which come along once in a while.