Change Your Image
johncschwab
Reviews
Mindhunter (2017)
Pure Fincher!
We loved binge-watching both seasons because it's such a well-balanced show--the acting, the script, the pacing, the tone, the look, the sound. It's all magically Fincher slow burn, reminiscent of Zodiac.
One character's plotline may fall to the side for a bit, but only because the story at center stage takes its sweet time.
And it cannot be overstated just how incredible Cameron Britton and Damon Herriman are as Ed Kemper and Charles Manson, respectively. Both performances are shockingly good, indelibly creepy and eminently rewatchable.
Australian native Herriman's astonishing transformation into Manson is easily the most riveting dialogue-driven performance since Christoph Waltz's Hans Landa.
Black Sails: XVIII. (2015)
Mind-bogglingly perfect finale to the first two seasons
Getting into this show on Hulu years after it first aired and it is utterly magnificent. Two sure signs that the magic of this show was truly unique are 1) that no major names starred in it and 2) that those that did star in this show have never been as gigantic as they are here.
But THIS episode (so far) rises above all of that and cements this show as among the best television ever. I find it extremely rare that a good story ever gets the ending it deserves so when it happens it's worth watching again and again (and I have.)
For so long (ok, for two seasons) we've had Flint's claims of a higher goal drilled into our heads that they seem ludicrously impossible. Why the hell would he risk so much to safely return an old friend's daughter, a task of immense peril and unlikely payoff ... unless he truly believed a good outcome was possible. We're shown that he surprisingly makes his way there, that the outcome actually is indeed possible, if only both sides would sacrifice just a little--dig deep and lay bare their sins.
Of course, we learn by this episode that it all unravels and so episode 10 is all aftermath. It could be an hour of viscera and yo-hos, but it's only partially that. The show stays true to form by keeping safe the few characters we follow closely, battered but still alive. The final 90 seconds of drama at Charles Town--no lines, just muted sounds and incredible scoring--mixed with claustrophobic shots of Silver's sacrifice are cinematic perfection. Bad choices are punished. Evil men and the innocents they surround themselves with all suffer equally. It is no longer about pirates and civilization, but about man failing himself and his own, about the horror of self knowledge gained too late to matter, and about the terror of unbridled vengeance.
The coda with Silver's outcome and Rackham's return are set-up, but given what just filled the screen previously, entirely unnecessary.
Black Summer (2019)
Stick with it; improves with age.
I would say yes, watch all eight episodes--the latter half is much better. Clunky start but I liked it. And yes, it's okay that it's not the same as TWD. It's also much better than Z Nation.
Love, Death & Robots: Beyond the Aquila Rift (2019)
Wow! Out-Event Horizons Event Horizon!!!
Ok, not fair since it's got a much shorter running time, but this episode of L/D/R is easily the best thing I've watched on my Ipad and among the best-done horror Sci-Fi ever. Watched this last night and the climactic scene kept turning over and over in my head all day--the visual, the sound. I was fascinated from scene one and it never let up.
Shared with Event Horizon the idea of desolation in deep space driving a man to seek comfort in the familiar, however illogically it appears. But unlike that story this one didn't trip over itself with a badly-written ending.