mmarianne Reviews

The Pit (I) (2021)

Why?

[3/10 · 7 August 2021]

Why would these two characters ever go out on a camping trip together? They don't like each other and it's not as if they have some plan on what they are going to do out in the wild...

They are just too unpleasant to feel anything for, you sort of just want them to die to make the film shorter. Much shorter.

The filming is low budget, which can be real good sometimes, but the fighting scenes are so badly done that there is nothing to it more than just fill-out.

I used to love watching survival man before he started to claim that he was the only "real" one out there, which is just bitterness, and I guess he is trying to make some money out of his old fame, but he is no actor, in my never humble opinion. (see, I am like him in that way)

But what really makes this movie bad is that they're just not likable at all.

Firefly Lane (2021–2023)

Insufferable

[2/10 · 6 February 2021]

The script is so bad, so dull, so insanely insincere.

These two insufferable girls, young women, women, who have nothing to say, nothing to react to, falling in and out of love with men without any substance... The only reaction to the series that I had was when they had to put the dog down. Even that was made superficially.

The lack of depth and clarity is astounding.

I kept watching, but I had to play a video game while doing so, because it just couldn't hold my interest up. I was hoping for something to become good, and it never did.

The end. Thankfully.

Dream Home Makeover (2020– )

Warning

[1/10 · 19 October 2020]

If you like commercials, this will be great for you.

It's basically just a very long one.

Me, I dislike it so much. I hate commercials in general and after the first episode I know never to watch it again.

Spinning Out (2020)

What?

[2/10 · 10 January 2020]

The bipolar girl (woman in her thirties?) who changes from one person skater to two person skater.

People are rude and unlikable.

Kaya Scodelario, who is usually a superb actress, is forced and way too old for this part. I can tell that she has worked a lot on sounding American, but for me it is a constant feeling that she might slip up.

January Jones is too young for this part.

I see that they could be sisters, not mother and daughter.

The skating is beautiful, but it gets boring.

The rest is kind of crap.

Diagnosis (2019)

Very interesting tv-show

[8/10 · 29 August 2019]

Like many others, what got me into watching this show was the idea of dr.house! I mean, when watching those tv-shows about hospitals you (or I do) wonder who made all these illnesses up!

Well, now I know that no one did. It's just the way it is sometimes.

Also, from watching these episodes, I've come to realize that a lot of illnesses really don't have an answer - or a cure.

But within the show, I got worried about how some people won't do whatever it takes to get better.

In the case of Lashay I started to think after watching that the mother resembles someone with Munchausen syndrome by proxy. I get that creeping feeling that she doesn't want her daughter to be well again. I very much disliked that feeling and hope that I am wrong. Otherwise I am not sure that Lashay will ever get better...

I am not one to put blame on parents, but yes, the parents are not always in control either, like how Matts mother can't help who she is. I do know that when at the end of the show, Matt went to see her, my heart broke for her. She want this kid of her so much and she want him to be well but she is like a hurt little bird inside and I hope that maybe that they can be in therapy together for a little bit, so that they can unfold their relationship and perhaps Matt will get even better from it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the series and hope for a second season.

Anthony Jeselnik: Fire in the Maternity Ward (2019 TV Special)

Is he, or isn't he?

[2/10 · 1 May 2019]

I had never heard of this guy before, but it came on as a Netflix special so I gave it a shot. Been sat for the first twenty minutes wondering if he has some sort of birth defect (or accident later on perhaps) that makes him so slow, and also I think of perhaps a type of CP...?

I would like him so much more if I knew for sure that he was slow for a reason...

Is it funny? Not really, no. Not at all. All I can think about is, is he, or isn't he?

SMILF (2017–2019)

Surprised

[10/10 · 31 March 2019]

You know when you think that everybody has to think something is really awesome because it's what you think?

And then coming to IMDB just to check how many episodes are left on season 2.... and not only realizing that it's all over - you also see how people don't actually get this show. That they think that it is dull and awful and terrible...

And you stop to just look around - are you in a totally other universe with these peoples views right now?

But nah... people never cease to surprise.

But that's their problem.

This show is awesome on all points, and I would love to live inside of it. I believe every character and every little tone of voice, it's all there.

Maybe because I was once that mom.

But mainly because the cast is amazing, the acting beautiful, the set spot on. The little flat with that bed that you can live in because there isn't space for a sofa. Yeah...it's all perfect.

And hey, can someone say "Larry"?

The Passage (2019– )

Please cancel

[3/10 · 13 March 2019]

This has got to be the worst rendition of a good book - ever.

I don't mind the actors - they're good... much better than the story itself.

But the rest?

I wish that this tv-show had another name. You know, call it something like, "desperate house-zombies" or something equally nice.

But it is not The Passage. At all.

I sit down to watch episode after episode - hoping for something to be good or true to the book, but there just isn't anything.

And I guess that even if it had another name, I wouldn't continue to watch it because frankly, these shows are all the same. A lack of imagination and consideration of the viewers.

27: Gone Too Soon (2018)

Grasping for air

[1/10 · 13 February 2019]

I am a documentary buff and I love stories about musicians, writers, movie makers... But this one. There is one clear object to why it is so bad. It's the background music. It's tedious and frankly, very dull. Now, this is a story about some of the greatest musicians in the world. How can anyone succeed of making a movie about them so bad? Well, these people can and could. I'd love to hear other people than the few "experts" that speak of all of them in the same way, and in the same words. It's a bit tragic and a bit laughable. A music docu should contain a lot of music, no? Well, there is hardly any of that stuff, which leads me to believe that this movie might be the cheapest one ever made. Så sad Brian. Jimi, Janis, Jim, Kurt and Amy. They deserve respect and not nonsens.

Abducted in Plain Sight (2017)

omg

[1/10 · 23 January 2019]

This sort of movies, with documentary and also actors playing it out, can sometimes be really interesting.

This one wasn't all that much different - yes, it was interesting, but as of a story? I mean, was it really abduction or more child-abuse from those parents?

What was wrong with them? The mom being in love with her kids lover? Having a relationship with her 12-year old daughters lover?

Not reporting their daughter missing after two whole weeks and that wasn't even them....

I just don't get the point of this story of theirs. They should just all be in prison, and never be let out. Instead they're sitting there describing exactly how the predator, the pedophile, is touching them in a loving way, and how they are so in love and in awe so that they really don't care about their children.

I am so ashamed of them, and so horrified how this could had become a tv-film.

I could not watch to the end, but I sat through an hour of this painful horrid review of two parents misuse of parental powers.

I am so sad.

The Wave (2015)

Freezing to death or not?

[5/10 · 19 January 2019]

There were a few things in the movie that I had so hard to take in, that it became about the negatives rather than the positives. Because the positives are there. I enjoyed most actors... in the beginning. The story is beautifully told, the environment brilliant. The story line draws me in slowly. I do think that I am starting to see the individuals.

But then when it's finally time for the big climax, the wave is coming... it just get so damn dull and american (!!) The geologists did eventually think of turning the alarm on. Nicely done! The alarms sound in the town. As expected, it takes a little while before people wake up or realize what is going on. But my bother here are the ten minutes. Do they count from the first sound of the alarm, or as in here, a few minutes after the alarm? He sets his watch after hearing it a few minutes actually. The hero who rather help a stranger than taking his daughter to the top. He could not have known that she'd make it, so wouldn't the natural thing be to take care of her, in her maybe last moments, just as he do with the rest of his family? She is his daughter after all. I feel cheated by the end. Mainly because. How cold was the water? How long do you expect to stay alive in the cold water? How much air was there for them to breath? How come the wave didn't destroy the building before they even got into the safe room? How come a couple of people could outrun a monster like that wave? When she goes for the electricity, did she think about the bad equation of water/electricity? When the dad comes to help the mom and son, he asks them if they're in any pain. Would they even be able to feel their bodies by then? How come he so easily found them breathing in that hole? It's not as if he had a lot of breath left in him, after forcing the big blocks of stone away, opening the dark cold room... What about the famous "second wave"? Maybe there was a real explanation to this but we aren't getting one. We do know that as soon as the wave hit, it also receded completely, as our hero shows when he comes back into town, what seem to be directly after the hit.

There are too many upsets for me to like the movie as much as I wanted to. I love Norwegian, and I could listen to that all day long, but it really wasn't much of a "listening" film was it. (which it never promised to be, that was just my tiny little wishful thinking) In the end, sadly, I was hoping for the hero to die. Just to make it a tiny bit.... so sorry to wish the life out of a character, but to make it more believable and somewhat good.

IO (2019)

Who knew

[1/10 · 19 January 2019]

I love the genre. So much.

I hated this movie. So much.

Bird Box (2018)

What?

[1/10 · 23 December 2018]

Sat down in front of the computer, late evening, time for a good movie to cheer up the time pre-christmas. Oh boy, couldn't I have spent the time doing something better, like cleaning out the bathroom. Anyway. Apocalypse is coming, with some mysterious things going around in the air, making the grass look funny. Looking at it and you die. Unless you're something very special and just go weird. Hey, so far right? In comes Sandra Bullocks. All made up in her fancy makeup, those long eyelashes anyone? Oh dear. She has also had a bit too many....injections with botox. Which means that she haven´t got the facial expressions that some might like to see. Not that she have to use any emotions, she is like a cold fish, and yes, her character is supposed to be somewhat freezing but just a little humanity, or just some expression in her eyes, anything! The eyelash extensions by the way - they last all through the movie, five years later and yes, they're still there! Yum, get me some! Also, when I first saw those two kids, I thought they were animated! It was like yeah, here is Sandra Bullocks, and everything around her is animated. You know the movies... I think that there were a few characters on the side, so to speak, who were great and I would had liked to see some more of them but they kept killing them. Sad. Danielle Macdonald as Olympia for one. Beautiful character, well played too. And Charlie, played by Lil Rel Howery. I would had loved to see a movie with these two characters as leads. And just... yeah. What a waste of a great concept, it would had worked as a tv-series I think, when we would know more about that dangerous thing in the air, and all of the things I've mentioned. :)

The 100 (2014–2020)

Really? I spent four seasons on this ..... what?

[4/10 · 5 July 2017]

I do think that the story is good, I like the idea of a spaceship having been up there for 99 years. And then they send down the prisoners, and it only takes a few days to show up who is the leaders and not. Naturally, the place have to make them stronger as they're fighting the surrounding clans. But there are so many annoying things with this series. (which I have seen back to back, don't think that I haven't) First. Language. Really? Do all the people in "USA" talk the same language as each other PLUS English, perfect English that is. Secondly. Clarke? What is the point of her? She annoys me so much, and have done for the last three seasons, I am so annoyed by her nods anywhere and anytime. All that nodding can't be good for that brain of hers, right? In this series you don't have to have a huge brain, unless you're those characters that keep on giving. Like Raven, Monty, Octavia and a few more. (very few) Third. I wonder if all actors these days go to the same acting school/classes where they are being taught that speaking in whispers make things more important? I have no respect for all those actors doing this. And in this series you get almost nothing but.. Henry Ian Cusick probably did the husky voice 95% of the time, and same for the woman who plays Abby. It just goes on and on and on.. Four. They are the ones coming down to be on earth (which, by the way, was amazed by for a whole five minutes) Why do they think that they are somewhat superior to those who already live there. Five. They name all people who are already living on the planet (or USA as it were) "grounders". They call themselves "Space-crew" which then become Spacekru. Funny isn't it, that a whole bunch of other clans are named something-something-kru. Really? Six. As if they would have had any luxury items left on the ship after all that time. Or such good shoes. There would be absolutely nothing for them to use unless they could themselves make them out of the things they grow. 7. Clothing is a big deal in this YA series. They all have the best clothes! Both the Ground-people (wow, they can really DRESS nice man!) and the spacekru people. It make me gasp for air and then giggle. Eight. It's the makeup. Enough said.

The Last Man on Earth (2015–2018)

One of the best shows on earth

[10/10 · 25 April 2017]

I just want to say this. It's a show where I can relate to each person. The individuals are so well played and you can feel that someone has put love in to the scripts.

I find myself knowing that I am just like Tandy. Or Phil as he first was called. (Tandy is the middle name, boom) And that it is okay to be Tandy because he really has a heart of gold..perhaps.

For me, this show is up there with "Flight of the Conchords" (in which Kristen Schaal has a big part funny enough) or "Black books" and perhaps as great as "Green Wing". The corny sense of humor, when the whole story is based on just the tiny stretch of a smile or the looks between people who think some of the others are nuts.

So, last man on earth, and what do you do? I guess you go a little crazy, driving through the country, crossing states of a map (this movie is set in USA, without ever going stereotype Americans on us) And realizing that the things you valued in the old society doesn't mean anything anymore. Like money, or gold, or diamonds and fancy cars. He meets Carol, the love of his life, as it turns out later on, with whom he marries within a week as otherwise she will not have sex with him, and carry his baby for re-populating reasons.

On their journey, they meet others. Each and every one of them with a total different outlook on life, love and being the only ones left.

It's a fantastic TV-show, and one that I've gone back and watched three times by now.

I love it, and I wish we all could do that, but some people just don't get it. Too bad for them.

Guilt (2016)

Guilt(y) of being stupid

[1/10 · 21 April 2017]

This will only be a quick one.

The series is about a murder. So much is clear.

People in this world know about murder, because we're fed them constantly in books, movies, TV, hell, even newspapers.

The millennials knows a little bit about always being watched by smart-phones cameras and voice recording.

And yet, in this series, we are to believe that the main character, Grace, have no clue of neither.

She is a dear in the headlight, always going of on her own little trips which put her in more danger and her poor sister, always comforting and supporting...

She end up laughing out loud just as the funeral of her friend, Molly - the murdered girl - had stopped. Naturally, she didn't realize that she was being filmed, by the thousands of paparazzi covering her case.

Everything feels fake in this series. Grace, played extremely bad, by Daisy Head, have exactly two facial expressions. Surprised, and sort-of-emotional-could-be-any-type. The sister, the lawyer, the persecutor, the cops... they're all made out of stereotypes which doesn't do the trick in this very long, very badly executed, TV-series of crime and passion (as in the sort-of- feelings-for-the-dead-girl) (and the whore-house they all work in)

I took the advice of a previous reviewer here in IMDb and quit watching in the middle, and just found out who did it, elsewhere. It was exactly whom I had thought from the beginning.

So boring is not enough, it's also super predictable.

I am so glad that I wrote this review, because I needed to get the whole ordeal out of my head never to think of again.

The Path (2016–2018)

Breathing and whispering

[4/10 · 16 April 2017]

This is a TV-series that I particularly find interesting, as I was in a cult briefly in my youth.

It's about the lives of the members of a religious movement, where they have a clear set of rules for their lives and rituals at certain times and places.

They aren't forced to stay, but if they choose to leave, they'll be shunned.

So for me, that's just life in a cult.

However. This series could be really great. It has the feel of something interesting and good. It has the secrets and odd behavior, and that's really something to build on.

However. The actors have a few issues, that I believe is the directors fault completely. The actors aren't bad, you know?

But I can tell that someone is standing there telling them to breath heavily. Some of the characters, like Cal, the evil conniving leader, seem to have a huge problem with his breathing. It's short and noisy and takes away from what he is supposed to say. And it's all the time. ALL THE TIME. It's that short gulps of air that he takes, whenever he is in a scene, no matter if he is supposed to be calm, sexy, aggressive, no matter, he breaths like a mad cow on the way to slaughter. It's taking over.

Some of the other actors are doing this too, so hence my conclusion that it isn't their fault, but instead the people in the side-lines.

And then there are the whispering voices. Again - it's way too often, that these people are talking to each other in this whispering voices. What is it with that? And the sense of urgency, in every little situation. Even in cults, people speak to each other quite normally. Normal voices, calm voices, sometimes loud and funny and a little bit crazy, no matter, people have normal voices. They do not speak with that whispering tone to each other. It makes the whole show ridiculous to me.

So there are three issues: 1. Heavy breathing 2. A sense of urgency which is completely weird and crazy 3. Whispering voices.

I wish that the director had a brain. Then this show could be awesome.

Bokeh (I) (2017)

Should be great

[4/10 · 27 March 2017]

Bokeh is a movie about the soon-to-come apocalypse. In the movie, it shows up magically a few days in to this couples stay in Iceland. It's a trip that they've been longing for, and finally afford.

The first few days in Iceland shows the couple (from the UK) going along with groups of other tourists to look at the natural beauty of the country.

The man takes hundreds of photos with an old camera.

The photos are amazing.

And then, a few days in, when they wake up in the morning, everybody is gone. At first, they're thinking that it must be some holiday that they've missed, they are walking around and everything is shut, and there is no one.

So they realize that they're alone, and at first, they're making fun of it almost. They're doing all those things that anyone would do, if they were the last people on the planet. They go for shopping sprees and they move to a lovely house.

And then it becomes clear that the woman wants an explanation, she is looking at God, and how it must be some divine intervention.

The man just want to make the best of the situation, and live on in this strange but amazingly pretty place.

They come to no conclusion and by the end of the movie, the woman takes her own life, and the man tries to do it too, but he can't.

So, that's the whole movie.

So why am I giving it only a 4, when it is clear that I actually enjoyed the movie?

There is one thing and one thing only, that could had made this movie great, instead of a "mah".

And that is the music. The music, mainly piano, but also strings of some sort, and a keyboard keep on playing through the movie. It's so bad, and so distracting, and it's hard to think of anything else but how terrible it sounds. It's the same all along, the piano doing the same notes, and the strings coming on for more dramatic scenes. It is so frustrating and annoying that I can't ever say that it is a good movie.

It could had been so good... so please do it again without the background noise that ruins the whole thing. The beauty and the characters and the confusion.

Go North (2017)

Excellent job!

[6/10 · 13 January 2017]

I just bumped in to this movie,and had never heard of it and therefor I had no expectations.

I always like me a good post-apocalyptic story though, so I felt lucky. :)

So, the story is simple. There has been some sort of catastrophe and a group of kids are trying to hold it together with a series of very rigid rules. They keep the school going but it's no longer normal lessons, but instead the older kids teach the younger kids on how to survive. Like trapping, getting water etc. The old kids decide everything, from who works on what (they all have to work for their existence, no matter how young or little you are) They also have the right to punish by for example let the kid be expelled from the community and into a dark and scary place which is everywhere apart from their own residential area.

The story revolves around Josh, played really well by Jacob Lofland. He is a skinny and scrawny young boy, maybe around 16. He is a thinker and he is a quiet person, that see things around him clearly. For a while he plans his escape from the totalitarian group. When his (only?) friend get expelled he feel it is the time to split. But before this, and for a long time, he has been mapping out the way north, because he believes that there is some sort of a rescue area there. North is his end-goal and this is set in stone. Because he protects the leaders sister, Jessie, from another leader, he get her to come along too as she need to get away as not to be punished. When leaders find out that Jessie and Josh are gone, they go nuts and try to capture them and bring the sister back.

I was sat through the movie thinking about whom Jessie looks like and now it's taken me half an hour coming up with her name. It's Cameron Diaz! :) Mystery solved.

As someone else pointed out, there were a lot of extremely bad story- lines as when it comes to coincidences and chance. (when the leaders chase after the escapees, and find their whereabouts immediately in a huge city. Of course they must be in the library!) But that's movie- making for you.

I think that the film was on the cheap-side for sure, but that didn't stop it from being a good way to spend an evening. I would had liked more on the catastrophe and the story on how the group became the group. It's a lot to explore in this world and one can only hope that someone will be clever enough to make another movie from someone else's perspective! Now that would make me happy! :)

All in all, a good post-apocalyptic flick without fainting of excitement.

Zoo (2015–2017)

Mentally challenged actors? First season on Netflix Sweden

[1/10 · 4 January 2017]

After thinking that this series would be top-notch watching, due to the very interesting topic, I've now concluded my judgment hereof.

1. Almost every person who enters a scene, does so with a huge sigh. The one who didn't do it one single time, was the actor Nonso Anozie. It is highly unusual in A-listed movies and series, to let the actors act in this way.

2. Every movie or TV-show that let the characters tell each other things that they previously know, have to do something different. Can things be shown in another way, or is the information actually necessary to the plot? One very typical scene: The couple who live in the arctic to do research. The bats come along, and the two women start to talk about their first meeting et al. They both, obviously, know the facts of this meeting, how for example one of them already had a boyfriend, and yet, they tell each other about it as for the first time. See, information about this was highly unnecessary for us, the viewers, and just make things take longer to get to the point. Another example. The main characters are sitting in a hotel room exploring the idea of something being wrong with the wolf they have captured. You know that these people have seen the process first hand, and know what has been happening, and yet they're telling each other about it as if they had no clue. It's very strange behavior from a human standpoint. Again, maybe the actors could show the action in some other way. Sometimes it makes me think that the main characters might be a bit retarded. (nothing wrong with being mentally challenged, but if so, I think the producers and director should be honest about this fact from the get-go.

3. Here we are again. The typical thing in movies and TV, about the scientists, explorers and lovers of the topic. (in this one, obviously, animals) They never get along. Never ever. They're acting selfishly, they don't listen to each other, they are bickering about small things, they are not willing to share information about the silly things, they aren't interesting in furthering their goal by working together. This is getting so tired. So last year. If this was in any shape or form real, they would work together to solve the huge issue of the animals going crazy on the world. They would work day and night, selfishly serving this single purpose. They would ask each other questions, both about the issue at hand, and also about personal things. (Like, easy, "How are you?" "What's up?" "Oh, where in France do you come from?" "Where did you study?" "Wow, is that nutty professor your dad?" Etc.) Because it is in our human nature to want to know the people around us. We like to think that we're, if not for real, but at least pretend to be wanting to know others. We're also most often helpful, kind and intrigued about the things a person has done leading up to the present time.

4. It is boring, pretentious, and it feels as if the producers just jumped on the band wagon of the rush of producing more and not better just more economically sound TV-shows. It's the thing to do these days, it's what pays the big bucks. I am not loving it.

5. Is it watchable? Hard to answer the question, but if you are longing for a show which has a good plot, but nothing else.. then yes. If you're looking for something real, something raw, something interesting in more than one or two episodes of high breathing, nonsensical fights and yes, even silly romance, then go ahead, watch this crap and be happy! :)

I wont.

Fear the Walking Dead (2015–2023)

So much have already been written

[2/10 · 1 January 2017]

So many reviews, so many questions and some answers. So much upheaval over this TV-series, the spin-off from "The walking dead" - a show that pretty much anyone felt something deep inside for the humans, individuals played by beautiful character-actors.

Now, Fear of the walking dead. I think it started of pretty cool. A lot of crazy zombies of course, and the families working together to get out alive.

The boat part was fun and such a great idea. Then the daughter-person spoils it by being stupid.

And then it just goes downhill very fast. The whole season 2 is just one bad decision after the other, made by very un-likable people. It drives you mad, so you do feel SOMETHING, but it drives you mad not in a good way, but so much that you feel that you wish the main characters were zombies who can't talk anymore or make any decisions at all. It would be a better world for it.

When a movie or TV-show have no positive or likable characters left, then it slowly fizzes out. phhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeew, like a balloon. And then, there is nothing left to tune in for. Because the feelings are all gone, if they were even there from the beginning.

It's hard to watch, but for the love of "The walking dead" I try my very best to give it my attention, but my mind keep going to other places, like, did I turn the washing machine on...Or, time to water those plants.

You know that there is something wrong when while watching the main characters you yell DIE DIE DIE so that I don't have to see you next season!!!! I just wanted them all to die and become zombies at the end. It would had suited this series so well. (and then they could show up as zombies in The Walking Dead and get killed by the good ones!!)

So, yet a hick-up on the screen.

3% (2016–2020)

Amazing

[10/10 · 28 November 2016]

Here is the TV-show I've been waiting for. I didn't know that I was waiting for it of course, but I could not stop watching it, and there were many reasons to why not.

1. The acting is superb. 2. The characters are well thought out, each character gets his or hers own personality, quickly, with what feels like no effort at all. 3. The story-line. Oh wow. A world dying, poverty, hunger and greed. Criminal activities and children being left to fend for themselves. And of course, a group of revolutionaries. Love it. And then we have the process. At your 20th year, you get to try out for becoming one of the 3% of the year, who will get to go to an island of luxury and safety. The process is made so that there will be justice done for all. Everything is measured and directed to perfection. The technology makes sure that everything about each individual is known. The tests are extensive and utterly scary. And everything is filmed and processed under loop. Some tests are individual and some tests are in groups. People are being killed by the others in the groups and some people are even the revolutionaries who've got themselves infiltrating the process. The story is nothing less than brilliant.

4. We've got the godlike entity of the boss of the process. We have the underdogs, which are the 20-year olds, trying to change their lives for the better, without knowing a thing about the place they're trying to get to.

5. There are so many surprises in this TV-series, and I hope that everybody sees it.

That's all from me.

Naked and Afraid XL (2015– )

You what? (Season 2)

[1/10 · 27 November 2016]

I've watched all episodes of Naked and Afraid over the years. Some of them are really cool, and I do love survival shows in general.

However.

Already on their way out to the bush, the South-African men said something like, why are you doing this, naked where it is very dangerous?

This sentiment has followed me through the episodes. The apathy and the constant showing of muscles, confidence and self-assured nature has me baffling for air. From what I can tell, they mainly sit around, waiting for one of them to get up and try to catch something. And then they have nothing. And then they sit around again, waiting for someone to catch something and no one does. It's an endless circle.

And then they start to get sick. So sick in fact that nearby medics has to be called for. (so, they're really not so much alone, just camping out next to the real experts)

And when they start to get sick, the embarrassment should had struck them. But they're "experts" right? So they don't get embarrassed.

But I do. I get so embarrassed that I can hardly watch. And I do want to finish what I've started, so I do keep trying... but I have to play a computer game in the same time to get my head away from the worst of the craziness.

Listen. Here they are. 13 entitles Americans. People who can afford taking some 50 days (including travel-time etc) out of their lives to go and do something adventurous. They're well fed, well clothed, fortunate and spoiled. They've never had to starve, unless they felt like it. They've never had to really fend for themselves, unless they felt like it. They never had to fight for their lives, unless they felt like it.

Lets face it. These people are sitting around, in the bush in South Africa. A country populated by not less than 12 million people living in poverty. They have no clean water, no electricity, no work, no food. This is the reality.

And there these 12 boys and girls are sitting, saying things like "they are starving" when a van some 100 meters from them, have the medical care that very few people in South Africa has, or can even dream of. Also, that van is full stocked with food, clean water, clothing and a flight back to their safety and spoiled American lives.

This season is so typical for the western world. We are entitled, we are so sure of our-self that we go camping in a world we don't understand, or even know anything about. We go places without having studied the culture, ecology, population or anything.

I am sure that not only do the South Africans helping out in this series laugh at the stupid Americans. I am sure that they also are weeping. The laughter stopped in its track, and the crying begins, for their own world and culture.

That's all.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016)

I have to write this fast, after binge-watching it.

[8/10 · 27 November 2016]

Okay. I am one of those people who watched Gilmore Girls again and again over the years. Lets face it, when you don't have that small- town life with the cute boyfriends and a perfect metabolism that helps you never get fat from junk-food. When your stomach is fine with having huge amounts of caffeine without a glitch. Friends who stick by you forever, and a daughter/mother who is always around, never far from the dark sense of humor that they share. The togetherness in the common enemy of the grandmother/mother, who is rich and beyond.

Well, then it is easy to admire and adore Gilmore Girls. There are a few things that I never could get over in the first run of series. I would have liked to have seen just one single big laughter. You know when you keep looking at each other and just roar of crazy laughter's that never can stop, you get a tummy pain, and you want to be sick, but instead you just keep on laughing. Well, okay, that's one of the only things the series lacks..

So, it was with a sense of completion I wanted to watch the "A year in the life". I have no real idea what I was expecting of it, but it wasn't exactly more of the same. But yeah, that's exactly what I got.

Rory never seemed to be over 20, she was as dependent on her friends and family still, and even with the high education and all those homework's she did, and a degree in Yale, she is a failure. (of sorts) That made me sad. Ten years later, and Lorelai and Luke never fixed up the house, moved or anything. The Inn still is exactly the same, apart from Sookie who's actually moved on. It's ten years later. And nothing has changed. The town has not moved forward, the town leader is the same. No one seemed to have aged, even the people who were old already.

All of that, is okay. I've never lived or even really been in a small town. Not a perfect one like Stars Hollow anyway. As always, no one is talking about anything big. I'ts all relationships. Same same. The first two episodes are ...even a bit boring. Sadly. Rorys affair with Logan, Rorys having a boyfriend that no one remembers. And then, Rorys accidental meet-ups with her ex-boyfriends. Is this really the first time she'd met them in ten years? Has she not been home to visit? And what really happened (if anything) in the last ten years? Has she had any other important relationships, has she formed any new friendships. So many questions and no answers. In the third episode she get the idea from Jess, another well known character of course, that she should write the story of her and her mom. Very very VERY predicted. It was just a "bah moment". Of course the big writer, and reader, Rory, would be the one responsible for the whole TV-show. What didn't feel really predictable was Lorelais reaction. But of course she came around.

The one person who surprised the most, was Emily. I liked that she had a proper reaction to her life. Her life as a widow and her life with a "help" that stays, and is allowed to bring life into the house, and who bring Emely a new family, which she brings along to Nantucket. Sweet. I just wonder, how much money does she really have? How rich are they actually?

Anyway. The fourth episode was the one for me. It was sentimental and full of back-flashes with the people surrounding Rory and Lorelai. Or that's how I saw it. It was an hour and a half of tears, many tissues, specially as I knew that it was the last time ever that we'd see these special characters and their stand-still lives. There was Luke in his diner, always the same, trustworthy man. There was Jess...of course still in love with Rory, after only ten years. There was Dean, who probably also was in love with Rory still. There was Lana and her man still playing the music that they played ten years ago. There was the town, still exaggeratedly ornate.

And the pre-marriage.

And then. "I am pregnant"

Well. Ten years later, she is 32 and not 16, but she is in the same predicament (sort of) as Lorelai with the no father thing...... but really... it's really not the same is it? I've read a couple of articles and reviews here, that says that it's the history repeating itself. But nah. I really don't think so. I think the only thing that repeated itself, is the need for another season.

And yeah, I'll wait for it with happiness and joy.

I happen to like the expected, when it comes to Gilmore Girls.

Beautiful Creatures (2013)

Why oh why

[9 November 2016]

Why choose someone as un-charming, un-likable and super old looking actor for the part as Ethan? Alden Ehrenreich is perhaps a good actor, in other things, but in this movie, he is playing the part as the lover, the savior, the good person. And yet, I don't believe it. At all. The movie is of a well known theme. The witches against the mortals. The good vs the evil. It doesn't really matter that the story is interesting, when the lead actor is this bad.

They have a fantastic cast otherwise, played with somewhat faulty southern American accents.

So, there is a story, there is a heroin, played very well by Alice Englert, and a very interesting group of actors and actresses.

And then blah. It falls flat on its knees in the hand of Ehrenreich.

I could hardly see it to the end. It became something to snigger at, to laugh at, throw popcorn at.

So, given this. I am jogging on. Of to better and funnier things.