mrguymhart Reviews

James May: Our Man in... (2020–2024)

Entertaining, enlightening and educational.

[10/10 · 25 January 2024]

The 'Our Man in...' series has really seen James come into his own as a presenter.

It is not your typical travel documentary as it is injected with humour of not just James, but also the crew. By giving a rounded view of what is popular to draw viewers and what James is interested in for each location it ticks all the boxes.

Combined with an excellent team who draw out the best of his unique presenter style, I sincerely hope there are more in development. Their involvement in scenes brings each episode even more to life.

To sum up, these are the epitome of the quintessential British 'gent' on an adventure.

The Witcher (2019– )

Purists will not appreciate artistic license.

[6/10 · 1 January 2020]

Mildly entertaining.

A lot of complex back story to fit in to 8 episodes.

Be prepared for a mid to low fantasy romp with some nice locations and references and detraction. A nice time filler. May season 2 be better.

The artistic license was disappointing, unexplained and a real shame as there's enough lore without creating more.

Sleepy Hollow (2013–2017)

So much potential wasted.

[5/10 · 2 February 2019]

Started exceptionally well with a great premise

Four seasons, four horsemen, great incorporation of mythology and popular culture only to deteriorate into another uninspired, predictable and bland formulaic supernatural drama.

This could and would have been so much better focusing on the horsemen and much more engaging.

The casting cannot be faulted being dynamic and diverse if not somwhat too readily changeable.

Pace is too fast in places with the viewer left guessing and somewhat flat character backgrond exploration.

With a budget of 4M USD per episode that is greater than Grimm's 3-3.5M USD per episode and perhaps better choice, the loss of showrunner Mark Goffman at the end of season 2 is plainly evident.

A real shame as this had all the right ingredients, but changing the Chef halfway through ruined the meal.