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Secret Invasion (2023)
It just gets worse and worse!
It just gets worse and worse. What a waste of a talented cast and potential. Not just a lazy script and poor direction, but a lazy production. Nobody cares if your story have subtext, if it isn't good or entertaining. The writing is insulting at this point, somebody needs to be fired. Find whatever hole Joss Whedon is hiding under and give him a consulting offer. Beg Jon Favreau for help. Hell, bring back the original oversight committee if you have to. The MCU is in deep trouble. Because everything is connected, the bad series will soon infect the good ones. Just like the overall quality of the Infinity Saga helped elevate everything in it. The reverse effect is now starting to happen.
Star Trek: Picard (2020)
Watch only season 3!
I watched the first few episodes of season 1, couldn't finish it. I didn't even bother watching season 2. When I heard all the rave reviews from fans about season 3, I gave it another chance and was pleasantly surprised. It's excellent. While I was happy with how the original 90s series ended, it's still a lot of fun to see the old gang back again.
Season 3 of "Picard" admirably fixed a lot of the mistakes that have been made after "Star Trek: First Contact", when the Next Generation franchise went into decline. There were a couple of things that bothered me in season 3. I wasn't completely convinced with Dr. Beverly Crusher's reasoning for avoiding her friends. Also, characters that were supposed to never age or age very slowly were given excuses for their new wrinkles. So, do I prefer this new finale to the original series finales? No... but it's a fun nostalgic ride and would make any 90s Star Trek fan happy.
1899 (2022)
Full Of Sound And Fury, Signilfying Nothing
It's a beautiful production, even though most of the time it's hard to see anything because the cinematography is so dark. The cast was excellent, but was hampered by the overall direction of the series. For the first few episodes, things became weirder and weirder, but not very interesting or exciting. Eventually you realize that it had to be imaginary, because nothing makes sense. Once we're told what is actually happening, it made all the drama near the end pointless.
Since it's a simulation and everybody will play their parts again, all the heart wrenching deaths and separations became meaningless. I've never been more indifferent to the fates of the main characters. It wasn't the fault of the actors though, since they were all excellent. It wasn't even the dialogue and writing for those scenes per se. It's the writing of the concept and overall series. In the "Matrix", when people died in the simulation, they died in real life. That made the events inside the matrix mattered. In "I899", nothing mattered except the twists. All the blood, sweat and tears amounted to nothing.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)
Painfully Unfunny
Painfully unfunny. Why did these women want to make a superhero show, if all they want is to complain about men and superheros? Don't congratulate yourself on being better and groundbreaking, before you can produce something decent. The writing and direction is bad, with a wasted good performance from Maslany. The only watchable episodes were the ones with the Hulk and Daredevil (1, 2 & 8), mainly because they're well established and beloved characters that brought a certain gravitas to the story. Can't believe what the show did to Wong and The Abomination, they nearly ruined the characters by turning them into a joke.
The Great (2020)
First season much better than the second
The first season is a witty satire and black comedy. Not a fan of the ahistorical castings, but otherwise a wonderful production. I give the first season an eight. The second season is a parody of the first season. Not only does it no longer work as a historical satire, the characters no longer make any sense. The integrity of the characters were sacrificed in service of the plot. I give the second season a six.
The Last Kingdom (2015)
A rewarding journey
Uhtred's quest to regain his ancestral homeland from Danish slave to legendary warrior was an epic and rewarding journey. Even if the final season was somewhat anti-climatic, as the series wraps up it's various storylines to varying degrees of success, it did a credible job.
Peaky Blinders (2013)
From anti-hero/gangster to gangster/psychopath
The first two seasons were excellent (9/10). The third and fourth seasons were very good (8/10). The fifth and sixth seasons were good (7/10). Thomas Shelby started out as an anti-hero/gangster, but eventually became a gangster/psychopath. Unfortunately the show never portrayed him as a villain. A better story arc would have been his eventually downfall. Even though he suffers, it was just an excuse for his bad behavior. No excuses for gangsters, the Peaky Blinders should have been eliminated by law enforcement or a rival gang. It would have been a more realistic and profound ending.
Ojing-eo geim (2021)
The characters saved the show for me
The actual squid game was the least interesting of all the games played. The show started to become cliche and derivative of itself once the VIPs showed. Kinda like "Hunger Games", but without the fantasy elements and more misery. Started strong, but loses a lot of momentum near the last third of the show. While it wasn't a chore to finish the season, I wasn't too thrilled with each subsequent episode either. The revelations were either cliche or stupid. It was only the characters that saved the show for me. They were great till the end.
Jungle Cruise (2021)
Would have been better with less CGI monsters and more human ones
This film would have been better with a slightly smaller budget. If there were no CGI monsters and more focus on the human ones. If the Rock was not in the movie. He has charm and charisma, but no romantic chemistry with Emily Blunt and he seems to think people like him because he's invincible. He makes himself more and more powerful with each passing movie, whether it makes sense of not. The Rock is right about one thing. Emily Blunt is indispensable, she lifts the script more than it deserves. Apparently he chased her down for the role, if only he also chased after a better director or a better script.
Black Widow (2021)
The main cast is so good, it almost saves the movie.
The main cast is so good, it almost saves the movie. The problem is the script and it's tone. I like the director in her previous work, but she has no feel for this type of material. Black Widow was always going to be hard to adapt on her own, because she's always been a supporting character in the comics. She doesn't have great material to draw from. The story in the movie is ambitious, but not well written. It tries too hard to mean something, when it's unearned in the script. The action scenes were well choreographed and filmed, but it suffered from a lack of suspense, because the villains are so terrible. Marvel has always had mostly two dimensional villains, but here they are one dimensional. They serve as plot devices, rather than as a true nemesis.
Loki (2021)
Tom Hiddleston is great, but everything else not so much.
It goes without saying that Tom Hiddleston is great as Loki, but I fear for the future of Marvel on TV, if they have to rely so heavily on star power. Despite the interesting world building, this show suffers from the same problems that plagued the previous The Falcon show. A weak female lead in Lady Loki, who just doesn't hold a candle to Hiddleston in terms of charm and charisma. The TVA's power levels are wildly inconsistent or just plain poorly written. Sometimes they can beat and handle a God like they're children, but sometimes they seem like they wouldn't be able to stop a shoplifter. I enjoyed the finale only because of it's implications for the future of the MCU, not because it was well written or executed. I found it at times clumsy and overly ambitious, with arbitrary solutions to seemingly impossible problems. As much as I love the MCU, I wish they would cut down on the number of new shows, and focus on maintaining quality. Overall, they're still good, but they could be better. Especially with the upcoming slate featuring many obscure characters that lacks a strong and deep library of published content to draw from.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)
Overall very good, but flawed.
Whenever Sam and Bucky are together, the series is at it's best. It was nice to see Zemo back and John Walker was an excellent addition. Unfortunately the Flag Smashers are pretty lame. They remind me of henchmen from lesser action series. Their "struggle" was not even clearly defined. They say that they were oppressed, but we never saw any of that. You have to show rather than tell. Also, the subplot involving Sam's sister seems very forced. I get that the writers want to give Sam some problems, but think of a better and more realistic way. The moments in which race relations in America was brought up was hit or miss for me. Sometimes I was moved, but sometimes I was just rolling my eyes. Not because they weren't somewhat true, but because it wasn't in perspective. Partial truths presented as fact is lazy writing.