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Reviews
Outer Range (2022)
From the team that brought you equally meandering plot lines and empty shell characters in the OA...
Stop letting these people write shows. I think they're great for actors. They get to show a fantastic range in moments that are very intense. But it's like a show reel. There's nothing connecting these moments. I have nonodea why any one person in this show keeps the secrets they keep or even reveal the few secrets they do. How they seem to trust each other one moment then go maverick. Why? Plot that's why. This is 8 episodes long. 8. I could edit this down to a 120 to 90 minute movie. The rival family could almaot be cut out completely. The long steady pauses with a Nolan esque drone.. Cut them too. Whoever is responsible for these shows needs to be reigned in as there are some great ideas in here somewhere but they're surrounded by less material than whatever is in that hole.
Mayans M.C.: Cleansing of the Temple (2022)
What a cop out
Awful choreography. When the bad guys are all clumped together they don't throw their petrol bombs but insist on launching them on the empty concrete without a soul in shot.
Good guys stand out in the open and dont get shot if they're a named character. All the red shirts get hit or killed even stood behind impenetrable wooden slatted walls.
When a member of the club sneaks into the club through the entire enemy forces nobody's first reaction is "Let's sneak the same way out!".
It made no sense how the episode ends and essentially erased this episode and the end of last season and all the build up to it. EZ might as well have woken from a dream.
Star Trek: Picard: Monsters (2022)
Like taking a step back... In quality, direction, dialogue, story telling...
What a waste of my time for the plot points covered in this episode. What were they thinking when they made this? The show is turbulent at best in production value already. This is not a pesky splinter but an open gushing wound on the series. How did they not think "yeh, we should cut this"? It makes you wonder what scripts and ideas they actually cut.
But maybe that's it. This series does seem to focus on nothing in particular at all but meander close to a plot throughout.
Please just wrap this up and be something good. I will be taking this off my watch list for season 3 and wait for the reviews before I bother again. I'm continuing out of curiosity and having too much time in my hands.
Death to 2021 (2021)
Pale comparison to when Charlie did these himself
Just not that funny or interesting. The few chuckles I let out almost felt forced as I tried to enjoy this. I appreciate the sentiment and efforts and risks taken by all involved.. But it wasn't funny.
Brüno (2009)
All the funny bits are in the trailer...
... Watch the trialer then skip to the end for the cage fighting bit.
Lovecraft Country (2020)
Any imperfection feels purposeful. I couldn't ask for more from a show so far so why mark it down?
The only people marking this down so far seem to be trolls or fans of the Lovecraft books. I'm just a lowly fan of good television which I find so hard to find.
If you've made it this far through reviews you'll know already the acting is amazing. I feel it tackles race and gender very well. Although a heavy theme (how could it not be?) it isn't heavy handed. A tool welded like a scalpel thay doesn't leave a scar on the story.
I don't find the characters stereotypical at all. The special effects are b movie only in the way Tarrantino movies are and I've never seen 1 review in the past write off Django because of the poor effects. Have you?
The show is heavily inspired by pulp science fiction and fantasy. If you don't like that kind of thing then please be my guest and go elsewhere. I'm not a huge fan but when it's brought to the mainstream well like Buffy, Kill joys and Blood drive then I can get on board. Like most of those shows there is a procedural element and a longer story thread. Mysteries come up and aren't dangled in front of you like most schlocky dramas and Sci fi.
Now one thing I do hate in TV and film... Tropes. They're pretty scarce. Even some tropes are brought up and disguarded straight away which is a relief. The will they won't they thing, the will anyone belive him about the monsters thing... I won't go on to stop any spoilers but I really could.
I can't help but feel anyone marking this down is not getting the pulp Sci fi vibe this show is intended for. I feel everything the creators have aimed to project from these stories so far land incredibly well.
The OA (2016)
The perfect example of the worst, most self indulgent and pretentious piece of work I have ever seen.
The series sets itself up to be something it isn't; Smart, thought provoking and fantastical. In the end the show turned out to be opposite; dum, frustrating and mediocre.
Yes, its annoying to have the occasional tropes of whiney youngsters, unnecessary secrecy and people acting selfishly which could only possibly end up hurting themselves as well as others around them...but I've gotten used to these and this show isn't too bad for those elements. Also the acting is fair to good, sometimes great. The production value very good when this could have been a student's film project. However that's exactly what this should have been. This is not for the masses and I cannot believe how high a rating this show has. Maybe because it had little fanfare so everyone who has seen it had it recommended to them so the only ones who have seen it are those bound to love it. As a more mainstream viewer I can fairly say; I hated it.
The premise is a bit of a Mary Sue. Written by it's star who I imagine loves contemporary dance. Just like authors who write about writers trying to save the world by authoring an earth shattering book, film makers producing a film about a film that can save the populace (here's looking at you Man in the Iron Castle), she is trying to save the world by...you guessed it...contemporary dance.
Which is fine but it definitely went through great lengths to set itself up to be a mystery/thriller or sci fi affair. With my partner and I both believing opposing theories we were not pleasantly surprised but felt let down by this divergence from everything that had come before.
From 2 people with quite different tastes we both bring this up in conversations about the absolute worst thing we watched which wasted the most amount of time.
The only good thing you might get out of this is the curiosity of watching something meander so intriguingly only to vere off as if the writing wheel had been snatched and driven off a cliff.In that way it is truly fascinating. It's enough to drive you into madness. Years later I still wonder "Could it be as bad as I remember? Surely not." But the thought of my memories being confirmed makes my soul ache. The idea of wasting another second of my life on this beyond this review saddens me.
Hopefully this will stop others from wasting as much time as so many have this hyped up fluff letter from the writer to herself.
Peaky Blinders (2013)
Gave up after season 1 and episode one of season 2
They seem to only have 3 sets. All the characters are the same and what's worse is they're dull. Zero character development or empathy. I couldn't care less if a single one of them succeed or died.
I can't say the acting isn't brilliant, as are the few special effects and sets they have. But I always felt like the scenes were shot 4 metres from the last scene. The whole series droned on with, what felt like, not a lot happening. To this day I have no idea what was motivating the characters.
Severely disappointing as I really wanted to see a smart British gritty gangster series back on our screens. There's more heart in episode one of Sons of Anarchy than this has in an entire season and I'm not a fan of anything that's is, on the face of it, Americana usually.
I was told by friends to hang on for season 2 but I shouldn't be crawling through a whole season before I find entertainment. And when something horrific happens at the beginning of season 2 to two of the known characters and I found myself not caring I knew the writers hadn't earned my investment. Something similar happens in another series (SoA) to a chars ter you don't particularly like and yet as a viewer I still felt myself empathetic toward the character's plight and wanted vengeance for them.
The writers wanted to spend too much time on posturing monologues which all felt and sounded the same than building the characters. I'm sorry to say I'm just wholly disappointed
Peaky Blinders (2013)
Gave up after season 1 and episode one of season 2
They seem to only have 3 sets. All the characters are the same and what's worse is they're dull. Zero character development or empathy. I couldn't care less if a single one of them succeed or died.
I can't say the acting isn't brilliant, as are the few special effects and sets they have. But I always felt like the scenes were shot 4 metres from the last scene. The whole series droned on with, what felt like, not a lot happening. To this day I have no idea what was motivating the characters.
Severely disappointing as I really wanted to see a smart British gritty gangster series back on our screens. There's more heart in episode one of Sons of Anarchy than this has in an entire season and I'm not a fan of anything that's is, on the face of it, Americana usually.
I was told by friends to hang on for season 2 but I shouldn't be crawling through a whole season before I find entertainment. And when something horrific happens at the beginning of season 2 to two of the known characters and I found myself not caring I knew the writers hadn't earned my investment. Something similar happens in another series (SoA) to a chars ter you don't particularly like and yet as a viewer I still felt myself empathetic toward the character's plight and wanted vengeance for them.
The writers wanted to spend too much time on posturing monologues which all felt and sounded the same than building the characters. I'm sorry to say I'm just wholly disappointed