Reviews

This show really is a tale of two halves. Season 1 and 2 were great seasons of television - fresh, funny and heartfelt. Then came season 3 and 4.

The main hook of the show in its early seasons - and what I really latched on to - is the relationship between Otis and Maeve. The way it built up this friendship turned blossoming romance was so sweet and charming that you couldn't help but root for them, even as the writers put every obstacle in their way. The climax of season 2 was so soul-crushing that it couldn't do anything but draw you back in for season 3 where it looked like we would get the long awaited union of the two.

And then the wheels started to come off. Season 3's writing choices with Otis and Maeve are so baffling that it leaves the believability of the two being soulmates on the verge of falling apart. Their screen time together is slashed so dramatically that their chemistry is close to evaporating. Otis is always the one chasing Maeve - there is never an inkling that Maeve wants to be with Otis. Maeve even decides to reject Otis for Isaac, even after he confesses to betraying her and breaking her trust. This is shoddy writing that is the complete antithesis of Maeve's character in the preceding seasons. They only get together at the end of the season (before pulling them apart YET again) after Isaac ends things with Maeve - are the writers seriously telling us that Otis is now Maeve's second choice?

Despite this, I was under the impression that this season was their rocky patch and that season 4 would finally end the will-they-won't-they, with the two finally spending time together as a couple, building back their special bond, ending the show on a high and reminding me why I fell in love with this show at the beginning. I couldn't have been more wrong.

They just couldn't help themselves, could they? The writers, for some dumbfounding reason, decide not only to continue the will-they-won't they dynamic we have now seen for THREE WHOLE seasons, but to double down on what they did in season 3. Their screen time? Even less. Their chemistry? Gone. Maeve? Even more disinterested in Otis. The writing choices? Brain-numbing.

• Maeve looking almost upset with Otis when she sees him after returning from abroad. Why?

• Maeve being annoyed at Otis during the funeral but forgiving him immediately afterwards. What?

• Maeve deciding to get drunk and ruin their first date. Are you actually serious?

• Otis having a panic attack when they attempt to get intimate after not experiencing one once with Ruby. Makes zero sense.

• Maeve deciding she needs to get away from Moordale by moving to the USA when there are plenty of top UK universities to study at. I don't know, I guess the plot needs to happen.

All of this culminates in their final scene together, where they finally do get intimate with other - what should have been the emotional peak of the show - feeling more like Asa Butterfield and Emma Mackey awkwardly trying to get through an intimate shoot. And then in one final, gigantic, middle finger from the writers, they pull the same so-close-yet-so-far ending they have pulled at the end of EVERY SINGLE season, only this time leaving Otis and Maeve separated permanently.

I will never understand why we didn't get even one season of the two together and happy. The writers consciously squandered so much promise by constantly keeping the pair apart, dragging out the same dynamic across four seasons and rehashing the same season finale four times as they ruined the characters and desecrated their relationship in the process. A farcical disappointment that in retrospect, ruins the first two seasons.

Otis and Maeve aside, a mediocre season 3 began the slide towards an increasingly bloated cast as the main trio from season 1 and 2 were pushed aside to make way for bland and underdeveloped tokens for different communities - but season 4 takes the cake.

I cannot put into words how much I despise this utter, utter, garbage. I don't know if I have ever seen, or will ever see, a season of television so infuriating, nonsensical and pandering. I couldn't work out if I was watching a television programme or a series of PSA sketches from left-wing activist groups. The subtle and nuanced messaging in season 1 and 2? Gone, in favour of the writers repeatedly beating you over the head with a checklist of PC talking points in a way that is so on the nose it makes you feel like you've just gone twelve rounds with Tyson. The humour is all but gone and the few remaining attempted jokes are SNL-level unfunny, whilst the "plot" is so uninteresting that it makes it the first season of the show that felt like a chore to watch.

I genuinely had to pause episodes at points just to comprehend the eye-rolling, bewildering rubbish I was witnessing and to process how a once-great show could get to this sorry state - a shell, nay, parody of itself. I have never been so let down by something I was so excited for. Each and every writer involved in the second half of the show, especially the final season, should be genuinely ashamed of themselves for churning out such an insulting embarrassment.

Rant over. I'm off to go and block season 4 out of my memory forever.

What an utter, utter disgrace.

Right off the bat, I ship Otis and Maeve. After how their relationship was beautifully built up over the first 3 seasons, how could you not? And so to see the writers do what they did to the pair this season and end the show the EXACT same way they ended the previous 3 seasons, only this time leaving them permanently separated, is an insult.

From a narrative point of view, why does Maeve want to move to America? Last time I checked, there are plenty of UK universities that are world-leading when it comes to English Literature. All we get is Maeve telling Otis that she feels like 'the best version' of herself over there - which would work, if the writers had even bothered showing us this. Maeve spends her 3-4 episodes in America being homesick, fighting with her boyfriend and being told that her writing is bad. I guess this is what the 'best version' of Maeve does?

From a character perspective, again this ending makes zero sense. One of the big lessons Otis learns is in the season 2 finale when his Dad tells him to 'hold on to the people you love tightly' and to 'not let them go'. So what does season 4 Otis do when Maeve says she's willing to make long distance work? He lets her go!

Also in season 2, in her essay Maeve reveals that her biggest fear is ending up alone. But the plot has to happen, so season 4 Maeve decides to move to America to live alone, leaving behind her friends, family and boyfriend. Very attentive, writers!

Even if you think the ending we have been given makes sense narratively, think about it logically and it again falls apart.

When her course at Wallace ends, how exactly does she plan on staying in the US? She has no money, no qualifications, no employment prospects - oh, and there's the small issue of her being a literal minor. It's the easiest visa application rejection ever. I'm pretty sure I've put more thought into this rant than the writers did with their ending.

And I have to mention how laughable it is that the creatives behind the show called the ending 'bittersweet'. Maybe it would've been if you had actually followed through with what you built up for years and given the fans what we wanted - Otis and Maeve as a couple, with sweet moments between the two throughout the season instead of the same cheap, contrived drama we've been getting for 4 SEASONS now.

Either the writers didn't care enough to conclude the show in a way that satisfies the narrative and it's characters or more likely it's just a lack of talent. It's painfully obvious in hindsight that the writers simply didn't know what to do with Otis and Maeve if they got them into a couple - so we kept on getting the same lazy, eye-rolling conflict keeping them perpetually apart.

A genuine embarrassment that the talentless hacks who penned this garbage should be ashamed of.

Damn, this game sucks.

After 7 years of buildup following what is probably my favourite game of all time, my leading emotion after finishing this game was disappointment.

The gameplay is sleeker and more polished, the performances unsurprisingly solid, Santaolalla is seamless as before and the environments and visuals have never looked better - but I don't care if I can see a drop of dew rolling down a window or a wrinkle on a character's cheek; if the story is bad, it drags the rest of the game down. And boy this story is an absolute dumpster fire.

Undoubtedly the best part of the first game is the bond between the two protagonists. And so for us to not have even have 20 minutes before Joel is killed is completely dumbfounding. There's no time to reconnect with the characters and be reminded of why that first game is so good. It's no coincidence that the only part of the game I enjoyed was the 30 minute museum flashback.

I don't actually have a problem with Joel dying - done at the right time and in the right way it could have been really powerful and poignant. But the way in which it is done here is an utter disgrace. A man with decades of survival experience, who could smell an ambush a mile off suddenly decides to dox himself to an group of strangers? Do me a favour. It feels like Joel was deliberately dumbed down just so that he could die to drive the plot, and that is just plain disrespectful not only to the character, but to the fans who have invested so much into the character.

And then to top it all off, the game then forces you to play as Joel's killer! The fact that a team of professional video game creators decided it'd be a great idea to grind the game to a halt so that you can play as the villain is genuinely baffling.

The writing elsewhere is shambolic, with just about every other character being ruined by narrative incompetence. Ellie decides to go and kill Abby, then decides not to, then decides actually she will, then decides 'nah, I'll spare her'. So many 180s that Tony Hawk would be proud. Killing hundreds of people to get to Abby but deciding not to kill her right at the very end? Nonsensical. It seems like the game is more concerned with shocking you with a twist than it is entertaining you with a satisfying story.

Dr Neil Druckmann thinks he's some clever pseudo philosopher, spreading profound messages about how revenge and violence are bad and 'aren't the answer'. This is a post apocalyptic world - morals died with much of humanity. He attempts to manipulate us into liking the bland cast of new characters (seriously, who cared one bit about Lev, Owen, Mel or any of their subplots?), with his worst offences being with Abby. The game puts her, who in our eyes has committed an irredeemable act, in these awfully contrived situations as the game attempts to gaslight you into sympathising with her.

Do one Neil.

Part 2 is too long, paced poorly, boring in most places, has no closure and is written shambolically, as legacy characters are desecrated in order to prop up the uninteresting newcomers. It's a miracle that one of the biggest developers in the world could follow up one of the greatest video games of all time with this pile of rubbish. It's like if Stanley Kubrick followed 2001 with The Room.

If it weren't for a certain pandemic it would've easily been the worst thing to happen in 2020.

Is the film underwhelming? Yes. It is still good? Yes. With all of the hype i saw on social media and my friend's conversations I had extremely great high hopes for this film however I was left slightly dissatisfied.

At 3 hours, the film is way too long and it can drag sometimes, especially in the tedious build up of the first half of the film.

Whilst the second half of the film is quicker paced and more enjoyable, including a very well choreographed, action packed end fight scene, I had felt i has seen it all before when thinking about the fight scene in Wakanda in Infinity War and so this wasn't anything special to me. The only thing I did really enjoy about this scene was the return of the fallen soldiers through Dr. Strange's portals. For me, this was one of the best sequences of the entire film.

Similarly, the payoff for the culmination of the fight scene- the Avengers defeating Thanos- was anticlimactic. The writers of the film were not going to have the Avengers lose their final outing and so I fully expected this to happen. Contrast this with last year's infinity war, where I was left utterly shocked at the fact the Avengers, who had been built up as an unstoppable force over the previous 2 films, had lost. My jaw was at the floor in the cinema at the time. It was this complete unexpectedness of the climax of Infinity War that makes me believe, however unpopular this may be, that Infinity War was better than Endgame.

This film is still however good. The cast are, as always, great in their roles and the production value is fantastic, which makes for some beautiful looking scenes. All of the jokes (bar Korg playing Fortnite and Hulk dabbing) land, as does equally the action sequences. The addition of new characters in the Avengers series, such as Captain Marvel, are a welcomed addition and inject some fresh blood into the already solid cast, even with their minute amount of screen time (seriously, Captain Marvel had more haircuts than minutes on screen).

The plot is solid, although the time travel aspect is confusing at times. Similarly, the plot does open some gaping plot holes. Why are the Guardians of the Galaxy searching for Gamora when they ran into her in the fight scene? (I will admit I'm not a hardcore Marvel fan and so maybe missing something) and how can Captain America suddenly pick up Thor's hammer? (I definitely AM missing something there). Thirdly, there are continuity errors. Thanos tears Iron Man, Captain America and Thor and their respective weaponry apart all at the same time WITHOUT the gauntlet. Thanos is strong, but not that strong.

The ending however was the perfect culmination of 22 films over the last 11 years. It tied everything together nicely and gave almost every character a satisfying ending, especially Captain America. Even the end credits with each actors signature were damn beautiful. It didn't bring me to tears but it did make me feel emotional.

The Avengers films have been some of my favourite films over the last few years and so to see it end is saddening. This film could have been much better but I am not disappointed with the way the ended it. It really is the end of an era.