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Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent (2024)
First episode shows the quality and promise you'd expect from this franchise
Ignore the trolls here, this show is very good out of the gate. This show feels mature - as in that they've been making them for years - rather than the way many first few episodes need time to gel. This series starts off as worthy kin to the Law & Order franchise with great expectations for the coming episodes. Aden Young is the featured lead in this episode (and has top billing) and he brings forth an interesting character with depth and a hint of typically Canadian sarcasm. His partner, played by Kathleen Monroe, is fine but is definitely the second banana this time but I expect she will be the featured lead next week, on some kind of rotation or another. Tonight was 95% police procedural and that's okay. The trial side will come to the fore another day. I speculate they'll go with a variety of formats, one week mostly detective work, another week might be heavy on the trial. It's hard to say with one episode to go on but with the other featured players having only brief appearances, we'll just have to wait for more stories to play out. Fans of Schitt's Creek will recognize Ronnie (Karen Robinson) as the team's boss. The story itself is a well-written contemporary tale of crypto-investment greed with enough red herrings to keep viewers guessing. There are enough Canadian references for an international audience without being too much or too clever for us local viewers. This is definitely a quality series and while only 10 episodes will be available for its debut season, I'd rather have high quality over high volume. If they keep up this pace, I would think there will be more seasons to come.
Enola Holmes (2020)
Painfully dull. How on Earth did this rate a sequel?
First, this is not for purists. It's not really intended to be so if you can get past that you can concentrate on it as something else. What that something else is is a mystery and not a very good mystery. The good news is this film has great costumes, sets, locations, and good acting. However, the bad news is the writing is poor and the plot is boring and scattershot. The most annoying thing for me was Enola's constant breaking of the fourth wall. It's done way too often and it does not really add anything to the experience. The worst thing any movie does is make you not care about the protagonist. How this dull affair rated a sequel is the real mystery here. Watch if you must but prepare to be disappointed.
La Brea: The Next Day (2022)
Easily the dumbest show on TV
I hoped the second season would fix the naked idiocy of the first season. Nope. It's at least as bad, if not worse than before. Aside from the local wildlife being native to the other side of the planet, the plot holes make Swiss cheese seem solid and bubble free. Wild gaps in logic that even the dumbest characters should stumble upon if only by accident but, no, they fall into the logic sinkholes too. How can so many people act so recklessly? Like LOST, every episode creates more questions and answer none. It's very frustrating because every new thing that pops up screams WHY? Can we not make SOME sense first? Alas, this series is hopeless. It's only redeeming value is to mock it mercilessly. Too bad, though, it was a cool concept. It's just so shabbily executed.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)
The pilot episode was hilarious
Wow! Way too many cranky, nit-picky people. Just chill out and roll with it, man. The pilot was a lot of fun, in my humble opinion. I laughed a heck of a lot more with this pilot episode than I did for the entire LOKI series and I had high expectations for that but was greatly disappointed in the result.
The CGI was fine, not WOW, but fine. Could it be better? Probably. Does it matter? Not really. It's good enough. Personally, I'd have filtered it with a quasi-animated filter for everything but that's just me. The acting was good. Nice to see Bruce Banner there to help set things up. Tatiana is fine in the lead. I can see this being quite unusual and promising. I'm looking forward to more and so is my wife and she's not that into comic-book movies or TV shows so there's that. I always give any show that piques my interest at least three episodes before I commit or pass on it.
Being John Malkovich (1999)
This came highly recommended. Too bad those recommendations were by insane people.
Seriously. It seems like a funky, weird, cool idea and it started off not too badly but quickly fell down the stairs, out the front door, and bombarded by heavy parcels from Amazon until it was left for dead at the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. This movie is not recommended unless you are heavily medicated or recently deceased.
Departure: Runaway (2021)
You want ridiculous? You got it!
The first series was a bit of a stretch but otherwise okay and entertaining. This season is ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous. First, there is no high-speed rail service in Canada and none between Toronto and Chicago. It's been talked about for decades, it will be decades yet. So the initial premise is just goofy from the start. The train's braking system doesn't work that way on real trains. High speed train cab has modest damage despite hitting a tanker truck at very high speed. The USA calls in the UK's top air crash investigator to investigate a train crash on US soil? BAHHAHAHAHHAAAAA! Yeah, sure. Then there's the wreck. The investigator is 500 miles away and when she arrives, the site still has hundreds of fires with fire crews NOT putting out fires. But, you know, whatever. The investigator finds a live victim nobody else finds and a missing survivor finds her miles from the crash site at her hotel AND the bad guy finds her and carjacks her in the middle of nowhere. Talk about pushing your luck. The story is stupid the dialogue is awful and the acting is poor. Yet I'm still going to watch this train wreck (pun intended) so I can mock it while I watch it because I can't wait for what stupidity they can do in 5 more episodes! Oh, they've RENEWED IT? Sweet Baby Yoda. WHY? LOL.
The Man from Toronto (2022)
It's not bad. It's awful.
I was hoping for a fun movie but got this formulaic drivel instead. It's somewhat redeemed by a few fairly decent action sequences toward the end if the film. The comedy is mostly lame. Kevin has done much better. Woody, too. Play it in the background while your doing a puzzle or some laundry.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The Elysian Kingdom (2022)
Please, Star Trek, never do anything this bad again.
Seriously. This was a very bad idea poorly executed. If you do make a farce or, at least a comedic episode, hire somebody who can write comedy AND who knows Star Trek history.
Star Trek: Discovery: Rubicon (2022)
I cannot believe they renewed this drek for a fifth season
Seriously. Why? This series is now just the Burnham and Booker love spat show which is uninteresting. This episode was ridiculous on top of a ridiculous season. And did I mention boring? Little character development. Next to no adventure. Juvenile plots. Mediocre acting. Deplorable writing. Again, why was this Star Drek series renewed for yet another miserable season? I keep hoping it will get better but it never does.
Murdoch Mysteries: The Witches of East York (2022)
Subpar episode by a country mile
I love this show but the quality of episodes this season and last have been quite poor with this being one of the worst. Terrible writing, cliched characterizations, and just plain boring. Murdoch himself seems to be a bit obtuse of late and his boss get more two-dimensional with each episode. Remember when MM was about solid detective work, social issues, and relationship-building? Now it's dumbing down into laziness and farce. Too much silly storylines and goofiness. Maybe it's run its course. All good things must end.
Lost in Space: Stuck (2021)
Don West and the chicken for the win
Seriously, they were the best thing about this episode. The rest was boring filler. Blah blah blah. Everyone is in a peril but seem to have tons of time to talk about boyfriends and other teenage drivel. And Judy has the emotional range of a tree stump.
Lost in Space: The New Guy (2021)
Dumb and dumber
Worst episode yet. Pure idiocy. Asteroid field cliche. No effort to recognize rank or seniority. Total BS re the alien robots. Come on. They're not even trying to be halfway intelligent anymore.
Hawkeye (2021)
Enjoyable less-than-super superhero show
It has a few growing pains but I want more. Much more. Lots of potential here for a superhero with super skills but no superpowers. He's therefore a much more relatable character (was, is, and always will be for me). The plots were okay and the action was quite good. Nice bit of humour and a million times better than Loki, in my opinion. Here's hoping for another round.
Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021)
You'll love it or you'll hate it.
Crappy sitcom part of the time, edgy-ish drama on the other side. The drama works for me, the sitcom is pure rubbish. Annie Murphy is good as is the reality-side cast. The sitcom side is cringe-worthy at best. Just horrible.
The Mandalorian (2019)
This is everything Star Trek should be, but isn't
I'll admit, I'm primarily a hard-core Star Trek fan with a great love of the Star Wars universe as well but I've got to say, The Mandalorian is everything a Star Wars TV series should be and everything Star Trek: Discovery is not, sadly. Great central character that is mysterious, imperfect, and who feels real. Cool sidekick in the little green guy who says nothing verbally but who is so interesting anyway. I like the pace, the writing, the direction, the art direction,... everything. And nobody's crying all the damned time. I'm looking forward to Season 3 and to it's parallel mini-series, The Book of Boba Fett due out tomorrow (29 Dec 2021). This is the Way.
Manifest (2018)
Mayday! Mayday!
Such a cool idea that starts out well but gets dumber with each season. I'm hoping it gets better with Season 4 on the new network because they jumped the sh...ARK with his one in Season 3.
Young Sheldon (2017)
Much better than The Big Bang Theory
If you hated TBBT, give this show a chance. It's quite a different experience and a different style of comedy than the show that inspired it. Sharp and witty, this comedy is mostly family-friendly but not at all lame as you might expect. Cool characters that are more real and with depth and humanity that TBBT often lacked due to that show's superficiality. I liked TBBT but I love this show.
Westworld (2016)
Blade Runner meets 3:10 to Yuma via The Twilight Zone
I was hesitant going it but it's been a fun and fulfilling ride three seasons in (so far). This series is a rarity - and I do mean a rarity - in science fiction in that it is hard core and written by people who appreciate and understand the genre. Great drama, fine acting, fantastic characters - with plenty of intelligent plot twists (not stupid plot twists just for the sake of plot twists). There is a long game threading through this but plenty of things to keep it interesting along the way. Repeated watchings gets you so much more out of it. It's rich and it's deep. My hat is off to everyone involved. I cannot wait for Season 4.
Loki (2021)
So Disappointed
I loved the Loki character in the movies and looked forward to this series. What I got was a dumpsterful of disappointment. A pale shadow of itself. Not only was it not very funny, it wasn't even good drama. Dull, boring, and a waste of time and talent. It's only virtue was the quality of the special effects. All hype, no delivery.
Loki: For All Time. Always. (2021)
Embarrassingly awful
Slow, boring, and tedious. Too much talking, not enough action. And zero humour or fun. A pathetic waste of time. The villain was miscast, completely uninteresting and unconvincing character. If this portends Season 2, I'll take a hard pass and read cereal boxes instead.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
Contrived nonsense
Sadly, this show continues to spiral into a black hole. Michael performs yet another miracle against yet another galactic peril. Screw science. Forget about shields and tractor beams, we need a tether. Ludicrous! Everything is predictable nonsense. Utter crap. Andromeda was a better show than Discovery. What a shame.
Star Trek: Discovery: Kobayashi Maru (2021)
Your agonizer, please
This series gets more ridiculous with each season. Everyone is grinning like lobotomized idiots. Bad science. I can't even suspend my disbelief because there's so much wrong with everything. So very disappointed.
Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)
Skip it. Seriously. Skip it.
I loved the first movie. As a public service, I am asking you to please not watch this appalling sequel. It's not one-tenth as good as the original. Pray they don't make another.
The Spy Next Door (2010)
I hate myself for watching this movie.
I love Jackie Chan but this money is horrible by any standard. Yes, it's probably okay for kids, but only if you hate them.
Bullets or Ballots (1936)
Solid Warner Bros crime drama
Edward G is in fine form and Bogie fans should enjoy one of his patented pre-stardom criminal roles. They don't get along and that makes for entertaining viewing in their first of five movies together. This morality play also features good performances by Barton MacLane and Joan Blondell with Frank McHugh providing his typically-enjoyable comic relief. This is a pretty solid movie but I have to wonder how much it might have been better without Code restrictions.