Reviews

So I've been binging community from the beginning and have read a few things online declaring seasons 1-3 the best of the bunch, which I totally agree with.

I've also seen several commenters saying that season 4 is the weakest of the 6 - a view I have to say I don't share. I believe that (dis)honour should go to season 5.

Season 5 seemed desperate to reclaim the outlandish and bonkers atmosphere of the earlier seasons, but wound up being a bit of a pale immitation of earlier seasons.

I would also have to say that the loss of Troy really hampered one of the funniest elements of the community formula; Abed's meta humour. It felt as if Troy and Abed were effectively a single unit up to this point, and losing half of that unit (probably the best bit of the show) was definitely a blow that couldn't be easily recovered from. Also the loss of Pierce (irritating as he could be) and the conflict he embodied was also detrimental to the show's formula.

So, by the end of season 5 I was kind of wondering if there was any point "saving" Greendale for another season. Basically at this point I'm just watching to see how it ends.

I don't mean to criticise Community too harshly - it's still more entertaining than a lot of the other drab and formulaic sitcoms out there, but I guess that's the danger of setting the bar so high to begin with.

With that in mind, the first episode of the final season wasn't too bad. For such a good show that shouldn't be much of an accolade, but compared to season 5 it's pretty high praise in my opinion.

Abed is more entertaining in this episode and the new character brings a different dynamic to the group. Abed's montage fixation this episode had a fairly amusing payoff too.

To sum up: This is a country mile from being a classic community episode, and it's clear the show has about snuffed it. But, based on the season 5 set-up, this wasn't the chore to get through that I was expecting.

And for what's left of the study group, that's kind of a win. A conclusion that makes me die inside a little, but I guess that's the best I can hope for at this point.

Lots of reviews describing this as "a joke of a film", but doesn't a joke have to be funny?

This tries to dial up the slapstick humour to 11 and fails miserably with just about every misguided attempt to crack a joke. And it's constant.

Thor was the movie that introduced me to the MCU, and this has nothing to do with that film. This is just a bad parody of a fantastic movie.

The one bit it does do well is the villain: Christian Bale's dark and menacing presence is so well done, but his scenes feel so out of place. It'd be like having Clarice interview Hannibal in the middle of Naked Gun 33 1/3

The MCU has definitely been on a downhill slope since Endgame, but this feels like the actual end now.

First season started well - nice setup and concept, cool visual style and plenty of Alien references and callbacks, but then it felt like it lost its way a bit in the last few episodes of the season, bringing what I would otherwise have rated as an 8, possibly 9 out of 10 as a 7.

Second series started out as a mediocre scifi, but was worth sticking with as it finished with some pretty cool answers to some big questions from season 1, and a potentially great setup for season 3, so I upped my score to an 8. If they manage to keep it on track for season 3, I could even see that going up to a 9.

Having said that, judging by the inconsistent quality up to now season 3 could just as easily bring it down to a 6. All depends if they have a coherent plan for the next season. Fingers crossed...

Ok, we get it. Tom Ellis can sing! And rather well at that. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the whole Lucifer cast. But that doesn't stop them having EVERYONE break out into big song and dance numbers multiple times throughout this episode.

It was, admittedly, mildly entertaining the first couple of times, but by the 4th or 5th time it gets really grating and cringeworthy.

The only thing that saves it in the end is Tom Ellis' excellently tortured performance. But that could well just be a manifestation of the literal torture that is this episode.

Remember that really bad musical episode of Buffy?

This is so much worse.

I stumbled across this on youtube, and being a bit of a dragon freak, I gave it a watch. Firstly, the dragons are fantastic and the Walking With Dinosaurs style documentary sections are beautifully done. It's just a shame that when it comes to the humans that the worst actor was given the most screen time! I have seen a thousand B-movie actors who could do a better job than Paul Hilton. In fact, just about every other actor in this film could have done a better job! He was like a private investigator out of the least classy B rated crime flick ever. For me, he honestly let the whole film down. I guess his script had a lot to answer for too. Surely someone must have said during the recording of Dr Tanner's dialogue and voice-overs "there is no way any self-respecting biologist would speak/act in this way". Every time he came on screen I cringed. That said, Ian Holm's Attenbourgh-esque narration of the dragon's evolutionary journey was fantastic and the special effects and dragon designs were marvellous. And yes, the theories put forward wouldn't stand up to any real scrutiny... but if you are watching a fictitious documentary about the evolution of dragons throughout the ages, I think you can afford a little suspension of disbelief...

This would have received a 9 from me if it weren't for Dr Tanner's character.