Reviews

The first few episodes I wasn't quite sure what to expect of this series. There's a lot of over the top silliness. Ruby's character is the most consistent and real of the cast. A few of her workmates are one note stock sketch comedy characters. But there are still laughs to be had with pretty much all of them. By episode 3, it's clear what the program is at its core. This is a truly heartwarming show, focusing on empathy, humanity, and just old fashioned kindness, connection and contact. I may have even had a tear in my eye during the finale episode, which I never expected. I do hope there's a season two. So glad I watched the first series all the way through!

The performances and storylines are huge and over the top at times. It's clearly by design and it's simply brilliant. I laughed so much, and so consistently, throughout episodes 3 and 4 that I had to keep replaying scenes so I didn't miss anything. Patricia Arquette is genius (yet again) here. She is fully invested in this high camp, voracious for a new life, wannabe gumshoe character. And the scenes between her and Brad Garrett are absolute comedy gold. Looking forward to the final few episodes to see where this wacky and winding road takes us! I suggest viewers just go with it and enjoy the ride.

I'm not sure if it's the writing, the directing, the acting, or all of it. This just doesn't work. I loved Alexandra in some of her former roles but she's very wooden in this. Again, I know she can act, so maybe it's the direction? And so many lines in the script, even after the first two establishing episodes, continue to just be exposition exposition exposition. So little happens in each overlong episode. I read the Vampire Chronicles but not the Mayfair Witch books. Are they as bad as this show? There are a handful of episodes until the season is over. It's already been renewed. I'll watch it to the end and then see the reviews for season 2 before I commit to this. Normally on shows like this I pay rapt attention and make sure I don't miss a minute. The first season of Interview With the Vampire, while losing a bit of luster towards the end of the season, was mostly very good and I paid attention! When I'm watching this show, I'm multitasking because again, so little happens. It's like they have one scene per character set or timeline that is just stretched out throughout the episode and they go back and forth. It feels more like a daytime soap opera but with a higher budget.

This show reminds me of any number of shows on the USA Network in the late 90s or early 2000s. The little mysteries are solvable within minutes of the story unfolding and much of what happens in each episode is seriously convoluted and utterly ridiculous. But I can't help watching it and I just love the show. It's really about the cast. Marcia Gay Harden, Skylar Astin, and Madeline Wise perfectly embody their characters and have fantastic chemistry. The supporting cast is also very good. Across the board the actors are all in, embracing the silly, sometimes playing it perfectly straight, and sometimes a little wacky, and it just works! It's fun and silly and quirky and I think it will get better as time goes on and the writers and producers embrace what works and throw out what doesn't. I look forward to watching this each week as a distraction from the real world.

I don't usually review single episodes but with this uniformly solid anthology series (until this episode) I had to. I will credit the production for the last 10 minutes of this episode. It shows what could have been if the characters were somewhat grounded in reality throughout. The writer and director didn't pick a lane. This episode was all over the place in a mystifying way. If it's going to be a farce make it a big farce. I don't think that's what they were aiming at in this episode but that's how all the lines and character behaviors read. But it did not work if that is what they were going for. Such boring, over the top, stereotypical behavior from an LGBT script. Perhaps the point of this episode was to show us that not all gay couples conform to stereotypes, but in most ways, the two lead characters were also negative stereotypes. The two lead actors, both very good in projects I've seen previously, had zero chemistry. And for those first 20 minutes or so, they seemed to be playing AT everything, whether it was anxiousness, nervousness, confusion or just being bumbling fools. The last 10 minutes almost saved the episode - but almost just wasn't enough.

As another middle-aged gay man writing a review of this, I'm on the boat of this show is just not very good. I so wanted to love it. I watched the whole season and I'm happy that this is not my social circle in any way, shape or form. It's all super shallow characters putting on the facade of caring and emotion. It's just one stereotype after another parading through scenes. It's surreptitiously judgmental and cruel in the guise of sarcasm and cutesy snark. A cast of great actors are utterly let down and left in a wasteland of a vapid script and storyline. And I didn't mention the female characters because they're such an afterthought and underwritten in this show that it's a disservice to the great Tisha Campbell and Marcia Gay Harden to even bring it up. Why bother when the writers didn't?

The show takes a few episodes to find its feet, establish characters and really get moving. Once it blasts off so to speak, it's one of the best, most creative, and thought provoking science fiction series in years. There is enough through line from the original movie but this series is its own thing. Enjoyment as a viewer is not dependent on having seen the film. All the performances work. One of the most perfectly cast projects I've seen. The story makes sense in the here and now when it takes place, which is a difficult thing to pull off. I hope people ignore the low star ratings that ludicrously call the show woke, as if that's the only reason you would ever cast a person of color in anything. Don't believe the trolls. Watch it through to the end and decide for yourself!

I was worried when I saw that it was actors lip syncing to the archive interview tapes. After a few minutes of being distracted by that fact, I was completely mesmerized by the content. And the actors all did an amazing job in their roles as these HIV and AIDS patients, some who lost their lives and others who are still here. By using these actors along with archive photos and video, it didn't feel like these were anonymous patients. I felt like I really got to know these three dimensional people who were telling their fascinating stories and dropping wisdom at an unbelievable pace. It's beautifully done and important to remember the history of the government's non-reaction to the virus and the awful (fully undeserved) stigma attached to the diagnosis for so many years. Highly recommend.

I've been so disappointed with so much of each episode until this one. Everything came together with the writing, the characters and the performances. This is what I want the show to be! There are only two episodes left of the season after this, and I hope they keep hitting such a high mark so that if it gets renewed, they'll know what works. This episode was laugh out loud hilarious and tear-jerkingly emotional as well. Perfection.

I watched this for Anna Chancellor and Haley Mills. Both actors get to really chew the scenery. You can tell they're having a fabulous time. Intentional or not, their scenes play as high camp and I enjoyed their collective screentime. I could watch Anna Chancellor read the phone book. And who wouldn't want to see Haley Mills playing the thug heavy? Fabulous casting against type. Other than that, this four-part series, which could have been two, maybe three episodes (they pad for time with flashbacks throughout of things that happened three to four minutes earlier within the same episode), was a waste of time. The tone was all over the place, even in a single scene. The ever present musical score was absolutely histrionic. Plotholes abound. There is seriously poor writing and exposition all over the place in this one. If the screenwriter wants us to sympathize with a main character going through PTSD and suffering from gambling addiction, you have to give them some redeeming value. You have to show us who they were before they went down this path. There was none of this and I found myself rooting against the protagonist, Jenny (Leanne Best). She is written as a pretty irredeemable human being throughout, even in the ludicrous ending. Anyway, if you are able to watch it where you can fast forward 5 to 10 seconds at a time, it's really the only way to watch episodes 3 and 4. Or you can just skip it all together.

Compared to the initial reviews, it appears I'm in the minority. I thoroughly enjoyed the three episodes and binged them in one night. I found the whole thing fun, charming and a hoot. I loved all the performances as well as the lush locales and cinematography and the performances. Hugh Laurie's direction is smooth. Not everything adds up, but this isn't Agatha Christie's best story, and that's okay overall. There are always too many suspects and shoehorning for things to make sense in the plot. As long as you understand who did it and the basic why in the end, you're good. Just go along for the ride. Pay attention to the clues as they come and you can probably solve it before they do. Sure, there are tons of red herrings and subplots to nowhere that distract, but again, it's lesser Agatha Christie. What do people expect? It's only confusing if you let it overwhelm you. And it needn't. Enjoy!

The cast are all super talented. Also great writers but not great writing. There are some clever bits here and there, but I never find myself actually laughing out loud. I don't know if it was transplanting this from the original New York premise to Los Angeles, as they continue to try to shoehorn it into working as an LA based story, or if it was just a weak idea from the start. I was so hopeful between the first and second season that changes would be made and the show would be re-tooled and made funnier. So far this is not the case, and it's not much better. Le sigh.

I'm a big fan of both Peter Dinklage and Ben Mendelssohn. Peter Dinklage simply cannot sing. Unfortunately, that fact plays prominently into a musical when the person who cannot sing is the lead. It took away my attention from pretty much anything else on the screen whenever he would sing. Haley Bennett as Roxanne was charming in the role and has a beautiful singing voice. Also, strangely, at a meandering 2 hours, the ending still felt rushed. I watched it on an industry streaming screener. Perhaps on the big screen it plays better.

A beautifully written, acted, and directed finale to a glorious series adaptation. Just wonderful. Full of redemption, understanding and hope. I wish this show could go on forever.

Great performances all around and solid direction. It's sort of sad to see the reviews from people who say they didn't get it or that there were pieces missing. Not every film needs to spell everything out at every moment and spoon feed the viewer. This film gives enough to satisfy but still leaves many questions that will linger with the viewer after the film is over. There are paths not taken, poor choices made etc. There are holes in Leda's story. She's an unreliable narrator. There's also an unclear ending. But these are both part of what makes this movie work so well. Each is a tried and true method used in novels and movies. It's nothing new. I'm flabbergasted by these one and two star reviews. This is a wonderful film. It's really unfortunate that some people can't wrap their heads around the idea of a movie that takes its time and has the tension slowly build throughout like in this one, and doesn't have a neat ending with everything tied up in a bow.

This take on the Scottish play is just fantastic. The cinematography is absolutely stunning. It's less of a black and white and more like a gelatin silver print come to life. It's also presented in the old academy ratio (1.375:1) which suits it so well for all the close-ups and two shots. I was really taken by this film. The visuals blew me away. From the exterior shots in fields and forests to the surrealist visions inside the castle, I don't see how there won't be Oscar nominations coming. Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Kathryn Hunter and Bertie Carvel give standout performances. If it's possible for you to see this in a movie theater, I highly recommend it!

I watched the first three episodes today and must have seen a different show. The reviews posted early on the day of release are all one or two stars. That's impossible. The series is well-crafted and really interesting so far with great performances and a tight script. All the criticisms and low ratings seemed similar, maybe from the same person or group. And they were uninformed. Someone mentioned how it's obviously not Chicago. The production began shooting on location in Chicago in January, 2020 and had to stop due to covid. They had two episodes in the can but had to shut down production. They had no option but to move the production to Canada when they were able to resume shooting in January, 2021. This information is readily available all over the internet. And my favorite is when people say how "unrealistic" it is. I'm sorry, this is based on a fictional book written before our latest pandemic. And the pandemic in the novel is completely different. Why do trolls reviewers try so hard to bring everything down immediately? I'll update my review once the series is over but please, don't go by the reviews posted the day of release, all those one or two stars ones. There's no way they watched all ofthe first three episodes. One person gave it one star and admitted they had only watched 15 minutes total. How can you possibly give a review of something after watching 15 minutes of an hour long program? It's so sad that trolls have taken over imdb member reviews.

Unfortunately, that good movie wasn't here. There were moments I truly enjoyed and laughed out loud, but they were few and far between. The tone was all over the place in writing, storyline and acting. If they were going for quirky and mixing genres, the writers should have taken a few more notes from something like Raising Arizona.

I got through the straightforward backstory episodes 1 and 2, swayed by the documentarian, who was the child at the center of this custody battle (and an accomplished episodic tv director in her own right), to feel a certain way towards the parties involved. But episode 3 turns the whole event and fallout on its head, adds a completely new perspective, and changes the way you see this story, and possibly your feelings toward the different parties involved. I remember this story from my teenage years. But I only ever saw the quick news stories and maybe a few talk show appearances with the mothers and the daughter in the middle of it all. This documentary adds context and perspective. It also shows that winning a custody battle can be a tragically pyrrhic victory. I recommend this series as a whole.

The series starts off so promising with a fun premise and interesting characters. But by about halfway through the first season, practically every single episode has gay panic and a smattering of homophobic slurs and jokes. The other characters either laugh it off or act completely nonplussed. I made it through a season and a half and had to stop watching because I was so disgusted by how laissez faire the characters were in their homophobia. Most of the writing and storylines are also sexist and misogynistic. Season 2 gets especially bad with calling someone a lesbian or the slang slur term as an insult to the person's character over and over throughout the season. It's startlingly tone deaf and out of date.