Reviews

I really enjoyed this pilot. I was afraid it wouldn't be good and as Frasier is one of my favorite shows I was quietly dreading this premier. To my surprise it was a sweet and promising start. Kelsey Grammer slips right back into the role he is most famous for without missing a beat.

The rest of the cast thus far is a bit of a mixed bag but I will give them time to grow and see if they can hook me. The only major criticism I have is that they need to lose the laugh track. Such an outdated technique and it really needs to stop being utilized.

I can't wait to see where the series goes and to see what legacy characters show up.

Frank Dabaront finishes out his trilogy of Stephen King adaptations (Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist) in grand fashion. This is a wonderful character driven horror film that honors and improves upon the source material on which it is based.

The cast does a excellent job taking what could have been stock cliche character and digging into the depths of what makes us flawed as a species. Our hatred, bigotry, fear, suspicion, jealousy, thirst for power and control.... Thomas Jane and Laurie Holden make excellent sympathetic leads. Marcia Gay Harden is spine chilling as the main antagonist. And finally Toby Jones gives one of my favorite performances as a heroic grocery clerk.

Do yourself a favor if you can and watch the black&white version as the director intended. It fits the mood of the movie better and covers up some of the weaker special effects issues due to the movies lower budget.

The ending is jaw dropping and a rare instance of a film that changes its source material in a way that the original author Stephen King approved of. If you love old fashioned horror movies do yourself a favor and check this one out.

Having never heard of the source material this wonderful show came as a complete surprise to me. It reminds me in some ways of the failed franchise starter City of Ember but with a much better execution and villains.

The actors are all top notch and in best Game of Thrones fashion you never know how long someone will be around. People who seem like the main characters drop in and out of the narrative.

Rebecca Ferguson, as she is in everything, is remarkable. I can't believe she isn't a more recognized figure among her peers. She is so good.

I hope that the writers/actors strike resolve quickly and favorably (for the unions, not the studio) so that we can get more of this excellent series soon. This is yet another excellent program from the folks at Apple.

While I found myself thoroughly engrossed while watching this movie a funny thing happened around the half way point. I realized I hadn't laughed once. Sure I had smiled a few times at the low key humor but never was a joke thrown in my face that seemed like it was just thrown in there to make sure the film didn't lose the kiddos. Admittedly Pixar doesn't usually go out of its way to ensure kids laughing every second but this film REALLY doesn't have that on it's mind.

This is a lovely story about a grown man discovering his true gifts in life and it left a big smile on my face. A very sweet and inventive film that will hopefully leave most of us adults with something to think about when the credits role.

I adore Star Trek as a franchise. I enjoy all the series with DS9 being my favorite. As a fan who has enjoyed every iteration thus far I don't have any issues with a series like this existing.

As a pilot I think it did a adequate job setting the tone and giving us enough character beats with the main characters to give us an idea of who they are and what they are about. Obviously at under 30 minutes it was very fast paced and having to introduce everyone nothing got deep but there were interesting kernels in each of the characters that I think can develop into something special.

On the down side, it is a little to frenetic and high octane. I hope it will take some moments to breath and let the characters slow down and not spew their dilaouge at warp 9.5.

The character animation was decent as far as modern shows of this type go but the real star is the ship design. Beautiful attention to detail in animating a TNG era ship. The LCARS interface was spot on, the holodeck was perfect, the external design was beautiful. Wonderful all around.

All in all I quite enjoyed the pilot. I have high hopes that it will get better as it goes along and become something special that lovingly lampoons Trek while actually being Trek. This is a nice diversion between Picard and Discovery.

Ok so as far as Klingon episodes of Discovery go this was an improvement but still problamatic from a continuity standpoint. They most spoke english dialogue which was an improvement over the plodding subtitle scenes off the first season but the story overall felt out of place with what this season has shown us this far.

The Spock stuff while interesting was also rife with more continuity issues and felt like padding to fill out the episode. Also the camera work was extremely over the top this week. Bring back Johnathon Frakes.

Over all this episode felt like filler and wasn't as good as the first two episodes. 6/10

The Star Trek: Discovery season 2 premiere was such a breath of fresh air. The tone was just about perfect. The cast seemed much more comfortable relishing in the scientific discovery then the dark brooding drama that permeated season 1.

Tig Notaro as engineer Jet Reno was an inspired choice and I hope she features more throughout the season. I look forward to the potential back and forth between her, Staments, and Tilly. The science jargon seemed more organic and less stilted than ever and it is in large part due to the bubbly science nerd glee that the actors imbue into these passages.

Sonequa Martin-Green was also quite good. By mostly moving away from her Starfleet outcast persona that dominated all of season 1 it gives the actress much more likable and relatable material to work with. Her chemistry with James Frain's Sarek continues to be excellent and I look forward to the addition of Spock into the family dynamic here.

Anson Mount as Pike is also a joy. Engaging with the bridge crew more in this episode than anyone did in the entire first season really illustrated what a great character he is going to be. Exploring a iconic but very limited character from Trek lore has got to be an exciting opportunity for him and I look forward to seeing the dynamic between him and Saru play out throughout this season.

All in all this gives me great hope for the revitalized and ever expanding Trek universe that is developing at CBS. I'm still nervous about some of the other projects but if they are handled in the same vein as this than my fears may be unfounded. Despite all odds Alex Kurtzman, based solely off this first episode, seems to maybe be the right guy to right this ship. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt moving forward and can't wait for next Thursday to see the next episode.