Reviews

"The highest truth of the universe has been revealed to me: it's that you should all worship me, have sex with me (but only if you're good looking) and give me all your money."

Fascinating and infuriating story about how even some very well educated people can fall prey to a self-absorbed cult leader and waste their lives covering up his lies.

In the style of Holy Hell (about the Buddhafield sect) and Wild,Wild Country (about the Bhagwan/Osho sect), Raël: The Last Prophet tells the story of a cult mainly through interviews with current and former members, mixed with old footage of the sect's often absurd activities.

Interestingly, the cult leader himself, Claude Vorilhon ("Raël"), who has managed to become venerated as a prophet by tens of thousands of followers globally, agreed to be interviewed for this production at his current home in Japan.

Emily in Paris has been unfairly trashed in many viewer reviews here. Obviously many people don't understand that TV-programs can target different audiences for different purposes.

This isn't supposed to give an authentic and realistic image of life in France, and no intelligent person will think that it does. It's a teenage fantasy, obviously inspired by more adult shows like Sex and the City. Both shows romanticize a city (New York and Paris), often by also exaggerating its negative sides for added drama or comedic relief.

Both shows display a completely unrealistic lifestyle through their main characters: they have a lowpaid job but live and dress like princesses, go to all the hippest restaurants and clubs, and sleep with almost any man they desire.

This kind of fantasy is called escapism. The purpose of Emily in Paris obviously isn't to give an accurate impression of real life in Paris, but to provide a few moments of mindless daydreaming. And it does so pretty well.

While I'm not surprised that so many French people have given this decent young adult show an unfair 1 star rating and written exaggerated angry reviews, I do find it revealing that so many of them write: "If you want French people to be nice to you, just learn to speak French!"

To my knowledge, no other country's citizens have the ridiculous idea that you must learn their language in order to "deserve" basic respect. Learning a new language as an adult is a life-long endeavour and not something you do every time you visit a new country. The fact that so many reviewers don't understand this kind of proves that this show's depiction of the French as slightly arrogant isn't necessarily completely unfair.

I'm not the intended target audience for Emily in Paris, so it's only natural that I find the show silly and uninteresting. And yet I've binged every season, because it's a well-produced, easy-to-watch, brainless escape into a fantasy world, which is exactly what my brain needs sometimes.

For what it is, it's a decent show. I think giving it 4/10 stars is fair. Giving it 1/10 stars just because Emily doesn't speak French fluently the minute she arrives in France is just ridiculous.

This series is yet another poorly written, melodramatic soap-opera dumpster fire by Ryan Murphy.

Watching this, you can't help but laugh out loud when you're supposed to feel moved or scared. The stupidity of the characters is exhausting. The attempts to mislead the audience with numerous anti-clues feels insulting. The overdramatic cuts to close-ups whenever any of the ridiculously caricatured characters is ranting have the subtlety of a high school student film project.

Spend your precious time on this planet doing something more rewarding. Watch something that stimulates your intellect and treats your time as valuable.

This entire series has the exact same tone as when Katy Perry interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson about science. A cringe fest for adults but might be fun for young kids.

You know those edge-of-your-seat thrillers, the ones where you're taken deeper and deeper into an unraveling mystery and you can't wait to find out the answers to all your questions?

This ain't that. It's trying very hard to be, but it never manages to build an engaging tension. The slow and weak story development made me lose interest before the final episode.

The good people at Netflix need to either find more brilliant writers who get it right on first attempt, or allow more time for screenplays to be developed and refined. This series suffers from on-the-nose dialogue, unconvincing character behavior and a clunky plot development. This actually could've been a good show if the screenplay had undergone a longer iteration process. Many good actors here.

It's so refreshing to see a competition in the form of a course, where people aren't sent home for failing but instead get extra practice time with the teacher. Amaury is not only a skilful and inspiring teacher, he also sets a beautiful example for how to be a good and humble person - something some of the students definitely needed to learn (I'm looking at you, Mellisa).

Very interesting stories. I wish they'd gone for a more mature narration tone and editing style.

Turns a classic sci-fi epic into a pretentious and slow-paced drama about really uninteresting people.

Also, you'd think an interstellar civilization would be able to create more advanced "robot dogs" than humans created in real life a decade ago.

Tries very hard to be the next Edge of Tomorrow but never reaches that level. Mainly because the story gets really dumb two thirds in.

Remember the "screenplay" you and your bestie wrote when you were 13? Infinite is like that.

I guess they thought that since the past year has been the worst in modern history we might just as well suffer a bit more. I've been to job conferences that were more entertaining.

The creators of this series took some of the deepest and most complex ideas from the novel and gave them a new and fresh cinematic form, which is exactly what a good adaptation is supposed to do.

I finished the entire season in one day because I couldn't stop watching. It's one of the most captivating series I've experienced in a long time.

This unique documentary spoke directly to my heart. Stunning and moving.

Ratched could've been great. It's a visual feast. Set design, wardrobe, makeup, cinematography - it's all top-notch. That's why I can't bring myself to give this series a lower rating.

Unfortunately Ratched is yet another example of an interesting screenplay getting butchered by Ryan Murphy's invariable melodramatic soap-opera style. It's like watching a parody of a real series. Add a laugh track and every scene will feel like a well-produced SNL skit. Ryan Murphy must be terrified of real emotions.

THE POSITIVE This is not a typical sci-fi series but a reflective relationship drama. One of its biggest strengths is that it never shies away from the most difficult scenes but lets us stay with the characters through their most emotional situations. This is a brave creative choice that sometimes pays off but sometimes makes the show feel a bit melodramatic.

The series has an impressive cast, and the actors do a tremendous job throughout the entire first season. Although some characters are a bit annoying at times, you actually begin to understand them and even like them a lot after a while. Some of their personal stories are very moving.

THE NEGATIVE For a show this well-made some topics are handled in an astonishingly silly way. For example, a case of long-term dehydration makes a religious crew member believe that he witnesses a divine miracle. Dehydrated or not, a top scientists on a trip to Mars shouldn't be that deluded.

The rest of the crew members also act with poor judgment several times, even though it could cost all of them their lives.

I could let a few of these scenes pass. But there are too many of them, and they become increasingly difficult to overlook.

The choice of soundtrack also kills some of the immersion and gives many scenes a cheesy soap opera tone. It's sad to see some fantastic performances get ruined by a generic pop-song or an overly sweet melody.

But the most unfortunate aspect of this entire series is that the first two episodes are so misrepresenting of the rest of the season and so poorly thought out that they undermine everything that follows. I was sitting through them with my jaws open, wondering how Netflix could've possibly created YET ANOTHER stupid sci-fi show where emotionally immature and unprofessional morons get selected for the most important mission in human history.

That tired setup is so similar to a hundred awful sci-fi shows that it undoubtedly made most viewers stop watching after an episode or two. It was so unnecessary and unfortunate, considering how differently the story developed after the second episode, when there weren't many more silly conflicts between the crew members and we mostly got to see them cooperate as beautifully and professionally as we'd expect from such a team.

This massive mistake left a bad taste for the remainder of the first season, which made all the smaller mistakes in later episodes feel much worse than they actually were.

CONCLUSION 'Away' left me with very mixed feelings. Some episodes and some scenes in each episode were magical. Other episodes and scenes were mishandled to the point that I wanted to stop watching. That makes it hard to recommend this series even though I wish that everyone could experience just the best parts.

Being on the spectrum and looking for love seems almost identical to not being on the spectrum and looking for love. The main difference seems to be that some people with ASD are more aware of all the challenges you must face when going on dates and therefore prepare more for them. We can all learn something from this.

That's why this series is so moving. You recognize yourself in every situation. The nervousness and awkwardness you feel when you meet someone for the first time; the rules and rituals that make the dates feel a bit strange and unnatural; the difficult task of reading the other person's signals and sorting out your own feelings - we've all been there.

I laughed, cried, cringed, and went aaaww many times while watching this. The people in this series are incredibly brave. It's a privilege to be allowed to follow them in their pursuit of a life partner. They inspire me to face my own fears with more courage.

This is a wonderful series that I'd recommend to anyone.

In this fairytale, based on the illustrated novel 'Cursed' by Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler, the magic Fey people have been chosen to protect an ancient magic sword.

The evil Red Paladins are looking for the sword and plan to find it by killing all the Fey people in the world.

After her village is burned to the ground by the Red Paladins, the teenage Fey girl Nimue must deliver the ancient sword to the sorcerer Merlin. On her way to Merlin she gets to know the young Arthur who decides to help her.

This obviously isn't the Lady of the Lake myth we've read before. It's a fantasy tale that takes place in an imaginary world where fairies, humans and mythological beasts all live together.

I enjoyed this show for what it is.

This is one of the best series in its genre. It's brilliantly written, beautifully performed by an impressive cast of excellent actors, it's really engaging, and it cleverly shows how a strong resistance movement is formed after an alien invasion.

The series follows a family caught between a selected elite, who's been given a privileged position in the new system by the alien power, and a growing resistance movement that's trying to fight back.

The aliens themselves aren't in focus much here. This is a story about humans at the bottom of the hierarchy trying to understand what's actually going on in a world where it's almost impossible to see the whole picture. Whenever you think you've figured it out, new information will prove you wrong again and again. It's phenomenal storytelling from beginning to end.

And then the series got cancelled after three seasons for not reaching a large enough audience. Here's hoping that another production company sees its unique value and picks it up for at least one more season.

Impeccable performances by all actors. One of Hugh Jackman's best.

The way the story unfolds just isn't very engaging. There are few surprising twists or turns. You know everything there is to know very early on, and then you basically just watch the story play itself out the way you expected it to all along.

This is a solid film with a flat storyline problem. Not bad at all, but not very thrilling either. 7/10 is fair.

There's no such thing as a perfect multiseason TV-series, but Downton Abbey is probably as close as you can get.

It's a flow of brilliantly written, framed, performed and edited scenes that continuously stir up emotions and provoke thoughts. Every character is interesting. Every conflict engaging.

I couldn't get enough of it. This is one of my favorite shows of all time.

Once again Baz Luhrmann proves that his philosophy of film-making is surface deep. This is all about excessive visuals, to the degree that it just looks vulgar and tacky, and at the expense of every human aspect of the story.

As with almost every Baz Luhrmann-film, I sat through this one without feeling anything for any of the characters.

It may take a couple of episodes before you realize just how good this is, so keep watching! It's a real gem that got every bit right.

This is a historical fiction docuseries, showing the Fall of Constantinople from a Turkish perspective. Historical fiction is by definition not fully historically accurate, because past events are placed on a narrative arc and dramatized in order to build a strong story. Accept this and you'll be a happier viewer.

The iron-willed Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror is beautifully played by Cem Yigit Uzümoglu, who's destined to become a global star after this memorable performance. Because of Cem's passionate portrayal of the young Ottoman ruler Mehmed II, I found myself rooting for him despite of the tragic fates of many soldiers, mercenaries and innocent civilians.

This series was produced and directed by a Turkish film team, and most actors are also Turkish. Critics who claim that the series is biased in favour of the Romans are clearly missing something. In this particular story the Romans are defending themselves against an attack, and many of the victims are civilians, so there's bound to be scenes where we sympathize with them. This is how good storytelling works, and it would have been a creative failure not to include that side of the story.

'Rise of Empires: Ottoman' is a powerful, visually impressive and absolutely bingeworthy series that will linger in my mind for a very long time.

Apart from the intro it feels like I have seen every scene before. The story is built entirely around the most commonly used horror movie tropes, without adding anything unique.

Another problem is that the descent into madness happens so quickly that it feels more humorous than scary.

A totally expendable title.