Reviews

i do not usually bother to write reviews, unless something is extremely good, or extremely bad. the exceptions are generally related to extreme banality: when the ridiculousness of certain attributes of a show out weigh the attributes that make a show watchable.

this show just did that to me, and it did it in a way that cannot be denied, and is in no way simply my opinion: in episode 2:3, we focus on the murder of Purgatory High School hockey champions.

one problem: this show is supposedly set in Texas. Houston is the third greatest port in the nation, and the fourth greatest city--although Chicago is haemorrhaging population, and within a year or two we will likely become the third greatest city while Chicago falls to the fourth position. if hockey were to be paid for by any school district in Texas, they would be in Houston schools, and THERE ARE NONE.

THERE ARE NO HOCKEY TEAMS IN ANY HIGH SCHOOLS ANYWHERE IN Texas. Look it up if you believe i am exaggerating.

this show is not only a Canadian production, it is tailored to the Canadian experience.

there is NO hockey in ANY Texas high school. people in Texas do not even enjoy attending hockey games. there is no official Houston hockey team, and we are the biggest, wealthiest city in Texas. there do exist people whom play hockey on teams here, but it is easily the least popular major sport in the entire state, and attendance is very low. if i remember correctly, the biggest team around is in Sugarland (a suburb of Houston), and the games are treated like minor league baseball. attending a game is more of a goof than anything here. football is everything in Texas, and that is not hyperbole.

the only three sports played in high schools here in order of popularity and order of monies allotted overall: 1) football; 2) basketball; 3) baseball. there are of course other sports played by high school kids, but they do not garner the attention that the big three get...even soccer is slow to get a foothold, because the White men of Texas (those whom control the money) do not care about it...and Houston is home to an amazing championship team: the Dynamo. our team brought championships straight out of the gate, and STILL soccer gets only a fraction of the respect, and almost no money at all at the high school level.

i believe this will motivate me to write a snail-mail correspondence directed toward the director. what the Hell are they thinking?

**spoiler** this is clearly brilliant, but for the folk music. the folk music element would not be so bad, except it suffuses the series, and having more than one person playing it multiplies the annoyance exponentially. when our hero is playing, at least it is clever and funny, but when his father plays, it simply puts me in the position of thinking how much i hate folk music, and how much i wish the dad's songs were entertaining, like the hero's songs.

really--many people have already told you about the awesomeness of this genius undertaking, so i won't waste time saying anything more than i agree with every positive thing here, except anything at all about loving the prolific folk music. folk music is OK, in the appropriate context, but like facial hair: it is nothing i want around constantly, and it only seems to work for about 1 in 5 who choose it.

in this episode, the female doctor emotionally blackmails a young woman into destroying her life by trapping her in a room with a 10-year-old boy.

there is a kidney donation chain meant to save her mother, but one of the patients turns out to be pregnant, disqualifying the kidney meant to save her mother. the female doctor takes away the girl's dream, while never at any time offering her own kidney to someone.

the female doctor got her dream, but the ballerina is forced to sacrifice hers, to satisfy the unethical, immoral female doctor's sense of right and wrong.

this show is mediocre at best, but this episode makes me so angry, i want to choke the life out of the producers.

(i had capitalized some words, for emphasis, but the software forced me to change them. the algorithm is far too sensitive--one should be able to put single words into all-caps, or we should be able to embolden letters. also, the software is f*cking with my spelling.)

Louis Theroux has always shared the stories others overlook, whether for lack of interest ("if it bleeds, it leads" mentality rules info-tainment. "news" industry), or lack of imagination.

this title is no different. Mr. Theroux takes his honest face, his British accent, and a brave crew into some of the most dangerous rooms in the US jail system. he speaks earnestly, and openly with the men and women who are housed or work in the Miami jail system.

some of the men and boys he speaks with will break your heart, if you have an ounce of empathy in you; as a psychologist, my heart breaks for every one. not one story surprised me, but then again, i have studied human behaviour for decades.

if one is truly curious about the jail/prison culture, and how even well-educated, "well-bred," average American university students change into brutal animals in a matter of days, one really must seek the "Stanford Prison Experiment," designed and executed by Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D.. one can locate streamable editions of his film, as well as a documentary about the experiment.

between his work, and the work of Stanley Milgram, an entirely new internal review system was created and implemented universally at all universities: a prospective researcher (or team of researchers) must present to a faculty board on ethics in experimentation their entire plan, from start to finish. not only their objectives and methodology, but a carefully reasoned and documented prediction of possible lingering effects upon the subjects (if animals) and/or participants (if human).

Louis never mentions the Stanford experiment...i wonder why, and Tweeted him the question (i just did so moments ago, no answer yet; not waiting on one...) certainly he read about it, or has seen a film about it. oh well, no way to know unless he answers.

WAATCH THIS! i only wish it was longer.

historically, the US government has conducted,facilitated, and participated in the immoral and unethical testing of diseases and/or drugs and other forms of "treatment," which is actually experimentation many times. frequently, our military are used for experimentation, and the inoculations they are given before going in-country include elements not yet approved by the FDA; some are not even up for approval to be used in the general population.

non-Whites have been targeted most frequently, as well as the handicapped and intellectually impaired. women of all sorts have been a favourite of psychiatry for generations...

the premise of this series is all too believable. a means of population control, delivered via a highly infectious virus sounds about right to me. it could be utilised against an enemy, or here, at home (USA). i had always envisioned a large proportion of a generation being rendered sterile, somehow, thereby slowing population growth for all but the segment of society able to afford IVF. IVF is already financially destroying people, and stealing the future financial security of the children conceived in such a way--for all but the genuinely wealthy. in countries with universal health care, a certain number of IVF attempts are covered for everyone. (yea! ameriKKKan insurance lobby! ~sarcasm.)

the opening credits are basically a music video; it is long, and boring. so much of the music is 50 Cent, which is annoying, and the inclusion of his character is detracting to the overall show. at first, his supporting, rarely-seen character was perfect; but with him firmly entrenched as a hard man, he is being a Kevin Kostner. he is playing himself, which is no challenge at all, and proof he cannot act. (well, that, his stiff delivery of lines, and his inability to appear unaware of the camera-- which is an actor's first job.)

i would have much rather this be a 50 Cent, non-fiction joint, going over his take on the 48 Laws of Power, by Robert Greene. his book is more accessible to the average guy, and includes 2 extra "Laws." his collaborative edition of the book is proof that he is far more than a thug who can rap.

this show only highlights his complete inability to act as well as the other actors in the cast. it hurts his rep more than helps it.

if an enormously important sporting event is compromised by one particular athlete, and the entire world knows that this particular football player is a huge cheat, flat out--why would people making a mediocre (at best) spy-show put that cheating, lying football player on the show???

as soon as i saw his deviant face, i quit the episode.

good job!

if anyone wants this show to do well, and to have more than one season, simply putting pretty faces in the mix will not save it.

patriotic people tend to remember betrayal for a very, very long time. i hate football with everything i am, and everything i have, but what i hate more than football is a lying, cheating, festering, leaking colostomy bag walking upright. tom brady is a scumbag, no natter how pretty he may be, and as he is a huge scumbag, i will never have anything to do with people who continue to worship him, and put more money in his dishonest, cheating, grubby little hands.

BTW: i had capitalised several words in here, for effect, but the algorithms decided i was shouting, and disallowed them. that is cruddy. one should be able to include a few words that are all-caps, if we are not allowed a way to italicise or make bold certain words for emphasis. thanks, IMDb, for strangling all the life out of my review.