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jtwire
Reviews
Dark (2017)
You can do anything witha story today!
If sense is not required then you can do anything with a story today! I had held out hope for too long that the answers to things wouldn't be "It's A Paradox" but instead there appears to have been a writer's room full of hacks saying "well, get out the paradox bible and let's see what story element we will throw in" Show became horribly predictable with character tropes and "paradox of the week". Easy to figure out who was going to do what and with whom once the only requirement was "what fits the timelines/ages vaguely and what would the next big reveal be if nothing has to be explained".
Horribly disappointing show unless you just want to be told a fairy tale with cartoon villains.
Love, Death & Robots (2019)
Some good, mostly bad, episodes
One thing I noticed as I went through this series, if the episode has a soft core porn scene in it then it gets rated 2 points higher than it should. Overall the series is OK, some very few episodes are really good, but the strange mix of "here's a comedy, here's a porn, here's a mind bender" just doesn't seem to work any better than randomly googling "short videos" and putting youtube on autoplay.
McLeod's Daughters: Stripped Bare (2002)
Did they run out of ideas already
Enjoying the series about capable people dealing with various issues and it walks the line of not being too much of a soap opera most episodes. But they took away the "capable people" part and wrote a bunch of keystone cop routines for the characters this episode. When Jodi is the sharpest one for the week there is a major problem.
I hope they get back to good people doing good and don't go any farther down the road of "if we just write them stupid we get more drama!!"
The Invisible Man (2020)
great start bad wrap up
The first 20 minutes is very engaging and builds up a lot of promise. Then things slow down, way down, stumbles along with more low points than high points and finally wrapping up with logical plot holes too great to ignore. Ends up way too long for what it does.
Elisabeth Moss seems, in many scenes, as if she has been given direction to walk here, look that way, emote this feeling. She comes across as very acted. Not sure if it is she just doesn't have the acting chops for a movie or if she was put into so many scenes to act completely alone with no other actors to work off of. I understand that is a tough thing for actors. Either way, it ended up looking like she had just finished an acting lesson and was doing the practical portion.
Overall, skip this one. Sci-fi horror has to be careful of logical consistencies simple horror doesn't. And this one gave up on that early in the film.
Knives Out (2019)
Solid, well acted mostly makes sense - spoilers
Enjoyed the movie though I felt it worked a bit too hard at trying to lead viewers down a wrong path. Motives introduced rapidly, then revelations that undo all that set up. If this was a mad cap comedy that would be fine, but this was intended to draw you into the whodunit with the occasional laugh.
Still not sure about the opening scene. Nurse comes in, fixes a breakfast and coffee very casually, then goes to bosses bedroom, hmmmm, not there, then casually goes upstairs to his study and finds him dead! Shock, she drops the tray, etc. Turns out she knew he was dead upstairs the entire time because she watched him die!
Acting was pretty good, could have done without the political drama, I don't go to movies to watch pantomimes of CNN or Fox talking heads spout their views.
The rest of it fit together causing you to have a few "oh, yeah, that makes sense" moments. Be nice if they have a Benoit Blanc series where the casts have just a bit more fun with their roles. Daniel was great in it.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 4: Sanctuary (2019)
Bit choppy but still promising
Loved Gina character and felt she was really underused in this episode. Certainly hoping they develop her to something other than "it's the Mandalorian, without any armor". Battle tactics sucked as usual. And the idea that trained raiders AND a walker can attack people with 3 days of training and a stick and not kill anyone doesn't bode well for the future. Hope it strengthens. It has some of the promise of Firefly, just drifting along to different stories, but it is definitely lacking in character development at this point.
The Making of Anna and the Apocalypse (2019)
Good and bad throughout
The actors are a talented lot in Anna and the Apocalypse but not talented enough to save this movie from it's many faults. The creators/writers probably got together and thought "we'll turn the genre upside down and make a zombie musical!" Then their creativity dried up and they went to the cupboard to get generic cookie cutter characters.
Pros:
Great singing, some fun songs, a few shining moments when it all comes together, a few surprising moments
Cons:
Generic characters, predictable plot development, too may just plain silly moments.
Christmas, Again (2014)
Comes together too late
Towards the end it has a very few moments that make you start to think, this is a good story. But the rest of it is just the viewer watching a pretty decent guy do his job in pretty normal circumstances.
Timeless: The Day Reagan Was Shot (2018)
Logic out the window
So they have to "stop this marriage" or the world changes!!! But holding Denise's hand and making her the hero for the capture of Hinkley, oh that has no impact. I am so tired of these stupid illogical connections.
Supernatural: Our Father, Who Aren't in Heaven (2019)
Don't think the season will recover
I am now watching the episodes only because I have spent 15 years watching this show, which has faltered badly at points but generally came back in time for me to think "ok, might be worth one more season".
In this case, the writers have given up and I don't think there is time to recover. After they killed Rowena I thought, ok, so they are bringing back barely memorable characters but at least they are killing some off, this might focus the writers a bit.
But no, Rowena is back and they are expanding the part for the barely memorable characters. Castiel and Dean, often the highlight of the show, are having a multi episode tiff where they both get moody and don't talk. Yeah, needless bickering and moody looks, that was always the highlight of the show . . . oh wait, no, that was the parts where I would consider giving up on the show because it was so stupid.
At least there is a break now. Maybe I won't go into the next one soured over where they are at and maybe the writers will figure out what makes the series great. Sam, Dean, Castiel kicking and taking names. Not sure who these characters are this season, but at least I can console myself that there are only 12 episodes left and, after 15 years, I might just make it to the end in that case.