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greggjohns
Reviews
Anatomy of a Scandal (2022)
Dreadful
Predictable, smug soap opera meant to appeal to those who want a taste of the English upper-crust and a clunky plot.. And it seems oddly dated. The situation and story and flat characters belong to a. LIfetime channel movie from the 1980's. It appears to have been based on a novel, which makes it all the more depressing--it's a film of a novel that was based on Lifetime channel movies.
Homeland: A False Glimmer (2015)
Bad writing and often good acting
Some spoilers. Do not read before watching the episode.
The acting is often good on this show, but can't disguise the poor writing, the plotting mistakes, and the strange focus on the least interesting character--Carrie. The last scene encapsulates all of the problems with the show. Quinn is rescued from Carrie's euthanasia attempt by a sudden light, leaving us with a cliff-hanger that might be expected in a daytime soap opera from twenty years ago. Promising, of course, that Quinn will be miraculously revived, because doctors know nothing about the healing power of true love and because otherwise there is no reason to have Quinn linger around so long.
Worse still is the murder of Allison in a way that cannot be kept much of a secret, given the number of people involved, when she would in reality have been simply captured, giving the CIA the ability to learn much from her and the two men who were helping her to escape. The larger problem is that Allison was the most interesting character in the show, since she was genuinely conflicted and smarter than most of the people she encountered. The plotting mistake that justified her death is one of the worst that I've seen in any series or films--she has no reason to lie about the location of the attack. No one knew where the attack would occur. By giving false information, she was discrediting herself and ensuring that the manhunt, so to speak, for her would be intensified. And ensuring that there would be a public disclosure that Russia intentionally allowed the attack to continue. Not the kind of publicity that Russia would have intentionally created for itself, or that Allison would not have foreseen. Easy to understand the reason for the mistake--to allow Carrie to save the day. But that's exactly the problem. The plotting is created to put the more-or-less good characters on a pedestal (erected in honor of a Cold War miniseries conception of the stupid, evil Russians?) instead of presenting a realistic drama.
Good People (2014)
Many plot holes
Hard to ignore some gaping mistakes in the plot:
1. The lead character finds the money, but not the briefcase full of "liquid O" that is right behind it. He finds a box full of cash, but does not look in the ceiling again to see if there is more, or anything else up there?
2. The thugs find the drugs in the apartment after the police have searched the apartment. The police, suspecting that there is a drug tie-in, never think to look in the drop-down ceiling?
3. The couple is about to be evicted, and about to lose "the house." This means the house they are renting? Why not move into the house that he is fixing up and has inherited? It had a roof and walls, and he knows carpentry. No rent to pay if they move into the house, yes?
4. No one seems concerned that a police officer, or someone dressed as a police officer, shot a detective and continued shooting in a public park. Never mentioned on the news they listen to? Never brought up in any of the conversations among the characters?
5. When nailing the thug to the floor, the lead male is somehow able to know exactly where both of his feet were positioned, although the floor is solid where he is standing, with none of the cracks that can be seen in other parts of the floor.
6. The same thug, hiding from people with guns, lights a cigarette, which might not seem wise, since smoke could be seen coming from the room where he is hiding, or smelled. But no one does see or smell it, including Khan, who walks right up to, and almost past, the room before being shot at.
7. No one tries to put out the fire, which is confined to a small section of the house once the shooting has ended.
And of course, the clichés were terrifying--the couple trying to have a child and learning at the end that they were going to have a child. The detective who has lost a child to drugs, and is now seeking to destroy the drug trade? Somehow, the obvious cliché was missed--this couple needed a dog. A dog, wounded in the battle with the drug dealers, but recovered by the end and leaping into their laps after the news that a child is on the way. If you're going to do it badly, go ahead and do it badly.