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smacneil01
Reviews
Lunatics (2019)
Shameless Rip Off of Short Poppies
First, this show completely copies the premise and even some characters from Short Poppies. Unlike that show, Lunatics is completely terrible. Go watch short poppies instead!
A User's Guide to Cheating Death (2017)
Another hypocritical pop-science documentary about pop-science.
I gave Mr. (not Dr.) Caulfield the benefit of the doubt and watched all the episodes before writing this review.
Creating a documentary about how pop-science, the media, and our own biases shape our perception of health is a great idea. It is necessary to separate fact from fiction and to encourage a scientific approach to health and wellness.
However, this documentary doesn't do any of this. Instead, it presents opinion as fact, has a very narrow and subjective perspective, and is lazy about researching the different topics that it presents.
In Episode 1, extreme examples of detox are presented, the history of detox is not presented, detox and diet are occasionally presented as being the same thing, and a few scientific arguments are presented. Only the ionic foot bath is shown to be a hoax.
In Episode 2, judgements are made about cosmetic surgery; however, risks, benefits, and other considerations are not well explored. There is nothing data-driven or scientific about the arguments being made.
In Episode 3, genetic testing is attacked because it hasn't lived up to the initial hype; however, genetic testing has had many positive outcomes and could still be revolutionary in the future. Because genetic testing has not completely revolutionized health care doesn't mean that it is a myth or that it should be debunked.
Episode 4 presents a case study about the biggest loser and not much else. It doesn't get into most of the interesting research about diet and its relationship to apoptosis or specific diets that have been prescribed to help with epilepsy. Cherry picking crazy fad diets and then ridiculing them does more damage than good and is a strawman argument against diets in general.
I could go on... Ultimately, this show is pop-science trash that hypocritically cherry-picks random aspects of health and wellness to "debunk" them. Health and wellness is complex and they should be evaluated scientifically; however, this show doesn't begin to do that good work. Instead it uses pop-science and opinion to attack convenient pop-science (AND REAL SCIENCE) trends in health.
Jessica Jones (2015)
Boring, Angsty, Self-Indulgent, Stupid Dialogue, Plot Holes, ...
Here are two quotes from Jessica Jones to set the tone for this review:
"People do shitty things, I try to ignore them"
"My friends (superheroes) hate attempted murder, cops hate it too because, you know, it is illegal"
Super powers are often physical; being able to fly, being immune to bullets, or having super strength. This show has a fantastic premise - a super-powered sociopath that can control people. Beyond this basic idea the show was not watchable.
Killgrave, the villain, can mind-control the entire police force or even city to kill Jessica. Instead he sends one person at a time to inconvenience her. He doesn't have any goals or ambitions beyond seeking retribution from Jessica for allowing him to get hit by a bus. How he controls people doesn't really make sense - it would be better if it wasn't instant mind control but more gradual. Otherwise, it is unclear why he doesn't use his powers all the time and just control everyone everywhere.
Jessica Jones is by far the worst part of the show. An angst character that feels immediately distant. The is no real backstory that would allow you to relate to her. She is very one dimensional. The writers make her alcoholic as a ploy to make the audience empathetic to her but it feels really forced and irrelevant to the story and character.
Finally, there are tons of plot holes so I'll just include one: Jessica is willing to throw her heroin addict friend (who is a relatively irrelevant character included to make the show feel grungier) at a nurse and have him potentially get arrested to get a drug to capture Killgrave but she won't let a police officer walk off the edge of a building to actually capture Killgrave.
The most annoying part of the show was how Jessica constantly told every person who was attacking her that they were being controlled by Killgrave. It felt like she was saying it more to remind the audience (as if they would forget?) than to actually reason with those who were being mind-controlled.
At best, this is a boring show with empty characters, a plot pushed on by the writers rather than by the story, and dialogue written by a high school student.