Reviews

First of all, I did not expect this show to be this gory and gruesome! I mean, with how brutal the world of this show is, it makes sense for it to be this gory, and PG-13 just wouldn't be as realistic. If it had more gory and bloody scenes, I would think I was watching a body horror instead of post-apocalyptic sci-fi.

And I'm not saying that as a negative, exactly the opposite actually. I just didn't expect it to go as far as it did and I'm glad because boy do those scenes look good.

So as kind of a Jonathan Nolan fanboy because of Person of Interest and the first season of Westworld, I had no doubt this show would be good. But it actually surpassed even my expectations as to how engaging and well-written this was.

I honestly hate that TV shows nowadays only have 8 episodes per season and you have to wait 2 to 3 years till the next one comes out, and you will have already lost all interest or don't remember anything by the time the next season is out. But thankfully, the writers here managed to not only tell a somewhat full story in these 8 episodes but the finale wasn't rushed like every other new show with under 9 episodes.

Nearly every episode is an hour, so you'll get enough time to get introduced to the characters, the story, and the world. And they do a phenomenal job with the world-building.

From the very first episode, you immediately get thrown into this world and you'll get so immersed in it that you don't want to even get up to go to the bathroom. And yeah, of course, I just binged the whole show for 9 hours straight!

The storytelling here is great. The hero's journey and what she goes through is really well done. This isn't one of those situations where the protagonist has plot armor and nothing bad ever happens to her. She actually goes through some sht here and the character development here is great. Lucy from episode 8 is nothing like episode 1 Lucy.

The show is also a great adventure show too. The journey of the protagonist(s) throughout the show is great as they get thrown into these post-apocalyptic and weird survival situations that they have to find a way to get out of. And they are all engaging and you just can't wait to immediately watch the next episode when you finish one.

The visuals are amazing here. The production value here is top-notch and they build a really believable world that feels lived in with a great variety of characters.

This show might not be as deep and philosophical as season 1 of Westworld, but if they keep up the quality writing and don't do another Westworld season 2 to 4, this might end up being even better than that.

And sure, the villains' motivation here is a bit cartoonishly evil, but I think it kinda makes sense in the context of this world.

The storytelling here is great. Flashbacks are kind of Nolan's forte when it comes to storytelling and Fallout is no exception. They give us more character backstory and world-building through these little flashbacks, and they have the intrigue of Vault 31 that keeps you guessing till the last episode waiting for the revelation. They know how to keep the audience engaged and not reveal everything in episode 1 so there wouldn't be any mystery or intrigue to keep the audience invested in the story.

And like I said, the protagonist here is great. She goes through some pretty gruesome stuff in her journey through the wastelands and has moral conflicts about the situations she gets into. That's how a great protagonist should be. A relatable and likable hero that gets changed by her journey and evolves.

And yeah, the overall story isn't the most original one or one that you can't predict its clichés or anything. But when it's well done and well incorporated into the context of the story and the world, who cares if there are some clichés here and there? After all, you can't have a story without clichés.

And I almost forgot to mention how funny the little bits of comedy they threw in here are. It's not cringey Marvel level of jokes and comedy bits that ruin the tension or the serious scenes, it's actual funny moments that happen in the context of the story that are just well-done and well-placed.

So overall, this is one of the best, most well-made, and most engaging recent shows I've watched, or even all the shows in general. And also, not to mention that it is another great adaptation of a video game. I might even like this more than The Last of Us show honestly.

So here's hoping the next season doesn't take 3 years to make, and also doesn't end up like the rest of Westworld.

I have a lot to say about this show and how painful it was to actually sit through and watch all of it. But I try to be as brief as possible and not waste any more of my time on this show.

First of all, it must've taken me 4 or 5 months to actually finish this show. It took me nearly 2 months to watch season 3. For comparison, I finished Mr. Robot in under a month.

Secondly, the main character of this show, Detective Ambrose is one of the dumbest, most frustrating, and unlikable protagonists of any show I've watched. I honestly couldn't wait for this show to end so I could never have to endure his awkward interactions with everybody in his life ever again. Not to mention how annoyingly he grins and smiles all the time in every interaction and in any mood whatsoever. I thought maybe he would get better as the show proceeded, but his demeanor did not change at all. So there is that, the only constant in an anthology show, and he's unlikable and hard to watch.

The writing of this show is just laughably bad and cringey at most times.

Many say the first season is the best one and that it's actually good, and I guess you could say it's the best when season 3 was that abominable. But I didn't even like season 1 that much either. I could sense how shallow the writing is from the very first season, and it was obvious they tried to act like their writing was so deep and dark but it felt more like an edgy 14-year-old wrote it. And then they went and made that third season? Ooh boy.

If it wasn't for season 4, I would've given this show an even lower rating. Season 4 was surprisingly not bad at all and I was actually invested in the plot and the characters, to my own disbelief and surprise!

So season 4 is the saving grace of this show honestly. After the horrible season 3 (which I think the average of my episodic rating of that season was 3.6/10!), I'm glad they actually made a decent season and they didn't end the show with that awful third season.

Season 1 starts out with some pretty interesting stuff, but gets really mediocre and meandering in the middle. It just drags on and on for no reason other than to stretch the story to 8 episodes. But I think the ending was decent enough. The story drags for no reason and they could've solved the whole thing a lot sooner. But overall, season 1 is a decent watch but still made me want to drop the whole show and not watch the rest of it.

The only reason I decided to continue watching it was because of Carrie Coon in season 2. And wouldn't you know it, they made her the most annoying and frustrating character in that season! Season 2 was honestly infuriating to go through.

But nothing compares to the farce that was season 3. You can't believe how many bad decisions the detective and other characters make in that season. And the cringey pseudo-intellectual story of it was like it was written by an edgy teenager who just discovered Nietzsche and read some philosophy book for the first time in his life. I cannot emphasize enough how cringey and hard-to-watch those season's "deep" and "intellectual" scenes were to sit through.

Season 3 can honestly be used as a real method of torture. Alex was actually watching The Sinner season 3 in that scene of A Clockwork Orange!

Couple that with the worst writing of the whole show with characters making the worst decisions ever, and the story not having the potential of being 8 episodes, and the fact that there is no intrigue and no mystery to the story. And you'll understand why it took me 2 months to finish that season.

Now season 4 is another story. I actually binge-watched season 4's first 6 episodes in one day and finished it by binging the last 2 episodes the next day. Now the circumstances of me watching this season were different because I had no internet and all I could do was watch a show. So that's what I did and my God I couldn't believe my eyes. A The Sinner season that I actually want to willingly sit through, and am invested in the story? A season where there are very few bad decisions made by Detective Ambrose? Where the main characters aren't annoying like the last 3 seasons?

Anyway, I'd say I wouldn't recommend this show to my worst enemy, because that's how bad it is, but then again, I actually didn't hate season 4, so there is that too.

But overall, I really wouldn't recommend this show to anyone at all. Even seasons 1 and 4 which weren't that bad. But even if you're going to watch it anyway, just remember not to expect an actual well-written detective show or even a well-acted one. The pacing is also sluggish and the stories don't deserve 8 episodes, so it's gonna be a lot of borefests to go through. Watch it at your own discretion!

Even though apart from episode 3 of this season I didn't really think other episodes were par for the course with the first 9 or 10 seasons, I actually enjoyed this episode a lot.

And of course, this finale is full of member berries and "remember this?", but this episode also has its own plotlines that affect the final outcome and I think this episode is really funny from start to finish.

Seinfeld has been mentioned a lot throughout this final season, and even though I haven't seen it yet, you can really tell what its finale might have been and why it's considered bad. Since I haven't watched that show, I can't really comment on the references and how this show ended and all that.

But I'm personally satisfied with how they wrapped everything up here and did some flashbacks to a time when this show was the peak of hilariousness.

Something that kinda disappointed me was that I was kinda expecting a final scene where everything comes together as the result of a hilarious misunderstanding or something like that final restaurant scene where everyone was cursing. But we got a generic one instead. Nevertheless, it was still funny.

I wish the role of Cynthia was a lot bigger because I expected bigger consequences from that plotline, but oh well.

I don't really remember the old season of Curb that well since I watched them a long time ago, and I haven't even watched Seinfeld yet. So don't think I'm giving it a high rating out of nostalgia and the references. I genuinely think this episode was funny (still not as funny as the first 9 seasons), and yeah, some of the funny stuff were the references to the funnier flashbacks, but this episode had new funny stuff and hilarious lines of dialogue too.

So overall, this is definitely the funniest episode of this underwhelming final season (I gave it an 8 at first but then I realized I gave ep 3 a 9, and this is better, so...) and a pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good finale to the show as a whole.

This show is still my favorite comedy show I've ever seen (even after watching Always Sunny recently) despite the last two seasons, especially the final season, not being even close to the funniness and the genius of the first 10 seasons.

Definitely watch this show if you haven't because it's one of the funniest shows ever, and don't let the low ratings of the last two seasons dissuade you from starting it, because the finale wraps up everything pretty, pretty, pretty good and it's worth finishing it.

Talk about making an incredibly memorable, brutal, and complex villain!

At first, at the beginning of the season, I was iffy about introducing the multiverse in yet another fictional universe, but what they did with the villain and his powers here is amazing. I was also complaining about how little we saw of Angstrom Levy throughout the season, but I think with this resolution, it might've been enough.

Basically, the first half of this episode does the heavy lifting for Angstrom Levy's characterization and turns him into an unforgettable and powerful villain. I wish they did the same for that lion dude in the first season. I don't know why he wasn't a bigger part and hasn't come back yet.

But anyway, the multiverse stuff are handled pretty well here, and apart from some (literally) Marvel-level references and nods to other media, that were few and funny enough to not have a problem with them, they did a great job with the whole thing.

Angstrom Levy is what a well-written and impactful villain should be. He's not necessarily evil nor are his intentions inherently evil, he's the evil that our hero directly or indirectly and inadvertently created, and now he does evil things to do what's necessary for his good intentions (at least in his own mind).

He's a villain who will challenge the hero physically and mentally. He's a villain who'll have a long-lasting impact on the hero and will change him forever.

This episode and what Angstrom Levy does to Mark Grayson is a character-defining moment for Invincible, and I think it's just one of many that will come. Angstrol's actions and their consequences send Mark into an existential crisis and an introspection journey.

So even though Angstrom Levy's screen time in this season was short and I usually hate it when movies or shows (especially comic books) only show the villain in the beginning and we don't see them until the final conflict and basically don't get to really know them, I love what they did with Levy here and I can turn a blind eye to how little we see of him here. It was worth it honestly.

Angstrom is a villain we can totally see where he's coming from and sympathize with him a little, but also can see he is obviously evil and revenge has blinded him. They create such a deep and complex character in a short amount of time and it's really great. I wouldn't even consider him a villain villain, to be honest, he's more like an anti-villain to me.

So this a lesson in writing, especially for comic book writers and especially the comic book movies we've been getting these past couple of years. Make your villains matter. If your antagonist doesn't change your hero and doesn't change his worldview and your hero still feels the same after encountering them, what's the point? Watch this episode and see how to do a good villain who'll leave his mark and is impactful as hell.

And they don't even have your typical Batman vs Joker interrogation or Daredevil vs The Punisher rooftop dialogue scenes where they challenge each other's methods and worldview. This is a more punchy punchy and less talky version of that, but it's still as impactful.

So overall this is a really great finale and the definitely best episode of the season. In this review focused purely on the first half of the episode and how good the villain was, I usually talk about all the stuff that happened, but the first half was so good that I don't even want to talk about anything else. The second half is about the aftermath and although it was also pretty good, as a whole, the finale wasn't really a 10/10 at least for me. I don't think I gave any episode of this season a full 10/10 rating unlike multiple 10s I gave to season 1. But that doesn't mean it wasn't good, just not as back to back surprises and brutality as the first season.

So Curb Your Enthusiasm is my favorite comedy show. Even after watching The Office and Always Sunny, it's still the best one for me and if I had to choose only one show to watch for the rest of my life, it would probably be this.

So the show till at least season 9 or 10 (I still loved 10) was a masterpiece and on par with the show's peak. But season 11 and 12 are just not it. And I don't think I've seen so many meh and mid episodes in any seasons before, not even the previous one!

Not only the situations they've written for this season are not as funny and genius as the early seasons and those iconic episodes, everything feels fake and lazy. And I get it, "Weel, obviously it's a TV show so it's scripted!". Well, yeah. But Curb was at its best when they just outlined what the scene was gonna be about and the actors just went with the flow and improvised every line of dialogue. This season just feels phony and forced and just not as funny.

I chuckled at some of the stuff in this episode, but they weren't as laugh out loud funny like it used to be. I only rated episode 3 of this season highly, and everything before and after that have been meh. I think the overall rating of this season from the episodes for me has been a 6, even considering I gave episode 3 a 9/10. A 6/10 season is a pretty sad rating for a 10/10 show that I deem my favorite comedy ever.

Not to mention them using the same voiced lines again and again when Larry's mouth isn't even moving and adding lines in edit after they shoot the scenes. It's so obvious and forced. Curb was funny when it didn't feel so overly edited and scripted.

As for the episode itself, like I said, there are some funny lines here and there, but the situational comedy isn't really there. The amount of chaos Larry would create at the end of each episode back then were funny because how unexpected and ridiculous they were. Now, you won't even remember half the plotlines or the ending an hour after watching the episode.

It's just such a shame. Curb is still my favorite comedy, I'll have to rewatch to confirm that this is in fact the funniest show compared to Always Sunny at least. But it's just sad seeing such a genuinely funny show with genius writing and iconic ending scenes, end with such a letdown of a final season.

Don't get me wrong, this episode isn't unwatchable or totally unfunny or anything, it's just not like it used to be and doesn't feel as natural.

Also, what a waste of Jackie Daytona. Daytona would've been an iconic character of Curb if he was in previous seasons.

When I first saw "Scott Gimple" credited as the showrunner and writer of this show, it immediately turned any interest or hype I had way down.

But I'm glad I am able to say that the show is actually pretty good, but still not that great.

One thing you have to keep in mind when going into this show, is that this show is a Rick and Michonne romance show first and an action zombie show second.

And I gotta say, at least for episodes 3 and 4 they do an absolutely great job with the dialogue and romance, and episode 4 is the only episode I gave a 10/10 in this series and that episode was mostly dialogue scenes. They do a surprisingly good job of having an entire episode be mostly dialogue and focused on Rick and Michonne hashing things out for an entire episode in a small room. It's hard to make these kind of scenes interesting and not boring, and they do a good job with it.

The acting here especially from Danai Gurira is great. Her reactions are way too good and the emotion she conveys without saying a word is powerful.

Another surprising thing about the show is how emotional they make the story and Rick's character, by including a character I thought they forgot (which I will not name) in a way that made the show instantly more likable to me. The way they incorporate that character into Rick's motives and the story is great.

The action is pretty good too and the production value and the budget feel 10 times bigger than 5 seasons of The Walking Dead combined. And I ain't complaining because it's visually stunning and the CGI looks great.

One major problem with this series and these kinds of 6-episode format mini-series in general, is how little everything is established and developed, and how rushed the whole thing, especially the finale feels. Thankfully, the finale isn't as rushed as I thought it was gonna be, but the story and the characters do still seem a bit underdeveloped.

The biggest thing here was the CRM. Other than a big exposition dump in the finale and some crumbs of information throughout the first few episodes, we didn't really get to see how they work. They don't really get into the lore of how this came to be, how they have so much technology, and they didn't really give Thorne or Beale proper characterization and they're pretty much forgettable. Don't get me wrong, they do have a couple of these little "show don't tell" moments that explain for example how they're producing electricity. But my point is that the CRM doesn't have a character here. You don't really feel their presence and how powerful they are in this show. The show focuses more on the romance than diving into developing CRM.

Another thing is that after the fantastic episode 4, it becomes way too melodramatic and the romance scenes become a bit cringey. I don't know if Danai Gurira's writing in episode 4 had anything to do with how natural and not cringey the romance was in episode 4. But it's way too soap opera and melodramatic in 5 and 6. I don't mind romance scenes, like I said, episode 4 is all melodrama and soap opera, but it's so well-written that I didn't really a complaint about it. But the stuff in the later episode is written way too heavy-handed and cringey and laughable.

And since the show only has 6 episodes, like I said they don't have the time to establish the villain and the CRM, and they inevitably have to rush the ending. And that leads to how easily Rick and Michonne dealt with the CRM in the finale. It's like the writers wanted to wrap everything up so quickly and be done with the story.

Ultimately, characters like Thorne and Beale never get to the same level as other characters and villains we've had in 11 seasons of The Walking Dead, even though I thought the motive for the villain was pretty good. But because we spent so few moments with them, they don't really become as iconic or memorable and are easily forgettable.

So I think I pretty much talked about everything I liked and disliked about this series, I might have missed some that I mentioned in my episodic reviews, but this is the gist of it.

So in conclusion, this show isn't a masterpiece, but it's surprisingly not bad either. It has some memorable and powerful moments and episode 4 alone makes this show a must-watch, and the show definitely is worth a watch. It is surprisingly emotional even for someone like me who doesn't really care about the TWD universe anymore and didn't even watch the other two spin-offs. The emotional stuff hit really hard and they're really well-written.

There are some meh stuff here and there, but I can't say didn't enjoy pretty much every episode, and some more than others. I wouldn't say this is as good as TWD's peak (Seasons 1 to 6), but it's up there.

So overall, it's a really well-made, well-written for the most parts, visually good-looking, well-acted, and enjoyable mini-series that is definitely worth checking out.

This finale was surprisingly good and was a nice although a bit rushed and "too easy" conclusion for Rick and Michonne's mini-series.

I am satisfied with how this finale wrapped things up, even though there were parts that didn't really sit well with me.

First the goods: We finally get the Echelon Briefing after all the teasing throughout the season, and I gotta say, I'm not disappointed with the briefing at all. I think they gave a logical and reasonable motive to Beale. Someone said he's just the villain for the sake of being the villain, but I don't think his reasons are any less complicated and nuanced than other famous villains of TWD's peak. Sure, they didn't really dive into his character, like at all, till this episode. But for me at least, I think don't he's that cartoonishly evil of a villain.

The ending is really emotional and for a second I thought they didn't actually hire the actress for some reason and it would've been disastrous, but thankfully they brought her back.

Overall it's an enjoyable finale that I can't really be mad at that much as it was a somewhat satisfying conclusion to the series. I can't really think of other positives since I just finished the episode. But I liked the finale.

Now to the parts I didn't really find to be that well done: It is after all rushed a bit since they need to establish Beale, give us the Briefing, and end the story in the same episode. Nevertheless, it is rushed, but it's not D+ MCU finale rushed!

I thought the fight scenes were well done but unremarkable, and they ended way too soon. Though the elevator one was pretty good, especially the ending. And I know these two are just killing machines at this point, but I think everything went way too easy for them in this episode.

The way they defeat CRM is way too easy and it's weird how there are zero guards or troopers in that tent. You'd think at least one would be standing outside of the tent maybe? The way they write these scenes is to just end the story as soon as possible. They threw the obstacles in the scenes before so they wouldn't have to give logical reasons as to why such an important tent would be so empty.

They didn't really explain how the Civic Republic gained the knowledge of what CRM was doing. I guess they found documents and stuff somewhere else, but felt way too quick like they fast-forwarded so we could move on from the CRM storyline quickly.

There are a couple of laughably cringey lines about love in here that I don't know how they wrote them with a straight face. I always hate this "love is good and saves us all" and all that stuff in the finale of movies and shows. Especially when they're written this way. So I couldn't help to laugh at the dialogue between Thorne and Michonne.

It's way too melodramatic and soap opera-y. They did a good job with the romance in episode 4, but after that, all the romance feels way too melodramatic and cringey.

Overall, it's a pretty good finale but a perfect one. It's not too rushed or bad-written to make you mad, it's just a fine ending that's on par with the rest of the show.

Most of the episode is still spent on Mark and Amber's relationship status just like the last episode, but I like the development here better even though it's weird to me they still didn't decide to give it a conclusion. I just hope they get over with it fast in the finale and not take up 60% of the runtime giving us another soap opera about these two teenagers.

Unlike a couple of other people here who apparently still hate Amber, I got over the Amber hate when season 2 started and they made her more reasonable and likable. And this episode is like the least you can hate her for anything she does or says. I understand not liking the way the writers are dragging this breakup thing, I don't like it either, but I just don't get how you can still hate her?

The only thing I didn't like about it was them not breaking up here. Like we get it, it was nice to include Amber in this situation too to make it more impactful. I like what they did, or they're still doing, with how Mark and Amber will eventually grow apart despite not wanting to. But not ending it here and dragging it into the finale is weird to me. I guess they want to give it a conclusion in the finale so we'd have a pretty solid finale with a lot of conclusions and new beginnings, so whatever. I just hope they don't drag it into the next season too.

Another thing that has been a disappointment to me this season is Angstrom. We only had half an episode worth of character development from him and he didn't show up for like 4 episodes and then occasionally showed up as the final scene of the episode twist or in the post-credit scenes. They made him out to be more important than he has been in this season. If they conclude his story in the finale I would be super pissed and disappointed, to be honest, but I doubt they'd do that.

One thing this season feels lacking is direction I think. Because in season 1, you knew what the season was leading toward and the overall story arc of the season was somewhat obvious. In season 2, I'm not sure what the big picture still is after 7 episodes. Mark and Amber's relationship status feels more like this season's overall storyline than anything else honestly. We haven't seen much from Angstrom after the first episode, nor have we seen much from Allen the Alien or Omni-Man that much either. So for me at least, this whole season kinda feels like half a season to me than an actual season. Not saying not knowing what's gonna happen and the unpredictability is bad or anything, I'm saying I'm not sure what the goal is here exactly.

Aside from all the ranting about things I didn't care for in this episode or the season, this episode is actually pretty great. Wouldn't've given it an 8 if it wasn't. The stuff with Donald is pretty good in my opinion, and I like how they make even the side characters or the minor characters you thought were unimportant in season 1 feel important and they have their own character arcs.

The last 15 minutes is pretty great too and the show still has the power to surprise you and make some pretty intense scenes where you don't know what's gonna happen next. Though I kinda expected the fight scenes to be more brutal than they were, they were still good. The episode is pretty good but I feel like the first season's 7th episode was way more intense and edge-of-your-seat. Not sure if it's fair to compare each and every episode and every little detail to the previous season, and I definitely don't want them to redo and repeat everything they did with that season, but this episode wasn't as impactful as the last season's.

Also, where the hell is Damien Darkblood? I thought he would be a way bigger character than he was. He was one of the coolest characters in this show and I'm not sure if they will even bring him back, like at all. It's a shame because I thought he was gonna be the one who first found out about Omni-Man (I don't remember if he actually did), and I think they did my boy Demon Detective dirty.

Overall, this episode is pretty good and has the usual intense last 10 minutes and endings you've come to expect from this show, but it still has some disappointing elements to it and we'll have to wait and see if they stick the landing like the last time or not.

First of all, the melodrama and the romance in this show are becoming way too goofy and bordering on being a soap opera. The last episode was the best episode, and I assume the finale won't top that either. But that episode knew how to do romance without it being goofy and cringey. This episode however, I don't know, I feel like it's too much.

Now the main focus of this episode is Jadis and the writers try their hardest to make us care about her and have sympathy for her. My question is, does anyone actually care though? As far as I remember, Jadis has been an obnoxious character with a bad haircut, and no amount of flashbacks, exposition, and sad music can make me feel sad for this character. Now some people might actually care now that they did some flashbacks in this episode, and with her speeches. But I would be shocked if anyone even thought her arc would go like this and even cared about her before this episode.

Not that focusing the episode on her was bad or wrong or anything that I gave a lower rating, I'll get into that later. I'm just not sure why the writers decided to do this. Though I understand that it's nice to have a villain with good motivation who thinks is doing the right thing. But the thing is, that she knew every step of the way that she wasn't really on the righteous side or doing a moral thing.

Nevertheless, I don't really have a problem with the writers trying to humanize her and give her some time to shine since she's one of the really old characters from the main show. I just think they went overboard with all the "And then she tells a sad story and we play sad music over it". The flashbacks with the you know who character (trying not to spoil) also did nothing for me. My opinion about Jadis is the same after watching this episode as it was before it, the only that changed was "Oh, I guess now we know why she did what she did."

I understand what they tried to do with this episode. Some shows do this where they dedicate an episode to someone you (most of the time) hated, and show you the other side of that character and show how tragic their past was and you change your mind about them, and it's kind of a nice twist where a hated character becomes tragic and beloved. This was not it. The last episode was phenomenally written. Everything worked perfectly and you actually cared about everything that happened there and the romance worked. This episode? Not so much.

Apart from that, like I said, the last episode did a good job of the romance stuff. But this episode just made the romance so goofy and over the top and unrealistic. It's like I'm not even watching a zombie show anymore.

All that aside, my biggest problem is that we're basically 80% or something in, and we still don't know about the CRM, and Beale hasn't had a proper characterization other than a cliché one-dimensional military general character. They're supposed to be the big baddie of this show, and we're already gonna wrap their story up in just one episode when we haven't even seen anything of them yet? Thorne's character is also underdeveloped and I'm actually not sure how they're gonna pull off this story if not by rushing everything in the last episode just like every other 6-episode mini-series we've had in the past couple of years from Disney Plus for example.

It doesn't feel like there's only one episode left. With the way the story moves, it feels like it's at least an 8-episode show and we still have 3 more episodes left. The pacing of the story in the first 3 episodes felt like your regular 16-episode season of The Walking Dead. So I'm not really sure how they're gonna wrap up a story that's only begun in just one episode with no other seasons.

Also, this episode felt like it had a lesser budget because of the tight locations they had, not much CGI, and not too many characters. I guess they blew all the budget on those helicopter shots and CGI stuff from the first 3 episodes. Not that I'm complaining though or that the episode looked bad, it's just an observation.

So overall this episode is not bad in any way, but still not on par with the writing of the previous episode, and I'm not sure how this story is gonna be wrapped. Hopefully not rushed and disappointing.

This is a pretty decent episode and the lesser of the two new episodes of this second part of season 2. But why does the stuff with Mark and Amber feel like should've been in episode 4 or 5? Especially when there are only 2 episodes left and God knows how long we have to wait for the next seasons.

Am I wrong for thinking it's weird that 80% of the episode feels like something that would've been in the middle of the season of any other show, and the important scenes of the main story feel like post-credit scenes. Not just this episode, but a lot of episodes this season.

Don't get me wrong, I like seeing Mark finally moving on from Amber, they're setting that up and I'm glad. And they're doing a good job of showing they're both being adult about it, especially funny with Amber with all the nonsense she pulled last season. But it feels like a lot of the runtime is dedicated to this storyline, and I'm sure most people aren't gonna vibe with that much. They do a good job of editing the scenes together to make it more engaging, but I think they should've condensed it a little.

It threw off the pacing of the story. Not asking for more action, we already got a lot of brutal action in these past two episodes. I'm just asking for the plot to move a little bit more than this.

The pacing of the storytelling of this show is really weird. They introduce so many new villains and characters in one episode and kill them in the next or forget about them and then show them again 3 episodes later that makes it overwhelming with how many plotlines are happening at the same time.

I appreciate how this show handles its characters though. Like they introduce a group of goofy characters you think are gonna be a walk in the park for the Guardians of the Globe, and next thing you know they absolutely annihilate the Guardians and they may even die in the process themselves. So I like the unpredictability of this show and how it handles its bad guys. They're not your typical villain of the week. You don't know if this villain is gonna instantly die, or if he is gonna kill one of the main characters and become a regular villain, or maybe kill someone and die himself too.

The problem I have is just how many characters and storylines are set up in every episode. It's all too overwhelming. And with how important this show makes each and every character feel, even the characters you thought were one-offs and nothing, and they dedicate a good amount of time to every one of them, it makes you wonder why this show isn't 1-hour per episode if there are so many characters and so much story to tell. And why the hell do these seasons only have 8 episodes?

Like I said, I appreciate the fact that this show makes even the minor characters feel important and has character arcs and storylines for them, this show is unique in that way, and also shows how brutal and savage this world is that even the villains of the week can do real damage to our "protagonists". But at the same time, it's just too much. Too many characters are introduced and too many storylines are moving at the same time.

So, all in all, I think I repeated myself a lot here, so I won't say more, except that it's a decent episode that shouldn't've been put as the second to penultimate episode. With this pacing, I'm not sure if they can wrap up any storyline before season 8 or something.

In contrast to the last two episodes we've had, this wasn't nearly as funny and it was overall meh. I only laughed like two or three times in total. That's really bad for a 40-minute episode, especially from my favorite comedy ever where I die from laughter every other episode.

I've noticed that usually the longer the episodes are, the more scripted and unfunnier they get. The funniest scene for me was Minnie putting her hand over her mouth, but that's about it, and the other two or three times I laughed was from Larry David yelling and swearing, which shouldn't be the only funny thing that happens in the show.

The plotlines just weren't as interesting or clever either. I thought that Minnie was gonna steal the script and become famous herself, but it didn't happen. I was also surprised they didn't connect Minnie to Leon's Tinkerbell fetish because I was sure that was gonna happen, but didn't.

And even though in the way of old Curb everything came together at the end and they all got connected, it was still underwhelming and not funny, because the plotlines themselves weren't really funny.

And the way Larry's girlfriend stumbled upon Minnie was just so forced and contrived and wasn't natural at all, especially the dialogue that led them to their realization.

Overall, a very weak and forgettable episode with the least amount of laughs I can remember, at least for this season so far. Even the first episode was funnier. And the storylines aren't as clever or engaging at all and felt like a really soft PG-13 and inoffensive version of Curb.

This episode was more engaging, with better and more likable characters, and had more emotional weight to me. Even the same scene of them reuniting was more emotional to me than the last episode's (where I didn't really care much) for some reason.

I guess seeing Michonne desperately looking for Rick in this episode and what she goes through here was presented in a better way that made me care more.

This episode is surprisingly emotional too, and yeah, maybe they were trying too hard to be emotional and did it for the sake of shock value and an artificial way of making an emotional scene. But damn if it wasn't effective. I thought it was weird that in a one-hour episode, they still decided that all we needed to see from Michonne and that couple from season 10 or 11, was the interview she had with their leader. But after what happened in this episode, I'm sure this is way more engaging than whatever they would've shown as flashbacks. And it would be hypocritical of me to demand flashbacks when they can just show their journey and develop those characters through the story and not flashback, as I have said multiple times that I don't like flashbacks that much. Although technically it was still a flashback.

One thing this episode does a great job of is giving Michonne motivation and a reason to do what she did at the end of the last episode. We all know what this episode is gonna lead to, but we don't know why and how. So I think the reason they give Michonne to hate them this much is believable and warranted, and surprisingly personal and emotional. I liked it very much. I didn't think I would care about these new characters since we don't know much about them, but they did a good job of making you care in the span of a few minutes.

I also have to mention a criticism that I had from the last episode that this episode totally debunks and I probably didn't pay attention that much, so I stand corrected about that. It was about Michonne killing everyone with masks on, but only takes the mask off when it's Rick. It's way different here and I was wrong.

All in all, I thought this episode did a surprisingly good job of setting up conflicts (with the awful haircut lady), gave a good motivation and reason to Michonne, and instead of telling us why she is gonna hate all these people, they showed us and made us care. Usually TV shows drop the ball on their second episodes and not much happens and they're boring. But at least for me, this episode was better than the first one, had less nonsensical and laughable dialogue and writing choices, and overall did a better job of making me have an emotional attachment to the characters and care about them and what they're doing.

So I was gonna give this movie a 9/10 because as flawed and not perfect as this movie is, I still thought it was a near masterpiece and enjoyed it very much. But after a little thinking, I don't think I enjoyed the third act as much as I did with the first two, but the movie is still pretty good.

This is probably one of the funniest recent movies I've seen and I did not expect to laugh as much as I did. The dialogue and the situational comedy here are gold. Nothing new or revolutionary, but it's executed perfectly and the actors' delivery makes it so much funnier. The comedy makes it much better for rewatches and you know damn well I'll rewatch this great movie again for the comedy alone.

The visuals are delightful and I don't think I need to mention it, as many others already have. But when you see the movie, you're gonna realize you're watching a movie from a very rare species of filmmakers who isn't horrified of colors and his movie actually has color in it. I know, it's sounds crazy, but this movie has actual colors and good lighting, and doesn't have the lifeless colorless mud-filtered crap look every modern digital movie has. I honestly get shocked whenever I see a movie that doesn't look like Napoleon or Peter Pan & Wendy with toned-down colors and terrible lighting where everything is dark and you can't see anything.

Aside from all the technical and visual stuff, there is obviously the matter of the themes of the movie about female empowerment and all that, and the apparently opposing ideas people have regarding their reading of this movie.

I personally think female empowerment was definitely the focus of the writer and director here, but I don't think it's as deep or as subtle as people make it out to be, nor do I think the filmmaker is trying to be too deep here either, and it's ok for me.

The movie isn't really subtle with its ideas and themes and is pretty straightforward with its dialogue about different aspects of society and the human race in general. I don't think it's as subtle and deep as, say "The Menu" or "Triangle of Sadness". (Not that those movies were really subtle either).

I just don't think the movie is all about female empowerment and sexual exploration (which is definitely the most prominent aspect and theme of the movie), and more about everything in society. It basically criticizes everything and everyone and I don't think it has a definite stance of which side it is on, and I don't think it necessarily should be.

Take the only two movies I've seen from Thomas Vinterberg for example; The Hunt and Another Round. Both movies criticize both sides of different problems in their culture and society. But neither movie does take a side and tell you what is wrong or right and they don't take sides. They're just exploration and observation of those societal ideas and I'm fine with the movie being like this.

And I believe this movie to be the same. I don't think the movie even portrays Bella's journey to understanding humans and herself and the way the world works as something nice or fun. Even the sex scenes aren't portrayed as something hot and sexy, they're portrayed as weird, disgusting, and ugly as you can portray a sex scene in a movie.

And while I said that I was fine with the movie not being as subtle or as deep, or thematically directionless as it is, I still didn't really care for the third act and the conclusion that much. The first two acts go past so fast because they're really well-edited and well-direct, and they're really funny. But you will feel the runtime when you hit the third act and I just don't think it was as good as the beginning and the middle of the movie.

The final subplot and conflict with the husband, while adding a lot to her character and her backstory, is concluded and solved in a very predictable and cliché way. It's also shocking how she got through all that without being in any real danger or harm whatsoever, especially if you consider the era this movie is set in. Most exploitation and harm she gets are monetary and psychological, and the poor people scene in Alexandria doesn't really come back or show how it affected her at the end, it seems like she's back at being wealthy and coasting through life and becoming a doctor for wealthy people.

So overall, I enjoyed this flawed but well-made movie. It is really funny and will recommend to definitely check it out if you're not afraid of your movies being a little weird and full of furious jumpings.

So I've obviously heard a lot about this one and even tried to watch it some years ago but I didn't for some reason. But now that I finally watched it, all I can say is "that's it?"

I've seen this movie being mentioned as one of the funniest comedies ever, even saw someone say it's even funnier than Tropic Thunder which is crazy to me. Because even though I watched Tropic Thunder so many years ago that I don't even remember much from it, I still remember it having funny jokes every other minute. But this movie is more like a teen movie with occasional funny scenes.

I guess with all the talks about this movie being a masterpiece and funny af and one best comedies every, I got my hopes up expecting to watch a really funny movie on par with Jump Streets and The Hangovers and the Tropic Thunders of this genre. But it just wasn't nearly as funny as any of those. I even watched the recent Curb Your Enthusiasm episode which was only 39 minutes, but I still laughed more watching that than I did with this movie.

This type of R-rated comedy is actually my kind of humor and I find it funnier than PG-13 and family-friendly comedies. But this one just didn't work for me that much.

There were definitely some laughs here and there, but I wasn't laughing till my sides hurt or anything. I guess I probably would've found it funnier if I was younger and had watched fewer funnier comedies, but it's not like I've grown out of this kind of humor. I can bet I can still watch Jump Street or even The Hangover and find it as funny as I did years ago. Maybe I'm just taking crazy pills and don't understand what others see in this, or maybe most people watched it when it came out and it was kinda novel in this genre, but for me, it's just a better directed and funner Project X.

Apart from the comedy aspect of the film, the plot itself is kinda shallow too and there isn't much to it. Like I was surprised when I realized the whole movie was gonna be about the alcohol and the party. They try to add some emotional weight to the stories and characters, but they don't really delve into this that much for me to care about any of it. Like I don't have the emotional connection to these characters for me to care much about the aspect of the plot of them getting distanced from each other after high school. Unlike in Jump Street where it works and has an actual well-written plot and characters, or The Hangover for that matter, this movie just isn't as funny nor does it have an impressive plot for me to say "Oh, maybe the plot is good so that could make up for the lack of laughs".

I guess this would be a good choice and a really funny movie if you're just starting to watch movies, especially comedies, and you haven't seen many comedy movies yet. And maybe I should've watched it when I was gonna, and I would've found it funnier. But after seeing so many good comedy movies and especially TV shows, this one doesn't really impress me much and is kinda forgettable for me, unlike some others I already mentioned here.

But, as much as I talked about the negatives, it's not like this is the worst movie ever. It's actually funny at times and it's not a bad watch. This movie is just the quintessential 2000s comedy and kinda isn't that funny anymore, at least for me it seems. It's just that since this movie, there have been so many funnier comedies that have better stories and plot structure that make this movie feel not as funny anymore. I probably won't be rewatching this movie any time soon, or probably never for that matter. Seeing so many people say it's one of the best comedies of the past 30 years or the funniest movie ever didn't help either.

So watch it and form an opinion about it yourself, it would most definitely click with you more than it did with me, but don't go there expecting to laugh every 30 seconds or see something funnier than Tropic Thunder.

This episode was funnier than both previous episodes combined.

And even though the runtime and the whole feel of the episode is still scripted and not natural and improvised like the couple of first seasons, this felt so much like the good old days of Curb in many ways.

Larry David being the worst human bean in serious social situations like a funeral? Check. Larry David having beef with a puppy? Check. An iconic hilarious scene of Susie interrogating Larry and Jeff and being mad at them? Check. Entitled people demanding Larry money he doesn't owe? Check. People blaming Larry for something he didn't intend to do or didn't? Check. Leon's balls? Check.

Lots of other checks too, but these are the most Curb things from this episode that remind me of the old Curb and why I love it so much.

I'm gonna be honest, the culmination of the episode's shenanigans isn't as mindblowing or hilarious as some of the iconic endings to episodes we've gotten in the past, and I honestly didn't know where the overall plot was heading. But the sheer randomness of the events of this episode and how chaotic this whole episode was, I can forgive for the few flaws it had.

This episode was probably funnier than the entirety of season 11, though I kinda don't remember anything from that season, but the amount of times I laughed watching this episode was throw the roof.

The only thing I can say that you could completely take out from the episode and make it a good old 30-minute episode instead of the runtime being 39 minutes, is the whole woman who wants to get pregnant side plot. It didn't really add anything to the episode overall and didn't build up to anything particularly funny or clever. We're probably gonna get some continuation in the next episode maybe like Jeff's hair dye from the first episode, but I think it was just bloating this episode for no reason. Same with the Sienna Miller thing, but at least that one wasn't dragged too much and only had two short scenes, which definitely will have a continuation in the future episodes.

It's also nice to see many old faces be back on the show.

But yeah, other than these and the weak ending with Leon's scene (which I don't understand the need for this plotline at all), and the fact that they introduce all these plotlines and don't really go anywhere clever with some of them, this episode is pure Curb and hilarious from beginning to end.

Anyway, so far this is the funniest and most rewatchable episode of the season.

Obviously not as funny as the show's peak. These past couple of seasons have had this feeling of being scripted and forced for a while now and unfortunately, this season doesn't seem to be any different.

But at the same time, I still found these first two episodes funny, and the second one more than the first. So I'm not complaining that much. I'm glad to have more Curb in my life since it's been so long since we got more new episodes. And I'm happy that Larry is actually maybe giving the show a proper conclusion instead of just announcing the show will not get any new seasons.

Anyway, the episode structures do have the same feeling as how the show has always been, with setups and payoffs in each episode. And surprisingly one payoff to the last episode's setup of Jeff's hair dye that I thought was weird they mentioned it without following up on it in the last episode. But it does come together nicely for the Lawn Jockey plotline to happen. But I think as funny as the Lawn Jockey joke is, it's kinda the most predictable thing to do and it's weird to have it be the joke payoff they're focusing on. But I guess it ties to his plea in the hearing.

Overall I think this is all gonna come together and become a much bigger thing than this and a lot funnier. I just think that the main plots of the episodes aren't as memorable or interesting as they should be and they're pretty much predictable and not as hilarious as the situations Larry got himself into in the older seasons. I just wish they toned down the scripting and the phoniness for the last season and did it the usual way with the improvs that felt way more organic and funny.

At least for me personally, this game feels a lot worse than the first game.

It's one of the most frustrating gaming experiences I've had, and not because of the on-hit death mechanic or anything, but because of the level design that feels like the devs deliberately choose to annoy the player.

I already didn't care about the story in the first game, and I care even less about the second one's. So what do they decide to do? Add interactable NPC characters in a building that you have to talk to after every mission for some reason. They immediately made their unique game into a Shadow Warrior 2 clone. I cannot help but feel that I'm playing Shadow Warrior 2 again when I have to skip lots of mediocrely voiced lines of generic dialogue from NPC characters I don't care about.

I also didn't really care for the semi open-world, though jumping from the bike and then grappling to it mid driving was fun. I just think an open world doesn't really work with Ghostrunner. Some of the obstacle courses for the bike missions were frustrating too.

So what's most frustrating about Ghostrunner 2 is the excessive platforming puzzles that get annoying and boring really fast. I understand that they want to pad the gameplay time, but maybe make it fun instead of tryharding to see how annoying you can make the player? I remember the first game also had a lot of questionable platforming puzzles toward the end of the game, but this one is just really not it.

They get annoying so fast that I was waiting for the game to end so I could be finally done with it. That's not what a "fun" game should make you feel. The first game had a decent pacing because you were always inside those buildings running and slashing through enemies. This one breaks the pace with dialogue no one cares about and dumb platforming puzzles.

In the first game, you had a special ability you could use maybe once a level like Blink. And you get that in this one too, but I never once used any of the special abilities in this game whatsoever. The level design and the amount of bs that is constantly thrown at you at any time inside combat is just so overwhelming that you just run around like a confused puppy trying not to get hit with 12 different projectiles that are coming at you from all directions. You have a guy lasering you from across the map, another one shooting a blaster at you, a mech that shoots a wide horizontal laser that you can't dodge, a guy that hulk jumps at you, random zombies running toward you, some priests looking dudes with very long whips that can do vertical and horizontal attack you can't dodge, flying enemies shooting 20 projectiles at you, and many many more in just one area.

Another annoying thing is that you can't use this special ability in boss fights, which kinda makes sense since most of the boss fights are highly scripted so you can't really go off script and deal damage the way you want, but it's still annoying.

Nevertheless though, these aren't really That hard when you get the hang of it and the game kinda flows when you finally hit the sweet spot after dying a 100 times, but the problem is that even if you get the hang of it, the level design and platforms are actively working against you and you have to play exactly the game wants you to in order to win.

Again, like I said, I actually found some of the biking parts really fun, but the parts where I had to do obstacle courses with enemies swarming on me made it way less fun, just like the rest of the game.

The funny thing is, the final boss fight is easier than most of the regular arenas. And you know what they do to mix up the boss fight? Of course, just throwing you into annoying platforming arenas for 4 times after you do damage to the last boss. Like they can't just let me fight the boss and be content with a simple fight, they have to give me multiple stupid platforming puzzles because why not.

Some new mechanics are introduced in this game, most notably wingsuit, but you only get that the mission before the final boss? Like I understand that they'd have to fundamentally change the level design for the wingsuit to be incorporated into the game, but why introduce that so late into the game and only for one mission?

For all the rants I had for the things I didn't like about the game, it's not like I didn't enjoy this game at all though. I still had some fun playing it, especially early in the game. I loved the Avatar boss fight. It had a great soundtrack and was probably the most fun boss fight and level of the game with how they changed it constantly and the movement you had in that. I also still like slicing through enemies, and while I think the running speed is painfully slow, traversal still was smooth and felt fast-paced and fun, apart from the platforming puzzle parts.

Like I said, the game isn't that hard when you realize what you have to do and in which order you have to do things, but the game still tries too hard to constantly throw things at you in the air, on the ground, and at your face just for the sake of it, as if the boss throwing three ground mines that you have to jump constantly to avoid wasn't enough.

While I actually had fun playing the first game and was less frustrated with it, I was more frustrated with the stupid platforming and the level design in this game than actually having fun with it and couldn't wait to finish it as soon as possible, which is a shame. If I had to replay one of these two, you'd probably have to pay me before I chose the second one.

I probably would've given it a 7/10 if it wasn't for the stupid amount of dumb and annoying platforming sections in the game and the unnecessary focus on the story and the characters I don't care about. Oh and another thing, I couldn't even hear what they were saying because the music and the environment sounds were louder and had to look at the subtitles, so why even lean on the story?

Going into this show, I did not expect to see such a visually creative and verbally - somewhat - profound series for some reason. Guess the ratings should've given it away at least for the dialogue, but I guess I was just expecting a really well-made bloody slasher about Hannibal the Cannibal.

But visually, I'm just amazed at how much visual storytelling goes on here and how much editing and CGI work this show about psychologists and serial killers has. Not that this is the best thing about this show or that the quality of a show is only based on how cool the editing and CGI are. The editing and the CGI are in service of the characters and the story here and not the other way around. I'm just pointing that out because I for one didn't expect this level of editing from the show before watching it. And the CGI is actually impressive with how good it looks (except for a really bad teeth-falling scene that looked like they forgot to render it) considering the show probably didn't have Game of Thrones level budget.

As for the character work and the story itself, I gotta say it's pretty remarkable with what they do with these characters and the hell they put them through. The writing for Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham's relationship and their dynamic and their similarities is really top-notch. This show is more character-focused than plot-driven, but it still has some good plotlines along the way.

I also don't think I need to mention how good Mads Mikkelsen is as Hannibal Lecter. I watched Silence of the Lambs a couple of years ago, so I don't really remember Anthony Hopkins' performance to compare them to each other, but I don't think there is a competition really since you can't deny Mads is amazing in this and they probably both crush it as Hannibal and bring something different to their interpretation of the character.

Laurence Fishburne also delivers some of the best subtle actings I've seen as Jack Crawford too. I never thought Fishburne was that amazing of an actor until this show. Hugh Dancy is also really good as Will Graham, which was the first time I got introduced to the actor and his character. And after this, I don't think I could imagine anyone else as Will Graham than Hugh Dancy.

As for the show itself, and the reason I don't give it a 10/10 even though I love it to some extent, is the fact that the show is not totally realistic and it is inconsistent throughout the seasons.

Since the show is really serious, the dialogue is also taken very seriously and they try so hard to make it profound that at some point (at least in the first season) it becomes so goofy that you just want to pause and laugh at how pretentious the lines are. Nevertheless, the dialogue is still pretty good, but I can't help to chuckle at how pretentious it gets at times. But that's not to say this show doesn't have some of the funniest intentional and unintentional lines of dialogue and also some iconic lines from Hannibal himself.

Another goofy thing is how they censor old painting butts (that are covered mind you) in season 3, in the same show that shows gallons of blood pouring onto the screen and people getting disemboweled left and right. It's hilarious how the censorship on these American shows works.

Don't get me wrong, the writing is very good and all, but for a show revolving around FBI and the police, this show has the most incompetent police force I have ever seen, even till the last episode.

I don't think the show needs to be realistic for it to work, and can't really fault it for it since I don't think they ever tried to pretend they were being realistic. But the amount of suspension of disbelief needed for this show, especially in seasons 2 and 3 is just astronomical and gets laughable at times. So don't go in expecting it to be as realistic as something like Breaking Bad.

I think season 2 is when the show is at its best, and if the show ended with that season I would've given it a 10 because that season was near masterpiece. But I unfortunately did not vibe with season 3 much.

Season 3 is really weird and inconsistent. It drags a plotline for some episodes with pacing slower than the snails Hannibal eats, but then just ends it out of nowhere and goes to the next plotline and rushes that one so it could do another one at the end of the season and drag that one too.

I really did not care for the adaptation of the Red Dragon at the end of season 3. I'm not familiar with the story, and it's funny that there are 3 different adaptations of it and I have to watch them all, and it's the least favorite storyline for me.

I think I preferred the show way more when it was killer of the week and they didn't stretch a killer's storyline in multiple episodes. Sure, those were forgettable and Red Dragon is obviously more iconic and memorable, but I did not like his story at all and did not find the whole plotline satisfying at all. Maybe the other two movies have done a better job with the Red Dragon story and I would see why the Red Dragon is even important enough to be the big baddie, but here I thought it was too ridiculous and not as interesting as the other storylines.

I actually found Mason Verger's storyline to be more interesting and I wish they'd decided to end the season with that instead.

Nevertheless, I still found the actual ending of the show to be satisfying for what it was. I was expecting a big cliffhanger since the show was canceled and many people were mad because it got canceled, so I thought maybe they didn't finish the story. But the ending is not unsatisfying at all it's honestly a good conclusion to the story in my opinion.

However, I've read that the creator wanted to adapt Silence of the Lambs for season 4, and while I don't see how that was going to work considering season 3's ending, it's a shame we never got to this show's version of that storyline. Like I said, I don't remember much from the movie itself, and I didn't understand why it was and is praised so much, but now that I have a better understanding of how psychological these stories and characters are, I might appreciate the movies better.

I probably spend my review more complaining than praising but note that I think this show is near masterpiece. It is one of the most well-made shows I've seen where there is thought and care in each shot with crazy attention to detail. It's also a really enjoyable show to watch, if you don't mind gore and blood of course. But only until the first 2 seasons and some of season 3's episodes. Because if I had to rewatch this show, I would either just rewatch the second season alone, or watch season 1,2, and the finale.

It is a great show nonetheless and has some of the finest hours of television. Definitely don't miss it and don't mind the fact that it was canceled, it still has a satisfying conclusion.

Going into this, I did not expect it to be such a well-crafted and hilarious masterpiece. I didn't even know it was some kind of a reality show, and I don't even watch or like reality shows. But this is just something else.

It's really hard to explain what this show is to someone who hasn't watched it. And even if you do, it's gonna sound really lame and uninteresting to them. It's one of those shows that you have to see for yourself to understand it.

Just the amount of money, work, effort, and planning that goes into the making of each episode is honestly mind-boggling. Each episode starts with a simple premise and Nathan Fielder comes up with a multi-layered confusing and complex solution for it, and the fact that he goes through all of them and actually does them is the most impressive and insane part of this show.

Every episode is funnier than the one before and I don't think I've laughed this hard for a long time. The cringe factor is half of the hilarity of this show. The way he manages to manipulate the whole planet in some of the episodes is mind-blowing and impressive. And by "the whole planet" I literally mean the whole planet, with his plans and schemes literally being broadcasted as real stories on the news on TV.

Sometimes I feel like I'm watching a real-life Mission Impossible happening right before my eyes. Because the ridiculous plans he comes up with to help the local businesses, and the fact that he actually manages to achieve them is just mind-bogglingly complicated that you won't think they would work, but they actually do. But I guess that's what you get when you graduate from one of Canada's top business schools with really good grades. And the most hilarious part is if you go back and see where he started and where he ends up at the end. It's like he's 3 or 4 levels down into different schemes like Inception. He starts with trying to help a shipping company, and ends up with suing an oil company for using the song he produced using smoke detectors as an instrument, while he is the mastermind behind even the oil company.

The show is just hilarious from the beginning to the end and it's a shame it only has 4 seasons. I was kinda confused at first when I saw the high rating it had before watching it, but now that I witnessed it, I can understand why they are this high. The genius of this show is just indescribable and has to be seen to be believed.

I don't normally watch reality shows or cringe comedies, but I didn't know I needed Nathan for You in my life until now. Nathan Fielder became one of my favorite Jewish humans next to Larry David immediately after watching this. They're apparently really good at comedy and being funny.

The show might not be everyone's cup of tea because of the nature of its comedy and the severe cringe and awkwardness you're gonna feel, but for me, I sometimes laughed so hard till my sides hurt. Watch the first couple of episodes to see if you like this kind of cringe comedy, and do not miss anything because it only gonna get better with each season.

Are you suffering from insomnia? Do you have trouble falling asleep? Do you have anxiety and get depressed from not being able to sleep properly? Well, have no fear because Peter Weir is here.

With this state-of-the-art technology, you won't ever have to rely on pharmacological ways to treat your sleeping disorders. With this 100%-side-effect-free product, you will never have trouble falling asleep again. Just pop this bad boy on your TV and you're set.

I personally don't have trouble falling asleep, but have seen my share of insomnia-curing movies. This one is just next level and I can't recommend it enough for people who are in need of a way to fall asleep without any side effects. But be careful not to watch this movie too much because it might put you out for a good couple of days.

So Netflix churning out 6/10 movies every other week is a given at this point, no matter what director or writers they hire, it could be the best directors and writers working right now, but they would still make a 6/10 movie no matter the budget or the talent. There's just something about Netflix that makes every movie they release either just fine or downright terrible. Maybe Apple and Amazon put a hex on them? I think I've only seen a handful of Netflix movies that were actually great, but other than that, most of their movies are 6/10 or worse.

So I literally just finished Mr. Robot yesterday, and what do you know, a new movie comes out with Sam Esmail as writer and director. Of course I'm gonna immediately jump on and see what he does next. And I gotta say, I'm not disappointed one bit about his direction here. That was probably the biggest reason I went into the movie and knew was gonna be good if everything else wasn't. And going into a Netflix movie, I know beforehand that the script probably isn't that good anyway. But I think at least for the characters and some of the dialogue, the script did a pretty good job.

Jumping into this movie immediately after finishing Mr. Robot, you're gonna notice a lot of similarities about the details that went into this movie, all the background stuff that's happening, the camerawork and editing, and of course the music by the same composer of the show that helps build up the tension and keep you at the edge of your seat.

So the movie is pretty long and I can see why so many people complain about it and it being boring. I personally didn't find it boring at all. The direction and the music keep the somewhat slow pacing going nicely. Sure, there are a lot of long dialogue scenes, but the dialogue is in my opinion well-written and keeps the scene interesting. And I didn't even expect this movie to spend a lot of time outside the house honestly. I thought this was going to be a a low-budget Netflix film that takes place entirely in the house and it's just these four or 6 people talking to each other. Something like It Comes at Night, which I didn't like at all.

But surprisingly, the movie has a lot of actually really good CGI and good cinematography. Though the camera trick they do kinda gets noticeable after a while and they use it a lot. Though it's still impressive and keeps the movie engaging. I knew if anything else was gonna mediocre, at least the direction was gonna be top-notch, and I wasn't wrong.

So as for the story itself, I think it's more about the characters and how they react to this situation and how they treat each other than the plot itself. Sam Esmail said in an interview about Mr. Robot that the plot doesn't really matter because you're gonna forget it anyway after a while, what you'll remember is what the characters were and what they did. And even though he isn't wrong and I agree that characters are probably the most important part of a story and a movie, I personally think the plot is somewhat as important as the characters of the story.

The plot isn't actually that bad, until the ending. I think I can kinda see what they were going for with the daughter character and her struggle with not being heard and all that. And the abrupt ending could also be a reflection of how abrupt the situation would be in real life and how sudden and quickly it would end. But I just don't the ending satisfying at all.

Another thing I didn't really care for was some of the dialogue from the character of Ruth which you'll know which ones I'm talking about if you see the film. And the same cliché sentence of "imagine the uproar if it was the opposite".

Another thing is that for a movie that is over 2 hours, and the characters are more important than the plot (I'm assuming), I don't think it does a really decent job of characterization except for the 3 main adult actors. The little daughter is just ignored throughout the movie, which I think is the point? But the boy isn't much different than your typical teenage boy in a horror movie.

And I know that the movie has themes and subtext of race and racism, American society, and all that, and probably more than anything, the overreliance of people on technology. Some of the themes definitely overlap with Mr. Robot's themes. But I don't think the story hasn't been done before in a lot of other movies, and if the whole point was the characters, I don't think we haven't seen these kinds of characters in these kinds of situations before either. I've seen my fair share of character-driven films

What I'm trying to say is, I think understand what they were going for, but it would've been way better with a tighter script, maybe a shorter runtime, and a better ending.

The ending is abrupt and some of the things or probably most of the things aren't explained at the end. And if the point of the abrupt ending was to show this is how it's gonna happen in real life if this thing (I'm trying not to spoil) happened, and it's realistic maybe to finish it like this.

Ty Franck, the writer of The Expanse books, on a podcast once said that "just because it's realistic, doesn't mean it's good storytelling". As much as I don't completely agree with his statement, and I do appreciate if things are realistic in movies and have no problems with it in movies and shows, I gotta agree with him in this case. Because the ending not only doesn't convey the sense of realism here, it doesn't make for a satisfying ending. It feels more like the writer of the book this movie is based on didn't know how to end the story and decided to just suddenly end it.

The themes this movie tries to explore don't get deeper either. For a movie that's over 2 hours, you kinda expect more from it than just a couple of lines of dialogue. So I don't know the book, but if the book is anything like this, I'm not sure I even like the story that much, since it's more character-driven, but I don't feel satisfied with the characterization.

But all the rant and the negatives aside, I think this movie has a fantastic feel and vibe to it and conveys the feeling of paranoia and dread excellently. After all, the director Sam Esmail and the composer Mac Quayle have had a lot of practice and experience from Mr. Robot. So in that regard, I think the movie does a great job of making you feel uneased. The cinematography is also great and keeps the movie interesting enough. The acting is also pretty good too, but I don't think that's surprising to anyone.

So for the nice cinematography and the direction, I think the movie is definitely worth watching if you want to feel unsettled and paranoid for 2 hours. But if you don't like long dialogue scenes or the patience for these kinda of things, I don't think the movie is for you. The ending could be really disappointing too.

I personally liked this movie and think it's really well-made and well-acted and isn't boring at all, but I only liked it till the ending. Maybe I'm just fanboying because of who the director is and would've liked it less if I hadn't watched Mr. Robot. But I liked it for what it was and really liked the tension and the camerawork. But anyway, the whole plot and its ending aren't that satisfying at all. And I do think the movie is worth a watch anyway if you have spare time.

I honestly didn't think I'd ever watch a show that would top Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad for me. (Maybe till I watch The Wire?) But God damn I can't believe this show is that good that I would even consider it to be better than those two.

I'm not sure though, it might be a case of recency bias because I just finished this show after starting it 3 weeks ago (which is rare for me to finish a show this fast) and I watched Better Call Saul when it came out and Breaking Bad even way before that. So it might be pure recency bias coupled with the fact that I don't remember much from BB and BCS, but I don't think I had this much of an emotional connection with those shows compared to this one.

When I first started this show I didn't think that it would even surpass Dark for me, but it became clear quickly that this show's direction and cinematography is just out of this world and blows Dark's direction and cinematography out of the water. This show has something Dark never had or wasn't good at at all: visual storytelling. While Dark had to overrely on too much exposition, Mr. Robot does with great cinematography and visual storytelling.

Now I don't want to waste this review to just compare my favorite shows and say which is better, all of them are 10/10s to be clear, and I would put BB, BCS, and Mr. Robot on my number one spot. But if I had to choose one show to watch for the rest of my life, I don't think I could choose anything else over Mr. Robot.

Now onto an actual review of the show itself.

This show is just something else. From the very first scene of the show, you're gonna realize you're witnessing history in the making with the dialogue and the amazing lighting and cinematography. Not to mention the mesmerizing piece of music called "1.0_1-hellofriend.wav.mp3" by Mac Quayle that plays during the first scene of the show.

One of the best things about this show is its direction and cinematography. They're just out of this world. I haven't seen a show that had so much thought and care gone into each and every frame of it since Better Call Saul. Literally every scene of this 36-hour show is constructed carefully and with a thought behind it. Nothing here is pointless or filler or shot without care. The show is one of the most beautifully shot shows I've seen yet.

The show has some of the most well-written characters I've seen, from the protagonist to the antagonists and villains.

The show also has some of the most uniquely shot and constructed episodes and storytelling structures you're gonna witness. It has some of the most creative and original episodes in TV history in my opinion.

Sure, most of the elements of this show are inspired from or even copied from famous movies and shows, in fact, there is a fk ton of stuff about the story and characters and even the mindblowing twists that are direct copying from other movies. But the genius of Sam Esmail here is that he takes those inspirations and adds more to them and does more creative stuff with them and makes them his own thing.

In fact, I predicted many many many of the things that were gonna happen in this show till the very finale, from some big stuff to small things. But that doesn't really matter, does it? There are a lot of clichés here that you can easily predict, but does it matter if they are implemented fantastically into this amazing story? The show itself is very unpredictable and messes with your head, but if you pay attention, I don't think it's hard to understand all of it by the end of the show. Even though there are still some questions left unanswered after the finale.

I also didn't really like how they concluded one particular character's journey, which everyone who's seen the show will know who I'm talking about. I just find it unsatisfactory how they dealt with that character. In fact, there are a couple of characters in this show that you think are gonna have a bigger role in all of this and you feel like Sam has a lot of plans for those characters, but they just fkin die. But not to say that all of them are unsatisfactory though, I actually cheered when they went out, but there was still this feeling of "Wait, that's it for this character?". But only one of them is unsatisfactory and kinda lame in my opinion.

But that's all I have to say about the thing I really didn't care for about the writing. I really don't have any other complaints about this show. The show is near perfection and I think it's technically speaking and in terms of filmmaking and even writing, it's on par with the perfection of Better Call Saul.

Another thing I like about this show is how dark and adult it is. And I don't mean the edgy "F society" and the cringey/hilarious r/atheism parts of the show. I'm talking about the mature themes it touches on and how delicately it deals with these subjects and how well they are written. They're not done sloppily at all, they're dealt with care and passion, and these themes aren't just in the show for the sake of being edgy and cool. Though the show is so dark that it might actually be triggering to some people, especially with the subject matters it touches on. I even felt legit depressed and destroyed for a couple of hours after finishing an episode of season 3 because of how brutal and relentless the world of this show is.

It's funny that I talked this much without even mentioning hacking once. The hacking scenes in this show are indeed so well-done and - I'm assuming - true to real-life hacking, that I don't think they would've worked under another showrunner and director. It's obvious that they are passionate about this show and try to be as realistic as possible. And the editing of these scenes and the fantastic music are what make these scenes so good that would've been otherwise boring and cringey in another show.

Speaking of music, I don't think I've ever watched another show and listened to every track of its original soundtrack like I did with this show. I've never gotten so many tracks from a movie or a show before and I probably have like over 2 or 3 hours of Mr. Robot's OST and all of them are some of the best most beautiful pieces of music in any show I've seen. I think what I'm trying to say is, the music is pretty good too.

I could go on and on and write a whole essay about Elliot Alderson and Whiterose and how well these characters are written and how relatable Elliot, or the themes of this show about capitalism and society and loneliness and human connection are. But firstly, that's not really my thing and I don't really do deep dives in the reviews and you can find lengthy reviews about the shows' characters and story and themes. And secondly, this review is already too long and I better wrap up.

Now we were speaking of hacking, and I must say, even though seasons 4 and 3 are complete masterpieces and better than season 1, there's just something about season 1 that I missed more and more as the show went on. And I think the "cool" hacking scenes were one of the big reasons. Season 1 just had such a different feel and vibe to it that I already feel nostalgic for it and want to just go and rewatch it. Season 1 might be one of the best first seasons of TV next to Westworld.

The show also consists of many twists and turns that are probably some of the most mind-blowing twists in any show. And the show does take its time till even the very last episode to drop the twists and reveals, but these twists are never done just for the sake of cheap surprises. They take their time building up and integrating them into the overall story and the themes of the show.

This show is a brutal, dark, violent, heartbreaking, depressing, and at the very end, a hopeful and beautiful work of art. This show is just pure art. If someone asked me to define the word art, I would just answer Mr. Robot.

It's a rare occurrence to see a show so well-made and so well-written not only not lose quality over time, but get even better and more creative with each season, and not fumble the ending either. I haven't been this engaged in a show and its characters and story for a long time. At times I think I binged up to 9 episodes a day! That's how invested you're gonna get in this show. That's how engaging this show is.

This show is just a beautiful piece of art created by a genius and is a masterpiece in every aspect you can think of. If you haven't watched this yet, drop everything and start watching it immediately.

I honestly regret playing this game, and feel like giving it a 3 is way too generous!

I already don't really care for The Expanse universe that much. I appreciate the effort that went into the story from the writers of the book and all the efforts that went into making that show, but for the life of me, I can't really get into this universe and care much about what's happening in it or its characters.

And this game just made everything worse. Bland characters, the shortest episodes ever where practically nothing happens in them, the most useless dialogue options and choices, and the shallowest and most vapid story I've seen in a game. The only silver lining to this game is Cara Gee's return as Camina Drummer and her voice acting. But that alone can't carry a whole game.

What I can't understand, is that if there are so many books about this universe, how could they not find a story about Camina Drummer in them and make a game about them? Why didn't they ask the actual writer to maybe write them a new story or ask a professional writer who can actually come up with a real plot? How exactly did they think their nothingburger of a story is actually more interesting than literally anything else?

The episodes are so short that characters don't really develop past one dimension. The whole game is so short that when it ends you go "Wait, that was it?".

The illusion of choice still persists as one of the main problems with Telltale games. You basically have no choice in how the story goes or how someone may die or not, you just sit back and watch and occasionally click in the QTE. I wouldn't have much of a problem if the writing was actually good and wasn't this cringey, forced, and contrived where you roll your eyes whenever characters have to be dumb in order for the plot to happen. It's also really funny that an optional exploration mission where you have to find a tiny thing in literal space (that you have to look up on YouTube to find) can have bigger consequences than actual dialogue and action choices.

The gameplay is also outdated and apart from the walking simulation parts and space explorations that are only fun for the first five minutes, it's just pathetic QTEs. They didn't even bother adding a simple shooting mechanic.

There is also no skipping as always with these games which is more infuriating than the game itself. Couple that with the fact that there is also no save option, and some scenes and missions can go for over 10 minutes before an automatic save, and you have one of the most annoying games ever. I had to replay a part that went on for 10 minutes before saving because the game crashed 1 second before the next checkpoint. There is no skip cutscene, so I have to suffer through the whole thing again.

Telltale used to make great games like The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us with great characters and storylines where you couldn't get up and wanted to finish all of it in a day. Now it makes these pathetic attempts at making this 3-hour game that took me a month to finish. It's just sad.

This game basically has nothing to offer and I won't wish this on my enemy. It has mobile game level of side character design, practically no story or characterization, outdated and pathetic "gameplay", no choice in how the story goes, and very boring to get through. The only reason you should play this is if you want more Cara Gee as Camina Drummer, but then again, I'd recommend just watching a full walkthrough of it on YouTube and not spending a penny on it.