Reviews

This isn't some super-amazing show, but it's still got a good premise, interesting characters, and an entertaining plot.

A lot of people are complaining about season 3, and I have to agree I didn't like it too much. It seemed like it veered away from the original direction of the show into some weird fantasy/sci-fi hybrid. However, it was still entertaining, even if there were quite a few plotholes even I noticed on my only watch-through.

If you've found this show, I think it's worth watching it. It won't exactly blow your mind, but it's engaging and consistent enough to stay interesting.

I've watched a bunch of episodes, and I'm just not seeing what these high reviews are seeing. The stories range from boring to mildly interesting, and a lot are just plain confusing. They feel like B-roll Pixar shorts.

Then there's the cursing and nudity. It would be interesting to see a show that doesn't go out of its way to avoid curses and full nudity, but this show takes it a step further, by just shoving the f-word and breasts everywhere it possibly can. It's almost like the animators were trying to distract from the lack of writing.

Netflix seems to be doing this a lot, but the trailer doesn't represent this show at all. It makes it seem like it's a completely different genre of show, and attracts the wrong audience.

The show itself isn't bad. There's overacting, weird plot developments, and all that stuff, but it is at least engaging, if you like things like the current Supernatural episodes. The trailer just completely misrepresented what it is.

I've seen a few complaints that The Blacklist loses its focus after Season 2. Those complaints are valid. Season 3 moves from mostly self-contained crime-a-week episodes to focusing much more on the characters themselves and how they're related. That doesn't mean it isn't still good, though.

It is a pretty big jump, and they probably could have made it more gradual, but even with a different focus, it's still engaging and fun to watch. Reddington is still a crazy, goofy and smart criminal character and he still gives cases to solve. The plots just have more emotional drama now.

As usual with Black Mirror, the actors and acting are all amazingly done. It's obvious that a lot of work was put into the direction. And again, as usual, the idea behind the story is also very interesting.

I think its biggest problem is the interactive part. This could've been another great Black Mirror episode on its own, without the "choices." The issue I have is that the choices don't actually do anything. You pick the option the screenwriter didn't want, and you're sent back.

I know the way the choices are structured is supposed to produce a sort of meta effect and all, where the character doesn't have free will and you don't either, but honestly, it's just kind of tedious and gets in the way of the story. I was tempted to just find someone who did a run-through with all the correct choices and recorded it; I feel it would have been more interesting.

In the end, it's still very well made. I just don't think the meta idea of lack of free will worked out so well.

This season started out *rough*. The plots were kind of boring, and character development, when there was any, felt unnatural and like it was just shoved into the episode. Each episode was also targeted at some social issue, and the plots were a bit too on-the-nose and literal to really be enjoyable.

I think this episode actually got it right though. Yeah, there was the same social issue theme that this whole season has had, but this time it was actually worked into the plot like it has been in previous seasons. Instead of The Doctor swooping in to save the day and teach us a moral lesson, The Doctor swooped in to save the day and taught a character a moral lesson instead.

I've seen complaints about this season being "preachy" with its (or BBC's) values, and I have seen some of that. But with this episode, Chibnall managed to work the moral lesson into the plot in a way that wasn't directly aimed at the viewer, and it felt much more natural.

It also finally got back to the Doctor Who that I've enjoyed. We're not going back to the past to save some important historical figure, we're not fighting weird and unexplained villains. Instead, we get the classic Doctor-gets-interrupted-mid-flight scene, an actual mystery to solve, and proper plots twists.

I hope it continues to be like this.

As a lot of other people have said, there's really not much plot. There's a ton of action, but it doesn't really seem to be for anything but to show off the effects (which are amazing: lots of attention to detail and the physics are done well). I feel like this movie could've been the first 10 minutes of the next one.

Watch it for the effects, not for the story.

I get that the team working on Doctor Who is relatively small, so the time between seasons can be pretty long, but at least in past seasons that gap was justified with good writing and engaging plots. Season 11 just seems... meh. I can almost never understand what's going on, and when the plot *does* make sense, it's pointless and boring.

These characters are interesting, and I like Jodie's take on the Doctor, but I feel like the good parts are being severely undermined by the boring and non-sequitur writing.