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Reviews
La casa de papel: KO técnico (2020)
Saddest episode
To say more would be a crime... Really 150 characters is what a review requires? Ah, the humanity. Decide for yourself, really. Who's going to decide what's worthy and what is not? If you've seen the series this far, you are vested in these characters.
Altered Carbon (2018)
10 for season one, 8 for season 3
The start to season two is choppy, but pulls together by episode 8. Season one builds a world not unlike Blade Runner but is well put together with strong leads and supporting actors, and well structured Storytelling.
Joel Kinnaman is amazing in season one (as are many others), but give season two a chance, all the way through. Too many reviews here gave up too early.
The Man in the High Castle: Fire from the Gods (2019)
Season 4 was great
Every character on the Nazi and Japanese side has had a reckoning. The arc of the American Reich is complete. A fifth season would be stupendous, but Amazon in its great corporate wisdom has ruled against it. The portal as a mythic metaphor provides a moral reckoning. What will you do with your life? Are you on the side of liberty and human rights, or the illusion of a master race? Choose your side, but remember there's a reckoning.
If you don't understand the portal as a metaphor for a world without walls, think again. What is it to be human and seek better opportunities?
Another Life (2019)
Decent hard sci fi plus slow building space opera
Starts better than SGU, not as fun as Dark Matter or Firefly, and could be more focused on the journey like ST Voyager. Many familiar sci-fi tropes involving alien life, unreliable human technology and the role of virtual AI in helping to manage an FTL ship. But ultimately this is a show about Katee Sackhoff's character, ship captain, wife and mother, her guilt over a previous space mission gone awry, and her ship's mission to make first contact with aliens (similar to Arrival, Contact) from across the galaxy.
The crew? More like SGU or Dark Matter. This ain't the Starship Enterprise, NASA or any professional military outfit most of us would be familiar with. Respect these production elements and the show just might lead somewhere, resulting in a second or third season. Also, catch the multiple meanings behind the series title, Another Life: family life vs. professional life, human life vs. alien, human life vs AI, the previous backgrounds of crew members and others vs. one's own upbringing in our protagonist. Get outside your own personal bubble, people. You know sci fi is traditionally a valid avenue for exploring social commentary on our current life and times.
That said, where is Starfleet, Stargate Command, or any reasonable command structure in this all? Or will rank individualism and personal leadership save the day? (No, it ain't Star Wars either).
There are allusions to newer tropes: global warming, Trump-era opportunism and swarmynself-serving leadership; don't just blame political correctness, diversity and millennials. Widen your vision.
So far, through the first six episodes, plot-wise I find it's not all that different from Kim Stanley Robertson's novel Aurora.
The focus on family and separation from it is not so different from Continuum, in contrast with the latest Lost in Space where the family unit remains intact and journeys together into space. But the crew's journey here, together in the ship workplace, is the focus, with occasional cutouts to the family members back home on Earth. The ties that bind...
Collateral (2018)
First rate entertainment
There are only four episodes here, and it's not clear where this is going at the end of the first episode. But then it locks in.
So many characters and so little time to develop their story arcs. The brilliance in the writing lies in how much we've learned about each character by the end of the series, and how their relationships with other characters change (or are reconciled) as the story ends. There is incredible compression going on here in the storytelling; that's artistry, folks.
But were you entertained? Did the story engage you, or did you give up somewhere along the way because the way the story was told wasn't as trite or formulaic as most TV shows or movies these days?
Not a lot separates the heroes from the villains in this series, and that's not a typical approach taken in this age of action, CGI and superheroes. It almost smacks of, gee, everyday life...
If you can give it a chance, it just may work for you. And at least the price of admission is much cheaper than flying to London to see a play in a theatre there...
Yellowstone: New Beginnings (2019)
Good episode
Change isn't easy. Characters face changes in this episode. Not a lot happens, but there's mood, emotion, reckonings with unavoidables. Not everyone's cup of tea, but a righteously great episode if you are open to the message. To say more...
Designated Survivor: #truthorconsequences (2019)
A real rework with promise
Many will not like the changes made in Season 3 (characters dropped, changes in language and themes addressed) but in the age of Trump the writers have proved deft, topical, on point with the times. I understand that some will not like the shift from the show in Seasons 1 and 2. And I wish more of the actors from earlier season did continue on in Season 3 and 4. Yet there is a bold potential in where Season 3 ends, with a President who is neither left nor right, and a diverse team of associates who work in the White House advancing the policies of the Kirkman Administration. Sure, the musical theme in Season 3 echoes the Marvel Avenger movies, and in a world without superheroes, who should we look to for hope? You could do worse than these characters...
Designated Survivor: #privacyplease (2019)
A new approach to storytelling
Having rewatched Seasons 1 and 2, and now watching Season 3 for the first time, I realize that this show is opening up. I don't disagree with the comments on vulgarities or political correctness; I don't have problems with this, though I understand that others do. But their comments miss something else that's going on. Most of the principal characters begin to take on complex story arcs in this episode; the characters for the first time in the series, arguably, start becoming complex. This is a critical step in this show, a nice step beyond mere plot into real character development. As such, this might be the most important episode in this series. I'll need to finish viewing season 3 to see if my intuition is correct, but I finally feel like my investment in watching this series is finally paying off. I'm hoping I'm not wrong on this.
Maigret: Maigret et l'étoile du nord (2004)
A tone poem, nostalgia, a life lived and to be lived
A dying actor makes his last performance in a role, a young female character is acquiesced to by Maigret - Christmas, winter, snowfall, a hidden romance - this is a tone poem to death, sacrifice, of duty of the aged to youth, to life. A sad but noble tale, of duty not to the state or to truth but to someone young, with their future ahead of them, no matter their indescretions. This is nobility portrayed, a final act for living one's life, however imperfect.
Iron Fist (2017)
Good story and writing, if not the best story
As a Caucasian male married to someone from China, and with a Japanese sister in law, and as someone who lived in east Asia for ten years and has taught Asian studies courses at the university level, I would agree there's a lot this show gets wrong. It's not clear the writers understand Buddhism or the differences among East Asian cultures. If we accept the main three characters, all rich privileged whites, have their own trials and tribulations trying to manage the Rand Corporation after their parents' early deaths, we can dispel the charge of whitewashing and accept this is a story of coming of age for our three rich white kids. Privilege has its price, apparently. Would a TV series about an Asian martial arts master coming home to America be a better or more authentic story? Undoubtedly. Having an Asian lead bringing the Iron Fist to America would be a variation on the Kung Fu TV series of the 1970s, but something different is going on here.
Three cultures are in play - American, Japanese, Chinese - arguably four with Claire/Rosario Dawson as the Puerto Rican/ NewYorikan. Bogus Asian mysteries abound, but then this is pulp comic book fodder. The real questions are: is this well written, and is it entertaining? I've had my reservations on the first question, but now that I'm on the tenth episode of season one, I can attest that, yes, it took awhile but my viewing time on this series is paying off. There are at least five decent twists in play at this point, and I am entertained.
If you want more authenticity, watch a documentary or an Asian-made move or TV series. If you are stuck in the MCU, I commiserate- just ignore the hype and give Iron Fist a try.