Reviews

This is a 10-part series that can now only be found on YouTube, but it's worth the watch - especially if you go with the full 10-episode video because then you'll get all the old ads, too. (Warning - I think some of the ads, which allegedly date back to the 70's and 80's, have been doctored. In particular, the one for Johnson Outboard Motors entitled, 'You and Your Johnson,' which was a genuine LOL moment.)

The mockumentary focuses on the lives of a remarkably slow-witted family isolated on a remote Canadian island for several generations. They speak their own peculiar dialect, subsist on potatoes, engage in forbidden practices such as 'fish-diddling' and believe their great-grandfather and founder of the island colony was a saint.

It's weird, funny and strangely Canadian in its own way. But a little goes a long way. Fortunately, the 10-episode video on YouTube has a running time of just under two hours, and that includes the ads, which should not be missed.

I watched all three seasons of Defiance when it first aired, and then recently went back and binged it. I'm sorry to say it's not as good as I remembered. And the main problem I have with it is it's repetitive - something you might not notice when spread out over three years but is all too apparent when you watch the whole series over a long weekend.

Let's start with the good stuff - the show had a great premise, and they did a commendable job exploring it in the first season. The special effects makeup was better than average for the small screen, the cast was competent and the sets were quirky but plausible.

Where it fell short was the writing. They rehashed the same plot devices over and over again. I counted four separate and distinct subplots revolving around alien mind control tech. One or two maybe, but by the fourth go-round you'd think the characters would say, "Gee, Mary isn't acting like herself - must be more of that alien mind-control tech..." There were also three separate instances of characters having lengthy involvement with imaginary friends.

There were less obvious repetitions, too. The bad guys (and even some of the "good" guys) behaved despicably again and again - murder, betrayal, treason - yet two or three episodes later all is forgiven, and the bad guys are trusted members of society once more.

So in retrospect I have to say the first season was quite good, but by the second season it was falling apart and by the third it was a case of "been there, done that" to the point of mind-numbing predictability. A sad fate for a show that had so much promise...

Well written, well acted, well paced. Two episodes in and I'm hooked. So far there are three plots to follow - the murders of two reservation residents, a high-profile armored car robbery using a helicopter, and a possible conspiracy to blow up a mining operation. And then there's spooky stuff... It sounds like a lot going on, but because the writing is so good, it's very easy to follow the various intersecting plot lines.

The characters are quite appealing - I credit the fine acting for that - consequently you get invested in the show very quickly. The show doesn't pull any punches when it comes to showing the overt and systematic racism faced by Native Americans in the 1970's (not to suggest it's strictly a thing of the past), but so far it's not falling into the trap of portraying the native people as 'noble savages,' either.

This is simply good drama, and the fact that it's set on a Navajo reservation just enhances the drama rather than over-relying on it or using it as a shtick. I like this show and I think if you give it a try, you'll be hooked, too.

This series got off to a high-adrenaline start with a chase for a suicide bomber in the first few minutes. After that, things slowed down quite a bit. But by the end of the first episode, the premise was fairly well laid out, and most of the key characters were sketched in.

I might be inclined to consider this an average British thriller series were it not for the presence of two big guns - Kristin Scott Thomas and Gary Oldman. That alone would be enough for me to give the show a chance. I'm going to watch a few more episodes before making up my mind on this one - but I am giving it a chance.

So many things to like about this show... For openers, I grew up in Boston in the 1960's, and they did such a good job of recreating that city in that time that I was feeling nostalgic just watching the scenes with Julia walking down the street.

The casting is spot-on - I am so glad they went with Sarah Lancashire because I don't think an American actress could have replicated Julia Child's odd accent nearly as well. David Hyde Pierce is terrific in his usual understated way, and Bebe Neuwirth is always a joy to watch.

The show has a leisurely pace, but I don't mind that - it just provides more opportunity to enjoy the details. And they really got them right.

You know the actors are talented when they can draw you into a drama in a language you don't understand. Halfway through the first episode I was fully invested in the story, transported to another time and place, caring about the fate of the characters.

The story is universal - the struggle of a family to survive and live on in the next generation. It feels very authentic, the characters - even though they don't look like me or speak the same language - are people I know, people I can relate to.

I am enjoying the heck out of this series, and I can recommend it without reservation.

As the title indicates, we are looking at the end of a man's life - and that life is not ending well. Ptolemy Grey once had a woman he loved, friends, family - but he has finally outlived them all and is now sinking into dementia.

But from the first few minutes of the series, we know three things about him: he has a plan, he has a gun, and he has nothing left to lose. What a great set-up...

This show is well cast, beautifully acted, and does an amazing job of taking us into Grey's world of confusion, suspicion, victimization and loss. But we are also piecing together his past life - little bits here and there that begin to form a picture of who this man was and still is.

It's been a long time since I've seen anything this good on television.

As of this writing, the show has an overall IMDB rating of 6.8 - about what you'd expect for a bland sitcom or a YA show. How the heck does that happen?

I am uneasy with the idea of turning the story of a serial killer into a comedy - especially since these crimes are recent enough to still be very painful to the survivors. But if we judged Hollywood according to the standards of good taste, we'd all be watching nothing but Leave It to Beaver reruns.

The pacing is good, the script is well written, I like the narration (something I usually dislike), and Renee Zellweger is quite convincing as the "psycho next door." So despite the fact that I agree with the reviewers who say this is in poor taste and it's all about turning a tragedy into a comedy. I am going to continue watching...

... because the bottom line is this is an entertaining show.

I don't like reviewing after only one episode, so I may update this later... It's the middle of the 17th century and witch mania is rampant. An itinerant and somewhat incompetent witchfinder happens upon an opportunity to advance in his profession and so takes a suspected witch off to see the Witchfinder General.

If the first episode is any indication of things to come, we're in for a lot of silliness. This isn't exactly brilliant comedy, but it's pleasant enough and may well improve over time. There are worse ways to spend half an hour.

The set-up is very standard - and has been since the 1980's: Yuppie parents want to get away from it all and reconnect as a family so they bring their disaffected city kids to a spooky old house in the country. The problem is Mom is hallucinating... or is she?

Courteney Cox and Greg Kinnear are both fast approaching 60 - Cox's face shows every day of it - and way too old to be playing the parents of high school kids. And after two episodes, we don't know any more about who these people are and why we should care about them than we learned from the trailer.

Frankly, I am mystified - the show is not funny, it's not scary, the characters are caricatures, and if they all get killed and eaten by the ghosts, so much the better. I walked away from the first two episodes thinking, "Well, there's two hours of my life I'll never get back again."

I rated this a 3 out of 10 because I don't want to completely torpedo it too soon. Maybe it just got off to a bad start. But I'm really not holding out much hope for this one.

First of all, with Elizabeth Holmes awaiting sentencing later on this year, I'm not sure a TV series depicting her as a damaged PTSD victim is really appropriate - though I'm sure she and her lawyers are thrilled by it.

Seyfried plays Holmes as almost pathologically detached - all brain and no emotion, unable to process trauma, unable to get along with her peers, unable to play by the rules. In short, a classic sociopath, right down to practicing emotional reactions in front of a mirror. If this were an accurate portrayal of Holmes, how did she manage to impress, charm and/or finagle so many intelligent professionals into investing in her company? We see nothing of that - no explanation for why so many people, including medical professionals, would have trusted this woman with not only their money, but the lives of their patients.

I'm going to continue to watch this because I'm curious to see if they deal with any of these problems as the series progresses - but I'm watching it as a fictional drama and not a true story.

I like this show - it's weird, it's funny, but it also has some serious undertones, like not conforming to society's expectations of what a man is supposed to be and the damage caused by bullying. And despite some issue with the language, I think this is a good family show, and there just aren't that many of those around anymore.

I am always willing to give anything by Taika Waititi a chance, and I don't think you'll be sorry for spending half an hour a week with this one. I have a feeling this will become a cult classic.

I was struck by how s-l-o-w the first episode was, and although the pace picked up in the second episode, it wasn't by much. The truth is I can't seem to find a lot to like in this show. The worker-bee characters are annoying and none-too-bright, and the overlords give off a very creepy and sadistic vibe, so it's hard to invest in the characters.

Nevertheless, I am intrigued by the mystery. I'm going to stick with it a while longer, but they really need to liven things up or at least humanize these characters or I will most likely just give up on it...

First of all, the cast is great. Not just good actors (most of whom I've enjoyed in other productions), but actors who have a lot of on-screen chemistry with their colleagues. I was sucked in at once by the scenes with the Thompson sisters (Georgina Campbell and Lydia West), and within a few minutes I was fully invested in their story.

The plot is good, too - not your usual whodunnit, but three ordinary, unrelated Londoners who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, now under suspicion while the real bad guy is on the loose, killing and scheming. Of course, that's just what we're intended to infer - it could turn out to be very different as the story unfolds...

The production values are good - slick and sophisticated - the music, lighting, sets and costuming are all quite well done.

I was a little surprised by Uma Thurman's top billing, as she barely made an appearance in the first two episodes. But maybe we'll see more of her as the show progresses.

Overall, I think this show is getting off to an excellent start. I can't wait to see what happens next...

I'm afraid I wasn't very impressed with this show. The sets are opulent, the costuming is above average, but that's all there is - it's as if they put all their efforts into creating some great visuals, but forgot all the important things. The story is simplistic, the dialog is stilted and contrived, and the acting is lackluster. I am assuming the real fault lies with a bad script and poor direction because that many actors can't all be this bad - it has to be that they have very little to work with.

I'm not crazy about sitcoms, I'm not crazy about kids, and I'm definitely not crazy about sitcoms about kids. Furthermore, the first review - a 10/10 - posted before the show even aired, and that's never a good sign. But it turns out this show is actually pretty funny.

The premise is a simple one - a couple approaching 40 with two kids trying to figure out if having kids is really worth the sacrifice. The stay-at-home mom has an opportunity to return to work, but she is getting seduced over to the dark side (aka having a third kid) by every adorable baby she sees. Meanwhile, the two she already has could be poster children for Ritalin, and dad wouldn't mind going back to being a two-income family. Real-world issues served up in a very funny way.

The downside is it's super-woke. The parents are always banging on about gender stereotyping, etc., and validating each other's feelings, all the marriages/relationships are interracial, and there are very few white actors. It's all done in a funny way, but I am still wondering if this show is set in some other part of the world...

Bottom line - i'm watching again, and if a sitcom about kids can win me over, it has to be good. ;-)

The premise is not only preposterous, it's an HR nightmare: surgeon Dad supervising resident Daughter, then same-said Daughter supervising Dad when he returns to work after spending 6 months in a coma. Meanwhile, Mom is supervising both of them, and they're both romantically (sexually) involved with other residents under their supervision. I'm sure I saw this on General Hospital... The first episode strongly smacked of House - trying to diagnose a mysterious illness, which they manage to catch in time, and perform a bleeding edge procedure to save the patient's life. And the residents vote on how to treat the patient! That's just not how medicine works in the real world.

If you like daytime soap operas you'll love this, but if you're looking for engaging drama, change the channel.

I don't think I've ever seen this premise before - an illegal immigrant forced to become a crime scene cleaner for the mob. In this case, our cleaning lady is also a doctor, which is a lot more common for immigrants (legal or otherwise) than most people think. So I'm giving points for a premise that is both original and very plausible.

The first episode had plenty of action and a bit of suspense, and a little social commentary in providing a small taste of what it's like to be an immigrant worker in the service industry.

I did not care for the cinematography. Cutting off the actor's faces when they are speaking is not art; it's annoying. A shot showing half of a face (and this happened several times) in no way adds to the drama - it just looks like someone screwed up the shot.

The first episode held my attention, and I will definitely continue watching.

Update: 6 episodes in and I'm giving up on this one. It just hasn't lived up to its potential.

And I have to say I am horrified by the way they are portraying illegal aliens. I imagine we can all can sympathize with someone who ignores a border to give their kids a better life, but cleaning up murder scenes? And that's the least of what this show's illegals are doing - others are dealing drugs and selling their kids' organs on the black market. Who can sympathize with that?

Interesting premise - cleaning lady forced to work for mobsters cleaning crimes scenes. Can't say I've seen that one before...

I've only seen the first episode, so it's hard to judge how credible the plots are, but so far, so good. The acting is solid, the characters are sympathetic, and if the first episode is anything to go by, there's plenty of action and suspense.

What I don't like is the cinematography. I can handle weird angles, slow-mo and the other nonsense cinematographers do to try to look artistic, but cutting off faces? An actor is talking and half their face is outside the shot? That's not artistic, it's stupid. But I'll admit that even though I find it incredibly annoying, it's a minor issue overall.

I like this show. It's at least as good as anything else on network television right now.

First of all, I would not describe this show as a comedy; it's more of a lighthearted drama. The premise - a buttoned-down lawyer from London and a pampered party girl from Sidney forced to work together to keep a venture (in this case a vineyard) they jointly inherited from going under, is not new. And I think we all know where this is going.

The acting is competent, the main characters are interesting and likable - which is important if we are to become invested in their success - and the minor characters are quirky in a relatable way. There's a bit of "Green Acres" going on here - including a talking pig - along with a few very real, very contemporary underpinnings, like the emerging New Zealand wine industry. And speaking of New Zealand, the settings are gorgeous.

The one drawback is the lack of any real comedy. I am a huge fan of New Zealand humor, so it's not as if it's there but I just don't get it; the show is falling short of the mark. There are no LOL moments, and only a very occasional snigger or two. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - as a light drama, the show is quite good, but since it was billed as a comedy, it can't fail to disappoint on that score.

Bottom line - if you like the light romantic dramas shown on the Hallmark channel, you'll like this. But if you were expecting What We Do in the Shadows, you'll come away scratching your head.

So far, so good. The show is building on a known quantity - the Star Wars universe - and it does a good job of capturing the feel of the earliest movies. I noticed some reviewers complained about the low quality of the special effects, but the original movie came out more than forty years ago, and special effects have come a long way since then. I kinda like the fact that this is a bit of a throwback - it brought back a little of the incredible excitement of the first movie.

First, the problems: The fight scenes are not great - not awful, but not great. We're used to better, even on the small screen. The makeup effects are decidedly sub-par - most of them are little more than rubber masks, and in fairness to some of the criticisms I've read here, they do feel a little cosplay-y. If I had to choose one area for improvement, this would be it.

On the plus side - great job of capturing some of the feel of the first Star Wars movie. I don't know about the rest of you, but I can still remember what it was like to sit in a theater watching that movie back in 1977. It truly was magical.

I thought Season 1 was great. By no means an accurate reflection of life in the 1950's, but hey, all sitcoms are 90% fantasy, right?

Season 2 seemed to start going off the rails a bit. Not too far off, but the show was slipping.

By Season 3 I was beginning to wonder if I was watching the same show. Instead of seeing Midge's stand-up routines - one of the funniest parts of the two previous seasons - we were now listening to Shy Baldwin crooning - again and again and again - often the same song, always the same style. It got old fast.

The narration, which was new to the 3rd season and might have been quirky as a one-off, very quickly became forced and tedious. And by the end of the season, Midge Maisel is no longer the up-and-coming comedy star, but rather the schlemiel who can't win for losing. I wonder how they plan to recover from this...

I intend to check out Season 4 on the chance that Season 3 was an aberration, but I won't be holding my breath.

And finally, I hope everyone realizes that some of those fabulous hats were worn backwards. The pretty bows usually went in the back or on the side. Just sayin'...

Caveat - I've only seen one episode, so please take that into consideration when reading this review.

The show focuses on an Indigenous Australian father-daughter team of vampire hunters operating in the area of a series of abandoned opal mines in the Outback. And we have all the usual clichés: dad is a ne'er-do-well who loves his kid but leaves most of the parenting to her, the over-achieving daughter is openly bullied because of her race, the tough-but-kindly ex-girlfriend is picking up the slack, and the vampires were brought to Australia (along with guns and smallpox) by the evil British "colonizers" to subdue the indigenous population. It's a simplistic world view, but since the target audience for this show appears to be young adults, we shouldn't expect Tolstoy.

On the plus side, the acting is competent, the Outback is stunning and the show is at least as good as any of the other vampire-zombie-demon hunting shows out there. And this one has one big plus - it's not one of those shows aimed at young teenagers but peppered with f-bombs and sex scenes that would be inappropriate for the said-same audience.

I will probably update this review after I've had a chance to watch a couple more episodes. But so far I have to say that though it's not great, it's not terrible, either.

This series has a lot going for it, so let's begin with the writing. Each episode is a discrete, self-contained drama which means you can watch the series out of order and not find yourself lost and confused. The show is well-paced - fast enough so as not to bore you, but slow enough to draw you into the early 20th century world they are recreating. And the mysteries are challenging - you're not very likely to say, "I knew it all along" at the end of an episode.

The acting is good - the largely unknown cast, including many German actors (especially Jürgen Maurer) who have not done much English-language work, hangs together very well. The chemistry between Maurer and. Matthew Beard makes the unlikely friendship between an affluent, well-educated Jewish psychiatrist and a working class police detective not just believable but almost inevitable. Amelia Bullmore (superb as the ditsy, meddlesome Mrs. Priestly in Gentleman Jack) and Charlene McKenna are great supporting players and make the most of their limited screen time.

Most reviewers have already commented on the sets, production values and costuming, but I did want to add that one aspect of the costuming in particular is worth mentioning - the costumes look hand-sewn, no obvious zippers, coats look well-worn, blouses are not too starched or ironed, just as they would have looked a hundred years ago. Nice attention to detail.

The politically correct historical revisionism is at a minimum here - yes, there is a female forensic scientist, but Marie Curie had already won her first Nobel Prize by 1907 (when the series is set) and is well on her way toward her second, so it's not as if female scientists were entirely unknown. ;-) But overall, the face of early 20th century Vienna shown in the series is very much the same as you would have seen had you actually been there at the time - the power and status consolidated in the hands of white Christian males, with the largely secularized Jewish upper class making significant contributions to the intellectual and artistic life of Vienna, and tolerated (if not fully accepted) socially. I am usually a very harsh critic of historical revisionism and inaccuracies, but there's little to complain about here.

I understand the the need people have to compare this show to Sherlock - which would be unfair to any show, as Sherlock set a very high bar - because I can feel it more than see it. It comes across in the high standard of excellence that permeates this show, the strong acting and writing, the attention to detail. It's not Sherlock, but it's still very good.