Reviews

Bad writing, bad acting, bad cinematography and horrible, stilted editing. This show looks like an amateur production with no budget and no ideas worth exploring. Even when retreading things they've already done (several times) it feels uninspired and lifeless. Let this series die. It isn't worth a watch in anyway.

As bad as this series started it seems to really go down hill with each new episode. This entire episode was insufferable with awful characters, bad acting, horrific writing and a severe lack of anything interesting or remotely new. Even Danny Trejo couldn't save this at all. They actually managed to make him lame, which is a feat. This series really is one of the worst things on tv and it keeps getting worse. Avoid at all costs.

This show is actually really good. It's amazing to see the artistry of these jewelers and to see a bit of just what goes into a true work of art. This show really helps to show just what it takes for Independent jewelers to make the art they do and just why bespoke prices cost so much.

However, this entire thing is ruined by an AWFUL host. She isn't funny or interesting nor can she relate to the contestants. Every time she walks around the work room to interview the contestants about what they are working on it is so awkward and terrible. It is clear she has no knowledge of anything and so she spends her time shouting out the time (over and over and over and louder and louder...maybe she thinks that is personality?), And asking 'what is that?' 'what are you doing?' even though, she knows what the challenge is and the process was just explained to her by the judges. The time that she should be spending helping us, as an audience, get to know the designers, she does nothing but ask dumb questions and visibly irritate the contestants with her DUMB questions that even the audience knows the answer to! Ask them about who they are!

Nothing interesting or funny. It actually makes me cringe to watch someone so out of touch try to make small talk . I don't know where she came from but this is not her gig. She is also, naturally, the narrator of the show. I wish I could give her points for this, at the very least, but even her voice-over work on the series was stilted and awkward at times. She has a very pleasant voice for this type of voice-over work, but her delivery is just to stilted. Add that too her awkwardness on screen and it's an all around bad experience for the watcher.

I struggle to rate this because I think the production and judges and contestants are great. And it is fun to see the other side of the jewelry industry. Just get a new host and this could be one of the best reality competition shows.

I'm giving it 4 stars for the production and concept, but it is not an 8 because of the host. She's so bad she cut the rating in half. I truly hope to see another season, but I just hope for a new host.

P. S. I do not think the host is a bad person she actually seems to be lovely and tryin , this just isn't her thing.

I really wanted to like this show as I love most competition reality shows. Especially those about artists. The more niche, the better. This is as niche as it gets, but I was intrigued. I loved the artists and what they created. Sadly, the judging is absolutely absurd. In every single episode they actually cut the most talented one and keep the one who should have gone home in the first weeks. It's so stupid I don't even know what they were thinking. It is not worth watching. Unless you like to see the arrangements that win get worse and worse over the weeks becsuse they cut the best ones early. This has so much potential. But, they really need to fix their judges.

This show has zero clue what it wants to be. Is it an unscripted game/reality show? Not really. It clearly has a script even if some of the moments are improvised. It's just boring, dumb and annoying at times. Youtube personalities are not nearly as entertaining as they think they are and usually just come across as pompous jerks with not even the slightest but if humility. Just skip this worthless piece of crap.

Every single character in this episode is insufferable and obnoxious. I've never seen one episode of a show have this many badly written and annoying characters. The whole premise is really lame and poodle executed as well. At first I thought the idea of the people in the chat room coming into his room was clever, because it would have gotten really tedious reading their conversations the whole time. But then it just took a turn to the absurd and impractical. Someone thought they were very clever, but it was just dumb. If they aren't actually there then how are they interacting with him? How are they sharing a bottle of booze? It makes no sense at all and is just plain stupid. On top of that the ending is non-existent. What a frustrating and stupid waste of time. The first episode was pretty good, but you can definitely skip this one.

There is almost nothing to like in this movie. The set up and plot is something you have seen before, but this is probably the worst iteration of it I have ever come across. The concept of the cameras in their head could have /maybe/ been cool it 1) the makeup effects were any good. It didn't even look remotely like a camera lens, and it definitely didn't appear to actually be in their head, meerly pasted to it, and 2) if they had actually used that gimmick to steer the direction in a new direction. But they only show about two shots in the whole film that are supposedly from those cameras. If you're going to have a gimmick at least use it! Furthermore, when the camera is removed from the winner there should be a massive scar left from the giant hole that would have been made to insert the camera and yet none exists.

The script is contrived and offers nothing in the way of story or character development. It's the typical paint-by-numbers for movies like these. The acting is bland and basic. There arent even any good kills to keep this movie enjoyable or worth watching. I can forgive a lot of terrible things in a movie if they have some good, gory and entertaining kills. This movie has none of that. It fails at every level of filmmaking. First and foremost, it fails to be even the slightest bit entertaining. Not even worth a watch to waste time.

I guess the camera stayed in focus, so a star for that I guess.

82 minutes of faux art. Everything in this movie is completely contrived. The camera work resembles every other, better, arthouse horror film. The lighting (vibrant blue contrasted with orange(yawn)), framing, angles, everything about this movie is trying too hard.

The dialogue is 'old english' only to the point that it provides some confusing, puzzle like exchanges, but with little other reason. They use modern coloquialisms like 'another one bites the dust' and 'finders, keepers'. It is all fake and pointless, and really makes you appreciate writers like Robert Eggers who completely immerse you in the language and dialogue, even if it makes the work a little more inaccessible. At least he is consistent in his convictions. This movie clearly is not, and is using this faux colonial English to appear more deep, artistic and mysterious than it actually is.

When the main character delivers her narration there isn't an ounce of this 'old english' to be found. She speaks in modern English.

Sofia in the lead is dreadful, with slilted delivery and wooden emotion. She tried her hardest, too hard. She is channeling Meryl Streep in her dramatic scenes, probably thinking this movie would be her major dramatic breakout, but it comes across insincere and forced. And in a world of people with English accents, speaking pseudo old English, she never has an accent, which futhers her character's, and her performance's, falseness. It makes her stand out from the cast in the worst way possible.

It's a movie that tries too hard to be something, but fails at almost every turn. Pity, because there are some interesting ideas here. Maybe with a better writer, cast and larger production budget, this movie could have joined the ranks of The Witch, Hereditary, The Lighthouse, Midsommar, Climax and Suspiria 2018. Instead it is a very poor imitation of those films and so many others that came before.

Pity.

I've never read the books, I didn't even know it was based on books until I looked it up. This show is just bad all around. Terrible writing, mediocre acting at best and worst of all BORING! The locations were beautiful and the production values were good, but that is where any praise ends. This show is a total failure from beginning to end. Skip this one.