Change Your Image
Melusina13
Reviews
Shôgun (2024)
Needed more of a better Blackthorne
I have never read the book but I loved the original mini series with Richard Chamberlin. The first 2 episodes were some of the best television that I have seen in a long time and I couldn't wait to see more. The Asian actors are amazing and the intricate plotting against the beautiful scenery is impressive. The costume design is the best I have seen on tv since Game of Thrones.
Unfortunately much of the rest of the series does not live up to the promising start. I put most of the blame for this on the way the series portrays Blackthorne. The actor acts more like a big goofy frat boy than a hardened seaman. As a navigator he would have to be fairly intelligent but we never really see this. There is no chemistry with Mariko. We are told that they are deeply in love but we never really see this relationship develop. He never really seems to be a major character in the story.
I found the finale very disappointing. After all of the plotting, buildup and lives sacrificed I expected more.
Bodies (2023)
Good enough to make you overlook the plot holes!
I started watching this with no real expectations. I had just been severely disappointed by 3 Body Problem and just wanted something reasonably entertaining to watch. The reviews were mostly good, but the premise sounded odd. Stories about time travel never seem to work particularly well for me. While there are some very large plot holes in this show, the stories were woven together well and kept me intrigued and never bored. The characters were, for the most part, very well cast and well acted. It's about 4 different detectives in 4 different time periods investigating the exact same murder. It's hard to share some of the specific highlights or larger plot holes without spoiling the story but I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys sci-fi storytelling not dependent on special effects.
3 Body Problem (2024)
Was logic lost in translation?
I have not read the books but I have heard for years about this great series. I was cautiously optimistic when I heard about Benioff & Weiss doing the adaptation for Netflix because they would have a completed work to adapt. They did a wonderful job on GOT until they ran out of Martin's source material. If these books were as good as they are said to be, there must have been a lot changed or lost in bringing it to Netflix.
The first episode really drew me in. The scenes in China were great and a wonderful setup. I was anxious to see more. Then we meet the main characters (I agree with another reviewer's description of them as UK version of Friends). They do not in any way seem to act like scientists. But then this "science fiction" story seems to try and eliminate any vestige of real science. We are told that the world's super colliders are producing impossible results and that science is broken, but we are given not the slightest clue as to what those results might be. I guess we, the audience, are too stupid to understand. The list of unexplained illogic goes on. Why is Evans reading fairy tales to the aliens? Why is the nano fence a better way of destroying the ship than a bomb ? Why do the all powerful aliens need to recruit a cult on earth? And above all, we are really shooting a brain into space to meet and hopefully infiltrate the aliens? When this was brought up my first thought was that sixties classic "They Saved Hitler's Brain".
There is more to telling a story than filming a series of scenes! There is a rushed feeling of this happened and then this happened and then this ... I think I am going to read the books to find out if they make more sense.
House of the Dragon (2022)
All surface, no depth!
The word that comes to mind is hollow. There is too much CGI, too much violence and not enough interesting characters in our introduction to this world. The actors do well with the the material they have but they do not portray characters that I want to see more of. There is no depth to this world like there was in Game of Thrones. I will continue to watch for a while but there is no sense of mystery here, nothing to foreshadow or keep the audience invested in figuring out. So if you watched Game of Thrones just for the battle and sex scenes (and the dragons) this show may be for you. But if you loved the storytelling and world creation (of the first seasons anyway), I'm afraid House of the Dragon is not going to satisfy.
Law & Order: Organized Crime: The Christmas Episode (2021)
Episode makes no sense
I watched this episode because it was part of a crossover from SVU. I stopped watching Organized Crime some weeks ago and this "story" only reinforces my judgement that this is just a bad show. Apparently Eli was set up by someone clairvoyant enough to know that he would 1. Bolt unexpectedly from the trial of his mother's murderer. 2. end up at a particular party spot in New Jersey even though the trial was in NYC and he lives in Long Island City 3. Go home with the designated girl. This person knew that all of this was going to happen and so they were able to hire someone to kill the girl after it all fell into place. Not to mention that Stable and his hacker were able to find and log into a hidden camera in the room within a matter of minutes. Really?
Only Murders in the Building (2021)
Actual entertainment!
I am thoroughly enjoying this show! Selena Gomez is not a name that I would have come up with to put with Martin and Short, but she is a great foil for the older actors. I find it refreshing and, in a definite change from most of the latest "mysteries" that I have seen, unpredictable.
Law & Order: Organized Crime (2021)
Graphic violence does not make up for bad writing!
I am a long time fan of the L&O franchise and I have tried to give this show a chance because of Chris Meloni. But the most recent episode is the last I will try to watch. I say try because I turned it off about 30 minutes into it. This show seems to have no particular format which might be OK if the stories made sense or were interesting! As other reviewers have noted, Mariska Hargitay wanders in and out of episodes but we are shown very little of the rest of the cast and there doesn't seem to be any interest in their character development or interactions. It was the ensemble nature of L&O and SVU that made them great and they don't even seem to be trying to achieve this in Organized Crime. The stories are confusing and boring and the excess of violence in the most recent episode is no substitute for storytelling! I will not be watching anymore.
The Chair (2021)
Trite and Boring!
I found the first episode somewhat promising but couldn't even make it all the way through the second. I was watching with someone who just retired from a medical school faculty and she said that there is plenty of material for a comedy, particularly from the viewpoint of female faculty, to make a great show, but that this is very definitely not it! Too bad because I like Sandra Oh.
Reminiscence (2021)
What a waste of an idea.
I had been looking forward to this. The cast looked good and the premise was intriguing. What a disappointment! When will the current crop of movie makers realize that there is more to telling a story than filming a series of scenes. There have to be connections between the characters and the actions that make some kind of sense and draw us into the things we are seeing. We need to have a reason to like or dislike the main characters! Reminiscence failed on all counts to interest me in either the love story or the other story revealed near the end involving characters that I knew virtually nothing about. Also, how did Mae and the bad guys even know that Jackman's character had the memories that were stolen?
Good Witch (2015)
What About Grace?
I have enjoyed Good Witch over the years as a pleasant diversion. The scenery, decorations and subtle hint of the supernatural were easy to sit back and enjoy. A year ago I would have been upset to hear that the show was cancelled. However, after the train wreck that has been Season 7, I believe it's time to put this mess out of its misery. Others have commented on many of the problems with this season but there is one thing that I haven't seen mentioned and that is WHAT ABOUT GRACE? This confusing red moon thing is affecting all of the Merriwick women but Cassie hasn't even mentioned her own daughter. After the sometimes cloyingly close relationship that they had, she apparently prefers talking to her dead parents to checking on her living child. Apparently the writers thought that after including her earlier in the season, it was now OK to banish her to the zone of forgotten relatives (Jakes' kids, George's wife, etc.). It's time for this show to go!