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rgillespey
Reviews
Utopia (2020)
Guaranteed Loser
(Note: One small spoiler below, but it's central to the review.)
I had not watched the British series previously, and am a SF/Fantasy fan so I should be the target audience for Utopia. And yet by episode 2, I pulled the plug on it. By unilaterally creating Samantha (a character that didn't exist in the U.K. original), then having her immediately murdered by Jessica is an inexplicable creative choice by Gillian Flynn. Why willfully stick your thumb in your viewers' eye like that? At least Game of Thrones waited a few seasons before they "Red Weddinged" their fans. Forget it; I'm out.
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020)
Pretentious and Uninspired
Wanted to see all of the episodes before I wrote a review. While it wasn't complete garbage, it lacked any trace of originality or spark of life. The acting, while decent (although Natalie Dormer didn't do herself any favors), was largely wasted of a stiff, pretentious and often incoherent story line.
Stargirl (2020)
7.6,? Really?
I can only guess that these reviews have been written by the production crew's friends and family. Or possibly Brec's Nick posse has followed her over here. To be clear, most of my problem with this series is not the acting, per se; it's the writing and production. The characters are more like caricatures. Mike and Pat Dugan act like "Happy Days" cast members and I know that Luke Wilson, at least, is capable of more than that. And I'm not asking much of Courtney here; I'm really not. Certainly not believability - although the idea of Bree being able to sew her own super costume makes my head hurt.
Look...this isn't a terrible show. It's just average: cheap special effects, mediocre writing and directing, and average acting. 5 Stars.
The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (2000)
Respect
I'm coming to this series very late (2020), and my rating reflects the show's vision and guts, for the time. It may well be the most genuinely true graphic novel steam punk live action series ever made. They were WAY ahead of their time with their story-lines, costumes and sets (given the money they had to work with and the technology available. And they didn't cheap out, either (given that it was a Sci FY Channel show. If I had to criticize anything about the show, it would be the choice of actors to play the three leads.
All in all, though. RESPECT
Victoria (2016)
Thank God!
Jenna Coleman is in charge. The Irish will probably end up putting on a few stone this time.
Seriously, this production makes me wonder what the BBC have against Doctor Who and The Fades, etc. If they had put a tenth of the effort behind either of those two series that ITV did on Victoria, we'd be talking multiple Oscars.
I actually really liked the series, though. It even made me realize what hacks the Doctor Who writers were when she was on. She came off as flat as a Crepe Suzette in those; clearly, she was capable of more.
Of course, the expected political/social agenda and revisionism is right there pandering as expected. That's what you should expect when you force your viewers to pay for whatever you choose to feed them.
And I thought that my Middle School American history books were written by a bunch of homers!