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Rome (2005)
a great series, cut short
I just started rewatching the two existing seasons of Rome, which was sadly cut short for being too expensive. I'd forgotten how intriguing it was for all the historical details.
The dialogue with unfamiliar but believable slang and metaphors (taken from real historical accounts or invented, I don't know, but it works.) The way the Romans conflated their political and religious systems (very odd from the modern perspective that democracy must be secular). The city streets teeming with a society that is both intriguingly alien and comfortingly familiar.
There was some great casting, especially for the key roles of Caesar, Brutus, Antony and Cleopatra. The kid who played Octavian in S1 was good too. It would have been great to see the story continue. Maybe someone will do a modern remake of I, Claudius instead. With plenty of flashbacks.
Pachinko (2022)
historical sections are good
Pachinko was hard for me to get into, but I finally decided to just fast-forward the modern sequences (set in the 1980s) and only watch the scenes in the 1920s thru 1950s (so far), which are much more engaging.
The storyline is a bit soapy for my tastes and I'm not keen on the Korean acting style where staring into the camera for several seconds, deer-in-headlights style, is supposed to convey great depth and emotion or something. Just makes me think "this actor has zero talent." Probably unfair so I try to ignore that.
Where this show excels is in historical set pieces, such as a Japanese quake in the 20s (first season) or a Nagasaki factory in August 1945 (second season). At minimum, try to watch those.
One last issue since this series is on AppleTV+: for some reason, Apple has a hard time keeping the subtitles up. They'll vanish for no reason, frequently, and I have to choose subtitles all over again to activate them. Kind of a big problem for a series that is almost all foreign language. Makes it hard to want to keep watching. Imagine if Shogun on Hulu were handled like that.
The Big Cigar (2024)
this should be better known
Apple is getting good at making historical miniseries: Franklin, Manhunt and now The Big Cigar. You can think of each as a snapshot of the overall American saga of the search for freedom, in the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries.
The Big Cigar is the most cogent of the trio, focused just on one aspect of Huey P. Newton's life: fleeing trumped up murder charges with the help of some Hollywood admirers.
André Holland and Alessandro Nivola lead a very accomplished cast. They should have gotten some Emmys attention. The story has many "oh come on" moments but apparently is largely true, even the part about the underwater Jesus who had it in for the Black Panthers.
The one fault of the miniseries is the over-reliance on jarring flashbacks, with several flashbacks per episode that makes the whole thing jump around like a jack in the box on meth. It's only six episodes long, can't we just have one episode be the flashback and the rest normal?
Margin Call (2011)
making numbers sexy
Margin Call is notable for achieving something that must be very hard for a writer: taking the complicated financial shenanigans of the 2008 crisis and hammering them into a script that is basically comprehensible - the audience can understand what's at stake - while also delivering on a gripping narrative that keeps you watching, same as any thriller.
The acting is very good throughout. Demi Moore may be an underrated actor. There's one scene where she sits there, stone-faced, while getting some bad news. Her expression changes oh so slightly as the news registers. Almost beneath a perceptible level.
The movie, however, seems a bit too short and ends without giving us any concrete scenes of the financial carnage that was unleashed. A short coda would have been enough.
Bad Monkey (2024)
Florida Man, the series
I'm only halfway thru the season so far but I think I get the gist of it enough to post a review.
This isn't the best-made comedy ever, but it does something valuable, namely fill a missing slot in the comedy universe. We have edgy comedies like Rick & Morty and Hacks, and we have the eternal sitcoms, but there aren't nearly enough non-formulaic comedies that aren't trying to strangle you with bitterness or make you lose (too much) faith in the human race.
Bad Monkey sits in that rare place with Only Murders in the Building: watchable and breezy but not unambitious and lazy. Vince Vaughn is just about the perfect comedian to headline this show, which assembles a collection of Key West/Caribbean eccentrics ranging from toxic exes to rapacious realtors to drug-addled doctors to voodoo queens into a compulsively watchable narrative.
Okay sometimes the storyline is so zany, it could only happen if we assume the people involved are perpetually high or have lost their minds. But it's Florida, okay? Florida Man (and Woman) territory.
However, please, if this gets a season 2, stop with the voiceover narration! It adds nothing whatever to the story and is frankly irritating.
Monkey Man (2024)
good director, meh script
I usually notice writing in movies more than direction but in this case, the interesting and innovative directing popped out at me immediately. I appreciated that this wasn't the kind of revenge flick where it's wall to wall mayhem, and there was a little plot and character development along the way.
But the script is very much the standard revenge plot, nothing special really. And the idea that the Kid is "Hanuman" (the monkey god) really doesn't parse. From the story told by the mother at the start, it sounds like Hanuman is more of an Icarus figure - someone who flew too close too (or ate) the sun, and was punished by the gods for his hubris.
But the Kid has no hubris. He's just an average person who has been wronged. It's an underdog story. They got the mythic metaphor totally wrong.
Anyway, I'd like to see more movies directed by Patel but with better scripts. Good start.
Franklin (2024)
well made, as far as it goes
This is a well-produced, sumptuously made miniseries about a very focused topic: Franklin's diplomatic maneuverings at the French court which resulted in men, arms and warships aiding the Revolution. The negotiations are interesting to follow but it loses something that there's little or no depiction of how the aid actually turned the tide. It's all just handled in dialogue. Show, don't tell!
Michael Douglas is hard to get used to as Franklin. I never really bought him at all. The actor they got to play Adams overdid the "obnoxious and disliked" part. Paul Giamatti got the balance right in the HBO Adams miniseries: strident and dogged but still charming.
Much of the miniseries is devoted to the adventures of Franklin's grandson, Temple, and the louche young aristocrats he befriended. Temple's story is so directionless that the kid quickly becomes irritating.
Give this miniseries a better budget, edit out Temple's story and replace it with actual warfare scenes, and you'd have a more coherent and better story.
Omnivore (2024)
the poster child for why AppleTV+ is insufferable
Don't get me wrong, AppleTV+ has some excellent content like Severance, For All Mankind and Presumed Innocent. But even with their top tier stuff, there's this whiff of something noxious that I couldn't quite put my finger on.
This docu-series perfectly encapsulates it: that odor is the smug condescension of the global one percent. Hosted by some celebrity chef from a fancy restaurant few people could ever afford to dine at, it trots through some popular foods, focused on just a tiny fragment of the whole industry, the fancy pants artisanal froo-froo segment.
It's lovely that some dude in Rwanda is making coffee by hand, for what, $100 a pound? Obviously this has no relevance to the common herd, watching grocery prices soar and thinking about what they have to cut back.
The episode about salt could have been fascinating, especially if it did anything more than, once again, talk about the teeny industry of making salt by hand. How about the long, fascinating history of salt in various human cultures? We barely get any of that.
Netflix (which in general doesn't have anything near the quality of AppleTV+ anymore) made a good series along the same lines called Rotten. If you're frustrated by Omnivore, check that out. Eschewing the prissy approach, Netflix takes us to the gang wars of the avocado trade, the cratering French wine industry, and corruption in the garlic industry. Much more real and relevant.
Franklin: Sauce for Prayers (2024)
engaging start
Okay let's address the elephant in the room: Michael Douglas as Ben Franklin. No fat-suit padding. He looks old enough (maybe too old) but is lean and obviously Michael Douglas the whole time. He doesn't disappear into the role.
But this is the only objection I can muster. The production values are gorgeous. The story gives you a very clear whats-at-stake (the whole fate of the United States!) The dialogue is lively and crisp and thankfully free of obvious anachronisms (looking at you, Manhunt).
It's fascinating and slightly mystifying that Franklin was renowned by common people for "giving them electricity." There had been electrical experiments before Franklin's famous kite-flying incident but the first practical use of electricity that I know of, was the invention of the telegraph, which wouldn't happen till 1844. How was electricity part of the average person's life before then?
Manhunt (2024)
a lot more than just a manhunt
The title might refer to the manhunt for Booth after Lincoln's assassination but the miniseries covers a lot more than just that narrow scope.
It encompasses the aftermath of the Civil War from many angles: Jefferson Davis was still on the run, Confederates were planning their revenge, foreign countries were giving aid and comfort to fleeing rebels, former slaves were adjusting to their new status and the government was planning radical steps for reconstructing the south into a more equitable society, a goal pushed by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton but undermined by the new President, Andrew Johnson.
From that perspective, there are many parallels to modern times, which the writers sometimes call out a bit too clumsily. Sometimes the plotline, dialogue and acting is also clumsy. The big scope means the story is at risk of going off the rails. But in the end they tie it all together.
Standout performances from Tobias Menzies as Edwin Stanton; Anthony Boyle, believably creepy and hateful as John Wilkes Booth; and Hamish Linklater as Abraham Lincoln.
I would have liked the writers to pay more attention to scrubbing anachronisms from the dialogue. It happened over and over. It may be amusing to think that John Wilkes Booth knew about the theatrical superstition, "break a leg," when he really did break his leg on stage, but there's no evidence of that superstition existing till the 1920s and most likely it developed no earlier than the early 20th Century. There are many more examples like that, far too many.
Still, it's a competent and often well-acted production of historical events with modern relevance. Recommended.
Apple really should consider continuing the saga with a new story, covering Johnson's fraught one-term Presidency and the very different administration of his successor, Ulysses S. Grant, who was serious about Reconstruction and went to war with the KKK.
Manhunt: The Secret Line (2024)
they're missing the best dramatic fodder
Even though this is just a miniseries, it's already straining to keep the drama going. The scene with the Booth brothers really highlights the problem. The dynamics between those two suggest a more interesting story they could have told.
They're trying to tell the story of how the Confederacy attempted to survive Appomattox, but it's being told via Wall Street bankers and foreign interests who want the cotton wealth to keep flowing.
People trying to make money just isn't an interesting psychological motivation for a story, not unless there's something else in it. But the rivalry between the Booth brothers, which contributed to John Wilkes' attempts to be a showy "hero" and outshine his brother, is far more engaging.
The story with Mary teaching freed slave children to read is nice, but what does it have to do with the core story at all? Seems shoehorned in. I'm trying to figure out why they made her a major character in this story.
Manhunt: Let the Sheep Flee (2024)
a big canvas, maybe too big
At this point the story is expanding out in many directions. In addition to the titular Manhunt, we have a story of the remnants of the Confederacy, who are far from defeated; Wall Street's possible involvement; foreign policy implications, with the defeated Confederacy having foreign supporters who want those cotton profits regardless of slavery; stories of black Union soldiers; the story of Mary, the freed slave from Dr. Mudd's household who seems no longer involved in the Booth manhunt; and Stanton's medical problems.
While I appreciate the attention to period detail and the ambition to tell a holistic story of the time, it's starting to lose focus.
Manhunt: Post-mortem (2024)
mainly historically plausible
The "you are there" appeal of the first episode continues, with a lot of detail provided for Booth's escape through Maryland, his treatment by the infamous Dr. Mudd, and even backstory for a slave named Mary who no doubt will be involved more in the story.
There's a lot of detail from the other side as well, where Stanton leads the dogged pursuit of the conspirators, with some rough tactics that are true to the times. The treatment of the crime scene of Lincoln's assassination and his death bed are also rather shocking to those who are used to modern cop shows. No fingerprinting, no crime scene tape, no nothing! None of that had been developed.
There's a bit of a problem I've noticed in other historical dramas, in which the writers aren't cautious enough to avoid anachronisms. Booth makes a joke about how he literally broke a leg, a reference to the "break a leg" theater superstition.
A 5 second google search could have told the writer that the first recorded instance of that superstition would not be until 1921. It could have been an oral tradition before that, but to go 60 years without any mention in any written document at all is completely implausible. It most likely developed in the early 20th Century. And there have been more blunders like that, peppered throughout the dialogue.
There's also a problem with stiff, explanatory dialogue that doesn't sound natural for the characters, such as Stanton's son, who makes a speech about how Lincoln's funeral train should visit America cities on the way back to Illinois. He might have been the one to come up with the idea, but people don't talk in expository speeches for the benefit of the audience. A more organic speaking style could have been crafted to get the same point across.
But overall, it's a very good and engrossing story.
Manhunt: Pilot (2024)
you are there
The best thing about this series is the immersive quality, putting you right on the scene when Lincoln and the cabinet get the telegraph news of the Confederate surrender. And we see the emotional reaction of men who had gone through a tough and terrifying time, which seemed to be over...
You definitely get the feeling of camaraderie among people like Lincoln, Stanton (Secretary of War) and Seward (Secretary of State), which gives Lincoln's assassination and the attempt on Seward more emotional punch.
Tobias Menzies as Stanton gets to be the protagonist for once. It must be rewarding for him to finally play a noble-minded hero after a career where he usually plays villains and weaklings. He's good at it.
Presumed Innocent (2024)
now that's the way to make thriller
I was initially skeptical that a story that was made into a mere 2 hour movie in the 90s would work as a miniseries, but it didn't require a whole lot of padding to fill out the time. The narrative is lean and taut.
There are some standout performances from Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Negga and Peter Sarsgaard, among a generally excellent cast.
The twists and turns keep you guessing and I definitely did not see the ending coming. My money was on a different suspect altogether with a wholly different scenario and motive.
Even if you've seen the old movie with Harrison Ford, don't "presume" you know the whole story. It's worth seeing regardless.
Another excellent series from Apple.
Lady in the Lake (2024)
beautifully produced but what's the point?
I gave up after a couple episodes. They put a ton of money and effort into making it look gorgeous, and the acting is top notch, especially the two leads.
But to what end? There are some tepid murder mysteries in the mix but the writing never convinced me to care about either of them. The political stuff, drawn from the history of the mid 60s, is somewhat interesting but not enough to keep me going.
Apple tends to do this a lot - make shows that scream "prestige programming" that are really not all that compelling or interesting. Every so often, they produce something that is both prestigious and compelling, and then it's great. Just not this time.
From (2022)
Lost x The Walking Dead x The Twilight Zone but much worse
They're trying to make Lost x The Walking Dead x The Twilight Zone but the result is definitely not the sum of the parts.
One major weakness is that the characters are boring and in many cases, not much more than recognizable cliches. When the action lulls, we are left with nothing but badly written soap opera scenes that merit fast-forwarding.
This is where the show needs a Sawyer, a Locke, a Shane - a character well written and well acted enough that they enliven the soap opera and keep it interesting. There's no character like that, not even close.
The monsters aren't really interesting either. We've seen zombies etc many times before. The "lore" is an even more random grab-bag of nonsense than Lost at its worst, and is often undermined by the cheap production values that at times seem like they bought props from a Halloween store.
Also, when you have a mainly Canadian cast of so-so actors, somebody tell the screenwriters to avoid using the words "out" and "about" cause it kinda gives away the fact that this is yet another cheap Canadian production being made for tax credits.
I'd love to see a good series that is Lost x The Walking Dead x The Twilight Zone but this ain't it. Look elsewhere.
From: Choosing Day (2022)
good so far, but...
Good so far, but... this is probably the point where I bail on this show.
TV keeps trying to replicate Lost. This is Lost x The Walking Dead x Twilight Zone. Good premiere, but it's already starting to grate. They don't have the charismatic characters. There's no Sawyer, no Locke, no Shane. When the action invariably wanes, those are the characters who keep you watching.
Instead we get a boring white bread family, a nice guy sheriff with uninteresting issues with his grown son and a pack of irritating hippies All feels so tired. There are a few good characters - Donna (the blustery lady who runs the Colony) and the oddly-named Jade (jerky tech bro type who at least is entertaining to watch). But not enough.
By far the most intriguing plotline is the weird old guy who is measuring the trees, because he at least is doing something proactive to figure a way out of their predicament. Has everyone else just given up?
The priest is badly and unconvincingly written. Maybe he'll be revealed to be some kind of bad guy posing as a priest? Or it's just bad writing.
Jackpot! (2024)
another failed concept
I'm always up for a good comedy. They're very hard to find anymore. But this is not it.
I gave it about 20-30 minutes, enough time to get through the setup of the premise, get the two stars together in the storyline, have everyone commit some mayhem, and then what. Is the whole movie just going to be mayhem?
After 20-30 minutes, anything would get boring, even mayhem. Not enough variations. The writers should have said, okay we did that, what other ideas could we pull out of this premise?
And Awkafina's character is too dumb to believe. Even in Michigan, I guarantee that if California legalized murder for lottery winners, the whole world would have heard about it. You'd have to be a monk living in a cave in the Himalayas not to have heard.
Game of Thrones: Fire and Blood (2011)
this show zigs when you expect it to zag
Just a few episodes ago, the audience would have been thinking, this is going to be the story of noble Ned Stark, protector of the realm to the poor little teenaged King Joffrey, defending Westeros from the barbarian hordes of the Dothraki and their dragon queen.
And that would have been a fun story too, but more of an expected story and this show has more ambition than that. By killing off not one but both of the presumed strong male antagonists, other characters (notably Danerys and Cersei) are given time to evolve in unexpected directions. Dany would never have been the breaker of chains, for instance.
And let's be honest, all of Westeros would have rallied behind Ned, and that would have been that for Dany. The radical decisions in Season 1 keep the story alive for many more years to come.
Game of Thrones: You Win or You Die (2011)
leave it to Cersei to state the theme
Appropriately, Cersei gets to be the one to not only call what they're all doing the "game of thrones" but also to state the theme - you win or you die - but really, if you win you might also die because it's an empty victory. The true theme is Power Corrupts. The only way to win is not to play.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. This episode furthers the idea that poor naive Ned Stark is not playing the game right. Renly really would have made a good king and more to the point, he's crafty enough to thrive in the game but not so amoral that you regret it when he wins.
And we'll soon learn why he was right that Stannis ain't the guy to back. Another interesting plot cut off. What if Ned had been able to run off to Dragonstone and doggedly back Stannis as the rightful heir? That would have been a whole other can of baby dragons to deal with.
Game of Thrones: A Golden Crown (2011)
well that was satisfying
Rewatching this episode makes me miss good ole Khal Drogo. He could have had a lot more interesting scenes in this series but I guess the writers needed to send Dany out on her own Hero's Journey to discover her own strength.
Who didn't cheer when Drogo figured out a clever way to get rid of his annoying brother in law without violating the rule against "spilling blood."
Over there in the Ayrie, my favorite character Tyrion is starting his longstanding career of figuring his way out of a jam with his brains and fast talking. It's fun seeing how cool characters like Bronn entered the storyline way back when.
Funny that Sansa, who is still a stupid little spoiled girl at this point, was the one with an insight that led her father in certain directions and changed the plotline of this whole series.
Game of Thrones: The Wolf and the Lion (2011)
sketchy plotting on the Tyrion plotline
GoT didn't have ironclad plotting back in the first season, did it? It got better but rewatching this is interesting because I didn't realize the first time around how bad this all made Catelyn look.
Like Tyrion pointed out, what kind of stupid plotter would use his own fancy pants easily identifiable knife made out of very rare Valeryn steel, when a simple kitchen knife could kill a ten year old kid just as easily? Why didn't Catelyn recognize that this meant Tyrion was the least likely suspect and start looking for someone who might want both Bran and Tyrion dead? Someone with long, blonde hair...
I also wondered how much Jon Arryn suspected about someone other than Gendry, who Ned was concerened about? The book he was consulting would deal with the legitimate children of nobility and royalty, not illegitimate offspring like Gendry. If they wanted to include them, that book would fill a library on its own.
Game of Thrones: The Kingsroad (2011)
characters are already starting to gel
This is a very fast-paced episode, in which any assumptions about some of these characters are thrown out and we start to see people for who they are.
Tyrion isn't just a debauched drunk dwarf, he's also one of the smartest characters. No doubt his "mind" will play a big role in things to come.
Sansa might be a little brat at this point but she won't betray her family just to get in good with the Lannisters, who might make her a queen.
Joffrey is not the handsome, golden prince that we saw through Sansa's eyes. Not by a long ways.
King Robert is a bit of a fool, isn't he?
Catelyn seems excessively cruel to poor Jon Snow, but she's in extreme distress.
Across the sea, Danaerys isn't just a helpless victim. She's starting to figure out the levers of power...
Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming (2011)
skillful setup
It's impressive that so much is packed into this premiere episode, introducing a head-spinning range of characters, a new and unfamiliar world, explaining backstory and the rules this society lives under, and introducing an ongoing threat element.
There's a little bit of "as you know, Cersei, we are siblings" awkward expository dialogue but not an excessive amount considering the challenge of explaining everything at a fast pace.
Rewatching the pilot after watching the whole series: everyone looked so young! Some, like Jon Snow and Tyrion, are fully formed from the first. Others, like Sansa and Jamie, are more confident and heedless at this point, before the world has a chance to knock the stuffing out of them.
One point deduction for Tyrion's horrible wig. Is he supposed to be a surfer dude? Thank goodness someone fixed that before the next episode.