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Reacher: What Happens in Atlantic City (2023)
Inauthentic boring filler to help waste your time.
I have no clue what they are trying to do with this show anymore except to bore viewers for over 95% of the airtime. Be skeptical of these early ratings - it's either a scam or from people who have never watched good television. It would be more entertaining and less frustrating to just watch Reacher sleep for 30 minutes and beat people up for the rest of the show. Just about no one remains or is even acknowledged from the first season cast which kind of sucks. So far, I am seeing a complete nosedive in acting quality from this new cast. The utterly boring dialogue is not helping them either. The Atlantic City hotel scene and dialogue where they are drinking beers on the sofa like at some kind of dull dinner party is the worst television I have seen in many years. Maybe pay your writers better and you won't suffer so badly because of a writer's strike. I wonder if these were written by AI or inexperienced replacements? It is clear these writers have no clue how anything works in the real world. The "numbers' lady is absolutely unconvincing in her character - as if she made up her character in two seconds before filming. Even Reacher's story sounds off, as if the writer's are not fully capable of thinking anything out more than at an adolescent level. I mean does he work when he is wandering or does he just rely on savings? They have given no indication in any way that he picks up odd jobs while wondering. That's what real hobos do so maybe you should mention what kind of work he does when wondering. But if he is just digging into savings then that kind of undercuts the hobo image they want to sell us. It's not really roughing it if you can just buy whatever you need anytime you want. I mean one second they are trying to convince us that Reacher just gets by on strangers picking him up and feeding up, and the next second he is literally carrying 6 plates of food at a buffet. Lol...Good luck being a broke hobo and trying to maintain that physique and however many calories he needs to not lose weight. Pointless details you might think? Whatever. It is still frustrating when everyone is asking the wrong questions. They don't sound like ex-military at all. They sound like uppity normies too lame to believe someone could sleep outside in a hammock. In fact, they sound like the actors and not characters at all. Refuse to give me an upvote all you like, but you won't see any of these people anywhere else except maybe some other cancelled shows. The bad guys are mostly a joke so far too. I vaguely recall that in season one, Reacher took on like a whole town and criminal organization, and it wasn't all revealed too quickly leaving room for mystery and suspense. But in these first two episodes, we know right off the back who wants to kill Reacher, and his main goon looks like a weak amateur - but he hires two more weak looking amateurs. Reacher could take out all 3 with one hand. The main villain is just an old guy in a dark office on the phone. So no, we don't know exactly who he is, but so far he looks just like, well, a lone old guy in an office.. Woah...that's so scary. Yes, he also hired a skinning looking assassin though who has essentially been taking a vacation across the U. S. in his roundabout journey that is more info than we need. First he was in L. A., then Denver. I supposed in episode 3 he will be in Chicago. He likes giving superhero comics to kids though so maybe you think that is creepy. Nah...he looks normal and boring too. There is simply no authenticity to any of these characters, except maybe Reacher half the time. Such bad acting.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: At Midnight in Manhattan (2019)
Lots going on but adds up to nada due to second-guessing clueless producers and lazy directing/editing
I suppose I prefer these kinds of episodes when a lot of things are happening but it could of been so much better. First, Carisi's and Rollins stress-fueled argument seemed annoying a bit at first until you realize what it's really about. It's probably one of their better scenes ever. Kat fits right in I guess, almost too quickly. She's like some infallible prodigy from mere street crime and undercover work. Fine... Whatever. Apparently she read *every* open case file in the last episode and that makes her an expert now. I guess that's how young people think the world works so she is representing their naivete well. But it's good she fits in, even though her lack of experience is ridiculously downplayed for too long despite the tacked-on after-thought ending. She appears to be a good actress but the show isn't helping with tiresome banal lines like, "I don't need a babysitter". Neither are they helping her with the editing or lack of consistency in the script or directing. When Kat and Carisi interview the suspect wearing the kilt for the first time, the scene makes no sense. Kat decides all on her own to ignore any plans of not antagonizing the suspect too much so that they can keep them talking. Carisi looks disappointed by her line of questioning or that she totally ignored his plan to take the lead. You have to wonder if some lousy producer forced them to cut out Carisi chastising Kat for getting the suspect to shutdown too quickly, and probably calling his lawyer immediately. I mean... they completely wasted that trip for a nothing-burger interview, but it's like they try to retroactively make up so baloney that they got something out it. Whatever. It's clear they changed their mind and decided we cant have the White male with far more experience and even a law degree "mansplaining" to the young non-White lady. Whatever. How about just do the scene right the first place. You either have them stick to a plan and work together or you don't. If they don't stick to a plan and don't work together then by definition that is a conflict, and you can't just ignore that for the entire show or do some lousy editing to pretend it did not happen.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: A Misunderstanding (2016)
WITHDRAWN!
The big defense attorney objecting for badgering is too much hypocrisy to take. That's all he ever does. That's all the "lawyers" in this show ever do in court, but now they've taken it too far. Lawyers aren't even supposed to enter the box. This show is not doing anything to help anyone, making court into something scarier than it really is. Fifteen times Rafael objects that the defense needs to ask a question, and then all Rafeal does is give a speech himself in what is supposed to be a cross. These cheap writers just don't care about the law anymore... it is constant badgering of witnesses. The last straw is the big ugly defense lawyer all in the victims's and the viewer's face acting like he is impatiently waiting for an answer even though he just said "withdrawn". They aren't even trying to make the court room stuff make sense anymore. Just stop saying the stupid overused "withdrawn" thing too. This show should be WITHDRAWN.
Upload: Five Stars (2020)
Pandering non-sensical garbage dialogue and episode
I no longer have any patience for this ignorant pandering show. It did not take long. The season 1, episode 2 "therapy" session was unacceptable garbage. It's already bad enough when Hollywood tries to imitate psychology since they get so much of it wrong. Nathan expresses remorse over losing a good life that had potential for much more due to his good looks, hair, and even great skin according to him. He sounds like he is being serious and authentic in mourning the death of his old life, but it still comes across as tongue-in-cheek and amusing. However, without hesitation or humanism, discount Morgan Freeman responds with "sounds like you never questioned your privilege", and with the contradictory tiresome cliché, "life isn't fair". Were they in the middle of a writer's strike when they wrote this garbage?
That was an illogical gigantic leap to a conclusion. Whatever you think "question your privilege" means, nothing within that short dialogue suggests he has never done so, or that doing so would have prevented Nathan from being emotional over the loss of his life. Here are some similar examples to highlight the absurdity and ignorance of that horrendous dialogue. A professional athlete, cis-gendered or not, White or not, has a career ending injury and laments about their loss. Would it be appropriate for anyone to respond with "sounds like you never checked your (athletic) privilege". Really? How do you know? And why is that relevant in the context of someone's death of loss? It is not! Or how about, a highly intelligent person of similar background is diagnosed with dementia and is sad that that they will lose the one thing they have valued the most . Would it make any sense to respond with, "sounds like you never checked your (intelligence) privilege. No! So, nice horrible job of suicide prevention by the fake psychiatrist that can be summarized as the trite, "Life's a b****; Check your privilege a****!". Worse therapy and worse cliched writing ever that doesn't even comprehend the sometimes overused concept of privilege!
In other words, fake Morgan Freeman is really saying "you did not deserve any of those advantages (even nice hair supposedly) so they can be taken away at any moment". Even if that absurdity is true, how does that do anything to propel the story other than to pander to fools for a moment. Also, how does "questioning one's privilege" in this context change anything. It does not stop nor should it stop someone from mourning the loss of what they had. Or do you think people who supposedly have some privleger should just shrug threre shoulders if, for example, they end up destitute or dead, like "oh well. It was nice while it lasted". What brain dead planet do you live on?.
Upload (2020)
Pandering non-sensical garbage dialogue and show
I no longer have any patience for this ignorant pandering show. It did not take long. The season 1, episode 2 "therapy" session was unacceptable garbage. It's already bad enough when Hollywood tries to imitate psychology since they get so much of it wrong. Nathan expresses remorse over losing a good life that had potential for much more due to his good looks, hair, and even great skin according to him. He sounds like he is being serious and authentic in mourning the death of his old life, but it still comes across as tongue-in-cheek and amusing. However, without hesitation or humanism, discount Morgan Freeman responds with "sounds like you never questioned your privilege", and with the contradictory tiresome cliché, "life isn't fair". Were they in the middle of a writer's strike when they wrote this garbage?
That was an illogical gigantic leap to a conclusion. Whatever you think "question your privilege" means, nothing within that short dialogue suggests he has never done so, or that doing so would have prevented Nathan from being emotional over the loss of his life. Here are some similar examples to highlight the absurdity and ignorance of that horrendous dialogue. A professional athlete, cis-gendered or not, White or not, has a career ending injury and laments about their loss. Would it be appropriate for anyone to respond with "sounds like you never checked your (athletic) privilege". Really? How do you know? And why is that relevant in the context of someone's death of loss? It is not! Or how about, a highly intelligent person of similar background is diagnosed with dementia and is sad that that they will lose the one thing they have valued the most . Would it make any sense to respond with, "sounds like you never checked your (intelligence) privilege. No! So, nice horrible job of suicide prevention by the fake psychiatrist that can be summarized as the trite, "Life's a b****; Check your privilege a****!". Worse therapy and worse cliched writing ever that doesn't even comprehend the sometimes overused concept of privilege!
In other words, fake Morgan Freeman is really saying "you did not deserve any of those advantages (even nice hair supposedly) so they can be taken away at any moment". Even if that absurdity is true, how does that do anything to propel the story other than to pander to fools for a moment. Also, how does "questioning one's privilege" in this context change anything. It does not stop nor should it stop someone from mourning the loss of what they had. Or do you think people who supposedly have some privilege should just shrug their shoulders if, for example, they end up destitute or dead, like "oh well. It was nice while it lasted". What brain dead planet do you live on?.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The Broken Circle (2023)
Just get Spock (and me) a therapy Tribble!
So ST is just ACTION-sci-fi now. With a magic serum the doc and nurse are SuperHeros now! But no Klingon or anybody should ever trust these med pros again. That might be a prob for their careers and ability to help others. They literally patched Klingons up just to break them again! It was decent enough if you like action but the slow-mo parts are weak. Makes one wonder if they sucked at those sequences so much that they had to mask it. Klingons being much stronger should force humans to rely on cleverness and determination. I don't think magic serum that doesn't stop directed weapons fire counts as cunning enough. There was missed opportunity with Chapel when covering for M'Benga and a new wave of fodder approaches. How about switching things up and showing some personality like feigning injury/weakness and screaming, "they went that way" or something. They may not know what has happened, and it's enough to cause confusion for a moment. It could have been amusing, and a short break from the monotonous fighting.
During their escape, the directors are back to the weird panning up-side down cam thing. I defended such perspectives in Disco because it makes sense in zero-grav and the weirdness of space. Experimental ideas are good for the genre in the long-tun. But it makes no sense on a docked ship with gravity! It did nothing but subtract instead of add to the cinematography.
The pacing was off terribly after they stole the ship. To go to such a length the stakes must be high. But then they are just sitting around talking to La'an. We get some non-creative exposition while the scene looks like they were on shore-leave. I was waiting for Spock to say - 'there is no emergency; I want the ship to return to starbase".
StarFleet superiors are incapable of being anything but a cheap parody of bureaucracies in this universe because they don't have enough creativity to move beyond bad tropes. Hmmm... La'an's message suggests an intelligence issue. Maybe all that is needed is one person with a beat-up smart phone finding evidence that could expose the plot. Doesn't the Federation have agents on such a vital planet? Well, we know La"an is there now! The badly acted base commander should have realized that she is an asset in the field now, and not just a mere civilian because she dared to go on leave.
This is starting to feel too much like Disco. Not even a quarter of the way through episode one and the stakes are extraordinary high with the stealing of the Enterprise. But in this case, they don't make you feel the stakes for a good portion of it. That is bad drama! Not that I wanted this but if you're going to do it then do it right. They at least gave Burnham and Disco a lot of build up before she mutinied. I won't start on that though, smh. I am sick of false narrative of the legends, especially Kirk and Picard, supposedly being some kind of perpetual rule-breaking cowboys always "going by their gut" whatever that cliche means. That is a cherry-picked narrative; They relied upon reason and brains probably more. I don't care that they stole the ship by itself. But that is not enough by itself to make any of these characters close to legendary. What else did Spock do that was special? Not much. He made an obvious deduction that was handed to him on a platter; fired torpedoes; and then drank blood-wine. Meh... anyone can do that. The teamwork and chemistry is still missing. The doctor and nurse are off on their own John Wick mission by chance. Does anyone in command even know they have superhero serum? Spock didn't even know internal comms were done. Ohh...but he was so emotional, intense, and distracted? Whatever. We can see where this is going with more erasure of Spock and Vulcan canon. It was a questionable success for like his first command. "We need great officers like him" they said. Meh.. He was lucky.
Every individual is supposed to be special in the Federation, but also nobody is so irreplaceable to not face consequences. More people following good principles and values that leads to institutions that work are supposed to be more salient in the Federation than cults of personalities which is something people need to learn more about in today's world. Nope... this iteration of Spock is replaceable regardless of the mystical opinions of Dr. Strange, I mean the AWOL Captain.
Having Spock run out of the sickbay embarrassed like a teenager was another missed opportunity. Is this young adult fiction? The REAL Spock would have made some amusing understatement like, "that is unfortunate" and then the viewer has to use their brains and wonder if that's his way of expressing embarrassment. It's also a teaching moment. We can take control over any situation by SPEAKING and COMMUNICATING like adults and not just run out of rooms, while still subtlety expressing emotions in more interesting ways. But these show-runners have no clue what nuance is. So don't think that I do not get emotions like some cold Vulcan. I get them more than you fan-boys and girls who seem to need everything spelled out directly with exposition. They are treating the audience like idiots - "they might be too stupid to get why Spock's blood pressure spiked; let's give the doctor some dull exposition describing what everyone just saw to make it clear and leave no room for thinking and interpretation". Lastly, Spock or nobody can just run to their soothing musical instrument whenever they need it (unless acting captain's can have therapy tribbles). So I guess he just white-knuckles it later when facing even bigger emotions. How? We can only guess because this episode was only half-full of irrelevant pop psychology. Maybe they edited out the other half of the mini-character arch.
Disco and SNW - Stop going back to starbase all the time! I'm sure there are many fools raving about the "cinematography" of the space station shots. No... that is just irrelevant eye-candy and hardly even cinematography. It is irrelevant because it has nothing to do with the story. Maybe it will later, like the different environmental habitats, but I doubt it. ST is the best when they are mostly alone in space and the unknown. Period.
The anti-capitalist commentary was not creative enough and lacked nuance. We don't even get to know who they are - just anonymous Human and Klingon capitalist. Klingon capitalist sounds off a bit. That would have been impressive to pull off but don't expect these show-runners to challenge themselves. Is there a parallel with record oil profits today after the start of the Ukraine war, among other things? Sure, but superficially. Pro tip - read more than just the headlines of articles. The actual ideology of capitalist investors is risk/reward, not merely profit as this show beats over our head. Use your own imagination of the risks of war on this strategic planet. In short, it all makes little sense. Hint: are they Klingon or Human really going to pay exorbitant prices to this strategic but weak looking planet, or take it, or blow it to pieces during a gigantic brutal space war? By the way, these unseen "capitalists pigs" could have just reduced production or limited investment in more mining, and let prices rise that way, lol.
I am seeing a pattern - aliens hiding on Earth in our times; Spock saying "false-flag", the favorite overused word of conspiracy theorists; populist commentary about supposed price-gouging ignoring all nuance about supply and demand; countless people involved in the building of a fake Federation ship but not a single person on a shady planet has any motive to leak such information, including accidentally - I guess "big brother" keeps them in check even as they freely play drinking games; and don't forget mystical fortune-telling via the AWOL captain. I think these "writers" get their inspiration from YT conspiracy theorist! This might get sadder with Spock eventually deducing, via gut-feeling, that all space-travel is fake and the Earth is flat.
Prediction. They will have just have to make SuperHero doctor the new chief of security. His false description of space exposure should make you wonder about his medical schooling. If you don't know about how the VACUUM of space kills you, read about it. It is not pleasant. The more you dare to think about these kinds of action based shows the more like that it feels.
Almost forgot There was some horrendous editing and directing around when Spock's new orders are to stay hidden and tail the ship. I think it was literally only 5 seconds later that we see the Enterpise is under a attack from said ship. Weird. How much time did we jump in in-story time. We will prob never know.
Fear the Walking Dead: The New Frontier (2017)
Just terrible.
This is just terrible. Stepdad killed by a random bullet in a mostly dull meaningless death, not even getting to speak. I guess they had to write him out of the show at the last minute for whatever reason. Still, these so-called "writers" should be able to come up with a meaningful way for him to die. Hmm.. .maybe like sacrificing himself against some walkers. DUH! This is simply amateurish garbage and unacceptable. So I guess the helicopter gang are stranded with bad people on their tail? It won't be easy for them to get home with a sick lady, right? Someone dies that we know nothing about and they act like we should feel something about it. Whatever. But nope, fooled you! They were just like a 2 minute walk away. Well, that's what the show made it feel like - absolutely nothing.
What's his name playing doctor dull too. Do these people have any clue where they are trying to take us? I don't even think they know what the setting is supposed to be. Are we going to build up the hotel, or off to another mansion that this fake-doctor has up his sleeve maybe. Who cares!
Nick can be interesting sometimes but he and his mom are just awful and annoying when they are together. Just don't talk to each other if you still hate her so much like normal teens do. Wait...is he a teen? I don't know. Sometime he acts like 20+, sometimes seems like he is 13. The scene with her lover made absolutely zero sense. The wrong people are talking at the wrong time in an utter stupid way to manufacture fake suspense. The doctor/medic can only say 3 words only so the one-eyed idiot can take over the scene without even getting a diagnosis. The old leader is also stupidly dead quiet, and the supposedly better brother too. But point a gun at people and now the leader can speak? Get out of here with this garbage! Then we have more horrible acting by the mom, and the writing makes no sense. What is wrong with peoples mouths? Are they dead walkers or something? Nobody is going to say or ask what happened to stepdad? I think that is one of the first things most people would want to know. I guess even these so-called show-runners want everybody to forget about that death scene already.
Fear the Walking Dead: Not Fade Away (2015)
Fear Nothing. The charachters get the script via spoilers.
Becoming unwatchable. I suppose a prequel is a challenge. Most of the audience already know the basic rules, but these clueless characters still know just about nothing after four episodes and so it's agonizing to watch them. Random precocious adolescents do not make up for it and is just a stupid joke without intending to be. Nobody should be certain of the future either; Uncertainty is more fearful. So we don't need the old barber acting like he has read the entire script of every season already and giving out spoilers to everyone. Try using symbolism instead!. Show instead of tell! But these showrunners completely forgot that "FEAR" is in the title of the show.
Maybe being attacked my multiple walkers by now would have spared us this unnecessary turtle's pace. This is not just because I need more action. Again, where is the fear! There was more palpable fear among many people during the first weeks of mere Covid compared to these lousy actors in a fracking zombie apocalypse. That is ridiculous. So more walkers eating people including loved ones might make sense in a show about a zombie apocalypse within at least the first 4 episodes. Duh!
More walker action would also make sense in Los Angeles with multi-million people, SMH. This was supposed to be an expansion of the TWD universe, but we are basically stuck in one or two boring homes, an utterly cheap production set so they can greedily grab more money from you. But maybe they learned from their stupidity; Rick and Michones is supposed to be set in a crazy NYC. But somehow L. A. is practically empty already? Wasn't tiny Atlanta (compared to L. A.) bombed because of being overrun by walkers early on? But many millions of L. A. folks have fled or are dead (but not walkers) already? This makes no sense until you see they are just being cheap again. Or maybe the show-runners saw how horribly cringy, stupid, and bad the extras were "acting" during the protests/riots in a previous episode and decided they couldn't use extras, so cancelled the zombies in a zombie series.
So what's the deal. The dysfunctional extended family will grow and eventually learn to be a strong fam. Aww!! But it's not really a dysfunctional family. It's a bunch of trope characters mostly with boring first world problems before the walkers came. No, I do not minimize the problem of drug addiction. I think much of that they do decent enough, but they are going to drag it on forever. For example, what could have been a teaching moment for everyone they idiotically pass over. They didn't care to hear their son's experience and really ended up looking like fools because of it. Not only do they not bother to apologize, even worse, the stepdad doubles downs on his criticism of Nick's "worldclass imagination" over a mere simple observation by Nick. First of all, anyone that criticizes the importance of imagination should NEVER be a teacher and NEVER be a writer so please take away the pen from whatever writer is responsible. Also, the mother's acting is horrendous sometimes. You can literally see her tying too hard to be a you-know-what, like in a previous episode, when she expressed relief at finding Nick and then interrogates him but before he can finish half a sentence she blurts out more questions, all in the span of about 15 seconds. The slight intensity of the scene and camera work presents it as like a dysfunctional moment, but the bad acting makes it feel like parody. So stepdad's supposed to be teacher and mom's supposed to be a high-school counselor. Is this a joke?
Edit: So I guess L. A. is not actually lifeless and without walkers as you will see soon. Go figure. My point was it was unbearable listening to any character mention with a straight face that the entire city except for a few enclaves is lifeless after only a couple days. It wasn't like a massive nuclear bomb. Maybe it was another way to show the military as incompetent. Whatever. That's another thing. This is practically an unintended parody of the military and national guard, with tiresome unoriginal tropes of grunt like soldiers. How does the military lose control over everything especially critical infrastructure so quickly? That is a complex question that these amateurs are better off not trying to answer and leaving it to our imagination because you definitely can't explain it with just a handful of scenes of a few cherry-picked fictional examples of incompetent corrupt solders. Why would anyone take anything from this trash they are giving us if they have the National Guard behaving exactly like authoritarian thugs and corrupt selfish fools taking bribes in plain sight within only a few days. That is beyond absurd. It is like they skipped to year two with the soldiers while everyone else is in week one. Even the way the soldiers act and patrol they appear more like a mercenaries from year two or something. Also, soldiers losing moral only after a couple days is even more absurd. Solders potentially going AWOL to be with their families could be a concern. They don't bother to show how it is resolved though. It is left to the imagination and with the way they are already acting like authoritarian thugs it is easy for the viewer to think they are already shooting deserters. Hmm...how about soldiers in charge do what they are trained and lead people. At least Mercer gets to be from West Point, but I guess all other soldiers are just a joke. It is borderline offensive. What would be more interesting, but impossible for these "writers" to pull of is showing the military ultimately fail despite their best and bravest efforts. What we go instead was just like one small joke of a platoon.
The Witcher: Kaer Morhen (2021)
t hurts me to say this - the Bible would make for a better fantasy read write now.
Meh. Kaer Morhen looks like just another lousy town with lousy people (except for the leader just barely). So underwhelming. Why don't they look like our Witcher, especially the eyes? Why do they act like a band of cheap raiders compared to our Witcher? The only possible answer is the show is simply being cheap again. I have also had enough of their superficial high-school level false descriptions of religion. We get it by now; whoever made this rubbish hates religion. Thank you for your biased opinion. So what? What are you giving us instead - a supposed powerful mage acting like a teenager all of the time, screaming whining about her selfish desires. Honestly, I think reading the Bible would be a more interesting fantasy than this right now.
The Witcher: Much More (2019)
Your destiny is a soft reboot or cancellation. Do not ever sideline the Witcher again!
Disappointing season1 finale. The Witcher is artificially sidelined so Yennifer can hog the spotlight undeservedly. We are reminded again how illogical and badly written her character is, full of too many nonsensical contradictions. Is she good? Is she evil? Well, they've made her in a way that nobody really cares, and I could not care less if she had died. The Witcher appears briefly as a shell of himself and out of character. We get to see them all wailing pathetically and annoyingly over Yen. It is even more annoying and a waste of time because anyone with a clue knows she is still alive. Why has the Witcher turned into a imbecile and not wonder where the body is? Until there is a body, I doubt the Witcher would assume anything, at least the way his character has been so far. Don't give me some baloney that love has altered him. That might make sense if he was not sidelined this episode. As far as we know, he hasn't even seen Yen in months or maybe years - considering the way they are loose with time. Please stop giving garbage lines for Yen, like the one about living three lifetimes. Then why does she constantly act like teenager. If you wanted her to be a young character to appeal to like teens, then just keep her as a young character. Duh! Lame attempts at meta do not make it any better or forgive too many bad scenes and lines of dialogue from her. The Retrix asks her why she must always be fatalistic. Yen replies something like, "when the end of the world is upon us". When has Yen expressed any concern over anything in the world? She didn't even want to be there to help. Also, she was just in the belly of the beast casually drinking bad ale not at all concerned about the world ending. She is not worried about the world at all, only herself. So make it make sense you lazy writers, please! Or just stop sidelining the TITLE CHARACTER!!!
Cinematography was cheap. Maybe it always has been, but you really see it this episode. In some scenes the faces look disturbingly flat, breaking basic rules of lighting. Amateur high school students can do a better job with lighting. Tip... if you do the lighting wrong, the faces will look flat and 2-dimensional. That alone is enough to give it 5 stars. Should probably be lower.
Also, the somewhat eagerly awaited meet-up between the Witcher and Ciri was extremely underwhelming. It is looking more and more like the young actor for Ciri won't be able to hold her own, and being next to Cavil only makes that clear. Maybe that stable boy had a point - is she dumb? It is like they don't want to let her speak or have lines because they have given up trying. So instead she is there to get in the way of most scenes except maybe 1 or 2 times a year she gets to scream and use her power. Wow. I am so impressed. The series is in urgent need of a soft reboot, despite the fact that I rated most season one episodes an 8 and even one a 9. Just say the heck with Destiny. Nobody cares about that baloney idea either, especially the Witcher or anyone with a brain.
The Lost City of Z (2016)
Percy Fawcett rids the world of racism somehow while in Amazonia, or is this film supposed to do that?
For some reason I thought this film would be deeper and more original than your typical formulaic Hollywood film. Nope. Ignore any click-bait headlines or reviews that reference Heart of Darkness or Apocalypse Now. I doubt those writers read or watched them. The first hour sets most things up well enough, with more showing than explaining. Then this film completely frustrates me in a scene that has the quality of amateur college director and actors, and then it goes downhill from there. After Fawcett makes it to his first goal downriver after a brutal river journey, he becomes ecstatic mostly because he found ancient pottery in the jungle (apparently). I say apparently because the viewer can barely see it nor gets a single description of it, and because he doesn't bring back any to researchers. Is this neolithic pottery? Is this advanced pottery? I guess that doesn't matter to the directors because they think you are ignorant. So oddly from just a few unburied pottery shards and tree carvings or something, Fawcett deduces (guesses) there was a great "city" here like the native guide told him Yes, I know there used to be jungle "cities" in Amazonia, but Fawcett is weirdly acting like he just found the lost city of Troy, but we viewers do not have a clue what he just found because they barely show us a thing except Fawcett crawling around on his knees like a child.
If you have not watched this yet you might think it does not have to be logical and that Fawcett simply acquired the "finding cities of gold" bug, alluded to I the film, which led many conquistadors to their death. No, it hardly ever appears so which says something mostly about the actor. So far, Fawcett is still presented as a rational and enlightened (meaning not racist in this film) early 20th century Englishmen.
The problem is compounded because now this seemingly becomes his main motivation for returning to the jungle after his first return to England. But only a minute ago in the film, fearing that they might not survive, he looked like a man that would be content never to return there. So finding a few shards of pottery (that we don't see) is the difference? If he hadn't found them and by complete luck would he have stayed with his family in England instead? That is flimsy. I never thought unseen pottery shards could be almost like a MacGuffin.
The film goes downhill now because, as I said, he had to return to England. Why? This is a film that is barely 5% accurate about the historical Fawcett, a person who was never a hero and probably the opposite. So why do they bother to mirror some of his life like making this pointless return home that sucks out any momentum. To be honest, why do they even have to call him Fawcett. Better to just make up a name.
Now the same ignorant problem is compounded again, but not by Fawcett. At a big fancy boring dinner, Fawcett simply states that he found some pottery and that it should be researched. I guess he holds back bringing up ancient "city". He is immediately rebuked by some stuffy Englishmen to stay in his lane and not to entertain ideas about "savages" having civilization. I suppose this old Englishman can read people's minds or they are just skipping an obvious step in logic. All Fawcett mentioned was pottery; I am pretty sure there would have been countless examples of native pottery already taken (stolen I guess) and taken to England.
But Fawcett double downs and gives a mostly banal primary school like speech as he interacts with an overly cartoonish English crowd, all of it masquerading as British wit and bitter debate. He is going to find proof of the city! He turns the antagonistic crowd's boos into cheers in less than a minute, in what can only be called Hollywood baloney. Yes, I wish they had stayed in the jungle.
But before we can go back, we need the obligatory modern woman/wife scene. What is strange is she was overly reasonable before Fawcett left the first time. She didn't even complain or act like she would miss him, saying, "I know why you have to do it". They argue instead this time. She wants to go with him. Huh? Shouldn't the argument really be, what the heck were you thinking deciding to go back there again, and without informing me first. I wish Hollywood films would stop "preaching to the choir". You are not changing a single thing with such tiresome old used ahistorical dialogue over equity, in a film like this, especially when it is just tacked on as an afterthought. The people that may need to learn about it the most just won't watch or will fall asleep. In fact, it is doing more harm by being so clumsily heavy-handed. The film is also arbitrarily selective when Fawcett or anyone can be "enlightened" or not. He is supposedly a great anti-racist but can't help being a person of his time when he says, "the jungle is no place for a woman" for which he is rebuked by his wife. If you really want to enlighten audiences why not show people communicate well instead of dysfunctional so audiences can model it. For instance, why not simply have him apologize, and say I should have said, "the jungle is no place for someone with no training and questionable fitness". I don't think even the anachronistic wife is doing Rumba in her free time. Or how about never having him say that? Because they had to have their artificially manufactured melodrama. How about writing a more organic screenplay that writes itself instead, and it won't appear so heavy-handed and irrelevant to the story.
The same goes for Fawcett's now more developed, but still laughable, motivation. Basically, and in modern language, he (and somehow only he) can return and find the lost city, and then he will "own" all the racists. Godspeed, my friends, but you won't own anything with such heavy-handed and manipulative narratives. The proof is obvious, from 20+ years of too many lousy Hollywood formulaic films and TV, and too many people rejecting them and your manipulations. So you are either just preaching to the choir, or doing more harm than good which is a net negative.
I am tempted to rate this at 5 and stop watching. But I continued with it after a break. It does get better because they just about entirely stop with the manipulative and contrived illogical dialogue. Actually, it is kind of strange. They hardly mention a thing about race again. It is like they forget that Fawcett was going to rid the British Empire of racism all by himself, while in the jungle deep in the Amazon. I can see how anyone would forget that. We only get one more brief annoying moment when they feel it necessary to give commentary on British aristocracy. Whether it is relevant today or not is irrelevant! It is obviously such a singular and narrowly focused mini-narrative that it would be ridiculous for anyone to draw conclusions from it today, but you people still do. Thanks for the manipulation. The entertainment barely made up for it. 6 stars.
Pattinson had an interesting character in this, one of the reasons I was interested beforehand. But there was hardly enough for him, so it is overstated where people wrote he was brilliant. Tom Holland was more anachronistic than the mother that played him being the stereotypical modern Hollywood kid blaming father for everything (they don't even bother to say what he is blaming him for; it has become such a trope that I guess we are supposed to just take it as obvious or be psychic). For those still thinking it should be obvious, you are not at my level. He does get slightly more interesting later, but you won't see much of him either.
Teen Titans: Transformation (2004)
Bad storytelling that possible ruins Starfire.
The storytelling for "Transformation" and season 2 in general is just lousy. There is too much narration.
Starfire is rewarded for being selfish, stupid, and irresponsible. I suppose there is supposed to be some body-positive message or something but that makes no sense because in the end she's back too looking like a princess. They might as well have given her the line - "can we pretend like the last day or year never happened" (I am not sure about the time frame because time makes no sense in this episode.
But no, we don't forget! You ditched your job of protecting Earth. You turned your back on your friends without saying bye; You know you can at least send a text or e-mail and we wont see your "unglyiness".
This series is only partially about lessons. It is mostly just meant as entertainment but it does give lessons sometimes. But these fools were so focused on one direction (some body-positive barely comprehensibly rubbish) that they ignored what should have been obvious - they turned Starfire into a soft barbie doll.
It is just one episode with what I guess is a stupid experimental format. Maybe it gets better but maybe I don't care. Season 2 has been all over the place unlike Season1 which was tighter with a unifying story and theme around Deadshot and Robin.
Loudermilk (2017)
Fake Hollywood recovery - not what is needed for today.
Note, this show uses the curse word that starts with an "a" all of the time to describe the lead. It is a big theme of the show. Amazon uses the lame inadequate description "extremely bad attitude" instead. So despite the fact that Amazon is dumping this inadequate conceived-in-a-bar production on me, they still ban me from using the "a" word in my reviews. So, where you see the word "jerK", please understand the "a" word would be more fitting.
Trying way too hard to be funny, relevant, or meaningful and not coming close. The production quality feels like watching community theater with wearisome acting. They drop a few musical names like Andres Segovia and Nirvana in a lame attempt to appear hip or authentic and because the lead is supposed to be a music lover and critic but you don't get a sense that anyone really feels or loves music for a second, unlike Californication's Hank Moody. To some degree this is the sober version of Moody which is a strange idea, because he can never come close to living up to him while sober. Note, this is not AA's or any sane person's definition of sober because nobody calls a white-knuckled jerk sober. That is, he is still affected by alcohol because he is in dire need of a drink to maybe make him less of a jerk. You know the types. So yes, this show will be an insult to anyone in recovery. The last straw for me was the cheap joke it tried to make out of a drug addict retelling his self-described shameful sexual dealings in prison. If this show is partly about someone going full jerk than why not go all in and include a laugh-track since it was unambiguously meant to be a nothing but a cheap and dirty joke at the expense of all drug addicts trying to get better. This show is lacking in any nuance or meaningful drama, which is a shame considering the state of the drug problem everywhere now. The show has zero purpose or meaning other than that some fools thought it might be a funny idea if we just let some guy go full jerk and "say the things we think, but are too scared to say", like telling an old man who is blocking your way to move faster. Well, I cannot recall ever thinking that, and I am no saint. The problem is that they constantly try to pull us back and show us he is wrong (as if we are are too stupid to realize that). In other words, why is this guy so darn soft? That is a really strange question to be raised when he is supposed to be Mr. Jerk. Because he is not really Mr. Jerk. He is instead the role this actor has played a few times - annoying Mr. Neurotic/Nihilist
Ahh. Maybe it's a bit better than all that. I could only get through one episode. He does have his moments with the drug addicted girl of being like good recovery stuff. But then everyone annoyingly just goes back to calling him Mr. Jerk all of the time, because well, that is what the fools wrote. But they get so much utterly wrong about recovery that it loses all amusement. Probably written mostly by a few egotistical alcohol writers who went to only two meeting and never came close trying the steps thinking they know better.
Big Little Lies (2017)
Helicopter-moms Row
Stopped after s1e3. I was expecting a little more of a crime show. This is a decent drama centered around women/mothers, helicopter-moms in particular, in wealthy Monterey, CA. But I would rather read Cannery Row or something. There is enough stuff about rape and "improper touching" by first graders (yes, first graders) to write feminist commentary on this for many years from just these 3 episodes. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but just not what I want right now. If you were sold that this is like a murder mystery like I was then you were misled too. There was a murder but there are little to no elements of mystery. Instead you get a bit too much melodrama. But the ensemble cast appears to be mostly great though so far, especially Witherspoon and Kidman some.
Prey (2022)
Survival of the Luckiest
This is a decent film on par with the first two Predator films that should revitalize the franchise, not the barely memorable other ones. It is a monster film with just about everyone being fodder for it to kill. That is what we should expect from these films, but since this is in many ways an authentic Native American story, I was expecting at least some character or more mythology, made-up or not, from what they call Yautja. Instead, we got a killing machine that may as well literally been a machine. No, I am not talking about needing a long back-story for the predator. For example, there's no attempt to have anything close to the iconic scene in the original when the predator takes of its mask deeming Dutch a worthy opponent and fights him hand to hand after giving a growling battle-cry. That is what you lose with CGI. Also, the film tries to be too cute with scenes of animals hunting and then the predator rudely killing the hunting animal. This takes away from the predator's character too much. Rather than a great hunter that might admire and study such behavior like the Natives Americans would this shows it to be an opportunist like an annoying hyena.
The bullying by the other young men towards Naru was a little heavy-handed and annoying. Weather you think it is authentic or not is irrelevant. You can have the same narrative of Naru challenging society and proving herself without the adolescent level of toxicity that goes mostly unchecked. This show is not as woke as it might think it is by depicting such behavior as normal, and without even any checks or repudiation of it within the plot. So except for Naru, her brother, and her dog, every other individual in the film is simply an unmemorable tool. This is evident by the fact that just about nobody that is killed is mourned nor even produces a simple emotional reaction even for just a second. This is especially true for the almost comically evil French trappers. I do not like that they only speak in French. I get that it is mostly irrelevant what they are saying, and some can be understood in context, but I don't want to watch a caricature of people. But I guess viewers can easily be manipulated into rooting for some people's death. Yep, this film is so woke.
Strange stupid lines like, "a hunter does not wait; he hunts" and "you didn't bring it home" probably cost this film a half a point by itself for me.
The final fight scene is great film-making, but still loses points by basically relying on the predator either being an idiot or having horrible aim. I think the reasoning they were going for that is poorly executed or explained is that the predator's projectile weapon can manually shoot things but if it does not hit anything it goes to the red target. So the predator was distracted and missed the dog. Also, it was harder for him to hit the moving target of the brother on a horse, so those projectiles landed in the tree where the red target was. Fine - I guess I can buy that. However there is absolutely no excuse for the skilled hunter to miss Naru at the end. The only other explanation is that the predator is an idiot that does not know how its tech works.
Note, I took great care to refer to the predator as "it" and not "him". Don't misgender.
But maybe there will be another prequel from the predator's perspective. They will show that this predator was a female defying its species custom and the first to go on the ritual hunt. Why not Hollywood - you know you want too. However, she becomes a laughingstock and they will sing horrible sounding songs (to our ears) of her being beaten by an adolescent 90 pound girl and killing herself with her own weapon. You may think I joke too much but I bet that there have been countless Naru's in all of history, and just as many of them died ingloriously. As this very film tells us, hunting for survival is difficult and a cut-throat world and sometimes you just have bad or good luck too.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)
Normie: The Daniel Radcliffe Story
This was amusing enough for one viewing, but I don't think I will ever need to watch it again. The attempt to parody biopic films was underwhelming. From some of what I've read online, it appears at least some fools are missing much of the parody except for the obvious parts. I don't think subtlety is a required thing in a film with "Weird" in the title. Evan Rachel Wood is great as Madonna though. Yes, that is part of the parody too folks. A lot of people are praising Radcliffe but I don't see why. I think he is a decent actor, but he does not come close to capturing Weird Al's energy or mannerisms. Watch Weird Al's 1981 clip of "Another One Rides the Bus" from the Tomorrow Show. Or, watch the "Eat It" video. They just do not compare. Oddly, they do not even have Radcliffe doing any of the "Eat It" video. That is unacceptable to me. For whatever you overpaid for this film, you should get to see the lead actor dancing and parodying the iconic Michael Jackson music video. Sure, there are a lots of things we can mock about biopic films like how they are too loose with facts and history, but the one thing we love about biopics is when a gifted actor goes out of their way to capture and recreate all of the passion, movements, and charisma of someone famous. There is no point in taking that away from us. Also, watch the 1984 Oprah interview of Weird Al. You may start to understand how I do not even see Radcliffe as playing Weird Al as "WEIRD", the first word in the title of the darn film. He is playing it practically as a so-called "normie" which Radcliffe probably is. Normal people can be cool too; I don't want to sound like you know who. But I did not download this to watch normal and too much of it is.
Westworld: Phase Space (2018)
Weird Boring Cinemotagraphy and More Elsie Whining
More lousy scenes and dialogue from Elsie. When will the Hollywood clowns learn that if you must make women or anyone appear intelligent then just do it by giving them intelligent, witty, or insightful things to say or do. Instead they take the cheap boring way by making others look stupid. So we get to see the bad acting of Elsie sitting at a terminal whining about people off-screen being idiots. Convenient for her to be basically in conflict with people off screen who cannot explain or defend themselves. People come home from work to relax while watching shows like this, not to be reminded of that arrogant cognitive-empathy-deficient person at every job who wanders in and within 10 seconds thinks they know everything better than the people who have been working on something for much longer. Also, you clowns invented these utterly fictional gung-ho security forces, so it is becoming a tiresome straw-man complaint about the human condition every time Elsie whines about them destroying a clone or something. Besides Mrs. Know-It-All Elsie, if you haven't noticed yet, you have utterly failed at your job by losing control of your programs with possible criminally negligent results, so take the self-righteousness down a notch please.
Terrible experimental-like cinematography in the so-called heart-to-heart scene between William and his daughter. First of all, some of what she says in unintelligible. That is unacceptable. It is ridiculous for any English-speaking American to need subtitles for an American English show. They make it worse with the cinematography because in the beginning the camera moves away from the speaker before they are done speaking. It is as if the camera person is being inpatient which makes no sense for this type of intimate dialogue. Then they zoom in, out, around, and in and out again, sometimes with melodramatic cheesy results. Is this an NFL football game or an important and emotional discussion? Many times you cannot see William's eyes for no great reason. Also, there is a fire behind the daughter for a moment and then mostly not, in no meaningful pattern in what can only be described as drunken random cinematography. It's all made worse with the sleep-inducing so-call dramatic stock music that comes up the 2nd time mom is mentioned. I suppose the audio people missed their cue the first time the mom was mentioned about 15 seconds earlier. All of this does nothing special except to distract and reduce the actors' performances and expressions.
Moving the camera away before characters finish speaking is reminiscent of people not listening to each other well in a conversation. Maybe that could be useful for some things, but they stray away from it quickly, so it is inconsistent. So maybe it is bad editing also.
But I suppose this all makes some sense considering that these show-runners hate humans. Obviously, this show is overladen with misanthropy. It is a subtle point that I am making now that would take too long to explain but I feel like even this scene is sub-consciously infused with misanthropy when it has no business being there. The viewer via this random camera is like a detached 3rd person with an attention problem, as if humans aren't worth attention. And, the actors are just props for these directors to play with as if they are hosts also. Ohh yeah...now we are getting meta, but it is an irony these fools appear oblivious too.
On the other hand the inconsistent cinematography does match the inconsistent and contradictory over-generalized dialogue.
Westworld: The Riddle of the Sphinx (2018)
Catch up Elsie!!!
Catch up Elsie! Bernard is a host. Catch up Elsie! To even your own analysis. His "brain" is messed up. You just told him that so why are you asking "what is wrong with you". Catch up Elsie! There is a hidden facility here, but she asks, "what the hell is that". CATCH TF UP!!! It obviously opens a door to the hidden facility. SMH, these scenes are unwatchable and unforgivable. It is like watching TV with an annoying person who is lost and constantly interrupting. It is so weird though that it is coming from an "actor" from within the show. I guess I can't blame the actor 100% - this is terrible directing and writing. What is the viewer supposed to feel during these unwatchable scenes but annoyed. Her annoying questions take away any of the mystery or suspense there could be. Next she says, "this is control unit printer, what are they doing with this". SMH. Let me take a wild guess - PRINTING!!!
I really want to give this episode a 4 because of that. But the scenes with William and Lawrence are great.
Nova: Can We Cool the Planet? (2020)
Start planting trees please. Check out ecosia.org
An important climate change episode that provides an easy to understand graphical illustration of how much C02 humans are emitting globally. They suggest imagining digging up 10 billion tons of coal per year and setting in on fire. That is essentially what humans are doing. Who in their right mind or not brainwashed by big energy corporation propaganda could possibly think that will not significantly affect ecosystems and climate globally? They tell us that humans currently emit about 37 billion tons of C02 globally and that must be reduced to 0. But that is not the end of the problem. There is still over 600 billion tons of C02 emitted from the beginning of the industrial revolution still lingering in the atmosphere and warming the planet via the greenhouse effect. Nothing major about that can possibly be done anytime within the next 15-20 years and it will still be highly debatable then. There will not be one solution but many. This episode covers some of those briefly including carbon capture; carbon recycling; cloud seeding to cool regions or the entire planet; and probably the simplest and best idea, planting a trillion trees. The later could capture 200 billion tons of carbon. They show how new advanced mapping technologies using laser and 3D imaging can better measure forests and land, revealing that the planet has room to plant 1.2 trillion trees. The downside is that food demand will increase significantly over the next 30 years, so do we create another problem by restricting land for trees. Not necessarily because we can also grow crops more efficiently and in ways that captures more carbon.
Also, let me dispel some of the misinformation in other "reviews" here. A basic definition of climate is "the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period". So when people say "the climate always changes" it is clear they do not know the basic definition. Yes, climates can change but they may not do so for millions of years. We are seeing climate change now in the geological blink of eye.
No, volcanoes do no emit far more C02 than humans. That is ignorant. I know it can be hard to imagine, but just look at any gigantic open-pit mine of anything dug up by humans. Multiply that by 1000's. Or just use the illustration of gigaton coal blocks from this show, and then it is not so difficult to see how drastically humans are altering the Earth, much more than volcanoes.
For the 10 billionth time people, what is most relevant is the rate of change. Just about NEVER has the Earth warmed this fast. Furthermore, there has been enough data to statistically link the increase in temperatures to human C02 emissions. Stop with the pathetic and vague "climates always change" cries please. Nothing happens without some cause! If it is not C02 then what is it? All the other explanations deniers have tried like sun activity have been proven not to be the cause. In fact, solar activity is at a low, so that cannot possibly be the cause of warming.
Reacher: In a Tree (2022)
Reacher shapping into an interesting charachter, but only if newly introduced tropes don't ruin it all.
I rated episodes 1-3 at 8 stars. This could be up there too but I have to punish this one episode, and hopefully not many more. I was enjoying this show until they decided they needed to add the trope of the tough Black female PI whose phone call scene was horrendously uninformed, cringy, and contradictory. It does nothing but to reveal how uninformed these moronic showrunners are about basic things in life, so I have to wonder if I trust them to get anything else right. This phone calls presents Reacher as someone who is breaking social norms by not presenting the correct amount of grief or emotion, but it is actually the clueless trope who is breaking social norms. After briefly expressing her condolences, she then goes on to insult Reacher twice because she does not agree with how business-like and seemingly unemotional Reacher is being. That is the point of the trope, right? She is the only person tough enough to talk to Reacher like that, right? Well, that stupidly ignores that we already have a female lead playing that part well. These show-fools are so caught up in presenting their trope that they fail to see how inappropriate she actually is. So it is doubly frustrating that they present Reacher as the one in the wrong. Inserting herself into events out of nowhere and with only 5 seconds of background she goes on to criticize the grieving person. That is ridiculous! Maybe she is also playing the bad-mother trope which is something nobody wants in a show like this. So the trope does nothing except to prove Reacher's implied point that sometimes condolences are baloney and meaningless especially considering how she becomes self-centered and defensive only two seconds later. Nice contradiction there by the way - the so-called "tough lady" becomes a defensive snowflake over mere neutral words by Reacher. BTW morons... just about nobody knows how to handle the death of loved ones or how they are supposed to grieve publicly. It is not something that is taught. We do not have funeral rehearsals. People generally fall into two camps. There are those who become self-centered and put their grief above that of anyone else who may also be affected. Or, I think most decent people eventually learn that all you need to do is just show up and support others. Reacher's version of showing-up is about bringing his brother's killers to justice and that is perfectly reasonably. I don't know how well the trope knows Reacher's bother, but another part of showing up is making those kinds of phone calls. Yes, we can view this phone call psychologically and merely as a notification-of-death call. Those can be difficult and tiresome to make when you have to make a lot of them. How dare this idiot trope criticize the substance or style of that call by Reacher! Do you fools not realize how many calls you may have to make when dealing with a death. Are we supposed to sob on every darn call to the police, insurance, or the mortuary... you fricking morons? No!!! We show-up and handle our business!
So, maybe this conversation makes sense in-person and Reacher won't talk about his brother with the lady. But that would be BS; He does talk about him all the time! DUH!!! Or, maybe this conversation would make sense if we are told that the trope was also close to Joe. But it was not presented that way.
Other than that, I really like Reacher's character. It adds a level of like Sherlock Holmes that was not in the Tom Cruise version. I mean.. this Reacher is even sharper. But he is also caring of animals and kids, and not the unemotional thing they try to make him out to be. Of course, he does not wear his emotions on his sleeves. But that is perfectly fine most of the time. Most of that stuff from other people is performative baloney anyways. Even grieving is social performative BS most of the time, but most people won't admit that or are even too ignorant to see that. But I suppose it serves many useful purposes too, so it is not all BS.
House of the Dragon: The Green Council (2022)
House of Super-moms
Meh... Dullest coronation in the history of coronations, real or fictional. Dullest penultimate season episode in of all GoT. These showpeople don't understand any of the history or mythology of it. What is the point of a fantasy power struggle obsessed medieval like show if we don't get some spectacle, theater, or opulence? You might argue that it's supposed to look cheap and rushed because this is a questionable insurrection crowning a clueless inept king. Well, my point still remains, and I will even double down on it - Yes, it ALL looks cheap and rushed.
Nearly an hour of mediocrity is not saved either by 2 minutes of CGI for the ending. It's not enough that they like showing things in darkness. Now they have to obscure the dragon scene with far too much dust. Is this supposed to be fantasy or realism now? But how much dust does stone and wood leave when shattered by an enormous dragon. Who knows? But they seemed to be going for a misguided 9/11 look with dust hovering everywhere endlessly. These fools forgot what world they are in; I don't think that structure was full of dry-wall. To make it even worse everyone on the stage is looking on with shock like they don't know who it is. I guess all that dust must be suspenseful for the easily impressed. Who knows... maybe Batman will fly out. Or, maybe it is the old Princess, and more importantly their dragon that you even made a point just 3 lousy minutes earlier to tell us that they will be guarding. But everyone is at the coronation and distracted, right? We went from guarded to distracted in just 3 minutes. Or maybe the old princess killed any guards blocking entrance to the one and only thing that is an eminent threat to their immediate plans. Why not - just go ahead and give all the women superpowers; you know you want to.
The conflict between the Queen and the Hand was also rushed, ignorant, and a bit out of nowhere, but I suppose they needed something cheesy to empower another woman. Just go ahead and give them superpowers or a dragon please and it will make more sense in this world actually. That baloney also sets up the most irrelevant sword fight in all of GoT. Will you remember or care a year or even just a month from now why Cole had to sword-fight whats-his-name, conveniently with no harm done to anyone? So far, the stakes only matter for irrelevant people we have never or barely seen before, which is not very GoT.
But back to the Queen and the Hand. First, I was correct several weeks ago. Men and boys are all supposedly toxic little brats because maybe their supposed superhero mothers are bad at being mothers. What a horrible thing to say - "you imbecile", after your son asks if you love him. So this whole stupid conflict between the Queen and the Hand is about who gets to talk to the new King first. It would have been more effective to do that part as parody or cartoon - "I get to talk the king first. No, I get to talk the first...". Ad infinitum. Clearly, the bad mother knows nothing about her temperamental son. For something as serious as sparing Rhaenyra, Daemon's not going to be a pushover to just whomever comes to him first. Maybe the second person is just as good. Maybe not calling him an imbecile is better. Maybe someone actually having a plan by now of how to control or at least just talk to Daemon like a human being would be a good idea. These are your supposed brilliant super-mothers though. They are even more toxic than the boys, but these people are too blind to see it.
House of the Dragon: The Lord of the Tides (2022)
Nice meta-joke at the diner scene about slow writers lacking in wit.
More fan fiction for the book lovers. But hooray, the King is dead! From the start the dialogue is horrible. It's clear the starting dialogue was meant for the viewer, but mostly nonsensical within their world because it's just repetition of what should be obvious to the characters. Meanwhile the camera stupidly pans in weird ways, and you can't see anyone talk. Sorry bad director... you aren't Rian Johnson and can't do intros like him. They'd be better off giving us a title crawl to summarize the time gaps. Even a stupid title crawl would be more immersive than their exposition dialogue and directing that looked like fan fiction, at least at the start of this one. So thanks for boring your audience from the start. Not a smart way to reel people in. Just about never in all seasons of GoT did I have to rewind or pause an episode because something didn't add up or was confusing or too boring. It was just about perfect TV world-building that had you immersed immediately. No, it was not just about action, you funny people that think that's the only reason we know this show has mostly sucked so far. GoT had many different storylines in various unique settings keeping different viewers happy and helped set the pacing. Instead with this fan-fiction show, now we get more wedding proposals, and the average viewer won't have any clue of all the tedious implications until we get more...I don't...maybe need another title crawl already. This isn't Game of Thrones. This is a half-baked "The Crown" rip-off, a truly great and meaningful show.
I made a big mistake in the plot in my last review thinking Laenor was dead, but that doesn't change my impressions of that episode. If a show is so easy at making one become un-immersed, it is all too easy to make such a mistake. I'm sure I am not the only one. I will not delete that review; it just proves my point. Life doesn't have a rewind button, fools. I don't like to skip back during a show. They need to do a better job of presenting their story so that it just flows without needing to do that.
When I said this show needed much more Lannister-like wit I did not mean cheesy 1980 one-liners like, "he can keep his tongue". You think we haters just want action, but it is you funny people that probably think that scene was peak tv, smh.
But what about Paddy's Emmy performance, supposedly? He had already been playing a dull dying naivete king for 7 episodes with nothing to write home about. Even most of the stan-boy reviews hardly mention him. Emmys are based on whatever one, and only one, episode is submitted. If they submit any of the ones before this episode, they should throw it in the trash before considering giving him an Emmy for it. I like the actor, but there was not a lot for him to work with before this episode and a zombie could have played the role. It was all annoying non-sensical theatrics anyways. They had a carrier made for him, but he doesn't use it for the big entrance nor has the sense to already be seated at the throne before the petitions. I guess we've all been eagerly waiting to see a zombie walk slowly across the screen to his throne. Must have taken him decades of the best acting schools to learn how to walk slowly with a cane. Honestly, there was still not a lot for him to work with in this episode. It's just one more silly kumbaya speech to make him look foolish one more time. But isn't it so sad? Do I have no heart? Or maybe you don't know death like I do. Is this how death should be depicted, as a sad decay, full of regret or overly sentimental? Unfortunately, the unthinking stan-boys won't get any guidance on that from this unmeaningful show and just take it as face-value as some kind of truth, a second before they swipe-left on their phones while only half-watching.
But whoopie, we finally get some wit! It comes from Aemon and it sure looks like it took him the entire diner to figure out how to present the "Strong" joke. He literally pounds on the table once he figured it out! Is this a meta-joke about how these writers work and how long it takes them to do anything right? But the diner scene had its moment and did much to save the episode and give it more than my usual 5 stars as of lately. It's hard to put into words the surrealness of it, and Paddy gets much credit for leading the scene.
Frontline: Lies, Politics and Democracy (2022)
Good historical lessons interupted by speculative and imcomplete media critisism.
Great documentary that is history and all need to watch. Of course, the Trumpers wont last one minute watching this but much of it just uses Republicans own words and actions. It is obvious how weak Republicans were acquiescing to Trump, and a horrendous example of politicians getting away with blatant lies to the public. Yes, Trump Republicans in Congress - it is you that killed veteran Ashli Babbit with your lies. I have been saying for a lifetime that a Congresspersons first responsibility is not merely to follow their constituents will. There first responsibility is to report the truth and facts to their constituents that they acquire from being members of Congress, no matter how inconvenient it may be.
On the other hand, the middle part of this documentary is a bit clumsy. I don't know if this was a bad attempt at "both-siding" things. They talked about the media having too much negative news on Trump. One quote was something like, "the Democrats overplayed their hand... united Republicans...and turned some swing voters". Maybe that is correct but that requires data, not just speculation from journalists. Show us data or polls of people turning off CNN/MSNBC and switching to Trump. More to the point, it doesn't fit with where they are in the documentary. "Overplaying your hand" means you lost something. Did Democrats lose 2018 mid-terms? No. This documentary oddly doesn't even cover those mid-terms. Did Democrats lose 2020. Certainly not. So, I don't even know what this documentary was trying to say then. Those quotes occurred when they were talking about the first impeachment. Were they trying to say Dems lost the first impeachment because of the media? If that is what they were saying, they hardly made that clear. Besides, that is preposterous.
I am not saying that possible excessive coverage of Trump did not make things more divisive and partisan. But if that is what they are trying to say, then they could have made that clearer rather than vague quotes like "Dems overpaid their hand". No, Dems won the electorate back! Also, there was still 1000% less lying and bloviating from so-called "mainstream media" than Fox, Breitbart, OANN, and all the other Trump liars.
House of the Dragon: The Princess and the Queen (2022)
Tired of people saying "Starting to be GoT now". That doesn't necessarily warrent 9+ stars.
Prince Jacaerys dragon training scene was frustrating. Are they going back to dark scenes difficult to see for no sensible reason. From a distance you can barely see who is talking and have to skip back several times because that is kind of important context especially when they are new characters
So now we have another violent temperamental male grunt which is all knights are in this funny world. The alleged real father of Rhaenys kids appears to have some deep distrust of Cole that we are just supposed to take for granted. Or who knows... maybe Cole has been gossiping about Rhaenys for the last decade. I'm sure that would be great for his position on top of a wedding murder never addressed.
So this new grunt wants his "kids" to get the same attention in training but then whines when they do. But that's not enough of a nonsensical contradiction for these showrunners. Merely five seconds after criticizing the training as cruel, he cruelly attacks Cole over relatively tame words that could have had countless witty responses. But this show still has 0% wit, so it is not GoT. I guess we are supposed to think that's just another grunt like Cole that does not have basic adolescent control because there is a striking similarity between both of their violent outbursts. You're kidding yourself if that violent sucker attack would pass as "defending one's honor" as he lamely tries to sell. That is clear from the reaction of everyone else and that he has been dismissed. So it's that darn toxic masculinity! But they really behave more like two women. The new grunt was 100% acting like a woman just because his son was on the ground from a mere kick to his chest while wearing ARMOR. That's equivalent in stupidity to a modern day father running on to a football field because his kid was tackled.
To be fair though, Cole was decent in that training scene. He was acting like a woman earlier in the episode, which the queen looked down on. The queen is more of a leader now I guess or that is what they want us to see. We get it. It's all about the women. They have to give the births that apparently kill mothers all of the time. They have to deal with a weak husband/king who is really just a nice and loyal guy but that's not good enough. They have to deal with the toxic fighting and raising toxic little boys. Blah blah blah. Or maybe in this world they are all just bad mothers. I mean you do let them play with dragons.
I guess this new grunt doesn't have to work hard at keeping his secret either. He doesn't even have a response ready to defend anyone's honor, especially Rhaenyra's. All secrets are just out there in this universe and not dealt with. But if there are no secrets that makes the GoT dull. You could argue that's an intentional reflection of a weak king. Fine, but it is still dull. Ever watch Meerkat Manor? There is some real GoT stuff there. If the matriarch doesn't want her offspring having a pup then she's kicking them out or killing babies with her own teeth. So this weak king wouldn't make it as a meerkat. Gotcha. Thanks for letting us know. But Meerkat Manor still makes for way better drama, television, and a Game of Thrones.
Also, Larys is absolutely the dullest secret villain in TV history. Not emphasizing enough through the queen's reaction the craziness of burning his own family was a big oversight. It would be about as dumb as if Tyrion killed his father in episode 1, making him evil from the beginning. She should be seeing Larys so far beneath her now to not want to be in his presence and just turn him in. Artificial baloney that she doesn't have enough allies.
I still get that people see this as starting to feel like GoT now. Although someone says that every episode. Yes, it can start to feel like that and still not be anywhere near 9 or10 stars. I still give it an improvement from 5 stars last week because there is some potential energy in this episode, and maybe it will get better.
House of the Dragon: We Light the Way (2022)
Simply a boring episode.
If you want to be put to sleep then this episode is good for you. It starts to fall apart seeing the Criston Cole character rushed. His downfall occurs in less then the run-time of one episode including the previous and is full of contradictions. Sometimes contradictions can be enlightening, but these don't sync with anything else yet, so they are more like annoying oversights. Immediately after we yawn to Cole's pathetic proposal scene they try to manufacture some much needed mystery/suspense. A servant tells Cole, "you've been summoned". Pause for enough time for you to go back to sleep or play with your phone.. but it is the queen that actually summoned him. OMG! Dah Dah Dahhh!! What a shocking turn of events. Not! How about just say the queen has summoned him to begin with and don't waste our time? Also, this series has been a waste for a great actor like Considine. The king is a bore and needed to die a long time ago. They could have saved money and got a stiff to play him because he is just a walking corpse. Still, the only thing enjoyable is Matt Smith, dragons, and the occasional interactions of Daemon and Rhaenyra. But Daemon was hardly a part of this episode. Same goes for dragons. The little we get of him at the start actually ruins his character and mystery some, making him just a simple villain, not the complex fully realized charterer he has the potential to be. I guess from the high ratings for this people are happy with another bloody wedding, even if much of it is too ridiculous to be believable. The kingsguard just murders an important guest of the groom and gets to wander into a garden later all by himself, no consequences. I guess nobody is even curious about his motives. They have already informed us quite clearly that he is unstable enough to do anything, so simply one look from the even sleep-walking king and he should be crying and confessing like a baby, based on all they have ruined about the character so far. Also, wasn't the wedding 7 days later? But everything looks like the next day, and they haven't even cleaned up blood or considered letting the groom-side mourn. I am sure someone who has nothing better to do will overanalyze it all and find some banal symbolism with the blood still on the floor during the ceremony, forgetting that it was all still an utter nonsensical and dull episode.