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Reviews
The Acolyte (2024)
Painful to watch
This series had everything going for it. A blank slate, a wealthy budget, the opportunity to create a completely new storyline in an unexplored timeline of the Star Wars universe. Unfortunately, it's just painful to watch. Riddled by bad acting (maybe not because the actors are bad per se, but it's obvious that they're poorly directed and can't really bring bad writting to life. I've just finished watching EP5, which again pushes the "narrative" of the previous episodes. There's really no world-building, just a couple of undeveloped characters involved in sword-fighting for more than half of the episode. This is the kind of thing you do when you don't know how to write a cohesive and well-developed story: you throw lots of "action" and "fighting" because you don't know better.
It feels like a huge waste of money, a missed opportunity and a real shame. Exactly because this is the first time we're witnessing this time period in Star Wars, this missed opportunity does a lot of damage for future developments in this Era. Sure, Disney will hopefully learn the lesson this time and it will most likely be a "one off" and soon forgotten, but it still does more harm than good.
Dark Matter (2024)
Yet another multiverse?
The first episodes left me thinking "yer another multiverse", but as the plot moved forward it has become much more interesting. One of the few series to really explore the subject from what I perceive as the most interesting perspective. How every aspect of life is made of choices and how those choices, even the small ones, can lead to huge variations in our lives - and even our personality. Sure, some plot twists seem superfuluous, some characters are underdeveloped but the concept is nice enough to keep watching. Would be really nice to see the plot builing up to something more complex in terms of character development, instead of being so centered in the life of one single person and his family.
Constellation: These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruin (2024)
Wish the writting was better
There have been so many series portraying the multiverse in so many variations, that you really need to be creative to be able to achieve something original. This is specially true after "Dark", which is probably the best time travel/multiverse series done to date.
This, I'm afraid, is just lame. The acting isn't terrible, but is let down by terrible writting. It approaches and original subject - the mental health impact of space travel on astronauts, but it does so in a completely absurd way - no explanation on what the machine actually does or why it was an issue even before the apparatus was created. Basically, you go to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere (that's where the ISS is, a mere 300km above the planet and still very much within its influence by all accounts) and come back with split personalities thanks to the duo-verse. It's a mess.
MasterChef Australia (2009)
Superb for a competition where you're just looking at people cooking
The premise seems boring (I mean, watching people cooking and not even able to replicate or taste the dish?). But it's an emotional journey and the contestants are usually so likable (not like other shows, where competition usually means more... ferocity and verbal abuse).
But either Australia is running out of good home cooks or this year the quality of the contestants is subpar. I'm not judging their habilities (I'm no expert on food), I'm just saying that, comparatively, in other seasons there was A LOT of talent, and even some exceptional talent. Season 15 is more. Yeah, "that looks nice". But nothing to "blow your socks off". Apart from Declan (who's really on a journey of improvement), the others seem to be evolving little and just got to the final stages of the competition out of luck. And then there's also Brent, who has the advantage of already knowing the game. A middle pack contestant in the previous season 14, and the one that might actually win this season 15 (because of the drop in quality and not exactly because of a huge improvement on his part).
The Covenant (2023)
It's let down by the choice of location
As in any movie, you want the setting to be credible. With so many location choices, why film in Europe? Afghanistan is completely arid - one of the driest countries on Earth, so why choose a location packed with pine trees and dams, that's only semi-arid. I was definitely transported to Spain, not Afghanistan.
It's such a distracting feature that I found it really difficult to follow the film. The plot itself is also lacking in terms of character development. Sure, Dar Salim performance is outstanding. It really transports you to the struggle of a man trying to give his family a better future, but that's pretty much it. Lots of flashbacks and long shots of John Kinley, but the whole struggle of him and his family facing those left behind is just an afterthought.