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charliemenzies
Reviews
Veronica Mars (2004)
Hype Over-promises, but Writers and Directors Under-deliver
The problem with hype is that if you don't follow-up on it, you look rather silly and you make your potential audience flee to higher quality climes.
That's what happened with Veronica Mars. The hypesters of UPN promised a super-realistic show with high quality writing.
The reality is an over-the-top dramedy that has very little realistic about its characters or situations and writing that is mostly remarkable by the huge plot holes it leaves in its wake.
That Veronica Mars tries to be "relevant" is quite obvious, but the situations, characters and acting are so devoid of any reality, it falls flat on its face again and again.
The people at UPN and then CW have gone to great lengths to save this show, going so far as to put it on CBS to get in exposure and credibility, but audiences are still staying away.
That's what happens when more thought is put into the marketing campaign than in the project itself.
The Shield (2002)
Beware of the Shield Shills: This one is really a Turkey
As a rule of thumb, the more hype on a TV show, the worst it is. The Shield is a great example of that equation.
FX has relentlessly been pushing the Shield at great cost in money and energy. Sadly, that money would have been better used in hiring directors who know how to direct and cinematographers versed in the use of the tripod.
The Shield is so empty, it relies on bad directing and hype to sell itself. You see, according to the shills, if it looks like a 2-year-old with Daddy's camcorder, it makes it real, it makes it "quality TV", it makes it cool.
Thankfully and unremarkably, audiences have stayed away in droves (the Shield is routinely ranked in the 300s in the Nielsens) but FX has kept this turkey alive year after year thinking it made for good press.
Wake up FX! Having a bad show on is not good press. Cancel this bad show and use the money for something more worthwhile.
Pretty Persuasion (2005)
Trite and fake
Pretty Persuasions is another one of those fake slice of life movies. It tries desperately to be perceived as "real" by the critics and the intelligentsia and thus fails completely to convey any real emotion or situation.
The dialogue is absurdly bad and forced and the film is just one more hyped, tired attempt by a bad music video director at gaining the applause of his friends and the Sundance committee.
Did that movie make it to Sundance? I wouldn't be surprised as it has all the characteristics of the really bad films that go there for their fair share of empty hype.
As for Evan Rachel Wood, she should stay away from these types of films in the future. Her acting is becoming worse and worse as she tries to bring life to bad clichés.