Change Your Image
prvanjules
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Harlots (2017)
If I could marry a show, this would be the one!
I gave this show a ten out of ten. I rarely do this, and here is why. Brace yourselves.
I love period dramas. I love women leading those period dramas. I have a thing for great female characters, shows made by women, and bright colors.
When I first started this show, I did so by accident and while I am a fan of Jessica Brown Findlay, I was not aware that she was in it. So, I kept watching and the show starts with a loud fanfare. Familiar to the big bang, it explodes, you see yourself catapulted into a colorful, loud, and beautiful void until everything settles down. Then you have arrived at London in the 18th century and you never ever want to leave. Now, of course I don't want to live there, considering all the negative aspects.
The actors of the show are brilliant; from Samantha Morton to Jessica Brown Findlay. You feel yourself convinced that they actually are who they portray, their dialogues are amazing, their acting is on point. All these characters, no matter how good or bad, you will learn to love, or love to hate.
Findlay and Morton however are by far outstanding.
The costume design is one of its kind and all the dresses made me want to cry because they were as beautiful as the music and the cinematography.
About the writing of the series itself: just a few minor points that could be better in season 2, and perhaps some more light on the gay male character of this show would be pleasing, but that is just me.
Everything in this show, no matter how "controversial" it might be, is well done and properly executed. Perhaps this is because women wrote this, as you can see the quality it maintains.
If you look for a show that is thrilling, entertaining, and an absolute "period bop", you have arrived at the right stop. Get out, get in, and let these women convince you with their great acting in wonderful fashion.
I'd say we need at least 5 seasons. Thank you in advance.
Ku'damm 56 (2016)
hot and cold period drama
I started watching this show since it showed up on Netflix, and German TV miniseries tend to have good quality. However, the show is wrongly advertised in my opinion.
First of, I am German, I study humanities and German post-war history is one of my favorite topics. We meet a mother of three daughters who is running a dancing school on the infamous Kuhfürstendamm. The setting is great, the costume and make-up department worked hard! I won't go into the detail when it comes to history, and instead focus more on the characters, which is important. Especially when it comes to Monika and something unaware viewers should be aware of.
The writers decided to make her a trope, which is all good as we have thousands of male tropes running around in TV-land. I liked her character and could associate with her for a while. Now, I felt sorry, because whomever wrote her character seems to have no idea. First, they had her be sexually assaulted by the man her mother wants her to marry. I am aware that this happens, sadly enough, but is it a woman's only character development and if so, why? I am personally tired of this as a plot point. The other absurd part of this storyline is that she connects with her rapist. They try to give him some sort of redeeming qualities and that is, considering how, in contrast to this, horrible they treat the only gay character in this series, a joke.
Above mentioned gay character marries Helga, one of the three daughters. He is portrayed, as we often see it in such shows, as the reason for her sadness. Imagine being a privileged white woman married to gay man. How horrible must your life be. What a tragic story, it is even more tragic than Hamlet! Now, this aside, I wished they would have taken her character and developed it to a point where women can actually associate themselves with her. Because she lacks depth and interesting characteristics. To have her life solely based on the fact that he is gay is basic. I understand that being an unmarried woman back then was hard, but instead: what if she supported her husband? What, if they went for a more feminist plot for the two of them? They was such an amount of wasted potential, it hurt!
Eva has a crush on an older man, who electroshocks her sister's husband, is an overall horrible man, and she falls in love with a married football player from Eastern Germany. All good and well except:
If you sell this series as a series that is supposed to attract a mostly female audience, with "empowering female characters", you actually have to know how to write women: as people. These women are tropes, and it pains me so much because there was so much potential. Eva is in her own way likable, with a typical crush, and the want to climb as high as her mother. I liked her character a lot, but again: wasted potential.
The men? I understand the intention to say "men are the evil here" and the majority of them are for good reasons. As the rapist, who they, as aforementioned, try to shove into our arms so that we feel some sort of empathy for him? No way, thank you.
Freddy is likable and has many things in common with my father. I also enjoyed the actor and his portrayal.
Wolfgang, the gay man, whom you feel for the most? Portrayed as an abusive pig. Now, being gay, I don't think the writers ever met a gay man in their lives or have no idea about what gay people endured in that period and still endure to this day.
The father? Now, they do not seem to have any inclination to put some effort into the Eastern German area.
About her mother: the character is hard to watch because she is the embodiment of Western German women who were involved with the Nazis and the acting was well done. She gave me the good kind if headache.
My favorite character is Monika, and partly Freddy - her lover -, even though she has to go through so much crap by the writers that I feel like I want to write this character the book she deserves.
So, next time you try to write an "empowering show for women", perhaps you should consider making this better. Consider more research, and add more depth to characters who could have been worth it. This show was a great concept, but I have become so angry by watching it that I needed to smoke three cigarettes and that is bad for my health.
Ergo:
Good watch if you are bored and/or want to learn some outdated German words for any project, have a glance into Western German history (not the Eastern, since they spent little to no effort in that part... seriously), go for it. But do not expect too much, and you will cringe many times as well at the scenes between Monika and her rapist.
I give it a six. Now, I need to get rid of my headache.
The 100 (2014)
Better than you expect it from CW
First of all I decided to give this show 9 out 10 stars because 10 for me is unreachable.
Second: there might be some spoilers in here.
I was starting to watch this show for two reasons: I have to study and I love to calm down after work, and I saw it all over the internet and decided to give it a try.
When I think about CW, I think about overly polished and cheesy shows with a lack of diversity and representation, with flat writing and a boring or an overused story-arch. This is different. Of course it is based on a novel, and this novel might be better than I thought; but when we look at Game of Thrones and much the show began to butcher the original work post season three, I can be very certain that the show's own writing team has to do with that (there are many examples). The dialogs can become a little bit odd, but as I am a writer, I know that part is difficult, or even tricky. The acting however is very good. There are exceptions, but I love each of the actors' work and I admire the energy they seem to put into their characters.
Now, let us take a look at the female characters: I screamed. This is exceptional and truly empowering. This cast, diverse and charismatic, just pulls you into this storm of emotions, it's amazing. I cannot decide whether I love Octavia or Clarke more, or Abby or Raven, or perhaps Maya or Lexa. I love how they decided to make this show, and how to create a series that doesn't only make you cry every third episode, but also makes you throw you laptop out of the window in sheer anxiety or unexpected twists, or just clap your hands when something positive is happening. I am so done with this show, I love how it destroyed my emotions beginning with assuming Jaha is dying, or Raven, but they won't (yet). Lincoln's constant torture makes me want to strangle a stranger, and the evolution of Octavia is something all little girls on this planet need to see.
So, here I sit and I hope that season three won't be its breaking point as most shows suffer greatly in a third season. What I hope is that they will bring forth the greatness of this series and make it even better... and that other creators take this as an example.
The CW needed one good show... and this is the one.
Narcos (2015)
Cats and drugs
First of all I'd like to mention that I started watching this show for two reasons: Crime and Pedro Pascal. I may come across shallow for the latter, but that's what it is.
So, while we have got a stellar cast and in fact they do speak Spanish (something I appreciate, even though I do not speak a word of Spanish and I do not know whether they have gotten the accents right), there are some flaws. The characters seem somewhat one- dimensional. I wish we could have found out more about Javier and his colleagues.
The one thing which really was a major turn off: Murphy. He is the typical picture of an ignorant American dude coming to a country without bothering to actually learn some of Columbia's language. Second: he is portrayed in a way of 'I am the American, you all suck because you treat me as I should be treated by how ignorant I am'. There are some scenes with him that just made me roll my eyes, and I am uncertain if this was the intention of the writers and director; I can only hope.
Then there is the narrative storytelling... which I would like if it was a documentary. The mix of series/documentary works well if done right, and I do not like the way it is done. The first episode is slow and dragging. The second episode makes up for that, but still.
For the rest I'm pleasantly surprised, there'll always be some mistakes done, or some flaws in execution, but I did admire Pedro's portrayal of Javier and I do like to utter the wish for a second season... however am I not very sure if they will pursue such an idea.
In short:
If you're looking for a crime show about drugs and politics, go watch it. If you're interested in Pedro Pascal and you are curious whether he is as great as he was as Oberyn: go watch it, too. we'll probably see a lot more of him soon anyway. It's a nice show; somewhere between good and amazing, thrilling, and witty even.
Thank you, Netflix.