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Reviews
The Resident: Moving on and Mother Hens (2021)
Disappointng change in content
The last two episodes do not have the strength of the previous seasons, which was a dramatic portrayal of the serious problems in American medical care. It has deteriorated into a conventional soap opera revolving around romantic relationships, and with feel good happy endings to both personal and medical situations.
The Resident: If Not Now, When? (2019)
Best episode yet in a great series
Really moving story about a tragedy in childbirth, and as all in this series it's based upon the actual realities of American medical care. The addition of a real case at the end was very moving, and hit hard as not only drama but a real dose of reality. Brilliant.
The Resident (2018)
Timely and highly entertaining
The American medical system is very troubled, and without exaggerating that this series revolves around its weaknesses and corruption. Covering up failures that cause serious injury and death is routine, and the abusive treatment of younger staff, the interns and residents, regardless of how talented they are is pervasive.
The overriding influence of money in decision making, whether from insurance or the pharmaceutical industry, is also accurate. The writers clearly know the medical industry and its serious problems well, and that material makes for situations that are realistic and chilling.
My only regret is that one very good character, playing the Nigerian woman doctor Mina Okafor, is apparently only in 4 of the 2018 episodes.
The Resident: The Prince & the Pauper (2018)
Great TV - super commentary on U.S. medical care
The Resident is real quality TV, not just another soap opera that happens to be set in a hospital but in-depth commentary on the sorry state of American medical care. The treatment of the economic issues is always sound but episode 2 of season 2 was especially so, the abusive pricing of prescription drugs and the extreme cost of medical devices are shown to be the difference between life and death for individual patients. It's not exaggerated, the U.S spends twice as much on medical care as the average of the next 20 countries, all of which have better outcomes, including life expectancy, than the U.S.
UHF (1989)
Simply very, very funny
Good comedy is hard, but this one succeeds big time. Satirizing the absolute crap that's on daily TV is an idea that sounds easy, but the absurdity of the shows that the dying UHF station comes up with are spot on. Usually a comedy of this kind will have a few bright spots, but UHF has a high density of serious laughs all the way through. There's clever imagination in the writing, and the idea that a station that's absurd in the extreme could become wildly popular is made credible. It made my day, what more can you ask of a low budget project.
The Resident (2018)
Timely and highly entertaining
The American medical system is very troubled, and without exaggerating that this series revolves around its weaknesses and corruption. Covering up failures that cause serious injury and death is routine, and the abusive treatment of younger staff, the interns and residents, regardless of how talented they are is pervasive.
The overriding influence of money in decision making, whether from insurance or the pharmaceutical industry, is also accurate. The writers clearly know the medical industry and its serious problems well, and that material makes for situations that are realistic and chilling.
My only regret is that one very good character, playing the Nigerian woman doctor Mina Okafor, is apparently only in 4 of the 2018 episodes.
The Resident (2018)
Timely and highly entertaining
The American medical system is very troubled, and without exaggerating that this series revolves around its weaknesses and corruption. Covering up failures that cause serious injury and death is routine, and the abusive treatment of younger staff, the interns and residents, regardless of how talented they are is pervasive.
The overriding influence of money in decision making, whether from insurance or the pharmaceutical industry, is also accurate. The writers clearly know the medical industry and its serious problems well, and that material makes for situations that are realistic and chilling.
My only regret is that one very good character, playing the Nigerian woman doctor Mina Okafor, is apparently only in 4 of the 2018 episodes.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015)
Best thing on TV, which may not be saying much, but it's great!
Much higher in quality and originality than all the other stuff on TV. Who else uses musical numbers mixed in with the complicated sitcom type plots, and makes it work. There's a high quality of humor, an accurate and satirical portrayal of L. A. suburbs.
Keeps the plot running through the episodes with new ideas each time. The situations are just slightly absurd, but the human emotions are realistic and touching. Best thing on TV, and a real relief from the depressing cable news programs.
It's largely about romantic relationship problems, but rises way above the standard sitcom genre. It's an original and creative success, and deserves to survive. Hopefully it will gradually build an audience and not get dropped. Given enough time I believe that will happen.
Rachel Bloom is an amazing talent, she has created, produced, written, and starred in the series.
Bad Teacher (2011)
Very funny movie!
A movie that is simply very funny, I'm surprised at the many people who hated it. There were plenty of laugh out loud moments, and the outrageous behavior of the Cameron Diaz character was done is a clever enough way that it wasn't crude, everything that is done is motivated by the situation. It's been suggested by some that reaction to it is generational, but I'm 77 years old and I thought it was great humor.
Maybe some people are sensitive to using the public school environment as the basis for humor, that it's in poor taste, but given the state of the U.S. educational system it's hardly a sacred institution.
The whole cast is excellent, comedy isn't ever easy but characters are created that are effective without being overdone, which is the common and fatal flaw of most comedy. You expect good performances from Jason Segel, Phyllis Smith, and Justin Timberlake, and Lucy Punch pulls off the role of Diaz's ditsy competitor very nicely, but for the movie to work Cameron Diaz has to do a comedy role convincingly and without exaggeration, and she does a great job.
I kept waiting for it to fall apart somewhere along the way, but it didn't at all, another thing that's not easy to do with a plot like this. It's got some originality, and is outrageous for effect, but it works, it's just plain funny.
Body and Soul (1999)
For boxing fans, it's good
I like boxing, but if you don't you most likely won't like this one. A real boxer, Ray Mancini, plays the lead, and since he's the real thing, you can see it for example in his punching on the heavy bag. Others complain that he's not articulate and a skilled actor, hey, he's a boxer, and he seems like a boxer.
The portrayal of the control of the business by often corrupt promoters is all too real. A fighter that the main character beats tells him that what happens in the ring is the easy part, it's what you deal with outside it that's the hard part. Some of that is the politics and corruption, but there's also the problem of a young guy that comes from poor circumstances suddenly having money and being ill equipped to manage it, plus the new friends the money and fame attracts.
It's got a feel good ending, contrary to how many boxers end up, hanging on too long and winding up broke and brain damaged. Mancini himself is something of an exception, having kept quite quit a bit of the money he earned and getting into other things after retirement.