anthony-d-kelly Reviews

Yellowjackets (2021– )

Lurid, mean, and way too long

[3/10 · 17 May 2022]

Christina Ricci and Jenny Lewis carry this entire ill-conceived series on the backs of their respective (massive) talents, but that doesn't mean they can make it good.

The truth is, this series is lurid, it's grim, it's unreasonably mean (every character has the meanest possible reaction to every plot development, constantly) and totally contrived. It is also *far* too interested in the sex lives of all of our characters when that really has nothing to do with the central mysteries playing out at a glacial pace across the season except make them even slower.

This should have been a one-season limited series, not truly having enough meat on its narrative bones to sustain interest much longer than that.

If you insist on watching this show, I recommend taking a metaphorical shower after every episode - personally, I would watch something with adults behaving reasonably and treating each other with a baseline element of respect. This crap can rot your brain if you live in it too long.

Shrill (2019–2021)

Pleasant, funny, and kind of a slog

[6/10 · 14 May 2021]

Shrill is great in a lot of ways, in particular the rock solid foundation that is the cast. I was drawn in initially by my fandom for Aidy Bryant but became a fan of a lot of the other supporting actors. It's inclusive and eye opening and even ground breaking in some very real ways.

*HOWEVER*. As a series that is ostensibly meant to be binged, it can be a massive slog to get through. The 30 minute episodes awkwardly push the structure of the, er, prestige sitcom(?) and end up padding their runtime with what seem like riffing sessions. It sucked a lot of energy out of the show for me and made it ultimately feel more like a grind than a pleasure for a lot of it.

The Deuce (2017–2019)

The only TV show that has ever mattered

[10/10 · 27 October 2019]

I honestly can't explain it but The Deuce is somehow my favorite television show of all time. It doesn't have the suspense of a Breaking Bad, the CG dragons of a Game of Thrones, or the cultural relevance of The Wire. But the combination of mood, writing, music (oh, that Blondie track), set design, lighting, and most especially acting, keeps it in a league entirely of its own.

Never Goin' Back (2018)

A joyful, stupidly entertaining slice of life gem from the perspective of people the system has left behind.

[8/10 · 16 November 2018]

Never Goin' Back is a raunchy, ridiculous, and wildly entertaining film from top to bottom. The pace is fleet, the characters are fun, and the writer/director was able to capture a lightning in a bottle slice of life (for stupid people) on par with the greats. Think 'Tangerine'. Getting it even closer to its comparison, the audience isn't begged to love these two dummies, but it's impossible not to. For all their hare brained ideas and bucket pooping, the inescapable fact is that these are two nearly homeless 16 year old girls with apparently no parents, no direction, no safety net. They've truly slipped through the cracks of the system and have to make or find everything they have; money, rent, furniture, and most importantly joy. I love this film.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020)

Addictive supernatural entertainment which happens to be legitimately ground breaking tv

[8/10 · 11 November 2018]

I know it sounds kind of crazy to call Netflix's reboot of Sabrina The Teenage Witch "ground breaking". But given its adherence to the excellent source material (Afterlife With Archie/Chilling Adventures), and unflinching exploration of Satanism as a legitimate philosophy, that's exactly what it is. There is so much this show does right; the lead character is a strong female protagonist, but without the hangups of a tumultuous love life. Instead, her relationship is rock solid, and healthy. Throughout the course of the show she also seeks to uplift her fellow witches, even as they may attempt to tear her down. The acting here is pretty much universally exceptional, and the technical aspects are fun as well. In particular, the lighting creates incredible mood and a surplus of cool looking shots, greatly augmenting whatever the low-ish (it is Netflix after all) production values of TV. Highly recommend to fans of Buffy, Riverdale, or the occult in general.

The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

Bad acting and cheesy scripts ruin a decently entertaining show

[6/10 · 21 October 2018]

Sure, it's a relatively good looking show (if you can get past the ugly Netflix-quality of the cameras used for shooting); Mike Flanagan is good at creating a mood. The temporally shifting narrative is actually used to good effect as well, creating forward momentum and interest for the viewer, eager to find out exactly what happened with each of the characters. But my god is the acting amateurish; even worse, these god awful actors are giving LONG monologues which they are absolutely not able to rise to. The child actors are given far too much screen time as well, and are universally irritating. Oculus, my favorite Mike Flanagan project, does a lot of what Hill House did, but in a significantly smarter way, with a lead actor in Karen Gillan who could actually carry the film.