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How I Met Your Mother: Shelter Island (2008)
Nicely set up plot twist
It's not my favorite episode by far. But this plot twist is still very neatly crafted. You expect Ted to be the true and only perfect boyfriend/husband for every woman in this show (I'm not saying he is perfect, just that he is framed as perfect boyfriend material). He wins against all the other contestants. He is the Scott Pilgrim of boyfriends who beats them all because he is the protagonist. So every time Stella brushes the topic of her ex-husband, we dismiss it as an old love story gone wrong and something that Stella has moved on from. Even when she says she wished her husband would have been as spontaneous as Ted, we think she's just glad to finally have found the man of her dreams. All of this dialogue is written ambiguous and we don't realise that until the end, but it makes sense. In a way, Ted isn't the protagonist of this episode, Stella and Tony are.
A lot of things bother me about this episode. The whole "you cannot invite your ex to your wedding" seems ridiculous to me. How old are you supposed to be?
The joke about veganism was as stale as old bread even then and not even the first time they had to pick on vegans, therefore it left me eye rolling..
The depiction of japanese culture is also unfunny, not because I think you cannot joke about other cultures' habits, but because we have seen this kind of stereotype hundreds of times. It has an ape in it, because otherwise it wouldn't be crazy enough. We get it, japanese are weird and ridiculous in our eyes, care to tell us more about it or maybe show us something that actually happens in Japan instead of a nonsensical made-up scenario? No? Oh, okay.. thanks.
Barney's story line was kind of funny I guess.
In conclusion: this episode was fine and had a refreshing message regarding the Ted story line. The rest was just okay at best.
Bent (2018)
Questionable character decisions
The shower scene with Rebecca and Danny was unintentionally funny to me. They had no chemistry and the movie wasn't even trying to establish a connection between the two. She just looks at him naked and decides "ah, what the hell, while I'm already here". And he of course has no objection, because he's a guy and has as much sense of self-preservation as James Bond when he gets the chance to sleep with an attractive woman, especially after their incredibly arousing talk beforehand. It is telling about their post-coital dialoge in bed that it could have been written the same way without them having just had sex. They exclusively talk about the plot. No personal connection, no insights into their attraction to each other, nothing. These two scenes of course are just two examples of the bigger problem of this movie which tries to be complex but is actually just very hard to follow and people's decisions don't make sense. Why for instance would Driscoll pay off Charlie's debts in order to own him? How does that give him more power over Charlie than if he would have just threatened him? All in all this movie was not exactly boring and probably is just what you would expect from it. Therefore, I rate this the epitome of an average movie.
Only Murders in the Building: Here's Looking at You (2022)
You know you can clean a knife, right?
I like this show. I like and care for the characters. But boy does it make me angry when they behave as stupidly as they do with the knife. My first reaction would have been to clean it immediately. There is no point in hoping it will serve as proof of your innocence since you already touched it with your bare skin so what reason could you possibly have to keep this around? And why would you throw it away? It is still a perfectly good knife. There was a knife in the first season as well and they also decided to throw it away instead of cleaning it!? What was going on in the writers room in this scene? Quick tip: if you suspect your audience will shout at the screen for your characters to do a specific completely obvious thing maybe you should let your characters at least talk about that.
Black Mirror: Joan Is Awful (2023)
It.. didn't make any sense, did it?!
The premise of this episode is interesting of course. It is a nightmarish prospect having your whole life displayed in this distorted and public way. Still, at the end, it lost me for a couple of reasons.
First of all: If the show is generated after the events in the real world, how can the quantum computer still produce content after the real Joan destroyed it? Or are we supposed to believe we are still in the matrix, so to speak? But then: where and what are the clues for this interpretation? And anyway, at the end of the chain, there still has to be a Source-Annie who all of this is based on, even if it is not Kayla Lorettes Joan.
Secondly: The Annie-Joan acted rather composed and rational, there was no big drama in her life. She decided against cheating on her boyfriend and she tried (at least in my opinion) to be gentle about the layoff of the employee. So if Annie-Joans life is not actually that scandalous or exciting, what does Source Annies life look like? It has to be even less exciting, right? And I know, Mona Javadi said that they were looking for the most average person, but that is not true for the fictional versions of Source Annie. They seem to get less and less human and feel more like caricatures, which kind of negates the whole idea for the TV-Show, right?
Thirdly: Michael Cera tells Annie-Joan, that she is just a fictional character. But this dialogue cannot have happened in the real world. So where did this dialogue come from? Why did the quantum computer decide to deliver expositional information to one of its own fictional characters?
Also the security staff of the company seems to be completely unaware of Annie-Joans plan to destroy the quantum computer. But everyone is watching the show and it does seem to come out pretty much right after the actual events. Would they not know about her plan?
All in all this episode was not completely horrible (although for me personally the comedy just did not work for some reason). Still, those questions kept me from being immersed in the show. I really want the new Black Mirror season to be good and I am rooting for this series, but this particular episode did not really satisfy me.
The O.C.: The End's Not Near, It's Here (2007)
Thanks, I hate it
I am aware the show got cancelled and they wanted to wrap it up, but why in the name of God did they open up a thousand new conflicts? Ryan and Taylor, Seth and Summer, Julie and Frank, all of them are all of a sudden estranged for whatever reason. All of them had satisfying character arcs until this point and now they start to have new ones that they have to hastily resolve within one final episode. And don't even get me started on their characterisation. Summer telling Julie she felt a little too comfortable in her relationship with Seth with Julie replying: "I wouldn't know" doesn't make any sense. She was married to Jimmy for what? 15 years? And she got very comfortable towards the end of their marriage, not even wanting to hear about his problems. This episode was written by the shows creator and honestly it has jarring parallels to the ending of game of thrones. Character don't act like themselves all of a sudden, rushed ending, unnecessary conflict, all written by the same people who started the show. I still love the overall show and as a teenager I watched it several times, but for reasons I now completely understand, I couldn't remember the ending. There were so many memorable moments throughout the show that I was eagerly awaiting but this episode I hardly remember. Apparently it is just extremely forgettable and doesn't seem connected to the rest of the show. Like a dream that doesn't make sense which makes it hard to remember it after you wake up. I can live with this ending, but it could have been a lot better.
The Swarm: Episode #1.5 (2023)
Why spoil the suprise?
It would have been so much more impactful if they had not announced the tsunami before showing it. I think that is how it was told in the book as well. I remember this creeping sense of danger coming up while reading the Tina Lund chapter. The way she just slowly realises what is going on before seeing this gigantic wave at the horizon and the horror of knowing there is no way out. That is what I was expecting from the show. So far the show did an okay job hinting at this outcome with the scientists talking about the worms destroying certain underwater areas and nice subtle visuals of the waves crashing in on the norwegian coast. And then they just flat out tell us what is going on, before it actually happens. It completely ruins the surprise. I get that nowadays with smart phones and early alarm systems people would know a lot sooner about an incoming tsunami than when the book came out. Still, we as the audience did not need to know that. I assume the wave is supposed to be so big that the phone alert did not make a difference for the people living at the coast anyway. So why didn't they just show people getting a message on their mobile, but we don't see what it is. And then we follow their gaze and see the tsunami at the horizon. That could have been such a powerful moment. Furthermore, we never really got a clear sense for the scale of the tsunami. It just destroys one little building and that is it. Also the music, unfortunately, continues to be extremely lukewarmly boring, even in such actually horrible moments. A Hans Zimmer style bombastic score would have been appropriate, not this mellow, low key, quiet score we got. Also also, the main focus of the show seems to be the personal drama between the characters. I would be fine with that if it was any other show. This particular show was supposed to be an action packed thrill ride with the occasional insert of character development to keep us engaged in the main characters. Even though I lowered my expectations after the first episode by a lot, this truly disappointed me.
Glass Onion (2022)
Familiar but also unique
I really like this movie. The dialogue is excellent. Just look at Miles' speech about disruption for example. The first time we hear it we think this is a satirical comment on rich people talking about becoming a successful person. The second time we see it in the flashback it is put in context, and you understand he is talking about his disagreement with Andi. And if you watch the movie again you understand that it is also a clue to the solution, which is: he actually is an idiot and has no idea what he is talking about. At least that was how I experienced it. The other guests may seem a little cartoonish on the first look, but they do get more fleshed out. Duke seems like a pretty big idiot until you learn that he knew Miles was sleeping with his girlfriend Whiskey and used her to get what he wanted from Miles. Whiskey seems like a naïve gold digger, but actually has a plan for her future and starts to realize what a bad influence Duke and his friends are. Birdy is the first one to own up to her mistakes und bring Miles to justice, even if it destroys her career. This movie was a joy for me as someone who loves murder mysteries like The Last of Sheila or Evil under the sun, the latter one having a specific acoustic signal which was obviously referenced here. There are so many clues and red herrings that it is impossible upon the first viewing to know which ones will come into play but if you know the solution, they feel almost obvious. Especially as someone whose mother tongue is not English, I did not even question Miles' made up words and just ticked it off at some fancy words I didn't know.
I could go on about all the little details and smart directing decisions, but I'm going to leave it at that. I'm only wondering why people are so angry about all the cameos, asking why they were included. I mean.. why not? Anyways, great movie, will definitely watch again and hope for more disruptive movies like that ;)
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (2018)
Why is it so hard?
I'm not a regular player. And I'm not a good player. Therefore I decided to play this on easy. I also set the scaling system for enemies on easy, which supposedly scales enemy levels up to four levels below mine (didn't work apparently, never fought a single enemy below my own level). This game is incredible hard even on these settings. I refuse to go for that in game purchase nonsense to buy better weapons or other perks. A game should work without that.
It is ridiculous how hard it is to defeat even a single enemy at the same level as yourself if you don't have the very best weapon and/or engravings on your weapon and armor. Sometimes in order to kill a captain I have to first shoot him with an arrow (already enhanced with ability points) to inflict some damage, then wait until they forget about me, then assassinate him from behind and after that he still has health left so I finish him in close combat.
I catch myself constantly trying to outsmart the game by attacking an enemy, then diving in the water like two meters away from him until he loses sight of me, then attack again and so forth. Almost all of my so called sneak attacks on a fort of otherwise defended area consist of me killing all of the weaker enemies first in order to deal with the assassination-resisant stronger enemies alone. Is this how the developers envisioned the game would be played? By relying on the idiocy of the AI and completely unrealistic scenarios in which a guy constantly attacks and leaves a camp and all the soldiers are like: "oh well, half my companions are dead, better get on with my work until this guy returns and kills me too"?
One of the very first missions is to kill the Cyclops, which not only is poorly designed, because a cutscene triggers automatically when you get close to the target and you have to watch it all over again if you die, I also had to flee the following battle like three times to recharge my health because I had to fight the Cyclops and three or four other captains who all attacked at the same time while simultaneously raining fire arrows down onto me from all sides. What kind of introduction into a game is that?
And those annoying mercenaries always just conveniently spawning right where I try to destroy an enemy's camp! Sometimes I don't even understand why they appear?! For example I fought a mercenary in a cave, no civilians around to report on my crimes and already struggling to kill him because he had a lion with him, when suddenly my wanted status goes up to two mercenaries and he spawns right next to us, killing me in seconds.
This game has a lot of good things, but unfortunately it is completely impossible to play it if you are not willing to invest hundreds of hours into finding out the perfect build for your armor and weapons. Also you probably have to play it constantly as to not unlearn how to fight the enemies which you also have to to perfectly in order to survive.
I simply do not have to time to spare, I just wanted to play a bigger and better version of the first AC games, but apparently now it's just for pro gamers..
Invincible: You Look Kinda Dead (2021)
What happened?
First of all: The thing most reviewers seem to have a problem have doesn't bother me as much. I still like Amber as a character, although she isn't too flashed out. But this story has just sooo many far fetched or unbelievable plot points.
Let's star with a minor one: Debbie is suspicious of her husband. She may even be sure he killed the other super heroes. And their blood on his costume is as good as proof. But why is the fact that the blood on his fist is older than the rest proof anything? We know he is almost invincible, so he could easily have been hit first, without bleeding and then punched someone else.. Again, Debbie is suspicious already, so it wouldn't take much to convince her, but why did it have to be such a ambiguous piece of evidence?
Amber being THIS angry at Mark for doing a reasonable thing (calling the police) is kind of annoying. But ultimately I see her point, since he hasn't been honest with her so far and she, for good reason, knows this. Still, it feels like the writers wanted her to be angry with him more for plot convenience.
The reveal that William and Rick felt strange.. William was talking about Rick as if they had barely ever seen each other before and both acted as if nothing happened between them yet.
D. A. Sinclair was the most ridiculously over the top one-dimensional bad guy I have seen in a while. It also is a ridiculously big coincidence he happened to be at the same university that Mark visited, only overshadowed by the even bigger coincidence of Doug escaping at exactly this time.
Mark being completely ignorant about Rick being kidnapped and almost hanging up on William even though he was obviously terrified is simply out of character.
But undoubtably the worst thing is William going in the sewer. WRITERS: PLEASE STOP DOING THIS! Everyone hates it! This made me so mad I had to write in caps lock. No one in their right mind would do this! No matter how desperate you are and how much you fear for the lives of your loved ones, it doesn't mean you shut down any brain function..
Apart from that, it was an okay episode. There was really nothing great to balance out these flaws, therefore my relatively low rating.
Sex Education: Episode 8 (2020)
Making it a bit easy for themselves
I love the show and am still a big fan after this episode. But I think the writers took a shortcut here. I'm talking about Isaac preventing Maeve from hearing Otis voicemail. There are just too many coincidences coming together: Maeve not checking her phone for a few hours, then leaving her phone in the caravan, Otis coming right when she is leaving without either of them seeing each other, Otis telling Isaac about the voicemail, AND most annoyingly in a series about teenagers: Maeves phone being unlocked. Who doesn't have a password for their phone anymore?
Also: why couldn't Isaac play fair? He was very straightforward about his feelings for Maeve and he would make for a much better advesary for Otis if he stayed honest with Maeve.