sunnycvil Reviews

Inhumans (2017)

Not horrible, but not good. Like at all.

[6/10 · 18 October 2017]

****Review is 6/10 instead of 4/10 to try and counteract all the people who don't understand how an Out of 10 rating scale works.****

I've watched through the first 3 episodes on Hulu just because all these 1 - 2 star reviews intrigued me. "It can't be that bad." I said to myself, promptly opening up Hulu.

The reviews weren't wrong, but they weren't right either. Yes, the writing was bland and the characters were never established and somehow, across each episode, the fight choreography remained consistently boring (It certainly doesn't help that the characters do basically nothing to make you care about them, especially since they were never established yet the writers still expect you to give a sh*t), but the show had its moments. Also, side note, aren't the Inhumans's powers supposed to be so strong that people fear and hate them? So far all we've seen from the Inhumans (besides Black Bolt) are: Medusa who can't even use her powers because someone in the writing room thought it was a good idea to strip a character of their trademark (her hair) on the first episode, the chick who "died" (Spoiler? It didn't matter anyway so whatever) who can fight good(?) and heal I guess, pathetic mouth poison guy, Asian guy version of Max Caulfield from Life is Strange, Gorgan? Gorgon? who can... stomp, oh oh and, wait for it, the girl who can make plants move slightly. (I guess finger- gun chick is something, but she's only used her finger-gun once and all it destroyed was a plate of food). This show isn't *as* bad as the low reviews on IMDb make it out to be as it sometimes has its funny moments or moments of legitimate intrigue, but so far the whole has been pretty boring. Has so much potential to be a really good show, but the bad writing, **some** of the acting, and the awful fight choreography are really holding it back. The writers are either too inexperienced or too incompetent to use the (admittedly very interesting) source material to its fullest extent, and that's a damn shame.

Seeing Hawaii is nice, at least. 4/10.

Haters Back Off! (2016–2017)

It's a Drama

[5/10 · 22 October 2016]

"Haters Back Off" isn't amazing, but it isn't horrible either. The acting is really well done and the camera-work keeps you interested, but the show suffers from a lack of purpose or identity. It's labeled on Netflix as a TV Comedy; and, while I admit that there were some parts that gave me a good chuckle (the gay bar scene was gold), I found myself feeling awful or disgusted or pity more than I was laughing. The show feels like a drama, but it feels like a drama that doesn't want to be a drama. Miranda Sings isn't the kind of whoopsie-daisy-I-done-a- bad kind of lovable idiot, but instead is very aware of how she's hurting people which it makes it very uncomfortable to laugh at some of her antics. She ruins the lives of everyone around her and proceeds to push away the only people who could stand to tolerate her behavior. The only semblance of humanity can be found in the characters of Emily, Patrick, and Bethany (at the end of the season to an extent). It's depressing. I felt horrible watching the family rip into poor Emily who doesn't do anything to deserve it. I felt horrible watching Miranda and Uncle Jim team up to bully people. I felt horrible watching the funeral scene. I felt horrible knowing all these people were not only enabling Miranda when she is clearly someone who needs a lot of psychological help, but also abusing her detachment from reality for personal gain (I'm looking at you Uncle Jim and Owen). Yes, a comedy is always welcome to heartfelt episodes that tackle serious subjects every now and then as long as in the end the show is still funny. Sadly, "Haters Back Off" lacks a balance between its serious aspects and its comedy aspects, and that results in a very off-putting viewing experience. You are left to squirm in your seat as you are unsure whether you should laugh at certain scenes, or just feel bad watching them. As another reviewer stated, I too would much rather enjoy a full-blown drama with comedic elements with the exact same cast and story.