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Reviews
From (2022)
Slipping away
Took a solid start, and an extremely interesting premise and wasted it. Interesting main storylinr, but just keeps recycling the same reactions, character motivations and plot devices into a repetitive mess.
Some interesting occurrences. Good acting, mostly, but marred by overall poor writing, and predictable trope after predictable trope. It feels like all the characters are versions of the same person. Very one dimensional, despite the actors' best efforts.
Made it through two seasons, but probably will not entertain the third. Unless something really impactful happens to change the equation.
Convicting a Murderer (2023)
Surprisingly detailed
I am skeptical whenever Candace Owens is involved, but she is surprisingly on point in this show, and not at all over the top.
It's absolutely shocking, the liberties Making A Murderer took with the truth in the effort to make a very likely guilty man look not guilty.
The 1st 3 episodes are a bit dry and not an easy watch or listen, mainly focusing on Steven Avery's abominable past. The man is an absolute monster.
Getting past that though, the 4th episode is an absolute gut punch for anyone who bought into Making a Murderer's dishonest storylines. Undeniable proof that the show willfully added and omitted evidence to attain specific reactions from audiences. Shameful.
Convicting A Murderer hammers home point after point and provides irrefutable proof that the Making A Murderer filmmakers were actively trying to help Steven Avery by using their own words and footage, and contrasting with documents and reality. Ouch.
As the show progresses, it becomes utterly clear that Making A Murderer deliberately sidelined the truth in order to forward a biased narrative, and that the filmmakers were activists in search of a muse.
The Wheel of Time (2021)
Blood and bloody ashes. OMG...What happened?
This show is so bad. It's like a soap opera with good costumes. They put far more effort and thought into the costumes than the characters, their motivations, and their actions.
I loved the books. The show creators decided they were going to eliminate the tone, charm and gravitas of the books, and replace it all with melodrama and completely boring characters who are nothing at all like those in the book. All rushed and lacking the mythos and fully built out world of Robert Jordan. Blood and bloody ashes.
Although the diversity of the cast is welcome, it all seems so forced and overly deliberate that it loses any and all meaning. It seems formulaic and predictable. The show is basically scene after scene of virtue signaling , with a bit of channeling, an occasional fight, love scene or argument. It isn't the diversity that is bothersome so much as it is the character portrayals. A morose Mat? A melancholy Nynaeve? Egwene with zero personality?
And all rushed. Important, watershed moments for the story, simply breezed on by.
I want to love the show, and I can't. It's bad.
Echoes (2022)
Yeesh- what happened?
Started off interesting enough. But got more silly and convoluted as it progressed.. By the end it was almost entirely absurd. All the early promise was washed away.
Silly plot devices. Secondary characters serving as not even slightly camouflaged props. Main characters doing inexplicable things that served no purpose to the story or character development.
Wasted talent of Michelle Monaghan, (times two!), Tucker, and Bomer. Some interesting flashbacks and timelines were just sort of left unrealized.
It could have been a good show, and seemed on its way to being so early on. Then, for some reason, just started to go off on meaningless tangents.
Anne (2017)
A Special show with lessons for all.
Once in a while you get a show that combines great storytelling, atmosphere, acting, casting, and production value. This is one.
Superb casting, great acting, with big time emotional pay off. Watch with your children, both girls and boys. There are great lessons for both. It's a shame Netflix did so little outreach, which ultimately led to it ending. At least it was a fitting ending, and an actual ending. There wasn't that hanging feeling when a show is abruptly ended.
The showrunners should be able to get plenty more done in the future(present), and I hope to be able to watch. They have earned my admiration.
MH370: The Plane That Disappeared (2023)
Why, Netflix, why?
Extremely disappointed. Why would Netflix decide to indulge conspiracy bunk, when the actual stories have so very much more to offer? As they did with Making a Murderer, Netflix allows (maybe encourages) a piece to dismiss the actual tragic questions, and propose, forward and focus on looney conspiracy theories that don't hold up to more than basic scrutiny.
For an event that generated such worldwide concern, persistent and lengthy coverage to be reduced to a forum to propagate conspiracy theories, I am extremely disappointed.
I so very much wanted to know the details of the searches and investigation, and thought that's what we were getting. Not that maybe it was the Russians or maybe the Americans or maybe a combo of American/British/Australian/Malaysian interests maybe because there were electronics on board that maybe the chinese wanted that maybe the Americans didn't want them to have, maybe.
I wanted to learn about the discoveries and where they fit in. I would love for them to have focused on the lost souls and their families. Not reducing them to outraged victims of conspiracies gone wild.
The English (2022)
Mesmerizing, but very odd.
Brilliantly acted from top to bottom. Chaske Spencer really captured the role, Blunt was very solid. Rafe Spall. His was a real tour de force. Shockingly good. Even the smaller parts were well cast and acted. From McClintock to Thin Kelly, White Moon. Some of the cameos were cool, but cruelly short, lol.
But the efiting and pacing was, just, odd. Disjointed. Tried a bit too hard to be an avant garde western. Character motivations seemed to exist just to push the story in the directions it needed to go. At times the plot seemed too forced.
Solid tale. Viually captivating. Heartbreaking. Sweet. Stirring. Sad.
Pieces of Her (2022)
Wasted potential
Never read the book, but could see it could be interesting. Unlike the show.
Terrible writing and directing. Characters doing all sorts of silly and inexplicable things. Cheap and lazy character motivation and plot devices.
Good cast, but not a lot for them to work with.
The Wheel of Time: Leavetaking (2021)
Trying too hard in many facets of the game
As anyone who has read the books can tell you, Robert Jordan was absolutely meticulous when it came to his storytelling and his world building.
Now I understand how that might not translate to tv. In particular in a pilot episode. But damned if it didn't feel like they soiled the bed in this particular episode. Poorly sequenced, Horrible pacing. Sound effects were unimaginative. Tried too hard to fit things in, but also trying too hard to get their points across. Full of tropes, and unoriginality. Like someone who thought they were doing cutting edge, imaginative work, all the while not realizing they were making all formulaic, run of the mill choices.
The good news is that it does get better.(ep 4, wow!). The bad news is that the casting is very hit and miss. Moiraine, Logain, Nynaeve, hit. The Children of the Light were pretty well done too. Rand, the Aes Sedai,judgement reserved thus far. Everyone else, so far, miss. The Trollocs had promise, but come off as just generic, formulaic, bestial fodder. Perrin, poor Perrin. Through 4 episodes, I'm wondering why Perrin even exists in this show. I'm not sure if it is that the actor hasn't brought anything to the role, or that the show hasn't.
Either way. I am optimistic despite the stumble out of the gate. Wouldn't be the 1st show to find its voice after the 1st turn of the wheel.
Foundation (2021)
Mixed bag
I wanted to love this. I only liked it, and only kind of. Terrific mythos and overall storyline fumbled away by hokey plotlines and choices. For such a broad story, it is very much, somehow, in need of broadening of scope.
It feels as if a great backstory with unlimited potential is relegated to dall victim a corny series of not-so-interesting "coincidences".
Lee Pace is excellent as Brother Day(s). Jared Harris is always so believable.
Counterpart (2017)
High quality show
Original, insteresting concept. A smart show that doesn't mail it in or dumb itself down just for the sake of it.
Well fleshed out with important contexts provided and explored.
Well acted from a stellar all around cast. All made not 1, but 2 characters believable, and somehow grounded, in separate realities.
It's a sin this show wasn't renewed, while much of the drek lingers on tv for season after season of mediocrity and formulaic tedium. Should not have been cancelled so soon. Big mistake, and left a lot of compelling business unfinished.
Simmons, Williams, Lloyd..... everyone, honestly, really delivered.
Chapelwaite (2021)
Some good, some bad
I really wanted to like it more than I did. A classic tale. Well cast. Had good ambience. It was just ok though. Some very contradictory acts committed by certain characters. Anyone else wonder why the undead at the very end were not at all concerned about the rising sun?
Quarry (2016)
Well hidden gem
Good, solid show with a lot of potential. Excellent, excellent cast. Saturated with good actors and performances throughout. Real quality in hust about every role. Like a lot of Cinemax shows, criminally underexposed.(looking at you, Banshee.)
Disappointed that there has been no season 2.
Midnight Mass (2021)
Stick with it...what a finish
Thr beginning is a slow burn, but wow, the final 3 epsidoes are worth it.
A different sort of show, unexpected storyline. Well acted, mood setting, powerful finish.
Clickbait: The Sister (2021)
A tale of many shows
Started out very well. Interesting story. Very well acted and very well cast. Shouts to Emma, Pia, Ben, and big shouts to Roshani, Sophie and Simon.
Throughout it tried a bit too hard to be clever, and kept you playing the ...."but, wait" game. But, tried one time too many and got utterly ridiculous in the final episode. Ruined the whole show. Fun for the 1st 7 epsiodes.
Banshee (2013)
Hidden gem- lots to offer
It's a thriller. It's a mystery. It's a tragedy. It's a heist show. It's a cop show. It's a tale of revenge. It's a love story. It's all of the above. This show is the very definition of a hidden gem. Yes, it is sensational and and over the top. It is also bold, well written, multilayered, and entertaining. It has an excellent cast, and extremely well acted from top to bottom, and very, very satisfying. I highly recommend. Give this show a shot. It is one of the best kept secrets out there.
Tell Me Your Secrets (2021)
Oof-who wrote this?
Some excellent actors and performances wasted on a series of contrived coincidences and juvenile plot devices. Totally illogical and unrelatable characters their decisions make this hard to watch. That said, again, good performances by Amy B. and Lily R. I also enjoyed Hamish L.'s turn as a monster dabbling in monster hunting.
The OA (2016)
A tale of 2 seasons
1st season.... mesmerizing, enthralling, original, and unexpected.
2nd season, cumbersome and disappointing, trying to have what the 1st season had, while trying to be different. Just trying too hard.
Would welcome a 3rd season, but, really, based on that 2nd season, there is nowhere to go.
The Wilds (2020)
Interesting, Frustrating, Misleading
An interesting story, that was frustratingly and deliberately overly complicated. Misleading in that there is NO CHANCE this should be rated tv14. Not just the instances of sex and repeated instances of sexual abuse, deception,, and assault, which are real issues for teens, but the machine gun Fbombs and other assorted swears. It isn't so much an objection to their inclusion as it is the tv14 rating.
Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer (2019)
Interesting, gripping, fast paced
Crazy story. Gets a bit too gimicky, particularly with the name. For such a serious, and very sad subject, the name made it sound a bit too lighthearted. Which it most definitely is not.
Still, overall a well put together documentary. However, as usual, the victims are largely a footnote.