Change Your Image
sunnygrump
Reviews
The Good Doctor: Measure of Intelligence (2021)
Not happy either with the new boss
I agree with the other comments here about Salen.
She's manipulative, invasive, and a micro-manager, and she's everything I personally loathe in managers and in management.
The only reason I'm persevering with this season is that I see these episodes as addressing a sadly all-too-common scenario, in which the expertise, commitment, and passion of the staff get pitted against the cost-cutting, rarefied, outsider-like influence of administrators.
It's a commentary on for-profit healthcare (which is strange for me as a non-American, but obviously relevant here, as it's a US series), how financial interests conflict with patient interests, and how the people at the heart of hospital work manage to deliver patient care despite being hamstrung by bureaucrats.
On a character level, it's also about how those with ASD deal with such top-down changes-changes that neurotypicals take in their stride without a second thought.
As the new boss declared she had ADHD when we first were introduced to her a couple episodes ago, it isn't a spoiler to mention it here. Depending on how these episodes play out, it could also (hopefully) be a constructive portrayal of how people with ADHD and those of us with ASD interact.
Being autistic, I know from experience that contact with ADHDers is often more unpleasant than with neurotypicals. But once lines of communication are established and we're each aware of the other's neurodivergence, there's definitely room for agreement and cooperation. Maybe even for solidarity.
The OA (2016)
Okay I'm impressed
For most of Season 1, I enjoyed the story even though I felt it lagged, at times. It was still interesting enough - and weird enough - that it kept my attention, and the characters were sufficiently well fleshed out for me to have an emotional stake in them.
About that weirdness: it's been refreshing to have something science-fictiony but fairly original, even though it references and acknowledges debts to various imageries and concepts. In Season 2, Lovecraftian horror makes a memorable cameo, and the hagiographical overlay and narrative tension barely conceal the basic sexual and physiological symbolism of "the house". A "tunnel the size of a coffin" and a "curved, double-sided staircase"? In my book, that's a uterus. They even colour them dark red, to make it more obvious, and make the house a place of (re-)birth, an incubator, of sorts.
A very worthy follow-on to Season 1, and I'm definitely looking forward to a third season.
October Faction (2020)
Nice idea, poor execution
I saw that this was based on a comic book series, and those are often tough to adapt to the screen. For the two big names from the Marvel and DC universes, I can think of maybe a dozen that died an ignoble death, once turned into films or series.
Still, the premise was all right: a slightly fresher twist on a wholly unoriginal, supernatural monster romp. I don't know if the themes in the series are faithful to those in the comic, or if they were glued on by the directors, but I enjoyed the slightly corny but obvious message of working towards inclusion among different groups and demographics (ethnic, religious, and sexual orientation being the major ones, and isolation and loneliness--and on the flip side, outreach--being some of the secondary ones).
The problem is with how it was done. I assume this is written for an adolescent market, so expectations should be adjusted accordingly. Still, there's no escaping the fact that the acting (with only a couple of exceptions, among the "Warlocks") was utterly appalling. It is all but impossible to care much about any of the main characters, and it is not some Brechtian alienation technique: we should be able to invest in our protagonists, but they are so flat and in some respects occasionally so irritating that you end up just not being bothered.
Contrary to the lack of character development, just enough happens in the plot to keep you watching until the end of Season One (barely), but after that, interest definitely dies off, and it shouldn't be surprising that this didn't go on for a second season.
The only reasonably fleshed-out character was one of the protagonists' love interests; and even he wasn't that exciting.
I'm not totally disappointed that I watched this, as I had no real expectations. But it's definitely not on any of my recommended lists.
Van Helsing: Christ Pose (2018)
Another one you can give a miss
Not quite as mind-numbing as the one where Vanessa is stuck on a meat-hook, but I could've done without the evangelical rubbish. I disagree with other comments that this episode is religious propaganda, though.
Yes, both Axel and Flesh/Phil have their respective "Lazarus" moments, but even this is inelegant, because it's not clear why Phil should heal up nicely, while Axel should be at death's door, given that they were both reclaimed by Vanessa.
To me, the religious message here (if indeed there is one) is that there is no "God": there's only the will to survive, and damned good luck...but that doesn't mean you can't also have a little faith along the way, if it makes you feel better.
Still, this is only 4 stars, because it did precisely nothing to advance the story or the characters, unless it's to emphasise Scarlett as the lighter counterpart to Vanessa's darkness. Which we already know.