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tamra
Reviews
American Horror Stories: Drive (2022)
Weak writing, flat rote exposition, and a twist you see from a mile away.
Not up to the quality you expect from AHS in any way. The dialogue was particularly bad and the delivery worse. The premise has been done and nothing clever was added to make this worthwhile.
Batwoman (2019)
Terrible writing and some very bad casting (and I don't mean Ruby)
I actually think Ruby Rose is fine in this. She is athletic, looks great in the suit and she's a competent actor. But the scripts are awful and some characters are impossible to buy: specifically the stepsister who is supposed to be a doctor but is not remotely convincing. Maybe not her fault, just bad casting. The scripts are extremely repetitive and often play like after school specials (for tjose old enough to remember them). The choice to make batwoman a lesbian is fine but they grind that plotline into the ground and seem to assume that 90% of Gotham is anti lesbian to boot. What year is this set in? Honestly I think it is a terrible insult to lesbians because the writers treat it like it is the only important facet of her being. Even the action scenes fail because they aren't remotely plausible: The stopping of the train in one of the later episodes is ludicrous on at least three levels. The sets and the bat suit all look good: this is 100% a writing issue. why oh why did they not keep swamp thing. It was great.
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector (2020)
Very rough start but improving steadily
Slight spoilers.
UPDATE: As of episode 7, the series is improving steadily and I am now enjoying it. The writers have corrected some of the problems. They are no longer spoon feeding the audience, and the actors seem more comfortable in their roles. Time will tell if the very rough start doomed this one.
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ORIGINAL REVIEW
I don't care if this faithfully follows the books or the films. The issue is that the writers of this adaptation have a very poor opinion of their audience. In episode 2 Rhyme mentions saltpeter and a colleague asks, "salt what?" Rhyme is then obliged state the name of the well-known substance a second time and then to explain what it is. When a social media-obsessed girl's murder is linked to Narcissus most viewers would get the connection right away, but just to be sure Rhyme quickly explains the Narcissus myth. At this point pretty much anyone would be on board, yet a few moments later, the writers feel it necessary to have our apparently clueless heroine ask "so the victim was killed for posting selfies and that makes her Narcissus?" to which Rhyme sagely explains, "Narcissistic. Self absorbed." Rhyme even has to explain that a painting of Narcissus with an X through it indicates that the victim has been killed. Rhyme is supposed to be a genius, but a child could follow the killer's clues.
These are just two examples but the script is laden with exposition to spoon feed the audience what should be bleeding obvious. The Lincoln Rhyme movies were OK because they gave the viewer an opportunity to think but this show is so dumbed down that I can't decide if it's more boring or insulting. Either way, it lost my interest almost immediately. Intelligent writing would make this worthwhile.
Fear Itself: In Sickness and in Health (2008)
Twist is telegraphed far too early
SPOILER: I was very disappointed with this entry. The "twist" is telegraphed within the first five minutes. It was so obvious that I thought the writer did it on purpose to make the viewer feel like they knew the secret, in preparation for another twist later on.
No such luck. The whole thing is laid out with some very obvious, overworked and clumsy dialogue in the first five minutes, as well as a note with wording that is just too obviously ambiguous: if it had been reworded to simply say "You are marrying a...." it would have worked so much better. The awkward and unlikely use of the phrase "the person you are marrying" is just to clumsy to not stand out and immediately reveal to the viewer that the note has been misdirected. The rest of the story unfolds just how you expect it with no extra twist at the end to make this worth the time.
There is, however, about 20 minutes of strained overacting on the part of the groom, who was clearly instructed to act strange and menacing in an attempt to throw the audience off (which may have worked if we didn't already KNOW that he's not the one we need to be worried about). The problem is not with his acting, but with the weird behaviour of the character which never really makes sense in the end. The episode is also marred by a weird set of characters in the groom's twin uncles who act mysterious, suggest a dark past, and drop bits of suggestive information about the groom in a further ineffective attempt at misdirection. These characters never bring a payoff and add nothing to the story, though the performance is sound.
Misdirection is only effective if the audience does not KNOW ahead of time that it's misdirection! When you do know, it's just irritating.
I like the work of John Landis, and loved the first Jeepers Creepers, but this is hands down the most blatantly telegraphed I've seen in years.