gmoujik Reviews

The Curse (2023– )

Contrived, uneven and uncaring.

[1/10 · 6 April 2024]

I know lots of 'comedy' has self-inflicted pain. But there is no attempt to weave it in naturally in this series. None of the reoccurring characters are likeable, apart from Emma's who also becomes less convincing with each episode.

Immediately you realize that Asher could only get to be on the show if he was the producer of the show. Sad story..

Lots of undeveloped themes.. this series like a tourist trap.. they don't care to get you anywhere and they know that you don't know it yet.. So they can string you along, and just give you a stupid drawn out figurative joke at the end. A joke that lasts 15min! And here's the spoiler the joke is a some man's fear of the birth.. it loses its 'potency' after 20 sec.

So you think you're watching a 6, but finale reveals that it's been a 1 :)

Lessons learned: avoid Nathan Fielder, Emma's no good at slapstick.

After Life: Episode #3.6 (2022) Season 3, Episode 6

No one interfered

[1/10 · 30 January 2022]

"When the whistle blows" was bad because "too many people interfered". This seems to be the opposite, but with the same result.

They allowed Ricky to wallow around the town, seeing himself as Jesus, a patronizing one, amazed by his own grace and.. no one interfered.

Derek wasn't good, but this is worse. I heard an interview and judging by Ricky's defensiveness he is going for "village people".. the catch phrases, the wig..

This Time with Alan Partridge (2019–2021)

We mustn't

[8/10 · 1 March 2019]

It's great.. it's just Alan. If you have followed every installment including the books, you will see it as a very natural progression. The film wasn't as dense, but everything else is top comedy. Alan's character grows organically. The authors don't have to keep making new series, but when an idea comes, they work it into his biography very convincingly. It was a long wait (expected last autumn), so expectations were higher than for previous parts, which seem to have just popped up. The first episode wasn't perfect in terms of bits' lengths, but maybe it will make more dynamic sense in the series as a whole. It also ended with the weakest bit. But I can't imagine anyone who will not wanna see the next one.

Sick of It (2018–2020)

Missed opportunity

[5/10 · 14 October 2018]

Karl is an amazing world. What the creators of the show selected from it is vomiting, farting and defecating. Really?! Is that the best you could come up with? Film Karl for 23 min non-stop and I'm sure it'll be better. But it gets worse.. They use the same old comedy trick to continue letting ridiculous things happen to you ad absurdum. So the show gets quite predictable, which is not a good sign for a humour show. The Polish girl scene was just so painfully hollywood level stereotypical. What's the point of taking Karl and churn out unoriginal tripe? Obvious parallels to "When the whistle blows" in "Extras".. too many people interfered. I'm annoyed and I'm sure Karl himself would've switched the channel as soon as the character agreed to help carrying the sofa..It proves again that comedy is not that easy

True Detective: The Western Book of the Dead (2015) Season 2, Episode 1

Wannabe directing

[1/10 · 3 July 2015]

it was poor, very poor. There's standard directing, there's brilliant directing and there's make believe directing. The first episode falls under the latter category. You see schizophrenic attempts to copy things from other shows, but they don't make sense! And it's not like you're looking for things to criticize, they throw you off when you try to get immersed time and again. The sequence of shots makes you laugh. Vince Vaughn who is a decent comic actor is trying to be passed for Michael Madsen, and it just looks stupid. I look up the director and there you go - Fast & Furious, enough said. He's directed the second episode as well, so I might pick it up from the third and see if they can salvage anything from the ruins left by Lin.

Those Who Kill (2014)

Is this a parody?

[1/10 · 7 January 2015]

Very entertaining, cause the directing is so bad, it makes you burst in uncontrollable laughter! Do you remember Kramer's pilot in Seinfeld? Well, the first episode is very similar. You can actually see the actors WAIT before every other scene. Example: Chloe is about to light a cigarette on the balcony of her flat, but she knows that the male actor in this scene should knock on the door, so she waits for extra 2 sec., then she.. oh surprise.. hears the knock, comes to the door and asks "who is it?" The tone of the answer is so hilarious, you really do think you're watching a sitcom "it's Shaefer!" (they had a falling out just before) I'm gonna look up the director now and filter out any of his future gems!

Peep Show (2003–2015)

A softer version of I'm Alan Partridge

[7/10 · 4 December 2011]

At first the show attracts by similar to "I'm Alan Partridge" humouristic moves, although you see misses here and there. After a while you start to think that the show isn't inspired by Partridge, but rather plainly steals from it. Just like South Park steals from Beavis and Butt-head, Simsons. But for people who have just seen Peep Show, the show appears very original. The weakest point is that many conflicts, which create the comedy, are not resolved but just dropped, going on to the next "situation". The characters also lack any kind of dynamism. It's still watchable, but it could have been so much better. One of the writers did go to work for/with Ianucci after Peep Show in the amazing "Thick of it"/"In da loop".

Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)

Family movie disguised as chess movie.

[2/10 · 15 November 2011]

If you're a chess player, you should know: I saw that there were some goofs regarding chess in this movie, but I didn't know that NONE OF THE CHESS RELATED SEQUENCES MADE SENSE. What's the point of making such a movie? How hard is it to get a chess adviser for the editing process. It doesn't have to be a GM. Any decent player would suffice. You could just go a block from the Washington sq. to a chess café and find someone who'd have time to help not to make this movie an embarrassment. Only good parts were documentary ones showing Bobby Fischer, and I would recommend to see "Bobby Fischer against the world" for a chess cinematic fix. Otherwise this family movie is pretty banal, and I wish, someone had written this review before I considered spending time watching this.