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Hope Street (2020)
Soap
This is a soap opera masquerading as a crime show. It isn't awful, but I hate the soapy stuff. The characters are interesting, varied, and numerous, which works, although it's another similarity with daytime dramas.
I am always looking for good police dramas, especially British. Also, I like them to have a story arc and a discernable overall personality.
The episodic crime investigations deserve more attention than the antics of the characters' personal lives. When the antics are increasingly unbelievable and the enmeshments multiply, it looks more and more like a soap and less like a crime drama.
Doubtless some people like the soapy nature of this show, it isn't what I was looking for.
How to Get Away with Murder (2014)
Only One Reason to Watch
Viola Davis!
She is always mesmerizing. Put her in a plot and even something this unbelievable and repugnant becomes watchable.
I've only watched one season and I'm still trying to decide if I'll continue.
Annalise Keating (played by Davis), is a law professor and a defense attorney. She employs five of her students in her practice and uses them and their ideas to win her cases.
They research law and facts, but mostly they cheat and use people. Their professor sanctions it.
It's even worse than that. Professor Keating reminds me of a cult leader and her students are her minions. It's frightening the level of emotional control she exerts on all of her students that are also employees.
I can't suspend my dsbelief. I tried. The main thing that sticks in my craw is the utterly.faithful adherance to the new standard plot formula. It only has rule from which all elements descend.
Don't let any main character have any redeeming qualities.
Make us hate or be disappointed in everyone. Make them get worse and worse as the arc progresses. Give us an occasional break so that we can try to forgive them but at the end of the day, they all belong in jail.
One more thing. I don't mind flashbacks, even a lot of them, but when you can't tell that something is a flashback, it just makes it confusin.
The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)
Classic
I saw it in a theater when it was first released. It's low budget, but scary, amusing, campy, entertaining, creepy, thought-provoking, influenilovetial, and a classic.
I love the light-hearted music mixed inwith the terror. Some obscure teenager got immortalized with a song about his back woods skills in the song about him that starts, "Hey Travis Crabtree. " it sticks in your head.
I get a hankering to see this film now and then.
The Expanse (2015)
No Right to Complain
I don't deserve to do a full review. I've tried watching the first episode three times and dozed off every time. Don't take my word for it. I like my sleep, but my writing teachers always told me to grab readers in the opening sense. I abandoned this series because I was ungrabbed.
The Surface (2015)
Enjoyed It
Fulfilled the old show biz adage often attributed to PT Barnum:
Always leave them wanting more.
The Day (2011)
Put It Permanently on Your Watchlist
I regret watching it to the end, kept hoping something would make me like it better. I specifically was looking for a post- apocalyptic film. It was certainly that, but merely that. Nothing special about it.
I like good movies about what happens to mankind after a global disaster and this wasn't one of them. I didn't mind that they never explained what happened to make this mise en scène. I do expect some of the mystery to be solved, if only to let me know what the survivors can expect. Otherwise, it seems pointless.
I'll interject right here that Dominic Monaghan has a pretty good American accent, but I wish he had stuck with his English accent. Many films don't bother to explain how a Brit gets mixed up with a bunch of Yanks. It isn't necessary.
Being careful to not provide any spoilers, I'll admit that I'm not a fan of explicit gory killings on film. I don't care to see spurting blood, and as with many other aspects of any film, please let my imagination do some of the work.
Many plots lose me when characters do things that don't make sense and aren't ever explained. It makes me think that the filmmakers are just amusing themselves.at my expense. Some behavior is explained but it feels like they just wanted to splash some dark and gore onto the screen and worked a plot around it.
Stargate Universe (2009)
Relieved
I have really enjoyed all of the Stargate series, but I've never liked the aspect that existed with SG1 and Atlantis of the wisecracking team leader. It was just too corny.
I like the moodiness of SGU. I haven't seen much of it yet, and I hope it finds some kind of humor, but I'm relieved that I don't have to roll my eyes every few minutes.
Nightfall (1988)
The New Worst
Everyone always said that Plan 9 From Outer Space was the worst film ever made. I used to believe it. Now I know that Nightfall is the worst film ever made.