joemacd61 Reviews

Sucker Free City (2004 TV Movie)

Why watch an unfinished movie?

[6/10 · 18 January 2007]

I went into this movie assuming it was going to be a series.

You know the "pilot" feeling? We get to meet and know something about the main characters, how they got to where they are now, and have some ideas about what's going to unfold during the first season of the show.

It was good, almost very good. But I also knew they were holding back some stuff because it was going to be a series. If it was a movie, I would have felt differently because then I would have thought: "Hey, I see where you are going, why hold back?"

So, while I definitely felt a bit cheated by the ending, I was already cutting it some slack, because it was setting up nicely for an interesting series. I was anticipating some of the topics that were going to be brought up during the show. Lots of potential.

In fact, when I watched it, I was assuming that the next episode was going to appear the following week, and started messing with my TiVo to get a Season Pass set up.

But it wasn't available yet. So I decided to wait a few months for the pilot to get picked up, which never happened. After a while, I forgot about it.

It's not until today, when I saw the listing here, that I remembered how I felt about the show.

Frankly, my opinion now is: Don't watch it! Why put yourself through a couple hours of "pretty good" entertainment, with plenty of intentional plot holes and missed opportunities?

It's a true shame they never followed up on this.

Monk (2002–2009)

Monk is losing steam, hopefully it'll turn around

[11 July 2004]

The Blackout episode was a little better than the rest of this season's fare, but I can't help but notice something that's creeping into this season's episodes...

The fact that Monk's "revelations" have little to do with actual clues.

Too often lately, when Monk sums up the facts, they are little more than a couple of coincidences, and I'm left thinking - if I was the perpetrator here, I'd be laughing my ass off on the way to sue the SFPD for harassment.

The episode with his brother - aside from being funny - was hilariously badly plotted.

Who cares if somebody finds a shell-casing in the pie?!? Other than a momentary embarrassment, it doesn't prove a thing, and it certainly isn't worth murdering an innocent woman over?

And really, in the Blackout episode, do we really expect a experienced terrorist who can fake his own death to be that rattled over a TV show? What's he gonna do? Cause a blackout in every city? Is he only known in SF? C'mon!

All in all however...

Still funny. Starting to get a bit too sentimental, but still funny. So, let's hope we get back to some better plots and the show will get back on track.