moeburn Reviews

The Gentlemen (2024)

Pulp Fiction 2.0

[8/10 · 15 May 2024]

A bunch of extremely attractive people who aren't necessarily the best actors, but who are extremely well-directed in an extremely entertaining and well written TV series.

Special shout out to Daniel Ings and Michael Vu. I am always entertained when Vu is on screen, and I am a little bit concerned for Ings because I am not 100% sure he is merely acting.

But the two main pretty boy/girl are a tad wooden and one-dimensional. Theo James and Kaya Scodelario's job appear to be to stand there and deliver their lines while looking beautiful, and occasionally smirk. Which is a bit of a shame because I came into this as a big fan of Scodelario from Skins and I'm pretty sure she has more range than what is being shown here. It almost seems like the director is playing dressup with her, putting her in a new costume in EVERY. SINGLE. SCENE. To distract us from the fact that she doesn't bring anything else new or interesting to the table from one scene to the next.

But I'm not entirely convinced these acting flaws are actually acting, or the way their characters are written/directed. Either way, you'd only have to be REALLY looking to notice them like I am, because otherwise the show is incredibly entertaining, lots of cool effects like drawings on the screen, interesting directing choices.

And plots, settings, a storytelling-style and gratuitous violence reminiscent of Pulp Fiction.

If you like anything else rated 8/10 on IMDB you'll love this.

Masters of the Air (2024)

This is Pearl Harbor, but again.

[4/10 · 20 February 2024]

I don't understand. Band of Brothers, and its successor The Pacific, were both masterful exercises in historical drama, storytelling, action and excitement. Characters that you grew to know and love and become invested in.

I can't even name half the characters in this show. One minute they're portrayed like the biggest faces of the show, next minute they're dead. It's worse than Game of Thrones the way every main character keeps dying. Where do they find all the actors?

There have been so many opportunities for exciting, immersive realism that have been instead traded for cheap, lowest-common-denominator hacky hollywood baloney. It's like there's a director at the top of this whole production screaming at everyone to dumb everything down.

The action scenes are fun. I like watching Apple's massive budget pay for epic aerial battles and flight scenes. Although even they are becoming repetitive, as there is only so much a bomber crew can do but just sit there, get shot at, and shoot back.

Everything else on the ground is a chore in Hollywood tropes and corny writing. It didn't have to be, they could have told original stories or done something new.

Instead just picture Pearl Harbor, by Michael Bay. A film with really cool, albeit unrealistic, action scenes, coupled with incredibly corny Hollywood-dumb plots on the ground. It's basically that all over again.

Disenchantment (2018–2023)

One of the most underrated shows I've ever seen

[8/10 · 10 September 2023]

I was genuinely surprised by the low rating of this show. Normally I either agree with IMDB, or it's an overhyped mega-IP that has too many fans. I've never seen a show rated so far below what I thought it deserved.

Is it the lack of comedy? This show is much more "light hearted plot" ala Adventure Time, not so much a series of laugh out loud jokes like The Simpsons or Futurama.

The art and set design is a visual treat. The voice acting is excellent, especially now that I have a frame of reference for bad voice acting, like the rebooted cartoons from the 90's using their same voice actors that are coming out these days.

Maybe the writing isn't perfect. As I said before, there aren't a lot of laugh out loud jokes (although that's getting better each season), and sometimes the plot doesn't really matter.

One thing is for sure though, this latest season is the best. I've never laughed so hard at this show as I did at Dagmar's battering phallus.

Silo (2023– )

Plato's Cave Allegory, but more literally

[7/10 · 17 June 2023]

You loved The Matrix and The Truman Show, but what if we took Plato's Allegory of the Cave a little more literally?

That's it. That's Silo. It is a very solid 7. Nothing is mindblowingly good, but nothing is so bad that I give up on the show. It is positively adequate.

There is nothing wrong with the performance by Rebecca Ferguson. She has broad range, her character is slowly opening up from shy and introverted into assertive and demanding. There's just nothing amazing about it either, yet, anyway.

The best performance IMO is coming from Common. His character, Robert Sims, is starting to seriously scare the crap out of me, in a "I forgot I was watching a TV show" kind of way. That is one creepy dude.

And David Oyelowo is doing a great job of Sheriff Holston, a "boy scout" type character who is deeply committed to The Silo without necessarily knowing all of its darker secrets. He is a refreshing contrast from Sims.

Everyone else ranges from decent to adequate. Maybe Harriet Walker deserves a special mention, although that might just be great character design.

I keep watching every episode, because every previous one is ending on a cliffhanger. And I want to know if the Silo's inhabitants ever finally find out its dark secrets. Or if they find out what's going on outside the silo. But that's really all that's holding me here, is the mystery, the cliffhangers, and the not bad acting/writing. This is not Severance. It is leaning heavily on its Lost-style mystery, the only difference is unlike Lost, this is based on a book with actual answers and a plan.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022– )

Every scene with Ethan Peck is a 10/10

[8/10 · 15 June 2023]

The cast are all very good at what they do, but nobody is as good as Ethan Peck, who plays Spock. I think when they asked him to play this role, he must have thought "Aha, I can finally just be myself!" because he does not appear to be acting. He's just Spock. It all appears to come so naturally to him, and any scene with him in it is a delight to watch that has me grinning ear to ear.

The show has a weird mix of high fidelity expensive CGI graphics, with old filming techniques and camera tricks from the 90's. Things like using strobe lighting for fight scenes, zooming in close to obscure the action, actors taking bad dives... it's all so weirdly in contrast with how high budget the show clearly is. I think they are doing it on purpose, for nostalgia camp. It's great, but I hope they know they don't need to.

This show's cast, writers and director are good enough that they can stop harkening back to old Star Trek nostalgia. They can stake out their own new thing now. It doesn't have to be like old Star Trek, they're good enough that I know whatever new ideas they have will be entertaining and fun to watch.

Clone High (2023– )

I thought it was great until episode 5

[6/10 · 10 June 2023]

I'm surprised at how low rated the first episode is, that was my favourite one. Lots of great writing, great jokes, I was smiling ear to ear. Sure not everything is the same - Ghandi is missing, and Cleopatra was recast for some reason. But there were lots of interesting new characters, and they were exploring modern themes with a 2003 lens.

And then I guess they ran out of ideas and went back to the old "haha white people are so dumb and ignorant" barrel, and well, it's getting old. At best it's lazy and unfunny, and at worst it's hurtful and leads to real life bullying. It's a shame because I was really liking the show until then.