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agisaak
Reviews
Euphoria (2019)
Excellent potential but lacks focus.
(Review written following the airing of Season 2 Episode 5)
HBO's Euphoria had great potential, but unfortunately it doesn't quite live up to its potential.
On the one hand, the main storyline involving Rue's struggles with substance abuse and her relationship with Jules is extraordinarily well done. Zendaya (Rue) and Hunter Schafer (Jules) both give absolutely stellar performances.
Both characters have struggled, and continue to struggle with, a variety of mental health issues, and the portrayal of mental health in this series strikes me as very well done. In particular, some of Rue's descriptions of panic and anxiety attacks are among the best I've encountered, having personally dealt with these issues.
Had the series remained more focussed on this particular storyline, I likely would have given this an 8 or 9/10 rather than a 6.
Unfortunately, many of the secondary plots are far less interesting and simply distract from what I view as the central storyline.
In particular, the characters of Maddy, Kat, Nate, and (to a much lesser extent) Cassie, while well-acted all come across as fundamentally unlikable which makes it far more difficult to sympathize with their own struggles with self-destructive behaviours, which I see as the central theme of the series.
Consequently, these subplots really detract from the overall series and they are not sufficiently intertwined with Rue and Jules' story to really be necessary.
It seems like they've simply bitten off more than they can chew and attempted to pack too many distinct issues into a single series which might better have been treated separately.
I should note that I have not seen the original Israeli version and can therefore not comment on whether these themes were more successfully integrated in that version.
Midnight Mass (2021)
Starts very slow, but give it a chance
I found the first two episodes of this program to be extremely slow. These introduced the major characters, but very little else happened and I found myself on the verge of giving up on this series.
I am very glad that I did not. The final five episodes were riveting, and I'd urge anyone who is put off by the slow initial plot development to stick with this as you will be glad that you did.
I was particularly impressed with the performances by Hamish Linklater (Father Paul/Msgr. Pruitt) and Zach Gilford (Riley), though all of the central cast did well. The character of Bev Keene was sufficiently over-the-top that I have a hard time deciding whether her portrayal by Samantha Sloyan was exceptional or terrible -- it was clearly one of the two.
I also found the scoring to be excellent, particularly some of the choral pieces. I did, however, find the Neil Diamond to be a bit out of place in this series.
I found the way in which the various religious themes were dealt with to be particularly intriguing, and thought the ambiguous portrayal of the angel/demon was a nice touch.
All in all an extremely enjoyable program.
La Brea (2021)
Remarkably well-groomed castaways.
The first episode of this series was not as bad as I had expected, though I confess my expectations were not terribly high.
By the second episode, however, it had not only lived up to my expectations but had exceeded them more than I thought possible. For some strange reason, though, I have continued to watch this for much the same reason that people stop and stare at car accidents.
I have given up on pondering questions like why someone would think you can carbon date a wedding ring or, more importantly, that they actually found a lab unscrupulous enough to do so. Or how an alleged former pre-med student would be shocked to learn that heroin is a pain-killer. Or why anyone would think the hills of Los Angeles would be recognizable 10,000 years ago. Or how they would have figured out exactly when they were based on seeing a single saber-toothed cat. Or why there hasn't been at least one review complaining about this fact on the grounds that the earth was created only 6024 years ago (seriously, I thought there'd be at least one such complaint).
I now find myself marvelling at everyone's hair and clothes. After all the time spent in the past it appears that personal hygiene has obviously been a top priority for our characters, despite the fact that this aspect of their struggle has not been touched upon during the show. After all their many adventures, everyone's clothing is remarkably clean; everyone's hair remains remarkably well-coiffed; many are well-shaven; and the distant past apparently contains an endless supply of makeup.
Game of Thrones (2011)
Perfection Denied
I've noticed a lot of reviews lately which have given this series very low ratings based entirely on the final season. My rating of 8/10 is based on the series as a whole. Had my rating being based on seasons 1-6, I would have assigned this a 10/10. I should note that I have never before given anything a 10/10. I have given a rating of 9/10 only once (for del Toro's _El laberinto del fauno_).
While Game of Thrones garnered significant controversy during its run, particularly for it sexual and violent content, and while no doubt there are many for whom this series would be unappealling simply because they don't appreciate the genre, I think that even among those who disliked the show it would be difficult to dispute how strongly the show excelled in the following areas:
First, the story itself is sufficiently interesting and rich that it is difficult to imagine anyone following this series for more than a few episodes not becoming thoroughly immersed in its compelling characters, its detailed storyline, and the incredibly well-developed fictional world which it creates. We also have the rather novel approach to storytelling in which many of the most significant aspects of the plot occur *before* the story even begins.
Second, the casting is utterly phenomenal. I am hard-pressed to identify a single other film or television series in which the ratio of extraordinary performances to the size of the cast as a whole even approaches this; this is an even greater accomplishment when one considers the sheer size of the cast.
Because of the size of the cast, I won't comment on most of the performances. I will, however, briefly comment on one particular fact which illustrates the strength of their casting department, and that is their success with casting child actors who, for obvious reasons, have less experience and shorter résumés than most, making casting more difficult. Yet their success rate was phenomenal.
The younger Stark Childen (Maise Williams, Sophie Turner, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Art Parkinson) are obvious examples who have been deservedly praised for their performances, but several more minor characters deserve mention. What was arguably the most disturbing scene in the entire series would have been far less compelling were it not for Kerry Ingram's performance as Princess Shireen. And it is hard to imagine the second-most disturbing scene, of Robin Arryn making grand proclamations of making people fly interspersed with suckling on his mother's teat, without Lino Facioli. And, of course, Bella Ramsey's performance as Lyanna Mormant is simply brilliant.
Third, this series presents some of the most compelling character development arcs that I can recall in television. Both Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Sansa (Sophie Turner) have received a great deal of attention here (though season eight sort of destroyed the Jaime-arc), but also worth mentioning here is Rory McCann's performance as the Hound.
Fourth, both the cinematography and Ramin Djawadi's scoring are absolutely beautiful and combine perfectly with all of the above to create what could have been a near-perfect series were it not for a somewhat disappointing 7th season and an absolutely dismal 8th season?
So what exactly went wrong?
Many other reviews seem to think that things went south after the show passed George R.R. Martin's source material at which point the writing started to fall apart. I don't believe this. The showrunner's had access to a detailed outline of where the story was going, and even before they caught up the books, they were never slavishly following the books.
It seems to me that something external happened which essentially forced them to finish up the series in far fewer episodes than had originally been intended. Hence, while we saw compelling character development in previous seasons, we see Daenerys transform into the Mad Queen over the course of a single episode (sure, there had been much foreshadowing, but one episode?). We see entire, rather significant, storylines suddenly dropping off the face of Westeros altogether (e.g. following the demise of the Night King we basically forget that the White Walkers and the Army of the Dead even existed). And we see a show that gained much of it's draw from its 'slow-burn' pacing suddenly trying to wrap things up as if it were some sort of action show.
It's possible that HBO put their foot down and said "you get six more episode", but that seems rather unlikely. Sure, the show was expensive, but I have a hard time believing that they were losing money on it.
That leaves some sort of logistical issue. Possibly they were unable to renew access to critical filming locations and didn't have the budget to create new sets elsewhere.
Alternately, there may have been issues with cast members who were unwilling or unable to commit to more than some small number of additional episodes. While a few roles had been recast over the course of the series, these were either relatively minor roles (e.g. Princess Myrcella), characters recast shortly after their introduction (Daario Naharis), or characters who had few lines and nearly always wore helmets with faceplates (the Mountain). But recasting any of the major characters this late in the game would simply not have been feasible).
Another possibility was that the cast were simply unavailable at the same times. In previous seasons, characters had been scattered across different locales on two continents. Now they were suddenly all appearing on screen together. Combine that with the fact that many of the actors who had once been unknown or little known were now in high demand thanks to the success of GoT, and you end up with a logistical nightmare.
I just hope that someone with some behind-the-scenes knowledge will eventually come forward with the story.
Britannia (2017)
A ridiculous series with a few brilliant characters
As has been pointed out ad nauseam, this show is, from an historical standpoint, an utter mess. Though in its defence, it does warn you of this from the very outset: when it proclaims that Caesar fled from Britain in terror that should be enough to clue in anyone that historical accuracy is not a major goal here. It's not a goal at all. Any show set in the First Century A.D. and produced in 2019 which uses a title sequence which screams 'Welcome to 1968!' is clearly one which thoroughly embraces anachronism. So no one should be bothered by druidic runes or First Century Celtic queens suddenly speaking in French.
I've found the entire plot to be increasingly incomprehensible as it shifts its focus from what I'd assumed to be the rise of Boudicca to the conflict between fictional brothers Verrin and Hakka (or however these are supposed to be spelled) and the for-some-reason-in-Celtic-Kent Spear of Destiny.
Despite these objections I've managed to get through two entire seasons for basically one reason: All of the sequences involving Nikolaj Lie Kass (Divas/Pwykka) and Eleanor Worthington Cox (Cait/Nameless Girl/Boudicca) have been utterly brilliant. The chemistry between these two actors is absolutely great and I can't give up on the show despite its flaws lest I should miss the remainder of their storyline which never fails to be thoroughly entertaining.
Thus I will await season three with great anticipation despite having lost virtually all interest in any of the other storylines.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Brilliant characters, brilliant dialogue.
The plot of this film was utterly ridiculous.
If it had a point, I must confess I missed it.
But more importantly, NONE OF THAT MATTERS. This is the film that brought us Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa, who will no doubt go down as the best film-Nazi of all time. This character alone should be sufficient to forgive any and all shortcomings.
But, having redeemed itself with Waltz, they also give us Mélanie Laurent's marvellous performance as Shoshanna-Emmanuelle, Diane Kuger's performance as Bridget von Hammersmark, along with numerous other excellent performances, such as those by Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, B.J. Novak and many others.
To top it off, we get what is arguably the best use of a David Bowie song of any film set in the 1940's.
It doesn't matter whether you like or hate the plot, just sit back and enjoy the absolutely delicious dialogue!
Best line: 'I love rumours! Facts can be so misleading.' (Christoph Waltz).
Runner up: 'Buongiorno!' (Brad Pitt)
His Dark Materials (2019)
Started off strong, but left me somewhat disappointed.
I had high hopes for this series after watching the initial few episodes, but after watching the first season I feel this could have been much better.
For the most part the acting was good. I particularly enjoyed the performances by Dafne Keen (Lyra), Lucian Msamati (John Faa), Ariyon Bakare (Charles Latrom), James Cosmo (Farder Coram) and Anne-Marie Duff (Ma Costa). I was less impressed with Ruth Wilson as Mrs. Coulter, and Ruta Gedmintas' performance as Serafina fell particularly flat.
While I found the series overall to be much better than The Golden Compass, the final three episodes were, I thought, a bit of a letdown. The main problem was the pacing: many scenes which one assumes were intended to be climactic (e.g. the battle of the bears) didn't have sufficient build-up to really achieve this effect, and the material in the final episode ended up feeling particularly rushed.
This really ought to have been done as a 10 or 12 episode season rather than an 8 parter so that much of the material could have been expanded to give it the detail that it deserved.
I'm really hoping that the next season will not be quite as rushed.
A few comments on previous reviews. First, this series was based on the novel 'Northern Lights'. So was the film 'The Golden Compass'. This series was *not* based on that film.
Second, I'm very confused as to why so many comparisons have been raised between this and Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. Apart from the fact that all three belong to the rather broad genre of 'fantasy' they have absolutely nothing in common (well, with GoT is shares the overly-rushed-at-the-end property, but that's about it).
Finally, 'demon' and 'daemon' are the exact same word, just as 'archeologist' and 'archaeologist' are the same word. They mean the same thing and are pronounced exactly the same way (a few people have brought up the Unix pronunciation. Yes, that's sometimes different, but unix people also think 'gnu' has a hard g and that 'vi' is pronounced 'six' so I wouldn't trust them where regular English is concerned).
Noah (2014)
A decent film, many of the reviews have been somewhat strange...
I just saw this film, and while I don't consider it to be one of Aranofsky's best it was certainly enjoyable. I felt the major characters were well-acted, and I think that Aranofsky's take on the moral burden placed upon Noah is in many respects more interesting than the spartan account one finds in Genesis.
In interest of full disclosure, I should point out that I am not even remotely religious, and as such am more interested in the story itself than biblical accuracy.
That being said, though, I am actually rather perplexed by the number of reviews which have taken issue with inconsistencies between the film and the usual Christian interpretation of the flood story.
This is an odd position to take since Aranofsky is neither religious nor Christian -- he was raised in the Jewish tradition and while Christianity and Judaeism may share the same source materials, they in many cases have very different interpretations of these sources. Moreover, there is a great deal of material present in Jewish folklore which isn't directly mentioned in Biblical texts.
The Nephilim (aka the Watchers aka the big stone monsters aka 'the giants' in the KJV), for example, may receive only passing mention in the opening verses of the Noah narrative, and are generally ignored altogether in Christian accounts. As a gentile, however, I really have no idea how this notion is fleshed out in Jewish traditions and what role the Nephilim play in Jewish traditions.
I'd be very interested in reading more reviews of this title from a Jewish rather than a Christian perspective, since it is presumably the Jewish view which informs Aranofsky's take on this narrative.