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johnerichard
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Reviews
Shining Girls (2022)
Interesting story
The unfolding story is quite interesting... with an almost overly tied-up-all-the-loose-ends ending. Elizabeth Moss's acting feels a little heavy handed - I grew tired of her heavy eyelid action every time she got upset. It was a bit challenging to follow the time jumps in the story which almost led my wife to a sand on the show 3/4 of the way in.
The Old Man (2022)
Good story, great acting
Some of these 'ex operative returns to...' stories are horribly predictable. Not so here. The story that unfolds provides a more interesting context for the action that occurs than is typical. Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow create characters with depth as do all the supporting cast. Well worth watching and am glad another season is coming.
How to Change Your Mind (2022)
Excellent review of mental health benefits of psychedelics
So long classified as dangerous drugs, certain psychedelics, when used under the integrity of trained guidance for the purpose of personal growth and healing, are amazingly effective at getting at the root cause of issues preventing us from being our best selves. This series does a wonderful job of presenting this perspective in a way that is both fascinating and informative.
The Bear (2022)
Most excellent series
Great writing, great drama, great acting. Not your typical cookie cutter American series. Storyline is original and refreshing. Best thing I've seen in a while and I hope they follow up with a second season, but story would also be complete as is.
The Expanse (2015)
Other sci fi series should take note
I used to be a sci fi nut. Loved the 1st 2 Star Wars, The Matrix, The Fifth Element... and I tried to stay loyal to the genre but there has been so much poorly done stuff that I had mostly given up hope... and then The Expanse showed up. Damn.... Finally... a quality story with good production. I never knew where the story was going and was usually happily surprised as the storyline evolved. PLEASE .... other sci fi producers... get your games up. This has been a blast.
The Undoing (2020)
Too many plot holes
This is one of those whodunits where they introduce plot clues into the story line that are solely designed to throw you off course... and which are never resolved or explained.... just left as unexplained loose ends.... and there are a few of them. It pisses me off because it could have been a more interesting story but the writing was just... lazy... and disappointing.... as was Hugh Grants acting. Donald Southerland though was a treat
Ad Astra (2019)
Disappointing ... Uninteresting... and I don't have high standards
Have our standards for good sci-fi been lowered even further? There is a possible interesting storyline in this movie about a father gone bad and a son who wants to re-connect but has to save the world at the same time (ring a bell?) that actually could have worked out, but they dumbed it down, kept it trite, added gratuitous action scenes (pirates on the moon! ... swimming thru water on Mars!! .. what??..) that had NOTHING to do with the plot and added nothing to the story. On top of that add bad science, poorly thought out concepts of "near future" technology (toggle switches, reams of old-style computer printouts...) that combine to tell a different story: we just don't really care about making a good movie.. let's just hit the buttons on what we think will draw people into the theater. I'd much rather go back and watch The Expanse again....
Another Life (2019)
Another embarrassing cringe fest
This is an example of a show that gives sci fi a bad name. Terrible writing, laughable science, characters who are all too pretty and too shallow and why would you send this moronic bunch on the mission to save the world .... I wouldn't trust them to go get my groceries. I really hope this is not a sample of what Netflix has in store for future sci-fi shows. We are not five years old. Get writers who can write for adults who crave quality programming..... something like The Expanse. I gave it 2 stars because some people might put this in the category of "it's so bad it's good".... I'm not one of them... it's just bad.