Change Your Image
jstielstra
Reviews
Coda (2019)
Unwatchable
And I like Patrick Stewart. But Holmes's breathy, wooden voiceover made me wince. Her character made me shudder - coy, manipulative, and oh, how cute, she has frosting on her face... and Stewart falls for it. A pointless scene with a pretentious musician as they slowly examine photos of famous pianists in the Steinway dealership, and the other guy only realizes who he's been talking to when he gets to Stewart's photo. And then off Stewart goes to Switzerland, presumably to experience for himself her life-changing experience of a rock on a mountain trail... but I'm not sure about that, since I bailed on this dreck at that point. Truly awful.
Endeavour: Terminus (2021)
Truly lame
I almost didn't watch it after what I'd read about it. Is this what happens when Russell Davies goes off his meds like he did in Season 4, which was similarly weird and derivative and just bad? Saved only by a couple good and touching scenes with Morse and Thursday, and I'm even beginning to like Joan Thursday now that she has the sense to see the value of Jim Strange. Just fast forward through the entire snowbound-hotel sequences - they are absurd and an embarrassment to lovers of quality mysteries. I sure hope if there's a 9th season, they tie up loose ends with more grace than this portends. And poor Anton Lesser, one of my favorite actors, has descended from a prickly and complicated martinet to a pathetic old doddering widower - give him something better to work with here, would you? So disappointing.
The Long Call (2021)
Meh
If it weren't for Juliet Stevenson and Martin Shaw, this would have been pretty much a failure. The policewoman's dialog was all but incomprehensible at least half the time, but even as a Yank I watch a LOT of British TV and have never had this much trouble with accents. The plot... several elements simply are not believable, or didn't even make sense. The lead cop's husband works for the organization where there are clearly some serious issues, and that's completely bypassed. Some lovely scenery; Shaw strikes an old pro's balance between a seductive sympathy and iron control; Stevenson conveys her steely belief and private pain touchingly. But will I watch another one of these (if there is one)? Nope. Mediocre at best, and that's being generous.
Endeavour: Prey (2016)
mostly just awful
We have followed and adored this series from Day 1. I am sorrowfully now in agreement with those who have said this season - so eagerly awaited! - is a huge disappointment. What had made Endeavour stand out has been the *characters* - relationships, personalities, and political, social and interpersonal complexity. This season has been mostly spectacle: flat, incomprehensible people wandering around in mansions. And now... a tiger. Oh, please. We had the plot sussed in minutes, and spent the rest of the time hoping it would turn out to be something better than that, but it wasn't. The only "bright" spot was Anton Lesser (is there an Anton Lesser fan club? We need to join), who at least gave us a brief moment of honest sorrow in a heap of melodrama. I am so sad. Somebody needs to see if Russell Davies went off his meds. :-(