Change Your Image
blakenash
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Mr. Robot: 407 Proxy Authentication Required (2019)
Bravo
Elegant, magical, devastating, ground-breaking... Mr. Robot has demonstrated itself more than capable of achieving these superlatives over and over again across its whole run.
Then along comes 407, a tense and gradually more devastating and affecting masterpiece of story-telling, drawing together loose ends from the show's and the protagonist's history, loose ends we weren't even conscious of. I had no idea there would be further fallout from the instigating childhood incident that helped to introduce us to the first season's rug pulling twist. And yet, intellectually, it makes complete sense in hindsight.
Childhood sexual abuse trauma, and the link between it and horrible personality and emotional disorders, is an awfully consistent circumstance. Psychological defenses built to withstand and forget intensely damaging abuse is terribly relatable, and heartbreaking to witness here. Elliot has never been a simple character, and the expression of his mental capacities has been across the show amazing to watch and guess at. Learning this truth now, at this midway point to the final act in this show has managed to hit the heart and soul of myself and thousands of viewers, recontextualising the entire show whilst filling in those incredible blanks in reason that I personally had not noticed lurking under the surface.
Mr. Robot being made up of the spectre of Elliot's father had always been decidedly sympathetic and sad, given Elliot's short time with him, the fundamental affect a father will have on his son no matter their relationship, and these mingled with the tragedy of cicumstance that drove Elliot's story from the very beginning. Now... The darkness, the storm of the past and clapped Elliot square in the face, and he knows, and we know. On Christmas Day. With so much else at stake, this detour/collision of forces and threads feels very much like Esmail's grand ideas coming home to roost.
I love this show, and it destroys me. Elliot is one of the most powerful people to appear in fiction the last 15 years of golden age. Mr. Robot is profound in so many aspects. This episode might be its finest hour. Truly remarkable. Thank you Mr. Esmail, thank you.
Rick and Morty: Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty (2019)
Surprised by all the 5s!
Myself and friends watched this twice and really enjoyed it. The first time I found myself enjoying it quickly, and appreciating the character studies going on, and then it becomes an insane, over the top, Dragonsexual, magic spell casting romp through wizard lava land. It was so bizarre, and and the repercussions of Rick, Summer and Morty all included in a dragon soul orgy is very creepy and uncomfortable though definitely amusing once the initial disgust wears off a bit. Desensitising 2H1T.
i believe this episode is 10x funnier than the premiere, which in my opinion was the weaker entry, despite the deserved acclaim for its twisting, changing manic story. The strength of R&M is its ability to weave all these different tones and aspects, and a huge part of that is obviously it's sense of humour. That first episode simply wasn't funny, it had set ups to greater jokes but instead it relied on tropes and gore and and barely produced any laughs for myself and friends.
4x4 Claw & Hoarder has some genuinely laugh out loud developments and crazy mind-blowing denouements and final takes. Exploring dragons is something I never considered might be done, and here I think it was done in an entertaining and uncomplicated way, Very human takes on connection, before becoming a magic land mess, in a very unique sense for a dragon tale: an absolute blast to watch. The cat was also appreciated. Nothing about it was remarkable or explicable, and then the final moments completely changed everything, and crafted a really bizarre and unkowably strange reality. Great stuff, very well done.
I hope people revisit this episode in the future and find its value. I enjoyed the episode as much the second time. I wouldn't put it among the greats but it's certainly not worse than the premiere, only less dazzling with its twisting plot.
The Newsroom (2012)
Doesn't deserve any 9 star episodes
What was it about this ridiculous show that kept me watching, even when I found it to be the most insufferable waste of time? Was it the prestige of its creator or the studio behind it? Was it the frenzied tone, with its whizzing, whirling cinematography and cartoonish characters? Was it the intrigue of which real-world scenarios it would wriggle around?
I have no idea. All I know is, I hated it just as much as I wanted to see where it went.
It was very soon into season 1 that I began to hate-watch The Newsroom. The melodramatic, overwrought hysterics that the writing, direction and acting presented was can't-look-away car crash comedy, unintentionally hilarious in all the wrong places. It was certainly very funny when it wanted to be, and Sloan Sabbath was the most successful character in this regard.
The rest of the cast are likeable, except for John Gallagher Jr, who was the biggest What The? casting choice. His character developed into a complete creep over time which actually suited his performance very well, in the initial stages however, the love triangle was a complete misfire. In fact, most everything was a misfire.
The third season sought to raise the stakes with a very dull conspiracy plot that had Dev Patel disappear for most of the season. Absolute dross, and a waste of his loveability.
However the most painful episode for me is the highest rated on IMDb. Shenandoah?? Seriously? How could this possibly be in the high-90s? It was abysmal from start-to-finish, absolute trash television with the most hackneyed ending you could imagine, which set the stage for a soapy series finale like no other. This penultimate episode was, for me, the most embarrassing hour of The Newsroom (no small feat), and yet it is beloved on this website? HOW???
Fear the Walking Dead: This Land Is Your Land (2017)
Season 3 rocks
Season 3 of Fear was amazing. I'm writing this after the fact of season 4B which, in my opinion and many others, ripped out the potential that the show runner managed to whip after 2 plodding seasons. This Land is Your Land was a really fantastic moment in this upswing of quality writing, and it brought Alicia into the foreground in a huge way. Heart pounding, trapped-in-a-box story that cemented season 3 as the best example of most-improved television in recent history.
The aftershocks of this story would be felt for the rest of the season and the pseudo series finale at the end of #3 is directly influenced by this episode. Very good, very, very good.
Fear the Walking Dead: No One's Gone (2018)
Very unsatisfied
Madison Clark is gone. A divisive lead character since the start, she came into a different status when season 3 started getting going, and by the end of the 2017 season, she was an absolute badass. Now, she has been killed after a long-telegraphed half season of split timelines which, at its conclusion, is messy at best. A linear half season set completely at the diamond would have been a far more effective way of getting to the point we are at now. THEN you introduce your crossover character in Morgan, and perhaps still kill off your lead character. Instead, we were set up to believe something, then doubt that fact, then learn that the original, inevitable theory is true. While it may have been done to good effect, here it is a major, major foul. So disappointed. I was starting to love Madison's character, and would have loved to see her become the ruthless semi-villain the original show runners may have written her to become.
Business-wise, it makes sense, since Fear haemorrhaged viewers every year, even during its amazing season 3. Nevertheless, I've watched this show since the start, and I was invested. And now, we have only one character left from the core family, one other season 1 character in play, and 1 last season 1 character lost out there in the wilderness, who has already come back from the dead once. How many times should that narrative event play out?
Ugh. I will continue watching to see what they do, but I already miss the other potential directions this show might have taken.
The Room (2003)
What is the right star rating?
The Room is magnificent. It is atrocious. It breaks every rule in the filmmaker's guidebook, and the off-camera rumours and stories are just as delightfully horrifying as what ended up on screen.
Everyone needs to see this film, it's the most bizarre experience of all time, and could not be more perfectly terrible. It never bores you, it never fails to be fascinating on so many levels, and Tommy Wiseau is just about the strangest cat ever to hit the big screen in film history. Good on him and his poor, hard-done-by crew and cast, for their work on this tragic, joyous experience.
Honestly, it deserves 1 star, it deserves 10 stars. I've given it ten, because that is ultimately more positive, and despite the flaws literally erupting in every shot, every scene, every bit of dialogue, it's still one of my favourite movies ever. So there, take your ten stars Tommy.
SEE IT. SEE JT. SEE IT.
Game of Thrones: The Dragon and the Wolf (2017)
A delicious, fantastic finale
After a very rocky penultimate episode, which made my toes curl from disbelief, this one had me gushing and awing with delight. Everything worked, even the returns from the daft plot to steal a wight from the Night King, namely the sit-down between Lannister, "Stark" and Targaryen which had me grinning and glaring intently at the screen in equal measure. The Winterfell plot became my favourite element of this finale extremely quickly, and I was helplessly in love all over again with this series.
A hard 9 out of 10. I seriously believe that 10 episodes would have been ideal, and not unimaginable. There were many scenes I would have loved to see, the journeys in between these momentous events were sorely missed, but given the limitations of resolving such a ruby cube of a narrative, and despite the more glaring issues of recent episodes and seasons, there is still so much to love and look forward to in Game of Thrones. The last season is sure to be a spectacle of death and destruction, and I really hope we see things play out the way George RR Martin might imagine them, if he were to write an ending from here. The whole of Westeros is their oyster, and winter is here to freeze the living *&$% out of it. In a year, a year and a half. I can wait patiently. Cheers HBO! Make it count!!!
Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall (2017)
Tragic
I am so heartbroken to have to admit this episode was a train wreck, due of course to the plot and the writing within. The journey itself is a distraction from common sense pathways the story should have done well to go. A siege outside King's Landing for two episodes? Thank you, I'd love that electric rid of action. I've greatly missed Cersei, and now that she's queen, they've made her obsolete in terms of Lena Headey's presence and performance options, it's bizarre and a waste. All to say, the trip Beyond The Wall is mired in logical inconsistencies and a silly idea from a narrative and multi-character standpoint. I appreciate so much in between the problems of this episode, which is why it gets a 5 (my lowest, most pained rating), but the action and game changing events like ***SPOILERS**** Viserion (probably/unclear) becoming the ultimate enemy, Dany choosing to return to her Mhysa place in this dangerous new world, seeing the blinking NK with her own eyes, all amazing things.
My problem is, why didn't we simply get the white walkers invading Westeros, forcing their hand???? John returns to Winterfell, learns he's a Targ, at the same moment, bran sees the wall fall, and they send a Raven, hoping she gets it in time. Winterfell is swarmed (maybe protected by some Deus Ex Magicka?) until Dany arrives and starts burning the hell out of them, perhaps still a dragon is lost, and literally the Dead War is already begun, so suddenly, before Cersei ever had to fight?
I don't know, I have so many ideas about what should be happening. I never usually have this with GOT, I love it, there have been problems in recent season, but not like this. Save it D&D. This might be tolerable if next week delivers, but it's so disheartening!!!! I still will watch the show to the end obviously!!! I love these characters, but I want the best for the story, not the actor's Emmy reel! I wish them all good fortune in the awards to come, but seriously, it's about respect for the grandeur of the world of ice and fire. Good luck.