Change Your Image
kiliian
Reviews
Frasier (2023)
everything old... is new again...
10/10 for the Nostalgia. For a GenX... Frasier was... the thinking man's comedy. Now? Sigh. It is a touch more highbrow than the average show out there. But that's about it. Yet, i still love it because it was a truly entertaining reboot and a joy to see this piece of my young adulthood survive even longer.
Frasier is in his 60's now. A big star leaving behind his talk show antics and buffoonery in Chicago ... how did a man who would grit his teeth and scream silently in his own mind at the idea of being "You want the Dancing Bear!" spend 14 YEARS of his life doing such things?
He craved fame, approval, and the adulation of the masses. Well, he got it, he flaunted it (and sometimes still does with his return to Boston), annd he's a rich rich RICH man because of it.
How else do you buy an apartment building in Boston overnight? Just so you can support your son, his deceased best friend's baby momma, and said baby... by giving them both a rent-free home... Frasier is stiiiiinking rich!
Now, Grammer still has it. Love the guy, just love him. :D as to the rest of the cast. Damn fun!
The 'new' Freddy? Good guy. Good acting. But who wrote that snobbish, silver spoon, totally culturally and pop-culture blind little boy into a 33-year-old Harvard drop out, hunk, lady's man, and fireman?
The British fellow... so stereotypical Brit he needs to just wear a Union-Jack suit in every scene. But he's a hoot.
Daphne and Niles' son? Take away the father's sophistication, the germaphobe, the life experience of snobbery, the neurotic obsession with one-up-manship with Frasier... and you have Niles' son.
Roz... popping up with more than one "Damnit Frasier!" at the end was just... too SHORT! Ten episodes? Not enough. Cougar Roz is now... what's older than a cougar??
The rest of the cast was damn fun too!
I'm glad it is coming back in September. I'm just sorry it took me THIS LONG to remember reading about the new Frasier last year and watching it these past few days.
My Adventures with Superman (2023)
Not the best but certainly not the worst DC Animation
After finishing S2 of My Adventures with Superman... and trying Batman Caped Crusader... (only three episodes)... the comparisons... are many. Both are animated by S. Korean studios. Studio Mir for Supes and Studio Iam for Bats... but... the quality of the writing and the artwork and the animation are not in the same leagues in any ways. They're both new shows with new takes on the two most famous and iconic characters in DC Comics.
Do i like everything about this new Supes TV series? Nope. But i despised and loathed and thought Batman Caped Crusader was worthless. So, Supes wins that one. Pure enjoyment? Mhm it was a fun two seasons with this new Clark. As for the new Bruce? Nope, i hope nobody ever watches that... abomination of an animated series.
Now for the quality of the artwork? Hmm... the technical/CGA/mechanical/alien designs? Overused throughout both seasons of Supes. The crystalline/triangular/Kryptonian work was just... too omnipresent. One day. One attack. One trip to Earth by Kal-El's ship brings THAT much alien tech to Earth? Or how Lex created all those M robots? But... that brings me to the character art.
Not bad. QUIT WITH THE DOGGONE BLUSHING BASHFUL BULLHOCKEY! This isn't Japanese anime or Korean aeni! This is American writing but done by a S. Korean studio... OF American characters! Stick. To. The. Nationalities. The characters are (except for Kara's skin tone, she looks like a corpse!) well designed and attractive. Well, except for some frames where everybody's faces are squissy shoft widdle feetuuurewess babie wabie dumplings! Put some doggone BONE structure BACK into those frames Mir! Especially Clark without his glasses. They guy looks way WAY too much like Le Million (one of the Heros in 'My Hero Academia AKA Togata Mirio) sometimes. Now, as to Kara's hairstyle? I didn't like it. Huge elflocks that look like a man's sideburns dangling from her temples and a mushroom shaped bob-cut elsewhere? No, not a fan of that. They shoulda gone with the Young Justice long straight but shorter cut instead of the huge, long flowing, luxurious wavy blond that the 80's DC comics gave her.
Now, as to the racial flips for characters? I don't like it. A Korean Lois and General Lane? Makes no sense. No explanation used, nothing. Black Jimmy and Perry? Irritating but acceptable.
Gender flips. Mick Rory is Heatwave. A guy. One of Flash's old foes. Livewire is a lady and one of Superman The Animated Series created characters who has expanded into other DC franchise works. Now, making Rory a big musclely lady and in a lesbian relationship with Livewire? Giant eyeroll there. I don't like genderbent characters, even in fan-art. YET! If you're gonna change it, keep it consistent... i can't count the number of times i couldn't tell if Rory's breasts were her pecs or her pecs were her breasts. At least LOOK at a weight-lifting/body-building woman and decide! And keep consistency with the artwork.
Animation quality? Good! Mir has done stupendous work on US and Japanese and their own Korean titles in the past. As for Supes? Meh. Up to their usual standards at Mir.
Fight choreography? Ah. Sticking point for me. Snider's work in the DC movies, great. Work with fights in Supes here? Good enough. It isn't easy to conceptualize catastrophically superhuman conflicts or hand to hand combat. But i think Mir pulled it off, mostly. The giant Parasite kaiju Godzilla references were HILARIOUSLY CAMPY to me though. Maybe it was on purpose? I dunno.
Music and general sound effects? Making the super sci-fi robots sound clunky, with whirring motors... stupid. But the music was fun and catchy and emotional when it needed to be. All the rest of the SFX were good!
Writing? Another problem point for me. Making Clark weak? Sigh. I don't like it. All the ows and oompfs and such? Nerfing Supes? I don't like it. Nerfing Kara? Ugh, understandable but i still didn't like it. I KNOW writers just HAVE to put in effort and grunting and showing something is hard. It can't always be effortless for the Kryptonian Kousins... i get it... i don't like it though. As for the bleck :p hyperemotional rollercoasters with zero buildup and sudden reversals in the 'human' reactions? Lex stirring up the crowds? Bleck :p writing. Showing internal emotional moments to the characters and their interactions? Sometimes it has to be a plot point... but writers, do please work harder on it with Season 3 (if it happens), ok? Don't just throw a temper-tantrum or a huffy fight with supposed 'lovers'... into the story.
It wasn't a perfect 2 seasons, that's why it only gets a 7/10 from me. But it was enjoyable, and i'm looking forwards to a S3!
Jack Ryan (2018)
4 Seasons of...
Sometimes decent often times schlock writing.
Anybody that has read even a single of Mr. Clancy's novels of Jack Ryan will know... he ALWAYS complains "But i'm JUST an analyst!"
Mr. Cuse, Mr. Roland, and even Mr. Krasinski (when he became an executive producer in later Seasons) have turned an INTELLECTUAL, a THINKER, a RESEARCHER, an analyst... into an action hero. At LEAST in Season 1 Mr. Krasinski was given that classic line Jack always groans, or mutters, or even YELLS about being 'just an analyst'... after that?
Well... i've now watched the Final/Sixth Episode in Season 4... and after just a few episodes of S1... you get your usual James Bond/John Wick/Jason Bourne
action/intrigue/mystery/adventure/foreign locations, spy story.
If you LIKE those franchises? Amazon's Jack Ryan will be right up your alley. But, if you like Mr. Clancy's novels? Or Alec Baldwin or Harrison Ford's Jack Ryan movies? Not the later ones though, Shadow Recruit and Sum of All Fears? They suffer from the same 'action hero disorder' that Amazon's series seems to proudly display the symptoms of.
Hack writing, action just for action's sake, plot holes galore, reoccurring characters... it got to be a doggone running gag for me each Season, 'What bad guy from last Season will Jack HAVE to team up with this Season?' i remember thinking many times. The Boy Scout Syndrome Jack was lambasted for having in the early Seasons? Being too good, too principled, too much of a zealot attached to 'doing the right thing no matter the consequences'. That vanishes, like campfire smoke in a hurricane. No conflict over it, no trauma over his ideals and ethics and moral central core being removed by the writers. That isn't character growth, that is CHARACTER ASSASSINATION. Speaking of plot-holes? One HUGE one... not really a spoiler though, but i'll check that Yes box JIC anybody complains. Don't get too attached to Dr. Cathy Mueller in Amazon's Jack Ryan. Just like Jack's Boy Scout Syndrome? The writers waved their magic wands and made her 'go poof' for QUITE a large number of episodes. But she also magically 'reappears' for the 4th Season as Jack's 'damsel in distress'.
If you flip through the Episode Lists here on IMDB about Seasons 1-3 you'll notice they were all 8 Episodes long. Why was the 'final' Season shortened to just 6? *\shrug/*. I don't know, perhaps the folks in the writer's room and Mr. Cuse and Mr. Roland and everybody 'behind the cameras' were told by Amazon to cut everything short and just end it early?
So, if you want a new 'action packed spy adventure' to enjoy, Jack will be for you. If you want a new 'smart boi uses brain to beat the baddies' experience... take Amazon's Jack Ryan with a grain of salt... and be prepared to just drop it when it gets too... BANG! BOOM! POW! WHAM! For you.
Max Headroom (1987)
My Fellow 40+ Americans... Do You Remember Max Headroom?
After being born in '76 i basically was a latchkey kid and grew up on American television. I VIVIDLY remembered Max for years (even his Coke ads and short-lived 'Max For President' campaign). Unfortunately, even today i can't find the British versions of Max's stories nor can i find the talk-show format!
So, when Amanda Pays showed up on 'The Flash' (the 90's one AND the Arrowverse one) and Matt Frewer popped up on 'Doctor Doctor', i was each time quite happily reminded of my first exposure to 'post-apocalyptic storytelling'.
Grunge, angst, ennui, 'down with the man', 'shock the system' in the 90's? Max did it dirtier and earlier. Parallel with my now 30+ year love of anime, Max was one of those shows that... showed me visual storytelling could be even more compelling than novels.
I'm quite glad the DVD scans of Max's 14-episode US broadcast TV series have made it onto 'the grey web video streaming sites'. That was where i just (about an hour ago) finished enjoying the 'finale' about in-vitro babies grown in 'vats/bags' and custom 'built' to satisfy all the parents' desires for their child. The mommy doesn't even need to provide her own uterus or a surrogate one!
A very apt and forward-thinking episode hmm? With CRISPR vaccines and GMO fruits n veggies on the market right now and in-vitro fertilization/implantation of ovum and genetic predisposition testing available to many parents today 'flagging' potential genetic disorders if a couple wishes to procreate. Will we have 'true test-tube custom grown kids' someday?
Max also predicted massive multi-media conglomerates proliferating 'their views' everywhere. The blurring lines between education/entertainment and the dumbing down of the 'have nots' so that 'those who have' can keep it. Brain scans so intricate and detailed we can almost see and record what somebody is thinking. Real-time telecommunications with text and data and audio and visual information beaming across the world. AI able to censor media in real-time and make decisions for humans. Max Headroom was the '1G' of the Vocaloid age, a computer-generated intellectual property existing to entertain and interact with the masses using human-level AI.
What were the creators of Edison Carter thinking of when they named him? The man who brought electricity and lightbulbs to the world? Also, perhaps Edgar Rice Burroughs' character who traveled to Mars?
Take some time and look back at this forward-thinking show someday.