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jbelland-90229
Reviews
The Diplomat (2023)
Quite interesting - if it didn't end in cliffhangers until when??
I have only watched the first 3 episodes and have saved the rest until probably next year. The reason for that is that I found out that this 8 episode series ends with at least one if not two important cliffhangers - and Season 2 wasn't even scheduled for release until 2024 and with the Writer's Guild strike there's no guarantee of that!
That said, I was enjoying the first 3 episodes. There's a bit of high quality type of soap opera stuff as to some relationships but the main political intrigue certainly takes front of stage with tension and info developing as the first 3 episodes progress.
Acting is certainly at least and in some cases more than adequate for this type of thriller, except that I find the main character (the diplomat of the title) seems to exhibit the same somewhat "determined" facial expression throughout most of her appearances. There's not much in the way of her showing different characteristics, such as lighteartedness, humour wit or just being a normal, relaxed human being. But I guess that's the character they wanted, at least to this point.
If you don't mind waiting for what could be close to a year or longer to see how things pan out, then it's definitely a good way to spend time with an interesting thriller type series. Otherwise, save it until Series 2 gets a release date. JMHO, of course. :-)
The Diplomat (2023)
Reviews here are for 2 different series with the same name!
The banner, description, image, number of episodes (6), etc on the page for this series of "The Diplomat" are for the UK version, NOT the 8 episode Netflix version. So why hasn't some moderator removed the reviews that pertain to the Netflix version??
This (the UK 6 episode series) is quite light entertainment if a bit confusing at the start. The mystery in the first episode continues beyond that episode while, in the subsequent episodes, there is a new - and solved - mystery per episode.
The first episode is confusing in that it introduces various characters without giving enough background on each to make it understandable as to exactly why they are there in the first place or the reason there is a "relationship" among them. I had to read a couple of recaps to finally get the drift or who was who in the zoo. Otherwise, it's a good enough series to spend a bit of time with if you can get over the initial confusion - particularly when you get to Episode 2 and it starts out with a completely different mystery and the new characters necessary for that plot.
But again, reading the reviews here will also confuse the heck out of people because some are for this series (as described at the top of the page) while others are for the 8 episode Netflix series. Can a mod PLEASE remove those?
Professor T (2021)
Fairly boring overall
I have only watched the first episode so far, and not as good as I was hoping, although the cop partners and most of the characters are well acted. It's just that the writing is uninspired, any suspense is minimal if apparent at all, and it's like the Professor simply pulled the solution out of his hat in the last few minutes to provide a solution. Any decent mystery scatters enough clues to at least provide the viewers with some sense of involvement in solving it but not the case in this episode. Unless there is a great change for the better, particularly in terms of plotting and writing in general, in Episode 2 (when I have nothing else to do and decide to watch it) then I'll be giving the rest of the series a miss.
Inside the Superbrands (2022)
Enjoyable and informative for what it is
Can't understand the bad reviews! This series doesn't pretend to provide a deep dive into the superbrands - each episode is only about 45 minutes, for goodness sake! But in that amount of time Helen Skelton manages to squeeze in a bit of the history of the brand, it's popularity, marketing strategy, a brief tour of some of the product production facility (similar to the "How It's Made" series), and also touch on both the environmental impact of the product and the pros and cons of the nutritional value - or not - of the products. That's a lot of stuff to touch on!
She has a breezy presentation style and projects a sense of enthusiasm for the subject, as well as throwing in a touch of humour, and the episodes move at a good pace. All in all, it's a very pleasant way to spend 45 minutes of an evening. And it provides a variety of enough interesting information so that those interested in more in-depth info on some of the topics covered can then Google or otherwise expand their research. Very enjoyable IMHO!
Father Brown (2013)
Pleasant light and escapist mystery but...
I have watched all of the episodes of Father Brown from Season 1, and do so because they are light, escapist entertainment. No realism, of course, but a pleasant 45 minutes in which to escape into a bucolic little English village with the expected eccentric characters, some light humour, much of it provided by the inept police inspector's interactions with Father Brown and more by Mrs. McCarthy's interaction with everyone!
I might have rated this a 7 instead of 6 but for the fact that, too often, an important clue, or even a confession, is elicited near the end by Father Brown appealing to the miscreant's (or an accomplice's) conscience, his/her "inner goodness" or maybe belief in what God or some other person close to the miscreant would want, or some other moral value that simply MUST reside within that individual.
While G. K. Chesterton might have written with a moral purpose, it doesn't fit in an otherwise cozy mystery presented for light TV viewing. Worse, it jars from what is otherwise a willing suspension of disbelief that makes cozy mysteries a pleasant diversion. There just cannot be that many murderers whose consciences are so easily ignited by a few simple homilies delivered by the village priest. That much suspension of disbelief is just too much.
Murdoch Mysteries (2008)
Series seems to be losing its way - EDITED WITH UPDATED RATING
Below is my review after watching the first two episodes of this new season and I was disappointed because it seemed to have lost its previous charm and humor and become quite dark. I said I'd be back if things changed, and here I am. :-) I see now that the following 4 episodes have, in fact, gone back to the original premise, the charm, humor, "science" and a bit of outrageousness has returned. So I wanted to update my rating and my thoughts. It's back to being a light, entertaining, escapist mystery series with which one can relax and enjoy an evening!
EARLIER REVIEW
Murdoch Mysteries was, for years, one of my "go to" programs for light entertainment and escapism from the stresses of regular life. Unfortunately, the first two episodes of Season 15 indicate that it is continuing to become much more serious with continually darker themes. It's losing its previous fun frivolity and humour at a time when the stresses of Covid had made it more important to have light and fun entertainment to lay back and relax with.
Even after these last 2 episodes (the first 2 of the new season) cleared up some threads from the previous series, the plot(s) have left various characters dealing with severe emotional and psychological trauma, interpersonal strife and tensions, and an overarching depressing sense of angst that left me feeling depressed rather than uplifted and light hearted like earlier seasons used to do.
It has definitely come down from my previous ratings would have been, thus only a 6 for now. I will watch a bit longer to see if they get back to the original premise that presented a less dark and more light hearted mystery with characters - including villains - that didn't leave a depressing aftertaste at the conclusion of the episodes.
Whitstable Pearl (2021)
Hardly a mystery, more a soap
I haven't read the books and watched this based on (a) it being labelled a mystery, and (b) the summary that indicated it would be a reasonable mystery where a somewhat inexperienced private eye would maybe work with a cop to solve crimes.
I forced myself to watch all 6 episodes. The first wasn't great but the second looked like it could turn out to be a light, perhaps somewhat cozy type, series for light entertainment even if far-fetched. But from the third onward I was disabused of that expectation.
This series ended up being barely a mystery and predominantly a somewhat dark series where the two main characters spend most of their time in a fog of angst, agonizing about their somewhat mysterious personal demons which, of course, causes emotional tension between them in their nebulous professional and somewhat unreal personal relationship.
The "mystery" element is secondary or even tertiary to the episodes. So much so, in fact, that (and this isn't a spoiler, no reveal as to the culprit, etc.) in Episode 4 neither of the protagonists had any involvement whatsoever in the actual apprehension of the culprit! The episode was mostly all about various emotional traumas suffered by various individuals for various reasons, including the 2 protagonists.
I gave it two stars instead of one just because there may be those who don't care that it isn't really much of a mystery as described but who are satisfied to immerse themselves in other people's (fictional) emotional traumas and dysfunctional relationships.
The Mandalorian (2019)
Just briefly scanned first 2 episodes, ...
I admittedly haven't watched the first 2 episodes because I would rather binge a short series. However, I have scanned through both to get a feel. And I have read many of the reviews - good and bad. And, more importantly, I have also checked out the subtitles available - and just seeing the size of those files caused me concern, which was confirmed by my scanning of the episodes. While I will return for a true review once the series is complete, I expected - from the short subtitle files - that this series was going to have a hard time doing character development because character development is largely developed through dialogue interactions.. Several of the reviews substantiate that this lack of character development is, in fact, the case to date. My scanning of the episodes had difficulty finding very much dialogue at all. Couple that with 30 minute episodes, and you have a recipe for a very slow moving and shallow production. I'm just stating my feelings at the moment and - as stated - I will be willing to update this after (hopefully) making it through all 8 episodes to see if there is more to this then it looks at first glance.