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charlesgarnerlester
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Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022)
How did this get such a good rating?
I'm sorry, but the story lines in this show are just stupid. Not boring, per se, but just ridiculously stupid.
The first episode was decent - good enough to warrant watching the second episode. After watching the second episode, however, I knew that I had seen enough. Whoever thought that a whole episode on killer rats (that's not a typo) was a strong enough story-line needs to go back to writing school.
The acting ranges from so-so to just bad. While the sets are good, most of it is cgi.
It's difficult for me to understand how people enjoyed this show so much. This is a very Netflix-type series: they bring in this big cast, with big names, and have awful writing. I'm sorry, but you can have the greatest actors in the world staring in your show, but if the writing is bad then the show is going to disappoint.
House of the Dragon (2022)
Disappointing
To start, I am a huge fan of GoT. I have watched the series many times over and love it (minus the last season, but I don't know anybody who liked the last season).
I had high hopes for this series. With a virtually unlimited budget, I expected it to blow me away. To start with the positives, the sets and wardrobes are out of this world. They definitely went all out in these two areas. The acting is fairly well done. While there is certainly room for improvement in some areas of acting, for the most part it was great. Now for the negatives... The absolute worst part of this show is the writing. You can have the best sets, acting, and wardrobes in the world, but if you have a poor script then there is no hope for the show. That is where this show fails. The first few episodes are very exciting, full of action and traditional GoT violence, sex, and gore. Then when you get to episode five - otherwise known as the "dread wedding" - things just take a massive turn. The story slows down to a crawl and turns from action to soap opera. Episode six comes along and all of a sudden we have jumped forward twenty or so years without any notice. Ten minutes in to the episode you are wondering "who are these people?" When you finally realize who everybody is, you are left with nothing but questions. The main one is: how is it that the king was shown dead at the end of episode five but now he is alive and well running the kingdom?
This show leaves no time for character development before jumping ahead, and leaves you not caring about the "new characters" at all. It ends up being a beautiful, but ultimately hollow, series.
Midnight Mass (2021)
Just awful.
Like another reviewer wrote on here, this show should be called "Midnight Monologue" instead of Midnight Mass.
To start with the positives... The filming locations were great, the casting was perfect, and the acting was awesome.
This show starts out intriguing, but slow. After the first episode I thought, "yeah, I'll watch another episode." After episode four (out of seven) I'm like, "well, I can't stop now" and by episode six I'm saying "will this never end?"
I have two serious problems with this show. The first issue are the monologues. There are (many, many) times when one character just goes on, and on, and on. They are never saying anything particularly important, or vital to the plot (they are usually talking about God and reciting Bible verses). This becomes very frustrating after a couple of episodes. The second issue I have with this show is one of the main antagonists, Bev Keane. She is this throw-it-in-your-face Christian who thinks she is better than everybody and doesn't have a problem telling you how awful of a person you are, in the rudest way possible. I usually don't have a problem with such an awful character because I know that they will get theirs sooner or later. The problem with this character is that she goes through the majority of the series without any repercussions to her whatsoever (it is not until the last episode that this sort of happens). You cannot create such a truly awful character (and I mean awful) and force the viewer to suffer through their antics until the last episode. I think the main problem here is the writing. I would have expected a lot more from the writer Jamie Flanagan who wrote The Haunting of Hill House.
Benediction (2021)
What a mess of a movie.
As a gay man, I always enjoy movies that show how difficult gay men had it "back in the day." This movie, however, was just a mess. The story line was all over the place, the characters irredeemable, and not well thought out, all around. The showed moved all over the place, in reference to time frames (which movies love doing these days, but this one didn't do it well, at all). The movie went from acting to poetry to singing to showing random pictures of WWI while reading poetry. There were parts I really enjoyed, but for the most part it was just disappointing.
Man of God (2021)
Just... Bad.
While the story is quite beautiful, and the filming locations are stunning, the acting is just bad, all around. The actors are just monotone when speaking. On top of that, the writing is terrible. The script uses modern-day wording, in a movie that is supposed to be based in the late 1800's.
The First Lady (2022)
Pretty Great
I find it really disgusting how people bring politics into a freaking TV show. Yes, Republicans, we all know that you hate Barack and Michelle - and we all know the real reason why (queue the denials) . Anyways, the show is a very interesting, and a different point of view - it shows how difficult these women had it, no matter their race. To be dragged into the spotlight and learn how to adjust to their rolls. It is very well done.