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Reviews
The Last of Us: When You're Lost in the Darkness (2023)
An excellent pilot, a pleasant surprise...
Video games that make to the big/screen was always going to be reacted to with scepticism. After a big chunk of huge failures (Resident Evil), or somewhat failures (The Witcher), I think we finally found the one to change it. This Last of Us pilot shows the perfect way to set up a world and story, keeping the core of the source material while taking the necessary liberties to make it make sense.
First off, the acting is top notch, Pascal is, as expected, excellent, but for me the highlight is his daughter, Sarah. The actress was really selling it for the screentime she had, her and Pascal's chemistry was excellent, making her death scene just as heartbreaking as it was the first time we experienced it.
I loved the way that the show blended it's tv show liberties with scenes and dialogues taken directly from the game, the whole car section gave me so many flashbacks I was smiling at the screen.
To summarize, the pilot was awesome, tense, at some points actually creepy, heartbreaking, brutal, and exactly what the game was about.
Kudos to everyone involved in this amazing first episode, which I was waiting for with scepticism, but turned out to be absolute brilliance.
The Midnight Club: Midnight (2022)
What? Not even announcing a season 2 makes this finale somewhat redeemable.
Look, I love Flanagan's work. I consider Hill House a masterpiece, loved Midnight Mass and really liked Bly Manor. So, as you can guess, I was excited for this one. But, sadly, as it happens with most creators, sometimes a miss is due.
And this, was most definitely a miss.
So, throughout the season there was one or two major plot points, with the rest of the 10h runtime being either an anthology of the kids stories or a heartfelt monologue about death. I get the monologues, it's Flanagan's trademark anyway, but gosh did the stories turn out to be a waste of time.
And this finale really seals the deal. I was waiting for something, just something that would make the shows barely existing storylines worth while, a grand finale, a final arc. Just. Something.
But no, what we got was an underwhelming, uninteresting and boring conclusion to two of the stories within stories. Absolutely no other closure except of that. Nothing of the supposed MAIN storyline of the show. No final action, no tension, no emotion, just bland and flat.
The final seconds carry-out something that resembles a cliffhanger, but I guess we'll see if Netflix is gonna announce a second season of this. I, for one, hope so, because a second season will hopefully make this season a little less of a waste of time.
The Midnight Club: Road to Nowhere (2022)
Sad. Simple. Beautiful.
Let me start ny saying I'm not the biggest fun of Flanagan's Midnight Club, even though I loved his other work. I enjoy this one too, but I think the thing I don't like is the constant drop of the main storyline to get the kids stories. Some are good, some are not, none are worth it that much.
Except for this one. This one was well worth it, powerful, creepy and sad, deliveres an intense section with a gut punching ending that sometimes hits close to home. I won't get into detail, but you'll be gripped, that's for sure, I know I was.
Flanagan, sometimes you miss and most times you hit. This episode was the latter.
Better Call Saul: Plan and Execution (2022)
THIS IS MORE LIKE IT!!!
Gripping, tense, fun, shocking. That's the BB and BCS universe that we love, that's what puts Better Call Saul next to it's predecessor.
In this mid-season finale we finally have the conclusion of the whole Jimmy & Kim vs Howard storyline, and boy is it fun to watch. I really enjoyed the meeting room scene with the judge, as we finally realise the entirety of Jimmy and Kim's plan.
Lalo goes on with his plan, and I love the "show don't tell" aspect of it. The writers let you put the pieces together on your own in order to understand what each side is working towards. Perfect.
And then there is of course the intense, shocking and brilliantly acted finale of the episode, where we see the brutal end to one of the show's best.
Perfect episode, maybe even better than episode 3, can't wait for the second part of season 6.
R. I. P. My boy Howard, you honestly deserved better.
The Walking Dead: Rogue Element (2022)
Please just end the show and my suffering along with it...
I can't believe what this show has become... It used to be so good, now it's just a boring, bloated, confusing, pretentious and forced mess that just doesn't seem to want to bite the dust... Just end it, kill all the characters, never make a another spin-off and just bury it along with Game of Thrones, Dexter and House of Cards...
Dying Light 2: Stay Human (2022)
A bloated, kinda broken mess with some fun gameplay when the game doesn't glitch.
I love the first game, I was very excited for the sequel but what could have been an equally awesome experience ended up a broken, bloated and to some extent disappointing entry. The gameplay is (sort of) it's strong point. When it worked it was fun (both combat and parkour) and this whole sandbox feeling was engaging, at least at the start. After a while not only did it get repetitive, but a lot of glitches were encountered as well(enemies would clip in the environment, objectives not being updated etc). The game was easy, and it would get hard only when the bugs would take place during combat. Still, some enjoyment WAS there, but it got buried under a lot of unfinished and broken issues.
The story wasn't that memorable in the first game, in this one it was even worse. Boring characters, uninspiring settings and missions (with one or two exceptions), and so so SO much dialogue. Techland just wanted to this unrealistic 500 hour thing, and got a bloated story as a result. I love story driven games, but the scenes and dialogue needs to be important somewhat to the narration. Here there was just talking for the sake of talking, each ncp would just ramble endlessly, making me ich to press that skip button. The ending was dump, and up until that point I was just waiting for the game to end.
I'm disappointed in this game, and I really wanted to like it.
The Walking Dead: No Other Way (2022)
Where are the terrible consequences the action used to have?
Remember when this show used to shockingly kill our favourite characters and we would watch each episode in fear? I do. What happened to that? The action is great, camera work and cinematography on point, but where are the consequences? I watch every action sequence almost bored cause I know that none of our protagonists will get hurt, it's so predictable... No one of importance has died in the final season of TWD? Do you need all of those characters for the upcoming spin-offs?
The Walking Dead: New Haunts (2022)
Is this a zombie series?
A fancy dinner with the rich guys being all comically rich and evil, in a zombie show... The final conflict is gonna be about some class divergence in a purely fictional and unrealistic "community" that defies every grain of logic this show has been giving for 10 seasons? This is about to be the worst ending in history... Walking Dead always wanted to compete with Game of Thrones, now they finally get to do that by giving an equally absurd and terrible ending.
Ozark: Sanctified (2022)
Julia Garner deserves every award.
She was phenomenal in this episode, as she has been throughout all of the show.
This episode was satisfying, gut wrenching, shocking and nerve racking from the begging to the end. I can't wait for part 2.
Élite: Te quiero mal (2021)
How are Samuel and Omar bartenders at every club?
It absolutely baffles me. So many things about this season make zero sense. Their relationships are so inconsistent, it's like every episode is written by a different writer. This season is just a mix of boredom and confusion.
The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
Not bad in any case, neither is it disappointing. It's a beautiful well thought story about love.
I have recently finished the show and I had to let my thoughts sink in for a while. Truth is, I loved it. I will address the elephant in the room by saying no, it's not as good as Hill House, of course it's not. BUT and I cannot stretch this but enough, it's actually really really good. Hill House was a pure masterpiece, and expecting this one to be as good was always going to be somewhat realistic, but if you stop comparing it to Hill House, you can actually see that's it's a very good standalone story. The directing is masterfully done, the camera movement and clever shots add an effect of creepiness in the whole picture. Observe, watch the background, every shot was put there for a reason. Also, the acting was top notch, each member of the cast portrayed their characters masterfully (credits to the super talented kids as well). The writing was good and the scares where satisfactory. I am very sick of shows and movies constantly spamming the viewer with pointless jumpscares. It's not based on the horror element, it's really not. It's firstly based on character and interaction, then the plot and then the scary aspect of it all.
To summarize. The Haunting of Bly Manor is a beautiful, nicely written story (if you pay attention that is), emotional and full of moments that stuck with you, that while it didn't reach the masterpiece level of it's predecessor, it certainly makes a solid second installment to the anthology series. Mike Flanagan, I am eagerly waiting to see what you have for us in the next season.