This show has an intriguing premise, solid acting, decent cgi for a tv show and is well written for the most part. I'm kind of baffled by the casting of the lead character however, she's not on the level of the other actors here. She delivers all of her lines in a flat, monotone voice and her facial expressions range from bored to mildly annoyed. I actually looked her up because I thought maybe she didn't speak English as a first language and was just repeating the lines phonetically, but no, apparently she is fluent in English. I've never seen her in anything else so I don't know if it was just a weird acting choice for this role or if she's just not very good but having her as the lead definitely hurt the show. Still worth watching though.
Reviews
6 Reviews
1883
(2021–2022)
Comically unrealistic
11 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The first couple of episodes actually seemed pretty promising, but it quickly degenerated into the Elsa show. I wouldn't expect a series like this to be a gritty docudrama necessarily, but there's a point where things become so ludicrously unrealistic that you can no longer suspend your disbelief. Other reviewers have mentioned the oxen/horse issue, as well as the gleaming white teeth out of a Crest ad and the inconvenient fact that the Oregon trail wasn't much used after the 1860's. To me those shortcomings are minor compared to some of the other ahistorical whoppers, to wit:
Elsa's promiscuity- first she falls in love with one of the cowboys, and they quickly progress to outdoors whoopee, a fact that doesn't seem to bother her parents very much. Then after the aforementioned cowboy dies, she falls in love again, this time with a handsome Comanche warrior, who has Anglo features and perfectly straight white teeth and also somehow speaks almost perfect English. They commence to boinking soon after, and again her surprisingly permissive parents are fine with it.
Setting aside the venereal disease/lack of antibiotics issue, the idea that a white father in 1883 would be fine with his daughter running off into the wilderness with a savage is beyond stupid. This situation realistically would have had one of two outcomes, either the father would have killed the Comanche or the Comanche would have killed the father and absconded with Elsa.
And if Elsa does end up in running off with Sam the Comanche, she wouldn't have been riding around with him on the plains having glorious adventures as his co-warrior, she would have been relegated to the camp doing menial domestic work, assuming that the other squaws wouldn't just kill her outright (which they probably would have based on accounts I've read)
There's also the tiresomely predictable evolution of Elsa quickly progressing from inexperienced teen to bad ass cowboy girl boss, because God forbid that any of the men with their decades of experience would be better than her at anything.
Another irritation for me was the voice over by Elsa, waxing rhapsodically about the plains and nature in an excessively long winded manner, like she's reading aloud from her teen girl diary.
And finally for me in the ridiculously unrealistic department was how Elsa gets gut shot with an arrow, and not only does she declare that it doesn't hurt, but she's back riding a horse in no time! Silly me, thinking that catastrophic penetrative trauma to the abdominal area would hurt!
I haven't even mentioned the corny dialogue, the grafting of contemporary values and mores onto 19th century people and the fact that Sam Elliot is criminally misused in this pile of crap.
I give it 3 stars rather than 1 because of the cinematography and Sam Elliot.
Elsa's promiscuity- first she falls in love with one of the cowboys, and they quickly progress to outdoors whoopee, a fact that doesn't seem to bother her parents very much. Then after the aforementioned cowboy dies, she falls in love again, this time with a handsome Comanche warrior, who has Anglo features and perfectly straight white teeth and also somehow speaks almost perfect English. They commence to boinking soon after, and again her surprisingly permissive parents are fine with it.
Setting aside the venereal disease/lack of antibiotics issue, the idea that a white father in 1883 would be fine with his daughter running off into the wilderness with a savage is beyond stupid. This situation realistically would have had one of two outcomes, either the father would have killed the Comanche or the Comanche would have killed the father and absconded with Elsa.
And if Elsa does end up in running off with Sam the Comanche, she wouldn't have been riding around with him on the plains having glorious adventures as his co-warrior, she would have been relegated to the camp doing menial domestic work, assuming that the other squaws wouldn't just kill her outright (which they probably would have based on accounts I've read)
There's also the tiresomely predictable evolution of Elsa quickly progressing from inexperienced teen to bad ass cowboy girl boss, because God forbid that any of the men with their decades of experience would be better than her at anything.
Another irritation for me was the voice over by Elsa, waxing rhapsodically about the plains and nature in an excessively long winded manner, like she's reading aloud from her teen girl diary.
And finally for me in the ridiculously unrealistic department was how Elsa gets gut shot with an arrow, and not only does she declare that it doesn't hurt, but she's back riding a horse in no time! Silly me, thinking that catastrophic penetrative trauma to the abdominal area would hurt!
I haven't even mentioned the corny dialogue, the grafting of contemporary values and mores onto 19th century people and the fact that Sam Elliot is criminally misused in this pile of crap.
I give it 3 stars rather than 1 because of the cinematography and Sam Elliot.
The Beast of War
(1988)
Stunningly good
25 May 2023
I stumbled upon this movie on cable late one night in 1989, a year after it's release. I hadn't heard a single thing about this film until then, so had no idea what to expect. I was immediately drawn in by the opening scenes depicting the brutal attack on the Afghan village. This opening sequence is as good as anything in Saving Private Ryan, or Platoon, etc. In my opinion. The movie maintains a tense, stripped down cat and mouse (The Soviet tankers being the mice) narrative throughout, culminating in an ending you won't guess in advance. It's a crying shame this film never got the attention it deserved.
Women at War
(2022)
Very enjoyable
26 January 2023
I didn't have high hopes for this show when it popped up on my screen, but it turns out it's pretty addictive. Tells the tale of four women in various stations in life interacting and intersecting each other's lives in the early days of World War One in France.
This is a very well made series, good acting, writing, great costumes and sets. The show has a melodramatic, slightly unreal aspect to it, making for a dreamy high end soap opera feel. That's not a bad thing, it was low key mesmerizing at times.
I wish there were more miniseries of this caliber available on streaming services instead of the usual garbage shows.
This is a very well made series, good acting, writing, great costumes and sets. The show has a melodramatic, slightly unreal aspect to it, making for a dreamy high end soap opera feel. That's not a bad thing, it was low key mesmerizing at times.
I wish there were more miniseries of this caliber available on streaming services instead of the usual garbage shows.
Glass Onion
(2022)
Abysmal
1 January 2023
I sat stone faced for 2 and 1/2 hours watching this utterly moronic, badly acted, cartoonishly colorful, glacially paced abomination. I saw it at a friend's house with a group of people so I couldn't just turn it off after the first two horrendous minutes as I surely would have done if I was alone. On the positive side, I began writing this review halfway through the movie so I was able to do something productive with what otherwise would have been a complete waste of time. I can only surmise that all of the positive reviews are either planted by the studio or from people with sub 80 IQ's. Ugh.
Great show ruined by wokeness
6 November 2021
There are clever ways to weave real life themes into fictional tv shows, this ain't it. Not going to go into particulars of the plot as other reviewers have already done a good job of doing so. It's as if a scene stopped halfway through and the writers walked out from behind the set to lecture us on why anti vaxxers are evil people who deserve to be killed, it's that jarring. Tedious, boring and really bad writing. I'm a bit baffled as to why the makers of this show think that audiences want to be lectured and talked down to. The first two seasons were great, but time to find another show to watch.
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