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Reviews
The Last of Us: Please Hold to My Hand (2023)
Where does the money go
First off, I would like to say that I am glad the show is as good as it is. With that being said, I just can't understand where they spent their budget.
The forest looks nothing like where they are meant to be, yet they can CG the apocalypse into every shot. How hard is it to film in a location that looks like central to eastern America.
The cinderblock would have gone through the windshield. The crash didn't have airbags and looked fake. Sure I don't expect them to crash the actors but with the money they spent they can afford to crash a real s10 into a fake wall.
Joel says that the gas is pretty much water, but it would have probably been more like napalm (sludge). Sure, Joel changing a fuel filter wouldn't make for good tv and the gas siphon carries the plot forward, but to think it would just work right out of that car is a bit much.
The obvious product placement of the raviolis that would have been 20 years expired. We all know those raviolis would be an inedible mess of sludge, even with all of it's preservatives. There's an expiration date for a reason. Maybe if this was a few years after the outbreak but 20 years, nope.
Once again we fall into the trope of a group leader that is more focused on murder than her own people. This is played out in every zombie movie and show.
So what was good in this episode?
The interactions between Joel and Ellie feels more natural now. At first I didn't like how she didn't really listen to Joel's orders. It was like she didn't respect his survival skills. But after thinking about it, what 14 year old would follow orders? It does feel more like a teen that thinks they know better than everyone else, and that seems relatable. That being said, it feels more like the show is setting her up to make the right choices; like taking the gun and holding on to it, in a way that diminishes Joel's instinct and ability. After 20 years in the world after he wouldn't think to train this girl to handle herself? Especially knowing what's out there.
Having Ellie climb through the windows/ holes and unlock doors was a nice nod to the game. It felt fairly similar as well.
The conflict scenes were good as they portrayed real emotion. It did a good job of showing the brutality of the world and how hard it is to deal with violence.
The dying guy lying about his mom being close by really let you know what kind of people you're dealing with. This is a world full of evil people that would do the same.
Hopefully the next episodes will do better at the basics and maintain the character development.
Chuck: Chuck Versus the Santa Suit (2011)
This one could have been so much better
While I love this show, this is one of the least consistent episodes. It has plot holes and scenes that don't add up and the plot is too inconsistent with the lore.
**Spoiler Alert**
This episode has the escape of Shaw from prison. Somehow he staged the release of a virus, that was constructed years before his imprisonment, to free himself. Also why would they lock him up with the intercept when they have the tech to remocve it with a pair of glasses. Forgoing that idiocy, chuck says the "nerders" are better than any CIA computer expert. Also this season Chuck became a super hacker. Too rushed.
Resident Evil: Welcome to New Raccoon City (2022)
The plot holes
It felt like they should pay royalties to 28 days later for stealing their beginning.
This show has absolutely nothing to do with resident evil except for a few names.
We are led to believe that a Cerberus would break through a metal door but be stopped by a class one. Also it couldn't see them under the table at eye height yet could smell them from the top of the table.
Two teenage girls broke into the most advanced research lab, guarded by a facial recognition and voice prompt by using a recording.
A pack of zombies chase a woman through a street just to fight her one on one.
Racoon city is in south Africa instead of a densely wooded town with a creepy old mansion. This I can forgive since the town was destroyed decades ago and it's called new racoon city.
Wesker has kids.
Wesker is a scientist and not just a crooked, back stabbing spy.
The three guys that save the main character from a slug monster call her a survivor after seeing a tattoo on her arm. They also say she has internal bleeding by just touching her ribs. She also preceded to be able to run around with her "internal bleeding."
The bully is a poorly written trope of what an actual bully is. I can understand that the younger writers probably have never seen a real bully before so I could forgive this one if there wasn't so many people involved in this show that could have easily corrected this.
Wesker, a trained spy, somehow sleeps through a kid clumsily stealing his credentials.
The survivors were dumb enough to turn the main character over to umbrella after they destroyed the world.
The main character claims it's impossible to kill all of the zombies since there is only 300 million survivors and 6 billion infected. Considering the heavy weaponry, that's only 20 zombies to be killed per person. Doesn't sound too impossible with all things considered.
The only saving grace of the first episode was Lance Reddick intimidating someone that deserved it. Though his immense talent can't save this pile.
Resident Evil (2022)
Yet another "Netflix Original"
Knowing this would have nothing to do with Resident Evil besides the name, I chose to give the show a chance anyways.
The main character is an entitled brat who had a mildly likable sister in the beginning until she stole the plot of 28 days later in the first episode.
From the first episode I got the feeling that the show is going to be a poorly written, generic zombie drama.
The only saving grace of the show is Lance Reddick's amazing acting, but even that isn't enough to save this dumpster fire.
This show seems to fit in with Netflix's other horrendous misinterpretations of classic IP's.
Scream (2022)
Not worth the time
The characters look as dried up as the story is here. The attempt at being meta and describing the requel concept in the movie was a fail as it simply points out why this movie is terrible to start with. While the original is not the most original of movies, the series really died after the second movie and should have been left in the grave. The entire movie is a commentary on why slasher movies are trash and how newer movies are so much better because of the writing while failing to have good writing. While being correct that Jordan Peele is a master of horror, they are wrong in saying that the "toxic" fans the original scream don't like his work for being "elevated." Get out was a masterpiece yes but it is a different sub-genre of horror than Scream and is like comparing apples and oranges. The original Scream was edgy for its time while this feels like a trope.
Halo (2022)
Generic SciFi for a AAA Game
The show itself feels like a generic sci-fi drama from the SyFy channel. The CG is worse than what I find in shows of much lower budgets and the HUD graphics felt worse than the game. The set design is terrible with modern day vehicles in many shots and AK-47s in others. The action scenes were good but they felt more like a fan film and less like a large budget TV series.
Halo is one of the best selling game sagas of all time. In fact it's #26 on the list of all game franchises. With a slew of books explaining the story and lore behind the many games the real question is why did the they not use any of that material in creating their show. Yes they model the characters appearances on the game but the personality and stories have been changed to the point of asking why they even called it Halo. The design for the elites looks chunky and worse than the game.
I can go on for days about the changes in the story and how the show is much worse because them but instead of wasting my breath I'll just say give the first episode a watch and see for yourself. It seems to be catered towards a different audience than the games so if you have never played them and want to watch a sci fi show that feels like it's from 15 years ago then you might be in luck.