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Quantico (2015)
Why QAnon should not write scripts
In bizarro world, the CIA and FBI only hire emotionally unstable basket cases as recruits. Why? Because both agencies are riddled with conspiracies that can magically make things happen. For that they need people without brains that are easy to manipulate, so they recruit at the local mental institutions.
Welcome to Quantico. A supposedly clever thriller series that scrapes the bottom of the barrel as far as writing, directing and acting talent goes. As audience, we follow the latest batch of recruits that arrive at FBI training. They are dumb, they are emotional, they have all the stability of a bunch of Dawson's Creek rejects. We watch as they whine, and cry and screw up. We marvel as the FBI and CIA conduct insane role-playing games that are supposed to be training exercises. We look on in horror as FBI agents stand by while terrorists acquire nuclear weapons in an attempt to influence the presidential elections. We weep as a home-grown terrorists cell based within the CIA casually sets of dozens of bombs, kidnaps the US president and beheads the first lady .I wish I made this up. I didn't. My imagination is not that twisted.
This series is so utterly ridiculous, and yet, it utterly fails to entertain. There is a level of screw-up, that goes beyond being funny. And Quantico has managed to reach it.
The Governor (2016)
How NOT to do political drama
When I started watching the 'The Governor', I had hoped that, at the very least, I would learn a little about the Nigerian political system, or even just Nigeria in general, the way 'The West Wing' showed us the politics of the USA and Borgen showed us the political landscape of Denmark. I was sorely disappointed.
The show follows Angela Ochello (portrayed by Caroline Chikezie) as she assumes the post of Governor of Savannah State in Nigeria after the death of her predecessor.
Almost from the beginning, the show goes hopelessly wrong. IN an attempt to portray the main character as 'good', she is shown to be hopelessly naive, to the point that she is amazed at the existence of corruption in politics. This despite having been the vice-governor for several years. But that's the least of the show's problems. What is far worse is that the people producing it seem to be allergic to exposition or any form of conveying background information. After a whole season, I still have no idea what Savannah State is like. There are no panning shots, no discussion of its politics or economy. I don't even know what the main character's authority consists of! Half the time she seems to operate as a dictator, who can operate as she wants without having to acknowledge a local legislature or for that matter the national government. Perhaps people in Nigeria know all these things, but when you bring a show onto the international market, you need to educate your public. We're not going to watch the show with our computers open on the relevant wikipedia pages.
Add an almost soap-like framing of the shots and acting that borders on the ridiculous, varying between the wooden and the insanely theatrical, and you end up with a mess of a show. It;s a pity, because this could have been very interesting. But as it is, it's just total amateur hour.
60 Il, Jijeongsaengjonja (2019)
Remakes rarely work. This one is no exception
The US series Designated Survivor suffers from several hadicaps, the largest being its insistence that the viewer agrees with the moral viewpoints of its titular character, something that becomes increasingly difficult as the series progresses and Kiefer Sutherland turns the pedantic moralizing up to eleven.
However, this is as nothing compared to the mess created with this Korean remake. Whereas the title character in the original at least manages to do and say things, his Korean counterpart may well be the single most useless protagonist ever to disgrace the screen. This is not the fault of the actor, who tries very hard. Park Mu-Jin, acting president of the Republic of Korea, sits and stands around, saying nothing and doing nothing as events unfold around him, for the simple reason that the script gives him no lines. He might as well be removed from the series. In fact, that might have made for a more interesting story. If there had been NO survivor, the chaos in the government could be understandable. Instead, the viewer is left raging at the screen in helpless frustration, begging the main character to do something, anything! Instead, he sits around, the actor desperately trying to emote purely through facial expressions, until he gets to the point in the episode where he gets to speak his handful of lines. And even then he manages to be useless, becasue his lines typically consist of asking why things are the way they are and begging others to find a solution for him. This might have worked for the first one or two episodes; but by the third the character should at least have grown used to the idea that he is in charge. The end result is that his political opponents, unpleasant though they are become increasingly sympathetic; presumably not the effect the creators aimed for.
Arguably the most frustrating political thriller ever made, this is a series to avoid at all costs.
Emma. (2020)
A good movie, spoiled by the music
Potentially, this could have been one of the best Jane Austen movies ever. Ithas a talented cast and a good script. It is well directed, and it looks beautiful. So, what could possibly go wrong?
Simple: the score. What were they thinking? The music for this movie is terrible. To begin with, most of it is completely anachronistic. I swear I heard gospel singers; in a movie set in England 1800 AD! Second, it's the wrong type of music. Emma is a romantic comedy wrapped up in a period piece. Too bad nobody told the composer who seems to have thought he was working on an epic drama. The score blasts the audience in the face with all the subtlety of a Wagnerian opera, except that Wagner understood his medium and would never have made this mistake. To make things even worse, the timing is completely off. Dramatic music swells in the middle of the scene as though leading up to a crucial event, except nothing happens. Then there is silence, as though something momentous is about to be said, except nobobdy talks. To make this disaster complete, the background music intermingles with the music that actually occurs in the stort in a way that both confuses and irritates. A small congregation in a village church produces a quoir and orchan as though it's St Paul's cathedral; a quartet playing in a ballroom thunders like a symhony orchestra.
This is such a shame. Music can greatly enhance a movie. In this case, it nearly ruins it.
The King (2019)
A boring mess of a movie
The biggest problem with this movie is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. On the one hand, it tries to take a fresh look at the person of King Henry V, but ta the same time, it tries to be an adaptation of Shakespeare's play. As a result it false at both, lacking the flair and drama of the play, while at the same time managing to be LESS historically accurate than Shakespeare's work. E.g. It shows the Battle of Shrewsbury as being settled with a single duel. (The 5000 or so casualties of the battle would be surprised to hear that!) It states that Henry's brother Thomas dies in Wales before Henry's coronation (The real Thomas, duke of Clarenc, lived another 20 years and died in France.) It claims that Sir John Falstaff led the vanguard at Agincourt. (The person Falstaff was based on was already dead by then and the vanguard was led by the Duke of York.) And, finally, it claims that the Dauphin (Played by Pattinson and arguably the only watchable part of the movie)was killed at Agincourt, whereas in reality he never went anywhere near the battle.
None of this was necessary.
So, lacking even the pretense of historical accuracy, does the film at least present an engaging story? Not at all. It presents us with a moping, emo, Prince Hal turned King Henry V (I swear Chamelet's expression doesn't change even once during the entire movie), who lacks the determination and dynamic personality of Shakespeare's eponymous character. For two thirds of the movie, the audience watches as this charisma-challenged individual stumbles around in a mental fog and allows himself to be pushed around by events leading up to the climactic battle, where, instead of actually taking charge, he has to learn basic tactics from other people. Then, to top it all off, we are treated to the meeting between King Henry and Princess Katherine of France. Whereas Shakespeare used this final scene as release tension by showing the two protagonists in an comically awkward courtship, hampered by language and cultural difficulties, the makers of 'The King' use it to show the world how WOKE they are. Within seconds, Princess Katherine, the only meaningful female character in the movie, unravels the conspiracy, analyses Henry's character and generally demonstrates the infinite superiority of the female mind over the poor befuddled males. I have some advice for you: If the only way you can write a strong female character is by making all men look dumb, I suggest you find another job. This does not show social awareness, it shows a lack of writing skill.
So, where does this leave us? If you want to learn about the real King Henry V, this movie is useless, because it lacks even a veneer of historical truth. If you want to be entertained, I strongly recommend watching the 1989 movie starring Kenneth Brannagh. I gave The King more than one star, simply because I liked Pattinson as the Dauphin but his role is too small to make the movie watchable.