machina22 Reviews

Wednesday (2022– )

Terrible (Not in a Good Way) Use of the Addams Family IP

[3/10 · 18 December 2022]

What a slog those 8 episodes were to get through. I love the character of Wednesday and the Addams Family as a whole, especially as portrayed in the first two 90s films. But only the first half of the first episode of this series captures the spirit of Wednesday Addams for me. In those first 30 minutes Wednesday delivers such crisp, snappy, irreverent dialogue that I thought "wow, this is amazing - I can't believe how good this is", but it doesn't last. The character is played well by Ortega, but the writing quickly veers away from what makes her and the Addams' so cool and instead drives down a one way street filled with childish teen drama.

Eventually they even kind of give up trying to make Wednesday unusual - she starts wearing increasingly normal clothes, develops close friendships with a shockingly large number of classmates, becomes more emotional and... well, increasingly normal.

It becomes this bland mix of Harry Potter and the recent Sabrina reboot (with an extra dash of Netflix's politics for good measure); a supernatural teen drama show littered with forgettable side characters, clichéd child-like plot lines, a tedious love triangle (yes, really), and cheesy dialogue peppered with trite political slogans.

It's so far away from the quirky, kooky, irreverent, gothic, deadpan, macabre, sarcastic, ironic, and surprisingly well-functioning family unit we know and love that it's almost offensive. Instead we have a resentful Wednesday, a weirdly frosty and controlling Morticia, a corpulent Gomez who has zero chemistry with Morticia, an afterthought of a Pugsly, and an almost non-existent Lurch (he does look the part at least). Only Thing is really nailed - the new design of the hand is cool, and he's amusing, dutiful, and endearing as a character. Funny how there's more character in that chopped-off hand than almost all other characters besides Wednesday.

3/10 for the three highlights: Ortega's acting, Thing, and some funny one-liners from Wednesday (most of which happen in the first episode). Everything else should've been sent back to the drawing board.

Wednesday: Woe What a Night (2022) Season 1, Episode 4

Settling for Mediocrity

[3/10 · 13 December 2022]

I have a theory that the writers wanted to create a generic teen drama show, but got landed with a Wednesday Addams series, so just inserted her in place of their original protagonist. That's really the only way I could explain someone thinking involving Wednesday Addams in a teen love triangle storyline would be a great idea, or half a dozen other naff plot lines that Wednesday's dragged into.

Even Wednesday's surly, sarcastic disposition, and Ortega's great characterisation isn't saving this show from mediocrity. The uniqueness of the character is being drowned out by all this... bland normality. That's about the worst thing that can happen to an Addams Family show.

And of course we still haven't gone an episode without the writers inserting their political baggage into the dialogue. This episode we got 'climate crisis', 'female objectification', and 'you can't say that, *it's offensive*' - how they spoil us!

Three points for Ortega's performance, the dance choreography, and Thing. Everything else is far too normie.

Why can't shows like this or the recent Foundation series be developed by people who love the source material and will treat them with the respect they deserve?

I suppose if everyone complains but then gives it a 9/10 we're getting what we deserve.

Wednesday: Friend or Woe (2022) Season 1, Episode 3

Finding its Rhythm, And Not in a Good Way

[3/10 · 13 December 2022]

If the second episode didn't already confirm it then this one does - this show is happily going to fall into the 'yet another supernatural teen drama' show category and the writers are going to do little to elevate it, despite being gifted an incredibly original fictional character (Wednesday, played very well by Ortega, despite being given increasingly terrible material to work with) and her family.

I'm wondering if the writers have run out of ideas already too. Seriously, we're using the 'bullies try to attack Wednesday and she ends up destroying them' scenario again? Already? I guess it wasn't cheesy enough the first time... Still, at least they're able to force Wednesday to regurgitate their trite political slogans, so I'm sure it's a net win in their books.

The show's become so predictable and cliched, and lacks the humour and wit of the first episode.

It's like Harry Potter crossed with the recent Sabrina reboot.

Wednesday: Woe Is the Loneliest Number (2022) Season 1, Episode 2

It's Getting Worse

[4/10 · 12 December 2022]

I'm baffled that most reviews here seem to think this episode was an improvement on the first one. It takes the show further down the path of 'yet another supernatural teen drama series', and away from the 'unusual and refreshing Wednesday Addams show' path. Which a shame because the character of Wednesday deserves so much better.

Ortega continues to be great (as does Gwendoline Christie), but what she's being given to work with is becoming less Wednesday Addams and more Hermione Granger.

Her ongoing interactions with Thing are the best thing going for the show at the moment, followed by Wednesday's sarcastic lines, although even those are losing their edge. I think the writers are already running out of steam (always room for some cringe-inducing political talking point though - down with 'the patriarchy', am I right?).

The plot itself is dragging. The ongoing murder mystery is uninspired, while the boat race sub-plot was incredibly cheesy. Again, less like the Addams family and more like Harry Potter. The lack of interesting plot wouldn't matter so much if it weren't for how much screen time it's taking away from Wednesday and giving instead to side characters no one cares about.

Wednesday: Wednesday's Child Is Full of Woe (2022) Season 1, Episode 1

A Tale of Two Halves

[6/10 · 11 December 2022]

Overall, this first episode is a bit disappointing.

Let's start with the good: the first half of the episode is excellent. 9/10 stuff.

Wednesday is introduced well; Jenna Ortega almost instantly dispels any worries I had that she might not live up to the role with her excellent delivery of both the lines and Wednesday's social awkwardness and stiff but swift movements. It was great to see Ricci too (the perfect Wednesday in the Addams Family films).

The writing is sharp and witty. The focus is (rightly) firmly placed on characterising Wednesday and letting her sarcasm, dry wit, and deadpan delivery shine through. And it works, because Wednesday is one of the best fictional characters ever created.

The rest of the Addams family is decent enough here but unremarkable, not that it seems that'll matter much because I get the impression they won't get much screen time from here on out. Hopefully I'm proven wrong on that though.

Now the bad: the whole second half of the episode.

Somewhere around the midway point the focus shifts away from Wednesday and making her actual character the star of the show and slips into this cliched 'fantasy teen drama' show. It's 3/10 stuff.

We're introduced to bland character after bland character, most of which Wednesday (in a move completely out of character) rapidly forms emotional connections with by the end of the episode.

We also go from one scene you've seen a million times before (ridiculous 'gang' bumps into our diminutive anti-hero, wonder how this is going to end!) to another (gang shows up a second time - now with weapons!).

Wednesday's character isn't just an after-thought, it seems to actively change. She's gone from being refreshingly honest, emotionally stilted, macabre bordering on depressing, restrained and exacting, piercing with her wit and completely socially uncompromising to.... being a typical protagonist with the odd snappy remark in yet another teen TV show.

I'll certainly watch the next episode, but I unfortunately expect it to be more like the second half than the first half of this episode. What a missed opportunity this will have been...

Average of the two halves - 6/10.

Foundation: The Missing Piece (2021) Season 1, Episode 8

Grotesque Betrayal

[1/10 · 21 October 2022]

This show is a betrayal of everything Asimov wrote - about the Foundation, about psychohistory, about robots and the laws of robotics, and all of his characters throughout both the Foundation and Robot series.

It's 'based on the novels' only to the extent that it takes concepts, plot points, and characters explored in the novels and then ignores everything Asimov wrote about them entirely, often doing the exact OPPOSITE of what Asimov wrote.

That's when they're even covering content from the novels. At this point there's barely anything from the novels in this, besides character names and some of the locations. And the stuff it's been supplanted by is childish nonsense, as you'd expect from modern script writers.

The writers should be ashamed of themselves for butchering his work like this. Talk about cultural appropriation!

Foundation: Mysteries and Martyrs (2021) Season 1, Episode 7

Barely any Foundation in it

[2/10 · 19 October 2022]

Every episode, other than the first one, bears hardly any resemblance to any of the Foundation novels. Why adapt Foundation if you're just going to completely ignore most of its narrative, the central characters' personalities and the events they take part in, and the novel's key moments?

Most of the male characters are idiots or panto villains. Most of the women are insufferably smug or Michael Burnham-on-steroids space jesus' (there are two here! At least Star Trek Discovery only has one; small mercies and all that). None of them behave as they did in the novels, not even the robot Demerzel, who is now written as an over-emotional, laws of robotics-breaking, religious fanatic.

The show spends an age meandering on dull as ditch water side plots that have been invented purely by the writers of this series, then glosses over or straight up ignores plots that are integral for Foundation to actually make sense.

The first episode was great - it mostly followed the Foundation, and where it didn't or couldn't because of the flashier requirements of television, the ways in which it departed were often quite well thought-through. That approach goes out the window in every other episode.

What a waste of an opportunity, what a tragic disappointment.

Vikings: A Simple Story (2018) Season 5, Episode 9

What happened to this series?

[4/10 · 25 June 2022]

'Why did you save my life?' 'I don't know'

That about sums up the quality of the writing this season. It's taken a huge nosedive.

Here are just some of the many problems with it:

• Things happen because the plot demands it even if it makes no sense.

• Every character (minor and major) so far this season has plot armour.

• People make decisions completely out of character all the time.

• Everyone has access to fast travel like they're in a video game.

• Alliances are made & fall apart seemingly at random, yet no one ever questions the reliability of their new allies.

• To top it all off Floki's quirky and likeable personality has been completely destroyed.

Snowpiercer: Bound by One Track (2022) Season 3, Episode 4

Hallucination Overload

[3/10 · 7 June 2022]

The writing on the show, which has been pretty good until the last couple of episodes, has suddenly found itself caught in this weird rut where half of the major characters are now frequently experiencing visions or hallucinations, and it's becoming OTT and ridiculous.

It's probably because they wanted to include Jennifer Connelly but ended up almost writing her character out of the show at the end of last season. So, having backed themselves into that corner, they felt the best way to give Connelly screentime was to have her character appear in vision form. Fine, I guess, although why they felt the need for two different characters to be seeing her in this way I don't know. But having done that you can't have any other characters also having visions otherwise it just becomes ridiculous, as it is here.

So we have:

Alex - getting hallucinations of Melanie.

Layton - getting ridiculous messiah-like visions of African trees and a 'new eden'.

Javier - getting PTSD visions of Wilford's dog.

Wilford - also getting hallucinations of Melanie.

And on top of that we also have:

Zarah - having PTSD flashbacks of the events in her makeshift refuge.

Alex - having flashbacks of her dead friend and Wilford.

Which character's next I wonder?

World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji: 3, 2, 1... Go! (2020) Season 1, Episode 1

25% Race, 75% backstory

[3/10 · 20 February 2022]

An interesting concept, unfortunately let down so far by too little focus on the actual race and too much focus on the backstory of a handful of the teams.

I'm not really interested in the teams' backstory tbh, especially when the focus is purely on the identities of a dozen or so individuals out of 60+ teams of 4. It's the race itself I'm interested in, and that, at least in episode 1, takes a backseat to talking about the gender, skin colour, sexuality, and medical conditions of a handful of the teams. It's tiresome and often out of place.

I'll give it one more episode, but unless the backstory is dropped and the show actually starts to focus on the race itself then I'll be dropping out long before the finish line.

Solos: Leah (2021) Season 1, Episode 1

Sci-Fi Films for David Weil to Watch

[3/10 · 17 June 2021]

Since the writer of this show is apparently unaware of any great sci-fi films with female leads, and decided to focus on this 'fact' in his poorly-written, dull monologue of a show, I thought I'd recommend some for him:

• Alien
• Aliens
• Alien 3
• Alien Resurrection
• Gravity
• Triangle
• Prospect
• Never Let Me Go
• Lucy
• Arrival
• The Invasion
• The Host
• I Am Mother
• Blindness
• Divergent
• The Hunger Games
• Underworld
• Underworld: Evolution
• Underworld: Awakening
• Underworld: Blood Wars
• Æon Flux
• The Forgotten
• Resident Evil
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse
• Resident Evil: Extinction
• The Cell
• Before I Fall
• Sliding Doors
• The Girl with All the Gifts
• Mortal Engines
• The Descent
• Inside Out
• Annihilation

There are also, of course, dozens more with strong female characters who aren't the leads, including the Terminator series, 28 Days Later, The Matrix, Inception (at the time...), Sunshine, Edge of Tomorrow, Serenity, Zombieland, the X-Files movies, Mad Max: Fury Road, Let the Right One In, Valerian, Chaos Walking, The Addams Family, The Island, and Interstellar.

Please watch some of them, Mr. Weil - they might inspire you to make a better sci-fi show.

The Walking Dead: Diverged (2021) Season 10, Episode 21

Yikes

[1/10 · 6 April 2021]

Carol attempts to cook a soup before playing hide and seek with a mouse, and Daryl fixes his bike. Riveting stuff.

For as bad as the previous episode was - and it WAS extremely bad - at least there was the saving grace of the intrigue surrounding the newly discovered group, even if said group does resemble a Star Wars cosplayers fan club. This episode had no saving graces whatsoever.

It's somehow worse(!) than spending the best part of an hour locked in an old train car with the show's worst character to-date. Remarkable.

Star Trek: Discovery: Terra Firma, Part 1 (2020) Season 3, Episode 9

Can We Have A Mirror Universe Series Instead?

[7/10 · 8 January 2021]

What sweet relief. After several atrocious episodes in a row - ones so bad I was starting to question whether I really wanted to carry on watching, despite loving sci-fi and Trek in particular - we're treated to a very strong Mirror Universe-centric episode.

It's a welcome relief, although the fact that it *is* Mirror Universe and therefore just a one-off (or two-off), means we're likely to return to normal once this two-parter is over. Normal in Discovery's case being soap opera Trek, with Burnham, the crying whisperer in the starring role.

It makes me wish we could have a Mirror Universe Trek series, instead of, well, anything they've produced in the last decade and a half. Too dark and non-PC for the current minds behind Trek, alas; limited room for emotional motivational speeches, crying, and tiresome box ticking in the Mirror Universe. But there's certainly a gap in the market for a ruthless, Game of Thrones-esque space opera sci-fi show. Maybe someone will make it one day.

Star Trek: Discovery: Unification III (2020) Season 3, Episode 7

It Keeps Getting Worse, Somehow

[2/10 · 6 January 2021]

Most of the problems I had with the last episode are not only brought forward into this one, but somehow made worse.

It's the Burnham show. Again. At least this time there's some logic to the story revolving around her, because she's Spock's sister, so that's progress on a technical level.

Unfortunately I'm just sick of her now. Utterly sick to death. Burnham could be a good-to-great character in an ensemble Star Trek. And Sonequa Martin-Green is a good actress (being given at times atrocious lines and direction). But this isn't ensemble Star Trek, it's Star Trek: Burnham. Everything revolves around her, every character must give way to her, even when it means completely abandoning logic and reason (example - a couple of episodes ago Burnham accompanies the new Trill crew member on a medical-based away mission, rather than the doctor. Why? Purely because it's the Burnham show).

The crying returns. It's even worse in this episode - so many scenes full of emoting, characters welling up, and also full blown tears. From someone apparently raised on Vulcan. I used to think Spock was sometimes written to be too emotional for the character's background. Boy, I didn't know how good we had it! The flaws in the writing for Spock's character aren't a patch on the writing for the emotional wreck that is Burnham.

An exercise in scientific fact and logic turns into a series of emotional speeches, some tears, a brief outbreak of war amongst the Vulcan-Romulan representatives, and a caving in to Burnham's argument... before she withdraws her request.

Vulcans, Romulans, logic, reason, science. These things are frequently invoked by the writing and the dialogue, but not for one moment treated with care and respect. Key tenets of Trek lore are forthrightly traduced. I think it comes down to these writers thinking they know better than those that came before.

This is all before mentioning the absurd spectacle of an Ensign being considered for the first officer position. And not just any Ensign, but a bumbling mess of anxiety, lack of self-confidence, and mental and physical unfitness. She is so utterly unsuited to a position of power and responsibility that you wonder if the writers are just trying their utmost to piss off as many fans as possible.

I guess the question now is - can it get worse still?

Star Trek: Discovery: Scavengers (2020) Season 3, Episode 6

Better Than Last Episode, Just About

[3/10 · 6 January 2021]

More tears, more emoting, more confected 'connecting'. Discovery continues to tread the path of soap opera more than space opera.

Burnham goes against direct orders from her captain... again. Saves the day... again. Is marginally punished... again - we'll see how long her demotion lasts for this time; I suspect not long.

We spend more time with the new character, who has zero charisma but more screen-time in two and a half episodes than half the bridge crew has had throughout two and a half seasons. She's found a connection with Stamets, who has negative charisma himself. A good match in theory I guess. But I can't stand either of them so I spend most of their scenes hoping they won't last very long.

This episode was at least slightly better than last, thanks to the main storyline - a prison break with Georgiou in a tow. Georgiou is one of those characters I want to like, because she's in a way a breath of fresh air from the constant emoting we get from most of Discovery's crew. Plus I like Michelle Yeoh a lot. But she's given some really cheesy, hammy lines at times, making it hard to really enjoy the character. I think the issue is she feels the need to point out how contrarian and bad-ass she is all the time. She'd be more effective - and more suitably sinister for a Terran - if she was a bit subtler.

Anyway, back to the point - the prison break plot was more interesting than last episode's seed-ship-adrift plot. So this is a 4/10 rather than a 3/10. It felt a bit more Star Wars Mandalorian-esque than Star Trek, with the action sequences, pretty CGI, explosions, and cannon-fodder enemies, but one has to take what one can from Discovery at the moment - everything else is so bad that Star Trek Wars doesn't sound so bad after all.

We finish with a heart-felt, whispered conversation from Burnham, some welling up, and then finally full-blown tears. That about sums up ST:D right now.

Star Trek: Discovery: Die Trying (2020) Season 3, Episode 5

So Schmaltzy

[3/10 · 5 January 2021]

What on Earth is going on with the writing and dialogue in this show?

I'll start by saying that I don't mind ST:D. At times over the last two seasons and a bit it's been very good, others less so. It's not as good as Voy, DS9, TNG, or even ENT, but it's consistently better than ST: Picard. And I thought the first two episodes this season were very good - almost excellent. It was visually impressive and the decision to commit the crew to a far future where the Federation is a shell of its former self was bold and full of potential.

But the last three episodes have been an utter drag.

I can take the addition of a very uncharismatic, dull, and utterly unnecessary new crew member that has the hallmarks of Wesley Crusher 2.0.

I can take the fact that the casting seems driven more by the need to tick various boxes, rather than by the need to find 1) the best actors possible, and 2) people who have an aura of charisma.

I can also take the fact that most of the crew are written to be either utterly unlikeable or totally unbelievable in their roles. This is can take mostly because Saru is an awesome and interesting character, and Georgiou adds some more than welcome bitter sarcasm to proceedings, even if it is hammy at times.

I can even take, most of the time, the fact that Burnham has to be the centre of attention and constantly breaks the chain of command (something she's done since the very first episode, when she literally assaulted her captain and falsified orders). But this Burnham obsession starts to grate when it's totally illogical - as in this episode. Apparently Burnham is best suited to convince a Barzan of what to do, and not another Barzan - sure, ok. Just as Burnham was more suited than the doctor to accompany a Trill with apparent medical complications to its home planet last episode. Makes total sense.

But the schmaltz, it's becoming unbearable. Every episode is filled with motivational speeches, emotion-driven dialogue, sappy scenes of people 'connecting', of eyes welling up with tears, and a crew (of what is supposed to be a SCIENCE ship) that talks about 'believing' and 'hope' and 'belonging'. It is quite literally a sci-fi soap opera at present.

The sci fi part of this sci fi soap opera is becoming increasingly weak too. This episode, for example, we have the crew finally finding the Federation, only for them (I say 'them', I mean Burnham) to become fixated on saving some refugees who just so happen to be being treated in the exact location they beam in to make first contact with this far-future Federation. Naturally the Discovery is also the only ship capable of saving them, and a cure is to be found in a seed ship that's randomly floating around in space. Cue Burnham captaining Discovery and leading the mission (because Saru has to stay behind as a guarantee - uhuh). On and on it goes.

The last few episodes have had plots as thin as paper, and almost every scene where science fiction is actually involved has a hole in it the size of a wormhole. The show is becoming riddled with inconsistencies, lack of logic, and a tiresome sentimentality.

I hope things improve in future episodes. I doubt they do.

Star Trek: Lower Decks: Moist Vessel (2020) Season 1, Episode 4

The ADHD Burnham Show

[3/10 · 16 October 2020]

Another review I read pointed this out, and it's something I agree with wholeheartedly:

The most interesting scene in the entire series so far - the first minute or so of this episode - is ruined by this show's hyperactive, ADHD afflicted take on Michael Burnham. The character's persistently annoying and ruins almost every scene she's in.

Homeland: Deception Indicated (2020) Season 8, Episode 1

Amateur Hour

[3/10 · 4 May 2020]

This show has fallen so far, it's almost hard to imagine that this is the same show that produced that incredible season one.

This first episode is so poorly written and executed that I'm just staggered, almost speechless. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the episode is littered with glaring errors, rather than having an ulterior motive. But just to name a few of the worst ones:

• American troops are portrayed as whiny, insubordinate, and incompetent. They also constantly question orders. All in front of a civilian while on mission.

• Head of Pakistani intelligence isn't just a woman (hard to imagine right now, but not impossible at some point), but an Indian woman (yeah... no, that's definitely not happening).

• CIA agent who is recovering from months of torture at the hands of foreign agents, and who is giving unreliable testimony, is put back into the field.

• Apparently said agent, who is a white woman, is the only person on the American side who 'alpha' (Carrie's word) higher ups in Afghanistan will respect and listen to. Sounds realistic.

This first episode bodes very poorly for season eight as a whole, but I'll stick with it just because I've invested seven seasons already so I may as well see it through to the end.

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

Terribly Written Star Trek

[3/10 · 8 April 2020]

I'm staggered by how bad the writing is in Picard. These people are paid to write for a living and they come up with... this?

I've seen many Trek fans attack Picard for trying to be too edgy; for the swearing, and the gore and violence. That stuff actually didn't bother me. If used appropriately it could be of great benefit to the franchise (for example discovering an alien race that's so brutally violent that it's a level above any other race previously encountered, the gore being used to emphasise this).

No, those things were neither here nor there. I was far more insulted by them constantly bringing back beloved Trek characters only to kill them off, often in the space of a single episode. That seriously pi**ed me off. It happens three times in ten episodes!

Another major problem: the key story arc is boring. This is a huge issue, because Picard is a serial tv/web show. Trek has some fantastic story arcs, from the Dominion to the Xindi. And even some that had fantastic potential but which were under-utilised (Voyager's journey home, which could and should have been more serialised, like a several season long version of the two-part episode Year of Hell). The story arc in Picard was neither well executed nor did it have great potential from the outset. There is some brief potential towards the end, when the prospect of an incredibly powerful race of evolved synths look set to invade Sar Fleet space, but it's quickly cut off.

Yet another major problem: the new 'crew' are almost to a person completely unlikable. None of them are charismatic, none of them interesting, even the emergency holos are cringe-inducing. If they all died in the opener of season 2 I'd be happy - at least with a reset crew there's a chance one of them would be worth investing in.

Plot holes galore, characters constantly making stupid decisions, Romulans now look and act pretty much like humans, cliched sequences of events you can see coming from a mile off, and actions not having approriate consequences. A member of the crew somehow manages to commit murder, is told she'll be turned over to Star Fleet, isn't, and then it's never mentioned again - at the end of the final episode she stands on the bridge with the rest of the crew as if all has been forgotten and forgiven.

The more I think back on the season the more disappointed I become - I'm starting to question if a 4 is too high for this dross.

So let's see, what are the upsides? Well, at least it's more sci-fi television, and I can't get enough of sci-fi, and specifically it's more Trek. So that's good, even if it has been somewhat butchered.

It's good to see Seven again... I guess. My second favourite character from Voyager, I was expecting to enjoy her return more than I did. She's changed a lot, but I guess that can be put down to her personality and 'humanity', now more jaded, developing a lot in the time since Voyager returned to Earth. But is that really why her character is so different? Or is it just that the writers have changed her to suit their own ends, and there's actually no reasoning or thought behind her personality changes at all. It's hard to say.

Seven in Voyager was a subtlely kick ass character, a deadly machine almost, hidden behind a mask of Borg stoicism. In Picard it's more a case of an outwardly kick ass character - like the only way the writers were able to portray how strong she is is by turning her into some sort of grizzled street fighter and gun for hire. 'Look guys, strong female character; she can even carry two phasers!'. I'll take Seven from Voyager any day over that sort of childish attempt at fan service.

Season one is basically a Trek series with bad writing and a completely unlikable cast of characters. The latter we're pretty much stuck with, but there's always hope the writing and story arc for season 2 will be much improved. It needs to be.

Mr. Robot: Hello, Elliot (2019) Season 4, Episode 13

Final Few Minutes? Great. The Preceeding Two Hours? Awful.

[4/10 · 24 January 2020]

This review will enrage fellow Mr. Robot fans, but I needed to say it for my own sake - what a shame, what a disappointment.

There were strong hints in the previous episode that this was where the finale was going. Unfortunately it proved to be the case, and it made for one of the worst episodes of an otherwise superb show.

There were a couple of forced emotional moments (helped along by classic 'sad, contemplative, please cry now' music) and a final scene that returned things to the show's usual stellar form, but 3 minutes of greatness at the end couldn't elevate the final 2 hours of this 4-year long show beyond mediocrity.

In hindsight the show should have ended with episode 4-11 eXit, or better yet 409 Conflict, rather than being stretched out with two additional episodes that almost entirely consist of a dream world.

I had higher expectations.

Chernobyl: The Happiness of All Mankind (2019) Season 1, Episode 4

Another excellent, beautiful, haunting, fascinating episode, but also the weakest one so far

[8/10 · 26 July 2019]

Another excellent episode in what is probably the best TV I've seen since the 6th season of Game of Thrones. But I was surprised and a little disappointed by how little time was spent covering the rooftop liquidators. Their role was arguably the most fascinating, intense and horrifying of all those involved in the Chernobyl clean-up.

The actual real, raw footage of them carrying out their jobs is terrifyingly eerie, and this episode *did* capture that very well, but only very briefly.

After a short introduction to their roles, we see one team performing their intense 90 second clean-up on the roof, and one final team hoisting the communist flag at the end to signify mission complete (and suggest that the final episode, which I have yet to watch, doesn't revisit their activities).

So that's probably it as far as the rooftop liquidators goes. A shame - would've loved to have seen half the episode dedicated to them to be honest (in contrast too much time was devoted to the wildlife liquidators).

The Grand Tour: Feed the World (2018) Season 2, Episode 11

More of this please

[8/10 · 5 March 2018]

As others have noted this is not the best special they've done, but importantly it *is* a special - yes, finally, at the end of the season, we get treated to one.

How much I've missed the hour-long specials that save us from the tedious and unfunny introductions to 'conversation street' and the infinitely worse celebrity segment. I always thought, throughout the first season, that although the celebrity segment wasn't in the least bit amusing, it was at least short. This season it's like they're punishing us for daring to complain about the celeb section by making it take up about a third of each episode's running time (ergh!).

So if only for that reason alone the special gets extra marks.

As for the merits of the special itself, well the concepts they came up with were of course fatuous (even for the trio's standards), but people taking offence to the special are either being entirely too delicate or are missing the point that it's meant as a (very good) parody of celebrity engagement with world poverty/hunger.

The other reason specials are so much better than the other content on GT (and TG before it) is that it allows for spontaneous comedy, rather than the canned, scripted gags that usually fall flat throughout the rest of the show. So they were plenty of moments of off-the-cuff humour that are the best parts of the trio's routine. The location and journey wasn't as good as most other specials, and the task didn't evolve as they progress, which is the episode's main weakness for me.

Still, probably the best episode of the season, if only for the fact that it's an hour-long special that spares us from the worst parts of the regular episodes.

Super Size Me (2004)

All Rather Pointless

[3/10 · 25 August 2014]

It is genuinely interesting, watching Morgan Spurlock attempt to eat nothing but McDonalds. There's something quite perversely satisfying as we see him become repulsed by eating the same foods all the time, but it fails to make a larger point.

Obviously Spurlock's attempting to point out how unhealthy McDonalds is (quelle surprise), but he does so not from an objective stand-point but from one where he has already made his mind up as to how he wishes to portray the company and its product, Michael Moore-style. If it's not clear from his own reporting, then the imposition of rather daft rules demonstrates this perfectly (if they ask him if he wants a larger size he always has to say yes, he always has to eat three full meals a day, and he must eat every item on the menu). But why is never really made clear. Is it because consumers are too stupid to make decisions for themselves? Whatever the reasoning, the scientific method is clearly not for Spurlock.

But even if he had conducted a truly scientific study, it still would've been pointless. McDonlads, as far as I know, have never encouraged consumers to eat nothing but McDonalds - the very idea is ridiculous. No one is surprised Spurlock puts on weight and quickly becomes terribly unhealthy, and nor should they be.

Rather, Super Size Me is simply an attempt to moralise. Spurlock gets on his soap box and essentially says 'McDonlads is evil and you shouldn't eat their stuff. Better yet, McDonlads should be banned, for the good of you all'.

People who have always hated McDonlads congratulate him for it while glorying in their own smug condescension at the lack of taste of the proles, McDonalds go into panic mode - on the one hand conducting a PR campaign to argue they're not an evil corporation while with the other they introduce new, healthier ranges of food, and the average consumer proves wiser than the lot of them and carries on having a (proper) McDonalds every once in a while.

Babylon 5: Passing Through Gethsemane (1995) Season 3, Episode 4

Infuriating and Moralising

[3/10 · 25 August 2014]

I've recently been watching Babylon 5 for the first time, going through the episodes in order. After having now watched the first 3 seasons I've come to the firm conviction that episodes which don't contribute towards the overarching story arc of the Shadows tend to be by far the weakest of the bunch.

This, in part, is because it was not until the first hints at a lengthy, epic story arc were made that I began to finally appreciate Babylon 5 (and for this reason the first season is largely a dud to me). The overarching story arc of the Shadows and all that they entail (most notably, thus far, instigating the war between the Centauri and the Narn) is compelling in its breadth and potential.

Passing Through Gethsemane, as other reviewers have noted here, is a filler episode. It does nothing to push forwards the major story arc and does little to add to it either. Not necessarily a negative thing, if the self-contained story were interesting. It isn't.

The monk-like religious order which came onto the station a few episodes back takes centre stage, which in itself is the first negative. Their patronising nature is annoying at the best of times and they frankly make for bland character studies.

Enter 'Brother Edward', a serial killer whose mind and personality has been wiped as punishment for his crimes. The Edward we see here is one who does not know anything of his past, and is as far as we know 'a good man'. He slowly learns about his past, however, through the events of the episode.

We're supposed to sympathise with Edward - and certainly every major character in this episode does, from Sheridan (who ridiculously loathes the man who ultimately kills Edward, even after he undergoes the same memory wiping process - a man whose loved one(s) were killed by Edward and wishes for revenge/justice - but is hugely sympathetic to Edward) to Ivanova (who simply refuses to even acknowledge that Edward was a serial killer).

It's all extremely frustrating, almost infuriating. If anything I sympathise with the person who kills Edward - he becomes a killer not because of his own sadistic nature like Edward, but because of a drive for retribution and because society now refuses to truly punish killers.

There's certainly a debate to be had there, but the writing in this episode preaches at the viewer, much in the same way as Brother Theo preaches his creed in almost every conversation he engages in - you're told who you're supposed to sympathise with and who to condemn, without any hint of subtlety, and not a single member of the crew argues against any of it.