Change Your Image
wagnbrner
Reviews
For All Mankind (2019)
Really amazing....sometimes.
I watched one episode. Didn't really like it, but stuck with it for some reason. Now we're down to two episodes left in season two, and I have to say, it's really good! Except for when it isn't. I'll try and explain. It's VERY difficult to review this show, because watching it is an experience in frustration. It doesn't have to be all action, all space, all the time. But it's called For All Mankind, and it's a "what if" series about an alternate history where the Soviets get to the moon first, and stay there, so the US and it's allies do as well. You'd think with that premise, it would be a lot more interesting, and have a lot more, well, space travel. Nope. It's a drama. Not so cheezy as a mid morning soap opera, because it's really well written, well acted, thought provoking, and the production values are top notch. Lots of fun little tid bits with alternate history and workings of actual events into the story, but what exactly IS the MAIN story? It goes all over the place, and that's the frustration. There are too many characters with too many side issues, none of which has to do with NASA or the supposed ultimate goal of getting to Mars and beyond. Nothing wrong with a bit of character drama, but set against a backdrop of the Cold War and the ongoing Space Race, is it really necessary? I've seen user reviews complain about it being "woke" or too political. That's not an issue at all. It's character based and the acting is amazing, so that's great. What is a problem is that the show will get going, then derail itself, all in one episode. What they choose to show vs what they just mention (or ignore completely) is incredibly aggravating. Example (very minor "spoiler" I guess): The Soviets land on the moon just a few weeks before Apollo 11. The US finally gets to the moon, and they crash land. What? Why? For the sake of drama? Why else make Neil Armstrong look like a clown? Ok, so they crashed. Drama. Now we need a rescue or something exciting, right? Nope. They're fine. It's ok, and never really mentioned again. Time to get more missions up on the moon, right? Nope, we're gonna go into something else instead, and while those missions do take place apparently (it's never shown or mentioned), we're gonna keep the story back on earth with other stuff. Domestic drama, etc. Meanwhile, we go from Apollo 11 to 15 with nothing really in between. The next time we're back on the moon it's 4 missions later. Um, ok. And then we go to season 2, it's suddenly the 80s. We skip all of the 70s and all the missions that happen in one decade, and here we are! Great show, solid actors and acting, but for a space program that's intent on going to the stars, now we know the real reason why it's 2021 and we still haven't been to Mars in real life: it's all the other side BS that NASA is apparently dealing with. This show doesn't know what it wants to be. A space adventure? A political drama? A domestic soap opera? Dear writers, choose a direction and stick with it. For All Mankind doesn't mean anything about space, it apparently means we're trying to be all things to all people and frustrate you in the process. Some absolute brilliance to be found here, but you have to sit and sift through a lot of other stuff to get there.
Dirty Old Wedge (2016)
Lots of talking heads. Very little Wedge
The title is misleading. It should be called The Dirty Old Wedge...Crew. It's more about the history of the locals and very little footage of people hitting the Wedge. I guess my personal expectation was to see footage and chronicles of the biggest days out there, and people riding said waves, regardless of who was riding what they were riding. This isn't the case, and if like me, that's what you're looking to see, you're going to be let down. Save your money, jump on youtube, check out BeefsTv or something similar for just straight up dirty footage of solid Wedge waves.
Fear the Walking Dead (2015)
World War Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........
Where does one start than by saying that Kirkman is a genius for getting us to buy into this. It's pure boredom at it's finest, and if they didn't pound AMC into us at the myriad of commercial breaks I'd swear this was something from a Saturday morning Sy Fy movie marathon. Horribly written, characters feel like they are thrown together. Did they give us something new that we weren't expecting? Yes, because we were expecting something compelling, frightening, terrifying. Instead we got a boring snoozer that doesn't feel anything like what we saw after the Rodney King verdict, which is what this should have at least drawn from and possibly used as metaphor. Instead we got a junior high school drama that's 10 minutes of story crammed into a season long series. Complete and utter waste of Cliff Curtis, who has incredible range and is an amazing actor. This series is so awful it's also taking some of the shine and anticipation off of the upcoming Walking Dead series. Don't bother watching this. Go find something good on Netlix or watch pain dry.
Falling Skies (2011)
Pragmatic review: Pale imitation of better shows.
I didn't have high hopes, and I didn't want to just go into it hating it, I just thought I'd watch it and see where it goes. The pilot episode was so predictable, so re-hashed, and frankly pretty boring, but I thought I'd stick with episode 2 and see if it picked up. Frankly, it just got worse. Pros: A good cast and some decent acting. Moon Bloodgood is a good looking lady (to say the least), but I'm glad they didn't just stick her in there as "the hot chick". She and other characters are fairly believable, all things considered. Overall, good job on the casting. Nice to see some new faces, and Noah Wyle is a lot more believable than Tom Cruise was (in a similar role) in the War of the Worlds remake. Cons: Absolutely nothing original here, complete copies of things you've seen recently, only those shows do it better. You have the most clichéd characters and story lines: The tension between military and civilians (BSG), and tension between military man and school teacher (BSG again), the racist outlaw that confronts the survivors (Walking Dead). You name it, you've already seen it. Even the mechs look like Cylons, but with blue lights instead of red. Speaking of which, the alien designs and fx are pretty poor, something out of a sy fy Saturday morning original. Mega croc and giant shark might be making an appearance in the next episode. The established rules don't make any sense. The Aliens could wipe out all of out military, but it's OK to walk around in the open during daylight? Nothing electronic works, but they all have flashlights? Sky fighters hone in on fire, but they all use candles and campfires for cooking? None of the "skitter" aliens appear to be armed, but they are the superior fighting force? I could go on, but I don't want to seem bitter. The one bit of intrigue this show has is the question of why the aliens are 6 legged, but the mechs are bipeds. I think we all know the answer, but maybe that one issue might turn out to be something original. When it's revealed, I won't know, because I won't we watching this show again, at least not until it comes out on DVD or streaming. Which brings me to my final point of what is murdering this show: COMMERCIALS. Last night's episode must've been 20 minutes of show, 40 minutes of commercials. I've never seen anything like it.