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A Small Light (2023)
Beautiful and well done except
I find it odd that the writers felt it necessary to impose their worldview in such a significant way.
Miep Gies was a devout Catholic. This is part of what drove her to her to her heroic actions and she was consistent with this until dying in 2010 at 100.
It would be one thing to leave this out entirely, but the writers seemed intent on emphasizing Miep's lack of religion or even aggressive atheism in the show. When Jan sneaks off and she suspects he's going to church, she reacts like a 2024 Hollywood writer might: with horror.
Very odd considering this was added as a dramatic edit by the writers.
This blatant change that I'm certain the real Miep and Jan would have strongly objected to made it difficult to enjoy the rest.
Otherwise, very well done. Bel Powley was brilliant and Miep was instantly likable and a joy to watch the whole time.
Ted Lasso (2020)
I don't understand. Season one was incredible. 10/10.
But season two was just... rough. Like a show about resilience, true kindness, respect, humility, and love turned into a show about anger, resentment, and apologizing for your existence.
It just wasn't funny. At all. This was a laugh out loud funny show with a ton of heart. Season two was completely unfunny. Great Value Ted Lasso.
Really sad- I loved this show but couldn't get past 2.3.
It's difficult to fathom how the same writers can just suddenly stop being funny. Did they just phone it in? Are they choosing their activism over producing actual entertaining content? Who knows?
A sad end to a once-great show.
Resident Alien: The Alien Within (2022)
Why?
Why the hell are we watching activist twitter? I'm watching a comedy about aliens. I don't care how you feel about mining companies. I don't care how you feel about ski resorts (as if these useless stores don't go to resorts themselves). I don't care about your activist nonsense.
It's a comedy. About aliens.
Stop lecturing me. Go away.
We don't need 25 minutes an episode about all the social justice anti capitalist BS that the writers couldn't get out on twitter.
More story. More jokes. Less woke idiocy. I do t even know how I made this far, honestly.
Stop ruining everything good.
The end.
Resident Alien: Girls' Night (2022)
Holllllllyyyyyyy Cringe.
This was brutal. Random woke girl-power nonsense that does nothing to help anyone. No profound or interesting statements were made. Just needless political crap about the "gender pay gap."
It's a comedy about an alien becoming more human. I haven't cringed harder in a long time. If this happens again, I'll definitely be leaving this show behind. Loved season one, but it's not close to worth this episode.
It can't be that bad, right? Oh but it is. Just when you think you can stop cringing and relax, the most cringeworthy moment drops. You'll know.
Whoever wrote this was not the same person who wrote season one.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Marvelous Radio (2019)
No Politics Needed
Yes, Abe is a Communist and we're all supposed to laugh and pretend it's not wicked and immoral. But, now we're getting legitimately heavy handed.
I do not care about Palladino's politics. Leave them out, maybe?
Settlers (2021)
Men = Bad, The West = Bad, Robots = Good
If a middle schooler had written this, one would be impressed that they show promise for the future.
We are supposed to sit through 90 minutes of unrealistic characters (because they all represent something else) and then be so impressed by the metaphor that we ignore all the problems?
What the storyteller seems to miss is that we are moved by movies that tell human stories. Activist theories don't play well on film.
And what is the protagonist walking toward now? Alone and into the un-terraformed Mars? Emptiness and a lonely death? Well, maybe the writer understands postmodernism after all.
The Wheel of Time: Blood Calls Blood (2021)
Confused By All The Anger Over This Episode
Yes, it was different than the book.
Yes, it was more of a character-building, exposition-heavy pause to the "main story."
But I was intrigued the whole time. They keep the non-book readers guessing with some false hints and I see no problem with that.
I personally love the peak into Moraine and Lan in the white tower that we don't see in the books. We don't have thousands of pages to explain the warder-aes sedai bond, which plays a major part in many story lines. I think they effectively portrayed Jordan's vision, while not simply having someone repeat how it works over and over. They showed it with grief and I thought the last scene was my favorite so far.
It was never going to be page for page like the books, but it seems to me the writers are true fans of WOT and *so far* I am really enjoying what they've done (other than the Perrin thing form episode one I mean wtf).
Black Mirror: Men Against Fire (2016)
Left Me Shook
Most reviews seem to misunderstand this episode.
This is an episode about eugenics, tribalism, and the danger of dividing a population based on health. Health is the subject.
Each Black Mirror episode is, to some extent, a cautionary tale. It takes a technology or potential innovation to one of its darkest possible conclusions.
This was a fantastic and deeply troubling episode years before the Covid pandemic. How easy was it to divide us into masked and unmasked? Vaxxed and unvaxxed? One Cult and another Cult.
When we disregard empathy (and the powers that be push as much Fear as possible), we risk awful results.
Noughts + Crosses (2020)
I really enjoyed the first half - then it fell off a cliff.
What an intriguing plot - a world where whites are the underclass. It's set in modern times, but without the civil rights movement. So there's an interesting mix of then and now issues, flipped on their head.
The characters are like-able and believable. Until they aren't. Characters are complicated. You can't just have them do whatever you want because you need it for the plot. These characters change so fundamentally from episode five to six, it really pulls you out of the story. This is a Dany-season-eight-of-Game-of-Thrones level change.
I did finish the season, may or may not continue, but the writing just didn't hold up to the end.
Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne (2019)
For the love of God
I rewatched the Lost finale and decided it's not so bad.
I rewatched this and I want D&D to suffer.
Yellowstone (2018)
It's just silly.
Silly is a weird word to describe a show and I never would have expected it from this one, but I can't think of a better word to describe it.
It's like if Succession and Final Destination had a baby in Montana.
Your typical capitalist dystopia that is hard to not watch, expect for when it's hard to watch.
Succession is better because even though both are a ridiculous, indulgent, socialist Strawman wet dreams (whether you agree with that philosophy or not), Succession at least pretends to be realistic. Both have billionaire families who are essentially nuance-free Michael-Moore-level tropes of greedy, heartless, white rich people, but Yellowstone has far too many breaks in the drama - breaks filled by fatalistic (at best) and outright bizarre (at worst) encounters. People get impaled, their heads broken on concrete, fall off cliffs, and get paralyzed under horses. One such event is plausible. Daily catastrophic events get a bit silly.
It's as if the writers from Succession wrote lazy Succession fan fiction and allowed the writers from Final Destination to make one change per episode.
The result is a mildly entertaining trip (over a magnificent, Montana backdrop) that never feels quite right.
The Raven (2012)
Strikingly Disappointing
So many things could have come of this movie. Unfortunately, the script was dreadful. Words like "nuts", "OK", "stuff" were simply not used in this time period. Inexcusable lack of research on the writer's parts. And the dialogue... ugh. One cliché after another, not even Cusack could make a believable character out of it. Amazing failure on the writer's part considering how often the subject matter would allow them to quote Poe.
It attempted to be a realistic portrayal of what really took place in the last days of Poe's life, but was marred by silly, unrealistic actions sequences and Final Destinationesque gore. An attempt to appeal to both audiences that will likely appeal to neither. One is always willing to suspend disbelief when watching a movie, but this required one to leave their brain at the door.
The only watchable part of the film was Luke Evans, who somehow managed to draw a straight line with this crooked stick of a script.
Under the Dome (2013)
Halfway through the first season: dreadful
Turned an interesting, original story into someone's political wet dream. The small town rednecks act stupid and bigoted. The same-sex couple is heroic. The domineering male raises his son to be a kidnapper. Like Hollywood normally treats small towns, without a hint that anyone involved has actually been to one.
Also, the dialog is dreadful. All the simple-minded "small town folk" say things like "Just passin' through? What you runnin' from?", or "In this town, it's best to be a team player." The only characters with depth are the ones from out of town. And all the kids sound like old men trying to stay "hip".
World War Z (2013)
Please Ignore the 1 Star Ratings
The reviews I read from fans for this film had me expecting it to be mediocre.
I was pleasantly surprised.
This was everything you want a movie to be. It started running from the first five minutes and didn't stop till the last five. Well directed, well acted, and a simple story that, unlike typical zombie/horror films, didn't have me yelling at the screen the whole time after characters made stupid choices.
People actually make practical decisions.
The one complaint I've seen most is that it didn't have enough "bite" or gore. A lot of zombie fans showed up for some intestine ripping and head chopping. Also unlike most zombie films, this one didn't rely on gore to keep itself afloat.
Definitely the best zombie movie I've seen.
See it.