emp-76054 Reviews

Motel Paradis (2022– )

A fresh take on a death investigation with a dash of the supernatural

[7/10 · 7 September 2024]

Jen, a 22 year old woman has a near death experience in a car crash. While unconscious she sees the image of her dead 14 year old sister thought to have committed suicide. Is the image an oxygen deprived hallucination or a message from beyond? Jen goes back to her small home town to find out with the help of the retired detective that always had doubts about the case. Jen's mother still owns the seedy motel that holds many secrets.

The series was well acted and well directed depicting small town life in rural Quebec. The lead actress is especially talented. The locals felt authentic and believable where everyone seems to have something to hide. Keeps you guessing without gimmicks and leaves you with a satisfying ending. I give it a solid 7 rating.

Alter Ego (II) (2023– )

Lackluster and cliched

[5/10 · 5 September 2024]

Let me preface by saying that I watched the English subtitled version. At the outset we are presented with a familiar old, bad-attitude detective, his hottie sidekick and the semi-genius criminal profiler that everyone resents. Sound familiar? It should, it's been done 100 times before...

What's good are the location shots of a huge, lively and colorful Carnival celebration in some picturesque town somewhere in Switzerland where the serial murders take place. Unfortunately that's the only interesting thing about this series. The story telling just seems to lack energy, too slow in development with clumsy plot misdirections. I had to bail after episode 3. I just didn't care about these characters.

Blanca (2021– )

I couldn't make it past the first episode

[4/10 · 29 June 2024]

Where I had to give up on this show was when the "blind girl" is gobbing on the makeup preparing for a date. Why did she have to stand in front of the mirror? She's blind. Agreeing with the other reviewer this was a very poor representation of a blind woman. Her seeing eye dog doesn't seem to see anything either--like someone hiding in her house. It's just dumb. Each story is in 2 90 minutes parts. Too darn long with contrived false leads, slow action, grouchy boss, attractive male partner... All the cliches are represented. The only compelling aspect of the show was how her acute hearing was represented visually. It was a cool effect but a device that could have been better used in the story. The location shots of Genoa were gorgeous but the show is too cutesy for me!

Celluloid Soul (2018)

High School level film project

[3/10 · 25 June 2024]

It's almost as if 2 different people wrote the script. The manifestation of the black and white movie character Ida, was kinda cute and clever but only brought this rating up to a 3 from a 2. The other characters and dialogue was dreadfully written at an eight grade level. I mostly fast forwarded past the other characters to the black and white scenes. Ida was surprisingly thoughtful, well acted (well enough anyway) and held my attention but was unfortunately spoiled by the Community Theater players in the rest of the cast. 1990s comedienne Judy Tenuda has a small role as the psychiatrist. Her standup would have been more entertaining.

Erimi hora (2023)

A beautiful story surrounded by contrived melodrama

[6/10 · 17 March 2024]

The main story line about the orphaned girl and the bitter old man was beautifully told with rich characters, good Directing and fine acting. The sets and scenery depicting rural farm life felt authentic. The Social Worker's story going the extra mile was touching. The characters were well developed and grew as the series went on.

Unfortunately, the 4 side stories were contrived, one-dimensional melodrama where everyone is always yelling although some real moral and ethical issues were discussed. Where the main story was rich and convincing, the rest felt unrealistic and a distraction. I found myself fast forwarding thru these scenes after a while. I would rate the main story an 8 but the side stories a 4 for a 6 average. Your mileage may vary.