unpersona Reviews

How I Met Your Mother: Mary the Paralegal (2006) Season 1, Episode 19

Bit of an annoying episode

[6/10 · 26 July 2021]

Sl-t shaming with a laugh track behind it does not good comedy make.

History 101: The Rise of China (2020) Season 1, Episode 3

Propaganda in the guise of historical facts

[2/10 · 4 June 2021]

Clearly from an American perspective and laced with pro-capitalist propaganda. Please do your own research and don't take this nonsense at face value.

Bill Wurtz's History Documentaries: History of the Entire World, I Guess (2017) Season 1, Episode 2

A pivotal point in "educaintment"

[9/10 · 10 March 2021]

Simple as it looks, the sheer amount of effort and research that went into this is actually very impressive. One of the better viral YouTube videos of our time. Wish I'd seen it earlier.

I Care a Lot (2020)

Don't go in expecting a compelling critique on capitalism and the American conservatorship system

[6/10 · 7 March 2021]

I was a bit conflicted on this one after watching. While it was certainly entertaining, whatever early promise it had disappeared by the time it turned into a Russian mob action film and ended with a plot twist for plot twist's sake. The performances are generally strong, especially from Pike and the iconic Wiest, but by the time we reached the final act I just didn't care anymore. I thought the first half was a lot better than the second one and the payoff, while extremely satisfying to some of you, felt somewhat underwhelming for me and left me with a bittersweet taste in my mouth.

All that aside, I would applaud the film for shedding some light on the American conservatorship system but even that's handled poorly and basically thrown away in the second half along with Dianne Wiest's character. It's a confused film in that regard and sadly loses focus just when it was building up to something promising. I also had trouble understanding why this is considered a comedy (what exactly is being satirized here?) as it is rather too dark and melodramatic at times to be considered a comedy, black or otherwise.

Don't go in expecting a compelling critique on capitalism and the American legal system, then you'll probably enjoy it more.

Friends: The One with the Prom Video (1996) Season 2, Episode 14

Slightly overhyped

[8/10 · 5 February 2021]

By all means a great, entertaining episode. But the best of the entire series? That I have to disagree with. Given that it's primarily a comedy show, I'd expect its greatest episode to be laugh-out-loud hilarious. While this episode had some pretty funny moments, it doesn't exactly do that for me and I believe - and hope - there is greater potential in future episodes.

Ratched (2020)

A confused and confusing mess

[5/10 · 2 October 2020]

Let me start with the good: this show is visually stunning. Aesthetically it's a success. The acting is also great for the most part, especially Paulson, Stone, Davis, Nixon and Briones all put on great performances. Wittrock is the only one whose acting I can criticize but perhaps that's due to his poorly written, inconsistent character because he was great in American Horror Story.

Speaking of poorly written, that pretty much sums up the plot of this show. The writing is so horrendous that I can't help but feel bad for the actors, who deserve way better than this mess. I actually did the enjoy the show and of course there were some great scenes, but by the time I was on the final episode I didn't care anymore. It was such a ridiculous and anticlimactic finale that felt like it was written by a middle school student so it left such a bad taste in my mouth, which is why I changed my rating from 6 to 5.

I feel like the writers weren't sure what they wanted this show to be. It was advertised as "the creation of a monster" but I can remember very few scenes that provide compelling backstory for the title character. In some episodes even, the focus is on everyone but Ratched. It all feels like a waste of production value.

Here's to hoping they learn from the criticism and prepare a good season 2.

Elite (2018–2024)

The Show That I've Been Looking for Years

[10/10 · 3 April 2020]

So glad I watched it. Zero regrets. Well, I actually have one regret: not watching it before. Definitely worth my time and I somehow bonded with the show and its characters within just two days (the time it took me to binge it all). I physically can't wait for season 4.

American Horror Story: Mr. Jingles (2019) Season 9, Episode 2

Misleading Title

[7/10 · 30 September 2019]

I genuinely don't understand why this episode was titled "Mr. Jingles" when it focused on backstory from pretty much everything but him.

The episode was pretty eventful but it felt too short. I was expecting it to go on for another 15 minutes when it ended on a cliffhanger.

The pilot was better in my opinion, and the trailer for the third episode does not excite me much either. That could be because of the fact that it's still set at night. I'm not used to watching a TV show set over the course of one night, which is a cool concept but it kind of needs something to make each episode distinct from the last one.