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Pandora (2019)
Low budget does not have to be this bad.
I gave it a chance and the episodes only got worse. The acting is terrible, the storyline, contrived, the sets minimal. This is not science fiction; it is just a fantasy plot without a good script, and where the producer chose to call it Sci-Fi - Action just to get people to watch it more than five minutes. I have seen good low budget sci-fi and know it can be done. Low budget does not have to be this bad. There is no excuse for this.
Ready or Not (2019)
Directed by a 1st year cinamatography student?
Either the director was inexperienced or not paying attention. Scenes were setup clearly for the benefit of the camera despite interfering with the story line. The screen play seemed as though the actors were given no script and then told to ad-lib. Situations in the plot had not connection to the story, and at times it seemed that the whole production was intended to be a parody of a low-grade thriller, however it couldn't even pull off that successfully. If this was performed by a small-town amateur troop consisting of neighbors and their kids it might have been entertaining, but this was certainly was not a commercial quality production.
Aladdin (2019)
Aladdin in Bollywood
Will Smith added his unique flair in this new to the role Robin Williams made his own, and as I mention in my title, this version was Bollywood influenced. It was nice to see a villain who didn't have that particular English accent common to Disney villains and with a little more back story. Other than a few variations to the story, its pretty much the same to before.
Pennyworth (2019)
Well written and directed
The characters' lines are well written and their silent responses effective in pulling me into the story. Nudity, and graphic violence are somewhat following GoT so there there are people I wouldn't recommend this to, but those depictions are effective in portraying this dystopian alternate England in the grey, dark, world parallel to Batman's Gotham City in the US.
Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth (2018)
I was annoyed by Segun Akinola's soundtrack
I found the show an entertaining variation in the conventional Doctor Who storytelling style, except I was annoyed by Segun Akinola's soundtrack which I feel detracted from the show's story. Aside from generally being less than worthless where I would have prefer no sound track at all, the 70's ping pong stereo effect on the sound track about 15 minutes into the show both nauseating and pointless for the show's constant at the point in the story. If they couldn't get Murray Gold to do the soundtrack again, at least they could have found someone better able to compose a soundtrack to enhances the story rather that just providing distracting background noise.
Supernatural: O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2015)
No Plot
I'm a die-hard Supernatural fan but this episode was worse than just not worth watching. The entire story would have been better set into a more detailed plot but instead of a good script creating believable characters, the director just has the camera pointed at the actor's faces, requiring the audience to use imagination to fill in all the missing details in this empty story. I like the Supernatural series and know all the characters but I need a story with at least a little depth to it. The whole episode was worse than merely a waste of the resources of the actors and the technology that went into the depiction; this episode completely broke the thread of good story telling that preceded it. I believe this weak link in this season's story arc will disrupt the line so much that it may be impossible to recover interest even with a well written follow-up story. Hopefully this sort of carelessly weak writing will not become commonplace or it may be the doom of this long running series.
Andromeda: The Things We Cannot Change (2002)
Clip show/flashback episode
This flashback episode consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. It is a waste of time and was likely created just to stretch the show's budget. Unfortunately, with the series just under two seasons old, the clips make this episode seam tacky. The episode is mostly set in a single location with a smaller than usual cast. I wish TV viewers would make syndication give up this weak vehicle. If your going to show flashbacks, show them of things that give information that none of the previous episodes have done already. But that's not the case here. It was just an tedious thread of rehashing strung together under a weak and boring premise that does nothing for the overall story or for successive episodes in this series.