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Reviews
Old Dads (2023)
I get it: angry Gen-X
"Old Dads" presents a conflicting narrative, grappling between a potential redemption arc and a resolute affirmation of 'being right.' It's evident that the show's focus on touchie-feelie themes and DEI content within the initial 22 minutes might deter viewers, especially those seeking Bill Burr's humor. While his comedic prowess is undeniable, the concentrated emphasis on these themes might feel excessive and overwhelming. There's a hint of a broader storyline ahead, potentially exploring redemption or steadfast conviction, yet this remains unclear within the initial segment. Despite your current hesitation to continue, there might be a deeper, more nuanced narrative waiting to unfold, compelling enough for a second chance at watching "Old Dads."
On a Wing and a Prayer (2023)
Too many tropes to list
The story elements seemed to fall back on every trope possible in a situation like this. I understand the need to create tension and drama, but plenty could have been done with the actual 50 minutes in flight the family experienced without fabricating unnecessary situations and characters.
Also, I like Dennis, Randy-really all of the Quaids, but they could have casted people closer to the age of the real people (mid-50s) and especially the wife. It's a bit insulting to cast someone 16 years his junior when the real-life wife was only a year younger. If they had to have Quaid, cast the wife closer to his age. If they had to have Graham, cast the husband closer to hers-she was closer to the actual age anyway.
Total Forgiveness (2019)
How did this not end up on HBO?
College debt is a huge problem. It's bad for millennials and it's worse for Gen Z. State/Fed funding for public colleges is continuing to drop and that puts an increasing burden on students who will, for potentially decades, be continuing to pay it off even if they have good jobs in the career field they studied for. This show casts light on the problem and does it in a way that is both contemporaneous, appealing and appropriate for our time and the Dropout: brand. The quality of the production really does lend itself to a higher end mainstream outlet like HBO and any other streaming provider should have jumped at this opportunity. Congrats to Dropout: and Ally & Grant.
Around the World in 80 Days (2021)
Delightful take on the original
Like any adaptation, some liberties have been taken with the source material however, it remains true to the original spirit. Yes, Fix is a woman and no, Passepartout isn't white but he is French (was his ethnicity ever established in the source material?). I also haven't noticed anyone complaining about the lack of Fogg rescuing an Indian princess from a Sati.
Despite these differences, I managed to thoroughly enjoy this take and look forward to a season 2 with a possible adventure of investigating Captain Nemo and the Nautilus.
Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy (2022)
If you are a fan, you may enjoy this
If you want to know more about him and his rise from a humble young Chicago rapper and producer to the self-involved narcissist with delusions of grandeur that he his today, I guess this is the show for you.
Lost in Space: Trust (2021)
And they did it in 3 seasons?!
For all the poor reviews dissing the writing, I really have to hand it to them that, regardless of what may have originally been intended in terms of story arcs and the number of seasons to do it in, they certainly wrapped things up tighter and more succinctly than some other series that had many more episodes and seasons to do it in (I'm looking at you, Battlestar Galactica, aherm).
While I was totally left wanting more (I'm looking at you, Netflix, aherm), if this is the last episode of the last season of the 2018 'reimagined' Lost in Space, I am grudgingly satisfied-which is not to say that if they wanted to create a new series following the adventures of Will & Robot, I wouldn't watch it-but at least I'm not left with a bunch of dangling threads and an empty feeling and disappointment.
*sigh*
...and Scarecrow, I'll miss you most of all...
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Redemption II (1991)
Good episode but more simple solutions
The Federation starships create a 'net' to find cloaked Romulan ships. No explanation for why the Romulans, who are aware of it, couldn't just go around the 'net' as space is really big and there no celestial objects (stars, planets, asteroid field, nebula, etc) in the way.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Wounded (1991)
Like many, good for what it is
This episode is typical of many of the good ST:TNG episodes. However, also like many other episodes, there are little things that are just kind of dumb and don't make sense.
For example, Picard is told by Starfleet command to maintain the peace at all costs. After learning of the position of the starship phoenix, which has already destroyed a Cardassian 'science' outpost and is presumably looking for more action, he sets his ship to pursue at warp 4 which is like driving 35 on an interstate highway. It takes the destruction of two more ships and the killing of another 650 people before he tells his guys to kick it into warp 9. Picard should be court-martialed for that alone.
When he does catch up with the renegade captain, he listens to him tell his tale of potentially crazy conspiracy theories and then SENDS HIM BACK TO HIS SHIP with orders to follow along with Enterprise. Waitwut? The guy just committed serious war crimes and killed hundreds of people and you just trust that he's going to follow you a long back to his doom? And everyone is shocked and surprised that he heads back into Cardassian space and is about to destroy another Cardassian ship?
The rogue captain is never proven right or wrong in this episode so we only have the murderous rage of a crazy captain who should have been arrested on sight. I know the writers like to paint Picard as the crafty, genius-level captain but, give me a break.
Another Life (2019)
Less entertaining than 'dude where's my car?'
Katee tries but can't rescue this thing-I don't understand how it got a second season. I'm not going to rehash what all the other bad reviews have said about the other cast and their performances (I particularly liked the 'pigs in space' reference.)
I was really giving this a try and I ignored and forgave a bunch but when Katee's character keeps getting lambasted for killing Yerxa IN SELF DEFENSE she never gives that as the obvious reason. She always defends her actions with 'saving the mission' instead of stating the obvious that this guy committed mutiny, nearly got everyone on the ship killed, and then came after her when they were alone.
I should have stopped there but I made it as far as episode 6 (to be fair, I kind of slept through a lot of 5) and now I'm done.
Greyhound (2020)
All action and subtle character development
Funny... reading the other reviews is what encouraged me to write mine. Most of the low scoring reviews complain about poor character development or thin plot lines. We've had 80 years of movies giving us lots of historical detail, real or imaginary characters development and simple or convoluted plot lines from the World War II era. This movie didn't really need a lot of that to tell the story it was trying to tell. If you're paying attention, you can see the characters develop as the story is told. You can see the scared people gather their courage, the dedicated and loyal people that "take one for the team," and the dedicated captain who will change out of his service shoes bloodied from days of constant wear into the slippers that his girl friend gave him as a gift.
There are plenty of movies that have tried to give you complex stories with multiple plot lines and lots of character development only to fail and perhaps try to make it up in the form of some action scenes. This movie was never about that. The action is first and foremost what drives it, and you learn about the characters through the course of the events of the action. This movie was great for Apple TV+ but, it probably would not have been as great for a theatrical release.
Doctor Who: Orphan 55 (2020)
Too many characters & plot threads, too little time
Too many Doctor Who stories these days routinely kill dozens of people and no one really seems to care. We get a retired couple, the husband goes missing and the first thought is take the wife out into the dangerous environment with you? The daughter of the resort owner (?) is going to blow the place up while carnivorous humanoids are running around killing everyone because mommy didn't spend enough time with her? So little time was spent building these characters and their back stories that I didn't care about them or ultimately anything else that was going on in the story. Because of this, I spent more time paying attention to editing choices, not so special effects and critical plot defects that just didn't make sense. I couldn't suspend my belief, it took me out of the story and sent me into an annoying spiral where I just became more critical of the whole thing. Additionally, it made me look back at the previous episodes and notice similar problems like, the Master can just randomly kill people by shrinking them and the Doctor doesn't seem to get too upset over this. The season needs help, badly.