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catgirl6
Reviews
The Watcher (2022)
Don't Expect a Show Based on a True Story to End Differently From the True Story
I don't know why so many viewers are blaming Ryan Murphy for this story ending without a resolution. First of all, the real-life story this series is based on has still never been solved, so why should Murphy make up a fake ending? Imagine learning the true identity of The Watcher some years from now, and the joke this series would become if Murphy had chosen the wrong culprit.
Secondly, an awful lot of stories on both film and books leave the viewer or reader hanging, wondering what happened. That kind of plot twist can often be the reason for a film or book's success, because the audience has so much to ponder and talk about when it ends. Think 1969's "The Italian Job," or 2010's "Inception."
I recommend watching this series for the incredible acting by everyone in the cast, including the smaller roles, and the very real suspense woven throughout. You will think you've figured out "who done it," even if your prime suspect changes over the course of the series. And you you'll look forward to the reveal proving you're right in the end. And maybe you are. Time may tell.
Harry & Meghan (2022)
Poignant, Heartbreaking, and Beautiful at Once
This necessary telling of the love story, public and private abuse, and personal renewal for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Dutchess of Sussex, is everything it should be. While taking the audience through their journey of love and loss, one can't help but be moved by the strength and fortitude they've shown in the face of brutal harassment and family betrayal and disloyalty.
As they walk us through the progression of events in their lives, every emotion they experienced from their deep, abiding love and commitment to one another, to the abject terror they felt over Meghan's life literally being at risk both internally and externally, is palpable. We get to hear Meghan read the love note to Harry that she read at their wedding reception, watch the couple setting out Easter eggs and blowing up balloons to mark the holidays and milestones of their children's lives as ordinary families do, and see their adorable children frolicking on the beach and in their gardens, enjoying the peaceful lives they've created on the other side of the pond from Kensington Palace.
But interspersed with the loving family moments, never-before-seen home video and still photos also show the anguish they suffered, the public flogging of this young couple laid bare, exposing the hateful and racially charged double standards as to how Meghan was portrayed in the press versus her sister-in-law Katherine, from positively swooning over Kate "tenderly cradling" her pregnant belly while hatefully suggesting Meghan was "vain" or "prideful" for doing the exact same thing, to portraying Archie as a chimpanzee, a clearly racially motivated smear with historical significance.
When renowned UCLA professor of African American studies, Safiya Umoja Noble, says in episode 4, "Let's be clear about what's actually at stake here. It's like symbolic annihilation. If you can destroy people who are symbols of social justice, then you can scare people to not want to be public. It is a way to signal to the rest of us to stand down," it was the clearest picture yet of why all of this was done to them, and a stark reminder of why it was so important for the duke and dutchess to speak out and set the record straight.
Home video also sheds light on the relentless assaults on their privacy, from being surrounded by boats, helicopters, and drones waking them and their infant son at all hours, to intruders cutting through fences to try to get to them. Meanwhile, the "Firm" flatly refused to offer them any protection, often being the ones who leaked or invented stories out of whole cloth to destroy the public's perception of their image and putting their lives at even greater risk.
Fortunately for Harry and Meghan, they managed to escape before someone killed one of them the way they did Harry's mother, the late Princess Diana.
Videola (2016)
Don't Bother
Apparently, this was supposed to be a pilot for a series, so calling it a TV movie is extremely misleading. Given that it ends completely unresolved of any plot point whatsoever, I wouldn't waste your time watching it.
Country Comfort (2021)
Basically, it's "The Nanny" with country accents.
Her boyfriend dumped her, she lost her job working for him, and she coincidentally showed up at the door and was mistaken for someone the nanny agency sent over. She showed how good she was with the kids during a crisis, so she was offered the live-in job on the spot despite having no nannying experience.
There's even a CeCe character (although here she's the actual girlfriend); a Brighton character, wheeling and dealing like a Wall Street executive; and a Gracie character who still hasn't dealt with the death of her mother. I'm sure one of the older boys will show himself to be a Maggie character who just needs confidence and a makeover. Cute show. I loved it in the 1990s too. 👍🏽😘
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Dumbest movie I've seen since Joe vs the Volcano
It's just gore for the sake of it. There's no cohesive story. And there's no satisfying ending. This movie sucked hard. Skip it and watch something truly suspenseful like The Invisible Guest (Spanish with English subtitles).
Body of Proof (2011)
Abysmal writing, Caricatures not Characters
The reason certain shows make it and others don't, when they basically have the same general setting (hospital shows like Gray's & ER, or coroner shows like Bones & the '70s Quincy, M.E.) is because of the *main* characters, not so much each week's patient or each week's story line, except as it moves the relationships between the primary parties.
Will Bones & Booth from the series "Bones", ever get together? Will Angela & Hodgins find their way back to each other (which took several seasons to find out!)? It's a "hook" that keeps you coming back for more. And that's what this show is sorely lacking.
Here, the writers introduce us to Megan Hunt, neurosurgeon turned coroner, due to a condition that causes her hands to go numb at inopportune times, so she can no longer work on live patients. Being a neurosurgeon, she obviously has to have a healthy ego, and we learn that she's also a workaholic who has a reputation for not being very nice. Having put her work ahead of her family, Megan is divorced and her daughter Lacey lives with her father, who won custody by convincing the court that Megan was an unfit parent due to her consistent absence from their daughter's life.
So after that introduction, we're meant to wonder how Megan will be able to rebuild her broken relationship with her estranged daughter. We hope to see a poignant story unfold about a mother earning her daughter's trust and love again.
****SPOILER ALERT****
In episode 2 (Letting Go) Megan's daughter, Lacey, angrily ran off, telling her mother she was "trying too hard". It broke Megan's heart and she's left at the end of the episode crying in her car. We don't see or hear about Lacey in episode 3 (Helping Hand) and in episode 4 (Talking Heads) Lacey has chosen to do a video essay about her mother's job for a class and asks to spend the day with her at her work. What? When did she stop hating her mother?
Yet for all the begging and pleading to spend more time with her daughter that the audience is subjected to, and the father doesn't allow, Megan is suddenly reluctant to have her daughter with her for the day and starts off objecting! Suddenly she doesn't want her daughter to get to know her better?
But of course she relents and by the end, "what Lacey learns in the process profoundly changes her view of her mother." Well isn't that nice and wrapped up? Except it's apparently not. By episode 7 (All in the Family), when Megan's ex-husband asks her to fill in for him and pick Lacey up at a friend's house the next day, Megan has to call Lacey to make sure she's really all right with that. Why? Well, as Megan explains, "the last time I saw you, you said I was trying too hard." Uhm, no she didn't. That happened the time *before* last.
Megan Hunt is extremely driven with a reputation as a "ball buster". Her colleagues are afraid of her wrath and she storms around talking to people like dirt. So, will she ever be able to lose her anger and start to build relationships with her co-workers? YES! In three episodes she went from a woman who was a hard*** to a woman who sews torn jacket sleeves. Awwww, how sweet -- and completely unrealistic of a turnaround.
According to the back story, she's been working with these people for 4 years in the coroner's office, but they write their interactions as if they only started working together a few weeks ago. Now in episode 3 she suddenly cares about their lives? Why? What was the catalyst? There wasn't one. At least not one the writers bothered to take any time to *build*. No, all it took was her boss, Kate Murphy (played by Jeri Ryan) telling her she might try showing an interest in her colleagues. She's never said that to her before in the past 4 years? And that simple request was enough to make her Mrs. Nice Gal?
This show is trying too hard to mimic "Bones", while not-so-successfully pretending not to. And just so we "get it", in episode 7 (All in the Family) the writers have Megan's ex show up at her office because he needs a Forensic Anthropologist, which Megan must, of course, remind him that she isn't. That would, strangely (because this is supposedly the coroner's office, not The Jeffersonian), be her boss. Or should I say her boss's boss. Except for the fact that Megan's always giving orders to her boss and reporting to her boss's boss as if she were her boss.
This show is so sloppy they should put it on a bun, call it Joe, and serve it with a tall glass of milk.
Law & Order: Los Angeles (2010)
This show stinks
I was really looking forward to this new version of the L&O series. What a terrible disappointment! It's cliché beyond the imagination and the writing downright stinks. "He's an actor." "It's L.A." Nooooooo! How would I have known had you not beat me over the head with it? The defense attorney made statements that weren't questions without the prosecution objecting, and the witnesses gave speeches that didn't even answer the "questions".
The plot was boring and predictable. The acting was wretched. The fake paparazzi with all the cameras clicking was so overdone and looked so cheesy.
I won't be wasting my DVR space on this one.