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Reviews
Slow Horses: Failure's Contagious (2022)
Ep.1 Is Codswallop
First of all, Oldman is one of my favorites. The cast is phenomenal. It's competent and well done as a production.
However, the writing and outrageous premise of this show, at least in this episode, is beyond caricature and borders on parody. It's sophomoric, blinkered, and, well, insane. It is the kind of wearisome fare the modern entertainment industry specializes in.
It reveals how out of touch the writers and creators are.
It is embarrassingly threadbare at this point. I'm now just waiting for all of the other "boxes" to be ticked as this series progresses.
The rating for this series is very high and the cast is too good for me to give up after one episode. I'm just surprised and disappointed to see how quickly this jumped the shark into a farce in episode one.
Shetland: Episode #8.1 (2023)
Wth was that?!
The modern machine only knows how to destroy what others created.
You took one if the great series & brought in the now hackneyed formula.
It is always difficult to replace the lead on an iconic series. Having said that, I can't defend this codswallop. You bring in one of the most unlikable shrews to be the main lead. The girl they're after is only slightly less repulsive.
The regular cast, who've helped make the series a winner, seemed pushed to the side to make way for Cruella. She's not interesting. She's not remotely friendly, relatable, sympathetic & her entire demeanor is caustic. No wonder she seems desperately miserable.
It's only episode 1. I'm willing to let this develop. But, I have little hope given the way the modern machine of this industry now works.
True Detective (2014)
Season 1... wow
Been through the series a couple of times.
Season 1 is one of the most disturbing, incredible & outstanding series ever made.
The other series are ok in their own way. Their only detractors are that they had Season 1 to compare themselves with. It's not fair. Season 1 is some of the most iconic television ever made.
Everyone did their part. MM got his deserved plaudits on this. He was incredible. Made one of the most remembered characters ever. Buy, the story..the writers...cmon! It was fantastic. Haunting, gritty, sad, sexy, ..legendary. Like an Elmore Leonard story, or a Yellowstone, it takes you to somewhere else. The parts of Louisiana was one of the main characters in this series. Fantastic.
Finally, Woody & MM together were astounding.
Midsomer Murders: The Made-to-Measure Murders (2010)
Codswallop
I have liked this enduring series and that is why this particular epidode is so disappointing. I agree with most of the reviewers.
It was a laughingly ridiculous and awful caricature. The agenda was not remotely hidden from the very beginning. Did ANYONE not know it wwas going to be the church going businessman who was the dastardly bad character and culprit? Pfft! Even those people who would be inclined to enjoy the bashing in this episode should have cringed at this sophomoric, hyperbolic and fumbling bunch of codswallop.
Oh, the ending was, dare I say it, diabolical. The ending, I thought, was so over the top, I started laughing. It could have been satirical! If it was satire, I'd have given a much higher score.
Case Histories (2011)
Phenomenal Series I wish continued
We are on our second time through the series this year. It's been a decade and it is just as fantastic as the first time through.
Love the setting and scenery. Edinburgh is an obvious character in the series and adds its own charm.
They don't hide the flaws of the characters in the series, but you still find them endearing, rather than off-putting. There is a self awareness and vulnerability in charaters you oft do not see in modern shows.
It is one of those series, after it's over, you simply wanted to continue the span of shows like Midsomer. Wife and I are dying for writers and actors to do a season or two revisit!
Wilderness (2023)
Typical offering from modern machine
This could have been good. I had hope. First few episodes I was willing to still hope.
Then, the modern formula simply kicks in.
"Man Bad."
Ignore murderous, psychopath bisexual woman.
But, boy... she sure murdered & destroyed those who wronged her.
YAAAAASSSS SSSLAAAAYYY KWEEEN!!!
You sure stuck it to that philandering man of yours.
That's all that matters. You can be any kind of psychopathic demented murderer & still be the heroin in 2023.
Yes, claim to be so strong...& then say you are what he made you. Perfect summation of claiming to be the conqueror & yet somehow the victim at the same time. It's laughable.
This won't get many likes & I'm thrilled by that. But this review described the foundation of this sad debauched & now threadbare tripe.
George Gently: Gently and the New Age (2017)
A poor end to a phenomenal series
I have loved this series. Love it's characters, stories, setting in both time and location.
That is why this last episode was so disappointing. In fairness, a finale to any series is tricky, especially a great series like this one was.
However, this episode strayed far afield from the rest of the series to the point it was unrecognizable.
Finally, if you watch entertainment in the UK long enough, you understand who it is that controls the narrative. This means you already know who will be portrayed as the villains in any movie, show, series, commercial, etc. It is sooo boringly threadbare, predictable, and over the top, it has become cringeworthy.
If you know what I am talking about, no explanation is necessary. If you don't know by now, no explanation is possible.
This unfortunate, clichéd storyline took away from the lifeblood of the series & seemed a hodgepodge of an ending to a truly great series.
Traces (2019)
Really tried to like it.
I watched the entire series. I wanted to give it every chance to succeed & sway me. Alas, there was no chance. This series is part cheap soap opera, part hodge-podge mystery that was not very mysterious.
The younger female lead is a really difficult like. A few other characters are also an aquired taste that I could not aquire.
There is also a carelessness in this series that was under the surface in season 1, but burst into a nuclear balderdash into season 2. Season 2 was a scrambled, incoherent spattering.
Finally, there is the prosthelytizing of the single viewpoint caricatures of the radical entertainment industry.
It is so wearisome.
1923 (2022)
Sheridan has run his course for me
First of all, I have really enjoyed a lot of Sheridan's prior work. Wind River is incredible, Sicario, Hell or High Water etc.
1923 has a Wonderful cast. Gorgeous scenery. Pretty good story as well, despite a few critics on this point.
But, it's all been said & done before from Taylor. His dark, grim nihilism and even postmodernist view of morality grows tiresome and depressing. Just pseudo-darwinian "survival of the fittest" played out in graphic detail. There is no right or wrong, only power. Logically, this leads to also being no objective truth. We just create "narrative" and we are locked into our own tribes.
It seems hard to escape his bleak nihilistic themes in all the Yellowstone works, The Mayor of Kingstown, etc. It runs through everything he touches.
In the end, there is nothing inspiring about throwing people into a dark pit and seeing which ones can destroy the others and survive.
Manifest (2018)
Typical clichéd modern mediocrity
A show with a really great hook & interesting story. Then, devolves into a melodramatic soap opera with all the clichéd prosthelytizing from the entertainment business. How disappointing. Could have been really interesting.
The Offer (2022)
Phenomenal!
I used to review & then stopped because I found it pointless & tedious. I even deleted all my other reviews, whether good or bad. However, when I'm so pleasantly surprised like I was on this series, I can't help it.
This series deserves awards. Not a weak link in this production. Brilliant. Matthew Goode, as some have mentioned, steals the show. Extraordinary!
One of the better series I'd seen in a while & I hope it gets some wins.