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Reviews
Ragnarok (2020)
lost three stars for a crappy ending
Well what can I say? A really great show that I enjoyed so much until the last season. It was as if we had exchanged good writers for mediocre ones. The story felt very rushed this last season.
(why is every show either dragged out or rushed through? Pacing people, pacing... pay attention to it!)
And then a very 'meh' ending, after a silly teen drama. After you find out you're a god/concept personification, you suddenly go back to being mentally 3 years old? Not that the Norse gods were anything but big babies, however we have the benefit of modern education here. Or so it would seem.
And the end, what were they thinking? They spent so much time crafting a great story to just drop the ball at the end? Its like Michaelangelo painted the sistine chapel but couldn't be bothered with the eyes, and then stuck googly eyes on all the figures. Why bother in the first place?
So I've been left desolate, and hoping that Jormungandr starts eating people by the truckload to give us something interesting - the world serpent is one of my faves and nothing happens except he goes off into the ocean - presumably to snack on whales and oil rigs.
So very disappointing, and I'm fairly heartbroken, as it was excellent YA tv until now.
Gyeongiroun Somun (2020)
one of the more addictive kdramas
Second season and I still really like this show, it's hilarious.
And so good to see Kang Ki Young, I always like him... he should have more lead roles. The mercury went up a little while he was being evil with his shirt off, lol
The noodle shop is going nicely. Ahn Suk Hwan's moustache is going even better...
The cheese is ladled on liberally, but the social commentary is still very much on point.
And as always, the Korean comedy moments are golden indeed.
My mother is even more completely addicted to this show than I am, she was literally hanging out for it and couldn't get to the telly quick enough once the second season dropped.
Keep your hair curly, folks!
Somebody (2022)
I love the soundtrack!
This is really excellent, I don't know why the low ratings on here.
The bad guy is so good that I have trouble watching him in other shows now, (Kim Young Kwang). He does the facial expressions of the narcissistic serial killer so perfectly, it creeps me out.
The soundtrack! Omg the soundtrack of all the old noir films mixed in with everything else... its a work of art in itself.
Everyone in this was great, no-one took me out of the story with bad acting, which is very much a plus these days.
I loved the ending and all, but really the only off point was that they were low key making out that people with aspergers are somehow dangerous and twisted. You find a lot of this type of misinformation in Asian dramas and it gets a little old. Either that or its some kind of autistic savant. They really don't portray that stuff too well. I always love the killers though. Disturbingly, the kdramas always ring true on the killers!
All in all, I was very entertained by this one.
Last Madame (2019)
a pity about some of the acting
I really liked this story, it was a corker! A pity the main girl in the modern half has no more idea about acting than a cow has of flying. The rest of the actors were hit and miss, but there were enough good performances to carry it through.
The 1920's story was really gripping and I loved it. The titular Madame was a brilliant character and that actress pulled it off so very well. The Madame's 2IC was another notable performance, whilst our poor policeman wasn't all that good, but he didn't spoil it, so yay for that.
The villains were thoroughly villainous, and you can't ask for more than that; so satisfying.
Fallen (1998)
Great little film
This movie has stood the test of time. I saw it when it first came out, and have watched it many times since, and today again. It dates well, as the setting doesn't need to be in a specific time or place.
A top notch cast doing what they do best, nicely turned, understated character pieces that are so believable. You can tell this was before the days when EVERY hollywood film had to have people screaming and crying about nothing, and seriously overdramatizing the things that WERE dramatic.
It assumes you're of reasonable intelligence and has no need to belabour every point and club you senseless with everyone's emoting.
A great premise, although the 'twist' at the end is no twist at all and you're fully expecting it, that doesn't detract. It's just a good story, well told.
Intelligent, if badly educated, cop meets supernatural force. You know it's not going to be pretty, and you're in for a nice tight ride with just enough suspense to keep you there for the slow burn. Lots of little things to notice each time you re-watch, so it's always been satisfying to me to watch this every few years. Just showed it to hubby who hadn't seen it, and he's a new fan, so that goes for something.
It will always be in my 'for keeps' cupboard.
From (2022)
Lost stars for several things.
At the end of season two, I still want to watch, I love the premise. However there are things. Things not so good.
Things I didn't like 'from' the beginning. Cliché characters. The angsty teen girl arriving with the new family, the mandatory autistic kid (autistic myself, so not appreciating token, stereotype of autism. I have no real beef with it, but just... eyeroll, y'know?), the problematic 'oppositional for no discernibly logical reason' people that simply would have died early on with their attitude. I certainly would have had them 'accidentally' and quietly removed for endangering others.
Also annoying, the characters that show up in every north American show, that seem to think that excessive and loud projection of their own personal emotional drama is more important than the common weal. Then, the oft used ploy of having people run around telling each other everything except the salient details that they need to know. There's more, but you get the idea. Yawn.
I'm still enjoying it, but a certain predictability of script can be distracting. The two of us at home are literally shouting out the lines before the characters say them, which is fairly fun, but it's more comedy than horror!
And this last season, I absolutely take exception to the episode about the autopsy. We spend all this time dickering about do we take it inside or not. Anyone with half a brain cell brings the equipment outside and does it outside, problem solved. Please tell me that the writers gave these people IQs above 50, because evidence mostly points to the contrary. I don't mind this type of thing per se, but this is so idiotic that it takes you right out of the story. You just want to slap all the characters in the back of the head.
Sometimes it seems like different writers altogether, some scenes are so bad, and then others quite good. Contrivance is necessary, but you can go with minimum, rather than maximum, to make the flow better and more realistic. It's more terrifying if it's more realistic and matter of fact. Some episodes were just obvious 'drivers', because they lost momentum somehow, and didn't know how else to make it go.
Quite liked where they left us at the end
of season two, I hope there's no more recurrence of completely redundant episodes over what would be non-issues were these people possessed of vaguely normal intelligence.
Mayfair Witches (2023)
entertaining but not the book
It was fairly entertaining in a midday soaps kind of way. I think if you didn't know the books and have knowledge of the run up and aftermath of the events, or any idea who the characters were from the beginning, and how it ties into the Vampire Chronicles, it would lack a lot of depth and you'd be lost or bored.
Now I'm not a big fan girl of Rice's. I've read all the books and love the stories and characters. I loved Servant of the Bones, Memnoch the Devil, and Vittorio the Vampire, a lot more than some of the others. What I'm not a huge fan of is her writing style. She gets to the point of good taste and then keeps throwing on the flourishes until it gets bad, like teenage overacting, or Italian art. Having said that, her plots and characters are ace, you can't beat them.
I didn't mind the character changes and so on, but you lose a lot of the emotional impact if it's the Talamasca guy and not Michael with his own story adding to the thing. I was puzzled by the changes of characters looks, but willing to go with it. Even this poor shadow of Rice's works is way more entertaining than some of the guff out there, (lookin' at you R. O. P).
Which begs the question why? Were there copyright conflicts that made these changes necessary? Or was it a fan-fic flight of fancy?
If anybody's listening, you could get a great "Talamasca Through the Ages" type spin off series, without doing the books any harm at all. And it would be incredibly interesting in the right hands, and all we history buffs would be foaming at the mouth to get in line to watch it.
Back to this, there's another thing that bugged me intensely. With all apologies to Jack Huston... Lasher is meant to be handsome and pretty irresistible. Jack is handsome enough, but in a con-man, used car salesman, dodgy real estate agent kind of way. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him just on his looks, and these women are meant to be powerful and intelligent.
So that bit of casting didn't sit well. Every time I saw him being 'charming' it made my skin crawl and took me out of the story, even though he's such a good actor. His 'visual' in this just made him look like a two bit con man to me, not a powerful evil spirit conman vibe at all. And Lasher IS ultimately a con artist, he just shouldn't come off that way, especially if he's going to fool Mayfairs.
The other casting was pretty good, all competent, some better than others, as you'd expect.
The story line was pretty good if you felt you had to mangle the original, though why that was, I'm not entirely sure. Script ok, no real complaints, it kept me entertained well enough through a bout of the flu. So I looked at it as a creditable attempt, I'm not nearly as offended as some people are. I understand all problems with it, it just didn't really upset me, as I don't worship at the altar of the books, there's plenty of problems with those too, much as I love them.
In the finish, I was entertained, didn't mind at all. I would NOT rush out to buy it to watch again, like I do with other series. But I would happily watch the next installment.
I did enjoy the funeral scene, all marching and dancing along to the graveyard, and all the dead joining in and the recently departed sitting atop his mausoleum, king for a day, enjoying himself. I loved that scene a lot, pity we had snake oil salesman Lasher there to ruin it.
One other reviewer didn't seem to understand why Rowan buried the crows on the beach.... because she's a doctor. The most horrific thing for a doctor, the most traumatic, is to have caused death. Just because she isn't crying and screaming doesn't mean she isn't traumatised. Burying the crows was also symbolically burying the other people she had killed. She's distressed that her adopted mother had just died to top it all off... burying the crow was burying the trauma and asking forgiveness at the same time.
Some other people had a problem with her being sexually active with multiple partners in the beginning. Book Rowan wasn't, but I understand that the writers were trying to convey that she's trying to fill a gap in her life, one that she doesn't understand, or really acknowledge.
She wanted to know her birth mother, she wants her career to move forward, as she knows she's better than the other surgeons, and she's unfulfilled without knowing why. She's funnelling all that into a revolving door of partners because at least she knows the last thing she needs at that point is a romantic entanglement, good, bad or indifferent, and sexual activity is some way of pulling herself together, living in the moment and gaining a small space of relief from it all. Some booze some smoke, some gamble, some have lots of sex, it's just a coping mechanism and everyone does it differently. I found it strange that some people chose to knock that part... there's no shame in it.
It's nothing like book Rowan, but I see where they were going with the character of 'little girl lost'.
It's no A list production, but it's a B++ for daytime soap viewing. They should have just done something somewhat similar and called it something else.
Risen (2021)
Someone has read the Andromeda Strain
I recognised the inspiration for this instantly. The main doctor is Dr Stone, ring-a-ding-ding. Can nobody come up with an original idea for Pete's sake? Let's change the details and call it good?
Was this with permission?
It's like an angsty teen made this. Long moody scenes that have no purpose. Dramatic music when nothing is happening,
We're gonna drag out the scenes for as long as possible, because we ran out of imagination after changing the details, and couldn't tell where the drama and tension should be...
Some of the actors did a creditable job, considering the tripe they were handed.
On the other hand, points for the opening scene, that was good.
The effects were so bad as to be laughable, but not everyone gets a good budget, so that's fine.
It could have been really good, but needed more mental maturity at the helm.
The Portable Door (2023)
oh dear...
A great premise, great actors, brilliant sets, good characters, and they managed to turn it into a meh, twee lurve story where essentially, not a lot happened.
Perhaps I'm disappointed because of all the hyped up marketing before the release, but it was a yawn-fest and I wandered away to do laundry the first time I watched it. That's my litmus test - did I prefer laundry? Yes I did.
I then sat down to watch it again, thinking that I hadn't given it a fair go. So I went in for round two and did the whole thing.
Yet another film where the side stories are far more intriguing than the main one we're served.
I really didn't understand how they could bore me - I LOVE THIS STUFF. So sorry, but you can't pack it full of elves and goblins and awesomeness, and just rely on that. You need a main story that's INTERESTING! You Need a punchy, clever dialogue, this had none of that.
I fondly remember films like Dragonslayer with Ralph Richardson... it was interesting, I still watch it! This new stuff isn't up to snuff. Dslayer was a love story, but that wasn't the main serving, the story itself was the meat of it, the rest just influenced the main events. It was constructed well, unlike this film.
I would have loved to know a lot more about the side issues, the door system, the back story of the goblins, this could have been Great! But it came second to laundry.
The Portable Door was just meh, a long old bore. And how anyone could make Christoph Waltz into a bore is beyond me, they need a medal for that. More and more films are in the running for the top prize in the Mediocrity Stakes, I just despair of modern film at times. Chris and co did the best they could, but it just missed the mark somehow.
In future, I will actively avoid this film.
Wednesday (2022)
Ok, amusing enough...
I do wish the writers actually knew the difference between pigtails and plaits, though, because constantly being said incorrectly takes me right out of the scene.
It's filmed beautifully, the production quality is great, and the acting is mostly good.
Entertaining enough when you've watched everything else.
Would have liked it a lot more when I was twelve, but being 50, it's not all that gripping for me now.
There's a fair bit of padding and the plot and characters are simple and predictable, but seeing as it's for kids, it's fine like that.
I can't really say more, so writing blah blah blah to fill the required characters.
1899 (2022)
Its packaged well
*** Update ***
I watched a couple more episodes, because of all the reviews saying "watch more, it gets better " I did so, against my better judgment, and it's still not delivering. Shows are meant to entertain and interest from the first episode, no? Apparently not these days. How long do I have to watch? Until the penultimate episode?
It's still a mish mash of things written and done before - a nice Lovecraft-y steampunk package, but still all very familiar. There's nothing keeping me here. The acting is good, it looks lovely, but I still don't care what happens. It hasn't piqued my curiosity or interest in the least, they can all disappear permanently so far as I'm concerned.
*** Original Review ***
I love the cinematography, sets, cast, all of that... but I'm jaded by seeing too many really great programs recently, and can't find myself interested in these people enough to stick with it.
I don't care why a Chinese girl is pretending to be a Geisha and being pimped by a European 'Lady'... I just don't, it's a dumb thing to do, and too easily found out. Not all Europeans were ignorant, especially globe trotting sailors, at least one of them would pick her as a fraud, straight away. I don't care why the Captain's missus did (or didn't!), do what she did.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have to like characters to be interested, or even identify or side with them, however I do have to find them interesting. And I can't be interested in people who don't have the common sense to be alarmed by a boy found alive and not even hungry after being locked in a cupboard with a 'mysterious artifact', for who knows how long previously, in an impossible situation. They have their heads too far up their own posteriors to see it, and that's just an annoying contrivance to me. I don't believe in these characters.
My Mum really loved 'Dark', I liked it, but found it a little predictable. I'm two episodes into 1899, and it feels like a repackaged, souped up 'Lost', so far, with a healthy dose of Steampunk sci-fi covering the stitches.
I honestly don't know if it can hold me long enough to find out if that's true - I found Lost to be predictable as well.
In 1899 again, I find myself saying the line before the characters do, and that's nearly every show these days. I have watched FAR too much in my lifetime, I think. I'm getting bored already and don't know if I'll watch the third episode, even if everyone says it will get better... it should be good from the off to hold me. Why are we watching shows that aren't good from the first? Isn't that the idea? There are shows that are a slow burn but hold you... and there are these shows full of 'atmospheric' padding, but no real substance, just stringing you along for ages on what may or may not be a shaggy dog story. I'm not one for carrot dangling, I have better things to do.
Temple (2019)
Great actors, but...
I love the actors, love the filming quality and style... except... and here's where it falls off a cliff... just so happens he has a Laurel and Hardy, "oh no, I dropped the kidney and it got run over" act, (instead of walking a little and then calling an uber or whatever, he starts off on the bus, cue the bad contrivances). He then takes out his own kidney, gives it to the comatose missus in the same half hour and then starts walking around like nothing happened, running, hugging people , all the things you can't do in recovery...
The show isn't good enough for those idiotic sequences to keep you on board. And it should have been. It could have been. I don't know if the writers changed or what, but I have zero interest in season two, which is a ridiculous state of affairs, seeing that I will watch almost anything with Mark Strong in it, I've followed him since he started. And Daniel Mays, double whammy - and yet they made it boring and silly. With such a good premise! How, for the love of Mike?