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Shazmaphat
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Unbelievable (2019)
Keeping going - the first episode is strange and difficult but you'll be hooked from Episode 2
I didn't enjoy the first episode, to be honest. It was too upsetting and slow moving for me. But as soon as I was introduced to the new detectives in Episode 2, I was hooked. And every episode is better than the last. I could not stop watching - I had an early morning meeting the next day but I binged until 3am. It's that good.
The writing, the acting, the pacing, and just how original everything is - it's all excellent. The ending is sublime. Highly recommended if you can handle the harrowing subject matter.
p.s. Merritt Wever's performance is PHENOMENAL. Her character is so captivating and amazing to watch. If she doesn't win an award, I'll be angry.
Killing Eve (2018)
Frustrating, fails to fly
Things to love:
The storyline and characters are a refreshing change from the usual.
Comer as the assassin is captivating and often brilliant.
Things that disappoint:
The very clumsy and ridiculously unbelievable assassinations, which beggar belief. We are told the assassin is brilliant, but her assassination sequences are often crude, requiring little to no skill, and conducted with others either present or who could stumble into the scene at any moment. One particular scene where she kills a man at his private engagement party in his own home, wearing his wife's dress - after being blindly accepted into the party and not drawing question - is beyond belief.
Sandra Oh's character is so immature, inept and annoying, especially for an MI5 agent. As if someone of her demeanour and calibre would be allowed to lead such a fraught and dangerous investigation.
Sometimes Comer's attempts at appearing eerie and psychotic fail, which inevitably detracts from the mood and tone of the piece.
Unfortunately, towards the end, the disappointments and lack of intelligent writing outweigh the good things about the series, and I found myself tuning out, increasingly disinterested in what turned into a farce of a show. Big shame, because there was so much potential for greatness here.
Show Dogs (2018)
Warning: not for children
I can't believe I have to write this, but parents need to be warned that there are actual child grooming messages in this movie.
The entire success of the main dog's mission rests on him overcoming his trauma about having his genitals inspected, and acquiescence to being interfered with by an authority figure. I kid you not.
There are several questionable scenes encouraging him to disassociate while being traumatised 'down there', and then when he eventually submits the trauma is painted as wonderful. I cannot believe this movie was allowed to be made let alone released and marketed to children. I am surprised there isn't more of an uproar about it.
The rest of the movie is also unfunny and boring. So it's not for adults either.
The Handmaid's Tale (2017)
Season 2 is slowly improving.
The first season was groundbreaking but it had many flaws - it was relentlessly dreary, slow moving, with an obvious agenda and a downright annoying protagonist.
Why Elisabeth Moss, why? She is so hard to like and so hard to watch.
However, the first season was compelling, mostly because the alternative reality we were presented with (albeit far-fetched and incongruous, with 1980s sci-fi ideas) was genuinely interesting to learn about AND was based on an excellent novel.
Season 2, on the other hand, starts out being unbearably tedious and unbelievable. The already ridiculous premise is now stretched to the point where I am rolling my eyes and muttering at the television. Nothing that any of the characters do or say is believable, not even in a fascist dystopia. And none of it is interesting, either! It's just hour after hour of unbelievable misery and dreariness.
There is some relief from Episode 6 onwards, though, when the pace thankfully starts to pick up and we start to see some action. We also start to see some character development and some much needed solidarity between the women.
But unless things continue to unravel apace and something unreal happens between now and the end, it would seem the second season might be a fail.
Side note: as a woman, I want to talk about why the 'feminism' of this show bothers me so much. Firstly, I'm glad that the way women are treated as second-class chattels is being condemned. I'm also glad that the witch trials are being referenced, as they really weren't that long ago and it's important to remember that women (medical doctors, healers, etc - women with intelligence and power and respect) were hunted and slaughtered en masse by men in America.
Unfortunately, highlighting these issues through an insultingly ridiculous contextual lens - which includes posits like muslims (and black men) are the progressive, brave and rebellious saviours of white women, whereas white Christian men are suddenly oppressing women like it's Saudi Arabia - is never going to be resoundingly successful.
The fact that the original story was written in the 80s and is based around the reproductive science of the time, doesn't help the feasibility.
What would have been much better, IMO, is a story revamped for modern times, with test tube babies and third world surrogacy - ie, a story about the rich oppressing the poor - and the current global epidemics of male violence, human trafficking, pedophilia and horrifically violent porn.
Men around the world right now are terrorising, raping and enslaving millions of women and children. This is happening right now in every country. It is a terrible truth that nobody is tackling properly.
I applaud what the show is trying to say and do, but the execution is unfortunately a huge fail for me.
Red Sparrow (2018)
Dismal, dire and dull. Do not recommend.
I give this film a D- for all the downer D words that describe it.
I was so excited to see this but I ended up disgusted and depressed. I had to walk out before it was finished because I just couldn't take it anymore. I don't know what else to say except I wish I had never seen this dreadful film. I genuinely do not understand how anyone could think it was good.
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
A great movie for kids
Took my little 10 year old nephew and his friends to see this, and they all loved it.
It is filled with wonderful visuals, interesting new characters and scientific ideas that they were able to understand and enjoy.
Take note: this movie is intended for kids and tweens, not adults, so if you are expecting to laugh and be entertained as an adult, you probably won't be.