Reviews

During the pandemic I was interested to see The Lost Symbol but only managed to watch now in 2023.

While it did have the usual high stakes the world just may be doomed by secret societies etc, I found it all too similar to The Da Vinci Code:

• terrifying murderous villain
• the hunt for clues and maps whilst highlighting some of in this case Washington D. C.'s historical buildings rather than Paris or Rome/Vatican
• secretive elite societies
• religion again!

I did wonder how it would end but the way it did was such a let down. The nothing burger endings Dan Brown seems to adopt are quite frustrating.

All those clues, maps, symbols, chase, murders for a "metaphor" had my eyes rolling.

Not sure on the castings & portrayal of this dull Robert Langdon and his love interest (I recall not being her fan from the also frustrating series "The Following").

I was however intrigued by the villain though guessed who he was very early on in the series. There is a flashback to his origins but the transformation was very quick to become the villain imo. His teacher was also very interesting but still not convinced of his motivations.

Think the series could have been made better with the plot and castings but perhaps the biggest obstacle here is that the Dan Brown novelty has worn off some 15 years ago.

I thoroughly enjoyed the beautifully made warm-hearted Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha so went into Forecasting Love and Weather with that same mindset of great quality & extraordinary charm.

Gosh this was disappointing. So much so I struggled to finish the 16 episodes - so drawn out with so many problems.

The typical soap miscommunication trope is used so much in this series. Not only did the premise start off with a cheating couple but we as the audience are supposed to care for the cheaters throughout the whole series? I didn't care for them one bit and I also didn't care for the two terrible fathers in this series - one being a deadbeat Dad, the other apparently works so hard that he doesn't live with his wife & daughter who are in the same city! So much screen time for these unnecessary characters.

Some Fathers are simply not redeemable.

As the audience why should we care for them in this show?

The two main characters have very little chemistry imo, the 'kid' is very good looking but there is no other great qualities about him to make the Director fall in love with him. Song Kang is under utilised, too little screen time. Park Min-Young's character is very cold, treats her Mum terribly and communicates badly if not at all. Again why should we care about the two protagonists who may be deeply flawed but spend so little time together for us to cheer for their romance.

From an editing point of view, I detested the cuts then flashbacks to show fully what happened in a scene. These cuts were made too often and got super frustrating.

On the plus side I loved the overbearing Mother. I also liked the idea of showing how detailed weather stations are and their effect on how a country functions & depends on. Melodramatic but a different premise to explore in a tv series.

Overall this is how to make a series less compelling, so I'm disappointed. So much potential wasted.

UPDATE: downgraded the rating as it's clearly a series copied from the Hulu series "Casual".

As usual Indian "entertainment" can't do anything original - sigh.

I watched the series a couple of weeks ago and gathered my thoughts: Initially I liked the different (for an Indian production) and boundary breaking series. I thought it certainly pushed themes far and shed an eye opening light on modern India.

But as I finished the 1st season it just didn't feel genuine and major & minor issues bothered me.

The series is clearly meant to emulate an American series which would make it edgy for India. There are so many problems with the show.

For one the excessive swearing, I don't mind swear words but it became too repetitive and in your face stupid. A lot of this show feels like it's made for shock value and forcing the plot ti look 'cool' & edgy - it's not cool or edgy. Don't get me started on the idea of making smoking look cool - that's so 1980's - the world has moved on from smoking cigarettes, it's really NOT cool at all.

Secondly the hookups. They really threw in every kind of scenario they could think of in the first season: the one nighters, casual sex, group sex, lesbian intimacy, the gay references but no men actually kissing, the open relationships, the bizarre Mother & Daughter liking the same teacher. I haven't a problem with any of it but it's so forced again to make it like an American series trying to be edgy.

Thirdly, India has almost 1.4 billion people, the series shows a very sparse city with empty bars, restaurants, public spaces, work places.

Fourthly, the so called respective work places the siblings work in. Lara initially works at a place and she has NO laptop or desktop at her desk but works from a notebook diary? The brother keeps mentioning coding algorithms but we see none of him actually working. The art gallery night has so few people, also we get a lame non-conclusion to the art not selling - we spent a couple of episodes chasing that artists masterpieces and NOTHING gets sold from that artist?

Take a page from the numerous Korean series being made. Their attention to detail is fantastic and their productions promote their country, cities, food & way of life whilst having modern themes.

Fifthly, the daughter whose acting is subpar (sorry) studies at university yet no actual books or courses are mentioned or acted out.

I could go on but the ATTENTION TO DETAIL is so haphazard, it's laughable and brings down the entire show.

The shining moments are the overbearing parents and the cook maid, they are good actors and play their parts very well, pity very little shown of them.

If there is a season 2, by gosh there is a lot that should be changed, more emphasis on attention to detail and yes dialling down the shock value for the sake of it.

The movie was looooong. I felt it drag. Some good action sequences of course but nothing amazingly new or different.

Through the bloated movie I felt the villain Rami Malek spent little time on screen, I could find no motivation or reason for him to murder millions of people... just not menacing enough and his death was meh. Christoph Waltz needn't have been in the movie - again too little time on screen.

The American traitor was pointless. The CIA guy dies too early. The Spanish pretty lady wasted too, she was the one fun part of this movie.

James Bond isn't meant to die. I also saw zero chemistry between him and the French woman (same issue I had with the previous movie). This new trope these 5 Daniel Craig movies where main characters die isn't groundbreaking nor should it be the reason why a movie gets stellar reviews by critics 🙄 which is what I think clearly happened here.

Nope I felt very little emotion at his death.

I kind of figured he would die, it's in the title and IMO Craig should have just not done this one. His retirement was good enough in Spectre and we could have moved onto a brand new evolved iteration.

Don't get me started on the song which annoyingly won the Oscar and because it's Billie Eilish 🙄🙄🙄. Crappy bond song along with Sam Smith's whiny one. We went from Adele's classy song to Smith's whine to Eillish's dreary bland almost vocal fry 😒.

So there it's a 4/10 from me.

Casino Royale was the best one.

Then Spectre.

Skyfall (another looooong ass movie) is a distant 3rd (Dame Judi dies so yeah it gets stellar reviews 🙄) No Time to Die followed closely behind.

Last: Quantum of Solace.

Having not played the games nor knowing any of the lore, I binged the entire series yesterday.

Possibly the best animation I've seen in any given series. Not only a visual masterpiece but the soundtrack easily adds to this epic. Animation alone gets 10/10, the fantastic elements of storytelling through various types of animation is brilliant. I added the music and soundtrack albums to my library last night.

My only criticism is one plot ploy. Not sure if we are meant to feel sorry for Powder/Jinx, I'll be honest I didn't feel sorry at all. I also found the rejection as a child she endured especially in that very tragic death moment of her Father leading to the immediate mutual embracing by villain and Powder, completely unbelievable. It's a debatable scenario but far too often antagonists in fiction dramas have this turning point origin story.

Overall the cinematography, the directing, the characters and world building are worth watching, making the viewer yearn for more as each episode lures you in. That cliffhanger at the end of the season is a tad annoying but also understandable. This intriguing series deservedly should get the praise and accolades to follow.

Netflix has a gem. I look forward to season 2.

Updated season 4 at the end.

Binged the 3 seasons - 7/10. I certainly can see similarities to The Last Aibender however it's lagging in plot and side character depth.

Still enjoyable but glaring plot holes specifically the 3rd season. How did the huge human army cover so much ground in the space of a couple episodes and yet it took our main characters more than 2 seasons to get to the same place? The Elf kingdom is somehow breezed past by the same army. The world building and each nation lacks inhabitants!

The antagonist's son and daughter have evil intentions and do some bad things, however they are immediately portrayed as cutesy and fun. The conflict within, if any, is rarely shown. Also in the finale at the end of the big battle the same two siblings are in a scene on opposite sides but the sister Claudia is not shown how she got away. She does appear in the final scene though. Claudia is my least favourite character too - I don't understand the appeal.

These are just some plot holes that bothered me. There are more.

I commend the diversity of characters and the main protagonists are great including the cute animals. The creativity of creatures, artistic style and visuals are great - especially season 2 & 3 which corrected season 1 animation issues. So it's a 7/10 for now.

I hope there is a season 4 and let's hope they can improve the story & characters.

Season 4: gosh what a massive let down. Barely a plot, meandering episodes, terrible 'humour' and once again why should we care for cutesy antagonist Claudia who now has an elf boyfriend but she wants to annihilate all elves?

I finished the season and thought "is that it?!?" Jam packed finale but the whole season regretfully brings down the score from 7/10 to 3/10.

Pity.

3 more seasons? Hope the writers do it justice and improve/rectify this mess.

7/10 - 1st season: creative, intriguing, dark and well establishing to grip the viewer each episode. Great plot and characters to make you invest in their plights after tragedy, discovering & exploring a captivating house and it's mysterious secrets: The Key House.

Huge Potential.

1/10 - 2nd season: slow paced, loopholes galore, frustrating & overused miscommunications tropes between characters and a villain that is not as calculated or smart as season one. Not even close to being like the original Dodge.

Did the writers change for season 2?

I found myself not caring midway through this 2nd season especially after a horrid plan and losing more keys to the villain. ALSO Dodge slept with Tyler in the 1st season, now is apparently in love with Tyler's sister Kinsey in the second season? Just feels so ICKY! In addition, the uncle made a key and couldn't put a different 'intent' in the key?

The showdown finale was also such a let down, character deaths for what is supposed to be tragic and emotional? Didn't feel anything for Bode's romance. The villain's demise was quick and dull. The CGI felt less convincing this season too. Something has changed between the two seasons and NOT for good.

They could have built upon the intriguing first season but the 2nd felt soapy, slow, stretched and silly.

Sigh. Disappointed.

SMH and SMDH again.

So annoyed at this episode. That was a really really dumb plan with loopholes galore. Pity because so far the season has been alright, so was hoping on an actual win for a change. It's been loss after loss.

Also an outdated 'lack of communication' trope has been overused in so many forgettable series. Please writers don't do this to Locke & Key.

How many keys have they lost now to Dodge now?

Sigh.

More than half way through the 6 episodes I was ready to give up and curse the wastage of my time & patience.

I decided to complete the mini-series and glad I did. As noted by other reviewers pay attention to details because the finale was something special. It made me recall earlier episodes and question what I thought I saw but it wasn't what it seemed... Stick with it and hopefully you may get the epiphany I did. It was at times torturous especially some characters actions but it made sense by the dawning end.

So overall a creative (of a different kind) show, meandering through but intrigue by the end.