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molvich
Reviews
Doctor Who: The Star Beast (2023)
An incoherent, stupid, mess. But nice to see Tennant again
I am very so slightly torn on this one and it is that nature of torn that ups this to three star from zero.
On the plus side, I suppose, RTD is back and even at his worst he is a better scriptwriter than Chibnall was. Tennant is nice to see back in the suit, although it is almost remorseful in the way having Indy back in Crystal Skull was.
Yes this is RTD, at his worst. Yes this is Tennant back, for a time, having to star in something that is RTD at his worst.
This is chaotic and stupid and some familiar old faces doesn't make it not be these things.
I was hoping I could start taking pride in being a Whovian again. I can't yet.
The Wheel of Time: Leavetaking (2021)
Bad storytelling
I'm a big fan of the books and was cautiously hopeful based on the trailers. The actual product disappoints considerably. Numerous tweaks to the original universe create unnecessary drama and establish the first episode from having any real high points, which make its low points far less impactful. What could have been a bit slower paced and engaging is instead rushed and boring.
A lot of money went into this, and that shows, but it just wasn't interesting, entertaining, or at all promising for the future. My love of the series will have me sticking with it a bit longer, if nothing else for the spectacle and perhaps the cast will finally be allowed to build some sort of chemistry with each other that will allow their interactions some trace of humanity or interest.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Truth (2021)
Worst Episode yet
This is the worst episode so far of a rapidly declining series. Sam can take the time to try to talk gently to a terrorist in the previous episode, but trying to accord John Walker the same courtesy is beyond him. Instead this brutish thug breaks his arm and steals the shield from him while insisting that perhaps authority will forgive him for.. killing a terrorist.
Add in a good ten minutes of painfully overwrought sermonizing and desperate efforts to get you to identify with the terrorists. Really, this series at this point could be a terrorist recruitment film where all real world terrorists are just waiting for the moment their chosen terrorist, Sam Wilson, gets the shield and becomes the new face of a new America.
If it were at least consistent it might be tolerable, but it isn't. Again Sam is supposedly this character that loves his fellow soldiers, understands the troubles of conflict, and has devoted his life to that. Yet from the very start he snugged Walker, took every opportunity to spit on him, and when he was at his lowest physically beat, bullied, and stole from him.
Both Sam and Bucky were supposed to be the guys that stood by Roger's side in Civil War. There, an authority decided that civilians killed by Wanda on an opp gone bad was too much to bear and would regulate. Steve argued that the people in the field have to make those calls. Yet, both characters again are now all about judging someone in the field and taking away their power.
This show has one worthy successor to Steve Rogers, and it isn't either of the ones I thought it would be. John Walker is the only one who adheres to the example Steve set and the only one (apart from Zemo, perhaps) worthy of his legacy.
Star Trek: Discovery: Unification III (2020)
Worst episode this season
So far this has been the best season of the worst of the Trek shows. This episode is therefore the worst of the best, and a steep decline from those that came before it.
Why does the Vulcan science council think ad hominem attacks are the best way to determine ultimate scientific truth? I don't know. For a group devoted to science and logic they seemed to have surprisingly little interest in either.
How does passing through a wormhole magically give you command skills? I really have no idea. I can only presume the Captain of the ship has no idea what command skills are given his selection shows zero care for the health and well-being of his crew or the missions to which the ship might be assigned.
Why did Discovery get a full refit with advanced Federation technology and nobody managed to give the crew uniforms not centuries out of date. I just don't know.
The sheer overwhelming stupidity of this show every single episode has not changed, and seems unlikely to ever change. Still, at least a bunch of terrible writers are now trying to be optimistic instead of grim and I do appreciate the mood shift.
Watchmen (2019)
Spectacularly boring
It is hard to stress just how deeply uninteresting this series is. As a fan of anything superhero, if not necessarily the source material, I felt compelled to stick with it but this really is one of those shows where there is scarcely any redeeming virtue to be found.
None of the characters are interesting or likable, none of the sets are particularly interesting. Dialogue is garbage and pacing non existent.
It got an extra star because none of the acting has made me wince. Otherwise, what a regrettable and terrible waste of time.
For All Mankind (2019)
Broken promises
I wish I could give this show more stars than I am. I did find myself eager to watch each new episode, and yet a little disappointed each time I tuned in.
The thing about For All Mankind is that there are really two stories, and even two types of stories going on.
The A plot is the alternate history race to the moon and beyond and the struggles that arise from that. This is a really good story. It is what I yearned for each episode, and wished I got a lot more of than I did. Broken Bird was one of the best episodes of the season yet the actual great content in it was maybe five minutes of the runtime.
The rest of the runtime is series of morality tales told with leftist theology in mind. You have the innocent hardworking illegal and the struggles of his family, the struggle of the homosexuals in NASA, the idolization of marijuana usage. None of these stories are told particularly well, are fisted, and take up enough of the runtime of each episode they could maybe be called the A plot instead.
I think the reason I was disappointed each episode was because they promised me A and delivered mostly B.
I sincerely hope in Season 2 they put the focus on space exploration and the events of the program.
6 Underground (2019)
Discordant Film
This is such a strange movie. I didn't realize it was produced by Michael Bay when I watched it, but that makes some sense. By far the best part of this film is the action scenes and cinematography along with some beautiful settings. Those are done with superb style.
I see the film is listed as an action and a comedy. I can't think of a single time I laughed or even smiled during the film. I had no idea it was supposed to have comedic elements.
The acting is passable, dialogue terrible, and plot a jumbled mess.
I don't hate that I watched it, but I never plan to watch it again.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 1: The Mandalorian (2019)
Wonderful Start
Such a wonderful addition to Star Wars. It is both a promising start to this series, and a relief after a movieverse that has over the past few years offered more disappointment than joy.
Lots of violence, a hint of heroism, scruffy spaceships and scruffy Imperials and scruffy everybody.
2036 Origin Unknown (2018)
Fair first half dives into something terrible
What an odd film.
The first half isn't brilliant but it is tolerable. It does a whole "anomaly on Mars" thing that while clearly told with a major casting budget shortage is still slightly interesting.
Then the entire thing goes tremendously bad it seems written by a completely different author. The credits don't list another, but this sure feels like something partially shot by an amateur with someone who vastly overestimated their own skills coming in to finish a project not deemed interesting enough.
It is almost worth watching just to see how bad it gets. It is hard to be both big, weird, and frightfully boring and yet this manages to pull it off in the end.
Another Life (2019)
Shockingly inept
I have now finished watching the whole first season. The ending is the best of it, but overall I just can't give this show much credit at all.
In science fiction there is a sharp line between hard science and soft science, and this show is obviously going for soft. There is FTL drive, Soma sleep is a mysterious and unexplained technology. Soft science fiction gives you a lot more leeway, you can technobabble all you want so long as you keep it consistent.
This is soft science fiction that desperately wants to be hard. It throws in real scientific terms too often and completely misuses them. It is kind of the worst of both worlds.
Then there is the crew itself. I think they were clearly inspired by Battlestar Galactica, but it is hard to state how much they missed their mark. BSG had a fit of misfits, but then in universe that made sense. They were kind of the dregs of the fleet, being put out to pasture on an ancient wreck. Here, on this show these are supposedly the best and most competent humanity has to offer. It doesn't work.
And one thing that really bothers me thinking on this run is the utter lack of humor and humanity in every single person. Not a single soul on this ship every throws a joke in a tense situation, makes any attempt to lighten a dark moment.
Apart from generally decent special effects and appreciating both the approach they took with William, and the actors performance I can't think of a consistent bright spot in this show. It isn't just bad, it is bad on multiple levels. It is bad science fiction, it is bad dialogue, it is bad human interaction. Nothing works.
Another Life: Hello (2019)
The best of a horrible run
"Oh hey, these aliens seem to be tens of thousands of years more advanced than us"
"Can you hack them?"
"Sure thing mate, give me five seconds. And, done!"
Well 9 episodes that I loathed, to varying degrees, for a finale I found mildly satisfying.
Nobody becomes more likable, sane, or basically sentient.
Certainly any reasonable viewer walks away hoping for the complete extermination of the human race and the destruction of Earth and all that inhabit it.
Still, at least some stuff happened that didn't completely depend on what vermin the crew are.
Almost against my better judgement I do want to see what happens next, while simultaneously hoping every writer, director, and anyone with any input in the first nine episodes gets sent back to whatever cinemographic hellpit they spawned from.
Another Life: Heart and Soul (2019)
Meaning
The one thing that keeps recurring in this show as I watch it is a quest for meaning.
The mind tries to make sense of even the most chaotic, insane patterns. It wants to sort them into order, to find purpose.
My mind has now decided that they staffed the ship with the very worst of humanity because genocide was always the goal. Any crew of disciplined, intelligent, compassionate people would have balked at the thought of the extermination of a whole alien species and so instead they crewed a ship with the very worst people humanity had to offer. Rage filled, lusty, animals barely capable of operating the machinery but perhaps capable of basic repairs until they could get into place to take the kill shot.
Once I have begun to think of it in that fashion, the show has become a lot more compelling.
Another Life: How the Light Gets Lost (2019)
Ugh
There is an especially terrible scene that occasionally shows up in especially poorly written science fiction. The rave scene. One of the Matrix movies did it. ST: Discovery did it. . Welcome to this show's rave scene.
This episode really made me wonder about the show that could have been.
What if taking the bones of what is here something different had been done.
An alien lands on earth and seems to be open to communication.
A diverse crew of Earths finest, disciplined, intelligent, brave and honorable souls go off to try to find the creators.
The crew goes further than humanity ever has and along the way encounters lots of risks. With intelligence, with bravery, with daring and skill they surpass them.
Meanwhile back on Earth the finest minds from multiple disciplines come together slowly solving this mystery.
What flashbacks you have all equate to the golden age of space exploration.
I wish we'd gotten that show, science fictions fans would have loved it.
Maybe Netflix will hire some of them to make a science fiction show, next time.
Another Life: Living the Dream (2019)
Why?
The more I watch the more imponderable this entire show becomes. Not the mysteries of the show itself, those are both uninteresting and evident. No, but rather how it got made. What inspired the writers making it.
The more I watch ;the more it seems the entire show was made aliens who tried to decipher human behavior and human science having never actually encountered either. While the people are physically attractive specimens of humans, by and large, they behave in no ways that actual human beings would ever behave and while their language and scientific jargon largely uses the right words they are put together into nonsensical formulations.
A part of some alien documentary perhaps, designed to show why humanity deserves extinction. A slanted look at us designed to show not a single member of our species deserves saving.
Well, at least the show makes me think even if not in the way it intended.
Another Life: I Think We're Alone Now (2019)
Yay
Well the show and the writing remain terrible. I mean, almost unspeakably bad.
Although, in a way, things start to make sense now. If all of this ship were recruited from street gangs it explains a lot.
Perhaps this is actually like suicide squad, a crew of the worst people in the fleet under the biggest screw-up of a Captain. Perhaps, out there, the real ship carries on while this one is some sort of distraction.
At least one of these terrible people died this episode.
I can't stop laughing.
Another Life: A Mind of Its Own (2019)
Painfully stupid
I am really perplexed with what is going on with this show.
Have the writers ever met a single sane, competent person in their lives? Do they really have no experience with how they behave, with what might be expected of them.
This entire show as if the cast were completely socialized by the most terrible of daytime talk shows. They have zero idea how to interact with other human beings, or how to even slightly stay on task.
Does anyone ever learn from their mistakes? Make even the most basic of efforts not to repeat them?
Who thought this was a good idea and how did they find the time to make it between their bouts of licking light sockets?
Another Life: Guilt Trip (2019)
Worst episode yet
The worst episode yet of a truly terrible show.
I suppose the point of it was to bring in some more of the Captain's agonizing back story but nothing about it works.
At least the last fifteen seconds were interesting, which is more than I can say for the rest of it.
Another Life: Nervous Breakdown (2019)
Sill terrible
Episode 3 of this astonishingly bad series.
I am taking each episode in order and reviewing to share my pain.
Looking at the credits for the writers and d irectors of this series I think its sheer horribleness is starting to make sense. So far as I can tell they have, none of them, ever worked on anything even a little bit science fiction related.
Netflix really decided it was a good idea to throw money at people not even slightly interested in this genre.
I wish they'd at least thrown money at a science adviser who could have screamed at them for hours and perhaps fixed some of the most glaring of scientific errors.
At least this episode managed slightly less insubordination.
How did they manage to make every single character this unlikable?
Another Life: Through the Valley of Shadows (2019)
Still terrible
As none of my friends were foolish enough to watch this past episode one, I feel the need to review to properly share the contempt and horror I feel for this production.
This second episode improves nothing over the first.
Again, the crew are completely unlikable and shockingly insubordinate. Again, every single person manages to disobey the most minor orders attempting to keep them alive without a single valid reason to do so. There remain massive science errors any technical adviser should have caught.
At this point, the best hope for all of humanity is probably for William to vent the atmosphere and handle the mission himself.
Another Life: Across the Universe (2019)
Terrible
It is hard to parse just how bad this writing is. A talented enough cast, but what were they thinking? Even ignoring some glaringly stupid basic science mistakes which were needless with this kind of budget.
A crew of pouty, whiny 20 somethings who don't wear uniforms and have zero discipline are sent off to save the Earth. Did competent and sane people go instinct for some reason? Was there some massive planetary extinction event that wiped out everyone of intellect and reason?
I love starship shows. I really do. I love them so much I am going to continue watching this complete trainwreck. I may, however, be rooting for every single person to die terrible and gory deaths.
Given two stars because at least every single character is believably loathsome and stupid so I can only assume is sticking to the script pretty well. The sets are also decent.