Reviews

You have to know it would be an adaptation and not entirely faithful to the book. After all, it has to have contemporary woke elements, like gender and race-swapped characters, millennials pretending to be experts, and diverse casting for a story that originally has almost all Chinese characters. And since there aren't enough key characters for Benioff and Weis, a bunch has to be created to weave more complicated character arcs.

Once you choke down the initial nausea and stick with it for a couple of episodes, the main story straightens out and stays mostly on track. The China-based flashbacks that tell Ye Wenjie's story that triggers the course of events are reasonably true to source and done well, even as the London-based invented mess meanders, while Benedict Wong's character and performance is initially buried and wasted.

The VR simulated world of Three Body is very well done, high budget, and it shows. By the third episode, the show begins to take better shape and redeems itself, and, at least for me, allowed me to assimilate the changes that were made to the source, and becomes watchable. I might even be able to start a drinking game to call out actors brought over from GoT.

Having previously watched Tencent's 30-episode adaptation (that's far more faithful to the book), I almost would have wished that version had the same budget and treatment. But for what it is, this appears to be a quality production worth watching.

I wasn't entirely sure where the show was headed when early reviewers and synopsis described it as a show about an astronaut who returns to Earth to find it different. Through subtle and not so subtle scenes, the story builds its plot device on "quantum physics for dummies" to weave a story where two events can happen or not happen, and happen AND not happen at the same time. Understandably, this can be confusing to follow, and a good review and a bad one can coexist and both could be right.

As with most interesting mysteries, there are secrets being kept that will be revealed. The show incorporates sci-fi horror elements, such as darkness, screams, imagery of the dead, and the terror of the unknown. The main premise seems that those who went out to space and back no longer experience reality as a certainty, in the quantum physical sense.

The acting is fine though a bit uneven, but in retrospect, this could be due to the way the story develops nonlinearly at certain points. But the suspense does start to build up by the third episode, and there is enough there to make me speculate on what's going on. Some may need to suspend a little disbelief early on, on how the entire ISS can be rendered so useless by one impact, as if the minds of multiple space agencies haven't planned for myriad contingencies, module and system isolation and redundancy, etc. But it's realistic enough to get the story going.

This appears to be a decent sci-fi horror suspense thriller in the making, and maintains Apple TV's standard for production quality. I do hope there is more to this than Hollywood's literal take on Einstein's "spooky action at a distance".

After watching the fourth season, I think this anthology needs to come to an end. After what was a tremendous first season, the subsequent seasons have been generally disappointing. It was Harrison and McConaughey's performances in the first season that was magical but they just can't catch the same lightning in a bottle. After a disastrous second season and a salvageable third season, the fourth season looked promising as the mystery deepened, but in the end, it just dissolved into nonsense, devolving into yet another politically correct messaging and "justice trumps law" eyeroller featuring "first" peoples and mysticism, nature and naughty corporate interests, and sprinkle in some LGBT with zero story relevance. How disappointing that Jodie Foster and the rest of the cast put on such unremarkable performances!

This is your typical woke salad production. What a way to run this show into the ground. Skip the show if you haven't watched all the episodes yet.

Decent pilot episode. The cast and acting are decent. But the premise is a little thin. A person going around finding people to collect the rewards--that's basically it.

The product placement for the pickup truck and Airstream trailer was a bit too blatant., trying to sell that great outdoor nomadic life. But will he only look for missing people in the wilderness and remote rural areas? What's going to happen if he takes on a case in the middle of NYC? Where's he going to park that thing?

They are trying to add some enrichment by adding his childhood backstory, but not exactly a gripping mystery. And of course, they will call in characters from his past to add color. Can they keep this up for a season, let alone a few episodes?

Okay, based on first episode, what was there to like? The "deep" story of a hit squad coming after certain disguised people hiding from something/someone? A family in hiding, gets found and killed, and that sets off a vengeful rampage? Hardly anything original. The artwork is maybe on par, but the show lacks anything interesting other than mass hack and slash violence. Perhaps if there was a bit more story to make sense of it all, there's maybe something to look forward to, and perhaps it's coming up. But having just recently watched Blue Eye Samurai coincidentally, this is just sadly mediocre. Maybe worth giving a few more episodes, though, and letting the story develop. There's only so much the first 24 minutes can do.

First episode got my hopes up, then the script becomes idiotic in the second and the wheels fall off of this show. Ugh, what a mess. The main character, Mardik, becomes bang-your-head-against-wall stupid, and the most unlikable protagonist who digs his own hole for no logical reason. The police protocols for handling a crisis situation is laughably incompetent, and the sliver of a workable plot device that is the prejudicial distrust of assimilated Afganis just gets tossed aside, because that becomes irrelevant in light of Mardik's actions. He could have been the King of England and it wouldn't have mattered.

The only thing going for this show is the quality production, with good intensity and action sequences. Unfortunately, the rug gets pulled out from under the story. Not worth wasting your time.

The title of the show completely fooled me into making assumptions about this show. A couple of episodes in, you will realize it's not what You'd think it is. Instead, a far more clever storyline unfolds, which I will not spoil.

Peter Capaldi is excellent. In many ways, you can draw some similarities with his Doctor Who performance (and a particular arc and episode, if you know). He gives this show the intensity and gravitas it needs to avoid descending into a mediocre reveal. Raine and the rest of the cast all put in high quality performances, as well, contributing to a very well-paced suspense thriller.

Once you start to grasp what is going on, you may think that it is borrowing some familiar concepts, but the sum product is worth watching through to the end of the first season, and worthy of the upcoming seasons that has been picked up already.

By the title, I thought it was going to be a coming-of-age story about a second generation Chinese growing up in America, that deals with the conflicts between the two cultures and the mutual accommodation and assimilation to become an American. This show does include some of those elements, but this is really a hodge-podge of stereotyping, social statements rooted in wokeness, with a very loose adaptation of a very cliched Chinese fable, Journey to the West, as the vehicle that would convey that story.

You would think a culture that spans over five millennia of written history would have been rich source material for countless fables that could have been adapted for the wider audience. Instead, they chose the one that's been done to death, as if westerners can't appreciate anything other than the Monkey King (or Mulan) and kung fu. By doing this, it falls right into the same stereotyping of Asians the show tries to denounce. But they might as well have wrote General Tso and his famous chicken into the screenplay.

The eyerolling triteness of the show's opening episodes eventually gives way to a mildly entertaining story suitable for adolescents. While it's great to see so many recognizable Hollywood Asian actors, it feels a little bit recycled from Everything Everywhere All at Once cast. Even so, the star power shines, even if the story doesn't. Clearly, the money went into the casting, as the rest of the show feels low budget. Writing is lazy, and resorts to simple plot devices and wordy monologues to convey the more serious social statements they likely sought out to make.

Growing up as an Asian American I am sure has its challenges. There are many good elements here they managed to work into the script, especially in regards to his parents' struggles and family dynamics. But by portraying the lead character as a socially awkward boy with self-esteem problems who has a crush on a white girl, ironically traps him in the very racial and social stereotypes about Asians that the show wants to elevate them out of. It's like breaking someone's arm just to heal it and expecting praise.

Would Asians approve of this show? Perhaps the young generation would enjoy this feel-good story, but for the rest, it only perpetuates the painful stereotypes.

I must admit I had my doubts, but this show turned out to be hilarious! It's a comedy spy thriller with dysfunctional father/daughter/family shenanigans that keeps things interesting on and off mission. The comic delivery is great, with some laugh-out-loud scenes and dialogs.

The show never takes itself too seriously. Had Arnold tried to portray a serious action hero, this would not have worked. The supporting cast also have great chemistry and truly funny scenes, as well.

It's great to see Arnold back on screen again, sticking to what he has done so well throughout his career.

I'm not sure how long they can keep this up before the whole thing gets old, but it's been refreshingly inventive so far.

I'm not sure how the IMDB rating for this movie sits in the 7's despite the overwhelmingly positive reviews, including mine. There have been many films and TV shows about the war in Afghanistan, but none that quite captures the conflict, the struggle, and the sacrifices made, told in such simple yet poignant manner. This isn't a grand military epic that shows off American military prowess taking out the "bad guys".

It would be inaccurate to simply say that this is just a trope about a survivor racked with guilt going back to save his savior. Very few of those stories convey the burden of the real life shame of the avoidable disgrace America left behind under our incompetent leadership. At the very least, we should have honored our commitment to those who truly risked everything on our behalf and give them a better future. In contrast, it's tragic that we seem place a higher priority on accommodating the hundreds of thousands who cross our borders just to seek economic opportunities, to whom we owe nothing. This movie gives us a sense of what ideals we should have strived for, and how it would have given us some measure of redemption despite our failures in Afghanistan.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim deliver excellent action and dramatic performances. The other supporting actors have limited roles, but so many recognizable faces can get distracting. There is plenty of thrilling action sequences to satisfy war movie seekers, but not so much that the message is lost. Cinematography beautifully captures the brutal harshness of the country's terrain and provides the imagery of the ordeal.

While it's not on par with classics like Saving Private Ryan, it deserves space on the mantle of worthwhile movies about the consequences of war.

Hard to say whether this show will have any staying power, but the first few episodes have been pretty funny. The show starts with two idiot Police Community Support Officers with no policing experience who end up going undercover into a drug ring. It's a ridiculous premise, but that's the whole point. It's been a while since I've watched a silly comedy, perhaps not since Brooklyn Nine-Nine or No Activity.

While Dom and Kay (played by Gbemisola Ikumelo and Hammed Animashaun) break out their brainless antics, everyone else plays the straight man. The two of them have great comedic timing and work great together.

I especially like the fact that it can tell race jokes in a time when other shows are running away from them. Perhaps comedy could find its way back to the days when a joke was a joke?

The comparison to Blade Runner was going to be inevitable. Simulants are replicants, and they have become more advanced where self-awareness and autonomy are becoming a social problem, so an enforcement agency tracks down rogue simulants. Sound familiar? "More human than human" of the Tyrell Corporation is replaced with Nexxera's "simulants are as close to human as humanly possible". It would be generous to say this movie pays homage to the 1982 classic-there are plenty of easter eggs. This is, unfortunately, a Canadian low budget production that doesn't do it much justice.

Cast has many recognizable Canadian B actors, some regulars in the sci-fi scene. Of course, the most recognizable is Simu Liu of recent Marvel universe fame.

There are some salvageable aspects that explore bioethical issues we are at the cusp of having to address for real. But the movie lacks any subtlety in conveying the gravitas. The AI "precepts" are repeated multiple times to remind the audience, rather than work them into the screenplay, which to me is lazy writing. The "ominous" soundtrack plays on a loop throughout the movie, a poor attempt at creating tension and suspense. CGI is minimal, and the rest are making the most out of budget props and industrial locations.

I'm actually surprised this was picked up by HBO Max and not Syfy, where it's would find a more appropriate home and audience. It's not entirely unwatchable, if you adjust your expectations.

It's an interesting take on the underground bunker story, of a people who survived underground for such a long time that a civilization arose within it, with lore, myths, beliefs, rituals and ceremonies that are rooted in events that have been forgotten, and a status quo social structure is founded. And when that status quo that preserves the order is questioned, enforcement and punishment follows. A power structure forms, creating a stratified populace, both figuratively and literally, from top to bottom of the silo. That's the premise, and while not entirely original (think Snowpiercer, Dark City, etc.), there is enough novelty here and seems well-executed for a TV series.

Good acting by Oyelowo, with familiar faces in n Rashida Jones and Will Patton. (But as you can tell from the show poster, they are guest stars who will give way to the regular cast, with Rebecca Ferguson as the lead. ) The show appears to be pretty decent, with good production values. There are elaborate sets and good CGI to provide a believable atmosphere.

Though a suspicious mind will pick on some obvious conspiracies early on, there are mysteries being uncovered that will keep me watching.

Certainly not very original early on, but it sure is glossy and BIG budget. Madden, Chopra and Tucci bring plenty of star power. But super spies with lost memories, ultra secret spy organization that operate above the world order, rival organization with evil name out for global power and control, slick hitech spy gear, glib one liners, and so on, has been done many times over. But who's to say we can't have yet another? It's an entertaining genre.

In the hiatus between Bond films, this is as good as we're going to get, big or small screen. There are some promising twists, so I'm hopeful. Madden and Chopra have a charming screen presence, and cinematography appears to be top notch. Worth giving it a few episodes to warm up.

This feels a rather low budget for me. It's a Caribbean murder mystery that appears to be told through three different time lines from multiple character perspectives. It unfortunately doesn't make it any more interesting. The hard jump cuts with no visual cues just makes the storytelling disjointed.

It also doesn't help that none of the actors have much of a screen presence. Various male characters fawning over a rather plain looking girl in West Duchovny makes it less believable, and Alycia Debnam-Carey can barely act. Everyone else is utterly forgettable.

Sadly, there's nothing compelling here to keep watching a poorly drawn out drama.

What a surprise! Intelligent dialogs, engaging plot, and the right amount of humor. I really appreciate that a political drama can manage to leave the Republican/Democrat, left/right labels out of the dialog and avoid taking cheap onscreen political shots that won't age well. I dare say, from what I have watched so far, this is on par with the best of The West Wing, without the occasional partisanship or sanctimonious virtue signaling.

The screenplay incorporates current state of world politics in meaningful and timely ways, as a crisis spirals and diplomacy's "sausage making" comes into play. Whether it's realistic or not who knows, but it's certainly very entertaining to watch the complexity (and humor) of the interaction between two of the world's greatest allies.

The acting is superb, especially Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell and David Gyasi, but really, everyone all around. The chemistry is outstanding and natural, without the usual early stiffness and awkwardness that gets ironed out over a few episodes.

The only nit is that I wish they wouldn't use profanity so much. There are places in the script where it's called for to great effect, but much of the time it's just too casual.

Unfortunately, there is another lesser show with the same title that was released just weeks prior that could lead to some confusion. It's coincidental, but hopefully, no one is missing out on this gem as a result.

After watching the first episode, I really don't know what to think about this show. It's got a "Preacher" vibe to it, but very little makes sense. It's billed as a comedy, but I didn't find much humor in it, perhaps some quirkiness in the characters. Granted, I'm just one episode in, but it didn't quite grab me as I'd hoped.

The show starts off in Paris, presumably circa 1307, with the persecution of the Knights Templars. From there, it zips over to 2023, no explanations, and nothing obvious to tie things together, except for one element that appears to be the whole point of the opening scene, and the second scene to introduce the other key element.

But there are tidbits of story elements that just doesn't make sense because no effort is made. Hopefully, a few more episodes will make them become more clear and interesting, but this is a shaky start that seems to be jarring for the sake of shock value and nothing more. I can't say I'm particularly impressed or drawn to the main characters yet. I'd like to say I'll give this a few more episodes, but there's not much that's compelling.

Over the last decade, Chinese cinema has made giant leaps and bounds in terms of quality and sophistication of their films, especially in sci-fi genre. The Wandering Earth and this prequel, The Wandering Earth II, is a significant milestone. As a prequel, it has more depth in the story than the first, though the premise behind the main conflict is a bit shallow to be believed, as if "digital life" and survival of the planet are mutually exclusive. Pizza OR pepperoni? What kind of a decision is that? You still need the pizza, with or without the pepperoni.

But like its predecessor, the problem is pacing. The story is grand, an epic tale of an audacious plan to save mankind and Earth from the dying sun. But the pacing is so ridiculously fast, that it's difficult to enjoy and appreciate it. It's so focused on the crisis from all angles that it feels like every scene and every shot is less than two seconds long. For subtitle readers, it's even worse to follow. On top of that, there is visual information overload, with names flashing on the screen. There is so much going on, you will be afraid to blink and miss an important plot point.

And then there are the annoying tropes. I think this is the third or fourth Chinese film and TV show I've recently watched that has a shrill little girl/daughter yelling and crying "Baba! Baba!" to stoke our sympathy and emotional attachment to. And, where do they find these foreign actors?!? They cannot act and they are loud. Perhaps this is how they want to portray westerners, but there are plenty of international films shown in China--they have to know how bad these actors are, right? With so many actors (waiters) in Hollywood looking for work, you'd think it'd be easy to find more passable supporting cast.

Despite all this, you're not going to watch The Wandering Earth series for the acting--this is a CGI spectacle. It's gorgeous, and if you treat it like cut scenes from a triple-A video game, you'll enjoy it a lot.

If you lived under a rock and didn't know Star Wars and The Mandalorian were Disney property, Chapter 22 (S3 E6) dispels all doubt. What started as a surprise hit has devolved into the beginning of its demise. I have spoken.

Season 3 has squandered the hard earned capital of The Mandalorian. The signs were there, as the sci-fi spaghetti western gave way to Disney woke politics, as well as the writing that desperately had to expand the show's universe to drag in the rest of the reminant Empire and the New Republic all at once to compensate for running out of ideas. They took their literary helmets off and abandoned the Creed. This is NOT the way.

Katee Sackhoff is a terrible actress. We are way too fond of her due to our nostalgia for Battlestar Galactica. You're hanging your hat on her acting? Another life for the sci-fi darling. Having written the Dark Saber into Din Djarin's hands to advance his character development, the only way out of it was to resort to a pathetic deus ex machina plot device.

Oh, I'm sure they'll drag Moff Gideon back. And a few more side trips to Plaisir for comic relief episodes. And when that doesn't work, a whole slew of cameos from the long list of former guest stars.

Soon, the show will have to be renamed "The Mandalorians: Descendants". They already have a princess, so they just need some more entitled young nobles.

Good luck with that. The last of us will surely turn off the lights on the way out.

I didn't at first like the frenetic energy of the fast talking dialog and the handheld camera work that seemed like it was flying off chaotically, but it does grow on you and the story and cast chemistry settles in. The shows humor, look and feel, as well as the sound effects reminds me a lot of Avenue 5, and that's a good thing.

At first, Rob Lowe seemed to be reprising his Grinder role, but it's the schtick that he is good at. And the quirky cast are hilarious and very likable. And unlike Will Smith's untalented son who didn't deserve to be in show business, Rob Lowe's son is fantastic and delivers his lines perfectly. And the twins! Funny! Parody of the Winklevoss twins, maybe?

This is a good comedy fix.

You're going to either really like it or find it dull. I think it'll depend on how old you are. If you are young, the future and your life's potential seem limitless, and a show about a machine that tells you your life's potential seem trivial and perhaps stupid, that people in this town would be so impacted by it. But if you are older, and looking back at your life more than looking forward, one may understand there's more to it. There is a reason why many people want to know if they've lived a full life, before the end comes.

The show doesn't tackle this subject with a heavy hand. It's light hearted, but serious when it needs to be. For some, it's satisfying to know you've achieved your potential, while others would find that upsetting; and some are excited by the possibility of something different, while others fear it as doubts and second guessing sets in. Each episode so far covers these aspects of "what if"through various characters who live in this town, and while these first episodes feel slow at times, it's thought provoking at the very least to watch them unfold.

While the show could certainly turn dark and more sinister, I rather enjoy the humor and the mysteries of how some people's lives are going to change and others who are trying to change.

The show starts off well, but then descends into some mediocre tropes and storytelling, as well as a noticeable drop in production quality in the middle episodes, like a low-budget, made-for-network-TV feel, replete will woke actors/characters.

If you stopped there, you might have a poor impression of the show. If you hang in there until the second half of the season (perhaps the last third?), the show really picks up steam, with good twists and improvements all around, including acting, action, dialog, and even some special effects.

This show isn't going to wow anyone, but does manage pull off a nice landing. Second season is already greenlit, and for those who stuck with the show, I'm sure you'll look forward to where the story goes, though it risks becoming a forgettable generic spy thriller.

The first two episodes were outstanding. It's a tense, suspenseful thriller that starts like a typical story of a team pulling off a slick con job, but then takes a left turn towards a set of events that I'm not entirely sure I'm following yet. Even the flashbacks aren't what they seem. This could easily have been a confusing jumble of a start, but the storytelling stays tight and gripping. True to its title, you are taken down a path where there is reality, but it's difficult to know what that is when it's conflated with Weir's paranoia, and the introduction of new confounding reveals that changes things when things seem to become predictable.

The acting has been superb so far--not a single cast member--lead, supporting, or extra--seems out of place or forced. I hope that this continues to be the case. The potential complexity of the story risks resorting to a deus ex machina plots devices or resolution, but hopefully, the writing can hold up to the high standard set at the start.

Originally, I thought the show had a promising start and hoped that it'd work itself out, but after watching all 8 episodes, this is a huge disappointment. I am now submitting my revised review.

Why certain things were changed from the source material is just astoundingly baffling. It's not unusual these days to just throw in some unnecessary woke elements that have absolutely no significance to the story, but there are major story elements that were changed for no apparent reason. I could understand if certain things won't come across well on screen or difficult to capture, but they just simply appeared to make ad hoc changes when there was nothing wrong with the source. What you end up with is just a terribly paced mess with most of the scientific material removed and replaced with "feelings" and "intuition". Even the little bit of science they managed to keep in the screenplay, they screwed around with that, as well. Apparently, no one read the book!

This production squandered a great opportunity with a terrific international cast and a big budget. I can see why so many reviewers are infuriated and torching this show.

Ugh. Where do I begin?!? If only the low-budget production was the only problem. The cast seems like they chose the first 20 or so people in the line for a casting call looking for woke teens. The story is a mashup of sci-fi tropes that required no imagination by the writers. The screenwriters and producers should be ashamed.

The story begins with the usual cryo-sleep crew being awakened by--yes, you guessed it--a calamity that strikes the ship in mid-journey. Of course, that wakes up one of them who wakes up the others. The senior crew members are lost in the accident, and now they are stranded on the ship to fend for themselves. Sounds familiar? Done a million times over.

This show needs to be canceled quickly, and the airtime recovered.