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Reviews
The Mandalorian: Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore (2023)
Mediocre
I'm struggling pretty hard to stay interested with season 3, so far. The story just isn't that interesting. They had a great opportunity to explore what Luke Skywalker is doing and go through Grogu's jedi training and they just totally abandoned that idea for the sake of.... A mandalorian ritual or something. That was a bad decision.
The thinness of the characters is really starting to hurt the show now that the primary story arc has pretty much resolved. A series of fetch quests isn't good writing and unfortunately that seems to be half the episodes in this show: Go get this thing to do that thing. That's not good writing.
Trigun Stampede (2023)
Just seems....a little off
The original Trigun is one of my favorite anime, so these crafty businessmen have figured out I'll watch anything new with the word Trigun in it, to see if it captures the same magic.
As is usually the case with reboots, this reboot rarely succeeds in recapturing that magic. Sometimes there are moments where it does, but for the most part, it's not nearly as well done as the original, in my opinion.
It has everything you'd expect in a reboot and takes no chances. The CGI isn't great compared to the premium animation of the original. The characters are kind of annoying. Moreso than in the original (Vash the Stampede was always a bit annoying). The dialogue seems stilted at times.
It's not all bad, though. There are a few bright moments. They did a good job on making the villains menacing. The story could use some clarity on the objectives and stakes, but the action elements are good.
This reboot just seems a little bit off on everything even though it did some things right. I still enjoy it enough to watch, though, so I give it a 6.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 17: The Apostate (2023)
Not good
I get that different people like different things, but objectively, this season opener was bad and I have a hard time seeing how people think otherwise.
Even by standards of previous episodes in this series, it was really bad. The entire runtime felt like it was wasted and it didn't advance the plot hardly at all. That's not good.
The action seemed way cheaper than in past seasons. The characters don't feel natural any more. The dialogue was stilted.
I think I'm about done with the Mandalorian if this is what to expect from this season.
I really didn't like what they did in Book of Boba Fett either.
Poker Face (2023)
Confused plot, well acted
So we start with this premise that Lyonne's character can always tell when someone is lying, but then that premise is almost immediately violated in the very first episode.
Also, they set up cameras to watch a poker game so she can read who is bluffing, but why not just read the cards if you're going to install cameras? It completely negates the need for her amazing ability if you're just going to put cameras in the room anyways!
Some bizarre story choices here, but Natasha Lyonne is still a very unique personality who brings a lot of life to her role. She and Adrien Brody salvage it where they can.
House of the Dragon: The Heirs of the Dragon (2022)
Game of Thrones in form, not function
There is quite a lot of fan service in this series. Things to make you reminisce about how great Game of Thrones was. Similar characters, similar court intrigue, similar graphic violence mixed with some shocking hedonism. It has the external appearance of Game of Thrones.
But the story simply is not sure of where it wants to go, and it takes forever to get where it is going. Some parts really don't make much sense. Characters act in ways that don't seem logical, whereas in Game of Thrones there was a seamless logic to every action taken by every character within their established values and motivations. There is no such depth or consistency to the characters here, so far, and that more than anything hurts the show.
The pacing of this show in no way compares to Game of Thrones, either. There's too much standing around talking even in the very first episode of the series when we should be building up exciting exposition. Like the first 20 minutes is just talking talking talking characters explaining the exposition instead of -showing us the exposition-. Show don't tell is basic writing.
I think this series has run into the same problem the last two seasons of Game of Thrones did...The writers are just not very good without George R. R. Martin's source material to work from, and it really shows.
If these other reviews are authentic, I'm glad people liked it.... But to me it was mediocre and the first episode struggled to hold my interest. I don't even really feel compelled to watch episode 2, which is sad, because I really loved the first seasons of Game of Thrones.
The Rehearsal (2022)
Absolutely wonderful
I won't spoil anything, but this is easily the best work Nathan Fielder has done yet, and it is easily one of the best comedy shows I've ever watched.
This show is so brilliant in drawing laughter from heartfelt or awkward moments that feel natural. The ending was just perfect. It takes on some of the toughest topics in life without feeling forced or divisive.
I can't recommend it enough.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
Comically bad gem
I'm sure Disney's target market will love this, but this series is a real punch in the balls to already-beleaguered Star Wars purists. As someone who finds people getting punched in the balls to be funny, I was very amused by this series.
I was laughing at how out of place it all felt in the Star Wars continuum because the story just didn't seem necessary. These aren't details of the timeline in the Star Wars Universe I need to know about. The tone didn't really fit Star Wars because of a lot of really not good, but extended, dialogue scenes where characters are explaining the story too much instead of action happening on the screen. Everyone talks too slow, they sound like robots.
One of the costumes looks like the dude is wearing a bicycle helmet.
The whole Galactic Inquisitor storyline is just not working for me so far. It just seems hilariously cliche the way they set up the relationship dynamic between the Inquisitors. It also feels really unnecessary. If they're bringing Vader into this they better hop to it because Vader is needed to save this Death Star from two photon torpedoes called pacing and dialogue.
I already know Obi Wan and Luke survived anything that's going to happen over the next 4 episodes and they'll end up back in the desert perfectly fine, and Leia will end up on Alderaan perfectly fine, so where's the tension in the story supposed to come from?
I thought it was sad when they did EMG dirty with the first trilogy but this really takes the cake as a tragedy because they didn't even have to do this. He still did a good job here but man they just couldn't surround him with a quality cast or script again. Not really up to par with the quality of content one used to get from Disney....