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Reviews
Walker: Bobble Head (2021)
IMO this is the WORST of the first three episodes...
Randomly writing this after seeing countless reviews claiming the show is getting better. I really want to like it, and I wanted this to be better, but it's IMO if anything quite a bit worse than the first two.
Unlike some professional critics claiming we don't exist, *I'm* a big fan of the original show AND watch probably half of what's on The CW, if not more. And I'm not particularly opposed to remakes..I like both charmed and Roswell (the first season of which I thought was pretty fantastic...and frankly had a much better mystery than anything walker's done so far), and I was looking forward to this one.
But I want a police procedural from this, and what it's giving so far is one of the weakest "case of the week" cases I've ever seen in a show, combined with dull melodrama you've seen played out a million times before. The first two episodes at least had some scenes that legitimately landed between 'Walker' and his daughter, that managed to make ancient creaky material work. This third episode doesn't have anything like that, and also doesn't touch on the somewhat interesting interactions/situation with the daughter's friend and her family. Drop the melodrama, focus on THAT situation that's actually worth exploring.
And is Walker going to personally know every bad guy they introduce? It seems like he does yet again from the description of e4 I just read.
With both this and Nancy Drew I wish *i* could do some editorial interference. Ditch the boring ghosts and have a single case per episode (or at most a few episode arcs...quit dragging out a thin plot to a full season, it doesn't work). And with walker dial way back on the melodrama and start writing some actual police procedural stuff, and explore the few actually interesting ideas this has raised like the partner being one of the few women doing this job, and the unjust danger to the daughter's friend's family.
I'm kind of thinking I'll try e4, and then give up...maybe try again in S2 just in case they've done any retooling. There's so much talent here and I like the original so well it's a bit painful for me to give up, but there are so many shows I want to get to...
Nancy Drew (2019)
Needs stronger writing
Before I get in to this, I'm going to comment on the people writing negative reviews because Nancy has sex. Yes, there's a sex scene or two in this show. (I can't even remember when the last one was.) It's no more graphic than any other show (less than many), and the characters are all adults. It's semi-pointless, but would be semi-odd without it. If THAT is why you don't like this show, you have a virgin fetish. That's your problem, not the show's.
I'm writing this after having watched the first five episodes. It's got a good cast-particularly Kennedy McMann as Nancy (who by rights ought to have a long career, I hope). It's got a good look, the town and scenery. There's more of a mystery element in the first several episodes than I feared there might be. Some actual detective work here and there.
I've really got two issues. I don't like the supernatural element. I'm not opposed to such things-I watch 900 billion other shows with supernatural elements-it's just 1) not that interesting here, 2) not what I'm looking for from Nancy Drew. Spooky, sure, actual ghosts and whatnot, no. The CW alone already has Charmed, Legacies, Supernatural, and even Legends of Tomorrow, all of which do the supernatural thing vastly better than this does. I'd really like clever mysteries from Nancy Drew, and all the supernatural elements here just feel like a boring waste of time. Filler. I'd rather if they were used that they be subverted, just superstitions that aren't real. I was kind of ignoring it, but episode 5 puts it front and center to a somewhat ridiculous degree, completely stalling out the mystery.
The other element I don't like is how stretched out this first case is. I think it would be much stronger if they were doing a case per episode, or one case for every few episodes, whatever worked organically for an idea. This has already been stretched out longer than it should be, with (particularly in episode 5) nothing but filler in the form of supernatural stuff.
At this point I'm torn on whether I'm going to keep watching. I think there's potential without much retooling to make this good or great, if the writing was there. Just wrap up this first case, quietly dump the supernatural stuff, and give us some good mysteries. I don't believe that's actually going to happen, but it could, which, combined with Kennedy's strong performance makes me reluctant to quit.
Even as is, it's far from the worst thing out there, and a pleasant enough way to spend time-just hardly a must see, for me at least. Unfortunately that all pretty much describes this creative team's Runaways as well. We need better writing!
The Living Daylights (1987)
Easily among the best Bond films.
I've never like Timothy Dalton as Bond based on still photos of him, but within moments of his being on screen I was sold.
This film is a gigantic course correction over the ridiculous garbage most of the series had been up to that point.
The center of this film is actually a strong spy story that doesn't need action set pieces or nonsensical gadgets. It actually takes some effort to think through.
It HAS action set pieces, but it doesn't need them. The ending is too action-y, but tolerable, unlike the garbage ending to the next film. There's a gadget/action set piece midway through the film that's entirely unneeded, but unlike License to Kill, actually fun and well executed for what it is.
The Bond Girl is better and more competent than most.
Timothy Dalton's acting is excellent....he manages to repeatedly say so much with just a look here and there. (In his second film he doesn't get to do nearly as much, so is just "okay".)
The Living Daylights fits in with Casino Royale and On Her Majesty's Secret Service and From Russia with Love (and probably the first two Pierce Brosnon films) as easily a high point for the series. There's an actual, clever spy story at the core of it, and a Bond who wouldn't be out of place in Casino Royal (or a John le Carre story).
Licence to Kill (1989)
Far from the worst Bond film, and not all bad...
Much of the run time of this is pretty okay, but it's orders of magnitude worse than The Living Daylights.
At its best this story is stretched pretty thin. It's somehow disappointing to me that we get nothing of the UK or Europe, and there's just not much to the story.
But there's at least one twist, Dalton remains good, the bad guy at least isn't a cackling cartoon character, and main Bond Girl is actually more about being competent than about being hot (though unsurprisingly not she is).
The ending though...the ending is just painful. Like far too many movies it devolves into painfully boring set pieces. I genuinely don't understand how anyone can be interested in it, and yet professional critics have raved about this ending.
Basically the bad guy abandons his e os I've base because there's a small, contained fire.
They could have calmly left the room, let the fire surpriession system take care of it (or jut spray it with an extinguisher) and killed Bond..after which they'd all be raided and taken down by the multiple intelligence agin es who at this point know where it is. Bond isn't actually even needed.
But instead they flee the small fire for some reason (after which, moments later, the entire base is exploding and on fire, for literally no reason) and then flee in trucks, again, for no reason, and have silly fights on them, for no reason. Characters look towards characters who in scene they couldn't actually see. The Bond girl teleports a golf cart to bond, who three seconds sear,Kerry she was standing next to, and who for some reason didn't just walk with her to it, etc. the staging is messed up. The action is pointless and boring.
And I've seen multiple references to the supposed extreme violence in this film being off putting.
It's not even especially violent by Bond standards. Had people never seen an action movie before? I mean I know this is 1989, but there's plenty of more violent films long before this.
Anyway, aside from the boring, terrible ending, this would be pretty okay. Not great, not a must watch, nowhere near as clever as The Living Daylights, but a solid entry. It's still vastly superior to Moonraker or something. (Unless we're going by "so bad it's good" logic.)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Zero Tolerance (2018)
Now THIS is Law and Order!
Some years back, with the previous showrunner, I wrote a negative review for both an episode and the series generally. It was completely off the rails.
The new showrunner has almost completely fixed it. It's back to being as great as it was. It's got "hero cops" who are trying to do the right thing, it focuses on realistic situations, and it shines a light on disturbing real world issues.
I've been meaning to post something positive about it for a while, as it's been pretty consistently good again with the new showrunner. This episode reminds me of the quality it was hitting 15 years ago. Incredibly well done, well written, and of course well acted.
Law and Order is back!
Charmed (2018)
Unsurprisingly, it's well done.
I had to write something after seeing the inevitable flood of absurd 1 star reviews.
You ain't with it if you think THIS is a one star show. I would never watch "This Is Us", but I'm not going to reflexively give it 1 star just because I'm not interested. I'm sure it's good for what it is.
Yes, congratulations 1-star reviewers, you have accurately assessed that this show is not the original show and features new actors. Good job! Congratulations!
The original show still exists. If you like rewatching things, great, you can still do that. No one has taken away the original.
I watched all 8 years of the original and while it's not my favorite show ever (Buffy) I enjoyed it.
From the preview I thought this looked like it was nailing it, and the first episode didn't disappoint me at all.
VERY mild spoilers about the first episode, maybe.
I don't need a remake to be identical to the original-I'm open to it being quite close, or radically different, just so long as it's good. This hews pretty close to the original series so far. Even the house and the attic look remarkably similar (and I like that the house does as a nice big house and attic make for some great settings, especially for a show like this!)
The sisters have new names I've not yet memorized. The youngest's main power is changed from premonition to telepathy (and while that's cool, I'm still not buying it's as cool as THE ABILITY TO FREAKING FREEZE TIME OR HURL THINGS WITH YOUR MIND-particularly when you're literally fighting DEMONS of all things).
The actors are good. I like their (also renamed) White Lighter better than the original. He's British, and a bit creepy and off, and maybe a bit of a dick, which I like.
I also like that 20 years on the effects can be that much better. That's not a super high hurdle compared to the original, but so far they're quite noticeably better and cool.
I got to say I was grinning ear to ear when they activated the power of three for the first time. Well done :-D
I like that Prue...err...Macy (?) is a scientist in this. Seems like there's fun story potential with that, and even in the first episode she came up with a science-y solution to a supernatural problem, which actually worked (rather than doing a "science is worthless!" type thing...it seems like the character will actually integrate both, which is awesome and unusual. Actually, come to think of it, she successfully figured out TWO things in the first episode based on her science-y-ness).
I'm amazed by how much they successfully crammed in to 40 minutes, and it's left me VERY excited to watch the rest of the season. I hope the rest of the series can move quickly too, as frankly it felt like they could have stretched out this episode's plot points for more episodes, and I love that they didn't, that they just kept it moving.
Ben 10 (2016)
I was really skeptical when I heard they were rebooting Ben 10...
...I mean the original series is only 13 years old NOW. What's the point, when they could just reair that? I heard some lame allusion to how "different" things are now compared with 2005...like...I mean smartphones are more common? There's a few things? Nothing that actually matters for a show. I'd vastly prefer that they just keep going, age all the characters some more, but okay, I'll give it a shot...
I disagree with the claims that the animation in this is bad. It's probably bad for what the show SHOULD be, bad compared with the earlier series, but not actually bad in general...it's just more "cartoony". Would be okay for a generic "cartoon" show. And that seems to be the problem with this in general. The original had an ongoing story, and deep characterization, with great characters. It was a shockingly well written action/adventure/superhero thing that had depth, great action, real stakes, great mythology, it was kind of creepy in a good way, etc. This appears to...have basically none of that. It's sort of like you cross a Looney Toons sketch with Ben 10 characters and get...this. Only frankly that would have a chance of being SOMEWHAT clever.
It's not unwatchable, but it's a joke next to the earlier series. My "devil's advocate" thought about it is "well, this is aimed at kids"...except the ORIGINAL was theoretically for kids too. It was actually more than deep enough for adults to enjoy, and it's not like kids can't enjoy depth too...so what the heck is THIS thing's excuse?
The first episode is kind of astonishing too as...it's not actually a first episode. Ben already has the Omnitrix. There's no explanation for any of that. I mean how he GETS the Omnitrix, why they're traveling together, all of that in the original series was a thousand times more interesting than this pointless episode, which is honestly I think the worst single episode of Ben 10 I've ever seen.
I thought Alien Force was actually worse than the original (which I wasn't expecting, given the characters were older). Haven't gotten to see Ultimate Alien yet as it's not available anywhere. Omniverse-I get why people trash it, and it's probably the worst of the 4-more-or-less connected shows, but it's still MASSIVELY better than this.
Regarding the acting...it's great to have Tara Strong back as Ben. I mean if you're going to have him as a 10 year old again, it's great it wasn't recast. Probably my favorite part of the episode was just hearing her do "Aaaah MAN!" just the way she did it 13 years ago...it's perfect. If only the writing made it mean anything.
Max...was amazing in the original series. Both as a character, and the voice actor, Paul Eiding, is amaaaazing. Adults will recognize him from Metal Gear...and his character on the original series is worthy of his great performance. The new Max is David Kayne, who I think is actually a great actor in his own right, but...it's just not even 1/10th as cool as the "real" Max. Doesn't have even close to the character or gravitas or oddness. And obviously the writing here means it doesn't really matter.
Gwen is new too. The actor seems like good casting...but again it doesn't matter without quality writing.
And it's worth noting that unlike the earlier series, these are just 10 minutes long, emphasizing the "this is a Looney-Tunes-style-cartoon" nature of what this series seems to be going for.
If you try and don't like these, PLEASE try the 2005 series. Do NOT assume that that's anything like this is, other than superficially.
The Flash: Girls Night Out (2017)
Weakest episode all the DC shows this season...
So until this episode I've been enjoying all 4 CW DC shows this season more than ever. I've thought the writing on all of them has taken a noticeable step up.
And then this.
To be fair, there's a bit of development with Caitlin/Frost...we're maybe finally seeing her come to grips a bit with...herself, which is good. (Though the audio filter they apply to Frost's voice is getting annoying.) The episode STARTS like it's going to be fun. It's great having Felicity guest star (I had to think for a moment "wait, this isn't her show, is it"?).
It worked pretty well, seemed like it was going to be fun through until Ralph inexplicably talks the other guys into going to a strip club they don't want to go to...which is as "fun" to watch as it is for the characters to do...which is to say, not at all.
There's piles of things that don't make sense (including Barry and Joe giving up their phones, Barry and Joe getting arrested despite doing nothing wrong and being police, and Felicity figuring out a biochemical question instead of having their Biochemist Caitlin do it. The latter at least probably for he sake of Felicity having something to do. )
There's also a weird stiffness to the dialog delivery and lots of dead air. None of the dialogue flows, and it's rarely well written. Ralph managed to be on the path towards rehabilitation as a character by the end of his first episode, but here he just comes off as sleazy and completely unlikable.
"The Thinker" has a brief appearance that crosses over from creepy to cheesy.
This is bad, but I'm suspicious/tempted to blame the new co-writer. The other writer has written multiple Flash scripts, and the director is good too...but the new writer's only listed credits are from Code Black, which did not exactly receive rave reviews. For all I know though the new writer could be responsible for all the parts that DID work, but...it's tempting to blame them when this was uniquely bad and the other writer has multiple Flash credits to her name.
Legends of Tomorrow: Aruba-Con (2017)
So much fun!
(Note that I'm giving it a 10 using the old Netflix scale of 5/5 being "I loved it", not that I think this is the greatest thing of all time or utterly perfect.)
I really, really wanted to like Legends in the first season. Piles of great characters, superheroes, a freaking space ship that's also a timeship. There was virtually unlimited potential for what they could do...but IMO the writing just wasn't there.
And then some new writers came in on S2, and from the 3rd episode on, it's just been a lot more fun. I also LOVE that they made Sara the captain. She's just so much better than Rip (and I love how they're using Rip as of S3). And somehow Sara just keeps getting cooler.
Well from this first episode of S3, I think I'm liking it even MORE than S2. The writing seems even sharper, the characters more natural still (night and day difference from the sort of awkwardness of S1), and SO many fun ideas.
Honestly I'd have been perfectly happy had I seen this first episode in a theater. It's probably better conceived than Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was.
So many fun moments, though I'd watch it just for Sara beating the **** out of Julius Caesar :-D Hell, Wally's cameo was somehow more fun than he usually is on his own show! (And the actor that plays Gideon got her SECOND on-screen cameo of the series, to fun effect.)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Rape Interrupted (2016)
Obcene. Law and Order's hit a new low
I used to be a big fan of this show-and in fact the previous episode was basically like an old episode, and quite good. It used to raise important issues, and the "hero cops" used to behave how you'd want the police to behave in real life.
Increasingly I've been noticing they have the (alleged) protagonists behaving astonishingly immorally. Going after suspects based on flimsy evidence, and not even expressing any doubt.
This episode though hit a new low. Throughout most of the episode there is literally NO evidence presented that any crime had even taken place.
We have an eye witness that saw SOMETHING. We know from research that eye witnesses are near worthless, and in this case, on top of that, it's dark and he's 20 feet away, and what he saw isn't even inconsistent with what the alleged perpetrator said.
Then we have the alleged perpetrator claiming one thing-which OTHER witnesses pretty much backed up-and an alleged victim who can't even remember the crime taking place, much less whether or not she'd given consent. Even if she DID remember, and WAS claiming a rape happened, it's EXTREMELY important for people to remember that our justice system is supposed to have a presumption of innocence, with strong evidence needed to demonstrate guilt.
At the very end we have a twist that she actually WAS unconscious and hadn't given consent.
The problem is, that doesn't excuse the rest of the episode. The Olivia character and the prosecutor act astonishingly immorally, zealously pursuing a case with zero evidence. That's an obscene abuse of power. Olivia repeatedly claims "there's overwhelming evidence!" when in fact the episode had literally presented NO evidence to that point.
Issues of consent are very real issues that would be excellent to build an episode around (and I'm sure SVU has successfully done that before)-but this story doesn't do that. This story says we should prosecute people without evidence, we should assume they're guilty, even before a crime has been established, much less any evidence discovered to indicate guilt.
The reality is, guilty people will get away with crimes in a properly functioning system, because the burden of proof is supposed to be on the prosecution. I know in real life it's FAR from perfect, but a show like this used to present these characters as idealized versions of how our system works-not criminals abusing their positions of power.
This isn't the first time in recent memory that SVU has gotten the morality of a situation shockingly wrong, where the protagonists are actually the antagonists, but this is the most egregious IMO.
I don't watch Chicago PD because it's morality is screwed up too. The protagonist basically beats suspects at the end of every episode until they confess (at least in the dozen or so episodes I suffered through). SVU is getting to the point where it's no better. I want to see the police doing investigative work and actually trying to do the right thing based on actual evidence.
I think that's important for our nation to see too. I think it's obscene and irresponsible to present what this episode does. I'm terrified of people who may not have a strong civics background seeing this sort of thing, and thinking this is okay.
After more than a decade of watching SVU (and I used to watch Law and Order: Prime, Criminal Intent, and Trial by Jury too), I'm VERY close to canning this series. (Not like I don't have plenty of other shows to watch...including police procedural where the cops are the actual good guys, trying to do the right thing.)
I'm on the fence at the moment, but this may be my final episode of SVU. If this is what they choose to present, this shouldn't be on the air IMO.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
A very well crafted action film, but horrible as Star Wars
JJ Abrams somehow managed to do exactly what he did with Star Trek-make a flashy, technically well made film that's fun on a certain level, but fails utterly as Star Trek, or in this case Star Wars. It's like he's watched some of the franchise, but doesn't really 'get' what it's about.
If someone hasn't, I HIGHLY recommend watching all 6 vastly superior SW films by George Lucas, as well as the 2008 The Force Unleashed game (which functions as an amazing film in between episodes 3 and 4), before bothering with this. From what I've seen of The Clone Wars show, that's much better too (though I've yet to watch more than part of the first season...I hope to get to it!). For that matter, the books are overall much better too...one particular series of books, and The Force Unleashed do an infinitely better job with a character who switches sides...antagonist in this doesn't actually seem to have any motivation at all for what he's doing. He also gets the most inept lightsaber fight in all of Star Wars...despite what must be years or decades of training, anyone with a stick can apparently run up and whack the guy. It's actually hilarious, even more so when compared with all 6 films and The Force Unleashed.
Like in Star Trek, things just randomly happen because the plot says they should, and like ST it's basically soulless. Like ST the actors do a great job. Daisy Ridley is top notch, and I'd be thrilled to see her in a real Star Wars film. It's great to see Carrie Fisher-I hope she's got a bigger part next time, but it's wonderful to see her and she's great. And Harrison Ford is just a god-he owns the place the second he steps on screen, even if Han Solo still doesn't make much sense as a focus.
I wish Lucas could do episode 8 *sigh*
Cristela: Pilot (2014)
Surprisingly good first episode!
Honestly I didn't expect to watch more than a single episode of this. My first impression wasn't great either. It has the look of an old fashioned sitcom, and has a laugh track too. The first scene wasn't funny at all.
But then, with the second scene, things started clicking. I laughed quite a bit the entire rest of the episode, which zoomed by quickly. Most of the characters and actors seem really promising too, though of course they're just sketched in given all of them need to be quickly I produced over 22 minutes.
I'd never heard of Christella before, but she's clearly got talent...you don't write and star in a first episode and have it be this good by accident. If it stays this good (and it really could get better as the writers settle in), I'm going to regularly watch for sure.
EDIT: Well, unfortunately episodes two and three haven't been funny at all. I might give it one more shot, but the pilot was better written than 2 and 3...
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
Please, PLEASE see Captian America: The Winter Soldier first!
It's still in theaters and it's..wow, I'm not kidding that it's 1000x better. If you're like me you'll probably have to see this for yourself anyway...and I understand! But PLEASE see the amazing Captian America: The Winter Soldier first!
I like the Spider-Man character, I liked Sam Rami's Spider-Man 1, loved 2, 3, and Amazing 1. I've loved the animated Spectacular Spider-Man and the 90's animated show (at least at the time). And I've loved the graphic novels...
I certainly WANTED to like this despite the reviews, but...wow.
It's not 90's (live action) "Batman" horrific, but Electro could have stepped straight out of those. I winced every time he was on screen...he's that bad, and doesn't feel like he comes from the same universe as anything else in this film, or any other Marvel related film. INCREDIBLY poorly written and acted...I'll trust that the acting isn't Jamie Foxx's fault, that he's just doing what they told him to do, but it's truly horrific. After writing that I realized actually the other...villains are either bad, or really terrible too.
Not every moment is a disaster. I'm sure everyone will have some fun here and there, but I don't even think Emma Stone nor Andrew Garfield were that good here. They have way too little screen time together, and when they do it's mostly the same mumbled conversation over and over again. There are chunks of the film where Peter and Gwen could have been together, going through the motions of the plot TOGETHER, so at least they'd have more screen time and you'd see them having a relationship.
Going in to this film I was baffled how Sony thought they could spin off much from it. The ONLY Spider-Man spin off I'd actually like would be a May Parker (i.e. his daughter from the alternate Marvel 2 universe). Would love to see her on the big screen (if it was WELL WRITTEN), but I have no desire to see a bunch of bad guys teaming up. Now that I've seen it, I have even LESS desire. The bad guys in this ranged from bad and rushed to embarrassing...more often cringe inducing.
They want to spin this off but they haven't come remotely close to making the core Spider-Man film work...
If this is the best Sony can do with it, I wish the rights would revert to Marvel. As it is, I'm worried the VASTLY superior Marvel films actually made by Marvel are going to be damaged by having this around.