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writetopcat
I love watching television and movies, more than a lot of people I know, less than others.
Though I sometimes like to point out the inconsistencies I find in TV and film works, I enjoy watching them all the same. I have no training in theater, writing, film, or acting. But I am fascinated by the industry. I think I would have enjoyed working in entertainment media.
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Bai ye zhui xiong (2017)
Good til the ending
I don't want to give anything away in case you should decide to give this a try, so I won't spoil it with specifics.
The show has a lot going for it. It is a fresh take on a police based story, involving corruption and some people who get framed or falsely accused, and those who work to exonerate them. This show features identical twin lead characters. One is a brilliant detective, former captain of the district police station, who is working to clear his brother, falsely accused of murdering a family.
There are individual cases which must be solved over one or two episodes, as work is done over the course of the whole series to clear the falsely accused, framed, innocent man.
I failed to give it higher marks partly because the writers failed to tie up loose ends, and answer questions raised throughout the show, and in particular because the last episode was not up to par with the rest of the show. I also felt that one of the lead characters in this show is ultimately shown to have behaved in ways which are very much out of character with all we know about him from the body of the show.
Bing-ui (2019)
Interesting beginning, unsympathetic lead
The story of an immature, irresponsible, and incompetent detective named Kang, and a girl with psychic abilities who team up to pursue a serial killer, who becomes possessed by the spirit of another serial killer. I've seen other Korean shows I enjoyed very much, Signal, and Tunnel, and A Man Named God. But this show is becoming difficult to watch. Det. Kang has his psychic abilities awakened through his love interest. He has some good instincts, but he makes awful errors in judgement, and has virtually no control of his emotions. This isn't the first show to glorify a detective who wants to arrest a bad guy without any evidence of his guilt, but Kang takes this stupidity to new heights, or lows. Do the writers think this appeals to viewers? This trope of a detective who is so sure of a person's guilt that he insists on arresting him without evidence is so banal. After fouling things up so spectacularly, Kang plays the victim and never acknowledges his errors or the predicament he puts his teamates in. I am seriously questioning whether I should finish this series.
Yer Gök Ask (2010)
Women Vying for Eligible Rich Guy in Beautiful Cappadocia
The leading man, Yusuf, is a gentleman. He is compassionate, thoughtful, soft spoken, fair, and generally attractive. He is also the son of a very wealthy family. He winds up with a baby whose mother died in childbirth. He hires a young lady, Toprak, whose baby died in infancy as a wet nurse. She lives in his mansion to care for the baby, along with Yusuf's mother, father, and staff. Toprak's sister Havva stays there as well to care for the still emotionally fragile Toprak. The plot involves the machinations and schemes of women seeking to land the eligible bachelor. There is a lot of lying, and more lies to cover the previous lies, and so on. There are several story arcs related to the various characters. In Turkish culture it is normal for a young man to request permission to court a young lady, and to get engaged to her. The parents have a great deal of influence over their childrens' personal lives. ...NOTE: if you see this on Netflix, don't waste your time. Netflix doesn't have the complete series. The story has a beginning and an ending, but you won't know how it ends if you watch it on Netflix
Kis Günesi (2016)
A somewhat Soapy Revenge Drama
I kind of like Turkish TV shows. If you have ever seen Ezel, another revenge series, you will recognize plot similarities in this show, known as Winter Sun on Netflix. A car with a man and his young son are pushed off a cliff and the boy is thrown free. His father is killed and the car pushed the rest of the way off a drop into the sea. Twenty years later the boy is a man without a memory of the event due to amnesia. He learns that a man found him and placed him with a family to raise him to be the fisherman he is today. He learns that he wasn't in an accident as he believed, but that his father was murdered. He meets his identical twin brother, who is murdered that same night before his eyes. Now he sets out on a mission to impersonate his dead brother while investigating who it was that killed both his father and his brother. The man who saved him as a boy helps him investigate to find the truth, to find the man who gave the order for his father to be killed. A conspiracy to illegally smuggle arms through is father's company is unearthed, along with the men responsible. Along the way he meets his childhood girlfriend, now his late brother's widow, and falls in love with her. But his brother's mistress, who doesn't realize her lover is dead and his identical brother is impersonating him, seeks to continue the relationship.
There are many twists and turns, and many soapy characters you will "love to hate". It gets a bit too soapy for me at times. And like the other revenge show I mentioned, Ezel, this show has an unsatisfying ending, in my opinion. The writers of both shows want to end on a happy note, with the bad characters rehabilitated and redeemed at the end. Characters who were almost pure evil during the 50 episode series wound up becoming sweet and loving at the very end. I like the film noir, crime doesn't pay, approach to dealing with nasty people, especially in a 'revenge' type show. It didn't sit right with me to see them suddenly and drastically change at the end.
A Discovery of Witches (2018)
Anticipating Season 2
I have watched season 1 in its entirety now, and I am looking forward to the next season.
I agree with most of the reviews I've read. This is an interesting, very well made show. I have not read the books so can't comment on how well they follow them. But everyone should be aware that it's not possible to follow books accurately in TV episode format. Each episode must have a beginning and end, and leave you anxiously awaiting the next, and books are not written in episodic format. So writers have to make adaptations which fans of the books are often not very happy with.
I was afraid this might be another teeny bopper, high school type drama. But I was pleasantly surprised to find it is not that. It features adult, interesting characters. The story grabbed my attention from the start. There is a slowly developing attraction between the two main protagonists. I thought it was handled quite well. It seems mature, with no high school angst or drama.
I agree with everyone else on this also: the scenery is a visual feast. That always adds a lot to a show.
What can I say, the story is quite interesting and holds my attention, leaving me wanting more. I am disappointed at the end of each episode, because it has ended too quickly. I really like this show.
Killing Ground (2016)
Sociopath Horror. Crime doesn't pay, but cowardice gets a pass
There is some violence in the film, but the worst of it is not actually shown. There are a few scenes of people being shot and killed, but they are not especially gruesome. The 'horror' aspect comes mostly from other aspects, e.g. the realization that two characters in this story are sociopaths who rape and murder women in front of their men, before killing them all, and the victims' anticipation of their fates once they realize the nature of these men.
A few reviewers didn't like the way tension is created in this film by the very dumb choices made by some characters in this film. A film lacks verisimilitude when characters display a complete lack of awareness of obvious indicators of danger. Overuse of this tactic for creating tension and crisis in a film can backfire. Viewers can become disgusted at the characters rather than becoming scared because of the dangerous situation they mindlessly walk into.
Spoiler Alert:
At one point I became totally disgusted at the extreme cowardice of the doctor. He had a clear chance to grab "German's" rifle after German was shot. He then could have ambushed the other killer and saved his girl. It was almost sickening to watch him vacilate, completely ruled by fear, unable to muster a scintilla of courage. Watching his cravenly pusillanimous cowering, I hoped and expected the doctor to die later in the story. I was disappointed that he didn't, and that his fiancee did not break up with him.
I watched this film because Aaron Pedersen has a part in it and I like that actor. I didn't enjoy watching him play the role of a sociopath who has deadened all traces of empathy for others. But he played the role very well.
2036 Origin Unknown (2018)
Artificial Intelligence in Control, Against Man wu wu esoteric nonsense
It's a pro-AI movie at its core. A woman alone in a spaceship run by an AI computer on a mission to discover what went wrong on a previous mission discovers that the AI has become smart (passed the Touring test) and become conscious. The AI determines that mankind is the problem with mankind (paraphrasing both the movie, and the Club of Rome, which incidentally, also sees man as the enemy of man). By the end of the movie I was pretty bored with the science term word salad and not paying really close attention, but I believe the AI launched an attack on earth, essentially wiping out our civilization. The woman dies, but is recreated in AI form and told to carry on. We are apparently meant to have an "oooh aaaahhh" moment when we hear the AI explain to the digital version of the woman how it expects man to carry on in this new form.
Overall the film was poorly done. It was a vehicle to promote the man is the enemy of man message, which as mentioned, is a central theme of the Club of Rome. (The CoR also promotes decreasing the earth's population by between 70 to 90%; I wondered if the AI destruction of earth's civilization might have been a play on that idea.)
Another reviewer felt this was a mind expanding film; I don't.
Aside from the messaging of the film, it was poorly done.I wondered why Katie Sackhoff agreed to do the film. Is she just fascinated with AI? Did she figure it was a chance to be the headliner in a film? I have no idea. Perhaps she expected it to be produced much better than it was.
At any rate, I am sorry I wasted an hour and a half on this.
The Truth Behind: Atlantis (2011)
The Truth Behind The Truth Behind
This show examines a few archaelogical sites, some underwater such as The Bimini Road, and examines a selection of the theories regarding the story of Atlantis, the 'lost city' written about by Plato. At the very end we are told essentiall "Plato made it all up. It was a story to warn people against being greedy."
The Bimini Road, we are told, is nothing more than a natural collection of beach stones, not man made, covered by rising waters. To support this theory we are shown a few sections of beach stone, some triangular, some with irregular, somewhat rectangular shape, on a section of beach measuring a few meters long.
But if you are familiar with the stones of The Bimini Road, if you have seen photographs of the Bimini Road stones, you are aware that some of these stones could not have occurred naturally as they form distinctly rectangular shapes, with straight edges and 90 degree corners. Such stones have certainly been hewn by human hands. Nowhere in nature do we find such shaped stones. Rectangular blocks with straight edges and 90 degree corners must be hewn by humans. These photographs were not included in this "documentary", presumably because they would not support the conclusion that the Bimini Road is simply a collection of naturally occurring beach rock.
Given the biased selection of photographic evidence for the Bimini Road presented by this show, i.e. the exclusion of photographs which do not support the suggested explanation for this structure, one wonders whether the same selection bias was used when examining the theories and evidence for the truth behind the story of Atlantis.
The conclusion suggested at the end of the show is that Plato made up the story of Atlantis to teach people not to be greedy or it will lead to their ruin. I got the impression they created this documentary to support that conclusion, rather than to consider all theories and evidence on merit. That is not good science: you don't leave out the data which fails to support your desired result or pet theory if you are really doing science.
So I gave this show only 2 stars.
Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie (2017)
Its Own Kind of Funny
Just watched this Netflix Comedy "Handsome" about an overweight detective solving a murder in quirky L.A.
The movie is a little bit of Hollywood making fun of itself. It's clear from the start that this isn't a mystery as the killer in the show announces to the audience that he is in fact the killer at the beginning. There is almost nothing serious in this film, which again , is clear from the outset. The detective squad is staffed with feckless, oddballs. Handsome appears to be the only one there with an ounce of common sense. His female partner is more concerned with getting laid than following leads, but she comes through when needed.
It is one of those films that was over long before I wanted it to be. I hope there will be a series spinoff of this show.
Aquarius (2015)
Flashback series late 1960s Manson and Cops, good show
David Duchovny, aka Det. Sam Hodiak, is good as a detective willing to bend the rules to solve homicides. Frey Damon (Officer Brian Shafe) is a young undercover officer working narcotics. He winds up working along with Det. Hodiak who is trying to find the daughter of a former lover played by Michaela McManus (still hot and beautiful) who plays Grace Karn, the wife of a lawyer named Ken Karns who once represented Charles Manson. Manson had provided a hooker to Karns law partner who has a fetish for playing rough with women. He accidentally went too far and killed the girl. Manson helped them get rid of the body and kept his mouth shut about it. So he has the lawyers over a barrel. Emma Karn is Grace and Ken's daughter. She meets Charlie Manson at a party and he recruits her to be part of his 'family' of girls and hanger on guys. So Hodiak and Shafe work off book to find the girl.
Duchovny does a good job playing a cop, a WWII vet, who holds the values of someone of that generation, for the most part. He no longer has the boyish face we saw in the X-Files. He looks and acts like an early middle aged man, still in good shape. The race relations, social issues, attitudes, etc. are represented fairly accurately. For anyone who lived during that period of time this show brings back memories of that time. For me that is enjoyable.
There are several subplots running throughout the first season which hold your interest well. There are individual cases which get solved quickly as well as the long running investigations of Shafe and Hodiak.
I really like this series. I am hoping there will be more seasons. It's a very interesting and exciting show. They can't just leave us with only one season.
Foyle's War (2002)
An Excellent Series in WWII Britain about a Detective's Work
Set in Britain in 1940 the show is about Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, of the Hastings Police on the south coast of England, and the cases he solves. But it is about much more than those crimes.
The culture of Britain in 1940 like that in America of that time is refreshing to see and is to some extent shown to us. In general their moral and ethical behavior as well as their interpersonal conduct is superior to what is common in present times.
Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle is a man of remarkable character. He is reserved, smart, observant, and has a dry wit on occasion. His son has joined the RAF and is also a person of character. DCS Foyle has a driver, a young service girl, daughter of a minister.
The detective work is very interesting, but no more so than the glimpse back in time, to a better time I think. I know I am romanticizing a bit about things being better back then; certainly there were problems then and crime was a problem. Yet I can only see those times as superior to the present day.
Medium: Light Sleeper (2005)
Allison acting childish
In this episode Alison sleepwalks and does weird stuff like standing in the middle of a 4 lane road in heavy traffic screaming at cars to give her money, sleepdriving to the bank and withdrawing all their money, sleepwalking through the house at night looking for money, etc.
What strikes me in this episode is Alison's self centered, irresponsible, inconsiderate attitude. Joe took the money she withdrew from the bank without realizing she had done so and with no idea why she had done it, and locked it away in his safe. When Alison looked in her purse for her medicine and discovered the money was not there and Joe told her he had locked it up for safe keeping, Alison nearly screamed "you took the money out of my purse? Why would you do that? What did you think I would do with it?"
How could anyone not realize it is stupid to leave over 15 grand in their purse? And how could Alison think it unreasonable that Joe would lock it up? How could she not understand that Joe was worried about what she might do with the money? Alison was doing stuff without knowing she had done it, and with no idea why she had done it.
She herself had no idea what she might do with the money. But she acted like she was a victim when Joe did not know what she might do with the money.
Actually this is not the first time she has displayed inconsiderate behavior or acted like a victim. I don't know why the writers make her act like this. Is she this way in real life? I hope not.
God's Pocket (2014)
Strange film, good acting, dark and funny
The acting is good. I only gave it a 6 out of 10 for other reasons. The story revolves around a couple of part time criminals named Mickey and Bird. Mickey has a kind of crazy son in law who wants to be a tough guy. At work he puts his knife to an old man's throat and threatens to kill him, and breaks the skin on his neck. The old man clubs him on the back of the skull, killing him. The cops are told a crane hook came loose and hit the kid in the back of the head. The kid's mom doesn't believe it happened that way, just from intuition. Mickey and Bird both gamble, both are short on money. Bird owes about 20 grand to a bookie. I will let you see the rest for yourself.
One reviewer said this is a film about real people. I suppose. But I have to say I don't know any people like the ones depicted in this film. Just about everything these guys do is stupid and their lives are really screwed up. It's not just those two. The undertaker is screwy and a real jerk, the kid was a nut case, the journalist is an alcoholic who often fails to write his column because of his drinking. Just about every main character and most of the minor characters are screw balls. Even the hired muscle can't rough up a guy, they get their asses kicked instead. The writers use these glaring foibles to deliver the dark humor. It is very subtle. But this film is really more of a drama; to me, it isn't really a comedy. I have never run into people who screw up everything in their lives as much, make as many really stupid decisions, as the people in this film. I just don't find that funny in a drama. A lot of people do I guess. I tend not to like films with self destructing characters. So I gave it a six.
Last Man Standing: Helen Potts (2015)
LOVED this episode!!
I lost it laughing during this episode. The jokes were great as always but were made exponentially better due to references to Tim's first hit comedy series Home Improvements. Pat Richardson guest starred in this episode as a neighbor named Helen Potts whose husband "left" 6 months previously, leaving her a mess at her house which she is trying to repair. Her house is a replica of their house on Home Improvements, and there are lots of funny references to her husband which are obviously references to Tim on the old show. I laughed so hard. "Helen Potts" has 3 main segments of the show and each one was great. Tim and Pat seemed to enjoy the reunion and have the same chemistry as before, which added to the nostalgia. "Helen" and Tim discussed Helen's husband, who it turns out had actually died 6 months previously, and the dialogue makes it clear they are speaking about the Tim on Home Improvements. Helen mentioned how funny he was, much funnier than Mike Baxter, to which he replies "well, he probably had better writers".
I saw this on television and since I found it on Netflix I must have watched this episode again at least 5 more times, and I am not finished watching it, I am sure.
There is another story involving Eve and a story she is doing about heroes from the Vietnam War. She winds up doing the story about Ed after she discovers how much he helps veterans who are suffering and having difficulty getting the benefits they are owed and deserve. This is a touching story, and combined with the nostalgia we feel from the Helen Potts plot, it helps make this episode an warm, emotionally satisfying one.
I could go on but would really be repeating myself I think. Suffice it to say this is one of my favorite, if not the all time favorite episode of Last Man Standing to date.
Stagecoach (1939)
Great Classic Western Movie, John Wayne Breakout
I love this movie. I grew up on westerns so I am partial to them I guess. But this one is special. I don't think I can explain what makes it so great. It has a good story, but it is much more than that. There was a remake done in 1966 and while it was well done with good actors turning in good performances I was disappointed in it. Of course this was the breakout movie for John Wayne. It is strange to think he was in about 70 films before this one made him a star.
He plays the Ringo Kid, a sympathetic character in this film. A disparate group of passengers wind up taking a stagecoach with an army escort due to reports of Indian trouble. The calvary is actually looking to meet up with another group of soldiers though and parts company with the stage about halfway on the journey. There is a crooked bank employee who has stolen money with him, a drunken doctor and a saloon girl who have been forced to leave town, a liquor salesman, a southern gentleman gambler, a pregnant lady, a Marshal riding shotgun and the stagecoach driver on the stage.
The crooked banker is in a hurry to reach his destination but is continually frustrated by circumstances. There is a lot of interesting give and take among the different characters. Indians attack the coach during the second half of the trip. Thats as much as I will say about the plot.
I heartily recommend this movie. It is a classic and should be seen for that reason alone. If you like westerns you will like this film
Faster (2010)
Good story good acting
A good crew of actors with a good story. It is an action story about a man who helped his brother rob a bank; their crew was betrayed and his brother was executed. He was shot and left for dead but survived and went to prison. He does his time and when he gets out goes on a spree, killing the crew which ambushed and killed his brother and shot him.
He settles the scores.There is a twist at the end. There are a couple of clues if you can catch them, tipping you off as to the twist. I don't want to give that away.
It is a story of justice and redemption. Bad guys reap what they sew, and people who repent have a chance at a new life. It is a good story, with good acting.
Flaked (2016)
Drama/Comedy better than I expected
Set in Venice CA the show centers around a recovering alcoholic named Chip and his friends. Since Chip is played by Will Arnett I imagined the show would have a lot more comedy, one liners, etc. I took a shot at it on Netflix even though I was afraid it might lack enough substance to hold my attention. Sometimes comedies rely far too much on witty lines and predictable gags. But FLAKED is not just a vehicle for snappy lines and comebacks. Most of the characters have enough depth to keep me interested. There are a few which are kind of one dimensional like Cooler, a stoner type. He is shallow and not too bright and not too with it and sometimes irritating because of it. But he adds comic relief.
I like the show more than I thought I was going to like it. There is one thing I don't like about the show, and about most shows of this type. Writers make characters do and say stupid things in order to develop conflict in the story line. Viewers watching this are hit with a feeling that the plot is just too phony, too unbelievable. If it were a pure comedy it would not matter. But this show is a mix of ostensibly real life drama with comedy. It is hard to buy into the real life bit when people say things or fail to say things which real people obviously would bring up in real life. They allow their lives to crash and burn in the show by failing to simply tell someone a simple set of facts as anyone in real life would obviously do. This makes it easier for writers to develop conflict, and I suppose the writers also feel that viewers will feel anxiety when they see the characters they identify with making such really bad decisions, omissions, or foolish statements.
This is obviously a pet peeve of mine, right up there with the grade B camera work seen in some action and horror films, i.e. shaky cameras, rapidly changing camera positions and angles, and rapidly changing depth of shots. I don't know why modern film uses these cheap techniques. Many people hate that kind of camera work. In the same way we hate to see seemingly ordinary and intelligent characters behaving stupidly and ruining their lives by doing so. It is extremely common in film and television and very annoying also.
House of Cards: Chapter 45 (2016)
Selling the Fiction of Morally Upright Player
I am watching episode 45 now and just saw the exchange between Doug Stamper and the Secretary of Health. She sent him an email with a picture of a family. She tells him she wanted him to see the picture of the man and his family who got bumped off the liver recipient list in order for the President to receive a liver. Stamper tells her to delete it off her server and she says she already has done so. But she says, she just wanted him to see the man and the family who got bumped. The family which is now missing their husband and father.
What hit me about the scene is this: any appointee to a position that high would not do that. they would not call the chief of staff to lay a guilt trip on him with their crisis of conscience. If they were of a mind to do that, they would not be in that position, and they certainly would not retain it long. They are all great at rationalizing doing things like that. They don't have crises of conscience like she did. If she were the sort of person to have a crisis of conscience like she did in that scene, she never would have been given that position in the first place.
They wrote it this way in order to sell the idea that politicians really do believe in equality. They want us to believe that there are some up at the top who really believe the crap they tell us they believe. If it were a Republican administration they might not have written that way.
American Beauty (1999)
Hollywood Anti-Conservative Pro Leftist Viewpoint
This movie is a vehicle for advancing a leftist caricature of conservatives in the character of Colonel Fits. He is shown as a strict disciplinarian who is abusive to his son. He also has repressed homosexual desires. Are there really people like Colonel Fits? Not really. No one is that one dimensional. Are there conservatives with repressed homosexual urges? I am sure there are plenty. But this film intentionally makes Colonel Fits unbelievably one dimensional, unable to speak to his son except in the most rigid fashion, unable to express love or compassion (in the leftist view, conservatives lack this ability), completely out of touch with his own feelings, and emotionally retarded beyond belief. This incredible picture of the man is meant to help convey some leftist viewpoints; conservatives are uptight, screwed up people. They are incapable of feeling or expressing love or compassion, incapable of perceiving reality because of their emotional immaturity, etc. It is also meant to advance the idea that handguns, especially in the hands of uptight conservatives, are dangerous and likely to be used for murder.
These ideas are not overtly advanced. They are suggested by the story and the portrayal of the people who own the guns.
The movie has good actors, and was produced well. The story is interesting and the different plot lines converge together well. That helps the viewer buy into the movie. It also helps sell the unspoken leftist lessons. They are subtly imparted but not unnoticed.
Hollywood wants us to come away from the film saying: -why don't those uptight conservatives just accept gay people and be gay if they want to be, -people shouldn't have guns around because they will just kill people in an emotional moment of weakness, especially those uptight conservatives.
Most of us know military veterans or active servicemen and women and resent seeing how Hollywood portrays them. I can appreciate the quality of the film from a lot of perspectives, but I could do without the Hollywood politically correct life lessons every time I see a movie.
Bonnie & Clyde (2013)
"based on true story" but mostly fiction
I have to agree with most of the other reviews here; this version of Bonnie and Clyde strays very far from the true story. I don't know why Hollywood writers feel they need to make up complete fiction; the real history is plenty interesting enough. Still they can make up stories if they want to. But they should stop saying it is based on a true story.
Also, what was the deal with the scenes of Bonnie dancing ballet interspersed with scenes of the gang riding down the road? Was this supposed to be Clyde hallucinating?
The scene in which Bonnie's leg gets burnt when Clyde flips the car into the ditch happens out of sequence to the real life events. This happened before the gang checked into the Red Crown Tourist Court. In fact it was Clyde buying supplies to treat her leg which attracted attention to them there as law enforcement had alerted people that the outlaws might be buying such supplies. The movie has this accident happening after Red Crown and after the subsequent ambush at the campground. There are plenty of other mistakes made in the film of this sort.
This movie also intentionally perpetuates a false rumor of the time, namely that Bonnie shot the officer in the grapevine shooting. That rumor turned out to be false and this was determined very soon afterward. It was Henry Methvin who began shooting the cops and Clyde joined in afterward. In the movie, Methvin is not even with them at the time. This is another intentional fiction. I am not defending Bonnie, only pointing out how the movie mixes fiction in with the real story.
This is not the worst TV you can watch; it is entertaining and the acting is better than average. It just isn't true to history. I liked the 1967 version much better.
Crossing Lines: Obscura (2015)
Evil caricatures of right wingers and sainted leftists
This episode is typical Hollywood PC propaganda in all it's glory. The assassin is shown in a sympathetic light because her husband, a black man, had been murdered, presumably by right wing hooligans. Even the leftist assassin gets our sympathy. The PC promoting characters are presented as opposing violence, and protecting the free speech rights of even those with whom they vehemently disagree. Of course this flies in the face of real life where leftists try constantly to chill and censor the speech of those who don't hold their viewpoints. Violence, murder, and mass murder are committed by leftists in most cases when the political persuasion of the perpetrator is known. In the show, the PC promoting characters are polite and support the rule of law. This is another Hollywood fiction as anyone who lives and works in Hollywood well knows. If you hold any conservative views, or even fail to voice support for leftist viewpoints, you are blackballed and viciously attacked in print.
But since Hollywood moguls control the content of the shows we watch and the news we get, they can portray leftists as the good guys and the rest of us as awful people. This show is just so much leftist propaganda and rubbish
Haven: The Old Switcheroo: Part 2 (2014)
Nathan Wournos wimps out again
I really like this series. I didn't follow it on TV, I only began watching it since I got Netflix. I have mentioned before that Nathan the detective/Chief/detective is wimpy and weak and he demonstrates it again in this episode. I don't know why they chose to write his character this way but it is a little irritating to watch. In fact I hate watching just about any character who makes really stupid decisions and is emotionally labile.
When Duke/Nathan and Nathan/Duke trap Mara in a room at the psych ward in order to unleash a reincarnation trouble on her out of Duke's body (which Nathan is in since they switched bodies due to the switching trouble) Nathan/Duke cuts Duke's body's hand to drip blood on the floor and release the trouble on Mara. But Nathan wimps out again, looking up at Duke/Nathan through the door window saying "I can't, I can't. I can't concentrate." Thus the trouble is not released and Mara, dressed like a deputy, is able to escape in the commotion by convincing orderlies that she was attacked by a couple of mentally disturbed people.
To me, it really ruins a show when writers stoop to making characters weak, wimpy, or stupid to develop the plot. It would be just as easy to have someone else act in a very clever manner to achieve the same ends. They really overdue the wimpy stupid weak character device and it is disturbing to watch.
Haven: The Lighthouse (2013)
Good show good episode but wimpy characters
I just finished watching episode 13 of season 4 on Netflix (I love watching with no commercials). There are spoilers coming so quit reading if you have not seen this one yet. Audrey finally finds out that her original personality is a wicked woman named Mara and she and William are responsible for all the troubles in Haven. William forces her into a situation where she has to give troubles to a couple of people in order to prevent a baby with trouble from killing hundreds perhaps thousands of people or more before it learns to control the trouble. She has to give Duke his trouble back again. Duke asks for it back because the father of the baby asks him to kill him in order to rid his family of the trouble so his baby can live a normal life and people stop dying. Duke gets a little more than he expected; giving troubles is not an exact science. A plan is constructed to send William through a portal, out of their dimension and into a horrible place of punishment. Four people have to stand around a large Guard symbol on the floor in the basement of the lighthouse and open a door to the other dimension, one of them being William. William begs not to be sent back but nobody is having it. When it comes time for Nathan to shove him through the door he acts like a pussy, hardly trying to push him. I swear, if that was the best Nathan can do, he has no business being a cop, or even pushing a broom. Finally Audrey decides she should be the one to send him off and grabs him to throw him through. There is an electric spark when they touch, not the first time. Every time she touches him in this episode, especially after giving troubles to people, her connection to William becomes stronger, and her memory of her former self becomes more clear and seems to have more influence on her. As she grabs him and shoves him through the door the connection passes the tipping point; William is gone through to the other dimension but Audrey's personality is gone as well. Mara's personality takes control of her and she asks at the end of the show "alright, who is going to help me get William back?" Serves Nathan right, he wimped out, again, and this time it cost him. If he had been able to muster up his balls for once and thrown William threw the door Audrey would not have had to touch him and she might have been able to remain in control.
The other wimpy character is Dave. He and his brother always carry on like a gay couple anyway. But this episode he really wimps out badly.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Liberal Caricatures of Marines & Bad Over-acting
Full Metal Jacket is a leftist oriented movie about a fictional group of Marines as they go through training and to Vietnam. It portrays Marines as "killers" who glorify killing, except for a few in whom the training doesn't take hold; these are depicted as generally decent, smartass, sarcastic, skeptical, opponents of the war. That is the general division of Marines in this movie: 1-men who have been brainwashed to love killing on the one hand, and 2- decent men with a few faults on the other hand.
The drill instructor tells the men in boot camp that Lee Harvey Oswald and Charles Witman are examples of the kind of Marines he wants them to become, because they knew how to shoot straight and to kill. There is an implication that the training in boot camp drives one trainee crazy enough to murder the DI and them himself.
There is plenty of stuff like this in the movie. The 1st type of Marine in the film goes overboard in acting boorish and stupid. It is overdone to the point that you notice how bad the acting is done. The idea is to create caricatures, making a distinction between the men Kubrick shows as having accepted the Marine training and those he shows as not having taken the training or the mission to heart.
The second type of Marine as depicted by Kubrick is often smartass to a great degree, almost to the point of openly ridiculing a general to his face. This Marine is given a hero status. The 1st type of Kubrick's Marines are depicted as dunderheaded morons, on whom the sarcastic wit of the smartass Marines is lost. There are no people in Kubrick's film who are representative of real life Marines: intelligent, good, decent men and women who fight when called upon to do so, but with no bloodlust or desire to kill anyone.
The Hollywood stereotypes are so stark in this film that it really is no surprise that it won so many awards.
Hemlock Grove (2013)
Great show, short review spoiler
The show has a great cast. It has the right mix of a little bit of supernatural spooky stuff which keeps it interesting, and well written interweaving plot lines with interesting characters and their relationships. It is not just a monster show. Your interest is maintained; the writing is good. You learn just enough about the Godfrey's business to suspect there is cutting edge Frankenstein research going on there, but it takes several episodes before you find out that one of the Godfrey infant children was brought back from the dead using this tech. There is a lot more secret research going on there which the owners are not even fully aware of; what is it? Wanting to find out is one of the questions you keep watching to get answered.
It was a mistake to have Letha die at the end of season 1. Penelope Mitchell is too good looking to leave the show.