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richardderus
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The Umbrella Academy: The Majestic 12 (2020)
LOTS of anachronisms
Long haired, poorly dressed people entering Dallas society in 1963. Hahaha
Cars from 1965 in 1963. ::facepalm::
"It's just a TV show" won't cut it.
Cursed: Nimue (2020)
Another pretty Skarsgard!
I made it 17:05 into Netflix's new show before the appearance of wax candles on a wrought iron grate jump cut into a semi-ruined castle with a man in a cassock closed with gold-colored buttons sitting on a mock-medieval Gothickal Throne while wearing a gold circlet-style crown did me in.
Buzzcut skinhead Merlin flashed a little flesh, but there just isn't any coming back from this level of nonsense.
Brave New World: Pilot (2020)
It's nice to know the future's heteronormative
Not.
Blink-and-you'll-miss-it seminude men gyrating in carefully calculated groups that *must*include*women*; no smallest suggestion that any speaking male character experiences desire for his fellow man, while female same-sex desire is heavily implied.
Same old, same old.
Sets are cool, effects are good, performances are good.
Dracula: The Dark Compass (2020)
I agree it's not as good as the first two...
...but it's nowhere near as awful as so many h8rs are saying it is. Muddy storyline is a fair critique, but the writing isn't lackluster and the way Dracula acquires knowledge of the modern age is the same as how he acquired knowledge of English. Needed to be four episodes, not three, and good lord Moffat & Gatiss it's 2020 not 2000 so uncode the sexual undertones. It comes across as mealy-mouthed and pursey-lipped, not reticent.
The Expanse: A Shot in the Dark (2019)
The best line in the whole episode...
...belongs to Aide Diaz, when he says to outraged and scared Avasarala after she learns her political future is dimming, "It could have been a lot worse..."
The look on Avasarala's campaign manager's face is *priceless* and the poor little guy was probably found floating in the East River not long after that.
It's a pretty darn tense episode, and the fun and funny bit helped make it feel real and bearable. After all, in life there are almost always places where you can share a laugh in all but the most hideous moments. It is a really fine season of The Expanse, and definitely still the best space opera on screen.
The Witcher: Betrayer Moon (2019)
The timeline switching is more deft here...
...or I've become accustomed to it. The beautiful Hogwarts-esque ballroom scene is nice, but the Witcher-vs-striga is the standout set-piece of this episode. I've heard much carping about the muddy storytelling; I think the structure lacks narrative thrust but it's a risk to spend a season setting up an epic. I think it could pay off if Netflix does more between-seasons sales and access media gladhanding.
AND stops with the straight-boy fan service nekkid gurlz covered in slick stuff.
The Witcher: Four Marks (2019)
A good second outing with one troubling flaw
No, not "failure to use a disabled actor in Yennefer's role." Rather the way the Tissaia/Yennefer schooling plot is overly compressed. It is not clear what Yennefer's position is based on; the school's raison d'etre is clear and I must've blinked when Yennefer demonstrated her mastery of it. Geralt's imperfections are well highlighted in multiple aspects of this episode; Jaskier's bardic gifts are pleasantly presented; Ciri's education in poverty's realities is also well handled. But a lot happens and within each subplot there is a rushed quality, as if "finishing" the episode was paramount, not making it to be the very best it could possibly be. Adding another episode to take the burden of some of the stinted bits and thereby de-stressing this episode would've given an improved watching experience.
The Witcher: The End's Beginning (2019)
Don't expect to understand what's happening...
...or you'll be frustrated and annoyed. Let the visuals and the acting do their work; wait and be patient. It *does* make sense by the end of the episode. It makes more sense if you watch it twice, though I'd advise against watching it back-to-back. It is beautiful, and while gore exists, it is not reveled in. There is female nudity, with strong objectification as its purpose; this isn't gratuitous, while demonstrating yet again that straight men were never weaned and still crave mummy's breast.
IO (2019)
Science gets a black eye, fiction a handshake instead of an embrace
Whatever the filmmakers wanted to do, I hope they don't think they did it. This is not a well-thought-out film. It's very pretty and the actors are better than many reviews suggested to me they were. But this post-cataclysm earth still has electricity and running water? The internet still works? How the heck does she see Jupiter as clearly as the Juno mission did all the way from earth? And I'll ignore the laughter-inducing "science" mumbo-jumbo because no one expects that to make sense anyway (and it does not). The heart of the film, the relationship between Sam and Micah, is insubstantial and I can't think of a more hurtful thing to say. Where it needed intensity, it got petulance; I suspect it's the script's fault as the actors seem to me more than competent. Mackie's MLK, Jr., in All the Way was a superior performance, and Qualley's turn as Jill Garvey in The Leftovers was quality work as well. What happened here wasn't their fault. It's just not a good film because it's not a great story.
Charlie Jade: Through a Mirror Darkly (2005)
Flashbacks flashbacks flashbacks
It is unbelievable how many times the flashbacks stopped the narrative dead in its tracks. The entire plot forward movement took about 20 minutes, the rest was flashbacks and a dreary sex scene that did nothing interesting.