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mariov769
Reviews
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (2024)
A work in progress
I am reserving judgment until I watch all 6 episodes but the first one was meh. There was really no logic to Rick cutting of his hand. He was never getting away with so many of the CRM around him and he'd be suffering from blood loss and physical shock. It was just done to match the graphic novels. It didn't occur to Rick to join the CRM sooner instead of cutting off his hand? The super coincidence at the end was just not believable.
The walkers in the Walking Dead started to climb and open doors. Here, they are the regular walkers we have seen for over a decade. That's a lack of consistency since this is taking place after the events of the Walking Dead finale. For a show that has taken a long time to get off the ground, it felt rushed. They tried to include so many events in the first hour. Okafor feels like a wasted character which happened often in Fear the Walking Dead. But as I have said, I'll wait to judge the whole series until the end. Right now it's a 6.5 but it can improve.
The Wheel of Time (2021)
How did they mess this up?
The books are easy to follow. They have a logical progression. The books are not convoluted. What I and so many people like about the books is that they're simple yet captivating.
The show ignores the source material almost entirely this second season. I didn't care for the changes in the first season but it at least the story kept moving. The production is great. This season the story is bogged down. It's based on the book The Great Hunt and there is no great hunt on the show. Elyas is introduced in such a lackluster manner after being ignored in season 1. Why in the world is Liandrin a main character? I like the actress but the show writers have made her sympathetic. If the show was longer than 8 episodes, then they could afford to waste episodes on Nynaeve or the Tinkerers. I found those parts interesting in the books but they're a needless inclusion in the show. If I had not read the books at all, the show on its own is still very problematic.
The first season cost Amazon $80 million to make. The second season will probably cost more. So why in the world are they ignoring the source material? The books sold 90 million copies worldwide. There is a large built in audience. So why would the writers go out of their way to alienate the fans of the WOT? I hate to say that it should be cancelled but this is way off from the books. I had been looking forward to this for a long time, but all this show does is guarantee that a more definitive version will be made later on.
No One Gets Out Alive (2021)
Could have been better
This was decent and really had the potential to be better but it felt too short of a movie. Another 15 minutes probably would have given the story better details and made it make more sense. The atmosphere was great. The acting was very solid. But they were also fairly cliched. The jerk boss was a jerk. Ambar's coworker who seemed sketchy from the beginning was in fact sketchy. The landlord Red seemed like he was clearly lying from the time you meet him was in fact a liar. The haunting was cool until the movie neutered it. What was their real purpose? As a cautionary tale? Then why would they follow Ambar around outside of the house and try and scare her? How was she supposed to know while walking the streets of Cleveland that the ghosts came from the boarding house? They didn't have name tags or introduce themselves.
The movie was also too predictable. Aside from the ghosts, everything played out like you'd think it would. Creepy boarding house, creepy landlord with an even creepier brother, creepy noises and ghosts all played out exactly like you'd expect. You knew the box would come into play. There would be no reason to have shown it several times if not. But the big reveal comes out of nowhere. Who or what was that? We know nothing about what it is and we never really learn anything about its origin. The CGI was pretty bad. I can overlook that but it was crucial to the story. Another 15 minutes of exposition and storytelling and the movie would have made more sense. The ending really made no sense with Ambar's character. If we had seen something that showed Ambar was really not the person we saw, then sure the end works. But nothing about the movie made Ambar seem awful. With better writing and more time, this movie could have easily been a 7 but oh well.
Feria: La luz más oscura (2022)
Hit and Miss
This was another Netflix show that I could have gone either way with but the last episode just made me drop a star or two. The filming is well done. The story is very interesting. The acting for the most part is solid. But the writing really needed a lot of improvement. I have zero problems with nudity in any film or series. Here it just seemed gratuitous. The reasoning for the nudity was fairly weak and pointless since we saw Sofia cross over totally clothed. I won't give more away but the constant contradiction by the writers got irritating. On one had, the cult says this life isn't real and your body is nothing but a vessel. On the other hand, they drug up Sofia into having a weird orgy because she had to give up her body to lift the veil. So which is it? If she had to have sex in order to lift the veil, then her body matters. It may still be a vessel and all but without her body the veil wouldn't have been lifted.
The other big problem is the lack of explanation for everything. We know this relates to Gnosticism but why Sofia and her mother? Because they were special? What happened in her family's history that made them so important only to Gnostics? Every other religion had no use for Sofia but coincidentally the Gnostics did and luckily her and her family were there and never left their small town. They could have moved thousands of miles away and no one would have found them but nope. They stayed in the only town in the world with the gate to hell that only Sofia and her mom could open. And this wasn't some secret either. Most of the older people in their small town knew about the gate to hell. Yet in a town that small there were no stories or myths or anything to allude to it. Not even the miners who worked there for years had ever discovered this overly conspicuous stone door that led to the gates of hell. Groovy.
The last episode just killed it. Knowing the choices she had, knowing that everything was up to her and her alone, knowing that she was lied to by the cult, knowing all that she personally lost, Sofia still hadn't learned a single thing. Yeah, the want a second season obviously but they wasted a good premise with iffy writing.
Archive 81 (2022)
Well...
First off, this is in no way a found footage type of show. The lead is a video restorer and he is restoring old videos. The story is set firmly in the present while the videos serve to tell the back story. The story isn't told via the videos like Blair Witch. There is plenty to like about the series but for me the negatives outweighed the positives. I could have gone with a 6 had the final episode not been so predictable.
In fact, the entire series is predictable. The people you think are the bad guys are in fact the bad guys. There are no twist with the characters. They are what they seem they are when you first meet them. The series is too long. It should have been 6 episodes. The time fillers can get boring. This show is very much like Lovecraft Country except that show was far better than this one. There is a ritual just like Lovecraft Country and plenty more similarities. Both shows mistake the ritual as something else. They both are using themes from H. P. Lovecraft but Archive 81 bogs down too often. The lead actor Mamoudou Athie was too wooden for me. He hardly had any facial expressions. Dina Shihabi was better though they were inconsistent with her character. She would be intelligent then she'd do some really dumb things. The side characters are basically pointless except for Jess and Bobbi.
This is not scary in the least. This isn't really horror though at some point they make an effort at it. But that is a misdirection. They create a good atmosphere but the music that constantly plays throughout the series gets to be way too distracting after awhile. It is discordant so it begins to grate on your nerves. The series is one big red herring after another but the main point is surprisingly simple. In fact, it is surprisingly simple to cross dimensions. When you eventually get to the other dimension, it is very similar to the Upside-Down in Stranger Things except not as deteriorated. Nothing of this show is particularly new but they managed to make the mystery work. That is the best part of the show. It just falls flat when you learn how to cross dimensions. I fully expected the ending because they had been dropping hints the entire series about how the main characters are inextricably linked. I am sure there will be plenty of people who will like the show. They need better writers if they want to make a season 2.
The Silent Sea (2021)
Watchable but be prepared
You always have to suspend your disbelief when it comes to sci-fi movies. That's just a given but there is only so much disbelief you can ignore before it crosses into the ridiculous. The series crosses into the ridiculous a little too often especially with the climax. It's just not possible for what happens at the end unless the mystery girl is part tardigrade. There is definitely a Prometheus vibe going on and it also repeats the same problems as that movie. If you are around an unknown environment with many dead people for unknown causes, by all that is holy wear your helmet and take all safety measures. For a show with 8 episodes, they leave too many unanswered questions. There is moon flora native to the moon? Why not investigate how that's possible?
This show should have really been 6 episodes. Too many scenes were just filler parts. I have no idea in what universe people compare this to Squid Game or other recent South Korean shows. There is nothing at all in common except a couple of actors. Bae Doona is in the excellent South Korean show Kingdom but no one compares it to that. She was also in Sense8 but this show is nothing like that either. This show was obviously written for there to be a second season to answer all those unanswered questions. The writers need to do a better job of making the events more plausible. A guy, who none of the crew has worked with or knows, isn't just going to be allowed to join a top secret mission the day of the launch just because. It makes it super obvious he is up to no good so when we discover he is in fact up to no good it is no surprise.
Hanna (2019)
Same old same old
Each season has the same exact formula. Hanna creates a problem and everyone has to deal with the fallout. In the first season, her father is killed because of her mistakes. The second season more people die because of her mistakes. The 3rd season is no exception. She messes up and people die. But this time around it's just not believable. She falls in love with a guy after she heard him giving a speech. That's it. She risks everyone's lives because she heard a guy talk for about 5 minutes. And he falls in love with her despite not knowing a single thing about her. He has the charisma of a chia pet.
Ray Liotta is over the top in his role and miscast. He's unhinged yet in charge of a major covert CIA operation. It's also hysterically not covert. The CIA can send armed squads in any country they want with impunity to cover their tracks. The CIA sends these armed squads in broad daylight not bothering to be covert in any way. They talk to people in American English just to make sure everyone knows they are Americans destroying the whole covert part of the mission. Mireille Enos does a great job again as Marissa. One has to wonder how she has an unlimited supply of money and weapons though. The ending of the series was telegraphed. All the main characters were placed in the same location so you know there will be a showdown. The filming is great, the cinematography is great, and the music works. But the writing was just bad. Jules, another trained assassin from the Meadows and Hanna's friend, can't kill her target despite being trained to kill without remorse the entire 3 seasons. Jules was surprised that her target had feelings and plans. What did Jules think assassination training was supposed to be about? It's just bad writing. Seasons 1 and 2 were good though again a little redundant with Hanna creating problems in both seasons. I previously had this show rated an 7 or 8. Season 3 was just a waste of time and the talents of some good actors.
Jiok (2021)
Decent but with problems
At no point does anyone in the entire series does anyone try and figure out what is going on. Everyone just accepts the events and the New Truth as if they have no minds of their own. In one episode, one character says half the world supports the New Truth. So 3.5 billion people don't even question what's going on? What about the other 3.5 billion? If you are hoping for a basic explanation of what's going on, you are not going to get it this season. This season really is in 2 parts. The events that happen at the beginning and then what happens 4 years later.
The effects are decent. The last episode of the season is perhaps the best episode which bumped up my rating from a 5 to a 6. The show is entertaining but the writing needs to be better. The events may be supernatural but human beings are naturally curious. We want to solve the mystery but no one on the show asks how is any of this possible. Plus, there are roving gangs of believers that just assault and kill people openly and the police do nothing. One annoying video blogger is all but calling for violence and yet the police don't even investigate him. The roving gang even assaults the police and the cops don't go after them. None of these are really spoilers of the main story but it just shows the problems with the show. The writers need to do a much better job in the second season.
Sex Education: Episode 8 (2021)
At some point...
At some point the writers are going to have deliver on their storyline. It's now 3 seasons of jerking the viewers around and it is going to start causing some fans to get disinterested in the show. People invest their limited time on a series and they hope to see a payoff. They spent the entire season 2 trying to keep Otis and Maeve apart in the silliest ways. This Season 3 finale does it again. The writers couldn't even let Otis and Maeve have one nice day together. Don't get me wrong, the episode was good until they decided to keep them apart yet again.
In fact, no one on the show aside from Ola and Lily have a functional relationship. Not even Jean and Jakob have a really functional relationship. They don't have anything in common. They don't really get along. And with how the season ended, it seems like it is going to get worse. The writers and Mimi Keene did a great job of making Ruby a lovely and thoughtful character and then they tossed her aside when her part was over. Ruby and Otis actually work better on the show because it's really been 2 years than Maeve and Otis were close thanks to how Season 2 played out. Otis pushed for a relationship with Ruby and she let him in. Then he is surprised that she has feelings for him? That doesn't make a lot of sense. Eric has now screwed over both Rahim and Adam without any consequences. The Isaac and Maeve storyline was just pointless. Are you telling us that Maeve who doesn't trust anyone just up and forgives Isaac for ruining a potential relationship that she had wanted, invading her privacy, lying to her for months about it, and Isaac doesn't even admit that he did it for his own selfish interests? And Isaac ends up feeling like he was wronged? Seriously?
The writers need to give the audience some pay off after all this time. This isn't like Scully and Mulder in the X-Files where they didn't admit their feelings to each other. Otis and Maeve know how they feel about each other. All they had to do for 2 Seasons was have one conversation. That's it but the writers dragged on for over 2 years. The show has great characters with Aimee being by far my favorite. Now that Moordale is closing, find a way to get Otis to America to be with Maeve and let them have an actual relationship already. Relationships are hard as it is so try writing something that Otis and Maeve have to deal with together, as a couple, and stop jerking the viewers around already. Again, I like the show. I have given it a rating of 8 stars overall so it's not the problem. It's frustrating that the writers can't stop keeping them apart.
Shadow and Bone: The Unsea (2021)
Umm
This episode is just muddled as is the rest of the show. But the highlight is when Alina is on her knees in one scene and she is wearing a black top. The top is off her shoulders initially. Then from a different angle one side is up while the other side is down. Then from another angle the top is on both her shoulders, the direct opposite of how she had it initially. Then switch the angle to the initial one and it is back to being off her shoulders. She doesn't move once in the entire scene and is wearing chains. It is so blatant that you can't miss how distracting it is. It's not the only bad continuity in the show but this one was just more obvious than the others.
WandaVision: Now in Color (2021)
House of M
I can tell quite a few people never read or heard the Marvel Comics event House of M because this show is pretty much a re-imagining of that series for the MCU. Scarlet Witch has extraordinary powers and House of M showed that off. House of M affects the entire Marvel Universe and now that the X-Men are back with Marvel this might be Marvel's way of bringing them in to the MCU. The very first episode featured an Easter egg with the wine bottle that very directly hinted at House of M.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond: In This Life (2020)
This season was just bad
They simply didn't have 2 hours of quality material. Both shows combined had about 45 minutes that was decent. The many long monologues were simply unnecessary. When Hope confronted Huck, it took way too long to resolve. I mean the note Hope deciphered said her sister Iris was expendable. If anyone said my family was expendable, there wouldn't be much debate or conversation. And this is in the zombie apocalypse where no human is really expendable. Negan knew that people were resources. This show does the wrong thing every single time. Wiping out the Campus Colony just seems dumb for so many reasons. If other people thought about rebelling within the Civic Republic and then learned about the massacre, the show just gave them an obvious incentive to revolt. And we know Felix and Iris ran into the survivors so yeah the future story line seems pretty obvious.
I don't mean to pile on the actress that plays Iris but she is simply not a good actress. This whole series revolves around the genius of Hope as if her name isn't a little on the nose. It's a pretty flimsy premise. Then the Civic Republic is very arrogant. Humanity just collapsed. The zombie virus is still around so why do they act like they are invincible. We know the Commonwealth with over 50k people exists in this universe. We don't know if that's who Michonne ran into but if not that's a potential other group. Then there is the group Eugene and the others ran into. Then there's Ginny's group the Pioneers and Morgan's growing group though they are a couple of years behind TWD. The Civic Republic seems to be aware of all of them yet still thinks everyone is expendable. The Civic Republic can't afford to kill its own people, incite a rebellion, and fight off the obvious war coming up. The Walking Dead used to have top-notch writing. The World Beyond has awful writing. At least Fear is still interesting.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond: Truth or Dare (2020)
Seriously?
I have tried to get into this show but it's just terrible. The dialog, the acting, even the episode music seems out of place in every episode. The show has the same formula every single episode. Pick a character and tell their background story while the other characters are doing something else. Every character had a depressing back story, but they try to make it better with upbeat music during the episode. This episode was utterly obvious like the show. They have been hinting that Silas can barely control his rage since the first episode. He's the Michael Myers of the apocalypse. Which of course means next episode there will be a PLOT TWIST.
They spent 2 episodes earlier in the season trying to get by the Springfield Tire Fire for no particular reason. This show is only going for 2 seasons yet they waste an inordinate amount of time with exposition. And everything is so convenient. They need to get across the Mississippi River. It's just their luck that they find the materials they need to build a boat just by the river. Mind you, none of them have ever built a boat but they manage to make it work just before the empties get them. They need to cut down their travel time so what a great coincidence that they run into two grifters both with hearts of gold with a truck which can coincidentally fit all of them and a map to gas depots. If this was the Walking Dead, all of these people would be dead walker bait. I'll make it to the end of the season but I am not invested in any of these characters. I wouldn't miss any of them if they died. I'd miss Daryl's dog if something happened to him more than any of the kids here.
Cursed (2020)
It had ppotential but...
I have read the Arthurian legends since I was a kid. When the movie Excalibur came out, my parents took us to see it on opening night. I am quite familiar with all the various myths associated with King Arthur so I was looking forward to a new retelling but from the perspective of the Lady of the Lake. I love Frank Miller so the elements were there for me to like it.
Except that the writing and directing are really subpar. This should not have been 10 episodes. There just isn't enough material for that. There are long stretches of the show that are really boring. The first 4 or 5 episodes feel like it's just filler material. The actor who plays Arthur is very wooden. He only has one expression the entire series. There is no chemistry between him and Nimue, none. Their romance scenes feel forced and awkward at best. The CGI is pretty bad too. It's like 1980s bad. The series is also very predictable. There are just too many moments in the series that don't really work or make sense. Hopefully, it gets better in season 2 because the last 2 episodes were pretty decent and showed potential.
Now, I see people complaining that Arthur is black as if that is some sort of issue. This is a myth people. And even if it wasn't, no one is forcing you to watch the show. If it bothers you that Arthur is black and it isn't accurate but you think the magic and the horned people are just fine, then you might be a racist. Arthur is a legend. There is archaeological evidence that an Arthur even existed. The story can be told in any way the writers want to tell it.
Le chalet (2017)
It's not bad
The story is pretty simple. You figure out fairly quickly who is doing it. That's fine because I don't think it was meant to be a mystery anyway. I think the bigger mystery is why it's happening. Their plan was clever enough. The scenery was nice. The acting was ok. It's entertaining but it's not deep or chilling. You empathize with their reasoning though they took their revenge too far with the killing of one innocent person. It's worth watching.
The Umbrella Academy (2019)
Pretty good but predictable
This wasn't very hard to figure out. It basically telegraphed what would happen in the series. The way Vanya was constantly treated like an afterthought made it clear she was central to the main plot. What's good about this show is the interactions between the characters. They do a great job of showing their dysfunctions and how it's affected their relationships as adults. If anything, the show got too caught up in the relationship between the characters and not enough about the impeding apocalypse. It wasn't hard to figure out that Leonard was going to turn out as he did. The interactions between the siblings in the Umbrella Academy is what drives the show. The story lacks depth but I'll still watch Season 2. It has really good potential.
Travelers (2016)
The show tries but has too many plot holes
The first episode of the series is still probably the best and then it alternates from good to meh. There are too many plot holes with the characters. Without giving anything away, the fact that the travelers maintain the life of the original host is silly. Eric McCormack's character Grant is a host for a traveler. The traveler who goes by a numerical name has a totally different personality than Grant but somehow his wife Kat isn't supposed to notice that. Grant is an FBI agent and somehow manages to get some of his traveler team members to get away with posing as fake FBI agents for 3 seasons and no one notices. The side characters are hit or miss as well. David, who is a good person, is particularly annoying. Jeff is abusive and drunk and wholly unlikable but his character is still around after 3 seasons with no changes.
There are a lot of soap opera storylines too. There is always drama between Grant and his wife. Always drama between Jeff and Carly. In the second season, it seemed like everyone was going to be a traveler. The third season was better but with the same soap opera drama that distracts from the main story. I am not writing any spoilers so I can't get into the big plot holes but I can say that in almost every episode things have to work out coincidentally perfect for it to end well. And the rules always change to fit the episode. They play loose and fast with their 5 protocols. The show is entertaining enough to keep watching it but you can run into frustration with the lack of real progress with the mission.
The Innocents (2018)
It isn't bad but it's not very good
The show is a bit of a mess and that's thanks to enormous plot holes and what the show chooses to focus on. I've read other reviews but after I was done watching the series. This isn't some slow burn. You find out the main premise of the show in the second episode and it's not explored with any satisfying conclusion. This isn't an intellectual mind bender or deep and thought-provoking series. The main characters are high school teenagers. June, the girl who just turned 16, and her boyfriend Harry, who is also in high school, make bad mistakes but the adults rarely question their actions or infinite admissions of forever love. That's perhaps one of the weakest parts of the series. The series over focuses on their relationship which made me think, correctly, that things between them wouldn't end well. The other weak part of the show is the police angle. Harry's mom is a cop and is central to locating them. But she wants to solve a mystery and it's very weak. There's also no way that even if the mystery is solved that a case can ever go to trial. No way.
The scenery is beautiful and the acting is really solid. The central mystery isn't really covered with much depth. You really don't learn much about why June is the way she is and how it happened. All you get are theories. The villain in the show is way too obvious. Everything that happens, including the romance, is ridiculously coincidental which means there is something to it and of course there is. The kids run away and luck into everything. They are insanely trusting even after they've been nearly kidnapped, drugged, lied to, stalked, and more. June's family tracks them down even after they lost their first place to stay. And they only find them because things had to work out perfectly in order for them to be found. The finale of the season was terrible. Every dumb thing that could happen happened. It's like a horror movie when you say don't go in there but the victim goes in anyway. That's how the finale goes. This show is very frustrating. It has potential but it never delivers. You just knew it would end the way it did.
Sense8 (2015)
I wanted to like it
For the most part, I did like it but it has too many problems. I can see why it is getting canceled. I could equally see why it could have been renewed if changes were made. The story really doesn't go anywhere in the first season. There is an underlying story that they are being pursued by a sinister group but it's never really explored in much detail. Even the season finale of season 1 really didn't tell you much about the evil group and they were the main part of the story.
The bad guys, for lack of a better term, are searching for any people with the same abilities supposedly but that never really materializes in either season. They are only looking for 2 members of the sense 8 group. It makes no sense but that's never explained either. The characters are likable and you really pull for them. However, the put them in too many irrelevant situations that stunt the story's development. The characters don't spend time learning about why they are able to do what they do and how to make it work better. They help each other in the sense world but aside from some instances they rarely if ever help each other in the real world which would greatly help the story.
The message of the show is beautiful and I really enjoy Lito's storyline the most. I just wish they wrote the show better with less distractions and focused more on developing the underlying evil pursuing them. That could have shown the character's ability to deal with their abilities and their growth together.