doubtitall Reviews

Jung_E (2023)

Quite good.

[8/10 · 20 April 2023]

Jung_E is far better than its current 5.4 rating. It drags a bit in the first half, and a couple of things going on there were a bit irritating (like the over the top behavior of one of the characters), but the reasons for those things are clarified in the action thriller second half.

Needing more lines for this review, so ..... It seems foolish to me for people to agree to the Type C conditions where they lose their human rights. I'd rather die, and I think most people would rather die if they understood the choice. It's the worst possible form of slavery, worse than anything that can happen without the super technology in the movie. However, I'm often baffled by the choices people make.

From (2022– )

I have only seen the first two episodes, but

[10/10 · 22 February 2022]

WOW.

So far "From" is the best supernatural monster horror series I have seen in quite a while. The characters and their behaviors are believable, the monsters are chilling and the horror is horrific.

Squid Game (2021– )

Extremely good dark action thriller except for one major flaw.

[8/10 · 19 September 2021]

The main character is a foolish, clueless, impulsive, emotionally self-indulgent jerk.

Other characters, flawed but fundamentally good people, die getting him back to the real world with that 45.6B won (~40M USD), but what does he do for the first year of having all that money? Does he help any of the loved ones left behind by those people who died getting him there with all that money?

No, he leaves them all hanging, suffering for another year in the circumstances that were so bad it caused those good people who died saving him to go into and then back into that bloody Hell to try to save them.

And then what does he do when he decides to go after the people behind the game? He calls them up and threatens them, making sure they know he's an enemy to be removed.

He's a very unpleasant, impulsive and judgmental fool. Fortunately, although he's clearly the main character from start to finish, he doesn't dominate too much screen time, and there are plenty of other characters to enjoy watching .... although they pretty much all die.

The Soul (2021)

Great movie damaged by a nonsensical ending. MAJOR SPOILER.

[7/10 · 7 August 2021]

Yes, the way to get 'her' (the billionaire copied into his young wife's brain) to confess was to replace the billionaire's mind with a copy of the dying prosecutor's mind.

But then why confess? The billionaire is ERASED. He is really dead and gone.

No need to confess. The copy of the dying prosecutor can now live his new life outside of prison as a billionaire widow.

'Confessing' just put an innocent person behind bars for life. Maybe the silly man thought he should be punished for murdering the double murderer (the billionaire killed his young wife and then his original self)? Absurd.

If the movie had been mediocre, I'd have given it a 2 or 3 for that, but I really liked it until that faceplant at the end.

Jolt (2021)

It's a superhero action comedy

[8/10 · 23 July 2021]

If you didn't know that before you watched it, then you might be disappointed, but it becomes crystal clear early on a superhero action comedy is the right genre.

So rate it as what it is, not what you thought it should be. The complaints about it being "unrealistic" are pretty silly when you consider the genre. The current 5.3 rating is way, way too low. Should be an 8, or at least a 7.

Solos: Leah (2021) Season 1, Episode 1

The first episode, Leah, is marred by a severe concept conflict.

[1/10 · 22 May 2021]

2024 Leah wants to jump forward 5 years to avoid having to deal with the next 5 years of her mother dying so horribly.

2029 Leah did that. Now she feels buried in guilt for having abandoned her mother, and she wants to stop 2024 Leah from doing the same thing. That way she can get on with her life knowing in another reality 2024 is taking care of her mother.

That is the "multiverse" time travel concept. If something changes, either another universe is born or you've switched to another possible universe, but both universes continue to exist.

That was the whole point of 2029 Leah talking to 2024 Leah.

But then when 2024 Leah wants to change the future for 2019 Leah, 2029 Leah screams bloody murder that 2024 Leah will be erasing the universe 2024 and 2029 live in.

That is the opposite of the multiverse time travel concept.

This is not a little thing. It's the whole story. Someone, anyone, should have caught this mistake.

Now of course people who watch science fiction only for the drama and the character development, and who don't really give a rip if the story makes any sense at all, will think this is unimportant.

Would you people who don't care about the science fiction please stop watching science fiction? Even better, would you please stop making this corrupt kind of Cargo Cult version of it?

The Bureau: Episode #5.10 (2020) Season 5, Episode 10

Fantastic show right up until the last episode. Drops a +10 for the series down to 9.

[2/10 · 18 April 2021]

I don't mind a show that has a terrible twist at the end, and I don't mind a show that has a wonderful Pollyanna resolution to a dark story. If it is well done, meaning it fits the characters, that's great.

The last episode of season 5 was just stupid. Yes, that is the only word for it: Stupid. It imagines a brilliant spy of Malotru's caliber would have missed something so incredibly obvious once he already realized Karlov would hit at him from beyond the grave.

Once realizing that danger, there is no way the Malotru character would have failed for even a half second to see HOW Karlov would hit him. If it took even the non-spy viewer any longer than that to see the danger to Malotru's loved ones, they just weren't paying attention.

Why didn't someone stop this tragedy? I mean someone in the making of that episode.

Someone, an actor, the director. Maybe even the janitor, ANYBODY should have said, "That's wildly out of character. People will think it's stupid. Rewrite it., for the love of Pete."

Yellowstone: The World Is Purple (2020) Season 3, Episode 10

Cliffhanger, sure, but not that hard to figure out.

[9/10 · 25 August 2020]

Dutton survives. We wouldn't have seen his cellphone stopped the kill shot to his heart if he was going to die anyway.

Kayce survives. He's armed and with a big, thick wooden table between him and the assassins.

Whether or not Beth survives is the only real cliffhanger. Either she dies, or she'll spend the first few episodes of Season 4 in a hospital bed, probably in a coma, so badly burned she's wrapped in bandages.

Either way, Rip is going to go on a killing rampage. Season 4 should be a hoot.

Age of the Living Dead (2018– )

It's so bad it's good.

[6/10 · 5 November 2019]

Yes, really. I've heard this take on other shows before, and I've always wondered what they were talking about. The show was always either just plain bad, or it was obviously intended to be 'bad' (as with satire) which meant it really was good, given it was achieving its purpose.

Age of the Living Dead is bad. No question about it. The actors, writers, directors, etc. all intended to make something good, but it sucks bad, especially the writing. It's "what the ... are they DOING?" all the way through.

Yet it was enjoyable. Not in a laugh out loud way, although I did laugh a few times, but in a regular amused groaning at each absurd character behavior kind of way.

Realive (2016)

Major spoilers. Don't peek.

[6/10 · 24 February 2019]

The movie is about a person who commits suicide by cryo-sleep (he says toward the end he had expected to never be reanimated but pretending that's what he was doing gave him a firm end date to his life and that made his little remaining live more fun and his death easier).

Then in the future after a fortune in both money and precious human resources (including both the talent and the sacrifice by those preceding him) is spent reanimating him, he commits suicide again, and this time it's a murder-suicide where he murders the person he claims to love (yes, it's clearly morally murder, since proof of principle of reanimating the cryo-sleepers has been achieved; the others are just waiting their turn for reanimation).

In other words, the spoiled fool lead character is a clueless, utterly despicable murderer. Yet the movie portrays him sympathetically.

So why did I give it a 6/10 anyway? I loved that last twist at the very end. Welcome to Hell, murderer. They won't let him die, and if things work out well for him, it will become apparent to even that fool that he kept the wondrous future (including constantly improving medical technology) from the woman he loved by murdering her.

Origin (2018)

Origin is way overrated at 7.2.

[3/10 · 16 February 2019]

The level of stupidity driven drama alone should have easily knocked this below a six. Then when you add in the ludicrously bad science .....

If watching jump scares and mentally screwed up losers with low IQ's and crappy values making ridiculous choices over and over and over for ten hours is your idea of good entertainment, you should like it.

Bird Box (2018)

I'm generally skeptical about horror movies with children in them.

[9/10 · 23 December 2018]

The writers usually give kids unbelievable dialog and/or they aren't really up for the task, but no one wants to be too critical of their performance so you can't know beforehand. In Bird Box they were very young.

In this movie the kids don't have very many lines. Mostly they're just getting lectured at by Bullock as she tries to warn them to keep them safe, but I was more than pleasantly surprised with the result. I don't know if it was more the writing or their acting (especially the girl), but for me they were both totally believable, and it made my heart ache for them.

Their roles were only a small part of the total movie, but central to the development of the main character.

Overall, I enjoyed Bird Box a great deal. It's hell being right all the time, especially in a horror movie.

Colony (2016–2018)

Colony was a good show ended too early.

[9/10 · 8 November 2018]

It started slow in season 1, so much so I almost didn't continue watching it, but each season got better than the one before. Season 3 was great, and it looked like season 4 could be magnificent. The stage was set.

Oh, well. Hope Netflix or Prime or some other streaming service picks it up, but each day that passes makes it less likely. Actors and writers move on.

That being said, although Colony ended with a massive cliff hanger, it's one of those shows good enough to be worth watching anyway.

Castle Rock (2018–2019)

Slow burn up to a terrific ending.

[9/10 · 17 October 2018]

What many negative reviewers here are objecting to most was the best part of the series. We traveled through the first 8 episodes in a rising state of suspense, confusion and horror, hopeful to find something to make sense of it, and then in the 9th episode the story pulled its threads together and gave us a perfectly 'reasonable' (sci-fi-wise) reason for the confusion, tying most of the loose ends together.

It seemed like a very satisfying conclusion heading into the end. Maybe too satisfying? Then at the end it yanked the rug out from under us.

Was the story he told a lie? Seems certain, but perhaps not.

My favorite possibility - his story was the truth, at least as far as he told it, but he's still really the monster Henry thought he saw. If so, was he always the monster, hiding behind the human mask in the other world, or did he become it when he crossed?

Stay tuned for season 2.

iZombie (2015–2019)

iZombie keeps getting better and better.

[8/10 · 17 April 2018]

For me the most recent episode, My Really Fair Lady, was the funniest one yet. The bit with the sexual harassment seminar had me laughing so hard it hurt.

That being said, of course people who don't get horror comedy should not watch this show. Also people who don't get comedy-drama, and of course those who don't get shows with zombies.

A Promise of Time Travel (2016)

An interesting new twist on the well worn time travel theme.

[9/10 · 1 November 2017]

A Promise of Time Travel is a surprising gem.

It has the low budget feel to it, and the special effects are effectively non-existent. The trailer didn't look promising at all. For most of the movie it seemed the story could be just a vehicle for ramblings into thinking about time travel rather than actual science fiction. It seems like it might be one of those movies that ends with a question mark rather than any answers about what's been happening.

Still, the story was intriguing enough to keep me watching, and I'm glad I did. The payoff was superb.

Channel Zero (2016–2018)

Liked the first season.

[9/10 · 22 September 2017]

It played better than I'd expected from the previews, and it delivered as indicated - creepy horror.

The first episode of the second season is even better, IMO. Acting and writing both seemed excellent (meaning I didn't notice them), and the story builds at just the right tempo. The characters' stubborn obliviousness to the danger is disturbing yet not unbelievable at all, given the context.

I'm looking forward to the next episode, and I do that with only a few TV shows, and never before with horror TV.

The Orville (2017–2022)

The Orville is not a "comedy-drama."

[5/10 · 15 September 2017]

At least not the first episode. It's a sci-fi adventure comedy. What drama that's there is all played for laughs, and there is much too much outright extreme goofiness for the comedy-drama label. Comparing The Orville to Star Trek doesn't work, since they belong to different genres.

As a SF comedy it's not a Galaxy Quest, but it's still mildly entertaining, with a few real laughs. The SF adventure story side of it was pretty good, considering it's a comedy. At a couple of points the special effects were a bit lame, but they were mostly pretty good for a TV comedy.

I'll be hoping for improvement in future episodes, but I won't consider it time wasted if The Orville continues at this level and avoids sliding into tedious predictability.

Vikingane (2016–2020)

Norsemen is an hilarious spoof on the TV drama Vikings.

[8/10 · 23 August 2017]

The characters are different, but the parallels are undeniable.

It's Norwegian, but it's done in English. It's currently showing on Netflix.

There is plenty of explicit gore, so those who dislike horror comedy had best avoid it.

The Mist (2017)

It seems to be getting better, five episodes in.

[7/10 · 21 July 2017]

The many complaints about the SJW foolishness have some merit. Sure, the themes can be useful for driving drama, but this seemed like a narrative overload. BUT after the fifth episode it looks as if maybe the writers aren't really going over the top. For instance, at this point it wouldn't surprise me a bit if the bi guy turns out to be the one who committed the rape of his 'best friend.' He's obviously badly cracked, like a borderline psychopath, and I'm not talking about his bi issues.

That's just one possible twist. Look for others.

If that's what the writers are really doing, playing some of the SJW themes against the tropes, then I'd rate it much higher, like maybe even a 7.5, though I still wouldn't rate it sky high. I was looking for a monster horror series with monsters more like the cool/horrifying beasts we saw in the movie (even if a bit less well done) rather than just super nasty bugs and such.

Still, here's hoping that changes, and the monsters get better. They could still turn this thing completely around by the end of the season.

Almost Mercy (2015)

Almost Mercy is a revenge movie, with plenty of gore.

[8/10 · 19 October 2016]

However, the protagonist, Emily, expresses deep disgust at the idea of mass murdering people whose 'crime' was simply having failed to protect her and Jackson. The movie does the opposite of glorifying that kind of self-indulgent, egotistical viciousness.

The second time the movie flashes back to the when Emily and Jackson first met as children shows an additional bit that brings the nature of the basis of their relationship into sharp focus while also showing the cold reality about Emily. Watch for it. If you understand that, you'll get the movie.

The ending was also good.

I agree with those who say Almost Mercy is a dark comedy, but don't expect any laughs.

The Good Place (2016–2020)

An excellent new comedy

[8/10 · 24 September 2016]

I almost didn't watch The Good Place, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is well done and very entertaining. The writers have done a nice job of designing a biting satire on thinking about the afterlife without attacking any real religion in particular.

It has just the right amount of edge to it, something typically lacking in sitcoms, which are mostly pap. The show generates plenty of outright laughs, and it even has a significant amount of physical humor.

All of the characters seem to have been well cast, and the actors play their rolls well. In particular, Bell plays an incredibly selfish little shirt surprisingly sympathetically, a credit both to her and to the writers.

I hope they can keep up the good work they've done in the first few episodes. I suspect there are a few very important things about Michael and the Good Place that have yet to be revealed.