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The Swarm (2023)
Too slow, too much relationship drama, too soapy
Eight 45 minute episodes, it could have been 4.
There's a LOT of melodrama, relationships, dealing with emotions, all that stuff that only distracts us from the main story, which is kind of big.
Millions of lives are at risk but we're listening to people talking about how they are feeling and who loves who, again and again and again.
If there is ONE such story involving characters you actually care about, it's great.
But there's a lot of it and it was very difficult to care about any of the people involved, and there are a lot of them as well.
It all became boring very early on, I struggled to finish the show and I started skipping bits.
The makers couldn't choose between wanting to make a disaster movie or some high brown soap opera.
We got neither.
And then there are lots of scenes where people talk and even have long dull meetings.
I kept shouting "get on with it" at the screen.
The Undeclared War (2022)
Not bad but...
This kind of filled a hole left by the tv series 'Spooks' which I rather enjoyed.
A good, exciting and interesting show about the intelligence community would do so well, again.
But this isn't it.
Although I liked the plot and to see this side of the work being done, the show makes a few big mistakes.
There's too much attention for the private lives and relations of some of the agents, frankly I couldn't care less about that.
The country is under attack, people are dying, we must save the world... but first lets talk about our emotions for 20 minutes.
It's also not nice to see the main character turn out to be unfaithful, I know I'm old fashioned but it made me find it harder to be on her side.
But more importantly; it adds nothing.
The story has several plotholes and depicts the work at GCHQ wrongly but they can't be blamed for that.
A bigger mistake is the acting.
There are just a couple of actors in it that are not very good, I'm not going to name them because actors are humans too and they might be proud of their work and maybe their mums and dads read this, so I won't.
But most of the acting is pretty decent so when there are two or three who are really rather bad, it stands out, a lot.
Rather unfortunate.
I was hoping for a new Spooks, but in stead was given something barely average.
Still I hope we get our new TV series with Mr. Pegg (who is of course brilliant as always) running MI5 or 6.
Come on.
Spooks was a hit.
Kimi (2022)
Fun but a bit silly
Started pretty good, good actress, but story would have been a lot more interesting and exciting if the baddies had been professionals in stead of the bungling idiots at the level of 'Home alone'.
Things would have been scarier and more entertaining if the baddies knew what they were doing.
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (2018)
Love enducing
What's there to say?
Two old men go fishing, act silly and talk about stuff.
That's it.
But the men are Mortimer and Whitehouse, two of the most adorable and funny men there are.
If you weren't already a little bit in love with these lads (as you should have been), you will be after seeing this.
Chaps if you happen to read this one day, thank you for all the brilliant comedy, I hope you realise the role you've played on so many people's lives, how important you are to folks you've never even met.
Bake Squad (2021)
Everyone involved is infantile
Is this a show for children?
Is everybody involved somehow mentally 8 years old?
I don't get it.
Great, baking is fun, but the way these people act, speak, talk, I couldn't last one whole episode.
So infantile.
Snackmasters (2019)
Presentation ruins it
Great idea for a show, it's fascinating and fun to see chefs try and recreate snacks.
But the presentation just totally ruins it and makes it unwatchable, for me anyway.
The presenter is not very interesting, funny or charming, the comedian is horribly unfunny and the script is just painful.
If you cut all that out of the show you end up with 20 minutes of something really interesting and amusing.
Further Back in Time for Dinner (2017)
Decent but not quite as good as others like it.
In general I was a bit too often too disappointed in the show to truly love it. The family is nice and they enjoy their adventure, we got to meet the amazing Debbie, and there was plenty to see that was interesting and amusing, but it wasn't really a proper full time living history reality show. They only did a few experiences now and then and of course there was a lot of attention for the cooking and eating, but besides that they had modern bedrooms and they were allowed to go home 3 days between each era. This makes it a bit unfair to compare this show to shows like 'The 1900 house', 'The 1940s house' etc, but you can't help doing that anyway. It felt like they were doing things in this show that we had already seen in other shows and because those shows had more time, more budget and involved people actually living the experience 24/7, they generally did it better. If you can't do something similar just as good or better than it has already been done before, don't do it, try something else.
I was also surprised and disappointed at the strange contraptions the cooking was done on. None of the cooking ranges were authentic. Which to me defeated the purpose of the show. The actual daily life bit was a neglected, but the cooking and the food was the star of the show, the main subject. So I think they should have put extra attention on getting that right. And I can tell you from experience that cooking on a retro looking modern range isn't the same as using an original. Via Twitter I learned that this was done because of health and safety. Something that surprises me as there are several historically themed shows and movies that were made at the same time where original stoves were used. I find it difficult to believe that a show these days could not get permission to use at least an 1940s range. If need be, these could even be made safe to use again or a newly build exact replica could be ordered that follow all the new guidelines. Although of course that would take a bite out of the budget.
The costumes & hair and the way the house was decorated were a bit of a hit and miss, the costume and art department didn't always get it right and that is a shame. Most viewers won't notice it but making the atmosphere as historically correct as possible often makes such a big difference, even if you don't know about the mistakes.
The lighting was also not very good but this is a common ailment. Most historical shows have way too bright light everywhere because of course the production crew wants to be sure you see everything. But it is not needed. The show would have looked a lot better with more atmospheric and realistic light.
So in short, a decent and entertaining show but there were too many missed opportunities and room for improvement.
Time After Time (2017)
Silly, made without logic and research.
I kind of knew this would "ruin my childhood" (I think that is what people say these days about remakes that are awful), but I watched it anyway. From the very first seconds you know the show has not spend much (if any) budget on historical research. Literally nothing about Victorian London is actually accurate. Besides a few minutes on the internet clearly nobody researched Jack the Ripper or how Victorian people behaved. Sure, I don't expect perfect authentic Victorian language but is it that much effort to at least avoid a frightfully modern conversation about dating, being single and divorced? Did anyone realise that when you said "Hello gents" back then it meant you were calling your friends toilets? And there is a maid/housekeeper who is blonde but should be grey and thus dyed her hair blonde, wears makeup and doesn't know her place? Even the shipwreck Downton Abbey did that better. Besides that our Victorians are impressed and in shock with modern society for a few minutes and then quickly fit in. Sure. On top of that we have a bunch of dumb women. OH we get kidnapped by Jack the Ripper, yay I wacked him over the head with a bowl. Let's make a run for it in stead of you know, wack him again or at least tie him up...
I know the original 1970s movie was a bit of fun and not too serious, I know it had plenty of mistakes in it. But this is 2017, thanks to CGI and computers there is so much we can do when it comes to bringing the past to life, authentically. Would it really have been that much effort to get a few proper researchers involved?
And yes, I know, many people will think historical details don't matter, that nobody will know the mistakes. But in the end when you spot historical mistakes, especially obvious ones, they are simply an example of somebody in the production team not doing their work properly. Some people notice bad lighting, some bad camera work, I notice lack of research.
Anyway, I managed to finish the first episode, but it was quite an effort. I hear that in other episodes they'll go and visit other eras. Oh dear.