b_imdb-912-113497 Reviews

The Strain (2014–2017)

Ouch

[2/10 · 14 July 2014]

Cardboard cutout characters.

Generic storyline.

I question whether this was written in another language, and translated poorly. I think it's more likely it's just a bad show.

Tedious, at best.

I'd written a longer review, but it would be a waste of time for you to read it.

If anyone behind the creation of this show is reading this, please do get in touch. I'm not a writer, but I'm certain I could come up with a better script given an hour, and some funding!

Falling Skies (2011–2015)

Season 4 - The Sky has Fallen

[2/10 · 14 July 2014]

I do not know what happened behind the scenes leading up to Season 4, but something major changed back there.

I would assume I would have heard about a major writers strike, but whatever the reason, this show is now sunk, in my opinion.

There is a dramatic shift in tone moving into Season 4, something which is executed in an extremely clunky manner. The context, pretext, and everything else about this season is so very amateurish.

The character & plot evolution that happens should have taken a season in and of itself, but is crammed into a single episode. Mild mannered characters are suddenly expected to be accepted as Rambo. Other characters change Race with no explanation (no joke). Major opponents shift tactics in a seriously fundamental way. (Nazi Germany, to Starship Troopers) Honestly, it's as if there's an entirely different crew behind making this show... and they're all interns.

Throw out all the knowledge you've built up during the first 3 seasons, suspend your disbelief, and you might just enjoy it.

Extant (2014–2015)

Cliché SciFi Horror, with no common sense.

[2/10 · 10 July 2014]

They've just thrown a whole load of overused SciFi Horror cliché story lines at this, and hoped for the best.

Beyond the recycled material that they're relying on to give this show legs, a basic grasp of simple common sense really trips them up.

A solo 12 month mission in space? - Exploration missions would never have a mission with such a lack of redundancy.

Grasp a lamp head to feel the heat, and make sure you aren't dreaming? - Only works if the spaceship designers didn't think to use safer, cheaper, more compact, more efficient LEDs, and instead opted for "retro" bulbs.

Video files "deleted by accident", yet are completely unrecoverable? - Again, redundancy... plus the fact recovering deleted data is perfectly possible today, nevermind in the future.

Potential biological contamination of the population, the exact reason why Quarantine exists? - Na, the Doc likes drinking with her, let it slide.

Hiroyuki Sanada having a future in acting beyond being typecast as the enigmatic leader of an advanced group, whose agenda is obscure but likely dastardly, and whose interior decorators strongly favour bright walls? - Looking doubtful.