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Reviews
Starhunter ReduX (2017)
I'm having fun with it
So...if you look at this with today's lens it's pretty bad. But I am having fun nonetheless. You can see the other shows that this inspired, and the overarching plot is interesting, elements of it being pretty fun/interesting.
The characters are...pretty flat by today's standards, but you can see where they were going with them. The primary negatives are that the editing and cinematography is really bad, even with the late 90s/early 2000s in mind. They cut scenes too early, have odd angles, and way too many pointless closeups. Also sounds like there was some dubbing after the fact.
The really bad part is the line delivery, I can't tell if this is poor direction, bad acting, or they forgot to tell the actors the tone of the scene but there's just no consistency in delivery at all. It's like the director took the first take of everyone's line and only set the stage 20% of the time.
Also some of the characters act as if someone pulled a trope out of a hat and added the trope to the scene. Like absolute no reason anyone with any kind of a brain would make a specific decision and the writer said "You know what? There's an injured lion in a cage, most people would call a vet, watch from afar, or just leave...not THIS Character though! She's going to kill a chicken, rub the blood all over her body, completely ignore the 5 people who are older, outrank her, and are wiser than she is as they tell her not to do this, order her not to do it, and even lock her in her quarters...yeah, she'll just jump in the cage all bloody and stuff...then she will be surprised that she's in trouble..but THEN everyone will have 25% of a like where they rebuke her and then things will just be normal again!"
Also what's the point of "Max Privacy Mode" when literally anyone can just walk in?
I think the concept and intent were good, the execution is pretty poor, but the fun factor keeps it at 7 for me. That said, if I weren't a scifi nerd from back in the day this would be pretty close to unwatchable if I was just getting into it now.
The Rookie (2018)
It's pretty good for the most part
The series is pretty good, and I like some of the characters a lot (Nathan Fillion is great) but the problem I have with most of it is they bend over backwards to make the male characters kinda okay but ALL of the female characters are badass, perfect, and right all the time. They pretty much all come off like the same character. There's one who is a little different, but she's still somehow magical in all things.
New girl who isn't a cop? Don't worry, she's probably a navy seal, mathematics genius, artistic savant.
It's actively distracting from the quality of the show. Realistically dialing back the preaching and social commentary and the show would rocket up to 8-9.
Here's an example which isn't really too spoilery: Guy gets shot, woman has baby, they check with one another and he says something innocuous and she says "The correct response is that childbirth wrecks havoc on a woman's body and is very traumatic" Then the scene basically ends. There's no point to that kind of commentary other than to point out that women can be badass and have it all and need to correct men at all costs. I can't actually recall a SINGLE time where a man and a woman disagreed and the man was right (according to the writers)
Then you have well rounded characters who grow with the show and some interesting plot lines which aren't all just recycled from other shows. I keep remembering how much I like the show, then a new season comes out and it's somehow even MORE preachy than the last one and I slog through it for the good parts.
The Shannara Chronicles (2016)
Shannara by La Croix
It vaguely resembled the books. Realizing that it was an MTV production I did go into it with quite low expectations but even then I found this to be lacking.
The writing felt like it was trying too hard. I think all of the actors did a solid job with what they were given, but I also think almost none of them were well cast. I do mean that partially as it compares to the books, but also just as it compares to believability in the world. The casting choice for Allanon is an actor I quite like but he's not Allanon.
As a huge fan of the books there were some VERY strange choices made - The highlands in the books are broadly speaking what one would expect in the real world. Somehow MTV thought turning that area into the Hunger Games and skipping some pretty important characters was a better move.
So 5 stars if you go into it thinking "lets see something fantasy related" and 2 stars if you go into it expecting anything Shannara.
S.W.A.T. (2017)
Gone downhill.
It was fun to start. Nothing great about the first couple of seasons but mostly came across as "junk food procedural" as my wife put it.
But they're going REALLY far down the bad writing soap box. Trying to be relevant to the times but they lose credibility with how poorly it's done.
2 characters argue? If male and female, the male will be "wrong", offer a mature heartfelt apology which is met with words of wisdom from the woman. Two men argue? The darker one is always right. Two black men argue? The younger one is always right. ALWAYS. A foot race between male and female. She wins, every time.
I absolutely support showcasing differing opinions and how multiple points of view can be right (or wrong) at the same time depending on the situation but there's no nuance in this at all.
There's also standard TV show nonsense where SWAT officers are doing things not even remotely in their job description but are somehow experts because of something they did in their past. I get it, you have to keep the main characters on screen but some of it is pretty far removed from reality. They also have the lazy writing thing happening more and more where a character has 50 options. 49 of which are reasonable. One will cause chaos and drama. Guess which one they pick?
On the plus side we now know that ever man on the planet is better when he is told what to do by a woman, especially if he's reluctantly forced into therapy only to resist for at least 1/4 of an episode before realizing he's been wrong this whole time.
Leverage: Redemption (2021)
Nostalgia + some pretty good episodes
I'm a bit torn on this. I'm happy that they brought it back and there's a lot of the show that feels true to the original (not taking itself too seriously) but as others have said, losing Nate Ford really hurt the team dynamic. Sophie doesn't carry the same gravitas and the actress simply can't hold the same role (she never has been able to...IMO she was the shining weak point in the first series too)
I do find the show a little preachy at times, and while I get that this is the new norm, I think there's a pretty bad break in immersion when the young girl is all self righteous and somehow the one who knows more than the adults about what is "right" in the world. And missing Hardison is rough...he's way better than his replacement.
Also Parkers bangs in season 1 are awful...but not as bad as Elliot's entire hairstyle in season 2. Bleh.
All of that said, I'm happy to see the show back at it. I'll continue watching it and it's not unwatchable by any means...it's just not as good as the original. And this is one of those situations that I don't know that I would like it as much without the nostalgia factor... but then again I may like it more if I weren't comparing it to the old one.
Jungle Cruise (2021)
It helps if you look at it as a kids movie
I didn't realize that it was really meant for kids. It has a very "Hook" feel to certain parts of it, though strangely for the time it was made and budgets Disney has the CGI is pretty rough (again, if you're looking at ti from a kids point of view then it helps)
Disney is sticking to their guns in terms of making sure they hit certain checkpoints socially which actually leads me to the biggest problem that prevented my enjoyment the main female character, in an effort to make sure the audience knows how cool and capable she is does not one time listen to anything anyone says. At all. It's all her way (many times to her detriment) or nothing...granted the other characters were pretty cartoonish, but the way they wrote her was pretty sub par, primary among the issues is also that she's usually wrong. You can sorta get the annoying character who never listens to anyone because she's always right...but she's not...that's part of what makes it irritating.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
It was fine
Look - If you're going for the epic ending of an epic franchise you'll be disappointed in this. It was somewhat disjointed, lacks logic, absolutely caters to a crowd of people who are probably going to complain that the inclusion wasn't good enough for some reason, and has a main character who is about as stereotypical a Mary Sue as I've ever seen.
But - If you're going into it expecting all of that and just want some entertainment with laser guns going pew pew and some flashy explosions and one liners that you know are 100% fan service and not looking for that epic end to that epic franchise then this is fine. Go see the movie and think of it more like a microwave dinner than a gourmet meal and you'll enjoy yourself.
Critical Role (2015)
They're the gold standard for a reason.
When you have a group mostly comprised of professional actors (and friends) who sit down to tell a communal story it's either going to go down in flames, or soar.
Critical Role soars.
The storylines are generally compelling, the actors/players create interesting characters (even the ones that are irritating). The gameplay is generally a second seat to story so it's rarely a slog (combat being the one time it gets bogged down). Broadly speaking the acting is great (some guests...not so much) and they stick to their characters for the most part. I have tried to watch other RPG based shows and for me (a personal taste thing) I just cant stand the ones where people make the same tired jokes because someone's name sounds like a body part over and over...I don't want to watch other people play DnD. I want to watch other people craft a story, and this is what Critical Role excels at.
I understand that there are certain cast members who rub folks the wrong way, and in fairness I get rubbed the wrong way by some cast members at times too, but I also get what they're doing... from a marketing perspective you have to look at your audience and see who is watching you...with a cast of 7 + guests theres a very wide range of personality types to pick from and represent...and they do that pretty well. The issue that arises is that there's also a range of talent on the cast so it is more obvious when someone who would be great at a normal table is trying to keep up with more talented peers...this creates a jarring effect of breaking immersion when its Character A and Character B talking then PLAYER C trying to join the scene. Pair that with some occasional timing issues (they're actors...they seem to like the spotlight and aren't always good at letting a scene sit when they see .moment to get attention) and it becomes a recipe for "so and so sucks!" They don't. There are just a number of factors involved...including picking character traits that are generally irritating in real life, acting skill compared to scene mates, timing, improv abilities etc which makes it seem like a given person in a given scene sucks.
That was a long way of saying: Even the stuff I don't like about it is either done well or I get it from a marketing and a human standpoint and can overlook the few irritating elements as the whole of the show is great entertainment.
I will say that I find the second campaign a little less compelling than the first. I'm not quite sure why this is other than I don't think I like the characters as a whole as much as I did in the first campaign. At the time of this writing I feel enough time has passed for the players to have folded into the characters so it might just be that they don't resonate with me as much as the first season's characters did. The world is still interesting, the NPCs are great etc...not totally sure what it is.
I did notice that I find the cast themselves to be a little overly woke and hyper "humble" for my tastes, it comes across (to me) as disingenuous on both fronts. Like they're playing to expectations rather than letting just being the decent human beings that they are speak for their beliefs. It seems like they feel the need to go over the top with it to make sure people know their stance...or maybe it's that they don't see enough of it and are trying to make up for everyone else? Not really sure. Also, you're successful as hell, just own it at this point...the false modesty (or apparent false modesty) is off putting. Both elements are only mildly irritating though I admit I have to take a break from the show every time they cower away from negative commentary (after the whole Wendy's fiasco I stopped watching for a month because I lost a ton of respect for the whole team when they bowed to the people whining about it...to be honest, I almost stopped watching entirely, I came back because I got annoyed at myself for almost letting keyboard "warriors" allow me to give up something I enjoyed). No one will be happy with you 100% of the time and naysayers are always the loudest...that doesn't mean that they are right.
Anyhow. I was apparently more irritated by some of those minor elements than I thought. I enjoy the show, I think it's worth 10 stars even with my minor gripes (as I say, you can't make everyone happy all of the time) and I'm glad to see nerd culture making it's way into the mainstream and I feel that Critical Role is leading the charge for table top gaming...and for that I am thankful.
If you're considering getting into the show I'd start with the current campaign in spite of my earlier statements. There's something like 400 hours of campaign 1 to get through...you'll never catch up :)