Regarding Daredevil, I didn't end up hate watching it but I felt the show could have made much better use of the enormous resources it had at its command. Ultimately, I think nowadays that shows which incorporate inherent violence tend to overcompensate for that violence by going way too far out of their way to prove that there's "No pandering here!!!". Hopefully the franchise will see themself as inoculated and allow The Punisher series to have creative freedom. The all too brief appearance by the character was promising, and provided the same jolt that his first appearance in the earlier series did.
Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld - Six short 15 min episodes that contains two arcs about two side characters from the other animated shows. Glad they got something out of the way from the get go about one of the characters at the beginning of the first episode.
Regarding Daredevil, I didn't end up hate watching it but I felt the show could have made much better use of the enormous resources it had at its command. Ultimately, I think nowadays that shows which incorporate inherent violence tend to overcompensate for that violence by going way too far out of their way to prove that there's "No pandering here!!!". Hopefully the franchise will see themself as inoculated and allow The Punisher series to have creative freedom. The all too brief appearance by the character was promising, and provided the same jolt that his first appearance in the earlier series did.
I feel like it was a pretty decent reintroduction for bringing it all back. Little over-top on the violence, little trope-ish... but considering what they where originally planning(SheHulk style)... not a bad pivot and I hope the next season brings it back into its own.
I finished the new season of Black Mirror. It's a show that's tougher to review since each episode is completely different. Overall, probably an average season. Not too many standout episodes.
I think Episode 1 was the standout. Episode 3 was the weak link.
Episode 1 “Common People” was the most memorable for me. I feel like it’s the one you could easily recommend to someone who hasn’t seen the series yet. The idea was good. The story worked. It had a really bleak ending.
Episode 2 “Béte Noire” as others have said started out well, but the end was bad. Not enough to ruin it, since it was basically the last 5 minutes. Overall enjoyable, but probably a forgettable episode.
Episode 3 “Hotel Reverie” was weak. Way too long for what it was, and a bit unfocused. I thought Issa Rae’s acting was bad. I think at some level it was sort of supposed to be (like when she plays piano), but other times there was a big disconnect between
the classic movie style acting of the old movie, and what the character Brandy was doing. The movie they were making would have been truly terrible
. It also felt like the tech that was central to the episode was designed to serve the various plot points instead of developing a plot around the tech (
For example, the idea that the classic film’s actress retained her own personality instead of just the movie character, and the idea that she’d die if she was taken out.
). And the episode was too unfocused. There’s the tech part and the crisis it creates, at the start of the episode, then you get this love story in the middle, and then it feels like the love story mostly stops as we get to the crisis again to resolve the story. That’s not to say the episode was terrible or not worth watching. But it was easily the worst of the bunch.
Episode 4 “Playthings” was fine. But, I almost completely forgot about it when I was thinking about the episodes. It was pretty predictable and not very original. I think that’s what makes it forgettable.
Once you know the premise, it was obvious that he wanted to use the government computers as soon as he mentioned how powerful they were.
Episode 5 “Eulogy” was probably the second strongest one for me.
Episode 6 “USS Callister - Into Infinite” was decent. I really wasn’t all that excited about revisiting this story. I vaguely remember the original and didn’t think it was a particularly great episode. But, I think it did manage to get you to at least care about the fate of the characters. While I don’t think the tech part of it was particularly strong, I was still drawn into the storyline.
Common People and Eulogy were the best of the batch.
The former
about "enshitification of existance" is bleak, but can totally see it happening. Maybe not on the timescales laid out in the story, but seems almost impssible to avoid given the technology and the people that run these things.
The last
about using technology in a positive way to help us remember and deal with things was a pretty brilliant performance. Paul Giamatti rarely gives bad ones and this wasn't.
I enjoyed Bete Noir though.
Playthings is a throwback to the Netflix interactive film Bandersnatch.
I might be misremembering the first season, but I feel like this season was a lot worse. I haven't played the games, but from what I've heard that tracks with the games as well.
First, there's the time jump at the start. So, after a year plus since the first season where I've forgotten a lot of details, now the characters are in different situations and ages. So it felt like there was some catching up to do, but the season also moves pretty quickly.
Ellie is much less likeable this season. The first season she was kind of a naive, excited kid that liked stupid jokes. Now she's all brooding, angsty and serious. I think in episode 6, the flashback episode she ends up being more likeable than the rest of the season.
The new character Dina, was decent, I guess.
The revenge plot was just a lot less enjoyable. The first season, you felt like the show was leading up to something. This one was just about revenge, which doesn't really feel like it expands the world at all. Even if the revenge takes place, it's not much of a story.
It started out okay. The big shock I already knew about, but was still well done. I think everything was alright until pretty much episode 5 and 7. Once they're deep in Seattle.
At first it's interesting, they introduce a couple potential human threats. I think the zombies were underused this season, especially with the introduction of the smart ones.
The problem with episode 5 is that things start to feel rushed and make less sense.
The two girls are attacked in the warehouse, and Jesse shows up out of nowhere to save the day. The last minute rescue is overdone in TV. And I don't think there was any foreshadowing that they were being followed. So he basically finds them in a giant empty city at exactly the right moment. They sort of hand-waved at an explanation at how easy it was to track them.
Then they run into the forest with the Scars. But they all easily escape these seasoned forest-dwellers.
Ellie sneaks into a hospital. She sets off an alarm chasing the one girl. Gets into the infected basement. The episode ends. And then in episode 7 she's safely back at the theatre. What happened to all the people chasing her? Did they just assume she died because she went down. It felt like one of those stealth video games where you kill a bunch of guards, and after a few minutes of the guards chasing you they say something like "It must have just been the wind" and go back on their programmed patrols.
Episode 7 was the weak point. Ellie attempts to make a ridiculous decision to try and save the Scar kid. Her and Jesse have no issue wandering through the city in daylight. Then she's able to get to the dock.
The boat scene was probably the worst sequence. She washes ashore, gets taken and hung, and then by pure luck something explodes and they leave her behind. And she's back on mission. Maybe that will pay off next season, but it just felt like a waste of 10 minutes.
Then she meets the two Wolfs and doesn't really want to kill them. It just seemed all so inconsistent. She wanted revenge, but didn't want to actually kill anybody. I guess maybe the idea was supposed to be that she was freaked out by torturing the first girl. But somehow it didn't come across that way.
Then there's the cliff-hanger. Which was fine, I guess. But you know the only main character left isn't going to die. And then switching back to Abby on Day 1 in Seattle wasn't really something that is enticing for next season.
I'm being a bit negative. I enjoyed watching it. And I'll watch next season. Just the end of this season was disappointing.
I've actually decided to hold off on watching TLOU Season 2 knowing where it has gone. Because I've played the game, I know where this is going and I'm gonna hate waiting for it to complete in season 3. So I'll wait so I can watch it all in a single go... because...
Severance season 2 - Almost as unusual as the first season but with guest appearances by Lucifer (taking care of goats no less!) and Walternate! Glad Walken is still in the show. Ending left an opening for season 3 which I heard was approved!
For all mankind S3 and 4. Like the reboot of Battlestar Galactica I thought Moore jumped the shark a bit. I still like it as an alternate history of the space programs but the drama at times got a bit much. I liked the story arcs of some characters tho like Margo and Sergei. Wondering if S5 will want to merge with The Expanse universe. It feels in tune with it.
