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geiserraphael-71105
Reviews
3% (2016)
The first season was really really good
Clicked on it by accident and had to keep watching until I was done. I love the fact that the whole show is based on a little short film on YouTube.
It's obvious that the budget wasn't comparable to any first or even second-rate Hollywood productions, which makes some sets and exterior shots look a bit cheesy and monotone.
Where this show shines though is through it's characters. You feel for them, hate them, love them and feel ultimately devastated when the show reaches it's inevitable conclusions.
So this was what the first season made me feel. After that they made more. I don't really know why. That's all I can say about them.
The Handmaid's Tale (2017)
Detailed horror with stupid characters
The world of the Handmaid's Tale is pitch black dark and touches on present and past issues with religion, misogyny and dictatorships.
A lot of effort has gone into the creation of this almost believable dystopia and that alone merits high praise (although most of the heavy lifting has been done by brilliant Margaret Atwood).
There are two aspects that made this nearly unwatchable for me.
First off: The world is too bleak. It is not in the nature of humanity to be this cruel without a sense of community or "anything human" holding it all together. Studies have shown time and again that the cruelest of regimes always had some uniting factors that held it all together. Simple religious fanaticism is just not good enough for something on such a grand scale. All the studies suggesting otherwise, like Stanford Prison or Milgram, have been debunked as fake.
Second: The main character is very inconsistent and oftentimes naive to the point of utter stupidity. She talks openly in public places after going out of her way to explain why this is a very bad idea. She is the most terrible liar I have ever seen, and has less control over her facial expressions than a three year old. She even asks her captor what a hidden inscription might mean, that was quite obviously left by another slave and contains the Latin word "bastardus". She worked with books, how in the world would she not think that that word might have something to do with the exact person she is talking to?!
Anyway: if you are able to suspend all disbelief and like to watch people suffer with endless closeups, this show might be for you.
Bad Behaviour (2023)
Physically uncomfortable
I think most negative reviews stem from the fact that the protagonist is one of the most despicable human beings ever to grace a tv screen.
Every second is pure agony to watch. These girls are mean, they are weak and spoiled.
The fact that this show makes me feel all this hate and dismay clearly shows how well the characters are portrayed and acted.
Sadly it makes the show almost unwatchable.
If you like "Yellowjackets" or the much more obscure "Ondskan", here you can "enjoy" similar feelings, but a lot less watered down, and for hours on end.
I did not like watching this. But I respect the artistry. 8.5/10.
The Mandalorian (2019)
Classic Disney (Sorry)
I remember watching the first Disney Star Wars movie and cringing in my seat at all the sleekness, the perfect male to female ratio in every shot and the total lack of any dark or meaningful undertone.
This is this again, only with much more filler.
We get Cowboys and Indians (native Americans of course) in space, some cheerful child murder as comic relief and even an implied romance between two people who do not know each other in any way and one has not even seen the others face.
The good: the production values are great, i loved seeing the star wars settings and the 50 year old behaving like a two year old was truly adorable.
The bad: this last bit is symptomatic. The child is adorable because it has been calculated that this will appeal to the audiences. As well as everything else. The clichès are palpable and omnipresent. The whole thing looks like it has been engineered to please. But it doesn't. Because there are no meaningful stakes. And no characters. Not even one dimensional ones. No one seems to be a real person, just some guy or gal delivering some lines (most of the time very badly).
If you are going to spoon feed me every trick in the book, at least make it not so incredibly obvious.
Why seven stars then? I appreciate the effort of the visual effects team, the costumes, the music, the CGI. Everything but the writing and the actors is top notch.
Shadow and Bone: Meet You in the Meadow (2023)
Great action but completely dumbed down
This episode completely broke my immersion. There is some top notch, non stop action going on here, but...
- everyone is constantly teleporting to where the action is
- the bad guy was always omniscient. But now some good guys are too. Makes you wonder why some guys don't seem to have the slightest clue what's going on, since everybody else seems to constantly know who will be where, what they are about to do and how to counter it.
- a lot of deus ex machina going on
- needless self sacrifice by secondary characters
- even for someone with no tactical training it is obvious that it would make more sense to activate your "god mode" before you turn a corner - not after some of your guys have been shot
- if you can fire out if your impenetrable shield. Why do you do it just once?
- why does the second lost powerful grisha, Alina not use her powers? Not even when she gets picked up by a volcra? After all it was the exact same situation that triggered her powers for the very first time!!
- aren't grisha robes supposed to be bulletproof? Most of the time they are and then they are not and then they are again. Make up your mind!!!
- the shadow monsters can only be harmed by a certain blade. And Alina's powers? Never mind, she refuses to use them, so... "Use phosphorus bullets! ... They seem to be working!" That last one was the dumbest of them all. At least we got to see these medieval soldiers use Star Wars blasters for a bit, so... Yay?