jeppepalmari Reviews

Tracker (2024– )

Below average

[4/10 · 8 March 2024]

I really wanted to like this show. The premise is great. A guy traveling around the country trying to find missing people and things should make for a very interesting and exciting show. However, in the end it was a big disappointment.

The lead actor is good, but the material he has to work with is below average. Another hollywood hero that can fight like a pro fighter, shoot like a navy seal and track people without ease. On top of it he looks like a male model.

In reality he would've been killed multiple times already if the bad guys actually wanted him to be killed. The good guy is great at everything and the bad guys are awful at everything. Typical hollywood writing.

The lead guy is good. The surroundings look great. The most important thing though is severely lacking and that is the story. The writing is awful. A shame, because I really wanted to like this.

Allegiance (2024– )

Pretty bad and unoriginal

[3/10 · 8 March 2024]

How unoriginal can you be? Half way through the pilot I knew exactly what would happen the rest of the episode. The training officer gets hit in the head and is out of the fight while our brand new officer out on her first day in the field takes care of business and when she gets back to police headquarters she gets a standing ovation as soon as she walks inside.

The main character as usual is an expert at everything and has zero flaws. We've seen all this countless of times already. What's the point in all this? She's better than everyone else and already knows everything better than people that have been cops for decades.

I gave up in the beginning of episode 3. Just didn't really care about any of the characters. This is a show that you can put on as background noise, but other than that it has very little to offer.

The Winter King (2023– )

Low budget

[5/10 · 6 February 2024]

Judging by the first episode, this seems extremely low budget. Also, the acting seems below average. When comparing to other similar shows (the last kingdom, vikings, game of thrones etc.) this doesn't really seem that great. This feels a bit like some Warrior Princess Zena type of show. Seems a bit outdated, camp and with not that great acting performances.

I usually love these kinds of shows, but this just seemed like it was done with no real love for the story. Everything was done as cheaply as possible. From the sets, to the cinematography to the acting. Everything seems below par, which is a shame because I've always loved these kinds of shows.

The Beekeeper (2024)

Just another Statham movie

[5/10 · 30 January 2024]

This actually started off pretty good. Premise is great and who wouldn't like to see scammers getting what's coming to them. However, it didn't take long for it to become just another generic Jason Statham action movie. If you've seen one of them, then you've pretty much seen this movie also. Jason kicking everyone's ass like they're all a bunch of 10 year olds. I mean we've seen all this a dozen times already.

Also, the 100 year old Hollywood tradition of every bad guy just waiting patiently in line so the hero gets to kick one ass at a time is getting a bit old.

Sure, if you haven't seen many action flicks over the years, then this might be a great movie to you. I have however watched hundreds of action flicks throughout the last 30 years or so and this brings very little to the table. It's generic, it's cliched, it's Jason Statham kicking everyone's ass as he does in just about 99% of his movies.

Meh, maybe I'm just getting old and cranky, but I can't give this more than a 5.

The Rookie (2018– )

Started out great

[6/10 · 20 January 2024]

This started out great and Nathan Fillion is always pretty great. However, the realism is awful even by Hollywood standards. I watched 2 seasons and it was really laughable how every single episode had the rookies be involved in massive shooutouts and huge cases. Also, every bad guy has an automatic weapon and never hits anything or anyone.

Then there's the normal Hollywood craziness with bullet proof car doors etc. And the fact that your every day patrol officers do the things that in real life specialized units and SWAT would handle.

Great idea, but the execution is lacking. What started out as a pretty unique show quickly turned into yet another regular cop show.

The Irrational (2023– )

Boring and bland

[4/10 · 8 November 2023]

I wanted to like this, but this was a huge let down. There's nothing new here. The same old stuff we've seen in dozens of other shows. The writing in particular is pretty bad, feels like something that could've been done 30 years ago and just left sitting on a shelf waiting for decades until someone just found it and thought, hey let's try this in 2023. Thing is that it just doesn't fly anymore. It's outdated and bland and boring and cliched.

I watched two episodes. That was enough for me. In both episodes I figured out who did it in the first 15 minutes of both episodes. The writing was so cliched that there was no real mystery for me at least, I could figure out the story in the first 15 minutes. I blame the writing, the acting was actually pretty good. With better writing this might be an enjoyable watching experience, but at this point it's just background noise.

Lioness (2023– )

Got about 3 minutes into this

[1/10 · 12 September 2023]

Lol, stopped watching about 3 minutes in. There's a huge gun fight with 50 cals and rifles and bombs going off and our main hero is talking on the phone like she's at home lying on the sofa. Almost like the dialogue was recorded in a sound booth in a Hollywood studio and just pasted into the show. She's calling for an airstrike like there's nothing going on around her. That's just bad directing and editing.

Sorry, but I can't take this show seriously if that's the kind of effort the makers put into it. Have some pride in your work and put some effort into it. You're making millions off this and Mcdonalds employees have more pride in their work than you do. Laughable.

Hijack (2023)

Good, but could've been better

[7/10 · 12 September 2023]

Interesting premise and the show started off well. However, I thought there were a few pretty meh episodes in the middle and I almost lost interest at oen point. Maybe this should've been a few episodes shorter because it felt a bit slow and dull at moments.

The hijackers were complete amateurs at points and the woman hijacker trying to act tough wasn't very believable. Neither was the hijacker in charge that believable. I just didn't buy him being in charge and having what it takes to actually keep things under control.

I also thought that the last 5 minutes was a bit stupid. Why do that? Felt really unnecessary.

Over all a enjoyable mini series, but could've been better. To be honest I only watched this because of Idris Elba. Otherwise the cast was pretty meh.

North Sea Connection (2022– )

Decent enough mini series

[5/10 · 3 September 2023]

It's a decent enough crime series to watch if bored and nothing else to watch at the moment. Still, there's nothing new here that hasn't been done a hundred times over already. We've seen the same story lines countless times in better shows over the decades.

I was first drawn to this because I love the Irish accent. However, I was left a bit cold at the end.

Don't really understand what the point was with the Swedish cop and the Swedish guy Björn. They should've explored the Swedish side of things way more IMO. Where the drugs came from and who the big bad Swedish drug runners were. Now they just talked a lot, but never showed anything. Pretty useless plot point.

Also, if this was such a huge drug running operation why send only one Swedish cop to Ireland? What can she really do in a foreign country? I'm not well versed in international policing, but I'd imagine she can't really do much but only be an adviser in a foreign country.

Blue Lights (2023– )

What is this?

[3/10 · 24 June 2023]

Is this really what policing in Belfast is really like? I mean everyone is bad at their jobs. The training officers are awful at actually training the new officers. 3/4 of the new officers are not suited to be police officers at all. The only one with any credibility is Grace Ellis. The other 3 are completely unsuitable for law enforcement. To put it bluntly they're a bunch of cowards.

Why are the new recruits acting like this? This is supposed to be their 5th week of on the job training and they all act like it's their first day. It would've been way more believable if this was actually their first days. Then the nervousness would've been somewhat acceptable. Them just approaching a car while pulling them over on a traffic stop made all the new recruits absolutely nervous wrecks. 3 of them would never have made it this far. They would've been washed out in day one.

You either have what it takes to be a cop or you don't. If just the fact that you have to pull a car over and talk to the driver makes you into a nervous wreck, then this isn't the line of work you should be in.

I was so excited for this, but no. Just no. You have to do better than this. None of the characters were believable. Maybe next time hire some former cops to advise you on how actual cops behave in the real world. This was a real let down.

The Last Thing He Told Me (2023– )

Just bad

[2/10 · 24 June 2023]

This is just awful writing. Nothing makes sense and the adults don't act like adults. The teenager is your everyday Hollywood written teenager. Moody and acting like a brat towards the stepmom. Come up with something a bit more original than the same old over and over again.

I watched two episodes and then gave up. This could've been so much better with a lead like Jennifer Garner.

Nothing Jennifer Garner does makes sense. She goes about her life like nothing ever happened. She sends the teenager to school the next day like nothing is out of the ordinary. She drives around like everything's just normal.

This could've been way better with some mystery to the whole thing, but within the second episode I could already guess the plot points and while researching came to realize that I guessed about 90% of the plot right. Now that's bad writing if you know what's coming before it happens.

I love mysteries, but this was just a huge letdown for me. 2 stars for Jennifer Garner, 0 for the show.

The Diplomat (II) (2023– )

Really unbelievable

[1/10 · 13 June 2023]

I don't buy anything about his. I only watched the first episode and had zero interest in keeping on watching. I didn't buy that these two individuals were married. I didn't buy that these two were any sort of diplomats. Didn't buy that anyone would actually want this woman to be a diplomat in the UK. I mean the US and UK are pretty close allies right? Why would a friendly nation send this amateur woman to be a diplomat there? Unless the US actually hated and despised the UK deep down and wanted to screw with them.

Also, the language was a bit much. I mean I work in a metal shop and we use foul language from time to time, but even hardcore metal workers don't swear that much and would never swear in front of customers. I mean only teenagers think swearing publicly is cool and edgy. Maybe the writers are all in their teens still? LOL, I guess there's a reason why there's a writers strike going on. The quality of writing has plummeted these last 10 years or so.

Anyway, a hard pass from me.

Jack Ryan (2018–2023)

What is this? Not Jack Ryan

[5/10 · 5 June 2023]

I liked the first season and thought the second season was ok, but the third season went completely ballistic for some reason.

Jack Ryan is an analyst. He's not James Bond, he's not Jason Bourne, he's not Jack Bauer. He can't fight like a Navy Seal or a Delta Force operator. This is just getting ridiculous with Hollywood writing when the main character is always an expert at everything. Like why do we need any special forces when we can just send Jack Ryan to take care of all the worlds problems?

Make Jack Ryan stand out by not having him be just antoher James Bond or Jason Bourne clone. What's the point in watching when you know that nothing will hurt the protagonist? It's just background noice. Meh.

Ray Donovan (2013–2020)

Started off amazing

[7/10 · 29 May 2023]

Had trouble figuring out what I'd rate this show overall. The first couple of seasons where amazing. Then it slowly started to unravel and jump the shark.

What started out as a pretty believable show about a Hollywood fixer soon turned into a superhero show. Ray, his old dad in his late 70's and a few brothers took out whole organized crime groups. What in the world? Silly as hell.

Why couldn't they just keep Ray as a fixer? Why the need for way over the top stuff like that?

This does not rise to the level of the best shows made. The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Shield etc blow this show out of the water easily.

Could've been great, but ultimately became a pretty meh show.

FUBAR (2023– )

LOL

[3/10 · 28 May 2023]

So here's this supposed young woman that scores the highest scorws ever in CIA history. I'm quoting: "her recall, problem-solving skills, straight-up IQ, off the charts". And still she couldn't figure out that her dad ain't selling weight lifting equipment for months on end around the globe. Yeah, sure.

Also, Arnold has to be one of the best CIA operatives in the history of the CIA if he's still in his 70's doing field work. None of this makes any sense.

Also, why is Arnold's character written like a lost little puppy? He still thinks after 15 years that his ex hasn't moved on? Also makes absolutely no sense.

I like Arnold. I've seen most of his movies countless of times. This however is really bad. The story makes no sense. The writing is below average. The acting is below average.

Walker (2021–2024)

Not believable

[4/10 · 23 May 2023]

I just started watching this because of Jared Padalecki. I liked Supernatural for about 6 or 7 seasons, before getting bored of it.

However, this Walker is not believable at all as some larger than life legendary Texas Ranger. Walker in this is a big crybaby and seems like a very weak person. Yes, his wife was murdered. It's sad, but a strong man doesn't just abandon his kids and run away and leave them behind now without either a mom or dad. Not believable.

Jared has all the makings of being a believable Texas Ranger, but the writing fails him completely. He's weak, he's too emotional and this show feels more like a teen drama than about law enforcement. The two episodes that I watched were roughly 90% weepy drama and 10% about the actual law enforcement work.

It's a pass from me.

White Men Can't Jump (2023)

I don't see the point in this remake

[1/10 · 23 May 2023]

Sorry, but I just don't see any point in making this remake. You're never going to replicate Woody Harrelsons and Wesley Snipes chemistry in the original. This is just a pale imitation and totally unnecessary.

If you know you're going to make an inferior movie, why bother? Money ofcourse and it doesn't take that much creativity to just take someone elses idea and make a bland copy of it.

Watch the original instead, this is just a cheap cash grab. Who is this made for? Who wanted this? Makes no sense at all.

No disrespect to Jack Harlow and Sinqua Walls, but they're no Woody Harrelson or Wesley Snipes. Why can't we just let classic movies be? No one that watched the original is going to like this.

Tulsa King (2022– )

We've seen all this before

[5/10 · 17 May 2023]

I was actually looking forward to this, but after a few episodes realized that this is just the same stuff we've seen in every other mafia/knockaround story. This only happens in movies and tv. One guy taking over a city. Yeah, wouldn't happen anywhere else but in movies and tv.

A felon in his 70's that's been in prison for 25 years is going to be mentally and physically a shell of his former self. He's not taking over anything anywhere.

I mean, it's fiction and maybe this could've worked 20 years ago, but we've seen all this already countless of times. It's a cliched mess. Old guy kicking ass and getting all the women. LOL, never seen that before.

I stopped watching around episode 5. Just didn't care about the story. Life's too short to waste it on something this cliched.

Will Trent (2023– )

Just another cop show

[5/10 · 14 May 2023]

Had no prior knowledge about Will Trent when I started to watch this show. Only when reading reviews here did I find out that it's based on a series of books.

Anyway, this show turned out to be just another copy/paste Hollywood cop show. Not really anything we haven't seen a dozen times or more in the last 20 years. The location is just a bit different than the usual NY or LA. That's about it in terms of how it differs from any other cop show.

I did like the first few episodes, but then got quickly bored of it. The one thing that really bothered me was that Will had a very noticable accent, while no one else really had. Especially weird was that the character that Erika Christensen played didn't have the same kind of noticable accent even though these two grew up together.

To summarize: there's really nothing new here. Just your average American cop show.

The Mother (2023)

Below par

[2/10 · 12 May 2023]

This started off pretty interesting. The first 20 minutes or so I was intrigued. Then after that it just turned into your average Hollywood action movie full of cliches. The dialogue is cliched, the action is cliched, the whole thing is just one big cliche we've seen a thousand times already in other movies. I mean I could guess the dialogue with 99% accuracy before they said it. It was that cliched.

The funniest thing is that you know Jennifer did 0% of her own stunts in this movie. Yeah sure, she's believable as a highly trained sniper and assassin. I actually like her, but I can't take her seriously as an action hero, when I know that the stunts were done 100% by her stunt double.

This ain't the 90's anymore. You can't get away with making straight to VHS level action movies anymore. I'm sorry, but this is something that very well could've been made in the 90's. Netflix, what are you doing? This is just way below par for 2023. To think that Lopez probably got paid at least 20 mil for this garbage is laughable. Jesus.

Better (2023)

Made no sense

[4/10 · 12 May 2023]

Most of this show made absolutely zero sense. Seems like the writers don't really know anything about police or criminals.

Supposedly the biggest drug dealer in the city and he has about 5 people in total working for him. He's also not under constant surveillance even though he's very known to the police so Lou can just meet him anywhere at any time. Sure, makes sense.

Also, nothing about Col makes me believe that he's the top dog criminal in a big city. He's just not believable as a crime boss in this. He could be, but the writing fails him.

The acting performances were good, it's just that the writing is awful. The last episode espescially was bad. The show started off good, but the longer it went on the harder it became to tolerate the bad writing.

The Night Agent (2023– )

Couldn't stop watching

[8/10 · 12 May 2023]

From the first episode, I was hooked and couldn't stop watching. Binged the whole show in two days. Something just kept me watching this show, even though it has its problems and shortcomings. It's at times very silly and predictable and cliched. A lot of the story is very implausible and the hero as usual in American shows has very thick plot armor. Still, I enjoyed this show very much.

Gabriel Basso was well suited to this role and his performance kept this whole show together. The other actors were ok, but nothing special.

Overall, a very predictible and cliched Hollywood show, but still it kept me watching. Maybe that says something about the overall state of entertainment, that this show gets an 8/10 from me and is one of the better shows out there this year. Anyway, I'm eagerly waiting on season 2.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Excellent movie

[9/10 · 27 August 2022]

This is an old school movie. It's whole point is to entertain you for about 2 hours. That it did indeed. Well done. There was no bigger "message" that needs to be spoon fed to us normies. There was no needless "inclusivity". The cast was diverse without it being forced or mentioned every two seconds. They were just people. Just a good story to entertain us and forget about our daily lives for a few hours. Tom Cruise is one of the last old school movie stars around and this was one of the better movies made in the last decade.

Well cast, well acted, some good action. It isn't a perfect movie, but in this day and age it's still one of the better movies made in the last 10 years or so. Say what you want about Tom Cruise and his personal life, but he's one hell of an artist and puts all he has into his craft.

I saw the first one a ton of times on vcr and tv when I was a youngster. I was a bit scared at first about them making a sequel. With most sequels nowadays being awful and all. This was however the exception to that rule. More of this and less of "superhero movie number 135".

Vengeance (II) (2022)

Awful

[1/10 · 21 August 2022]

Hollywood wants us to think that a 40+ year old man sleeping with dozens of young girls he doesn't care at all about is somehow cool. No, it's just sad. Sad for the women, sad for the man. Blaah, stop trying to make bad behavior cool. I mean I could see it if the guy was an immature 22 year old, but not 43. Could not finish this one.

The Old Man (2022– )

Pretty good but with some flaws

[7/10 · 20 August 2022]

Overall I did enjoy this show. However, there were two things that brought it down a notch. First was the scenes between Jeff Bridges and Amy Brenneman. They were mostly slow and boring and pointless IMO. The other thing that bothered me was that I could see the twist at the end coming a mile away. A bit disappointed that they went with such a cliched ending.