f-ascaso Reviews

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret (2009– )

Original and Brilliant.

[10/10 · 31 March 2012]

I found this by accident, just did a random click on Netflix. Wow, just wow. I haven't seen anything this funny and original in a VERY long time. It was great, full of surprises, and absolutely impossible to guess where it was going next.

I give it an A+ on every front, originality, comedy etc. etc. They really can produce something that isn't just recycled clichéd CRAP and DRivel when they put their minds to it, and get as far away from the formulaic BS that's produced by the "beautiful people" in the West and East Coast entertainment PC mills.

I haven't ever laughed and been caught by surprise by anything on the small screen, ever, like I was by this. Cripes, I may even write a damn fan congratulatory letter to the folks involved.

Brilliant, just Brilliant.

Night Gallery: Room with a View/The Little Black Bag/The Nature of the Enemy (1970) Season 1, Episode 2

Ending kills it.

[1/10 · 8 May 2009]

This "space snippet" was kind of dumb. I guess it was supposed to be a shocker unexpected ending, but IMHO it was just a huge letdown. Joseph Campanella and the rest of the earthbound actors do a great job in this one; their performances are not done justice with such a silly ending though. How this ending could ever have made it through any kind of review by the producers is beyond me. The other comment on here is not correct, the tongue in cheek vignettes only came in during the second season, this thing was supposed to be taken seriously! The producers and writers could have been a little more creative with the ending to do the rest of the episode justice.

Night Gallery: The House/Certain Shadows on the Wall (1970) Season 1, Episode 3

A Chrysler commercial in very little disguise.

[3/10 · 8 May 2009]

Wow, the spookiest thing about this episode was the price of houses 40 years ago. I'll preface by saying I'm not a fan of narrated episodes. If the story/actors/etc. are worth their salt, they should be able to convey the bulk of the narrative without having to read it out, reminded me of personages who can't think off the cuff but rely on teleprompters. The psychobabble was tedious and boring, but some enjoy that kind of thing, it's just not my cup O tea. They could have kept the narrative but at least made it much more believable and interesting if it was coming from a psychiatrist or maybe a newspaper reporter or something. Niggling little things like Peugeot being at the house, which has a singular half circle driveway, yet he seems to have parked his car in the tree he was standing under, because it's nowhere to be seen on the road or on the property. Sloppy editing, as she pulls into the driveway (for what seems the 100th time) exactly who are those 2 guys you see at 24m30s walking towards the car as she pulls into the driveway of the deserted house? The dolly close-ups were also overdone, like some Jr. High drama student discovering the zoom function on his camera for the first time. I could keep picking apart, but that might get almost as boring as this episode was. It kept dragging on and the true purpose seemed to be to use absolutely all the stock footage they had shot of Elaine driving the Newport convertible. I fully expected to see the Chrysler logo and a nice jingle play while a voice over told us all about the 8 track player, automatic top etc. The only good thing I have to say about his one is that it just ends, abruptly. No loose ends tied up, nothing explained or terminated. Not that many would notice, I suspect most had already changed the channel or dozed off by the end.

Petticoat Junction: Cannonball Christmas (1963) Season 1, Episode 14

Great feel good nostalgia Christmas fodder.

[9/10 · 8 January 2009]

How can you not wane nostalgic for then "good ole days" after watching this gem. There is a Grinch, a bunch of heroes fighting Charles Lane playing a Scrooge who wants to ruin it all for everyone. Still evokes a decent belly laugh or two, even in ultra jaded viewers as myself. Even though anyone watching this realizes it's a wistful fantasy, we all secretly wish we could be heading towards "Hootersville" for our white Christmas. Just sit back, forget the days trials and tribulations, and let this great escape back into a simpler time and place in TV land sweep over you. I guarantee you won't regret it. Don't worry about who is going to play Santy Claus, there is always going to be a big fat gobbler waiting for all who come across the threshold on Christmas day.

Three Days to Vegas (2007)

More lack of focus than bad movie.

[6/10 · 28 July 2008]

I kind of liked it, expected a lot more though from the veteran actors though. Denis Farina would have rounded this movie up nicely if they could have gotten him for it.

The premise of the movie kind of kills it, it should have been a much smaller subplot, I think that most are fans of the familiar older actors and could have care less and done without the rapper, marriage, homo Thelma & Louis, and other distracting subplots. These seemed like deliberate filler more than plot vehicles.

The "Thelma and Louis" sub plot did have it moments, but it needed a better tie in to the main plot. These divergent tangents fragmented the movie a bit much and reminded me more of a sequence of skits than a cohesive story experience.