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Reviews
True Detective: Night Country: Part 2 (2024)
A Study in Decline: Mediocrity
Not necessarily awful, but every aspect leaves something to be desired. Characters feel lacking, plot feels meandering, acting feels subpar...I feel a fool for still hoping for something on par with season one...becoming increasingly obvious that pizzolatto is a one hit wonder who once lured in a strong cast and crew, rather than being the one man band he was once perceived as. The writing was on the wall, but I refused to read. What a waste of Jodie Foster and a seemingly decent overarching story. Casting also fell short, there is better acting at community theaters.
Director certainly deserves blame for these opening two episodes as well. The plot just feels so disjointed. There is a strong story idea here somewhere, but it has been completely muddled by poor writing and performances. The "mystery" aspect can be beat by asking Alexa to throw on a random X-Files episode.
Young cop boy (deadwood sol's son) shouldn't be anywhere near a camera (would assumed he's related to someone in power), everyone else is serviceable but comes across as more of a caricature than a character. Maybe the show improves from here but increasingly difficult to keep my eyes on one screen and not the other.
For All Mankind: Leningrad (2023)
top tier television
I'm not going to over analyze the entire show or spoil anything for anyone, but as someone feeling a bit down, lost, and left behind due to both their own failures and realities of the hyper-modernized world..."that's life" felt beyond poignant; a simultaneous stab to the gut, slap in the face, and kick in the balls with a heavy dose of smelling salts and amphetamines for good measure that left me saying "please sir, can i have some more?"
Not sure why i ever doubted RDM would take this show to such depths, but this episode shows the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.
That's life, i said.
The Outsider (2020)
entertaining enough, casting decisions and directing hold the series back
I've read king's version but had no intent going into the show on comparing the two, thoughts on the show only...
casting: 5/10. Truly don't understand the mendelssohn support, speaks like someone holding grapes in each cheek and i've had a hard time looking past. Furthermore his acting is often one dimensional, perhaps i need to see him in different roles to form a full opinion. Some characters do well in their roles (i think bateman shines), but moreso seem they don't belong in this medium. Can often sense these are characters playing an assigned role, could do far more in terms of viewer immersion. Child actors are quite poor.
Directing: 6/10. Scenes where strong actors can shine do well enough, but obviously struggles to get even mediocre performances out of those in lesser roles. Doesn't seem like any scenes was given much direction or shot in less than a few takes.
Writing: 7/10. Dialogue/story composition is near always thematically fitting and serves to move the plot forward. The scenes that don't work feel like a fish trying to describe what life on land is like from their view on the beach. Scenes regarding jail & the police station standout as being constructed by those without adequate research or knowledge.
Cinematography: 8/10. While occasionally dipping into cliche, vast majority of scenes are artfully executed and well done.
As a whole i think the show stands as an example of a whole being greater than the sum of it's parts, but the underlying story certainly had the legs to create a far superior product than the one we see. Worth a watch if into mystery/suspense with a strong touch of the supernatural, but not sure any singular aspect of the show makes it anything better than simply "good".