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Operation Buffalo (2020)
Very uneven "historical fiction"
I'm really not sure what to make of this show, primarily because the writers don't seem to know what sort of show it should be. A hijinks-laden comedy? An espionage thriller? A family drama? We've snuck prostitutes onto a top secret military base, better make sure the boss doesn't find out, ho-ho, otherwise we'll all be shot for breaching the Official Secrets Act, ha-ha. Then its' revealed that one of the working girls has gone missing, there's a rapist on the base, the working girl is discovered dumped in the desert to die, then she and two of her Indigenous rescuers get vapourised in an atomic blast.
Admittedly, I've only seen the first three episodes, and I'll give the next one a crack, but unless it tightens up the tone I think I'll ditch it.
Fear the Walking Dead: ...I Lose Myself (2018)
Nope, that's it, I'm done...
My opinion of this episode pretty much reflects my opinion of this entire season, but I'll just concentrate on the climax of this episode as a broad example.
We've got Morgan and Martha out on their own, both injured, while the rest of the group is back at the truck stop slowly dying from being poisoned by antifreeze-tainted water (how they didn't register the taste of the antifreeze has got me stumped). Martha for some reason tells Morgan what the group has been poisoned with and he used his incredibly high-powered two-way radio to communicate this to the group without even questioning whether Martha was lying to him or not.
Back at the diner, June says that ethanol will help metabolise the antifreeze they've ingested, and there just happens to be a whole tanker full of ethanol just outside the diner, which is inconveniently surrounded by zombies.
Despite hardly being able to walk or sit upright two minutes previously, the group fight their way out to the parking lot and Al boards her SWAT truck of death while Victor and Luciana try in vain to open the valve on the tanker. Al opens up with the machine guns, mowing down the undead horde but also blasting holes in the side of the tanker.
And now... they're all... doomed...? They couldn't scrounge up even a couple of litres of ethanol from the tanker? That it, sorry, we're all gonna die?
But fear not, Morgan has managed to swing by Deus Ex Machina Brewery and find a truckload of life-saving beer for the diner group to ingest and revive them.
Between that amazingly contrived set of circumstances, the hand-held two-way radios with infinite range when it's convenient, cars that just start after sitting stagnant for years, other cars with the worse fuel economy on the planet (the ride Morgan takes after handcuffing Martha to the police car has about two thirds of a tank when he hotwires it, but runs out seemingly minutes later) and characters just doing the stupidest least survivable things imaginable, I can't watch this show anymore. I like all the characters, some more than others, but the new show runners are treating the audience like idiots. Every show and film can have one or maybe two moments where the suspension of disbelief can be stretched, but this show has done it five or six times per episode, in every episode.
This show has tanked so badly this year that for me it's unrecoverable. I'm out. It used to be a great show but that's it, I'm done
Fear the Walking Dead: No One's Gone (2018)
This season is starting to lose me...
I love a good post-apocalypse story as much as anyone, and until recently I was touting Fear The Walking Dead as being better than its parent show. But this season is really not doing it for me and this particular episode is the least interesting or entertaining in either show so far.
The time-jumping is gratuitous. I'm not having a problem following the story but hopping from one sequence of events to another is not serving the story at all and is in many cases killing off any dramatic tension that might be present in a linear story. I've read that the writers had to work hard to wedge Morgan into this show and skip ahead a lot but I don't think Morgan's presence in this show was worth it (don't get me wrong, I love Morgan's character and Lennie James is excellent in the role).
The big "twist" at the end should've been a big emotional moment but there was so much telling and not showing in this episode that by the time we got to *that moment*, it had the life leeched out of it. Alicia foreshadowed it blatantly and we were left with no shock, no surprise, just an overwrought slow-motion flashback with melodramatic music. That moment should've come suddenly, with the other characters barely having time to react, without the scene being intercut with the characters talking about their reaction to it after the fact. It would've had a lot more impact that way.
I want to like Maggie Grace's character more but I just cannot understand her obsession with getting "the story". And I say that as someone who's worked as a freelance journalist. Al is badass and capable (and Ms Grace does a great job portraying her) but the whole chronicler angle feels way overemphasised.
I do hope the remaining 8 episodes get back to their earlier good form, but this one in particular was a mess.
San Andreas (2015)
Effects from 2015, script from 1975.
Yes, San Andreas looks great. I'm not just talking about the CGI apocalypse which smashes LA and devastates San Francisco, but also about the principal cast. Dwayne Johnson, Carla Guigino and Alexandra Daddario look great, and do well with what they're given to work with.
What the actors are given is a script so thin on story and character development you could almost perform microsurgery with it. Clichés and cardboard characters are the last thing I expected from one of the show runners of Lost.
All isn't beyond redemption though, because the character of Blake, played by Alexandra Daddario, is great. She goes beyond the typical damsel-in-distress stereotype and is actually very capable and strong in her journey through a rapidly collapsing San Francisco. Her character and Daddario's portrayal make up 3 of the 4 points I'm giving this movie. The other point is for the great effects, but really, good visuals are to be expected these days.
Overall, a pretty shithouse film.