connorundrumme Reviews

The Vast of Night (2019)

Primarily a 'hear' and 'tell', but not much 'show,' affair.

[2/10 · 25 May 2024]

Understood that this is supposed to be a throwback piece, but the speaking of a foreign language being described as "very alarming," and equating it to being a 'witch' multiple times for absolutely no reason is just culturally... well, its "very alarming!" It wasn't waving snakes or speaking in tongues, which is Christian behavior, BTW! In the end, they never really tie the 'sounds' to the 'language' together in any meaningful way.

The script desperately needed polishing. It's not elegant, but plebeian, and clumsy, and trite. Consequently, the lines and the acting are awkward, and boringly formulaic at times. It's almost entirely cliché-ridden and hyperbolic. And, holy crow, the long expositions are like sitting with an anvil strapped to your chin!

The rude, interrupting smack-talk and bullying, the domineering, know-it-all, patronizing persona of Everett... this was all un-enjoyable. He's often negative, whiny, yelling and cursing unnecessarily, etc. There are more than a couple of scenes of men telling women to shut up (pointless depictions of sexist behavior), so that's -500% fun, too.

People's phone calls get cut off for no reason, and it results in.... nothing happening?

An anguished old homebound woman with a confused conspiracy theory about aliens? Check.

An eager, young psuedo-intelligent ingénue/doormat? Check.

The sheer lack of logic in running in fear into dark and unfamiliar woods at night, clutching a small child in protectiveness, defies all reasonable disbelief. It's just STUPID.

End of the Rope (2023)

Got suckered into this when it was rated a 7.

[3/10 · 21 May 2024]

It'd be curious that a journalist who covered the case in person at the time was entirely written out of this 'based on a true story' film (they have one guy show up with a camera and he gets shooed off right away - twice, and speaks no lines.), except that this is, at the least, a half-fictionalized account. Meanwhile, it spends a languorous amount of time showing a mob gin itself up with hate-rage inside a church.

There are also no historical facts recorded that 22-yr-old Bannon burned down a family home with three children in it. None. This is adding an extra justification for the hanging that never existed.

The pacing is somewhat uneven, with a few needless stretches of filler content. That stuff could've been replaced by scenes depicting the murdered family members' characters instead. But nope, the victims are totally invisible in this. Any of the action and drama that lead to the crimes being committed is also left out. Was this done out of respect or neglect?

So, it's rather poorly written, and has silly dialogue at times. And, while it's hardly unlikely to have occurred, it just seems ridiculous to hand out badges and guns for a manhunt to what are clearly depicted as a bunch of unruly townie hotheads. One of the actors in the posse couldn't even ride a horse right during the chase scenes.

Also, are they kidding?: The sheriff hands the prisoner a sliced open can with the jagged lid still on it?! Suicidal/homicidal opportunities much? I mean, yeah, they totally didn't protect the accused while in jail IRL, which lead to his death instead of a trial, but Come On!

Sadly, the production overall just isn't very good. It's noticeably amateurish on many levels, but most markedly in the script, direction, and the acting. Chris Bylsma as state attorney Sam Taylor, and Joseph Bezenek as the town's alcoholic, sexist crap-stirrer, Jarvis, give noticeably uneven performances that are less than believable throughout. Joseph Gray is quite good when not directed to be overly stone-faced, anguished, or aggressive.

20/20: 'Til Death Do Us Part (2024) (2024) Season 47, Episode 28

Very topical and sexist, making you wonder what year it is.

[1/10 · 21 April 2024]

This episode is full of shallow, salacious trash coming from a patriarchal perspective. The deep religious bias and judgement oozes from most of those interviewed about this Tennessee case.

Men are canonized, even if posthumously, and without much actual knowledge of personal character. They spend little to no time exploring the history of a person who clearly had anger management issues that he took out on those closest to him in his personal life, on his neighbors (including a child), and on his administrative peers in his church.

Meanwhile, one characteristically meek woman is heavily scrutinized and judged for every single thing: demeanor, clothing, whether she spilled her private struggles into an obviously gossipy, bigoted community that heavily monitors all of the behavior of females, or she did not. They literally act like being out in public more than once and having either an alcoholic beverage or a cigarette while being female or a mother, or 'heavens' forbid, out on bail, is literally proof of an evil nature, and is somehow scandalous. GIANT EYE ROLLS!!!! They photographed it like it was evidence. WHAT YEAR IS THIS?

It's unreal that 20/20 leans into this foolishness of clutching their pearls over nothing.

Evolve into the 21st century, already!

Passenger (2024– )

Could've reached a 7, but...

[5/10 · 25 March 2024]

Plenty of things dragged this potentially enjoyable, but ultimately topical and unsophisticated, production down, such as:

• Underdeveloped characters/relationships
• Slow pacing
• Repetitious events; too many coughing scenes; many characters involved in 'terror in the woods', but no reveals by two thirds of the way through the series; alarms and goo in multiple lab scenes, but no conclusive data/outcome at all; animal mutilation images on a loop; and the same with overly dramatic conversations...
• Annoying relationship dramas that don't drive a story
• Some of the comedic scripting works, but not much
• An unsympathetic and generally negative tone (damaged and/or unlikable characters, and that's supposed to be funny)

Found (2023– )

The writing is naive, stilted, and very unrealistic.

[5/10 · 1 December 2023]

Ultimately, it's written with too much 'going extreme,' has tone problems, overacting, some false urgency, etc, and needed better directing and editing.

The un-credentialed absolutely do not get to do whatever they want or act however they wish to, in the name of helping a child, even if they'd do a better job than 'the authorities'! The amount of pushback and shutdown they'd get would be crushing and permanent. Like, way past 'cease and desist', into major harassment, if not arrests and prosecutions.

The lead is portrayed as a ridiculous braggart, so how that's supposed to engender respect or attract helpful attention about a movement is a mystery. And, does establishing that a group holds each other in some esteem have to involve them blowing huge plumes of smoke up each other's rears?

The central character is shown making points that are already in evidence, but being really exaggerated and hyperbolic about it. She's overly defensive and corrective, which doesn't make for effective leadership. Then there's the over-enunciation of certain words... oof, painful.

Many are familiar with Shanola Hampton's assets, it's just disappointing that this series made the salacious choice to flap it all out in order to get enough eyes on this series in the pilot. It's definitely not integral to the story that she dress like a nearly homeless sex worker to do her job.

Anyway, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Karan Oberoi both occasionally reach Lifetime-network-levels of sniping play-acting. The other actors are also less than believable. They left in a part where one muscley guy snorts while he's breathing, like a congested child. Gross.

And why does Kelli Williams have noticeably neglected hair? No one else does, not even abductees.

Also, there's very low likelihood that people who are that keyed up, on guard, triggered, fearful, etc. Would all be jazzed about getting inebriated at work before each person heads off alone for the evening. This behavior isn't believable. And how, exactly, are these private citizens so rich and well-heeled, anyway?

The way they're portraying traumatized people is also too much: "If there's one thing I know as an agoraphobe, it's houses." HUH, WHUT?! The writing is SO dumb.

Lastly, it's more than suggested that whites are the eternally uncaring enemy that over-credit and engage in habitual self-pity! Enjoy?!

Payback (I) (2023)

Would prefer payback of life minutes.

[1/10 · 16 November 2023]

Wanted to enjoy this, but with all of the heavy-handed, unsympathetic pressuring and verbal bludgeoning of a recently widowed woman, and her apparent lack of sensible agency or ability to defend against repeated threats and personal assaults, it was impossible. The piling on is relentless.

It had all of the things most annoying in crap UK dramas: too many pointless car scenes, many phone screen shots, multiple law enforcement agencies doing nothing but harassing victims of crime(s) while pursuing property and career agendas over personal justice, an overly acquiescent lead female put under illogical amounts of pressure, unexplained 180° character reversals, factual omissions later treated as reveals, etc.

In This Massive Pile of Refuse:

• A woman repeatedly has her personal belongings taken away from her, suffers the loss of a life partner, has no money, gets abducted repeatedly, gets accosted all hours of the day, and rarely reacts to any of it? Absurd, unless she's supposed to be on diazepam or beta-blockers!? And when she's mistreated, she says, "Thank You"?! She gets abused indefatigably, but is friendly and super-cooperative fixer for her abusers, which is just idiotic and insane.

• Bullying police interrogations that consist only of misinterpretations of 'facts,' jumping to conclusions, false statements based on a lack of, instead of the presence of evidence, etc., etc.

• Wealthy criminals relying entirely on an uninvolved outside party to unravel mysteries and solve forensic accounting crimes that they were never personally a part of, nor that they've evidenced of any expertise in? Ridiculous, past the point of improbability.

• A main character says something will take years to accomplish and is beyond their ability; one day later = nearly solved it!?

• Why would a middle-income couple need a nanny if only one person is working/occupied outside the home?

• Who would hire a nanny that has a flat affect and doesn't smile? Too bizarre.

• A character that perpetually dresses like an uber-plain and invisible mom, no matter the scene or occasion. Is the indicator supposed to be that she's 'nothing special'?

• A woman is being visually surveilled inside an airport, and is depicted being grabbed at the elbow and escorted under coercion to a departures terminal by an agitated thug, and yet the dialogue is still "IF she's under duress" and "we don't know that yet". TOTALLY STUPID! Do They Have EYES?!? (Are they attached to any brains?)
• Massive continuity errors in showing a text messaging thread without the texts we've been watching the lead send, which happened repeatedly.

Lupin (2021– )

Too Uncool for Caper School

[4/10 · 3 November 2023]

Is this for children, or imbeciles?

What a cheap, farcical, simplistic, foolish, unsophisticated, unrealistic, ridiculous, idiotically written, poorly enacted, annoying pile of doggy droppings this production is. It isn't funny or clever or mysterious or intriguing, it's predictable, forced, and stupid. It's almost as bad as an after-school tv series for pre-teens. Everything about it is dopey, topical, thin, goofy, hokey. The dialogue is nonsensical, illogical, and contradicts itself. Characters display full personality reversals.

It's beyond an embarrassment, it's practically an art crime happening in front of your eyes. Three whole wasted seasons and countless hours of it, so far. It's less lighthearted than it is developmentally disabled. (The English dubbing actors can't even pronounce the title of the show, the titular character's last name, correctly?!?)

The lead isn't very good at acting, he doesn't blend anywhere, there's no belief to suspend, he's unconvincing. It simply doesn't work because the tone is too low depth and lacks seriousness, and he's got fake charisma, as well as some tacky costuming and wigs. There's also a bunch of smug, phony 'wisdom' wielded against legions of stupid security people and clueless law enforcement, oh and his dumb 'family.'

Many of the other actors are also flapping about, much like they're at an on-stage theater production, almost all 'playacting,' and it's cringey. The lack of eyesight, hearing, vision, and bodily sensations that would have to be a deficit for every character he's ever encountered for the lead to be even slightly successful, not to mention a good thief, or undetectable... it's totally impossible.

One might even feel sorry for the pet dog they've tried to humanize the lead with. He did nothing to deserve this, and seems like a well-trained, friendly pup.

Whenever the music starts blaring (rock or contemporary or whatever 'hits'), that's when you're watching either filler, or fake action/drama... repeatedly. No dialogue, just the familiar insertion of Very Loud Audio meant to evoke either good feelings, another distraction, or the idea that something of 'action' is happening. They even tried a few seconds of a Baby Driver car scene imitation on, and it didn't work.

Top Boy (2011–2023)

Top Boy Went Downhill

[4/10 · 3 November 2023]

A totally off-putting amount of the teeth-sucking ('kissing' is an overly generous euphemism for this anti-social rejection tick), as well as gibberish patois made season 3 difficult.

The same conflicts get recycled over and over, it being the 10 episode bloat-fest that it is.

They keep bringing in more Liability Thugs, which is prob a real thing, but it's difficult to understand any group or series of them being able to support so many Loose Cannons for so long. It seems totally counterintuitive to keep disloyal, disobedient, incompetent hotheads on the payroll. You can't counsel, redirect, or even broaden their thinking in any way. Seems impossible to want them anywhere around activities that require secrecy, finesse, politics, or critical thinking, for that matter.

They also do that sad thing where men with beef can work together after 'forgiveness', but for women and children who're even perceived as 'against' them, they're like, "No mercy," and there's no holds or reversals. It's petty and predatory. What sad little drama kings?!! They literally run everyone else more innocent down, while being abusive self-interested serial killers.

There are other problems: Very unskilled child actors make the predictable and forced drama more obviously clumsily manufactured, especially in Ep 7 of season 3 (U. S. broadcast season 1, for whatever stupid reasons), which was irritatingly bad in storyline & scripting. So predictable and poorly done.

Up until a point, it's almost entirely male-centric, all the female parts being only in support, and underdeveloped, with 2D personas that only serve the male characters and their gazes. They're just used as stereotypical relationship filler, and most of them are moms. All-in-all, they're simply plopped around as depth-free objects of affection or abuse, with which to illustrate boy's/men's struggles.

And then a Lesbian! The 'Tough, but Ineffective' narrative is fully on board. This character can't be a long-term ally or a protector, according to this shiznit. They also have this character lean very far into blaming the victims of impossible circumstances being forced on them.

Also, senseless femicide that accomplishes nothing is despicable. Stop trifling with the idea that a woman's life is reduced to the mere value of punishing a man by her absence/death. This is treating her exactly like a possession/object with no purpose to exist but for that man, and who is easily dispensed with without consequence.

For some weird reason, they also chose to insert the antisocial phrase "you stink" into the scripts about 30 times in season 4 (season 2, U. S.), in the false belief that it's 'humor.'

Also, poorly written interrogations.

Harry's Law (2011–2012)

Horrible Writing! Unfunny, Negative, Cheap! Bad Directing & Acting!

[1/10 · 3 November 2023]

There are so many anti-victim narratives in this piece of trash, I had to double-check the year, the network and the writer.

But no, I didn't actually bother, because this steaming pile of cultural excrement represented and still represents far too much of America... starting with it's really awful tv writing.

It's in a total fantasy territory of law procedure, of the motivations of attorneys and judges, and loaded down with the idea that every other case has a collective impact on society. Nah.

There's hardly justice, there's low logic applied, but there's lots of apparently perfectly acceptable ageism, sexism, racism, bigotry, misogyny, emotional abuse, health/medical biases, pro-bullying, pro-gun, pro-human rights abuses, pro-greed, pro-religiousity, psuedo-/anti- science.

BOY, IS IT A PARTY, OR WHAT?!?!? If it isn't misplaced sympathy for the wrong parties, it's a total lack of any sympathy at all. Sick people and their suffering = "Eh, EFF 'Em!"

I kept wondering where the politics (or just plain sensibilities, or 'good taste') of the actors figured into being part of this feces-fest. They probably figured into their bank accounts, and nothing else. (It was a J-O-B, and not a great one.)

Alien Planet (2023)

A bit of a bummer about there being any positive reviews on this one.

[3/10 · 28 September 2023]

It wasn't worth it. Was reminded of Saturday morning kid's scripted fantasy tv programs from the 70s. So cheesy.

Replete with smarmy sarcasm and hostile speechifying by the seemingly emotionally immature, laced with lame smack-talk, and even saying it to the unconscious.

It has dialogue with full sentences that consist of, "Ugh, this arm is never gonna heal." and "This damn plant." Also, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

The writing, acting, directing, are all about as bad as in the Extinct (2017) series, which was written and directed by BYU (Mormon) grads. The sophistication level is middle-school, like not totally stupid, but almost hopelessly underdeveloped.

The editing was also biffed up, to where an injury changed sides of the body, and changed back because they flipped footage a few times.

Some of the costuming decisions included Tabi Japanese Split Toe Shoes, or Ninja Jika Tabi Split Toe Boots, because those are totally 'alien.' My, my, my what this says! (Although, they're supposedly good for bunions, so maybe those aliens got Foot probs, not just food and water probs.)

I did sort of love it when the puppet/animatronic-looking Healing-Pet growled out it's master's name, fully articulately. L'il Spewy also snarls "NO" and "O. K.," in a grossly charming way.

Anyway, it had a zero payoff ending after being terribly predictable, too.

No One Will Save You (2023)

Save Yourself, Goes Nowhere

[5/10 · 22 September 2023]

Basically, there's no real story, and although there are hair-raising moments of creepiness, it's mainly full of pointlessly illogical and ineffective actions on the part of most characters.

Wall-to-wall full of Why do it? Or Why show it? Elements: O) Rich designer(?) pariah-woman in woods living on picture-perfect property writes letters to the long-dead while dressed up for no one... in an impossibly ornately decorated and lit fairy tale with no employable door or window locks.

O) Production year is set with a post-2019 timeframe, but no mobile phones.

O) Repeated "hiding" in plain sight and even takes off shoes to be quieter while walking, when body weight is creating the only noise issue. Silly nonsense.

O) Cars that explode when gas ignites were never a thing, unless loaded up with actual explosive materials. Fires sure, explosions no.

O) Retrieval of a lifeless, dysfunctional host corpse, when there's a planet full of freshies to inhabit; a pointless effort, except for the effects.

O) Hugging a homicidal enemy in sympathy??!!

O) The combo of telekinesis and having repeated plodding chases is mega-dumb. There is total control available, but zero constructive use of it.

O) Portrayal that an average dude can control a woman's entire body with one hand *in her hair*. She becomes physically incapable of effectively using her limbs, and devolves to a whining, panting, barely flailing quadriplegic. It looks like she's having a seizure. WT Actual Effing F? (Not a telekinesis type of mind/body control scene element, just a ridiculous level of domination.)

And, this could've been performed by mutes, so how many mute actors were hired for the cast, huh? /s

At any rate, it didn't rely on the crutches of projectile weapons, churchiness, or animal imperilment, so there's that.

Harlan Coben's Shelter (2023)

Very poor choices made for this YA junk.

[3/10 · 18 August 2023]

What's especially confusing is the feeling that you've been dropped into a show where the episodes are out of order, or you missed a quarter of each one somehow. It's like, "How many days of school did I actually miss this month, anyway?" By the 2nd episode there was serious flashback fatigue happening, which is just incredi-bad storytelling.

There's a really choppy narrative, where characters have these halfway established relationships or backgrounds that've been nowhere in evidence.

It's got tons of pointless high school labeling and clichés, and really weird language involving adults and teen interactions. It's written more like they're peers, or it uses the 'adults are so... ' lame, out of it, loser-y, whatever, vibe at every other moment. Ugh!

Also, it relies heavily on phones - always a lazy move when going from books to video. And, though I didn't notice the cursing, myself, that's also a sign of a crummy production that can't effectively build drama or tension.

It also has stilted dialogue and multiple continuity problems, heavy-handed police response depictions, sportsy bullying, implied racism by whites on blacks (only), bad music.

Bay of Fires (2023– )

Bay of dung fires.

[3/10 · 1 August 2023]

Some of the acting of the lead is supposed to convey panic and fear, but comes off as spastic instead, and seems unevenly improvised at times, as well. Its like a bunch of verbal reactions get thrown at the walls, and some fly completely over the top. They kept it all in, so it clearly also features kaka producing and editing, with a lot of padding.

A nasty, sniping, hostile, self-centered, rejecting male teen is one of the other very 2-D roles on offer. This ingrate seems to want to be unloved and homeless.

How is any of this of interest to anyone?

At the start is the idea that a police dept. Being rife with disrespect in its inherent sexism and misogyny is at all funny. How is a listening to a roomful of scheming, manipulative, immature white men ever amusing? Whoever wrote this should GTHO of the screenwriting biz, because their career is a FAIL.

There's immediately more total garbage on offer:

• It goes straight for an animal homicide by vehicle, then abuse of its corpse.

• Next is a femicide with a bullet through a woman's face.

Not Humorous.

• Plenty of betraying, murderous acts are being carried out, but that's OK, because the threat is from menacing 'foreigners.'
• Later, a pet is deliberately murdered for zero reason, and like it's 'no biggie.'

Extremely low capabilities were in evidence by everyone involved. It's pathetic and disturbing that anyone thought this'd be watchable.

Little Bone Lodge (2023)

It's a mystery thriller that becomes horror after about an hour.

[4/10 · 1 August 2023]

Some of the manipulations were deliberate, but not forced, more of a keep-you-guessing, while in-your-face set of scenes.

The acting was fine, but there were times when it was noticeable that there weren't entirely genuine emotional displays being served up, vs. Delusional mimicries of such.

I did fast-forward here and there during dark, rainy driving scenes, or when a couple of emotionally dramatic moments were on a bit of a repeat, content-wise.

There were things that seemed too simple after a point, and suspension of disbelief did unravel towards the 3/4 mark. Certain circumstances just made the primary residence and the nature/condition of the inhabitants therein seem implausible to be sustained over time, not that this isn't fiction.

The dialogue went pretty nutty with just 10 mins left. With 4 mins 30 secs left, it becomes unreasonably stupid.

With 1 min left, you're just supposed to buy into a new and incredible set of fortune reversals/resets.

Another Bad Mommies! Story with a couple of teens with questionable intellect, ultimately.

To Leslie (2022)

Oversimplified; expected something more.

[4/10 · 31 July 2023]

This was far too topical, since there's little more to it than the basic outline of the true story it was based on. It certainly didn't explore a woman's lifetime history regarding the possibilities of Why anything evolved into the series of situations that it had.

The after-events of the full breakdown of a person's functional life are something portrayed as though they are just today's ugly facts. There's nothing to suggest anything about Who gets this way, other than just like, "The Weak," "Those Who Repeat Mistakes," etc. It showed less of any internal suffering more than "here's what she's like when drunk," and "what a bad mom." It treated a small-scale reversal of fortune that anyone could suffer into a shame game.

Frankly, it barely has a pretense of sympathy and second chances, and is told in a rather mundane way.

London Kills (2019– )

Sometimes the writing in this is too basic, and obvious. Sometimes its laughably bad.

[6/10 · 15 July 2023]

Vivienne Is played by a ridiculous actress, as far as the character of Sgt. Mophead goes. (Holy bad hair, Batman. And, what is with those shiny black therapeutic lifts she's wearing?) Whenever she thinks she's sniffing out a lie she becomes insufferably, visibly skeptical and snarky. Its like an instant transformation into a 13 yr old mean girl. Ugh, the revolting, off-base 'gotcha' faces she pulls! Meanwhile, she's a common liar, herself. Also, she's controlling, acting as though she knows best at all times, and is the only one able to place appropriate guardrails in front of the actions of others.

Unfortunately, novice DC Billy that every so often pairs with her, leans into this childishness too hard, and so she comes off as a bit of a petty fool, here and there. Mostly, she just seems acquiescent, is smiley and accepting, with a generally pleasant demeanor and slightly dumpy clothes you could go chop wood in.

Detective Rob is just walking while sullen, constantly. What an angry bore! And, I'll never understand a painted-on looking comic book/cartoon-cutout hairline. He gets targeted at times in S03 and S04, but maybe it's all those waist-belted leisure jackets he wears that get people prejudiced against him?

I know nothing about the average fitness level of a detective in London, but these people largely cannot chase down suspects effectively. When they run, they seem... heavy, like they're slogging through thick treacle.

Sometimes they figuratively pat each other on the back for piecing together practically nothing, playing like they're making sly, intuitive moves instead of putting together basic facts.

Their boss is often ignorable, although frequently petulant and rude, and he gets to dress with a modicum of wrinkly flash. He plays fast and loose with power and rules, Mr. Edgy does, and with touches of privilege, alcoholism, and sexism laced in.

I didn't mind the double-decker bus shots so much in watching S03, it was the dozens of times the metal box exterior of their office building appearing, and too much footage of them getting in and out of cars, and seeing the exact same 'uniformed officer footage' walking the hallways that did get annoying over the last two seasons.

The Tower (2021–2023)

Acceptable. S01 not very intriguing, but not dragged out.

[6/10 · 4 June 2023]

This was just OK. One of the weaker parts was the lack of logic in the premise and circumstances of one specific individual who went to the perilous edge of The Tower. They really didn't manage to justify her actions. It was low-motive and underwritten.

Also, an opportunity to interrogate further Why a cop with a mouth would have such a dichotomy in treatment of individuals of different race to himself was lost in this. Reinforcing the strong 'blue line' narrative, and its a baseline set of characters with protectionist morals, then putting a female gendered detective up as almost an internal affairs hound, attacking her own in the name of justice has actually been done a whole, whole lot in UK series alone. Not only is it kind of trite, but funnily enough, it practically never happens IRL.

People on here complaining about the wardrobe in a cop procedural/drama just because they recognize an actress from a more popular series? Who cares? (It was professional casual dress, except for the young female constable getting bedded by her boss. She got the butt shots in yoga tights treatment more than once when out of uniform.) Are they complaining because they can't see everyone's bits hanging out? Go watch GoT again!

Class of '09 (2023)

An un-fun type of time waster.

[5/10 · 24 May 2023]

Unfortunately, it's got a small amount of good writing and acting surrounded by a bunch of cheesy, improbable, childishly silly fantasy-nonsense scenarios. There's a lot of empty pockets left where layered individual character development should be, and instead there's just repeated pepperings of interpersonal soap-operatic kaka. And, holy crow, the amount of psuedo-analytical psychological profiling and sexism in the narrative one has to endure as the viewer! (It's A Lot.)

For some reason, it's not entertaining being shown only the lifetime of baggage that fictional others in fictional law enforcement are carrying. It did start to feel like 'The Motivations of Each Character' was a goal, but it gets dragged out too far (and over time/continuity jumps) and doesn't seem very well focused. And yet, while it takes too long, it also uses blatant short-cuts and visual interpretations that are too literal to take seriously.

It was also pretty ridiculous with heavy uses of force on the part of law enforcement, tacky over-the-top prop use, cheap scene dressing, etc.; the unsophisticated production qualities were a distraction much of the time. (OMG, the way they tried to 'middle-age' a couple of the characters with hair and makeup was both comical and horrifying. What a crappy, ageist job they did!)

The dialogue is lacking/bad at times, and also the direction, the acting; it's a sort of C- to D-grade sitch. Much time was spent muttering at the screen, "No one would do that." and "This is stupid."

Conceptually compelling, but execution-wise, it's poor. Bummer that it didn't reach a better place by Ep 3.

Six Four (2023– )

Ultimately, its a flimsy man-centric No Justice story, with a bottomed-out ending.

[5/10 · 1 April 2023]

Largely consists of watching a guy use an office computer, a mobile phone, a car, and get hit in the face repeatedly - oh, and lied to a lot. His 'significant others' don't have to see it, since they aren't around him v. Much, except for a couple of sprinkled scenes of negative relationship drama dialogue for them each. Although, both of them also do get some hits to the face/head and are verbally threatened, away from his presence.

While this purportedly revolves around missing girls, we see little of those characters over the 4 episodes, save for one pawn, who's a victim on typical and multiple levels but is of practically no focus. No worries all around, it seems, since no one but her mom is depicted as agonizing over her absence. One could assume her traumas are totally irrelevant to anyone other than mother and daughter, so that's pretty clichéd.

Let the downvoting begin!

Who Were We Running From? (2023)

They were always running away from the poor writing, apparently.

[4/10 · 25 March 2023]

The script is replete with naive and fanciful word flourishes that are meaningless fluff, and also with many, many instances of outlandish, improbable, illogical scenarios. For cheap emotional shortcuts, it leans heavily on Disney's Bambi, which is a pretty traumatic children's tale to start with.

So, it's mostly a crap production, with some beautiful looks, sometimes good acting, but featuring totally over-the-top, histrionic, ridiculous 'baddie' characters as antagonists. I don't think one is supposed to sympathize with a bunch of criminal acts, but it starts to seem justified, and then you just want every other person in this thing to get whacked asap, because almost everyone in the world they inhabit is an interfering moron.

Also, the screenplay/action doesn't match the dialog:

• When a character says, "I'm going to get changed," it hardly follows that the character then disappears for an extended shower that was never mentioned.

• A law enforcement officer angrily says some total nonsense, that 2 vacationer suspects are 'bucking the system', which is hardly what's been depicted, nor a crime in any way. Another one shouts out for people to "stop running," and no one at all is running anywhere.

• The biggest jackhole of the production tells a professional who exhibits nothing but normal competency to "stay calm." Of course, it's a woman in security that a male bro-dude in law enforcement is speaking to. Then, she gets browbeaten for one single event at one location, and without her prior knowledge of any crime, after a parade of thoroughly informed men have previously failed to prevent prior escapes from multiple locations. GTHO!

Billions (2016–2023)

Should've skipped the whole thing, stopped at S05.

[3/10 · 3 February 2023]

This is yet another stupid series written by a collective of heads-up-a$$es, that somehow outlasted all of it's initial failings. It relies on the total fictions that money controls/fixes everything, and that some people are infallably insightful, because most are reliably predictable.

From the beginning, with the pseudo-edgy sexplay and neutral-gender insertions, to the never-ending, twisted patriarchal manipulations, it was always on a very conventional writing arch for tv. There was the cheating spouses bore-fest, some standard animal imperilment and murder, the 'uglyness' of middle-agedness, problems with the wives, and an interchangeable parade of younger females in the background, yuk-yuk-yaaaay! Constant drinking and vaping, greedy for money garbage-talk, mostly female nudity, peppered with old men's asses; like everyone's still on a quest to normalize all of this yucky, boring recycled junk.

By season 4 it dropped from showing fem-doms to lame stripper scenes, and by season 5, it added performance wrestlers and chefs in place of experienced actors, and also gurus and artists as investment opportunities, etc.

It was pretty rife with sexism the whole time, but the atrocious psychology/psychiatry on display being delivered by a totally ethically compromised, uber-manipulative sociopath was what did it. Somehow, after five seasons of this character, it's supposed to be believable that she has zero agency over her own finances, and is someone who can be utterly controlled in a predictable and flimsily implausible manner by her fat, ugly hypocritical ex., and isn't capable of moving on or reinventing herself. How could she effectively advise anyone on anything? She seems like she's just in HR, due to this portrayal.

Warrior Nun (2020–2022)

Warrior Cripple-Dunz, more like.

[4/10 · 19 December 2022]

This is for 11-13 year olds, apparently, and its a tale of 'girls,' 'girl power,' and also men with bad hair. There are things about this that could've gone somewhere far better, but its too basic, in line with bad scripting, an underdeveloped plot and characters, common old tropes, etc.

None of it makes any sense because of a pointless, talentless, know-nothing character being written right into the center of it. Why pretend the main character has any valuable spiritual power at all? It's nearly never useful, isn't self-directed with any agency, and only randomly shows up like a faulty vlogger's ring light parked on her back that needs recharging every 3 minutes of use. It's a lame joke.

They've so obviously and irritatingly prioritized youth and looks over ability, that one of the main drags on the whole production is a lead actress who's both too self-aware and camera-aware at the same time. It makes for an annoying, immature, cutesy-poopsy affect and inappropriate presentation at times. Instead of being cool or charming, the character's repellent.

Bad direction and acting: Urgency for no reason. Characters that suddenly and inexplicably do a 180° turn, personality- and demeanor-wise. Childish introspection that breaks the 4th wall, etc., etc. (Cursing and flipping the bird is some real tough stuff, and also Way Funny, m'kay kids?!) There are a plethora of lines and plot directions that don't apply to the situation(s), AND aren't witty. The idea that you can't build meaningful, emotionally believable scenes without building characters that have established relationships to actually care about seems to have entirely escaped the team behind this.

It's possible that the original material is so simplistic-and plot-wise, wound in a small, tight circle-that any filmed series being insubstantial was inevitable. Then again, this production also features repeated, heavy-handed coverage of the same concepts, locations, interpersonal teen soap junk, pointless fight scenes, patriarchal and churchy speechifying, bitter and trite female bullying, etc. And, there's a whole ton of topical, predictable padding in the first half alone.

The Chalk Line (2022)

Ridiculously over-dramatic acting and stupidly scripted scenes in general.

[3/10 · 25 October 2022]

A stranded, wandering kid is taken in by total strangers at the prompting of a hospital official-they're Not Fostering, though... ? And somehow "We Don't Have Time" (to treat or counsel her-it's so hard) makes it sensible or reasonable, since no one knows her name, or family, nor are there any missing girls she matches, etc. Seriously?

Are these random strangers some kind of family counselors?, experts in child psychology?, known to the hospital as prior fosters?, private investigators?, journalists? Nope, none of that. They're nobodies that it isn't demonstrated have made any type of quick, deep connection with the kid. They've only shown their concern towards her in non-verbal ways, and then it's like, fill out the paperwork, 'She's Doing Well Because Of You, So You Must Take Her.' How bizarre and irresponsible?!

It includes some extended scenes of female abuse and violence fetishism, which is super-disturbing, and there wasn't a strong enough warning about that in the streaming service description. The whole production is peppered with inexplicably nasty attitudes toward women and girls.

Sinister music at inappropriate times. Bad acting, directing, editing, etc., all around. The dubbing also went off the rails at times, like having a child who was both an abuse victim and was an abuser say, "You look great!" to an adult, when the young actress actually only said, "You, too."

When it gets only 12 mins in and they're showing someone getting pressured and whined at while they're in the bathroom, just for pointless tension and drama, you know it's L. A. M. E. Big house, but here's hubby, scratching at door like a dog with separation anxiety.

So, wouldn't you know, halfway through this takes a turn into showing us a really awful couple with horrific trust issues and emotionally abusive arguing for waaay too long to be tolerable. Ugh, that's not storytelling.

Locke & Key (2020–2022)

Started out not too awfully, but turned into something terrible.

[4/10 · 10 September 2022]

Conceptually not bad, but this tv show was very basic & then devolved into a low-level common network tv program, with all of the formulaic and uninspired patterns that those typically crappy productions provide. It had noticeably multi-million dollar homes for backdrops, and not a care in the world was given about any expensive destruction of personal or private property, ever. Yay, carefree rich people!

By the end, there were Painfully Dramatic Accents, High School Stageplays, an Exploding Car, an EMT and his driver yelling back forth to each other while a guy dies in their ambulance, local cops that scream SHUT UP! While their guns are pointed at multiple unarmed residents, etc., etc.

-- Season 1: It initially jumped right into a disaffected, surly/aggressive teen vibe. Cursing, rude gestures, gore, etc., are supposed to pass for humor. Chores are punishment, there are cell phones galore-which means texting becomes the script. Teen gun violence is also featured repeatedly. It has moments of delving into annoying soap opera territory. Any show that starts out this way is gonna have plenty more inane writing, & it sure does. Adults are stupid, damaged, judgmental scum, & kids all get mature adult lines to speak instead. It's uninspired modern 'kaka,' in other words.

Also appearing in this is the dumb suggestion that a parent can't cook an egg w/out effing it up (although the same parent is accomplished in interior restorations as well?). The lead mother figure is impulsive, vulnerable, irritating, forgetful, & consequently needs rescuing by the eldest male teen, who is intuitive, clued-in, etc. Meanwhile, dead dad is getting canonized via family memories from season 1 thru 3. Srsy? How is this polarization supposed to be creative, or even watchable?

Season 3: What happened to this show? WOW, the writing & acting plummeted, & those it favored the very, very least was the moms. They lines they were given were often half-baked & off-base, & they're nearly always insufficiently 'present' as fully developed characters. It's sad & bad that their whole emotional existence is based on guilt, shame, & martyrdom.

It's got B- and C-rate actors galore (it does read Canadian to start with, so that can be not a great start...), it's now got even more of the same over-the-top soap-operatic interpersonal drama, senseless violence that doesn't drive plot, animal murder for zero reason, and... Sure enough, there's abuse of an animal corpse, because this scraping level of fictional entertainment generally whips it out at some point.

-- Connor Jessup is hard to watch at times because he doesn't have a lot of range. Emilia Jones' accent slips from time to time, but she's overall successful. Jackson Robert Scott as Bode could have been good, but his character is so awful, and becomes fully snotty towards the end. Bode's perpetual impulsivity is a massive vulnerability/weakness/flaw. He constantly imperils everyone, it's a total drag to watch him do it so predictably.

Money Heist (2017–2021)

Absurd. Unwatchable without total skepticism within 30 mins.

[2/10 · 31 August 2022]

Featuring a lame script, its problematically over-dramatic, with outlandish acting, tons of narrative exposition, implausible and simplistic scenarios, and repeatedly dragged out silliness... just too many crushing elements to enjoy any merits that might otherwise have floated this production.

From the point where one of the heist criminals acts like a counselor leading a group breathing exercise, to where hostages are wearing fancy eye-masks for no damn reason during a bank robbery, all suspension of disbelief was lost. As if strangers would immediately trust a creepy captor to relax them!?

Then there's the ridiculous and purposeless costume design going on. Also, no body armor for an automatic weapon engagement, just snazzy coveralls?

Cheap, soap-operatic. Rape depictions.