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julia-90538
Reviews
Portlandia (2011)
My favorite show, brings tropes to the next level
Every time I watch this series it gets funnier. I don't even need local- grown organic weed to feel happy about it, the joy just emanates from my fair-trade TV, even my 12 year old adopted rescue alpaca thinks it's dope. I swear I've met every single Portlandia character, and there are a lot of them, in my own home town... all their foibles, their nuances, their ridiculousness... so brilliantly captured by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. I am Portlandia. No, we are Portlandia. This is observational humor on a whole new level. If you don't take life too seriously and like to laugh at those who do... this show is for you. TVTropes will need to add 100 more tropes after this show, because the characters are so precisely cut from the social fabric there is no ocean-polluting waste. I need more episodes.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
Victims everywhere, bad scifi, no sense of awe and wonder
I am a great fan of the original series, and there are parallels with Discovery. It certainly is controversial.
The original series was also contentious in its time, it dared to place 'communists' together with Americans for them to seek out new life together, and garnered its share of negative press. But, it was saved by decent acting and rich writing that displaced the low budget effects. Each episode's plot was bigger than the characters. We got to know every one of the characters by their deeds, and truly believe they had an unshakable bond. The sound and music all pushed the boundaries to add to the tension, awe, and wonder of space.
Not so in STD. There's not even music. Now we have amazing FX, but we only get to know the characters by what they tell us they are. Everyone is either trying to have sex with each other or having some personal drama about sex. STD it certainly is.
The acting is a bit poor. Michael's Vulcan stiffness works, Sonequa Martin-Green's acting is brilliant, but Andy Rapp's dry, lackluster performance of real life 'shroom guy Paul Stamets ruins every scene he is in.
There are numerous face-palm moments arising from bad writing and lack of plot. I don't really want to watch every character cry every scene about how victimized they are. That's teen-angst poetry stuff... they're all very sad, we get it. Where's the story?
In the first few minutes of the show our logical 'Vulcan raised' lead character is awash with tears at how close she is to her captain. There is no motivation, no reason for us to believe. It's forced. Lead character gets a crush on broody male? Suddenly he announces he has been deeply victimized and they instantly fall in love. Ouch. Someone walks into their room and announces they have been victimized by their special needs therefore get their own room. Really embarrassing, forced scene. Even the Klingons can't stop talking about how they have been victimized, and spend most of the time crying and sentimental.
The final episode in S1 does try to rekindle the short-story greatness by re-awakening a fun "original recipe" character, in a self-contained and thought-out episode. But couldn't the writers come up with a new, original character?
The rest of the episodes are dark and broody, with no focus, "emo edgy", going the way of Sherlock when the writers decided not to follow the Conan Doyle story lines and just write anything they felt like while high on 'shrooms.
It's okay. I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed at the unimaginative writing and forced scenes. There's no camaraderie or pleasantness at all. If I miss an episode I won't be sad.