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Reviews
Severance (2022)
Glad I didn't watch until now
This series seems to have eluded me because of the premise and I usually find other genres to be more engaging. That said, this series is also one of the best I've witnessed. The casting has been absolutely masterful, the performance of each of these characters in either roles is stunningly good. Meanwhile, the narrative progresses so nicely and on a paper fin balance of tense and relief. It has humour in all the right places, and manages to use this with perfect timing in an otherwise dramatic, mysterious and even depressed setting.
But best of all here is the actual theme and premise, what I initially put it away for. Now I'm glad I did, because the suffering of having to wait the entirety of 2023 for a second season would've been unbearable.
I would personally nominate this as one of the best first seasons of any series. And I would recommend anyone give it a shot, even if this is not your usual cup of tea.
Love, Death & Robots: Jibaro (2022)
A non verbal conversation
So this was my favourite of the season and I can see why it's really divisive. In my opinion this strikes gold in the definition of art: you either like it or you hate it. There is a clear aesthetic bound to this episode that shakes our thought of what is beautiful. The story really is not new, but the conveying of feeling and emotion was extremely wholesome and at least to me, very unique. Not everybody likes these intense type of non-verbal storytelling.
Personally it just drew me in, much like the siren and the soldier. And if you take the meta look it really attempts at breaking that fourth wall with several small cues. Further, there is definitely potential for this to be repeatedly watched for a fuller understanding and new perspective on the methods and techniques used to convey emotion in movies. The animation played a huge part in this, as it is with animation it has a great potential in overdoing specific things to convey a feeling or underplay itself when necessary. That said, the animation for this short really is a tool, I'm sure a lot of this was done by human actors and real dancers. It was great and beautiful nonetheless.
I say job very well done, I'll rate this 9/10 and its hard for me to tell what exactly needs for a perfect score, because this animated short is truly one of the best I've seen.
Flugt (2021)
Aesthetic brilliancy, watch it even without visuals
The most fitting word I can find for this movie is authenticity. It draws you into this deep felt narrative already from the beginning and won't release you until the end. It does so not by means of acting, but first hand interviews of the protagonist whose real-life story is visualised in simple but meaningful animation.
If you ever felt that audiobooks gives you an even clearer picture by the power of imagination, this movie format sort of follows that function while complementing the first hand audio interview with visuals that are adequate to the situation of the protagonist. But more importantly, his emotions are emphasised through animations with, at least to me, incredibly powerful effect.
I absolutely love the way that this movie has been produced, not with dubbing but the other way around. Sound is the primary force leading us here and you could easily 'watch' this movie without visuals, but they add to the story.
Wayne (2019)
Give us another season!
This show was exceptional and needs, deserves, requires!! an ending to the story. I could've settled with a cliche ending for the first season and that could've been it, but seeing it opening so much in the end craves for a second season. BRING BACK WAYNE!
Westworld: Parce Domine (2020)
Decent opener
Was expecting something more intriguing with a much neater storyline but this really was a boring and weird, almost mundane opener with a fair amount of insignificant stuff decorated with a bit of superpower-like action. I hope for the show to pick it up for the next couple of episodes, right now it makes no sense.
Mr. Robot: Hello, Elliot (2019)
Thank you and goodbye, friend
There is no reason to write much here, except to acknowledge the end. We're forced into the recursive loop for now, but it does not matter, because it is a perfect loop.
Perfect score is well deserved. I hope to see a series work out as artfully in every conceivable way, but this has proven to be an absolute gem of our time. I might have to wait a while for something to top this.
Thank you Sam Esmail for this beautiful ending!
The Witcher (2019)
Conflicted reviews...
I've not played the game nor read the books but I feel like this is one if the best dark series I've seen for a long time. Okay so cgi is not the best, neither acting nor plot, but it's hard to come by much better these days. I really do like the settings and cinematography, they lend their aesthetics to something resembling very much what it tries to be, a mythic, adventurous almost horror slash gore fantasy, and it does so beautifully.
I understand how reviews are conflicted, I can see that people do rank this out of fandom for sure. I guess it's just one of those either you like it or not. I kinda liked it, it's definitely not GoT but then again it never tried to be.