Watching Andor took a long time because Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett were awful. Andor with more realistic sets and professional Academy Award-nominated co-writers like Beau Willimon, Tony & Dan Gilroy is a step up. The directing by Toby Haynes is a step above Deborah Chow’s work, although that’s not saying much. It still suffers from…
Category: TV review
‘Better Call Saul’ Reminds Us What Must See TV is Like Again
I cannot remember the last time I was this excited about a cable TV show. Game of Thrones perhaps? But even then you can catch HBO on demand. AMC at least for my cable subscription is a dangerous one and done. The kind that has strangled the cable industry, but I welcome the pace change….
Politically Objectionable, Objectively Thrilling ‘The Terminal List’ pushes Chris Pratt further to the Hollywood Edge
Last year, Chris Pratt showed up in The Tomorrow War. A bland-looking cookie-cutter sci-fi actioner from Amazon Prime. That bland visual look from Amazon is back along with Chris Pratt to deliver a rock’em sock ’em nauseating vengeance trip where the violent ends barely justify the means. This is the meat and potatoes, airport paperback…
Stranger Things Returns to Diminishing Effect With Season 4: Volume 2
When Volume 1 came out, I criticized the show for not killing off important characters when their time was up. Now it seems with the season’s end the tide has turned with me. If the main characters do not die there are no stakes and therefore no one is in any real danger. Despite what…
Obi-Wan Kenobi is Mid-Tier Star Wars
Platform: Disney+ Distribution: 6 Episodes (36-53 minutes) Plot: Set in the intervening years between Episodes III and IV, Ben Kenobi (formerly Obi-Wan) looks after the two children of Darth Vader while outrunning the Empire’s Inquisition sent to destroy his kind. Starring: Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Moses Ingram, Vivien Lyra Blair, Indira Varma, and James Earl Jones as the voice…
Stranger Things Loses its Charm in Season 4
Distributor – Netflix Date – May 27th, 2022 Length – 7 Episodes/ 9+ hours long Plot – 9 months after Season 3, the Hawkins crew face a new supernatural threat known as Vecna. Meanwhile, Joyce and Murray try to help Hopper escape from a Russian prison where he prepares to fight an unknown monster. When several…
2022 Oscars Review: Bad Company
“Did I miss anything?” comedian Amy Schumer said several minutes after Will Smith publicly assaulted Chris Rock on stage. That was the most direct acknowledgment of the incident. Anthony Hopkins recited Will Smith’s Oscar winning speech in a presentation saying we should move on with peace and love. Chris Rock declined to file a police…
‘Ozark’, Everyone’s Favourite Mid-tier show returns for a Mid-season
It’s good now and then to take a break from highly acclaimed movies, television, and video games and focus on the nuts and bolts of what makes a show watchable. Ozark, by the grace of the Netflix algorithm, thought you’d like something more with your Breaking Bad and has provided 3 and a half seasons…
Squid Game Spoiler Wrap-Up
With the plot and pacing of Squid Game taking its time to get to the second game, it hasn’t let up since. Episode 6 is the first time it felt like the show breathed and ended my night of bingeing. People wonder how they’d fare in these games. Red Light, Green Light is easy enough….
In Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan Builds A Faithful Congregation.. Then Burns It All To The Ground
This Netflix series tells the story of the well-regarded creator’s problems with a late-breaking story structure. Created by Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Hush, Gerald’s Game, Ouija: Origin of Evil, The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep) I remember the moment I knew Midnight Mass hit its peak. It is at the end of Proverbs, episode three. In…
‘You’ Confidently Strides Into Its Third Season
Read The Excellent Season One Review! Every storytelling mark You gracefully hits in its season three premiere is so clear and unfussy. This is a show made by an experienced and diverse group of people who have experience in other shows about serial killers (Think if Dexter had a Mindhunter Bookclub with Prodigal Son and…
In Episode II, ‘Squid Game’ Elevates its Premise Cementing Itself as an Unlikely Character Drama.
Not since HBO’s The Leftovers has a show so successfully managed to cloak and dagger its audience by revealing its high concept premise as a character drama. At the conclusion of episode one, you would not believe there would be any chance of escape. Revisiting this premise, audiences haven’t been given one before. In every…