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Reviews
Doctor Who: The Devil's Chord (2024)
Doctor Who is always bad. Least this has Jinkx
If I'm going to believe the terminally online that this season is terrible I need to watch. I did and it's bad but nothing out of the ordinary for Doctor Who. Bad wooden hammy from main cast is usual so can't hate the new Doctor. The dialogue is painful and overwrought and thinking it's sentimental is just the start of problems for this tired franchise.
Nothing is cheesier than British TV Channels glamourising London in the Swinging 60s but having Lennon & McCartney show up comes close. The writing kills a simple theme with interesting ideas and ends with a rip off of Doctor Strange's music battle from MoM. A show that has done end of time and space and everything so many times can't make anything coming have any impact. At least they got Jinkx Monsoon to add the right kind of camp.
Morbius (2022)
I expected much worse but not as bad.
Morbius wasn't the mess I was expecting from all of the reviews I'd seen. Arjona and Leto are decent enough. Tyrese proved himself as a solid support. Once again some of the writing, CGI and dialogue choices are the issue. What was meant to be a big movie for Sony, it makes sense that the producers went with the CGI choices but it could have been easily improved without the trails and messy fight scenes. Morbius might have been better if it was more about the psychological aspect but that wouldn't be really be sensible with a medium budget comic book property that's trying to do supporting Spiderman characters without Spidey himself.
High Fidelity: Uptown (2020)
Solidified my place on team Clyde
An interesting episode with fun premise and great performances. The lengths Rob goes to justify her part in acquiring the collection actually feels realistic with Kravitz's performance. Lacy continues to make Clyde more likeable and developed, not just because of the final gesture but his interaction with Rob throughout the episode. Poser and Nordling sell the jaded couple dynamic excellently despite never appearing on camera together. This is one of those episodes that really makes me wish there was a second season to see what other detours Rob and co. Would take along the way. Every bar should be so lucky as this version of Bemelmans, if they could have a server who doesn't judge when you need the cheapest option available.
How I Met Your Father (2022)
A bad version of an already mediocre property
HIMYM was already an rusty premise by sitcom standards when it arrived.
The contrived situations and bad acting are even worse here. Not one of the main cast has a knack for comedy. I'll never understand America's fascination with posh wooden British characters and why they're forced into their shows. Even if the sets are the usual 'too good to be true' designs it's still the one other good thing about this show along with the dependable Kim Cattrell.
If we are going to have remakes of sitcoms I hope we leave the ones already inspired by the weak later seasons of friends and maybe revisit some of the other ones that were cancelled way before their time.
The Strays (2023)
Flawed but second third onwards shows what could of been
The trailer did not help with the expected comments of this film trying to be a rip off of Jordan Peele' Get Out and Us.
Agreed that Peele is not the only director who can tell stories about race, privilege etc with a surreal/psychological style but many choices in the first third made it feel like the whole thing wasn't allowed to be it's own thing. There's no subtly and themes are shoe horned as quickly as possible.
It does improve in the second third when the younger actors are given space outside the more gimmicky parts. When the story unfolds, Myrie and Bakray manage to show versatility and prove themselves as terrifying as they are sympathetic. The acting improves across the board in the second and third acts and whilst the ending might leave some viewers feeling down, it does makes sense about the cyclical nature of unresolved grief and abandonment.
Off Centre (2001)
A very mixed bag of a show.
The 2000s seem to be littered with Friends styles sitcoms and I accidentally came across this one during the pandemic. It's not great but there's some really strong parts to it.
Kaye Thomas, Cho and Stamile are strong and make a good amount of the material work but Maguire is too wooden an actor as is George.
Seeing Kenan Thompson turn up as a side character was jarring considering his comedic talents are excellent.
Still yet to see Season 2. Glad Kaye Thomas got the role over the other actors reported to have been considered as Eddie is very likeable and believable in his role. I will be looking to see what else he's done after this.
Downtown (1999)
This show deserved many seasons.
The effort invested in this show visually puts modern shows such as Big Mouth to shame. Not to say that every show needs to have the wonderfully detailed backgrounds of Downtown but the team behind this late 90's treasure does more with one episode than some shows do in an entire season.
With regular psychedelic scenes mixed in with relatable story lines, the brilliant voice cast make the show an excellent watch.
Even as an animated series with heavy line work against detailed and sometimes murky backgrounds, this show feels more realistic of what it may have been like to live in 90's New York City compared to contemporaries such as Friends which felt even more set on a sound stage as it went on.
There isn't a bad episode in this series and seeing the BTS video on YouTube explains how the process creates believable and likeable characters.
Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane: Hard Cheese on Zoe (1999)
Bad running jokes in a good storyline
I'm not sure if this is a common sitcom cliche as That 70's Show did the same plot line of getting into a club around the same time, but this episode takes a bad joke 'change your pants' and runs it until the 'wacky' ending.
Even by sitcom standards it's hard to believe the 'hottest' night club would have a camp reunion take over. The cast remain likeable and do their best and any episode that uses one of TV's most underrated characters in Sara Rue's brilliant Breeny Kennedy deserves some love. It would of been better to see the characters start in college years and look more believable but that's hardly the biggest flaw of this episode.
And Just Like That... (2021)
Just really bad.
Trolls who overuse 'Woke' for anything aside, this show does legitimately suffer from trying to catch up in a world that has moved on. These aren't the correct characters to do nuance and Carrie doesn't seem to gained any real priorities despite what happens. CGI in episode 6 opening scene is terrible and it feels flat throughout.
Eternals (2021)
I appreciate the commitment to backstory
To balance 7000 years of existence and ten team members, Chloe Zhao does the job well. I've seen comments and reviews saying it's messy and a PowerPoint presentation but rarely felt like that was the case. It didn't treat the audience as idiots which can be the case with how exposition is handled in many other films. It's unfortunate that many ideas that make a lot of sense here have already been overused in many films before such as intricate holograms and sky battles.
The acting is great. The natural source of the jokes means they land more effectively than the usual MCU 'quips' and a good part of this is down to Kingo and Karun. Set, costume and special effects are gorgeous. Wish we had a little more time with Evolved Kro.
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
Still a lot of problems but a better ending.
This story didn't need four hours and a lot of the issues from the cinematic release still remain. The cast manages to keep it together despite some very cheesy exposition. Much improved is the final act with a better plot layout. The threat feels more impactful. Still one too many characters and dull visuals are used as a substitute for actual grit. Hopefully Snyder's last DC project. Too much money for underwhelming returns and still managed to get more money for this. Let the DCEU go in other directions as it improves when it does.
Us (2019)
Loved Get Out and loved this even more
Lupita shows versatility and makes an iconic 'villain'. Great use of dry humour and story. Really liked the use of horror elements against the sunny scenery.