ourelbi Reviews

Absentia (2017–2020)

Another reason I can't wait US-made detective shows.... Absentia!

[1/10 · 23 January 2024]

Why is the US made? Half of the main actors are British - and that's where it should have been written and made.

I could only watch Season 1 - and I amazed myself I made it through to the end, but I really wanted to see how farfetched the storyline and stupid the dialogue became. I mean, I cringed at pretty much every second line, and rolled my eyes right out of my head, but I finally, finally made it to episode 10! Ten! If this was British, it would have succinctly ended at episode six.

Apparently, I have more characters to fill in this box, so just take my word for it, don't bother. Put an episode of anything British on and you'll enjoy it way more than this nonsense.

Jury Duty (2023– )

Oh, this was so good!!!

[10/10 · 6 January 2024]

I hadn't heard about this show, so it wasn't until episode three I found out it was a hoax show - and that was because I Googled Ronald Gladden because he looked familiar and I didn't know why - then I read about it being a hoax! I was a little bit dismayed (because I'm not into reality tv at all) and then intrigued because it sounded like such a unique concept.

I'm glad I binged all episodes over two days because it was just the best. The jurors (actors) were fantastic, and watching such a lovely guy as Ronald be himself with everyone acting crazy around him, with their nutty stories and quirks was amazing to see.

The very last episode almost made me cry. Just loved this.

Under the Vines (2021– )

I shouldn't have put off watching this for so long....

[8/10 · 29 December 2023]

I'm Australian but am not a fan of most Australian tv dramas - they're just not well written, not well acted, just not well done.

I found myself unable to find anything to watch over Christmas and finally relented to watch Under the Vines after seeing it on the list for months and months.

I binged the entire two seasons in two days! It was fantastic! I think, probably, because it's set in NZ, has a lot of NZ actors (including Gibney) and was very humorous, particularly Charles Edward.

The backdrop was stunning, the cast was great and quirky, and the storyline kept me interested. I really loved it.

Miss Marx (2020)

Missed the Marx (sorry :/)

[3/10 · 18 December 2023]

I could tell what they were trying to do with this film - what with the heavy and loud music and French filmmaking style, but it just didn't come together for me. Mostly, it was a quiet film, and then all of a sudden the music was hardcore and didn't fit at all. Think Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, but not done well.

I like Romola Garai in everything she's done, and I didn't not like her in this, but it was just weak writing and editing and directing. The storyline was very choppy - I mean, in one scene she was led by a poor young boy to a poverty-stricken mother laying in filth with a newborn by her side, suffering with mastitis - then cut to her doing a love scene from A Doll's House. We don't find out how Eleanor M helped with the family, if at all. We never went back to it. It was a confusing couple of minutes that didn't tell me anything.

I found myself pausing the movie and referring to Wikipedia to fill in the blanks left by this movie. Not a thing you'd normally have to do if a biopic is made well, but something you want to do after it's finished so you can learn more about the subject because the film has instilled that interest.

Watch it, though, for Romola Garai - she's always great.

After Everything (2023)

Dreadful

[1/10 · 8 December 2023]

If you're looking for an easy escape of a movie, don't watch this. You'll want to escape this as much as anything else in your life.

The acting is as woeful as it's ever been, especially from the male lead, but there's just more of it - he's in every scene! Too much of this guy. The only half-way good acting is the female lead and she's hardly even in it, not until the end. And then there's the ending? What was that about? Shoved into the last five minutes like an after thought - maybe that should have been the title - After Thought. The funniest thing was the wig or hair piece she was wearing in the last scene - that had me in stitches! Don't watch this - just skip to the last scene. HIlarious!

After Ever Happy (2022)

Nothing makes sense - not even the title!

[1/10 · 7 December 2023]

I saw this on Prime and my memory must have been failing me because I'd forgotten how absolutely shockingly bad the previous three were - so, not thinking, I started watching the fourth, After Ever Happy. What does that title even mean? It's grammatically incorrect, and just a dreadful title. Matches the storyline, I suppose.

Previous comments have already mentioned the "storyline" and there's nothing more to add - just like the fourth movie. And I've just seen there's a fifth? What more could possibly be said about these two people?

Here's what I really don't get.... Not many films make it to five. So someone involved in this series knows someone of influence. But the tragedy is - think about the writers and actors out there who could have made something so much better than this but don't get the chance. This is made instead. Does my brain in.

Redemption (I) (2022)

Not a bad watch, but don't expect anything too much.

[5/10 · 16 November 2023]

I love a good Irish/British detective drama, and some are way better than others. Redemption is probably, for me, on the lower end of the scale, but worth a watch when there's nothing else on.

I won't go into the plot here, but it's pretty standard stuff. The issue I had with it was the constant plot holes - from start to finish and by the third episode, there were too many holes to fill.

Overall, it seemed like an Irish show trying to be a US style show with some kind of issue between two gangster families but it just didn't work. Dialogue was weak and by the sixth episode I was over it and couldn't care less about any of them.

World on Fire (2019–2023)

Season 1 - passable, just... Season 2 - just a bad production

[4/10 · 6 November 2023]

Season 1 was something to watch when you felt like a WW2 drama that included a bit of everything, but it wasn't engrossing, and I even forgot to watch the end of the series.

Then season 2 arrived. Whatever happened in the years between I'm not sure, but the dialogue is just woeful, and the production seems like it was all done on the cheap - the desert scenes looked like they were made on a movie lot in the 50s, and I thought the gestarpo interrogation scenes were part of some comedy skit!

There were so many different story lines going on at the same time with no connection it just all felt very disjointed.

I'm not sure if it was the characters or the people playing them but they were pretty annoying a lot of the time. The only part worth watching was with Lesley Manville - and now Mark Bonnar has appeared I'm hoping it might get better.

Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama (2022)

I'm rethinking all of my movie choices from now on....

[1/10 · 22 October 2023]

I watched this because of Michael Sheen. I'm not British, so I didn't even realise when I started that this was based on actual events, and have no idea about these people. I wish I had chosen differently, because this was terrible.

I continued watching because, well, I couldn't be bothered choosing anything else, and it was too early for bed. This "movie" definitely made me ready for sleep, because, again, this was terrible.

I can only imagine what it must have been like for the people of Great Britain to have to endure day after day "news" coverage of this first-world-problem story - thankfully this only went for 90 minutes or something, but still, this was long enough. What was Michael Sheen thinking, because this was terrible.

Grace (2021– )

Who knew ITV was remaking Scooby Doo!?

[2/10 · 5 October 2023]

Season 1 was bearable, season 2 was hardly bearable, but season 3? Goodness, me. I mean, I wasn't expecting much after the first two, but it took me a few starts and stops to get through the third season. Silly storylines, holes all over the place, and drama-school graduate level acting.

I've always like John Simm, but this ain't no State of Play, just so you know. More like Scooby Doo and the Gang do Brighton.

I've really not got much more to say about this show, but I must bore you with 600 characters to adhere to IMDB rules, so if you want to be as bored as you are at the moment reading this required paragraph, watch season 3 of Grace. You won't be disappointed :)

DI Ray (2022– )

I wouldn't expect a season 2 - surely 1 is enough!

[2/10 · 3 October 2023]

I love my British detective shows, but many in the last few years really don't hit the mark - this is another to add to the list, I'm afraid.

Clearly racism is prevalent in society - in all society, and we all know it. Whoever wrote this series thinks we all don't know it and need to be knocked over the head with the information every second sentence, every other glance or awkward conversation. It was too much, and it went through every episode, from beginning to end.

Such strange dialogue, bad acting, and weird directing, eg.

The dance scene in the pub - would never happen, anywhere!

But one of the contradictory things I found was the stereotyping. The makers of DI Ray are teaching us all about racism, and how it plays out in society, but here they are perpetuating it with their stereotypes of the South Asian mothers and their cooking abilities.

I'm not really sure how the actors even got through.

Slip (2023– )

Unique storyline well told.

[8/10 · 28 September 2023]

I loved this, and Zoe Lister-Jones is great in anything she's in. The storyline was really interesting and I loved the moving through the different dimensions. I'm not really getting the negative reviews on this. It's something different, is easy viewing at half an hour, and only goes for seven episodes. I'd probably class it as humorous drama, rather than a comedy, though. So don't go into it thinking there'll be heaps of laughs.

The supporting cast were great too, except I think the husband was miscast - he seemed like an overgrown teenager, and the two of them married wasn't really believable for me.

Home Greek Home (2023)

Nice ending but....

[2/10 · 27 September 2023]

If you want to watch this, I'd suggest the first episode and then the last - don't bother with whatever was going on in between. I tried watching the second and just couldn't. Even the last episode was hard going - obviously scripted (the lost handbag? Clearly scripted. Those annoying adults sons , and that narrator!) Yep - this show really got to me.

The interior design of this place was not for me, but the ending was nice.

If you want to watch this, I'd suggest the first episode and then the last - don't bother with whatever was going on in between. I tried watching the second and just couldn't. Even the last episode was hard going - obviously scripted (the lost handbag? Clearly scripted. Those annoying adults sons , and that narrator!) Yep - this show really got to me.

The interior design of this place was not for me, but the ending was nice.

Marie Antoinette (2022– )

It's lacking something....

[3/10 · 12 September 2023]

I start watching this and wonder who is the woman peaking out of the curtains - and then I realise, it's meant to be Marie Antoinette, but of course it must be her as a grown woman, because this actress is a grown woman! But, nope - it's meant to be MA as her 14 year old self the day after her wedding. This bit of casting doesn't bode well for other choices in casting, script, etc.

But, I give it a go and have moved on to the second episode, but there's something missing. It's lacking something. The dialogue is boring and doesn't hold my attention. The costumes and set design are the only thing holding this thing together.

Heal (I) (2017)

Mixed feelings....

[3/10 · 14 June 2023]

This kind of documentary is usually something I'm drawn to, but I've got mixed feelings about this one. It's almost like The Secret. I thought it was going to be more alternative medicine based - vitamins, minerals, etc. But all I got out of it was if you thought positively, then all should be well.

I think the clincher of this being a show I wouldn't recommend and something I had a real issue with one of the talking heads listing a string of diseases and ailments, and then said pretty much all others he hadn't even listed weren't hereditary. I'm Australian, and to see that this is absolutely no way true, just Google Justin Yerbury - he's a molecular biologist and most of his maternal family - first his uncle, then his cousin, his mother, grandmother and aunt, then his sister, have all contracted and died from motor neurone disease. He has suffered with it for the past seven years and will succumb in the not too distant future. Tell his family MND isn't hereditary.

Outlander (2014– )

Days of Our Lives in the 1700s

[5/10 · 19 April 2023]

I read the books in the mid 90s, and got as far as A Breath of Snow and Ashes, got bored with the storyline and stopped.

When the series started, it was so good - season 1 and 2 particularly. The acting was great, the set, the music, everything. It was so close to the first couple of books, I couldn't fault it.

But what on earth is going on with season 5 and 6? Paricularly in season 6, from the background music that is straight out of Days of Our Lives, to the acting, which is just woeful. Woeful! From the main cast, to the supporting cast, it's just terrible.

The storyline chugs along without holding my interest. I'm not really interested in the wars in America, but if drama was created through the writing and acting, I would, but not with what we have here.

I think this will be, for me, like the books - I'll just leave it here.

The Spanish Princess (2019–2020)

It's kept me entertained but I wouldn't be taking history notes.

[7/10 · 26 March 2023]

I think we all know - and are told at the end of each episode - that liberties are taken to create a drama with this show. And, I get it. What sane person wants to watch what a couple of 15 year olds get up to on their wedding night? And then, watch a 16 year old girl "court" an 11 year old boy? No one. So, of course changes have to be made. But, I guess, maybe some stories should stay as documentaries, so the true story can be told - rather than weird re-tellings of a true story with made-ups thrown in everywhere and anywhere, eg. The Crown, and all the other Starz series depicting English royalty.

I've watched them all now and they're good for entertainment - if not quite annoying due to the incredibly far-fetched inaccuracies.

Murder at the Cottage: The Search for Justice for Sophie (2021)

Watch something else.

[4/10 · 14 March 2023]

I started watching this thinking it would be something different, and then continued - I'm not sure why. I hate true crime stories - there's never any answers and I don't like watching other people's misery for my entertainment.

And, yet, here I was - watching this old man (Jim Sheridan) shuffling about Ireland, mumbling about this and that. He claims to be a "storyteller" but I found him to be possibly the worst storyteller I've ever listened to. I had questions about things that weren't mentioned but should have been just to be able to follow the story properly. They weren't left out to start with because of suspense - it was just oversight of creating a good storyline sequence.

I felt terribly for Sophie and her family. It makes me very glad that my family left Cork back in the 1800s - this does nothing to make one feel good about the police or the people of the township. And, this show has not changed my mind about true crime stories. Never again.

Killing Eve (2018–2022)

Binged it over 10 days and loved it from beginning to end!

[10/10 · 29 January 2023]

I've only just today finished this fantastic series and loved it from the start, right up until the ending - which was expected, but still a surprise.

I've seen Comer and Oh in quote a few things and loved them even more in this, but Fiona Shaw has been a favourite of mine for years, and in this she was a standout.

I've not read the books, and I understand the tv series is quite a departure from them, but this tv series was just so good - the costumes, the glances and humour, the acting, etc. I'm just glad Netflix didn't have anything to do with the production of it - that money making corporation would have ruined it!

This was fantastic. Loved it!

Murder in Suburbia (2004–2005)

I think I know why in 2023 I've never heard of it, when it was made in 2004....

[1/10 · 29 January 2023]

I've enjoyed watching Catz in the few things I've seen her in, and so when this showed up on Britbox, I thought I'd give it a go. I'd never heard of it before, and so thought it was a new show - until I started watching it. Now I know why I'd never heard of it - it's terrible! It certainly doesn't stand the test of time. I can watch movies and shows from 19 years ago and don't cringe, but this was terrible. The acting by some was woeful, but it really was the dialogue that was the clincher.

I guess it's rated so highly on this site because the majority of people reviewed it 15 plus years ago? Maybe those same people wouldn't be able to watch it now. It's just so bad.

An Impossible Love (2018)

Great start, weird ending

[5/10 · 20 January 2023]

This movie grabbed me because I love French films, and I'm drawn to watching films with both of the lead actors.

It started off good, if not extremely maddening, due to the storyline of the main female character letting herself being used and walked over. That was hard to watch.

Then, halfway through, as the daughter starts to grow up and different actors are used for the character, it gets messy. The storyline in the second half, which I was not expecting, and made me pretty sick, was weird and could be triggering for some.

I love how films make you really feel something, but if it's a storyline for a movie (such as the one that starts halfway through in this movie), I'll usually give it a miss - but who knew from the outset? You'd never guess, and it's pretty gross. Then comes the hastily put-together ending between mother and daughter. I think the title An Impossible Love / Un amour impossible was inaccurate. Perhaps, Un amour revoltant would have been more apt.

Treason (2022)

Bad, so bad.

[1/10 · 11 January 2023]

I knew what I was getting into - another Netflix "special" which means, terrible plots, dialogue, and actors who have clearly not been given the time to rehearse. I've seen all of these actors in other things and they've all done well (I mean, Oona Chaplin and Ciarin Hinds are always wonderful), but Treason is just the worst.

Stupid plots - the pen that can record someone 10 metres away, and on the other end of a phone? And then, the MI6 Chief is in hospital having been poisoned, but the 2IC doesn't think being thanked for brining him a stack of books that have appeared is suspicious enough to get them dusted for Anthrax or something? He just leaves them there..... too infuriating! And that's just what I can remember - there's just too many silly scenarios, and I'm not even 10 mins into the second episode. I don't think I'll watch 11.... it's just too dumb!

Monday (2020)

I can't get through it....

[1/10 · 17 December 2022]

I've watched this for about 40 minutes and that's it for me.

I read a few reviews here to find out if the ending was worth waiting for, because I assumed something was going to happen - it was going to be about mental illness or something - these two, equally, act like they're young teenagers, or mature adults with ADHD or bipolar or something, running around having sex everywhere, acting silly and over the top everywhere they go. I mean, these two actors are actually in their 40s, right? How old are they meant to be in this? They definitely looked like it in the movie, so watching them get around like this was embarrassing. It got too much because there was absolutely no storyline, just them acting ridiculous. And, are the men in Greece really still this sexist? My God! It was really hard to watch.

How are movies like this getting made now?

Operation Mincemeat (2021)

Wonderful movie

[10/10 · 11 December 2022]

I am really not sure what other people who reviewed this movie here were expecting. I thought this was a great movie, but maybe sitting in an uncomfortable cinema seat, it may have felt too long, but at home watching this, it was fantastic.

It reminded me of the British movies made in the 90s - great storylines, direction and acting. The production was perfect too - as all British movies and TV shows usually are. This did not disappoint.

I often find any movie with an ensemble cast is a total letdown, but here we saw so many of Britain's favourite actors - and they were all wonderful - even if their scenes were short.

I'm not sure why people were so down on the love story - it all worked together perfectly. I think some people expect perfection in everything they watch, rather than just perfectly watching.

Harlem (2021– )

Nope

[2/10 · 11 December 2022]

I lasted one episode and just couldn't do any more. I wanted to like it, and thought it was going to be witty and something altogether different. But, I felt like the dialogue was a bit like a lecture the whole way through, overridden with the same music over and over and over. And when I actually thought about it, all they talked about was partners, and how to have sex with partners. Nothing else. Maybe episode two would be better, but I'm not wasting any more time to find out.

These women are so beautiful, but they've made them up with so much make-up, I couldn't see past the fake eyelashes and thick make-up. There didn't seem to be anything that resembled natural at all in this show.