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The Santa Clauses (2022)
Season 1 follows Disney's narrative to the letter
To start, I thought the idea of Disney rebooting the Santa Clause franchise was a looming disaster. I saw the same vein as what happened to Star Wars, Marvel, and any other Disney production in the last six years.
Then Tim Allen stepped forward and said that he and the rest of the returning cast would not let that happen. They would keep the spirit of the films and if not, they would leave the franchise.
With cautious optimism I watched the first season. I wasn't even through the first episode and the fears of what Disney might do were plain and evident. Santa can't "label" children and "naughty or nice" because of various reasons, elves can't be called little, they can't even say Santa is fat. The only strong male characters are the bad guys, or the ones who are going to become bad. All the sources of power in the story are female, including Santa's children. The male child is the stumbling goof-ball - think Jerry Lewis or Jim Carrey on valium and with no acting talent, while Santa's daughter can talk to animals and is smart. The lead Elf is female, the elf who makes contact with other possible Santa's is female, the elf doctor is female, when Santa and family leave the North Pole, it is Mrs. Claus who had the career and is the famous person everyone remembers.
There are flashes of the fun that The Santa Clause movies inspired. My opinion only and not to start arguments, but Tim Allen continues to bring parts of his past projects with him and in the sense, the appearance of Peyton Manning as a potential Santa Clause was fun after all the comments about Manning and the Broncos made by Allen's Last Man Standing character.
Another high point is the fifth episode. If you can get to this point, you will see sparks of the original shows magic coming out and it will answer some questions people may have.
The last episode doesn't quite carry the magic of the 5th episode, but it tries. However, the Disney narrative slips into this episode in a couple, tolerable places. If you can stand the first four episodes, the last two might be enough to save your watching this show, but I don't believe they will be enough to put this show on your Christmas List.
At least it's not the Star Wars Holiday Special.
County Rescue (2024)
Storylines are alright, EMS practices are terrible
The basic premise of following EMS rookies through their "probationary" time has merits and started as a functional story. But after 3 episodes, we don't see significant improvement in the rookies. Their practice sessions discussing procedures and medications are all things they were taught and showed mastery of in EMT class.
A lot of the station interactions are pretty similar to ones I have witnessed. The characters are consistent with a lot of those who are found in EMS stations.
BUT the medicine is awful. The most egregious is twice in the first two episodes, the lead EMT or Paramedic pulls the lead character aside to counsel her about issues on scene, while the is left alone in the ambulance with the doors wide open and no one paying attention. One of the leads walking away to talk to consult another medic on a different call while the rookie is left to treat the patient and trying to load the patient. That is another story, anyone who has the troubles operating a cot the way the lead character does, would have been fired in their orientation. The show goes completely overboard with the inability to handle the cot.
I do appreciate the strong God centered characters and the open prayers. It is expected being a GFAM show. If the rest of the show aspects could match the faith aspect, this show would be great.
In a purely odd note,,, please tell me if you get flashbacks to Princess Bride when the show gets to the heart tugging moments.
A Very British Christmas (2019)
Either love it or hate it
As other reviews have said, this is a VERY formulaic movie. Everything is expected and obvious. There are issues where the viewer wonders what is actually going on. The female lead is supposed to be a world renowned singer who somehow cannot get a flight to Vienna, although we never find out why. She is dropped in England and can only find rooms along a railroad away from the city.
The obvious issues affect the male lead. Wife died and left him to raise daughter with help of older family member. I liked the daughter and her use of terms she learned from grandmother. Others don't. Another love it or hate it.
Overall, even though it was so many movie cliches rolled into one movie, it felt just unique enough to enjoy.
I won't give out all the cliches so that maybe you will get something out of the movie. I will say that the one thing that almost made me rate this movie a 3 star instead was when the female lead is talking about leaving and her issues with why she cannot stay is because she is "a strong, independent woman" (yes, those words exactly). There was never any indication of this and it felt completely forced, just to get it into the movie.
Country Christmas Album (2018)
Poor Relationship Movie with Christmas Music Thrown in so it can be Listed as a Christmas Movie
When you make a movie about musicians, make sure the can sing at least a bit. I humbly disagree with many reviews, the lead actress cannot sing well. She is maybe average to just above, but not enough to sell as a major act. The male lead was awful.
This relationship movie was written for the female lead to demand everything she wanted and the male actor to play the weak half and give in to all her demands, and when he says or does anything that does not conform to her desires, she throws him away and throws a tantrum. Even though she was given an equal opportunity to his, neither of them actually accepted the opportunity, this was her breaking point. She wanted everything and wanted him to give up all for her choices and career. This movie just felt so lopsided it was hard to stomach.
Add to this the horrible overacting by the DJ. His performance was particularly cringeworthy.
The bright spots were the female lead's daughter, She delivered when she is on screen. Not trying to steal the spotlight, but is a power on screen.
And the girls father. He is the sole redeeming quality of the movie for me. He is a present father, loves his daughter, and shows it.
Sliders: Heavy Metal (1999)
personal review, I don't expect many to agree and I understand.
Since the changes of season 3, Sliders has begun a descent away from the magic of the first two seasons. In my opinion, Season 5 never should have happened. I quit watching the show during Season 4 when it was originally aired because the story lines were unoriginal and the group dynamic was coarse at best. Season 5 episodes have all the quality and control of the midnight freight train running down and dirt road in a rain storm - just waiting for the inevitable horrific crash.
This episode showcases all the negative things which Sliders has become. The long standing precedent of limited influencing of the worlds they land on has been absent this season, with this episode being one of the most blatant. Maggie never demonstrated the personality of a Marine captain, other than shouting to attempt to display authority. Instead of using military knowledge, we see Maggie using emotional manipulation to try to get the pirates to change their ways. Mallory is absolutely unbearable as the arrogant, selfish, lack of intelligence, party boy persona who questions everything and everyone even to the point of using a bullying manner. Mallory was a far less than adequate replacement for Quinn, in every way. Diana was an interesting addition, but she had no character arc and really never changed from the unconfident person who always comes up with an answer to any scientific question.
Even Rembrandt has been down written to become a shell of the person he was in the first seasons. The writers did allow us to see a glimpse of the partial Rembrandt in the episode Requiem when the writers created the disastrous episode to attempt to finalize the Wade Wells arc.
In the end, this episode shows four characters who are traveling together because the writers say they have to. Very little of the acting by the stars appears to be from actors who want to be there. It feels like they are counting down their lines to payday. Meanwhile, the guests often outshine the stars on a regular basis in quality of acting. The actors appear to be in the same boat as the viewers, hanging on until the end of the season and hoping that this season will end the show.
Sliders: Revelations (1999)
Both unique and predictable in one episode.
The show begins with the Sliders entering a world with three weeks to spend on it. It becomes a "boring" world for the group as they get jobs, interact with the locals, and pass time until the next portal. This "boring" world is actually the unique part of the episode as it is a new presentation of a world.
During the stay, Rembrandt begins to read some books which are listed as science-fiction and discovers that one of the authors is telling stories with familiar sounding themes and characters. This is where the unique ends and the predictable begins.
The Sliders meet the author and find out that the author comes from a world which might be Quinn and Colin's home world. This is where the foreshadowing cues begin and they are so obvious that there is little if any suspense in this episode. If any of what occurs is surprising or suspenseful to the viewer, then the viewer has most likely not seen any movie or TV show ever.
It is well known that starting with Season 3 and throughout this season, the writers moved away from original ideas and took the "this idea worked here, so it has to work here, right?" attitude. This was the least interesting and least cliff-hanger, come back next season ending of the series. It is the epitome of why Sliders fell so hard and why the O'Connells would leave the series following this season.