Change Your Image
mrdonsmith2
Reviews
The Curse of Civil War Gold (2018)
Does this even earn one star?
This group of clowns has only convinced themselves that there's a treasure out there, by golly, they know that's a fact, because they know that's a fact. This program is absurd human nature on display amplified by constant reaction shots from Brad Richards who smiles at anything, Frederick J. Monroe who reliably says "gold" at every opportunity, and missionary Kevin Dykstra who leaves absolutely no room for doubt. Now we've introduced a tunnel between two houses in Muskegon the purpose for which, according to the brain trust, was to move "gold!" from one house to the other, as in "How the hell did it get there in the first place?" The Grand Rapids Library scene was simply beyond comedic with three guys engaged in academic research of the highest order, "Hey, get a load of this!" I know it's TV. But it's like watching a 1950s B movie -- so damn bad it's good.
The Curse of Oak Island (2014)
Farcical behavior overtakes show's premise
Here we are nearing yet the "end" of another season and nowhere further along other than tearing the living daylights out of a Nova Scotia island. The narration has gotten so outrageously predictable -- with its question-marked endings and constant hyped references to treasure, gold, Knights of the Templar (none of which even close to finding) -- that the show is now a burlesque. Is there a single reaction shot of Jack Begley that isn't cartoon-level amazement? Does the project ever stick to one thing and finish it, or just wander from place to place with zero results? Is Gary Drayton ever referred to as other than "metal detection expert? Does he ever just methodically go looking for stuff until he exhausts a place then moves on? Does anyone shoot holes when some cockamamie theories arise when they find a "thing." C-mon, people drop stuff all the time and just because you find an old piece of a dish deep in a hole doesn't mean the bottom of the hole is all that old. And, there were trash pits to consider also with all that dirt being moved around over the years who knows what might have been just shoveled into various holes in the ground. In other words, the "quest" has gotten a bit tiresome and is only fun to watch because it's become so bad. Kind of like a really awful B-movie. And by the way, all that money being spent is coming from somewhere and it's not out the ground either. I guess full disclosure is not an option, but it's hard to accept that the whole enterprise isn't making money, not losing it. We have met the suckers and it is us!
Mysteries of the Abandoned (2017)
Correct pronunciation "Mysteriously Abandoned"
The narrator simply cannot pronounce the word "nuclear." Instead, it's the ear-grating version: "nucular." All the more off-putting since the on-camera experts know how to and do pronounce it correctly. That the producers, AND Science Channel (part of Discovery) let this stand discredits both entities.
The Americans: Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? (2015)
Best laid plans
The overall excellence of The Americans is personified by the tour de force performance by Lois Smith, the grandmotherly co-proprietor of the shop where the FBI's mail robot is undergoing repairs. Remember it was Agent Gaad in the previous episode who kicked it in frustration because it wouldn't open a key-coded slot with important documents. Philip and Elizabeth break into the shop late at night having been charged with bugging the robot in yet another attempt to glean information once it's put back in service. As they work, Elizabeth discovers that a woman is working late on the shop's books. That creates the extended scenes during which Ms. Smith and Keri Russell exchange their poignant life stories and warm to each other even though we know this is all headed for a bad ending. Here's where the plot contains several potholes that make you wonder whether they will be completely avoided down the road -- no pun intended -- or whether they will turn out to be major oversights that lead to discovered trip-ups by our Russian spies. SPOILER ALERT: The elderly lady's death is clearly designed to appear as a pill-overdose suicide, thus avoiding any notion she was deliberately killed. And so Philip and Elizabeth leave the shop, satisfied that the robot has been bugged successfully and will soon do its job. But who's not going to notice that the telephone's been ripped from the wall? Plus, Elizabeth's fingerprints are all over the phone itself and the various framed pictures she was handed to look at. If this is a shop that works on FBI equipment, how likely is it that suspicions won't be raised to the degree that the mail robot never goes home? Maybe the writers have this all figured out and we'll see if it plays out in the next episode(s). Otherwise, it seems out of character for Philip and Elizabeth not to have covered their tracks more carefully.