Change Your Image
ipoweri
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Angel: Sleep Tight (2002)
Unnecessary messy
This episode stands out from the rest of the episodes as being unnecessarily complex and far-fetched. I don't think plots like that suits a show like an Angel.
It was too much of "he knows that X wants to Y, while Y thinks Z need T because X can't protect Y, yet Z has no idea that T while S never intended to harm Y bla bla bla". Plots like that just doesn't suit Angel I think.
Maybe I was just not alert when watching it, but this was the first Angel episode I had to make multiple rewinds to understand what was going on. That is usually never necessary in Joss Whedon's series, as he tends to be really good at presenting the reasons for character's action in a nice way so you never go "Why is he doing this??? Huh? What's going on"...
American Dad!: American Fung (2015)
No real plot.
The problem with this episode to be honest was that the plot with putting Francine in a mental institution just to give Stan time to plan their wedding anniversary was a pretty bad plot from the start. We were not even explained how it was suppose to work out, it felt rushed. At the same time Roger, Hayley and Steve doesn't really develop a side plot at all. So there is to little to go from there...
The focus of Fung Wah only makes an already below average episode even worse. I suspect they made the episode with a very narrow plot so they would have time to put in all those Fung references, but it just didn't work.
The idea of an entire "Chinese American Dad" episode like we see at the end were all characters are Chinese versions, could have worked but now it just became to much at the same time with no time at evolving the plot in a nice way.
The episode would probably had been better if they completely skipped the plot about the mental institution all together and instead gone all in on the more crazy concept.
There are very few animated shows that succeeds at including a person into an episode without disrupting the plot of the episode. This was in my opinion one of the worst examples of this in recent time along with South Park S18E09/S18E10 #REHASH/#HappyHolograms and Simpson S26E12 The Musk Who Fell to Earth, which was arguably even worse.
It's weird that they don't learn that it's tricky to get it to work, especially if it's not really implemented to the actual plot of the episode which neither of these four episodes managed to do...
Probably one of the worst American Dad episodes ever.
Better Call Saul: Marco (2015)
Jimmy realizes he needs adventure
After last episode argument with his brother, Jimmy leaves to get some time by himself. He hooks up with his old partner in crime Marco and manages to instantly continue where he left off as a con artist. What is interesting is how Marco points out that he does it just for the thrill of it, not for the money. A statement that clearly makes Jimmy think.
During a con attempt, Marco dies with his last words being "This was the best week of my life".
Jimmy then return home only to be reminded off how much he had helped his brother only to be let down. This makes Jimmy realize that he has more or less lost two of his closest friends in a short time-span.
Jimmy finally realizes that he no longer have to prove himself worthy to anyone but himself and all the things Marco said makes him come to the revelation that he needs adventure in his life and cannot be controlled by others.
Jimmy therefore refuses a nice job offer Kim had fixed for him and decide to live life his way. How, we will see next season.
All in all, I think this message could have been told in a much more straight forward fashion throughout the first season and I don't really understand why the writers keep trying to communicate their points to the viewers in such a prolonged manner.
As I have said before in earlier reviews of Better Call Saul, the show need to come to terms what it's really about. I don't think the more or less pure drama angle will work in the long run though.
I cannot give this episode more than a seven since they made the mistake of portraying Jimmy's revelation of all this to be more or less instantaneous on a parking lot on the way to discuss his new job, without really feeding the viewer with proper ways of comprehending his choice, except through deep speculation.
To be a bit harsh you could argue they used an entire season for Jimmy to realize who he truly is, yet rushes the actual revelation so quick in the end that you don't really get a good understanding as to how he realized it. The more interesting question that has not even been addressed is: How did he become slippin' Jimmy in the first place?
Better Call Saul: Pimento (2015)
One of the best episodes so far
This episode has a nice balance of the comedy and the drama. I am not going to give any spoiler but the relationship between Jimmy and Chuck are being revealed a lot in this episode. This episode probably included the most actual happenings of all episodes so far.
Mike is also starting to show his "cool and composed" bad-boy side that always does his homework in advance.
This episode really manages to answer a lot of question and sets up for an interesting continuation. What is extra nice is that many of the situations and developments are not really forcing the show closer to the Breaking Bad-universe, which I think is great and essential for Better Call Saul that it strives to avoid so early on.
The only reason I cannot give this episode a 10 is details that have been a problem in some of the previous episodes as well. There is way to many and long scenes with more or less whispering characters and often combined with a dark setting it actually makes it hard to be able to follow the conversation and easy to slip your attention away. There is no need to make the scenes like that out of an artistic viewpoint, it's plain unnecessary and adds nothing but an ineffective way of telling the story often forcing me to rewind to get hold of "what did they just say?" or "what just happened?".
But other than that, this episode is top notch!
Better Call Saul: Bingo (2015)
Great episode!
This episode goes back to the root of how Better Call Saul should be like in my opinion and how the two first episode was. A comedy about a "creative" lawyer that have no problem to step a bit over to the illegal side of things. After some episodes between episode 3 and 6 (especially episode 6) showed sign that this show was turning more into a drama/overuse of flashback/Breaking Bad "pre-epilogue"-kind of thing which wouldn't make this show be able to maintain my interest.
So I was really happy for this seventh episode and hope they keep making episodes like this with the focus on the comedy of creative attorney-business :)
South Park (1997)
Internet made this show's uniqueness evaporate throughout the 2000s
When South Park first started it was unique, controversial and very great. It is important to remember that the use of Internet was very limited back in 1997 so South Park had a unique position in which they could use to entertain with their sarcasm, satire and criticism of society. The first 5 seasons or so of South Park was TV history.
But over the years, they no longer had the same unique position in society. Internet and easier video creating programs have made all sort of amateurish satire and extreme parodies readily available to view on YouTube, blogs etc..., so the unique selling point evaporated throughout roughly the 2004-2010 era.
This meant South Park had to reinvent themselves. Unfortunately they did so by just becoming more extreme and put more and more focus on temporary, teenage trends while still at the same time trying to hold the initial setup at bay (so they did not become a Robot Chicken type of show (not that it would had been bad necessarily)). This effectively reduced their intended audience from more or less anyone to mostly boys between the age of 14 and 22.
So the problem with South Park now is that their sarcastic disclaimer at the start which says among other things: "The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone" is embarrassingly accurate nowadays. Due to the violence, suggestive dialogue and language it is not suitable for kids. However on the other hand, a lot of the themes, humour and cultural references that the shows makes over the last 7-8 seasons are mainly directed for very young adults / teenagers.
The most common misconception in my opinion about this show, is that it is misunderstood. Of course that can be true to a certain extent for certain individuals. But for the most part, I would argue that people get it. They get what South Park wants to do. It's just that it's no longer original nor attracts the adult audience as it once did.
If South Park wants to survive I think they need to seriously reduce the amount of temporary pop-cultural trends they use, often in a way that make entire episode one big "huh?" for people that may not have heard or care much about such a reference.
South Park needs to realize that their platform are no longer suitable as a way to be the most extreme of everything. Instead they should focus on making great comedy with a lot of satirical plots and indirect scepticism of society. If they do, they might just get the audience that are in the 30s and 40s back...
Futurama (1999)
Probably the best animated show ever made
This show is just pure excellence. It has the same type of humour as Simpsons but without all the dull morale police, "celebrity" guests etc...
If you have not watched Futurama, I would describe it as: Imagine Simpsons, where everyone but Lisa (who is the main drawback to Simpsons) goes into a time machine and travels 1000 years into the future and they all change characters and appearances and live on a spaceship instead of a town.
This give the authors a completely different freedom to implement their humour and it most certainly works. A typical show of Futurama is more or less 100% humour time (so in that aspect more like Family Guy than Simpsons) compared to Simpsons which nowadays tend to be 50% humour, 20% drama, 20% morale police and 10% celebrity guest stars/ references that adds little or nothing to the show.
My favourite character is Dr Zoidberg :)
Better Call Saul (2015)
A show that soon needs to establish what it is
I had great expectations for this show as I loved the character Saul from Breaking Bad and thought Mike was interesting as well. I found myself more interested in those people than the main plot over the last 2 seasons of Breaking Bad actually, which I think was a rather over-rated show (especially the last two-three seasons where the writing was sloppy but it avoided harsh criticism mainly because it fed of the great story that had evolved over the two first seasons).
Anyway, Better Call Saul starts off exactly as I hoped as mainly a comedy in the fringe of criminal activity with some action on the side. This would had been a perfect genre for this show and for Bob Odenkirk as an actor.
Unfortunately this show rather quickly turns rather ambivalent in turns of what it's really supposed to be.
As I said earlier it starts of as primary comedy, secondary action, which is really great!
Then turns into what exactly? Is it a comedy/drama/action/tragedy combo? Really? Sorry but that is not going to work out except for the die hard BB-fans that watches this for even the slightest hope of it relating to their favourite show.
Or is it a show that is made only to fill in the gigantic plot holes and question marks Breaking Bad left behind? If they need an entire show just for that, I think it says a lot of how overrated the writing of the final half of Breaking Bad was. And considering that S01E06 (Five-O), is the highest rated episode at this moment, is a clear indicator to me just how many are watching Better Call Saul to get some more closure/information into the background story of Breaking Bad, rather than watching this show for its own sake. Five-O was arguably the worst episode so far in my opinion except if you were exactly looking for as much of Breaking Bad references and background information as possible...
UPDATE.
After watching episode 7 through 9 I got positively surprised and the show is starting to turn into what I had hoped and even Mike are starting to make his way into the actual story. But the season finale was a disappointment. My initial diagnose after 4 episodes remains. The show must soon, very soon, establish what it really is...
Breaking Bad: Felina (2013)
I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it.
Finally, Walt mans up an admit to his wife that he did it for himself, for the rush, for his ego, legacy etc. That was all I could ever hoped for in the last episode and it gave closure to Skyler who deserved so much better.
The rest of the episode was mediocre but that conversation alone at about 30-35 minutes in made the episode alone!
Breaking Bad was an interesting show depicting a man that has serious mental issues that came to light first when he went into the drug business. It was already in the middle of season 2 that it became apparent.
Breaking Bad: Granite State (2013)
Great episode that forces Walt to realize what he has become
This episode is overall great and much better than most of the other sub-standard late season 5 episodes.
It forces Walt to realize what monster he has become. His isolation might be a bit exaggerated though, but it's great fun. I especially appreciated the phone call he made to his son.
The only negative thing I have to say about the episode is how the killing of Andrea, when you think about, made no sense at all. What exactly did they try to accomplish by that? Nothing...
Would it make Jesse more likely to cooperate with them either with cooking or other thing? No, not at all. That killing served no purpose beyond penalizing Jesse and add drama to the episode.
Another thing that bothers me is that if Walt is so desperate at sending them money, why didn't he just left say 10% of the money at his family and having them hide it somewhere out of sight? Did he have another of his brain-farts? I guess so...
Lame! Stop insulting the viewers with stuff like that please...
Breaking Bad (2008)
Starts of as the greatest action drama ever made. After a few seasons, not so much...
Breaking Bad follows a cancer-diagnosed chemistry teacher that suddenly decides to produces methamphetamine, initially to collect enough money to secure his family's future once he is gone.
His partner is a cool but immature meth-user in his early 30s. Together they form an unlikely duo that has the combination of great chemistry knowledge and a certain know-how into the drug business.
Season 1 is arguably the best season I have seen of any action series. The characters are getting into realistic scenarios and their reactions and solutions are plausible indeed. Yet at the same time, it's packed with action and drama. Super great. 9.9/10
Season 2 follows up in this footstep. Here we also see a huge character development, especially from Walt, who turns into a more hard character. 9.6/10
Season 3 makes the transition into really big-time production and the drama of power struggles in the drug industry truly emerges. The two main characters feels less safe and are afraid of their lives, especially Walt. Their actions to maintain their own personal safety are not always easy to buy though. What was the flagship of this series the first two season, namely that you could understand and accept all the actions the characters took, are fading away. And there are a lot of "logical plot holes" like the fact that they go over hell and high water to get hold of methyl-amine (which they pronounce completely wrong by the way, even Walt which always instantly reminds you of that he in fact is not a chemist at all) when in rather common knowledge that it is very easy to make from readily available ingredients and trivial chemistry. 8.8/10
Season 4. The plot holes and the "Why didn't they just..."-question builds up exponentially in this season. The amount of revealing information that are being communicated over phone in this season is completely unbelievable and make the show less believable. It really challenges the border of artistic license. The show starts to TRY and be sophisticated, complex and intelligent, but in reality it just loses the nice realism and rationality the show had over the first 2 or 3 seasons. If you want a lot of twist, you MUST follow up by convincing the audience at some time why the things happened the way they did when several other options seemed much more natural. Unfortunately for the most part, the show never answer these questions, which is a big thumbs down.
To summarize, a lot of the drama in this season are based on "Well OK, but why did he do that instead?" It almost feel like you are watching 24, which is not a complement in any way. A lot of actions are not logical, nor ever explained. You just get more and more question marks, which are, unfortunately never answered, thus the comparison to the show 24, which is notorious for this bad habit. 7.3/10
Season 5. Some of the episodes are really interesting and surprising, but they are in no way intelligent. The viewer keeps getting insulted by the lack of continuity and rationality. But most people accept this as there is so much tension and drama, but really, considering how great the two first seasons was, you cannot help but feeling let down. Some episodes completely kills the great character development that has happened over the first five seasons. 7.5/10
And I am wondering how people in here keep referring to Walt as smart. A lot of the things he does is actually outright stupid, naive, over-protective and last but not least, irrational for the sake of irrationality. It is as if they want the viewers to think "Man, he is so smart, I didn't see that twist coming." when in fact if you sit down and think about it, the twist was in no way a proof of "Walt's intelligence", but just a random deviation from rationality. The ricin story is arguably one of the greatest examples of this. The plan is so complex and risky, with a very limited probability of a successful preferably outcome, which makes it easy to think of a handful of other ways to accomplish the same goals with much less effort and risks. But I guess it is good to make good drama and unfortunately the last half of Breaking Bad is more about making good drama and action, whereas the first half was just a top-quality show where no unanswered question-mark was left unanswered for to long...
Overall, a great action drama show, but be prepared to be disappointed after a few seasons (unless you only watch BB for the violence that is as apparently a lot of people do) as it goes all "24" after a while. Action and Drama wins over intelligence in the end...
It's amazing how much hate people are spreading in here as soon as a person does not unconditionally praise this show into the sky. I think it says a lot about a big part of the audience this show had...
Breaking Bad: Ozymandias (2013)
An episode that completely contradict the entire show.
Breaking Bad is a show that has one of the most extreme character development every witnessed in television history. Unfortunately this episode pretty much ruins that...
Walt begins as a loyal and affable chemist teacher but eventually turns into a greedy, cowardly, narcissistic, manipulative psychopath that put little or no values in others lives, although the show sometimes try to portray that he does, although all his actions suggest he doesn't.
Perhaps the biggest point of the entire Breaking Bad is how drug business can turn a normal person into a monster.
It makes NO sense that Walter wants to spare Hank's life given the situation they are in and the fact that he offers them all his $80 million in cash if they promise not to kill him completely contradicts the entire character development you have seen over the five seasons.
Walt has already made numerous decisions over the seasons that clearly proves that he does NOT value the safety of his family as dearly as he try to convince everyone. His greed has won over his desire for family safety on several occasions, so he suddenly offering to give up essentially everything he has earned to spare Hank effectively ruins almost the entire character development we have witnessed.
Killing Hank would give him some possibility to escape his problems and not killing would guarantee a game over. Considering all the sacrifices Walt has made over the five seasons it just make no sense whatsoever that suddenly, out of the blue, he is suddenly willing to give up flat on his stomach (which it would be if they did not kill Hank).
Breaking Bad started off as the greatest action-drama series I have ever seen over the first two-three seasons. But sadly, it quickly lost quality and logic from mid-season 3 and season 4 and 5. This episode tops this off by effectively ridiculing the great character build-up the show had...
And yes I know this comment will probably be very disliked since 95% up people here appear to be extreme unconditional Breaking Bad fans.
The Simpsons: Walking Big & Tall (2015)
Great episode
This episode is mostly about being overweight and how hard it can be to get rid of the extra weight. Homer joins a group of overweight, but unlike what Marge suspect, it's not a group for losing weight...
Being a bit on the chubby side myself I could relate a lot to this episode and it touches upon the subject in a nice way without making the entire episode dull nor necessarily making obese people look lazy and stupid.
This was a great improvement from previous episode "The Musk Who Fell to Earth" who was in my opinion the worst episode in the history of the Simpsons.
The Interview (2014)
A childish comedy that should provoke no one
It's ironic that the best satire in this movie is about how western media are obsessed with very uninteresting things, like if some celebrities sexual orientation etc.
The movie reminds me of how the last 7-8 seasons of South Park have been like. Childish humour pretending to be "smart" and "satiric" when in fact it's simply childish humour as the satire are so poorly done it has no actual message or point of reflection.
Lizzy Caplan does a good job as a agent having to deal with idiots like Dave and Aaron and in my opinion she is an underrated and charming actress. Diana Bang and Seth Rogen are also acting decent. But other than that, the acting is sub-standard, especially from Randall Park (who plays Kim Jung Un) and James Franco. You just don't buy it for one single second that he is Kim Jung Un, but that could be partly due to poor directing...
Here are the main problems with this movie:
# The characters are not well defined. Especially Dave Skylark. At some points he seem to be severely intellectually challenged while at other points he seems to be deeply intelligent.
# The plan they have to "take him out" is not even remotely believable.
# The movie assumes the world revolve around USA and US culture.
# Why they would be in need of constant radio communication with the US is weird and should be a huge liability considering they are in one of the most monitored places in the world... But OK I can buy it that it made it a bit more fun since it resulted in some nice dialogue...
# There is way to many times rather low volume talking are followed by very loud music, forcing you to use the volume control way to many times. I don't want to disturb my neighbours with some sudden crap music, thank you very much. # A lot of bad music # Massive plot holes/too stupid to bother ignoring (and yes I do know that a comedy like this are allowed to have quite a lot but some are still worth mentioning since they are either so big or important for the entire plot) such as:
1. When Dave Skylark enters the room where Aaron Rapaport and Agent Lacey are getting intimate. Why would Aaron not simply tell Dave that she is there, when there is such an obvious risk he may reveal their plan? Come on!
2. They sneak out of their room to get more ricin bandage and they want him to stand exactly where the "missile" is suppose to land. Yet it later shows that it had enough kinetic energy to kill a tiger? So in other words, had it not been for the Tiger, Aaron could easily had been killed. So the Tiger saved his life?
3. If Kim Jung Un would ever agree to do an interview with a western media, there is no way he would agree that it could be sent live, which makes much of the concept unbelievable to start with.
4. Why didn't Aaron simply go to the toilet and remove the bandage before he got more intimate with Lacey? It's not like it would seem suspicious. the only time I laughed during this movie was at this:
(Aaron lying on his stomach in a field in the dark while Dave is in his room and Agent Lacey on speaker from the USA):
Aaron: There is a tiger.
Dave: It's a f**king tiger.
Agent Lacey: It's a f**king tiger.
Aaron: Yes, a tiger.
Dave: You f***king let my friend into a tiger patch?
Agent Lacey: Well I told you there were tigers there.
Aaron: Guys, I don't feel happy right now (partly inaudible)
Dave: Look, it's really dark out there, it probably doesn't see you.
Aaron: Oh, it f***king sees me. Agent Lacey: It has night vision.
Aaron: They have night vision?
Dave: (Screaming): That tiger has night vision goggles???
Agent Lacey (firm response): It doesn't have night vision goggles! It just naturally has night vision.
So if you didn't think that was funny at all, this movie has more ore less nothing to offer you as unlike how it has been presented in media, it does not steer up any questions or political concern, it's just a hyped comedy with no depth.
Game of Thrones: Baelor (2011)
Interesting episode, but I am starting to see a worrying pattern
This episode is great entertainment, no question about it.
But there is an emerging pattern already in which the idiots always wins. I hope this is a pattern that will break or it will become predictable and boring to watch. Very predictable. I saw the dramatic end of this episode coming. It was so obvious.
And all this Stark/Lannister drama in the last three episode are still based on the lamest plot I have seen in a long time (see my reviews of S01E07 and S01E08 for more details about that)
I also don't understand how Arya can run around like that in the streets. Isn't she wanted or at least missed? You would think she would be a recognizable face for many of the citizens.
It will also be interesting to see how Sansa will cope with this. At first I didn't like her "blinded by love", naive appearance, but she has started to become a more deep character over the last few episode or maybe it's a simple matter of her lover acting so retarded that she finally realize it?
I also found it interesting how even Cersei tried to stop Joffrey from making his "bad call" in the end of the episode. Is Cersei losing control of her son? At first you got the impression that she agreed on most of his actions.
Joffrey is an insecure control freak and now he is king and the perfect example as to why inbreeding is not good. That does not bold well. Jack Gleeson is a perfect actor for that role. I wanted to kick his face from the very first episode, almost before he even said one word.
And finally there is some interesting development from the Targaryens. Until now most of those scenes have just been a bore. For that I raise by vote from 7 to 8. Had it not been for the too obvious and "dramatic" ending I would even have considered a 9.
Game of Thrones: The Pointy End (2011)
A lot is happening in this one, but with a lot of lame ingredients
The ridiculous concept from the previous episode continue (read my review of the previous episode for reference) where much of the plot are derived from a unbelievable scenario where the dying king wrote down his throne's faith only with Ned as witness. This entire conflict is based on this stupid plot from the previous episode.
I find the fighting scenes with the dothrakis really lame. It is so overdone. And arguably the two most stupid and deceitful characters in the entire show, Joffrey and Cercei, are suddenly running the show. This can only go bad.
But beside that, the story takes some interesting twists and you can't help but root for Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly. They are a really cool duo. And there is a little cliffhanger to what exactly happened to Arya Stark, another nice character. Well we'll see. I guess I might get over the lame excuse of a reason that triggered this Lannister/Stark conflict from last episode, but it might take a while. It was so lame and I am stunned no other have pointed it out here.
Game of Thrones: You Win or You Die (2011)
One thing ruins an otherwise great episode
This episode is overall great with a lot of interesting development. But the notion that the dying king would write down who should inherit the throne temporary until Joffrey "comes of age" with only the man who will inherit it temporary (Ned) as witness and then tell him to tell the others is so stupid it's unbelievable.. And is "comes of age" regarded as a clear term for that matter, I am not sure? When you see it you instantly understand that these factors will cause a massive conflict and claims that the paper is not genuine and yadda yadda yadda.
This is a lame excuse to justify a conflict (which the episode end with). Couldn't they come up with something slightly more plausible? Really?
Had it not been for that I would have rated the episode a strong 8 or even 9, but it ruined the entire episode and frankly quite a bit of the entire show...
Game of Thrones: The Wolf and the Lion (2011)
Finally a great episode
This episode is full with action and development, instead of just all the drama and deceit that the first 4 episode had too much of. For the first time, there are actual cliff-hangers for the next episode.
I think they are overdoing the royal's arrogant behaviour towards "normal people". I get what they are trying to say, but they overdo it too much. It doesn't add anything to the plot really.
The Vale Castle is very beautifully done, but why a 8 year old kid need breast milk seems a bit weird to me, not sure what point they wanted to point out there beside that he was immature and spoiled?
The fighting scenes are cool, but very unrealistic.
Game of Thrones: Lord Snow (2011)
Keeps going the same way. I think it's time for a more concrete plot soon...
The dialogue between queen Cersei and prince Joffrey Baratheon is interesting. It reveals that they are both horrible persons corrupted by their inherited power.
This is followed by the Stark family dinner which is a big contrast as they seem to be acting like rather normal humans. Arya Stark continues her great acting and turns out to be a character that has morale and will.
Commander Mormont tries to build up an army from more or less peasant, which is a slow struggle. Jon Snow teaches the peasants the way of the sword. Finally some sort of evolving plot and not just confusing deceit, nudity and violence without it being put into proper context.
The relationship between Jon Snow and the dwarf (Tyrion Lannister) is evolving into something interesting.
Then there seem to be some sibling trouble between the Targaryens, but I cannot understand what it is about and the logic behind the actions. Maybe it's because I have not read the books or paid enough attention, but this is the risk this shows carries by introducing so many characters so quick without properly giving the audience time to consume it...
Game of Thrones: Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things (2011)
Still confusing, but at least some interesting development is starting...
We get introduced to a new character, Samwell Tarly, that seems completely useless, but Jon Snow protects him again showing what a great character Jon Snow is and it turns out Tarly has a horrible background as his father left him, which makes Jon feel connected to him as he has a similar background. This is one of the few developing stories that is interesting to be honest.
The sibling relationship between Daenerys and Viserys continues to be not good, but there is way to little backstory to really tell the audience why they are acting the way they are. Oh and Daenerys is pregnant.
The dwarf are being accused of a murder attempt he did not commit, that will be interesting to see the conclusion of.
Slightly better episode than number2&3, but this show needs to be more comprehensible soon, or the only audience it will have is die hard fan of the books or people that just like to see a combination of medieval, violence, deceit and sex without any proper plot. And that would exclude me from the intended audience... We'll see...
Game of Thrones: The Kingsroad (2011)
OK, but still confusing.
The confusing composition of the story continues. There are so many small stories that it is really hard to follow. But I am patient and expect it will be more clear eventually. Jon Snow (played by Kit Harington) appear to be the most interesting character and Maisie Williams is also acting well in her role as Arya Stark.
The last part of this episode seems really lame though. Different children, where one is lying during some sort of "trail" as to what happened during a play involving swords and some animals. It just doesn't make sense and seems to be some desperate attempt at showing off just how powerful the king and his family is supposed to be.
The level of details and the scenery is still gorgeous though and the music matches the plot well.
Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming (2011)
Could turn out to be interesting
I am planning to watch Game of Thrones now and write a review for every episode.
This is the pilot episode and it seems promising in terms of creating the atmosphere of a fantasy world in a medieval style. It is important to stress that it is a fantasy world I think or I will keep getting annoyed over inaccuracies if it's supposed to depict medieval ages.
It's visually stunning and a lot of distance view that really set the tone for how the scenery looks like.
This pilot suffered from one big problem though. There were far to many characters introduced and vaguely so. On top of this there are two places with a parallel story going on. I think it was over the top to introduce the audience for so much in the very first episode. To be honest I have not much of a clue as which character relates to who and why as of now.
It seems to me this pilot had been better had they just focused on one of the "kingdoms" at first and then dedicated episode 2 on the other kingdom. I hope episode 2 will clear this up.
The episode contains rather visual violence so I would not recommend children under 12 watching it by themselves. There is some nudity, but not in an offensive way, it's just all natural and I think it's just fine. I just hope they don't make the show about nudity for the sake of nudity to get viewers but instead in a natural way that form a natural part of the raw story.
Stay tuned for more reviews of this show.
The Fourth Kind (2009)
Decent thriller that sadly uses the biggest problem of modern TV
By the biggest problem of modern TV I mean the concept of portraying something that is 90% (or in this case essentially 100%) or more fake as "reality/documentary" by deliberately make an effort to convince the audience that aspects that are in fact acting are actually genuine real footage. Just think of shows like Storage Hunters, American Pickers and The Bachelor (or to be honest 80%+ of all "reality"-shows ever made) and I think you get the picture.
What's even worse is that this film uses the "actual" footage in parallel to the acting one which has a lot of disadvantages:
1. It adds nothing to the film except time wasting and confusion. 2. It deliberately misuses the trust the audience have given the film maker at the start. 3. It makes it hard for the audience to decide what is acting and what is "acting that is supposed to be not acting". Which when you think about it, is the exact same thing, only that the latter is an attempt to deceive the audience, which is always a bad thing.
This makes the movie start up way to slow. Although the thriller aspect of it is good, things go to slow and there are far too much whispering in scenes making it impossible to hear what they are saying without turning up the volume big time.
The good thing about this movie is how well it portrays the road from making a psychologist listen to outlandish experiences to actually starting believing that. It is also realistic in the ways that the patients are hesitant to actually say out loud what they actually mean.
So all in all this could have been an interesting thriller / mild horror, that had the potential to get a 8 out of 10. But the discussed issues above makes me just give it a 5 out of 10. That is how bad those problems are.
Lastly, if the movie started off very slow, the end seems rushed and if you are not paying attention at the end, it might end before you even realize it or have given any closure or insight.
So to all writers out there:
A good plot that does not deceive the audience into believing part of what is acting/made-up are actually "real", will always be a better success than a great plot that decides to blur out the border between what is acting and what is supposed to be real. This is the one biggest problem of modern TV. Remember this!
Identity Thief (2013)
A cute but not so realistic comedy with great acting
Acting is good and they both (Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy) fit their characters good.
This movie is not supposed to be a realistic depiction of a identity theft scenario and it most certainly isn't. However as a comedy it does its job rather well. Two very different character that would normally never get together are forced to spend time together on a long trip. Normally this scenario would probably not work as a good plot for a comedy but the leading actors compensate for this by being so good at acting out their differences.
The end is perhaps a bit to cliché but I have seen worse endings. I tend to have a hard time to bother to keep focus on a film throughout the entire span, but with this one, it was no problem. Some of the action scenes seemed a bit unnecessary though to be honest. The story and comedy was more than interesting enough in itself.
Her (2013)
An overrated and uninteresting story
This is one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. It seems like the film is suppose to take place in the near future and the main character buys a new operating system for his computer.
It turns out that this operating system is not really an operating system but an interactive "robot" that tries to behave as human as possible. The voice on the operating system has to be one of the most annoying voices I have ever heard. How can someone with such an annoying voice end up as an actor? The producer of this film seem to lack a fundamental understanding of how Artificial Intelligence works and how it is likely to develop in the near future. This film is a good example of how people that have no clue about technology and its development might THINK the near future will look like, however it's embarrassing to see such a misguided attempt at projecting our technological development. And reading the reviews here that often seem to think this is a realistic development is really worrying to me. Do people really have so little clue as to how things are likely to develop in the near future. There is no practical, no social or no logical need for anything that is remotely close to the AI technology depicted in this movie.
The mere idea that he had to use several advance finger/touch movements on an operating system that otherwise seemed to have a perfect implementation of voice recognition is so ridiculous it's unbelievable. The operating system character has the most uncool characteristics I have ever seen. It shows concerns, feelings and act irrational. Why would anyone EVER develop an OS with such deficiencies? The answer is, no one would.
This is arguably the most overrated movie of 2013.