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StephenRao
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Rick and Morty (2013)
We live in a bad timeline. If it were the good timeline, this show would remain a masterpiece.
Currently, (2022/23) this show seems to be very insecure about itself. It insists upon itself and thinks it's smarter than it actually is. Almost every dialogue is not supposed to be some profound statement.
The show seems to always complain about having to do serialized episodes, whines about how formulaic those stories are and always takes a stab at the fans for caring about it, but what the creators failed to realize, is that they put themselves in this situation.
They're the ones who created Evil Morty and left him in the background for fans to speculate. They also set up Rick having a tragic backstory, yet they keep making fun of the fans for caring about it.
It's like it's afraid of being cliché and sincere and has to keep trying to prove how "cool" and "smart" it is, which ultimately results in it doing none of that.
Rick & Morty is that insecure teen always trying to prove how much better it is than everyone else while sinking deeper and deeper into insanity.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation (2021)
Kevin Smith looking into a mirror: "I'm going to destroy this man's whole career!"
Way too much subliminal #metoo-ing. Here's some bullet points:
*Deaths were there to just be edgy and lacked meaning.
*Teela's fear turns out to be a man (He-Man), who says, "I only get stronger because you keep giving me power." She was always so strong and fought beside him, even saved him so many times, so why do this?
*Preternia is now Valhalla and is full of muscle-bros with just one girl, who talks in grunts like a dummy and none of the males can understand her. This is paradise for them, mind you. Sure..no preachy, subliminal sexist undertones here. Why change so much about the lore for this kind of message?!
*Teela was always linked to Adam and He-Man, but she and her girlfriend were very clearly a couple, which is okay for a bit, but almost the entire show was about them. The only two "males", who went on the adventure with them were a robot and a beast.
* Moss-Man died in the stupidest way. Anyone with a blowtorch can kill him, now?
Bottom-line:
Plot: Man sacrifices himself and dies, but the woman suffers because she didn't know his secret identity, makes his death all about herself, cuts her hair and turns into a lesbian. Again...WHY is this in He-Man? Why was this just not called MOTU: Teela's Journey, or something?
2.5/5.
Stranger Things (2016)
Season 1 is great; the rest not so much.
Season 1 is quite gripping. The characters are fleshed out very well at the start, itself. The story is not predictable and it really feels like every bit of 80s sci-fi gold.
Season 2, however, is like a bad X-Men comic and felt heavily bloated, uninspired and boring. Season 3 is more of the same, except the focus is a lot more on the kids' relationships with each other , which can be a good thing if done right, but it's not done too nicely here.
Watch Season 1 and give the rest a skip, because this show is a lot hype and people buy into hype easily.
Sneaky Pete (2015)
A good show, but not deserving of the high 8.0 rating
Sneaky Pete is a good show with a good story, but a lot of the time, the show relies on plot devices that are created to merely further the plot. Season 1 was especially guilty of this and as a whole sort of fell apart at the end. A lot of things happened for plot convenience and were a waste of the viewer's time.
Thankfully, season 2 built upon these plot devices a little and gave them closure. Hence, I've bumped up this show from a 5 to a 7. The show also seems to love every movie and TV show cliche, but does it a little better than what we've come to expect. Here's hoping Season 3 is more like 2 and less like the first season.
The Office Retrospective (2013)
The show is an 8.5, but this one is a 4
"When we arrive in Scranton, it's like The Beatles and The Pope arriving at the same time" - Oscar Nunez.
This documentary completely ignores the differences between the U.K and U.S versions and was made, mainly, to inflate the egos of the writers and the cast.
They also chose some of the worst scenes to display their style of humor in the clips. They have a ton of better scenes they could have chosen from. They try to depict, that the romance between Dwight and Angela, Erin and Andy and Michael and Holly, was on the same level as Jim and Pam and that just isn't true. Jim's and Pam's worked so well, because it was almost entirely a copy of Tim and Dawn's from the original U.K show. The rest just felt like drama for the sake of it.
In reality, they had to end the show because of the amount of ridicule it was receiving at the time. It ended way later than it should have and Rainn Wilson carried the entire show through it's last few seasons almost single-handed.
In conclusion, this is mainly for die-hard fans of the show.
The Last Man on Earth (2015)
Very, very poorly written!
The rampant, unchecked poor writing on display is almost impressive in it's audacity. The writers need to understand that, 'annoying' is not funny!
I gave this show a proper chance and watched all three seasons. One quickly observes by the end of season one, that there's no story whatsoever! It's just characters with either no personalities or irritating personalities interacting with each other.
Here's the problem with the actors and the characters.
Kristen Schaal (Carol), is unforgivably annoying throughout the show, and I mean each and every episode and almost every scene she's in. It's not just her character, but her portrayal of her. I'm so scarred and put off by this performance, that I might not ever see any of her shows or movies again. I get the concept of having 'crazy, wacky characters' do 'crazy wacky things', but does it have to be annoying each and every time?!
January Jones can't act to save her life. She's completely stone- faced throughout the show, even in emotional scenes; so much so, that they felt the need to change her character into that kind of persona in Seasons 2 and 3 just to keep her around. Her character not being killed off and still being around merely for eye- candy, is a monument to the show's lack of shame.
Another pattern this show follows, is that every time a new character is introduced, all characters, for inexplicable reasons shun Tandy (Will Forte) and suck up to the new guy. Even Tandy's own wife does this a few times for no reason other than the show wanting to show us, "oh look, Tandy's getting shunned and is making that funny, frustrated face again. How funny!".
In conclusion: 1. Annoying characters 2. Characters often acting a certain way without motivation just for the convenience of the plot 3. A couple of really, really annoying characters that get a lot of screen time 4. No story 5. New characters being introduced just to be killed off to add a sense of fake tension.
The show doesn't have the guts to kill any main character because I assume, they wouldn't know how to write a new and interesting one. 6. Caters to the lowest common denominator of comedy fans.
Stay away from this show, unless you're desperate and have nothing else to watch.
3/10