Not quite as fun nor inventive as the first season but still worth a watch for fans of the series. Does some things very well like Mad Santa and lets other plot elements simply repeat themselves from the first season like Cal's regression. Great production design like last time but the way it's shot and the editing seems to have fallen to the wayside.
Fun to see some more connections to the original film and this time to the second one too like Judy's "return" and a nod to what happened to Curtis....
Way better than it has any right to be. It took the original concept that fans of the books and original TV series know well, adapted and updated the premise from an anthology into longform storytelling, and gave it heart.
Genuinely decent performances from most of the cast, the teens and of course Justin Long, our comedic-horror heartthrob. Finally there's a modern show about generation-z that seems watchable and not cringey. It's been a long time coming. As a huge fan of the original series, this exceeded my expectations and better utilised the property than the film series. The show does a good job of tying each story / prop that us 30-something fans know, into the fabric of the story in a smart way.
I didn't really buy the parents' delivery all that much and their story points did more to detract from the overall arc. Obviously leagues better than the 90s' show's acting which is laughably poor, but could have been downplayed more to focus on the teens.
Honestly, not too much to fault from this first outing. Seems like other user-reviewers here, on RT and on IMDb are either complaining it's "too woke" if they're conservatively-minded or "too offensive, lacking in diversity and stereotypical" from liberals. You really can't please anyone these days. Guess this was made for me? The first Disney+ thing I've genuinely enjoyed. Bring on more.
Fuck the Pickwick Triplets.
This season has it's moments but it's slow and meaningless. Oliver, Charles and Maybelle all still have a good screen presence but the start is poorly paced with imagination scenes throughout that just "do not sing". Speaking of which, whenever a show makes itself into a musical, there's going to be a descent into crassness. It's the case here too. Musicals are gimmicks in of themselves. This season seems to be too. Hopefully season 4 will ground itself again.
For the most part, this is a poorly written and dull sci-fi show. Plotholes galore, goofy videogame cutscene delivery from the cast, and dull narrative arcs. How Disney managed to make something as cool as space bounty hunting this drab is a marvel in its own right. Yes, it looks incredible - we have some stellar CGI, detailed props, costumes and puppetry but there's very little else there. Certainly worth a watch if you're a Star Wars fan like myself but I can't imagine people not into the series would gain anything worthwhile from this.
Kelvin's Yu's new Disney+ show American Born Chinese is a breath of fresh air from Disney. It borrows from its source material, a well-respected graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, and like all good "wuxia" fiction cultivates and improves itself for the contemporary audience. The original novel divides its story between the Monkey King, second-generation teen Jin Wang and a buffoonish racist caricature Chin-Kee; with the TV show it follows similar emotional beats but deviates fairly early on. Here we have Sun Wukong's son taking precedence as the Monkey King on Earth (yes, this works as a sequel to Journey to the West!) and a soccer-loving secret-nerd Jin. But the biggest change is the racist stereotype Chin-kee being replaced with Ke Huy Quan's character Jamie Yao who reflects on his role as an Asian stereotype in a 1990s sitcom. This takes the weight of the racist narrative opposed to the novel which was set in 2006, but it's brilliantly done and all three story strands fit well together just like in the original story.
But there are more noticeable differences. One distinct one is that Michelle Yeoh's Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) replaces the role of the original author's Christian Chinese God (though Chinese Christianity does feature) which I think works far better for the overall frame story. The other is that on top of this being a coming-of-age genre, it's also now a martial arts story. Taking inspiration from both wuxia (martial hero) and xianxia (heavenly hero) subgenres, the show uses a mixture of tropes common to both, for example, we have characters using "weightlessness" (that's your 'flying' and wire-fu) as well as magical weaponry from Heaven, but also grounds itself in hand-to-hand combat too. The action is expertly shot for a Western production and allows the viewer to follow it with ease. This is not necessarily going to work for every Western viewer, but for those willing to give it a go - it's excellent introduction to the wuxia genre and Chinese storytelling. More of this, please, Disney..
That said - it's way too short with only eight episodes. A lot more could have been fleshed out in some characters' motives. Also, comparisons will of course be made to this being Everything Everywhere All At Once-lite. The cast and theme are both similar (Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan all feature) and therefore might come across as a quick Disney cash-grab in some small part but that's surface level. If I was going to compare this to any other show, I'd say this was Disney+'s take on Netflix's ever-popular Cobra Kai (with a fantastical twist). Hopefully, we'll get a few more seasons of this to match that show!
Takes a bit of a dive in quality compared to the first two seasons, the peak being the second. There's still a lot of solid comedic takes in this but placing our humble vampiric quattro into the Vampiric Council getup gets old fast. Still heartfelt, funny for the most part and damn gorgeous to look at of course.
Starts off quite amusing and novel with a storyline that focuses on a society where most have superpowers but the show quickly plummets. The writing and performance of the actors both come across childish, tepid and unfunny. More and more as episodes go on. Although set in a "British Metropolis", it feels very much like it's a comedy written for an American audience. Perhaps that's the Disney+ formula. If you want a similar show which is darkly amusing then Misfits from the 00s if the place to go.
Very enjoyable first season that feels like they adapted the source material well to the medium of television. Some great special effects, costuming and set design from a great Cardiff production company, Bad Wolf. The casting and acting are decent, although the writing in dialogue isn't always lucid, coming across forced. Perhaps that has more to do with Pullman's original contributions though. Lorne Balfe does a great job of scoring this. I'll have that theme song in my head for a while for sure.
I thought the concept of an embodied ghost stressing about leaving a legacy and whether to prom or not prom was novel but overall it's very poorly executed. Slow, boring at times, riddled with plot holes by its end but enjoyable enough characters - many of which give this show a surreal tone (like the mother and her baby). Would have worked better as a 90min film.
This was an exasperating watch. Took a while to get through it. I thought few of the stories made much sense, the action faltered in places and the dialogue was a struggle. Chozen was the standout character. Season 6 should be the end of the show.
Just a really crappy premise. In a world where we're meant to be protecting pollinators, Atkinson vows to destroy one poor solitary bee? There were times where I thought he had a change of heart, but then the writing double-downed on killing the insect. Did Atkinson's agent not veto this before he took it on? It was weird to find myself rooting not for our "humble" protagonist Atkinson's Trevor but the pretentious wealthy homeowners. Trevor was a lunatic. The CG bumblebee though is top-notch and it's worth watching a few episodes simply for the work that went into that. Man vs. Bee's biggest offence though? It's not even that funny.
Really fun but also kinda dumb. Sort of a try-hard Buffy but for the 30 year old age bracket. Wouldn't have appreciated this when it came out half as much as I do now. Ridiculously cheesy acting and silly storylines, but the chemistry of the Charmed Ones is second to none. Hopefully season 2 improves on the disjointed nature of the first season.
After a middling second and third season, Cobra Kai returns with some force this time around. There's some incredibly talented martial artist performers used throughout the season which makes this show such a joy to watch. Many of the mainstay actors here are performing some of their best choreography that they've done. Story steps up a gear or two as well with the reintroduction of old antagonists. Yes, many of the minor characters lack any distinct acting gravitas, but I think we can let some of that slide.
Captures the British Christmas experience perfectly.
Somewhat engaging even with all the filler episodes. Not terrible for a first season, although if compared to the first seasons of other vampire TV giants like Buffy and True Blood, this pales in comparison. Perhaps it's the lackluster dialogue, or the character motivations being a little shoddy. Something felt off but I'm willing to give it another season.
An unfortunate end installment to a great animated series. Wizards' story was overly confusing due to its rushed production, with elements rarely explained or brushed over. Whereas Trollhunters suffered from the occasional filler episode, Wizards would have done well to double its length to really flesh out character motives (I'd say 3below struck a decent balance). Stunning to look at of course, and with fantastic animation and voice acting, Wizards will satisfy but you can't help thinking that it could have been more.
