super entertaining, a little dramatic and silly. it's trash and i like it. for anyone debating bingeing it in full, the ending was a pretty decent wrap up.
mia wasikowska was the absolute breakout star of this season. i have never wanted to hug a child in a movie more.
just started this because it came up in netflix and it's been on my to watch lately and tbh the lion roars and dog barks have tickled my housecat so 10/10 purely because she's entertained
i'd put this firmly in the guilty pleasure category of tv shows that i watch: good but a bit silly. i have to say that i picked this up because i've missed lauren german with all of my heart since she left chicago fire and now i'm sticking around for all of the characters. they're all really charming! i think the spin tom ellis is putting on lucifer is entertaining and while this show could be far darker i think the current tone suits it pretty well.
i've watched the entirety of this season so far for sunil and jesse and christ the gaslighting that goes on in adele's room almost needs its own section in MY therapy sessions
the kids are what really make this show. also, they're better actors than like 90% of the seasoned adult actors currently on television so please remake every tv series starring them.
it's kind of a silly show but most procedurals are and i can suspend a lot of disbelief for them. also i love trent's actor thanks to agents of shield. i do wonder if this still would've premiered had it not been for the writer's strike though.
also gotta agree with everyone else - the notion that they'd just call him sir forever is laughable at least from the perspective of trauma recovery
i think my favorite thing about this show (aside from just how ridiculous and unhinged it is) is that it's never entirely clear whether there's a true supernatural presence of evil, or whether everyone's just having some real fucked up hobbies and hallucinations.
more important than a review: if you stream this and after a few episodes it goes from very normal subtitles to incomprehensible ones, let me save you some trouble:
• "vomit" i'm pretty sure means "confess/admit", "are you sane" is "are you crazy"
• "ulam" is just another way to romanize the more commonly written "wooram" (the other name romanizations are easy to keep up with)
• "chikusho" is the japanese semi-equivalent of the korean "shibal" at least in terms of usage and comes up every time a character says "shibal" or even "aish" or "jinjja" which is ridiculous (but also, why is there a japanese romaji word in english subs?? maybe the odd english subtitles were made by the same person who made the japanese subs for the show)
• the show very clearly uses the konglish for "mafia" but when the weird subtitles come on suddenly it's "werewolves" (which is fine i mean the games werewolf and mafia are the same but SERIOUSLY, they SAY mafia??? come on?????)
• which reminds me "chairperson" is "student president"
• worst part: the pronoun use is ALL OFF. just WILDLY wrong. nearly every time you see i/we pronouns that don't make sense with what you understand from the rest of the contextual clues, it's meant to be he/she/they pronouns. they also switch he/she pronouns a lot when talking about female characters (see: jungwon in the last ep). it's not too difficult once you know what's going on but there's definitely some moments in the last few episodes that i just don't think i fully grasped because of the pronoun mistakes.
i have no clue why the subs were normal for a few episodes only, but MAN. sometimes i understood the korean more than the subtitles and that's saying something since the last time i really spoke any coherent korean was maybe 2017
anyway onto the series itself, it's imperfect and plenty goes unanswered but it's an entertaining guilty pleasure kdrama that i happily binged over a few days. if you like this subgenre like i do it'll be very easy to enjoy and suspend disbelief for. acting's pretty solid as a bonus!
acting, direction and handling of different mental issues and themes of violence were all spot on. you will root for everyone at some points, even people you don't want to root for. and then you will be disappointed by everyone at some points, even people you don't want to judge. it's a painfully raw, upsetting series, and if you can stomach it, do watch it.
most importantly i'd suggest taking all the comments and reviews floating around the internet seriously. it is triggering, and not in the pop culture sense of the word. the only other time i've experienced this amount of visceral, physical distress over something otherwise harmless was the sound of a particular type of voice triggering a traumatic event. i went in believing wholeheartedly that it might be intense like everyone warned squid game would be (and it was), but that the triggers wouldn't be things i needed to be concerned about: i don't have my own child, and i'm not a victim of domestic partner violence.
but there are scenes of panic, anxiety, dissociation and dread. there are scenes with perspective views that are jarring, and scenes which act as unreliable narrative tools. there are characters who relapse into alcoholism, and there are extremely authentic and distressing manic episodes that play out on screen when alex's mother is concerned. there is homelessness, depicted in a number of ways and in the ways that most people don't think about, like sleeping in your car and having no safety net between various, fleeting types of temporary housing. there are courthouse scenes, and courtroom scenes (particularly stressful for me, having experienced them), and there are sensations of claustrophobia, loss of time and helplessness that the camerawork and acting convey in a way that translates outside of the actual show and into your own reactions, if you have ever felt any of those sensations yourself.
there are people who try to do the right thing, for the wrong reasons. there are people characterized as good, who are not good. there are people who keep doing the wrong thing. there are no straightforward villains because everyone is realistic, and that makes it worse. and there is a lead character in alex, with an innocent child, who consistently encounters obstacle after obstacle and does not get to breathe—not really—until the very last episode.
if you don't have any experience with the issues tackled by this show or you're watching it for maid confessions like the book, you will likely not get everything out of this experience that the show has to offer. if you are prone to dissociation, intense worry, or have firsthand experience with any of the things i've mentioned here, you're going to have a tough time. i regularly attend therapy and i'm doing quite well, but it was still not the kind of show i could binge-watch and it did come up a couple of times in therapy—for the better, honestly.
the last thing i want to say regarding the content is that, if you were a parentified child, or had insecure attachments growing up due to neglect, abuse or addiction—this is scary. unless you are completely cut off from your experiences with insecure attachment? this will remind you of things that aren't actually happening on screen, from different times and of different natures. i was a parentified child, and i still to this day struggle with not worrying about people who aren't my responsibility. that theme is present throughout the show, and it does not let up, not until the very end.
enjoyable but i'm so tired of shows doing cliffhangers before there's a guaranteed next season. or at all. i hate cliffhangers period.
this is charming and entertaining but if you're not actually a comics fan i don't think you'll see value in watching it. i have a feeling most of the comments complaining about the "point" of this series are from people who are fans of the superhero genre in movies/tv but not necessarily comics. if you're familiar with comic books, this feels a lot like comic books but animated, honestly.
excellent ending, 10/10. overall good, honest portrayal of the fallout of something like this.
most priceless quote: "and now as a mother, i can't even understand why i did that." it's literally the remix of woke dads on the internet going "now that i'm a father i understand what rape culture does i could Never Imagine that happening to my daughter" like you need offspring to understand the devastation of sexual assault on a human being? bitch please.
A n Y w A y i think this would have worked better as a mini series of 5 50 minute long episodes. there were some scenes that didn't need to happen and others that deserved much more gravity and time. i like how the issue of sexual abuse was handled in the show and the last episode was such a long time coming for having only sat through 9 half hour episodes that it really felt satisfying to end on that note. both leads are incredible actors and did the story justice. it wasn't a happy watch but it was a worthwhile one.
for anyone thinking of watching—it's a great series, highly recommend. but to be perfectly clear, if you're unfamiliar with its source material, this is loosely inspired by the billy milligan case, emphasis on loosely. the only real overlap is the idea of dissociative identity disorder being used as a valid insanity defense and a few family details. the majority strays very far from the reality, and i think that's honestly for the sake of making it more palatable for viewing. this tells its own fictionalized story, and i just want to emphasize that for anyone going into it blind who sees the adaptation credit in the opening.
very much in the vein of creepy fiction podcasts and honestly delightful for it. i love this particular genre that relies on audio only to convey horror and suspense, it makes for such a great experience.
the music in this show is INCREDIBLE
the series overall is a great adaptation, and this media format really serves the original story well. after all, it's hard to tell the stories of so many characters in a single book, no matter how much of a saga it is. i think everyone was well rounded, the acting was amazing and the effects were solid. the last episode is a bit silly, but i also don't think stephen king necessarily wrote it for audiences so much as just himself, seeing as how he's rewritten the original story before.
also, i would like alex skarsgård to be given some sort of award or medal for the number of times he's played huge antagonists with grace, talent, and constant shots of his butt. i'm pretty sure the man is out here singlehandedly trying to balance out decades of gratuitous female nudity all with his own lily white ass. what a trooper.
this was a beautiful and quick series addition to the mcu. i don't recommend it for anyone who takes marvel very seriously or who gets aggravated by storylines that don't always get seen through to their end. a big part of comics is constant branching stories and complicated continuity and also the whole multiverse thing, so i've never come to the mcu expecting logic or sense or perfect choices. this was entertaining and emotionally powerful thanks to its leads, and if those are what you come to the mcu for then you'll love it. it's very much agents of shield, and that's a positive for me, personally.
first, since the show never gives any kind of message in this way: for anyone who's ambivalent to or already has negative opinions or therapy, please know that finding a safe, ethical therapist who knows just how important the doctor-patient relationship truly is can be difficult but is also highly rewarding. i've been in therapy a number of years and during stressful times i may go once a week, while most of the time i'm happy to go every month or two months. i take medication for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder but therapy is what gave me the ability to actually live and thrive—medication was also necessary, but simply allows me to function. the shrink next door and the real events behind it are horrifying, but trust me when i say that they are not representative of all therapy, and that if you ever think you might need to talk to a professional, to please look into your options. it's not just for people who have mental illnesses and it's not just for people with trauma. everyone, truly, can benefit from it.
onto the review:
not a terrible watch, but i do think the investigative podcast into the story was the right format for this kind of thing. it wasn't enjoyable to watch as a piece of entertainment. it's very sad and disappointing, much like the real story is.
i will say that the end, with the epilogue text, was my least favorite aspect of the series. ending on the note "marty has never returned to therapy" is troubling—i don't expect the man to ever feel safe doing so. but the message isn't a clear one. you can't tell whether they're saying this because they want you to be mistrustful of therapeutic processes or because they want to illustrate the damage that can be done by an unethical therapist. that lack of clarity is irresponsible, as people can be put off of the idea of therapy very easily, despite it being an incredibly valuable and important tool. it seems a little silly to say, but i think that this show would have benefited from the pre or post credit call to action that a lot of netflix shows have implemented regarding traumatic subject matter. even as someone who has a very positive relationship with therapy, watching this (and listening to the podcast) was difficult.
colin firth's one failing in this role is that he's too wonderful, it makes me root for him in a way i never rooted for his real life counterpart in the docuseries.
excellent dramatization though - i'd say watch the docuseries first if you find the episodes difficult to follow or too confusing to keep your attention. knowing the real story won't make it any less enjoyable a watch, promise! it'll just keep you in step with the moving timeline and family structure.
highly recommend the making 1899 special! it's fascinating tbh.
i don't mind the ending because netflix canceled it. as an ending point and a Reveal it's fine; i'd have lost interest entirely in a second season in that setting i think. but i loved the international cast and wish more projects utilized it, as complicated as it might be. i used to be an esl instructor and my favorite thing about that was getting to watch students interact across language barriers on break when they'd rather rely on body language and other cues than keep practicing their L2 language (it gets exhausting for the brain very quickly).
i honestly liked it a lot. like i said in another comment, it sits better with me since all the footage involving wild animals is just cgi. kyle mclachlan and kate mckinnon humanize howard and carole in a way that the documentary failed to do, likely because the real howard and carole are a little boring and not quite reality tv fodder the way joe was. dean winters as jeff lowe was a delight, too. all the casting was great, while i'm at it.
either way, i think that it's a fun background watch and there are a lot of great moments. it's capitalizing on the tiger king popularity but hey, at least it does so relatively responsibly. if you hated carole after watching the documentary, though, it's probably not for you.
tbh. im just glad i didn't have to relive travis maldonado's death in hollywood fashion.
this is an incredible dramatization of a true crime podcast, 100% recommend it. everyone embodies their roles fully, jj was horrifying as duntsch, and christian slater was perhaps at his most delightful that i've seen him in years. it's faithful to the real story, probably in part because the true story is so fucking heinous to begin with. and the directors for each episode were spot on. three insanely talented female directors, yes please forever. jennifer morrison's episodes in particular impressed me so much. and so yong kim's direction in the court room had to be amazing, considering the performances that everyone gave in there.
(that ending line though, tv and film has to stop reminding me that capitalism is hell and we suck at taking care of our citizens, it's not great for my mental health)
anyone thinking of watching this who's an adult: yes, this feels rushed, but it's GOOD. like i thought i loved the movie and went back and rewatched (did not, was just distracted by logan lerman i think) and this is miles away better. here's my theory: i have a feeling if you sat a kid in front of this every weeknight before bed they wouldn't have much to say about the pacing, or what feels glossed over or lacking. it has a pace geared towards late elementary to middle school attention spans and i think a pace for young adults or college students would have what feels missing but it ALSO would be aged up to compensate for the demographic. to my knowledge, the aging up of the movies was part of why the creator of the books was unhappy with them (could be wrong though).
either way, if you think the quick pace will ruin the experience for you, i'd suggest marathoning all the episodes in one or two sittings like a movie. it's a quick and fun watch, and that might off-set the rushed feeling.
i decided to stop watching man in the high castle for a bit because dystopia's a little harder to enjoy in 2023 and only planned to watch a couple episodes of this—but i just finished it in two nights and my whole heart almost exploded into confetti by the last episode. it's so funny and wholesome and genuinely one of the most entertaining pieces of reality tv i've ever consumed. also, the last episode gives such a cool behind the scenes look at how they produced this! i'm really glad they gave us that because it's like the cherry on top of an already awesome piece of work.
one of the lawyers makes a really timely remark too—he mentioned the team told him "help you're like the one person who's competent at both of these things" meaning practicing law and writing for (semi?) scripted television and between that and the incredible production crew behind the scenes reinforces how important these people are to legitimately good content and entertainment. AI has nothing on james marsden playing james marsden and the crew who wrote these hysterical characters.
i really liked this season. it reminded me of the intensity of the first season, and bill pullman played a very complex character perfectly. alice kremelberg is fucking fantastic. also everyone cries really convincingly in this season.
tbh it's one of the stronger series in its genre so i'm surprised it got canceled. maybe it's because it's SO FUCKING DEPRESSING
decent acting and a quick binge if you're bored, but after suffering through all of pretty little liars i'm a little exhausted by the scary faceless tormentor trope.
god mellisa is intolerable how many times is she going to whine about people taking credit for her work when people get complimented on things they did, not her??
also not @ her complaining about everyone lacking knowledge on running a business when her story is literally "our restaurant sunk all our money and we had to close after the pandemic"
disclaimer: i haven't played the games and never watched the jovovich movies. my gummies kicked in around episode 7, too.
this was entertaining. acting isn't always great and suspension of disbelief was difficult at times—how this girl survive the apocalypse but also routinely stand there and stare at giant insects instead of running immediately?? i mean that's what i'd do, yeah, but i'd also be the first to die in an apocalypse. for me and my trash taste, though, it had good cgi and the representation didn't feel forced to me. just bear in mind i'm an outsider with zero knowledge on the franchise. lance reddick was delightful, honestly. and it was watchable both before and after i got high, which is more than i can say for some horror.
my favorite character was baxter though.
i love netflix for so many reasons, and this is one of them. there are a ton of screen adaptations out that have failed to do their original book justice, but it especially bums me out when an author is unable to write the screenplay for an adaptation of their book or unable to have enough of a say in how their story plays out on screen. this series, unlike the movie adaptation, has lemony snicket written all over it, and watching it has been so much fun.
