A true eye opener about the inner workings of a cult, told by its victims.
The first season of GITS SAC 2045 is so uneven and poorly written, that you can skip the first 5 episodes without losing a single plot point. The whole story could be summarized in 60 seconds of dialogue. The remainder six episodes are uneven, but enjoyable, except the last one. Now, the CGI is VERY distracting and subpar, with only a few highlights here and there. The producers made a poor choice leaving behind their wonderful ARISE hand-drawn animation style just to settle with a PS2-era garden-variety CGI fare. The music is intrusive and bombastic in many episodes, but there are a few good pieces in the last episodes. As the next season will keep the same look and plot, it's a shame this opportunity for a true GITS series is lost.
This is what Star Wars is all about. Heroes against impossible odds fighting lost battles, willing to give it all for a true cause and honor. The characters (all of them) in this episode are treated with respect, and the excellent writting and acting makes you worry for them, care for them, feel every loss as if it were yours, and cheer every little win as an epic triumph. You mourn with this characters, you laugh with them. This series keeps the right balance between tragedy, drama and comedy. It feels timeless, and makes you wish to revisit it like when you hang out with a good friend you've not seen in a while. It's a proper ending for the season, and gosh, this is how Disney should handle their entire Star Wars franchise. It's gonna be a long year until the next season, I'm sure of it. This... is the way.
I gave up on this dumpster fire of a show after watching the 4th episode's promo. When your promo clearly shows all the plot and ending in 45 seconds, why waste 45 minutes?. Hope it gets cancelled by next year.
Beautifully written, perfectly acted. The layers and layers of complexity, reference to literature, philosophy, art, technology and medicine, all wrapped-up in a retro-future setting make for a delightful, loving experience about healing and hope. This is one of the best mini-series I've ever seen in a long time. It takes its time to deliver a perfect ending, that makes you wonder about everything you have seen.
It was quite unfair that this show got cancelled. Still one of my favorite shows.
What I find more compelling about this show is how it uses an alien invader to create a narrative and commentary about terrorism (its motivations, drives, philosophical justificaction) and counter-terrorism in the post 9-11 era, mixing elements from World War II and the 60's anti-colonial movement in Africa and Asia. Excellent show, I really hope it gets more than two seasons.
Sadly, it has almost nothing to do with Adam's novels. They kept just the name of the main character, the clueless sidekick, the cat and the dog. The narrative lacks the british wit and crazy charm of the orginal series, the philosophical implications of chaos, or the novel's extreme confluence. Seattle (or should I say, Vancouver) is a lousy replacement for London, as in the novels the city becomes another character. It's enjoyable, but the original series did more in its 3 episode run than this in 8.
This series borrows a lot of elements (both visual and plot-wise) from Metropolis (1927). Chinatown (1974), The Hustle (1975), Alien (1979), Outland (1981), Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1992) and Firefly (2002), so there's not much "new" stuff to ponder about. The plot is hard to follow (and the patois seriously needs proper subtitles) for anyone not versed on the novels. It's an excellent series, but hardly original.
Excellent series. The premise feels fresh, and there's enough humanity and sensibility in the characters to make me care for them.
Hands down, the best performance I've ever seen from Jean Claude Van Damme. His comedic chops are amazing, and I wouldn't mind at all if Amazon decides to pickup this pilot as a full blown series.
The Glades is one of those easy-going shows that grows on you. It was cancelled not by low ratings or lack of fans, but because A&E wanted to own their IP's and keep their costs low with reality shows like Duck Dinasty and Storage Wars. I mean, this is a procedural show with excellent reviews, and the most-watched and highest-rated original drama series at A&E. Sadly, Netflix wasn't into buying-producing original series back in 2013 as much as they are (Longmire had less audience than The Glades when it was also cancelled by A&E and renewed by Netflix). Matt Passmore was at his very best in the last season, full of charm and totally owning his character, and it was funny to watch how the Gateway, Microsoft, Kia and Dodge Charger infomercials used to blend-in into the plot. I've missed this show, and I do have a solid theory about who was the shooter, among the ton of enemies Jim made along four seasons (spoiler: it was Ray's Mom). I haven't seen A&E in a while since The Glades and Longmire were axed... has anyone?.
Wallander is one of the best series I've ever seen. Beautiful photography, masterfully directed and a flawless cast make this series a must for anyone serious about quality drama. It takes a lot of patience, because Wallander is shot between Kenneth Branagh's filming schedule (and he's quite busy as a director), so it's 3 episodes every two years... but it's worth it. Now, I'm waiting for the 4th season and enjoying it all over again.
When I first heard the news that my favorite Neil Gaiman comic was set to premiere as a TV show, I was delighted. Later, I found out it was on FOX, and like those damned souls entering hell, I've lost all my hopes already. FOX has messed up/cancelled all the shows that I got to like in their programming. Every one of them. The change in showrunner isn't a good sign, and demoting Tom Kapinos (the series creator and main writer) is a bad move to begin with (please, he wrote the damn pilot they greenlit!). I'm sure FOX will cancel this series after the 10 episodes commitment, and call it "an event mini-series". This show belongs to Netflix, in both scope and theme. I loved the pilot (the nod to David Bowie made me smile), please sell it to Netflix!.
Golgo 13 is a retro-style anime that draws heavily from sniper stories about impossible shots in adverse conditions during the turmoil of the Cold War. If you don't know the manga by Takao Saito (the oldest still in publication, since 1968 and most likely about to conclude soon), the whole vibe of the series will feel wrong to some viewers, as Togo's narrative hasn't changed since the 70's. There is not need of character development, as the series depicts vignettes in the daily life of a professional actually doing his job, and nothing else. The characters around him are either service providers (weaponsmiths, intelligence brokers and prostitutes), clients or victims, and pretty much following the structure of the classic Japanese gangster movies, characters fade in and out, and never cross paths with him again. These 50 episodes are just like the stories depicted in the first 70 numbers of the manga. We don't know anything about Duke Togo (that isn't even his real name), and we never will (other than his code name is an "engrish" word for Golgotha and the number 13 a reference to Judas). He has an asian appearence, but never in the manga is stated as Japanese (he travels with a passport from an unspecified nation), as he speaks fluently russian, german, spanish, french, italian, english, mandarin, afrikaans and portuguese, all of them well enough to pass as a native speaker. I happen to find Golgo 13 quite refreshing, as the "assasination of the week" nature of the show is my kind of thrill (L&O style), and I don't have to worry about what's going on next, as do I know he'll get the job done and collect his 3 million dollars... or else. Suggestion: don't watch the dubbed version, and try to watch before "The Professional: Golgo 13" and the "Queen Bee" OVA, so you can get in to the mood.
I'm sad that NBC has already cancelled this series and now they'll just burn the last 4 episodes. Therefore, the plot of the missing wife, the FBI agent that tries to "uncover" the activites of The House (that just received the alterative name of "Occam"), the Pit Boss past and the rest of interesting bits that made this series so enjoyable, won't be concluded. Therefore, I'm not wasting my time with those 4 episodes anymore. Ironically, they've already sold this show to 105 countries... and most of them will premiere it next year.
One of my favorite 70's mini-series as a kid was Martian Chronicles. I had just finished Ray Bradbury's book back then (1979), and I was "in the zone" the first night that the haunting theme composed by Stanley Myers came out my little TV (as a kid I had a B&W 12" General Electric portable TV that my grandmother gave me as a gift so I could watch series at night while lying on my bed). The story was a huge departure from the book, but I was thrilled, and hugely dissapointed that it was only 3 episodes long. Over the years, I have bought this series several times (Betamax tapes, VHS tapes and the infamous Collector's Edition DVD, and also the soundtrack CD from MGM Music), and today had the chance to enjoy it in 720p, in one sitting. It looks fantastic. The budget was spent in the main cast and locations, and very, very little in visual effects (as usual in most of BBC's fare of the late 70's), and the end result is fairly decent, with only a HUGE, AWFUL, BAD VFX shot in the third episode that even as a kid made me laugh, and a few matte paintings that aren't that good here and there. The sets, props and art design are early 70's top of the line (it was shot in 1978), some of them as good as anything NBC or BBC had on the air back then. The idea was that keep the story and message clear, despite the obvious flaws. The Martian props are just amazing, and I've been looking for Martian Conflict Masks since. As a modern viewer, you'll need to look at this show with you suspension of disbelief mode fully active (the sky is blue, there are clouds everywhere, water canals and more importantly AIR, on Mars), and take the astronautics "science" with it huge grain of salt (that part of the show was crap even then). You have to, in order to enjoy a great cast, a thoughtful narrative and an excellent ending.
Probably the best Netflix series I've seen this year, and the best from Gaumont (I'm glad that they kept the same quality level from Hannibal), again shot in 4K for main photography and 8K for aerial views. From the production standpoint, it proves that José Padilha is one of the best Latin American directors & producers, as he kept most of his Brazilian film production crew, including Pedro Bromfman (his haunting music is excellent for this series). The fact that this series was mostly shot in Colombia (in some of the real locations where Escobar lived), is noteworthy, and the level of realism and fully transparent visual effects by Mr. X (via Technicolor) gives us a whole different sense of the unfolding drama. If you have seen the VFX breakdowns, you'll know that most of the streets and landscapes in this series are CGI-enhaced and extended. We all know already how this story ends in 1993, and despite this fact I'm glued to the screen in every episode. The Spanish dialogues are tweaked in a way that when translated the meaning is slightly different, so I'm pretty much sure that the whole series was written first in English. The whole cast is great, despite not many of them being Colombian (mostly Mexican, actually), and Wagner Moura's performance is spot on (probably an Emmy nomination would come his way soon) despite his very, very heavy Portuguese accent. Some parts I couldn't even figure out what he was saying, even when Spanish is my native tongue, so I kept the English CC active in every episode. Honestly, I can't wait for the second (and most likely the last) season. Their main achievement with Narcos was not glamorizing Escobar or the drug trade, but presenting a compelling, human story that everyone can relate to.
It's a pleasure to have Sir Stewart having a ball on this show, that really takes aim at his comedic skills. I must say it's a very British kind of show (in pace, humour and delivery), so I'm not entirely sure if it'll please the American Kardashian-loving kind of people in the 18-35 age group that seems to be the only audience that Starz is looking for (they cancelled Magic City, that was a great show just because it was weak at that demography, and renewed Power barely). This show has dark humour, hidden golden eggs, wits and great acting moments, and I truly hope it gets more than the two seasons already ordered.
Ira Levin's novel is one of my favourites, and Polanski's film happens to be almost a step-by-step adaptation (he was Oscar-nominated for it), with a marvellous cast. This adaptation directed by Agnieszka Holland (adapted from the film, not the novel itself) isn't half bad. She had at her disposal a great cast also: modelling legend Carole Bouquet (my favorite Bond Girl), the always charming Jason Isaacs (he's 100% fluent in Spanish and he shows us that he can also deliver his lines in French, nicely), the very likeable Patrick J. Adams (in his contractually-mandated Suits haircut) and the lovely Christina Cole (a little bit under-used in her role). However the whole 3 hours lie to rest on Zoe Saldaña's shoulders, who is also producing. Moving the plot to Paris was a good move, albeit a distracting one given the fact that most of the cast is American or British, with a few French extras tossed in the mix. There's nothing in modern-day NY that even resembles the feeling and mood of the 1967 film, so the new setting might be an understandable approach. The locations (very touristic shots of Champs-Élysées, Eiffel Tower, Sorbonne, Le Grand Véfour and The Catacombs) and settings are fresh (all the interior shots were done in London), and the photography feels moody and effective. The fact that Rosemary is now an accomplished ballet dancer that supported her husband through college instead of a naive high-school graduated Omaha housewife, was a nice touch, given the current times. However, the final product feels more at times like an slasher-splatter film, departing drastically from the implied elegance in Polanski's film. This mini-series suffers (in my opinion) from the added scenes (the police commissioner and Julie's scenes are tedious) and plots (so much unnecessary drama) needed to fill-in the allotted 3.2 hours, despite its nicely done editing, music, CGI and practical effects. The supporting characters are underdeveloped in most cases, and Rosemary's nightmares and pregnancy ailments take so much exposition time, that it becomes boring. A well-trimmed 2 hours version in film format might deliver (removing the explicit violence) a better experience, at least for me.
After binge-watching the whole 10 episodes, I think that Dig had the promise to become more than an event series. Jason Isaacs is one one the best British actors today and I truly respect his craft. It's so sad for me that his television series (as a main character) don't get a second season since Brotherhood. Shooting in Jerusalem was a bold move that added texture and a gritty look that was lost when production was moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The whole show had to be adapted and re-written, and many scenes re-shot or dropped. Keeping in mind that this series was originally planned as a 6 episode drama (the extra 4 episodes were added when the network was so pleased with the rushes shot on location), I like the overall direction of the plot, despite the huge number of characters that were introduced and cast aside, leaving many holes story-wise, even when I know some of them actually came with the added material (the original ending was very different in the 6 hours version). Dig happens to be a good show about fanaticism, intolerance and grief, that suffered from production changes, but enjoyable after all.
Watching this series in 1080p with DTS audio creates a whole new experience, quite different from the original broadcast and the DVD's. It's like re-discovering it in wonderful ways. After binge watching the first season, I can say the re-mastered version has subtle differences from the DVD's. The cuts are more precise, some scenes are dropped or shortened and the effects look crisp and clear. You can actually read some of the small letter text (hilarious in some cases), and make out the hull lettering in every Federation ship. Hey, I didn't even know the Enterprise had a side hull ID with the name, and a smaller lettering in the nacelles (that one is only there in the first season). If you haven't seen the Blu-ray release, you haven't seen this series at all.
While I'm glad that Aaron Ashmore was able to land a role so soon after Warehouse 13, this series feels too self-contained and yet overtly complicated. I don't see it moving past the first season.
What can I say?. It's a Madagascar spin-off, and it works in both humor and fun. It has better graphics than The Penguins Of Madagascar, and the scenes have more texture detail. Then again, I'm here for the move it, move it and not the CGI. My only complain is that it's only 5 episodes, but it's a nice Netflix Christmas gift for the little ones at home.
Testosterone driven, lots of gratuitous nudity, hand to hand combat, fast driving Audi cars and a very simple plot in every episode. Hey, what's not to love?. For those times when you need to get from point A to point B, leaving your brain in the backseat, this is it. It works within its limits. The order the episodes appear in Netflix is the correct production sequence, not they way it was broadcast in the US, and the main character mentions plot elements that only make sense if you watch it in the production sequence (yes, it has a plot). The German, French and Spanish dubbing of the series is fine, and I'm not experiencing any out of sync events. Be advised, this isn't Shakespeare, and isn't meant to be, by any means. It's Saturday night pop-corn TV to sit back with your mates and enjoy.
I must say... after Warehouse 13 ended, there was a little piece missing in my puzzle, and hey... here it is. Hope it gets its footing by the end of the first season.
The visual effects by Universal Hartland for the pilot movie and some of the episodes were excellent, however this show recycled so many shots by the end of the first season that I truly knew them by heart as a kid. When Universal Hartland closed its doors in early 1981, the quality of the visual effects went down the drain, in a very noticeable way. This show benefited by Battlestar Galactica's cancellation, as many props, sets, costumes and even some visual effects were taken directly from that show. The Terran ships were designed by Ralph McQuarrie (of Star Wars fame), so even now they look sharp and timeless. It's great to see the grounds of Montreal's Expo 67 standing in for New Chicago, just as well as the Bonaventure Hotel. As for the writing... well, it's a Glen A. Larson show, so it varies from campy to awful. Gil Gerard wanted more serious storytelling instead of an "alien of the week" fare, but Universal and NBC deemed the American public of the 80's not ready for something like that. The second season was (at Universal request, actually) a direct copy of Star Trek: The Original Series, and that abrupt change made the ratings drop so fast the season was cut short after the eleventh episode. The fan base decided to ignore the second season, and actually Season One is the only one available on DVD right now (Season Two is out of print since 2004). My favorite episode is the one featuring Buster Crabbe (as Brigadier Gordon), the original Flash Gordon AND Buck Rogers.
One of my favorite shows. It was engaging, and it made me care so much about the characters and their evolution as people, not just characters written in a script. Wonderfully cast.
This is one of my favorite comedies, for 3 reasons: it's so damn close to reality of American politics, the characters are down to earth and it's so well written. I'm so looking forward for next season.
It was so disappointing that this series got cancelled, without the chance of getting its foothold, huge continuity problems because the episodes got aired out of order. But I was willing to give it a try. Too bad the network wasn't.
