Genuinely funny. One of the best episodes in this season.
[7.7/10] Liked this one quite a bit. Two strong storylines that had great beats for a variety of characters.
I honestly don’t know which one I liked better. The one where Johnny struggles over whether he can pay for both the new second motel and his son’s wedding catering seemed like it was about to crater. The whole “business vs. family money trouble” bit is a cliché, and it started to lean into some more unpleasant bridezilla tropes for David. Plus the humor of Johnny trying to not-so-subtly find ways to go less expensive at the caterer’s was pretty tepid.
But from there things took a really nice turn. For one thing, David coming and telling his dad that the extra plates aren’t his dad’s financial responsibility and that if Johnny can’t afford the catering at all, David would totally understand helps mitigate his wedding-related nutso-ness. Likewise, Johnny’s predicament takes on a more emotional tone when he recalls that he and Moira had set aside their own nest egg for David’s wedding, involving flying people to Bali and other extravagance, and now he’s struggling to just pay for beef tenderloin. It’s not just about the financial situation it’s about being able to provide for your kid on a major day in their lives and the sense of not measuring up to your own expectations that reminds Johnny how far he’s fallen. Eugene Levy does some of his best work in the series in that moment.
The solution, though, is even better. Stevie using Johnny’s own techniques from his book to come up with a strategy to franchise the Rosebud and solve their financial woes is a nice beat for her. I’ll admit, it seems like a stretch, but it works within the willing suspension of disbelief of the show, rouses Johnny, and proves Stevie’s business mettle.
I also greatly enjoyed the Moira/Alexis story. For one thing, the soap opera humor is worth plenty of chunkles, and it’s a venerable strain of comedy. More than that though, I like the trajectory of Moira being ready to sign on for a reboot, being steered toward the truth by her daughter, and then getting a measure of revenge and perspective. Alexis having the shrewdness to research what happened and understand who has leverage continues her development, and Moira slapping the co-star who squeezed her out and “going after what she’s worth” at her daughter’s encouragement is a great corresponding note for her to play.
Overall, this one is a breath of fresh air in what’s otherwise been a weaker season, with quality things for almost all the major characters to do.
Why do people keep adding Season 2 there is no season 2.
I’m not ready. Not even a little.
[7.1/10] What a weird finale. I guess the show wanted to save most of its pure sentiment for the prior episode, and let this one be mostly a wackier showcase with a few grace notes. I can respect the approach, but the execution was...strange.
Let’s start with the obvious. A happy ending? On the day of the wedding? And we’re treating it like some typical wacky sitcom occurrence? As David himself might say -- what the fuck? This is such a weird storyline, and maybe I’m just a prude, but I feel like someone having sexual contact with a stranger on the day of their wedding, whatever the implausible mix-up over it may be, should be a big serious deal and not some zany T.V. misunderstanding that gets cutely mentioned in one’s vows. I assumed the whole thing was a prank at first, because it’s a ludicrous and downright odd plot point to throw in at the eleventh hour.
On a lesser note, in what world would Alexis wear white to her brother’s wedding when she’s giving him away? Even assuming she would be oblivious or malevolent to want to draw focus, you’re telling me that David wouldn’t have vetted her dress seventy-eight times before the big day? Again, it’s wacky and just plain weird.
This is also a fairly formless episode. Nominally, everything is building to the nuptials, but there’s little structure or progression to it, more of just a hodgepodge of different scenes that have little to do with one another up to that point. Theoretically, you have the conflict of the outdoor wedding being rained out, but that becomes a pretty mild hurdle pretty quickly.
Despite that, there’s a lot of nice individual moments here. I like Alexis having the epiphany that the Roses losing their money was, ultimately, a good thing that nudged them to grow and made them better people. Her embrace of her mom and drinking in that this will be the last time they’ll all be together like this is really sweet. While my wife would probably have killed me if I tried to sing 90s pop during my vows, I like Patrick singing a snippet of Mariah Carey for David, not to mention the Jazzagals’ vocal rendition of “Simply the Best.” I like Johnny walking Stevie down the aisle and kissing her on the forehead, a nice bit of symbolism for the paternal relationship they’ve developed over the course of the show. I like David telling Alexis how consistently impressed by her he is. These moments have little to do with one another, but they’re all very nice.
Most of all I like Moira’s material here. Granted, her pope getup is a little too out there for my tastes, but your mileage may vary. But she’s more or less the only character in this episode with an arc. More than any member of the family, she’s been the most anxious and unwavering about wanting to leave Schitt’s Creek. Throughout the victory lap that is this day, she’s resisted being sentimental about the wedding or about leaving. But when she’s up in front of everyone, she melts more than a little, affirming that the fickle winds of life can lead you to unexpected places, but that she is, against her own judgment, grateful and touched that they brought the Rose family here in the company of so many wonderful people. It’s as fine a final statement and summation the show could possibly make, with the added power of it coming from arguably the show’s least sentimental main character.
So there’s hugs and final goodbyes and drives off into the sunset. It ends on a goofy note, with the Roses having been added to the town sign, in a bit that may cheekily be the culmination of people saying that it looks like David and Alexis are a married couple given her dress. Shrug.
In the end, Schitt’s Creek died as it lived: a show with unexpected heart and character growth that buoyed it even in lean times, but whose comedy was hit or miss, ranging from the undeniably hilarious to broad sitcom wackiness. It’s one of those series that I’m glad to have watched, but which I don’t think is going to stick with me the way some of my favorites have.
That’s because it felt like it could never seem to get all of its pieces working at the same time. When David was having real growth and development, Alexis was mired in romcom drama. When Alexis was changing as a person, David had more or less hit his limit and was playing out the string in his character arc. Johnny could be wrapped up with Stevie in ambitious projects and a warm quasi-parental relationship, or swallowed up by the usual dose of Roland’s crap. And Moira always had the strength of Catherine O’Hara’s performance, but the show didn’t always know what to do with her on a long term basis.
Season 3 is the closest Schitt’s Creek came to really firing on all cylinders, and seasons 2 and 5 hit some real high points as well. But you could also feel the show running out of gas or not being sure where to go with various characters during its run.
Still, I will also remember the show’s best moments, particularly its slow transformation of the Roses from high society snobs who disdained this place to better people who were grateful for what it gave to them and spurred within them. I’ll remember the particularly great comedy when that emerged when you could get all four Roses in the same room (and if Stevie’s there too, all the better). And I’ll remember its overall gentleness, the way it was easy to watch in bunches given its lightness and warmth. As both something of a throwback and a very modern sitcom, Schitt’s Creek was a bit of an odd duck, but also one worth stopping by the water to see.
When I started this show, the night of the multiple Emmy wins, I was confused. It seemed like an Arrested Development rip-off with a load of more conventional sitcom tropes thrown in, but without the laughter track.
After the first two seasons, I found myself asking people who'd watched it all about when it gets good. And now, having watched every episode, I find myself asking the same question. There were some great scenes and some good episodes, but never a consistent run of great episodes. At no point was it funny enough to justify the tedious and saccharine sentimentality (if I'd wanted to watch The Waltons, I would've done), nor emotionally striking enough to justify the comedy deficit. The only 'emotional' moment really that worked was the final scene with Alexis and Ted.
In its favour, it had great leads performing the thin material very well, and it was an easy, unchallenging watch. One of the key features of a good comedy is whether I'd want to watch it again, and in this case it is very unlikely.
So I'm still left wondering what merited all those Emmys, not least because every main character (other than maybe Alexis) had become a broad caricature of themselves by the weak final season. That said, the Emmy's picked a serviceable but unremarkable Rick & Morty episode over one of the greatest TV episodes ever (the penultimate episode of Bojack), so what the hell do they know?
I can see why this series was canceled. This last season was not good at all. Turning Lightman into more of a curmudgeon and making him unlikable really did not help the show at all. There were quite a few episodes where they recycled ideas from previous seasons. The only thing I would have liked to have seen was what they would have done with Michael B. Jordan's character. It almost seemed like they were getting that character ready for a larger role in the next season.
The show started out strong. I was extremely interested at first. By the middle of second season I started losing interest as the episodes felt almost repetitive and soulless. Still finished it for the sake of completing it, but it’s not a show I’d rewatch again with interest, but might consider having it as a white noise in the background while sleeping.
It's a shame they never went anywhere with the characters. I really felt like they had a great set up, and I feel like they squandered it. I would have liked to see another season, but I suppose it is better to have it canceled than have another lackluster season. Overall, a great show. So much potential!
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Barbenheimer: Part 1 of 2
This is the kind of film I really don’t want to criticize, because we don’t get nearly enough other stuff like it. However, mr. Nolan has been in need of an intervention for a while now, and unfortunately all of the issues that have been plaguing his films since The Dark Knight Rises show up to some degree here. Visually it might just be his best film, and there’s some tremendous acting in here, particularly by Murphy and RDJ. However, it makes the common biopic mistake of treating its subject matter like a Wikipedia entry, thereby not focussing enough on character and perspective. As a whole, the film feels more like a long extended montage, I don’t think there are many scenes that go on for longer than 60 seconds. There’s a strong ‘and then this happened, and then this happened’ feel to it, which definitely keeps up the pace, but it refuses to stop and let an emotion or idea simmer for a while. There are moments where you get a look into Oppenheimer’s mind, but because the film wants to cover too much ground, it’s (like everything else) reduced to quick snippets. It’s the kind of approach that’d work for a 6 hour long miniseries where you can spend more time with the characters, not for a 3 hour film. I can already tell that I won’t retain much from this, in fact a lot of it is starting to blur together in my mind. There are also issues with some of the dialogue and exposition, such as moments where characters who are experts in their field talk in a way that feels dumbed down for the audience, or just straight up inauthentic. Einstein is given a couple of cheesy lines, college professors and students interact in a way that would never happen, Oppenheimer gives a lecture in what’s (according to the movie) supposed to be Dutch when it’s really German; you have to be way more careful with that when you’re making a serious drama. Finally, there are once again major issues with the sound mixing. I actually really loved the score, but occasionally it’s blaring at such a volume where it drowns out important dialogue in the mix. I’m lucky enough to have subtitles, but Nolan desperately needs to get his ears checked, or maybe he should’ve asked some advice from Benny Safdie since he’s pretty great with experimental sound mixing. My overall feelings are almost identical to the ones I had regarding Tenet; Nolan needs to rethink his approach to writing, editing and mixing. This film as a whole doesn’t work, but there are still more than a few admirable qualities to it.
Edit: I rewatched this at home to see whether my feeling would change. I still stand by what I wrote in July, though the sound mix seems to have been improved for the home media release. It sounds more balanced and I didn’t miss one line of dialogue this time around. I’m slightly raising my score because of that, but besides that I still think it’s unfocused, overedited, awkwardly staged and scripted etc.
5.5/10
[Edit] THIS MOVIE IS 3 HOURS LONG???? THREE HOURS???? Dear god one hour felt like an ETERNITY in the theater.
Unfortunately walked out because I got overstimulated cause it was a lot louder than expected, and also really fucking boring.
Visually stunning movie. Absolutely gorgeous. The effects done in camera, the cinematography, the acting, everything is just so much fun to look at. Christopher Nolan knows how to make a damn good looking movie. Hats off to the team that made this thing.
But writing wise... damn, it underperformed.
Other commenters mentioned that this feels like a Wikipedia entry or a montage of 60 second clips, and damn they are right. The writing just did. not. hit. It was hard to follow any of Oppenheimer's personal life and to actually feel anything for him or any of the people in his life. I don't expect a movie to hold my hand. But I do expect pace to be managed well and to have a bit of breathing room to be able to process stuff. This did not give you the time to do it lmao.
Also the characters just... didn't interact in an engaging way. Less than 20 minutes into the movie I was already checking my watch to see how much more of this I had to sit through! I didn't know half of the characters' names, or half of their relationships to each other, or why they were even relevant. Like the best example of this is Oppy and Einstein's interactions. They have beef, but it's hard to understand why? There's like... two interactions before the one hour mark that total less than a minute of on-screen time together. Einstein gets a few words in there and it's just very very unclear why they hate each other, or how they met, or what any of their background is. It's confusing!
Also let's talk about Oppenheimer's motivations. As a literal communist, I should empathize with Oppy and understand where he's coming from. But I don't! Because he's a fucking idiot! When he's talking with other leftists, he mentions "Isn't ownership theft?" and the person in the communist party is like "It's property, actually" and he's like "Well sorry I read all three volumes of Capital in original German" and he's like... just a dick??? But also no fucking leftist who is going around having read all three volumes of Capital talks about that shit! That's just dumb! And the entirety of his leftist politics are portrayed in a way that make him look like an egotistical maniac with dumb politics! One minute he's starting a union and pro-labor, another minute he's dropping all of that in order to be a dog of the US government! There's obviously an enormous jump happening there. Like something very, very clearly and very, very majorly changed for Oppenheimer there, and the film spends a grand total of 30 seconds in a single scene having him transition from brilliant labor activist to US government dog.
Also there are time jumps! Lots of them! The choice to jump back and forth between the McCarthyist interrogations of Oppenheimer and the past do. not. make. sense. They are hard to follow, extraordinarily boring, and absolutely ruin any sort of pacing the movie might have! There are several points in this movie where Oppenheimer starts to be fleshed out a bit more as a character or starts to be given more space for us to see what he's really like. And then it's randomly cut off and flashed forward to these utterly irrelevant black-and-white interviews. Oppenheimer has a leftist past! Of course he does! The movie literally shows us that! And instead of just telling things in a regular narrative way, the movie splits things up confusingly for absolutely no good fucking reason, and ends up showing us and telling us the same information twice! That is shit writing! If you cut all of these scenes you would be missing nothing from the movie, and you'd have more time to actually tell us about the characters, instead of them feeling like one-dimensional caricatures.
I don't know any of Oppenheimer's history, and I left this not understanding any more of it! I left after an hour because it felt like two and a half because it was just this firehose of information. And Nolan didn't present it in a way that actually made a story! He just shat this all out on the screen (and it's a beautiful shit, don't get me wrong!!), and expected the audience to love it! His characters are one-dimensional, they aren't given the space, the motivations, or the background really for us to understand where they're coming from or why they do what they do. And that ends up with this being a visually stunning but really fucking boring movie that I just walked out of because I couldn't take it anymore lol.
I cannot stand seeing visually gorgeous movies produced by people who clearly have god-level talent that seem to have a complete and utter inability to get the basics of movie-making, story, correct! I have ADHD. For a lot of people, sitting through a boring movie is just boring. For me, it is exhausting. It is excruciating. I can't fidget in a movie theater, I can't move, I can't pause the movie and come back later when I'm feeling more focused. And so if a movie is boring, I just leave! And it is so fucking annoying to miss out on a chance to see a movie that is, outside of its story, fucking beautiful because its director and writer couldn't do the extremely basic job of making a movie that holds people's interest and communicates things in even a slightly clear way. God what a waste.
It’s not good, but seen worse. Don’t really recommend it tho
A bland but well constructed space movie. Too obviously constructed for my taste however. This is basically THE blueprint.
What I must praise is that this could really be a standalone movie. Even all the elements like previously established relationships or children do not need the knowledge but the viewer can just build his own picture with the information at hand. And I must say this is actually more enjoyable because it would be less on the nose storytelling. But well this is just an observation since this is NOT a standalone movie.
Honestly, Dollhouse (2009) was a more interesting metaphor for indentured servitude.
I miss the real Aunt Viv!
Will is really annoying this and the last couple of episodes. He is not a very likable person to be honest. I like Phil though.
Is there any show that's done more clip shows than the Fresh Prince? :rolling_eyes:
An alright season premiere. It makes also one thing clear: they went back to the drawing board and Will, the almost husband, is back to being a toddler. Writers seem to have given up and won't continue to tell us the story of how he became an adult in Bel-Air.
Kudos to the set designers though: the kitchen looks awesome.
"That's not fair. Up until now I've been reverent as shit."
Is there something I'm not getting about the break room? They present it as a terrible torture but all they do is repeat some sentences
If I'd only understand all these I themed titles in this final season. I got the I, Claudius reference. But this one? I mean the whoops part makes sense in a blooper reel, but I don't get the "I part".
It's the best blooper reel in this show. Some parts are actually quite interesting for fans of the show. It's a mini behind the scenes. The biz isn't really glamorous, is it? Phil's dressing room is hideous. Will can't break character but that's fine.
Still, in its core it's s still a blooper show and the concept seems only to exist because they wanted to sell another episode w/o additional production costs. I don't need blooper shows.
Whether you like this show or not, you must admit that it has one of the most memorable intros ever. A rap intro was perhaps more revolutionary in the 90s but it's still a work of genius: before every episode you get a story recap how Will ended up in Bel-Air in the first place.
I'm too young to understand many of the references and jokes. But sometimes it's like a fascinating time capsule bank to the 90s. I hate the fake laughter. The show is often a bit silly and shallow but now and then the show delves into more serious issues like parenting, race, puberty, coming of age, social injustice, capitalism and so forth. I don't even like Will best. I like Hillary, Phil and Carlton better to be honest. But all characters are likeable and it's a true feel good sitcom.
But that's perhaps not what the show was really known for. I guess it made a major impact during 90s TV. It's one of the first sitcoms and perhaps one of the first primetime shows with mostly black characters. And - as a surprise to many - they showed a regular all-American and financially privileged family.
Towards the end the show starts to limp and Will's one man show becomes increasingly annoying. I remember that I liked him a lot back in the 90s. My younger self was convinced he was the coolest guy ever. I think totally different know. He almost ruins the show.
Would I ever re-re-watch this show? Probably not...
PS: sadly this show was recorded on tape it seems, thus can't be remastered easily and looks horrible by today's standards
I think the quality lowered after they changed the actress that portrayed Aunt Viv. They said the original actress was being a bitch backstage and wanted the spotlight over Will, so the change was probably for the better, but that caused the show to decay.
Without doubt the most boring episode of Father Ted - but that’s deliberate, not a fault in the writing.
Father Stone isn’t the easiest person to just hand out with, and Ted is too polite to simply tell him to get the hell out, or simply ignore him (which is what I’d do - don’t have the emotional energy for nonsense anymore)
So one of the companies many manipulations to control and segregate departments is having there be rumours about the violence committed when they were allowed to integrate. Very dark, very smart.
Also I liked that Dylan's objection to Irving being sweet on Burt was purely his dept and nothing else. Just as it should be
The scene of "waking" Dylan at his home was intense and came out of fucking nowhere. I felt like that deserved more context, or... a follow-up or something. As it was, you get the whiplash of "they can do that?!" and then the episode moves right along past it.
The episode should have ended after "Let's burn this place to the ground". Perfect last line. Cut to credits.
