The Mandalorian started out OK, but ended up as some half-baked, lazily written show that exist merely to lure parents to justify a Disney+ subscription. Kids get the usual Disney contents, moms get Baby Yoda, dads get Star Wars nerdy reference. The show almost feels like being made by a bunch of fanfiction writers with familiarity of the setting but zero sense of screen writing.
Nothing wrong with liking it, it's just the show appears to be all style and no substance.
Storyline shows no complexity at all. In fact, most of them are fillers. You can skip 4 of 8 episodes and you'll still understand the story just fine. Characters are completely uninteresting. None of them are developed. None of them had nuances: protagonists are morally good heroes; antagonists are one dimensional evils. The show relies only on a cute muppet and flashy action, but has zero substance. Had a potential great world-building with some details, but they chose to abandon it for rule of cool (and cute).
The "it's Star Wars, so it'll be simple" excuse commonly said by the series' defenders doesn't hold up if you actually consider other Star Wars titles such as Knights of the Old Republic, Republic Commando, Jedi Academy, Thrawn trilogy, the original and Tartakovsky's Clone Wars, and so on. Those titles are known for having remarkable storytelling; something that The Mandalorian doesn't have for its poverty of creative vision.
If there are still people complaining about the second season not being here and the first one only having 13 episodes: The original Spanish series currently (June 2018) has 15 episodes (part 1: 9 episodes, part 2: 6 episodes), each episode being 70 minutes long! That‘s what you‘re seeing here. Netflix made 40-55 minute episodes out of them, resulting in 13 episodes for the first part and 9 episodes for the second part, so that’s 22 episodes overall. A little confusing, but everything is right in Trakt.tv. There are 15 episodes in the spanisch release and 22 episodes in the Netflix release. And it‘s two parts in Netflix, not two seasons (yet).
The first 9 episodes aired in spain are the first 13 episodes in Netflix and the last 6 episodes aired in spain as a second part, are also the second part in Netflix, but with 9 episodes. It’s that simple ;)
And for those of you being like „Fix it!“ ... Trakt.TV pulls data from other databases (TMDB, TVDB), so that‘s where data comes from. Those databases are community driven, so if there actually would be an error, you could fix it yourself. But there isn‘t, so everything‘s fine! :)
What a phenomenal show! Being a Marvel production, I fully expected something of quality, but my expectations were blown entirely out of the water. Daredevil has easily taken its place among my favorite shows currently on air and far surpasses the current lineup of comic book-based television properties (including Marvel's own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).
The cast is great. Charlie Cox brings emotional weight to Matt Murdock and an intimidating presence to his vigilante alter ego. Supporting players Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, and Rosario Dawson, all make their respective roles feel critical, never distracting or annoying. But it's Vincent D'Onofrio that really steals the spotlight as Wilson Fisk, bringing to life a villain who is not only vicious and truly terrifying, but also heartbreakingly pitiful.
Daredevil's writing separates it from the current crop of superhero television. The progression of the plot is well organized and dialog rarely (if ever) crosses that line into comic book corniness. You really get the sense that the show runners had a clear vision for where they wanted this freshman season to go, while still laying groundwork for future seasons. Never does it feel like you're just being strung along for bigger and better things to come next season. And the show doesn't constantly try to remind you of the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe, as any references to it are (usually) subtle.
But perhaps Daredevil's greatest strength is its cinematography. Fight sequences are expertly choreographed and coherent (not to mention brutally gritty), even rivaling those of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The production value is top notch, probably thanks to the refreshingly limited reliance on CGI. But what impressed me the most was the brave willingness to let the camera linger or even meander occasionally. Ending episode 2 with a minutes-long single take fight sequence had me speechless, and is a testament to the level of quality brought to the show.
Daredevil is a strong addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think Marvel's partnership with Netflix could prove to be one of their best decisions regarding their television properties and I look forward to future shows like A.K.A. Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.
I did not read the books, and I did not play any of the games (although I heard at least one of the games is of great quality in storytelling) so I went into this show more or less a blank slate.
And boy it is bad.... The writing is just dreadful. I think the writers assumed prior knowledge to the world and characters, and lean on that assumption too heavily.
From the very beginning it is poorly written. Timelines are messy and unclear, exposition is done terribly, worldbuilding looked like an afterthought and taken from a first draft, the pacing is all over the place and inconsistent over time as well inconsistent for each subplot. Episode structure is even irratic. They presented us a continuous story, but several episodes focused more on little episodic adventures that did not impact the main storyline all that much. And for a show with only 8 episodes, that is deadly and lead to other stories being rushed or simply put on hold for the next season (I assume.)
Toward the middle of the show, it started to get a bit better and I thought it could be promising after a bit rocky start, but in the end they could not deliver and it turned into an utter and complete trainwreck (oh that last episode, I almost fell out of my chair several times from disbelieve.) Rushed plot resolutions, while other characters stories crawled to a complete standstill with close to no progression or character development, in somecases even for the whole season.
What the show does have going for it: Photography, sets and costume design are beautiful!
I really did not want to dislike this, but it looked like they actively tried to make me stop watching.
Note: This review is about season 1.
The show wants to cover too much in just eight episodes, but it fails miserably. Too many characters, too many subplots, too many conflicts: Richter's fear, the love between Olrox and the knight, Maria and her father, the fight against the Messiah, Anette and her disconnection from her ancestors and her loss of Edouard. The viewer doesn't have time to focus on anything because they throw everything at the same time.
The only thing I cared about at least a little was Richter's plot and, although it was developed, it was not the best executed. The magic returns to Richter when he realizes that he has many people to protect. That trope is something we are tired of seeing, especially all those who come from consuming anime, consuming shounen to be more specific.
I was not interested in any character and I was even less interested in the antaognists. As usual, I remember that the first part of Castlevania did not shine for its construction of villains either. Who on the team thinks of making the vampires so one-dimensional and giving them so much focus? What is not attractive to the viewer is supposed to be kept on the sidelines.
It makes me laugh how they saved the worst for last: Alucard's appearance. It was not necessary to use the nostalgia card and even less so at a critical moment like that: right at the end when everyone is at their lowest moment and almost about to die. The way they executed those last scenes, Alucard feels like a Deus Ex Machina.
The action scenes were on point. Kudos to the group of animators and directors behind it. Castlevania has always had some of the best choreographed animated battles I've ever seen.
The first part of Castlevania was not something that was very worthwhile, but Castlevania: Nocturne disappoints even by those low standards.
Not a big fan.
On a positive note, there are some well-choreographed fight scenes. They are probably the most entertaining bits of the show, the best of them are well thought out and impressive, but many of these fights are pretty barren in the emotion department.
Moreover, the set designs and the VFX are, for the most part, excellent, and the polish and detail make many aspects of this sci-fi world feel tangible. The atmosphere it provides is authentic to the Star Wars universe in an endearing way, but I found much of the rest of the show underwhelming.
On a more nit-picky note the costumes are a distracting mixed bag, while Mando’s design is excellent, many others are jarring. Designs like Ahsoka Tano's are a constant distraction. But where the show feels truly barren is in its story. None of its characters have detailed arcs and you could easily reorder the chronology of many of the show’s episodes and it would not change a thing. This inconsequential nature is particularly annoying because of how long and forgettable many of these episodes are, hardly any emotional scenes/character work, mostly just drawn out one off plots that have been done numerous times in other fantasy shows/stories.
But particularly, I want to talk about why the end of Season 2 doesn’t offer much of value for me. I think Mando lacks a coherent arc. In theory, Mando's journey should've significantly altered his character. We know he suffers a massive change to his status quo; he betrays the guild code and endures the consequences. But his character remains underdeveloped; he has solid motivations. He wants to spare Grogu from the war-torn childhood he survived, but I feel this serviceable at best backstory is all we ever learn about him. The only thing closely resembling an arc is Mando's willingness to remove his helmet throughout the series, where he finally takes it off in front of people in the Season 2 finale, but that's incredibly bare-bones. And when Mando gives up Grogu to Luke Skywalker, the show plays overbearing, somber music, but I feel nothing; I failed to have much investment in these characters so I just found it annoyingly manipulative.
Also, I think “Grogu” is not an interesting side character, this is likely because he is a baby, but we know nothing about him. We know he's force sensitive and of the same species as Yoda (I guess), but as far as I know, the only thing else going on with his character is one of conjecture or hidden deep in Star Wars lore.
But Grogu isn’t the only one, most of the others are dull. Bunch of one-off-side characters throughout the show, who, unless they come from the pre-established Star Wars universe, are usually uninteresting. And when the show does bring in characters from other Star Wars properties, they play it incredibly safe.
The old characters they bring back (Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, Luke Skywalker, etc.) have been developed by other Star Wars media, but lack interesting utilization, there are just no interesting character-specific moments. There are subtle fan service moments, such as the Darksaber and Boba Fett's confrontation with Mando regarding his armor, but that's all I noticed, so the show failed to give me anything emotionally engaging with these characters.
Shows like Star Wars Rebels may be a mixed bag, but they offer far more interesting utilizations of previously developed characters, providing moments such as the duel between Darth Maul and Obi-Wan, ending with the death of Darth Maul. Nothing in The Mandalorian resembles this, most of the inclusions of these characters feel contrived and pointless.
Overall, I mostly just found the show a dull waste of time.
I really enjoyed it upon my first viewing. But once I started thinking about the plot, the characters and the world, I felt worse. And before you read any further, let me just say, don't watch this show. Because you might either like it (which hurts me) or you might hate it (which hurts you). I like it but acknowledge its flaws. If it wasn't the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender, it would've held up a lot better.
Unlike most of my friends, I watched the Legend of Korra after Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Avatar comics. The comics allowed me to settle into Korra's world helped me jump into this new world. I had really low expectations coming into this show, after being warned not to watch it by a good friend. But I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it.
The illustrations and background art had improved. Its aspect ratio wasn't square. And I enjoyed myself (most of the time) throughout. Amon was compelling and looked badass. Unalaq was cool (before he turned evil). Zaheer is the best villain in the entire series. Kuvira seemed really contrived.
Season 1 took a while to get anywhere, and I'd give it a 4/10. It was up until the end, where Korra pulls off a deus ex machina and Amon is made less compelling, which left a bad taste in my mouth. [spoiler] If Amon was kept as a non-bender [/spoiler], he would've been my favourite villain hands-down. But he's a [spoiler] blood blender [/spoiler] who breaks the rules (and he's not the only one) and the non-bender revolution is made less compelling. [spoiler] I did feel sorry and sad when he and Tarrlok died though. [/spoiler] That was really emotional.
Season 2 started off okay. The first half was really compelling: two water-tribes put against each other, on the verge of civil war. Korra wants to learn more about the spiritual side of bending and Unalaq seems like the guy to teach it to her. But then we are introduced to Avatar Wan, who I thought was pretty cool at first until I started thinking into it more and realising how much it changes in the Avatar lore. If this show was by itself and didn't have ATLA behind it, even if it was better, this sequence would've been awesome. But it's not. It retcons everything known about bending. The spirit world is shown way too much and suddenly loses its intrigue and mystery. [spoiler] We're shown the origins of the Avatar, but all of a sudden, the Avatar doesn't seem like some all-time all-powerful being who has always been there for humanity and the spirits. We just see some punk kid who protects things because he thinks it's right (and who lets off chaos and darkness into the world). Finally, Raava and Vaatu. They look like carpets and are supposed to represent Yin and Yang (yet we had the Moon and Ocean spirit for that) and one represents "light and peace" while the other embodies "darkness and chaos". All of a sudden, spirits (and people) are either good or evil. And by letting Vaatu loose into the world, Raava starts to shrink. Why doesn't Vaatu shrink? How come he can turn spirits "dark" but Raava can't turn the "light"? Then Korra pulls off another deus ex machina: she becomes a giant spirit person and shoots a laser at Unavaatu. Also, Unalaq is evil and wants to become the first "Dark Avatar". [/spoiler]
4/10 It had potential.
Season 3 was cool. There's one scene where I actually found that Korra was a likable character. Tenzin tries his best to bring back the air nomads and we get to journey to the Earth Kingdom. But, the reason the airbenders have returned is that Korra left these "spirit portals" open. Which created "change" in the world, which also included bringing back the airbenders. Forget about the trauma and time it takes to heal the scars of war! Just open that spirit portal! Aang should've just opened those portals and he could've gotten started earlier! But here's the thing, Zaheer is the best villain in this series. He wants to bring about anarchy (which is a terrible idea, btw) and wants to remove the Avatar (for some reason he tried to kill Korra when she was young, which is pretty messed up). But here's the twist, he's one of those new airbenders! But instead of just making him some dude who discovers airbending, it turns out he's been studying air nomad philosophy for a long time. That's pretty cool. Compared to the other airbenders (except for Tenzin), Zaheer acts the most like an air nomad. And in the end, he has a plan to kill Korra while removing the Avatar cycle forever. Damn.
6/10 This season kills the least amount of brain cells.
Season 4 started off well but got progressively worse. [spoiler] Kuvira has been tasked with reuniting the Earth Kingdom after Zaheer killed the Earth Queen. We first meet her, giving an Earth Kingdom town food and supplies, but she threatens the mayor because he almost refused to sign the paper. Then, important people (I can't remember, Raiko, Tenzin and Sue?) said Kuvira was doing all of these cliche dictator things, but we're never shown it. We only see her help that town. She doesn't seem very evil. Then we see her threaten a group of Earthbenders who attack her, and it's framed to make her look bad, but really, they attacked her and she's been helping plenty of people. So...? In the end, Kuvira cuts off some "spirit vine" from the swamp (from ATLA) and gets Varrick to make a laser out of it by harnessing its energy? Then, when Kuvira declares she's bad and marches towards Republic City, it's with a giant (Voltron) mech, equipped with the spirit-vine-laser-cannon! Korra wins, democracy wins, the end.
4/10 Season 1 was better.
The only characters I care about is Tenzin, Varrick, and Zhu Li. Bolin was funny sometimes, but it's only because he's stupid. Unlike Sokka (ATLA), who actually has depth, is a character and goes through a compelling character arc. Korra has so many flaws/weaknesses that render her unlikable. She's hot-headed, stubborn, disrespectful and highly sensitive. She never takes responsibility for her actions, she gets a lot handed to her and her problems solve themselves. This show isn't more mature than ATLA but it does try to be edgier. The genocide of Aang's people and the dystopia of Ba Sing Se was pretty dark for a kid's show and wasn't there just to be dark and edgy. Why did I need to see the Earth Queen suffocate to death? Asami is a plot-device. Mako becomes boring after the stupid love-triangle in Season 1, and only really stays to look cool, follow Bolin and more love-triangle crap.
The animation in this show is appalling. It has nice illustrations, not animation. If you go frame by frame, you'll see this studio's laziness. You might also remember some creepy/disturbing shots (when Ikki discloses Korra's crush on Mako to Asami, or when she's being held captive in Season 3). I like the character designs and illustrations. The linework is phenomenal. But the animation itself is lacking. And the fact they added too much detail to their characters so they couldn't animate make each style of bending distinct, was sad. It kind of makes sense in-universe since they've been relying more on technology and less on bending. But come on!
TL;DR: Korra has no redeemable qualities. She might be flawed, but all her problems get solved for her. Does she have any strengths? Most of the villains are stupid. The illustrations are nice, not the animation. Tenzin, Varrick and Zhu Li are cool. This show isn't darker but it tries to be edgier. This show takes different elements of ATLA and make them less compelling. Watch ATLA, it's the original and it's better.
TLOK got rid of Aaron Ehasz and didn't even bother to find a replacement. This show still beats M. Night's The Last Airbender.
4.75/10
season 1: good adaptation of a good book. great casting. 8/10
season 2: massive drop in quality. many character arcs butchered. at least the broader strokes are fairly accurately adapted. 6/10
season 3: bad adaptational choices continue but generally the character arcs are better. 7/10
season 4: the material being adapted is the best so far but the adaptational choices are the worst as well. 6/10
season 5: why. why would they adapt two of the most complex books in the series in 1 season. everything is rushed and terrible. jon's story is the best of these but it's still vastly inferior to the book. some truly baffling adaptational choices here. 3/10
season 6: on the surface this is a step-up in quality... but this season feels incredibly artificial. there is so much fanservice crammed in here that it's borderline offensive. this show doesn't resemble george's story anymore. this is an incredibly overrated season. relies on "wow!! cool moment" to mask how fucking vacuous it is. 4/10
season 7: lmao what the fuck is this. this is awful. this is bad fan fiction. absolutely shameful. 1/10
season 8: one good episode. at least we got the broad strokes of the ending if george never finishes asoiaf. funny how people only started noticing the show's problems in the final season. seriously? it's been bad for 4 seasons and season 7 was worse. something tells me that people are just angry they didn't get the fanservice ending they wanted. not that im gonna defend this season, its terrible, but its better than season 7 at least. 2/10
If you're into physics defying fight scenes / martial arts / choreographies then this show is definitely for you.
Anybody else: don't bother.
Acting is mostly awful if not straight abysmal (MK), with exceptions like Stephen Lang (the man in the wheel chair) who is sadly only a minor side character.
Story telling is basically non-existent, you're thrown into the world with nearly no explanations at all. Even in a 6 part mini series you could do a much better job than this. There's an intrigue running with many sides, what's not even interesting or good explained and only background noise for the fights. Similar with the world order of barons as factions ruling people / areas, only background noise.
Due to being thrown into this without any (explicit) explanation, the establishing of characters is non-existent as well. The show fails to make you care for any character and for whom you should root for. Forgettable characters overall.
There's no reason for me to care for a mass murderer like Sunny to get out of the badlands.
Plans to do something are almost never explained, like giving all women a voice. How to achieve that? No clue, but the ninja fighting is cool... It's understandable that Sunny wants to get out of the badlands with his pregnant girlfriend but that's it where the show stops making sense. Basically everything is incredibly vague.
Perhaps because there's too much: feminism, a family intrigue where the son betrays the father, the most loyal fighter betraying his master, the wunderkind story, the escape for a better life story, teenage love, love triangle between baron, his wife and his side-wife. Pretty messy.
A show lacking in many aspects, ending on a few deus ex machina and an attempt of letting the possibility for a full season or second mini season open. The really interesting things and questions are never explained at all.
Ehh.
The show had a good start, potential everywhere the eyes could see. it's nice to pass the time but it lacks a lot to engage spectators. A banal example would be that the start of uthred relashionships were rushed and no deep elements have been introduced. They basically just smile at each other, then flirt and fuck, and sometimes there's a marriage. it's the main default of the show I believe. I didn't have enough elements to make feel anything when people supposed to be important died. There's no feeling of maturation, uthred stays childishly hotheaded and keep creating useless problems to dive into. All his fights are unrelated to his so-called goal. He has no drive on his own, always serving somebody. They claim he's Danish but beside being unruly and godless he's as docile as any soldier would be, no special ritual from the Vikings, no part of him as a Viking, he's supposed to be split between his origins and yet always fights for Wessex. Always put aside the main objective and wander around. One season is understandable but two seasons and he still has yet to go home, be it just to look or spy is utterly disappointing.
In the end everything seems and feel too shallow to me.
I finally watched the whole series (so far) and this is my comment for all seasons and episodes:
who writes these shit ?
I liked the history and mythology, until they started twisting it.
I like the battles and the music that goes along. No comments there.
The actors? Come on. Hand-picked for their muscles and their looks. Barely believable. With some exception I won't bother mentioning.
All in all I enjoy watching the show.
What I don't enjoy are the endless scenes of supposed poetic beauty, the pretentious anachronisms, the jumps in story-telling, the twisted timeline, the foretold deaths, the prophecies, the inner turmoils, the silly characterization.... It's poor. It has been all along and no-one seems to know how to fix it.
The biggest burden of the show must be its success. They did stupid things from day one, but people still accepted and followed the show, and instead of using that chance to get better story-telling, they kept re-iterating their teenager targeting plots, as if they were masterpieces.
Nothing was new or original in Season 4. It seems they said all that was to be said, in Seasons 1-3 and then got renewed and went back to the previous seasons trying desperately to dig the stories to bring to life: the same siege, the same brotherly betrayal, Floki's clinging to the past, more betrayals, Harbard, Lagertha's mishaps, child-births and christian woes .. Nothing original. And they wasted a whole lot of time in utter nonsense, then rushed things in the last episode, then decided to prepare for the next season with what was probably improvisation from Mr.Fimmel as I can imagine anyone writing his speech in paper and getting it approved as a final scene .
All the great scenery and costumes and hairdos and boats... all wasted in the hands of obviously young, overconfident and ignorant writers. If money and ratings is all that counts, then maybe they've succeeded. But if the final product and its filming legacy counts for anything, then they have failed and they did tremendously.
When you can write a summary of an episode in 10 words or less, that's a hollow episode, visually appealing maybe, but not at all profound.
My guess for next Season? Whichever actor/actress is favorite of the viewers and willing to keep the same salary will miraculously be alive. The rest, will be written off in one sentence or less. There will be cameos for the reunion-junkies. Then they will prepare for the Mediterranean . At least 2 or 3 episodes will be wasted in Kattergat with silly plots introduced in that same season only to be resolved in the next episode. Some events will be foretold, probably in an intense drug-induced frenzy with ominous music. New characters will appear, become prominent, overshadow everything, then die tragically, or not. One good fight mid-season, one in the finale. And in-between the never-aging Ragnar will fight the same inner daemons, restate his bro-mance with the over-played and long dead Athelstan and try to be the leader he hasn't been since Season 1. Mixed with some Wessex and Paris stories to keep the filming budget under control, we'll conclude the series with endless scenes of everyone saying goodbyes to everyone mostly through long stares and 'don't you die on me' moments...
I'm so disappointed. I hate not being 16 years old, for I cannot enjoy any of that. And I really wanted to.
