Season 1 of 'The Crown' is impressive, though isn't anything overly enthralling.
That's not a negative per se, but it's very much a show that I can sit back and enjoy as opposed to being on the edge of my seat. The standout part to this is the cast, who do an admirable job at portraying their characters. If I have one grievance it is that the story does feel very well told, too well in-fact - as in, you can tell it's written based on how everyone knows the subjects involved; Winston Churchill being the key example of that, it can all come across a little too on the nose at times.
As noted, the cast are fantastic. Claire Foy is an incredible cast as Queen Elizabeth II. Not only does she look like her, she portrays her exceptionally - very impressive performance. The aforementioned Churchill is played by John Lithgow, who I was unsure about during the opening episodes but by the end he also delivers - he's fun to watch in the role, even if it is a tad exaggerated portrayal here and there. Matt Smith (Philip), Vanessa Kirby (Margaret) and Jared Harris (King George VI) are also good here.
The whole look of the show is superb. Love the work of Hans Zimmer and Rupert Gregson-Williams on the theme/music, also.
Spawn is over the top. It mistakes nudity and blood and expletives to be mature, and comes off as all the more sophomoric for it. Spawn goes big in all things, good- the animation and some of the voice acting- and bad- in camera angles and in its depthless and monstrous villains. Its two biggest strengths that elevate it are the animation, in particular Spawn and his flowing and gorgeous cape, and the character himself.
Nothing will help you understand the appeal of Spawn better than this show, even if it doesn't make you a diehard fan. At the end of the season, he's called The Sad Man, and this could be an alternate title for the show. Spawn is allowed to be emotional, and yes, that includes anger... but it also involves grief, it allows empathy, it allows pain and love. Spawn is allowed to be pathetic- he'll wail in sorrow and scream in traumatic fear- but his pain isn't something to laugh at. You're meant to emphasize and feel for this broken, lost man, and there's something refreshing in that when dark heroes of his ilk like Batman are usually forced to be quiet, restrained, and stoic in their emotions.
Keith David is the show's MVP. The man brings Spawn to life and makes him feel like a person, not the poster child for 90's anti heroes. Every emotion is raw and lived in, and David pours his heart into the role. I didn't expect to ever be emotionally affected by the Spawn character, but David's performance in the final scene with the child of his wife is soft and tender in a way I never expected for the character, and Keith David is the glue that holds it together. He and the animation make this well worth a watch, 90s edge and all.
Pros:
Cons:
My biggest complaint is the main plot though. To start with, I don't like the whole monstrosity of the premise. Why is it again, that the future (and past) of humanity (in perhaps multiple parallel universes) is at stake? That ruined Discovery and Picard's season 1 already. This shouldn't be an action movie plot where you imagine the most menacing threat so that explosions can grow bigger.
Let's talk about the complexity of this show: I'm very generous when it comes to plot holes and mystery elements. That was always part of Star Trek and is partly inherent to the Sci-Fi/mystery genre. I admit that Star Trek was always a fast produced show (they produced 25 show or so per season) with financial constraints typical for the 90s and that always prevented from Star Trek being a flawless show. I understand that a season-long story needs lighter B-plots and a mix of some boring moments interwoven with a more complex main story that is able to entertain longer than just 45 minutes. I get that. But honestly, can you retell the main story? Do you know what happened? It's certainly not simple. It either doesn't make sense or I'm to stupid to appreciate its amazing complexity. After episode 10 the story behind it becomes somewhat more comprehensible, but for the most part it was too obscure and mysterious to be really enjoyable. I mean, authors had enough budget and time to concoct a concise story that is on par with contemporary story telling (not every show is as good and complex as Mad Men or Sopranos but it feels like the writers never tried to teleport the Star Trek franchise into the golden era of TV/Streaming). Instead it feels like writers added complexity buy just adding unlikely turns and twists that nobody could expect or even explain. I have so many questions that feel unanswered. The writers don't seem to care. The story is based on multiple, intersecting plans of various protagonists that I simply don't understand and I don't find very credible:
I tried to explain the story as I understood it in my review about episode 10. No need to repeat this. The interplay between the Borg and Q spans multiple timelines and points in time. It's super complex and I'm still not sure whether it really is plausible. It seems to be an almost circular chain of events where the future effects the past and the past effects the future. Biggest problem: Who wants Renée to launch into Space and why? I mean the Queen wanted that but refrained from this later when Jurati convinced her to become a benevolent factor. But why does the Queen care to stop Renée and preserve the "Terran timeline"? Given what we learn about the Borg's perception of spacetime, aren't all timelines are equally important? Why not conquer humanity in whatever timeline? And if the Borg can travel through time why wouldn't they do that every time they are about to be denied world dominance? Why are the other protagonists that certain that Renée must fly into space? The watcher certainly doesn't know (Well, she provides a transporter and reveals who Renée's shrink is but other than that she's useless with regard to the main story). Do they assume that only because Q seems to have manipulated Renée not flying into space? How can they be so sure? Plus, it's incredible that Picard knows WWII details about his chateau but nobody knows what groundbreaking discoveries the Europa mission with a Picard onboard made? Shouldn't that be somewhere in the database? Why is nobody even trying to find out? And why isn't Renée playing a major role in most episodes after the farewell party of hers? Wherever her high-security quarantine facility is, why is everyone so sure that Q or his proxy Soong won't get access to her (they don't know that Q has lost his powers)? Can they even be sure that extremely powerful Jurati/Queen is not trying to help Q and try to stop Renée? Till the end the La Sirena crew should assume that the Queen is also trying to manipulate the timeline. That's another mysterious part: why does the Borg Queen (voluntarily) brought them back to 2024 where Picard gets the chance to restore the original timeline? I mean at this point she's still evil and doesn't know what benevolent Jurati-Queen will concoct in the 400 years to come. So why is she teleporting Picard and his crew back to 2024? Why not 2124 or 1900? In 2121 (or 1900) they will not able to reverse the timeline and the Queen will most likely find it easy to assimilate mankind. I mean that was her plan before Jurati convinced her otherwise, right? Plus, I still don't buy the fact that insecure and unassuming Jurati - above all persons - is strong enough to persuade a Borg Queen to try another approach to the usual Borg assimilation strategy. The twist that the Queen is a 400 years old Jurati is a surprising twist, but this is based on a almost circular chain of events that is really hard to justify if you think about that.
It's too complex to be entertaining and the story is obfuscated by - what I feel are artificially added story elements - B-plots and unnecessary complex "temporal mechanics". Even after season 10, I still don't get the whole story and I feel the the main protagonists don't have a clue either. Most of the time, they just stumble around and don't really know whether they do the right thing or not. Around episode 4 or 5 writers should have lifted the veil, ended the mystery and stated a clear objective of what needs to be achieved by Picard and his crew. Usually, similar Star Trek episodes end like that: all protagonists admit their confusion and shrug off every trace of flawed logic by stating that they barely passed temporal mechanics at the academy and they don't understand it either. But that's not enough for a show that has 10 full episodes to tell a concise story.
Fantastic characters, fantastic acting, beautiful cinematography and writing. This show is good. More than good.
At first I was hesitant about a vikings spinoff. The original was a great show and I couldn't see anyone doing it justice, but although this show is set in the same time period (100 years post) it's vastly different in terms of what is going on in the world. With increased travel and trade comes the challenge of religion and Christianity spreading through the north, existing tension with England require a delicate balance of political wit and acuity in battle, all of which make this an entirely different show from the original vikings.
This is of course not 100% factually accurate and they've taken some creative liberties with some of the content of the show but it's pure action-packed, thrilling entertainment. And I'm especially taken by Freydis being played by a Swedish actress. Hearing the accent in her voice lends an authenticity to her character that I didn't realize I missed in some of the other characters, especially when they're speaking Old Norse. Love to see someone who speaks a Scandinavian/North Germanic language in that role.
And anytime I get to see badass women kicking ass on screen you know I'm going to like it.
From the start of its announcement this show brought out the most controversial discussions. So I followed the hype to take a look at what it’s all about.
I haven’t read any of the books nor did I play a single game so let me tell you: if you don’t know any of the stories and characters it’s kinda difficult to get into it. From the beginning it felt to me this show is directly aimed at the fans especially of the books. To me it seems like The Witcher is such a big story it must’ve been hard for the creators of this show to fit it into this show.
I get why fans of The Witcher might like this show so much and they have every right to. Storytelling is good although lengthy at times and as mentioned before it’s aimed at that audience.
For me as an „outsider“ this show is about average. Acting in many cases feels uninspired and a lot of the shows special effects and camera work feel like they’re pre 2010. And to be honest, I expected a little more from a show with this amount of advance blessings. At times you don’t really get where the show is headed especially as a virgin to this universe. Also character building and structure can be confusing at times.
Finally a word to the people who tried to tell everyone this will be a GoT-Killer: it’s not, far from it to be honest. Although I did NOT compare this show with GoT at any time during my watch through Season 1 there were a lot of Witcher Fans out there in the previous months who tried to paint that picture. Do yourself a favor and don’t compare those two shows. They have very different premises and both shows deserve to be looked at independently.
For Witcher-Fans: enjoy the show, it should be (almost) everything you were looking for.
For everyone else: give it a try but it just might not be your cup of tea.
There's a really good show in here somewhere, but it's difficult to find. I'm a junkie for any NASA-related tales so this should have been right up my street, but I found myself letting episodes build up unwatched each week and it was only in forcing myself to get on with them that reached the end.
Instead of showing us this crew of potential astronauts training, instead of showing us the clever technicians and engineers solving problems, we are given mostly a show about marriage problems. I definitely think that this aspect of the character's lives is important and deserves a place in the story, but it should not have been the focus. The training segments seem to amount of climbing out a capsule in a swimming pool and people sitting on those spinning chair things. The astronauts complain that they don't get to actually fly the capsule, but there's no follow up to that. Quite often things go wrong and people panic, but we don't get to see the solutions. We just repeatedly get told, "we're ready", but... when did that happen? Nobody appears ready to go. Where are the breakthrough moments?
The characters themselves are not much fun to watch. I'm sure the real life astronauts were arrogant flyboys too, but the portrayals here made me want them all to fail. They are alcoholics, cheaters, jealous, petty and through all this they swagger around with All-American-Hero attitudes. It's kind of nauseating, but I think it could have worked if they'd had both better writing and better casting. A major issue is that we actually get to know so few of them, with the focus being on Shephard, Glenn and (for some reason) Gordo. And they're all idiots here - Gordo especially. The rest of the astronauts are background material.
In fact, the highlights ARE the wives who all feel like much more real characters and all managed to make me care about them. I also liked the general production quality of the show and each episode managed to have some good stuff to offset the bad. It's not a total disaster, and after the first episode I had lowered my expectations enough to be able to get on with it all.
I don't enjoy picking on individual people, but I feel like I have to mention Patrick Fischler's bizarre robot-like performance throughout this show. What was he going for here?
Unlike Clone Wars, Rebels is pretty decent from the start. But it's also quite a different show. This focuses on a small group of characters and sticks mostly to the same location, the planet Lothal, throughout the season. It's a more intimate show and I think it benefits from this.
It also helps that these are new characters and we don't know their fates. Something that always held Clone Wars back was that we knew what was going to happen to Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, etc., and we knew that they were never in danger. That's not the case here where anything can potentially happen.
It's still a show aimed at children, of course. It has plot contrivances galore and the feeling that the heroes are always going to escape to fight another day is definitely there. But the show is able to throw in its own surprises and the continuing narrative helps to keep things interesting. Still, the characters here need work and are mostly defined by a single personality trait; that means that Ezra, Zeb and especially Chopper become tiresome while Hera and Sabine are heavily underdeveloped. And yet, there is clear progression as things become more complicated. That leaves Kanan as the most interesting of the bunch.
I've seen Rebels before but forgotten a lot of it, although I definitely don't remember enjoying it as much as I did this time. It's goes to an effort to recreate the feel of the original trilogy, especially with the space battles, and it succeeds.
Very muddled and obtuse storytelling along with a cast that don't quite seem to fit make this a challenging watch, at least for the first half. It's a shame, because so many other elements are here to make a really great sci-fi show. And good sci-fi TV was seriously lacking at the time this premiered. I'm glad the show elects to use on-screen text each time we shifted to a new location, but more really was needed. I've read the book and I struggled to follow a lot of the events happening here.
Things do improve, the cast especially become easier to watch. Thomas Jane stands above everyone despite playing a very clichéd role as the burnt-out detective who drinks a lot, and he seems to be the only character who reacts to things like a person should. The crew of the Canterbury/Rocinante are a much bigger issue, not only do they not seem to gel well together, they don't really seem to inhabit their roles. It's mostly in their interactions and reactions to things, they act peculiarly without any explanations. These people certainly aren't meant to like each other all that much, but it can feel like they each are acting in completely different stories. But again, this improves as the the episodes go by. Unfortunately, Shohreh Aghdashloo is never really convincing and her scenes slow down an already complex narrative (despite her fantastic voice).
Just about everything else does work. The universe of the show is well developed and fascinating, if not all that pleasant to see. The special effects are mostly of a high quality and when the story gets going it all becomes quite gripping. I've heard the show continues to improve and I'm eager to continue.
The first season of Titans is not a good representation of the team. The series swings a lot between good episodes and very bad episodes. The best episode was when the team first met and fought against the Nuclear Family. There it was the height of the characters and the best interaction of them throughout the season. Dick Grayson certainly was the member of the team with better exploration and he was well interpreted. I liked to see your past and your reasons for abandoning Batman. It certainly had a good development over the course of the season, but I think the final kinda messed that up. It was also that he was too violent for an incarnation of Dick Grayson. He looks like Jason Todd. Raven, Beast Boy and Starfire were exploited in a very superficial way, always presenting little about their past. It seems that the series was not of the Titans but of Dick and his friends. With the exception of the main character, all were underappreciated. But the minor characters stole the scene. I really enjoyed Doom Patrol, Jason Todd, Hank, Dawn and Donna Troy. They had good times and even steal the scene from the main characters, with the exception of Dick. The big negative point of the series was her lack of line-up and the choice of Raven's actress. Many episodes were fillers and took focus from the main plot. Perhaps with a number of 8 episodes, the season would be more focused on the main plot. It took me a long time to finish this series because of that. Another point that bothered me was the acting actress who plays Raven. She is not good and has given no credibility to perssonation. They should have cast another actress. One thing I expect in a second season is that the tone is less gloomy. I thought the series had unnecessary violence and a very somber tone for a team that is the Titans. I hope you can improve this. The visual effects range from very good to very bad, but overall the balance was positive considering the low budget of the series. The soundtrack is completely forgettable, and the most memorable track is the credits. I hope you can make it better in a second season. Overall, the first season of Titans was not good being that the highlights were just the minor characters. And that in a series is fatal. Dick was well-characterized, but the others were obscured and forgettable. Already the secondary ones were a show to the part and I hope to see them in a second season or in other productions of the DC. This first season has not left the taste of watching the second season, but I will make an effort to watch at least the first episode when she is released.
This is a solid espionage tale, with Australia and China playing the primary roles and the U.S. mostly lurking about in the background. Anna Torv once again comes across as competent and cool as ice, this time as a renegade reporter for a major Australian newspaper. The story centers around Canberra and Torv's Dunkley character, and many of the alphabet agencies mentioned throughout are surely familiar to Aussies if not to me, but I'm okay with accepting that they're, more or less, the counterparts of the likes of the F.B.I. and C.I.A. and Homeland Security.
It's a conspiracy tale, so it's probably a non-starter for opponents of conspiracy plots out there, but those like me who like their spies and lies will appreciate this one a lot. And it's international intrigue and skulduggery rather than just the national or interagency sort, which is a critical distinction for me. I had a few eye-rolling moments with a few plot points but decided not to rush to judgment and, sure enough, those things were explained in the finale and it all made sense and I was able to stop rolling my eyes.
Overall, this one's a perfect example of why I think that journalists make terrific protagonists in fiction. I'm looking forward to the second series on Netflix (later this year?) and highly recommend this six-episode series one.
Star Wars is my favourite thing ever. The announcement of this show came with a lot of promises and built up expectations on my part. It's so nice to be able to say that the show lived up to and surpassed all of them.
This first season of The Mandalorian feels mostly like an introduction, setting up the world and the characters and making use of a storytelling technique that falls somewhere in between episodic and serialised. It works. The main plot follows the rescue and protection of a small creature that appears to belong to Yoda's species, and this story flows through all the episodes even though it sometimes takes a backseat. Even when Mando is dealing with a side issue, we continue to learn more about Baby Yoda (for want of a better name) and the relationship between the two characters develops.
It's such a satisfying and easy thing to watch. Opting to use more puppetry over CGI for Baby Yoda was a smart move, and he/she is such a cute and adorable creation that it's impossible not to find yourself deeply caring about what happens to him/her. The episodes which deal with more self-contained stories are surprisingly welcome, giving us a slice-of-life in the Star Wars universe feel and allowing the show to deal introduce different genres and styles. While the show often presents a slightly more violent and darker angle than we're used to in Star Wars, it's also the funniest thing produced for the franchise yet (although the X-Wing novels from the 1990s are close in the running).
Visually the show is incredible. A new technology referred to as Stagecraft has been used extensively. It's essentially an evolved form of blue screen/green screen which allows the actors to actually see the environment they're in and reacts in real time to camera movements to allow the background to dynamically adjust. The results are impressive and lend the show an epic quality. Not to mention the fantastic set and costume design which fits in very nicely with the world set up in the original trilogy. If was to criticise then I would say some of the alien make-up fell flat (notably in the prison ship episode), but not to a distracting degree.
The music is also a highlight, diverting sharply from what we would consider standard Star Wars music but really working within the style of the show. It took a couple of episodes to get used to but now feels like an integral part.
Most of all, the show has a real emotional impact. Baby Yoda contributes to a big part of that, but Pedro Pascal in the lead role of the Mandalorian manages to do a lot while being behind a mask. His body language and voice performance are simply fantastic. Other characters leave an impression too and we feel like we get to know them even with a fairly small amount of screen time. They are all well written. The deaths of IG-11 and Kuill had an impact, the reveal of Cara Dune being from Alderaan gave us a sudden clear insight into her character. And the moment when Mando finally took off his helmet was brilliantly executed, with a genuine build up and then the reveal of a battered man who seemed slightly frightened that he may be about to die humanised him a lot.
The ending set up a very clear and exciting direction for season 2, plus we had the Dark Saber reveal, which ties into the Clone Wars and Rebels TV shows. It's clearly made by people who understand and love Star Wars. Finishing each episode of this left me in such a good mood and there's no other show this year that has brought me so much joy. Honestly, I can't wait for more.
Once you accept just how much this show is going to rip off, and blatantly steal from Star Trek (notably, it seems to fashion itself around The Next Generation and Voyager), you can sit back and let yourself have fun with it. It mixes up all of the sci-fi tropes which 1990s TV gave us and adds some low brow humour which works more often than not. The show is certainly still finding its feet, but its been well cast and each of the actors involved contribute very nicely.
Out of everyone, the standouts from this season have Alara, Bortus and Isaac - and its a shame that they haven't each been given a bit more screen time. Of the three, Alara has been the one most allowed to grow and Halston Sage really does well when given the lead. Isaac has been fun and intriguing, but I feel like so much more could be done with him. Meanwhile, Bortus has just about stolen every scene he's in so it's a shame that he's not been given more episodes.
This is certainly a show for those of us who really miss 1990s science fiction TV, because it aims to tickle the nostalgia but also cleverly makes fun of so much of it (eg., Malloy looking out of the viewscreen at a nebula and remarking it would make a great desktop screensaver). The humour is also balanced quite well with more serious and heartfelt material, although I feel there is still work to be done in this regard. On the plus side, the show has managed to surprise me with unexpected twists from time to time.
One thing I'm not so much a fan of is the Ed/Kelly relationship. We kept getting teased that they still like each other and honestly it's felt like a dead end to me from the start, so I'd appreciate it if the show would leave it alone from now on. The season finale suggested that this would be the case going forward.
If the show felt like taking some influence from Deep Space Nine - the best Trek - that wouldn't go amiss either! A little more consequences for the ending of episodes, sharpen up some of the humour and this show is going to be an absolute winner.
I went into this show with low expectations; after the train wreck that was Iron Fist, I was prepared for the worst. By episode four or so, I could tell that this show was turning out to be far better than the others, and now that I wasted my entire weekend burning through the first season, I can say that this is arguably the best of all Marvel/Netflix shows so far, beating out the moody Season 1 of Jessica Jones. The characters are well written, the plot is focused and the conflict is realistic. Rather than burning through interesting characters to move the plot (I'm looking at you Daredevil Season 1!), it instead makes them incomplete and real. Frank Castle and "Micro" make a great team, having good chemistry and performing tasks better with the help of the other. When situations get resolved seven episodes in, it's rewarding and earned. The gimmick episode was nicely done and advanced the plot. Minor baddies introduced early in the season are quietly dispatched and they don't come back to cause trouble later in the season. Sidekicks and mentors don't turn out to be cheap moles.
An excellent effort from the Netflix team, and I'm looking forward to seeing what's next up.
