Spoiler free review
Do yourself a favour, don't waste your time on this. It's a perfect example of all sizzle no steak. The show starts off weak then eventually hints at a decent mystery which you expect will come to some satisfying conclusion, but as the season reaches its crescendo it turns into one of the biggest let downs ever.
Admittedly it has some pretty moments but is mostly shot in drab, uninteresting settings, which doesn't really feel intentional. All the characters apart from the OA are wildly predictable, but she eventually falls into this category once you learn more about her. Any character relationships that are built up don't feel at all worth investing in, and any semblance of a subplot is swept under the rug quickly. Despite being eight episodes the show feels heavily padded, yet they decided to barely dedicate any time to develop side characters, because Brit Marling has to dominate every scene she's in, and the result of which feels massively self-indulgent.
If there's one thing I have to warn anyone watching The OA is that it completely cons viewers with a vague, nonsensical ending. I can only assume that they thought they were a shoe-in for a second season from Netflix and left it completely open, or they were trying to create an ending that was open for interpretation - which this show definitely didn't have the smarts to accomplish. The ending literally makes no sense, and only serves to add another gaping space to a plot already filled with holes; after seeing it I thought "wait, is that it? What the hell was that?" It's honestly like they reached the deadline for the script and figured "screw it, we'll make it vague, I'm sure Netflix will throw cash at us next year, we'll pretend to explain it then".
The OA is a interesting but lazy and frustrating mess. If you can put aside common sense and a desire for a decent plot and story for eight hours, then by all means go for it. The ending was such a huge "screw you" to the viewer that I refuse to return for resolution should they get another season. Oh, and this show shouldn't be called sci-fi at all, it couldn't be any further from it, if anything it's profoundly anti-science and unashamed of it.
Writing this comment a few years after the show ended, and my 5 star rating stands.
I really enjoyed the show at the beginning and enjoyed it enough to watch it (not hate watch) it through it's first cancelation. The show was cast very well, everyone played their role really well, but the constant hard line political views and commentary were just annoying. I am not political, this is not an "I find it offensive" response, I truly just found it annoying to have any political ideal thrown at me in ~75% of the scenes the star is in.
That said, I would have given it a 6 if they had not come back for a few more seasons. To start, they replaced Molly Ephraim with Molly McCook, and while I have no issue with McCook at all, both my wife and I thought she was great, something was off (and we accepted her as Mandy, roles get recast for a myriad of reasons) and we still cannot put our fingers on it, but I think McCook was dumbed down too much in the role, neither my Wife or I could imagine her as that stereotypical "dumb blonde" character.
The show dragged on, it felt like people were contractually obligated to be there, more than they wanted to be there. Just one guy's opinion, take it as you will.
Also, I missed Kaitlyn Dever, Eve was such an awesome character, and I understand the timing was bad for her (I thought I read), but her absence was noted.
I watched the first three episodes, and quite frankly this show is a complete mess.
It can't decide whether it wants to be a period drama, a detective show, urban fantasy, a war story... The dichotomies between these genres are too big, and the writer makes a crap job of marrying them together. They're not mixed well enough for the flow of the story to be smooth. It's like watching a show with multiple personalities disorder.
The dialogue isn't all that great, the timeframe of events is unclear, and there's no spark between the lead couple in the slightest. They have some type of chemistry, but it is definitely not of the romantic kind. Also the pacing is all wrong. There are way too many scenes so unnecessarily long. It made for a very boring watching experience.
As for the cast, they're not the best of actors, but they're not the worst either. However, I need Cara to just pick a freking accent and stick to it. I've seen her in interviews and I know that's not what she sounds like, so why have an Irish accent for some scenes and not for others? The accent wasn't necessary in the slightest. So why even add it if you're not gonna be great at it? So pointless.
If you wanna watch an Amazon Prime show about a wartime love story with fantasy elements, just go watch The Man in the High Castle. The first season is infinitely better, I promise.
Easily the best Star Wars tv show, even after only 3 episodes. A Star Wars show that actually has nuance??!?
Having continued to watch weekly, here's just a bit of why it's so good: Dialogue that treats its audience as intelligent, writing and themes that actually address what Empire and Rebellion really mean, side characters who immediately make an impression even with limited screen time, incredible set design that feels real rather than CGI, spy thriller intensity bubbling underneath every scene, imbuing TIE fighters and stormtroopers with actual menace, new nuggets of interesting worldbuilding, emotional scenes between interesting characters, and some of the best set-pieces of Star Wars TV (episodes 3 & 6 in particular). It's Star Wars for adults, not in the sense of gore, violence, or sex, but in the sense of nuance, complexity, and weighty themes. It's astounding that Star Wars can be this good, especially since all their recent shows and films have been lackluster copies of past highs.
Art is subjective of course, you can like what you like, but these are just some of the reasons that this show is getting as much praise as it has been. I think Star Wars is a setting, a feeling, and it can sustain different types of genres and themes. It can be light-hearted action-adventure, and that's fine if that's what you want it to be, but this show proves that it can do other things. Star Wars can keep expanding into numerous different genres if it's done with the care and thought that this show has been given.
It was one of my favourite shows growing up, I was about 8 or 9 years old when it was shown in Italy. I remember that I had to watch it before lunch in the summer, after a nice swin in a nearby beach in my town. I wasn't able to watch all the episodes, so I took the chance to watch it now, almost 30 years later.
These are the kind of stories I really like: a group of people far from home, in a new land, that needs to organize and survive. I probably like this setting because The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne caught my imagination when I was little. Also, science fiction is a genre that sits well with the story.
Before watching Earth 2 again (in Italy it is called "Progetto Eden" = Eden Project) after so many years, I though I was going to like it no matter what, because of nostalgia. But I was wrong, I am still impressed by the story, the characters, the aliens design, the relationships between some of the protagonists... I consider it a magnificent series.
The science fiction is well done, it's not too advanced, it's what you expect. Even the virtual reality is more believable if you compare it to Star Trek, and I like that. The transportations feel authentic, the weapons are advanced but heavy, and even the camp where the group sleeps feels realistic.
When I was little I wasn't aware about the status of the show (I didn't even know that series could be canceled!). During this run, I was hoping to have a satisfying ending, with the group walking towards the sunset with a voice over, by Devon, saying "We'll reach New Pacifica some day, I am sure". The final episode show us an uncertain future and it's a shame we'll never walk with these characters again. I read somewhere that the series didn't have many viewers and the Broadcaster wanted to change the protagonist to a male character, hoping to have more views, but I don't think Devon was an issue, the bond between her and her son is a nice way to keep the story going. Maybe this news was false, don't quote me on that.
We were lucky to have a glimpse of the future in the episode "The Boy Who Would Be Terrian King", so I think Devon and Co. will reach their goal. It's the best future possible, I like mother and son stories, and I am happy they'll be together no matter what.
This came out in 1994 like The Shawshank Redemption and when I was little I wasn't able to notice that Clancy Brown played such different characters. Danziger is my favourite of the group. Like I wrote for the Orville, it's a show where I see myself being friend with the group so it was nice to be part of the "Eden Project".
I quote you, @finfan , because I like your opinion, if you'll have the time to write one. But I am happy if you just have the chance to read my thoughts on this.
P.S.: I forgot to quote the amazing theme song, it summarizes greatly the nice and dangerous journey of our group!
Reviewed this on Letterboxd first
since this is a tv show though I want to try and review TV shows on Trakt and movies on letterboxd, but whatever
I wanted to love this so much, but the way the story and writing goes is just so fucking bland and boring, that not even Ewan McGregor can save the bad script. I don't blame Deborah Chow at all, I don't blame any of the creatives except for the writers (specifically Joby Harold, fuck you) because that's what bogged the show down the most. There was so much potential and so much more interesting shit to go down and explore with Kenobi's character that, I will admit, gets touched on slightly in the show but god
disappointing, is what I'd call this.
Other things I noted while watching this:
- It looks cheap as fuck
- the 'volume' that they used, just like in Mandolorian and more recently The Batman, for some reason looks worse all around. I was convinced they straight up used greenscreen for those shots
- The show apparently went through a big rewrite? which would explain the messy story for sure, especially because the original writers had this big idea to explore Kenobi's sort of journey as a man in exile to a man who becomes the Ben we love and know. Or something like that, idk I only read the wikipedia article
- why does Andor look like a much better show.
- on the topic of Andor, why couldn't they have made this show distanced from the dumb Disney trend of being hopelessly attached the the Skywalker family. It would have been so much better as more of a character study that shows kenobi's growth.
At this point I'm rambling. 4/10 overall. So boring and so disappointing.
This show has almost a religious significance to me and of course countless others.
Growing up in the 70's, my first TV crush was on Veena (the Cage/Menagerie). The first girl I kissed was a blue-eyed blonde, and later I married a blue-eyed blonde, well, three of them, to be perfectly honest. I think it's Veena's fault. I never did score with a green Orion slave girl, though, despite what they say about them.
While there are many stinker episodes of Star Trek, there are also many masterpieces. "City on the Edge of Forever" is my favorite, for its emotional impact. Who could not fall in love with a young Joan Collins? Another noteworthy episode is "The Doomsday Machine," which is interesting because of its unique musical score, with different instruments/styles for each character. You can find a YouTube video about it, by user shemvonschroeck. I think the most important episode is "Mirror, Mirror", for its (probable) social commentary on American imperialism, the Vietnam War, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's spying on members of Congress, and the CIA's use of torture and assassinations in the 60's. We are living in the "Mirror, Mirror" universe. The Utopian Star Trek universe is not our own.
If you like Star Trek, then of course there are the official sequels/spin-offs, but also you should check out Star Trek Continues. And if you like "Mirror, Mirror", then you should check out its Star Trek Continues counterpart, "Fairest of Them All".
Seasons 1 & 2 were great, brilliant even, 3 was so so, 4 was bearable but going downhill and 5, well, what can one say?
5 hit an all time low in the series, many episodes were little more than padding as the story split into 4 (3 mostly pointless) sub-stories. In order of interest and relevance I'd rate them as
Vikings in England: Marred by the total incompetence of the English King and totally unbelievable 'clever' Viking strategies to defeat them.
Kattegat: Dropping like a stone in terms of interest we come on to Kategat and the banal domestics of Viking life under Lagertha. The constant betrayal story line is wearing thin now, as is the constantly leaving alive of people who will clearly become a significant and deadly threat, surely they don't need a Seer to see that?.
Bjorn (Marco) Polo: The second most pointless and uninteresting story involves Bjorn and his drone followers going on a trip to the Mediterranean and Sicily. A particularly dull escapade that adds nothing, merely padding for a series struggling to find a reason to continue. He eventually turns up again in Kattegat having achieved…….. what exactly?
Floki goes Walkabout: THE most pointless and boring of the lot. Boring, self-centred and now overly annoying Floki sails off on his own to discover 'the land of the Gods' (read deserted barren wasteland that gets even worse second time round) with WAY too much time spent on him sat in a boat or walking around. He then goes back to persuade other equally dumb people to go and settle and ultimately squabble there. Most of them look understandably annoyed when the paradise Floki promises them turns out to be volcanic rock for as far as the eye can see.. They start killing each other. Floki is disgruntled.
Without doubt the worst season of this and many other series that I've seen that was just screaming for someone to shout 'CUT!'
While it should have ended at Season 2, 3 at a push (4 & 5 just weren't worth the time invested) the series did redeem itself somewhat in season 6 with a tighter story, more action, and less incredible plot lines, albeit Ivor's little picnic with the Rus Vikings was a bit of a drag , oh and let's not forget the ridiculous re-incarnation of his (murdered by him) wife as the wife of the Rus King.
I give it a 7 overall but that score is massively carried by seasons 1 & 2, without those I'd give it a 4, 5 at best.
Another high rated show that I never got into. Dropped out after ep13.
There are several things I didn´t like. First off the whole look and feel of the show in general. This is a production from 2000 that is supposed to play in the year 2019, the near future you might say, yet everything screams late 80s early 90s to me. That generic soundtrack is adding up to that fact massively. Next, Jessica Alba is not selling the character for me. And I´m not talking about her acting. She was young, unknown at the time and you don´t expect Emmy quality. I´m OK with her performance, No, I´m having difficulty with a 5 ft 5, 120 lbs super soldier. That´s just not right. It´s not convincing. And last but not least the whole concept of the secret-government-military-organisation-genetically-enhanced-children-turned-super-soldier-programm-with-escapees-beeing-hunted-down feels a bit overused. Althought on that point the blame is with me because chronological Dark Angel came before alot of the other shows and I just watched it now.
Anyway, at no point during the 13 episodes I watched I had the urge to continue. And it took me three weeks to get that far, normally I do 5 eps a day. None of the characters got me interested, the plot was predictable. I pretty much felt bored throughout the part I watched. So I dropped it.
This was obviously done by people that really hate Star Trek, this show is atrocious and the sad part is that they could have done a fine job because the aesthetics is fine, the writing on the other hand is horrible, they could have done a whole series in the TNG universe and we would have love it, instead we get this lame attempt at humor, you know that kind that really piss you off.
The characters are filled with your expected trope, the rebel girl that insult all regulations but that in the end somehow saves the day, therefore reinforcing the message that you have to break the rules always and not only you don't face the consequences but you actually solve the problem! The comedy relief that of course is the one that wants to follow the rules of starfleet and instead becomes the target of all the insults and fails at everything.
Then comes the "class warfare" the elite on the bridge vs all those poor people in the lower decks, and of course the ones in the bridge never solve anything making them useless, but additional to that are bad people because never acknowledged the work of the "poor" in the lower decks. Do I need to go on?
The message of optimism in Star Trek are a thing of the past, now everything is dark, unfunny and with class hate. Btw all dumb characters are white and male and all smart and witty are female and of any other color than white, very subtle there guys, very subtle.
Guess they have a villain that looks like Trump! BTW I'm not even american and I'm already tired of that crap wish I could vote Trump just out of spite. Fuck off with this garbage.
One of the worst Sci-Fi shows ever. It's Sci-Fi for people who don't like Sci-Fi. Usually, science fiction likes to engage your mind, however in this show, if you turn on your head for even a second you will be imminently put off by how nothing the characters do makes any sense...
The antagonistic XO behaves like he has a bi-polar disorder. In one scene he's well adjusted in other he's a raving lunatic. It's really hard to believe he wasn't booted from the military before. Even harder to believe that he had command of his own ship for any period of time.
He starts a mutiny at the first serious disagreement with Katee While they still have communication with Earth. Usually, the mutiny would take place when the crew is isolated from the outside. Here they just could have presented the point of disagreement to the higher-ups on earth, and they would have decided what action they want their subordinates to take.
The XO later tries to kill Katee in an overdramatized scene that looked like a red herring for him trying to kill her. You know those scenes when someone bad is about to happen but you know it wouldn't? Like Sansa wanting to execute Arya and switching to Littlefinger in the last possible moment? Only in this scene he actually tries to kill her. [Expectations Subverted!]. So Katee kills him in self-defense. Yet in the next episodes, Katee doesn't mention to the crew that it was self-defense. She just says she killed him. Because he didn't follow orders or some shit like that.
Then some of the crew go to an alien planet. To mine oxygen rocks in a tiny cave. And for some reason, they think it's a good idea to take their masks off, on an alien planet. In a predictable fashion, the crew gets infected with an alien organism. For which, they magically find a cure in the last possible minute before they all decide to kill themselves.
I only watched the first 3 episodes. Couldn't take it anymore.
Also, It seems the level of technology in this world is an incomplete contradiction to the level of challenges the characters face. Most of the issues facing the crew seem like they could have been easily solved by their current technology.
Also, they have a real AI on board of the ship. Thinking, self-aware artificial intelligence. Only it's the most useless AI in the history of AI.
He doesn't seem to to have any of the advantages you would expect a super-intelligent being to have. Katee a lowly human can manually pilot the ship better than him. His only advantage seems to be that he can read the ship's sensors. All things else he's completely useless.
I have this thing which is that I love watching historical fiction but historical inaccuracy bothers me A LOT. So yeah watch me bitching about how x thing didn't happen or happened differently, but still keep watching nonetheless. It's a contradiction that I've come to accept, and it's the reason why I enjoyed a lot The White Queen, even though it is not very accurate.
This mini series it's fast paced and very entertaining . It's all drama, politics, a bit of war (with battles that DEFINETLY could have been better directed and choreographed) and tons of stuff that probably (and surely) didn't happen. Not perfect, nor a favorite of mine (to be honest I wasn't very hooked at the end), but if you like historical fiction for it's drama, setting and pretty dresses, then I think you might enjoy this one as I did (bitching about inaccuracy and all).
Lastly, I don't wanna sound like a history nerd, but if you liked the show and were left with curiosity, please consider checking out what actually happened, 'cause ultimately I don't mind historical changes if the final product it's enjoyable but I find worrisome that some people may end up taking a piece of fiction as actual facts.
Partly a spin-off, partly a revival, Galactic 1980 is an atrocious sci-fi series that completely bastardizes Battlestar Galactica. Set a generation after the original series, the Colonial Fleet finds Earth but discovers that the Cylons have followed them, so to protect Earth they continue on into open space leading the Cylons away; but secretly a pair of viper pilots are sent back to establish contact with Earth. Initially it starts out as a time travel story with rouge elements of the Fleet going back in Earth’s history to advance technological change in order for Earth to be able to fight off the Cyclons in present day. But that’s quickly dropped and the show becomes about setting up a colony for the Fleet’s children. Lorne Greene returns as Adama, but is relegated to playing lackey to a child genius. And the new leads, Kent McCord and Barry Van Dyke, are awful; they don’t have any charisma or personality. Virtually no time is spent on the Galactica, as the show veers more toward a fish-out-of-water comedy with the Colonials getting into wacky adventures. Fans of the original series won’t even recognize this show and will find nothing to like. An extraordinarily bad attempt to revive Battlestar Galactica, Galactica 1980 is an embarrassment.
In it's first year this felt like a "Star Trek" series with no ambition and little progress but with a cool premise. Then suddenly it started to become bolder and more interesting. It dared to go deeper into religion, politics and character studies than any of the other Trek series did on the air. Today I would say that this series began a kind of production that we would later see on cable with long-running story arcs, a huge cast list and pushing the envelope on what was allowed on TV. The last 10 episodes of this show (and beginning of the 6th) was like seeing a long-running 10 episode HBO series on syndicated TV to be blunt. I also liked that this was "Star Trek" where the leads were flawed and not perfect so they actually had to have internal fights with themselves and their own demons at times. They even managed to make their villains three-dimensional and sympathetic and I liked them all. What would have helped the show would have been an even healthier budget would have given some scenes better effects, more action and detailed battle sequences as this show had bigger ambition and tried to be more epic than what they really could manage to get through on screen. Some lousy embarrassing comedy and weak B-plots ruined some episodes too but this show produced some magic moments and is the show that has more hits than any of the other newer Trek shows that I have seen so far. This is the one show that deserve a revisit if one only skip over most of the filler episodes in season 1, 2 and major part of the third one.
Funny, in case of Breaking Bad I am actually one of those people claiming it's sort of the best drama in television history and can't understand most of the criticism that it gets from the "haters" (you know the drill).
While in case of Game of Thrones I am on that other side, the "haters" side, I assume.
Generally spoken, I am genuinely interested in plot driven shows where you have a complex society and their circumstances explained to you. In lack of a better example, I enjoyed the anime MAOYU (Maoyuu Maou Yuusha) a lot. It focused on the improvement of society in a middle age like time. That involved for example trades for profit as well as for political pressure or education for the common men to improve the live of all. Compared to GoT it was obviously much simpler but you hopefully get the point that I am not condemning GoT for what it is or tries to be.
I just can't get into this show. I get where it is coming from, the scenery is actually really good, costumes are very well made, some likeable characters but all that is left after watching an episode are the basically countless breasts, some pointless violence, profanity and a lot of confusion due to the cutscenes that you see in every episode and the sheer endless amount of characters. Cutscenes from one house and plot to another. Because of that it feels like it's not moving forward at all and as a watcher I feel tortured and bored to death with all the unnecessary anecdotes, side characters and sideplots not bringing anything to the table.
The whole show tries way too hard and puts too much into the pot to attract as much people as possible. Sex, nudity, portraying women almost only as whores or otherwise pleasure material, incest, profanity, violence, partly even gore, all kinds of characters mixed together, great scenery, outstanding props/environments.
As soon as something starts to make just a bit sense another cutscene and you're left hanging in the air until you forgot where you were or what happend before until you get back, resulting in you not caring for a single or at least most of the characters.
Having partly awful actors doesn't help this show either (the guy playing Viserys Targaryen for example, wow is he bad). Actors who rigidly recite their text with almost no (plausible) emotion in voice or facial ex-pressi-on (basically every private scene of Eddard and King Robert).
In addition it seems like this show is on of those where you have to prepare before watching it to be able to follow it, like reading up on Wikipedia, the books, searching for a relationships chart (which I did, cause I lost track of all the connections pretty fast) and the like.
Concluding I must say as a TV show this one fails big time (for me). It's bad. Really bad.
After watching 5 episodes, that are roughly 5 hours, a sixth of the whole show for now I can't watch another episode.
Getting back to the hater thing, I can't leave this being unsaid: It's a hilariously overrated show.
Maybe I am going to take the risk and read the books instead, in some years when the hype is over. Instead of watching this I rather waste my time on Homeland that picked my interest from the start and was actually able to make me care about the characters.
After 12 years of watching this fantastic comedy sitcom it has come to heartfelt ending.
It is genuinely one of the funniest shows on TV with a fantastic cast and great chemistry. Sheldon Cooper maybe arrogant, self centered and in capable of emotions or empathy but you are rooting for him in the show and he quickly rises to be the star of a fantastic group. They really do come together as family and you want to hang out with these people, after 12 years of watching this show you think of Howard, Rajesh, Penny, Leonard, Bernadette, Sheldon, and Amy as friends that you really do know. They all have their stories to play out but you just don't know what to expect and when it does you love it.
They kept it relatable and especially to us nerds and that of the comic kidding, and now that Marvel is king it only made us even cooler. And seeing how nuts these guys are about Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek made them relatable to us and through everything they have been through we can relate to them.
The ending was genuinely perfect, the gang back together over a meal. We just haven't had enough of them.
Well, I did it. I got through the whole series, but boy was I wrong (https://trakt.tv/comments/195833) when I thought the American series would be the harder one to get through. While I don't love it, at least I don't dread watching it to quite the extent I did this.
As far as my series rating, it should have been 4.5 based on the average rating I gave both seasons. But in the end, looking back, I was far too generous with my ratings for this show. It's boring! Not one of the characters felt like a real, relatable person. Actually, I'm not convinced that they were even archetypes—or even stereotypes. Watching their fictional lives here was like watching paint dry. In a show that's billed as a comedy… So I ignored my usual "rule" of using the average, and went with the 3/10 I thought the show deserved. (After all, the few "actually funny" scenes shouldn't be entirely punished for the sins of the vast, insufferable majority.)
I'll throw my weight behind @FinFan's take, one hundred percent:
It had its moments but in an attempt to make this look like they are doing kind of a documentary on the office staff it feels stiff and studied. Characters are one-dimensional and there is almost no developement [sic]. Personally I can't figure out why this is so highly praised. — https://trakt.tv/comments/11138
@ner0p, I'm also happy to join you in the "minority" that didn't think this show deserved its critical acclaim.
No, I will not be watching the specials. I'm 150% done with this show.
I'm currently watching season 6 of the original Magnum PI and was surprised to see this pop up. I immediately thought about how they could fuck up the themesong that I spent many tries attempting to record completely on my cassette-recorder but upon viewing this I must say they didn't fuck it up.
The rest however...
The thing that made Magnum PI so great was the fact, despite being a marine, that he was real human being... this Magnum, from the get-go is an action hero jumping from space and blazing his way through the Jungle, driving backward and shooting others... Why is it so important that these remakes need to lose the human aspect that made us cling so much to these characters. The original Magnum wasn't less of a hero for being afraid to get shot or hesitating to jump from one building to the other... On the contrary.
Couldn't care less that this Higgens is a woman but... where's connection between these two characters. Higgens and Magnum were at odds at the beginning of the original series but these almost seem to be at each others' throat. And let's not start about destroying the iconic Ferrari not once but twice (I know, it's popular, the A-team movie did it too, apparently it's their way of saying "fuck your past").
I'm not the kinda person to say this shouldn't exist but I do wonder why it needs to be so different from the original (same with MacGyver) that it barely resembles the source material. Maybe I don't like sucky reboots and rather have mediocre sequels, maybe I don't like bulletproof hero's but people with heart... and this comes from a person who still adores the 80s
Full disclosure: I haven't watched the complete episode (edit: I have now) and I started skipping scenes to see if it would stay like this (and as far as I could tell it did). I have three more seasons of original Magnum to go. I'll be with the lads, Higgy baby! (though I guess new TC won't be saying this to new Higgens any time soon)
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 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.
No Spoilers at all.
So, i just finished first season of the series, and having watched this far, i dont really know how this series got an 8 here... its a "kinda good" series, it makes use of a lot of good characters from british literature and has a good cast of actors, really good actually, and they kinda put together a good "ambience" for these characters on a good plot, the problem here is, the plot moves too slow, so slow you actually lose interest in the middle of the episode, i start watching it, and around 20-30 minutes i am already picking my phone and doing something else and not even paying atention, which is a shame, cause the series has everything to be good, another problem i find with it is the way the characters are "connected" everything sees so random that it doesnt seem random at all, its like, every character find each other from time to time with no reason whatsoever besides advancing the plot, its too much of a coincidence.
Its not a bad series by any means, but if you are like me, and like a little bit more action packed and not so "wait for the plot to happen" series, this is not for you, my personal score for this would be 6, cause of this point in question, but since this is a review for other people and not myself, i am confortable with giving it a 7, but i dont find it deserving any more than a 7.
Best Sci-Fi series this season!
Like any good science fiction series, it starts with two episodes meant to introduce the characters. After that, you get some very interesting stories.
Capt. Ed Mercer is in some way a little bit like Michael Scott from "The Office US".
His Ex-wife and 1st Officer Cmdr. Kelly Grayson is very interesting. She's broken her husband's heart, but seems to still love him in some way. She's also very capable.
LaMarr and Malloy are a hilarious duo. They pilot the ship together and have incredibly funny conversations.
Bortus, who's got his husband in the ship, is a very dutiful officer with an interesting background and home life.
Kitan is a young bridge officer who only got the position as chief of security because people from her planet don't join the military often (she says so herself). She's extremely strong and can open any jar of pickles in the known universe (you'll get that after watching a few episodes).
Dr Finn has a humour as dry as Mars' surface. I'm surprised she's not British, she could very well be.
Isaac is the absolute Anti-Data. The president of his home world could be Skynet. His Android race considers any carbon life as inferior. And they don't mind telling you that. Isaac has taken the position on the Orville to study human behavior. Or their weaknesses. Like any artificial life form, he's got problems understanding jokes and slang. I like him and I don't fully trust him.
Last but not least, there's Yaphit, a jelly life form whose favourite hobby it is to annoy Dr Finn with his flirting.
So far, there've been great stories which got you thinking and had fun and action.
I can already see the potential for the development of more surprising and serious stories, running gags and maybe even some longer lasting story arcs.
You can see the love Seth MacFarlane put in this project. I'm not that often this enthusiastic about a TV series, but here, it's absolutely justified.
(No) Update after episode 6:
No need to update my review. The show just continues being great :-)
(No) Update after season 1 is finished:
This serial will become a TV legend like Star Trek TNG has become one. There'll be a time when fans will do fan fiction serials in the Orville's universe.
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.
