If you're an aviation enthusiast and can manage to find it somewhere - watch it !
Why watch a 35+ year old documentary when there are much newer ones ? Because this gives you what no modern docu can - eye witnesses. You hear from the people who've actually been there and done it.
And that's priceless.
I like WD and have watched every episode since day one. But why do another spin-off for what is essentially the same show and in any case, has already been done before ?
Not awful. In a very diminished way it helped me to understand where this conflict originated from. But therein lies the problem. This is more about the people than the actual thing. All those personal side stories really did nothing for me. It dragged everything down. I'd like to have deeper inside in the actual issues. Plus, I really didn't sympathize with any of the characters.
I think I can skip the follow up.
Although I am well aware of the level of quality the BBC/Attenborough docus present the footage never ceases to amaze me.
This is in many ways "Tool Time" re-imagined. The characters of Mike and Tim share some similarities and the general setup is very much alike. Ultimately Tim is the much more likeable character.
While I enjoyed the first season I have to say that with the second season it became tedious to watch because of all the politics that kept creaping in. And this is not an issue of whether I agree or not. I don't want it to be there in the first place.
I like nature docus very much especially coming from the BBC. You expect a certain level of quality. This doesn't come close to the Attenborough series. It covers too many topics in too little time. An addional couple episodes would have helped a lot.
Fair enough documentary about carrier operations that uses the usual American wordage and swagger. Comes with the territory so to say.
You know shows where the parts are sometimes better than the sum total ? This is one of those. I liked individual episodes but I already feared where this would lead.
After reading some comments towards the end of season 1, indicating what might happen moving forward (the main thing being the marriage between the lead characters which was obvious from episode one), I looked up the rest of what will happen because the show lost me then and there.
It's your typical conspiracy show where everything's got twisted and turned and layer after layer is build up until you reach the point where it becomes a jumbled mess.
I'm sure I would have dropped out eventually but I'm glad I didn't waste more time then necessarry.
Typical AHC stuff. Light on facts but heavy on loud rock music and testosterone driven commentary.
I think a rating around 60 % seems just about right. The individual episodes are too short to carry much information and I was really put off by those R2D2ish sounds they played every time a probe is on screen.
Technically this is as good as the other Anderson productions yet the premise of a nine year old boy becoming a "most special agent" through brain transfer knowledge is far fetched even for a puppet show. It seems to come out of the mind of a child rather then an adult.
The show itself has that certain nostalgic charme though.
"Ahsoka" managed to achieve something no other Star Wars show up to this point did - it made me stop caring. I even watched "Kenobi" to the end despite the fact I thought it's bad because I still cared for the characters and/or the universe in general. Not any more.
Those are not the characters I learned to love from "Rebels". Which I went onto a journey with, laughed and, yes, even cried, with. They bear the names but that's where the similarities stop.
It started well, I even gave high ratings, which I now think was my hope for what it might be. But it was painfully obvious this wasn't going to be what I expected. Yes, my fault, I know. It totally fell apart with episode five after which I planed to watch the final three episodes once they are released. I didn't picked it up again. Like I said - I don't care.
And that's worse than hating it.
I'm mostly sceptical when it comes to US shows dealing with stuff like 911. You never now what you get when you begin, as some of them have a tendency to resolve the government of any fault. Not this one, though.
While they don't claim the story they present here as facts (only based upon but dramatized as said in the disclaimer) I think they are pointing the finger in the right direction. I could've done without all the personal stuff but I guess it is necessary to make the charaters appear more relatable for the viewer. After all, this isn't a documentary.
Top notch on the production side, cast is great, you see and feel a lot of work went into this show.
8.6 on average rounds up to 9
Well, on the rational side of thinking this hasn't aged well. The sound effects are annoying, the music is too 80ish even for the 80ies. And the constantly irritatingly laughing Zelda seems totally out of place in what is supposed to be a scifi show. Looks more like a whitch.
But I have a soft spot for those Anderson shows. There is a certain nostalgia involved but I like the way they made this shows.
Althought my guess is that by the end of 1983, when this aired, kids were more into computer games and animation shows. I know I was.
I'm a huge fan of rallying and the finnish drivers in particular for over 40 years now.
Not only is this the best docu about the Flying Finns I've ever watched, it is one of the best about rallying in general. Only wish it would have been longer.
If you want to win, hire a Finn.
Martina is very versatile but not everything is funny. Still, couple of good laughs each episode. Which is about what I was expecting. So, no regrets watching this. I like watching her.
This show is probably the definition of "Meh". It's not totally awfull, the idea is ok, but at the same time they made it so boring and uninteresting that you just don't care.
Informative but not very engaging. Another one of those documentaries where you just see footage to support an audio book style commentary.
So, I watched the first two episodes. The quality of the footage is OK although it's not real HD. I mean, the resolution might be there but just don't expect crisp and clear pictures.
I'm am however very much on the fence concerning this production. Like I said, footage is good, which is a main selling point. But I don't like the over dubbed sound or the narrative nature of it. Furthermore it jumps back and forth through time and events, there is no real chronology. And a lot of times I get the feeling they are using footage just to fit the narrative. The edditing is too fast - you barely have more then a couple of seconds before there is another cut.
Since it also only focusses on the American involvement in the war the title of the show itself becomes misleading. It should say "WWII (from America's pov) in (mostly grainy) HD"
Ultimately I'd rather have a real movie or a hard documentary instead of this in between style.
Hugely interesting topic. It shows the power of cinema. How it can be used for good but also to manipulate opinion. I've watched several of the movies they were talking about and it was always obvious to me what there purpose was. Nevertheless it was interesting to see the whole history of that era of movie making.
Don't be irritated by the low rating. This is a worthwhile documentary if you're interested in the topic. Being an older one this has the added benefit of eyewitness accounts from the pilots who flew those very airplanes.
More like a Star Trek look-alike than an actual Star Trek Fan Series. Due to copyright issues they couldn't use Trek lore so they build something close to it. But I like it nevertheless. Production quailty is great, story has depth and adding a bunch of known Trek actors certainly is a nice extra.
It's a reminder that there were, and still are, people out there that could to good Star Trek shows if they were alowed to.
Now there's a blast from the past. And you know what ? It still works most of the time. Had some really good laughs and you really can't afford to blink as there are so much things going on in every scene. Great word play, too. But there is also a lot of repeating of the same jokes in every episode. At two and a half hours you can watch this on a leisurely afternoon.
Each episodes shows two different airplanes that have a significance in british aviation history. But sadly with just over 20 mins per episodes each plane gets just 10 mins. Which is too little time. That aside it's really good.
I enjoyed all the little anecdotes he was telling from his time making those films. But can you imagine having lived his life, seen what he's seen, and now witnessing how we are still flushing it down the toilette ?
If you like nature and wildlife docs you sure will find your share of great scenery and animal footage. Althought said footage is re-used in different episodes for different topics. And the commentary is rather dull, close to a lecture. It doesn't evoke excitement for the wonders of nature like the BBC docs do so well. But those are on a whole different level anyway.
The informational content is OKish. If you're familiar with the topic it won't offer anything groundbreaking to you. The one thing I don't like is the dramatizing with guitar rock music and the re-enacted dogfights are terrible.
But I guess that's Military Channel style as I have seen this in other docus from their channel. Well, I got the DVD for under 5 $ and for that it's OK.
This is not a sequel to the movie. In fact it is more of a reimagineering. The overall premise is the same but they are also many differences.
The quality of the episodes varies from mediocre (most) to good (some) and even up to great (a few). I'm not sure if I would categorise it as cult or a classic but aside from one really bad episode they are all entertaining in the 70s kind of way. You need to be able to ignore the logical flaws and scriptholes (which I couldn't always). Ultimately it is generic scifi stories where the connection to "Logan's Run" didn't really matter.
If you're a fan of 70s scifi I suggest to give this a try. It doesn't take long to finish. I do understand though while it got cancelled. After Star Wars showed what scifi could do this felt like from a decade ago. And even then there already was Star Trek (interestingly there are some people that worked at Trek on this show) which was a lot more sophisticated.
I decided to quit after the first season. I never got into it, it was just so painfully slow moving. This was content for maybe three episodes or even a two hour movie. But every other scene is stretched out to the limit until it becomes boring. Then they throw in some heartbraking music to evoke an emotinal reaction from the viewer. Didn't happen with me. I found the characters utterly dull and the story was very plain. There was nothing really genius about it, it was just the setting that made it different.
The production itself wasn't bad in terms of sets and costumes. But it was too dark. You literally have to sit in a completely darkened room to see anything most of the times.
Can't like them all.
Helen Mirren for sure is one of the great actresses, there can't be any doubt about that. But for this role she's miscast. Since she was also Executive Producer my guess is there never was any other consideration.
Catherine was 33 when she became Empress. Helen Mirren is not portraying that being way in her 70s. While that shouldn't be important, it still is. It's hard to fathom why every man want's to sleep with her. When she is with Potemkin it looks more like mother and son then lovers. Now, I might be able to look past that but there is another matter.
What's the point of the show ? You don't learn much about the times or the characters. Most of the time it seems to be about sex anyway. And it looks like a low budget production, which seems odd for HBO. Furthermore it lacks enthusiasm, it feels shallow.
As much as I like to watch period drama, this one was like walking through mud.