A smart and surprising adaptation, that widens the scope, adds interesting storylines and plays with structure, opting to narrate the story by alternating different periods of time. I didn't like all the differences and I'm particularly perplexed by some choices they made with the Eighties stuff, but then again, they had to change a lot there, because of the structural changes. Also, it's to be expected when you watch something based on a novel you read. Overall, if you can live with the tipically eastern love for melodrama, this is a great show, with amazing production values, that beautifully recreates so many different time periods and locations, populates them with cray good actors (the three Sunja are out of this world but everybody is really, really good) and tackles in such a deep a smart ways all its themes and the idea of time changing a lot but also thing always staying the same. Plus, I love how deep it dives in eating food, preparing it and all the fish market dynamics, and the whole mix of languages, with korean, japanes and english, is really fascinating. I hope it gets renewed.
I didn't love the first couple of episodes but then it found its rhythm and it became quite good. The final stretch is emotional, funny, smart and overall it's a very good companion to Big Mouth.
A really solid, impeccably made show, with great acting and a good writing. All the cliches of the "true story" genre are there, but in a good way.
The first couple of episodes didn't completely work for me but by the end I was fully in love with the cast and characters, the tone, the overall mood, the plt and the action. This is way better than any MCU show, apart maybe from Loki.
What a great ending for a lovely show. It's a pity some of the actors couldn't return (I didn't miss the therapist though) but the writing, acting and directing is better than ever. And that final image...
This starts really out of whack, the first three episodes really don't work in terms of gags and drama. Too much. But then it finds a balance and it becames a really good final season, funny, heartfelt and with nice closure for all characters.
What an amazing show! Visually stunning, full of ideas, easter egg, homages, and so frigging funny. I loved watching it with my daughter.
Like season 1, this takes a couple of episodes to really become good and I have to say after the beautiful ending of season 1 that was a bit hard to swallow. But then it gets back on track and delivers some great moments. I cannot stand the therapist, though. I don't think he's that funny and it's the only character with no real development or usefulness in the overarching story.
It takes a couple of (quite good nonetheless) episodes to really get on track but then it becomes a very, very, very good show, extremely funny, sad, deep and light at the same time. Really lovely. Plus, it could have absolutely worked as a single season, with a very nice ending, so I'm curious to see what he did in season 2.
The Walking Dead if The Walking Dead was consistently great in every single episode, didn't last too long and didn't sound incredibly dumb when it tried to do drama. Great acting, writing, directing and such lovely writing, always interesting in how it's constructed and so caring and uplifting in how it takes care of its characters. What an amazing show.
They should have squeezed the first three episodes in a bottle episode during The Mandalorian season 2 and then they should have used the storyline of the last three episodes as The Mandalorian Christmas Special. Maybe, that way, it wouldn't be boring as shit. Instead, we got the usual, well produced, moderately fun, moderately boring, kinda wasted opportunity we tend to get from Star Wars/MCU TV shows, just a little more boring than usual.
Do not get me wrong: there's some good stuff and some fun stuff in here and I'm kinda fascinated by the idea they are basically making one big "Tatooine Tales" TV Show with different titles in different seasons, but really, this was tolerable only because I decided to watch it while doing laundry.
A return to form from first to last episode.
Probably the funniest thing I watched with my daughter. Lovely.
This is really cute. Maybe too much.
Friday Night Lights but silly, optimistic and fun.
Impeccably written, staged, acted, directed, amazing performances from everybody, so many great faces, so much raw emotion, so ambitious from a visual storytelling standpoint, so good at mixing up fun, tears, laughs, all range of emotions, so perfectly timed in every beat, what a fucking masterpiece. The final episode destroyed me but the whole show is out of this world. Episode 1 perfectly introduces a huge amount of charachters with just a couple of strokes, you instantly love them, you want to spend so much time with them and then... and then... Jesus.
It ties up a lot of storylines from previous seasons in a great way, while also introducing a whole new universe (the politics stuff) and some new characters and plotlines for the following seasons. The Stringer Bell/Avon Barksdale plot is really great but I also loved all the arcs for the cops. One of the best things? McNulty arrived in season 1 looking like (and thinking he was) the great white saviour but in the end he's the most messed up of all of them.
This is where it goes from great to amazing. The whole docks storyline is incredibly well written and acted and the way it also works on moving everything around for the overarching plot that will go on in the following years is great stuff.
It's got that amazing quality of being great without being obnoxious about it.
Basically it's an MCU movie but stretched on 9 episodes / two months and with the bizarre/quirky/interesting/best part they push on the marketing side positioned at the beginning instead of the second act.
Having finished adapting the books, the series goes on without missing a beat and adding a bit more horizontal storytelling. All the great things from season one are still here and it remains a lovely watch, full of inventions and with the right amount of spookiness. The variation in episodes length works surprisingly and there's at least four standout episodes that are worth the watch. But the season as a whole is really good.
The usual lovely BBC fare: impeccably made and acted, interesting, mature entertainment.
The immediate rewatch is making me appreciate much more the character development, how later seasons pick up on stuff that was laid down here and already in the first season. The tale of Donna and Cameron and how they basically start acting like Joe when they realize their ambition, the depth of desperation in which Joe is falling, the pit from which Gordon is gonna have to crawl out...
Plus, honestly, this is such a lovely watch, of course when it's entertaining and fun, but also when it gets really sad, because it's so nice to be with such well written characters. What a show. I'm gonna miss it, when we finish this rewatch.
A lovely final season, with a nice ending, some touching moments, and, as per usual, a couple of outstanding episodes. Plus, I appreciated the return of Kevin Tancharoen for the series finale: his action scenes have always been some of the best stuff this show had to offer and he didn't disappoint here. I also appreciate that they acknowledged how silly all these fake deaths have been and they joked about it but still, they've been doing it for too long and it stole all the feeling of danger and tension from the whole show. Still, it was fun.
Funny, bizarre, full of crazy ideas, a good mix of slapstick gags for kids and idiotic humour for parents. Adorable.
The first five episodes are out of this world and they constantly get better. The last four are still very, very good but they pay the price of having to do so much work to properly end a really complex story.
This is a fun show. I honestly don't know what else I could say about it.
What an amazing show! Inventive, brave, incredibly cinematic, full of surprises, perfectly enjoyable for people who don't know Watchmen but so much deeper for the fans, great acting, great direction, smart writing that has faith in the intelligence of the viewers... simply great. Also, episode 8 is unbelievably good.
A solid third season, with a couple of standout moments, great consistency and the feeling that by now they really know what they're doing. I'm not sure I want it to go on for two more years, though. We'll see.
On a rewatch, I found the first two episodes a bit better, even though I still think they're kinda weak. But then it gets into rhythm and it becomes so much fun. Also, having rewatched all three seasons in a row, I love all the little connections, callbacks, details and I'm even more convinced that the evolution in terms of tone has been on point.
