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.
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.
Wow. Just wow. This is funny, deep, full of amazing performances, incredibly smart in how it's able to tackle very tough stuff while balancing lotos of great laughs, some very interesting drama and sudden, amazing moments of thrilling, unbearable tension. The last two episodes are out of this world.
The first half of the season is out of this world, then it loses some momentum (maybe because of the changes on the director's chair) but it's still really, really good. The private life stuff and the way it intersects with work is good, even though sometimes it feels a bit forced/tacked on. The interviews and the investigations are amazing as usual and the Wayne case is treated very well. It also manages to reflect on various issues that are still quite relevant today in a smart way. Overall, though, I have to say that I may be a little biased because I have a young daughter and a whole season 90% based on kids being murdered and/or having issues is quite affecting to me.
It's better than season 2 in how it uses the whole nostalgia thing and after a couple of episodes it really gets into a great rhythm. The bizarre thing is that almost everything that happens is incredibly predictable but still it manages to be tense, entertaining and moving. As usual, I think that's because of the great cast and the adorable characters.
This gets weirder and better and more fucked up and more entertaining and more ambitious and more [whatever] every single year. I honestly didn't think it was possible for this kind of production. I guess it is.
I'm amazed at how this stays consistently good. The procedural part, the overall storyline, everything's really great. Plus, the will to reinvent everything and scramble the status quo every single year keeps it fresh. A great show.
Here is where the focus really shifted from tech to people and the series flourished. Don't get me wrong: the tech part is fascinating and it's really cool to have it as a background, but the heart of the show is somewhere elese. And it's great.
I'm not sure I now know what it feels like to be black but at least I tried.
Poor Boone and Olivia, they didn't know what they were getting themselves into.
A really brave and ambitious final season.
A wonderful adaptation if you don't care about huge changes from the source material or, even better, if (like myself) that's what you crave. It's smart, funny, full of surprises, visually interesting without becoming pretentious and thematically strong. And it's a lot of fun, which never hurts. Great TV.
How can the best TV show of all get better every year? No idea, but that's what we're witnessing.
A really, really good hard boiled detective story, with fantastic performances by great actors, solid writing, the usual iper complex crime tale and - fortunately - a much less pretentious tone and writing style than season one. Sure, it's also less visually stunning and less consistent than season one, with a few really cheesy moments, but I found it overall more interesting and less empty. I guess it's a matter of taste. Oh, by the way, the shootout at the end of episode 4 is amazing and sooo much better than the great, but ultimately masturbatory, tracking shot in season one.
It uses all the most adorable cliches of the action/thriller genre with no shame at all ("They picked the wrong fucking town"), but at the same time it's pretty smart in how it actually manages to subvert a couple of them. It's got a very passionate and romantic drive and it expresses it through violence, while telling a story in which relationships are all based on eruptions of blood. The action is fine, but rarely spectacular in a traditional way. The real entertainment comes in the way Banshee uses insisted violence to express basically everything. And that's the reason why these first ten episodes are really great. Also, the albino guy.
Here the series is really going on full steam and there's so much to love. It's still as funny as always, but there's also an incredible depth, a great sense of melancholy and some spectacular ideas. Plus, the Late Show storyline is amazing.
A beautiful season and also a fascinating left turn in which they basically say “Look, we can explore slightly different genres and it doesn’t feel forced at all, because we have great characters, great actors and a versatile show.” And it’s very well made. I love it.
I avoided it for months because I kinda always assume that any Netflix show is uselessy overlong and boring, but then I decided to trust other people and watch it. And it’s amazing! The road rage premise taken to extremes is quite fun until the end but under that there’s an amazingly intense tale about (1) how fucked up we are, (2) life as (children of) immigrants and (3) how much it sucks to live in the USA. Great actors, amazing writing, a crazy but heartfelt ending… I hope they don’t make more seasons. Side note: Lee Sung Jin and Jake Schreier created, wrote and directed (with other people, of course) this show and are now working on Thunderbolts. And I realize that ten years ago I would have thought “Great, they seem perfect!”, five years ago I would have thought “I’d prefer they do their stuff but I’m happy to see good creators work on those movies”, now I think “No, please, someone must save them!” Sigh.
Lots of cliches, almost everything goes as you would expect but still this works very well, because it does everything very well. The acting cast is almost perfect, great acting and more than believable singing/playing (which is of course quite important). The four main actresses ooze charisma, are really, really good and they also are stunningly beautiful. The songs are maybe not masterpieces but they work, they feel like what the story is telling you they are (which is big: most movies and TV shows about invented art have the problem that when they show you the art it sucks). Writing and directing are also quite goood (James Ponsoldt I love you): there’s passion, honest emotions even when it’s predictable, great attention to details in human relationships and when it actually surprises you it hits so hard. A masterpiece it is not, but it’s a great show.
Like season 1 but spicier. Badum-tsch.
Season 4 is a perfect ending for one of the most crazy, funny, emotional, surprising TV shows of late: this season is unpredictable and surprising until the end and it’s so much fun. It’s rare that I can watch something without having any clue of what’s going to happen but here it happened a lot and I never had the feeling it was forced in any way. On the contrary: at the end, you have the feeling everything was patiently built from day one. Also: the actors are all amazing and Bill Hader, who not only plays the title character but also directed every single episode of the final season while showing some real bravura, is a huge talent.
What a wonderful season. Episode three is out of this world but the whole season is incredible, every character has got a moment of glory, there’ amazing people coming from the bench (look at James Cromwell scoring 20 and dishing 13 assists in the funeral episode), it’s got a perfect, inevitable, smart, on point ending. This is one of the best shows of the last few years and one of the best shows ever.
I know a few people didn’t like this season and I do understand its highs are not as high as those frome the previous two but I wonder if it’s also a matter of too much hype. Because I kinda got what I wanted from it: a few more hours with characters I love, one or two beautifule episodes (Amsterdam!), lots of laughs, some strong emotions and a lot of good work on ancillary characters (which is what matters: as Ted says, he wasn’t the point).
This is Going to Hurt is a Buffy spin-off centered on the life of an obstetrician who works in public health. I mean, it's not really a Buffy spin-off but it kinda is: everyboyd always has got a pointy answer to everything, all characters are in a constant battle for who's more sarcastic, the show tackles hard themes in an effortless way, there's a constant silly vibe that makes all the thematic heavyness quite tolerable, characters and actors are all irresistible, when it wants to punch you in the guts it's devastating and the main character's mother is a vampire.
I’m in love with Hugo Blick since The Honourable Woman came out so of course I was super excited about him making a western centered on Emily Blunt. And what a beauty it is. A revisionist western that shoots in all directions, mixing melodrama, adventure, some very silly stuff, tragedy, humor, grandeur, while showing some amazing vistas, incredibles skies and a very strong cast of actors. Emily Blunt, Chaske Spencer e Rafe Spall are astonishing and everybody else is so good too.
I watched the first three episodes back then in 2021 and - maybe because I’m particularly attuned with Barry Jenkins' aesthetics - I immediately loved them but for some reason (maybe I didn’t want to watch something so depressing?) I left it at that. Recently I probably decided I wanted to watch something so depressing and I binged the rest of the series. And, well, wow. I can’t think of many other TV shows so well put together, with such a pure cinematic sense. Sure, there are some, but not many. Plus, the actors are all great, the bizarre narrative structure keeps it fresh until the end and sure, you have to like the frankly pompous narration style of Barry Jenkins but I like it, so…
I think this is even better than season 1, because it’s about more things, it goes deeper and the balance between farce and pure drama is more finely tuned. And even though once again the murder mystery is not the point, this time it also gets quite thrilling when it wants to. The cast is amazing, Meghann Fahy is so much better than anyone else but everybody is great and Jennifer Coolidge is the best version of Jennifer Coolidge that Jennifer Coolidge ever played.
Andor is the best Star Wars "thing" that.
Jesus Christ what a second season and what an ending. It somehow goes beyond what I expected, thanks to the desire to reinvent themself, the amazing acting and the writing, the frigging writing, su fun, so emotional. And that ending. Wow.
Physical kinda reminds me of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend for how it talks about trauma and mental disorder in such a brutally dark way but while always finding a light and entertaining way to do so. Even though it's a bit less fun and a bit more dark, at least in how it conveys the main character's trauma and inner turmoil not as beautiful musical numbers but as the most brutal voiceover you can imagine. As it usually happens, it takes a couple of episodes to find its voice but then it becomes really good and season 2 raises the bar. The cast is good, Rose Byrne is amazing, the half hour runtime is perfect, it's not a masterpiece but it's a good show. I only fear the repeated cycle of hope/despair could get repetitive but I guess it depends on how many seasons they're gonna make.
