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.
They put this up one episode a day and I loved that. Every day there was a new episode, they were short, I enjoyed watching them because I like the visual style and I liked how they homaged movie classics. But no, really: one at a day, short, 30 minutes, that’s cool, do that, don’t do weekly hours, do daily 30 minutes, of everything, seriously. Worst part was that they had to make some interconnected narrative with the final two episodes and I couldn’t care less.
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.
The lack of shame from Marvel is amazing: they said Echo was gonna be completely autonomous and what they meant is the first episode is a long summary of two other TV shows. Meh. Ironically, the new stuff in that first episode (the action sequence and Kingpin doing what any parent wants to do at least once a week by kicking that guy’s ass) is probably the best part of the whole show. Meh. The rest is the usual Marvel fare: a good cast, some interesting themes and ideas, at least one more fun action sequence, but the constant feeling that (1) a couple of hours would have been enough and (2) it’s more interested in making you want to watch other stuff than in not making you regret watching this stuff.
I still haven’t watched the season finale because reasons but I want to take advantage of my psychotic social sharing backlog to say that when in January I found out there were some new episodes on Disney+ and we watched them, well… That Stickbird/Navigator/Dragon trifecta is such powerful stuff, in how it’s full of imagination and visually experimental but also in how incredibly funny and at the same time moving it is. I already said this, many times, and I will never stop: Bluey is the best show on TV. And it’s been the best show on TV for quite a while.
A very nice adaptation from the comicbook. It's faithful to the source but it also adds lots of interesting stuff and turns out to be an emotional, deep, funny, adorable show. At first I wasn't into the visual comic-like flourishes and the abuse of songs but then I got used to both and I think they work well in depicting the emotional turmoil of that age. Also: the cast is amazing.
A very nice adaptation from the comicbook. It's faithful to the source but it also adds lots of interesting stuff and turns out to be an emotional, deep, funny, adorable show. At first I wasn't into the visual comic-like flourishes and the abuse of songs but then I got used to both and I think they work well in depicting the emotional turmoil of that age. Also: the cast is amazing.
Pulpier, bloodier, campier, more romantic and more fucked up than season one. A beautiful second season, more daring both in narration and visual style. Plus, the native american Mazinger and Julian Sands almost compensate for the loss of the albino guy.
The longer season makes the overarching story feel a bit streched at times, but it remains really solid and the single episodes are almost always quite brilliant, so who cares? Plus, the last four or five episodes are really great, with a gripping crescendo and a closing cliffhanger that promises a more ambitious third season and the will to keep things fresh by shaking up the status quo. Thumbs up.
The first half of the season is kind of a mess, maybe too ambitious from a plot standpoint, clearly lacking the rythm and the inventions of the first two years. But then it comes together, the fun comes back and the last few episodes are really great, with an amazing season finale and a great cliffhanger.
It takes two or three episodes to get the rhythm but by then the series becomes amazing. Great writing, ambitious direction, a very good cast, nice themes and an actually marvelous actress.
Most of the time I have no idea what they're doing or talking about and it still is riveting.
Halfway through the third short I literally said "What the fuck am I doing?" and I turned it off.
All the good elements from The Good Wife are more or less here: intriguing storylines, interesting courtroom drama, strong characters, good actors. So, obviously, it's a really good show. But, I don't know, something's missing. Or maybe it's just that I can barely tolerate how bad of an actress Rose Leslie is.
Ava DuVernay has got the delicate touch of an elephant and the level of cheesiness is out of the park. Still, the first two episodes are really, really good, engaging and moving, quite thrilling if you don't already know how it went. Episode three is really the worst one, too much easy melodrama and really schematic in its structure. It gets a bit better in the final episode, thanks to the "prison drama" approach. Overall, it's an interesting and important series for sure but I think I would have preferred a different approach. Maybe it's just that I don't like DuVernay.
Fuck House of Cards and all the other Netflix series, this is the one. And this season, jesus, is more amazing, deep, tense and moving than ever. Wow.
So much better than everything Marvel/Netflix did after the first season of Jessica Jones.
Like a lot of comedy shows, it takes a bunch of episodes to find its groove but when it clicks, it really does, despite having a very very very bad actress as the main character. The rest of the cast is amazing, though, and the way the season evolves, by destroying network comedy shows clichés and reinventing itself instead of sitting on a bland repetition of it's basic plot is amazing. It's really smart, funny, great TV.
I laughed a lot but I have to admit it's starting to feel a bit samey. Maybe it's time to end it.
