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.
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.
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.
I watched it without knowing it was gonna be the final season and what a trip it was to realize it during the finale. I kinda have the feeling they crammed too much in here because they had more stories to tell, but who knows. And anyway, the flipside is that it will not become a repetitive mess in seasons 4 and 5, I guess. Anyway, I think it manages to close all the relevant arcs in a nice way, while also serving us a healthy dose of an against the type Zooey Deschanel and with a beautyful bottle episode right before the end, that boasts a tragically sweet and sour summation of the Rubin family ensemble.
This is basically five episodes of people running aroung looking for MacGuffins and ignoring everything that made season one great (the characters) because they have to explain the mechanics of the multiverse (which I don’t give a fuck about - the mechanics, the multiverse is fine, I guess). Sophia Di Martino barely registers her presence; Owen Wilson has got the best emotional moment of the season in the finale but basically nothing else to do; Jonathan Majors is funny, the scene in which he opens the big door for the first time is really funny and Timely kinda has a decent arc but now he’s gone; Tom Hiddleston does his best. There’s some nice moments, Benson and Moorehead inject some visual creativity that was the biggest thing lacking from season 1, the final episode is really good, the ending works but… I don’t know…
Gen V avoids the risk of being a lacklustre spin-off by changing the point of view: here we have some still (relatively) naive and (relatively) innocent youngsters who happen to live in the shitty and bloody world of The Boys. And what we get is a show that feels temathically in sync with its mother series but finds its own identity, generating some emotional punch and even being quite smart in how it connects to the other show. I’m not sure I loved the season finale, more or less in the same way I’m not sure I love the season finales of The Boys.
This season feels a bit samey but it’s fine, not all comedies can be constantly forward moving and shapeshifting like The Good Place did. Plus, I just want to spend more time with those characters and I got that. Also, there’s Meryl Streep: she’s like a goddes amongst mortals, so much greater than any other actor in the show but also never stealing the scene, always making everyone else better. What a beast.
A couple of weeks ago I was scrolling on Netflix, Rick and Morty suddenly appeared, I remembered that season 4 left me a bit unimpressed but kinda won me beck with last few episodes, I saw that season 6 was already there, I started watching season 5, I thought it started a bit weak but it grew quite rapidly and in the end I had fun, with some laughs here and there. I guess one day I will watch season 6. Should I? Can you feel the meh in what I just wrote? Maybe I’m tired of it? Who knows?
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.
I watched The Strain more or less while it was being released and I had a lot of fun with it, but for some reason I never watched the final season. A few weeks ago, for some reason, I watched it. And I had a lot of fun with it. It’s got a nice B movie vibe, it’s competently made, there’s always a lot of momentum in the narration, there’s at least a couple of great episodes in every season, I liked the characters (Vasiliy Fet is amazing and I don’t understand how Kevin Durand doesn’t have a better career as the “co-starring” charismatic guy), the apocalyptic melodrama vibe is entertaining. The finale works and does what it has to do. Also, in season 4, that kind of second tier Paul Bettany, Quinlan, has got a line that’s very on the nose, like the whole show, but for some reason stayed with me: “Whipping yourself won’t make you stronger, it will only distract you”. So I had fun and I also found some meaning in it: what more should I ask for?
Poker Face is Natasha Lyonne doing her version of Columbo, with the mannerisms, the “wait, one more thing”, the chilled attitude and the fact that we know the culprit before she/he does. Plus, there’s the usual Lyonne vibe, a pseudo-superpower that makes things more bizarre, and an A-Team-like setup in which se has been framed and she roams around the USA helping people. Also, she kinda is like the comicbook Mickey Mouse, solving crimes while not being a cop. All of this is in a show that starts relatively “tame” but slowly becomes visually and structurally more and more ambitious, with some many homages to different kinds of detective stories and meta elements. It was created by Rian Johnson and it’s lovely.
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.
The end of season 1 worried me, I feared they were gonna continue adding mysteries and questions without ever giving answers and ultimately end up boring me to hell. I was wrong. Season 2 keeps the tempo going, finds a strong direction for the story, continues playing smartly on the balance between mental health issues and actual fantastical elements (even though they clearly are pushing towards a more horrorish kind of storytelling) and it kinda finds a strong ending that ties everything up. There’s still a lot to tell, of course, but this could be a series finale. So I want to go on, because I have fun spending time with these crazy characters and those amazing actresses (and Elijah Wood!).
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).
Season 2 does almost everything season 1 did. It's violent, dark, filled with charismatic characters and faces (but not Joe Cole, Joe Cole is terrible), with so many plot twists and double/triple reversals that kinda get to a ridiculous point but keeps it fun until the end. The "almost" is because Gareth Evans didn't direct a single episode and because of that there isn't a single action scene on par with those two or three amazing action scenes we saw in season 1. Is the rest enough? I'm not sure.
Unpopular opinion: this is the best of the first three seasons. It finally knows what it is and what it wants to be. It's where the mix between having a storyline but also being the center of the Filoniverse works best. It's where Mando being someone who ends up as a witness to stuff much greater than him, where he contributes but he's not the main character, also works best. Also, the "greater" stuff is finally something relevant to him and not to the Skywalker family. Plus, for the first time, the more standalone episodes didn't bore me to hell. It's a simple, fun show, much better than the other two recent "classical Star Wars" shows.
Also: I kinda binged in a few days, which probably helped me with the slower parts and made me appreciate more the horizontal plot, which basically has got 5 minutes per episodes.
Also: if this season came out a year ago, the third episode would have been such a fascinating, ambitious, smart "bottle episode". But in 2023 it's the Wish version of Andor. Maybe it's better if Filoni and Favreau stick to blasters and sabers.
A weak season, with the usual bunch of great ideas but also some others that don’t really work. The sum of all the parts is still watchable and entertaining but quite far from greatness.
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.
We approached Bad Sisters because we love Sharon Horgan and we weren’t disappointed. I never watched the original Belgian show but this one is good, funny, modern, cynical and with a nice ending that ties everything up. Even though here and there I though it was taking too much time to make things happen and I’m not sure the balancing act between drama and comedy always works. The choice to announce a second season puzzles me but I guess we’ll see what they do.
I started watching it with my wife because we were both intrigued but after two episodes she gave up because the horror-ish elements disturbed her. I didn’t touch it for something like ten months, then I decided I wanted to go on but the third and fourth episodes bored me to hell. I started to feel like they were filling it with ideas, questions and mysteries with the intention of dragging them for season after season. Then I heard they already planned five seasons and I died inside. But I tried episode 5 and it was fun. So I persisted and I actually really enjoyed the rest of the season, particularly the really, really good final two episodes. So, It was good. I loved all the actresses, I loved the Nineties soundtrack, I enjoyed the genre mish-mash, but it still kinda gave me the feeling that it’s one of those shows I will not be eagerly waiting for year after year and I will end up losing track of. I guess we’ll see.
I'm not sure if it is better than season one but I’m sure it's got that sense of confidence based on acquired knowledge of what you are doing, the characters, the setting, everything. They know what they are doing, they are confident, they are effective. What a good show.
It continues to be extremely consistent, entertaining and full of ideas.
I watched the first three episodes and it was like looking into the abyss that haunts my soul.
I was watching the first episode, I found it dull, childishly written, incapable of giving depth to story and characters... after 30 minutes I gave up.
A bit boring but it's fine.
I wanted to believe because back then I loved the comicbook but this show is nothing more than a decent thing I would have watched ten years ago but is not enough in today's TV landscape. I still wanted to go on watching it but then they canceled it and so #solong
It's visually amazing but I watched three episodes and I found it sooo boring.
I watched the first episode and it surprised me in how it was able to (mostly) avoid the easy trashyness it could have gotten into. I also liked the choice of de-masking Master Chief, if only because it would make people angry, even though I see Pablo Schreiber and I think Pornstache. I never watched episode two.
