Even better than season one. The level of not giving a fuck and doing whatever it wants is amazing.
Great start and finish, a lot of kinda average episodes in the middle, with too many recurring jokes. The animal stuff is always great, though.
Visually it goes from some nice things (mainly in the backgrounds department) to some awful stuff (mainly the characters). The writing is a bit clunky and pretentious, but at the same time the adaptation from the games is well made. It needs a little less silly monologues and a bit more action, possibly with a bigger budget, but the last two episodes show some potential. I kinda think that from season two it could be fun.
Season 2 feels like the engine has been started and there's less preoccupation with the world building that occupied most of season 1. There are some nice storylines, pretty emotional stuff and a sense of hope against the feeling of impending doom that makes everything nicer to watch. I still have trouble with most of the young actors, but the rest of the cast is quite good.
How the fuck does this get better and better every year?
The pilot is really amazing and the rest of the series is not on the same level but it's still really, really good, with great characters and a wonderful pair of actors in John Turturro and Riz Ahmed. This is how procedural crime stories should be made.
At times the humour falls a bit flat and I'm not sure that the longer season was a good idea, but overall it's still lots of fun. The "timeline" plot device is kinda confusing but also really fascinating and the whole drama element works beautifully, with great character development.
Funny, sad, deep, tender, thoughtful, imperfect, unmissable.
After the disappointing season 5, this is a return to form and a great ending for one of the best series of recent years.
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.
Most of the time I have no idea what they're doing or talking about and it still is riveting.
She-Hulk confirms the recent trend of MCU TV shows being consistently committed to the bit, instead of being something fresh and original for twenty minutes before going back to the usual stuff. Which doesn't necessarily mean they are good but is something I really appreciate. I almost hated the first episode because it was everything I hoped the show wouldn't be, even though it did that in a nicer than usual way. But after that it only grows in quality and commitment. And every time it has a chance to steer towards the usual MCU fare (like with that guest star) it doesn't. The final episode makes the whole thing super explicit and jokes on that tendency, so that's also very good. Overall it's a good show, consistently funny, with good actors and an amazing Tatiana Maslany. That being said, it's fine, with nice ideas, very good moments and I like how it puts its themes front and center, but it's not even remotely comparable to stuff like Fleabag (an explicit inspiration) or The Good Place (which I think had a similar vibe). But I don't expect that quality level from MCU stuff, so I got no problem with it. Ah, of course my favourite episode are the ones some people don't like because they are too much "bottled up", like the wedding one. By the way, I don't think they actually are bottle episodes: they are necessary in the development of the storyline but whatever.
Barry's third season seems thought for people who still didn't get (or forgot during the hiatus) that sure, there's comedy here, but it's really about digging in the depth of human souls, in the damage that comes from violence and in the impossibility of running from the consequences of your actions. And it's fearless in how it goes deep into the abyss. Visually more ambitious than ever, with a perfect cast of actors, incredibly written, it crazily dances on the delicate balance between farce, drama, thriller, comedy. It embraces the fascination for the guilty laugh, for making you feel disturbed by your laughs, and it doesn't do that through ridicule and cringe. No, it injects laughs into tragedy, anguish, pain, and always makes it work. It's a masterpiece and I can't wait to see what they are doing with season 4.
It takes a bit to find its rhythm (I honestly found quite boring a few of the first episodes) but then it becomes a fun ride, with lovely ideas, humour, adventure. Characters are great, visually it's lovely and David Tennant is David Tennant.
Bluey is an amazing show, that makes me and my daughter laugh so hard with its montypythonesque humour but also moves me so much with its approach to family dynamics. Basically, every episodes generates moisture, whether because I'm pissing myself or I'm almost crying. It is so realistic in its absurdity, so creative, full of attention to detail (I love how it uses the tails of its canine characters to express their emotions), always really smart in how it treats characters of all ages, giving them agency, personality, intentions. Sweet, lovely, sarcastic, irresistible in how it characterizes the parents who get bored/tired and in how realistic it is even in the most crazy situation. Sadly, on Disney+ it's censored quite a bit, I guess based on America's tastes, so we cannot see a pony pooping because I guess it's too much (what the hell?) or you cannot have a kid asking about how babies end up in mommy's belly because... because? ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4E2s9KhM6w ). Even "better": there's no Dad Baby episode (I found it on torrent and we laughed so hard while watching it) because - OH MY GOD - dad plays with the girls faking a pregnancy and "giving birth" in the garden with the help of a neighbour. But we cannot see that. Because of course we can have decades of Disney movies in which the message is you solve the problem by killing someone but god forbid talking about how babies are made, kids asking questions about that and parents having to answer. Oh, I love the australian accents. <3
This is exactly the level of low key darkness I needed in my life.
A great cast (I particularly love Dave Franco and Ilana Glazer but they're all great), a good detective story built on small details and deceptions, a great concept with the "movie genres" idea (which I've seen before - it reminded me of some episodes from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - but never in such an extensive way), lots of laughs and some of the crazy moments you would expect from Phil Lord and Chris Miller. It takes a couple of episodes to really start working but then it becomes a very good show.
I'm sure the "two volumes" format worked in terms of buzz and post production but that month of waiting, hype, chatting and watching trailer is, I think, part of the reason why the ending didn't move me as much as it could have. I was too focused on that, on guessing deaths, on the wait, and even though I had lots of fun, something didn't click for me. And I found a confirmation of that when I rewatched some scenes and found them more emotional on a second viewing. So I really think I would have enjoyed this so much more if I had the two final episodes ready two watch a day or two after the seventh. I guess I will never know.
That being said, I still think it's the best season after the first one, I still think the ending of episode four is one of the best moments of all Stranger Things (and that may also be part of a problem, because after such a high in the middle, you wait for something as powerful to come, and it doesn't), I still think that the longer episodes are not a problem because sure, they could have cut something here and there but it was always very enjoyable and in fact the length helped them to give dignity to all storylines, like it happened in season one and didn't really happen in two and three.
The new bad guy really works, even though he looks ridiculous and his info dumps can be quite annoying. The cast is amazing as always and the Duffers confirmed their talent in introducing characters that I don't really care for at first sight but I end up loving. It happens at least three times here, in very different and successful ways.
And of course the point, as usual for Stranger Things, is in how good the characters are and how well they are used. They are amazing, with great chemistry, really well written. Even in its worst moments, this show is always great with characters and relationships. And every episodes has got two or three amazing moments of comedy, drama, sweetness, beautiful interactions that are the engine of Stranger Things. Because they are the reason to watch it.
But it really is time to end it: the seams are visible, there's so much repetition and a huge risk of having emotions deflated by predictability. It kinda happened for me here with how it ended, I have to say.
Hope they don't miss the landing. They never did in season finales, but a series final is a different and tougher beast.
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.
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.
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.
Friday Night Lights but silly, optimistic and fun.
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.
