Theme- 9/10
Rewatchibility- 9/10
Acting- 10/10
Kinematography- 8/10
Time- 7.5/10
Total - 43.5/5 = 8.7
Hello, how do-do-do? Mrs. Brown's Boys hit my peripherals from a clip that one of my high school teachers shared on social media some years ago which was funny enough for me to explore further. After watching the pilot, I was hooked. The pseudo-theater-style approach of rolling with mistakes and acknowledging them as entertainment within themselves is a unique touch I haven't seen before that I can recall. The show does edit a lot of those moments out, but keeping some of it in gives the show a raw feel to it and adds to the charm. You can tell the cast has been working together and in most cases are legit family on how well they feed off each other. The scripts are very theatrical and at times you can see some of them going through the motions of just getting through it with their lines intact. But more often than not you just see people having fun playing make-pretend, and that's all I want to see sometimes. Good job Mammy!
Top 3 Episodes:
1. Mammy's Merchandise
2. Mammy Rides Again
3. Mammy's Secret
Theme- 6/10
Rewatchibility- 6.5/10
Acting- 10/10
Kinematography- 7/10
Time- 9.5/10
Total - 39/5 = 7.8
"Somebody save me!" I wish I had watched this when it first came out. I may have been a touch too young for it, but I remember hearing about this show and seeing ads on The WB for it and thinking, 'A Superman show where he doesn't fly or wear the suit? Why would I waste my time?' So over two decades after the fact, I decided to waste my time on it, and man was I wrong. It has a level of drama fitting of the era of television teen drama but it's wonderfully melded with the superhero qualities that were more present than my initial reservations led me to believe. The cast is sort of spot-on. Tom & Michael have such great chemistry together that is quickly making them my favorite Clark & Lex. Everybody else is serving their purpose quite well. The only character that irks me from time to time is Chloe and that's not an acting issue but a writing one. The meteor freak of the week format with an overarching story sprinkled in a hefty 21-episode season works well to keep things interesting and watchable. Looking forward to seeing what happens.
"Top" 3 Episodes:
1. Pilot
2. Stray
3. Tempest
Theme- 5/10
Rewatchibility- 0/10
Acting- 1/10
Kinematography- 7/10
Time- 0.5/10
Total - 13.5/5 = 2.7
Jinkies, it's a polished turd. It's the best I can describe this show honestly. In fact, the animation is why it scores as high as it does. Why Mindy Kaling and Charlie Grandy decided to make this choice with Velma is inconceivable. An adult take on Scooby-Doo seems like a no-brainer, hell just watch Mystery Incorporated and you have a good start. If you make it through these ten episodes you can find redeemable qualities for just about every single character except one... VELMA. That wouldn't be awful if we weren't talking about the titular character but seeing how it is, well here we are. I really don't give two shits what race the characters are or who they like or what they identify as so long as there is a story compelling enough to tell and you can deliver on that. There was a good enough story, Velma's first real mystery of her missing mother, but the delivery is like trying to spoon-feed a baby glass, no one is gonna enjoy themselves. Given that season 2 is on the way, I will say that there is a chance at a great redemption story. Should those in charge make the call to not try so damn hard to be funny and edgy for the sake of an actual story with characters we can actually sit and watch without complete contempt and you could actually have a decent show. But for now, I'll leave this far in the Mystery Machine's rearview mirror.
"Top" 3 Episode
1. Marching Band Sleepover (The ONLY one I found myself enjoying to some degree)
Theme- 5.5/10
Rewatchibility- 6.5/10
Acting- 10/10
Kinematography- 7.5/10
Time- 6/10
Total - 35.5/5 = 7.1
Hanging out, down the street. The same old thing, we did two decades ago. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it as the original and that sorta works for this show. I did enjoy the first outing of the sequel series. It benefits greatly from having a good group of new kids to build up from, the sprinkling of nostalgic characters, and a short season that keeps the show's faults from being too harmful. But to that point, the large complaints about the show modernizing the '90s are somewhat valid. Some of that is lost from being on a soundstage, its predecessor suffered from that as well. But there is a bit of miscommunication in the writing almost as if the writers themselves were under 30 and their impression of the decade is movies that took place in that decade and BuzzFeed articles. I do hope that Season 2 tackles the reality of Ozzie's life as a gay teen in that decade, I appreciate them trying to not hang a spotlight on it and just have a character who is gay rather than a gay character but that's simply not a passive thing to be at that time. Hopefully, we'll get to see Ozzie have to deal with bigotry and the fairly conservative Red defend him because you can be a good human being whichever way your political bias bends and both characters would benefit the most from that type of story. It's not terrible by no stretch if I made it seem that way. Season 1 of "That '70s Show" had its issues as well and it was given time to marinade into the we love. Hope That '90s gets the same opportunity.
"Top" 3 Episodes:
1. Summer Storm
2. The Birthday Girl
3. Kids in America
Theme- 5.5/10
Rewatchibility- 0/10
Acting- 2.5/10
Kinematography- 5/10
Time- 4/10
Total - 17/5 = 3.4
Is he strong? Listen bud, he has radioactive blood. Can he swing from a thread? Not a single comic has the writers read. Hey there, here comes the Budget-Man. This season opens with an origin episode and I thought to myself that the show was a big enough success that they were gonna put more time and attention into building a show with strong canonical stories, the following episode was the debut of Kingpin, to whom they were pretty faithful. After that, however, things took a turn. For whatever reason, the writing staff decided to forgo the Spider-Man rogues gallery for randomly created villains. Also to make sure you knew they were the bad guys, 90% of the time they had green skin because normal flesh-colored people can't be bad I guess. Episode duration was another major problem. Every episode was a single 22-minute story as opposed to two 11-minute tales and the thinly-veiled plots of this show can't support that kind of time. What started as hopeful optimism, turned into foreboding dread for Season 3.
Top 3 Episodes:
1. The Origin of Spider-Man
2. Home
3. King-Pinned
Theme- 8/10
Rewatchibility- 2.5/10
Acting- 5/10
Kinematography- 7.5/10
Time- 3.5/10
Total - 26.5/5 = 5.3
That whimper into the finish line. Man oh man, who could predict that continuing a show that was already tenuously holding to the life of one character who leaves before the end, would be a bad idea. Charlie, the guy they spent the last quarter of last season gearing up to fill in Eric's position in the group, is killed off, Josh Meyers then is brought in as a replacement character, Randy, who has no flaws which makes him rather bland. Kelso was in the first four episodes before being written off and is replaced with Leo which is fine I guess. Jackie ends up with Fez... REALLY?! Going from Kelso to Hyde, I was fine with that and felt sorta natural. To continue to go through the guys in the group to pair Jackie up with is poor writing and Jackie/Fez felt very Rachel/Joey, forced and unnecessary. The finale is easily the best thing about this season and is a nice enough ending to the series as a whole. This is a bad and skippable season and if you want to just watch the finale after season 7, apart from the spoiler above I don't believe you need any other context from this season.
Top 3 Episodes:
1. That '70s Finale
2. Stone Cold Crazy
3. Long Away
Theme- 8/10
Rewatchibility- 4/10
Acting- 7/10
Kinematography- 8.5/10
Time- 6/10
Total - 33.5/5 = 6.7
That not so last season. The realization that this show is being carried on too long is prevalent in this season. With Topher Grace no longer wanting to be on the show, building up his departure and Kutcher soon to follow suit, it's apparent the show should have just built to a series ending rather than try to continue to an eighth. I don't know if Fox had ordered season 7 & 8 together and Casey-Werner were put in an awkward position between Fox's order and Ashton/Topher's ambitions to continue a gutted show or everyone was simply looking for an easy meal ticket but the show has reached the point of unnecessity. They create a character, Charlie, to replace Eric. While Charlie is a likeable character, They simply bulrush him into that spot at the latter half of the season, which in hindsight, not a great investment in time. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed this season because everybody performs their roles well enough to accommodate the time spent watching it. But that doesn't mean I can't see the flaws of a once better show.
Top 3 Episodes:
1. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
2. 2120 So. Michigan Ave.
3. Till the Next Goodbye
