This is the follow up season of True Detective we deserved but never got.
A furious evisceration of the hypocrisy of organised religion, while also seeing the value of faith - be it in those you love, yourself or your own moral compass. This horrific true story walks the line between infuriating and fascinating, remaining a stunning watch from start to finish.
I'm not sure I've ever seen Andrew Garfield be as compelling or so fully inhabiting a character as he does here. He plays a Mormon detective and it means he needs to navigate completely different worlds. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between him and his partner Bill.
The true crime dealt with in this story is not for the faint hearted, and the portrayal of the corrupted people behind it is strong. I won't highlight any names here for fear of spoilers, but some of the cast members put in truly disturbing performances.
The structure of the series is a little odd, being told with multiple flashbacks and timeline jumps. I think that mostly this is put together really well, but the 1800s stuff was probably unnecessary. I would have appreciated more time spent with Brenda's (Daisy Edgar-Jones) story instead.
One thing I really liked here was the slightly longer episode lengths. They ended up benefitting the story and really allowed me to get immersed. I wish I'd watched this sooner and would recommend it in an instant. Just take a few deep breaths because the behaviour of these people, especially their treatment of women, is a lot to take.
The episodes continue to be very small scale and very low stakes, but I found quite a bit to like here. The character focus was welcome and there was a sense that the episode wasn't in any hurry. In particular the scene with the bridge crew recording a message for school children back home was excellent. It gave several of the characters a moment to show who they are and did it playfully. Enterprise was at its best when it embraced its concept of showing us how a human crew first adapted to exploring outer space, and simple things like this are a wonderful reminder of it. It's also something that would have been out of place in another Trek show, so felt uniquely suited to this.
Other parts of the episode largely worked too. The awkward relationship humans have with the Vulcans is quite fun and being developed nicely. The T'Pol stuff here was fairly intriguing, and certainly sets up the beginnings of a friendship with Trip. Less interesting was all the stuff on the ice comet, mostly because it all felt so plodding and basic. Those bland rocky "alien planet" sets were looking so dated by this point (and yet, they are SO Star Trek). At least the captain reminding them they are being observed was funny. Archer's prideful arrogance really is feeling excessively immature even this early on in the show, though.
For all that this episode does well, it still does end up feeling like a bunch of unconnected stories being mashed together. The fact that it comes out of that fairly well is a testament to half decent writing, I'd say.
I do love a good pecan pie.
My plan was to review episodes of Enterprise as I rewatched them, but I'm finding I have almost nothing to say so far. The episodes end and I give a shrug and within an hour or two I've kind of forgotten them. 'Unexpected' at least has some more meaty material to think about.
At this point in the show we are still very much in a "getting to know you" mode with the characters, and the characters are currently very much defined by single traits that are being pushed to the fore. Archer is headstrong and wants to try things his way no matter the good advice he gets. Hoshi is unsure of herself but is becoming confident in her language skills. T'Pol has more common sense than the entire crew put together and will regularly remind them of that. Phlox is optimistically open-minded. Trip is Southern.
This episode manages to both allow the crew to use their traits but also throws them in unknown waters. There's a delightful sense of them just having to muddle through to deal with this situation. And it's a very silly situation, falling back on tired tropes of not being able to deal with hormones and making light of that. By and large I didn't think it was handled as poorly as it could have been, as nobody outright makes fun of Trip, but it's hardly shining a light on Trek's virtues.
The best humour comes from T'Pol, showing off the sarcastic side of Vulcan culture rather expertly, admonishing rather than mocking. And the Klingon captain's wonderful line, "I can see my house from here!".
The episode really takes a while to get going though, with the first part not quite clicking for me. All the slow semi-drugged stuff on the alien ship was unpleasant to sit through. But seeing a holodeck in action was great, along with Trip's amazed reaction to it. Once the Klingons enter the story it's more interesting and I quite like these early meetings between them and humans. Archer has no idea how to talk to them, whereas T'Pol is able to appeal to their nature.
So, I'm giving Enterprise another go! Does it deserve the bad reputation its seemed to gotten over the years? I tuned in for the initial broadcast of this pilot episode and had more or less checked out by the time the appalling theme song began, figuring that maybe I was done with Star Trek. It was several years after the show had finished that I decided to give it a proper chance and watched the whole thing through. That was quite a long while ago now and my memories of it are that I slogged through the first two seasons before finding a lot to enjoy with the final two.
The show starts out just okay. Enterprise retains a lot of the '90s sensibilities that its predecessors had and fits very much in the same style. The exception to this is that the producers finally moved into the 21st century and shot it in HD widescreen. Much appreciated. Other than that it looks like '90s Trek, sounds like '90s Trek and is performed just like '90s Trek. It's not surprising that a sense of fatigue kicked in amongst fans.
Scott Bakula is rather welcome though, even though Captain Archer comes across fairly one-note. He's easily annoyed and quite aggressive in how he gets things done. He unfortunately leans more towards arrogant than confident and shouts a lot of his lines. Voyager had a huge problem (for me) with one-note characters, and I'm not sure that Enterprise ever makes this work either. But it helps that we have some fun actors in the main roles. Trip is sarcastic and fun, similarly quick to anger, while T'Pol shows signs of being a far more adaptable Vulcan that some others. This seems to be an attempt to recreate the original series trifecta of Kirk/Spock/McCoy. But the rest of the crew have very little to distinguish them at this point, and as I recall at least one of them will have virtually nothing to do for the entire show's run.
In fact, the Vulcan aspect of this show is the most interesting thing at this point. Humanity seems to have a difficult relationship with them, making their severe disapproval of Earth's actions quite entertaining and rich.
The episode itself isn't very memorable, but does its job. There's the introduction of Klingons and Suliban (the Suliban suck), some hints about a temporal cold war, a ridiculous "decontamination" scene and lots of shooting/punching in between. It feels safe even with the more rough-&-ready explorers approach. At this point its honestly hard to care about anyone, but let's let things grow.
This really managed to give me some old school Star Wars feels. The series is essentially season 5 of Rebels, bringing back the main characters and picking up the dangling story threads we were left with (Nightsisters! Thrawn! The World Between Worlds!). And as a fan of that show, this was largely very satisfying.
For a show named Ahsoka, it was really Sabine who felt like the focus. She also ended up as the most interesting character in the whole thing and was cast extremely well. Similarly I thought Eman Esfandi was splended in the role of Ezra. Less convincing was Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera, who took a vibrant character and made her feel somehow diminished. Meanwhile David Tennant's Huyang kept things both steady and funny.
That leaves Rosario Dawson in the title role, and generally I like her a lot. And yet, she is giving us a far more stoic interpretation of the character and it didn't always work for me. The pacing in her conversations was noticeably off with long pauses in the back and forth. But Dawson still feels right for the most part.
Story-wise, it managed to both satisfy and irk me. I feel like the whole thing moved slowly for the amount of episodes it had, and editing this down to a 2.5 hour film could be done without much fuss. There's a sense of drawing things out so big things can be saved for the inevitable future film(s). This is a real shame. But each episode also did something which managed to pull me in and the magic feeling is definitely here.
It was the surprises that really made this click for me. Hayden Christensen returning as Anakin and being given far better material to work with was absolutely beautiful, especially as it dealt so much with his history with Ahsoka. The flashbacks to the Clone Wars were simply sublime (helped no end by a wonderful young Ahsoka who felt pulled straight from the animated show). Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno both give us intriguing antagonists with more story to hopefully be explored (obviously tricky now, sadly).
Visually this is an utter delight too - either the StageCraft is getting better or they made clever use of real environments at times here. There are a number of stunning images throughout this, be they glowing-eyed resurrected stormtroopers or characters emerging from misty vistas. But the real star of the show is the musical score which is an absolute treat from start to finish, and probably the strongest interpretation of Star Wars we've had outside of John Williams.
I'm disappointed that all of Paul Wesley's singing moments weren't done as spoken word, as a tribute.
So, this was a mixed bag for me - It's very difficult to overcome my negative feelings towards musicals. I found parts of this quite entertaining, and there was also parts where I was cringing in embarrassment. I'm not sure it's going to have any rewatch value for me. I appreciated that they at least incorporated the songs into the storyline as a mystery that needed to be solved, but am never a fan of when they lean into the music as a way to dwell on a character's emotional state. Just move the damn story forward instead of sitting in a single moment for three minutes!
Some musical parts were definitely better than others, but this was always going to be a difficult one for me. There were just too many songs here, and they were too much in the musical theatre style. I didn't like the "finale" at all (the Klingon moment should have been hilarious but literally made me cry out "oh GOD NO").
At the same time, I really appreciate that Strange New Worlds is taking risks and experimenting. This is a thousand times more interesting than the super safe Berman-Trek, even when the results don't completely work for me. The problem is that we are only getting 10 episodes per season, so episodes like this can feel like a monumental waste of storytelling time.
The best stuff here was everything that dealt with character relationships - Chapel/Spock, Pike/Batel and La'an/Kirk.
An entertaining if slightly odd beginning to season 2. It was nice to see a shift in focus to other crew members, even if that choice felt kind of jarring as a reintroduction to the show. Side-lining Captain Pike was quite bold and honestly I missed his presence, but giving a chance for Spock, Chapel and M'Benga to have centre stage was also rewarding.
Still, I found this whole episode to feel like it was throwing us into something that was already progressing and it was a little difficult to stay fully engaged with it. There was a whole backstory to the situation and characters on Cajitar IV that was reduced to fleeting dialogue, instead trusting us to just go with it and not worry about the details. I felt that could have been handled better. Obviously this episode drew from the Klingon War that happened on Discovery, and featuring its repercussions so heavily here required a shift. The deep trauma that M'Benga and Chapel seem to have experienced came out of nowhere and fundamentally altered their characters. It was great material for the actors to work with, but flew in the face of what they've established previously.
It also led to the scene which was the weakest part of the episode for me; an extended action sequence in which Chapel and M'Benga expertly fight their way through hordes of Klingons with the assistance of a drug. Exciting, yes, but tonally bizarre and again not fitting the characters. This was WAY over the top, leading to M'Benga torturing a Klingon.. Again, wrong tone.
Thankfully there was a lot of great stuff outside this. La'an has really come into her own and felt like a well balanced character here. And Spock got all the of the episode's best moments. It's great to see him playing the lute and being in charge. We're going down an interesting narrative path here with his losing his grip on his emotional stability, and honestly I'm quite up for it thanks to Ethan Peck's wonderful take on Spock. Yes, we're edging on breaking canon in several areas here, but I'm really not that worried if I'm enjoying what I'm seeing.
Overall, this episode felt kind of unsettled and over-enthusiastic in it's return, but I'm in.
Initially coming across as a little odd, this grows into a highly tense and deeply emotional story. The tragic life of Anne Frank is well known, but this elects to tell things from the perspective of the woman who agreed to keep her and her family hidden from the Nazis.
I'm often drawn to the more detailed, personal stories of World War II and this delivers. Life in Amsterdam under Nazi occupation is depicted as more complex than the image we may have in our heads. People are confused, angry and absolutely terrified and they deal with it in different ways. Some choose to resist. Some choose to stay out of it as much as they can. Some choose to become collaborators, either out of fear or out of opportunity.
An initial hurdle with this miniseries is that the dialogue and characters all feel very modern. It was taking me out of things, but after a couple of episodes it started to feel like quite a natural choice. It enabled me to relate to the characters easily, and eventually I wasn't even noticing. The character's accents are also confusing, with a mixture of English and German voices and not much I could tell to differentiate what they represented. The Frank family alone are a big mix of accents, and I would have appreciated some clarification.
The performances here are fantastic, with Bel Powley, Joe Cole and Liev Schreiber being the standouts. The rest of the cast don't get as much screen time and less opportunities to make their mark, but everyone fits in very well. While this chooses to stay largely family friendly, that doesn't mean it isn't powerful, and while the horrors of WW2 aren't explicitly shown they are certainly felt and this doesn't attempt to gloss over the darkness.
And in the end anything that shows a new generation what utter evil bastard scum the Nazis were is good, especially when the message is delivered as well as this.
Another strong episode that balanced fun with some great emotional material. I think Worf might be stealing the show already at this point, and the Picard/Beverly discussion was simply fantastic with both actors really giving their all.
I really wasn't expecting the Changeling reveal, and I have to say that it was an extremely pleasant surprise. It's got me wondering if Riker might not be himself.
It's not all perfect - spending an entire two episodes now on a single encounter is feeling slightly tiresome, and the back and forth nature of the Picard/Riker argument was really pushing things by the end of the episode (which also gives me further fuel for the above spoiler). Part of me wanted to scream to get on with things and move the story forward, but the other part of me was delighting in just hanging out with the characters. Jeri Ryan is doing great work here even with the limited screen time in this one.
The fact that I'm very eager for more at the end of each episode is a sign that it's doing things right, but it's also very hard to judge what the overall season arc is going for right now. I feel like I know nothing about what's going on.
The de-aging effects for Picard and Riker weren't great.
Well, that's a bit more like it. While I didn't hate seasons 1 and 2 as much as a vocal minority seem to enjoy screaming, I must admit that I was always hoping for something a bit more akin to TNG 2.0. This might be it, although at this point its too early to say with any certainty.
The characters feel more alive, more energetic. There is a powerful chemistry between Patrick Stewart and Jonathon Frakes and their happiness at working together again comes flowing out of the screen. It helps also that the words they are saying feel much more like the characters we used to know. The script reflects the friendship and bond that grew between the original cast over the course of 7 years of storytelling (plus four films), allowing for a playful tone. It's got me excited to see what's going to happen when all of the original cast are reassembled.
Speaking of which, we got some wonderful stuff from Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher, who seemingly hasn't missed a beat. Her voice was there, and it was Beverly. Jeri Ryan was on fire and felt like she was channelling aspects of the Seven of old while continuing the evolution of her character. It was also remarkable at how much the Titan's new captain set me on edge, not least by essentially deadnaming Seven; he seems to have a chip of his shoulder over the Borg and I wonder if there's going to be some interesting revelations there.
But the real magic may have been the gorgeous musical score recalling older themes and styles - I can't understate what that added to the overall vibe. It was like a warm blanket of reassurance, and the way the soundtrack flowed between styles and motifs was absolutely beautiful.
The only complaint I have is the dark, dreary lighting for the Starfleet ships. But I can live with it if the story and characters deliver. I hope this is the start of a truly exceptional season. At this point I'm optimistic, but we shall see. Also, did anybody else think, "ah, so the bad guys have played Portal"?
Wow, it just keeps getting better. Trek has done its fair share of horror stories, some poor and some good, but this is probably most effective scare episode the franchise has done. I loved the way it riffed off moments from the core Alien trilogy and managed to do some properly unsettling things in the process. Besides from having a fantastic design, the moment the blue alien dude started having trouble breathing was a wonderfully staged sequence full of dread.
The Gorn looked great and felt vicious even as infants. I love how this series is setting them up. I also appreciate how we've come to understand La'an's character up to now and her own reactions to this situation.
The most interesting part here may have been Spock. While I'm not sure the actual execution of his emotional barriers dropping was, the effect of it on the character is certainly fascinating. Ethan Peck has been KILLING IT so far and is handling this stuff so well. It's an angle that works. I quite like that the franchise is acknowledging the more emotional Spock we saw in 'The Cage' and working to bridge things to the more stoic version we are familiar with.
And damn, the episode blindsided me with the death of Hemmer. I clocked those two new away team characters as dead from the moment we were introduced to them, but Hemmer was a real shock. Especially given that he seems to have become a fan favourite. What a way to go out too - compare it to the lacklustre death of Airiam over on Discovery, which had zero impact despite the character having been there since the start. This one hit hard, with the reactions of the rest of the crew really doing it justice too.
Much like the previous comedy episode 'Spock Amok', I struggled to click with this one. It wasn't particularly bad with some massive TOS vibes, and I always loved holodeck-gone-wrong style episodes, but the problem was that once again it just felt lifeless. The jokes raised a small chuckle at most, with the majority missing the mark entirely.
This time around something I noticed was the lack of musical accompaniment to help lift the comedy. Without it there to help, things feel remarkably dead. Music was there certainly, but so completely subdued.
For the positives, I thought that Dr. M'Benga lead the episode extremely well. I was also pleased to see Hemmer back. Uhura hammed it up brilliantly. Pike/Anson Mount was kind of delightful as the coward, pitching his performance just right. Wizard Spock looked fantastic. And Ortegas seemed in her element, jousting verbally with Pike. It's just a shame that so few of these elements ended up working well together.
The episode was saved for me by the ending, where it managed to hit me hard. The performances here were top notch. At first I was a little surprised at how easily M'Benga willingly gave up his daughter, but then I realised that she is literally at death's door and has no time left (the show hasn't made this quite as clear as it could have). He knew that holding on to her only means her death.
A weaker episode, but not a terrible one. It feels a little too early in the run to do something like this when the characters haven't been fully established.
There's something off about Torchwood. The premise is interesting enough, being given a nice setup in series 2 of Doctor Who, but the tone is bizarre. It's an adult show that exists within the Whoniverse, and therefore piles on the sex, violence and swearing. Doctor Who is a family show aimed more at the kids, but adults are a huge part of its audience. So it made some sense to create a spinoff that could be more mature.
But Torchwood isn't mature. It throws in the aforementioned sex and blood and swear words, but its writing is still at the level of Doctor Who. By that I mean it still has people running around shouting silly dialogue, giving us tons of exposition, plot contrivances, poorly designed monsters and only glimpses of emotional maturity. This stuff works in Who, in fact it works quite well because we know we're watching a fun kids adventure show. But this is supposed to be an adult drama, so immediately things feel iffy. The pantomime vibe is still here.
The characters do the show no favours either. I quite enjoy Captain Jack portrayed by John Barrowman, but I think it's fair to say that dramatic acting is not his forte. The issues with the rest of the characters are numerous, but it's a real problem when they are so completely uninteresting (Tosh and Ianto) or absolutely impossible to like (Owen). Gwen is our way into the story being the newcomer, and she's handled better but she makes odd choices. The character has nowhere near enough depth to give us the information to understand why.
The writing is not able to do justice to the stories being told. This isn't the fault of the actors (...mostly), but down to the laughably weak dialogue and direction. It doesn't help that visually it's all so poor, inheriting the cheapness from it's parent show of this era. Through all this there is fun to be had. There are good episodes in there and a sense of camaraderie does build within the cast. There's so much room for improvement though.
I could make the same complaints about series 2 as I did with the previous, but I can't deny that the show moves forward with much more confidence here. David Tennant injects some wonderful energy into the lead role and has a stronger chemistry with Billie Piper. Ecclestone did a fantastic job, but Tennant is more charismatic, more playful and more interesting.
I'm coming to accept the inherent cheapness of the show and the super kid-friendly writing, just enjoying the stories for what they are. It's very noticeable that for a show about being able to travel anywhere in space/time, they keep ending up in the contemporary UK. I would say that this sort of thing could never win any awards, but somehow the episode 'The Girl in the Fireplace' came away with a Hugo. Shows what I know. The bad guys still look terrible but they are done with a bit more style here. The special effects are low quality even for 2006, that's just unavoidable given the show's budget and scale.
It's the characters. They work, they're fun. Their relationships become irresistible. There are some real high points in this series and they all come down to powerful character moments for me. My favourite thing here was the two part 'The Impossible Planet'/'The Satan Pit' in which everything clicked. The episodes benefited from atmospheric location shooting and effective lighting which made them look better than anything else the show has done so far, as well as liberally borrowing from things like Event Horizon and Aliens, but it was the material between the Doctor and Rose which made this into something magical. 'School Reunion' was also a wonderfully fun exploration into the Doctor's history.
However, when the show got bad it was almost unbearable. Episodes like 'Love and Monsters' and 'Fear Her' were tacky and dull and so poorly made, seemingly full of afterthoughts in every department. The first includes an embarrassing Scooby-Doo chase scene and a woeful Peter Kay. I also couldn't get into 'Rise of the Cybermen'/'The Age of Steel' despite its impact on the story going forward, largely due to the bad acting and overblown danger from a very silly enemy.
Fortunately the good outweighs the bad here and the series culminates in some truly emotional scenes.
Doctor Who has always been a tough sell for me. I grew up watching the Sylvester McCoy years and have a fond memory of watching the 1996 TV movie premiere on the BBC (Paul McGann was GREAT). But as I grew up I desired more sophisticated sci-fi (that had a better budget behind it). By the time this new era of the show began, I was enjoying things like Stargate and Battlestar Galactica which had visuals and ambitions which put Doctor Who to shame.
Yet something always kept telling me I should enjoy this show. I had tried to watch it in the past and couldn't make it more than a couple of episodes in. This time I think something has clicked and the show has got its hooks in me.
But lets be honest, the quality in this first series is not there. The show looks awful, extremely cheap with terrible lighting that adds a weird glow to things. The sets still look iffy and the alien/monster designs are laughably bad (the Slitheen stood out here as especially weak). The cinematography and editing is awkward. The writing is full of exposition and good actors are somehow reduced to giving pantomime-like performances as they spout the silly dialogue (shouting it more often than not).
The saving grace is the emphasis on character relationships. Eccleston is superb in the lead role, but the real star turns out to be Billie Piper who manages to act circles around everyone else. The dynamic that grows between Rose and The Doctor is endearing and eventually gripping. The show absolutely shines when it focuses on the moments where they just stop and talk.
And at the end of the day this is a family/children's show and accepting that has enabled me to somehow find the enjoyment. I can get through trash like 'Aliens of London' and 'The End of the World' if I also have episodes as good as 'Dalek' and 'The Parting of the Ways'. I'm quite excited to see what's ahead now.
I can't say enough good things about the performances from Lily James and Sebastian Stan here. James in particular is completely transformed into Pamela Anderson and the results are incredible. For a lot of the time I completely forgot I wasn't watching the real her. The recreation of the 1990s is also done with skill (God, I miss the '90s).
This miniseries tells the true story (undoubtedly with a lot of embellishments and creative license) of the theft and distribution of a private sex tape featuring two celebrities. It changes tone a lot throughout, flitting between a dark comedy, crime/legal drama, earnest romance and lurid sex adventure.
These different moods are held together surprisingly well. Each episode is treated as its own thing with its own style but there's still a cohesion to it all. A lot of focus is given to the effect the scandal had on Pamela and it's all the stronger for it, treating her respectfully and clearly showing the line between what she was happy to do publicly and what was an invasion of her privacy. The romance between her and Tommy Lee is incredibly sweet but also shows the reasons why they didn't work out.
The changes in tone also cause issues though, because the pacing of this is all over the place. Episodes will completely abandon storylines and characters to focus on something else and the fact is that some of those things just aren't as interesting. The best stuff is when Pam and Tommy are on screen, and there are long segments without them. Seth Rogen certainly does a decent job but his story stays one-note a little too long, and while I started out rooting for his character that all went away as the show went on.
Content-wise this definitely isn't for everyone, and even I was getting annoyed with the amount of swearing by the second or third episode. That's a sign of extremely lazy writing for me. Most of the sexual content is contained to the first few episodes and while it doesn't go as far as the marketing may have lead everyone to believe, a no-holds-barred sequence in which Sebastian Stan has a conversation with his own cock is certainly memorable.
This fascinating miniseries tells the story of the American opioid crisis that began in the '90s with the introduction of the painkiller OxyContin. Thanks to the utter lies told by the pharmaceutical company that manufactured it, it ended up destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
It's a long and complicated story, and the series perhaps makes this unintentionally more complex by continually jumping back and forward in time. Fortunately its edited together well enough to keep things flowing, even if I ended up getting lost a few times in regards to the timeline.
Michael Keaton is fantastic in the role of a small town doctor who is unwittingly caught up in the horrific events that unfold, and Kaitlyn Dever is emerging as an absolute star. Between this and Unbelievable she's been in two of the strongest miniseries of the past few years. Rosario Dawson gets to show her anger in a great role, but the storyline which I found myself most into was the investigation being carried out by two state prosecutors, played by Peter Sarsgaard and John Hoogenakker. While Dever's story was the heart of things, their story was the part that made me want to come back each episode.
The series fumbles in a few places. Most of the attempts to portray the relationships and personal lives of these people fall a bit flat, and end up feeling like uninteresting time filler when I wanted to get back to the investigation.
But the weakest part here is the portrayal of the Sackler family. I know from other things that Michael Stuhlbarg is a good actor, and yet his performance here is bizarre. He's like a moody teenager with communication issues and a silly voice and I was confused by all the choices made. I just couldn't take him seriously. The rest of the family come across similarly cartoonish (although I have to wonder if this was intentional, given how ridiculous these people really are).
Those few downsides aren't enough to stop me recommending this as a must watch miniseries that tackles an important topic. The American health system is sadly very messed up.
Wonderfully atmospheric and paced quite well, this still feels far too long at 10 episodes. Based on the 1978 short story Jerusalem's Lot - which is a vague prequel to the 1975 novel 'Salem's Lot - this expands upon the story greatly.
A much larger cast of characters, new plot points, and in some respects a whole new drive to the narrative make this improve upon King's original writing quite a lot. The short story never felt connected to 'Salem's Lot whereas this does. Adrian Brody is particularly great in the lead role of Charles Boone, a widower who brings his three children to the New England family home of Chapelwaite after his cousin and uncle have died.
If you think of 'Salem's Lot then you probably think of vampires. King's short story didn't have any. This has lots, and they are quite welcome. I always enjoy seeing Christopher Heyerdahl in my sci-fi/fantasy TV and here he is fantastic as the head vampire. The town of Preacher's Corners is also considerably fleshed out and filled with a variety of people who contribute quite meaningfully to the tale.
Is it scary? Hmm, not really. Creepy at times and with some disturbing imagery (if you don't like worms then this isn't for you), this relies more on the growing sense of dread and inevitable confrontations that are coming. It's gorgeously shot in the way that so much modern prestige television now is, but I think the real key here is the good relationships that are built between characters. Most of all I enjoyed seeing Charles as a father, with the three child characters each leaving quite a mark.
But it's flabby and halfway through began to feel like a little bit of a slog. Five or six episodes would have been ample time to wrap this all up without losing anything vital. I wouldn't call it slow at any point, like The Outsider, and each episode does progress the story quite well. It also has a very strong ending and felt like a worthwhile watch. But I don't think anyone would call this a classic King miniseries, especially since it doesn't feel very King-esque.
Mike Flanagan continues to channel his love of Stephen King into a miniseries that's actually better than most King TV screen adaptations we see. I wasn't totally won over by his Haunting of Hill House and haven't bothered with the follow up series yet, but this is in a totally different league.
Midnight Mass is absolutely steeped in thematic material. This could be a bit much if it didn't sit so well alongside the characters, the writing and the narrative. The series has hell of a lot to say about religion but it's never coming down for or against it. It allows each character's religious beliefs (even if they have none) to let us understand them and what their faith means to them.
I highly recommend going into this knowing as little as possible. Suffice to say that there are horror elements which creep in and it certainly fits into the classic Stephen King story mould. There are twists which are telegraphed from the start (if you notice the actors in old-age makeup in the first episode then it's a bit obvious where things are going) and some which are much more subtle.
But the show really shines through the performances. Just about every episode has at least one scene which is completely mesmerising. It's not afraid of letting it's characters have discussions and letting us be there for the whole thing. More films and TV could benefit from this approach. I need to highlight Hamish Linklater in particular as doing an incredible job.
If I have any criticism it's that the visuals are a little frustrating. The series has that weird "modern" undersaturated look with minimal lighting which leads to things looking a bit flat. This is offset by some gorgeous cinematography and strong editing.
Also, Bev is the worst.
What a fun mini-crossover episode. I had completely forgotten it and had no idea where it was all going. On top of the strong mystery (which keeps escalating in a fantastic manner) we also have the welcome return of some previous faces with Cadman, Novak, Agent Barrett and Dr. Kavanagh. This episode really has a little bit of everything and I love the way things just keep getting more difficult. The only part of the story which didn't work for me was Teyla and her old lady friend which brought the narrative to a screeching halt each time. Teyla just isn't a very interesting character.
But then there's the song. The music itself is nice enough and Rachel Luttrell has a great singing voice, but it's presence in the episode is SO out of place to the point where it ventures into full cringe territory. If the Athosians had just done a simple, realistic sounding musical piece to accompany the funeral ritual then fine, but this overblown fully produced modern-sounding song with huge instrumentation and reverb effects on the vocals was such a bizarre choice. Not to mention the ridiculous nature of having it take place during the middle of a massive crisis situation.
Otherwise, one of the best Atlantis episodes.
I'm a latecomer to this show, but in an odd way I'm kind of thankful for that. Last year I watched The Right Stuff on Disney+, a show which told the story of the first group of American astronauts, the "Mercury Seven", in the 1950s and '60s. Although I kind of enjoyed it, it wasn't spectacular. But it did act as a perfect pre-cursor to For All Mankind, and even dealt with several of the same characters (and even the same actor in one case). Having the background info from that series added quite a lot to this one.
Of course, For All Mankind takes things in a different direction in that its alternate history where things don't go the way they really did, but it many ways it feels like a natural continuation of the story. It takes the concept of Russia landing the first man on the moon and what impact that may have had on America's space program. The results are fantastic. Imagine where the world could be today and the discoveries that would have been made if we had kept pushing out to the stars.
It splits its focus between a few different groups of characters and situations as the season progresses and the mixture is welcome. The relationships the astronauts have with their spouses and families is an essential element which could be seen as a distraction from the intense space stuff, but it only complements it. I was drawn into the world and caught up in the emotional events which happen. It helps that the cast are very strong and while Joel Kinnaman seems to be the lead character early on, the show gradually becomes more of an ensemble piece. Margo, Tracey, Gordo, Deke and Ellen especially take on some of the most memorable stories in the show.
This series if full of hope, bravery and real emotion along with great storytelling. If you're at all into NASA-based tales then I highly recommend watching. It shows us an idea of a world that could have been with progressive elements, especially in regards to women, that are wonderful to see. I hope season 2 continues on this path.
A strong and effective send off for Daniel that does hit the right emotional spots. It's handled with care. Of course, even back in 2002 it was widely reported that Michael Shanks was going to be leaving the show, so there wasn't a surprise factor here. But that didn't diminish how sad it was to watch.
While the episode does remove his character, it has the foresight to not "kill" him off as such, leaving the possibility open for appearances in the future. But even so, this manages to feel final. The farewell between him and Jack is played very nicely, and it was the right choice that Daniel selects him to say goodbye to. Their friendship has been rough along the way (even as recently as a couple of episodes ago with the ending of 'Meridian'), but it's really grown into one of the most solid relationships here. The tears in Michael Shanks eyes feel genuine which is a testament to his acting abilities.
Whether you agree with Daniel's reasons for leaving is another matter. He seems to almost be giving up, despite his protestations that he's not. He claims to feel useless and that he's done all he can; I'm not sure I quite feel the same. The episode attempts to justify his state of mind, but the fact that it's not been built up kind of makes it not ring entirely true for me. He and SG-1 have accomplished a LOT over the past few years.
Other than that, this introduces us to the naquadria element and also Jonas Quinn. I like Jonas and I think this episode helps to establish his morals quite well.
I remember a lot of online discussion back in the day about Carter's goodbye scene with Daniel where she's talking about "why do we always wait to tell people how we really feel?". This was misinterpreted by a lot of people, myself included, as her declaring some romantic feelings towards him. I think it's an easy mistake to make given the words she chooses, but it's definitely not meant that way.
A fascinating story told extremely poorly. The writing, direction and most of all editing is of such a low quality here and makes the show much more difficult to watch than it should be. None of the dialogue is natural and I was eventually screaming in anger at the screen whenever there was a time jump (which is every 10 minutes or so).
I'm wondering if there was some kind of rule that every scene needed to include a superfluous shot of a character lighting a cigarette or smoking one, especially while staring wistfully. Yeah we get it, people smoked in the 1970s. Apparently everyone.
The actors are a mixed bag too, with some doing well with the material they were given while others just aren't able to handle it. In particular, the lead role of Charles was miscast. Tahar Rahim projects none of the charisma we are supposed to understand the real man had, and is incredibly blank and flat throughout. Knippenberg is a problematic portrayal too, seemingly someone who will just have an angry, shouty outburst at the the tiniest provocation. How did this man become a diplomat if he's that on edge?
But there are good points. Jenna Coleman shows the most range and inhabits her role quite well (apart from the scenes where she seems to mimic Charles/Alain and just stares blankly at him while he speaks). I love the various accents and I think the cast did well there, with a wonderful use of different languages. The series makes good use of its locations and you can almost feel the heat. And on top of it all, the story itself is an intriguing one and easy to just let yourself get lost in. The show managed to create tension well where it was needed.
Less episodes would probably have benefited things, along with a much better method of telling the story.
An already silly show gets pushed into extreme cheese territory here, and it's honestly all quite welcome. Cobra Kai uses nostalgia as a weapon to hook us in and it works brilliantly. I can forgive the ridiculous dialogue, the never-ending plot contrivances and some of the really weak acting because the characters and the story being told are so much damn fun.
The show has managed to give us rounded, interesting heroes and villains on all sides. It pulls off the magic formula of making you root for almost everyone involved. The two characters I wanted to hate most - Kreese and Hawk - now both have enough back story and individual motivations to make me feel for them. That's impressive.
I also particularly love the continued use of flashbacks and footage from the original films, they integrate them so well.
There is a question of whether the show can continue with this level of silliness before it begins to feel too much. How many times can we see two characters begin to make amends when some perfectly timed disaster conveniently interrupts them? It's clear that the show isn't interested in being too grounded or presenting any realism (Miguel sure did relearn to walk - and fight! - easily after being paralysed), and part of me feels that the show is going to need to reign it in and commit to some new directions. There's no denying it's very repetitive.
The good stuff here comes from Johnny and Daniel. When it switches over to the kids, it's noticeably how they aren't quite sparking in the same way. In this season particularly it's Tory, Samantha and Robby who feel like they haven't had much to do and anything involving them lacks much energy.
Does it matter? Nah. I'm all in. Hopefully season 4 will let us see Daniel and Johnny team up properly, and not fall out within an episode or two. And if we somehow get Thomas Ian Griffith back as Terry Silver then that would be a treat!
Absolutely superb, and a fantastic follow up the equally great 'Touchstone' from season 2. This episode takes you on a ride and manages to make you question whether your really knew O'Neill at all. I loved it when Stargate went full intrigue because the characters were set up well enough to take it to all sorts of unexpected places.
And again, this uses the shows history to build a new story from existing parts, which is so cool. We go right back to Tollana from a few episodes back and use their "no technology" stance to take us down a completely different path. Maybourne and his secrets that were laid in 'Touchstone' begin to be revealed and Jack is even able to use the events of '100 Days' as a reason to help him with his plans.
It manages to keep O'Neill's intentions pretty well hidden, even going as far as to potentially hurt his friendship with Daniel in quite a harsh scene. One thing that always stuck out to me was that in his conversation with Carter about "now I'm acting like myself", his performance really brought me back to the original Kurt Russell version from the movie. Nice.
There's a really good show in here somewhere, but it's difficult to find. I'm a junkie for any NASA-related tales so this should have been right up my street, but I found myself letting episodes build up unwatched each week and it was only in forcing myself to get on with them that reached the end.
Instead of showing us this crew of potential astronauts training, instead of showing us the clever technicians and engineers solving problems, we are given mostly a show about marriage problems. I definitely think that this aspect of the character's lives is important and deserves a place in the story, but it should not have been the focus. The training segments seem to amount of climbing out a capsule in a swimming pool and people sitting on those spinning chair things. The astronauts complain that they don't get to actually fly the capsule, but there's no follow up to that. Quite often things go wrong and people panic, but we don't get to see the solutions. We just repeatedly get told, "we're ready", but... when did that happen? Nobody appears ready to go. Where are the breakthrough moments?
The characters themselves are not much fun to watch. I'm sure the real life astronauts were arrogant flyboys too, but the portrayals here made me want them all to fail. They are alcoholics, cheaters, jealous, petty and through all this they swagger around with All-American-Hero attitudes. It's kind of nauseating, but I think it could have worked if they'd had both better writing and better casting. A major issue is that we actually get to know so few of them, with the focus being on Shephard, Glenn and (for some reason) Gordo. And they're all idiots here - Gordo especially. The rest of the astronauts are background material.
In fact, the highlights ARE the wives who all feel like much more real characters and all managed to make me care about them. I also liked the general production quality of the show and each episode managed to have some good stuff to offset the bad. It's not a total disaster, and after the first episode I had lowered my expectations enough to be able to get on with it all.
I don't enjoy picking on individual people, but I feel like I have to mention Patrick Fischler's bizarre robot-like performance throughout this show. What was he going for here?
This episode was huge and felt like a turning point for me. And it really managed to give me feels!
So much to enjoy here. It feels like the show has found its groove, and if the rest of the season is going to be like this then we are really in for a treat.
More than anything, I was curious about this show when it was first announced. I love the idea that each Trek series can be something completely different and I'd like to think that I'm pretty open minded, so an "adult animated comedy" immediately piqued my interest and I honestly though it sounded fun. But I was also confused as to just how it would function, or even fit in with the Trek framework. I didn't want Rick and Morty with a Star Trek skin.
That's not what this is at all. Lower Decks is clearly made by people who both love Star Trek and are intimately familiar with it. Each episode is a joyous exploration of various Trek tropes that are turned inside out and then made to provide us with pure entertainment. And yet they still manage to stay true to Trek's ideals, and they send the characters on a journey of discovering themselves and what they want out of their lives.
Mostly, the show is genuinely funny. This is a case of the producers not showing off their best stuff in the trailers and really saving the surprises for the broadcasts. The season continues to steadily improve and settle down as it goes on, but even out of the gate I was enjoying it. There's a fast pace in the early episodes (maybe too fast) that gets smoothed out, and any questions we have about how these characters are supposed to fit into their roles get answered. It slots very nicely into canon and works as a continuation of the '90s era of Star Trek shows.
The show is a deep dive into Trek lore and even the most die hard fans will find references to their most obscure favourite things. And yet it's not overdone, it's just FUN. I don't think it's even off putting for viewers who may not be all that familiar with Trek's past, as a friend of mine with only a passing knowledge of the franchise really got into the series (I shall now continue my mission to get her to watch more!)
The voice cast do excellent work, and the characters really came to life for me over the course of the season. Notably, Mariner is a fascinating and complex character who gets explored in detail and has probably emerged as my favourite. Over the course of the season, these characters genuinely made me feel things and fall in love with them. And I can't help but notice how much each actor looks like the character they play - could this be an intentional move to facilitate live action appearances down the line?
Great fun. Possibly the first episode to go full comedy and really use that side of the franchise to its fullest. It works extremely well as it's been clear all along that tone of the show is suited for exactly this kind of stuff, and that the cast themselves were seemingly well up for it. Even with the comedic tone, this never changes the character's behaviour for laughs, and instead just has them deal with a crazy situation as they would.
Teal'c really does well here, helped by Chris Judge's continually stoic demeanour but also the addition of his wig and clothing. Daniel utters the fantastic line, "I speak 23 languages, pick one" which inspired me years ago to try and dive into learning (with limited results!), plus his fake German scene is great. Meanwhile Carter's scientific side keeps things grounded.
The guest stars are also also strong here, with one notable exception. The young version of Hammond does well (a shame that the actor has notably different coloured eyes to Don S. Davis!), and the two hippies are a joy to hang out with. There's a sense of really wanting to know what happened to them at the end. The low point is the unfortunately poor performance from the actress playing the elderly version of Cassandra, who seems to be behaving as if she's a children's TV presenter.
"Nyet."
