Pascal Hartig

15 followers

London, UK
34

The Curse: 1x10 Green Queen

Watching this was among the top three most frustrating experiences of my life

loading replies
I'm a Virgo: 1x04 Balance Beam

Now that's the anti-capitalist content I tune into Boots Riley for.

loading replies
Grand Designs: 22x04 Ely, Cambridgeshire 2021

Justice for Fernando's apple tree!

loading replies
Ted Lasso: 2x03 Do the Right-est Thing

Incredible how they managed to tackle a climate story and still make it wholesome.

loading replies
Trying: 2x07 Lift Me Up

The empty cups on the canal walk are such an annoying and completely unforced error.

loading replies
Marvel's M.O.D.O.K.: 1x05 If Bureaucracy Be... Thy Death!

It's a UNIX system. I know this.

loading replies
Industry: 1x05 Learned Behaviour

This show is horny af.

loading replies
Mythic Quest: 1x02 The Casino

It's 2020 and there still seem to be people who think suicide jokes are funny.

loading replies
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
7

Shout by Pascal Hartig
BlockedParent2020-02-10T10:57:22Z— updated 2020-02-12T09:16:24Z

Not particularly smart, surprising or anything we haven't seen before but relentlessly fun, great diverse ensemble and finally a DC movie whose colour palette that doesn't look like the film stock was fished out of a bucket of sick.

loading replies
BoJack Horseman: 6x12 Xerox of a Xerox

What an emotional rollercoaster! I knew that high couldn't last long.

loading replies
Game of Thrones: 8x05 The Bells

One of the best directed episodes. One of the worst written episodes. In a vacuum, this episode would be brilliant. In the context of the wider story, this episode is a disaster.

loading replies
Barry: 2x04 What?!

What an incredible episode of television. The amount of character and plot development the managed to pack into just 31 minutes easily outdid entire seasons of lesser shows. Paired with the some incredible laugh-out-loud moments and the spot-on editing, this is easily one of the best half hours I spent in front of the screen this year. Lastly, that Bill Hader I-have-just-decided-to-murder-you face!

loading replies
The Good Fight: 2x13 Day 492

As a wise man once said: Great job, Baranski.

loading replies
Vice

I admire Adam McKay but this one didn't land for me. Because of the long timespan this movie covers and the time jumps this requires, the movie never gets into a coherent rhythm. This might very well be McKay's intention as he tries to show us how fucked up and incomprehensible our current world is, but as a watcher I found it too frustrating to appreciate it. This combined with the constantly changing editing styles, tabletop split screens, overlaid typography and allegorical dinner scenes, I never quite understood what the movie wanted to be and, more importantly, who the movie wanted to be for.

loading replies
Escape at Dannemora: 1x05 Part 5

Hard to believe that this show is Ben Stiller's directorial debut because what he pulls off here with the opening montage is just incredible.

loading replies
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 2

I'm trying my absolute hardest not to binge The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and instead take it in one at a time. Every episode is like a shot of pure, distilled delight in the arm. It can pull you out of the deepest hole in an instant. The brilliant camera work, the fluidity that every scene carries, the theatre-like interplay between the characters. I could be gushing about this remarkable piece of art for days. I hope it will last me for a bit longer.

loading replies
South Park: 22x09 Unfulfilled

You're a good woman for saying that, but you're bitch because it's a lie and you're patronizing me.

loading replies
Narcos: Mexico: 1x06 La Última Frontera

I certainly could have done without the C plot about art and affairs that we've already seen hundreds of times just on Netflix. But I have to admit that the jump cut from the dull stakeout to the incredibly kinetic oner raid sequence made up for it, at least for me. The incredible pace of the camera in so many of the action sequences elevates what would otherwise be just another set piece.

loading replies
Narcos: Mexico: 1x08 Just Say No

What an absolute banger of an episode. Starting off with the most scalding of cold opens and continuing the excellent use of tracking shots from Kiki to Rafa and later on to the gangster - whose name escapes me right now - submerged in the beautiful red backlight of the truck. The final element that made this probably my favourite Narcos episode in general was the cinematic foreshadowing of Kiki's fate through the very deliberate occlusion, cornering him visually before the falls close in on him physically.
I was a bit lukewarm on the season as it started, but this episode has really won me around.

loading replies
Homecoming: 1x08 Protocol

Some absolutely masterful editing work in this episode.

loading replies
The Haunting of Hill House: 1x06 Two Storms

What an incredible cinematic achievement.

loading replies
The Haunting of Hill House: 1x04 The Twin Thing
10

Shout by Pascal Hartig
BlockedParentSpoilers2018-10-14T16:08:56Z— updated 2018-11-02T14:28:44Z

Normally when comenting on shows or movies like this you need to preface it with
"given that this is a horror flick, ..." For this episode, that qualification is
unnecessary. It stands completely on its own. This isn't just a good hour of
scary entertainment, it's one of the best hours of television I've watched this
year.

The episode doesn't just completely recontextualise a story arch we've seen
before and changes the view we have on a character, but paints a really deep and
complex picture of a man dealing with grief and addiction. The horror elements
serve a greater purpose than just spooking the audience. They are a fundamental
part of our character's journey and affort us with a way to understand his inner
daemons in a very real way.

All of this coupled with the brilliant smooth and deliberate camera work that
keeps you at the edge of seat throughout makes this one of the most affecting
episodes of television I've seen this year.

loading replies
Maniac: 1x09 Utangatta

I wish I had something more profound to say but: THAT ONER, THAT ONER! Fukunaga did it again.

loading replies
BoJack Horseman: 5x08 Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos

I had been so madly in love with the previous seven episodes, that I was starting to think that I had become an uncritical fanboy. This is why I did really appreciate this episode not working for me at all. It's still BoJack and it had some good laughs, but the intercuts didn't add much to the way the story was told. It's admirable that the writers have found a way for every episode to establish a completely different narrative structure and make it work so, so well, but this one didn't work for me. This was a great reset. I'm looking forward to the remaining episodes.

loading replies
Marvel's Cloak & Dagger: 1x10 Colony Collapse
6

Shout by Pascal Hartig
BlockedParent2018-08-03T21:07:19Z— updated 2019-04-05T18:56:39Z

Sadly, this was the weakest episode of the season for me. It had none of the beautiful duality that all previous episodes managed to portray so brilliantly. There was no subtext and the historical flashbacks felt poorly executed and were ultimately without any impact on the story. I like where it sets us up for the next season and will definitely be back for it, but this finale really left me bummed out.

loading replies
Better Call Saul: 3x10 Lantern

I'm still pissed that Michael McKean got snubbed for the Emmy this episode should have gotten him. It's almost a year later and I'm still thinking about this episode so I think it's fair to say that it was the best episode of television I saw in 2017.

loading replies
The Magicians: 3x13 Will You Play with Me?

I felt really let down by this finale. It felt like characters fell back into their season one behaviour, erasing all the progress they've made. I don't mind Thanos-style twists, but they need to feel earned. This one was clearly setting up the stage for season four, but there are more elegant ways than this.

loading replies
Goliath: Season 2

I was already pretty high on season one, but season two goes even further. Episode seven is up there with my favourite hours of television this year. If you're looking for a straight-forward whodunnit, this is not your show. I guess that also explains the confused reviews by some others.

loading replies
Barry: 1x08 Chapter Eight: Know Your Truth

This show had more character development AND plot in its eight short episodes than lesser shows have in a 22 times 60 minutes season.

loading replies
Legion: 2x04 Chapter 12

The perfect anti-dote for Interstellar. Love won't save us, it the thing worth fighting for. Also, probably the longest cold open ever.

loading replies
Loading...