Alright, there it is...the "best" new anime of the season. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect from this but it would've been great if this came out a few years ago. With the release and the popularity of action shonen anime rising by the minute, it's too easy to call out these types of anime to be filled with cliche tropes so I'm gonna be slightly critical here.
Firstly, I'm really happy with the production decision they made here. Real ballsy of them to develop characters because they know there is nothing much to be discussed story-wise. I have a couple of criticisms here which I don't wanna go deeply into considering this is just the first season. But since we're here...I do not like the 'internal monologuing' here at all. It's probably a personal thing but it kinda gets annoying I feel like I'll get used to it in the coming episodes. Adding to that point there's a lot of exposition happening here in terms of the power system. At the same time, I feel like there are no other ways to go around it so I can excuse it.
Having said that, negativity aside there's a lot to like here, the later half of the show has some incredible fighting action sequences, the choreography is excellent and the powerups pack a punch. I love the character design, the voice acting is incredible and I love how they decided to expand more into characters without making it seem too rushed or too fast. The power system which is probably the biggest strength of the show is one of the best I've seen in the genre, although it follows the same weakest-to-strongest trope they add their twist to it with the power system. They also throw in a bit of fan service which I won't complain about as long as we get more of Cha Hae In.
In conclusion there's a ton of room for improvement here, I could see this being the magnum opus of new gen anime.
Russo Brothers' expensive mistake which reaches new levels of ordinary
Citadel is an expensive & exorbitant mess made out of 1600 crores with which they could have revived countries out of poverty. This stylized, fancy espionage spy thriller is no better than hundreds of spy thriller we have seen in the past. Starting from patchy vfx, forced drama , unegaging characters and mediocre plot twists this has everything to get you dissapointed if you are loyal fan of solid spy thrillers.
The screenplay is a victim of uninteresting time jumps which taints every bit of engagement it tried to bring in. Other than Leslie Manville's vicious performance , Citadel fails to deliver even in terms of any other credible performance. The action set pieces other the opening sequence doesn't catch your eyes as all seem mediocre.
Overall, if you are someone who binge watches everything popular you may not like Citadel as it feels monotonous and tedious, but if you ocassionaly watch content on your TVs then this might be a good option to try. You might also want to watch this as Amazon is producing a spyverse for Citadel across multiple countries. Indian Edition of Citadel stars Varun Dhawan and Samantha and is being directed by Raj and DK. Citadel S01 also teases thr next chapter Citadel : Diana starring Italian actress Matilda De Angelis which will release in 2024.
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2023 TV Shows Ranked (list on my profile) --> https://trakt.tv/users/justinnumerick/lists/2023-tv-shows-ranked?sort=rank,asc
Season 1 Review:
Beef is such a welcome surprise. I didn't expect too much out of this and was wondering how they could stretch out a show about road rage to 10 episodes, but the road rage incident happens immediately and the show is really about what ensues after that, and I thought it was so effective from start to finish. A HUGE part of that success is due to the actors, who were so, so great. I've been a massive Steven Yeun fan since his days on The Walking Dead, and this show reminded me of just how talented of an actor he is. Ali Wong also does a fantastic job, and with the show centered on these two, they both effectively carry the load and help the show excel. Beyond the performances, the writing is sharp, clever, and very smart. Things are set up well including certain events and character beats, and therefore the story feels very tight. But what really impressed me was how effectively the show built the conflict and obsession between Danny and Amy over the course of the season. The road rage incident is just the beginning, and everything that happens after is like a wild back and forth that gets more and more serious and dangerous as the show progresses. Yet, it's not a completely linear or straightforward descent into madness, as both characters show signs of being better people here and there, but inevitably something always draws them back in. In some ways it makes the characters quite unlikable, but I found it so entertaining more than anything. The themes are also quite relatable in the sense that no matter how different we are as people, we all have stress and anger that builds up over time if we don't let it out, and sometimes all it takes is one inciting incident for us to explode. The show exaggerates this beyond what would likely happen in the real world, but I love when shows or movies use something so relatable and exaggerate it, and Beef is such a strong example of how to do that right. This show also handles massive tonal shifts as good as anything else out there. We start off in comedy mode, then as things get more serious the comedy gets darker and darker, and then as things progress even further we get into full-on intense drama. The show pulls off all of its tones very well. Dark comedy is some of the best comedy when it's done right, and while there were some pretty dark things here that feel a bit too serious for comedy (at least for me), overall the dark comedy was very effective. Then when things get more serious I found myself on the edge of my seat due to the intensity. And because they take their time to evolve the show as it goes along and place little elements comedy and drama throughout as both primary and secondary tones, there isn't much tonal whiplash when the tension ratchets up and the transitions are mostly seamless. The final episode did feel like a bold move and provided the most whiplash for me, but I loved it on a character level. The more I think about this show the more I love it.
8.8/10 -- Great
Previously, I wrote a short, but positive review at the end of Season 1, stating how excited I was for Season 2.
I absolutely despise when great shows are cancelled. However, in this instance I truly wish it had been cancelled after Season 1. At least we would have been left with a positive memory and with our imaginations running wild.
It’s difficult to review Season 2, without giving anything away, therefore I will try and keep my words brief…
WTF! The last episode was an absolute joke and a huge cop out. Who on earth came up with it? Someone very lazy or maybe with an axe to grind? I was literally spitting feathers. There were many amazing possibilities to explain the show to date.
Maybe they were told unexpectedly towards the end of Season 2 it was to be cancelled and they had to come up with something very quickly?
In honesty, I did find Season 2 a tad boring even before reaching the worst ever final episode in history. I felt the show wasn’t progressing , even a tad repetitive. But, I wasn’t put off, due to many shows having their boring episodes.
Wrapping things up; I really don’t feel like wasting anymore of my time, especially given the horrendous ending…PLEASE DO NOT WATCH SEASON 2. You will be sorely disappointed and in danger of being furious.
It made me remember an American TV Show from the 80’s I think, who pulled the same stunt. The media had a field day, with nothing nice to say. If I state the name of this well known show, I imagine you’ll guess what fate awaits you, in the final episode. But, my lips are sealed.
Do you dare watch? Or finish on Season 1, with your happiness intact?
Good luck :)
PS. Not related to the show, but thought I’d point out I’m Dyslexic. Please forgive any mistakes I make. I do check my rants before clicking submit, but alas I still miss too many blunders.
While not without its charms, The Rain is filled with moments where you'll be wondering "why did they do that", "couldn't they have just...", "they dont seem to be very upset about that person dying", why are they so upset about this person dying" or just "why?!"
Season 1
Too much off this show fails to make sense or is just plain convenient, even from the very start, when dad is speeding along the motorway and turns to speak to his painfully annoying son - the daughter and mum were somehow failing to get him to put his seat belt on. This error of judgement sees dad have a near miss with a truck, the truck in turn tries to swerve but topples onto it's side neatly blocking the road. Dad decides that the family will go on foot and by the magic of editing they seem to make very good time which makes it seem like it was probably better than driving anyway.
Throughout the show people who have been living in the zone for years and are very aware of the dangers, dont seem to have developed any good strategies for preserving their safety - beyond very basic plans such as getting to cover before it rains, the rain that never seems to catch them by surprise as rain often does in real life. apparently these people have all become experts at reading weather patterns and can move around with confidence that not even a drop of the deadly rain will land on them. Perhaps this shared expertise in meteorology is so advanced and obvious that they don't even need to acknowledge it.
Nobody has every heard of checking someone's vital signs, as they all posses that special film expertise of being able to confidently asses someone's vitals just by looking at them for a moment.... Don't pass out or you might be assumed dead and left behind.
Most of the characters spend a good portion of the series being quite annoying, Beatrice being the only one whose character seems more interesting, or at the very least more consistentantly likable and as such the only character I felt any genuine concern for. I actually think some of the reviews are too harsh on the acting, while it's sometimes patchy I think the poor script is to blame.
Season 2
I was considering whether it was worthwhile putting myself through another seasons of this show and read the other reviews here. The general feeling seemed to be that season 2 was a big improvement so I decided to give it a bit more time. Season 2 was in fact much better even if not without moments of season 1's silliness - one of my favourites was when someone thinks they have been locked in a room. It's been well established that it has keypad entry but they try and open the door with the handle and freak out thinking their suspicions are confirmed. Of course the door wouldn't have opened with the code anyway so when they do eventually punch the code in they find that it has been jamed shut.
Lea and Jean thoroughly irritate me through both seasons and I find their dysfunction is much harder to watch than other characters... Why are the plants dying, I'm So depressed... then, wow you fixed the plants... then I want to destroy all the plants... blah blah blah.
While better than season 1, 2 does devolve into a bit of a weepy soap opera at times. Most of the rain in season 2 seems to be from all the blubbering.
If they make a season 3 I'll probably keep watching as it felt like it was just becoming good at the very end.
I have been watching the big bang Theory ever since it first aired. Being an IT student at the time, the uncomfortable social situations and nerdy jokes spoke to me. However, much has changed throughout the seasons, more about that later.
We start out with our four nerdy main characters. There is the recognizable fact of the three people with higher degrees (PHD holding Sheldon, Leonard and Raj) who make fun and feel themselves better than "simple" engineer Howard. There is the desperate search for love coming from both Howard and Raj, and the differentiation between the confident yet single Howard and the timid, uncertain just-as-single Raj. Sheldon is the one who has no sense of what's going on around him, and is only interested in his own world. Leonard is the humble cute guy who manages to get a date from time to time, an inspiration to Howard and Raj, although his on/off fling with Leslie gives us the impression that he isn't really that successful after all.
Then we have the obvious babe, Penny, the complete opposite of our four nerds. She makes something stir in all three of them, but follows the cliché of going out with the "wrong" men, being dumb, and ignoring their advances.
Even though these are all cliche’s, the inside jokes and the disarming clumsiness of the four guys made the first seasons well worth watching. Gradually however, as the show became more popular, the writers started to abandon what once made it so.
With the introduction of Bernadette and Amy the female characters are drastically expanded, but they don't add any real value to the show. Bernadette is the caricature of Howards mother, where as Amy is an attempt to make Sheldon look more human. At the same time, we go from a show with it's own flair to a one-in-a-dozen sitcom. The laughing tape went from being an accessory to being the main engine of the show. The characters became aware they were going to make a pun and started smiling like idiots before they said it, and laughing like people high on weed after someone made it. The longer this series continues, the more painful it becomes to watch. The lines that are supposed to be jokes are simply not funny. The acting and stereotyping are more bearable in a highschool play. And, as stated in another review made before this one, the show changes from laughing with the characters to laughing at the characters. From a nerdy show to a show about nerds.
Conclusion: if you're looking for some nerdy fun, watch the first three or four seasons. After that, it gets the same illness so many American shows suffer from, namely that it becomes a cash cow for the producers and starts a long, painfully slow, continuously prolonged process of dying a silent dead.They never seem to know when to end something great instead of going on to make it something mediocre.
