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5

I'm exhausted. This tension, the politics, the intrigue, even to the last second. So much is happening in this episode. So much concealed under such elegant garments.

In one way I look forward to the finale next week, however I'm not sure how they are going to fit what I was anticipating to be in this episode into the last, unless it is a 3hr episode, but I think it won't be such.

The other way I'm looking forward to the finale, is I no longer will need to invest all my emotion and attention in this concentration of spectacle and the craft of each Actor performing to perfection their role, and appreciating each word, glance, and interaction with their counterparts in such a magnificent, stunning location.

I'll be ready for this finale but until then I'll be soaking in what I've watched today. What a pleasure it is to witness what the Arts can deliver if given a proper opportunity.

Thank you to the Creators, Actors, Crew, and Those That have painstakingly brought this masterpiece to us.

The conundrum has set in... I desperately want to see the last episode now, but I don't want it to be the last show. 10/10

Well here we go again... Probably be better titled
Star Trek: Strange.

First, I was happy they made the doc more understandable, reduced his accent a little and slowed his conversation. But, that was the only thing I could praise.

I didn't last 20min before sitting this garbage down.
(There must bots giving this crap a good review score, 43 @ 80% ... you're kidding right!?).

So the very first episode of season 2 we have Pike leaving Enterprise and the crew (may as well call it an all woman crew because Spock just lost his balls somewhere around Enterprise.

So they take Enterprise while it's in space dock getting fixed and maintained, it supposed to be there for another 3 days, yet they decide to run away with it and take their time about it.

Spock no longer seems worried that he is continually being started as a human, he's anxious and his emotions are like they would be confirming his balls have been excised, making it an all girl crew.

And to rub salt into that wound Spock decides his 'thing' will be nothing Vulcan-esk but
'I would like the ship to go... Now'
That was it for me - enjoy wasting time with this trashpile. 'Punch it'

This was such an atrocious mess it reminded me of watching 'The Giant Claw' or 'The Bat People'.
Everything (except most of the CGI) was so poorly written, acted, directed and produced it was laughable.

The slow motion beach sequence was amazingly amateurish and locking into that gawd-aweful facial expression was altogether bad. And the sequence the guy giving the most obvious hugs to the other guy, you knew he just lifted the dagger but the continuity of stopping half way up the stairs to pass it off to 'Galadriel', the ventriloquist apprentice was incredibly poor. The editing and the cutting was some of the worst I've seen.

I do not see this getting any better, more to the point I'm not sure how much worse it can get. Given the budget on this production the costumes look like they came directly from a costume shop, and the armour looked so incredibly lame.

Even the clearly predictable and so badly performed scene where the star map 'accidently' caught light from the fire was so bad I paused, ready to end the viewing there. But I continued... to put myself through this agony.

I tried to find something I liked in this episode and I honestly couldn't. I can't put myself through this monstrosity any longer. 2/10

I really found this hard to finish watching.
This will be a roundup of what I thought of the whole series. I'll probably slip into more general overview of this season at the end.
Personally I really liked how this series began. It had good SFX good visuals, the cast was good even though 'Judy' was the typical 'inclusion' addition to the family but I guess they couldn't cast 'Dr Smith' as a woman and black and the antagonist because that may have been seen as 'typecasting'. But yep let's overlook this mainstream need to force diversity even though it's plain as day that it IS forced. I know I'm sick of seeing this nonsense in most of what we call entertainment lately.

The first season was enjoyable. The second, tolerable. The third ....

Then we had the late entry to the gig, 'Don'. The token comedic fill-in, with the chicken. I can't really remember when Don arrived on the scene whether it was the end of S1 or beginning of S2, but that's when I thought, uh-oh.

So I realize I'm writing this as a Season 3 thoughts/review. Here is goes.
What a mess. Season 3 quickly turns into a soap opera in space and not a good one making every opportunity to push down and raise up the usual suspects and how 'woke' has managed to make everything seem to look like the bucket contents of a heavy night of partying. I don't want to add spoilers but it was really predicable and after the delays because of the global push to get everyone on drugs it was clear in some parts that they just copied from other recent SciFi to fill in more gaping holes in a very superficial season just to wind it up and put the show in the box. That's really how it felt.

From chicken chasing to sitting on a chair and quickly getting in a box, plus all the contrived, forced, heaping on of all the usual things we've seen lately even down to a specific flag making a feature cameo just to keep that audience satiated. It's become so 'standard' and formulaic as 'woke' is the template base for most new shows, now let's see how we can cram a beloved storyline from the past into it.
It got worse as the show approached the end of the season and series. I'm actually surprised they didn't do what I thought they would stuff in there next when Penny was exploring. I'll just leave that here.

I hope that I'm the only one who feels this way about such a promising show turning into this!
If you get to read this, I hope I'm wrong and more importantly you get to finish the season on an uptick rather than the disappointment I had. All I can say it looking forward to the return of the Expanse.

What a Bloody outstanding show! This is the first time I've ever wanted to give a show a genuine 11/10!

The writing brings out all of the respect, honour and dignity, even in deception. I love this epic and especially this episode (although once I see next week's episode I'll no doubt rave over that too), there is no dumbing down for the audience, you need to be immersed.

When 'Mariko' translating as she does 'Blackthorne's' words to 'Toranaga' and the sublime transition turning to 'Blackthorne' with eyes the sharpness of a sword, to ask "Shall I translate this too, or is this directed to me". Outstanding.

Each and every actor, no matter who they represent in this epic 'goes all in', for their character, their craft in acting is flawless. If there was any legitimacy in the Academy or in any entertainment award for actors, crew and show, Shōgun would do a clean sweep without exception, even though we still have two episodes to go.

Shōgun is definitely the pinnacle of any show I've had the privilege of watching in my six decades of life. This is not a throw away comment as I am an enthusiast in quality entertainment for most my life.

I cannot wait to own this on UHD Bluray boxset when it's released. Outstandingly Brilliant. 11/10

Masterpiece.

That's all anyone needs to know when trying to figure out if watching Shōgun is worth the time and energy.

This miniseries should be required viewing for anyone in the entertainment industry to comprehend what good story telling and construction of a series is.

This should be the bar, the gold standard in quality in every respect that shows should endeavour to achieve. Not just in historical drama but every genre!

We have had a constant diet of empty, lifeless garbage flood our screens (for the most part), expecting easy money making profits while dishing out crap.

We don't expect the lavish expense that has gone into Shōgun as the norm, but do expect decent story writing without today's continual political agenda bashing the audience. We watch shows to get lost in the world and the story being told to us.

We refuse the incessant garbage. We demand stories written by people, not a room full of monkeys, or AI and we want those writers to be passionate and well versed in the story 'world' they are writing about. No more compromise, no more 'calling it in'.

Audiences deserve better, and Shōgun piqued our desire for exceptional story telling and crafting for the screen. The vast library of modern entertainment is a waste of money and time.

Another great episode... seemed like it only ran for 15min.

Loved the fake out of the silencer... classic! People who haven't got firearms knowledge would get sucked in to that, just like in reality those unknowledgeable in firearms think that AR-15's sold in the US are military grade 'Auto Rifles', they are not... they only have similar cosmetic styling as an auto firearm.

Similarly why did Russo do what he did? In situations like that there would be an unknown time frame when he and the girl would be flanked. If there was only one or two shooters you could stay in the one place. I'm not sure if he is, or is not,... we shall see.

And why did Reacher stand in the middle calling out the boss? Because he'd already got rid of the shooters and now he was calling out the desk bound dumbass boss who is Not a shooter. And he had some idea where he was.

If you have situational awareness and some understanding of tactical, it would all make sense. Some may nit-pik otherwise but Reacher is a show that shows off the expertise in the writing of the show and that's why it's such a great show, and Season 3 is already in pre-production.

Now I've finished the season there's a few things to say about it.
- This has to be the s l o w e s t slow burn that I've ever experienced, other than possibly watching a documentary of a patch of grass growing in real time.
The first 4 eps could have been chopped.

• the cast of characters for the most part did a good job. And the diversity to depict a global invasion was fine. Although the slow burn was excruciating to say the least even though I'm quite patient in that regard.

I was close to dropping the series at the end of ep 4, but I persisted. It felt the show's writers couldn't make up its mind whether to make this a human drama (w/o the sci-fi component), or a sci-fi but chocced to capacity with frivolous human drama.

• I was fully disappointed Sam Neill beat Sean Bean in exiting a show.

• the agenda is strong in Invasion. One could feel that they wrote the sci-fi component to indoctrinate those that have no desire or regard for this continued injection of ideology.

• overall the season was okay. Predictable plot in a number of areas. The loooong loooong ponderings, reflections, thoughts, mindless staring to be edited half the time than what they are at the moment. It's almost like they combined slo-mo with prolonging camera focus, but either one would have sufficed but they used both (they probably didn't do this but it's just how it feels).

If you can handle being slapped across the face while watching this with the Agenda but are a sucka for sci-fi, give this a shot. Invasion is a 5 for me, at most.

Have we lowered the bar so low that all we care about now is the prettiness of a show and we careless about story, content and writing?

Yes it looks pretty, but so is the Venus Fly Trap that entices flys to venture into, and slowly wrap around the fly whilst numbing it so it can't fly away and eventually is consumed by it.

The Weta Workshop always do stunning backdrops, models and that was clearly where tons of cash was used but the swords and armour were deficient in budget. But that said you cannot rely just on 'pretty' to sell a story and keep an audience. You can have the best backdrop on a pantomime but if the acting and the writing is like eating stale cardboard you won't keep an audience long.

I have up watching last week's episode half way through as I was bored out of my skull and returned when I could stomach it. I watched this episode after saying I won't but decided to ensure till the end of the season but I can tell you there was nothing in this episode that have me satisfaction in starting that's for sure.

Honestly this episode felt like it was 3hrs long. It was hurting me to stay focused and try to keep the fragments of the whisp of any 'story line'. Dear lord the writing is abysmal in this thing.

It's like the 'pretty', is 'My Precious' of the original trilogy and is hypnotizing an audience into complete submission.

There was nothing in this episode that made me enjoy it and it even made me despise all the more. This is more targeted to schoolage children just coming home from school. And wasn't it Amazon themselves that wanted a show of equal calibre for their own 'Game of Thrones' type drawcard?

Compare just in terms of what is a strong presence on screen and a believable woman fighting, watch 'Anna' as a recent example. The writing of that movie is quite good too.

This waste of time show is like blowing up a balloon then releasing all the air and all you have left is a stretched soggy and flat but colourful piece of rubber that's no good for anyone.

The third episode.
Some leapfrogging of time to begin ep 3 but it was done quite well. In my opinion the writing of this episode and HotD is gaining its legs. It has come a way since ep1. The politics plays prominently in this episode and Rhaenyra's character is developing. Milly is playing her quite well. I hope we don't get too many time jumps that we lose her.

The politics as said earlier is predominant in this episode the two playing this game of chess yet the main pieces don't want to be played.

I did particularly like the subtlety from the outcome of the laboring of the overly obvious bandage in ep 2.

Matt Smith's Daemon sequence as he unmounted and walked into the throng of soldiers was played perfectly; written well and acted well. The subsequent deception following was a bit over the top and if it was me I would have fired that archery regiment if I had of lived. But there was the incentive for Daemon that is for certain.
The actors are clearly working out their characters and even though there are still things that can be pointed out, there is more to like as we get further into the series, so I stay optimistically cautious in my overall assessment. 8/10

The Orville keeps doing it. An expected conclusion to an earlier episode (5) and done with taste. They could've gone quite cheesy and more cringy, but they didn't. The writer did a good job with substance, not cringe.

The guest appearance was a giggle, and I felt this was a kind of a nose flick toward a Star Trek Discovery episode having the most definite cringiest guest appearance a show could ever put on any Sci Fi show, unless of course you're talking about Twilight Zone, or probably more appropriately, Creep Show. Then again it does fit on STD.

This episode does run long nearer to a movie length but it is appropriate given the content being covered. They could've made this a two part show but I didn't care as it wasn't filled with anything that didn't push the story along. I'm glad shows are beginning to see and give the opportunity to tell the story outside of the 'prescibed time frame', and let 'creativity' and 'story' be a Star in the show too.

The conclusion was especially touching and in this case what we hoped or predicted to come about, did.
Also there was a lot of Adrianne Palicki in this episode and who can argue against that honey. Yeah, I have a crush, so what. : )

Cast, Crew, Writers another wonderful job. If it was up to me I'd green light The Orville for seasons 4 and 5 now.

Ohh Come On!
This is a lost cause. What is it with these writers. Do they only know copy and paste?

Another cold episode .. I even had to drop it half way and then try to stomach the rest of the episode in a second attempt.
Another cameo by Rebecca Romijn 'Una'. Another episode with the focal point on Uhura and another dinner get together in the Captain's quarters as big as the Bridge, What the F*** are they still washing dishes, in Water? And what's with the fireplace with logs??

A total ripoff of 'Alien' and what the hell was the thing over the coms to Spock 'You gotta draw it out, you have to get it angry', But he goes into Rage mode?? Are you kidding me?
I wish I had the time or the inclination to rip this whole thing to shreds - there were so many clangers in this apprentice writer garbage.
But it was at the end that really crashed it for me. Uhura walks slowly onto the Bridge - noone there mind you, but she looks over to the Comms panel and the Star Trek theme music rises up under the moment... Uhura is complete and now Star Trek is Star Trek with her finally in her place. I'm quite certain that the rating on these episodes are being bolstered to keep the rating score high. No way are real people rating this that high.

I'm so glad that The Orvile is on the same day - it's like chalk and cheese the difference. The quality of The Orville is in another Galaxy compared to the crapfest that is Star Trek today. I use to be a big Star Trek fan. The season finale thankfully is next week, once that's done, I'm done with this Shit Trek to the manure galaxy of Stink.

I've just finished watching Elementary through for the second time.
If you forget about the loose relationship to the classic Sherlock Holmes character and the occasional virtue signalling and other bias political directives you can actually enjoy the series. The dry wit of Holmes is a crack up and some of Watson's retorts are likewise.

Sometimes I believe the entertainment industry has this somewhat baffling need to ride the coat tails of known classic hits only to shoot themselves in the foot when the audience becomes disappointed by how little the alluded link to the classic characters/theme reveals itself. Then the audience thinks 'this has nothing on the original or a remake from another country', they then quickly loose interest and move on.

If American show makers have a little more belief in themselves and their intended audience they needent hook into past classics but develop a new 'classic' with no sly pass-off but as something new.

There were some very good moments in this show with interesting cases along with a very somber and heart felt long story arc that became a strong thread all throughout not to mention a genuine love that grew between the lead characters.

My advice is drop the classic Holmes and Watson expectation and just enjoy the show and the characters for their own reasons.

Well if I knew the way I felt about this show after finishing the series I would have started watching Travelers when it first came out.

I did start watching it but from memory there was another time travel themed show that came out at the same time, I may have gotten these two shows confused. Why am I bringing this up? It's only because I recently discovered Brad Wright created Travelers and as I'm a big Stargate SG1 fan I figured I should give this another go, but this show wasn't like the one I watched in the past.

Admittedly it took a few episodes to warm up, but from there on it just kept getting Better. Time travel has been done to death but this one had a much better method to bring the show to life. 12 Monkeys series was good but Travelers did none of the hard to follow time jumps and frustrations that can lead to. I think that is why I can say that Travelers did the time thing very well, and worth the watch.

The actors did a top job and the writing was good. Of what SFX there were in the show they weren't the best but the story covered and made up for the budget limitations.

Travelers is most definitely worth putting the 'time' into it. It's only 3 seasons but every season jumped up in viewers and there's a reason... It got better and better as each episode played out. There is a long arc binding it all together.

For those who aren't sure if they want to invest their time into a series that only lasts 3 seasons and worried there isn't a reasonable conclusion, don't be. Give it 4-5 episodes and if you aren't hooked come back and give me a prod.

I really hope Brad Wright looks into rebooting this show, it definitely has the distinct makings for that to happen.

Just finished watching season 1. A few points to bring up first.
1. Alan Tudyk is outstanding in this role
2. Every episode made me Laugh Out Loud several times in each episode, not just giggle
3. If you like off beat dark comedy - Watch This Show

Out the gate I have to say this is the funniest shows I've watched in years. Only Big Bang drew out belly laughs similar to Resident Alien. And Alan knocked it out the park in his delivery. Every character in the show has a story it isn't only about the alien. There's quite a bit happening in the show and I also appreciated the show having a Native American focus too. A nice touch considering we're focusing on Colorado rural area. I didn't see it just as a push for woke.
Big Black is a great addition and the deputy.
There are some fun surprises and seriously Resident Alien had me bursting out laughing many times mainly because I like dry wit, dark comedy, and plays on words. Last year sucked in so many ways. Resident Alien breaks those shackles, shows some amazing footage of Colorado, puts a smile back on faces and who doesn't need to exercise those smiling muscles and lungs again. WATCH THIS SHOW.

This is a continuation of my initial thoughts on City of Angels.
Now that I've concluded watching the whole season the last few episodes picked up for me.

The supernatural thread in the show unfortunately for me alludes me not being familiar with Mexican folklore. That's fine as that isn't the be all end all of the show. It is a very complex dark story with many facets, each depicted in a way to drive home what I feel is the main purpose. More on that later.

There are some truly thought provoking scenes. The cinematography and the authenticity of CoA is really something. The characters are well portrayed and overall a good ensemble. The season finale, the last two episodes that I just finished were outstanding. The big band music the large dance house really gave an uplifting swell, it's worth watching the last episode just for that. But then that swell, turned predictably into a bubble and the high burst finding ourselves in the depths of darkness.

This is where CoA does a great job. Even though there are many story threads they are meaningful and you could skip on the surface but it is far better to get completely immersed.

If I were to nutshell it each storyline is racially driven. Each facet brings home the distasteful and shame of racism, the insatiable desire of power over one, or a community, the destruction that comes from wanton division to control and finally greed in power. There are those that try to unify them there are those that lust for destruction.

Some may even decide that this type of show cuts too close to what is happening today and may try to cancel CoA, but DON'T. This cancel culture must be cancelled itself. It is these types of shows that can help understand and reflect the errors of the past that we can learn to be better and it shows how far we've come.

There are some great life lessons in this season. Worth the watch for sure. In conclusion PD CoA has grown on me. I do hope there is a second season.