This review sums it up for me.
Prime Video’s Dead Ringers tries to substitute bad feminism for good storytelling
The 2023 update leaves its women to be props in service of Rachel Weisz’s Mantle twins
Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)
- Thread starter Hawki
- Start date
I have mixed feelings about this series, before I've watched any of it. I saw the film about 30 years ago, and it remains one of my favourites as a thoroughly creepy movie that makes the viewer deeply uncomfortable. No-one does Cronenberg like Cronenberg, and if the series has any wisdom it won't even try. But can it really be the same thing? What's the point of it?
It's nowhere near as eerie or creepy, but the show is also trying to do its own thing. I guess it's more melodramatic, and loud, and obvious (first ep ends with one of the twins shrieking in jealousy). No room for ambiguity.
This review sums it up for me.
Prime Video’s Dead Ringers tries to substitute bad feminism for good storytelling
The 2023 update leaves its women to be props in service of Rachel Weisz’s Mantle twinswww.polygon.com
Pretty surprising from Polygon of all outlets, but yeah. Along with the comments it basically tells me all I’d need to avoid.
After season 2 and I promised myself I wouldn't watch it any more but then I watched season 3- I guess because I like the space battles and action. But, yeah, it was pretty bad. I kind of liked that one episode with the spy beurocrats- you know, that one that was the least like this show lol- but then they didn't really do anything with it?
Star Wars is definitely doing that annoying thing that Marvel is doing- each things feels more like a set up for another thing. The nonsensical plot dragging out into nothing happening as they just announced a bunch of new Star Wars projects that mostly seem pretty lame has me promising myself I will stop watching this show... again.
No, but it can wear thin after a while. I don't need them to have a last season where they feel bad about it, I'd rather it just end.
But I am actually enjoying the last season of Barry for the same reason I'm enjoying the last season of Ted Lasso- both shows that challenge their own premises and structures in the end. Simply because these casts are brilliant and production so interesting that even the lesser episodes are compelling
Agreed, I absolutely love it. Got three episodes left. Steven Yeun is a gem.
I feel like Netflix decided to just come up with exactly my kind of show and make it, because this sort of thing is 100% my vibe.
My man... exactly why I ain't watching this show. Frankly, the positive response to season 3 from so much genre media is depressing. LIike.. "better than seasons 1 & 2" just 'cause they brought TNG back.
You know what really galls me about all that- TNG ended perfectly. This almost never happens on a TV show. That series finale is maybe the best series finale of all time- it's good on its own, it shows a glimpse of the future, it leaves things both open enough but closes the themes and treats all the characters fairly and with respect. And then the dumb-ass movies and now this sh***... ugh.
Well remember how at the end, the other coach revealed that is this a real existing strategy, and since I don't know/care about soccer I'll just take him at his word and I'll assume, yes, it's a real.
The episode was great and kind of perfect to have in the show's last season, as it sets up the end of everyone's arc. It was gimmicky but I didn't mind- let's just give everyone what they need right now. And I do like that what Ted needed was to rediscover his professional competency.
Huh, Generations is usually condemned for spoiling the ending of the TOS movies, never thought of it spoiling the end of TNG as well.
I watched RLMs final episode review of the season and I think I kind of get it. One thing they bring up is that the movies ended things on a downnote for the crew and the enterprise being destroyed, PIcard seasons 1&2 were apparently miserable nightmares. I, however, never really paid much attention to the movies after Generations, dropped Picard after 2 episodes. To me TNG ended with the card game. I guess to fans though the criticisms can be washed away under the blanket of this being fun and ending on a happy note for the crew. "They fixed TNG". I don't think fans are stupid, in this context. It just wasn't for me.
I'm not being a hipster, I'm dead serious when I say I still remember being at Phantom Menace opening day and the crowd losing their minds at the credits, light sabers waving and I literally looked around feeling like crazy person because I thought it was fucking awful. There's just no amount of nostalgia that can make me overlook lazy, shoddy writing.
There's a part in this where the Borg Queen, a concept I never really liked, angrily yells "The BORG will no longer assimilate, we will now ANNIHILATE THE GALAXY!" and I just kinda died inside. It's like smart scifi just died. That's the writers going "fans want the pew pew pew!". I always kind of dug the moral ambiguity of the goals, not technically being out to hurt or conquer, they don't think they are evil. That's what makes Star Trek special. So many of the conflicts being about dilemmas and perspectives. That's what I watch Star Trek for and this didn't deliver that.
First Contact is, in retrospect, decent for a Star Trek action film, though nobody seemed to be trying to work out ways to fight the Borg.
Perry Mason (HBO) season 2
This is another in premium cable's long line of extremely 8/10 drams.
Ray Donovan, Boardwalk Empire, etc- shows that are very very good but not great.
Season 2 feels a step down from step 1 for the same reason it's more solid- it just "feels" lower risk, lower intensity. I think having the defendants be these poor pitiable soft-spoken guys caught up in some bad shit makes the whole thing feel a little compelling. The drama is supposed to come from the greater conspiracies and mysteries of the rich and powerful. It all feels like the movie Chinatown.
So if you're in the mood for some gritty jazz-age legal drama with one of our greatest TV actors in the lead role (the guy from The Americans) than for sure check it out and season 2 is more of it. But it's not must-see and in like 3 days I'll forget everything.
This is another in premium cable's long line of extremely 8/10 drams.
Ray Donovan, Boardwalk Empire, etc- shows that are very very good but not great.
Season 2 feels a step down from step 1 for the same reason it's more solid- it just "feels" lower risk, lower intensity. I think having the defendants be these poor pitiable soft-spoken guys caught up in some bad shit makes the whole thing feel a little compelling. The drama is supposed to come from the greater conspiracies and mysteries of the rich and powerful. It all feels like the movie Chinatown.
So if you're in the mood for some gritty jazz-age legal drama with one of our greatest TV actors in the lead role (the guy from The Americans) than for sure check it out and season 2 is more of it. But it's not must-see and in like 3 days I'll forget everything.
Finally Finished Carnival Row season 2
Pretty good, I do feel like it had a number of late decision made around the ending and some stuff feels like it was setting up possible later series. The whole "death is not the end" MotiffI feel died especially considering what happens at the end of the series regarding certain characters.
It ended well enough but it feels like only some stuff got resolved really ultimately, which given the type and style of the series being more noir fantasy feels kind of right for it ultimately to have those things left open in part.
Sophie
Pretty good, I do feel like it had a number of late decision made around the ending and some stuff feels like it was setting up possible later series. The whole "death is not the end" MotiffI feel died especially considering what happens at the end of the series regarding certain characters.
It ended well enough but it feels like only some stuff got resolved really ultimately, which given the type and style of the series being more noir fantasy feels kind of right for it ultimately to have those things left open in part.
No I was talking about
Sophie
Baby J
John Mulaney making jokes about his drug addiction/rehab stint for 80 minutes. A lot of the stories I'm already familiar with because he keeps telling them on talk shows, podcasts, SNL. It was alright. I don't get the big backlash about the dude making a standup routine out of his junky days. The whole "Mulaney makes money of it, while nobody will hire me" thing sounds very disingenuous. I don't think anything about him flipping a Rolex for drug money anymore than I do of the junkies at the beginning of Requiem for a Dream stealing a dingy CRTV for pocket change. Both are fucking pathetic. But if he can turn something negative into something positive without hurting anybody, good for him.
Having said that I'm not 100% convinced he's done with drugs. It's one thing to joke about it, but he genuinely seems affectionate of them. Maybe not so much here but there was a podcast (dude I won't plug) where him and the host were fondly reminiscing and comparing drug habits and like... no. He's clearly not done. Just freshening up.
John Mulaney making jokes about his drug addiction/rehab stint for 80 minutes. A lot of the stories I'm already familiar with because he keeps telling them on talk shows, podcasts, SNL. It was alright. I don't get the big backlash about the dude making a standup routine out of his junky days. The whole "Mulaney makes money of it, while nobody will hire me" thing sounds very disingenuous. I don't think anything about him flipping a Rolex for drug money anymore than I do of the junkies at the beginning of Requiem for a Dream stealing a dingy CRTV for pocket change. Both are fucking pathetic. But if he can turn something negative into something positive without hurting anybody, good for him.
Having said that I'm not 100% convinced he's done with drugs. It's one thing to joke about it, but he genuinely seems affectionate of them. Maybe not so much here but there was a podcast (dude I won't plug) where him and the host were fondly reminiscing and comparing drug habits and like... no. He's clearly not done. Just freshening up.
Oh jeez, well, I cant say I missed Sophie or Jonah.
Yep, they clearly had more story to tell and Amazon said no. Very similar to the last season of the Expanse. Amazon streaming hasn't been doing to well before Rings of Power and that show didnt help the coffers. I am surprised it got a second season, but it was pretty good. It's a shame it wont go further
I can't say I envy the folks responsible for planning and greenlighting shows, maybe they get paid well and enjoy failing idk. Within the first couple episodes on Carnival Row it seemed evident to me that to tell a satisfying story that show would take like 4-6 seasons. If there's one thing it had going for it, it was a compelling world setting. The problem is literally no one was talking about it. I think a lot of people were turned off by Cara Delevingne who, regardless of your feelings, has factually failed to appeal to audiences in mass and then it not really being clear what the focus of the show would be. Is it a YA fantasy romance, war, steampunk fantasy? It's a show in search of an audience.
One of the problems you also face is that there is such a quagmire of shows on these days and simply not a large enough audience or space in the week for all of these. On cable you had all these networks planning against each other and around each other to maximize viewship. Streaming services seem unable or incapable of using the same tools. You just can't have 30 shows coming out every sunday on 8 streaming services and 10 full streaming shows coming out an month and expect everyone to hit 15 million viewers to make their pretend money back.
I sorta think Disney had the right thought to pick wednesdays and thursdays as their spot, but already too late the market is saturated so now every show needs to be "BARRY" or "Ted Lasso" and be slow fed in order to succeed.
As your average dumb viewer I'll admit I was a bit hyped for Carnival Row season 2, but as the weeks go by I haven't gotten two episodes in. I already have other better shows I'm watching and only so much free time. Now that I know its already canceled and I won't get some grand finale I'm even less incentivized.
"Amazon"
One of the problems you also face is that there is such a quagmire of shows on these days and simply not a large enough audience or space in the week for all of these. On cable you had all these networks planning against each other and around each other to maximize viewship. Streaming services seem unable or incapable of using the same tools. You just can't have 30 shows coming out every sunday on 8 streaming services and 10 full streaming shows coming out an month and expect everyone to hit 15 million viewers to make their pretend money back.
I sorta think Disney had the right thought to pick wednesdays and thursdays as their spot, but already too late the market is saturated so now every show needs to be "BARRY" or "Ted Lasso" and be slow fed in order to succeed.
As your average dumb viewer I'll admit I was a bit hyped for Carnival Row season 2, but as the weeks go by I haven't gotten two episodes in. I already have other better shows I'm watching and only so much free time. Now that I know its already canceled and I won't get some grand finale I'm even less incentivized.
"Amazon"
BEEF - 9/10
Really solid show that can be enjoyed as just a fun ride as lots of shit goes down with the characters escalating the beef back and forth, and once an episode ends, you wanna check out the next one to see what happens next. Overall the show has a really solid message that I think a lot of people today need to basically relearn or just remember. A lot of people seem to forget nowadays that the overwhelming majority of people are good people and most people that come off as a "bad" person are usually that because of some situation that ended up spiraling on them. Just about any 2 people, regardless of how incompatible they might be on the surface, are stuck in a situation together and have to just be real with each other, they'll likely find out that they could be rather good friends at worst. I really liked the last episode but wish they didn't eat some poison/hallucinogenic plant by accident and also the lighting was too freaking dark as well (it's like TV and movie directors forget you can actually light dark scenes vs going for a realistic look).
Really solid show that can be enjoyed as just a fun ride as lots of shit goes down with the characters escalating the beef back and forth, and once an episode ends, you wanna check out the next one to see what happens next. Overall the show has a really solid message that I think a lot of people today need to basically relearn or just remember. A lot of people seem to forget nowadays that the overwhelming majority of people are good people and most people that come off as a "bad" person are usually that because of some situation that ended up spiraling on them. Just about any 2 people, regardless of how incompatible they might be on the surface, are stuck in a situation together and have to just be real with each other, they'll likely find out that they could be rather good friends at worst. I really liked the last episode but wish they didn't eat some poison/hallucinogenic plant by accident and also the lighting was too freaking dark as well (it's like TV and movie directors forget you can actually light dark scenes vs going for a realistic look).
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi (3/5)
I really don't have much to say about this. This has the feeling of being made by comittee, or rather, the idea that Disney needs to pump out a certain no. of Star Wars shows (and everything else) per year to recoup their investment or somesuch, and this show just happened to be the one chosen to be produced out of Yoda knows how many ideas. That's all conjecture on my part of course, but as subjective as feelings are, the entire "feeling" of this show is that it exists solely for the sake of existing. That no-one really had drive to make this, they just wanted to get Ewan McGregor in while he was young enough to play Obi-Wan, and James Earl Jones in to voice Vader while he's still alive.
(Sidenote: This was apparently originally a movie that got downgraded to a TV series. Point still stands though.)
Now, I could forgive all of the above if the show was, y'know, good, but it's just average. I'll start by listing the stuff I actually liked, which is:
-Ewan McGregor/Obi-Wan: Honestly, he's one of the few actors that actually seems invested in what's going on and actually, y'know, putting in effort. Really, can't fault him anywhere on this front.
-Vader's handled well. Mostly. This series isn't uniquely guilty in this, but there's the question as to why Vader is so much of a badass here whereas in the OT, he can seemingly barely move. Yes, I know the Doylist answer, but what's the Watsonian one? The series actually raises further issues with how it handles Vader in one specific moment, but for the most part, he's appropriately badass.
I do have one other good thing to add, but I can't really divorce it from what occurs in the requisite moment, so let's get on with everything else:
-Apart from the afforementioned characters, pretty much everyone is sleepwalking through their roles here. Leia's an exception, but she's a child actor, and like most child actors, the quality of acting is...questionable, to say the least. Worst of the bunch is the character of Third Sister. I know the actress encountered racial abuse, and the people who hurled that abuse are scum, but that aside, her acting is terrible. It starts terrible, it ends terrible, most of the time she comes off as struggling. Like she's trying to convey anger, but her voice is cracking or something. It's...sorry, again, nothing justifies harassing anyone, but her acting is just terrible.
-Low-budget effects and scenery. Tatooine is clearly a set, there's an "alien planet" that's clearly just someplace in the American countryside, a small crater is clearly a set, etc. I don't expect a TV series to be on the same budget as a film, and poor effects can be covered up with by good writing, but FFS, the original trilogy still looks better than this. In A New Hope, Tatooine felt like an actual desert planet, here, it looks like a TV set.
-The events really undermine the original trilogy. Again, this isn't a sin that's unique to this show (for instance, we've probably seen more Jedi who've survived Order 66 than killed by this point), but that aside, the whole thing comes off as convoluted - that 10 years after Revenge, and 9 years before Ep. 4, all this stuff happens, and is never mentioned at all. Obi-Wan helping Leia (and having no trouble gettting off Tatooine), Luke nearly being killed by an inuqisitor but things being arranged so he still never actually wises up to the whole Force thing, that here, the Empire has proof that Obi-Wan is alive, but nine years later Tarkin is "surely he's dead by now...nevermind that he was alive and kicking 9 years ago"), etc. But things really reach their apex at the climax where Obi-Wan and Vader duel.
Now as a duel, it's excellent, both emotionally and physiologically. This brings me to the "one other good thing to add," namely when Obi-Wan cleaves off half of Vader's helmet, showing the monster within. How the blues and reds of their lightsabers dance on Anakin's face, how his voice goes in and out of modulation, etc. It's absolutely excellent writing and directing...which is undermined by how Obi-Wan wins the battle, and just decides to head off. Again. Despite knowing that Vader's killed numerous people by this point, and will kill numerous more, and that he has a chance to rob Palpatine of his deadliest servant, but nup, he doesn't do it because canon forbids him from doing it. So well done Obi-Wan, not only was Luke never needed to redeem Vader in Return, but you could have finished him off here and now and saved everyone a headache. In Revenge, it was understandable why Obi-Wan refused to kill Anakin, here, not so much. So while the scene in isolation is excellent, this isn't a series that exists in isolation, and when you factor in everything else, Obi-Wan comes off as an idiot.
But really, should I be surprised? Disney's take on Star Wars in many regards is fan service. But even then, this isn't particuarly good fan service, it's fan service that feels done by comittee, and harms more than adds to the setting overall, considering the hula hoops we need to jump through now.
I really don't have much to say about this. This has the feeling of being made by comittee, or rather, the idea that Disney needs to pump out a certain no. of Star Wars shows (and everything else) per year to recoup their investment or somesuch, and this show just happened to be the one chosen to be produced out of Yoda knows how many ideas. That's all conjecture on my part of course, but as subjective as feelings are, the entire "feeling" of this show is that it exists solely for the sake of existing. That no-one really had drive to make this, they just wanted to get Ewan McGregor in while he was young enough to play Obi-Wan, and James Earl Jones in to voice Vader while he's still alive.
(Sidenote: This was apparently originally a movie that got downgraded to a TV series. Point still stands though.)
Now, I could forgive all of the above if the show was, y'know, good, but it's just average. I'll start by listing the stuff I actually liked, which is:
-Ewan McGregor/Obi-Wan: Honestly, he's one of the few actors that actually seems invested in what's going on and actually, y'know, putting in effort. Really, can't fault him anywhere on this front.
-Vader's handled well. Mostly. This series isn't uniquely guilty in this, but there's the question as to why Vader is so much of a badass here whereas in the OT, he can seemingly barely move. Yes, I know the Doylist answer, but what's the Watsonian one? The series actually raises further issues with how it handles Vader in one specific moment, but for the most part, he's appropriately badass.
I do have one other good thing to add, but I can't really divorce it from what occurs in the requisite moment, so let's get on with everything else:
-Apart from the afforementioned characters, pretty much everyone is sleepwalking through their roles here. Leia's an exception, but she's a child actor, and like most child actors, the quality of acting is...questionable, to say the least. Worst of the bunch is the character of Third Sister. I know the actress encountered racial abuse, and the people who hurled that abuse are scum, but that aside, her acting is terrible. It starts terrible, it ends terrible, most of the time she comes off as struggling. Like she's trying to convey anger, but her voice is cracking or something. It's...sorry, again, nothing justifies harassing anyone, but her acting is just terrible.
-Low-budget effects and scenery. Tatooine is clearly a set, there's an "alien planet" that's clearly just someplace in the American countryside, a small crater is clearly a set, etc. I don't expect a TV series to be on the same budget as a film, and poor effects can be covered up with by good writing, but FFS, the original trilogy still looks better than this. In A New Hope, Tatooine felt like an actual desert planet, here, it looks like a TV set.
-The events really undermine the original trilogy. Again, this isn't a sin that's unique to this show (for instance, we've probably seen more Jedi who've survived Order 66 than killed by this point), but that aside, the whole thing comes off as convoluted - that 10 years after Revenge, and 9 years before Ep. 4, all this stuff happens, and is never mentioned at all. Obi-Wan helping Leia (and having no trouble gettting off Tatooine), Luke nearly being killed by an inuqisitor but things being arranged so he still never actually wises up to the whole Force thing, that here, the Empire has proof that Obi-Wan is alive, but nine years later Tarkin is "surely he's dead by now...nevermind that he was alive and kicking 9 years ago"), etc. But things really reach their apex at the climax where Obi-Wan and Vader duel.
Now as a duel, it's excellent, both emotionally and physiologically. This brings me to the "one other good thing to add," namely when Obi-Wan cleaves off half of Vader's helmet, showing the monster within. How the blues and reds of their lightsabers dance on Anakin's face, how his voice goes in and out of modulation, etc. It's absolutely excellent writing and directing...which is undermined by how Obi-Wan wins the battle, and just decides to head off. Again. Despite knowing that Vader's killed numerous people by this point, and will kill numerous more, and that he has a chance to rob Palpatine of his deadliest servant, but nup, he doesn't do it because canon forbids him from doing it. So well done Obi-Wan, not only was Luke never needed to redeem Vader in Return, but you could have finished him off here and now and saved everyone a headache. In Revenge, it was understandable why Obi-Wan refused to kill Anakin, here, not so much. So while the scene in isolation is excellent, this isn't a series that exists in isolation, and when you factor in everything else, Obi-Wan comes off as an idiot.
But really, should I be surprised? Disney's take on Star Wars in many regards is fan service. But even then, this isn't particuarly good fan service, it's fan service that feels done by comittee, and harms more than adds to the setting overall, considering the hula hoops we need to jump through now.
Citadel
Oof. Another Amazon stinker in a row. Like Rings of Powers it boasts an insane production budget of 300 mil yet looks cheap and fake. Where the hell did the money go? Madden and Chopra are TV B-listers with dubious film cred. They can't be that expensive. Is it Tucci? He'll show up in anything. He was in Jolt like a year or two ago, doing more or less the same thing.
This is produced by the Russos (Avengers famous) but that's meaningless trivia. Disney either hires actual filmmakers like how you'd stunt cast an actor (Raimi, Gunn, Waititi, Zhao) or simply resorts to hacks (Reed, Taylor, Russos); either way you end up with hired hands. What the hell are the Russos going to bring to the table? How to CGI singles of celebs into a digital wide shot for a variety of poses?
I don't wanna harp too much on them because they're not actually directing this (because somebody watched Gray Man) but the action here is rote beyond imagination. Look at the scene where Ikaris fights a dude in the bathroom of a speeding train - a classic spy set-piece, right? Whoever's directing this never uses the fact that the space is too cramped for movement and simply shoots the scene like it's two people in a warehouse (because it is). No real sense for space. Look up the fight in From Russia With Love to see how it's done.
Then there's a gunfight in the dining car and the editing is too choppy to follow any of the action. Again, no sense of space or movement. None of it is shot like anybody working on that scene enjoys action - real office worker, let's get this over with energy. I don't expect anybody to top Stahelski anytime soon but... Couldn't they get somebody who at least wanted to shoot an action scene?
Oof. Another Amazon stinker in a row. Like Rings of Powers it boasts an insane production budget of 300 mil yet looks cheap and fake. Where the hell did the money go? Madden and Chopra are TV B-listers with dubious film cred. They can't be that expensive. Is it Tucci? He'll show up in anything. He was in Jolt like a year or two ago, doing more or less the same thing.
This is produced by the Russos (Avengers famous) but that's meaningless trivia. Disney either hires actual filmmakers like how you'd stunt cast an actor (Raimi, Gunn, Waititi, Zhao) or simply resorts to hacks (Reed, Taylor, Russos); either way you end up with hired hands. What the hell are the Russos going to bring to the table? How to CGI singles of celebs into a digital wide shot for a variety of poses?
I don't wanna harp too much on them because they're not actually directing this (because somebody watched Gray Man) but the action here is rote beyond imagination. Look at the scene where Ikaris fights a dude in the bathroom of a speeding train - a classic spy set-piece, right? Whoever's directing this never uses the fact that the space is too cramped for movement and simply shoots the scene like it's two people in a warehouse (because it is). No real sense for space. Look up the fight in From Russia With Love to see how it's done.
Then there's a gunfight in the dining car and the editing is too choppy to follow any of the action. Again, no sense of space or movement. None of it is shot like anybody working on that scene enjoys action - real office worker, let's get this over with energy. I don't expect anybody to top Stahelski anytime soon but... Couldn't they get somebody who at least wanted to shoot an action scene?