Still just on the fence after episode 3. It just seems like Gilead as presented in Testaments suffers from the same weaknesses as it did in the latter seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale. As a societal antagonist, it’s like it’s only cosplaying as a totalitarian Christian nationalist regime. And Mayday is likewise only cosplaying as a resistance organization. Gilead is an oppressive police state with an iron grip on its population… until June Osborne decides she wants it infiltrated. Mayday is a super-competent yet decentralized resistance and espionage group… but only when June Osborne is personally calling the shots.
And the direction in episode 3 was absolutely terrible. Girl From Toronto (seemingly her only attribute) was like a plank the whole episode. I get that people process trauma differently, but at no point did she seem to have any reaction other than “I am so high right now” to… the death of her parents, being abducted by June Osborne, and of course finding out she was born in Gilead and her parents weren’t her biological parents. And I say it has to be bad directing because we’ve seen her act with a far greater range in other scenes in the first episodes. But this? This was just so wooden, it took me out of the story completely.
I’m so high right now.
(Not really, but I feel like this is the point in the story that I need to say that, just in case I’m not getting through to you: apparently saying “I’m so high right now” is like some magic wand to cure bad storytelling.)
Although I’m not completely sold on the overall merits of the series, I had the opposite reaction to this particular scene. Every other case of a character smoking weed in the movies/TV either turns out 2 ways: they do something funny, or it has zero effect at all. To show someone actually stoned was a refreshing change,.
I finished watching the animated techno-thriller Pantheon (16 episodes, Netflix Canada). Netflix’s algorithm kept recommending it to me, so I finally gave it a try. It was quite good and not quite what I expected; I thought it was going to be more of a mystery than a thriller judging from the first episode, but the mysteries didn’t last that long. There was some near-magical computer nonsense that made my eyes roll a bit, but overall I liked it (although the last few episodes were kind of an anticlimax).
We have been completely absorbed in Dropout TV, the brainchild of College Humor (which I never watched) and producer Sam Reich. You can see some episodes on YouTube for free, but we are now paying subscribers.
We tore through all 8 seasons of Game Changer, which is simultaneously hilarious, profane, chaotic and truly heart-warming. A key factor in the enjoyment is watching this group of incredibly close friends perpetually mess with one another in a way specific only to their personality. All the times Reich takes the piss out of Brennan Lee Mulligan are particularly satisfying (and boy does Reich get his comeuppance.) Yet they also perform extraordinary gestures of kindness to each other throughout the show. It has a lot of heart.
I can’t describe to you how talented these improv comedians are, and they run the full spectrum from Shakespearean improv (it’s a thing!) to musical comedy, from the over-the-top performances of Jacob Wysocki to the to the deadpan humor of Vic Michaelis. I would compare them to the best of the best.
I just finished Deli Boys. I really liked it. It’s like if The Sopranos was a sitcom. It’s also one of the very, very few things that Fred Armisen was in where I didn’t hate his character. Not once did he find a way to shoehorn in the fact that he can play the drums.
We are currently re-watching The Night Of. What a marvelous masterpiece! Such a rich production. We started watching it on HBO free week but noticed we were going to run out of time so we snagged a DVD copy like new for $11 (with shipping!) and pulled out the old TV with a player.
We’re back to Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple. It’s one of those series where pretty much everyone is unlikeable. The cast is great, but the characters are assholes.
I saw season 1 and was mildly interested for season 2. But you know, after watching season 2 episode 1 and not remembering anything about it but the original-theatrical-cut-of-Blade-Runner-level voiceover narration, I don’t know that I’ll return.
It’s not just that the characters are assholes (that I can get behind)l it’s that there is nothing remotely interesting about them or the situations they find themselves in.
True enough. I also really hate the ambient light filming that seems to be prevalent in many series now. I honestly cannot tell the difference between some of the female actors, all of whom have the same body type and hair color. The lighting is so poor that they are interchangeable.
Hopefully without giving away anything: it appears that between seasons 1 & 2, the show runners gave up on the concept. Our hero hasn’t stolen anything from his neighbors, with the exception of one item that’s just a maguffin to get the plot rolling.
Big mistake, IMHO.
Maybe the showrunners thought the whole suburban guy ‘breaking bad’ thing was overdone, but the series would be a lot more fun if the heists and their consequences got much more complicated.
Season 2 really, really drags in the middle. It picked up at the end a bit. I just don’t caare about the characters and they’re not doing anything interesting enough for me to stay with it if there’s another season. And if the sister pulls out that goddamn guitar one more time…
TBH, you could say the same about the first season. Granted he did steal more than one thing (but it was still single digits, I think?), but it was more a murder-mystery plot with a “surviving divorce” B-story than the fun “rich eating the rich” concept I was hoping for.
Seemed harmless enough. One must suspend all believe and most of their disbelief. And that’s okay too.
I can do suspension. I can do silly/ whacky/ surreal. What I CAN NOT TOLERATE IS LAZY/ SHITTY WRITING.
No spoilers. None. So no worries.
My god, as the 9 episodes go along, things start to depart the rails. By the end, the writers have painted themselves to the edge of a cliff. And wheeeeee----- off they leap. Fuck the plotlines. Fuck the characters. Fuck continuity. Fuck the audience.
And then, because Streamers Are Masochists®, we watched the first episode of the 2nd season. Really, I was being indulgent. My wife was somewhat game. I just got madder and madder and so now she will watch the balance of the disgusting spew that is this show.
