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harpurnessan
Reviews
We Own This City (2022)
Starts off well, too much civil rights bs
Starts off really well with an interesting speech by Jon Bernthal (JB). Seems really promising, maybe a bit like the wire but much more focused on sending a political message than telling an interesting story.
The scumbag policemen are well acted, convincing and know their part. Not amazing but good enough, especially JB. G-Money was also very good.
The FBI are decent in it too. Some decent characters there. There's ofc a wire tap to which people say 'don't compare it to the wire'....but how do you not?
Wunmi Mosaku....what on earth is this character? No personality, no human interaction with anyone, nor does anyone treat or respond to her as a human being. It's like she's a narrator who can seemlessly meet with anyone and everyone in the police force - as if no one has anything better to do than talk to her about civil rights. Every scene I'd cringe so hard because her position in the show is entirely synthetic and peoples openness to her is completely unrealistic.
The timeline and chronology is awkward and clunky. It jumps back and forth between 3 timeframes and all slightly different: early 2000's, then it's 2017, 2018, at points it's 2011. Very confusing and adds nothing to the story.
Black Summer (2019)
S1 good, S2 starts strong and devolves into nothingness
Really enjoyed season 1 and most of my rating goes to S1 and the start of S2 - a good suspenseful zombie series. Plot holes and silly in places but overall not a bad zombie series - considerably better than walking dead because it's tense, scary, suspenseful.
Season 2 starts strong, good initial acting and clever use of their cut scene technique.
As the show wears on the cut scene technique becomes increasingly unnecessary and starts to give me a headache. At the start, it's used to cleverly communicate overlapping stories. At the end it's just used in sequential scenes for no reason - it just fills time and offers no value.
There are a few characters who are skin deep theatrical mechanisms rather than believable characters. The mothers son in the house and Boone jump to mind.
Boone is actually such an annoying character that I started to mute the TV everytime he spoke because what he said (a) was delivered in a silly maniacal way (b) it offered nothing to the plot (c) his character proves to be completely unnecessary - he could've been cut entirely.
There are also some pointless scenes. For example, characters that are introduced, engage in 1 scene and are then killed. One specific example of a man running into the basement of a house stands out.
Also, for those who don't enjoy politically correct series too much - the 2nd season is essentially white males who are evil against women and minorities who are good. Almost all of the zombies are also white males. Felt a bit like they had to hit a politically correct quotient or something.
Son of the South (2020)
White savior rubbish
This movie is a white savior story about a guy called Bob Zellner (don't take note of the name, he introduces himself over 100 times in the movie).
It's very cheesy and poorly edited. The dialogue is really lacking. He has a few lines that he repeats over and over again. So many situations where people are mystified by the words "Bob Zellner, East Bruten, Alabama".
The real life Bob Zellner was involved on set and consulted on this movie. I can't help but feel that he is a politician and spent a little too much time beefing up his own profile by appearing as the perfect man in this movie.
I enjoy movies about Civil Rights but this one is devoid of any real content. I feel that there was a conflict between the director and the consultant. The conflict is that this is a movie that is supposed to be about civil rights so it should show the plight of those who are suffering, but at the same time, an infallible whiteman is at the center of it all.....what are we supposed to take away from that? He never appears to struggle despite being in difficult situation and always keeps a lid on things when others around him are struggling.
It's a silly movie that tells a bland story and a boring guy from East Bruten, Alabama.