Change Your Image
cat_eating_dawg
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Ad Astra Per Aspera (2023)
Are we nearly there yet?
I really enjoy this new version of the old episodic Star Trek episodes from the sixties. The contrast to the also excellent Discovery and Picard's season long story arcs is refreshing and normally brings forth nostalgia for the original series.
I say normally. Now, I get this episode is an always timely commentary on the evils of racism and segregation. I think Star Trek always has and always should allude or even directly mirror such societal corruptions.
However the whole process was undermined by the sheer tedious length of the final speech by the defence council for "Number One". It was so overwritten that whenever she seemed to have concluded, in a satisfactory manner I might add, she had more to say. Then after a pause, still more rehashing what she had already said ad nauseum.
For such a weighty subject, boring the audience to death is not the way to prove a point.
Even when leaving the ship at the conclusion, ready and waiting to be beamed out, I was hoping Pike would just say "energise" and beam this badly constructed character mid sentence to gabble on elsewhere.
The episode was almost an hour long, which is telling. The episode was a "bottle" episode which always need more urgency in plot or the production values start to flag . I suspect that edited to a more usual 45 minutes this episode would have been more effective and less stupifying.
Citadel (2023)
It cost how much?
I'll get to the parts of the first two episodes which shone, but first let's get to fails, as the kids say.
From the very first scene, I can guess where the budget for this $300 Million dollar series went. I suggest out the toilet window and on the train tracks with one of the bad guys in this show.
It certainly wasn't spent on the back projection seen in the rather drab train set in the opening scene. The compositing of the scenery brought to mind Scooby Doo's scrolling of the same background on a loop. For the opening to the most expensive TV show ever, it looked cheap and coloured my view of everything that followed.
In short, it looked fake.
A bit like the times anyone swore, which is fine in and of itself, but they seemed to vomit the swear word which ruined any rhythm they gained from the rest of their acting. I also get the impression the script was written using a limited number of phrases, since I seem to recall different characters saying the exact same thing at different locations at different times.
Now for the good. The fights are pretty awesome in a Bourne meets Wick kind of way. Having both male and female leads give as good as they get is refreshing too, since TV often pulls punches when it comes to men fighting women. I'm sure the female lead being the stronger fighter will annoy some, but I thought it made the fights more realistic if anything.
And that's the shame of it. When there is a live action/no computer graphics scene this show is a well choreographed thriller. At other times it looks like it has the budget of the latest incarnation of Magyver, complete with rubbish studio scenery overlays and generic exposition.
$300 million? I think the sets must be platinum plated. And 30 minutes an episode on Prime? Is that the maximum recording time using a potato?
East New York (2022)
The Mystery of the Missing Lisp
I'll get to "The Lisp" later.
There will be comparisons with "NYPD Blue" and "Hill Street Blues", but that's OK. I for one am all Law and Ordered out, so a return to a purely procedural Big Apple based cop show is welcomed.
Every character seems well rounded, from the first episode the cast feel like an ensemble, unlike in most pilots where the cast seem to be having difficulty finding their feet.
The Deputy Inspector (Amanda Warren) is nicely played as a woman who diplomatically strives to bring modern policing to her station, while battling a self serving union and mayor. Her aide is a fiercely loyal, walking encyclopedia of tedious renown.
On her side is the softly spoken police chief, (Jimmy Smits), who tries to balance his own ambitions with the progressive attitude of his subordinate.
Then there's the other officers, who neatly (and not overly) represent a nicely varied bunch. There's the rich kid struggling to prove himself as a rookie cop. His cop partner is a veteran beat cop who has seen it all.
There's also a chalk and cheese partnership of a cop who always strives for the rules paired with a cop constantly teetering on the brink of corruption.
The other rookie cop rounds out the cast with her slightly naive enthusiasm.
Now, as promised, The Lisp.
Jimmy Smits is a fine actor, he even made The Tommyknockers miniseries worth watching. In this he decided at the outset to give his character a lisp. I know that I shouldn't be a downer on a speech impediment, but since Smits doesn't have such a theatrical lisp it bugs me.
Someone else must have thought so because, seemingly over the Christmas break, it's all fixed. Perhaps Santa brought the Chief some elocution lessons and possibly a palate shaping procedure.
I suspect that real reason was initially they wrote the character as a fay stereotype, then changed their minds so Smits could have a cis relationship. Anyway the mystery continues to intrigue.
Walker (2021)
Bizarre Facials
Supernatural had two great lead characters, but the actual characterisation didn't need to be much more than a extension of the actors own personalty.
And then we have this silliness.
Jared seems to have an inability to have the required poker face for a law enforcement part, as far as I understand the prerequisites for such a role. He constantly, and I mean in every scene he is in for the duration, gurns. He gurns happily when he is jolly, scowls gurnily when he is irritated and gurns guiltily when trying to keep a secret.
Is the character afflicted with some sort of tourettes? Is Jared chewing some really sour and nasty baccy? Has a demon possessed his lower jaw? Is Jared trying to reinvent Chuck Norris' Walker as Forrest Gump?
I suspect that the other actors in this show are so po faced as to prevent them from corpsing due to Jared's ridiculous performance. Walker comes across as an idiot with no control over his face. How anyone is fooled by his undercover antics is a mystery.