Commentaires de cocobinay

Comparisons to Season 1 are nonsensical. Season 1 was an original concept that stood and succeeded on its own, which cannot be the case for subsequent seasons.

The best thing about Season 2 is the acting. The cast is absolutely great! Where Squid Game 2 feels lacking, is in its refusal to resolve ANY of the multiple threads in this season. There are many ways to build suspense, but the laziest one is where you just refuse to answer any questions you raised for an entire seasons, leaving it to be addressed in Season 3. It is quite evident that the show is now a lot less interested in telling a satisfying story and more invested in stretching the franchise into a multi-season subscription-retention machine.

I avoided this show until Season 2 was out.

I figured it's just another Disney+ show trying to capitalize on the SM & MS's legacy, with SG thrown in for the young audience.

I was honestly surprised by how funny the writing easy, and engrossed by the whole mystery. It's clear that the trio actors are having a blast doing the show!

The intergenerational friendship dimension is rather touching and very welcome, especially their shared concern that they haven't lived up to their potential.

Season 3 is stream of Hollywood's who's-who that, at first, threatens to reduce the season to a string of cameos; BUT this season packs a lot more genuine emotions (curtesy of Meryl Streep).

This is honestly one of the best written shows around, and as someone who's a fan of SM and MS, this easily ranks among their best work for me.

Overall, I like this series for being a nod to the fans who watched the animated series (Filloni's revenge!!). Rosario Dawson's Asohka remains the same tenacious capable Jedi dropout we all love. That's the reason I'm sticking with it.

But, in so many ways, this series also feels like a stepdown from the narrative impact Rebels had, and the maturity or authority these characters developed over it's run.

In SW Rebels, Sabine Wren matures over the course of the series to a responsible formidable adult, who could hold her own with Gar Saxon. But in this new series, she's a petulant impulsive teenager shirking responsibilities and unaware of consequences.

The same goes for Ryder Azadi, the Governor of Lothal, who is here taken from an imposing seasoned leader and reduced to a Jeff Goldblum Grandmaster knockoff. These changes didn't need to happen, but they come off as grating since the show is intended to be a nod to the fan who'd know these characters, and presumably be fond of them.

It could have been a solid sci-fi series if it hadn't been bogged down by the need to build itself up for a sequel.

Peripheral has more characters and loose threads than Eternals, but here most of them feel so inconsequential (Corbell and his gang, Bob. Flynne's friend) that their removal would barely be noticeable. Hell, the girlfriend of the small town wannabe mobster has a total of 10 minutes worth of lines, and she adds ZERO details to the story, and meanwhile, the show is still world-bulding and explaining the background of its main characters at Episode 7 of 8.

The cast is doing the best with that they are given, but ultimately, this is a series that manages to build suspense by obstinately refusing to get to the point and explain the motives of its main characters (Aelita, Cherise,...) until Episode 8 of 8!!

It's obvious that Jon Favreau is a big fan of the franchise, but his insistence on fan service (here and in the Mandalorian) either takes away from the story, or makes it look like there isn't much to tell or do besides visiting the same old places and meeting the same old characters.

There are two types of Star Wars fans: the Jon Favreau types who are just happy to stay on Tatooine and play with Jawas ALL THE TIME, and the Dave Filloni types, who are all about story, looking to discover the rest of the diversity of planets and beings in this franchise. Knowing that Dave Filloni is attached to this project tells me the show will find its footing, but so far, what should have been a strong set up in Favreau's hands lands as nothing more than fan fiction!

I completely understand the need give a nod to the die-hard fans (because the popularity of the franchise rests on them). Having waited for Boba Fett's return for decades, these fans will probably be satisfied with meeting the old bounty hunter again and following Easter eggs even if there's no story and their favorite bounty hunter spends most of the time in a healing tank. But I can't imagine Disney spent all those billions without a plan to bring the franchise beyond the die-hard fans.

I suspect to those other fans and new ones who, like me, wanted to see what else is out there in this big galaxy, the show so far feels like wasted real estate.

After Soul and now Encanto, I have a sneaking and wonderful feeling that Disney/Pixar are now making movies primarily for middle-aged people who cannot afford therapy!

This is a rich exploration of intergenerational trauma, about a family that has lost so much whose attempts to hold onto magic of their found happiness leads them to hurt each other.

The story feels a bit rushed, though, and the magic driving it is not satisfyingly explored, so the plot suffers a little as a result. How/why does it work? What is the nature of the threat to it and, most importantly, what is the origin of the magic? Was it a gift of sacrifice from the family's patriarch? Or was it a burst of love and energy from the family's matriarch left to nurse her heartbreak and protect this family? Or is it something else entirely?

At 1h39, Encanto falls within the average length for Disney/Pixar movies (1h40-1h50). Despite Lin Manuel's immeasurable talent on display here, this is one of the few times where being a musical probably hurt the overall narrative of the movie by taking tooooo much real estate that could have been used to flesh out the story better.

All that said, the movie is GORGEOUS and the cast is the roster of Latin talents in the business (Beatriz, Leguizamo, Valderrama, and more, with the obligatory side of Alan Tudyk!).

Definitely worth watching and re-watching for the theme and not necessarily the story, because I'm pretty sure a lot of families will recognize themselves in this.

The positive reviews here are examples that we can impute to movies the qualities we wish they had (because Liam Neeson can do no wrong), instead of acknowledging that the work in front of our eyes fails to stand out even on those criteria we imagined it was trying to achieve.

Cold Pursuit had the potential to be good and subversive, but what is on the screen comes off as the work of a film student blowing $60 million trying to be Tarantino.

Dark comedy, when done right, can still be funny, but when your movie includes a scene where, THREE TIMES, a hotel clerk explains reservations to Native Americans (get it?), we are in Cringe Humor territory. Lastly and most importantly, you can subvert a genre, but when you subvert the rules of basic storytelling by throwing the plot out of the window, you end up with a flopping turd that could NEVER get these puzzling positive reviews if Liam Neeson was not involved with the project.

Give it a watch if you have time to kill, but lower your expectation to subzero.

Season One was a fresh and intriguing show; a cross between San Junipero (Black Mirror) and The Good Place with an added bonus of a murder mystery and a romance angle. The pace of the show was great and the world-building just enough to impress.

Season Two is a lot less so. The writing seems a bit clunky, even uninspired at times. For example, the class inequality angle that is the series undercurrent could have been explored A LOT better. I love an anti-the-1% rant more than the average person, but coming out of a TV character's mouth, it screams lazy writing, especially since, for instance, the point could have been driven home more impactfully with a better-timed revelation of David Choak's surprise connection to Nathan.

Maybe a 7-episode second season wasn't enough to tie all the threads of the story, but there are a lot of new, unnecessary fillers and side-stories in Season 2 (Ingrid and her baby obsession, Horizen's Mind Frisk, Luke's military past, Nora and Ludds at cloning facility, a place that is supposedly for the rich and famous, but barely has any security and looks like a laundry basement in a mid-century hotel...). All these are OBVIOUSLY there to set up Season 3, and that overwhelms the story and cheapens the richness of the premise. Also, the connection of Freeyond to, OF ALL THINGS, electoral politics is downright dumb.

Overall, Season 2 is not as a tight or an intelligent story as we started with, but I'm looking forward to Season 3, hoping that if it's the last season, the writing will, once again, re-focus on the story rather than on padding the runtime.

Season 1 was promising, even if terribly derivative! But Season 2 dived deep into WTF territory, built a WTF mansion there and had couple of WTF kids!

Messy writing, character motivations all over the place, awful music choice, cheap jump scares, Oh, did we mention the bad writing? 80% dark scenes And a villain that's so out of the Saturday morning cartoons!

Thanks for trying, Netflix! But this one is a stinker!

This is an amazing show!

Reminiscent of AMC's Humans!

I'm one of those people who will avoid shows about high school drama like the plague; reason why I discovered this show late.

BUT...

The thing that grabs you right away, is the show's no-holds-barred discussion of the sex life of teenagers, without trying to be provocative nor preachy or deprecating! It's honestly shocking how the show manages to be funny throughout, all the while remaining honest and factual in discussing very complex topics like sex and sexual awakening.

It's one of those shows where the writing is wholesome, taking the time to flesh out even secondary characters. Also the diversity of the cast is organic to the narrative. It's always annoying when shows (American shows are guilty of this) throw a gay character here, a black kid there and want you so much to notice that they did, even if they don't give those characters much to do! The fact that this show doesn't call attention to itself in this regard, comes off not only as respectful, but also speaks of a show that is confident enough in its narrative and message not to try to score some "woke points".

This is as good as it gets!

If you are going to spoof medical investigative drama, you should a least attempt to be funny!

The show feels like it was written by baked college students on 3am taco bell run: you cannot tell who, the two main characters or the show writers, are out of their depth here! The jokes are rarely funny, often rather cringeworthy (Dr Maestro explaining how he ends up on the plane to Germany or later, Dr Spratt paying her former mentor a visit)! You just keep going: "Why was this necessary? What mind-altering substance do I need to consume for that to be funny?"

The international setting could have been ground for some funny shenanigans in different countries, but it merely comes off more like an attempt to prop up the weak material with the "funny foreigner" archetypes!

I made it to episode 3 before I gave up and the source of my frustration was compounded by the fact that, with a cast comprising the likes of Rob Corddry, Lake Bell and Henry Winkler, you are constantly reminded of how better this show could have been!

I suspect the glowing reviews are either from fans starved for any Star Wars content or those who are in this for the Easter eggs and callbacks. If you are watching for a coherent and halfway gripping story, bring something soft to bang your head on because you will need it!

THE GOOD: The visuals, the world-building, the music, oh, yes, the music. It's Star Wars as dreamed by any nerds worth their medals; STELLAR, no question! Also, BABY YODA!

Where it all falls apart, is in the story. Baby Yoda's impressive powers are introduced, but then you spend episode after episode wondering if they will have her/him do anything besides cooing and looking cute!

With Jon Favreau at the helm, plus Star Wars legends like Dave Filoni and Deborah Chow directing, you would expect a story with some continuity and decent pacing. Most episodes are just clunky expositions of Mando's backstory (Episode 6), or have plot twists you can see 200 miles away (Episode 5), or have cliffhangers with no payoff in subsequent episodes (Episode 5 again) or just kill off charaters they spent episodes building up (Episode 7)!

Half way in the series, you start to get the feeling that the show is taking forever to get to the point or maybe does not know how to get there! And with one episode left for this season, I'm looking forward to it not out of excitement, because I lost that by Episode 5, but out of curiosity about how or if the show will pull all these hanging threads together!

I wasn't at all familiar with the original, so I came to this without expectations.

Honestly, it is beyond impressive. The visuals, the writing, the story, and did I say the visuals?! The world-building, the explaining of the mythology and history, all this is done in subtle but complete ways, with surprisingly minimal expository dialogue.

I have been critical of Netflix's other recent projects (Another life stunk big time!); but from the first episode, the attention to details, not just in terms of the visuals, but in terms of the plot, is rather impressive (when, for instance, Deet's grandmother hands her a cloth "for her eyes" as she leaves close to the end of the 1st episode, it took me a while to realize that, DUH!!, hers is a subterranean species and her eyes therefore are not accustomed to the light!💁). Give it a watch. It's definitely more than worth the time!

I usually try to find something good in any episode, but this was easily the most unnecessary, boring, amateurishly repetitive, poorly edited, worst writing of the entire series.

It's one of those episodes that are so bad that you go beyond the flaws and are instead amazed that it got greenlit in the first place!

This is not so much a coherent movie as it is a clumsy cobbling together of pieces from other movies (Howl's moving castle, Star Wars, Frankenstein, Mad Max and Hunger Games).

This is a series for the new generation of lovers of X-Files and the Twilight Zone. I really believe that the recent X-Files reboot flopped as much as it did primarily because, after the original X-Files, Fringe had exhausted the remaing range of possibilies and storylines for the genre: the show touches on way too many fringe science topics to list.

As far as the cast, I'd recommend the show entirely based on John Noble's performance, who manages to portray brilliance and brokenness simultaneously in every scene. Anna Torv's Olivia Dunham is also layered, although in earlier seasons, the permanent scowl, which was perhaps meant to convey some no-nonsense personality, just makes it look like she's smelling something awful in every scene! The series also has a myriad of guest stars, some already great when the show aired and others who went on to be great (Gillian Jacobs, Chadwick Boseman, etc)

Watching the series 10 years later, there will be glaring implausible basic procedural stuff:

• food and an actual cow in the lab (Fails Lab Practices 101; chemical analyses, autopsies and synthesis of cures and antidotes could NEVER happen with this much contamination)
• touching dead things and poisonous stuff without gloves!
• Dr Bishop playing the role of immunologist, coroner, surgeon, pysicist, engineer, and fringe scientist, as the plot requires.

Just don't ask yourself whether any of the evidence, the team's methods or credentials would be admissible in any form of judicial process!!

Lastly, the overuse of suspensful music, long hallway scenes, jump scares, and the building of suspense by relying too much on characters refusing to share crucial information, give the feeling of a show that was, at least in the earlier seasons, so unsure of its greatness that it needed to resort to these overused tropes.

All that said, a worthy experience for any lovers of the genre, that from seasons 3 on, goes from good to amazing.

For those of us who were worried about Hayao Miyazaki's retirement, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, an alumni of Studio Ghibli, seems like he's taking on the manteau just fine. After the wonderful Secret World of Arrietty, When Marnie was there is an equally captivating story, which may just use up all your stock of Kleenex! (Not a joke!) It's a story about friendship, family and tragedy, a tale of a shy young woman trying to navigate this world, and the timeless and unbreakable bonds that bring her to the light and out of her shell.

It's one of those stories that are beautifully told, beautifully drawn, have a touching soundtrack and to end it all, a plot twist that does a number on your tear ducts!

As I said, do not watch without a box of Kleenex!

The show is good enough to keep you watching, despite resorting to the same overused tropes of the superhero genres it is spoofing.

The writing could definitely have been better and Peter Serafinowicz as The Tick is a broken record stuck on high volume, who despite occasional moments of innocence, wit and wisdom, leaves you with the picture of a loud bumbling idiot who's simply lucky to be indestructible.

However, the rest of the characters (Arthur, Dot, Overkill and Ms Lint) are well developed and drive the show a lot more than the titular character.

The show does world-building and addresses sci-fi themes more than other sci-fi shows currently on air and more often than not manages to convey the stakes of every mission, although the jokes and cultural references can at times fall flat.

My one quibble with the Orville is the occasional re-animation of the "Ed and Kelly" romance, which is portal to Captain Mercer's poor judgments. Perhaps the point is to humanize the captain, but given that no character growth ever seems to come out of this, the frequency with which this theme is trudged up strikes me as the writers' inability to find other ways to convey Captain Mercer's emotional jenga-tower.

This story line has everything that makes for an intriguing series: young badass assassin, shadowy organizations, fish-out-of-water dimension, etc... BUT it never manages to be interesting. The action is minimal, the lighting is awful, the tempo is too damn slow and oh, the plotholes:

• The father and daughter have never left the woods for 16 years, but they have jackets and everything??
• The 16 year old who has never left the woods speaks many languages without the slightest accent??
• Evident lack of geographical knowledge: Going from Romania to Poland to Morocco to France and Germany doesn't work like this in any known universes!

Finally, halfway into the series, you still have no idea what are the characters' motivations. Hanna keeps pleading with her adopted father (on the behalf of the viewer) to know why things are happening, but the father insists on maintaining secrecy, making it evident that this is the only way the series' writers could maintain suspense. I got to the 4th episode before giving up, because it got hard to remain invested in what characters do or what happens to them.