johnnymonsarrat

The previous Mission: Impossible was a perfect 10 in my opinion: great stunts and a lot of fun. But for this one, I guess they decided to go dark, making the stakes bigger and more epic. But that means it's not so fun, and it's so over the top that it can get silly. The solution, of course, is not to try to make every movie bigger than the last one. Just make it personal.

Also I found the plot confusing, and the editing too. Why so much exposition at the beginning? Why so many close-ups and darkly lit scenes? I mean, I get it, man, faces are where the acting and emotion are. But without enough medium shots and wide shots the audience can't follow what's happening. The darkness is supposed to be mysterious and cool, but it also hindered my knowing what what happening.

Some things were cool, Ving Rhames, in the new black guy, some things really felt forced, such as that guy from Ethan's past and every scene with the president of the United States. They made the same mistake that James Bond did with the movie Spectre, trying to tie together all the old movies into one story in a clunky way that just doesn't work, because those movies were never intended to be part of a whole.

The underwater stunts and stunts in the air or exceptional, but because of editing and pacing, they struck me a lot less than they should have. Frankly, I found the water scenes confusing and boring.

30 Rock has its moments, but it's overwritten. When you're watching, think to yourself, "Is this line of dialogue necessary?" and you'll see what I mean. Everything that is obvious visually from the actors gets stated in dialogue anyway. It's like the writers think it's a radio play.

This means that the setups get explained, the jokes get explained, and the reactions get explained. That makes the show less funny. Music is also overused and heavyhanded, as though they don't trust their own script and actors to tell the audience what's funny.

Like Saturday Night Live, they beat a joke to death. For example, it's hard to pronounce "The Rural Juror", which could lead to a comic misunderstanding. But is it funny? So funny that the same joke is repeated 15x and then explained, "It's hard to pronounce!... I don't understand what you mean!"

Now try watching Malcolm in the Middle, and you'll see better acting, better pacing, they don't saturate jokes with dialogue and music, and the plots are more character driven.

Why is 30 Rock like this? Perhaps the sketch writers and sketch cast from Saturday Night Live didn't adapt enough for a sitcom.

Finally, I guess the writers didn't know that the best way for a show to age poorly is commenting on current events. What's sad is that the topical humor is unnecessary to the plot, and could easily have been cut.

Wonderfalls has a great premise. It's original, it's fun, and it leads to a lot of comedy.

Unfortunately, the hero, Jaye, is supposed to follow an arc from a lazy person who doesn't like others to more of a true hero. At her starting point, which includes insulting others and being selfish and self-centered... that makes her unlikable. That's the fatal flaw.

Viewers want to root for good hearted characters who make bold, good choices. Wonderfalls could have made Jaye an anti-hero in some other way, for example making her too busy or too poor or too controlled by her parents and friends to do what the objects tell her to do. But they chose to make Jaye a petulant and petty woman-child who grew up rich and did nothing with it.

Also, the objects that talk to her don't take on much of a personality that would have supported banter. And there's not good chemistry between the cast.

Also, if this is a fish out of water comedy, why put Jaye in her home town? Put her some place alien, which also helps with exposition as she learns about her environment.

It truly could have been great and I can see why this TV show has a cult following. But I can also definitely see why it was cancelled.

A lot of TV shows have bumpy first seasons trying to figure themselves out, for example Star Trek: The Next Generation. I wonder how this show would have gone in Season 2.

Listening to some of the commentary tracks, the cast and showrunners didn't have regrets and weren't thinking about improvements. I wonder whether self-congratulatory group-think contributes to the show's rough edges.

A quirky show like this where it nearly all came together should give us awe about the quirky shows where it does come together, like Northern Exposure, Party Down, Malcolm in the Middle, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Community, and Psych.

6 stars.