silverspawnx

It's difficult to critique overtly stylistic movies because any apparent flaw can be excused as being intentional. The characters are all simpletons -- well duh, that's the point! Their actions in the later parts of the movie are unrealistic -- well duh, it's a metaphor for the war! And so on. So how does one get around this?

I think the punchline is that it ultimately doesn't matter whether it's part of the point; the only thing that matters is the viewing experience. And for me, that experience was one I could do without.

I think the part that bothers me the most (aside from the fact that this kind of self-harm disturbs me on a visceral level) is the unreasonableness of Cole. I'm here for the premise and even for taking drastic measures, but not after two days. Have a bit more patience, and if your former friend still bothers you after a month, then you can cut off your finger. And don't start by ignoring him out of nowhere. This behavior is just so incredibly childish.

And again, you can say Cole isn't meant to be reasonable, and that's fine, but then, what emotional connection am I meant to have to this film? Who am I supposed to be rooting for? It sure isn't Pádraic, who is, in fact, exceedingly dull. The only tolerable person in this entire movie is Siobhán, and for what it's worth, I did like her.

Perhaps I'm not supposed to be rooting for anyone, but if that's the case, I don't know why I would watch this movie. The stuff that happens is not entertaining enough to keep me interested, it's mostly dull or gruesome, neither of which is interesting. The best I can say about it is that some parts are very funny, and they're funny in a pretty unique way. But ultimately, the movie just left a sour taste behind; it succeeded in making me feel things, but they're not things I want to feel.

With very few exceptions, people who are perceived as strange by society view themselves as normal and society as insane. When someone creates such a character without understanding this, the result is almost always awful -- it's not just that they got one thing wrong; the fact that they got it wrong shows that they don't understand what drives their character. They typically create a strawman; someone who, e.g., is cynical for the sake of itself, who couldn't justify their own behavior to others. There's no coherency to such characters, and you don't understand why they would be this way.

The biggest reason this show works is because the main character avoids this trap. Far from being pointlessly cynical, her behavior is perfectly logical: there's a monster going around killing people, so she's trying to stop it. Just about everyone else is wasting time worrying about irrelevant things like teen drama, romance, social media gossip, or PR management. This is really stupid. Conversely, Wednesday is almost entirely working on the one thing that matters. This is normal. As someone who also thinks that most people's behavior is insane and stupid, I can attest that Wednesday is well written.

The other reason this show is good is that it's incredibly entertaining, especially the first half of the season. It's overflowing with ideas, and most of them are pretty cool.

Admittedly, Wednesay is a bit overpowered, seeing as she's impressively knowledeable about various things, speaks at least two languages, is great at fighting with and without weapons, is witty, a fantastic cello player, a ridiculously good archer, a writer, is fearless, has great will power, is highly skilled at untying knots, and is also a great dancer because why not. It's a bit much, but she's so much fun to watch that it's easy to forgive.

My only real complaint (and why I'm not giving it a 9 or 10) is that the writing degrades noticeably in the second half of the season, and the finale in particular is bit weak. Everyone basically stumbles through the main plot points with the help of various deus ex machinas, much as you could see in a lesser show. But I can't be too mad because even at its worst, the show is still a lot of fun; I'd say it operates between a 6 and a 10, and a 6 on my scale is still worth watching; most shows never get there.

Given the success, there's almost certainly going to be a second season, and I will almost certainly watch it.