Reviews
Another Life (2019)
Just awful
Spoilers here. Because.
This show is just awful. I couldn't watch more than 3-4 episodes. It's just a bunch of people on a ship arguing with and bitching at each other. This one argues with that one, then that one argues with another. It just goes around like this. Then there's a crisis every 20 minutes and you just stop caring. While on earth the commander's husband is trying to figure out how to communicate with aliens which we never see while constantly being threatened with being taken off the project for not making progress. Oh. and there's a reporter. I can't imagine this series is headed anywhere interesting. Don't bother.
Tales from the Loop (2020)
Ponderous
Some of these reviews are putting down other reviews claiming that they need lasers and explosions every 2 minutes. I do not need lasers and explosions every 2 minutes. But it would be nice if something actually happens now and then. I haven't been able to get past the first three episodes of this series because it is just so damn boring. I would say the first episode had about 15 minutes worth of material and took an hour to tell it. If that wasn't enough, much of the episode is in slow motion for no apparent reason, dragging things out even more. The music doesn't help. It's so boring and monotonous. The acting is (I assume purposefully) flat and emotionless.
So far, the stories are simple and mysterious. I have a bad feeling many things will never be explained. ("Lost" has left a bad taste in my mouth in this respect and perhaps it has ruined me for other shows that are building to actually explaining things.)
I had high hopes for this series, but I just can't take it. Not sure if I'll ever finish the season. I'll need lots of caffeine if I do.
Hang Ups (2018)
Pretty much a rip-off of Web Therapy
Almost an exact remake of Lisa Kudrow"s show Web Therapy. Very disappointed.
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Don't bother.
(Maybe spoilers, but you knew how it was going to end anyway.)
This movie is about a misunderstood girl, who is bullied at school by some mean girls, and her father who somehow goes away to somewhere and for some reason some women come from somewhere and kinda help her and her brother find him. Kinda. Actually, they don't really help much at all. And for some reason they're joined by a boy from school that she doesn't seem to know very well. He does nothing. Mostly stand around watching her do stuff.
After the movie ended I had SO many questions. Where did they go? Another planet? Another Universe? Another time? How did they get there? Something to do with frequencies apparently. Where did the women come from? The same universe her father was in? Apparently the women somehow help people, I guess. Kinda. Why did the women wait so long to help her?
There's lots of visual candy and little kids will probably like that. But there's lots of nothing as well. Also lots of vague warnings and such and confusing things that are never explained and nobody seems to care. They say things like "where are we?" "Were on such and such. "OK". No, it's not OK. Where is that? Is it a planet? Is it in our galaxy? Universe? We'll never know.
The performances are pretty bland. Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon seem to be going a bit overboard to make up for everyone else just standing around talking.
It was hard to really care about these characters. The movie wanted you to care about them without really giving you a reason to.
I haven't read the books, so hopefully they explain things better than this movie did and if you've read them it makes more sense.
Oh. And one last thing. I'm sick and tired of people making up definitions of what a tesseract is. No, a tesseract is not whatever they said it was in this movie.
Good Omens (2019)
Disappointing
I was really looking forward to this show but was very disappointed once I watched it. Maybe I was expecting too much. It just didn't seem to work for me. It felt like it didn't know what it wanted to be and just never got any of it right. Even the effects sometimes weren't too good. It never really told a story or made me care about any of the characters and it jumped around a lot without really creating a narrative that brought things together. Such a shame.
Lost in Space (2018)
They probably shouldn't have.
The writers of this show were so hell-bent on doing something different that they screwed this series up badly. Why on earth would they inflict marital issues on the parents? Many things they introduced were just unnecessary. I'm not complaining that they made changes. That would be fine. They just screwed it up so badly that it doesn't work.
They also seemed so desperate to make something different that they borrowed heavily from other films to get there. The relationship between the Robot and Will is lifted almost directly from The Iron Giant. It's just sad.
One positive comment: the Robot is freakin' awesome.
At this point I have a few episodes left to watch and I'm not sure I'll bother.
I really wanted to like this reboot, but I just don't think it works. Maybe reboot it again Netflix and get it right.
What on Earth? (2015)
Could be a great show
This could be a great show, but it's not. Unfortunately the format is: present a mystery seen on Google Earth, let some dubious "experts" speculate wildly and ridiculously about what it could be, eventually quickly reveal the truth about what it is, and move on just as quickly to the next "mystery". Some of the experts are great. They seem well-grounded even as they are sometimes seemingly forced to present banal theories. Others wallow in their theories and seem to truly love spouting ridiculous ideas that are clearly not true and sometimes not even relevant.
Oh. And I can't neglect to mentions the silly video they fill time with of some actor silhouetted against of wall of monitors with clipboards and such trying to look like they are analyzing the images.
If they would change the format and present the mysteries with true, feasible possibilities and proper experts it would be a truly good show. Unfortunately it would only be about 20 minutes long.
The Orville (2017)
The Orville is OK, but...
This is a fine show and if Star Trek never existed it would be a great show.
Unfortunately it's not quite Star Trek and not quite a comedy. It's clearly an homage (rip-off) of Star Trek.
The episodes are VERY reminiscent of plots from Star Trek. Sometimes maybe even lifted wholesale, but I can't say for sure. The comedy seems out of place and gratuitous. Almost like it has been tacked on to appease a network which was promised a Seth MacFarlane show. In some episodes the comedy is basically non-existent. Norm MacDonald's character's comedy appearances feel tacked-on and out of place. The acting, effects, and sets are all quite good. However, the plots, characters, sets, ships, music, cadence, and feel of the show are all pure Star Trek. Which, I guess, is fine. But I expected something new and exciting from Seth MacFarlane. I at least expected innovative plots.
The only thing missing from Star Trek are transporters for some reason.
Again, the show is fine and certainly watchable, but if you were expecting a Seth MacFarlane show you will be disappointed.