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karen-heffernan
Reviews
Travelers: Travelers (2016)
Barely made it through 5 minutes.
One woman leaves work. One woman greets another as she leaves work. The woman still at work seems to be learning to read and has a stutter.
The woman who leaves, is violently mugged outside and has a bottle of something poured over her. The young woman inside bangs on the window, distracting the muggers, which allows the other woman to escape.
The muggers go to the window and throw a bottle at it. The young woman tries to run upstairs, but of course stumbles and splits her head open.
Then she goes outside to pick up her co-workers purse, instead of calling the police. And guess what? The muggers are still there, waiting for her!
Such bad writing, if that's the best they can do to draw me in, they failed spectacularly.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith: A Breakup (2024)
No tears, I'm breaking up with them too.
I'm relieved it's over. I was really enjoying this series until the last few episodes - the constant bickering neither entertaining nor illuminating, just annoying. And how could she immediately think that he killed her cat and tried to kill her? If he wanted to to kill her, he wouldn't have shot through the window. She's supposed to be an intelligent spy for crying out loud.
Also, there was prolonged, sustained gunfire throughout the house, and no cops show up? Seriously?
Anyhow, it showed praise in the beginning until it started getting stupid in episode 5. I enjoyed the first half of the season, but I'm done.
Expats: Mid-Levels (2024)
SO bad. Omg
I've had a problem since episode 1, with the idea of buying 56 year old Nicole Kidman as the birth mother of a 3 year old. But this series has really gone off the rails.
The scene with David and Mercy is all kinds of bad.
David, your wife didn't hesitate because she thinks you took Gus. She hesitated because she didn't know where you were.
And why on earth would Mercy join in on the joking around about Gus's disappearance when she's the one responsible for his disaapearnce? That's was disgusting, and frankly unbelievable unless she's psychotic.
And Margaret has photographing her son's entire body. She would only need to know one or two distinguishing features.
Scene between Margaret and Hilary:
Hilary was hosting a dinner party; the appropriate response would have been to tell her housekeeper that she couldn't come to the door. Ridiculous.
Scene between Mercy and her mother on the phone:
self-pitying mother is just too much.
Scene between Hilary and David:
Seriously?! She went to beg him to stay?! She can't live without him?! SERIOUSLY?! He heated on her with the young woman whose irresponsibility led to Gus's disappearance - out of the hundreds of thousands of women he could have hooked up with, THAT's who he's sleeping with. No. Just no.
Margaret with the postcard from Thailand. RECEIVING A POSTCARD FROM THAILAND DOES NOT MEAN HE EAS IN THAILAND. IT MEANS THE EXACT OPPOSITE. This shouldn't even need to be explained.
How does Mercy afford an apartment on her own while doing gig work, while her contemporaries are forced to live with their families?
This episode finished me with this series. It's just bad.
Lioness: The Choice of Failure (2023)
The episode was the end for me.
Neal's unrealistic bedside monologue to his daughter was enough to make my husband leave the room and quit the series. I decided to stick it out to the end of the episode, but the scene at the beach bar ended it for me. It was a dog's breakfast. There's NO WAY someone with Cruz's training and life experience would have been fooled by a wannabe date rapist, and there's NO WAY Joe would have lost sight of her. Points for the vengeance scene in the woods though.
As much as I've enjoyed Taylor Sheridan's other writing (Yellowstone, 1883, Tulsa King) with the exception of 1923 - I just can't take more of this series.
The Handmaid's Tale: Unknown Caller (2019)
This is the last episode I'll watch
So Serena travels to Toronto to say goodbye to the baby, tells Luke how much she wants a better life for Nichole, gives him the tape from June, and then goes on tv begging the Canadian government to get her daughter back from a dangerous fugitive?!? Seriously?!?
Make that make sense.
On second thought, don't. I'm done.
I realize they have to keep the drama going, but I've finally lost my patience with this show. It's belabored at this point.
PS also, as another reviewer said, June's stare into the camera at the end of the episode is just tired at this point.
The show would have been better as a 2 season limited series.
1923: The Rule of Five Hundred (2023)
relentless cruelty and gratuitous violence
The Native American experience in this time period was bleak, there is no doubt about that. But the Native American storyline has been relentlessly bleak, gratuitously violent and just sloppily written. The scene that was particularly galling in this episode was when Hank walked away and left his shotgun on the ground next to the priest, allowing the priest to shoot him in back. There's just no way he would have left the shotgun there. Ridiculous.
I'm considering skipping the Teonna storyline altogether; I'm weary of the gratuitous violence, cruelty and gore and cruel and doesn't add any value to the series so far.
Call the Midwife: Episode #6.1 (2017)
Terrible episode. One-dimensional cruelty.
Sister Ursula is put in charge of Nonnatus House and Sister Julienne is demoted and humiliation for no justification or even explanation. Sister Julienne has always been an exemplary superior, who everyone loves and respects, and this plot point makes no sense at all.
A battered woman's mother is inexplicably cruel to her and sides with with her daughter's abusive husband - no reason given.
The only redeeming scene was Shelagh's with her husband at the end of the episode.
Where is the character development? Why the lazy writing? This show is better than that.
I hope it improves. I usually find the episodes to be 7/10 - 10/10 (so far) but I was sorely disappointed in this one.
Billions: Cold Storage (2022)
Last episode I will ever watch.
I have watched this show since it started, and enjoyed all the seasons until this one. I gave it the benefit of the doubt, and enjoyed a few of this season's episodes (mostly because of the interactions between Wags & Scooter) - but this episode is the end for me.
It was incredibly insulting to our intelligence to think that a newly shamed & forced out of office AG could waltz into a facility with a fake warrant and NO ONE. Questioned it!! ARE YOU KIDDING?!
I'm done. The writing was went downhill this season and this was the worst (close second was Wendy writing a tell-all book. No one in her position - let alone HER - would ever do that).
DONE.
Paper & Glue (2021)
Very disappointed that there was no close captioning
Visually, this documentary was fascinating and beautiful, however, I was very disappointed that the close captioning was terrrible and practically non-existent. A musical note would denote that music was playing, but when JR would speak (or anyone else) there was nothing - unless they were speaking another language, in which case we got a translation. Those of us with hearing challenges missed out on most of this documentary because we could not know what anyone was saying.
Riviera (2017)
enjoyed Season 1 & 2
I enjoyed the twists and turns of the first two seasons, and was intrigued by Georgina and Irina, but the series became more absurd toward the end of the second season. So Jakob gets off scott-free? Nico the homicidal psychopath has no repercussions? I thought the final episode in season 2 would be the series finale, and that's how I'm treating it. I have no interest in watching the third. I don't care what happens to Georgina after that episode, and thought it would have been a better ending if she'd died in the fire. The third season doesn't even happen in the Riviera, so the name doesn't even make sense any more.
Maid: Dollar Store (2021)
Barely made it through the first episode
I was really looking forward to watching this show after seeing Andie McDowell talk about it in a number of interviews, but every character (except for Alex) in this first episode is a terrible, irredeemable cartoonishly bad person. The escalating absurdly bad situations she has to deal with are just ridiculous - its just came off like a white trash video game. Andie McDowell's acting was very good, but it wasn't enough to compel me to watch anymore.
The White Lotus (2021)
cringe is not my thing ...
I get that this is satire, but it's just not good.
Most of the characters are one-dimensional, with little to no arc. Not at all compelling. I don't have to like a character, but they have to give me SOMETHING.
I was tempted to mute Jake Lacy's incredibly annoying character; his obsession with the wrong room and the manager was not a all dynamic. Boring and whiney throughout 6 episodes, and his character had zero redeeming qualities. I thought there was hope for his bride, but no. She actually chooses to stay with him after his abhorrent and boorish behavior throughout their honeymoon. WHY??
The two college students also had zero redeeming qualities, and behaved more like horrible 15 year olds than college students.
Steve Zahn's character and his son's showed the most growth, and their arcs were compelling. Steve was incredible in the scene where he learns how his dad really died. But can someone explain why he and his wife (the founder/ceo of a tech company) are in a one bedroom suite with 3 teenagers? That was ridiculous.
Too much reliance on shock: did we really need to see the rimming scene? Or see the guy literally defecating in the suitcase? We got what he was doing, we didn't need to actually see the it coming out of his ass.
The whole series comes off as desperate to come off as some deep social commentary, but it's just a story that goes nowhere with a cast of irredeemable characters. Skip it.
Kevin Can F**k Himself: Living the Dream (2021)
Lose the obnoxious laugh track
The obnoxious laugh track makes this episode almost unwatchable. It's misused and over-used. If we need a laugh track to tell us something is funny, it's not funny. I love Annie Murphy, but the rest of the cast needs to up their game. I love that the story is based in blue-color Worcester, and the outdoor shots looks pretty authentic.
PLEASE get rid of the laugh track.
Amy Schumer Learns to Cook (2020)
There's no pretense, this is just a fun show.
I don't understand the hateful reviews - if you're not an Amy fan, why would you even watch?
I love her relationship with her husband, I feel like I'm just sitting at her kitchen island with them. There's no pretense, there's no script, the kitchen is messy, the house is relatively modest and not staged to perfection. She's not even wearing makeup! They're so real.
It's also obviously not meant to be a really serious cooking show, or even a comedy show. It's just real, and fun. People need to lighten up.
The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019)
Poignant & funny. This movie is a gift.
My thoughts:
The Art of Racing in the Rain is beautifully and sensitively directed by Simon Curtis, who deftly orchestrates the poignant moments with humor.
Milo Ventimiglia's "This is Us" fans will recognize and love his Denny Swift; he was perfectly cast in this role.
I especially love how the movie showed the evolution of Eve & Enzo's relationship.
Kevin Costner is not the first person I'd think of to be the inner voice of a dog, but he does a great job.
This movie is a gift to anyone who's ever owned or loved a dog.
Dirty John (2018)
god awful
I don't know if it's the writing, the acting, or the directing, but I could not sum up any sympathy for such a colossally stupid woman or her incredibly annoying daughters. It was so unbelievable to me that these were real people. I could not believe that at her age, and after multiple failed marriages, she could be so naive. I don't get how they got past the first date, not to mention the countless red flags. I normally like both Eric Bana and Connie Britton but I only got as far as the third episode, life is too short to waste any more time on it.
Camping: Going to Town (2018)
God awful
I finished the first episode because I love David Tennant, Jennifer Garner & Juliette Lewis, but I only made it about 15 minutes into the second episode. I really wanted to shut it off after 5, but I kept hoping it would get better. It just got worse.
To show just how ridiculous it is, the adults are playing tag football, and she makes him wear a football helmet to WATCH. He gets accidentally knocked over (not "roughed up), she rushes him to the ER and demands a full body MRI. Then she goes into her Münchausen syndrome routine. Funny stuff, right?! (Insert eye roll here)
That was the end for me. Literally the most unfunny comedy show I've seen in a while. (altho Jim Carrey's "Kidding" is a close second).
Peaky Blinders (2013)
Tommy Shelby is the most complex, nuanced character I've ever seen in a tv series
Peaky Blinders is a highly underrated series.
Cillian Murphy plays Tommy Shelby, the most complex, nuanced character I've ever seen in a tv series. He's head of a gangster family in post-WW1 Birmingham, England. He's surrounded by great performances: Paul Anderson as his brother Arthur, Helen McCrory as his sister Polly, and Thomas Hardy as Alfie (can't get enough of Alfie) to name a few. Great characters, thoughtfully written, compelling storylines, and beautiful cinematography. Great, eclectic soundtrack too (Bowie, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey & Radiohead).
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (2018)
Hannah Gadsby's "Nanette" is a must watch
Brilliant, intense, hilarious, heartbreaking, profound & powerful.
This should be Required Watching for all humans.
Lucifer: Boo Normal (2018)
episode 25 and 36 are stand alone episodes which add nothing - BIG disappointment
Thank you to klynn1075 who revealed that eps 25 & 26 happened before the events in episode 24.
I get that the producers probably wanted to release these since the series has been cancelled, but they add nothing to narrative, and only cause confusion and disappointment. They should have just let episode 24 end the series.
The Florida Project (2017)
The emperors has no clothes. This is the worst movie I saw this year.
The only thing that kept me watching until the end, was Willem Dafoe's "Bobby," the only sympathetic, 3 dimensional character.
The kids are feral, because their role models are sketchy (and that's being generous). Halley, Moonee's mother is an irredeemable mess. She puts her daughter in the bathtub while she prostitutes herself, steals from her johns, and viciously beats her best friend in front of her son.
Brooklyn Prince does have a great scene at the end, when she's saying goodbye to her friend Jancey, but it's not enough to save the movie.
Mosaic (2018)
God awful.
I was excited to watch this series. I've never been disappointed in a HBO series before, and I love Soderbergh, but I barely got through the first episode. The characters were extremely low energy and the dialogue was monotonous. Certainly not a thriller, I didn't give a damn about anyone. I gave it 2 stars for the beautiful scenery, but that's it.