Reviews
Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale (2024)
Good story with lots of tension and a ridiculous shark-jump at the end.
I enjoyed this quite a bit. The show starts with a death and a set of prejudicial and/or false conclusions. Yes, people behave irrationally, but they stay well within the confines of normal human ignorance and lack of critical thinking. The magic aspect of it is fine. The story would work just as well if you replaced the word "witch" with any other misunderstood group that's the target of bigotry and discrimination. With the magic theme we get some special effects and an enhanced feeling of uncertainty. It's a good choice.
Revelations are made at an optimal pace. Often in crime shows the "twists" elicit a yawn, an eye-roll and a complete lack of surprise. However, in this show i felt more of an: "Ohhh....interesting." They keep these coming throughout the series. For me, this is a win.
By the time you get to the last episode, the tension is remarkably high. The situation seems hopeless....
Let's pretend for a moment that the fit of utter stupidity didn't occur.
...Unexpected but totally plausible things happen and the show ends satisfactorily. In the denouement some additional revelations are made which totally add value to the story and tie up some loose ends that you didn't know were loose. Well done.
Let's go back to that fit of utter stupidity. Everything I wrote above is sincere. The ending is good. The shark-jump is irrelevant. But, at 39:45 into the last episode, it's there. I actually laughed out loud. I won't spoil it (because I want people to read the review), so here are some comparable things you might see in a sillier series:
1. A person gets a pillow held over their face for seven seconds and is suddenly dead.
2. A car drives over a sharp rock and explodes into a ball of fire.
3. A person drops a toothpick onto a table and it ricochets around the room to stab somebody fatally in the heart.
It's that bad. Anybody who knows anything about objects that might be on a stage would have called BS on this event. Is this a 1980's B-movie? Why did they include it? The rest of the show was great. Why do something completely unnecessary and ridiculous? It ranks in the top two of the most ludicrous things I've ever seen in a "serious" show.
Why?
That being said: despite the one jarringly obvious forehead-slapping error, I think it's a really good show -- neatly wrapped. There are no breadcrumbs for a second season. But, if there were one, I would totally watch it.
Hello Tomorrow! (2023)
Holy crap!
This is my review after two episodes. It may change, but I'd be surprised if it goes down. This is the world of the Fallout games before the bombs hit -- 50's aesthetics, hover cars and robot assistants. If you're a video gamer, this setting might already have a place in your heart.
However, we also have Billy Crudup. He's one of those people whose delivery is so engaging that you just have to listen to what he's saying. If you've seen the Morning Show, you know what I mean. Other actors I'd put in this category are Jack Nicholson and Manny Patinkin.
Despite the fact that this is science fiction, the situations are believable, realistic human problems. Shady salespeople, family secrets and people learning lessons later in life.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
Worthy!
To establish my point of view: I've read LOTR and Hobbit multiple times. I've read the Simarillion and the Book of Lost Tales. I'm familiar with canon. I have, of course, watched the movies multiple times. The eerily narrated opening scene of Fellowship is one of the things I use to test subwoofers- it's one of my favorite things ever. I'm currently two episodes into this series.
The promo shots of this series made me skeptical, but I have been very pleasantly surprised. While some of the casting decisions don't seem to match my expectations, I'm willing to roll with it because I do like all the characters. Moryfydd Clark is clearly not Cate Blanchett, but she does deliver a similar demeanor and I think her performance is quite good.
The grandeur of the scenery is on par with the movies. The story seems prepared to deliver detailed accounts of Middle Earth's history: pre-Hobbiton hobbits, the arrival of (presumably) Gandalf, animosity between elves and dwarves and the great drama that must have accompanied the delivery of the rings and the transformation of their bearers.
As a fan of Tolkien for about 45 years or so, I'm engaged and looking forward to what this series has to offer. I expect my rating to go up from 8 -- but it's early.
Fauda (2015)
Ridiculously Good...
I'm probably not alone in having chosen to watch this show due to the large number of (more knowledgeable than I) reviewers who described it as "accurate" and "realistic". While I don't have any first-hand experience to confirm those descriptions, they seem very plausible. Nothing here seems overblown or unrealistic. The dilemmas that people find themselves in are uniquely interesting. The characters all have strengths and weaknesses like real people. There are no superhuman feats that save the day. Not only is it well-acted and well-paced, but I feel like I'm gaining understanding of one of the most important conflicts in history.
So far, I've only watched the first season. There is one instance where the "good guys" pass on an obvious opportunity to solve many of their problems and put their adversary in an untenable position. This seems contrived to keep certain characters in the show. Under normal circumstances, this would irk me, but the rest of the show is so solid that I have to give it a pass.
I'm looking forward to watching subsequent seasons. It was binge-worthy.
The Outpost (2018)
Hits its mark squarely...
Before watching this show, I read the reviews on IMDb. Just like you're probably doing now. I'm so glad that I was not deterred by the folks that rated the show after watching it for only ten minutes. Or the people that were expecting some high-budget, brilliantly produced show. Some of the bad reviews are legit, since this type of show certainly isn't for everybody. But the majority of them seem to be by people who are either admittedly uninformed (didn't watch the show) or just didn't get what it was going for.
So, after reading the bad reviews, I watched. This show has ridiculous fight scenes. It has props that look like they were put together by the middle-school drama club. It has some ridiculous, over-emotive acting and some over-the-top characterizations. It has a ridiculous Prince Charming moment and some very fake looking monsters. It instantly made me smile.
I would, like others, compare it to Legend of the Seeker. I got the same feeling watching the first two episodes of that show as well. I think what some people are ignoring is the fact that LoTS is actually just the CliffsNotes of a really good fantasy series. The writers of that show had the luxury of hand-picking their favorite scenes and characters out of mountains of great material from the books.
This is all original. There may be some cliches. It's yet to be seen whether or not they'll resolve in cliche ways. There is some good acting and there are some entertaining characters. Overall, I think it's a brave and solid effort to bring back something that's generally missing at this moment in the golden age of television -- lighthearted, non-oppressive, non-graphic, non-intense fantasy entertainment.
This is not Game of Thrones, Firefly, Breaking Bad or any other high-quality show. It's not trying to be. I don't complain if my cheeseburger doesn't taste very much like filet mignon. This show is Five Guys, not Morton's Steakhouse. If you enjoyed Hercules, Xena, LoTS, etc. for the above reasons and if you watch it in the context that it was intended, I think you'll enjoy it.