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Reviews
Community: Advanced Introduction to Finality (2013)
Just look at this mess
This episode is an utter catastrophe. The only way that watching "Advanced Introduction to Finality" is enjoyable is if you watch it like _The Room_. Jeff (good) and Annie (evil) both talk about Hallmark movies at one point, and that is about the quality of writing we get from this thing. Ham-fisted, forced, Hallmark-movie tier writing and production.
Troy (good) actually says "balling" after shooting his evil counterpart. Annie (good) says 'I can't believe those things you said to me to Jeff (good) moments after Jeff (evil) degrades Annie (good). Even though evil Annie is supposed to be ruthless and driven, nearly the polar opposite of good Annie, evil Annie wastes tons of opportunities to shoot good Annie. Evil Troy somehow runs out of paintball rounds, though we never see him discharge any.
Those are just a few of the many specific issues with this episode. The main, overarching problem is that it wastes a potentially great premise and damages a story that's already wounded from Harmon's departure. It's clear the writers felt they had to go ambitious for this one, but a safer, more grounded storyline like Herstory of Dance would have served the characters and show much better.
Stath Lets Flats (2018)
Wall-to-wall hilarity. Inspired storytelling
There is enough comedy in Stath to merit a lifetime of rewatches. The characters, language, storylines, premises-just so much to enjoy in this densely comedic universe. With even one viewing, it's clear that Stath Lets Flats is much grander than the sum of its parts.
Season one establishes character dynamics and a world whose bone-deep strangeness feels human and relatable because of a sensitive storytelling sensibility. The series quickly works to bring out the initial tensions and story lines, which follow their own bouncy, odd internal logic. The effect demonstrates the confidence and competence of the series lead, writer, and showrunner.
Season two just sings a confident, awkward song of love and friendship, portraying a tremendous inability to find comfort and validation where these characters nevertheless doggedly seek it out. Each episode is precise and natural in a way that is reserved typically for great documentaries.
Season three has some surprisingly earnest and touching moments, which the show earns by staying true to the characters' utterly bizarre nature and the storyteller's legitimate affection for them, strangeness and all. The season's most memorable moments are heartfelt and hilarious through a level of execution few shows or movies achieve.
The greatness of Stath's writing and performances come from a sincere, empathetic appreciation for these weird, lovely people; in turn, watching them struggle on their own paths and bond together elicits a similar appreciation from attentive viewing as well. The result is a show that is eternally rewarding, awkward down to its molecular structure, and held upright by an exuberant love of friendship, family, and difficult crushes.
Emergency (2022)
Hamfisted, amateurish script
Generally, this story relies on a lot of tired, familiar tropes (in lieu of character development). Specifically, the only way this story works is that the characters make frequent, stupid, and implausible decisions. It's the stitching that keeps the entire film together. In a way that serves the ill-conceived plot without making the characters more well-defined.
Tonally, Emergency veers between the dramatic and goofy without ever comfortably spending much time in either. But the weirdest writing choice might be that a professor bases an entire lecture around the N slur in a completely unrecognizable collegiate class session. In the first eighth of the movie. And the film never says anything about race in the remaining 7/8 of its runtime that is profound or interesting enough to warrant that moment. The film flirts with saying something interesting about race. It just never seals the deal.
Emergency delivers a few charming moments and laughs, but the entire experience is muddied and unfocused. Decent concept. Limp execution.
Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 (2022)
What capitalism creates (catastrophe)
If anyone asks you about the logic of capitalism, show them this series. You'll see what happens when you deprive most people of resources, services, and infrastructure to provide comfort and profit to a few at the top. It looks a lot like rage, unorganized rebellion, widespread suffering, short-sighted opportunism, and unfocused violence. And of course, the people in power think they're innocent because no one holds them responsible.
Love, Death & Robots: The Very Pulse of the Machine (2022)
Superbly done, beautiful to watch and experience
Mackenzie Davis is perfectly cast in this existential, psychedelic musing. Frequently, LDR's concept episodes are their least engaging, but the visuals, sound design, and script for this one absolutely delivers. Everything feels ethereal amid life and death stakes and the conclusion feels conclusion feels natural and even serene.
Even though this episode is primarily a meditation on mortality and consciousness, it never feels like a philosophical exercise. Instead it feels like we're watching someone wrestle with these ideas in a visceral way, feeling the real implications of these cerebral notions.
This episode signals that LDR is getting closer to reaching its potential, and it's exciting.
Love, Death & Robots: Bad Travelling (2022)
Easily one of the best LDR episodes
This story is so deftly told it's easy to forget how preposterous it is at times. The script raises questions, delays answering them until the last possible moment, then delivers with satisfying action (instead of expository dialogue).
Has the feeling of a classic story that could endure for generations and influence hundreds of copycats.
Love, Death & Robots: Three Robots: Exit Strategies (2022)
Decent concept. No story whatsoever
This script is a barely veiled vehicle for an important message, but the writer is so up his own ... head that he forgot to make it interesting. Any questions he raises the characters answer immediately through dialogue (rather than action or implication or anything else that would actually engage the viewer).
The characters themselves are a loose collection of quirks and slightly discernible speech patterns. I hope Gary Anthony Williams, et. Al. Got decent paychecks for this short because it is a complete waste of their talent.
Animation looks cool tho.
South Side: Turner's and Brenda's Day Off (2021)
Outstanding television, sharp humor
This episode is solid from top to bottom, but the writing in particular is superb. All the references are recognizable while staying within the show's comedic voice. It has some legit heartfelt moments while staying tonally cohesive with some bonkers jokes. Top tier ish.
Yakusoku no Neverland (2019)
Mediocre scripts from premiere to finale
There are no characters in this show. Just spigots for plot. They all speak with the same voice and they all speak in the most literal terms possible. It's like the writers only got a few steps past the outline and just decided to forego character development beyond names and appearances.
Despite the visual medium, most scenes are just plot spigots plainly stating their thoughts to one another. Even the occasional exceptions use the same diction and syntax. The adults, children, monsters - they all speak the exact same, hyper-literal way.
This show treats its audience either like they're stupid or they haven't been paying attention. Showing instead of telling is out of the question. The end result is that every episode switches between boring and annoying until the release comes at the end credits when you get a break from the abysmal writing.
Birdgirl: Topple the Popple (2021)
Sometimes a can is just a can
A hilarious episode that mocks no one in particular. Even the dude bros who wish this show was just more attorney at law think this episode is great. Probably. The Judy-Meredith dynamic is heartwarming. After all, Birdgirl is hilarious. Meredith is cool af. That can design is terrible. Everyone needs that alternative. Good work, Judy.
Birdgirl (2021)
Absolute gem
This show's humor is fresh and grounded in multidimensional characters + storytelling. The voice talent is top tier. Watch it if you like Adam Reed, Party Down, Community, Venture Bros, or video games.
We Are Who We Are (2020)
Makes babies upset; good if you like storytelling
This show is an artistic, thoughtful inquiry into identity, family, and the reactionary values that toxify lives at an early age. So if you're coming to We Are Who We Are hoping for military realism, enlist in the army instead. If you think you're entitled to military realism in every show on television, your imagination is the issue. The show's imperfect, but none of its flaws have to do with the military or how Guadagnino depicts families. If you think they are, it's a sign the problem is with you and that maybe you should cry harder about it.
Nomadland (2020)
Natural, realistic, and inspired storytelling
Chloe Zhao's superb Nomadland examines her protagonist's life compassionately and artfully. The aesthetic reflects reinforces the tone, which honors the characters' suffering, joy, weakness, and strength. The cinematography, performances, and pace are so forthright that it feels like real human vulnerability.
The overall result is a cinematic treat that distinguishes itself effortlessly, rewarding viewers for being vulnerable with the film.
I Carry You with Me (2020)
The older versions of the characters are the real-life people
This film is a documentary-fiction hybrid. Other reviewers speak entirely from ignorance when they criticize the film for using the real people who the characters portray as the younger Iván and Gerardo.
Depicting graphic sex is immaterial to quality visual storytelling. If you're sad you didn't get to see that, there are plenty of websites for that.
If you want an innovative, sensitive story of sexual and ethnic oppression, this film is it.
Big Mouth: Horrority House (2020)
Some of Big Mouth's finest
This show frequently covers a wide tonal range while somehow managing to stay cohesive. This episode demonstrates that the writers, vocal talent, and animators can convey despair, ecstatic hope, raunchy humor, and the absolutely bizarre while keeping together several storylines and character arcs. Jay and Nick have a devastating Halloween, while several other characters appear to have self-discovery experiences reserved for youth, psychedelic revelations, or both. It's a Halloween episode that avoids gimmicks by staying true to the momentum previous episodes have built.
Ultimately, "Horrority House" is just a ton of fun with some well-earned pathos. It's the fundamental appeal of this show in one episode.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017)
Art with broad appeal, featuring an appealing broad
Inspired camera work, some of the best direction on television, beautifully developed characters, and constant, genuinely earned humor. This show elevates television as a comedic story telling medium.
Maisel exudes confidence in every step. Every line. Every casting decision. Every plot point. Every set piece. Every frame is the clear result of considered judgment and humanistic warmth.
Maisel invites us to laugh, wonder, and celebrate at least once an episode while often eliciting much more. This show is requisite viewing for enthusiasts of comedy, television, and visual storytelling of any sort.
Hereditary (2018)
Imaginative, unsettling, and sophisticated
A masterfully told story that terrifies the audience cerebrally and viscerally. Hereditary is heartfelt, disturbing, and brutal. The visuals are unforgettable, not only because they're imaginative and unsettling but because the cinematography is flawless. The casting is perfect and every performance is superb.
The POV is coherent while revealing the film's mysteries slice by slice, rewarding only viewers who are willing to engage the story on its own terms. It's a horror film that carves out its own space while accomplishing what audiences expect from horror with its own style and approach. A distinct entry in the canon of America's finest horror cinema.
Spawn (1997)
Mostly sophomoric and overwrought
Flat, colorless dialogue and characters just as one dimensional. The NYPD in Spawn is criminally stupid. One character, Twitch is the only one who approaches interesting. It's nice to see a strong black female character in Wanda Blake, but she only switches between that simple formulation and a few other clichés. The main saving qualities of this series are the animation quality, overall plot and concept (not the execution thereof, however), and the nostalgia factor.
Todd McFarlane's intros are absolutely stupid. They give an idea of how much he wants to force a narrative tone ("And now, Spawn. So turn out the lights.) rather than create one. The effect is a melodrama whose painfully cliché dialogue wastes Keith David's incredible skills. The show does little to improve upon the source material or explore new dimensions of the Spawn universe and fails to create a product that fits into HBO's family of top-notch programming.
McFarlane wasted an opportunity to tell a quality story that could attract a new audience, which was probably his intent, but he missed his mark so severely, ignores the potential of subtlety so thoroughly, that the end result is merely fan service in an attractive package.
Hit & Miss: Episode #1.1 (2012)
Tightly written, beautifully shot, adept storytelling
Easily among the best pilots I've ever seen. Though the episode is slightly exposition-heavy in the first ten minutes, overall the pacing is strong. Characters develop, tensions build, stakes rise, etc. Any misgivings I had about the premise vanished before the first act ended.
Throughout the cinematography is generally clean, and frequently gorgeous. The soundtrack was cohesive and never got in the way. Watching the protagonist acclimate to her new surroundings, and develop relationships with people who want to seduce her, exploit her, and get rid of her--it all met my modest expectations for a good story. Even better that the episode concluded with a satisfactory climax.
If the production value and story stay, at least, this good for the series' remainder, I'll be glad to have watched it. If not, then this episode stands strong on its own, even though it left me wanting more.
In the Loop (2009)
Laughs abound in this sterling, classic comedy
In the Loop is consistently funny. The dialogue is frequently acerbic, witty and smart in a way that would probably make Oscar Wilde envious. Underpinned by a mature cynicism about contemporary Western politics and psyche, In the Loop is a scalding critique of global super powers made extremely palatable by brilliant humor.
The performances are spirited, precise and unforgettable. Peter Capaldi, whose character has basically weaponized the English language steals every scene in which he appears. James Gandolfini is a treat to watch as a jaded general, intimidating, but good-humored and far outside the tough guy image his role in The Sopranos established for him. Anna Chlumsky plays a formidable political operative whose vulnerability adds great depth to her character.
Like a good sitcom, In the Loop is extremely rewatchable and filled with quotable lines. Like any quality artistic comedy, there is a distinct tinge of tragedy to it, especially as you watch ineptitude, ego and self-serving political maneuvering lead to war. If you like political satire, or humor that presumes a modicum of intelligence in its viewers, you have no reason not to watch In the Loop.