catjenkins-57799 Reviews

Medium (2005–2011)

Starts strong, gets weak soon

[4/10 · 30 May 2022]

OMG. When I saw the first couple of episodes I was intrigued and entertained and creeped out and fascinated. But then I realized Allison Dubois was a real person and was a consultant on the show. So, of course, I researched her, thinking she must be truly amazing. Well...don't hold your breath. The show is Dubois' wet dream of what she wishes she were. Maybe she's delusional and actually thinks she IS that humble, sweet, better-than-good person with a non-stop, reliable "gift." But in reality, after looking at cases and the police depts she claims to have helped, it's all a lie. There is not one case where she provided anything substantive that gave any kind of help, according to the police. Apparently, she was just a freaky neurotic who pestered them with her 'dreams' and hunches and non of them panned out. None. Of. Them. She's known to them as a fraud. So now I'm not too fond of the show that overly praises her and constantly tells her she's valuable and special and gifted and vital and a secret weapon while the actress playing her gazes bashfully down at her feet. And Patricia Arquette's breathy, whispering, non-enunciated mumbling gets worse each season. She can't catch the "ct" on the end of "district attorney" to save her life. Maybe it's because her teeth are in dire need of braces. (How come an actress working regularly can't afford dental care?) It's hard to watch after season 3. But I bet somewhere Allison Dubois (who should be surnamed 'Dubious' instead) watches it over and over and tells herself she's just as amazing as the script portrays her. Ew.

God's Not Dead (2014)

Not What I'd Hoped

[1/10 · 10 October 2021]

Was hoping for something uplifting and with some intellectual integrity. But this was the kind of uber-Christian viewpoint that is encountered all too often. It was absurdly biased, divorced from reality and left me with the feeling that at its core was something shifty, slimy and self-serving. Kind of like a mega-church whose founders live large while dunning their flock for every penny they can't really spare. Felt like taking a shower after seeing it. And the slack-jawed, dead-eyed lead was pathetic. Ew. Just...Ew.

Love Life (2020–2021)

The Poor Man's Sex and the City

[1/10 · 23 August 2021]

Too many parallels without the wit or charm. Carrie and Mr. Big did it better. I just can't watch Darby without thinking she's a bit of a twit. And it's not "oh, they're so young." It's being crass and stupid and insensitive.

Sorry, but it's as though a really bad tele-psychic is trying to channel Sex and the City.

Evil (2019–2024)

Juuuuuust Right

[10/10 · 24 June 2021]

Perfect mix of creepiness and weird. Elegant and interesting and I AM SO PISSED that CBS advertised it would be back on their network on June 20, 2021, and then mere days before, it's suddenly only available if you subscribe to Paramount. NOT FAIR. We put up with free-to-all absolute crap like CHAD, but the truly excellent shows? Nope. Take them away from the long-suffering viewing public. The wasteland of super heroes and reality shows can suck it. I wanted to have at least one show to look forward to that was imaginative and consistently good. No. Nada. Whoever's responsible for taking Evil away from us....karma is headed your way, I hope.

Blue Night (2018)

With a Life That Boring....

[1/10 · 6 June 2021]

It's a terrible thing to say, but I was so bored I wanted the MC, Vivienne, to die and get it over with. I like Sara Jessica Parker, but this was an interminable amount of time spent watching her expressionless face as she walked and walked and took cabs and took more cabs and never did anything of substance. So damn boring!!! And the other awful surprise was Renee Zellwegger (sp?). I didn't recognize her for several minutes. Whatever plastic surgery nightmare she chose to have done to herself robbed her of all the charm and lovable-ness that she had pre-surgery. What a God awful gathering of nothingness. A character who's living her last finite bit of life should evoke empathy, compassion...SOMETHING. But this? A big, fat ZERO.

Wipeout (2021– )

I Wish There Were Negative Stars

[1/10 · 28 May 2021]

It's not funny to watch people get hurt. It's not funny to watch some fat woman and her dim partner mug and smirk as though bruises, sprains and wrenched joints are the most hilarious thing in the world. If there's an aspect of humanity that thrives on this kind of "entertainment," it's wrong to encourage it. I can only hope the hosts reap some karma that has them writhing in agony while others stand by and yuk it up. Kill this show.

The Hills: New Beginnings (2019–2021)

Brain Candy during COVID

[3/10 · 14 May 2021]

All I can say is...Where the hell am I? I just watched a new episode filmed during the pandemic, so it's Hills circa 2021, but only the 2019 version is listed here. I have no idea what's going on. Still...I watched it and found it mildly entertaining to see how badly these people live their lives. And a side note: Heidi Pratt's face.... YIKES!!!! Someone should have warned her that plastic surgery doesn't age well. Her face is the weirdest, immobile mask ever. It's like watching an ice cube try to talk. No musculature or movement looks natural. She ruined herself! No wonder Spencer's eating like a pig and packing on the pounds. Sounds mean, but if you're putting yourself out there in a pseudo-reality show, don't expect viewers to go lightly on you.

Top Chef (2006– )

Needs an overhaul

[2/10 · 9 May 2021]

What started out as fun and interesting is now a horribly prolonged ad for the-product-of-the-week. And every year Padma gets harder to understand. Cheek implants? What is it? Can she be fixed? She holds her face in a rigor mortis grimace that models usually mistakenly believe accentuates their cheekbones. It actually makes them look tense and ruins their ability to enunciate. I have to mute whenever she talks. Sadly, even without her, you know exactly what's going on. She could be removed and it would only benefit the program. Gail Simmons is SO much better and actually has knowledge of food...another lack for poor Padma. This show is dying a slow, tortuous death.

Pose (2018–2021)

Speechless

[10/10 · 7 May 2021]

I'm not a member of the LGBT (and whatever other letters should be added) community, but this show touches my heart. I lived in NYC in the late 70s and early 80s. I worked Broadway and NYC Ballet and a soap at CBS. But I never brushed shoulders with the sub-culture Pose depicts. I wish I'd known. The culture may be foreign to me, but the simple, human dignity and pain make this show universal and timeless. Not to mention I've rarely seen an ensemble of more gifted actors. Pose is a sparkling, heart-breaking, terribly human, beautifully tragic gem. Well done and thank you for creating it.

Good Witch (2015–2021)

Enjoyment Depends on Circumstances

[2/10 · 28 April 2021]

Update on season 7: Sad to see that Catherine Bell has opted for vanity over talent as an actress. She's so buffed, injected and stretched for season 7 that she looks swollen and seems to have lost the ability to show any emotion via her face. Too bad. Now the trademark Cassie smugness is even less tolerable.

----------------------------------------- When I first saw the Good Witch movies, I found them okay. When I first saw the TV series, I detested it. The ever-smug Cassie and the weird lack of chemistry between any of the actors was a complete fail for me.

Then came COVID. Well, a year and a couple months into virtual isolation has me hungering for a fake, sugar-coated existence with absolute assurance that Everything Will Turn Out Fine. So now, I binge-watched all of the series and I'm going to give the new season a try as well. I still can't stand Cassie's smugness and the actress' Mona Lisa smile that is supposed to be full of subtext, but just makes her look heavy-featured and stupid. But I can overlook that...sort of...until COVID stops defining my life.

Debris (2021)

Unrealized Potential

[4/10 · 28 April 2021]

Interesting concept that fell apart fast. The writers felt the need to garnish each episode with something intriguing and strange. That's great, but when there's no connection and no progress in plot other than random journeys to see odd things happen and get messed with by enemy forces, it gets old fast. I think they somehow knew this, so then they added spying and international mistrust. And then, the latest: romance between the two main characters.

Big mistake. This sudden longing feels so fake. The plot devices shouldn't be getting so desperate after only a handful of episodes.

And one other pet peeve that might just be mine: For the first time EVER I had to activate sub-title captioning on a show because Riann Steele, or whatever her name is, apparently graduated from the school of If-I-Mumble-And-Furrow-My-Brow-It'll-Be-Mistaken-For-Good-Acting. Her monotone mutterings have made her the most tiresome actor of the season. Congrats, girl.... NOT!!!

Chad (2021–2024)

Didn't Even Smile Once

[1/10 · 7 April 2021]

We all get that high school can be a desperate time, but Chad doesn't come off as someone striving for popularity. He comes off as mentally ill. A complete jerk to others. Insensitive. And "he" looks like a middle-aged woman. Overall, not funny and really creepy. I think a root canal would be less painful than watching this disaster. Hopefully, TBS will cancel Chad soon and make way for something worth viewers' time to watch.