realdeancool Reviews

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024– )

This isn't the movie, get over it.

[8/10 · 3 February 2024]

I felt driven to provide a review after seeing the dumpster fire growing here. People seem to be expecting to see the Donald Glover they remember from Community, or some endless, action-packed rollercoaster that simply repeats the movie formula for a dozen hours.

Let this series be what it is, a spy dramedy, halfway between drama and comedy, just like a relationship, which is key to this show.

The opening sequence seems like a nod to the original, telling us that the Pitt/Jolie Smiths were taken out by other Smiths, after running for some unstated period of time.

Then we can learn about a new Mr and Mrs Smith, from recruitment to retirement, and watch their relationship grow, through the lens of international espionage. It's a fun concept that is well executed, if you can just let go of the fact that it isn't the same as the movie.

The Simpsons (1989– )

Should have ended after season 8

[4/10 · 21 November 2020]

When the core writing staff left The Simpsons for Futurama, the show changed beyond recognition. It's been all downhill since. This rating started much higher, but The Simpsons has been terrible for three times longer than it was good. Every year it stays on the air does more damage to the reputation it earned in those early seasons.

Hollywood (2020)

Candy-floss revisionist drivel

[2/10 · 17 May 2020]

Imagine Hollywood in the late-1940s with none of the racism or homophobia of the time. Ryan Murphy wants us to believe that the world is a beautiful place, where all negativity only exists in the abstract, the ether. It never physically manifests beyond the idea that sometimes life can be harder for people who aren't straight white men, and sometimes life is hard for straight white men as well. Don't waste your time, a slick production with big sets and fancy costumes is no substitute for decent plot and good writing. The acting is average at best. The Netflix model seems to be flooding the market with easily skipped series and garbage films. Not everything in this world has to be stark reality and global nightmares all the time, but whatever they were aiming for here misses by a very wide margin.