Geedeeb Reviews

The Last of Us: Long, Long Time (2023) Season 1, Episode 3

I Am Never Watching This Episode Again

[10/10 · 30 January 2023]

They got me good. I don't remember the last time a tv episode made me cry so hard I thouggt I was going to throw up. I never played the game so had no idea who these characters were, and then two minutes into them meeting I start getting a Vibe and I wonder, where is this going?

Somewhere devastating, that's where it went. Somewhere lovely, and gentle, and utterly heartwrenching. I have to force myself not to think of the strawberries, the boutique, the bedroom where it ended with an open window because it genuinely devastates me so much that I feel unwell (I just finished watching so I'm still very much reeling).

Nick Offerman already proved his acting chops in D. E. V. S among others, but I had never seen a man look at another with as much passion, intensity and love as in those last few scenes. Again, just writing about it closes up my throat so I just have to end it here because I don't want to torture myself.

In conclusion; this was one of the saddest, most beatiful, most lovingly told episodes of television I have ever seen and I am Not Okay.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Potential (2003) Season 7, Episode 12

Small and important

[10/10 · 15 January 2023]

I don't know what kind of person watches this episode wose first and only reaction is to whine that it doesn't push the story forward, as if a final season is completely forbidden from being introspective and giving certain overlooked characters their flowers.

I have never hated Dawn and I think the people that do need to do some serious soul-searching about what they expect from literal children and how they are portrayed, especially in a setting rife with trauma and terrifying monsters. On top of that this is probably the episode where Dawn is at her most mature and fluid, quickly understanding her wish fulfilment needs to be traded in for resourcefulness and championing the girl who kind of steals her thunder. This episode actually made me wish we got more Dawn-centric plots because it established the potential (heh) for her character to be such an interesting opposite to her sister.

The speech at the end, of course, is one of the best emotional beats of the season.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Showtime (2003) Season 7, Episode 11

Incredibly Satisfying

[10/10 · 14 January 2023]

I feel like I don't really see the sentiment echoed enough here, but there's a very simple reason why this episode is so satisfying; buffy as a teacher. And not only a teacher through words, but a teacher with a fantastic setup, an arena where she gets to give an immaculate and incredibly self-confident presentation of the culmination of seven years of experience as one of the most legendary slayers of the lineage.

I love the environment they chose and the way it is fully put to use throughout the entire fight. I love the tone of the combat where it almost feels like Buffy is taking the uber-vamp on an endurance-hunt, tiring it out while she grows more confident as the fight progresses, regardless of how beat up she gets. It's exhilerating and one of my favorite fights of the series.

I love the little telepathy moment and how unfazed we the viewers are by it after everything the characters have shared together.

And then there is the look exchanged between Buffy an Spike as she finally frees him, once more underscoring what phenomenal actors these two are. Just an all-around great episode.

Tár (2022)

Broad, grand and ultimately aimless

[5/10 · 21 November 2022]

I don't know what the message, the lesson or the arc is/are supposed to be here. It comes across more as a grandstanding vehicle for a pick from an ad-libbed list of powerhouse performances; what if actor X (Cate Blanchett) played a virtuoso X (orchestra director).

Blanchett's performance is methodical and shimmers between fraughtness and conceited insouciance, but it is also quite bland and not very humane. It's hard to care about her character either way; she's not malicious enough so as to make her downfall elicit schadenfreude, nor is she warm or fleshed out or tangible enough to evoke sympathy, and frustratingly she also isn't enough of an active participant in the events we are told she orchestrated, as the director chooses to banish even the slightest hint of salaciousness offscreen in favour of having peripheral characters gossip at us about said purported events. So stifled is any direct representation of her supposed vices that we don't even get the enticement of feeling conflicted about her as a person.

Beyond that, the cinematography is excruciatingly bland and tepid, continuing the trend of productions refusing to invest in proper lighting characterization and passing off murky, desaturated obscurity as sufficient shorthand for any vibe even remotely related to moodiness.

The pacing, especially with the insultingly frontloaded and pointless credits which open the film, makes no sense, and even as the events start unfolding in crescendo, no real sense of urgency or tension is achieved. Emotion is traded in mostly for the limp machinations and endlessly onanistic intellectualism of elite workspaces, the self-involvement of talent acquired through near-Machiavellian sacrifice that leads to the inevitable self-destruction we have already seen so many times before.

The vignettes bookending the hastily shown fall from grace make the least sense of all, the very last scene so incongruously different in tone from the rest of the movie that it makes the lead-up to it feel like a thigh-slapping parody we were all M Night Shyamalaned into believing was in fact an earnest character study.

Terrifier 2 (2022)

Unsalvagable misanthropic garbage

[1/10 · 23 October 2022]

There isn't an ounce of artistry to this tripe. It's just gore for the sake of gore, and if you're someone who isn't fazed by the type of cartoony splatter that this project engages in, all that's left is the pulsing tumor of pure malignance behind the crude violence. This is just someone engaging in their pathological kink and gullible people slopping it up because quite honestly the rest of the cinematic landscape is so incredibly barren. There are no underlying themes, no philosophy, no deeper layers. It's just a magical murder clown meting out unimaginable torture to mostly women and minorities. Avoid at all costs.

Tuca & Bertie (2019–2022)

What a wonderfull ittle show

[10/10 · 18 July 2022]

This show seems to have truly found its footing in season two and is now coasting on self-assured, excellent writing, voice-acting and animation. These first three season 3 episodes have been so good, zipping along on quips and visual gags that don't overstay their welcome for a single second. The characters are so sympathetic and relatable, it's hard to leave birdtown at the end of each episode. Glad this show got saved when it was first canceled, it has become one of my comfort shows.

Will & Grace: Looking for Mr. Good Enough (2004) Season 6, Episode 14

Beyond humor and into mockery

[3/10 · 16 May 2022]

Rewatching the show in its entirety now, almost a quarter century after it began airing, a lot of superlatives still apply and a majority of the show's themes have stood the test of time. There are also a few glaring negative traits that have only become more apparent, and one of them is the incredibly disproportionate treatment of the two leads' love lives.

Grace gets her heteronormative, romantic season-long relationship arcs with lots of intimate moments and evolving dynamics. She gets the lingering kisses, the implied sex, the serious moments. Will gets... Nothing. None of it. His relationships are always one-offs, Monster Of The Week parodies of gay men whose inherent deficiencies serve as foils for his uptight persona; pathological liars, barely invested sugar daddies, men who are not supermodels whose body diversity we are expected to laugh and point at.

They are just the icing on the cake though, the lion's share of episodes otherwise being taken up by a borderline jeering condemnation of his sexless, joyless, partnerless life as a man unable to move on from a relationship we were never even privy to, as it unfolded offscreen and pre-pilot. We never see him get a true win, or at least not yet at this point, 6 and a half seasons in. This far along, it starts making the show truly hard to watch, with nothing to balance out the negativity. It's incredibly unfair and frankly depressing.

I genuinely think the zeitgeist is not enough of an excuse. This show was one of the most popular sitcoms on NBC at the time., they could have taken a much bigger "risk" in portraying Will's love life. They could have been so much more kind.

Will & Grace: Last Ex to Brooklyn (2003) Season 6, Episode 2

The best episode so far, an absolute series high point

[10/10 · 16 May 2022]

It's pretty impressive that this episode comes six seasons in, a point at which a lot of shows are already well on the decline. There's not that many words to waste; it's just an incredibly tightly performed showcase of writing, chemistry and timing, the definition of "firing on all cylinders". This show is funny, but here the laughs don't let up for basically the entire half hour. Everything lands, it's crisp, raucous and incredibly entertaining.

I'm on a binge through the whole series and I don't remember everything that comes after, but this has to be a top 3 episode. It's definitely one of my favorites.

Will & Grace: Bed, Bath and Beyond (2001) Season 4, Episode 7

Hasn't Aged A Day

[10/10 · 12 May 2022]

This is definitely one of the more iconic episodes of the series. The whole thing is great, but it really crescendoes towards the very end and the last 20 seconds are one of the most emotionally satisfying moments of the show's run.

Amphibia (2019–2022)

The most beautiful animated kids show currently airing

[10/10 · 3 May 2022]

In my opinion already a contender for best of the decade. I should have written this review much sooner, but better late than never. No other cartoon has held me in its thrall this late into adulthood like my childhood fare used to do. The animation is beyond gorgeous, lush with detail and brightly colorful, the character design is so endearing and effective, and it is very clear from every bit of lore and worldbuilding that so much love and forethought went into this project. The added richness informed by all the real-world Thai cultural influences is truly the cherry on top. I'll be very sad to see this show go, but I'm incredibly grateful for having been along for the ride.

The Legend of Vox Machina (2022– )

We are in the golden era of fantasy animation

[10/10 · 29 January 2022]

This show to me is the pure distillation of what good fantasy is supposed to be. Sexy, rowdy, and evoking genuine investment in the characters through their onscreen cameraderie, banter and slowly unfolding respective backstories. Absolutely gorgeously animated, easily the top tier of current Western fare, stunningly choreographed and unsurprisingly voiced to absolute pergection, this show represents the true joy of imagination and escapism while roleplaying. It might be the one small hurdle to a mainstream public as some beats might not always feel the most natural, but it doubles the enjoyment for those of us who are familiar with these voices and how the game works with the layer of meta in which it blankets the show.

I can't imagine how the immense crowd of backers must feel, watching their dream come to life and seeing that every single cent was well-spent. I hope this opens the door for more grassroots animation projects.

Right now I have the difficult balancing act of ravenously waiting for the next batch of episodes while also not wanting the show to ever get closer to an endpoint. Here's hoping its success will ensure many more seasons to come.

Invasion (2021–2024)

I Only Care About The Space Lesbians So Far

[4/10 · 23 October 2021]

Their storyline also better not stay the "bury your gays" trope because I'm beyond tired of that. They are the only characters whose storyline feels like it has any heft, and frankly most of the other people we occasionally check in on are pretty unlikeable.

Primarily Manny, who is an unredeemably selfish garbage person, so where is his arc supposed to go? It seems like he is only there as an antagonist to his own family, but just seeing a crap person do crap things isn't equal to interesting conflict.

Are we supposed to root, then, for the occupiers in the Middle East who angrily wave their firearms at everything that moves? I guess they solved American jingoism by having two characters sit around a campfire talking to each other without understanding a word the other is saying..?

The English bully is just aggravating to watch and such a tired stereotype, the only satisfying resolution to his presence on the show would be comically gruesone one. I can't bring myself to care beyond that.

Overall it's just a lot of maudlin melodrama, an overstuffed cast of characters, and a lot of the typical "mysterious" paint-by-the-numbers table-setting that we've seen in a frankly mind-numbing amount of sci-fi Global Event shows over the last two decades. Which doesn't inspire much confidence since the vast majority ended up frontloading all their interesting ideas in the lead-up, to then either get canceled after one season or devolve into endlessly formulaic, vaguely supernatural soap operas.

I might watch a few more episodes but this just feels like Apple wanted to check off a box that says "Oh and we have this type of show too I guess! Subscribe, peons!"

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai (2020–2022)

The Perfect Blend Of Fond Nostalgia And Modern Animation

[10/10 · 25 September 2021]

A new episode releasing is one of my favorite parts of the week. I grew up reading the manga from my older brother's collection and I was absolutely enthralled, nineties manga just hit different. It combined the best aspects of JRPGs with a cute and expressive drawing style and it was plotted perfectly. The story zipped along so smoothly that it was over before I knew it and it made me yearn for more.

Since, unfortunately, the story was never extended beyond the 36 manga run, the next best thing was to see these characters and storylines I love so much brought to life on the small screen (after the initial disappointment of the first adaptation being cut short), and boy does this series deliver. It was actually a blessing in disguise that the first iteration of the show failed, because modern animation has come so incredibly far and is now able to do justice to even the most complex fight scenes and set pieces. The animation style is so faithful to the manga that it sometimes feels like you are literally transported into the pages while it unfolds. And I'm glad a new generation of kids gets to (re-)discover this incredible series.

As Above, So Below (2014)

One of my all-time favorite horror movies

[10/10 · 21 September 2021]

It's one of the few found-footage flicks where I genuinely constantly forget I'm watching the action unfold through hand-held cameras. The pace takes a certain time to rev up but never lets up once the first otherworldly chills begin to manifest. The atmosphere is such a specific detached, truly nightmarish haze that slowly thickens as the descent progresses that it feels like you are trapped within the bone labirynth together with the protagonists by the time it's too late to turn back. Aesthetically the big thematic setpieces are gorgeous and extremely well-crafted. An automatic rewatch every couple of years for me.

Squid Game (2021– )

Glossy Fare For Torture Aficionados

[2/10 · 21 September 2021]

There is no deeper message here. It's just the same old tropes but packaged in very expensive production. It's the premise of Saw dialed up to a hundred, with the same shadowy cabal of puppet masters and wealthy elites making the poors kill each other for sport on widescreens that we've seen in endless iterations already in the last decade, like in Escape Room to name but one example. The show likes to present itself as more cunning and introspective than it really is, when at its core it is just mean-spirited schadenfreude pantomiming as societal critique.

It looks visually very impressive, but it is so hollow and cynical that after the first few episodes it just feels like you yourself are being tortured by having to endure the never-ending meat grinder of despair. The cop's storyline is also so contrived, and induces some of the biggest eyerolls in an environment that is already straining the suspension of disbelief far beyond its maximum elasticity.

So I guess watch this if you want to feast your eyes on some majestic set pieces and also if you hate people.

Malignant (I) (2021)

Plodding, Hokey Slop

[1/10 · 14 September 2021]

Lest anyone be swayed by the almost Joker-like fervor with which most critics, armchair and professional alike, are telling you to "just enjoy" this pap because it's supposedly not trying to be anything but gory fun, I'd like to point out that even for the most stupidly enjoyable horror flicks a modicum of decent pacing, dialogue and plot are still vital. And this movie is strung together with everything but these things.

There is no tension because you see the Big Twist coming within the first fifteen minutes, and every plot point revelation is undercut by a smash zoom on the main character while The Pixies' Where Is My Mind comes blaring out of absolutely nowhere and with no prior setup. It's so incongruous and cringeworthy that I laughed out loud every time it happened.

The tone is also all over the place. For example I was waiting for the camera to zoom out of that asylum prologue to show that it was some incredibly wink-nudge parody playing on a tv screen in the background because I could not believe it was being played straight. And then throughout its runtime the movie careens from one half-hearted genre schtick to the next, never really settling on sanything engaging. Special shoutout to the women's jail scene which was also particularly broad and cartoonish, like insultingly so. Why was the black woman in full blacksploitation geish in a current-day setting? We'll never know.

So without tone or tension, the movie must at least pack some horror thrills? Nope. Beyond a few jumpscares, the shadowy gestalten that Wan is addicted to, and some rubbery body horror straight from the eighties, the shlocky tittilation is but a thin unassuming veneer over the wrung out carcass of the movie's one interesting gimmick.

Circling back to it, the setting, atmosphere and cinematography were so incredibly dreary and non-descript that I was only reassured this wasn't early aughts Saw by way of Lifetime when the splashy mind transitions tried to inject some life into the proceedings. Beyond that here was exactly one neat camera trajectory which was made all the more redundant by its singular appearance and inutility to the plot.

Also frustrating is how the antagonist seems to operate in a vacuum, relocating victims completely unnoticed over long distances, loudly and messily disposing of them with zero notice from passers-by, neighbors, family or colleagues, or any cameras. Time and age discrepancies abound, characters are just plot conveniences to be ragdolled around like so many meaty blood sacks, nothing feels really earned. This whole movie actually felt like a tax writeoff that Wan planned around that one cool idea that he never managed to workshop beyond a hasty desk scribble.

The one redeeming value is said cool idea, which only gets some satisfying bombast by the time the puppet strings get cut in the last half hour, logistically interestingly executed for the couple of minutes that we see it in devastating action. But the road to get there is such a tropey, by-the-numbers trudge that you'll likely have checked out long before that.

Charmed: No Hablo Brujeria (2021) Season 3, Episode 9

Goodebumps throughout

[10/10 · 19 April 2021]

I wish I had watched the episode when it aired so my review could be timely because WOW. That was one of the most tightly written episodes of the series so far, perfectly balancing A, B, AND C plots and keeping suspense throughout. Smartly handling discussions of race and continuing the thread about Macy's awful experience in the previous episode, introducing a new character with an interesting backstory and making us invested in her with not much screentime, and fleshing out the friendship between Macy and Jordan were just a few of the subplots that were really well handled. Truly a great episode, I hope they can keep this exact caliber up for the rest of the season.

Charmed: You Can't Touch This (2021) Season 3, Episode 4

Outstanding episode

[10/10 · 23 February 2021]

In the tradition of the past two seasons, the start of this new chapter retconned/handwaved the Big Bad of the previous one in the first few episodes. But I hope that this time it sticks, and as it is the third season I hope that it will aptly be the charm. Seasons one and two had their strengths and weaknesses but while enjoyable, still felt like the writers were trying to find their footing. The dour color palette they instilled in the sophomore season to try and make the show more adult, together with the switch to a much more toned down wardrobe were honestly a big downer, so I'm glad to see that we're back to something a bit more vivacious.

This episode the special effects looked absolutely incredible, as they did in the shot of Abby's mysterious demon form in the coda of the preceding episode. There was a tight sense of tension and interesting new mysteries being set up, and wether intentional or not, the social distancing analogy with the witches and their white lighter being unable to touch each other was pretty impactful.

This episode got me back to the excitement of the first season, and it's fun to have that weekly sense of anticipation back again.

The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse (2020–2023)

Holy helicopter parents, Batman!

[10/10 · 17 February 2021]

I don't know what show some of these reviewers have been watching, but TWWOMM does *not* contain any material that will threaten your precious cherub's wellbeing. It's full of lovely messages and gorgeous animation, but above all it's the humor and character expressions that are absolute standouts. Very sparsely sprinkled throughout are some edgy touches and some broad blockbustery action pieces, but that's it.

It builds on the previous phenomenal shorts by stretching the runtime, but it's essentially the same beast. A minor point of criticism is that sometimes that length works against it and makes some episodes feel a bit bloated,, but I'm really not going to complain about a triple dose of this Mickey Mouse.

Despite the horrendous scheduling issues and abhorrent platforming and promotion of their animation output, current Disney cartoons are top tier material, and this sits right beside the new Ducktales and Amphibia.

Saved by the Bell (2020–2021)

Pleasantly surprised!

[10/10 · 25 November 2020]

At times it's a bit cloying, but they did an incredible job making every single character in a pretty big lineup have a distinct and likeable personality. It's clear the message of this series is one of inclusion and betterment, and the original show not only serves as the jumping-off point but also as the case study for how to prevent feel-good intentions from overriding the actual labor needed for thoughtful, actionable change.

I truly did not expect that of all the reboots, sequels and remakes nowadays, Saved By the Bell would be one of the more relevant offerings.

Star Trek: Discovery: Forget Me Not (2020) Season 3, Episode 4

Absolutely terrific episode

[10/10 · 6 November 2020]

I'm not going to go off on a diatribe, simply put the Trill storyline had me crying towards the end and the Disco crew dealing with their ptsd was a whirlwind of funny, gripping and satisfying.

I seriously feel like the writers are attentive to the gripes about the first two seasons, and actively making an effort to shuffle some narrative structures and character arcs around to have the respective episodes stand more on their own, which is great.

Star Trek: Discovery: That Hope Is You, Part 1 (2020) Season 3, Episode 1

Honestly..

[9/10 · 15 October 2020]

Honestly.. Whatever else happened in this episode, seeing Burnham get completely spun out on truth serum and lampshade her character's reflexive need for being a savior while cackling like a madwoman was *chef's kiss* and a series highlight.