jch_at_amazonuk Reviews

Westworld (2016–2022)

Best when watched as one 36 episode series

[9/10 · 1 February 2024]

This is a fascinating series hampered by 2 year gaps between season releases.

Having recently sat and watched all episodes over a few days seasons 3 and 4 make a lot more sense and the whole run of seasons is more coherent.

Having said that people are correct season 1 is the best and closest to Michael Chricton's inspiration. Season 2 is very good too but Seasons 3 and 4 struggle to maintain the high standard.

They are still good story telling but particularly in season 4 "Dolores" has little to do, and what she does do is not that interesting. Bernard and Maive have pretty much the same story line in both 3 and 4 so does not really develop them.

Given that most of the characters are destroyed/dead by the end I can't really see what another season could have added except another reboot of all the characters. But who are the guests in the new reboot?

It struck me at the end the entire story is told rather more succinctly in a short novella: Orwell's Animal Farm!

Grey's Anatomy: In My Life (2021) Season 17, Episode 9

Strewth - what a bad episode

[1/10 · 25 September 2023]

I thought Alex leaving was the worst episode until I saw this utter rubbish.

I like Kevin and Kim as actors in other programmes but the utter drippiness of Teddy and the car crash that is Owen cannot be saved by a bad script and good actors.

If two characters ever needed to leave/die/fall in a hole it is these two.

Owen is unbearable to watch at his best ... at first I thought the PTSD story line was interesting and worth telling but by this point it is clear that PTSD is not why Owen is so horrible - he is just a nasty narcissist.

Teddy has almost no redeeming qualities - she is so wet and indecisive. She had a few good moments with Christina but since then I just want to shake her and tell her to get a grip and grow up.

Watching this for the first time long after the original showing and even though I know it won't happen I still wish they would give everyone a break and move to Antartica.

Ancient Apocalypse (2022)

Stupid pseudo-science

[1/10 · 15 December 2022]

Watched the first episode and a number of things struck me:

1) boo hoo - all people doing real research are against me and won't let me have the last word

2) no evaluation of existing evidence and research to see if their ideas better explain the accumulated and new evidence

3) invoke the idea of a global flood to explain losing 99% of the evidence, and ignore the existing evidence that contradicts you. Massive floods exist throughout history and to people living in the location they must have felt the world was coming to an end. There is no evidence if global floods - they are geologically impossible - and indeed he contradicts himself in the same sentence - a massive global drop in temperature leads to more ice - not a global flood!

He says at the end of episode 1 about the flood "This leaves one big question - how many other ancient civilisations were lost to the global flood?" ... two things wrong with that question - firstly, 'no evidence" does not mean there must have been anything else, and secondly the really big question is where did all this water come from?

Outer Range (2022– )

Depressing, slow moving and filming ridiculously dark

[3/10 · 17 November 2022]

I blame Game of Thrones for the dark filming style - I don't remember watching programmes before GoT that filmed in barely visible shaddows. Almost this entire series is shot so dark that it is hard to tell who is who and what is going on. It does get a bit better towards the end but most indoor shots look as though the budget did not run to lighting beyond table lamps. Even daytime shots outdoors are often dark.

I slogged through the series determined to watch it and give it a chance. After the initial episode (which was intriguing) nothing much happens - the whole story could have been easily told in a 90 minute film but it was dragged out to 8 hours.

The hole in the ground was pretty obviously a portal of some sort from the first episode and really lacked suspense.

The biggest problem is that there are no characters that are developed beyond one dimension. Apart from the sherrif they are universally selfish, boring and unpleasant.

A hugely waste of effort and money - definitiely will not be watching a second season.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

Great cast - lousy script

[1/10 · 19 July 2022]

Even though Douglas Adams is credited with the screenplay I guess it waa 10 hours long. Whoever edited it stripped out all the offbeat logic and language that made Douglas a genius.

What is left is an incoherent mess with zero Douglas Adams humour.

Watch the BBC series (OK the special effects are rubbish but were cutting edge when it was made however the acting and script are brilliant), listen to the brilliant radio series or read the books but this mess does not even qualify as an embarassingly bad B movie.

Radioactive (2019)

Central story was great but ...

[5/10 · 8 April 2022]

I thought the acting and portrayal of the Curie's central story was very good but could have done without all the peripheral future connections.

The tangents were often unrelated to the Curies, except tangentially, such as Hiroshima and Chernobyl - they had nothing to do with splitting the atom for power generation for weapons.

The arty sequences added nothing.

Grace and Frankie: The Roomies (2021) Season 7, Episode 1

Silliest/funniest episode yet

[10/10 · 1 January 2022]

A return to form! Previous episodes felt a bit lacklustre but this was funny, slapstick and bizzare.

Fantastic ensemble performance.

More please. Shame this is the last season ... the four main characters together are magic.

Snowpiercer (2020–2024)

Weirdly addictive if you like classic B movies

[3/10 · 30 March 2021]

Truly dreadful, full of plotholes, terrible science and even worse CGI. I was looking forward to Sean Bean arriving in Season 2 but he gets it and treats the awful script with the utter contempt it deserves (a pure pantomime villain who can't even decide on an accent, he drifts between 1950s BBC RP and his more normal Sharpe northern working class accent).

Its so bad it is really quite addictive, entertaining and funny in the same way 70s B movies were mesmerising car crashes of movies like "Night of the Lepus".

Looking forward to Season 3.

The Blacklist: Wujing (No. 84) (2013) Season 1, Episode 3

Alan Shore rides again

[8/10 · 21 February 2021]

The court scene is a brilliant (and meaningful) parody of Boston Legal's Alan Shore (right down to fishing with Antonin Scalia.

Loved this episode.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1978)

Wonderful ... funny, moving and eccentric

[10/10 · 12 August 2020]

I missed this in the 70s (just started university and did not have a TV) and only discovered it in 2020 on DVD.

As a recently retired teacher I think schools now lack the spirit of Miss Jean Brodie - a true educator who recognises the individuality of her girls. No teaching to the test or league tables for Miss Brodie - education means inspiration, curiosity and a desire to learn.

Geraldine McEwan is truly wonderful in the title role but she is surrounded by a wealth of acting talent - not least from the girls in her class.

The series is much too short. Get the DVD and watch it!

Stanley and the Women (1991– )

Over melodrammatic and terrible depiction of doctors, mental illness and women in general

[2/10 · 6 August 2020]

John Thaw and the ensemble cast are stellar but this is a really poor and bizarre script - unsubtle and often stupid. I haven't read the book but I can't believe Kingsley Amis would write this unless he had an axe to grind about terrible psychiatrists, horrible hospitals and a truly misogynistic outlook.

I don't believe an intelligent father would put up with the abusive crap from a psychiatrist - any doctor acting that unprofessionally would be struck off. I am a huge fan of Geraldine James but even she struggles to make anything with her truly awful script.

Some have described the series as comic, but in the last episode you get the only funny moments - but not for the right reason ... poor Geraldine is reduced to screaming at the camera in close up with such utter abandon that we fell about laughing.

The story founders in episode 2 when Michael Aldridge's character doesn't advise John Thaw's character to complain to the BMA and remove the son to a different hospital. John Thaw was a great actor but his character is driven by events and I don't think he makes a single sensible or logical decision throughout.

Apart from his office co-worker all of "Stanley's women" are chariacature harridans who rant and rave at him but never listen.

I came to this series because it has just about one of the best British casts of its time but what a wasted opportunity.

Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)

Beautiful but more maddening than madding

[6/10 · 7 December 2019]

I grew up with the book and the Julie Christie film when I went to the cinema with school and have loved both ever since.

I also loved the 1997 ITV adaptation with Paloma Baeza (probably one of the finest TV film adaptations of a novel).

This new version of the film has so many possibilities ... gorgeous filming and cinematography and a brilliant cast (thats the 6 stars) but the story is so chopped up and so much is ommitted that there is very little character development and however hard the cast try the script is just not fit for purpose.

I presume they edited it down under 2 hours but that is no excuse - the book needs the scope of a 3 hour epic (at least).

My recommendation is watch the TV version or the Julie Christie version rather than this.

What a pity - I genuinely wanted to like it and see a fresh interpretation.

Oppenheimer (1980)

Intriguing and informative

[8/10 · 24 July 2019]

I enjoyed this series (watched in 2019). It is well acted and whilst I know a fair amount about the Manhattan Project I knew next to nothing about Openheimer.

My only gripes are:

1) it is quite slow moving (I don't mind programmes taking time to develop but this is very slow at times with little added by the time taken)

2) the musical score is extremely irritating. I was a fan of Carl Davis as composer and conductor but this is not one of his best and often sounds out of period and intrusive for no apparent reason. It is almost as if he wrote a score but knew nothing about what was on screen.

Grace and Frankie: The Retreat (2019) Season 5, Episode 6

Favourite episode of the series

[8/10 · 20 January 2019]

Really enjoyed this episode - especially Grace's Yoda moment in the woods

Grace and Frankie: The Alternative (2019) Season 5, Episode 13

Enjoyed the first 12 episodes

[2/10 · 20 January 2019]

Some very funny moments in this series and story line. Obviously they finished an episode early and ran out of ideas.

Pointless end to a good series

The Flintstones (1994)

Can't understand the miseries voting this down

[10/10 · 20 January 2019]

Just rewatched it in 2019 and loved it as much when it was released. So the story is predictable (watch the cartoon series - it's a direct carry over!) but that is part of the fun. The acting is brilliant and hilarious. The special effects and the Henson models still stand up.

Fantastic to see/hear voice actors from the cartoons in cameo roles and even Hanna and Barbera make onscreen appearances.

Gotham: Mad City: Beware the Green-Eyed Monster (2016) Season 3, Episode 11

Fun story but hysterically funny episode

[7/10 · 20 December 2018]

I am enjoying the story of Gotham.There are many places, as with all comic stories, where belief has to be suspended and that is fine, but the sight of Bruce providing a tight wire by hand for Cat to walk across to the safe is hysterically funny.