Ratings
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Reviews
Heartstopper (2022)
All a bit too tedious
When this series first started it seemed to have a lot of potential. However this most recent season, three, really shows how the writer and producers have run out of ideas. The themes appear to have been carefully selected and then put in a spreadsheet to make sure that the whole spectrum of teenage angst and every type of LGBTQ character has been selected and included. Racial diversity has also been carefully curated to make sure that none were excluded. The themes are tedious and the story goes nowhere. It's difficult to believe that in today's schools in the UK that such open minded behavior actually exists in real life settings. There really isn't much to this series at all!
Inganno (2024)
A silly soap opera
This Italian soap opera is really over the top. There is little to recommend it other than the handsome lead actor and the beauty of the Amalfi coast of Italy. The story is your usual younger man setting out to seduce an older lonely and wealthy woman. As the plot unfolds she sees obvious signs that he is a liar and a cheat, tells him to leave many times, then apologizes an equal number of times. One can only assume that she is demented. There is a ludicrous subplot of her son also falling for the same guy, and that creates the usual dynamic. The makeup used by the characters is industrial strength, heavy and just too much, making the awful painted faces a distraction. Overall, it's a bit of silliness but it does fill empty streaming queues.
All of Us Strangers (2023)
Rubbish
If this film could get a rating of Zero, it would be more deserving! The movie starts off with little context, even less dialog and a series of random scenes stuck together. The lead actor seems to spend his time in silence, wandering about staring at things e.g. Walls, food, the view etc. The dialog is minimal throughout the film and seems to be mainly improvised and a bit silly. The movie goes at a pace of molasses trying to run uphill. After a while it becomes really tedious to watch due to the inaction. While it may have artistic merit to watch the surreal journey on which the characters travel, it is quite simply a boring movie with little to recommend it.
Civil War (2024)
Civil war for millenials
This was simply low budget garbage. It seems to be pushing an agenda of fear and simplification of what a civil war MIGHT look like to to target millennials. Obviously, the writer/director had watched too much Walking Dead and decided to model this off of the series. The extras must have been people from some community playhouse as it was very disconcerting to keep seeing the "dead" people breathing or moving after death. The acting was simply terrible. The agenda seems very anti-military as it portrays them as all bad. It was a struggle to watch it to the end but the FF button was a big help!
Milliardærøya (2024)
A fishy story that only Norwegians can understand
This is a typical Norwegian series that uses a script targeted specifically to a topic of relevance to Norwegians and humor that only they would understand and find funny. The characters are bizarre and the acting very slow and overdone at times. The story has many elements, but few seem relevant to the main story. Events appear to be very disconnected at times from one another and often contribute little to the narrative. As in common to all Scandinavian productions, useless information on trivia is included in the script that is focused on "educating" the audience. It all seems a bit too contrived for a global audience, but probably includes scenarios that are topical and well understood by Norwegians. Overall, it provides a look into how the Uber wealthy live in Norway as well as their obsession with American Hollywood pop culture from the 1950s and 60s.
Spa Night (2016)
Garbage
This movie has no beginning nor end. There is minimal dialog and everyone just seems to try to stare their fellow cast members to death. It's obviously low budget with some of the scenes appearing to have been filmed with an iPhone. The scenes appear to be stuck together randomly, sometimes being relevant to the previous or subsequent one, most times not. Some of the scenes are totally non-contributory to the overall story. The objective of the film must be to try and create a dream like narrative in which all the characters seem to drift through life just staring at one another. As another comment has stated.....avoid at all costs!
Le indagini di Lolita Lobosco (2021)
Typical Italian series from RAI
This lighthearted series is done in typical Italian style. The detective and police work take second place to the usual Italian themes of love, food and family. There is the usual older woman, younger man dynamic. A lot of crying and histrionics and constant reference to foods and cooking in the region. The lead character goes to work always dressed fashionably. Every now and again issues of women's rights and their treatment is alluded to in the various episodes. The first season is better than the second as the dialog in the latter seems to be more improvised. Watch it for what it is, light entertainment along the lines of the French counterpart, Candace Renoir!
Pandore (2022)
Bizarre Judicial Process
This Belgian series deals with how the judicial system handles serious cases. The concept is one of an incident that opens a Pandora's Box of secrets and interactions. The problem with it is that it appears to lack detail and along the way, one can see mistakes being made in police process. The casting is a bit ludicrous in that the actress who plays the lead character of the judge, looks almost as old as the actors playing her parents. Surely this could have been done in a better way! The role of the police captain is played by someone well beyond retirement age. This really stretches viewers' belief as it would lack credibility. The audio quality, as in many of the French and Belgian productions, is poor, and most of the dialog comes across as muffled. Better sound engineers would have resolved that issue. As with all Francophone series there are recurrent themes of bouts of histrionic acting, anxiety attacks, constant reference to people being "fragile", and the usual older women younger men dynamic! However, it's a bit of fantasy, as it is impossible to believe that any judicial system could function in this way.
The Terror (2018)
Average entertainment
The narrative for first season of this series is told in a very choppy manner. The editing is really horrible. Scenes of 30 seconds or less are inserted for what one can only assume is artistic value, since they add nothing to the story. Many times there are gaps in the story with an event suddenly being discussed between two characters, but the viewer has been given no context or background to the incident. Makes one feel they missed out on some vital information. Rewinding doesn't help as the contextual information just was never provided. The other way in which the editing sucked big time was the manner in which the flashbacks were stuck randomly between scenes to which they had no relevance. The final CGI of the beast is really silly and could have been done far better.
Respira (2024)
Basura
This is garbage, pure and simple! It's just another rip off of the constant stream of medical hospital dramas. The difference with this one is that it's really done extremely poorly to the point where most of the incidents bear no relation to medical reality. It's as if there were no medical adviser on the set! It would really be a stretch to believe that hospitals in Spain are so poorly run, but then again, maybe that is the case! As with all of the TV series from Spain, the sound is poorly engineered so that the dialog is mostly inaudible. They really need to hire sound engineers or use modern equipment and technology to ensure clarity of the soundtrack!
Sequía (2022)
More rubbish from Walter
Walter Presents is a streaming platform that seems to out of its way to collect all the rubbish European TV programs and then rebroadcasts them through various stations. This series is one of those examples. The story makes little sense, the way it's told is really very silly and incomprehensible. If this is how Spanish police are supposed to operate, it is quite unbelievable. The lead investigator dresses like she's off to a gym for a Pilates session. As Wilton all programs from RTVE, the sound quality is poor so much of the dialog is inaudible. Overall, the series is not engaging and simply not worth watching!
Monsieur Spade (2024)
Makes no sense
This series tries to channel Humphrey Bogart and the 1940s noir detective mode. It fails miserably. Owen is no Bogart and this is no Sam Spade mystery. The snappy dialog and one line comebacks just don't work for Owen. The plot is convoluted and told in such a choppy manner that causes the viewer to lose interest in both the characters and the story. The story seems to be based on some fantasy that has been cobbled together to create content for streaming. Could barely get through episode 1, and given the many comments on here about the ridiculous ending, was glad I did not waste more time watching it.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (2024)
Nancy Drew in Midsomer
This is a teen murder mystery based on a series of books and adapted for TV. It would have better on a children's streaming platform as the script is completely ridiculous and the events as they unfold, improbable. The lead character goes from one event to another, bumbling her way through, having access to people and places that would never be possible in real life. The premise is to drag one red herring after another across the trail to keep momentum going for as long as possible. The acting is below average and the narrative told in a very disjointed manner. Events happen illogically and often in a completely unbelievable manner. Overall, it's just a silly little tween romp but maybe that's the target audience!
American Rust (2021)
A slow burning noir
This series really is never going to have populist appeal. It's very slow and also bordering on low budget as it uses actors who are not well known or certainly not that mainstream any longer. The story is dark, the mood gloomy, with many intricate subplots, some of which make sense for the story, others are just silly. There is little in the way of escapism in this series since it deals with normal people who have made bad choices in their lives. It was canceled after the first season, resurrected for a very badly written second season, then left to wither on the vine once again. It seems unlikely that it will be ever given new life and a new season!
Blue Murder (2003)
Almost, but not quite!
This police drama series is a bit dated. The plots are sometimes very different to the usual run of the mill material seen in many other British shows of this genre. The narrative is fast moving but the sequencing does not always get it right. This leads to viewer confusion when they try to fill in the gaps between consecutive scenes. The main theme is that of a DCI trying to balance a career about which she is very passionate and her family obligations, all after a separation from her husband. It went on for a couple of seasons but begins to flounder after season 3. It was cancelled after season 5. It's one of those series that might have been more successful if the storylines and character development were more compelling!
Ted Lasso (2020)
Started strong but finished weakly
This series got a lot of hype when it first aired but took time to get around watching it. The first season was the best then it just went steadily downhill. Season two started to lose the magic and initial story engagement. What also became distracting was the perceived need by the writers to include little historical facts and trivia in every episode. Season 3 was simply rubbish as the plot seemed to have totally disappeared by that time. It appeared that the script writers lost focus and the episodes became a race to wind down the series. It was as if the actors and writers knew that the series had already ended but there was some kind of contractual obligation to deliver a set number of episodes. A sad end to what had been a great start. It could never had supported a fourth season! Great start but quickly fizzled out.
Forgive and Forget (2000)
Forgivable and forgettable
This movie could have been so much better. However, it appears to be made for British TV at a time when any bit of old rubbish could be aired as long as it wasn't too graphic and dealt with this type of theme in a superficial manner. The movie just appears to be a collection of scenes that try to tell some kind of story but really does not do that particularly well. The ending makes little sense but again fits in with the era where a happy ending might not have been acceptable. Punishment and unhappiness were the correct judgement for that sinful life. Would be interesting to see a rewrite and new production of this now that thinking and attitudes have changed over the past twenty years.
Norwegian Dream (2023)
Low budget, poor acting and bad script
This movies tries to cover too many stories, all being loosely strung together by the story of two central characters. It does not work. The script lacks continuity and context and assumes that viewers know about the exploitation and mistreatment of Polish workers in the Norwegian fishing industry. Nothing is explained and the choppy editing doesn't help explain much. The acting is really bad and one gets the impression that the producer hurries the plot and narrative along before the funding runs out. Overall, it could have been better if time were taken to explain the event and the movie did not try to cover so many extraneous events that have little to do with the central plot!
Dark Matter (2024)
Garbage to the Nth degree
This series takes a bad script, a bunch of out of work actors, puts them together in the hope that it'll make a good story. Unfortunately, it doesn't. The pace at which the plot unfolds is tedious, the plot holes and lack of logic too many to even count. The acting is below average every step of the way and after a while, it starts to feel like watching a Dr. Who ripoff except that the Tardis isn't a phone booth but just a simple black box. The two lead actors travel around a multiverse, facing adversity and survive miraculously without food or water for days on end. No matter how long one sticks with watching the series, it doesn't get any better. It's series like this that help cement Apple TV sit low down in the ranking of streaming platforms. It's just a colossal waste of time that takes viewers nowhere!
Liaison (2023)
Helps pass the time
This series is pretty much wrecked by a very bad script and a series of nonsensical, illogical events. There are just too many loopholes in the plot to make it remotely believable. Events happen to suit the narrative no matter how illogical, unbelievable or just dumb they might be. The lead character seems to be able to get into hospitals and any other place he needs to go despite apparent security in place. As others have pointed out, both lead characters are able to drive around London, one of the most dense CCTV capitals in the world, but no camera ever picks them up. Everything else is on CCTV, just not the two characters. It's watchable if you have nothing else to fill your streaming queue and are just looking for some mindless entertainment.
Your Honor (2020)
A series based on a sequence of improbable events
This is a series that one has to watch without doing too much analysis. The events appear to be based on decisions taken by the characters that never seem to make sense. The son's decision which served as the catalyst for the whole series was just a silly one as other commentators have pointed out. It simply made no sense. The events that followed also appear to be just as ridiculous. The level of acting is variable with Bryan Cranston holding it all together. The second season is nowhere as good as the first and seems to lose its way quite early in the season. This makes it difficult to remain engaged. The use of short scenes and empty dialog adds little to the plot. Hopefully, if a third season is planned, both the writing and the dialog will improve.
Palm Royale (2024)
Just doesn't make the grade
This series could have been so much better but ends up being a wasted opportunity. The writing is bad and the editing even worse. The story moves around to the point where the viewer starts to wonder if there are some scenes missing. The gaps created in the narrative leads to a lack of story continuity and ultimately loss of viewer interest and engagement . The story doesn't seem to go anywhere and just limps along in a meaningless manner. The humor is dull and there is little depth to the series that could make it interesting. The cast seems to be a mix of SNL and a few B rated has been actors. Ricky Martin's character looks like it's made of wax. Apple isn't one of the leading streaming platforms and it's poorly written series like this that support that reputation!
Sugar (2024)
Garbage
The series is just stupid! The editing is as if someone is learning to use an editing program for the first time and just sticks a bunch of random scenes together in the hope that the audience will think it's clever and erudite. It's neither! Just a pile of rubbish. I bailed after the first episode due to the lack of context to support events, characters or narrative! Apple is not one of the leading streaming platforms and silly stuff like this explains the reason for this. The nod to 1940s and 50s detective noir films is laughable and may explain why in some scenes the actors deliver their lines in a way that makes one wonder if the dialog is all improvised as writers struggle to create a non-existent script, overall, just a pile of garbage!
Silo (2023)
Snails move faster than this series
This series is the usual dystopian plot about people surviving in a post-apocalyptic world, huddled together in a silo. So, it has the usual trappings of grim surroundings and a huge number or grimy, unwashed looking individuals. The series utilizes the talents of actors from many countries who seem to become confused and have difficulty using the same American type accent continuously. Perhaps they are better actors in their native countries but slipping in and out of an accent is really distracting. Harriet Walker who normally plays a posh English person, struggles with some kind of "down South" American accent, giving up the effort every now and again. Overall, the acting is quite pitiful, the casting "woke", and coupled with overuse of flashbacks, with dead characters resurfacing and fading away, the series plods along until viewers give up and stop watching. It could have been condensed into fewer episodes by using less filler episodes and less rubbish dialog!
Apple is just not one of the leaders in streaming as so many of their series just fade after one season and are never renewed. Difficult to understand why this one has been!
Aspirants (2021)
Maybe only for a local audience
This series comes from the same new wave producers, TVF, that made Panchyat. However, this is nowhere as good as Panchyat. The story line for this makes little sense to a global audience as it is peppered with acronyms that pertain to the Indian Civil Service and the preparations for this type of career. The narrative unfolds in a very choppy manner to the point where the scenes become nonlinear and without continuity. Everyone tries to appear exceptionally clever, following in the usual love hate relationship most Indians have with their colonial heritage. The characters are all very stereotypical and the plot nothing as engaging or globally identifiable as Panchyat, or Made in Heaven. Probably best suited only for a local, targeted audience.