Honestly, it's quite an achievement how this season's every episode was topping the prior one as the worst ever.
This one was simplistic, childish, misguided, and downright offensive, in the way it presented mental health, racism, sexism, the rise of fascism in politics etc.
Another Hollywood-centric "moral lesson" about "helpless", overprivileged actresses and actors.
Paparazzi bad, shrooms bad, homophobia bad, racism bad, sexism bad. You're 20 years late, preaching to the choir, mate.
Even the main protagonist doesn't have any redeeming qualities. She's not good at her job, she relies on everyone else to help her out, she doesn't have any better work ethics than her colleagues, and she steals her roommate's food.
Worst BM episode ever.
PS. A few plotholes:
* She's the only person who reads a magazine article and decides to hang out at Mazey's favorite takeout place, and then instantly is told where she is within a minute of being there?
* She's able to follow closely the SUV for most of the trip there before they do anything about her CLEARLY following them,
* and then the actual destination is not only close enough to their current location that it's the only rehab clinic in the area, but the first person she talks to immediately tells her about it and where it is?
* Then this place has high security and a camera, people show up at the gate and even incorrectly enter a gate code, but no security responds,
* and they're able to easily find a broken part of the fence and get into the compound?
* Then Mazey was chained to an anchor point held by 4 small bolts on a wooden board, like that was supposed to hold down the werewolf. Then the Masterlock paddock, of course, opens after she wacks it a couple of times.
* Then the protagonist reaches for the cop's gun for no reason,
* Then somehow this officer can't shoot this werewolf once, but our protagonist luckily gets the gun kicked directly to them and takes down the werewolf IN MID-AIR with one shot.
The whole season could've been condensed to 4-5 episodes tops.
The emotional and psychological stuff were well done, but the actual plot was very sparse.
Christina Ricci's Misty is the only thing keeping me interested.
At this point, I wish this was a spoof of Survivor meets The Office .
Tai, that's not sleepwalking...
Basically, Face/Off meets The Astronaut's Wife .
The ending was completely irrational and sadistic, even for someone as unstable as David. They should've gone with the more predictable but logical ending of David killing Cliff and taking his place in the replica.
Banal, virtue-signalling and hypocritical.
Charlie Brooker: True Crime and the commodification of suffering is bad. Also, racism.
Netflix: Oh no!....... Anyway.
Go watch Kid Detective (2020), if you want to see a similar story properly done.
Every story beat reeked of Hollywood privilege, like when actors decided to sing "Imagine" during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Apparently, Joan needed to give up her career in tech and become a barista in order to feel like the "main character to her own life story"...
That's what Hollywood thinks is relatable to regular people? :laughing:
Also, I find it troubling that Charlie Brooker thinks that because people don't fear God anymore, they behave awfully, so they need technology to expose their immorality to everyone, in order to be shamed and kept in line...
A 5-minute rehashed plot stretched out to an hour.
Jason's and Ryan's backstories are basically a rip-off of Walter White and Elliott Schwartz from Breaking Bad .
And the Other Jason stealing Jason's life is ripped from Counterpart .
Sooo original... snore
Major props to the director and DP. Every single scene was beautifully lit and shot.
That said, the plot was spotty in a couple of places.
Big Graham coming alone to the restaurant to threaten Doris made very little sense because of how risky it was. He even handed her a potential weapon, a pen. There was nothing stopping Doris from stabbing him in the neck. Colin seemed too much of a chicken-shit to do anything, and it was unlikely that there would be any retaliation from Graham's gang after creating a power vacuum.
I broke down when his dad finally hugged him, shedding his own shame from the abuse in his past.
"What's the catch?"
That was such a Harlem Shake moment :joy:
Fantastic episode!
The newly-revealed relationship with Teri, the "Tony" persona, the internalized transphobia, they all add nuance and complexity to Donny's character, showing how his low self-worth and unmet needs for acceptance and affection have allowed Martha to bulldoze his boundaries, with gradually escalating transgressions leading up to her sexual assault on him.
Martha shows signs of manic behavior, all consistent with bipolar disorder: the grandiose lies, the giddiness, the pressured speech, the persistent sexually inappropriate remarks, the disorganized home etc.
Much better than the pilot, without the school drama weighing down the plot anymore.
Jackie being the most overtly narcissistic of the bunch, but Misty also shows "communal" narcissist behavior.
I hope they eat Jackie first. :japanese_ogre:
Christina Ricci seems to really enjoy herself playing Misty.
Possibly the best film about OCD, with a focus on the obsessive part, and mental health recovery in general.
Could've been trimmed to 4 episodes, instead of 8, but streaming platforms need hours and hours of content, I guess.
While it had some impressively well-acted moments, they got diluted in the endless ennui of drinking and driving around.
Nonetheless, psychological issues, like emotional abuse, self-harm, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, learned helplessness, traumatic bonding etc., were presented very accurately.
To people who found it excellent, I'd recommend checking out Season 1 of The Sinner (2017), and all of the Bates Motel (2013).
What are the chances that all 4 main characters bumped into each other in just a couple of days...
The quality of writing, so far, is more like Westworld S3-4 than S1.
So, it's basically Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a Fallout skin.
Lucy is Rey, Maximus is Finn, and the Ghoul is Han Solo.
That's a "meh" for me.
Felt like a 20-minute story stretched to 3 hours.
We see an awful lot of Stonehouse either acting like a buffoon or trying desperately to maintain a dignified facade, but not enough of him doing anything else really.
What a masterpiece of an episode!
Every story thread converged into a chaotic political ballet of destruction!
I can't believe this was written back in 2014! 10 years ago!
> -When does a revolution happen, guv?
> -I don't know. When wankers go bonkers?
> -When the coercive arm of the state has more in common with the people in front of them, attacking them, than they do with the people behind them, paying them.
This show was so ahead of its time, and criminally overlooked.
Another superb episode!
This is like Game of Thrones, but with cops!
Even better than the pilot.
The jokes were funnier, and the political maneuvering was sharper.
I thought London's police would be less toxic than America's militarized cowboys. I guess not.
Wow, watching this felt like trauma therapy, in a good way.
It reminded me a little of Umma (2022) because of the transgenerational trauma as a common theme, only this is a family drama, not a horror film.
I think anyone who is mixed race, especially of far east Asian descent, will find aspects of the film relatable. Judith and Steve felt very similar to how my mom and dad were. Excellent performances from both girls, especially Remy Marthaller who played Emmy.
I found the subtle signs that Emmy may be neurodivergent very well done.
Major props to writer/director Meredith Hama-Brown for her first feature film. Looking forward to her future work.
Such a pointless episode. Once again, Elena betrays Herbert and saves her ass.
What a wasted opportunity to explore some morally questionable interrogation/negotiation tactics. Instead, we got a half-assed "prisoner's dilemma". Chickenshits.
And that was the worst, most uninteresting ending they could've picked. They essentially just turned back the clock to the beginning of the season.
The only scene that was worth a damn was Paul's speech at the Circle; the rest of the movie felt like watching a trailer for a graphic novel adaptation of the book. The dialogue for the most part was atrocious, especially for the Harkonnens. Zendaya's line delivery and mannerisms were too "American", compared to the other Fremen, breaking the Middle Eastern-inspired atmosphere.
In 2024, conflating the terms "psychotic" and "psychopathic" is inexcusable. How the fuck did none of the story editors/producers pick that one up?
Beautiful cinematography. Some iconic scenes, gunfights, stunts, and one-liners.
It seemed that they wanted to have nuanced characters, but most of their storylines were handled sloppily or were underdeveloped by today's standards.
The 3rd act was all over the place, with excitement constantly ramping up & down, like it couldn't decide when to end.
That was brilliant!
I wish it was a TV series. Now, I have to watch The Thick of It .
Not fond of the huge time skips. "Six months later" should be the start of a new season, not the penultimate episode.
Feels very rushed, like they can't write anything new story-wise or character-wise, so they just skip ahead to move the plot along.
An amusing, light-hearted show that reminded me of a mix of White Collar and The Diplomat .
Absurd and cynical, but also empathic and relatable at times.
However, the Season 1 finale was a serious letdown.
