Surprisingly well-written and acted.
The lead characters have depth and nuance.
The subversion of the "white-cop-kills-unarmed-black-kid" trope was an interesting opener.
Of course, it explores the systemic racism and police corruption, but it does it in an intelligent, nuanced way, instead of just soapboxing.
What a pointless film.
It was like watching toddlers on their first day out, but it's actually grown-ass, sheltered kids driving/walking across country. No plan, no money, no food, no water, just their smartphones (which never need to be charged, apparently) and weed. They keep disparaging older people, but the only reason they didn't get mugged, raped or killed was because of kind strangers they serendipitously met along the way.
This is how terminally online Zoomers think the #VanLife is like.
This must be what schizophrenia feels like.
Cohen meets Tarantino, but without the humor or directorial flair of either.
Very slowly paced and edited.
Not great, not terrible.
"The only way to annihilate this insidious people once and for all is to open our arms, invite them into our homes, and embrace them. Only then will they vanish into assimilation, normality and love. But we cannot pretend. The Jew is nothing if not clever. He will see through hypocrisy and condescension. To destroy him, we must love him sincerely."
You just checkmated yourself. :laughing:
More evidence that stunt coordinators make lousy storytellers.
Even the stunts didn't impress me because almost all of them were "digitally enhanced" which leaves you with an aftertaste of "fakery".
I would've appreciated it if the fights "IRL" were distinctly made to not look like "stunt fights".
And the romance story was completely unnecessary and full of toxic romantic moments.
Alternative titles:
- My Little Phony
- Filly Vanilli
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.
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.
