Clarkson’s Farm Season 5: Bittersweet

Summary: Jeremy and co are back to show you the highs and lows of farming.

This was a surprisingly emotional season of what is normally easy comfort viewing, from the TB stuff to the news of Jeremy Clarkson’s continued ill health the last few episodes of the season pack a hell of a gut punch.

However, the season as a whole isn’t depressing even in moments of deep distress there is still a joke a few minutes away that can restore people’s spirits. This is not done in a way that stops there from being tensions or emotion but in a way that tries to cheer you up after giving bad news.

The wider focus of the season is on the changing world for farmers and the need to become more tech savvy in order to stay alive in an economic world that increasingly seems hostile to them. You do feel for the farmers and see the interesting things the new tech can do.

Of course the jokes are still there as ever and are always good to brighten up your day. They mostly land which is a rare thing to say for a comedy show these days.

Overall, a bittersweet season of TV

4/5

Pros.

It’s funny

It shows you the real world issues effecting farmers

The farming tech

The people and their bonds

Cons.

It is quite sad towards the end so get ready for that

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The Boroughs Season Overview: Old Person Stranger Things

Summary: the Duffers let someone else take over Chat GPT prompts and make something derivative of Stranger Things/

So this is Stranger Things for octogenarians, a group of misfit old people team up to fight aliens, sound familiar, it should, simply remove the world old and it’s the same thing as Stranger Things. The only difference being the monsters in Stranger Things come from another dimension not space, yet it could easily be seen as otherworldly.

Whilst Gina Davis praised this show for its Golden Girls’ esque collection of oldies for leading roles, the series doesn’t do much new with them. We’ve seen countless stories about evil old folks homes, and we’ve also had many stories with old people in main roles, sorry Gina.

The mystery aspects of the show are once again hard not to compare to Stranger Things as it looks incredibly familiar in terms of how they build tension and set things up for later. The writers of this show really thought the Duffers diseased franchise was a good one to copy from. No accounting for taste we guess.

Overall, Netflix needs to get better and learning what not to greenlite

1.5/5

Pros.

The performances are good

There aren’t pacing issues

Cons.

It feels familiar

The mystery isn’t very good

The evil care home idea is done to death

It’s dull

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Maul Shadow Lord Season Overview: The Right Direction For Star Wars?

Summary: Darth Maul continues his gangland story set under the reign of the Empire.

If you enjoyed Clone Wars and Rebels you will likely enjoy this, we did for the most part. It is nice to see Star Wars be dark and gritty and the gangland focus was a great way to do that. The action in the series hit where it needs to and seeing the fights with the inquisitors was cool. The only issue with this side of things is that due to plot armour you know neither Maul nor the particular inquisitors could die here as that would break canon.

Maul is a great character to explore the moral nuances within the force and to look at the idea of Sith not being aligned and instead being very hostile towards each other. There were a number of shots that referenced Dracula, or Nosferatu which gave the series a very cool vibe, particularly when Maul is calling to his apprentice as she sleeps.

The stuff with the apprentice and the cop was where things started to fall apart, that is not to say it was all bad. There were some great scenes, however, these stop and let’s talk about our feelings scenes slowed the plot down a lot, particularly when it was the cop and his son. Maul’s escape and the beginning of Devon’s training should have happened midseason not at the end of 10 episodes. There was too much filler.

Overall, a good Star Wars TV show with a lot of promise.

3/5

Pros.

Maul

The homages to horror

The inquisitor fights

Cons.

Filler

Yet more Jedi escaped Order 66

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Lesbian Space Princess: Yawn Haven’t We Been Here Before

Summary: Making one aspect of who you are your entire personality.

So in an era where we should all be supporting independent animation, this film makes that hard to do so.

Firstly, there is nothing fresh about it, this film seems to act like having a lesbian front and centre is some sort of new novel idea, when it has been done for a long time and is no longer new. Believe us when we tell you that this film will really push down your throat the fact the character is a lesbian just in case you forgot.

Secondly, as far as adult animation goes it looks very similar to a lot of other projects, whilst there is nothing inherently wrong with sharing an animation style, it would be nice if there was something to differentiate it.

Thirdly, you have the fact it is adult animation which means cringe and at times edgy jokes, which are met with a sigh.

Overall, if you want to see an incredibly bland film that thinks having a lesbian in it is something new and novel when it isn’t then this is the one for you.

1/5

Pros.

It’s short

Cons.

The humour

The characters

It rama DEI into every pore of the film

It is cringe

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Cinema Issues: Gender, Sexuality and Modern Pixar

For anyone watching Toy Story 5 it becomes clear from the off that there is something insidious under the surface. This is the entire subversion of gender roles. Now this has been explained away by staff as “how little girls play” however this was clearly a deliberate creative choice. Kenna Harris even admitted there were other versions of the play sequences yet they went with the ones they did.

Remember after a string of recent flops Pete Doctor said that the studio would get back to making films for everyone, it sure doesn’t feel like it.

When looking at Toy Story 5 and asking question why did it do that, you only need look at the creative team. Harris was the co director, she has never directed anything major for Pixar before, she was brought in with veteran Andrew Stanton. She is also a woman who views herself as being non binary, showing that to the core of her identity is disputed ideas around gender. One cannot jump to blaming her immediately as Stanton and the wider team at Pixar would have had to sign off on the charges to the characters.

This feels like a continuation of a studio that has one thing one the mind, remember when they forced in a same sex kiss into Lightyear, or when Pixar staff were upset as had to remove the larger LGBTQ+ themes from Elio. Clearly they want to push gender stuff and LGBTQ themes though their kids films, which is dicey.

To answer the Elephant in the room about what they did in Toy Story 5, we can answer in 3 parts.

Jessie- is now far more masculine and aggressive, during the romance scenes with Buzz she is mostly disinterested and focused on her anti tech crusade, she isn’t shown as having any softness bar once.

Woody- as the former male leader character is humiliated, no one respects him, he has to fight with buzz about who get the number 2 position under Jessie. In his interpersonal relationship with Bo he is shown to also be dominated.

Buzz- arguably the most notable case. Buzz was hyper masculine in previous films as he was a space ranger action hero toy. Now he is bumbling, seemingly unable to do anything without Jessie, he gives another male voiced toy the kiss of life at the start of the film. Then you have the wedding sequence at the end of the film, after the proposal Buzz’s leg twists up as is traditionally feminine, Buzz is given away as is what happens to women, Buzz gets the ring put on him first (again women), and Buzz is dipped for the kiss (again submissive). Then you have the fact he’s wearing a skirt, people scream oh it’s a kilt, it’s funny isn’t it we don’t remember Buzz being Scottish before this film. They knew they would get a backlash to him wearing a skirt so added in this cop out.

Not only is it character vandalism, but also one has to ask why are they doing this. Why are they trying to destroy traditional masculine elements and traditional feminine aspects within a film aimed at kids. What the film presents you with is a world wherein men act like women and women act like men, can you see the message there.

Pixar as a studio has made it’s bones very clear about what it wants to do, and why and if this sort of stuff bothers you, you shouldn’t be watching their films. It shows how deeply out of touch Hollywood is from reality

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Supergirl: Toxic Femininity

Summary: Superman’s cousin puts down the bottle, more like moves with it, and actually does something.

Maybe having your lead saying how men don’t own women’s bodies, when no one said they did, then insulting those offended on the grounds of their gender and religion, then changing the canon of a character to say she’s Bi and then finally saying the films better as it doesn’t centre men, isn’t a great way to market a film, as the terrible preview numbers show.

Kara is deeply unlikeable, she is very much the human embodiment of the damaged tattoo from the forehead of Jared Leto’s Joker. She drinks, she’s sad, she’s unpleasant to those around her, as God forbid she doesn’t take out her mental issues on other people. The message of this film is that that is okay behaviour as you can be good but not nice, which is a self defeating morally bankrupt principle. The film thinks this is showing her as a damaged character, with the journey being to show how she becomes more connected to people. However, the film tries to make her seem cool in her broken state glorifying her entitled and bratty behaviour.

Superman is in this, as more than just a target for dog urine, as Gunn and co really respect the character, herein he plays the concerned mother hen constantly checking in, usually to be met with derision or a well actually from Kara.

Of course the film likens being a bride to slavery, by having the villain literally kidnapping women and turning them not into sex slaves as is the case with most human trafficking, but rather brides. The message here is clear, marriage is bad and a prison for women. It is also entirely unoriginal as Mad Max Fury Road did a similar thing about ten years ago.

Lobo gets less screen time than you imagine and serves really to be red meat to throw to the male fans who Alcock has alienated so completely. He’s maybe on screen for a total of 5 minutes.

The focus on Krypto once again shows the weakness of the Gunn verse as it does not seem to be able to stand without having a cute dog to try and guilt butts into seats. This shows a weakness in storytelling. The actual journey of healing if you want to view it like that shows off the toxicity of Kara’s damaged personality and even when she does something good it quickly becomes self centered once again.

Overall, there is a reason that Clayface is having it’s premium formats reconsidered, this feels like edgy Tumblr fanfic from about 2 decades ago.

0.5/5

Pros.

It’s not a 3 hour slog

Cons.

Kara is unlikable

The journey feels incomplete by the end

You’ve seen it before

Lobo is barely in it

It feels like it’s for edgy girls circa 2009

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Disclosure Day: The Government Lying Again

Summary: what if aliens were real and the government was covering it up

The plot of the film is about as new and interesting as the idea of drinking a glass of water. It has been done so so many times before, if the idea had been what would the world be like if people found out aliens were real, which is what this film sets up that would have been far more original.

There are some interesting ideas and concepts here particularly this idea of diving which the film doesn’t really explain.

The thing that is the most polarising about this film is the tone. There are rightfully incredibly serious moments in this film and then people doing prat falls and Emily Blunt calling an alien device a thingy. What it feels like is a more serious blockbuster but with some millennial quips and silliness in there which hurts it. The issue with this tonal issue is that you’ll see a very serious scene and then they’ll have something silly happen and it destroys the tension.

Overall, watchable and with some good ideas but also not great.

4/5

Pros.

Interesting ideas

Some good sequences

What it sets up

The performances

Cons.

The tone

The generic plot

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Devil May Cry Season 1+2 Overview: The West Doesn’t Understand The East

Summary, a man who has no talent other than victimhood and using that as a means to attack a beloved cartoon and making a name for himself vandalizes a different property.

Out of all the video games you could make into a TV show DMC has a lot going for it, it’s pretty easy to get it right. Yet somehow they managed to get it wrong. This shouldn’t shock anyone after a good first season of Castlevania they managed to ruin that in short order.

Here is little different with modern politics entering into source material that in some cases is decades old, always in the most cringe ways. We also have a girl boss, who didn’t even arrive in the series until DMC 3. You could have had a strong female character in Trish but no. The series wants to ignore any aspects of the games it doesn’t like.

In many ways this feels like simply taking characters and putting them into something else this doesn’t feel in anyway like DMC and it feels painful trying.

It feels like the hello fellow kids memes forced into a couple seasons of a netflix show.

0.5/5

Pros.

It’s short

Cons.

It’s nothing like the games

Where’s Trish

It’s boring

Its inserting modern dayisms left right and centre

None of the characters are likeable

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Toy Story 5: Let It Die

Summary: Pixar continues to run a beloved IP into the ground.

Lets stop the story and do an incredibly boomer moment of kids being on screens are bad huh, every grandparent in the room just let out a cheer, whereas everyone under the age of 50 says shut up. Of course the villain is sympathetic as the days of having evil villains are long gone, we all just need to be more empathetic and listen to each other.

Jessie has to get a backstory, because God knows audiences were crying out for that, but hey what would a Disney product be without a girlboss. Herein, they do the incredibly cringe Taylor Swift song to try and get the Swifties to care about a franchise that hasn’t been relevant in 15 years. Of course in order to give Jessie her moment Woody had to be humiliated, gaining a beer belly and a bald ‘sun bleached’ spot.

The most depressing thing of all is how this is just a franchise that should have had the life support out pulled ages ago but Disney is too scared of new ideas. We get these needless retreads and time with side characters that no one ever asked for.

Overall, Disney as a company is creatively bankrupt.

1/5

Pros.

One or two funny jokes

Cons.

It’s needless

The screen commentary is tiresome

We don’t need a Jessie backstory

Girlboss slop

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Cinema Issues: Cancelling A Show After One Season

Today we are doing something a bit different and doing a bit of a PSA. So if like us you’re getting tired of seeing posts whining about various shows canceled after one season, wherein the poster didn’t understand why it has happened, the idea here is to explain to them once and for all, so they stop being tedious.

1- It is all about ratings, no not critical scores, viewing figures/ratings. It doesn’t matter if there is a right wing backlash to the show they don’t have the power to end it, it doesn’t matter if there is a loyal audience if it is small. How it has always worked is if the show doesn’t hit the ratings target it gets canned.

2- Sometimes shows get second seasons as they are bought up front or developed for two seasons. This then contractually overrules ratings issues. Look at the God Awful Halo TV series for an example of this, it was commissioned for two seasons and so it got a second season despite terrible ratings.

3- The only thing that matters is you watching it, talking about it online and buying merch, these things send the correct corporate signals. Boycotts and petitions after a decision has been made change nothing in most cases.

4- Businesses aren’t charities they don’t give a show 5 seasons to find an audience, not in the hyper competitive world of streaming you aren’t either a hit out of the gate as something like Squid Game was or you aren’t and then cancelled.

5- You aren’t entitled to a second season, when you start a show you aren’t entitled to an ending either. Check yourself.

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