iCarly: iFaked It

Summary

One of Carly’s old enemies begins a deep fake campaign against her.

I thought this was a good episode but not as good as some of the other episodes this season. The Carly, played by Miranda Cosgrove, A plot had a few funny moments and it was nice to see some old characters return to the show again, but it couldn’t help shake the fact that it felt like a filler episode after the multi episode run of the Carly/ Freddie, played by Nathan Kress, relationship arc. I suppose more of these one off episodes are what I should expect from the show.

The b plot with Harper, played by Laci Mosley, wasn’t as entertaining as last week’s. I found it to be very traditional sitcom, which I am not saying as a compliment, with Harper’s girlfriend’s best friend seeking out to destroy her. It felt very forced at times and the conclusion of the episode felt pre-determined, we all knew how it was going to end.

Overall, a good episode but not of the recent quality the show has been putting out.

Pros.

Miranda Cosgrove has a few funny lines here

The premise is interesting

It is watchable

There is fun to be had

Cons.

It feels a bit outdated

The b plot feels very sitcomy

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iCarly: iMake It Offical

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Carly, played by Miranda Cosgrove, and Freddie, played by Nathan Kress, finally make it official online.

So I do like Carly and Freddie as a couple, but I’ve got to say this episode wasn’t a good showing for Freddie. Rather than care what his partner wanted or was comfortable with at that time he had to make everyone aware online that they were dating, this makes Freddie looks small and super insecure. In a sense I guess you could write it off as relationship hijinks within the sitcom like structure of the show, but I hope going forward they write Freddie as a better boyfriend.

Meanwhile the b plot has Spencer, played by Jerry Trainor, Harper, played by Laci Mosley, and Millicent, played by Jaidyn Triplett, face off against an evil animatronic. I thought whilst mostly a time filler, the b plot had some funny lines and at times gave me a bit of a Five Nights At Freddie’s Vibe.

Overall, a good episode but not one of the best of the season.

3.5/5

Pros.

A few funny lines in the b plot

The ending

It is nice to see Carly and Freddie as a couple

The evil animatronic

Cons.

It makes Freddie into an insecure and inconsiderate boyfriend

It struggles to rise above just fine

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Human Resources: Season Two Overview

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The hormone monsters are back in the office.

So I wasn’t a big fan of the first season of this show as I thought it was confused and overly busy. However, I am a fan of Big Mouth, as many of you will know, as such I wanted to like this show and I can say that I did enjoy this second season far more.

This is mainly because the show really crafts a key group of monster characters and sticks to them, it is not like the first season wherein we were constantly being barraged by new characters in every scene. Moreover, by focusing on a smaller group of characters it allowed for each to get some meaningful development over the season. The quality of this development is somewhat questionable as whilst each character does get progressed this season it at times feels like they are just running through names trying to give each character a scene to show where they are at now and then move on.

Building upon the issue of hollow character development, this season also tries to give a different character focus per episode which in an off itself isn’t a bad idea. However, the issue that then comes with this is that you might care about Rochelle or Maury and Connie and as such want to see their storylines get developed rather than being thrown into another character’s world, who you may not care about, for an entire episode. It slows things down a lot and causes you to stop paying attention in these other storylines.

Overall, the characters shine a lot more this season and it does right a lot of the wrongs of the first, however, the uneven character work and segmented approach to who the series is following on an episode by episode basis mean the series isn’t perfect.

4/5

Pros.

It is funny

The characters are better and more developed

It stops forcing in new characters

It rights a lot of the wrongs of the first season

Cons.

The character work is uneven and the segmented episode approach focusing on different characters takes you out of it at times.

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iCarly: iMake New Memories

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

After an accident fries her hard drive Carly, played by Miranda Cosgrove, and Freddie, played by Nathan Kress, try to retake old lost photos.

I thought this was a sweet episode and one that paid quite a bit of lip service to the series lore, which again I appreciate. I like how this episode really focused on the bond between Carly and Freddie since the early years of the show and thought that the climax of them becoming a couple felt both earned and needed. This episode hits hard on the romance front so much so that Carly and Freddie really do feel like a believable couple by the end.

However, the episode is let down by a poor and unfunny b plot involving Marissa, played by Mary Scheer, wearing a horrible wedding dress. The joke is that all the other characters think it is awful but that she can’t see it for whatever reason, that on its own isn’t very funny but then when it is repeated over and over throughout the duration of the b plot it becomes a whole lot more irritating.

Overall, a sweet episode that does Carly and Freddie’s love story justice.

4/5

Pros.

Freddie and Carly’s love story

They finally get them together

The respect this episode has for the show’s lore

The sweet ending

Cons.

The b plot is just the repetition of a dumb, unfunny joke.

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iCarly: iLove Your Shoes

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Carly, played by Miranda Cosgrove, tries to contend with her feelings for Freddie, played by Nathan Kress, as he is in a relationship and she doesn’t want to ruin that.

This episode felt to me like a further attempt to drag out the will they won’t they nature of the Carly Freddie relationship. As you might have recalled from my last iCarly review, I suggested against the series doing this as it becomes irritating after a while as you know the show is going to go there it is just a matter of when.

That said I did think this episode had some good comedy with Carly trying online dating and then the person she matches with just does not get her at all, this mismatch leads to a few funny lines which lift up a fairly skippable episode otherwise.

The b plot of the episode focuses on Spencer, played by Jerry Trainor, trying to give up all his money after being labelled as out of touch, this predictably goes badly. I didn’t care for this side story as I found it made Spencer a lot less likeable, seeing him try to guess what it is like to be ‘the common man’ felt reductive and almost mean spirited.

Overall, just above serviceable but still a step back from the first episode of the new season.

3/5

Pros.

It is watchable

A few good laughs

Cosgrove

Cons.

The will they won’t they is being dragged out for too long

Spencer comes across as a jerk here

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Fool’s Paradise: Mocking The Disabled And Using Sexual Assault As A Punchline

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Charlie Day plays a modern day version of a Charlie Chaplin character

There was a lot wrong with this film. In many ways it felt like the sort of film that Adam Sandler would put out say a decade ago, crude, stupid and very mean spirited. There is perhaps an assumption on Day’s part that because he is playing the character that is the butt of the joke and he is the one that put the film together then it makes it okay and less mean spirited, but I disagree.

The plot wants you to be entertained by, and find funny, the mistakes and misunderstandings of someone who clearly has learning difficulties, the film even clearly states that this man has the mind of a child. So right off the bat this film feels like it is mocking the disabled, but it gets worse, there are a number of scenes where this character is sexually assaulted and it is played for laughs. At no point across the film does this character show any knowledge of what sex is let alone a form of consent, yet these female characters force him into performing and that is supposed to be funny. It is seriously messed up and damaging.

It is a shame the film ends up in such a puerile place as it does have some good celebrity cameos, said cameos often steal the show and are funnier than anything else happening on screen. In terms of pacing a lot of these cameos are clustered together rather than being peppered in throughout the film which leads to them going a bit underappreciated as you don’t really have time to notice them all.

Overall, a horrible film that belongs in the bin of history.

1.5/5

Pros.

The cameos

A few funny jokes

Cons.

It makes fun of someone who clearly has disabilities

It features frequent sexual assaults and frame them as funny jokes

It is toxic

The cameos are not spread out well within the film

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The Book Club The Next Chapter: The Sequel No One Needed

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A group of old friends head to Italy for a bachelorette party.

I was in two minds about watching this film at all, the first was fairly abysmal and was nothing other than a cynical ploy to cash in on the Fifty Shades fad that was popular when the film was greenlit. However, I must say that this film faired better than the first and was watchable and even charming at times, now there were some pretty big issues with the film don’t get me wrong but it was at least more passable than the first film.

In a sense I applaud this film for trying to be a sex comedy film at times with older women. Within the landscape and our broader culture old women are far too often seen as sexless and grandmotherly ceasing to have needs of their own, so it was nice that this film tried to address that. Although it must be said that it does so with the grace of a wrecking ball, and rather than have a mature conversation about the sexuality of older women the film instead just crams as many groan inducing, in a bad way, sex jokes as it can into its runtime. It just feels a little juvenile, though it must be said it is handled with more class than something that Al Pacino or Robert De Niro would do wherein they would be doing gross physical comedy as well.

Something that hit me early on with the film and that opened things on a sour note was how much this film is a covid film. By that I mean that this film within the first few minutes must have mentioned covid at least twenty times, and again I feel like this is done as when the film was being made the pandemic was a big news item, however, now upon release it just serves to date the film.

Both of those issues exist alongside the various technical issues that plague this film such as convenient writing, a generic plot, pacing issues and over sentimentality, but you would expect those sort of issues with a film of this nature so I won’t spend time addressing each in turn, just trust me they are there.

Overall, hopefully this is a closed book now.

2/5

Pros

It is watchable

It opens a much needed conversation on the taboo of older female sexuality within media

Cons

It turns an important conversation into a series of sex jokes that are never funny

It is generic, dull and at times the pacing is trying

The reminder of the pandemic

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iCarly: iBuckled

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Carly, played by Miranda Cosgrove, finally comes to terms with her feelings for Freddie, played by Nathan Kress.

Yes folks they are finally doing it, after constant hints since the revival the show looks set to soon make Carly and Freddie a couple, or will it? I think this can go one of two ways either they get them together soon and have the awkward nature of their romance play out this season, which is what I want, or they drag it out throughout the whole season, which I think after all the hints in the second season would just be irritating.

This episode on the whole was a fairly mixed bag, I liked a lot of the Carly/ Freddie stuff and the jokes therein, I thought there was a number of laugh out loud moments towards the end of the episode, but I also thought there were a number of really awkward and cringe moments in the episode as well. The whole reality show sequence is bad and it makes no sense that Pearl, played by Mia Serafino, would just sit there as everyone is talking about how Freddie and Carly should get together.

The subplot about Freddie’s mm getting engaged was fine, but honestly when thinking about the episode I barely remember the subplot at all that’s how forgettable it was.

Overall, it is nice to see Carly and Freddie finally seem as though they are getting together.

3.5/5

Pros.

Carly and Freddie

A number of good jokes

Josh Peck shines

The ending

Cons.

The teasing and the will they wont they stuff

Some cringe moments

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Ted Lasso: Season 3 Overview

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The friendly American football coach, played by Jason Sudeikis, goes home.

The final season of a much beloved show like Ted Lasso was always going to be sad and this was sad but it was also disappointing. As the credits rolled on the final episode of the third season I released that in a sense the show had peaked with the second season and maybe should have ended there.

Though I enjoyed most of the character work this season did, and the endings that most of the characters got, I also thought that at times it was overly indulgent. By that I mean it would go to a place of being overly sentimental, it would spend vast sections of episodes dedicated to the fate of a very minor character in the scheme of things and yes whilst it may have been well done it felt like filler as the actual story of the season was relatively short.

Moreover, the decision to make Ted sad, which really was a second season development, came back to hurt the show as it could no longer really pull off the quaint small town charm and positivity that had worked in the first season so well. Giving the character depth and complexity was a good thing and I am not saying he should have stayed a one note caricature but I think they took Ted’s sadness too far, so much so that it gives the third season a real sense of heaviness that sits within until its closing moments.

Overall, the third season was still good don’t get me wrong, but it was a noticeable step back from the other seasons and clearly evidenced at times the need for the show to end as it was becoming long in the tooth.

3/5

Pros.

It does some good character work

It has a number of sweet moments

It has some of the same charm as the earlier seasons/

Cons.

It is overly sentimental at times to the point of feeling indulgent

There is a lot of what can only be described as filler

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Love Again: Reading The Texts Of A Deadman

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A music journalist, played by Sam Heughan, finds himself in possession of a phone that is receiving texts from an unknown number, little does he know that he will end up falling in love with the mystery sender, played by Priyanka Chopra.

This film was strange, in many senses this misjudged a lot of things. Most noticeably was the tone, there are things in this film that are big deals like the male lead using the texts send to him unknowingly by the female lead, who thinks she is sending them to her dead ex, to track her down and pursue her, but rather than treat this as the red flag it is it is instead set up as a quirky meet-cute.

Moreover, Sam Heughan was entirely miscast with the film wanting more of a bumbling Hugh Grant sort but instead has a brooding and quite intense lead that doesn’t meet any of the boyish playfulness his role is clearly written to have. Additionally, the romantic chemistry between Chopra and Heughan is fairly non-existent.

Don’t even get me started on how much this film goes out of its way to plug Celine Deon, who no doubt Sony owns the rights to her music catalogue, it was off putting and made me feel like I was watching an advert rather than a film.

The film is passably watchable in a pinch and I did think the sequence in which Chopra’s real life husband Nick Jonas showed up was quite funny. Jonas shone in his little cameo role and it really was a shame he didn’t get more time or a bigger part as his character was far more interesting that Heughan’s.

Overall, Jonas is good for a laugh and it is passable if fairly generic and forgettable.

2/5

Pros.

It was passable

Jonas was funny in his brief cameo

Cons.

The leads have no chemistry

Heughan was miscast

It is generic

The tone is off

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