Only Murders In The Building: Season III Overview

Summary

The murders continue as the dynamic frays

You can have too much of a good thing, that simply is a fact.

The first two seasons of this show were good if not great, and did a lot for all involved whereas this season instead gave of the idea that the series was running out of ideas. It was not helped by the fact that a theme of this season was separation and the gang moving in different directions each of which feel a little too familiar. The show doesn’t seem to understand how to write solo stories for their central trio without them ending up in a relationship as all did here. I have no issue with Gomez or Short’s characters relationships as I thought they were well done and the two characters played off well with each other, but Steve Martin’s characters relationship storyline made no sense and was just ill fitting.

The mystery of the season is okay and it isn’t immediately obvious though I would say you can see it from the midpoint. Broadly, I would say the highlight of the season is Meryl Streep as she is easily the most compelling new character.

Overall, there shouldn’t be a season four.

2/5

Pros.

Streep

The new romances, bar Martin’s

Cons.

Its repetitive

It feels like it’s run out of steam

It wastes the talents of Ashley Park

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Futurama Season II: One Large Step In The Wrong Direction

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Buckle up this will be a long one, this is my review of the Hulu season of Futurama.

Now first a little context, Futurama was and is my favourite animated series of all time, with American Dad a close second. I have watched Futurama all the way through more times than I can count and it has influenced my life in a number of ways. I like most people fall into the standard pattern, with one slight difference, I think that the Fox seasons were gold, I like the specials more so than some of the other fans, and I think that the Comedy Central run was fine but a massive step down.

The more I think over the new episodes the more I think they should never have been made, whether it was because they brought on new writers who didn’t understand the characters or whether it was because the show didn’t have solid ideas in coming back it remains to be seen but it could be either.

Really in my mind their were two major issues with this new season, firstly there is the fact it is obsessed with being topical, whether that is in talking about covid or cancel culture, which dates the episodes horribly and feels like the writers couldn’t come up with a new idea so they just went ‘what’s in the news’. Secondly, you have the fact that the series disrespects to an insane degree Fry and Leela’s relationship. You have Leela seemingly going off with other guys multiple times over the course of these episodes for no reason and at the end it will end with something like it was all a dream, it is awful.

I think the easiest way to review this season is to go episode by episode. The Impossible Stream as asinine and thinks it is far more clever than it actually is, it begins the long disrespecting of Fry and Leela’s relationship as well. Bad episode. Children of a Lesser Bog may well be the only good episode here, it carries over from the Fox era well adding a beautiful new chapter in that storyline and expanding out the side characters, it is a shame that it sets such a high bar as it makes everything else look like crap by comparison. How The West Was Won, is again the series needing to be topical and be like ‘aha crypto am I right kids’, are you beginning to notice a theme yet? Parasites Regained is entertaining again I like the classic call back and the Dune parody but it never really gets above okay. Related To Items You Have Viewed is an episode that you will forget about as you are watching it is dull, again the episode tries to do some classic Futurama science fiction but waters it down with topical references that amount to ‘Amazon bad’. I Know What You Did Last Xmas is one of the wors Christmas episodes as once again it takes the interesting concept of Robot Santa and makes it boring and dull, also Bender and Zoidberg don’t have chemistry. Rage Against The Vaccine and Zapp Gets Cancelled are both awful episodes and I think you can see why, it’s in the title, it is jokes that age horribly and that you have already hard at least a million times before, utter trash. The Prince and the Product is my most hated episode of the season as it flips off anyone who likes the Fry and Leela romance and then goes it was all a spell, it feels like the very worst kind of screw the audience story telling. All The Way Down is better, I would put it above Parasites Regained and below Children Of A Lesser Bog it does some interesting science fiction stuff and I like the questions it tries to explore, but it isn’t perfect.

So what’s that, three out of ten of the episodes this season are okay to good and seven are bad……. Yikes. If you are an optimist you could argue that it’s new writers trying to find their voices and old writers trying to get their groove back and that maybe the next half will be better but honestly I think that Futurama should have stayed dead and that pains me to say on a core level but it’s the truth.

Also a number of things carry over from the Comedy Central era yet Zoidberg’s girlfriend is not even mentioned, and that is one of the best episodes of the Comedy Central run, he is back to being pathetic and alone now and it feels like regression.

Overall, a massive shame.

1.5/5

Pros.

One good and two okay episodes

It is nice to see the characters back

Cons.

The need to be topical

The disrespect to Fry and Leela

Seven bad episodes

The new writers aren’t good

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Doctor Who, The Star Beast: The Day The Doctor Died

Summary

Doctor Who is dead.

The warning signs were there, the ending of the Whittaker era and the direction the show was heading in, bringing David Tennant back in a desperate attempt to win back old fans, the way Russell T. Davies has been treating the fans online, which in case you didn’t know was to attack them and tell them Doctor Who isn’t for them anymore.

I don’t know why I put it on, maybe I like to hurt myself. Anyway, I decided to give it a go after falling off early into the Whittaker era after the show stopped being about aliens, science fiction or fun and started being about preaching and the wider message of the BBC. Now I am not one of those people who hate the BBC out of hat, but I think that they have lost their way and are so keen to appear progressive that they have alienated all of their audience and now only appeal to a very slim group of people. Again though the term is loaded in the context of the culture wars the identity politics of the Whittaker era was the thing that killed in, according to insiders the show had such bad viewership that the BBC considered cancelling it twice. Yet the BBC in their infinite wisdom decided to double down. With the Doctor discussing his preferred pro nouns, and having to make every scene a soap box to preach out the very same things that killed the Whittaker era. This isn’t Doctor Who anymore.

The episode itself had one of the weakest plots I have seen from Who in a long time and felt far far worse than anything from the original Tennant era. Honestly if I wasn’t reviewing it I would have turned it off very early on. I think it is fitting Russell T. Davies was the person who brought Doctor Who back from the dead and now he is going to be the man to kill it. I don’t imagine it living much beyond the first season with the new Doctor, the one after Tennant, but again I am sure I will be told that the series isn’t for me anymore and I will be yet another fan driven away from the series forever.

When you have a creative for a show getting into arguments with people on X calling them all the names under the sun and being the exact opposite of professional you know you have a series the fans will love and support, not.

Overall, if you didn’t like the Whittaker era this is not the place to return to Who. Let’s wait for an era that undoes Whittaker and all this activist Who and goes back to how it used to be when it was fun to watch.

Pros.

Tennant tries his best

Cons.

It is preachy

It is too long

It isn’t fun or interesting

It is irritating

1/5

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Secret Invasion: Another Act Of MCU Self Harm

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Nick Fury, played by Samuel. L. Jackson returns to earth to try and stop a Skrull terrorist network. This will be an overview of the series.

Deary me, after all the talk of Marvel’s decline they decide to bring this out. Now I am not one for saying that if you adapt a comic storyline you have to do so faithfully and with due reverence, however, this feels like spitting on the face of the comic and replacing it with something that can only be described as hot and steaming.

I think my major issue with this is that rather than be a big epic event like in the comics it is so small scale that you question the budget for the show. One has to ask could they not afford Brie Larson’s salary to get her to appear, as Captain Marvel is deeply tied to the Skrulls. They dredge out the idea that this is person for Fury and this is his last go around, and then are too afraid to kill him off, making it all null.

The new characters added are pretty rancid, I will give the show that I am interested to see more of Olivia Colman’s British secret agent character only really because I am a fan of Colman and also I hope it leads to Excalibur. However, outside of Colman the rest are non-entities. We have a new American president, who is an obvious Trump parallel, because that is what the MCU really needed, another group of terrorists where the show tries to be sympathetic and goes oh but actually they were let down by an MCU hero so that makes them complex and nuanced, when they are just terrorists. Then there is Emilia Clarke’s G’iah, yet another overly power CGI hero because we don’t already have enough of them, there is nothing likeable or interesting about her character, hopefully she will be one that Marvel just lets drop off the grid and quietly die.

Overall, another milestone in the decline and death of the MCU.

1/5

Pros.

Colman

Cons.

It ruins Nick Fury in a pretty big way

It spits on the comics storyline

It is boring and awfully paced

The budgeting concerns were readily apparent

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iCarly: iFaked It

Written by Luke Barnes

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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Black Mirror: Season Six Overview

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A new season of Black Mirror presents itself, dare you step inside this modern day Twilight Zone.

I thought this season as a whole was fantastic, easily the best season of Black Mirror in years and certainly the best since Netflix took over the show. There were no bad episodes each episode both fit within the mould of the wider season whilst also doing something new and fun, this is highlighted perfectly by the two episodes that book end the season one is an inception like science fiction and the other an end times disaster romp through south Yorkshire.

As I have said in a number of reviews over the years when it comes to anthology shows and films it is very easy for one bad segment to hold back the wider whole of the season or film, however that definitely isn’t the case here. I also liked that though this season had Black Mirror’s sense of dark humour there were enough jokes and lighter moments scattered over the episodes to keep you watching whilst also perfectly balancing the tone.

Overall, this is a season of Black Mirror that pretty much anyone could enjoy.

4.5/5

Pros.

The tone of the episode

The way the episodes play with and interact with each other on a subtextual level

The acting is great

The concepts really come together

The twists and turns

Cons.

There were a few minor pacing issues within some of the episodes.

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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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Demon Slayer: Season One Overview

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Tanjiro must save his sister after she is bitten and turned into a demon, this then leads him on a quest to become a member of the Demon Slayer Corps.

I am aware that this show has been popular for a while and that I am late to the party, but I must say that after having just finished the first season that this is one of the best anime series I have watched in a long time.

To me the series evokes the vibes of classic Pokémon, if you get it you get it, this is especially true after the rest of the traveling companions show up mid-way through the season. However, I think the biggest strength of this show is its emotional core and the fact that the focus is often on the relationship between Tanjiro and his demon sister Nezuko which allows for the show to deliver some gut punches right to the feels.

In addition, I would say that this series does quite a lot with the horror elements considering the series is supposed to be child friendly as well, I thought there were a number of scenes especially during the forest arc where they managed to shock and disturb me. Although it must be said that the same forest arc also points out the major downside of this show, its pacing. For the most part this show moves along nicely, however, in some of the more action heavy episodes the same battle can stretch on for multiple episodes and feel like it outstays its welcome.

Overall, definitely an anime to check out the next time you’re on Netflix.

Ps. The little meta scenes at the end of each episode wherein they talk directly to the camera are frequently a delight.

4/5

Pros.

The end credits scenes

The emotion

The bond between the characters

The horror elements

Cons.

The pacing at times can drag

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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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