Skeleton Crew Season 1 Overview: The Duffer Brothers Need To Sue

Star Wars steals from Stranger Things.

Honestly, as far as recent Star Wars shows go this wasn’t bad. That’s not to say it was perfect, I would place it in the watchable category.

For the most part this is a fairly self-contained adventure, we don’t really interact with iconography or characters from the Star Wars universe we would expect to see, we see some X-Wings, a lightsaber and a few things are mentioned in passing but that is really all. There is distinct Goonies and Flight Of The Navigator vibes to this, but I would say the biggest influence is Stranger Things. To see Star Wars lift so many themes and ideas from Stranger Things is depressing on a number of levels, to see one of the kings of the science fiction genre have to borrow from the new upstart shows just how bad of a situation Star Wars is in.

The journey itself was interesting there were certainly ups and downs, and some episodes hit harder than others but for the most part it was entertaining. I liked the mystery around Ad Attin and I thought the new droid, voiced by Nick Frost, was a welcome addition to the universe. The child actors were probably the weakest part of the show, I will not rag on the child actors too much as it seems like low hanging fruit, however, it must be stated that their emotions were all over the place and they were badly directed.

My biggest bugbear with the show was the fact it introduced yet another survivor of Order 66, at this point the Empire seems incredibly incompetent. This of course is Jude law’s character who the series teases with the will they won’t they question of is he a Jedi, at times you are lead to believe that it’s just parlour tricks or that maybe he is force sensitive, but no the final episode has him reveal that he is in fact a Jedi or was. Moreover his origins and how he survived order 66 a so incredibly vague you question why it was even brought up at all, clearly it was done to set him up for his own show where it would be explored in more detail.

Overall, not as bad as the Acolyte not as good as Andor.

3/5

Pros.

It is watchable

It has fun moments

It feels very disconnected

Cons.

The child actors aren’t very good

There is yet another survivor of Order 66

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The Rig Season 2 Overview: A Sinking Feeling

Summary

Amazon needs to burn more money so they made a sequel series to something that didn’t need it.

The Rig came out a while ago, and I wouldn’t say it was popular, I never saw anyone talk about it on social media for example, and for the most part the ending of the first season closed out the loop. This secondary season was in no way needed.

There also seems to be far less to do this time around, the new season is mainly split between a refugee camp, post wave, and a new rig, if you would permit me. For the most part it is just folks stood around talking, and the few times they do venture outside of this it looks cheap.

I found the characters also to be much more unlikable this time around, we some of the relationships not making a lick of sense, it felt as though they had in new writers who just didn’t get the characters and couldn’t be bothered to read the scripts for the first season so just wrote this with no frame of reference.

Also and this may be a little mean so I’ll keep it brief but Emily Hampshire has clearly had plastic surgery and it is distracting in a bad way, she looks uncanny valley but in real life. Also because of whatever she has done whenever she tries to emote her face doesn’t really change in any way and that also takes you out of it.

Overall, a disappointing and unnecessary second season.

1/5

Pros.

It is laughably bad

Cons.

It doesn’t justify its existence

It has a terrible ending

Emily Hampshire is distracting

It is too bloated

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Shogun Season One Overview: The Best Series Of The Year

Summary

A series about an Englishman, Cosmo Jarvis’ trip to feudal Japan.

I think this was one of the strongest series of the year, not just because it was well done but also because it was so refreshing. We have been crying out for more Samurai fare for a while, there are some films and series here and there, but by and large the sub-genre at least from a western perspective has been dry for a while. As such this arrived at just the right time.

What I appreciate about this show is that it is both a slow burn and has soap opera like elements but it doesn’t effect the quality of the show. There is enough happening within an episode to make the slower pace and the world building feel rich and meaningful rather than tedious. Moreover, there is enough action and character’s doing things to make the interpersonal soap opera stuff seem few and far between.

I think the characters are all written well and that the story goes to interesting places, I would like to see the war between the clans more fully realised but I suppose that will be something to consider in the next season.

Overall, definitely one of the best shows of the year.

4/5

Pros.

The setting and the world

It feels fresh

It is interesting

It has great characters

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Doctor Who Christmas Special: Dr Babe’s Trip Through The Looking Glass

Summary

Dr Babes is back and crying once again.

There was so little merry about this that I consider how they can even call it a Christmas special, surely that is some form of false advertising.

If you didn’t like the new Doctor’s first series you won’t like this it is much more of the same, him dancing, him saying babes, him being sassy and then being strong by crying. Who needs brains and a sonic screwdriver when you have interpretive dance and crying.

Him being joined by one of the stars of Bridgerton just feels like the BBC once again desperately trying to get in a youth audience that has never even heard of Doctor Who, she was entirely forgettable. Turning her into the Star Of Bethlehem from the Bible was an unexpected twist that manages to spoil a centuries old story, all to prop up the BBC’s failing IP.

Having a future version of the Doctor show up just feels like more messing with the cannon for the sake of trying to get a cheap thrill, it shows a lack of respect towards the series and towards those that enjoy it. However, I would expect nothing more from the current day BBC.

Overall, more garbage paid for by an archaic and unjust tax.

0.5/5

Pros.

It makes for a good thing to laugh at

Cons.

The guest star can’t act

The star twist is stupid and doesn’t fit

The future Doctor idea is lazy and disrespectful

It is cringe

It is too long

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What If Season Three Overview: Shut Down Marvel Animation

Summary

Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

So before this series aired it was well known that What If was not coming back, yet did they think to have it go out on top? Oh no. What Marvel animation produced is one of worst things that Marvel Studios has ever dumped onto Disney Plus in disgrace.

Where to start, maybe with the fact that none of the characters you know and want to see are shown here, no Iron Man, no Scarlett Witch, no Cap, but hey you do get popular Phase 4/5 characters like Agatha, Shang Chi and Kate Bishop, remember them? Worse yet rather than show us what if scenarios based on characters we like they decide to give us all new characters that mean nothing to us, Howard the Duck and Darcy have a kid, yes casual bestiality in an MCU show, and she is an important character later in the season. I bet you can hardly contain your excitement.

To break it down episode by episode so you can get a flavour of what is just so bad about the season, the first episode reads as a kid copying off their more successful friend in this case Marvel Animation stealing ideas wholesale from Pacific Rim and Godzilla. The second is an old Hollywood pat on the back with Agatha, one of the least popular characters in the MCU. The third tries to be a spy thriller sort of affair with Winter Soldier and Red Guardian yet reads more as how much can David Harbour embarrass himself in twenty minutes. The fourth is the infamous duck sex. The fifth features a Riri Williams the bargain basement Iron Man clone with multiple failed comics runs to her name. The sixth is an old west adventure with Shang Chi and Kate Bishop, who have about as much chemistry as two neighbours who have had a bitter blood feud for twenty years. The seventh is a Captain Carter and her new characters adventure across the multiverse, this is probably the best episode though that doesn’t mean its good, it sets up an interesting finale and has Storm so those memberberies are present.

The finale takes anything good about episode seven and defecates all over it and serves it up to you on a bed of middle fingers, it is about twenty minutes of Captain Carter and co punching the watchers until she finally kills herself at the end. The death of Captain Carter should have felt like something she was the show’s most important creation and yet it just felt like you had twenty minutes of your time wasted, they could have done so much with this and taken the finale in a number of ways and yet they just didn’t.

Overall, this leaves a bad taste in my mouth after a year of questionable Marvel offerings with worse yet to come. Personally I believe the age of Marvel Studios is well and truly over and I don’t think they can come back, I think it is over.

0/5

Pros.

There is nothing redeemable about it

Cons.

They seem allergic to using popular characters

The finale is terrible

The casual bestiality

It isn’t entertaining

You feel nothing

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Demon Slayer Hashira Training Arc Series Overview: A Waste Of Time

Summary

The new season of Demon Slayer has one goal, to waste your time.

So if you have read my other season reviews for Demon Slayer then you know I often have the same complaint, the pacing and the filler, more often than not each season will have a few good episodes and then lots and lots of filler around it, this is where that shifted.

I wish I could tell you that the change is a good thing but it isn’t, this season was almost entirely filler far more than the other seasons. Basically the whole of the season was just the character’s training, which I know is what the season is called, but there is no build up to a grand show down as there was with the other seasons, no here it basically just builds up to a pretty disappointing death and then the cast are thrown into the pocket dimension with a big to be continued vibe to it.

I like the characters and I like seeing them interact but this was long drawn out nothingness, and the fact that there wasn’t even a satisfying pay off at the end of the all the filler makes it doubly annoying.

Overall, this is just killing time until the films and everyone knows it.

1/5

Pros.

It has a cool ending

Cons.

It is all set up and no pay off

It is all filler

It is boring and badly paced

It hits the same beats over and over again

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Dune Prophecy Season One Overview: Adapting The Wrong Book

Summary

Hollywood really can’t have any franchises without feeling the need to run them into the ground.

So the two recent Dune films were met with both praise and love from audiences, so what did they feel the need to do that’s right give the show a spin-off tv series. Now this could have worked with the right talent, but sadly it adapted one of Brian Herbert’s newest books, and focused on a group in the universe who are only interesting due to the fact that you don’t know much about them, it also lacked any talented creative to shepherd the series.

This feels very much as if the CW was given the Dune license, it doesn’t have the production values of the films by any metrics, and it focuses more on petty soap opera like drama rather than universe wide intrigue and drama. The opening 5 minutes of the first episode are the most entertaining thing about the whole first season, it would have been far more interesting to focus on a different Brian Herbert book and looked at the Butlerian Jihad and humanities war against thinking machines, but they clearly wanted to go with another angle.

The fact that this is a girl boss Dune series is not only why it was made but also why it was made so fast, the wise and perfect and not at all morally corrupt Sister needs to lead the Imperium from the shadows because silly men would lead it to ruin. There is as you can imagine a number of girl boss themes and men taking their tops off so the women can objectify them, remember folks it is okay when one gender does it but not the other that’s the world we live in now.

Overall, it is a girl boss show about a group that is interesting when mysterious, this series removes that mystery and with it any interest in the show.

1/5

Pros.

The opening of the first episode

Cons.

It demystifies the Sisterhood

It is too drama focused and has little action

It feels like a science fiction soap

It is badly paced

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Squid Games Season Two Overview: The Filler Strikes Back

Summary

The games are back.

I really don’t know what to say, this was a massive let down. It reminded me of when you watched an Unexpected Journey for the first time and right when Bilbo and co are getting into the heat of it it’s the end credits. Please wait for the sequel. The reason why the Hobbit films are viewed with much more animus than the original trilogy of films is because they felt like one story divided into three for the sake of greed. This is much the same, rather than give us say a 15 episode second season that provides a satisfying follow up that ends out the series this instead decides to cut out right as the action is getting started. It is infuriating.

What makes this worse is the fact that there is so much filler here, the first two episodes are literally all filler and exposition. By the time the games actually do start up again you are almost midway through this ‘second’ season.

They also shoe horn in a trans storyline that feels very modern day and makes you ask the question why, the answer to that is likely Netflix said we have a diversity quota that needs filling and you don’t have any non-Asians in this so you have to make it up another way.

Overall, I would say don’t bother watching this until it is all out, it is not complete in anyway as is and comes off as massively unsatisfying.

2.5/5

Pros.

The games are interesting

It ends on a high

It has some good moments

Cons.

The filler

The forced in trans storyline

It shouldn’t have been split

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Only Murders Season Four Overview

Summary

We are back for yet another season.

By no means do I think this season of Only Murders is bad, it is still very watchable. However, there is an unmistakable whiff of decay coming off it, what I mean by that is the first two seasons felt relevant and necessary, the third felt like a sort of sendoff, the fourth almost feels like a needless parody of the show itself.

I think the big issue with this season was the fact that the mystery doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, it basically boils down to most of the season being a misdirection relating to a guy who killed himself and hid it to avoid having his friends get kicked out of rent controlled apartments, and then in the final moments of the penultimate episode they just reveal who the killer is. It feels like the misdirection sub plot gets far too much time for how important it actually is to the murder mystery.

There are some worthwhile moments such as Charles’s, Steve Martin, sub plot regarding him coming to terms with the murder of a close personal friend of his. Or the inclusion of the actors playing the central trio who do make for good comedic foils for them.

Overall, whilst there is still some good here it does feel as though it is being kept going for the sake of it at this point.

3/5

Pros.

The Charles sub plot

The actors

It is still very watchable

Cons.

It feels like it has gone on for too long

The misdirection is too much

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The Penguin Season One Overview

Summary

Colin Farrell is the Penguin.

This was a near perfect show in a lot of ways. Farrell was fantastic as was Milioti. However, there were some issues.

Broadly these can be boiled down to two things, firstly it was stupid that Batman was not mentioned on the show, realistically in that world he would have shown up and tried to end the gang war, but to not even mention him is just silly. Secondly, the tone of the show was a bit all over the place, at times it was incredibly dark and gritty such as when Sofia gassed her family, however, there were also lighter scenes such as the end of episode one that felt tonally mismatched.

That aside this is a fantastic crime show, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a fantastic superhero show as really it has very little to do with them, but as far as a mob show this is right up there. The show is well written which is becoming increasingly rare these days and has a show don’t tell approach to storytelling. You can see and imagine Oz’s machinations but they are never spelled out to you.

I also appreciated how brutal this series got at times and that it wasn’t afraid to be bloody when it needed to be, despite some folks thinking of it as a comic book show and hence inherently for kids.

Overall, one of the best DC projects in years.

4/5

Pros.

The grit

The lore

Farrell

Milioti

Cons.

The uneven tone

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