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Your Honor (2020)
A good, bad story
I personally think this show is brilliant - one of the best crime dramas in a while: Great, but not excellent.
I think people who criticize the series for dumb characters or the plot progression before having watched all the episodes are very much missing the point: The idea of this series is not to show perfect choices or the most clever or logical humans - the complete opposite, in fact. Often times we don't make logical choices and act irrationally, which is exactly why the show ends the way it does. And why the eventual ending feels abrubt, yet justified.
Aside from the plot, however, Your Honor does an astonishingly good job at building tension with the writing, camera angles and the tension created with conversation, music and pacing. Whenever you think what's going to happen next, the show throws you in the opposite direction. In a way, this is what makes it so good. It goes along with the aforentioned theme of bad choices, which makes it thrilling and different.
I hope there is not going to be a second series - you can tell the ending was intentionally written to leave loose ends. It is up to the imagination of each viewer to figure out what comes afterwards. Regardless, the series is ultimately on point at showing though faced with difficult decision, different actions alway have consequences. It says something unique and definitely has plot points worth rewatching and examining after finishing the final episode.
Bodom (2016)
Honestly not worth watching
This movie is a perfect example of how a large budget, familiar actors and skillfull videography just cannot replace proper storytelling. It feels a lot like another one of those movies where the scenery shots, music and speechless parts make the whole runtime seem better than it actually is.
With only the plot points, conversations, action and narration Bodom is a mediocre film really in all of the genres it promises to represent. For a comedy, it's not funny. Aside from a few gags and jokes occasionally thrown around here and there it contains almost zero comedic elements to speak of. For a horror title, it does try to deliver some scaryness, altough every horror-focused scene is really straightforward and fails to deliver any actual elements of suprise. As for a thriller, all foreshadowing and tension the movie tries to rise is killed of by the constant fake-jumpscares and mundane interruptions. The film simply tries to hit too many genres at once - resulting to fail in all of them.
Now to its credit, the budget of this film shows in certain scenes where the camera angles, shots and included music give a nice sense of environment. However, even this is too infrequent and it certainly seems like the producers should have dedicated this time and effort to crafting a proper story and characters first. All motives are messy, none of the characters are likeable or relatable and and this misconnection between the viewer and them cause constant questioning of the teenagers actions, reactions and conversations.
Overall, Bodom is not a completely terrible film but does not honestly contain much worth watching. The idea of discussing the historic real events through the film is not very well executed and most rorror film enthusiasts would probably get more out of reading about them on Wikipedia. The movie doesn't really suit it, I recommend skipping this one.
Mayans M.C. (2018)
An independently worthwile show
While, as a stand-alone no-context series Mayans Mc. would definetly be an above-average western biker title, as a spinoff of SOA it brings a suprising amount of fresh air into the genre the main show has influenced. The unique, alternate setting along with its characters, events and conflicts create a new, absorbing start for something that might seem like 'just another motorcycle club show' at first.
Though set in the same universe as its big brother, Mayans has a suprising amount of originality, which makes it intriguing to watch even for someone who isn't a die-hard fan of the Sons. That being set, the initial setup of the story and its protagonists, villains and side characters forms a layout some might reacognize from before. Even though this may seem like a mondayne concept at first, the story of Ezekiel and the people around him quickly morphs into a pretty exiting and original series of events. This time, many of the characters arguably seem a lot more relatable, down to earth individuals, which makes following the story easier and gives the plot more debth than a simple crime-because-of-crime style.
Overall, while not offering an obviously shockingly deep take on any larger significant themes of cinema, Mayans Mc. functions well as it's own series, is pretty interesting to watch and contains well-though writing, scenes and overall mood. It's not a show you'd absolutely crave to rewatch, but definetly more than a late-night kick-back kind of title.