Djervig's Reviews

Nimona (2023)

5/10

18 November 2023

I totally get what this movie was trying to achieve. It came close, but the jokes were too few and far between, the emotional moment never quite hit their mark, and despite the plot being rich with drama and conflict, a lot of it ends up feeling both forced and unresolved.

The dangers of their society's belief system is never addressed, apparently they just had the wrong beliefs. The dangers of Nimonas powers are never acknowledge, and makes the analogy lack the power it could have, considering that most people who find that their identities are not accepted by society do not pose a danger to anybody. Or perhaps the moral is just that might makes right, and if someone has a difference of opinion you are allowed to hurt them. I suppose that doesnt correlate with American foriegn politics. The distrust and betrayal of various relationships is quickly forgotten, without any attempts of communicating, both during the conflicts and after. Its all just a bit too convenient and boring, and a bit pretentious in its attempt to say something without saying anything. Also considering the themes and overall message of this movie, using the Knight theme felt like a mismatch. But I suppose that for a country like the US they have two options. Appropriate someone else's culture and history or acknowledge that your own country was build on genocide.

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The Power (2023)

6/10

Might makes right - apparently

1 April 2023

My review is based on the first two episodes.

The show is beautifully shot.

Despite the many characters, the story is easy to understand and the actors portraying them are delivering strong performances. All around the production is delivering everything I can ask from a show.

But unfortunately its fails to ask any interesting questions in regards to the shows premise, at least so far.

The obvious question being, does might make right?

Instead it seems to have already settled on an answer that "Yes, might makes right" meaning that a societies moral standards are defined by those in power. It portrays a world in which the powerful are categorically unempathetic to the plight of the powerless and cannot be persuaded by logical arguments, and therefore should the roles be reversed, they wont deserve any empathy either.

Frankly it is awfully black and white, with good people and bad people and nothing in-between. The universe seems like a oversimplified representation of the world we live in, juvenile, boring and unimaginative.

I look forward to the day shows are written by people who are smart enough to come up with creative solutions to problems - but with American productions it's always the same; Violence is the answer. Every genius in a superhero movies seem intent on creating easier ways to kill things. Doesn't matter if the hero of the story is a man or a woman, black or white, old or young - and in a story specifically about oppression and for one named The Power, it seems to spend awfully little time questioning how such power should be wielded. I get it might not be the first question, but at this point it should have come up. Its not believe able that so many characters would just roll with it.

I wonder if this show will end up looking like a CW production after a season or two.

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Ms. Marvel (2022)

6/10

Maybe I am getting too old for superheroes

8 June 2022

I was underwhelmed. Obviously the production value was great, as is to be expected with a marvel production. Good CGI, beautiful lighting, good casting. But for what I have come to expect from superhero shows, the stakes were just too low.

I am not familiar with the source material for this show, so I don't know how true it has stayed to it. But this felt unusually vanilla - even for Disney.

Perhaps the most stimulating element in this show, is that it raises the question of religion's role in a universe where gods are not only are proven to exist, but regularly interacts with humans. On top of that they aren't even part of the Abrahamic tradition.

So I get that this is not a universe that would have a lot of atheists - as devotions is no longer a matter of faith. But does it make sense to worry that an event is haram in such a universe(?) - a universe where a purple spaceman can snap half the population out of existence with magic stones that pre dates all earth's religions.

I suppose this premise is just asking me to suspend my belief a bit more than I am willing to do, to entertain a show that I do not find entertaining - or maybe I am getting too old for superheroes.

Considering the aforementioned facts I doubt that anyone in the Marvel universe would bother with atheism. But I would still love to see a bit more representation for the atheist community in popular culture - with a superhero that saves people from religious oppression and cults. That would be cool.

So far The Boys probably has the best commentary on religion out of any of the shows. They generally do the social commentary thing with a bit more finesse and better execution.

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What Is a Woman? (2022)

4/10

Just disappointing

7 June 2022

As someone who has contemplated many of the same questions that this documentary raises, I was pretty disappointed with what it had to offer.

I think there is an interesting dialog to be had about these current trends in society, but this was not it.

I mean - who knows - in a 100+ years we might look back at our current approach with the same dread with which we imagine 18th century dentistry. Maybe instead of striving to change or enhance our exterior to fit some fantasy ideal, we will start accepting ourselves for what we are and understanding that what we are doesn't have to define who we are. I don't know.

I think it's safe to say that science still has a lot to unravel in regards to how our biology and identity interact - but regardless of what conclusions the future might hold, I would like to see a bit more tolerance in society towards those with whom we disagree - from both sides frankly - but all things considered I think the political-right has the biggest potential for improvement in this regard.

Anyway - It was clear that the creator had an agenda, the whole thing felt a bit over-dramatized and petty.

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Lost in Space: Three Little Birds (2021)

Season 3, Episode 1

7/10

Great drama, disappointing sci-fi

1 December 2021

Warning: Spoilers

This episode had a lot of exposition, and attempted to make both the obstacles and solutions seem very sciency. Unfortunately it didn't live up to it's usual standards of world logic. The most obvious example being when a meteor is shown to burn up, in what appears to be a very dense atmosphere, and then moments later we're told that this is what usually happens but also that the planet has little atmosphere left, and that only two miles above ground the air is too thin to breath - and then later a meteor does appear to make it though, yet it seems to go undetected.

But besides the inconsistencies the show is beautifully made, well acted and has a good story. I was a little sad to see the show opening with such a long jump in time, but after having watched a few episodes of Star Trek Discovery recently, this is a breath of fresh air in comparison.

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Trese (2021)

2/10

Hmmm :/

13 June 2021

I cannot help but see a link between the shows dehumanizing depiction of criminals as monsters, and the Philippines' government's war on drugs.

Beyond that I am generally tired of seeing shows, where the villain's are monsters and demons, yet they are never as evil as humans are in the real world. Even more so am I tired of having magical elements added to real world problems, like racism, violence and corruptions. These things are bad enough in and of themselves, and adding a magical element feels redundant, and gives people this weird notion that good and evil exists in the world. It does not - it is a false dichotomy - and if we want to fix anything we can't go around seeing people like monsters.

Don't go gazing into abysses.

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The Good Doctor: Forgive or Forget (2021)

Season 4, Episode 18

6/10

Fear leads to anger

25 May 2021

Warning: Spoilers

I was honestly shocked by this episode's apparent moral standing on gun safety.

It is probably because I am European, and not used having a gun shoved in my face, but if someone I was in a relationship did point on at my "center mass", I would leave them in a heartbeat.

This was an opportunity to address how many people die or get injured as a result of poor gun safety. They could even have paired it up with the depressed mushroom guy storyline, if they had opted for a sad ending with him. As people are much more likely to use that gun they keep at home on themselves rather than in scenario where they actually have to defend themselves.

Honestly I am just disappointed. This felt like watching a storyline from the early 90's.

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Them (2021– )

7/10

Worth a watch

10 April 2021

I had originally decided to skip this series, as I am generally bored with horror and supernatural things, also the story seemed very America-centric and as a European it can sometimes be a struggle to get through historical pieces. But the series' surprisingly low rating made me curious, and I guess I watched it more to see if the rating seemed appropriate rather than anything else.

I didn't have to watch much to realize that it was not. The show is beautiful and the cast gives a great performance. Unfortunately the story also gets a bit too convoluted for it's own good, and as per usual the horror and supernatural elements didn't really peak my interest.

It's probably just me - but I find it silly when there are demons, ghosts or whatever in popular culture who still come across as relatively harmless compared to the horrors that exist in the real world. Even more so when we're already dealing with racists who are terrible enough without the added magic.

I did however appreciate the symbolism the supernatural elements carried with them, but as opposed to a show like Haunting of the Hill House, it wasn't as elegantly executed.

Most of the characters on the show could properly have done with a bit more development, as their motivations weren't always easy to follow and this together with the very fragmented story structure made it hard to be invested. I also think there were a lot of missed opportunities to create some more suspense, if the show had just been willing to share a little more information with the audience. Half the time the spooky stuff was over before I ever realized it had begun.

So in summery. Very well produced, decent for it's genre, great visuals and great soundtrack, much better than it's rating implies, but narratively a bit of a mess. Frankly I think the show just wanted to do too much, in too little time.

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Coded Bias (2020)

4/10

Disappointing

7 April 2021

I wish they had put as much effort into their research as they had into their production. Most of all this just felt like a propaganda piece.

There were too many unsubstantiated slippery slope arguments, and demands for oversight, but they never bothered diving into the details. I am sure there are issues with algorithms, AI's, government surveillance etc. But they rarely if ever explained.

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Fate: The Winx Saga (2021–2022)

2/10

Shockingly bad

25 January 2021

When I started watching this I didn't expect too much from it. I realize it's made for teenagers, and so I assumed there would be the usual amount of juvenile drama in it. But I usually enjoy the universes created in these types of shows, and figured I'd give it a chance anyway. I was sorely mistaken. The drama in this show is not so much juvenile as it is psychotic. Both students and teachers bark unprompted and unwarranted insults at each other in literally every single scene. The dialog is shockingly poorly written. Despite the characters all coming from different backgrounds, they all talk in the same unnatural way and it seems the adults that have been casted to be young adults in the show, consistently have larger vocabularies than the actual adult. A few times show justifies characters actions after they have done them, usually through bad exposition, but most the times actions seem completely unmotivated. To put it mildly this is a dumpsterfire and a masterclass in how not to write.

But the absolute worst part of the first episode was when the overweight girl almost strangled a guy for offering another guy alcohol. I am by no means saying that the guy who got strangled wasn't obnoxious, but the response was downright psychotic. No amount of peer-pressure in the world can ever justify physical violence, that is just insane. So now after having watched the first episode I have to conclude that this show was not JUST made for teenagers, but is made for idiots, who'd rather scream at, yell at and harm others when faced with problems, rather than actually try to solve them. Absolutely disgusting show.

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In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)

7/10

Very stimulating narrative, but fails to deliver at the climax

29 September 2019

Warning: Spoilers

I was completely absorbed in the mystery throughout most of the movie -but the reveal at the end was disappointing and had a very odd moral if it had any. I was so excited that the antagonist of this movie was not the same ethnicity as the protagonist, as I feared from the very beginning that they might be related, but assumed they weren't. Unfortunately they were. It's the oldest time travel trick in the book and this movie added little on the matter, except how out antagonist was ultimately left with the dilemma of sacrificing his granddaughter for his wife, a choice he made somewhat callously and without giving the audience any significant insight into his thought process. The climax was, to say the least, incredibly disappointing. Throughout the entire beach scene, I was expecting him to call her bluff, shot her and reset the story, a time loop would frankly have been more satisfying. The ending didn't make much sense either. The antagonist/granddaughter claimed that her death could not be changed - but the entire movie was about changing events in time - surely with some time and effort they could have come up with a better solution. Beyond that, would them erasing the terrorist also not just reset the timeline, as they would never have a reason to travel back, or will he still have to sacrifice his daughter to the cheap good/evil scientist who plays god, but somehow is also the good guy in the end. If this does not reset the timeline, we must assume that we have 2 separate timelines. One in which there is no time traveler, no mystery, but the terror attack happens, which spurs our protagonist to send out antagonist back in time, creating a second timeline, by killing people, preventing the terror attack and completely changing the timeline of her grandfather, this is the timeline we follow in the movie. Yet somehow this second timeline still results in his daughter giving birth to the same girl from the first timeline - we are led to assume - but how is this possible. Even if the protagonists wife dies in both timelines, the relationship between the protagonist and his daughter would have been completely different in the two timelines assuming that he would not have spend his life searching for this mystery killer. Hence the odds of the daughter birthing the same person in both timelines are 0. It is a statistical impossibility. The sci in this fi is not well thought out.

And what was up with the moral compass of this movie. Might does not make right, and just because you can travel through time and melt peoples minds for thinking bad thoughts that will lead to bad actions, does not mean that a more measured approach does not exist when you have a freaking time machine on your hand. How about using the time machine to just go back in time and prevent the bomb going off? Ever thought of that?

Dear screenwriters. A mysteries character in a movie does not always have to be related to the protagonist. There a 7 billion people on this planet, so you should think that it was possible to write a story where all the characters aren't from the same family tree. Stop portraying scientists as evil. In reality there is a huge correlation between idiocy and cruelty, and scientist are a pretty peaceful bunch. And if you have time travel at your disposal, perhaps try coming up with something more elegant than melting peoples brains. Violence is so utterly unimaginative.

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The Day Shall Come (2019)

6/10

Interesting, but fails to impress

29 September 2019

The Day Shall Come has a lot of interesting ideas going for it, and the first half hour of the movie is great, but unfortunately it does not manage to develop into anything interesting. The protagonists family and friends are a charming bunch but unfortunately they are 2-dimensional props in the universe. The drama between them feels too hastily executed and forced. Despite the potential for more their relationships never seem develop in any significant way. The premise is strong, but the absurdity and incompetence of both the government agencies and the protagonist makes it hard to get invested in the problem. What bothered me the most was the story featured several themes that I didn't think added anything substantial to the story or could have been used better. Especially the story around the crane felt like a missed opportunity to keep the misunderstandings rolling.

All in all it felt like a four lions knock off. It had a few laughs, but wasn't nearly as funny.

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The Umbrella Academy (2019–2024)

6/10

A Beautiful and predicable mess

17 February 2019

I found the Umbrella Academy very enticing, and thought that it worked on most levels - unfortunately the manner in which the story was told, the character arcs and the consistency in genre/expression was not to my overall liking.

The look of the show was great. The costumes weren't clunky as is so often the case in superhero shows, they were stylish and original. The production value in general seemed very high for a show. The sets and locations were good, the use and execution of CGI was excellent and blended well with the special effects which must have been equally many.

Perhaps most of all I enjoyed the cast. Not every character was equally compelling, and some could have used more screen time in order for their stories to really have an impact. But despite the great visuals I would properly have given up on this show had it not been for the great cast. Especially Aidan Gallagher and Robert Sheehan delivered consistently interesting performances, and the partnership between Mary J. Blige and Cameron Britton worked well and couldn't help remind me of John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson.

With all this said.

After a great first episode or two, the shows story started showing some serious cracks, and as with so many other superhero dramas nowadays, the basic premise for the shows major conflict was bad communication, infighting and general quarreling. The show felt too predictable as most of the foreshadowing was so glaringly obvious that it was painful, and the few things that originally seemed delightfully odd, turned out be just that and nothing more, just gimmicks sprinkled in without them providing any deeper meaning or carrying the story forward. One can hope that they will manifest themselves in the next season.

Last, but not least, the show seemed to have a hard time figuring out if it was a horror, a mystery, a comedy or family drama. I'm not saying that components of each of these can not be part of the same, but more consistency would have been an improvement in my opinion. Personally I found too much of the written humor juvenile and feel-good moments at odds with the rest of the shows tone, however the actors did intentionally manage to provide some good laughs in their deliveries of otherwise humorless statements. (so more kudos to them) I intentionally neglected to mention action as a genre, because beyond three of the fights, of which two feature in the first two episodes, the fights seemed slow and boring, they didn't carry the story forward and they weren't even shot well.

So basically The Umbrella Academy is a very mixed bag. But you like fashionable superheroes, Tim Burton's parade of misunderstood, leading-role freaks and reality-TV level drama, then this is properly right up your alley.

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Clinton Cash (2016)

2/10

Classic propaganda piece

28 July 2016

It's edited like a low budget horror movie from the late 90's with images constantly being polarized or manipulated in other ominous ways. It's basically just a very long attack ad.

I don't doubt that American politics are full of shady agreements and corruption in general - but this documentary did very little to convince me that the Clintons are any worse than the rest. Which I think is fair to assume was the main objective. It does little to substantiate it's claims. Only few sources are provided throughout. The people/narrators who express their opinion in the documentary through voice-overs are not credited, so it's hard to tell who is talking and what makes them experts on this matter. A lot of clips are shown of the Clintons talking, where the remarks made about the clips seem lacking in context or just out of context. Also a lot of newspaper clippings are constantly floating around on screen, but they are never referenced in any way, so it just seems like a cheap gimmick.

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Stranger Things (2016–2025)

10/10

A masterpiece

16 July 2016

This is one of the most magical things I have ever had the fortune of viewing. I won't go into details about the narrative, which is build on classic sci-fi and horror concepts and it works. But what really makes this show excel is the little things. The casting is amazing - every single character, regardless of how small the part is, feels like a complete character, and the main cast delivers some powerful stuff all throughout the series. The production is spot on in it's portrayal of a small town in the 80's, and I have to assume that it is in part based on the creators own experiences and childhood, because everything feels real.

The only thing that bothered me throughout the entire show was the incompetence of the government entities. I know and understand that this is a popular portrayal of the government in these types of stories and especially in the US is this a common sentiment. But it simply didn't seem believable that they would make some of the choices they did. Doesn't take a genius to see that they are doing a crummy job. But this is all in all a negligible detail, as it keeps the story moving.

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The Wave (2015)

9/10

A very pleasant surprise

14 December 2015

This is absolutely one of the best movies I've seen this year, and one of the all time most thrilling movies I've ever seen. I literally found myself gasping for air during curtain parts - feeling my gut contracting from sheer anxiety when the wave hits. The acting was solid, the story arch a bit slow but solid, visually stunning and completely emotionally devastating. I was more scared watching this movie, than I have ever been watching something that is intentionally scary.

I have a bit of a weak spot for catastrophe movies, but I can't recall ever seeing anything within the genre that was half as good as this.

Beyond the slightly cheesy ending, I think this is a masterpiece.

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The Messengers (2015)

4/10

Bland show, bad story, poor acting, cheap excuse for Sci-fi

18 April 2015

My main issue is that this show is advertised as a sci-fi. It is not! Ironically the two most unscientific characters on the show, are the two people supposed to be scientist. The writing is absolutely horrible, it's still to early to really judge the actual story, seeing how we only have the first episode thus far. But I don't have high hopes for this show, the plot just sounds really boring.

If you want good sci-fi, you need to create an interesting universe, in which you can experiment with different aspects of reality. WALL- E, what if the earth died - GATTACA, what if we could genetically improve our lives before they even began - and so on. It's all about asking what if - and this show completely fails to ask any interesting questions. Honestly I would deem it pure fantasy, but even as a fantasy story it fails, see how fantasy stories are supposed to be relatable metaphors for life - often coming of age stories. But this show is neither, it is just bad.

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Poldark: Episode #1.1 (2015)

Season 1, Episode 1

8/10

Excellent show, but..

8 March 2015

Warning: Spoilers

I really enjoyed the first episode. The production was good, the story interesting - perhaps a bit slow on explaining the characters, but the story seems pretty fast paced, seeing how the first episode seemed to stretch over several weeks if not months. But I did have one major issue with this first episode, and I have a suggestion for the people who make this show: Take whom ever thought it was a good idea, be it a writer or producer, to have the Elizabeth character change her mind 3 times on the same issue within one episode, and shoot them. I get it, she is conflicted, but that is seriously poor writing. The show's writers are not doing it's female characters justice. I think the maid worked well, but the rest seemed a bit stereotypical.

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Extant (2014–2015)

5/10

High production value, yet fails to convey a believable SciFi universe

11 July 2014

Warning: Spoilers

I had issues with the script, the pacing, and some of the art direction.

Almost nothing in this first episode felt believable. It does not make sense to have a heat emitting light bulb in a spacecraft, having Halle Berry's character wake up on the floor in a zero gravity environment, nor the crummy android work shop her husband had - which looked like a cross between an 80's special effect studio and Giuseppe's workshop in Pinocchio. It came across like a horror show, borrowing it's plot from the SciFi universe, but failing to fully comprehend the concept.

The dialog and actions of the characters did not seem to reflect their professions, nor the understanding that comes with them. It was simply just Fi. No Sci.

But with all that in mind, I still think this show has a chance. It just wasn't what I had expected. But it is still to early to call after just this first episode. Lets see how this develops.

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Djervig

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