Reviews

Nothing about this series seems memorable or original. And it's predictable. Of course Stella didn't just kill him like logically assumed. Of course the mother has an affair. Of course Amina has something to do with it, but not in the way implied.

Yet I very much enjoyed every episode. It's got intrigue, tension and a decently believable, relatable and recognizable story. And while every twist is coming from miles ahead, they don't really try to hide it and act like a big surprise.

The casting is on point, Chris looks like exactly the kind of guy that he's portraying and Stella looks like she could be a 19-year-old, and not a mid-20s woman playing an adolescent teen. The parents are kind of run of the mill Netflix mom and dad, but they're decent characters that you can sympathize with trying to protect their child. None of the characters are too emotional/irrational, they seem grounded though the father of course does go a bit over the line trying to protect his kid.

The pacing is also interesting. Only the last episode is set in cour, and the standard flashback reveal where you see how he really died is basically during the very last scene, in a post-court epilogue showing 'what are the characters up to now'. This is great because it was finally when I got the relevance of the prologue the show begins with. Throughout the entire series, I feel the prologue wasn't essential to tell the story, but right then and there, it finally gave a narrative payoff.

To spoil it, in the prologue the mother asked repeatedly if Stella resisted the guy and because she froze instead, there was no proof to sue him. Stella internalized a regret over 'not resisting', even a sense of guilt, so ultimately with Chris she decided to 'fight back'. It's such a neat way to end a series by coming full circle, and it also gives the session in jail a purpose.

And I shouldn't forget that this show actually has a happy ending for the characters that I actually didn't find cheesy or meaningless. We see husband and wife rebuilding their marriage instead of sticking with the 'perfect family is actually dysfunctional' trope.

Dear Child was tense but never fully compelled me either. I think it's mostly the narrative being told in a very unfocussed and uninteresting way. Like, am I supposed to care about Aida and what she's going through, because she remains a distant character to me.

The abducted woman and children have some interesting mystery to them, but they remain that, a mystery. Until everything is revealed in a way that is very uninteresting and the reveal is very straightforward.

The most interesting thread is Lena's parents and their investigator, but they honestly get too little screentime to immerse the viewers. And then at the end, we see the conclusion from this angle, the Lena part of the mystery. Which would be fine, except that the story is set up from the angle of the abductees escaping, with the Lena thread being the puzzle piece that didn't fit.

The acting is good. However, with an unfocussed plot with poor reveals, you can hardly feel invested. I feel like the flashback of how Lena meets Papa in the finale was supposed to be like a shocking moment with a lot of weight. Well it very well could be, if this story was told differently. All in all you have a decently entertaining viewing experience but nothing special.

Even with lighthearted zombie stuff such as Z Nation, the characters are still acknowledging they're in a messed up situation. Zom 100 is about an office worker enjoying his life because the zombie outbreak prevents him from going to his job. I'm disturbed by the MC celebrating an outbreak causing the deaths of millions if not billions of people, probably including a lot of his loved ones.

But even if I wasn't disturbed by this tasteless premise, it's not like there's much to enjoy anyways. I find a lot of contemporary films fail to build up momentum and ultimately provide little substance, but this one doesn't even try.

The Main character has no personality and is joined by his goofy friend with no depth either. Then there's another girl that obviously joins them, who is also someone you've seen in tons of other apocalyptic survival films/series. There's not really much of a central conflict or a clear trajectory.

As for positives, I think it's cool how it starts off with a rewind of the prologue before this prologue is shown itself. I also like how the girl he had a crush on is just killed off instantly, when she was clearly teased to be a major character. It subverted my expectations. Lastly, while the climax didn't carry much weight as that aquarium arc was rushed and generic, the shark zombie was actually intimidating.

There's an interesting story that's subvertive in how the setting changes throughout the series, but this lack of focuchange of narrative does make the show feel unfocussed and removes some of the immersion. I didn't find it more than decent entertainment-wise and the emotional weight is not there.

They try to have a touching ending and have a theme of what mothers would do for their child in the second half, but due to the daughter only being introduced halfway it doesn't resonate. What did resonate for me was grandma's redemption as she was already a character in the first half distant from her daughter, but then again I wish we'd seen more of their interactions to see why she was the way she was, rather than have it blatantly told.

It's a shame they resort to Christian stereotyping heavily when this was not necessary. There are also unfortunate implications, like that plastic surgery is the only way to get anywhere in life if you're unattractive (as a young woman), or the one-sided portrayal of men as predatory threats to women. In fact, all characters are unlikeable.

But the unlikeability didn't bother me as it fits the harsh tone that is set. And the few major male characters being portrayed as creeps fits in a plot about cam girls and strippers. Which also makes for a wasted opportunity to have a theme or moral about the exploitative nature of sex work, instead of just showing men being abusive and creepy.

Overall, I can definitely rewatch this show, but it's full of flaws and unfortunate implications.

This movie was entertaining, intriguing and I didn't feel it dragged too long despite its 2 hour runtime. In fact, it should have been double the length, in a 6-episode format. The plot is decent, there is tension and I felt engaged with the characters' struggle and the world they live in. However, various interesting aspects deserved more attention.

1. Theissen (the villain) should've been more explored. She seems really convinced of her invention, or at least able to convince others this is a form of progress and will also help the poor. She didn't seem too driven by greed either, and her true goals are ambiguous. However, due to the mystery in the second half she gets too little screentime.

2. The whole mystery in the second half was an entire film on its own. That was such an interesting setup for psychological drama that it should have been dragged out longer.

3. Adam seemed illogical and I expected there to be a twist to them but they end up being really disappointing.

It's not like these elements make the movie worse, just that there should be more.

It's extremely obvious that the girl saw actual aliens and they'll show up based on how the whole thing is set up. That being said, they only appear at the end. This is a very baitishly promoted series where the actual sci-fi visuals are largely contained to the first and last episode. Most of the series is spent with a dumb cult plot, that is especially ruined by terrible side characters that ruin what should have been a story about former childhood friends working together.

Also, the actual reveal as to the alien's motives was absolutely terrible. So they abducted her, just for observing, and that's it? Great, so subvertive, story over! And yes, I caught the foreshadowing on the TVs.

It's not terrible, I enjoyed especially the one episode opening scene where she was in a simulation by the cult. I like that you get the realization that she's in a simulation, right before the scene itself starts to disintegrate. And given the color scheme after waking up is very yellow-ish all of a sudden, I was really hoping she'd still be in a simulation and that would be the big twist. But no, they go with the lame obvious reveal that she's not crazy.

This episode is so boring and repetitive, why does it go on for so long? You can guess what will happen from a mile away. Oh no, the painter guy is gonna fall in love with Aaron Paul's wife. Oh no, he's gonna make him feel the same way.

There is also little to no creativity here. There was the idea of astronauts able to be on earth with their families while in space using replica bodies on earth, then literally everything else was just tropes inserted from other stories. The weirdo cult, the guy falling for the other guy's wife, the predictable tragic ending attempting to be edgy. The mid-1900s Americana wife is literally named Lana.

I guess the ratings are a bit more merciful since this is the only full-on scifi episode this season (Joan is Awful had a minor element in it), but from where I stand I can't give it slack for much. Okay, I will admit. The farm looks really beautiful and calming, a nice juxtaposition to the spaceship, an aesthetic that always makes me feel trapped and uncomfortable.

I'm one of the very few people who doesn't like the artstyle in Arcane. As a consequence, I was not blinded by the 'beauty' to see the many flaws this series has.

Firstly, it has many overused tropes. There's the tough kid MC, the broken-turned-crazy evil person, the guy who has a dream that people don't believe in, the officer who goes over her scope and head to investigate a case she's infatuated by, the villain with a soft spot for another character, the wise old professor. I don't expect entirely new ideas by 2023, but also pick a few less used ones, and do it in an intriguing way, which Arcane failed at in many instances.

Jayce is one of the most boring characters ever and his sidekick Victor puts on a fake Slavic accent that I found annoying. Heimerdinger the little fluffy guy also irked me wrongly with the voice and mannerisms, reminiscent of a 90s Disney film character blended with an old professor from a fantasy series.

There are some bits of decent writing though. I liked Vander and the original Enforcer Chief in the beginning, they were actually well-written complex and morally grey characters. The main conflict after this is also morally ambiguous, but it's executed like a boring political drama with no tension or intrigue, so it's a shame these two were killed so early on.

I guess I also like Jinx and her mental state too but it was very lame to show the young characters all the time and the flashes were annoying. Silco makes for a cool villain, though I feel like they could have shown more from his POV to make him more morally ambiguous, whereas now he is the antagonist but with a soft spot for Jinx. And similarly, I think Vi could have used a lot more screentime to show how her life has changed and her glorified image has collapsed (to Jinx).

And that brings me to the second main issue. The story is very poorly paced and spread between different subplots that don't tie into each other that much, giving the interesting and well-done parts too little time to breathe and develop. As for pacing, the first three episodes, despite containing the two best characters (Vander and the original Chief), is only the set up, set in a different time period from the main plot, and it should have taken no more than 1 episode.

But what is more detracting than anything else, is the number of subplots. As I said, Jayce was boring and the other important characters in his plot were annoying. His subplot probably ties in with the rest of the lore of the games I didn't play, but as for the series, I was way more interested in the conflict between Vi and Jinx and found this very unnecessary. As said, there were positives in the A-plot that needed more time to breathe, and the B-plot just took that all away for boring political drama.

This political drama, the overexposure of the leading council in the B-plot, also takes away the intrigue and tension in the entire series. In the first few episodes, you really feel the conflict, the danger of Enforcer crackdowns on the underground. After that, you see that the leaders behind these Enforcers are incompetent fantasy clichés that don't even have the time to oppress the underground (the blame even shifts to Silco). That's not a complex, morally ambiguous conflict, that is boring political drama.

So yeah, had they cut out the B-plot with Jayce and spent more time on the differences in philosophy and rift created between two sisters, that could have been really good. As it is, I was entertained through most of Arcane (the main plot), but I have a hard time seeing what everyone is so mesmerized by. Unless it's the animation style, which again, I didn't like.

One of the most dull films ever, nothing interesting happens and the sets are so dark and grey that it accentuates this. They should have moved the twist to the end or at least the middle, at least for Helena not to know, and it could have been interesting to see this one guy abuse her isolation in the ship. That would be a decent psychological drama. But this is dramatically bland, uneventful and boring.

It's not even poorly paced, they have a clear structure that is very well-known in film. And that's because it's a good structure to make a decent film with. But unlike a good film, Órbita 9 adds zero flesh to this well-known structure, making it predictable and boring with barely anything to praise.

Also, poor therapist. They just had to drag her into it for no reason. And also for no reason, the villains agree to the guy's proposal even though he had no leverage and they did not need him.

Let's start this review with adressing the title; the treatment of Sakura's best friend Kyoko is just appalling. Sakura is totally fine with this MC dude she never talked to before knowing her secret but can't tell her best friend. I get that she has her reasoning, but let's look at it from Kyoko's POV: you find out your best friend had less than a year to live, and confided about that in a new person in her life that basically replaced you as #1 friend. I would feel extremely insulted and just seeing the MC would feel like a slap in the face. But we gotta have a happy ending for this generic terminal romance film.

And yes, it is generic terminal romance, Sakura and MC being friends and not actually dating does not change that. I see how this is an intriguing idea, as the minutes 60-85 (between the uncomfortable r-scene and the dragged out fantasy sequence) are really good and have some very strong moments. But the rest of it is just painfully boring!

The first hour, MC and Sakura don't seem to actually get along. She's hyperactive, which is unrealistic given her illness, and the MC is boring and doesn't show any emotion towards her. And because the MC doesn't seem to care or enjoy himself, I don't either. Even though he's an introvert who has issues showing emotions, we see this plot from his POV and I just didn't feel it.

Here's how you write this plot correctly; MC finds Sakura's 'Living with Dying' They agree to hang out and do stuff together during her remaining time on earth, just to have fun with no emotions attached, as a dying girl can not afford to bond with someone. Their classmates-with-platonic benefits situation leads the MC to gradually grow attached to Sakura nonetheless, resulting in for instance, the scene at the fireworks where he asks if she's really going to die and she acts uncaring about it, forcing him to hide his emotions (prob the best moment in the film).

All that criticism aside, I have to reiterate minute 60 to 85 or so are good. I also like that the message is more nuanced than the usual 'live life, be social', in that Sakura learns the other side of the coin to not define herself solely in relation to others. And the fact that generally, Sakura the terminally ill girl is not portrayed as some patron saint Mary Sue guardian angel (looking at you YLIA) already gives it a lot of leeway. So it's about a 4.5/10.

This movie explicitly makes you consider two contrasting theories; either the main character suffers from head trauma and is confused and imagining things, or he's correct, is mainly driven insane by his wife and daughter going missing at the hospital, and the hospital is using the head wound to cover up what they're actually doing. Both are made plausible through repeated foreshadowing, those who claim to know how it would end from the start only guessed correctly or didn't perceive the foreshadowing for the false theory.

Because the film is so explicitly about the question who is right in this mystery, the main character or the hospital, neither of the two is really a surprise in case you picked up on clues both ways. And yet. They try to play the answer off as this big twist, that is only a twist because the 5 minutes before them were confirming the false theory.

This twist just didn't work, despite the execution being well-done. The mirrors were set up as a motif earlier on and I like how they slowly show what's actually there which is horrifying. But as I stated, it wasn't really a surprise. And while I usually am fine with dark endings, I don't feel like it was fitting here. Everything feels a lot less impactful.

But what if there was a third option? Right after the incident, the main character is trying to cut a truck off on the left lane while a car approaches on that lane, and he narrowly avoids a crash. This is not brought up again, but could also be a decent explanation, they were in a car accident like with his deceased wife earlier. If there was a little (more) foreshadowing to this moment, then maybe that could be an actually good twist. Rather than the two main theories that are excessively foreshadowed, this third option that none of the characters consider could actually baffle you while making perfect sense.

The trailer already shows it and it is confirmed in the end of the actual film; the villain's only motive is that he found the main character Na-mi's phone. There is nothing to it. I assume this alongside the twist was intended as a subversion of the generic premise of damaged people damaging others, as even Na-mi is surprised by it, but they execute this as poorly as possible.

The villain is known to the audience throughout the film, we see scenes from his POV, and nowhere does he seem to have any actual motive. Even if he did have one in the end, this makes for a very unengaging viewing experience. There's a main character looking for a person we know without standing much of a chance, and a villain who has nothing about him And the twist... well, it makes sense that the cop father didn't recognize him. But it removes the little weight to the plot.

The plot isn't even uneventful, yet it took me a handful of viewings over one month to finish. That's how uninteresting it is.

This movie starts off pretty generic. They do everything you expect, a group of unlikely allies have to survive in this uncertain, dangerous situation. But hey, that's still decently entertaining, at least if it goes somewhere. No... most character interactions are just decent and they don't leave the premises.

The answers we get, which come from the abducted hazmat person Hazel, are pretty lame. So there is a virus outbreak, and the authorities researched it in secret and only now quarantine the place - without telling anyone what is going on - to prevent panic.

Wait, what? So you're telling me that the authorities did not inform anyone, knowing people in the infected area would travel to work, friends, family, leasure etc. And perhaps spread the virus throughout the city, perhaps even further? If they found the virus to not be a major risk at first, then why didn't they inform people to get them to report if they had the known symptomps as happens with viruses irl, which never leads to panic? If they DID find the virus such a dangeorus threat from the start that would lead to panic, then why didn't they quarantine the area immediately WHILE researching? And if preventing panic was so important for them, why not inform the residents DURING the quarantine? If you were honest about the virus AND made the letalness clear, I'm pretty sure people wouldn't resist to this degree, and many healthy people wouldn't have died.

That being said, Hazel is the only interesting actual character in this, as she is from the authorities and therefore has other goals than the rest of the cast. Especially when she tries to tempt Aiden, the film seems to finally take an interesting turn. But no, it's a generic film throughout. It wasn't boring or unpleasant to watch though, so it's not bad, just very mediocre.

I love time loops and other character-driven time travel plots. And it was decently entertaining.

On the surface, One More Time doesn't seem to do a lot with this setup. But if you stay around long enough, you find a very interesting theme; nostalgia within the past. Amelia and Fiona were to dig up a time capsule at their 18th birthday, which puts the 18th birthday post an earlier event to be nostalgic about. Even when Amelia goes back to her 18th birthday, her friendship with Fiona is already a semi-distant memory. With no opportunity at reconciliation. The closest they get is when she watches Groundhog Day with her, but even there it feels very awkward. When trying to force a making up with Fiona in the subsequent time loops, she fails. I was very much expecting the time loop to end with her dropping her new friends for Fiona, doing the generic Groundhog Day resolution about character growth and making up for mistakes.

Instead, the film brings home two very different messages; firstly, that the past is irreversible, and secondly, that time is a continuous dimension, not a bilateral scale of 'the (happy) past' and 'the (miserable) present'. Which also explains that Fiona in the present is not resentful to Amelia anymore, as enough time having passed since their falling out, adding a somewhat optimistic element. If Amelia would have reached out to Fiona at the bar in the beginning, maybe they could have reconciled, dug up the time capsule together and this entire plot would not have happened.

So in a way, this film is very much deconstructive of the dominant time loop plot from films like Groundhog Day, where the character has to grow or make up for their mistakes in order to escape. That being said, on a thematic note it is very close to what I expected the entire film. It still has to do with Fiona, they just don't resolve it similarly. Which would be fine, if only it wasn't so insanely obvious for so long. That's a major misstep, how obvious it all is and how long it takes Amelia to realize. Realizing she is back to her 18th birthday also takes super long, when this is explicitly stated to her various times already. Fiona is so obviously set up and there are no red herrings in terms of theme to throw you off. In fact, this should be clear from the very start of the time loop, as she enters it while trying to read what Fiona put into the capsule.

Speaking of that, the reveal of Fiona's time capsule wish was nicely set up, as it becomes slowly obvious right before it is revealed and makes a lot of her behavior earlier make sense.

However, what does Fiona's wish have to do with anything? Why did she have to find it out specifically? Amelia dropped her best friend, that's tragic enough, and enough for her to feel bad and want to make up with Fiona. What can she do with knowing the wish? Why couldn't the resolution just be her realizing what she did ánd as I just said that there is no way of making up easily? As it is now, it is subvertive, but it makes little sense. And maybe the ending could have also been better if it ended a few scenes earlier, maybe with the characters smiling at each other, so as to keep it a bit more ambiguous as to if enough time has passed.

I like the setting of a desert world where deliverymen are trained to fight off criminals, and the CGI does its work in realizing it. The first few episodes were good, I was even rooting for 5-8 which is surprising. Usually I dislike overpowered characters for being Mary Sues, but 5-8 seemed not like a Mary Sue and more just a badass.

The only thing I disliked is Sa-wol (the refugee boy) and his comic relief friends, who really annoyed me to no end with their behavior. However, as the show progresses Sa-wol starts to actually reach for his goals and given how dedicated and talented he is, you want to see him win.

Unfortunately, as the show progresses issues arise as well. The main theme and conflict turns out as shallow as it seems at first glance. Evil corporation wants refugees dead because it saves money. Or maybe just because they see them as subhuman. To ensure that you know they're the bad guys we get multiple scenes where they explicitly order everyone killed, and started off the show with a pyramid explaining an absurd class system, with no explanation given to its argument for justification. 5-8 and his friends are refugees-turned-deliverymen who want to end the ludicrously bad class system. It's the same virtue signalling theme of classism half of dystopian or death game plots have, as poorly executed as most of them do.

And because the theme/conflict is shallow, so are the characters. The villain is just irredeemably evil, this is made clear from the start and there's nothing about him that isn't cliche. And it ultimately does turn 5-8 into a Mary Sue as he heroically leads his little team of deliverymen to victory for the noble cause of the refugees, with no interesting traits, flaws or other motivations to add depth or nuance.

What makes this all the more ironic is that it gives this show that clearly panders to left-wing sentiments implications that strongly contradict progressive thinking. 5-8 explicitly denies involving the refugees (proletariat) into their own class struggle and instead succeeds with just a dozen of genetically superior deliverymen to overthrow the elite core city. The refugees, at least those that didn't succeed becoming deliverymen, are portrayed as helpless unskilled victims with no agency. Sure refugees ask for help from the host authorities, but that doesn't mean they don't have any personality left. They want to work, they have family structures, they can be tough, strong, rude etc.

Wanna see a good show with similar themes? Watch 3%, also Netflix. That show acknowledges that it is a dystopia, while not making the authorities irrationally cruel for the sake of it and having an actual reason for society to be structured the way it is, one that was actually sympathetic in intent and not just 'lower class are inferior lmao'. Nuance is too novel a concept apparently because in Black Knight, the villain explicitly states he does it because he just hates refugees in the end. What a well-written villain rite.