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Category: TV reviews (Page 15 of 15)

Is It Too Soon to Give ‘Z Nation’ or ‘The Walking Dead’ Mercy?

October 23, 2018 /

With all the events making national and international news right now, let’s discuss something really important: the exceptionally enjoyable zombie apocalypse series Z Nation which airs on Friday nights on the Syfy channel and subsequently on demand.

“I give you mercy” is Z Nation’s signature catchphrase when one of the principals puts an about-to-turn victim out of his or her misery. In this context, mercy has also become a verb.

Now in Season 5, the quirky and campy series which some have described as a horror comedy is a far more entertaining flesh-eater opus than The Walking Dead. The latter, now in its 9th season on AMC, could be a dead show walking as its viewership continues to drastically decay.

Former fans apparently don’t even want to hate-watch the show anymore. According to Deadline Hollywood, “the future is increasingly bleak” for TWD as a result of the ratings hitting all-time lows since its October debut.

The action-packed and lower budget Z Nation is simply a lot more fun to watch than TWD, given the latter’s mostly dour characters with their repetitive, tedious moralizing about zombie apocalypse ethics, a narrative that treads water for episodes in succession, inexplicable and absurd plot developments, and self-righteous characters who ping-pong from pacifism to stone-cold killers and then back to pacifism. Then there is the disproportionate face-time for a peripheral character who you know won’t be alive at the end of the episode.

Despite ongoing hand-to-hand combat with zombies, it was only in TWD Season 8, moreover,that the show revealed that a survivor might get sick from being covered in zombie blood or guts.

The departure of stars Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan (who play Rick Grimes and Maggie Rhee, respectively) isn’t helping matters any. It also calls into serious question why the showrunners decided to kill off Carl, Rick Grimes’ TV son (Chandler Riggs) who was poised to become the next-generation leader of the survivors. [AMC subsequently announced that it was planning several original Rick Grimes-focused movies for the TWD universe.]

With that in mind, TWD has received criticism online for too much chat and not enough splat.

Filmed in Washington state, the “cheesy” Z Nation has featured the following that you will never see on Georgia-based The Walking Dead: a giant zombie-killing cheese wheel, zombies on Viagra, zombie pole dancers, the iconic Liberty Bell in Philadelphia pulverizing zombies, a communicative zombie named “grandpa,” Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin as an autograph-signing zombie, a struggle with a drug cartel which trafficked in “Z weed,” and the birth of a zombie-human hybrid zombaby, who aged after a very rapid, apocalyptic growth spurt, and who was played by several different actresses.

Is Z Nation‘s tone getting too serious? read more

Netflix Review: ‘Money Heist’ Crime Drama from Spain Depicts a Huge Madrid Cash Grab

September 26, 2018 /

The television series Money Heist (which originally aired in Spai as La Casa de Papel – “The House of Paper”) is currently streaming on Netflix with subtitles. Be advised that you’ll have to power through 22 episodes of the show created by Alex Pina which has excellent production values until you reach the end of the two-season saga.

In its 1Q 2018 report to shareholders, the streaming service indicated that Money Heist “was the most watched non-English series on Netflix ever.”

The character-driven, entertaining, and twisty plot, albeit with various predictable elements, admittedly gets you hooked immediately.

Spoilers Follow

That said, the annoying contrivances are beyond belief to the point that you may be tempted to throw your remote at the TV screen even if you aren’t taking sides between cops and robbers or if you are rooting for the robbers for political or ideological reasons (see below). The only reasonable conclusion is that the latter was the intent of the showrunners.

There may be even a political component. “If the ticking time-bomb approach isn’t gripping enough for you, the top-notch direction, writing, and smart symbolism (a little socialism versus capitalism, anyone?) are all points in the series’ favor,” the New York Post‘s “Decider” section claimed.

The basic premise of Money Heist, which seems to have received lots of positive reviews including a Rotten Tomatoes 88-percent average audience score, revolves around a passive-aggressive, detail-oriented mastermind called The Professor who recruits eight hardened crooks to break into the Royal Mint of Spain, a caper that they spend five months game-planning at a secluded estate.

An Ambitious Scheme

You’ll quickly realize, even before it’s revealed, that the caper goes beyond just a grab and go for the cash on hand inside but actually a far more ambitious scheme (suggested by the title) to loot $2.4 billion euros and which prompts a hostage situation with cops surrounding the Madrid facility.

Each episode includes key flashbacks to the planning mode as well as each bandit’s backstory.

As the events move forward, each of the characters face conflicting loyalties.

The crafty Professor runs the operation from the outside, and the engaging robbers in Salvador Dali masks go by city code names, Berlin (the George Clooney doppelganger who leads the group after they break in to the Mint), Tokyo, Nairobi, Moscow, Denver, Rio, Helsinki, and Oslo.

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Alvaro Morte does a stellar job in the role of The Professor with the amazing ability to go from a benign or confident demeanor to abject horror within seconds.

Reminiscent of Walter White from Breaking Bad, he also mind-games all of the police investigators with alacrity. You could say that while he is playing chess, the ability of the cops In Money Heist doesn’t even rise to the checkers level.

With a big assist from the aforementioned very-slow-to-catch-on law enforcement, he is able to outwit and manipulate the police at almost every turn in the standoff and throw them off the trail. The other crew members, such as sultry Tokyo (Ursula Corbero), who narrates the opus, give strong performances too, as do the entire ensemble, including other actors in supporting cast, such as the hostages, that you get to know as the plot unfolds. Alba Flores (Nairobi) and Paco Tous (Moscow) are also standout performers.

Hide the Cheese?

Itziar Ituno plays the gullible, neurotic National Police Inspector Raquel Murillo, “the most qualified officer to handle a hostage situation,” who — apart from occasional flashes of insight — completely bungles the police response. She also allows The Professor to worm his way into her personal life under his alter ego Salva, with predictable results.

The cat-and-mouse game between The Professor and the inspector has a simultaneously predictable and unbelievable resolution.

If you begin to watch it.. you can't stop 💛😉 #MoneyHeist #lacasadepapel #lacasadicarta #enjoyablesurprise #Netflix #TVseries #mymix1and2season #bellaciao #excellentcast #action #funny #love #family #brilliant #strong #watchitandenjoy 👋 pic.twitter.com/tjl421PJaH read more

Jason Whitlock Rips the LeBron James HBO Show ‘The Shop’ As Fake News

August 30, 2018 /

Jason Whitlock probably won’t be appearing on LeBron James’ new “unscripted” TV show The Shop which premiered Tuesday night on HBO.

Set in an apparently mythical barbershop, Whitlock claimed that the NBA superstar who joined the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent made a fool of himself  in something akin to a minstrel show and fake news.

He described the “inauthentic” presentation as a “profane, primitive, and privileged” look inside the fantasy world of black millionaires sipping goblets of wine in an environment which is far removed from reality.

The host of Speak for Yourself, Whitlock is one of the very few commentators in sports journalism, at least on television, who articulates a different view from the groupthink of the politically correct blue-check Twitter cohort.

Watch the FS1 video clips below and draw your own conclusions.

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Dahntay: LeBron's new show "The Shop" was indicative of black barbershops in today's culture. @dahntay1 pic.twitter.com/V74VkCl1PC read more

Did Anyone Watch ‘Gypsy’ with Naomi Watts on Netflix?

July 4, 2018 /

The answer to the above headline question is probably no, because according to Vanity Fair, Gypsy is one and done. Netflix announced that the 10-episode first season would not have an encore just six weeks after its premiere, “the quickest Netflix has ever canceled one of its original scripted dramas.”

A so-called psychological thriller with minimal thrills, Gypsy is the epitome of first-world problems. It centers on an obsessive, self-destructive Manhattan clinical psychologist Jean Holloway played by Watts who passive-aggressively (or sometimes aggressively) manipulates her patients beyond any ethical boundaries.

Watts delivers a fine performance as does Billy Crudup, who is solid as Watt’s lawyer husband. In fact, you’ve probably met someone very much like the Crudup character in real life.

It’s not clear whether the creators/showrunners are mocking the pampered lifestyle of Holloway and those in her Manhattan and upscale Fairfield County, Conn., orbit or presenting the narrative as a legitimate slice of life. If it’s the latter, the showrunners would seem to be wholly disconnected from the real world.

That said, Gypsy contains occasional perceptive dialogue about the human condition as well as some interesting verbal jujitsu when the Watts character almost spills the beans about her extra-curricular activities/alter ego to her clients during office sessions.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

“Watts doesn’t play Jean as victim or villain and Gypsy doesn’t judge Jean, though many viewers are probably going to think it should. Professionally, the things she’s doing are wrong and the show’s only real tension comes from playing the same, ‘Is she about to get caught in her latest lie?’ beats over and over without offering an alternative perspective, allowing us to root for the cruelly manipulated patients…Even if we’re aware that Jean is screwing up everybody’s life, including her own, we’re supposed to be complicit in her desire.” read more

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