Change Your Image
watsonjames-15182
Reviews
Spy Ops (2023)
One of the biggest snoozefests I've ever seen.
It takes a lot of hard work to make a docuseries with such interesting subject matter so dull and un-engaging.
For a start, there was just way too much waffling. We don't need to know every single movement of every single player in the show. And we especially don't need it to stray into conspiracy thinking like one or two episodes did. It honestly felt like they had so much material, but they didn't know what to do with it, so they just threw it all together in the hope it would be somehow interesting.
It definitely didn't help that the episodes were a bit disjointed and hard to follow, and the music was immensely grating. But above all, it managed to be a perfect example of the kind of shoddy, half-hearted documentaries that Netflix seems to churn out every month.
Waco: American Apocalypse (2023)
An unstoppable muppet meets an immovable muppet
I sometimes find myself wondering if other IMDB reviewers watch the same show I watched when reviewing, and this one is no exception.
If this show is supposed to be Federal Government propaganda, then its makers did a terrible job, because they failed miserably. I don't know how you could watch this and think the ATF and FBI were anything other than chaotic, incompetent and gung-ho. For a start, going ahead with a raid to look for military-style assault weapons, in broad daylight no less, when you already know that you've lost the element of surprise? You don't even have to have a third grade education to know why that's a bad idea. The constant disconnect between the negotiators and the HRT leading to mixed signals. Arresting the Davidians who did come out. And they expected them to just
The documentary makers also did absolutely the right thing in interviewing the Davidians who survived. You can get annoyed all you like about giving these zealots a platform, but I would ask what's more effective? Asking the audience to trust you when you tell them that the Davidians were so completely brainwashed that they allowed 13 year old girls to have sex with a man in his 30s because that man told them he was the second coming of Christ, and that they believed that 13 is when a girl comes of age? Or letting Kathy Schroeder - one of David Koresh's acolytes - say both of those things exactly, in her own twisted words?
There's a reason the Waco siege is a case study in how not to handle a crisis, and using a combination of interviews of people with different viewpoints on both sides of the conflict, very crisp and realistic computer graphics, and some pretty intense footage, this documentary explains exactly why.
Murderville (2022)
Big hits, bit misses
I would advise watching this show like a 30-minute Whose Line is it Anyway game, which it essentially is. The hammy acting actually fits then, and the obvious efforts by Will and the guest to put each other in a difficult spot becomes even funnier.
I would say that Conan O'Brien and Marshawn Lynch did far better than I thought they would - you could tell they were really into it, and just wanted to have a blast. Whereas the more established actors seemed really nervous and out of their depth without a script. Don't get me wrong, they had their moments - like when Kumail forced Will to impersonate a Pakistani accent without being offensive, or when Sharon and Will tormented the guy playing the murder victim and trying to get him to break character. Those bits were hilarious. But all in all, I think that choosing established actors who were used to delivering a script was a bit of a shot in a the foot.
White House Farm (2020)
Fantastic show, with two exceptions
I should start by making clear that, despite the fact that this review will dedicate a fair bit of time to my reasons for deducting two stars, it really deserves the eight I awarded. It was gripping from start to finish, and even when I knew what the outcome was going to be, I still found myself on the edge of my seat. And I will say that Freddie Fox's performance was top notch acting - he really knew how to strike the balance between being charming and charismatic, yet at the same time arrogant and revoltingly awful, which describes Jeremy Bamber down to a T. And I was glad that they didn't gloss over important details such as the animosity between Ann and Jeremy, the financial motives of all the cousins, and Julie not being entirely reliable and later selling her story. A lesser show might've done so.
The first star I deducted was for Stephen Graham's portrayal of DCI "Taff" Jones. That accent for a start. But more to the point, Taff was clearly written and portrayed as a cliché "baddie" superior constantly roadblocking the underdog Stan, played by Mark Addy. I never knew the man, I wasn't there for anything, and I know that his argument with the cousins was true. Maybe he wasn't altogether the most pleasant boss, and maybe he didn't do his job as thoroughly as he could've. But his character reeked of artistic license.
The second star was deducted due to disappointment at what I felt was the fact that they made Julie Mugford's testimony the main focus of the trial scenes, yet somewhat skated over the point about the silencer, even though that was a very crucial part of the prosecution's case, and what many consider to be the smoking gun. It was definitely a much larger point than it was made out to be, I felt.