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Reviews
Alpha House (2013)
Reasonably accurate and generally funny
The challenge with any politically themed show is that you risk alienating half of your audience if you focus on the politics. Fortunate, this show keeps that aspect reasonably light, and where it does come into play it's generally done without demonizing the show's main (Republican) characters. I'm probably like most in that I get tired of politics IRL, I don't need them in my entertainment.
So, quick run down of the good:
- Acting is superb. John Goodman carries, but supporting cast is excellent.
- It's funny. Not always laugh out loud, but often it is.
- The relationship between Gil John (Goodman) and Maddie (White) is sweet and believable.
- Consuelos is awesome in his role. So very believable. And his dynamic with Martinez is one of the more entertaining story lines.
The bad:
- the abrupt end is frustrating as the story arc builds nicely, but the series ends before it finishes telling the story.
The ugly:
- The ongoing ridicule of the Mormon protagonist (Malloy) and his family gets tedious by season two. There are some funny moments, but the writers go back to that joke bag a few too many times, while also perpetuating some pretty offensive stereotypes. But it's fun as long as the targets are religious conservatives, right? Whatever. It stops being funny after a while.
So, on balance, it's a fun series that mostly entertains and tends to reflect what goes on behind the scenes in Washington with healthy realism while still managing to be funny. It's not West Wing, but it's very watchable. And a lot of the footage seems to be from the actual Senate offices, and the occasional cameos by real politicians/policy wonks is a nice touch.
Echo 3 (2022)
On location filming is the best part
This is another action drama with the paramilitary vibe that seems to appeal to all of the CODers out there. But the main characters fall flat, it's hard to like any of them. The supporting cast, particularly the Spanish language actors, really steal the show. They're great, and make the rest of the story tolerable. And the scenery is incredible, props to the crew for actually filming in Colombia.
***Spoilers below***
At the end, though, it's a Rambo-style shoot-em-up where the heroes have to mow down hordes of anonymous soldiers of all nationalities to save the wife and escape by the salt and pepper hairs of their chins. If you're into that kind of thing, this may be your kind of thing.
Not sure if it follows the book it's based on, but it's not a great advert for the book.