Change Your Image
oscaroni
Reviews
After Midnight (2024)
Who greenlighted this train wreck?
I was so optimistic. Taylor is absolutely hysterical - as a stand-up comedian.
I find it incredulous that a group of industry people watched a pilot and thought, "This is perfect for a late night spot." This was not remotely funny, interesting, or entertaining (Sorry, Taylor). Five minutes in, I turned off the TV. Not a single laugh or even a chuckle.
Why "3 stars"? With some talented writers and a format re-vamp, this could serve as a great platform for Taylor. In theory, targeting social media is a fun idea. It is rife with humorous material.
When It was announced that a "female" would host a late night show, I expected originality and something different from the line-up of male dominated "talk shows". This is as far from that as possible.
What a sad waste of talent. She deserves better.
Eating Our Way to Extinction (2021)
Another vegan doc, disguised as an environmental doc. Skip it...
Disclaimer: I began eating plant-based in 2010. Was never a big meat eater, so it was easy to skip it for weeks or months at a time. I'm like the truthful Seventh Day Adventists (I worked with them in a hospital and saw what they really eat) - a flexitarian.
With that out of the way, there is no doubt we are are at the climate crisis tipping-point, and may well have passed it. AND - reducing our consumption of animal products will be better for the environment. And - stop drinking almond milk which uses an unimaginable amount of water (100 gal water per 1/2 gal almond milk!). The problem with using docs like this as a vehicle to communicate a pathway to reducing greenhouse gases, pollution, micro-plastics, and exhausting the limited fresh water resources in general, is they come across as preachy and the viewer assumes that because it is a "documentary", the data/claims have been vetted, right? Well, no.
As I watched this doc, all I could think of was Seaspiracy, Cowspiracy, and any other "spiracy docs" that take data and skews it to fit a narrative (e.g., The Game Changers). As a scientist, I love fact-checking. This doc shares so much with those previously mentioned: Many of the same key players (not-a-scientist Anthony Robbins, also, not-a-scientist or vegan Richard Branson, not a vegan Kate Winslet) repeating the same claims, almost word-for word, including some of the same false data as Seaspiracy. As I heard the claim that 80% of plastic sea trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is fishing equipment, I shook my head in disbelief. I pulled the research paper they quote, and it is a completely false representation of the statement: "at least 46% was comprised of fishing nets" and "86% of the large pieces of floating plastic in the garbage patch are items that were abandoned, lost or discarded by fishing vessels." Sylvia Earle, a real scientist and vegetarian stated, "at least half the plastic in the sea comes from discarded or lost fishing gear. She knows the truth.
Interesting that the vegans who made this doc had trouble finding vegan spokespeople to mouth their "facts".
My point is this: we don't need another preachy faux documentary to motivate people to take action to alleviate this certain crisis. We need voters who will elect politicians who care about a world that will exist long after they are gone. And we need viewers who stop accepting anything that sounds like it must be true as fact. How do you think we ended up with all those Q-Anon followers?
Behind Her Eyes (2021)
Angry I wasted 6 hours on this supernatural fantasy
I was engrossed for the first 4 episodes, but when the film suddenly tossed in a deus ex machina - well, I was pissed. You cannot sell your film as a suspense without mentioning that it relies heavily on supernatural tripe to make your story line work. If it had been listed as supernatural/fantasy, then I would have viewed it as such. And I would have stopped watching as soon as I saw sparklers floating from their bodies, aka astral projection. Honestly, this was just plain lazy. And if you plan to use something like astral projection (think vampires that sparkle), you must introduce it no later than the 2nd episode. Lastly, the final episode was truly unbelievable, even for fantasy: Let's not call 999 to report a fire - I'll just fall asleep in the doorway and astral project my body into the fire and save her. Good grief!
The Outsider: Que Viene el Coco (2020)
What happened? This show had so much promise
Jumped the shark. Holly is so overacted and her role has taken precedence over the other characters. This episode lost all of it's steam. I'm out :(