Reviews

3 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
Six
Six (2017–2018)
10/10
First Season Review - A Great Buildup to a Great Finish
9 March 2017
So I have a family member who is a retired SEAL officer. And the only insight I get from him is this. Real SEALS do not talk about or brag about their accomplishments. And they are real people with real life issues. What they do for a living can magnify these real life issues. Six does a great job of capturing what they do on and off the field of engagement.

I suggest you watch the entire season before you decide what you think of this show. It builds and the payoff is worth it. I was frankly shocked by the graphic nature - not of the battle scenes which ought to be graphic, but the raw language, emotion, sexual scenes, etc. Perhaps my shock was that this was the History Channel, but I think it is not gratuitous in this instance. It is appropriate, given who these characters are - highly trained tactical warriors. It's what they do and therefore, it identifies them because you can't be one than the other, no matter how hard you try to assimilate into our cushy society.

I reserved my review until I saw the last episode of Season 1 (which was nothing short of tremendous). The body of work so far is top notch. The characters are totally believable to me and the directing, cinematography and story line are excellent. If you like Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, and the rest of that genre, you will not be disappointed.
87 out of 105 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Five-O
Better Call Saul: Five-O (2015)
Season 1, Episode 6
10/10
The Most Critical Episode Thus Far
10 March 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The great thing about a prequel is that the creative minds have a chance to put meat on the bones of characters that we already know from a certain point in time - like meeting a person who becomes a close friend of yours and years later, you sit down and finally ask, "so why are you always initially suspicious of everyone at a party" or "why do you cry every time there's a commercial with a horse?" And then they give you this incredible back story that explains it all.

This is what we get to see in BCS - for both Saul and for Mike (and quite likely for many others as we work our way back to WW's birthday party). What's great is that we see how an innocuous line or scene from BB now has a complex back story. We expect that for Saul, but this Five-O episode was definitely Mike's turn to shine and put some meat on the bones of Mike Ehrmantraut.

Mike is Mike in large part because of the events that played out in Philly and how he "broke" his son. An already hardened cop with questionable morals (an apparent requirement to survive in his precinct), Mike tries desperately to save his rookie cop son from the consequences of having a moral compass in an immoral environment. In turn, he breaks his son and breaks himself. We learn how the stoic Mike has a burning and broken heart inside - one that will rarely, if ever, be seen again by anyone.

Mike gets revenge for his son, and his fellow Philly coppers find their way to the ABQ to ask him a few questions about the 2 dead cops who died a few months after his son.

Five-O gives us the chance to see this process, and to see some of the best acting in BCS or BB ever. Jonathan Banks gives an Emmy- worthy performance and delivers one of the most gripping monologues along the way. Saul is a tangential part of this, and up to this point, is not aware of the import of this encounter with the guy who keeps asking him to get more stickers so he can leave the parking lot. But even so, Saul slips ever more into the ethical abyss that he was born to plummet into by helping Mike get the Philly investigator's note pad.

Mike took no half measures, not even then.
38 out of 43 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Time Zones
Mad Men: Time Zones (2014)
Season 7, Episode 1
6/10
Time Zones with an Extended Layover
14 April 2014
It seems like the last episode of Mad Men was years ago, even though it was about 10 months since we last saw Don, Joan, Peggy, Roger, et al. This episode spends considerable time re-establishing the characters and where they find themselves in life. Despite being an avid follower of the series, I admit I was a little lost trying to connect the end of last season to the beginning of this season. And halfway through the episode, I assumed that I had watched a full episode and was surprised I still had 30 minutes to go (translation: moving a bit slow.)

That being said, I am convinced that this episode's sole purpose was to prepare for launch into the final season's good stuff. We see that some time has passed since the season 6 finale and the characters have adjusted to their new lot in life. We don't need to know the specifics of what happened in this gap of time, and I'm certain that the remaining episodes won't bother, as the details are not important.

However, the pace of this episode could have picked up by compressing the "where are they now" scenes to that first half when I thought it was over, and moved into establishing some more interesting plot lines. I'd expect that the next few episodes will be off and running, since there's a lot of ground to cover before the series' end.
16 out of 29 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Clear your history

Recently Viewed