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mattja01
Reviews
Doom Patrol (2019)
Crass, vulgar and woke
At what point does an f-bomb become so overused that it loses the desired effect? Well, the writers of this series are determined to find out. The worst characters in this regard are the characters played by Diane Guerrero and Brendan Fraser. If these characters were actual people I would not associate with them. Utterly lacking in class and as crass and vulgar as is humanly possible. And unnecessarily. The characters have enough depth to obviate the need for so much profanity. All the profanity does is diminish them. Sad that the writers feel that's the only way to be edgy these days.
It's a good series and I like it. It can stand on its own without so much bad language.
Devs (2020)
How predictable was this series?
So predictable that I knew Jefferson Hall's role by his second appearance. It was painfully obvious what his character's role was, as it was painfully obvious what the series was about 15 minutes into episode one and it was painfully obvious how the story would end minus some insignificant details. The series does it's best to give the appearance of deep sci-fi, but doesn't follow through. The writing was weak and the acting of the main characters tedious. Props to Zach Grenier. His Kenton character was spot-on. Those who have met such people will understand. As a dev for over 30 years, I wanted to like it, but I couldn't. I tried. Maybe I know too much about the technology. Anyway, as this point in life I have no patience for stories where suspension of belief is a major requirement. Good Sci-fi is good sci-fi because the story has to appear it may be possible at some point in the future. This story is ridiculous.
Barbarians Rising (2016)
Simply horrible
I wasn't going to review this series because I didn't think it deserved the effort. It's that bad. But a single statement in episode 1 was so infuriating, I had to comment. At approx. 27 minutes in, an individual identified as Dr. Clarence B. Jones, a civil rights leader, makes the statement, "It was the barbarians, so called, who opposed slavery." In the context of this series, "barbarians" refers to the Carthaginians, although neither the Romans nor the Greeks would consider the Carthaginians to be barbarians. Did the Romans take slaves? Yes, they did. Did the Carthaginians take slaves? Yes, they did. Did the true barbarians take slaves (the various Germanic tribes, Visigoths, etc.?) Yes, they did. In fact, if you canvased the ancient world to see who took slaves and who did not, I don't think you would find any nation or tribe that did not take slaves. It's simply amazing that Dr. Jones' statement got past the History Channel editors unchallenged. And to make it into the final cut is unforgivable.
Many of the so-called "experts" in this series have no credibility at all. They may offer opinions, as we all can, but to promote them as experts is simply bizarre. Jesse Jackson? This Dr. Jones? They may be experts in their respective fields, but ancient history is not one of them.
The only conclusion I can come to is The History Channel had an agenda with this series and was untroubled by promoting fake history if it will reinforce that agenda. The History Channel has been in a downward spiral for years, but this is so bad, it would be better if they had promoted it as period reality TV cosplay. Simply horrible.