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Reviews
Curb Your Enthusiasm: IRASSHAIMASE! (2021)
Stayed too long at the fair.
Staying too long...is an outdated meme that is really useful when talking about shows that continue to grind out episodes after their expiration date. "Curb" was a show that used a caricature of Larry David that now uses a caricature of a caricature of Larry David. Lately the show uses out-of-character (and some just plain stupid) scenes to set up for the "big" funny ending. This episode is a perfect example of that. It was a generally mirthless affair with a couple of chuckles near the end. I think the only really funny episode of the last five was the KKK robe one. A .200 batting average isn't going to make it anymore.
At this point I watch it mostly for views of places in LA, and particularly Brentwood, that I love.
The Saint: The Organisation Man (1968)
Who's shooting at who?
What a truly terrible episode. Turning the big shoot out you really can't tell who's shooting at how. The outdoor stand-ins become indescribable and unrecognizable. The torturous interrogation scene makes no sense. "We all agree I'm going to crack (from that one lightbulb in the light fixture)..."
And the twist ending is the definition of lame but the Jeep flying through the mud is cool for about one second.
The Saint continues to sink.
Murder on Middle Beach (2020)
I don't think this is a spoiler but I'm going to mark it that way in case.
I am in the second episode. So far I would say it's well done. There are so many of these true crime things these days, and of course this has unique hook, but sometimes I do think they get stretched out. So far however, so good. And the overview about Gifting Tables is worth the price of admission.
The real reason I wrote this review is so I could postulate this wonderful Agatha Christie twist to the story; he's the murderer. However, I'm not at the end yet so perhaps that's what happens and so, spoiler alert!
My Psychedelic Love Story (2020)
Unwatchable
A major failure by the great documentarian Errol Morris about the recently deceased Joanna Harcourt-Smith. She was the girlfriend of Timothy Leary who, when he escaped prison, joined him on his globetrotting romp to keep ahead of the police. Morris makes a classic error, since he's talking a lot of about LSD, and other psychedelics, he thinks it adds to the experience to keep having "trippy" images constantly mixed into the the story. So photographs swirl and expand and displayed text also bubbles up and just gives you a headache. "Like I'm too high, man." I made it through about 12 minutes.
Silent Witness: Long Days, Short Nights: Part 1 (1996)
I'm done
This seems like it would be a great binge-watch of a series. Not only because it's good but there is an amazing 24 episodes. I did enjoy the first episode except for two things and I couldn't believe those two things were repeated again in this episode.
These police procedurals, if they run long enough, will often have our hero, or heroine, get threatened by the bad guy. This show it occurred on the very first episode. A little too soon for my tastes. However to have a suspect get threatening and handsy with her in the second episode is too much.
My second complaint is a personal one. I believe if you look that it was Brian De Palma's "Blowout" that popularized the 360-degree camera move. Around and around until you want to vomit. I didn't like it back then and I was shocked to see it occur in both the first and second episodes of this series. So at this point I am taking a pass on the series.
The Saint: Sibao (1965)
Voodoo Schmoodoo
Terrible episode of The Saint in which Simon takes an early viewpoint that there might be something to voodoo. And the script supports that view. Hard to believe that this is a Peter Yates directed episode. He brought so much in his earlier efforts for the show. But here we get spooky voodoo rituals heavily laden with an eerie score. Throw-in, around the 39 minute mark, one of the most ridiculous things you've ever seen (except 5 minutes later it gets more ridiculous), and I think you'll agree with me that this is not a good episode.
Of interest is the energetic dancer at the beginning of the episode played by Boscoe Holder. He is Geoffrey Holder's brother. For those old enough--"Marvelous!"
Bottom line, I don't like seeing The Saint delving in nonsensical, supernatural, plots.
Quiz (2020)
Horribly manipulative show
"Quiz" -- 30pts. 3 part mini-series on the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" scandal in England in the 90s. It's simply horribly manipulative.
The show opens with a scene in a courtroom between the two sets of defendants they're at tells you the slant the show is going to take, then it settles down into the creation of the actual quiz show itself. I found a lot of this interesting and I always seem to like things that Michael Sheen is in. The show then spends about an hour setting up strawmen which it's going to knock down in the final third episode. Besides having to believe, because of situations we see, the view point of the major and his wife. They are practically the definition of unreliable narrators. In addition, you have a number of ridiculous characters on the "bad guys" side including an absolutely impossible to believe, clueless lawyer for Celador. It just stacks the deck so hard.
Hey, if it's fiction, makeup any tale you want, but don't give me a fantasy version of actual occurrences.
The Saint: The Charitable Countess (1962)
Excellent serie's season finale
Lots of nice touches in this first season finale. First it's nice to have a continuing character in the always dependable Warren Mitchell is Marco de/di Cesare. And Patricia Donahue makes a wonderful antagonist who interacts with Roger Moore so delightfully. The writing of their scenes is also first class.
I suppose the kids' story gets a little bogged down, except these children in those conditions existed then and they still exist now all over the world. It's interesting to see a socially-conscious episode on this issue in an early 60's English show.
I think I would give the entire season about a 73 point rating.
The Saint: The Talented Husband (1962)
Very ungood first episode
I've loved The Saint since I was a child. And recently got the complete DVD set so I can watch them in order. Seems like a pretty good time right now. Anyways I had forgotten how bad this episode is. Roger Moore is hardly in it even though it's the premiere episode. Instead half the episode is a man and his wife a domestic situation for long stretches. No matter for what purpose, and I think the solution in this episode is rather obvious, it makes it so it says they have your handsome leading man, and one of the hottest women in England, in less than half the show. And the ending lands like a lead egg and Simon's in only in about half of it.
Regardless of the bad start I know The Saint goes on to be quite an excellent show. Looking forward to the rest, but a stinker is a stinker.
Goliath: Tongue Tied (2018)
Can this series knock it off with comic book super bad guys?
I love everything about show. The actors, every one of them, are so good. The love the sense of place. Just as good as Bosch, but a different side of LA. The scenes--you had to love the scene between Patti as she predicts her future with the FBI guy. But why oh why do we need these weird sexual psychopaths as bad guys? I can only guess the producers aren't confident enough in using the usual assortment of corrupt guys so we wind up with TWO guys who share the same fetish and last year's weirdo William Hurt characters.