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Reviews
Inventing Anna (2022)
Did Shonda Rhimes have a stroke?
What I find shocking is that all the while the creators - using the various 'quirky' characters, smitten with the brilliance of this bland Russian psycho, as mouthpieces - seem to expect us to root for Anna, who btw got paid a hefty sum for the rights to make this nonsense. The part where we were supposed to hate her friend for getting defrauded by her and having the audacity to do something about it was especially outrageous.
P-Valley (2020)
All the reviews in the world won't make you critics
It's pretty well done, from the acting to the Wrestler-type crazy athleticism. I'm sure if it was a show about mobsters rather than mostly black strippers, the trolls would not be complaining. There's a reason no one cares about your opinion, guys.
The Crown (2016)
Not sure how it's better than fetishizing narcos
It's an ok show, in terms of the way it's done at least. Still, I have to protest the very gesture of romanticizing the life of the monarchy and so-called "nobility". Even if, as it's becoming increasingly clear in the context of today's politics, monarchy does have its strong suites, I can't help but feel that there is a fetishization at work here, and I don't like it. So 6/10 it is.
Wu-Tang: An American Saga (2019)
Exactly what it should have been
The show does a great job of presenting the Wu-Tang concept for what it is while avoiding all the trappings associated with the typical biographical rise-to-stardom drama we've been seeing over and over for decades. It has the audacity to be slow and not self-explanatory (e.g. the who's who question), but the result is that instead of an extended trailer with fan service thrown in you get an organic narrative set in a real world with lots of context and actual depth (one parallel that comes to mind is FX's Snowfall).
Watchmen (2019)
Worst wishes to all the armchair critics out there
I don't normally rate shows based on one episode, but lately there's been so much outrage over anything and everything by the increasingly vocal group of aggrieved Internet trolls that I've been breaking my own rule more and more just to get in an early "screw you" to all the armchair critics out there. For what it's worth, the episode was great. For a start, treating an obvious incel inspiration such as Rorschach in a neutral fashion (even the neutral fashion of the "antihero") wouldn't really work today (even Alan Moore has come out and admitted that his 80s work is gratuitous and that it's basically aged badly, c.f. 'The Killing Joke'). Also, I feel like the outrage over the decision to set the story in a racially divided America is preemptive - from what I saw and then read after watching the episode, it appears that the divisions in the show's world are the result of this alternate history's very specific political developments (President Redford paying slavery reparations to America's black populace). Ultimately, there is little difference between this and a show like 'Man in the High Castle'. Oh, but that's Nazis and the Japanese, not white supremacists resembling what we have today. I guess you folks are able to draw some major difference from that.
Also, the 'Watchmen' comic book had its own anti-Reaganism/Thatcherism leanings, therefore it seems somewhat random when Internet-empowered fanboys complain about the show's politicization. I don't really like Alan Moore very much, but heck, he's always saying he doesn't want his stuff adapted, b/c it's so "unfilmable" as everyone keeps saying. Well, Lindelof didn't adapt, he extended. Would I have preferred a Damon Lindelof show with no Alan Moore connection? Sure. Do I still like the show? Well, based on one episode, it's looking good.
EDIT: And here's Moore's own pointed Rorschach quote: "I wanted to kind of make this like, 'Yeah, this is what Batman would be in the real world.' But I had forgotten that actually to a lot of comic fans that smelling, not having a girlfriend-these are actually kind of heroic. So actually, sort of, Rorschach became the most popular character in Watchmen. I meant him to be a bad example, but I have people come up to me in the street saying, 'I am Rorschach! That is my story!' And I'll be thinking, 'Yeah, great, can you just keep away from me and never come anywhere near me again for as long as I live?"
EDIT 2 (in response to the latest negative reviews reiterating the same arguments): JESUS, are you people even watching the show or is it that you're simply unable to revise your thinking after the first episode? It's clear that the cops aren't the good guys, and the excessively "woke" culture you're railing against is being questioned no less than white supremacy. It's beginning to look like the real reason you're taking offence is that it's not dumbed down enough for the age of radical partisanship.
Batwoman (2019)
Worse than Arrow? I don't think so
The outrage is really kinda funny, considering that this is just bland and shows like Flash and Arrow, which do get a lot of love, are straightforward idiocy.
Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)
Damned plebs
I'm not even gonna bother to review this, really. I just wanted to take the opportunity and thank god for the release of the new Twin Peaks. Had it not been for The Return and the outraged reaction it got, the uncertainty over whether the majority of IMDb users are halfwits or not could still be lingering today. At least, now we know. :)