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Elsbeth: Sweet Justice (2024)
Ouch
We had been enjoying Elsbeth more and more as the season progressed, but this one was a stinker.
Easily the worst show of the season. The mystery was lame, and the script was worse. The recurring actors were mostly just sleepwalking through this one-- they looked as bored as we felt-- and the guest stars were surprisingly bad.
Aside from the uninteresting mystery, the alleged corruption scheme that has been simmering all season was apparently resolved in the laziest, most cliched way imaginable, with a denouement that would have embarrassed the writers of Adam-12.
I hope that they just buried their weakest show in a shallow grave as the penultimate episode, and the finale will be better.
Fallout (2024)
Like the post-apocalypse scenery, there's not much there.
We made it through three episodes before giving up. The story was a simple quest that we have seen in various iterations a million times. It is just a gamer plot, which is fair enough considering the source, but it's boring, and the various plot holes are bigger than Santa Monica.
Acting is generally fine, especially Walton Goggins (fantastic makeup-- it's the best part of the show), but they don't have that much to do. This plot, mediocre scripts, and humor that far more often than not falls flat.
The cgi scenery of LA (the Theme Building at LAX, Randy's Donuts) is pretty spectacular, but the set pieces in various camps and towns is more often done on the cheap, and looks it.
Criminal Record (2024)
Two Good Leads, One Bad Story
The lead actors are well-known and reliably good actors, and the cinematography was good. And that's about it for the series' virtues. The story was thin, the plotting was dreadfully slow and often irritating, and the writing was, well, let's be charitable and say that it was mixed. Overall, it had its moments, but they were too few and too far in between.
The conflict between the main characters was believable sometimes and completely forced at other times. They reached an inevitable mutual respect toward the end, only to have their detente blown up at the last minute with a completely trivial pretext. Why? Because they are planning a second season and need to reset the central conflict. Unless they clean house on the production side, which seems unlikely, we are one and done.
Fisk (2021)
First two episodes were not very good
The humor is broad and about as subtle as a kangaroo kick to the jaw. Some cringe humor, some crank humor, but long stretches of lame and lazy attempts at humor that just don't land. If someone who paints portraits with his genitals sounds like your idea of hilarity, then this might be the show for you.
We made it through the first two episodes and quit without a second thought. Five stars might be generous, but it wasn't Mama's Family bad.
The premise was promising, but the acting is mixed and the writing is just standard-issue mediocre sitcom stuff. If you want a genuinely funny series in the same general vein, try The Grinder-- a criminally underrated series.
Star Trek: Picard: Dominion (2023)
Timekiller
This episode had a few nice moments, but it plays like more of a time-killer and a placeholder than a real plot-driver. Lots of talk going, if not nowhere, then not very far and in circles.
The best moments are the most predictable-- the reunions of long-lost comrades from TNG, and a couple of hat tips to Voyager and TOS. The plot, such as it is, is pretty standard issue stuff: rule-bending, a break in, a narrow escape, a hostage, a wordy confrontation with the Big Bad (or more precisely, the Head Assistant Big Bad). There is, to be fair, one biggish revelation about Starfleet that moves the story along, and some good special effects.
And can't the galaxy's biggest and more important holiday be something less lame than "Frontier Day"? Everyone talks about it like it's so awe-inspiring, but it just sounds like there's going to be a couple of cowboys shooting it out in a mock duel on the dusty streets of Tombstone. Yeah, I get it-- there almost certainly will be a big shoot-out on the big day, but still....
Glória (2021)
Interesting ride but only a so-so destination
We really enjoyed this show, at least until the end of the final episode. It was an interesting dive into 1960's Portugal and the Cold War. Excellent acting, movie-quality cinematography, good writing and an intriguing story.
There were more than a few plot holes along the way, and some of those holes turned into craters by the end of the final episode. There were some nice plot twists, but, without giving anything away, many of those twists, along with the main mystery driving the series, made no sense at all when the final credits rolled.
We enjoyed the ride, if not so much the final destination. Even with some complaints, we are sorry that there isn't a second season.
Star Trek: Picard: No Win Scenario (2023)
Don't think about it too much.
The good news is that this was better than the previous two episodes; less soapy, more thoughtful and also more action-oriented. But if you think about it, the episode was generally a load of nonsense.
The crisis inside the nebula was preposterous. What was happening was telegraphed as a call-back to one of the lesser Next Generation episodes. The Titan's escape attempt required the crew to magically avoid a huge curtain of space debris by basically using The Force. And then they unconvincingly stole an idea from Galaxy Quest to disable the Shrike.
The kicker is that the lazy "surf out of the nebula" gambit was not only stupid, but pointless-- after Titan's escape, the nebula resolved itself peacefully without so much as a hiccup, making the "desperate" escape attempt completely unnecessary.
Oh, and they resolved the changeling threat in the dumbest and least consequential way possible. Finally, the last five minutes or so was nothing more than "awed" reaction shots of individual crew members witnessing what happened to the nebula, followed by a phone call. Yeesh.
It's OK if you don't think about it, but....
Only Murders in the Building: Flipping the Pieces (2022)
The weakest episode of the second season... by far
We have really enjoyed OMITB, but this one was a stinker. For the most part it was a boring time killer-- poorly plotted, badly written and indifferently acted. I realize that Selena Gomez is a fan favorite, but she doesn't have the chops to carry an entire episode by herself, and she was badly served by the story-- or what passed for a story-- told here. Gee, let's go to a Coney Island amusement park, which is conveniently deserted and yet ridiculously easy to break into, play some arcade games and stumble into the only other person in the entire park, who turns out to be a particular person of interest. Insert eye-roll emoji here.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: A Quality of Mercy (2022)
Great episode, with one of the best ST scenes, ever
Lots of positive reviews of this episode already, so this will be brief.
An excellent episode overall, but the quiet scene toward the end with Pike and Spock is worth the price of admission alone. In one simple, understated and poignant moment we witness the bond between Pike and Spock that will eventually explain Spock's willingness to face a court-martial to return the horribly injured Pike to Talos IV in TOS. Brilliant writing and perfect acting result in one of the best dramatic moments in any ST series.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The Elysian Kingdom (2022)
This promised to be one of the worst ST episodes ever, but then...
After cringing during the first fifteen minutes and almost giving up, what looked like a stupid, shallow, and syrupy mess actually turned into a fairly entertaining episode. It was fun to see the crew bickering within their new characters, and there were some nice jokes tucked away in the story.
It looked like it must have been fun for the crew to break character, or inhabit new characters far removed from their standard roles. Especially entertaining were Pike, Ortegas and best of all Noonian-Singh-- who were all pretty hilarious. Spock was also quite good in a more limited role; he was the one character where you could still tell it was Spock, even though he played against character as a rather amoral wizard.
Yeah, the premise was stupid, it took awhile to get things going, and the ending was pretty lame, but it was otherwise surprisingly engaging.
Star Trek: Picard: Hide and Seek (2022)
Yikes
It... just... keeps... getting...worse.
Interminable banal speeches. Cliched, actionless action sequences. This dreck is going to be Picard's legacy, and that is a sad thought.
Star Trek: Picard (2020)
L.A. Trek
I don't know what I expected, but I expected more than this. The actors are all OK with one exception, and I'm not sure whether the main fault with Michelle Hurd is that she is not a good actor or her character has nothing to do except to be pointlessly petulant. John de Lancie is fun-- I wish that he was around more than he is. Patrick Stewart tries to inject some gravitas into the proceedings, but too often comes across as a cranky ponderous grandpa, whom few would follow to the corner store, let alone to the ends of the universe.
There are two major problems with the second season. The first is that the plot is terrible, bordering on non-existent. The cast is stuck in 21st century LA, where nothing interesting happens. None of the story arcs are interesting, let alone compelling. There is no Star Trekking going on-- it's just dullsville. I don't know whether it is laziness, lack of original ideas, or budget cuts, but it is just bad TV. There are a few good moments, but most episodes feel like pointless filler, killing time until... well, we don't know, because nothing much ever happens.
The second, related problem is the terrible writing. The writers have nothing interesting to say and they aren't good enough to dress up the lack of ideas with a distracting sense of fun and/or adventure.
The only social commentary here is banal and heavy-handed: 1. Homelessness is bad; and 2. ICE shouldn't bully undocumented immigrants. Politically, I completely agree with both points, but the commentary here is so shallow and obvious that it doesn't accomplish anything except make me roll my eyes into the back of my head. Still watching, but not really enjoying it.
Even after learning to loathe Discovery after a decent first season, and being sorely disappointed in Picard, I am still foolish enough to hold out some hope for Strange New Worlds....
Endeavour: Prey (2016)
This one is a stinker
By far the worst episode to date. The plot is full of truck-sized holes and the resolution is just plain dumb. There are just so many problems with this episode-- the actors must have rolled their eyes back into their heads when they shot it. In the end, the person sitting in the police car as the credits roll is presented as a horrible person, but all they really did was pinch a vial from a laboratory in order to scare someone. Lame.
Terriers (2010)
You won't like it.
We were excited by the positive reviews and the filming location in San Diego. We only watched the pilot, which was absolutely horrible. Terrible acting (especially Donal Logue), hackneyed dialogue, completely cliched plot. Cheaply shot, it doesn't even show off San Diego to any effect. The only reason for this show to exist is as some sort of tax dodge. We liked the dog, even though it wasn't a terrier.