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jameslear-07673
Reviews
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)
More Handholding Exposition than a Cartoon for kids
It's quite astonishing that a cartoon for kids left more to be inferred by the viewer than a remake for adults.
The casting seemed pretty good (especially Sokka), but Iroh? How could they have gotten such an important character so wrong?
There are so many scenes which are not going to work without his accent.
There is very little humour compared to the original series, and while they kept some of the original music/sound effects, there is much less background music.
The bending effects were excellent, as was the casting in general. I just think they removed some chemistry, removed the humour, and ruined Iroh.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore (2023)
Lazy writing
Mando has been trying for an episode and a half to get the droid from last season back together to revisit his home world. He wants this combat droid because it's the only one he can trust (for reasons).
He gets told "Na", by a mechanic he knows, so completely drops it and gets a crap rust bucket. - Fine.
He lands on the Mandalore and sends the droid out to test the atmosphere; but when it disappears he just walks out anyway to get it back - Why did he even need the droid?
Despite the fact they have a droid that can pilot the ship, Grogu comes with Mando into the caves when Mando knows there are dangerous creatures inside?
Mando gets caught, Grogu legs it on his space mobility scooter back to the lady who is sat on a seat all day apparently. She says "lets finally get rid of him", and two seconds later she is heading off to save him.
In the meantime, the thing that has caught mando has been waiting patiently or having a nap or something for some reason. Seriously, how did it not kill him during this time? Anyway she kills the weird thing in like 2 seconds using the dark sabre which she has never used before but somehow wields like Jackie Chan.
Then Mando gets yanked under the water by the underwater dragon thing (which does not look dextrous enough to grab him by the feet). Mando gets saved, again, by the least likeable character in the series.
Somehow Mando thinks he just slipped or something??! How on earth did not tell that he was yanked to the bottom? Why did it yank him down there and not kill him?
If the season continues this way, it's just been held together by Din and Grogu being cute together.
You: Joe Takes a Holiday (2023)
Slow start, but good episode. USA Caricature of UK
Great episode, it starts fairly slowly but has some interesting twists. Spoilers below of course!
I'll start with the negative part which motivated me to review this episode. What is this weird caricature of England? It's like the writers/production team watched Downton Abbey and then spent two days in central London, barely leaving their hotel. There was also a lot of English dialog that you'd never hear anyone actually say.
Like "No hand shandies over my girl, do you hear? Any of my girls." When was the last time you heard someone use the phrase "Hand shandies"? I'm not sure I've heard that phrase ever.
Also, the guy goes to a saw mill to cut up a body and has to do it within 45m and clean up. Firstly, how many saw mills would you find in the UK, and also how many wouldn't be covered in Security Cameras. There are every 2 foot in the UK. And also how would you possibly clean that up?
Honestly, the twists are the main attraction. Maybe to someone outside of the UK, the weirdness of it wouldn't be so jarring.
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year (2022)
Total balls. No banter, boring cast.
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, can a bit a bit hit and miss, but this year was just miss. There was absolutely zero banter.
We had comics like Richard Ayoade who are great, but they need setup to deliver and there was none. He struggled to deliver as a result. His routine revolves around other people making normal observations to contrast his nerdy character; but nobody actually really said anything, so he couldn't work with it.
If you have nothing but reactionary comics, then there is nothing to build a joke.
Jonathan Ross didn't really have anything to say, nor did anyone else. Just disappointing.
There was nothing to bounce off each other. It was pretty boring.
BFQY was crap this year.
The Boys: The Instant White-Hot Wild (2022)
Great series, bad episode
This final episode amounts to nothing, but the most frustrating thing is how inconsistent the strength of the supes are.
All of the tension has been from watching Homelander on a knifes edge, and all other supes knowing they are no match. That tension would not exist if any of "The seven" could fight homelander.
We even see Homelander kill Noir in one punch without any effort. Noir was beating Starlight and Maeve before his nut allergy was exploited.
Suddenly, Maeve is strong enough to fight Homelander one on one. What is this? Who wrote this? Surely Homelander could have just punched through her like Noir without a sweat? Maeve could not even take on Stormfront alone.
Soldier Boy, who was more (or slightly less) strong as Homelander in their last fight, immediately just grabs Homerlander by the throat and then goes to blow him up light it was no problem! Ryan saves him, and now Butcher is fighting Soldier Boy.
Butcher uses his laser eye thing directly into Soldier Boy's face which does nothing at all, and yet Soldier Boy tries to use his shield for some reason when it's obvious he doesn't need it.
Back to Maeve who is somehow now on Homelander's level, shoves a metal tube into Homelanders ear. He's beyond bullet proof, so why would this metal tube not just crumple?
Then Maeve tackles Soldier Boy out of the window, but, plot twist, she survives! Only to have no powers and to be written off. Why not just have her die and her sacrifice mean something?
Since we've established that Homerlander can be bruised, he doesn't have a healing power, so I'm guessing he's now deaf in one ear? If it's this easy, why didn't Maeve just go for his eyes?
Just an impossibly badly written episode and a disappointment.
Formula 1: Drive to Survive (2019)
How can they miss so much real tension and substitute made up drama
Nothing but fluff, barely any racing shown, radio messages clipped out of context for drama.
Missed almost all all real drama, showed hardly any of Perez defensive driving, glossed over Alonso defending against Hamilton. Didn't show any of Lando defending against Hamilton. Didn't show basically any of Vettel despite the P2 finish in Hungary.
Onboard Camera is only shown for 2-3 seconds at most, and then it darts between different drivers on different laps.
F1 is the pinnacle of motor sport, and you think I care about some manufactured tension between Tsonuda and Ocon at France about who is going to finish P13 (out of the points).
I don't care about any of that. There are so many tense moments in racing, but "Drive to survive" focuses on fake rivalries in the paddock while ignoring THE ACTUAL RACING.
Who is producing this? The fact they don't include any of the real tension and just inject their own soundbites to manufacture drama shows they don't understand what makes F1 exciting.
The Island with Bear Grylls (2014)
Fantastic, until season 3
Fantastic for the first season, good for second season, and third season is just feminist rubbish.
Pushing men as weak, stupid, and mysonigistic.