Month: April 2022

Series

• Severance
  This is just awesome. Every element of this show has been carefully crafted down to the last detail. The cast are fantastic, the set pieces and cinematography terrific, and the tone is perfectly creepy and mysterious.
• It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (Season 15)
  It is unbelievable how a show fifteen seasons deep can be this good. The break certainly did a lot of good. The last four or five seasons, while still enjoyable, saw the gang become caricatures of themselves. This season not only fixed that, but added whole new layers of social commentary delivered with such subtlety that it wasn’t until the closing credits of the final episode that I realised the entirety of what they were getting at. No other show can be this hilariously dumb and intelligent simultaneously, and the cast are better than ever. I can not wait for more.

• How To With John Wilson (Season 2)
  HTWJW is brilliant. You have never seen anything like it before. Season one was fantastic, and the second run doesn’t let up. I want more. The less you know about it going in, the better.
• Ozark (Season 4 Part 1)
  This show has been quite the adventure. The first season was great, but felt a lot like “what if Breaking Bad, but in Missouri”, and when that season ended with its cliff-hanger my eyes rolled back like the cherries on an Ozark poker machine. But I pressed on, and it soon became more than that and carved out a place of its own. Solidly engaging and shocking (Wyatt!).
• On Cinema Oscer Special 2022
  Somehow, Tim and Gregg continue to lift these specials to even greater heights of absurdity. This year’s instalment might be in my top three (Gregg’s carbon monoxide Joker finale is still top of the pile).
• Euphoria (Season 2)
  Season one of this had me hooked. The cinematography was phenomenal, and the plotlines shocking, but used in service of the plot. Season two just went right off the rails. There was no cohesive story, plenty of dead end plot lines and no clear season arc. The whole thing was a mess. Lexi’s play was hilarious in it’s ridiculousness (also, she’s the only likeable character in the entire show so it was good to see more of her), but otherwise the season was pretty empty. Not sure I’ll press on from this point.
• The Book of Boba Fett
  Four really bad episodes of a Boba Fett show, two great Mandalorian episodes, and one final episode blending a bunch of fan service together like a Star Wars smoothie. Temuera is stiff, the story is all over the place, the new characters don’t seem to fit (spy kids?). Mando was the best thing to come from the Star Wars brand in a very long time. This was a reminder that most of the time, it’s rubbish.
• MacGruber (Series)
  Loved it. Puerile and dumb, just as expected. Forte, Wiig and Phillippe are fantastic as ever. And Laurence Fishburne turned down another Matrix for this – proving that he’s far smarter than the rest of the Matrix cast.
• Yellowjackets
  File this one under “shows I wouldn’t have watched if Omicron hadn’t kept me inside”. That said, it was an enjoyable surprise carried mostly by the cast and a nineties soundtrack rather than the story. Christina Ricci is great.
• Murderville
  Simple concept, executed successfully for the most part. A couple of guests don’t hit the mark but the rest brought back memories of the brilliant Thank God You’re Here.
• The Afterparty
  Clever idea from Lord and Miller. Essentially, an evening’s events are recounted by a different character each episode in an attempt to solve a murder. In a similar vein, the visual style changes – which is really clever – but also got frustrating at times as it meant the tone of the show was also all over the place.

Movies

• The Humans
  Unsettling, creepy, great cast. A little arty. The less you know going in, the better.
• Don’t Look Up
  Ugh. If you’re after a movie that thinks it’s far smarter than it actually is, this one’s for you. There is absolutely no subtlety to any of it and so the gags just don’t land. It’s as though the cast are constantly winking at camera saying “GET IT? GET IT?” and it’s incredibly tiresome, and the ending is obvious before the first act is over. The all-star cast only make things worse. Leo and J Law are poorly cast. They only demonstrate that their acting chops fall apart when a comedic performance is required and their presence feeds into the condescending, holier-than-thou tone of the entire movie. Blanchett (being unrecognisable) and Jonah Hill (a comedic performer) are the exceptions, and deliver the most memorable moments. It’s unfortunate, because the underlying message is important and the skeleton of the concept is clever. There’s just no meat on the bones. Satire is best when the point is realised in the viewers’ head, not yelled at them through a megaphone.
  Don’t Look Up? More like Don’t Bother. Watch Idiocracy again instead.
• Spider-Man: No Way Home
  A big fun spectacle. If someone had pitched this idea six years ago they’d have been ridiculed, but somehow it works. Mind you, I think it’s the kind of thing which can only work once. Spider-Man is possibly the only Marvel fare I have time and patience for, given the tone is right (light, breezy, a bit silly but not overly so). But I’m not sure I have reason to continue beyond this. It wrapped up twenty years of the franchise all too well.
• Finch
  A pleasant surprise. Hanks is Hanks. The robot’s character is surprisingly well written. Some really nice visuals. Just pleasant.
• The Power of the Dog
  A well-paced western with an ending that hits you out of nowhere. This looked fantastic, and Cumberbatch didn’t piss me off – which is quite an achievement.
• No Time to Die
  I’m not much a fan of Bond. I find them incredibly dated and corny. That said, Spectre was a fantastic movie (mostly because it was the least Bond-like instalment I’ve seen). I gave up on the penultimate instalment after twenty minutes, but decided to watch NTTD given it was Craig’s last performance in the role. The ending was great, the action sequences were clever and tight. Ana de Armas was a great addition, but featured way too briefly.
  But in true Bond style, the bad guys were cartoonish and a lot of dialogue was corny. Rami Malek is poorly cast. For the big bad dude of the movie, he had absolutely zero presence.
• The Matrix Resurrections
  Holy shit. I thought the second and third instalments were bad, but this lured me in with rumours that they’d gone all meta with the plot. I was intrigued, but unfortunately it was done so poorly that it took me five sessions to get through. Terrible. Just terrible.
• A Quiet Place Part II
  Solid sequel. Nothing to get excited over but some decent thrills.