shrewd.buddha

This could be a much more fun show if it quit trying to be Game of Thrones. The writing is not up to snuff. The side stories are too scattered .. they do not seem to support one unifying theme or storyline. This could be a fun, rollicking adventure show with backdrop of conspiracies and maneuvering monarchies. Instead, it feels as if we are being jerked around from one disconnected story to another. I think I would almost prefer a monster-of-the-week type format. The political side stories have made everything feel bogged down and boring.

I cannot believe it is the year 0023 and the elves are still fighting for racial justice!! (joking) It is, mostly, nice to have The Witcher back for another season. There was so much of the previous episodes that we did not remember - at all. My biggest gripe is that the show feels too busy .. and messy -- too many pots in the fire -- the politics, the un-fun racial issues, the side stories and conspiracies that will, probably, eventually, merge back to what the Witcher is doing. All the extra stuff make the episodes feel long and tiring. It would help if there were less side stories and side characters per episode. Constantly jumping to another set of characters and trying to remember if I should recognize them takes a toll on the enjoyment. The fighting does seem better this season.

There were some bright spots, but it started unravelling near the end. The witches didn't seem very witch-y - - they seemed more like mutants who get powers at a certain age. The witch war between the Bloods and the Crips Fairborn made it seem as if this were taking place in some alternate universe: bodies left lying everywhere and no reaction from any news sources. Law enforcement appeared nonexistent. This was another one of those shows where money, food and shelter just appear out of thin air as needed. The surviving threesome, Nathan/Annalise/ Gabriel, seemed very teenaged when they philosophized that the most important thing was "the friends you make along the way" ... minutes after walking away from his dead mentor Ceelia and former classmates who had joined the paramilitary task force. I suppose it's better to focus on shagging and slaying instead of your dead mother, dead grandmother and psycho sister...

Streamed over the weekend. I'm not well versed in D&D, so any Easter Eggs were lost on me. The words that came to mind afterwards were "cute", "family friendly", "competent", "amusing". For me, the funniest, D&D game related scene was the Paladin's explanation of the bridge's overly complicated rules to avoid triggering a trap.

We have watched a few of the "Declassified" extras: they really are very WtF - - the actors and producers appear to be talking about scripts that have yet to be shot..? There is no sense that they have seen the final product: the botched, Frankenstein-ed result of the supposedly massive reshoots and re-edits. Maybe in some version of the show Mason and Nadia did marry.

This could be a textbook example of style over substance. It is a series of pretty people in picturesque places engaged in convoluted action sequences.. .. none of which manages to engage me enough to want to watch more. The upside-down views, time-jumping and amnesia personality/name changing left me with something of headache - and an underlying sense that all the shenanigans were just a distraction: there is nothing behind the curtain. I have questions: What did Dahlia do to Tucci's character after she pulled out his teeth and he gave up the codes? Why does Kyle/Abby's daughter look much older than Mason/Nadia's daughter? Are Manticore minions derived from fruit flies?: Entire batches of them are killed by one or two Citadel agents each episode. Can non-manned submarines run for eight years without maintenance? Why have such huge monitors onboard? It only takes four surviving Citadel agents to do the work previously done by over a thousand?

Quote from article: "Citadel is the second most-watched new original series (outside the U.S) on Prime Video behind “Rings of Power” and the fourth most-watched program on Prime Video worldwide. " ^that is some highly specific self-praise. "It was the #1 show in the USA .. of shows from Amazon Prime Video .. of shows that were named 'Citadel'.. "

This show is the metaphorical equivalent of empty calories. The induced selective amnesia plot device is already overdone in four episodes. All the Citadel spies are exactly the same: aloof, sarcastic, jaded, nonchalant, oversexed and slightly shady. The action sequences cannot distract from how shallow everything feels. Everyone is so undefined, the writers can throw *anything* into their past lives. It is already starting to remind me of The X-files, in the worst way: “Everything you think you know is a lie!!“ (even if we have to retcon the past a little bit)

S02•E20 - A Tradition of Secrets A few episodes back, Special Agent Jamie Kellett was adamant that she could be objective despite the fact that the case involved her police officer boyfriend. In this episode, Agent "Smitty" is adamant that she can remain objective despite the fact that the case involved her brother. Things are so much easier when you can cut and paste... writers on strike? , no problem...

It sucks to not be high enough on the food chain to get noticed by the authorities - - but the number to people who go missing in the US each year is staggering. And many of those do not have anyone who bothers to notice they are gone. My armchair advice for the mother of the recovering drug addict girl: 1) Get the names of everyone one who apologized to you and consider filing a civil suit, making sure to talk to as many news outlets as possible. 2) If you truly believe your daughter has been abducted, maybe consider 'exaggerating' some details to the police to get the case escalated. "I found one of her shoes between the store and her apartment."

Manticore's Dame Dahlia must have graduated from the Dr. Evil school of Evil-doers: “I am going to leave you here, alone with one henchman who is to torture you. I feel confident everything will go as planned.“

The only things missing from that downhill skiing action sequence were a backflip and a wink to the camera. ... and there may have been a backflip .. The agents are so blasé about their end-of-the-world missions that I struggle to understand what stakes I am supposed to care about. Their star-crossed, double-crossed, amnesia-thwarted romances? Surely not. They should have cast Cindy Crawford in this .. .. she has also managed to not age a day in over ten years.

Did one of the versions of this show *not* involve an eight year time jump? Because there is zero percent difference in the actors' appearance before and after the train action sequence. It's laughable. I feel the show could benefit from Stanley dialing back the Tucci-ness by about 25%. The Russo Brothers have destroyed quippy-ness for everyone. It wasn't until the implanted memory chips showed up that I realized this was sci-fi spy action show. That is not a deal-breaker, but expectations have been adjusted. So, their blocked memories cannot be 'released' unless they get a DNA-specific injection? Sure; that sounds reasonable... I suppose other types of implanted advanced technology will eventually show up. Maybe Tucci is a cyborg. For some reason, when Mason/Kyle and his family were whisked away from their idyllic farm life to the Citadel's secret bunker, my first thought was "who is going to feed the chickens now?"

Yes .. I went back and looked for that scene .. and was surprised I didn't remember it the way it happened. One possible reason might be that my left-logic brain refused to accept that a highly classified secret would be handled like a teenager telling a parent "Mom says it's okay for me to go to Megan's party if it's alright with you." Or maybe something like "POTUS told me to tell you that it was okay for you to tell me the nuclear launch codes .. .. cause they're too busy to call you themselves or arrange a group call .. even though they call you almost every day anyways .. so, yeah .. "

It was an engaging series. We were engaged. I appreciated that they went the extra mile to have location scenes in Paris and the Louvre. The escalating, never-ending, crisis situations and political maneuvering, manipulating and pivoting seemed exhausting. It was a bit unbelievable that almost everyone in Kate's circle of associates were playing at the top of their game. CIA Lady had already imploded their relationship when she straight-up lied to the guy about being approved for him to "read her in" about the VP position situation. Are all CIA agents trained to be lying assholes? **correction to this later .. Somewhat unfortunately though, the last taste is my mouth was disappointment .. for an eight episode season that most likely will not return for over a year, they threw too many balls into the air at the end. Will there be an assassination or an arrest? Who will survive the car bombing? Who will be revealed as real perpetrator of the ship attack? After a long break, they are not likely to pick up at the moment we were left at. And I am not fond of the trope-y "six months later" segue jumps, where we get hints and glimpses of how the cliffhanger events played out. (I have watched too many of these type shows, apparently.)

It's the kind of show you would enjoy if you enjoy that kind of show.. .. and we are enjoying it .. It has all the usual trappings of the espionage/conspiracy thriller type dramas - - but it is doing it well. It also helps that this doesn't look like a typical 'Netflix original' (it doesn't look cheap).

The show has a meta-mystery: where is Scott Forrester and is he getting five second scenes to keep him on the payroll? I keep flashing back to the season opener where Forrester was doing some weird Rocky-style workout montage and reflecting on his estranged spy-Mom ... and then, nothing.. It was a decent episode but it could have been better without Special Agent Jamie going on a couple of righteous soapbox rants about "only caring about the truth" and a sacred "circle of trust". Isn't this the same character that threw evidence in a river to help a young woman get away with murder and let that young woman's father go to prison for that murder? And didn't she also have an affair with her superior officer (Scott) and they both lied and gaslighted everyone about it? Get off your high horse, lady - - we have video evidence.

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression." I did not know about the books, so that was not an influence for my household. We watched the first two episodes and we were not planning to come back for more -- but ran out of other interesting things to watch. To my surprise, the later episodes were much better (3->8). But I can understand the cancellation: Three Pines was pretty miserable: miserable in the sense that everything felt melancholy, all the main characters were tortured, the core residents came off like a diversified yet cloistered death cult, the local art gallery featured never-ending indigenous atrocities, etc. Maybe the showrunners did not realize how much misery they were piling onto the show with the suicide, single-parent issues, Jean-Guy's marital problems and Gamache's infinite state of sadness. Plus: frequent murders. The music didn't help (lovely but melancholy). It took several weeks for us to revisit the series. The first two episodes just made Gamache's team look incompetent with regards to Blue's disappearance - there were so many obvious ways that Gamache (and Blue's family) could have searched. Of course things needed to drawn out - - but it was not a good look. (No one bothered to find the other people in that photograph? No one bothered to go to New York? The family doesn't trust the police, but spends weeks attempting to guilt-trip the police?) It also felt a little off that the townsfolk of Three Pines and Blue's family seemed to be living in some kind of Hallmark universe: houses that were charmingly cluttered, small but clean and proper. Not many people seemed bothered by needing to go to work.

S05•E015 - The Lies We Tell I know hindsight is 20/20, but Isabel could have told the husband another type of lie that might not have been so devastating later: "I'm sorry but your wife is dead. She tried to escape from her kidnappers and they shot her. She had lost too much blood. Before she died she was trying to tell us how dangerous these men were." So, if the wife was later found alive, I don't think the husband would feel so betrayed. ^ I would worry about Isabel's mental health if she could just shut her brain off after that ordeal and go partying at a NBA game. It seemed as if they were making it a sad thing because she had court-side seats. But the flip-side was that it also seemed like bragging to her subordinates that she had court-side seats, like, "yeah, that's the life I'm living, people." Also, that opening scene where the ditzy, beret-wearing wife caused her husband to get killed by distracting him was so very WtF. And the victim's boss refusing to fully cooperate with the investigation felt more contrived than believable.

Finally got around to streaming this. It had been on and off my watchlist for a couple of years until I came across a couple of YouTube reviews that convinced me it might not be a completely pretentious snooze-fest. It was definitely a slow - slow - burn movie, but not frustrating to watch from the comfort of your own couch. I also thought it was very much a "guy's" movie, as opposed to what might be called a chick-flick. All of Brad Pitt's inner-monologue thoughts were so very working-class guy/ self-isolated loner / estranged husband, etc. It really felt disjoined and somewhat "off". It was difficult to tell which weirdness was intentional and what was not. It had great visuals, reminding me of Blade Runner: 2049, which I could have "looked at" for hours and hours. All of dialogue - from every character - was so robotic , that it was jarring. Like something from a chat-bot. All the deaths felt pointless and anti-climatic, especially his father's. It seemed as if everyone had to die so the main character would be alone and isolated. They were all standing in the way of the protagonist's journey to discover that he no longer wanted to be alone and isolated. Irony, much? I did find the constant psych evaluations to be oddly amusing. Bottom line: it felt long, it was weird, but I don't regret spending the time to watch it (at home).

I don't think Marvel/Disney realizes ( yet ) that the multiverse concept will very likely lead to the loss of attachment and interest in characters and storylines. Does anyone still care that Loki.version.01 died if Loki.version.02 is still running around and Loki.version.X killed Kang.version.08? If the Disney number-crunchers say pre-teen audiences want to see more silly-chubby-Thor from Earth-505 and the Tik-Tok crowd wants to see semi-smart-Hulk fight caveman-Hulk from Earth-004, then that could actually happen. It is an entertainment industry, after all. Ant-Man: Quantumania and the Kang multiverse could be the tipping point. (If RDJ comes back as an alternate Iron Man, I am most definitely *out*.) On the plus side, it does seem very precognizant of Marvel/Disney to realize that their super-hero movie franchise would be going through some 'phases'.

I'll second that opinion. Pitch Meeting Guy feels your pain with regards to the helmet removal 'excitement'. It is addressed within the first minute. Iron Man and Captain America started with somewhat plausible science fiction to explain physical enhancements and the ability to fly. Now the MCU seems to have gone full-tilt into magical science technology. in Thor: Love&Thunder, characters were able to make costume changes by raising their weapon of choice and, apparently, just making a wish. At some point Dr. Strange should give sling-rings to his Avenger friends so they can instantly transport to any location. This is what the MCU has come to .. I do, of course, realize that these are "just comic book movies", but I believe that post-teen audience members find it easier to embrace movies when suspension of disbelief isn't stretched beyond all limits. And, for me, it just feels like lazy, deus ex machina writing. Now, can someone kindly explain what exactly the Scarlet Witch's powers are and how they work? (kidding)

I don't expect my tastes to align with the majority of the 'professional' reviewers. Very often I don't understand why some critics fall all over themselves with regards to those art-house Oscars picks. But I have found a few reviewers that seem to like, and dislike, the same stuff as me. (mostly on YouTube) People can say "you have to see it for yourself to know". Sure. Okay. I'd like to live in a world with unlimited free time, money, and no contagious diseases ... but until that becomes my reality, I will rely on word-of-mouth and average-person reviewers. Plus, as I get older, I can relate to those people who complain "I'll never get those 3 hours back." Getting back on the topic of *this* movie: It seems that most of the unfavorable reviews say that Quantumania spends too much time setting things up for Phase Five. (hate the phases - just make movies, please)

This review on RottenTomatoes sums up my current attitude towards the MCU: Sadly, the shocking number of unfavorable reviews for this movie is somewhat of a relief for me. I think I have been looking for reasons to start letting the massive MCU iceberg drift off into the distance of my entertainment options. If Marvel wants to be a corporate content creation factory for twelve-year-olds, more power to them. It's probably a sound financial strategy. In the last few years MCU movies feel far more strategic than artistic. Out of all the MCU movies, this will only the second that we won't be going to the theater to see. (We waited to stream Thor: L&T -- no regrets there ) (Also - I'm not really a fan of how RottenTomatoes calculates their scores: Ten critics can be lobbied to watch a television show and say that it doesn't suck, resulting in a 100% score. ..They just happen to be the website where most reviews can be found.. )

My guess is that the only reason the studio is desperate to make this movie happen is to introduce the DC multiverse - so they can have alternate movie versions of every DC character and dodge fan expectations of continuity. Nothing I have seen has made me want to go to the effort of seeing this at a theater, though.