Netflix – The Joker On The Sofa

The Ice Road: Liam Neeson Isn’t Saving His Daughter, So Never Mind – Netflix Review

This movie tries to be too much and it doesn’t really work out.

I appreciate that Liam Neeson is one of the people who managed to make himself seem more badass as a lead as he got older. Even taking into account his portrayals of Rob Roy, Darkman, and Qui-Gon Jinn, Neeson really upped his game with his portrayal of one-man wrecking crew Bryan Mills in Taken. That’s a hell of an accomplishment for someone in his mid-50s. Since then, Neeson has starred in a number of films as roughly the same badass loner character, with diminishing returns. Unfortunately, this movie tries to use that to sell what is ultimately a failed endeavor. It hurts even more than the film was two years behind Cold Pursuit, a much better movie which also featured Neeson murdering bad guys with a large vehicle in a snowy location.

If you’re wondering why an Irish guy has an American vet brother in Canada… I dunno.

Neeson stars as Mike McCann, an Irish ice road trucker who punches out another trucker for mocking his mechanic brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas). Gurty is a veteran who has PTSD and traumatic brain injury, both of which give him aphasia (the inability to use the right words for things). Despite the fact that Mike was, again, defending a disabled veteran from an asshole, he is fired. At the same time, an explosion at a mine in Manitoba requires an emergency delivery of wellheads in order to save the lives of more than a dozen miners. McCann is hired to make the extremely dangerous run, accompanied by Gurty, Tantoo (Amber Midthunder), a native Canadian driver whose brother is in the mine, employer Jim Goldenrod (Laurence Fishburne), and insurance agent Tom Varnay (Benjamin Walker). After making it through the first night, Goldenrod’s rig is sabotaged. It turns out that Varnay is actually not there to help them succeed, but to kill them and prevent the miners from being saved. Unfortunately, he’s trying to kill Liam Neeson, which is just never a good idea, even if you have help.

And even if you’re in the middle of a frozen hellscape.

Like I said, this movie just really isn’t great. It starts off suggesting it’s going to be a man vs nature film like The Grey but then reveals that Varnay and his crew are the enemy. For the record, it’s not really a twist if it’s in the first act of the movie. The majority of the film is Mike and the Mechanic (anyone get that reference?) trying to survive against Varnay and kill him and his goons. The reasoning behind the murders isn’t even particularly compelling or believable. It’s played out to be a giant cover-up, but, let’s be honest, a major drilling company can do almost anything without any real consequence. The only thing that might actually cause them trouble would be committing murder. It ends up coming off as kind of dumb. The action sequences aren’t bad, but they really feel forced and unimpressive compared to other driving movies. Honestly, there just doesn’t seem to have been a ton of effort here.

Overall, skip it and watch Cold Pursuit.

If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.

If you enjoy these, please, like, share, tell your friends, like the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JokerOnTheSofa/), follow on Twitter @JokerOnTheSofa, and just generally give me a little bump. I’m not getting paid, but I like to get feedback.

Good on Paper: Too Good to be True Usually Is – Netflix Review

Iliza Shlesinger brings us the story of a man who is less than he seems.

You know those movies where the girl meets the guy who appears perfect, but ultimately ends up being a serial killer or something horrible like that? If not, they’re most of Lifetime’s lineup, so just watch something there and you’ll probably get the idea. Well, this is that movie except… the guy’s just kind of a douche. The movie uses clips of Shlesinger’s character doing stand-up throughout to relay stories that make it clear that not only is this a thing that happens, it’s been happening for generations.

In film and out, she’s usually pretty blunt about creeps.

The story is about comedian and aspiring actress Andrea (Iliza Shlesinger), who is 34 and her career is stalling. Naturally, she’s also being shown up by the perky and younger, but nowhere near as funny, Serrena (Rebecca Rittenhouse). Andrea’s closest friend, Margot (Margaret Cho), is a big believer in tough love and brutal honesty, both of which tend to keep Andrea’s hopes in the gutter. On a flight back from an audition, Andrea meets Dennis (Ryan Hansen), a Yale-educated hedge fund manager who is buying a house in Beverly Hills and dating a supermodel. The two hit it off and become friends. Dennis seems naturally very nice, well-educated, funny, and he’s frequently willing to help Andrea with her career. Eventually, he breaks up with his girlfriend and asks Andrea out. She ends up agreeing to go out with him, even though he’s not traditionally her type, because he seems like the perfect guy on paper.

Yes, he looks like a hedge fund manager.

However, after a bit, cracks start to appear in his story, ranging from his “house in Beverly Hills” being an apartment with two hilarious roommates, Maggie and Chanterelle (Kimia Behpoornia and Taylor Hill), to his supposedly excellent Collegiate golfing skills being apparently completely lacking. Unfortunately, despite Margot and literally everyone telling her not to, Andrea just keeps giving the guy the benefit of the doubt and believing all of his cover-ups, eventually to her own detriment. Throughout the entire thing Andrea continues to give an audience hints about how badly this may end up in the future, but even they probably can’t predict the ending of the story.

I tend to think that Iliza Shlesinger is funny and, given that she not only wrote this film, but based it on an actual relationship she had, a lot of the film’s situations and humor come off more naturally than you would expect in something with this kind of premise. Unfortunately, when the situation starts to escalate at the end beyond where it apparently did in real life, it starts to unravel. It’s not just that it’s full of obvious holes, it’s that it just isn’t that funny or cathartic. It’s supposed to provide a grand platform to resolve the whole thing dramatically, but, unfortunately, it really just didn’t work.

Overall, it’s not a bad movie, it just falls apart at points.

Lupin (Part 2): Less Episodic, More Intense – Netflix Review

The great thief Assane is back and ready to settle an old score.

If you have not checked out Lupin before, you are missing out. It’s one of the better heist series out there and it makes a lot of bold choices that, frankly, I would not have expected. To recap a bit, Assane Diop (Omar Sy) is a professional thief who was essentially put on this path when, as a child, his father Babakar (Fargass Assandé) was framed for a crime by billionaire tycoon Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre) and Pellegrini’s wife Anne (Nicole Garcia). Assane managed to get back at the wealthy family by stealing a valuable necklace as well as kidnapping the corrupt police commissioner Dumont (Vincent Garanger) and forcing a confession from him. Unfortunately, Pellegrini’s daughter, Juliette (Clotilde Hesme), who used to have feelings for Assane, doesn’t believe her father was guilty and tells them Assane’s identity. Shortly after, at a festival celebrating the literary thief that inspires Assane, Arsene Lupin, Assane’s son, Raoul (Etan Simon) is abducted. Now aware that his identity is not a secret, Assane has to save his son, avoid Detective Guedira (Soufiane Guerrab) who also knows his secret, and find a way to trap Pellegrini.

While the first part of this show was more episodic and revolved around a single scheme or heist, this part is a lot more serialized. It begins moments after the last one ended and the first episode, naturally, is focused on Assane saving his son by matching wits with a mercenary. This really just starts a pattern of each episode feeding directly into the next, usually on a cliffhanger. Since it’s a streaming show and only five episodes, there isn’t likely to be a large amount of suspense, but it still makes for a very intense binge. The stakes, at this point, are as high as they can make them, as either Pellegrini’s minions or the police catching up to Assane will likely result in his death. After all, they had his father killed in prison.

This perpetual heightening of the tension doesn’t detract from the central conceit of the series, showing Assane as a modern day Lupin. In fact, the show constantly reveals that Assane’s criminal mastermind skills extend to multiple fields of escapology and a level of preparedness that would seem impossible… until you realize that, like almost everything he does, he has taken these traits from Arsene Lupin, a fictional character. It’s extremely satisfying to see the getaways, almost as much as it was to see him pull the heists.

They’ve been researching stuff since they were kids.

I was surprised that this season also increased the social commentary of the show. While the first season largely ignored any impact that Assane being a black man in France might have on how he is treated by the police and society at large, this season plays into it at a number of points. The only scene I recall from the former is when a rich white woman locks the door when a black man offers to help her in her car, but that seemed comparatively small. Having not lived in France, I wasn’t sure how racial differences are handled there, but apparently they have at least some notable issues similar to the United States, although it seems like it’s on a much smaller scale.

Overall, still a great show, keep it going.

The Trial of the Chicago 7: Sorkin Cares Not for Truth – Oscar Netflix Review

A true story of one of the most insane trials, only not true.

SUMMARY

In August 1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey was set to be nominated as the candidate for the Democratic Party. Eight activist leaders from various groups were in attendance when a riot broke out: Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp), David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), John Froines (Daniel Flaherty), and Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). After Richard Nixon becomes president, Attorney General John N. Mitchell (John Doman) tells prosecutors Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Tom Foran (J.C. MacKenzie) to prosecute the eight as a way to punish their protests. Aside from Seale, who is the only black Defendant and the head of the Black Panthers, the defendants are represented by ACLU lawyer William Kunstler (Mark Rylance) and Leonard Weinglass (Ben Shenkman). When the trial begins before Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella), what follows is one of the most bizarre trials in US History.

END SUMMARY

So, the story of the Chicago 7 (or 8, depending on if you count Seale) is one of those things that’s almost too crazy to be true. Much like the Scopes Monkey Trial, the trial of the Chicago 7 was never meant to be anything like actual prosecution. It was a political move by everyone involved except, perhaps, for the judge. Many of the witnesses, questions, and even actions by the lawyers were abnormal for any trial. Part of it, and something that the film does somewhat capture, was that the people on trial were largely doing this as a way to emphasize their message. Since this was 1970 and public perception was beginning to turn against the Vietnam War and almost all of them were part of anti-Vietnam groups, this publicized event was an easy soapbox and they mostly used it just to put on a spectacle, and, by court standards, it was a hell of a spectacle.

Strolling into your Federal Trial like it’s a fun day out.

Unfortunately, apparently Aaron Sorkin didn’t think it was interesting enough, because he decided to screw around with it massively. So much of this film heavily fictionalized the events to make them more palatable, but also to try and remove some of the ambiguity from the trial. After all, we have to be rooting for the Chicago 8, regardless of the fact that they were a group of very diverse people whose only common ground was their desire to end the Vietnam War. Some of them did advocate violence as part of their mission, even though the film tries to make them all appear to be completely peaceful. The timeline of many parts of the story is completely rewritten in order to keep certain characters around longer. The most notable one is that Bobby Seale, whose dismissal from the trial resulted in the Chicago 8 becoming the Chicago 7, is kept in the trial for an additional 2 months so that there can be a scene announcing the death of Fred Hampton. In the film, Hampton is constantly at Seale’s trial, whereas in reality Fred Hampton was working on other stuff the entire period before his murder. I do think it’s interesting that two films (the other being Judas and the Black Messiah) involving the murder of Fred Hampton are nominated for Best Picture, but this one forces it it.

That said, Yahya Abdul-Mateen is great in the movie.

My dislike of heavily fictionalizing stuff like this comes from the fact that it’s done to make a story easier on the audience. Hell, they even make Richard Schultz much more affable towards the defendants than he was in real life. It’s even more annoying in court films because there is a literal transcription of this entire trial that can be used as a source. Instead, Sorkin focused on trying to make it an easily consumable morality tale in which the good guys win and everyone is now united on that page.

Pictured: A guy who would not have stood at the end of the movie.

The performances in the film are solid, particularly Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, who is both a stand-up comic narrating parts of the film and also one of the sassiest people to ever be put on trial. Frank Langella is great as the overly irritating and often infuriating Judge Hoffman, because he makes him easy to hate without falling into a stereotypical racist judge character.

Overall, it’s not that it’s a bad movie, it’s that it personally irritates me by its choice to inaccurately portray these events just to make it easier to pick a side. History is complicated, and our obsession with making it more black-and-white just makes people think less when dealing with reality.

If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.

The Irregulars: Sherlock in Name Only, but Still Okay – Netflix Review

A show about a group of supernatural investigators working for a famous detective.

SUMMARY (Spoiler-Free)

Bea (Thaddea Graham) and Jessie (Darci Shaw) are sisters who make their living on the streets of London along with their fellow poor youths Billy (Jojo Macari) and Spike (McKell David). The four get hired by a doctor named John Watson (Royce Pierreson) to investigate a series of child kidnappings. Along the way, they are joined by Leopold (Harrison Osterfield), who introduces himself as a fellow working-class person despite his wealth and nobility, and aided by the Linen Man (Clarke Peters), an American mystic who contacts Jessie. Together, the group investigates into the strange and paranormal occurrences that surround Baker Street. At the same time, they are asked to help track down a missing person, the elusive detective and drug addict Sherlock Holmes (Henry Lloyd-Hughes).

END SUMMARY

So, I will start off by saying that I am a major Sherlock Holmes fan, something I’ve probably brought up multiple times on this blog. Literally the only tattoo I have, and the only one I ever plan on getting, is a profile of the detective. Admittedly, this makes me a little biased when I say the following: This is not a Sherlock Holmes show. It’s not just the supernatural elements, because I have seen some solid Sherlock adaptations that involved mysticism. I’ve even seen some decent mostly out-of-character versions of Holmes and Watson (though not the terrible film Holmes and Watson), but this was not that. The characters bear almost no resemblance to their literary counterparts. This is not the story of the irregulars which Holmes regularly employed in the books, either. That’s not to say the show wasn’t bad, but if you’re a major fan of Sherlock Holmes, it’ll take you a bit to adjust. They’re not the central figures in the show, but they have a lot of impact and more screen time than I might have thought at first.

Admittedly, not the traditional image of Holmes and Watson, but that could have been interesting.

The actual characters that the show focuses on, though, are pretty well-crafted. Bea is the leader and the one who tends to actually put many of the clues together. Leopold tends to have the education and the background knowledge to identify some of the more obscure elements. Jessie is the one who is actually a bit supernatural, but is constantly judged as being weak or fragile by Bea. Billy and Spike kind of vary a bit as the show goes on, from comic relief to muscle to tragic figures. It’s not that they don’t make an impact, but they are much less developed than the other three.

That’s actually the biggest flaw with the show, is that it sometimes feels like it’s focusing too much on the mystery of the week and frequently doesn’t add much to the characters in the process. Despite a number of solid scenes with Billy and Spike, I don’t think we ever really got a good look at their characters. We find out their fears at a few points, mostly because the show has a supernatural horror edge, but even those seem kind of generic. That’s not to say the series isn’t enjoyable. It definitely is. The supernatural elements are entertaining and usually creative, the villains are sufficiently villainous, and all of the performances are solid. Once I got past the lack of real Sherlock elements, I found myself having an okay.

Overall, if you like supernatural period shows, you’ll probably like this.

The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity : Visually Brilliant, A Bit Too Long – Netflix Review

A great film from China that needed just a bit of editing.

SUMMARY

Many centuries ago, a serpent demon was going to destroy the Earth. Four masters came together to seal the snake within the body of the Empress, protected by four stone guardians. Since then, whenever the serpent threatens to be released, four masters must join together to stop them. This time, three of the masters are Longye (Jessie Li), Bo Ya (Deng Lun), and Qing Ming (Mark Chao). The fourth, Hongruo, was murdered by a hair demon. Yes, a hair demon. Under the guidance of Princess Zhang Ping (Olivia Wang), the three must investigate the death and, with the help of replacement priest He Shouye (Wang Duo), must release the four stone guardians and prevent the release of the Serpent.

END SUMMARY

This movie is visually amazing. It’s largely CGI and green screen, much of it not particularly realistic, but the style of the film has a surreal quality that makes the imagery work really well. When nothing quite looks “real,” then nothing stands out as being fake, and this movie manages to use that to its advantage. Since they weren’t concerned about everything looking perfect like many American blockbusters, they instead put the effort into creative and interesting characters and settings. I particularly love the designs of the stone guardians and the demons that they encounter, which appear to be a combination of blockbuster effects and Chinese mythology. The costuming and makeup, likewise, are so stylized that they give the film an air of epic myth. The cinematography is done pretty much perfectly, in the sense of heightening all of these effects. Like I said, if you want a pretty film, this is it.

As far as the story goes, this… kind of lets me down. In most Chinese epics, the plot is kind of weak, but they make up for that with a lot of extensive action sequences. This movie tones down the action sequences (not that there aren’t any, they just seem shorter than similar films) and tries to make up for that with more plot and background scenes. Note that I used the word “tries.” Really, a lot of these scenes would probably be fine if they were a bit shorter. Instead, this movie clocks in at 2 hours and 12 minutes with a plot that could probably have been done in 90. As such, there were a bunch of shots in the film that made me go “wait, are we STILL here?” I realize part of the cause of this is probably that the director was really proud of the visuals and wanted to indulge a bit, but sometimes you have to let things go.

We don’t need to cut more Bo Ya, I can say that much.

The performances are pretty solid, particularly Mark Chao as Qing Ming, who has to deal with a number of conflicts between his principles and reality throughout the film. His performance has a little more subtlety than I might expect from this kind of film, and since he’s the main character, that pays off, particularly when he’s having scenes of contemplative dialogue exchanges with others.

Overall, while I would cut the movie down (or watch parts of it on 1.5 speed), I still enjoyed it. If you’re a fan of Chinese cinema, I’d say it’s a quality watch.

The One: What if You Could Calculate Love? – Netflix Review

A company figures out how to match soulmates, but it doesn’t make life much simpler.

SUMMARY

English scientist Rebecca Webb (Hannah Ware) is the CEO of The One, a company which uses someone’s DNA to find their perfect love match. The corporation is wildly successful, but everything gets put in jeopardy when a body turns up in the Thames. It turns out the body belongs to a former associate of Webb and her partner James Whiting (Dimitri Leonidas) named Ben Naser (Amir El-Masry). Det. Kate Saunders (Zoë Tapper) is assigned to investigate, but Kate is also using The One to find her match, Sophia (Jana Perez). At the same time, Webb is being investigated by journalist Mark Bailey (Eric Kofi-Abrefa), whose wife Hannah (Lois Chimimba) has secretly had him tested by The One, only to find out that she is not his perfect match.

END SUMMARY

Years ago, there was a movie called Timer which was a British comedy about a world where almost everyone has a device implanted into them that tells them when they’re going to meet their soulmate. The movie did a good job of exploring how the world is changed by finding out that not only are soulmates real, but also that they can be found through science. However, where that film was mostly a funny character study of a person who doesn’t have a soulmate match in that world, this show tries to do a study of a number of characters but lets most of them get bogged down by the overarching mystery of Rebecca and Ben’s body. Too much time is spent trying to drag out what ultimately is not a super satisfying story.

You can watch this in 90 minutes instead.

It’s even worse because most of the side stories actually could be super interesting. For example, Kate is bisexual but tends to date men, only to find out that her ideal match is a woman. That’s something that surprises even her. That would be a fun thing to explore, the idea that people might not even be able to guess the gender of the person who will be perfect for them. However, trying to play out any of these situations mostly falls to the wayside so that we can talk more about what Rebecca did to start the company and whether or not she committed a murder in the process. Each of the narratives that the show sets up could be interesting and bring up a number of points about how society could be changed when something that seems metaphysical, like love, can actually be conquered by science. But, no, instead we get a bunch of cliched drama. It’s really disappointing, because many of the performers in this show are great.

They try to address the religious aspects, but mostly just gloss over it.

Overall, this show has a great concept, but the execution is not great. It’s even harder to deal with because apparently AMC has a show called Soulmates with a similar premise as an anthology. I’d probably recommend that one instead.

Behind Her Eyes: A New Kind of Love Triangle (Ending Explained) – Netflix Review

A woman’s affair with her new boss conflicts with her new friendship with his wife.

SUMMARY

Louise Barnsley (Simona Brown) is a single mom who works as a secretary for a psychiatric clinic. On a rare night out, she meets David (Tom Bateman), a sexy Scottish doctor whom she kisses for a moment before he runs off. The next day, Louise is shocked to find out that David is her new boss. Louise soon bumps into Adele (Eve Hewson), an aristocratic woman who is new in town. Louise and Adele quickly become friends, only for it to be revealed that Adele is David’s wife. Louise soon begins two affairs, being Adele’s friend without telling David, and being David’s lover without telling Adele. However, it seems like there’s something more to Adele and David’s relationship, since Adele seems borderline afraid of her husband, and always on edge. There may be something more sinister afoot.

Which one is really doing bad things?…. all of them, kinda.

END SUMMARY

This show is bound to cause some controversy, because the show takes a hard left turn about two episodes from the ending. Since it’s only six episodes in total and thus I didn’t have a huge investment before this started, this didn’t bother me much, but I know that it will probably upset some people a lot. *I just checked Twitter and apparently this drove some people batsh*t.* I feel bad about this spoiler-ish reveal, but I honestly think that people might handle it better if they’re aware that something is coming.

Spoiler: It’s not that David was dead all along like Bruce Willis.

As far as the show goes, Simona Brown gives one hell of a performance. She starts off with the very relatable desire to just have a night out, but clearly also loves her son dearly. When she meets David, we immediately see the spark between them and she sells that attraction perfectly. When she meets Adele, she sees a fellow damaged soul that she can bond with. In every interaction, Brown gives us much more than the script alone, and that’s pretty much the best you can ask for. Bateman and Hewson, however, are more than capable of keeping up. Hewson has to play a character who is clearly keeping much of herself in the shadows, while David plays a character whose morals are not obvious at any point. The three of them are the focus of the show, so if there had been a weak point, it would have likely stood out like a sore thumb, but instead, they build upon each other.

It helps that Brown starts the show off by seeming like she needs to get laid.

The story is revealed at just the right pace for the first few episodes. We get enough time to really get a feel for the lead characters and how they interact before we start to get deeper into the love triangle formed by them. There’s humor and a decent amount of sexual tension to keep you enticed, but there are also some sweet moments that make you want to care about these people. Under all of it, there’s clearly some amount of mystery building as well as the risk of everything being revealed and collapsing. It’s well-done, to be sure.

Overall, as long as you are willing to deal with a bit of a weird ending, I recommend this show.

ENDING EXPLAINED

So, as the show goes on, we find out that Adele was previously in a psychiatric facility (hinted by her medication) with a gay man named Rob (Robert Aramayo). She and Rob get into lucid dreaming, but then move on to astral projection. They learn to project themselves into people’s waking bodies, then Rob suggests that the two swap bodies. He then murders Adele (who is in his body), because he’s in love with David. Naturally, because Rob is not Adele, their relationship is never really successful. After David starts sleeping with Louise, Rob (as Adele) switches bodies with HER then murders Louise before starting a new life with David. So throughout most of the series, we’ve never actually known Adele, only Rob posing as her. Naturally, this means that the new relationship is probably doomed, because regardless of the body, Rob is a monster and will never give David what he needs.

Maybe don’t trust the guy in a facility for being insanely obsessed.

This is truly a mind-screw, because the show doesn’t hint at anything supernatural until episode 5. Lucid dreaming is, to my knowledge, a real thing that people can train themselves to do. Astral projection is not. Suddenly dropping magic into a show that’s been otherwise really grounded does feel like a bit of a cop-out, but the show is literally called “Behind Her Eyes” and the secret is that behind Adele’s eyes is a completely different person. Oh, and the poster shows Rob in the woods sending his soul into Louise’s eye. It’s still not a super satisfying ending, but at least it made all of the tension feel merited.

If you enjoy these, please, like, share, tell your friends, like the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JokerOnTheSofa/), follow on Twitter @JokerOnTheSofa, and just generally give me a little bump. I’m not getting paid, but I like to get feedback.

Tribes of Europa: Let’s Get Medieval… Again- Netflix Review

Another dystopia, but this one’s German and more brutal than most.

SUMMARY

The Earth sucks. It’s 2074 and it’s been decades since the catastrophe that destroyed the modern world. Pretty much all technology stopped working, like in all of those other shows with this same premise. All of the nations, unable to maintain order, fell apart into tribes. One tribe, the Origines, are strict isolationists, living as hunters in the woods of what was probably Germany. Three Origine siblings, Liv (Henriette Confurius), Elja (David Ali Rashed), and Kiano (Emilio Sakraya), are hunting when they see a futuristic plane crash in the woods. They find a dying pilot with a strange cube. Unfortunately, other tribes want the cube and are willing to attack the Origines for it. This leads to the three siblings being split up and having to fight for their lives, particularly against the bloodthirsty Crow tribe.

END SUMMARY

Okay, as you might have guessed from the sarcastic tinge to the summary, this show’s premise is not exactly new. It’s the future, everything has fallen apart, technology broke somehow, and having any kind of working power source is basically the same as having the One Ring from Tolkien. The creator of Supernatural had a similar show called Revolution that was on almost a decade ago. However, while the premise may have been done before, this show does definitely benefit from a level of (occasionally disturbing) realism and well-done characterization. Also, this world isn’t the “there’s no technology ever” type of dystopia that many of these shows take, instead, it’s just that everything got reset. Some people with great technical skills have the ability to keep things running, meaning some places have modern tech, while the show’s MacGuffin is based around a civilization with futuristic technology. Gives it some uniqueness. The three siblings all go on very different journeys, which helps mitigate some of the monotony as well.

The thing that this show definitely does right is that it has a point. It’s demonstrating how quickly people will devolve into the historical groups and point out that, unfortunately, when divided, the groups that thrive are usually the ones that are the most ruthless, not the most ethical. The show probably was inspired, at least in part, by Brexit. Being German, the show is probably largely in favor of the European Union and the stability it grants Europe. Groups like The Crows are determined to destroy all opposition and absorb all tribes into theirs by either forcing loyalty or imposing slavery. Opposing them are the Crimson, who also want to create a single nation out of Europe, but are trying to do it in a more peaceful way that allows the tribes that join them to retain some sovereignty, akin to the EU. It’s clear that the Crimson are the preferable choice at the moment, but they are also massively flawed.

The Crimson also have some weird ideas about construction.

The supporting cast in this show are great and really elevate the setting. In Elja’s story, he meets Moses (Oliver Masucci), a traveling scavenger who is able to fix electronics. Moses is charming, despite openly being a rogue. Kiano’s contact is mostly with Lord Varvara (Melika Foroutan), who takes a liking to him, but expresses it by torturing him as much as she wants. Liv mostly interacts with the Crimson, and there are a number of good performances there, including Robert Finster as David, one of the commanders.

Overall, it’s a solid show, if not a massively original one.

High-Rise Invasion: A Strange World of Kill or Be Killed – Netflix Review

A young girl wakes up in the opposite of wonderland.

SUMMARY

Yuri Honjo (Haruka Shiraishi/Suzie Yeung) is a high school girl who finds herself suddenly in an alternate world populated by a number of skyscrapers which are connected by suspension bridges. She manages to call her brother, Rika (Junya Enoki/Zeno Robinson), who reveals that he is also trapped in this world. It turns out that the high-rises are populated by mask-wearing people who are compelled to try and drive other humans to suicide. Among them is the Sniper Mask (Yūichirō Umehara/Jonah Scott), a stylish killer with, as the name implies, a sniper rifle. Yuri manages to find a knife-wielding girl named Mayuko Nise (Shiki Aoki/Jennie Kwan) whom she befriends. Eventually, they find other humans, including a woman named Kuon Shinzaki (Akira Sekine/Stephanie Sheh) who is immune from the attacks of the masks. Yuri has to find out the truth behind this world and find a way out.

END SUMMARY

I’m sure there’s an actual term for this kind of show, but I don’t know it. It’s the genre where a group of people spontaneously are pulled into another world that is almost identical to the regular one and forced to play a game that is, in reality, part of a much bigger plot. The most famous example is probably GANTZ, although I’m sure that’s not the oldest one. The show Alice in Borderland is another one that has recently been on Netflix. The genre tends to be at its best when it focuses more on the characters and the worldbuilding than on the particular game that the participants are forced to play. This show does a good job of focusing mostly on the feelings and the relationships between the characters rather than just on delivering action sequences. Because of that, when you actually do get an action sequence, it’s more impactful.

They can also come out of nowhere, because sniper.

That’s not to say that the worldbuilding isn’t solid. Even though this season only takes us about 12 episodes in, there are a lot of hints about what is really going on and it is clearly much larger than it seems. It seems to be building up to a more metaphysical second season, but not in a way that invalidates our characters’ actions during the past.

Overall, pretty solid show. Just be aware that it’s pretty gory and a little rapey at times.

MAKE ME FAMOUS:

Like this:

MAKE ME FAMOUS:

Like this:

MAKE ME FAMOUS:

Like this:

SUMMARY

END SUMMARY

MAKE ME FAMOUS:

Like this:

SUMMARY (Spoiler-Free)

END SUMMARY

MAKE ME FAMOUS:

Like this:

SUMMARY

END SUMMARY

MAKE ME FAMOUS:

Like this:

SUMMARY

END SUMMARY

MAKE ME FAMOUS:

Like this:

SUMMARY

END SUMMARY

***ENDING EXPLAINED***

MAKE ME FAMOUS:

Like this:

SUMMARY

END SUMMARY

MAKE ME FAMOUS:

Like this:

SUMMARY

END SUMMARY

MAKE ME FAMOUS:

Like this:

ENDING EXPLAINED