DJPilkington Reviews

Chicago Med (2015– )

In a nutshell

[2/10 · 8 August 2019]

"I'm gonna resuscitate this patient even though they have a DNR. Am I right or wrong?"

"Wrong."

"But am I though?"

"Yes."

"Get out of my way nurse, no one's gonna stop me." *slaps her aside*

*Later*

"You know, you're a goshdarn maverick, and protocol states you should never work in medicine again for your recklessness, but you did a good job, so your actions have zero consequences."

So yeah, all in all, a very trite, melodramatic med-soap. If you want a genuinely good American example without nearly as much artificial attempts at moral dilemma, try New Amsterdam.

Holby City (1999–2022)

Going surprisingly strong

[7/10 · 6 August 2019]

While I'm pretty cynical about soaps, Holby is one that has, especially for a medical drama, somehow managed to keep up a fairly good standard of quality after all these years. Yes, there's been troughs (quite deep troughs), but the current peaks, I'd say, are actually worth checking in on every once in a while.

The writing is tightened and individual episodes are more thematically consistent. Considering how the med-soap subgenre is infamous for exploiting real life conditions and social trends (kind of comes with the territory), Holby usually handles things fairly tactfully. The cast always does a good job with the characters, who are all generally written consistently compared to other British soaps, though there are some sleepers. Even the boring ones have at least been involved in one good storyline, however.

The one thing that is a bit of a problem is that the formula of episodes does get tiring. There's almost always a serious patient who is in someway intricately tied to a main character's arc, and a silly gimmick patient who's basically just there to waste time and give some artificial "human" moments with the doctors. But I suppose it's like any intensely serialised media -- the repetition can be seen as both a draw and a downside.

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

Puts a big dopey smile on my face every time

[10/10 · 30 March 2019]

A pertinent look at the immigrant experience, "Stranger Than Paradise" captures a uniquely cynical but relentlessly charming view of America through the eyes of a Hungarian, an American and a Hungarian-American.

With an innocuous set-up of two guys and a girl on a road trip across America, "Stranger Than Paradise" cleverly deconstructs the road genre. Our story starts in grimy, segmented New York, where people seem incapable of even talking to each other naturally without the aid of alcohol (and even then...). We travel to Cleveland, which, as it turns out, is exactly like New York, only colder and with a permanent blanket of snow. Unsatisfied, our heroes then travel to Florida, which is just like Cleveland only hotter and sandier. Jim Jarmusch manages to make each location with a feel familiar but desolate and oppressive with how he statically frames his shots; each a different symptom of the same ailment that is America through the eyes of foreigners. Filmed in black-and-white, the film's limitations end up benefiting the production as a whole as the sand and snow end up looking no different.

The comedy in this film is deadpan but hilarious. Both the visual and dialogue-driven humour is bang on. We've got the simple running gag of Eddie, the main character Willie's rather dumb 100% American friend, glowingly recommend each holiday locale only to quickly admit to never been there himself. Then there's the simple hilarity in the order in which the main characters sit in a movie theatre. Lastly, there's the final gag, which I can't spoil here, but it's the perfect punchline...

The characters are as minimalist as the film's plot, but all of them manage to be memorable and have heartwarming dynamics. Willie is initially frosty towards his freshly-migrated cousin Eva for she is a living reminder to his not-entirely-American heritage that he'd rather ignore, but they grow to love each other (in a familial way, obviously... well, some have interpreted it differently but that's a discussion for another day). Eddie gets a lot of laughs with his cluelessness, while bit characters like Aunt Lotte, hip hop artist Rammellzee as the drug dealer and Eva's annoyed boyfriend Billy steal the show.

I think the most overarching question that lingers over the whole movie is: What is it to be an American? Ultimately, Jarmusch gives us the conclusion that America is all a dump, so it's better to not stress about it.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

Chaos, Calamity and Kaiju: The Original Multi-Monster Brawl

[8/10 · 30 March 2019]

With Legendary's "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" just around the corner, I'd say it's high time to look back at its primary inspiration and the debut appearance of Godzilla's eternal nemesis, Ghidorah the Three-Headed King of Terror.

As a filmic event on par with the likes of "Avengers: Infinity War" that we have today, "Ghidorah" brings together Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan and the titular cackling calamity for an almighty showdown for supremacy across rural Japan. Despite technological limitations of the time that inherently date some of the special effects (the miniature army convoys never look too sharp and some of the monster costumes already look on the verge of falling to bits), "Ghidorah" conveys a truly epic sense of scale with breathtaking scenes of structure-shattering disaster caused by these rampaging leviathans.

The central human plot is surprisingly creative and fun to watch unfold, more so than most found in other Godzilla films that serve as filler for the climactic kaiju clash. A small island nation's princess falls under the possession of a Venusian ambassador and begins foretelling prophecies of the return of various monsters such as Godzilla and Rodan, building up to a forewarning of the arrival of the space-faring beast that ravaged Venus (Mars in most dubs), King Ghidorah. The Japanese government team up with a larval Mothra and her twin Shobijin fairies in an attempt to a put a stop to the madness by rallying Earth's monsters against the extra-terrestrial threat. Meanwhile, an evil assassin named Malness attempts to hunt down the princess for an ancestral bracelet and to cause further unrest.

Whereas later Godzilla flicks would fully embrace the sci-fi cheese angle when setting up these monster mashes, this film's more wistful and enigmatic angle with how it presents the princess possession set-up is appreciated, and the assassination plot helps to give it more frantic stakes. It helps that Malness makes for an entertaining human threat with a paltry motivation to contrast against all the carnage the monsters are causing.

I'll take the time to gush that Ghidorah is an awesome villain. His planetary threat-level is built up splendidly, his physical design is amazing and for a monster he has a very distinguished personality -- his bell-like cackle combined with the way his three heads thrash about wildly while blasting erratically at everything in sight work to convey his nature as a monster unlike any seen before. While Godzilla destroys out of vengeful anger and Mothra causes collateral for the greater good, Ghidorah kills purely for the hell of it and cannot be reasoned with.

Speaking of reasoning, the film gets plenty of comedic mileage out of Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra's interactions as they initially refuse to team up, preferring to endlessly squabble like children and volley rocks at each other. These scenes make the monsters more human and endearing than we'd previously seen them as the Shobijin actually translate their roaring for us to hear. You could compare it to the international political tensions between the USA and USSR that were swelling at the time, and it makes for quite a clever analogy. When the monsters team up eventually, however, we're treated to a legendary battle, one of the best that Showa-era Toho produced. If "King of the Monsters" can lovingly uphold this film's legacy, which is looking to be the case, I'll be a happy bunny.

Super Dragon Ball Heroes (2018– )

Utterly bonkers (and only getting crazier), but it's only a promo so don't get your knickers in a twist

[5/10 · 28 March 2019]

As "Dragon Ball Super" temporarily ended with the Tournament of Power arc in March, fans were elated when news came of a new anime to hold them over until the main show returned. As pure filler fluff and glorified advertisement for the currently Japan-exclusive arcade game of the same title, "Super Dragon Ball Heroes" does its job but ends up being kind of a detriment to the rest of the franchise as it basically spoils us.

Whereas the main Dragon Ball anime shows have time to flesh characters and conflicts out, SDBH's episodes are very condensed but somehow never seem to really cover very much. Episodes are overstuffed with characters, transformations and explosive energy blasting to promote events that happen in the game, but it all rarely serves any purpose beyond that; it's just fan-pleasing guff riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies. Luckily, the manga expands and fills in gaps. Remember that fetch quest for the Special Dragon Balls that Fu mentions in the first episode? The manga covers that and more, featuring more zany stuff like Hatchiyack fighting Majin Ozotto over a Ball.

Watch in teeth-pulling awe as Vegito in Super Saiyan Blue (the most powerful one) boosted with Kaio-ken can't beat the bland Evil Saiyan Cumber's base form. The most funnily egregious example of a useless character, though, is Cooler, who joins the heroes' side with Future Trunks (who is similarly useless here), suddenly gains a snazzy new -- and 100% original -- transformation, throws a single punch, and spends every episode after standing on the sidelines doing sweet F-A. Combined with cameos from the various Super Saiyan forms, fusions, Ultra Instinct and so on, SDBH starts to feel like stuffing yourself on your nan's delicious cake until you feel sick. This is what I'd call high-cholesterol Dragon Ball.

The animation and art style, overseen by Yamamuro, are bland, flat and unimpactful but at least consistent. The action often feels far slower than it should be. The fights are almost all boringly choreographed and samey with this lazy formula: punch-punch-punch, energy blasts, character flies out of dust, Kamehameha beam-struggle. Yawn.

The show, as of this review, has covered two separate story arcs: the Prison Planet Saga and the Universe Conflict Saga. This recent arc has actually been a big improvement over its predecessor so far as it has a more interesting (but still insane) story, higher stakes and better animation. It's actually starting to explore concepts that I would like to see implemented into the canon story of "Dragon Ball Super" (Goku training under the Grand Priest? Sign me up, lol). Let's hope this keeps up.

Us (II) (2019)

A huge amount of potential, squandered

[6/10 · 25 March 2019]

Hot off the heels of "Get Out", I went into the cinema with absolute conviction that I would be swept off my feet by Peele once again. Those first 25 minutes or so are indeed incredibly gripping, suspenseful and practically oozing with possibilities and potential. Peele once again flexes his chops with great character writing, stellar cinematography and a healthy dose of symbolism, but things take an awkward turn after the full introduction of our antagonists, the Tethered.

The Tethered start out as an awesomely creepy concept -- mysterious, twisted simulacrums of Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) and her family. They twistedly reflect each of their "real" counterparts, and their ominous arrival at the Wilsons' holiday home is great. Nyong'o -- hell, all of the main cast -- do an excellent job at portraying these eerie, alien parodies of the family. As the film goes on, however, they suffer from coming off as rather incompetent. I also definitely think it would've been better if the Tethered only copied the Wilsons rather than copying everyone.

At first I thought that Peele would play an almost sympathetic/misunderstood monster angle, that they could be redeemed possibly through their interactions with humanity (there's some remnants of this in the ending 'twist' which I'll get to later). Peele throws these seeds of doubt and intrigue out the window, and the clones just become these screeching, gimmicky comic villains who run around killing people with scissors. It's not like they even have any special abilities or anything (they're not even any more durable than normal humans), so it's not believable that they're positioned to be this global threat. Pretty much any rando with a gun could kill them en masse.

The script quality seems to decline fiercely and noticeably as the film goes on. The human characters become distractingly self-aware and the black comedy starts to ruin suspenseful scenes. Peele ends up falling into the trap of feeling the need to over-explain the Tethers, resulting in a tedious expository scene towards the end that ruins all their mystique and raises far more questions and plot holes that could've been ignored otherwise. How have so many doppelgangers been produced without anyone else ever interacting with them? How have they obtained all these identical uniforms, scissors, etc?

All this feels symptomatic of the uneven tone of the film. Does it want to be a 'pure' horror film? Does it want to be a self-aware screwball parody? Does it want to be a biting satire of American life and history (more on that)? I could've bought the Tethers' origin story if the film was going in a proper psychedelic direction, but for the most part it's pretty grounded until the end. The indecisiveness wounds the film quite a bit.

It's a shame too because I really like these characters. The family and their dynamic are easy to invest in. Adelaide could have easily been written as a bland emotionless trauma victim but she's instead a likeable, good-humoured and mysterious figure throughout the film. Her husband Gabe, in the spirit of Rod from "Get Out", provides great comic relief (although it's mostly his excess of funny moments that distract from the horror).

Last main point I want to address is the racial/class symbolism and allegory throughout the film as it's an important part of Jordan Peele's style. It's all well done (if very hamfisted). You've got the classic handcuff-and-chains imagery, caged rabbits, phone-camera footage of brutality, "angel numbers", etc, until Adelaide's doppelganger just outright says "We are Americans." Way to spell it out, Jordan.

So overall, I'm disappointed with "Us". There's a really great idea in there that just hasn't been executed particularly well, and worse, Peele's main claim to fame, his previously demonstrated talent for screenwriting, has let him down here as he makes a lot of rookie errors. That final twist kind of summarises everything that went wrong here; it feels like the cool twist ending to the interesting story that Peele seemingly started out writing, but not a good one to the one he ended up making.

Atop the Fourth Wall (2008– )

A slow decline

[4/10 · 24 March 2019]

"Atop the Fourth Wall" was always a fairly gimmicky, but still unique, concept: the Nostalgia Critic, but with comic books. And like the Nostalgia Critic, AT4W experienced a slow, withering decline over the years as it's haphazardly tried and failed to keep up with the times.

Akin to most of the Channel Awesome Criticsphere shows, you can look back on an early AT4W video then look at a more recent one and not discern much meaningful change in the way the main content is presented. Lewis Lovhaug, in his fictitious persona Linkara, basically sits in his basement and commentates over scans of bad comic books, makes jokes and one-liners here and there in a gratingly nasal voice, before declaring his final opinion. Although, there is one thing you will definitely notice has changed for the worse...

Those obnoxious storylines! In another uncanny reflection of the Nostalgia Critic's fall from grace due to an overreliance on cutaway gags, AT4W has basically been ruined by Lovhaug's insistence that each video has to tie in to some ridiculous, nonsensical sci-fi storyline that usually has absolutely nothing to do with the comic review at hand. I find it funny how Linkara can have the gall to mock bad writing in his comic books, but is completely un-self-aware to the atrocious quality of his own little storylines.

Worse, Lewis always portrays the Linkara character as an awesome gun-toting Marty Stu who goes around defeating supervillains in a spaceship with a quirky cast of robot sidekicks and whatnot. You can really tell that Lewis regards these narrative segments as a big draw to his videos, but they're really not -- most people just skip to the actual review, because that's understandably what they'd rather be watching. They're just too embarrassing to sit through, and I'm sure Lewis will feel the same way in many years time (not that he learned from his attempts to write a superhero webcomic and Pokemon fanfiction). While I applaud his efforts to experiment, I think he should either try something else or just stick to the original thing.

What I will say in the show's favour is that there's at least a great variety of comics reviewed -- it's not just the standard Marvel/DC fare, and Lewis manages to get hold of some really obscure and interesting titles. Not only that, but AT4W is one of the only notable Criticsphere review (they're more like overviews, really) shows that showcases both good and bad media. A break from the whinging and nitpicking is refreshing. Some of Lewis's diary insights that accompany his videos in the descriptions are also quite fun to read through. So overall, AT4W isn't bad, as I'll still stick on a video when I feel in the mood, but the flaws are increasingly hard to ignore.

Broly the Legendary Super Saiyan Abridged (2016 TV Movie)

Here Broly

[7/10 · 23 March 2019]

Considering that the Team Four Star guys adamantly hate Broly and everything the character stands for (well, at least until "Dragon Ball Super: Broly" came out), it's pretty ironic that their Abridged parody of "Broly -- The Legendary Super Saiyan" ranks among their funniest material.

As with pretty much all of their content, there's some cringey dud jokes and lapses in quality. The fact that there's less reliance on the tired old TFS gags like the "character tries to be funny but gets cut off by the villain" cliche or the painfully worn-down recurring "brick jokes" in favour of more creative, organic attempts at humour makes this one stand out. That, and the fact that they're so self-aware with how they handle Broly in all his poorly-motivated glory.

Vegeta's egotistical antics as the King of New Planet Vegeta are of course a big highlight. Considering that the way they used to write Vegeta was pretty predictable and unfunny, they've managed to make him an all-time favourite. For the record, though, very little of TFS's work reaches above the 7 or 8/10 margins for me (certain episodes of the Cell Saga and DBZ Kai Abridged being the exceptions), and chances are if you're an avid fan of their work then it's gonna be a no brainer to see this instalment.

Stan & Ollie (2018)

Non-stop charm

[9/10 · 23 March 2019]

Sometimes you can't go wrong with a good, character-focused biopic. As a fan of the silent era of cinema but one who kind of skipped out on Laurel and Hardy for the most part, I didn't have that much of a personal attachment to the brand before seeing this film, but it's safe to say that's changed now.

Set in the early '50s, "Stan & Ollie" sees the titular double act living off their past glories and struggling to stay relevant. Grinding through the theatre circuit across Britain to an increasingly disenfranchised audience for some quick cash, Laurel and Hardy steadily reclaim some of their former popularity as they do a few publicity stunts, but tensions between them slowly rise as Stan remains bitter towards Ollie having briefly 'betrayed' him to work with a different comic actor decades ago. Combined with Stan's difficulty in getting his Robin Hood movie idea off the ground and Ollie's declining health, the duo's success threatens to tear them apart again.

In spite of some heavy moments, "Stan & Ollie" consistently remains a lovably quaint, low-stakes dramedy throughout. The film is a truly heartfelt homage to the old days of light entertainment. Both Coogan and Reilly shine with their unlikely partnership reflecting the historical Laurel and Hardy's, and their performances both capture that warm sense of awkwardness of being reunited with a long-parted friend. John C. Reilly's portrayal of an older, declining Oliver Hardy whose enthusiastic mind for entertaining keeps betraying his collapsing body towards the end of the film is also bound to bring a tear to the eye for anyone who has had elderly relatives with similar experiences.

You also get the feeling that these two have been acting in-character for so long that they no longer interact normally. Case in point, after a serious argument, all they can do is throw things at each other like children.

Shirley Henderson and Nina Arianda have underrated roles as Ollie and Stan's bickering wives respectively -- they're even acknowledged as being like a second double act sideshowing for their husbands in the film! They get many organically funny moments in contrast with Stan and Ollie's staged comedy.

If you're a weepy-eyed nostalgic for the "good old days" of movies and entertainment (that you probably don't even remember yourself), or if you just want to get away from all the grit and depressing themes found in other movies today for a moment, then "Stan & Ollie" is definitely for you.

Doctor Who: The End of Time: Part Two (2010) Season Unknown, Episode Unknown

Beautiful conclusion to an awkward final chapter for the Tenth Doctor

[8/10 · 20 March 2019]

As a collective whole, "The End of Time" is a very difficult piece of work to review. The story is overall very weird and disjointed, but scattered throughout it are some of the most amazingly beautiful, epic and well-acted sequences in the entire series. The story is controversial for many other reasons, particularly among hardcore 'Whovian' purists, but it has left a magnanimous impact on British pop culture for good reason.

The Master has successfully enacted his plan to transform the entire human race into copies of himself (the "Master Race"), but his plan is quickly dwarfed when the Time Lords make their grand return back into the universe in a desperate bid to escape the Time War; the Tenth Doctor has to come to terms with the fact that this adventure will surely be his last. Tonally, Part 2 is still quite messy like Part 1. The silly cactus-like Vinvocci are rather artificial comic relief in an otherwise sombre episode and serve little narrative purpose besides getting the Doctor and Wilfred off-world to plan their counterattack. Overall, though, they don't distract too much from the drama and seriousness of the story.

There's some other plot oddities that are quite hard to take seriously. One of the main omens for the Time Lords' return is when Rassilon throws a piece of jewellery at a hologram of Earth, somehow making it crash as a meteor on the real Earth. How the hell does that work? Surely the time-lock would've prevented that? Whatever. Also Donna not having her memories restored after Russell blatantly baited with the possibility is a bitter missed opportunity.

But the emotional centre of the story is still the Doctor and his relationship with Wilfred, and oh boy do their interactions in this episode pack tearful wallop after wallop. Tennant and Cribbins make for an unlikely duo but both are absolutely on top form here. I'm still at a loss for words as to how amazingly written, acted and scored the scenes with them together are. A memorable scene midway through the episode where Wilfred desperately tries to convince the Doctor to take his gun is one of the only pieces of media that you can use to make me cry on command.

I love the contrast between the feeling of epic scope and this tight, character focused drama. There's not so much action and explosions (though there certainly are a few) as past finales, and the climactic "battle" comes down to three old aliens having a Mexican standoff in a mansion. This episode simultaneously reveals a lot about the Time War while also keeping enough details to the imagination, making it all seem larger than we can comprehend.

Many people like to characterise the Doctor in this episode as whiny and angsty for his anxiety over the possibility of regenerating -- he equates it with death, as his current self ceases to exist while a new man with a new personality goes sauntering off. Fans point out how much more dignified previous Doctors were in their regeneration stories, but the Tenth Doctor has consistently been portrayed as more emotional or "too human" for his own good, as well as quite vain and prone to struggling with temptation. Like it or lump it, it's just how it is.

But honestly, David Tennant's performance during his sacrifice scene is nothing short of outstanding. People make fun of the impotent dribbling and thrashing about as he curses his fate, but that's the point -- there's no question about whether or not the Doctor will sacrifice himself to save Wilfred, but he's sick of the inevitability of it. The look on his face when he hears Wilfred's ominous knocking conveys everything there is to know about who the Doctor is -- this was the moment he truly died, not when he went into the radiation chamber. It's enviably genius direction.

Last but not least, there's the controversial ending montage of the Doctor visiting past companions and allies. It may be self-indulgent as it's almost exclusively Russell T. Davies' characters, but I think it's a nice farewell to an era that viewers around the world cherished. Martha and Mickey getting married offscreen despite barely knowing each other is surely a WTF moment, though.

Overall, "The End of Time" is a mixed bag, but the outstanding individual scenes in this part in particular more than make up for it.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018)

All-round amazing addition to the franchise

[9/10 · 19 March 2019]

Back in 2013 when the Dragon Ball renaissance began with the release of the "Battle of Gods" movie, few anticipated that the franchise would continue to achieve such heights of quality half a decade later. While fans have expressed doubt during the at-times spotty run of the "Dragon Ball Super" anime continuation, "Dragon Ball Super: Broly" brings the passion and excitement to new heights and proves that the ageing shonen franchise still has steam.

As the film's title flatly implies, this is very much Broly's movie. But fear not! Gone is the monosyllabic psychopath of the old Toei Anime Fair movies, replaced with a nuanced, sympathetic and well-developed reimagining of the character. While still possessing a fiery temper, this Broly is a compassionate and misunderstood figure whose isolated upbringing exiled on the inhospitable planet Vampa with only his overbearing, vengeance-crazed father Paragus for company has made him emotionally stunted and vulnerable to manipulation. Broly is effectively built up as the true protagonist of the film that we end up rooting for. In many ways, Broly reflects what Goku would be like if he had never left the forest as a kid -- Broly even gets his own quirky supporting cast in Chirai and Lemo.

The animation, fight choreography and art style of the film are all perfect. Everything is so fluid, colourful and exciting to watch thanks to Shintani's new art direction, giving a fresh take on the early DBZ style. In the best possible way, it's sometimes so fast-paced that you can barely make out what's going on, but these guys are meant to be millions of times faster than the speed of light after all.

"Dragon Ball Super" mixed the high-flying power fighting of DBZ with the comedic lightheartedness of the original DB series to varying degrees of effectiveness, but "Broly" has the perfect mix of both. While some might scoff at the idea of Frieza being reduced to a comic relief villain, I personally find it hilarious and it makes sense seeing as how DBS's last arc had him team up with the Z-Fighters. Goku and Vegeta play surprisingly minor roles in the film, but the build-up to the canon debut of their mighty fused form, Gogeta, is epic. Both of them also get plenty of funny moments to contrast their laidback lifestyle against Broly's life of hardship.

"Broly" isn't quiiiite perfect; the introductory backstory of Paragus, Broly and Frieza's destruction of planet Vegeta is handled brilliantly for the most part, but including as well Bardock feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. It feels as though there was meant to be an additional character arc for Goku coming to terms with his Saiyan heritage that ends up feeling a little half-baked -- it would've been perfect if Goku had somehow discovered some information about his parents that causes him to question his previous notions about them. Maybe one day Toriyama will release his full 3 hour long (!!) script draft and that will shed some light. But overall, "Broly" is a fantastic, fantastic movie that's nostalgic enough for longtime fans and accessible enough for newcomers.

Doctor Who: Resolution (2019) Season Unknown, Episode Unknown

Disjointed and overstuffed -- A typical Chibnall script, then

[4/10 · 19 March 2019]

"Resolution" is a smorgasbord of sadly squandered opportunities. Chibnall set himself up with so many chances to reinvigorate interest in the show, it's characters and it's amazing universe with this promising New Year's special, but instead we get a messy, generic plot that once again exposes Chibnall's universal writing flaws.

As always, let's start with the decent. The Dalek is overall handled well. Even though it's only been a year since they were last seen in "Twice Upon a Time", it's been quite a while since they've been in any way central to the plot as antagonists, so it's cathartic to see one as an actual threat rather than a nuisance. The Dalek's backstory as a relic from an unknown ancient period is also given significant weight and is a nice touch. As with all episodes this season, the direction and camera work are stylish and slick. The climax in the TARDIS, while built up awfully (more on that later), has a good emotional weight.

Once again, Chibnall bloats the script with extraneous side characters who are given too much screentime while most of the companions stand there like squashed lemons, useless to the plot. It's particularly damning in this case, which I'll explain. Most of the episode sees the Dalek possess a human archaeologist and disguise her as a police officer to infiltrate the country's defences. Too bad there isn't a sorely underdeveloped companion who could have taken that role for dramatic purposes... Oh wait. Yaz, a cop, seems to be literally built for this episode, but she's once again wasted as her only contribution to the TARDIS Team's efforts is to point out that a cafe is still open. The episode also has the archaeologist's boring partner become a temporary companion, but he really adds nothing.

Then we move on to the "Ryan's dad" subplot that finally appears to reach its conclusion here. Unfortunately, it's not really handled well. It feels incredibly disconnected to the main plot of the episode. They could've made a whole episode about Ryan and his dad similar to the episode where Clyde's dad comes back in "The Sarah Jane Adventures", but instead we've got an oddly disjointed family melodrama mixed in with a Dalek attack story. After an emotionally wrought chat in a cafe, Ryan's dad is relegated to being another useless meatsack hitchhiking aboard the TARDIS and stealing the spotlight from our unevenly developed companions. When a self-identified children's show handles an estranged father plot better than its all-audience parent show, something has gone wrong.

While I praised the overall way the Dalek was handled here, there's still room for improvement. The fact that a Dalek constructed an indestructible armour shell out of ordinary tractor metal and scrap from a farmyard is just kinda silly. Given that this Dalek has weird powers that are convenient to the plot (another Chibnall staple), they could have squeezed some dramatic potential out of the irony that the Daleks, who pride themselves on supposedly being genetically perfect lifeforms, would create a genetically engineered reconnaissance unit. There could've been a scene where the Doctor points this out to cause the Dalek to have a crisis of faith, but nope. And yes, in the end it's basically defeated by Ryan's dad's conspicuous Chekhov's Microwave. Blah.

As others have pointed out, the attempts at humour in this episode are poor. Everyone's already ripped the UNIT joke to shreds and quite rightly so, as well as that cringeworthy millennial joke that just comes out of nowhere. There have been times when Doctor Who has been genuinely laugh-out-loud hilarious even during otherwise dark episodes -- Series 11 has actually had a few funny moments like the Banksy joke in "Rosa", but they didn't feel forced. Overall, "Resolution" ironically acts as a foreboding omen of repeated mistakes towards the now uncertain future of the show rather than a resolution to improve itself.