gabeliebowitz Reviews

Detective Knight: Redemption (2022)

not bad but cheesy

[5/10 · 15 January 2024]

Good for a movie night, popcorn, drinks, snacks, just a chill movie

its entertaining but dont think too much about it.

I'm about 500 characters short, so i'll add some commentary. The first movie (rogue) is solid. Good pacing from start to finish. Plot is loose but it resolves itself (except for 1 character), albeit, abruptly.

Willis is top billed but dont expect john mcclane here: he's used sparingly (for good reason) and it's clear his character is more... reserved.

However, unlike rogue, redemption is, let's say, a departure. Interesting premise that is quickly dropped for a heist plot.

Ok that's minimum characters.

(second half kind of drags on, bogged down by cliche dialogue and scene chewing performances. Nice to see returning characters but they lack development from rogue.)

Game Changer (II) (2019– )

really... not for everybody and thats ok

[8/10 · 15 August 2022]

Edit: since half stars are not allowed i am officially updating my review to 8.5 after watching the first season. VERY hesitant to give 9 stars because it is evident that there are just combinations of guests that DO NOT WORK while certain guests can carry a whole show. Not that there's been a BAD episode so far (season 1), i fully believe that the premise of the show is entertaining enough even if the gags/bits aren't always dingers. Reich (production team) deserves credit tho for the work they put into the show. So that is enough to push closer to the 9th star.

Alright here's a brand new show (within recent times) that is catching wind on youtube/clip sites

i am only vaguely familiar with, PERHAPS, 2 of the guest stars/contestants: the creator (reich from college humor), and brennan, from other board game related things.

Its a VERY "european/british" show, a comparison that should make sense if you've seen 9/10 cats or any other game show hosted by jimmy carr. The jokes are waaaaay out there, the set design is gamey and campy, there's no real "goal" to the game other than the viewer's (and participants') entertainment. Nobody's becoming millionaires, nobody is getting voted off islands, nobody wins anything; it's a gameshow in a nutshell.

That being said, from the clips i've seen (some funny, some meh, some huh?), i did a little digging: MOST if not ALL the "contestants" are personalities in the streaming/gaming community (brennan GM's some D+D campaigns and if you look up some of HIS work then you'll start to recognize other players in the show) and it's very clear they have a rapport and know how to play off each other. In that sense, it's a very well produced show.

In another sense, the set is clearly just a few cardboard/particle board cutouts on a dark soundstage with no audience so it probably costs pennies to make. What's important though are the bits and jokes that get created on the spot, despite seeming so well planned. As with most improv, i do believe the contestants get a "brief" (>30 min) window to prepare or are at least aware of the topics/theme before hand, and that they film segments one at a time (speculation) to give them time to warm up; despite appearances, if you come in expecting the "traditional" gameshow format, Game Changer may be hard to watch.

This is a preemptive 8 from me based on clips taking into consideration a) ingenuity of answers/responses from contestants, b) the idea of the show itself (as a gameshow within a gameshow), and c) the pedigree of both creator and guests (college humor, et al).

Might change to a 9 after watching full episodes. I do not anticipate lowering my score at all.

30 Rock: Jackie Jormp-Jomp (2009) Season 3, Episode 18

they hit a lick

[8/10 · 26 July 2022]

From the very first joke (it's pronounced "weiner-slave"), jackie jormp-jomp emerges as one of the strongest episodes in one of, if not the best, seasons of a great, great show.

It is wall to wall zingers, one-liners, call backs, running gags, and story development.

Jenna's dies. Liz's adventures in sex trafficking get vibe checked. And tracy learns what it means to be a father.

Everything that the writers were working towards pays off in this episode. Its ridiculousness reaches a fever pitch when tracy fires Daphne and replaces the TGS dancers with a group he found fighting in a parking lot. It's asinine but within the confines of the show, it works which paves the way for the "punch"line of the episode.

Things return to normal ONLY because the story reached a natural conclusion. Jenna's character couldnt stand for her "actual" age to be known, lemon "knew" she belonged at TGS, and.we learn that working class immigrants are not always amused by our american antics.

This episode stands out as a culmination of storylines that pave the way for the jessup saga while not losing momentum through the plateau. In a season with "kidney now", "gavin volure", "generalissimo", "apollo apollo", and "larry king", jackie jormp-jomp shows of the strength of its everyday players doing what they do best (brief shoutout to rusty the bear from the magicals tho)