emmyboden Reviews

Good Omens (2019– )

Disappointing Season 2

[3/10 · 3 September 2023]

Brilliant first season that ticked almost every box for a witty, clever and watch-worthy series - fun plot, competent acting, balanced 'campness', good flow etc. Season 2, however, spoils the feel-good factor and vibe they'd managed to create in the first one. There's barely a plot, but plenty of uninteresting subplots. This is how you choke the life out of a good thing!

If you haven't watched any of it yet, stop after season 1, otherwise you'll be left with a bad taste in your mouth. By catering to a small minority, the creators forget who the majority of their audience is and end up in this terrible direction, like most entertainment these days unfortunately.

I miss the days when we could just enjoy a solid piece of entertainment without cultural and ideologically "sound" agendas. I am fatigued by this shift and hope we can return to the good old days...

Season 1 --- 8/10 Season 2 --- 1/10.

Down for Love (2022– )

Uplifting and edifying...

[9/10 · 14 August 2023]

This is a wonderful series, produced in consultation with the New Zealand Down Syndrome Association. It's about adults with DS---handled with sensitivity, humour and respect---and the challenges and joys they face (like the rest of us) in pursuit of romantic love. It showcases the fundamental importance of love, reminding us that we're a pair-bonded species, and that regardless of our circumstances or the hand we've been dealt by life, we should remain resilient and never lose hope in matters of the heart.

Anyone who claims this is exploitative is not only ignorant but patronising towards people with DS. We must stop infantilising those with disabilities by not treating them with condescendence. Every individual who participated in this series is an adult who's already had some public exposure, is confident and enjoys the limelight, evidenced by their interest in activities like acting, modelling, being on social media etc. It's no different to any other adult without a disability who decides to partake in dating shows like these, except the daters on this show have a great deal of supervision and familial engagement and support.

My 20-year old niece with DS loved this series so much that it made me emotional just watching her face as she laughed, cried and cheered for the couples. Condescension is hurtful and isolating so please before you make judgments based on your ignorance and prejudices that are thinly disguised as sympathy, reflect for a moment on why you'd ever view this show as "exploitative" or "sad".

Sympathy of this kind is demeaning, presumptuous and a tad bit arrogant. It disempowers, and DS adults do not want to be treated as eternal children or labelled and segregated based on their diagnosis. Don't assume that they can't defend or speak up for themselves. Don't dehumanise but equally don't idolise and give them special treatment by putting them on pedestals. Recognise that they are regular people with special needs and unique abilities who have the right to be represented and who are capable of making decisions and giving consent. Most of them are a great deal smarter and wiser than some of us without developmental disabilities.

They are not helpless children and don't wish to be treated as such. Let's include people with all disabilities fully into our society by allowing them the same platforms as the rest of us, including one such as Netflix. I'm not denying that exploitation does occur but in cases like this, the self-righteous forget that their sometimes misplaced defence of people with disabilities can be more detrimental than helpful.

Apologies for my rant but common sense is becoming so uncommon these days that one has to treat an IMDB review as an opportunity to express and point out the obvious.

Rebirth (I) (2016)

The worst film...

[1/10 · 27 June 2023]

...I've ever had the displeasure to watch. Unbearably tedious, pointless, uninteresting, low-budget, moronic, flawed piece of nonsense. It's just bad on every level and insults the audience. Irredeemable! Nothing worthy of a review so this is more of a warning to others not to waste their time on this awfulness. It's defies belief that anyone, desperate or not, would agree to be part of this failed project. The script is inane and although the relatively competent actor who played the main character, Kyle, worked his backside off to carry the film, it was just abysmal. You've been warned so...

Memory (I) (2022)

Watchable.

[5/10 · 10 September 2022]

Liam Neeson may be getting old and tired but he's still a good actor. His last few films have failed to impress but I'll continue to watch whatever he's in just in case he returns to his glory days one more time before hanging up his hat for good.

The film, its plot, the writing and directing was just not up to par in this film. Brits/Australias/others playing Americans is fine as long as they can pull it off. Taj Atwal, who plays Linda Amistead, however, makes a mockery of her role not just by her poor acting skills but also her atrocious American accent. She mumbles and exaggerates the American accent to compensate for how badly she sucks at it. And then there's Monica Bellucci, who must be one of the worst actresses I've seen. She's better suited to modelling and not opening her mouth. Guy Pearce does a decent job but most characters in this film, including his, are like caricatures. No one's convincing and it's just amateur hour.

Saying that, there are worst films on the market so this passes as watchable. Not great, not awful, just meh (for lack of a more sophisticated word).

The Handmaid's Tale (2017–2025)

Overrated, Over-hyped, Over-acted, OVER IT!

[4/10 · 8 September 2022]

I couldn't wait to watch this series based on all the complimentary reviews. What a disappointment! Either there's something wrong with my taste or something seriously amiss with other people's...

The idea behind the storyline and premise of the show starts off hopefully but is neither well-defined nor well-executed. So much time is wasted on redundant close-up shots and long, slow-motion moments that if you're not into pretentious and miserably failed attempts at arty-fartiness, you'll lose patience and fast-forward big chunks of it like I did. There were entire episodes I'd finish in 10-15 minutes due to fast-forwarding all the nonsense that added nothing to the story but negatively affected the quality of the episodes.

The acting was hit and miss - no one was convincing. I found most of the actors either overacted or looked bored and acted with minimum effort. Elizabeth Moss (June) in particular is an over-actor and I quickly grew very sick of her face. The Germans have a brilliant word for faces like hers: "Backpfeifengesicht," meaning a slappable face. I've never been so vexed by someone on screen that I had to look away when they appeared. Her facial expression are unbearably annoying, like a toddler pretending to be pissed-off because they didn't get a second lolly even though they know they're being greedy and unreasonable.

And her character June is just as unlikeable as were most characters, even the ones that we're supposed to like and cheer for. From the soy-boy husband Luke, her lesbian best friend to all the Commanders and their wives etc... No one stands out as extraordinary. No one carries the show and no one elicits sympathy or care from me. This series is not intellectually stimulating although it likes to believe otherwise so there's hardly anything intellectual to be said about it.

The producers, directors, writer of this farce must've been on something both mind-altering and at times mind-numbing to create something like this.

I'm left conflicted after 4 seasons of persevering with this show, despite it only serving as background noise half the time while I was doing something else. It could've been so much better if they'd only hired the right people with the right vision to do the right jobs. They wasted a great opportunity to create something worthy of audiences' time and attention. How this show got such high praise is beyond me and perplexing indeed!

Me Time (2022)

Appalling!

[1/10 · 31 August 2022]

Nothing, I mean not a single thing in this abysmal piece of nincompoopery is redeeming. I could barely abide 27 minutes before I lost my cool. What in the world possessed anyone to be part of this failed "project"? I have plenty of adjectives and some expletives, but nothing mildly positive to say. If you take pleasure in watching two middle-aged, now washed up so-called actors humiliate themselves and Netflix insulting their subscribers and audiences all over the world, then go ahead but don't say you weren't warned. Unless you're an unusually immature young adult or a 13-year-old with an underdeveloped, puerile sense of humour, this will fail to entertain or even make you laugh once but it'll make you throw something at the screen.

To say that filmmaking is becoming a lost art is not hyperbole, especially in this case. Everyone who was involved in this rubbish must've not only been amateurs, but the worst type of amateurs - the kind that collectively suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect. I'd bet that when they wrapped up the "film", they patted themselves and each other on the back, thanked equally failing Netflix for the opportunity and ran off with the money.

I don't know what I was waiting for before ending my Netflix subscription but this did it for me. I've sat through enough horrendous Netflix productions but this one (following a long string of others) is the proverbial straw that broke this camel's back.

The Walking Dead (2010–2022)

Great show sucked down the drain by later seasons

[7/10 · 23 August 2022]

I wish I'd stopped watching when Andrew Lincoln left the show but as a loyal viewer, I persevered and in the process developed a bad taste in my mouth the more episodes I watched.

I've rarely, if ever, been so obsessed with a TV series in my life to the point that I'd have withdrawal symptoms between seasons. Often, I was aware of the less-than-stellar moments of the show but loyalty is a great forgiver. However, I can't deny that TWD spiralled out of control, around the time when Negan entered the show and some of my favourite characters were brutally killed off. It never quite recovered after that, despite Rick and Daryl's best efforts to carry the show forward.

The last straw for me was Rick's departure. I stopped caring for the remaining characters (bar Daryl) because they themselves seemed to stop caring. Previously likeable characters turned indignant (e.g. Maggie and others) and deviated so much from their original personalities that the magic was suddenly gone and it became soap-operatic boring.

Season 1 will always be the best (of any show in history), thoroughly enjoyed seasons 2-8 seasons, season 9 was tough to watch, detested season 10 and not too excited about season 11 but shall force myself to watch it so I can say my final goodbyes. Looking back, I'll try to remember how great this show once was and leave the bad memories behind.

Abyss (2019)

Average at best...

[4/10 · 12 August 2022]

Had high hopes but it left me feeling indifferent and bored at times, not to mention scratching my head over the frankly dumb storytelling. The series is very "commercial" and even when it attempts to be gritty in parts, it only manages to be more of a parody and quite cartoonish. Yet the comedic scenes were lacklustre and missed the mark.

I'm an avid watcher of Korean films and series of all genres but something really irked me about this. And the glaring product placement occurring every five minutes made it almost unbearable (Subway, vacuum cleaner, water bottles, coffee machine etc.). The unnatural plugging of products with mindless lines that are out of place was rather egregious. In every episode, you're guaranteed to see Cha Min randomly hoovering in a scene that almost interrupts the story with close-up shots from different angles of the same handheld vacuum cleaner.

The acting is subpar too with many instances where the main actors either chew up the scenery or underact without managing to find a balance. Dialogue is often puerile and there are no likeable characters. Too many plot-holes with no explanation while areas that needed exploring further were neglected. Instead, time is wasted on flashbacks and delivering the same inane lines, which adds no substance. I'm guessing the target audience for this one is rather young - late teens perhaps. I can't imagine anyone over the age of 20 finding this stimulating, entertaining or interesting, but rather frustrating.

I feel slightly cheated for having persevered to the end without being rewarded. The premise was interesting and with the right actors, writers and directors (and less product placement), this could've been something great.

Koreans are so brilliant at creating riveting or at least entertaining series. If you're looking for something of similar ilk but done superbly, I'd skip this one and instead watch any of the following (if you haven't already): "Hotel del Luna," "Taxi," "Tomorrow," "Sell Your Haunted House," and let's not forget "Signal."

Senior Year (2022)

An awful mess!

[1/10 · 13 May 2022]

A severely misguided and inept comedy that has nothing to offer! Is it a satire on today's ridiculous woke culture? Who's the target audience? Who thought it was a good idea to spend money on producing this folly? I'm befuddled!

Rebel Wilson is mildly funny at her best in other films I've seen her "act" in but here she's simply unbearable. In fact, everything about the film is unbearable from the acting to writing. I couldn't get through more than 30 painful minutes before having to switch it off. And in that time, I didn't smile once. It's entirely bereft of laughs. Just lame, worn-out jokes and cheesy material.

No matter how starved you are for something to watch, there has to be a better option than this dreadful thing. I'd suggest taking out the bin, hoovering the floor and doing some ironing as more entertaining forms of activity.

Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. (2022)

Don't be quick to judge!

[6/10 · 18 March 2022]

Based on some of the reviews, I expected Sarma to be vapid, dumb and just a rotten person who probably deserved what she got. I found myself frustrated with her in the first couple of episodes but after completing all episodes, I feel ashamed that I was so judgmental and couldn't disagree more with those too eager to pass such harsh judgment without a moment of consideration.

I really felt a sense of deep sadness over how increasingly broken she became throughout her relationship with this repulsive, opportunist, textbook sociopath. Sarma comes across as a private, introverted person who hadn't processed whatever internal struggles and pain she was dealing with at the time of getting involved with a conman. Narcissists can smell an empath or vulnerable person from miles away and they're good at what they do. They know which buttons to push and they push them hard because they lack conscience and remorse. People are not people to them but objects to be used and discarded.

Listening to his aggression in the recordings of their phone calls, reading the messages and emails and then seeing the video clips of her in Vegas confirms that her mind had gone into free-fall and she'd completely lost her footing.

Many abused women lose themselves and can't find their way back to normality and sometimes sanity. When apathy takes over, people stop caring about themselves, everyone and everything.--even a previously kind, strong, professional business woman like Sarma, who clearly was once adored by her employees and friends. I was very upset that her employees got the short end of the stick and my blood was boiling that they weren't getting paid. But this story has many victims.

Try to watch through a lens of understanding and follow the story with a heart of compassion and you'll better be able to judge why she acted the way she did. Put your prejudices aside and ignore the ignorant comments some people are spewing here about white privilege, dumb blond, and all the other nonsense. Humans are not perfect and it's easy to speculate what any one us would do in any given situation but nothing is ever straightforward in reality, especially if we fall into traps set by severely personality-disordered individuals. The world is run by psychopaths and if entire nations can fall prey so can a person.

Rea(l)ove (2018– )

Deplorable

[1/10 · 17 February 2022]

Having lived in Japan, I'm always quick to watch any Japanese releases on Netflix. I'd never heard of this show and was looking forward to some light-hearted entertainment alas, they've truly scraped the bottom of the barrel to put together this show, from the host to the participants. It's just in bad taste and I found nothing redeemable about it. Could barely abide 3 episodes before I checked out!

I switched off after the poor guy who'd be cheated on revealed his secret and there was zero sympathy or tact in the way both the male and female host responded. He repeatedly expressed how painful this experience had been, leaving him traumatised etc. And the narcissist hosts kept mocking him and laughing like little hyenas. More respect was shown for the porn star and sex addict. Also, a girl that's had 10 sexual partners is apparently much worse and unacceptable than a man who's had 150 partners. Appalling!

Avoid this abysmal show but if your morbid curiosity leads you to watch it, prepare yourself for foul nonsense with no value!

And Just Like That... (2021– )

Let the dead rest!

[1/10 · 13 January 2022]

The original SATC series was born, had a great life and then died a natural death. There was no need nor demand by former viewers to see it resurrected in this Frankensteinian form. Something that's riddled with such unbearably tedious but sadly fashionable neo-liberalist woke ideology can make anyone break out in hives, so keep a pack of anti-histamines near you!

The writing is dreadful, the characters have been butchered and Samantha is sorely missed. Just leave a good thing alone when it's run its course. Digging up a stinky corpse that died a long time ago and attempting to wallpaper over it with "politically correct" and "inclusive" nincompoopery will not suddenly make it look nor smell particularly pleasant and this series proves that! It stinks to high heaven and beyond!

Space Force (2020–2022)

Enough of the "Wokeness" already!

[2/10 · 29 December 2021]

I'm so immensely fed up with the fact that every single piece of "entertainment" that comes out these days is tainted by all the current nincompoopery we're subjected to on an increasingly frequent basis. Division is everywhere, we have to categorise, label and tuck people away into neat little confined boxes based on gender, race and other rubbish. So much of the dialogue is peppered with racial and gender terms, like "white" this or "black" that, "mansplaining," and even calling out people that reject vaccines (to mirror the reality of our current distrust in pharmaceutical companies and the experimental state mandated injectable with no long-term safety data.) It's clearly an attempt to discredit the legitimately concerned members of the public by comparing the unmentionable C19 virus with Polio, which makes no medical sense because unlike Polio, this "pandemically" known virus has a mortality rate of a bee sting.

To the discerning, this series is full of insidious political agenda narratives, which destroys the comedic factor. These noxious liberal and leftist notions have infiltrated every aspect of our modern society that's based on shaming anyone who questions/rejects their agenda in order to continue to divide and conquer us. I hate that I can't just watch a piece of entertainment without all the obviously glaring conditioning and programming. Sick of it!

The two stars are solely based on my fondness of Malkovich as an actor.

The Rachel Divide (2018)

A mixed bag...

[7/10 · 14 December 2021]

The media has a way of dehumanising "controversial" characters. It's a decent documentary that offers further insight to the person behind the controversy and hate. Although I wish they would've included a psychological perspective to the main theme of the documentary - racial identity!

As an armchair psychologist, it's clear to me that Rachel is using the less-known notion of "trans-racialism" to disassociate from what seems to have been a difficult childhood and upbringing. In a household where there definitely existed abuse of some type, her escape route was her attachment to her adopted black siblings and wanting to protect them from parents that were unfit to adopt children of a different race. She identified with them more than her own biological parents and brother, all of whom are responsible for inflicting the trauma that she still hasn't addressed or processed.

The form of escapism she chose in order to deal with her domestic issues turned a fantasy of who she wanted to be into a reality where she felt more "authentic" by changing her racial identity. I don't think that at any point, this was a spur-of-the-moment choice to exercise her "white privilege" but something that developed gradually within her at a core-deep level. Many traumatised children do this in one form or another--by creating a new identity for themselves that's the opposite of the identity they were born with or cultivated during a difficult upbringing.

But enough of my amateur psychoanalytical ramblings...

The documentary itself maintained my attention and interest throughout while I experienced quite a roller-coaster of emotions and thoughts, veering between feelings of sympathy for Rachel to getting frustrated with her. Especially heartbreaking was witnessing the pain and anguish her media appearances or social media posts caused her sons, particularly the younger one (who wasn't able to flee to Europe to get away form it all like his older brother). At only 13 years of age, he seemed like an incredibly mature and insightful boy who espoused more common sense and maturity than any of the adults featured.

The horrid nastiness of some of the people towards her was hard to watch. I couldn't compute how they viewed themselves as direct victims of her actions. In a world where hardened criminals like George Floyd are sanctified and made into poster children for justice and celebrated as heroes, what has Rachel done that's so unforgivable/irredeemable that she has to be so vilified and ostracised? People are advocating for transgender rights but why is it okay to be a man who identifies as a woman but not okay to be one race but identify as another? If you are one of the people who believes that race is merely a 'social construct' then you should be supporting Rachel and hail her as a hero for admitting that she's not white despite appearances!

We sure live in a messed-up world where everything has been turned on its head! It might've been helpful if the documentary makers had addressed Rachel's mental health and offered to get her into therapy to deal with many of her unresolved issues.

And finally, so bloody what that she's written a book to tell her side of the story? Considering that no one will employ her, she's excluded from society, harassed when in public etc., she needs to earn money to live and feed her family. Where's the humanity in humans these days? This woman has undeniably made mistakes for which she's paying but at some point we must stop punishing people like her and focus on the real villains of our world.

You (2018–2024)

Ruined by too many "wokeisms"

[3/10 · 11 September 2021]

Enjoyed parts of it but some of the dialogue got unbearably tedious in the end. For some unfathomable reason, the misandrist "woke" (a term I dislike like bile in my throat) writers thought it'd be a good idea to insert rubbish notions like "privileged white men" and "toxic masculinity" into the script. Sadly, this reflects the twisted world we're creating where the majority have to pander to the tiny minority brigade of sickeningly PC, "inclusive" liberals that get their fragile egos and feelings hurt by absolutely everything and anything... Wish they'd just cut out the political nonsense that's completely misplaced! I'd like my entertainment to be free of the constant bombardment of the tiresome narrative that's being pushed down our gullets on a daily basis. Could've been so much better...