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Obiegray
Reviews
Anthracite: Levia Borelis (2024)
Frustrating
I wonder if the writers are 12 years old? The characters are deliberately made to be so stupid that one wonders if the writers ever actually lived long enough to understand human psychology.
The character, Ida, is actually the most interesting and the actress is quite a good job, portraying someone that has been isolated from society so long that she's not sure how to behave or speak in the way society expects. I would also make an educated guess that she is on the spectrum as well. And the actress also handles this unexpectedly well!
But who takes a classroom of little kids into a mine? This is what I mean by stupidity. Real teachers would never ever do such an unsafe thing.
César Wagner: L'Oeil de Lynx (2022)
Sloppy and full of holes
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy writing, sloppy plot, sloppy acting, what a disappointment! How can it have gone downhill so quickly from the first series? So many obvious holes that must've been deliberately planned by the writers because they couldn't figure out any other way to achieve their goal. Incredible blind errors by the police. Every male person is portrayed to be misogynistic, idiotic, childish. The LGBT issue is very confusing and doesn't make sense, or at least it was never resolved in any way, perhaps originally intended to be some sort of subplot? Wagner is so disabled by his hypervigilant phobias, which are used to evoke humor, but which are not funny and are absolutely incredibly annoying. He comes across as unintelligent, constantly distracted by some inner worry and torment, unable to navigate the most simplest human challenges, and yet he is supposed to be a brilliant professional? Every once in a while he opens up his mouth at the perfect timing, and says the perfect thing which completely contradicts the psychological profile he has been presenting all along. All I can say with any positivity is Dieu merci pour Olivia Côte!
Hamish Macbeth: A Perfectly Simple Explanation (1996)
Bawbag Madderam
A very odd yet strangely pleasing concoction of (un)intentional Monty Python, Bennie Hill, The Cockettes, and Dark of The Moon, dramatizing some weird, funny, psychosexual fantasies of: the writers? The director? The actors? All of the above? I'm pretty sure I saw Robert Carlyle break character at least twice, as if he couldn't believe that he was saying what he was saying. I'm quite sure several others also broke character, but hid it well. It unexpectedly made me laugh a lot at the sheer bawbag madderam of it all, as well as what certainly would be politically adventurously correct, slightly slanted sexual and gender advocacy. Apologies in advance for my most likely ignorant misuse of Scottish dafty.
Der Usedom-Krimi: Trugspur (2017)
Agatha Christie It Ain't
Now in the middle of S1. E5, I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that the majority of characters are some of the most unintelligent, unredeemable, immature, devious, lying people ever to populate a series. And when I say "unredeemable" I mean it. Other than perhaps policeman Rainer Sellien. There is so much potential for each, but the writers continue to strive for some kind of bizarre drama by presenting and building on each character's worst inhuman sides. Katrin is clearly suffering from some kind of pathological psychology, as is her daughter and granddaughter. They cannot tell the truth. In this episode Katrin - supposedly a former lawyer - cannot tell the truth to a woman she just met, hardly knows, and yet managed to almost kill and has managed to lose the woman's son. She lies right to her face to pretend he's ok. This begs many questions, including, where is law enforcement, what are they doing about this missing child, and why haven't they located his mother? This is one of many as-yet unanswered questions. I will continue to watch this to see if I'm way off track and the writers are concocting something I myself am not smart enough to anticipate.
Les Saisons meurtrières: Noir enigma (2017)
Disappointing
I can only imagine that, if anybody in Paris, who is police, has watched this must feel incredibly embarrassed by this very poor representation of police capability and intelligence. The characters, especially the main female detective, are incredibly inept, unaware, seemingly incapable of keeping their own psychological flaws in check as well as unbelievably emotionally delayed. Thus the writing and acting are predictable, transparent, lacking in logic and rationale. I watched this from beginning to end, episode by episode, hoping for some kind of eventual redemption from each of the main characters, who are, after all, human, but they only seem intent on exhibiting increasingly darker and immature sides as well as any unresolved maladaptive coping skills of their characters.
P. S. Very odd acting skills.
Origines: Les pleurs des anges (2016)
Travesty
I agree, precisely with the previous reviewer who wrote,
"I loved season one! Excellent! Season 2 starts with a new actress playing Margot...I can't even get through 5 minutes of that. Terrible distraction. I'm very disappointed."
This is a travesty that could only been thought up by a bunch of teenagers who don't care about quality or consistency in art or work. The acting is terrible, certain new hairstyles are interesting, the directing is thin and transparent.
I just can't believe I thought I found something finally that I could stay with for a couple seasons, and now it's been completely destroyed by such thoughtless and stupid choices.
Astrid et Raphaëlle: En garde à vue (2021)
Sloppy! Bizarre! Unbelievable!
I've already written a review, asking, why was the crime that was so cleverly committed never revealed to the viewer in any detail about who committed it, how, or why? Once again, in this episode, bizarre writing reveals nothing other than that maybe the Writers are drunk? The person in question, who had taken hostages by gun at the beginning of the episode, is taken into custody, and then nothing was seen of her until almost at the very end, when suddenly, she appears out of jail, in the public, with a gun, taking another person hostage to get him to jump off a roof ! How does this happen, she was supposed to be in custody! Did I miss the part where she was released on her own recognizance? What is wrong with the writers, the Director, the actors, are you all on mushrooms?
Astrid et Raphaëlle: L'étourneau (2021)
Very confusing, que diable?
I absolutely love this series, especially because I work with Neurodivergent/atypical people as a therapist, and really appreciate how the show goes to special lengths to educate the public with appropriate and accurate information, not just scientifically, but realistically. However, all that being said, I am so confused, and am on the side of the other one person who has so far reviewed this episode, why were we never shown how the crime was committed, and exactly by whom!? Did the editor somehow accidentally remove the most important part of a mystery, namely, whodunnit, and how? One of the main themes was the idea of magical misdirection, and, although the team seem to have correctly ascertained that this was the case, it was never shown to the viewer exactly how the crime was committed and who did it and what will happen to them? Very very disappointing!! Where is the quality control? This is so odd, this is a first for me, and having watched all kinds of crime series for years. I can only give this a hesitating five.
Candice Renoir: Les apparences sont souvent trompeuses (2015)
Trans?
This is a wonderful series with very interesting characters and pretty good acting. Lots of strange little sub drama's going on and potential love interest coming and going. Everyone seems to be having a pretty good time. However, in this episode, there is a person of trans experience, and if I am comprehending the intention here, this person transitioned from female to male. All good however, it is not difficult to see that the actor playing this trans person actually has an Adam's apple, which only male bodied cis men are born with. So it was a little disappointing to see them using a cis male body person to represent a trans male person but lots of congratulations and kudos to having trans characters in the show, now just hire some actual real trans people!
Silent Witness (1996)
Historically appropriate yet embarrassing
It's difficult to watch the earliest of this series from the beginning, as the characters extremely typify, the worst kind of racism, sexism, homophobia, that has taken decades to change in significant ways. So at the very least, there is value in the historical context, that demonstrates how far we have, or have not come regarding white cis male culture. I like very much how women are shown demonstrating or coming into their own sense of independence and power.
At its very worst, at least, for these few beginning shows I've been watching, the formula seems to require very stupid police with no intuition, the very worst of psychopaths, and adults who have no idea what they want in a relationship, or how to maintain it and went to step away and stay away. Lots of fun!
Reading reviews about the most recent 2023 episodes make a sound like a completely different kind of disappointment regarding the writing and the lacking intelligence of the writers.
And... Whoever did the closed captioning did a terrible, terrible job, I can't tell if English was not their language, or if they had a minimum of education ... but whoever they were, should not have been hired, and whoever hired them, did not check for the accuracy, which tells me there was very little concern about hard of hearing people.
The Bay: Episode #1.3 (2019)
Thank God for Tracie Bennett ...
... is all I can say right now. The characters of the victimized family are some of the most pathetic examples of learned helplessness that have yet to reveal any redeeming qualities. This is way too soon to pronounce very much about what seems to be some interesting, psychological aspects, unfolding, which I truly hope continue to unfold, and some of these characters will redeem themselves as decent-ish human beings. I know the writers have to find ways to keep the viewer held, but for heaven sake, do you really expect us to believe such two dimensional, almost cartoon-like characters are actually people?
The Valhalla Murders (2019)
So imbecilic i began rooting for the bad guys
So imbecilic i began rooting for the bad guys. If part of the storyline was that most of the police and detectives in the story, have some kind of intelligence disability, I would definitely believe it. I have seldom seen such open, practiced stupidity in this kind of genre. Like many others, it was very easy to see That the detectives are very poor at what they do, leave their cell phones in their cars when they should not, carry flashlights, whose batteries are dead, turn their backs at all times in most dangerous situations. The ethics and morals of the main female character regarding her sons criminal activity is deplorable, even though I was hoping she would redeem herself in someway.
Kastanjemanden (2021)
Quite good but ... i screamed.
Something that quickly turned into a binge adventure. At first, it seemed the usual gloom and doom found in that part of the world but once we get to know the characters, and as one plot emerges from another, it's difficult to look away. However, I was greatly disappointed by the deterioration of the writing, for the sake of a neat script, namely, suddenly portraying what were beforehand, incredibly, intelligent and discerning professionals of the police, as complete imbeciles, who forget their training, listening to the psychopath, who they know is a psychopath and yet doing exactly what he says without argument. I thought if I had to watch one more police person go into a dark , deserted, unlit room with their back turned away, I was going to scream. Actually, I did.
Little Ashes (2008)
Pure Putresence
Even more over indulgent than most senseless perfume commercials. Javier Beltran, however, is an artistic gem and worth watching. The cinematography, the costuming, the landscapes, are all enchanting. Unfortunately, it is pretty much a disservice to gay people and if you don't understand that, then you never will. I wish it would have shown more of the actual art and painting that was too much in the background. The overdramatic approach to the interesting lies of these people Eventually became humorous and shallow. The people who did the set designs deserve a lot of applause. And it would be interesting to see what would happen if this was done again.
Hope Street (2020)
Beyond irritation
I feel so much better having read so many reviews here confirming my impression that these are the stupidest, moronic characters I've experienced in a long time. It seem to hold such promise but then quickly generated into some bizarre Irish EastEnders, for lack of a better description. This might work as a brief comedy sketch on a stage in a small nightclub.
The character of Nicole is one of the most bizarre personalities I can't believe thrust upon the viewer, a kind of cross between a drag queen and a Punch and Judy puppet. The best laugh I had is when she was shown without her obnoxious blue eyeshadow and a minute later while talking to the same person, the makeup was back!
The character of Concepta is at best, a sociopathic narcissist... The list could go on and on. The irritation is that everyone accepts the incredibly creatively destructive abuse that these and other characters impose upon one another and normalize them to an extent that stretches the imagination.
And yet... There is some kind of frightening, unexplainable quality to this that I can't seem to look away from!