drbaltar6 Reviews

Euphoria (2019– )

American Horror Story: Teenagers!

[6/10 · 11 January 2022]

Title sums it up. It's incredibly overdone and I can confidently say, as someone who graduated from high school just a few years ago, generally unrealistic (with a few exceptions: some details of online culture, the overwhelming prevalence of vaping, etc.).

It's entertaining, well-acted, and downright gorgeous (as much as the writing literally feels like a fear-mongering AHS season about high school, it's perhaps one of the best *produced* series I've ever seen), but also just feels trashy and dumbed down in a sorta harmful, exploitative way. A decent example of "prestige" drama that's way too full of itself; it thinks it's edgy and smart, but it's really just obnoxious and....well...the opposite of nuanced. It has some genuinely interesting and important points which is why it's so frustrating to see the better storylines, characters, and overall amazing craft drowned out by so much melodrama. Points for trying, but this would work better if it were WAY toned down and about college students instead.

Zendaya's still my mommy tho.

Six Feet Under: Everyone's Waiting (2005) Season 5, Episode 12

Perfect Conclusion to a Transcendent Series

[10/10 · 23 January 2015]

"You can't take a picture of this; it's already gone."

This was the perfect way to end the series. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's true. There is nothing to write about "Everyone's Waiting" that hasn't already been written, because that's how good Six Feet Under's series finale really is. This episode is quite rare in that it is almost universally recognized for its greatness - not only does it do itself the service of tying the series together in the most beautiful and appropriate way possible, but the way the show had built itself all along ensures that, once it gets there, the conclusion will satisfy everyone. The episode opens perfectly. Perfection is the first and best word to describe the entire episode, from the outset. Then it continues perfectly, one moment to the next. The entire final chapter tells itself in a state of heightened awareness, almost a sense of fragility - and the episode appropriately takes its viewers through Six Feet Under's most wild roller-coaster of emotions and tactics yet, all while maintaining complete tonal consistency. Every character is treated with respect and love, every aspect of the series remembered fondly, and most of all, "Everyone's Waiting" looks at life itself with a quietly touching sense of awe. Everyone has been talking about this. The the series, the finale, all of it. Some say that the series finale alone makes the rest of Six Feet Under worth watching. I'd say it a little differently. "Everyone's Waiting" is the perfect final proof of why watching Six Feet Under, beginning to end, is worth your time.

+ Tense, chilling, and ultimately beautifully symbolic Opening "Death"

+ Conscious, effective cinematography

+ Complex, layered soundtrack

+Arresting attentiveness to pacing and volume

+ Nate remains central to the show through the very end

+ Everyone important returns (and by extension, in the last minutes, Six Feet Under essentially covers every potential character combination possible)!

+ Satisfyingly cinematic touches (Claire and Ted's bedroom scene, David's viscerally terrifying nightmare, the closing montage, etc.)

+The performances (from every cast member)

+ The perfect resolutions for everything David

+ David hugs David

+ Brenda's final moments with Nate and Willa

+ Ruth and George

+ Brenda and Ruth

+ Ruth and Claire

+ Even Bettina gets some closure!

+ The final (normal) moments of the show, with the sweeping, fluid motion of the camera, the glow of the colors and faces on screen...the general building vitality of Six Feet Under's dying breaths

+ One last dinner

+ One last moment of Alan Ball Weirdness

+ Goodbyes

+ A perfect line to end the series

+ And then another ten minutes of gorgeous, cathartic, wordless perfection

~10.0/10.0~