Charming in a really weird way. If you've seen the series Fup & Svindel, this is very different, closer to a sort of traditional adventure movie with plot about confronting stuff, both on the inner and outer plan. I won't go into the plot, since I can't really say anything about a movie this short without giving too much away, but it could be considered a prequel to the series since it, among other things, show the titular characters meeting for the first time. It's not hard to follow even if it does take a bit to get up to speed. The style is stop-motion with a lot of details drawn on. It's not to everyone's liking, but I found myself warming to it. The characters are pretty well rounded, although of course they don't get a whole lot of development in a movie this short. Not the worst way to spend a little less than half an hour.
Reviews
8 Reviews
The Borgias
(2011–2013)
Rome meets the Tudors
5 January 2016
Compared to those two, it's not the equal of Rome, but is definitely on the level of Tudors. If you want to know what Pope Francis is trying to deal with, this isn't a bad place to start. Irons is hamming it up, but it actually works most of the time. Good supporting cast. Costume porn! Murder and lust and betrayal and other kinds of entertainment. More costume porn! Suffers from the same disappearing character syndrome as Tudors, where characters show up, gets introduced and established and then just drop off the face of the Earth and are never seen or heard from again. It gets bogged down with melodrama at times. And since it only got three seasons, it ends rather abruptly, just when things were getting interesting. Didn't love it, but definitely liked it.
Boardwalk Empire
(2010–2014)
Flawlessly executed
6 September 2015
The cinematography of this movie is nothing short of amazing and deserves every award that was thrown at it. It does nothing short of bringing the bootleg gangster era back to life. The plot starts out tight and vibrating, but already in season two it begins to loose focus. It was like "wow, we've had two great seasons with this character, now what should we have him do?". And the finale was just disappointing. Nothing in it to make me angry like with Dexter, it just felt flat and meh. And it felt like it pretended to have led up to though all five seasons, rather than actually having planned it along, although I must say they did a very good job of that pretending. The strength of this show is that it understands that - in the words of Chuck Wendig - plot is made of people. What drives the story is people who want things and other people who want different things and some times they work together and other times they work against each other. And they try to be all cool and businesslike, but they also love and hate or maybe they just want revenge for some imagines slight. And sometimes coincidences happen, but only because they also happen in real life and it would be weird to have a whole show without them. In season three when the creators start looking for things to throw at Nucky to have him fight for his life and his position, they still throw people at him, characters with wants and needs and plans to get those fulfilled. New players who are fascinating to watch, even as it becomes slightly dull to watch Nucky himself always come out on top. To bad that so many of them in the end get treated like loose ends to be tied.
Treme
(2010–2013)
Feel more informed for having watched this
14 June 2015
That wasn't an attempt at being snide, in case you were wondering. I'm not from America so I have no idea what this series is to people who are from the States but not from New Orleans, but for me it was as fascinating look into a place and people I didn't know anything about going in. And while there can be said a lot of good about the narrative trope of having an outsider who works as a link to the audience by asking all the questions that they want the answers to, I personally enjoy once in a while being thrown in at the deep and watching characters going about their daily lives and routines and if there's something I don't understand I will have to infer the meaning or else just live with the mystery. Of course it isn't all colourful costumes and plastic beards. Most of the characters and themes like the story arch of the chef or the violinist could be told with any place as a background, but since it takes place here, we learn about New Orleans food and music through them. The stories of police brutality and corruption could also, sadly, have happened anywhere, but the hurricane made everything worse and more chaotic. In the end, this is a slice of life, where we follow a group of people in their home town, until we leave them, partly changed, partly the same, without any special conclusion or wrap-up. Some doors are closed other are opened and we could easily have followed them for four more years. New Orleans might be a special place, but the people in it are just people; human, fragile and endearing even with all their flaws.
Dexter
(2006–2013)
Another reviewer who hated the ending
23 April 2015
I put off watching the very last episode forever, because I had heard that it was awful. Then I finally watched it and, guess what, it WAS awful. My reaction when watching kept going from "Whyyyy??!" to "I call bulls***!" What the other people failed to mention was that the last season in and of itself was pretty bad, not just the last episode. So I'm knocking a point of for that. And now I going to pretend that last season never happened. So there.
Overall, Dexter, is of very high quality. Once it chucks the premise that Dexter only targets killers who have escaped justice out the window, it finds a formula that really works, where Dexter has to outsmart both the killer and his colleagues and it sticks to that, but still manages to keep it fresh most of the time. Each season comes with a longer arch and a main baddie and not all of them are equally brilliant, but when the big picture isn't working out you can take refuge in the details. Dexter is darkly funny and so painfully human in the way he observes everyone else, without really understanding them, but trying to mimic them anyway in order to fit, because everybody sometimes feels like everyone else are normal and they themselves are just faking it. The funny thing is of course that not everyone is secretly a serial killer. Dexter's internal commentator track contrasting what he says and does with what he's thinking made me laugh out loud at times. He is also brilliant at planning and at thinking on his feet when the planning goes south and it is thrilling to watch. His big tragedy is that he is so good, that when the consequences hit, they always hit the people next to him. Debra is a favourite of mine. Rude, loud-mouthed, but fiercely devoted to her brother and her job. But really, there are too many great and memorable side characters to count. And it's a joy to watch. Setting, music and everything blend together to create a distinct and compelling style.
Overall, Dexter, is of very high quality. Once it chucks the premise that Dexter only targets killers who have escaped justice out the window, it finds a formula that really works, where Dexter has to outsmart both the killer and his colleagues and it sticks to that, but still manages to keep it fresh most of the time. Each season comes with a longer arch and a main baddie and not all of them are equally brilliant, but when the big picture isn't working out you can take refuge in the details. Dexter is darkly funny and so painfully human in the way he observes everyone else, without really understanding them, but trying to mimic them anyway in order to fit, because everybody sometimes feels like everyone else are normal and they themselves are just faking it. The funny thing is of course that not everyone is secretly a serial killer. Dexter's internal commentator track contrasting what he says and does with what he's thinking made me laugh out loud at times. He is also brilliant at planning and at thinking on his feet when the planning goes south and it is thrilling to watch. His big tragedy is that he is so good, that when the consequences hit, they always hit the people next to him. Debra is a favourite of mine. Rude, loud-mouthed, but fiercely devoted to her brother and her job. But really, there are too many great and memorable side characters to count. And it's a joy to watch. Setting, music and everything blend together to create a distinct and compelling style.
Firefly
(2002–2003)
Well, it's good ...
9 August 2014
... but I don't think it's good enough to warrant all the complaints and campaigning for getting it continued. Sure, some questions were left unanswered, like who is the Sheppard actually or what had been done to River. But they never seemed that important in the series so they weren't that important to me. This series shoved very few signs of wanting an actual narrative storyarc. It seemed to much rather want to be a series of stories about the everyday lives of the characters. It actually reminds me a bit of the structure of Mad Men, set in space, rather than an agency. And it does it good and it's actually refreshing to see an series without a big dramatic arc which starts to overshadow everything after four episodes. But without that arc or at least some kind of cliffhanger, there's no sense of necessity or urgency in hearing the continuation of the story. I like what I already got, but don't necessarily want more of the same.
Maybe my biggest issue with the series is in the world building. It's a combination of sci-fi and western, but those two elements are never allowed to merge. Sometimes they're in high-tech future land and other times they're in frontierland without any tech to speak of. When someone once decided to combine sci-fi and victoriana, they came up with steampunk, so it's kinda surprising an disappointing that nobody could combine sci-fi and western into something new and shiny. The idea that China was the second great power is interesting but is never really explored other than Chinese apparently being the go-to language for swearing. And maybe that's why I don't feel the need for any more. I've already seen all the world has to offer, or rather, I know that it's all sci-fi or frontier land so I'm not missing out on anything. The same with the stories. Half of them seem to be classic westerns, with the only difference that the characters come in in a spaceship rather than riding in on horses.
The real strength of the show is in the characters and writing of them. The dialogue flows naturally and there's never a shortage of funny one-liners. All the characters are fun and interesting and well-rounded and all out a joy to watch. They are all well defined without becoming stock characters. And it's always nice to see a diverse cast. If there had been a second series I would have watched out of curiosity to see what Mel and gang was getting themselves into now, rather than out of any sense of wanting to get on with the story.
But alas, there is no second series, which means that after watching Serenity I will just have to grind my teeth and give Battlestar Galactica another shot.
Maybe my biggest issue with the series is in the world building. It's a combination of sci-fi and western, but those two elements are never allowed to merge. Sometimes they're in high-tech future land and other times they're in frontierland without any tech to speak of. When someone once decided to combine sci-fi and victoriana, they came up with steampunk, so it's kinda surprising an disappointing that nobody could combine sci-fi and western into something new and shiny. The idea that China was the second great power is interesting but is never really explored other than Chinese apparently being the go-to language for swearing. And maybe that's why I don't feel the need for any more. I've already seen all the world has to offer, or rather, I know that it's all sci-fi or frontier land so I'm not missing out on anything. The same with the stories. Half of them seem to be classic westerns, with the only difference that the characters come in in a spaceship rather than riding in on horses.
The real strength of the show is in the characters and writing of them. The dialogue flows naturally and there's never a shortage of funny one-liners. All the characters are fun and interesting and well-rounded and all out a joy to watch. They are all well defined without becoming stock characters. And it's always nice to see a diverse cast. If there had been a second series I would have watched out of curiosity to see what Mel and gang was getting themselves into now, rather than out of any sense of wanting to get on with the story.
But alas, there is no second series, which means that after watching Serenity I will just have to grind my teeth and give Battlestar Galactica another shot.
Being Human
(2008–2013)
Works surprisingly well
20 July 2014
Being Human is an odd mixture of genres. There's some sit-com about three supernatural beings living together, straight-up horror with plenty of gore and some very serious and emotional human drama, where being a vampire is compared to an addiction. The best I can think to compare it with would be Fullmetal Alchemist (the manga) which would also be a mixture of high mythology and human drama and then suddenly be making jokes about Edward Elric's heights. Or lack of same. It should be a mess, but most of the time, it works and works perfectly, although I will admit that there were times when even I found it a little too jarring.
Maybe 'mixture of genres' is the wrong expression, because that usually implies that the creators have be throwing random elements into their work, trying to draw in as many demographics as possible to appeal to more people, but the series clearly contradicts this notion, by doing the unexpected and not being afraid to hurt the characters and by extension, the audience. I won't spoil anything, but one of the season finals clearly took a page out of 'The George R. R. Martin Handbook of How to Make Your Audience Miserable'. They shake up the status quo again and again but most of the time it feels completely natural and organic. Although again, there was one point, where I thought that a characters exit was to jarring but these things are not always in the creator's control.
What I maybe like best about this series is the many layers in it. It is about seeking to be human and how love and friendship can set you on the road. But it is also about how love and friendship is not always enough to overcome the monster in you, which is very bleak indeed. And those two themes battle throughout the series, until a third theme, a third thesis is brought in, in the series final and really moves me in all its bittersweetness.
So yeah, come for the eye candy, stay for everything else.
Maybe 'mixture of genres' is the wrong expression, because that usually implies that the creators have be throwing random elements into their work, trying to draw in as many demographics as possible to appeal to more people, but the series clearly contradicts this notion, by doing the unexpected and not being afraid to hurt the characters and by extension, the audience. I won't spoil anything, but one of the season finals clearly took a page out of 'The George R. R. Martin Handbook of How to Make Your Audience Miserable'. They shake up the status quo again and again but most of the time it feels completely natural and organic. Although again, there was one point, where I thought that a characters exit was to jarring but these things are not always in the creator's control.
What I maybe like best about this series is the many layers in it. It is about seeking to be human and how love and friendship can set you on the road. But it is also about how love and friendship is not always enough to overcome the monster in you, which is very bleak indeed. And those two themes battle throughout the series, until a third theme, a third thesis is brought in, in the series final and really moves me in all its bittersweetness.
So yeah, come for the eye candy, stay for everything else.
The Tudors
(2007–2010)
A sparkling but not flawless jewel
23 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Note: I will not go into how historically accurate/not accurate the story is. I'm reviewing it purely as a work of fiction.
This series has it all. A great story, both in the sense of being entertaining and captivating and in the sense of being, well, huge. It also have the money and manpower to pull it of. The production design is simply lavish and the world never feels fake or like a set. Everything else, the actors, the script, etc., is great much of the time and when something is not great, it is still, at the very least, solid. Even though you know, more or less, what will happen, you still root for the characters and hope for a different outcome.
That said, I have two problems with the show. The first one is that Henry, not an nice guy to begin with, gets more and more unlovable and more and more unwatchable as a character. He starts out as an entitled, selfish and vain man, who can still be clever, charming and generous to his friends, but in the last season he is half-mad, cruel and unpredictable. This is hardly the fault of the series, that was just the way the story went, but it's difficult when the series is tied so much up to a main character who is impossible to like.
The second is their fault. Or maybe. Possibly. I don't know. Several characters make an appearance in one season, gets to be quite important and then in the next season they have disappeared more effectively than if they had received a death-treat from the mob. Tallis is the best example. When he was introduced, I thought, naively, that he would serve the same role as Pullo and Vorenus from Rome, as the everyman in a story full of royalty and nobles. Then next season came around and he was nowhere to be seen. Kind of a let-down. Then same thing happens with Cramner.
Still, these are minor quibbles. I would heartily recommend The Turdors to anyone looking for a an entertaining and occasionally very moving story, with stunning sets and costumes. And I would love to see the people behind the series tackle the story of the Romanovs.
This series has it all. A great story, both in the sense of being entertaining and captivating and in the sense of being, well, huge. It also have the money and manpower to pull it of. The production design is simply lavish and the world never feels fake or like a set. Everything else, the actors, the script, etc., is great much of the time and when something is not great, it is still, at the very least, solid. Even though you know, more or less, what will happen, you still root for the characters and hope for a different outcome.
That said, I have two problems with the show. The first one is that Henry, not an nice guy to begin with, gets more and more unlovable and more and more unwatchable as a character. He starts out as an entitled, selfish and vain man, who can still be clever, charming and generous to his friends, but in the last season he is half-mad, cruel and unpredictable. This is hardly the fault of the series, that was just the way the story went, but it's difficult when the series is tied so much up to a main character who is impossible to like.
The second is their fault. Or maybe. Possibly. I don't know. Several characters make an appearance in one season, gets to be quite important and then in the next season they have disappeared more effectively than if they had received a death-treat from the mob. Tallis is the best example. When he was introduced, I thought, naively, that he would serve the same role as Pullo and Vorenus from Rome, as the everyman in a story full of royalty and nobles. Then next season came around and he was nowhere to be seen. Kind of a let-down. Then same thing happens with Cramner.
Still, these are minor quibbles. I would heartily recommend The Turdors to anyone looking for a an entertaining and occasionally very moving story, with stunning sets and costumes. And I would love to see the people behind the series tackle the story of the Romanovs.
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