pigletbunny Reviews

Traces (2019–2022)

FINALLY, Fictional Scientists and Fictional Police Officers Act Like Real-Life Ones!!!

[8/10 · 24 March 2021]

SPOILER ALERT, for first episode! Pretty much every one of the many, mainly American, forensic-science-based crime-solving, tv dramas that came on the scene in the 2000s either started out as, or became, parodies of reality. In real life, when they analyze evidence, scientists try very hard to only state scientific fact. For example, that cardboard had been found in the toasting compartments of a toaster found at the scene of a fire. Whereas scientists in crime-solving, tv dramas state that finding cardboard in the bread slots of a toaster that was at the scene of a fire proves the fire was started deliberately by someone put putting cardboard in the toaster's bread slots. And, if, for example, real-life police detectives access computer files as a favour for a friend, they stand a decent chance of getting caught, thanks to police databases automatically noting every instance of access. If a police officer accessed a file without having a legally-valid reason to do so, and thus committed a crime, the evidence of their crime is right there, in the database's memory. In addition, a number of jurisdictions have their databases set up to flag any access not connected to a current, legally-authorized investigation of which the accessing-officer is officially a part. In the tv show Traces, scientists stick to scientific conclusions, and exhibit other ACTUALLY-scientific behaviour; police officers refuse to access police databases without having a valid, legal reason to do so, and exhibit other ACTUALLY-common police behaviour. (Note: there isn't much of a chance for Traces' police-officer characters to exhibit the sadly-common, bias-motivated police behaviours.)

McDonald & Dodds (2020– )

AWESOME show; haven't even heard of this dynamic before

[9/10 · 12 December 2020]

Seriously, the writers/producers' creation of the 2 main characters in this show defies (in a very good way :-) ) the ubiquitous practice of populating cop shows with stereotypical characters interacting in stereotypical ways, including gender-wise. This creation reminds me of the uniqueness of Angelina Jolie's character in Salt" :-) (Spoiler alert! Don't scroll down past the end of my review of this show, if you don't want to know ;-) ) McDonald & Dodds are also complex characters, with interesting backstories and present lives :-)

The only reason why I am giving the show 8 stars instead of 9 (gotta save "10" for some future work of magnificence ;-) ) is

(GIANT SPOILER ALERT!!! Scroll down to keep reading :-) )

that the second episode perpetuates harmful myths about addiction. Extensive research conducted over the past 50+ years, in a diversity of world locales, has demonstrated that the core beliefs of 12-step programs (s/as AA) are false. (That makes sense, given that the beliefs stem from the assumptions made in the 1950s by a man who had zero knowledge re addiction, other than his own personal experience. No research, nothing.) For one thing, addiction is not a disease. Addiction is a symptom of untreated psychological damage, damage caused by trauma. Obtaining and participating in therapy for the trauma can help an addict no longer be one; they need not be an addict for life. They are NOT powerless to overcome addiction. (Just 1 reference of many for the truth of this: Dr. Gabor Maté.)



In Salt. Angelina Jolie occupies the role perennially given to male actors; that makes the movie :-) . (Starring a male, "Salt" would have been yet another formulaic, stereotypical male -centric, "adventure" movie.)

The Gulf (2019–2021)

Great show, but racist subtitles

[9/10 · 23 October 2020]

The Gulf is better than pretty much every other New Zealand show that I've seen (and I've watched a lot). The Sounds, a Canada-New Zealand co-production, is also great, but edged out by The Gulf.. The acting is excellent, and The Gulf is considerably more realistic than many shows (for example, The Brokenwood Mysteries, which is fun but has some serious fantasy elements, such as the sheer volume of murders in the small town). One of the most important realistic portrayals in The Gulf is of opioid addiction in white Caucasians, including the extremely important fact that opioid addiction is a symptom of experiencing trauma, that opioid addiction is not the problem. The untreated effects of trauma are the true problem. One of the other important, realistic portrayals in The Gulf is of the past and present horrific treatment of New Zealand's millennia-long sole inhabitants, the Maori. The Gulf does have one huge problem: it's subtitles are R-A-C-I-S-T. Each time that a Maori speaks in Maori, the subtitles say: "foreign language". The Maori language is the least foreign one in New Zealand.

Supply & Demand (1998– )

Some decent acting makes this a 6/10

[6/10 · 27 January 2020]

Some of the actors are good, and a few are quite good. That's the only saviour of this show. The pilot of this series is unbelievably bad. The production values are horrible (a number of the scenes view like they were filmed on a low-quality, home CamCorder), and some of the actors are very bad at acting. The first fight scene is so fake and slow, that it's like watching a parody. Oddly, the opening credits and music are VERY 1980s style, yet the pilot is from 1997! As a viewing partner said to me, partway into the pilot: "HOW did this get picked up, for more episodes?!?"

Newton's Law (2017)

Great casting; crap courtroom accuracy

[7/10 · 30 December 2019]

If not for the even-worse-than-usual procedural inaccuracies in the courtroom scenes, and other legal inaccuracies, I would give Newton's Law 9 stars. The casting is excellent, and the acting top-noch :-)

In Newton's Law, barristers (aka lawyers who go to court ;-) ) ask leading questions (e.g. "Isn't it true that..."), and they testify instead of asking questions (even introducing evidence and testifying about it!!!). Also, witnesses are asked for their opinions about other persons' states of mind; regular, everyday witnesses, not experts.

Since almost every other English-language tv show and movie with courtroom scenes is inaccurate, I've not taken off a bunch of stars. However, I've take off 2 stars, because the courtroom scenes are SOOOO inaccurate, that they are worse than ones in Matlock! (In Matlock, at least the judge orders Matlock to behave in his witness examination/cross, although, then, the judge usually allows the abnormalities ONLY after assurances from Matlock that he has a good reason for his behaviour. Yup, that's b.s., too, but, at least the behaviour's pointed out!)

The Orville (2017–2022)

Bigoted and unfunny

[3/10 · 17 September 2019]

The first episode which I watched ended, and my hubby and I looked at each other, asking if anything in that episode was funny. I said: "I thought it was supposed to be a comedy!" We sat and thought, and then I realized something: one of the scenes involving Seth MacFarlane was supposed to be funny. (My hubby thought about it, and then came to the same conclusion.) We, the audience, were supposed to laugh along with Seth, as he portrayed a man in love with, and highly attracted to, another man. His portrayal seemed to be an attempt to parody such a man, thus demonstrating Seth's apparent belief that the idea of same sex love and attraction is funny, even goofy. I am disgusted by this bigotry, as is my hubby. Nothing else in the episode seemed even remotely humorous, and a bunch of it was boring. I love SciFi; I love comedic portrayals of it, such as Red Dwarf; and I love parodies of SciFi television programs, such as Galaxy Quest. I do not even remotely like The Orville.

Queens of Mystery (2019– )

England's "Pushing Dasies"

[8/10 · 27 April 2019]

"Queens of Mystery" is a fun, very English, apparent homage to the American limited-length series "Pushing Daisies", with similar narration; wonderfully quirky characters (ones unique to "Queens..."); an ongoing, background mystery (different from that of "Pushing Daisies"), a hint of romance, and a loving highlighting of the characteristics of the quintessential "English" village.

It does take a few episodes for the series to find its stride. (Episodes 1 & 2 don't quite click, and have a "washed out grey/brown" general appearance and tone.) Once it does, it frolicks along, its fun quirkiness interposed with enjoyable mysteries and a hint of romance. The casting of the characters is excellent, including three well-known female actors as main characters "the aunts", and Olivia Vinall as their niece, detective Matilda Stone, arguably the star character. The rest of the recurring cast is nicely rounded out by equally bang-on casting. Each week's guest stars have been cast similarly well :-)

I saw a note on Acorn TV, that "Queens of Mystery" is limited-run. Hopefully, positive reaction to the first season ("series", in British parlance) will convince the powers that be to extend this series into at least a second season :-)

Up in the Air (I) (2009)

GREAT movie, just incredibly depressing

[8/10 · 25 August 2018]

Up In The Air's actors did a fantastic job of conveying the joys and pains of their characters, and they and the writers also did a fantastic job of realistically portraying life.

Spoiler alert: if you are at all empathetic (this especially applies to those of us with high-functioning autism), and/or tend towards depression, do NOT watch this movie.

Many scenes in Up In The Air are depressing, and the end of the movie is EXTREMELY depressing. Just when the movie has lifted the viewer out of the depth of sadness into which it dragged us, it throws us down into deeper sadness, and extreme disgust of (& anger re) human behaviour. Up In The Air is a truly depressing movie; I think that it wins as having the saddest ending of any non-documentary movie which I have ever watched.

Your Highness (2011)

Astronomically sexist and unfunny

[1/10 · 25 August 2018]

I saw this movie in the theatre, as the trailers made it seem funny. I was dismayed to discover that Your Highness is the opposite of funny. Calling it "tasteless" would be a compliment; it's THAT bad. Your Highness constantly relies on extremely sexist stereotypes and behaviour, in an attempt to amuse the viewer. It does NOT succeed, and merely sickened and angered me. At the end of Your Highness, I thought: "Well, THAT was a complete waste of my time; I'm never getting THOSE minutes back!" I was incredulous, as well, that a movie THIS sexist could obtain widespread release, in our current time. Decades ago, yes, although the MMPA would have insisted on the "swearing" (and some other bits) being edited out. Back then, "foul language" was much more of a concern to movie studios and the MMPA, than very harmful, extreme sexism.

This Is the End (2013)

COULD have been a good movie

[3/10 · 25 August 2018]

This is the End contains a number of very funny moments. Unfortunately, they are overshadowed by the large number of overly long moments, in which the scene continues way past the funny bit. A number of these scenes also watch as if a bunch of friends got together to make a movie, and had fun goofing around, while forgetting that other people would be viewing the movie.

I think that if This is the End had been edited well, shortening a number of scenes and eliminating others (such as those which are full of "in jokes", hilarious to the actors themselves, but not to viewers) , it could have resulted in a good movie. Unfortunately, the movie watches as if one (or more) of the actors edited it, again forgetting that members of the public would be watching the result.

Hidden (2018–2022)

EXCELLENT, and very emotionally realistic

[9/10 · 7 August 2018]

As other reviewers have noted, this a compelling mystery series. And, no, it does NOT portray the Welsh as if they were residents of Modor. Similar to Hinterland, Hidden is set in, well, the Hinterland of Wales. These shows make it INCREDIBLY obvious that they are set in low-population areas. These areas are portrayed realistically, with residents, landscapes, and the lack of utilities (s/as sewer line connections) similar to those found in less populated, fairly remote areas in many parts of our world.

What is particularly impressive about Hidden is the realism. The emotions experienced by the characters in their varied roles and experiences, the police procedures and f-ups, and the day-to-day concerns of life, are all portrayed very realistically. No overacting, no needless drama. (Okay, one character needs some lessons on how one physically moves when a rib/some ribs are fractured, but I think that I'm being really picky about that, since I have personal experience with a fractured rib.)

One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975)

Another movie which I only loved as a child because I was ignorant

[3 August 2017]

Today's young people may be surprised to learn that, in the 1970s, it was still considered fine to cast pale people of European descent or origin as Asians! Then again, they may not be surprised, given the whitewashing that is still occurring on TV shows and in movies in 2017! (Whitewashing is the current term for the changing of people-of-colour characters into pale-skinned characters of European origin or descent.)

I loved this movie as a young child back in the 70's, when I was ignorant as to what Chinese people looked and sounded like. (Where I lived as a young child, there were people of Eastern European descent, Indian descent, Japanese descent, Thai descent, and Western European descent; I didn't encounter anyone of Chinese descent or origin, until later in my childhood.)

I saw this movie with my mother. She's quite racist, and so did not explain to me that those were not actual Chinese /of Chinese descent people in the main "Chinese" roles.

A number of the user reviews for this movie, here on IMDb, do a great job of demonstrating inherent bigotry. Their ingrained prejudice causes them to deny the reality of this movie, which is that OF COURSE the casting of Peter Ustinov and Bernard Bresslaw as Chinese characters is racist! (Contrary to what one particular reviewer wrote, it is NOT the same as a Chinese actor putting on a Texan accent! There ARE Texans of Chinese origin or descent, in real life.)

This movie is arguably even more racist than the patently racist Charlie Chan movies, as One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing's "Chinese" characters are caricatures written and portrayed for "comedic" effect.

(BTW, in the summary of this review, I said "another movie", because, sadly, there's a lot of them :-( For example, I saw Disney's Song of the South, when it was given a theatrical re- release, when I was a young child. When I watched the movie, I had no idea that many of the characters were slaves! I thought that they were paid workers. No-one, especially not my racist mother, had ever told me about the despicable history of U.S. slavery, and early- to- mid 1970's dramatic TV shows, which I watched at FAR too young of an age, tended to have "white slavery" plots, featuring, of course, evil "foreigners", if they ever mentioned slavery at all. It wasn't until the 1977 original broadcast of the amazing miniseries Roots, again watched by me at far too young of an age, that I knew anything about slavery having existed in the United States.)