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Reviews
The Bear: Sundae (2023)
Same High Standard as Last Season But ...
Maintaining the same intensity as this show had in season 1 was probably too much to expect. The characters are still masterfully portrayed, but up to this point in the season, the writers are clearly counting heavily on the interest in the characters we developed in the previous series.to carry the series.
This particular episode features Sydney eating her way across Chicago. Nice music and good cinematography, but surprisingly little dialog. It feels like the writers are coasting.a bit.
Somewhat sparse in the first two installments of this season and virtually missing in this episode is humor. This was a strong point last season. Hopefully subsequent episodes will improve at least this aspect of the previous season even if the show cannot achieve the same intensity.
Shrinking (2023)
The Only Thing Shrinking Will Be Your IQ
When watching the first episode of this series, I thought I was watching a reality program about a small village of simpletons whose inhabitants were fighting a Tourette's syndrome epidemic. Imagine my surprise when I learned from a friend that Shrinking is intended to be a comedy series.
But where is the humor? The plots lack the cleverness of, say, an average Gilligan's Island episode. Certainly the acting doesn't add to the merriment. The star, Jason Segel, has an acting range that goes from showing his happy bewildered face, to his sad bewildered face to his bewildered bewildered face. This is in sharp contrast to Harrison Ford's performance which could be classified as a "mono-face" performance. His lips move, but that's about it. We might have expected more from the man who single handedly invented an entire new field of comedy: small aircraft piloting comedy. The rest of the cast needs no acting ability as their only purpose is to deliver glib, mostly out of context, one liners intended to give the show a smooth "quirky" veneer. Unfortunately the lines delivered are neither clever nor funny leaving the show with a peeling imitation wood held down by duct tape veneer.
All in all, Shrinking is a cultural embarrassment aimed at the teenage to the less mature twenty something demographic.
Agatha Raisin: The Wizard of Evesham (2018)
Not Good
This show is a genuine embarrassment to all involved.
Maigret: Maigret in Montmartre (2017)
Clumsy Attempt to Make Maigret a "Cop with a Heart of Gold"
It seems clear that the order was given to soften Maigret's character. In this episode and the previous installment, Maigret is obviously being transformed by heavy handed writers to a "cop with a heart of gold who plays by his own rules". Unfortunately, we can get this over worked genre any night on network TV.