staubachster

As is true of everyone else watching this film and leaving a review, I loved Schitt's Creek and Dan Levy's role and performance in that show. As David Rose, he was sweet, charming, clever, funny in a sarcastic but kind hearted way, authentic, and altogether likeable. Marc in Good Grief is self-absorbed (as other reviewers have noted), immature, and pretentious. The grief he portrays feels forced and inauthentic, affected and forced. In fact, none of the main characters are likeable, with the possible exception of Marc's best friend Thomas (Himesh Patel), so I was unable to feel any empathy for them. At moments that are supposed to be heartfelt, Levy's performance is self-conscious (as in, "Here I am playing pathos"). Moments that are supposed to be profound come off as smug. The character I was able to like the most was a minor one: Imelda (Celia Imrie), Marc and Oliver's financial manager. David Bradley as Duncan, Oliver's father, is also believable and somewhat relatable. For the main characters, the character development is clumsy, consisting of obvious "revelations" and sudden transformations at the end of the film. I wanted this film to make me laugh, rage, and cry... but all it did was make me roll my eyes.

I thoroughly enjoyed season 1 and was happy to have found this little gem of a show hiding within Hulu. It follows the struggles of a "psychic" con man, Charles Haverford (played by Jeffrey Donovan), and his family, who are caught between and beholden to rival Roma mob families. Donovan does an excellent, believable job in the role of an eternally optimistic, slightly slick snake oil salesman who begins to believe in his own supernatural abilities after he suffers a blow to the head. Isabella Rosellini is a joy to behold in the role of the Marks crime family matriarch, Rita Marks. Angus Sampson is also good as Fonso Marks, her son and the titular head of the Marks family, but his character is a bit over-the-top at times in a way that strains credulity. Who knows if this is due to his (over)acting, or the uneven directing and uneven scriptwriting? Despite these minor flaws, season 1 is an interesting, fun, and entertaining watch. Sadly, the whole show loses its way and falls apart in Season 2. The plot begins to meander. The writing goes flat. Charlie's "psychic powers," which we were led to expect would culminate in some sort of revelation, or at least resolution, lead nowhere. I kept watching, hoping the show would regain its original snap and crackle, but it didn't.

This show takes a precipitous dive from a promising beginning to being utterly ridiculous and implausible starting in episode 4. What a disappointment! The acting is uneven; some good, some not. "Brain" never hits the mark; I never buy her as the feared mastermind no one dares to cross that she's supposed to be. "Muscle," "Specialist," and "Officer" do a good job, but the writing and character development take such nosedives that even the best acting can't stave off the show's crash and burn. I feel sorry for the actors, trying to maintain some quality and believability while working with such crappy material. The show begins with a decent script and a somewhat plausible "heist caper" plot in the first three episodes but then falls apart and becomes laughable -- and not in a fun way. The characters do completely uncharacteristic things in order to connect far-fetched, contrived plot points lurching toward some supposedly big reveal at the conclusion. It's not worth continuing to watch but I did, hoping for some redemption, return to quality, or perhaps an unexpected explanation tying everything together at the end. Sadly, none of those things happen. It becomes more ludicrous and nonsensical each successive episode. Toward the end, when the driving motivation behind the whole caper is revealed, it's an eye-rollingly thin personal revenge gig. Not only that, it's delivered as a long, verbal explanation -- very bad form when there have been six prior episodes during which this center around which the plot revolves could have been brought to light via dialogue, plot devices (like the extensively used flashbacks), and character development. Showing is more powerful than telling... especially when it's a "show." The ending feels like a hasty patch job, an attempt to spackle over gaping plot holes and disguise implausible motivations, and it doesn't work.

I don't know how one manages to make a shootout boring, but in this series they nailed it, particularly in Season 2, Episode 4. The gun battle scenes are sloppy and poorly choreographed, not to mention not believable. I mean, how many times are Jesse and Billy, when face to face, guns drawn, NOT going to shoot each other? How many times can Jesse and his henchman ride around a boulder where an adversary is pinned down, unhorsed, and still miss him? Apparently many, many times. I found myself rolling my eyes. Overall, I've found most of the acting to be wooden, lines being delivered as if being read off the script for the first time. The character development has completely died, so that I don't much care about anyone in the story, even Billy. And forget about historical accuracy! All in all, disappointing, but if you don't mind a mediocre western, you'll be all right.

Season 1 was great. Suspenseful, dramatic storyline made believeable by good writing and acting; tense, taut action scenes; explosive (but not gratuitous) violence. Jeremy Renner (Mike) is the perfect "mayor." Aiden Gillen (Milo) is the perfect villain. Tobi Bamtefa (Bunny) is the perfect King thug with a good heart. Other supporting cast are excellent; Dianne Wiest (Mariam), Taylor Handley (Kyle), Emma Laird (Iris), Hugh Dillon (Ian), and Michael Beach (Kareem). The human drama between these folks, their back stories, and their characters' development were just as riveting as the action scenes and the suspense unfolding in the plot. I rated Season 1 a 9 out of 10! Then Season 2 came along and everything went downhill. The believable dialogue was replaced with overuse of the "f-word" in all of its forms in predictable exchanges between tough guys trying to show how tough they are by how many "f"s they can fit into each utterance. The plot fell apart and lost track of where it was going, with the Mayor and everyone else running around repeating themselves and the mistakes they'd already made in Season 1. Did anyone learn anything from all of the violence, poor choices, and heartbreak of Season 1? Apparently not. What was compelling in Season 1 became predictable and exasperating in Season 2, to the point of eye-rolling and groaning when the next predictable (and repetitive) "f-up" happened. Perhaps Taylor Sheridan got too busy with all of his other projects to put much into the writing of Season 2. In the end, I found I couldn't give 2 "f"s about anyone (except Dianne Wiest and Michael Beach's characters) or what happens to them, and I'm not all that excited about Season 3 (if there is one). I rated Season 2 a 5 out of 10, which took my previous rating of 9 down to 7.

I love this film. Christian Bale, John David Washington, and Margot Robbie are great individually as well as together. They have palpable chemistry as three close friends who stumble upon a murderous plot to bypass the democratic process and install a dictator in the White House. (Sound familiar?) The lighthearted, comedic tone is a clever counterpoint to the story's dark themes -- the horrors of war, pervasive racism, the unchecked power of the super wealthy, white supremacy, the rise of fascism, and more. The movie's dark humor is served up in a delightfully palatable way. The story is based on a real historical incident which, along with Robert DeNiro, gives it the necessary gravitas to avoid being farcical. I found it eminently entertaining and extremely relevant to current events. The music added an appealing touch.

This show had the potential to be a dramatic, heartwarming story. But its very few redeeming moments are overwhelmed by the progressively worse acting (and overacting) and a ridiculously adolescent script. I managed to get through all of Season 1, barely. Still, I thought I'd give Season 2 a try in hopes that things would improve. The main characters, Tully and Kate, become less and less likeable as the story jerkily progresses with the excessive and poorly edited use of flashbacks. They were okay as kids. After that, it's all downhill. Their relationship doesn't feel authentic. I found it hard to believe they were ever best friends, let alone lifelong best friends. Their "chemistry" is toxic. Kate behaves embarrassingly childishly even as she supposedly matures. Tully, despite being given a backstory intended to elicit empathy, is simply selfish and unlikeable. The overacting is cringeworthy and so abundant in so many scenes that I had to wonder, are they going for slapstick here? It's comical -- and not in a good way. The wigs slapped on their heads (especially Johnny's) for the younger flashback scenes add to this effect. No spoilers here, just a warning to abandon all hope, all ye who enter here.

Totally unbelievable, unrealistic medical situations, plots, and characters. Rife with stereotypes. Totally poorly written with lame, inauthentic dialogue and character non-development. Mostly terrible acting. Even the decent actors can't save it because the script is so ridiculous. Unbelievably bad. It defies logic that it hasn't been cancelled. Is it hanging on because it's one of the Chicago trio? Chicago Fire and PD would be better off as a duo.