ikanboy Reviews (297)

Ad Vitam (2025)

Action: 10. Plot: 3.

[5/10 · 13 January 2025]

A ridiculous plot made somewhat more interesting by the action. Suspend disbelief all ye who enter here. An 8 month pregnant woman who kicks ass. A hero who can kick the ass of 7 men, all armed. A deep state plot where the CIA is the enemy? In France? An ally? Why? Because America is making a deal with......Australia!

The bad guys are looking for a key to a safe deposit box which our hero has hidden. They threaten to kill his pregnant wife and he stays adamant. What a hero. Sacre bleu! Zut aolrs!

Our hero is very adept at doing much of his own stunts.

The deep state plot s getting so thin. Moveon guys.

Sherwood: Episode #2.5 (2024) Season 2, Episode 5

Writer got lazy, so did the actors

[6/10 · 6 December 2024]

I loved Sherwood 1, and looked forward to this, but it was a struggle. Warring small time crime families is O. K. as a plot, if done right. 1. Too many plot holes. A mother and daughter are reunited decades after the mother gave her up. Mother has little or no reaction!

They are threatened by a crime duo and made to abet as part of a double murder , and the detective doesn't think it's evidence worthy of arrest!

Lesley Manville is wasted. I guess Morrisey's detective really likes older women!

David Morrisey acts befuddled most of the time. But he's better than the guy who replaced him, who has an IQ of a plant, until the last episode.

This is a much paler version of the first.

19-2 (2014–2017)

Human cops, all too human

[8/10 · 25 November 2024]

A beat cop show with, so far, no serial killers. It takes a while to like most of the protagonists, since they routinely show their willingness to turn a blind eye to their own misdeeds, while arresting folks for same misdeeds. I had friends who were cops and they talked about the "war zone" environment of the street.

When faced with "could be" danger there is quite often an over reaction and violence occurs.

My main complaint is that, so far in 2 seasons the men are much more the focus than the women.

Eventually their humanity mostly wins out, and the bad seeds are expunged, but it takes awhile.

Until I Kill You (2024)

Serial killer, take a back row.

[8/10 · 10 November 2024]

For a change this series about a serial killer focuses much more on the victim. In this case a woman with a personality disorder made more pathological by escaping a murder attempt on her life.

I see a BAFTA nomination for Anne Maxwell Martin. She takes on the role of Delia Balmer, the victim, in her teeth and never lets go. At times her own worst enemy Balmer is the rare victim who isn't easy to sympathize with. She rightly rages at the system for setting up her attack but becomes a major hurdle for justice by hampering her case.

Shaun Evans as John Sweeney the killer takes second fiddle.

The focus is on one of John Sweeny's crimes, the other two are secondary, perhaps a relief to their families. As usual he was done in by his own mistakes not by brilliant police work.

Disclaimer (2024)

Keeps one entertained until the weak ending

[7/10 · 9 November 2024]

I'm a fan of Blanchett, but she doesn't get much to do here. Leila George is much more interesting, just as she was on Animal Kingdom. Gets to play a younger version again. This is a story of revenge, one that is not sweet. The plot is both strong and weak, and the ending sort of makes the story less believable.

Unless one believes or doesn't believe Ms. Ravenscroft's (my wife's surname by the way) tale.

I was hoping for a twist at the end, maybe a photograph that telegraphed a question. Did she or didn't she?

If we stick with the story the rescue of the boy makes less sense. A rapist is going to stick around?

Kline is great as the almost "mad" revenge seeker.

Most frustrating scene? Last episode when Sarah tries to get to the hospital to stop Kline from killing the son. Ever hear of calling 999 or the hospital, not your husband who mutes you out.

The Field of Blood (2011–2013)

Journalists acting as cops.

[6/10 · 26 September 2024]

It's entertaining enough but a tad shallow. A wanna be gofer in a newsroom solves murders, but, surprise, no one listens to her. She manages to out her cousin for being a murder suspect, gets a reporter killed by pretending to be her, shrugs it off, and then doesn't wonder why the guy she suspects was the reporters killer doesn't blink when he calls her by the dead reporters name. Then plants evidence to get him arrested.

The cops never seem to understand the easy clues our heroine does.

She has a steady boyfriend but gives up her virginity to a fellow reporter.

Nancy Drew the reportective.

The Responder: Episode #2.4 (2024) Season 2, Episode 4

steadily getting more depressing

[7/10 · 24 July 2024]

At this point there are no characters to feel good about. Everybody's corrupt or morally weak. Will there be a "come to Jesus" moment or will it continue to spiral into seedier and seedier episodes?

Watching them all give in to the superficial itch of urge over thought just doesn't appeal. There has to be at least one character with a moral backbone, even if its a tad spongy. Freeman's cop seems to keep thinking about it, and we never get a clear view of his motives, or why he hangs around with those two gen z-ers who need a severe spanking.

Caring for at least one character is essential for me.

American Rust (2021–2024)

Every character has flaws.

[8/10 · 7 April 2024]

In the last episode at the end 4 of the main characters are having dinner. We know by then that each one had committed at least one murder. All for the protection of someone there. The series is about friends and family and sacrifices made for their mutual protection.

Their actions and choices are often questionable and that's what makes this series so interesting because we're not dealing with evil or amorality but the rust of character.

Daniels and Tierney are brilliant now elderly stars and great in each other's company. I hope there is a 3d season but Im not sure what else is coming with this crowd.

The Signal (2024)

Another story about a returning astronaut and ensuing mystery

[5/10 · 19 March 2024]

An Astronaut returns from space but her husband and daughter never meet her because the airplane she is on crashes, and it looks like she may have been the reason.

We have another deep state plot, although this time it's an Indian Billionaire desperate to be the first person to greet an E. T. and an overly defensive military determined to kill off the opportunity.

There is a cute kid who certainly has a future, and a plot about possible E. T. arrivals, but the building tension has it's balloon pricked by a weak ending.

It's going to be compared to "Constellation" but it's a very different plot and focus.

Masters of the Air (2024)

It's good to see another series on WW2, but CGI trumps story

[7/10 · 19 March 2024]

I was a kid in WW2 and saw gazillions of movies about it, mostly from the G. B. side of things. The CGI is of course way better, but the story jumps around too much. Some story lines just stop mid stream, some just appear suddenly and surprisingly. They try to cover the bombing campaign that the Americans did and then added a POW story, with a brief scene of the holocaust thrown in, oh and the Tuskegee airmen show up 3/4 of the way through, and what happened to that WAF who was a spy?

The documentary "The Bloody Hundred" covers the subject with much more information and it's only an hour long. Still it's a good movie for the younger generations to see so they don't forget our history.

Apples Never Fall (2024)

Soap doesn't rise to Moriarty's previous work.

[6/10 · 19 March 2024]

A soap filmed in Australia about Miami, with on and off suspense story about a missing mother. Is she, or isn't she? The series veers away from the main story by developing stories about the family, and boy are they a crew! Nobody I'd be proud of! On top of this an interloper who the mother (Benning) takes to, because she seems more the child she wishes she had, helpful, caring, needy. Of course the interloper is suspect #1, and Dad (Neill) is suspect #2.

As a Police procedural it fails badly as the cops don't meet the respect grade, and as a family drama it putters along with little depth. The ending seemed inevitable since the plot had us all lathered up.

Catch Me a Killer (2024)

Profiling? Not so much!

[5/10 · 10 March 2024]

Another cookie cutter series about the "amazing skills" of a serial killer profiler. Studies have shown that their skills rarely lead to the killer, and that they usually get caught from their own mistakes. The actress playing Pistorius blathers out the usual psychobabble about motivation and character, but shows us instead her skills as an interrogator, skills that most good Detectives would have. Serial killers continue to attract audiences and profilers and why are usually there on the show to "track them down." What is missing here is "evidence." No DNA, no witnesses, but plenty of confessions, usually taken back. No court room drama. Why do some get out in a few years and many murders go unproven but attributed?

The profiler is the focus, not the killer!

Deliver Us (2019)

PPoor protoplasm tries to fix PPoor protoplasm

[7/10 · 6 March 2024]

5 Danes form a group to kill a sociopath, who may have killed someone's son. As the story develops we see that each and every one of them has serious issues of their own. One has sex with the guy; one allows a child to be beaten by him; one does nothing when his son is beaten twice, even though he's capable of beating up the sociopath; one has a son who hangs out with the sociopath, but never intervenes; one is having an affair with the fore mentioned guy.

What could go wrong?

Are they seriously going to another season? Just because the sociopath is still alive? Battered and bruised but alive!

L'absente (2021)

Is she or isn't she? Did he or didn't he?

[8/10 · 28 February 2024]

A very well crafted mystery that takes it's time to tell it's story. For a change the main character is not a detective, and the one here has little impact on the story, and doesn't solve any mysteries. The main characters are a father who has lost his daughter and a young woman who might just have returned 11 years later.

It's fun to try and guess how and why the story develops in it's way, and be wrong at times and right at times.

The acting is superb, and the plot is complicated, and what some call slow is, for me, depth.

The end is contrived so that justice is served, and I would have preferred it to have ended in a more unsettling way, but "C'est La Filme."

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace (2023–2025)

Is/are she/they or isn'/aren'tshe/they?

[8/10 · 8 January 2024]

Many reviewers have taken on the movie makers for setting us up. That's why it's great to watch. What is the truth here? Slowly we get to see the probable truth about the parents, but the truth about Natalie is still hidden in a mist somewhere.

I also wish that Mike Bartlett had been stifled more often. The eyes gave him away???

Why not go after the judicial system that went along with re aging without due diligence? They allowed two child abusers walk free.

Why not talk to more Mental Health people? Although it is no surprise that they all had different diagnoses.

I found it all quite fascinating at showing how the system contorts itself into knots through ineptness, arrogance, ignorance, and abuse of power.

Next of Kin (2018)

trotting out the usual British tropes about deep state.

[5/10 · 1 January 2024]

A B grade Brit show which never gets smart enough to warrant a good review. It's entertaining enough, but it's central theme, a family with a wannabe jihadi member, never seems real enough for the world proper.

Archie Panjabi's character makes one stupid mistake after another, all under the motive of a devoted family member, who doesn't think including her husband is part of the marriage deal.

The counter terror people follow her lead , and even accidentally/incompetently shoot her. But not to worry our heroine is good as gold in no time and able to keep on making mistakes.

If I were a Pakistani I'd be blushing.

No Man's Land (2020– )

An homage to Kurdish female fighters.

[8/10 · 29 December 2023]

The action takes place in Syria when ISIS built it's caliphate. A Frenchman goes there to seek out a sister who was supposedly killed. He gets embroiled with the YPJ, the Kurdish women's militia, in their fight with ISIS. Also thrown into the mix is the Mossad seeking to infiltrate ISIS's leadership but also Iran's nuclear program.

Add in some Brits who have joined ISIS and the plot thickens and deepens.

Since the writers are mostly Jewish the Israeli plotting is in the forefront, although ISIS and Israel had little to do with each other. The U. S. is left completely out, which ignores history since ISIS was destroyed by the U. S., NATO and the Kurds.

Still it's a well crafted series, very much like Fauda, and Prisoners of War, brilliant Israeli series, and we can only hope the 2d season will be with us soon.

Unbroken (2021– )

A tense thriller which telegraphs it's villain

[8/10 · 29 December 2023]

A pregnant cop is kidnapped and her baby is stolen. Due to her memory loss and subsequent instability her story seems more and more questionable. What should be a who done it becomes a question of "did it happen." The "victim" soon shows herself to be an unsympathetic loose cannon whose quest for justice seems more and more a paranoid delusioned quest.

She ignores her husband's grief in favor of her own and shows herself to be almost too self centered to be a grieving mother with P. T. S. D. Still her pursuit uncovers many crimes along the way but only as she commits crimes herself.

I was able to guess the villain 2/3 of the way through due to a brief scene which should have been edited (unless it was a teaser) and when all is revealed 2 cops who have gone rogue end up with their jobs intact.

Hey it could, and has, happened many times.

Prime Suspect: The Last Witness (2003)

Great until the ending

[8/10 · 2 December 2023]

Jane back to her role as the tough, insensitive, cold detective we all know and love/dislike. A Bosnian war criminal, guilty of raping and killing many Muslims is on the loose and Jane keeps running into the deep state trying to shut her down. "You're off the case Inspector Tennison" rings out again for the umpteenth time, but Jane plows ahead and finds the suspect only to be slapped on the wrist and told the murderer is useful to the Crown.

Her ex boyfriend finds a way of going around M. I.5. By letting the victims family and fellow Muslims take care of him. That's when the show jumps the shark. Instead of letting him be dragged back to Bosnia for a proper Muslim justice, she drags him back for British Justice, and the M. I.5 calmly backs down?

The cop out (forgive pun) is hollow and self righteous.

Little Bird (2023)

Interesting docudrama that tilts too much towards stereotypes.

[7/10 · 19 November 2023]

European dominated countries (U. S. A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South America)) have a lot to answer for in their treatment of the indigenous population. The orphanages and Schools set up by Governments and Christian Churches were a hell hole for many.

This series tells some of that story by focusing on one family and it's treatment by the Canadian Government.

The story is gripping enough to allow some weaknesses in it's presentation. Kudos for telling it.

I found the Jewish family too stereotypical. Our protagonist breaks off her engagement, but it's never shown in any depth. The Social Workers come off as Automatons. The government is shown through them and it would have helped to have dug deeper.

The main focus, the trauma, was well developed, and I think a second season dealing with the legal/moral battles to eradicate such inhumane programs would be interesting.

The Vanishing Triangle (2023)

Journalist who thinks she's a cop

[6/10 · 18 November 2023]

This is one of those series where one yells at the screen a lot. "Don't go in there alone!" "Don't follow him (murder suspect) down a country lane in the dark 10 feet behind him!" "Don't run down a road after you've escaped."A journalist reveals her mother was murdered when she was a child and the murderer communicates with her.

Now she decides she is a detective and has the real Detective constantly trying to get her to back off. Does she listen?

Side story the real Detective is Gay and still very much in the closet. He falls in love with a male prostitute. Good decision making. Cookie Cutter plot from Ireland. Film Blarney?

World on Fire (2019–2023)

Entertaining enough to over ride it's weaknesses.

[7/10 · 28 October 2023]

WW2 is certainly the most examined war in movie/TV history. I watched British movies about it in high school in the U. K. in the 50's (The Dam Busters; The Cruel sea..) and the stories still entertain. This one takes a different tack: Bigotry. Leslie Manville gets her teeth thoroughly into one of the most unpleasant characters I've seen in a while. Dripping sarcasm and snobbery and giving the Upper class a thoroughly bad name Poor old Harry-her son-takes off to Poland and North Africa just to get away from her leaving behind a pregnant girlfriend and a mercy wife.

The only Yanks to be seen are Helen Hunt as a ballsy reporter and a gay Doctor whose characters just disappear (courtesy of COVID?) in season 2.

We get glimpses of a Jewish RAF pilot, a black singer, a Jewish Nurse. However in the second season the Director/writer decide to have 1 minute cameos of 6-7 different stories giving the viewer little time to understand the plots. It's soapy but entertaining enough.

Annika (2021– )

Nicola heads up a weak series

[6/10 · 25 October 2023]

Nicola Walker gets to do her usual great acting as a sometime airhead and sometime top cop. We all know she talks to us all the time, and endlessly goes over ancient literature stories like a teacher talking to elementary kids. What doesn't work out to well is the weak cop show behind it. 2 young cops to give it some energy, and 2 older cops (Nicola being one, and her partner Mike who has as much energy as a wet sponge). Everything gets wrapped up in one episode which makes for a speedy resolution courtesy of the usual confession.

For some reason there is always a pointless chase scene. "Stop Police" never seems to work. Plus they get to whiz about in boats which have little to do with where the crimes occurred or in solving the crimes.

It's a scottish souffle.

Après (2021)

A delight that never misses a beat

[9/10 · 11 October 2023]

I agree with the other reviewer. This is a hidden gem. The acting is superb, the writing is intelligent and often profound. The characters are well developed. They even backed away from ending it with a girl gets guy scene.

The leading actress is superb, and I love her in Cardinal, where she's more restrained, but here is allowed to show us all her delightful talents as a woman whose character is strong, magnetic and beautiful. She is surrounded by equally talented performances by an incredible ensemble.

Why has this been so ignored by the critics? Covidnesia?

And I would like to know the writer's name. This is as deep a script as I've seen in quite a while.

Bnei Aruba (2013–2016)

Suspend disbelief...

[5/10 · 9 October 2023]

I won't go into all the silliness of this show, there's reams of it. The plot is interesting but the machinations of it drove me crazy. The Masks! 4 people show up wearing masks. One guy shows everything except his nose. At some point or other every face gets revealed to the hostages but the bad guys keep insisting on wearing masks! Everybody gets to be untied and in their rooms, where the doors are locked...but not the windows???

If the goal is to kill the PM then the hostages will have to be killed. No-one seems to think about this. The Surgeon (mother) never figures out that no matter what she does her family is going to have to be killed. It would have made a better movie, but making it a series meant dragging out the ludicrosity episode after episode.