ElessarAndurilS

I had some doubts about Ozark prior to release for various reasons, but I was wrong. I have to give Jason Bateman credit, I never knew he had it in him. The show is very well cast, acted, written, and directed. Out of the gate in the first episode you are hit with an intensity to the situation that few shows ever produce, much less begin with. The underlying threat sets Marty Byrde and family in ongoing danger that the show does an excellent job building on each episode with situations that seem to have no resolution. Each resolution has consequences however, building to a finale that while somewhat satisfying, definitely leaves you hungry for the next season by creating the mother of difficult circumstances. Few shows leave me saying WOW, especially after the first season, this one did. Netflix has done a good job on several shows, they just moved the bar higher. Not something for kids.

I watched the Last Kingdom on Netflix because I like the genre. My expectations for the production quality where high, in that respect I was disappointed. I can't help but draw comparisons to Vikings given it has set a standard for historical drama's setting the bar very high. The rather fast pace of the story has its positives. Each episode tells its own story and doesn't leave the viewer hanging, a definite positive. However the affect on the time line is vast differences that you have to adjust to. One episode can cover half a year, another a couple of days. I like and will continue to watch the show, but the acting is definitely well below the level established in Vikings. Having a central figure that is always the "good guy" is probably what makes The Last Kingdom different from other comparable shows. Few historical drama's have a "hero" as the central figure. Characters you love, yes, but their actions are not necessarily consistently heroic. But these things make the show unique and is why I will continue watching and think those that like the genre will mostly enjoy it.

The Newsroom has its flaws, but it is one of the best shows I've seen showing truth about modern society. The personal stories are a nice, feel good thread to the story lines. The key is the foundation upon which it is built; restoring integrity to the news! With the internet and smartphones the integrity of our news in this country has fallen to an all time low. This show hits hard at the core values that should be the basis of what we consider news and a source of truth. Unfortunately we no longer have a source of truth in the news, just opinion and a popularity contest.

For the Breaking Bad fans drawn to Better Call Saul, the first two seasons are a prequel to a prequel, S3 might step it up with the return of Gus (TBD). By the end of S2 we see the path Jimmy McGill (Saul) followed leading up to him becoming the Saul we know from B.B., but while interesting in its own right, the closest we come to anything in the B.B. sphere is the story line surrounding Mike. Mike was a dirty cop with a heavy background making him into the character we know from B.B. Jimmy is a Lawyer who plays fast and loose; but can't seem to win. I'd assume at this point we will see a crushing defeat in S3 that turns Jimmy into Saul and the "criminal lawyer" we learned to love in B.B. I'm certain the writers will come up with some excitement as the criminal element increases on Better Call Saul; but I don't expect this show to ever approach Breaking Bad quality. I just don't see Jimmy/Saul ever having the magnitude of Walter White's story as no show has accomplished that. But still worth watching and interested to see where it goes!

I watched this because of the genre, hung on in hope that it would improve only to find the cliff at the end of the story. This movie is insulting. The premise that people are so ignorant that a scientists proof (never described) that "some sort of existence" after death would invoke mass suicides is just plain insulting. Oh, then there's the pain of the actual movie. The high point was being interested, it went down hill from there and ended when it just dies a foolish death at the end, and you won't be surprised, moved, or even care by then. I rarely give anything this low a rating, but this is truly a complete waste of time. Just when I thought Netflix productions were generally good, they lay this egg. Ugh!

Witches of East End is a show that after streaming you have NO QUESTION why it only lasted two seasons. While if desperate to stream a show, and you like the genre, it isn't good but it will pass the time and not so bad you can't stand it. Not a glowing endorsement, not meant to be. The characters are good enough and the story has its interesting points, but no question this is B level show. In the midst of constant horrific events, the characters are both a little to happy and way to naive; especially those who are centuries old. Way to many people get killed without any plausible link between their deaths and any concern. Like when Dash's (good name for handsome warlock) mother gets thrown into a furnace and burned up in season 1 finale and at the start of season 2 she is declared as having committed suicide. A lot of things like that where there is no logical path from point A to point B and the audience is just supposed to accept it. Rich woman in biggest mansion in town disappears and it is assumed a suicide? Not in any world. There are some good points, but a lot of obvious plots that should be obvious to the centuries old Princess but she is continuously oblivious which gets old fast. I forced myself to watch season 2 to its conclusion just so I could be sure that a) they left us hanging and b) my assessment to point held true.

Watch if you REALLY need something to fill the gap, but keep your expectations low. Even Vampire Diaries season 7 and 8 are far better; setting the bar pretty low.

As a former TWD fan who became bored with the series after season 3 (watched more, but writers have gone brain dead and I finally just stopped to ease the pain of watching its demise), I was blown away at the low rating for Z Nation after binge watching the first 3 seasons on Netflix. Season 1 was OK, but as it progressed it grew on me exponentially as the humor laced in became so prominent. TWD has better special effects, but the story in Z Nation evolves! I love the gaps in how they continue to eat, drink, get z weed and ammo! WHO CARES, THAT's BORING!!! It is action filled and filled with one liners that are classic to what makes some of the best zombie films/shows great. Justifying just about anything with "hey, it's the Apocalypse" is a standard justification for everything, and it remains satisfactory. Nobody is trying to be righteous when they live by slaughtering everything (and everybody) in their way, its a means to an end. Great cliff hangers to, I loved them when I got to go the the next season and loved the one at the end of season 3! The thing that makes this show great is you can never predict where they're going with the story and that allows for the flexibility to keep it fresh. Murphy is blast while the rest of the cast is colorful, ferocious when need be, and always with the one liners laced in just enough to keep it light. I think all the bad ratings are from die hard TWD fans who actually think that show is still good, and simply don't get the entertainment value of the gaps and humor add that make this far superior. Excited for Z nation season 4!!!

Friday Night Lights sat on my Netflix watch list for over a year before I gave it a chance. What a shock! I'm expecting a show about a football coach and a lot of game clips, instead I am quickly introduced to one of the best family drama's of excellent quality I've ever watched! Rare to see a positive drama in any context in recent years, yet this show portrays a loving couple and their family standing up for what is right in the face of a HIGHLY DYSFUNCTIONAL town with many dysfunctional people. But the story grows, and transitions in such an excellent way (excluding the abrupt end to season 2 I wasn't expecting - cut short by writers strike in 2008) the writing and story are excellent. Was casting 25 year old people as high school students a bit much, yes, but not uncommon... and when doing so to portray exceptional high school athletes; I totally get it, some of these high school football players DO LOOK 25 and they needed actors to look and play the part. Makes me give that a bye, along with the exceptionally pretty girls as that is also common practice.

The important part was to me was how much of the story was character based, portrayed real life situations that as a parent I've had to deal with regardless of what I do because life happens to us all. As a father of 3 daughters some of it made me LMBO as Eric Taylor has to (try) and hold his temper in check and deal with his daughter growing up. I've said some of the things he said, and been in the same situations with some of my children so it really resonated with me as real. The transition from the Panthers to the Lions was a bit of a stretch as well with the first two seasons not really indicating there was a "wrong side of the tracks" in Dillon, but the shows introduction sequence does show a town with a lot of shuttered businesses, so it is not a stretch that there would be a lot of struggling families. True in so many small towns in this country.

The best part was the shows ability to evolve and stay positive and life affirming in the effect this couple had on it and the way they ended it was very satisfying. One of the best quality family drama's I've seen.

Touch is a story that I won't share to much about lest it ruin your viewing experience (it is streaming on Netflix with a 5 star rating). I just finished watching the series over the last couple weeks and found the story exceptional and was very happy that Season 2 ends with closure. The show could have gone on for seasons more, but the two created were very good. Tying together science, fiction, and a God concept that while a bit outside the box is still an excellent addition to normally shows that focus only on the negative of human behavior instead of Touch with an emphasis on love as a powerful force in the world. While the story involves human monsters, it is love that drives the hearts of the special people in the story of which an 11 year old boy thought to be autistic (not) is at the heart. All I can say is if you like science fiction and have Netflix, stream this show and I think you'll both be touched and giving it a strong rating also. While Season 2 left an opening for more story, it was fairly clear that they new in advance there would not be a season 3 and for once you end satisfied. Nice to watch a show with hope.

If you're a science fiction lover this show is for you. The SyFy Channel has definitely invested heavily in this show as both the story and special effects are exceptional. The effects are the best I've seen on any TV show, equal to the big screen (at least on the small). The story line is a classic power struggle extrapolated to play out 200 years in the future with a "Cold War" between Mars and Earth hovering on the edge of war with a mystery third party pushing them both towards escalation. By the end of Season 1 enough of a foundation is built to see this can be a long haul series if SyFy can stick to a good story for once! I've seen them produce other quality science fiction with a lot of potential, but they broke the bank on this one and better be sticking behind it as it deserves it. Watching this show on TV is nearly as good as watching the original Star Wars trilogy was in my later teen years. The state of the art effects, the riveting story, every episode pushing things forward at a decent pace so as not to leave you impressed only with effects and not story. Best thing SyFy has created to date and best science fiction in a long time. A show I cannot fathom science fiction fans flocking to!!!!

S2 update: Stays the course, holds its rating.

I just finished streaming Season 1 of Frequency and I really don't get the complaining about the time shifts, I thought the story was great SciFi! Daughter talking to her dead dad 20 years in the past, working together to solve a crime and with each change to the past a subsequent change to the future in each episode making each one a thrill ride. Maybe watching it with a week between episodes made the time shifts and affects hard to follow, but while streaming over 4 days it was easy, and quite enjoyable. Even with the ending in the finale, they made a lot of mistakes but discovered that Robbie was the real killer, not his dad. While his dad killed only his mother, but confessed to the others, then BAM back to just his wife and Robbie blamed for the others but the time line still basically as it was in the pilot, but with improvements! Raimy gets to know her dad Frank, gets her mom back, her best friend is a lawyer. Sure she still lost her dad, but they got 15 years more of good family life together... but now of course the radio is broken and Robbie is stalking her mom in her modern day. I thought Season 1 stood well on its own, but am hoping they don't dump it because of ratings dropping off. Maybe the medium is the key, as a streaming show I thoroughly enjoyed it!

It took me some time to get flowing with Justified, but watching it all on Amazon Prime I was allowed to dig in at my own pace. It took me a while to cozy up to the characters and story, but it was well worth it. The main character is a non-conformist deputy marshal sent back to his home state office for one to many border legal actions while assigned to the Miami office. Going home introduces him to chasing bad guys who where there as he was a kid, but as the seasons progress and they go down he finds himself fighting his childhood peers, friends, foes, and much bigger game. The show does well at having a 6 season story, a seasonal story and still meaningful episodes that in some way tie into both. By the time I got to Season 6 I was ready for the end, but the story had played itself to the point of there needing to be the resolution of the BIG PICTURE story line. While losing the original writer after season 4 could have set them back, they obviously had most of the story figured out by then. Overall I thought the show was great, not Breaking Bad great, but great non the less. It reminded me of shows from my youth as it has a very western gunslinger atmosphere around our main character. Now Timothy Olyphant isn't Clint Eastwood, he is still a likable guy who is put in constant binds which force him to bend the rules while enforcing the law. All was within the bounds of good writing although season 6 pushed it a little to far with introducing a punk from CO with a weird fixation on old time gunslingers and shootouts. It was obvious he was put there for the finale to have an old school duel with Raylan which Raylon naturally won though did get a bullet bounced off his skull hard enough to knock him out long enough to give the audience the moment of wondering if our hero got shot down in the finale. Not so, the show ends well compared to most with people getting mostly what is deserved and basically happy endings and issues resolved. Doubt I'll watch it a second time as it isn't that kind of story, but the first time around was well worth it.

Stranger Things came with a lot of hype that I had a hard time believing. A science fiction show with Winona Ryder as an unstable mother to a boy gone missing under very suspicious circumstances. Netflix hit this one out of the park. They took a piece of a bunch of the best movies (science fiction and otherwise) and threw pieces of them in adding a fairly complex plot as to how scientists accidentally ripped a whole between parallel universes and didn't know how to deal with it. They did a great job of having basically three groups (friends of the kid who went missing, older sister of one of the friends and older brother of boy who went missing, and the mom and sheriff) all working independently to start but with each episode coalescing into a single group fighting the government agency that screwed things up to begin with and the beast from the parallel universe that had stolen the boy (and others). The writing is excellent as they make it build such that it is one of those shows you start to stream and find you can't stop until it is over. Thrilled to see season 2. They did a great job of bringing closure to the first seasons story with a happy ending, but planting just enough seeds that it leaves little doubt there is room for incredible expansion of the story in seasons to come. Netflix is doing a great job with their own productions, but this one stands out to be a potential SciFi classic. Even Breaking Bad didn't leave me this enthused after one season and that is my favorite show of all time.

Crazyhead. Two young women who can see demons, one who is half demon and go around kicking their butts back to hell. Seemed like a silly enough premise for a show to be funny. Well, I watched all 6 episodes of season 1 and found out it was! Nothing to strain your brain on here, nothing to get up in arms about or deep enough to argue about. You'll find it funny or not. It is just the right combo of stupid and funny to keep me laughing through every show. Not a lot to comment on here as the show is simple. They keep the story simple. The characters are likable and their friends stupid likable. Add it all together and I got a good laugh. Looking forward to more in Season 2.

Lark Rise to Candleford caught me quite off guard as I watched one, then two, then three episodes when suddenly I was consumed and watched nothing else until making it through the last episode. The show is a period piece about life in the old English countryside (mid to late 1800's). The characters are mostly likable and the stories optimistic stories of family, friends, and the love it takes to keep them all going. It is also about the period of great change during this period that strained the vision of people as what they did for a living became obsolete (much like today). I loved that optimism prevailed in the story line even if some of the characters were a little over the top. It is a show that generations can watch together without the concern for unacceptable subjects, or vile scenes suddenly being thrust upon them putting some in an awkward position to explain. Innocent to a fault, but touching none the less. It saddens me that they only produced 3 and a half seasons as the story could have gone on much longer. Especially in the final season which was a combination of meaningless stories combined with those that were rushed to try and bring some closure to the stories. Would four more episodes have really killed the BBC when the show was one of the most popular going into its final season? But businesses don't care so this is nothing new. The positive is that it is a great show and well worth anyone's time to watch and savor.

Took me until they came out with Season 2 to invest in watching this show. I feared it would be another alternate reality show with little intrigue and leave me disappointed. Glad to be so wrong. The production, directing, acting and character development are all excellent. Some Gaffe's (left side vehicles being driven in Europe), but then again it IS an alternate reality. There is some vagueness as to how some of the individuals can slip between alternate timelines, but I'm hoping season 3 will provide more detail on this. The core to this show is not the premise, I've wondered how close we came to this being a reality myself. It is the character development. They do a great job of progressing the story, and your interest while delving quite deep into the characters. While the global scene is not fully explained, the focus is on the US and the balance between the Japanese territory on the West coast, the Nazi on the east and plains, and a lawless zone between in the mountains. The characters are deep and interesting, if not likable. The main character is and does a great job of acting the role. While coming off as weak, she has an internal strength and conviction that is a cornerstone to the show. In many developments she acts out of instinct that both saves herself, puts her on the path that will help society and yet doesn't reveal herself to be much more than a pawn. The end of season 2 could be the end of the story, but so much has been build around the characters and the story I'm praying Amazon moves forward with a Season 3. Either way, it is one of the best series I've watched in a while. It has an element of SciFi, but only on the fringe and adding to the mystery that makes the desire to keep watching so strong. It was one of those shows that I watched non-stop with every available moment tearing through the 20 episodes in 3 days. Will be hard to wait for season 3, but I'm guessing an announcement about the future to be coming soon. Great Job!!!

The Kettering Incident Season 1 was slow to develop, filled with unlikable characters (less Anna, Elizabeth Debicki) who was superb as a troubled doctor returning to her roots to seek answers to her troubles. The scenery of Kettering and Tasmania is fantastic, I can't believe more hasn't been filmed in such a beautiful landscape to date. The show suffers from developing to slowly. While I can accept the need for character development, it doesn't happen in season 1 at a pace that matches the time given. Everything is a mystery and though seeking answers Anna seems to push away everyone offering any. None the less the story plants many seeds of thought of what in the world is going on thus capturing ones attention.

Problem is after the finale of season 1 you are left with no answers and only questions. It builds until Anna meets who you suspect is her half sister gone missing 15 years earlier in a secret tunnel but as they come face to face it appears to be her (a clone, someone looking exactly like her but dirty, weak, and starved). As they come face to face your expectation is a major answer, instead the episode ends and the audience is left with 1000 questions. Worst is that most of the questions are introduced in the finale. If they had been planted throughout the season the season would have been less sad and lagging in pace.

As bad as what I write is, the problem is there is so much mystery built by this point that if they don't make a Season 2 I'm going to scream at yet another show leaving me hanging AND with all the gaps and questions the show has HUGE POTENTIAL to have the story explode into a unique Sci Fi/Mystery/Drama that rates a 10. Then again depending on how it plays out it could be one of the worst shows ever created. All I can do is write a review stating that if you watch the show you will be disappointed at the ending; however if you have great imagination you will see the potential for an incredible series building from this assuming they start doling out some answers in Season 2 quickly so we have some firm ground to stand on in watching. Sad thing is I google the show and read that a Season 2 isn't even likely making me wonder why they made the show in the first place. But one can hope.

I started watching Rectify on Netflix, a good thing because it got me through the initial seasons quickly. This was good in this case because Rectify is a drama built on the deep development of its main characters that continues through the series finale and I might not have had the patience to endure the beginning if I had to wait weeks between episodes. The show having now concluded my opinion of the show simply grew with each episode as the show explored the depth of the devastation caused by the wrongful conviction of a teenage boy for the rape and murder of a girl in their small town in Georgia. Rarely does a show represent so much real emotion and the cause and affects over the long haul like Rectify. Being able to tell the tale from 20 years after the tragic event however allowed them to explore and show the horrific affects this event had on this town and its population. It was fairly clear from the beginning that Daniel, the man (boy at the time) had been selected as the easy conviction and railroaded to a guilty plea and death row. But after 20 years after the DNA evidence that gets him released re-opens the old wounds, the then deputy now Sheriff is in more of a mood to review the actions of the previous sheriff and DA. In so doing they uncover horrific handling of a critical case cause by the DA having forced a rushed investigation that let the guilty go free and while not completely innocent, Daniel was certainly not the murderer which was gradually revealed as all the parties stories unfold over the series. Mature subjects, painful recalling terrifying events from being in prison and other subjects are covered with good writing. The damage done after 20 years becomes obvious to be irreversible by the end, but so do so many other things that make this one of the best TV drama's I've ever watched. Take the time, pay attention and I believe the show will force you to think about some things differently than anything else does. The pace of the show is such that it allows the deeper emotions of people to unfold, and a very high quality story to be told. Take the time and enjoy! It isn't something that can be experienced a second time with like impact.

The OA is a show that goes well beyond describing because there is little to compare it to. I don't rate it a 10 because it is perfect, but because it is unique and steadily builds a story that builds to a significant finale/cliffhanger (depending on if there is a season 2...). I can understand those that think it lame, but it is one of the few shows that made me think and wonder right through the end. Where it can go from where the binge inducing first season ends is actually quite vast. I've read negative comments from those who took lines as literal that were clearly metaphor's. At least I got science fiction in which I wasn't sure what the science fiction was until the end of the first season. With OA shot, but alive, it is unclear where that leaves us. But the group who where so quick to believe her story made up were obviously quite connected by the finale, enough to respond to her and do their funky dance in perfect sync with her to stop a mass shooting at a school. She said she didn't know what her dreams were revealing, which was true until the end and when they responded it saved the day. It didn't take them to rescue the other captives, but demonstrated she wasn't nuts and accomplished a mind bending end to what is unfortunately a frequent real event in our society.

The final shots only left me with questions of is there a season 2 where she has a group who believes and works with her to get the others or... many possibilities. If Season 1 is it, then my 10 goes down to a 5. I believe Netflix has a truly unique set of story possibilities in this series and am hoping the lack of appreciation for truly new science fiction doesn't block its popularity and continuance. I've had enough shows trying to copy (poorly) Game of Thrones and other stories that have been written again and again. The OA is unlike any other and while leaving us hanging as to what will be next, just like the show, the possibilities are open ended for once.

Colony is a hard show to rate after season 1 because it is a SciFi show without hardly any scifi in the first season which is dedicated to character and plot development. Granted, in 10 episodes that is about all you can do, but besides the big CG wall around LA there isn't a lot of Science Fiction in the show until the final episode of Season 1. I am giving it an 8 on potential, because they did do a good job of character development so that eventually I might care. The writing however makes that a very shaky 8 as there are some definite gaffe's in the writing already.

Main characters include Will Bowman (played by Josh Holloway, "Sawyer" from Lost) who is an ex navy seal and FBI agent married to Katie Bowman (Sarah Wayne Callies, wife of Rick on Walking Dead). He gets forced into working for the government (becoming hated by other civilians in the process as they hate collaborators) while Katie responds by joining "The Resistance" (original, not) with the promise of feeding them intelligence she gets from her husband. It is a bit absurd the amount of detail Will shares with Katie, I can only justify it in character because he is being forced and is sharing far more than he would have as an FBI agent. After all, who doesn't hate being occupied by an alien race; kind a universal bad situation. Unlike Falling Skies however there is potential for a lot more in what the aliens want. They came in and took over and established colonies (walled off portions of cities that weren't destroyed in the initial invasion). Major gaffe 1, aliens take over the world yet in way under a year (they are still counting days since occupation) they have a whole bunch of major cities with 200 foot thick, quarter mile high walls built around them. To boot they have a functioning government of collaborating humans and the army under their direction. So they appear to have come in and in a matter of days kicked the worlds rear so bad there was nothing left to fight with (or capable) and establish a functioning government, economy and heard a bunch of people in these colonies of which one is LA, and the first season takes place in exclusively. Season 2 looks like it will expand this a great deal; and this is where the potential comes in. Given it is absurd that any race could lay waste to the world AND organize it in weeks by any means, but it implies they have big plans for humans good or bad, all TBD and inspiring interest in what is to be. So season 1 was a little slow, it did a good job of laying a foundation for some potentially good story development which could happen fast given the final episode of season 1.

So I give it an 8 that will likely be updated as I see more of the show. It could be yet another huge disappointment, the networks seem to be pretty good at that, especially in the science fiction department. Hopefully things will get more thought out, and the writers add more a) realism in terms of development of events and b) reveal some substance. The pace is good, but gaffe's galore in the writing, and Katie shares Lori's naivete when it comes to fighting a revolt. Took until the final episode for her to accept that revolution is war and killing people because they are in the way and on the wrong side part of the job. May the writers and producers have grown greatly between seasons!

I didn't know David Duchovny had slipped into a comedy on Showtime back in the after years of launching from X-Files, but having always thought he had a very good dry sense of humor come through in his acting I was pleased to see "Californication" on Netflix. I found the show to be excellent. I loved that it ended with him and Karen together accepting the imperfection of their relationship since that is so much more real than what romantics sell. Those old couples who make a life together know this truth, that the secret to a long relationship is not changing the other person or a storybook life. It is accepting all their shortcomings and failures and standing by their side in spite of them. If people got married with that reality as an expectation there would be fewer divorces.

The show simply made me laugh, many times unexpected and out loud. Streaming it on my laptop my wife got interested because she had to find out what was making me blurt out laughter unexpectedly so frequently. The stories push the boundaries of reality, but it's a comedy based on the messed up nature of human sexual desires so I expected it to and therefore dropped all judgemental-ism at the start. The extremes were amusing, the child more mature than the parent led to a good place in the story and added to the likability of a character who in trying to do the right thing always seemed to a) make the wrong decision or b) have fate throw it upon him. A good watch, didn't burn out on it like I did Weeds and it let me have an ending where I got to simply smile and move on.

Do the same, great streaming show.

After reading so many slams against this show I streamed it anyhow and was quite pleased even if it was cancelled after 1 season. The problem with these types of shows is that when successful they have to keep making the plots more and more extreme (Scandal, Covert Affairs, Alias, etc.) until they reach a point were the entire government is corrupt and all corporations evil (where it may seem that way, reality is obviously in between). What I liked was that even though the show started out to be heavily split between the 3 main characters, by the end they coalesced into a single story. We didn't get a Season 2 so there was no real closure for our characters, but even so they ended with each having accomplished what they set out to do. I don't need to see a screen writers story to take the end of Season 1 as things ending on a positive note. Yes, Adelle will have to live on the run her entire life, but she had the backbone to take down all involved which supported the our two secondary characters. Yes, one was left broken, but killing your girl friend and finding out she had killed your father would leave most people a mess for a while. So again, not really a negative, just the state after winning his battle. I enjoyed seeing a show end on a positive even if that positive has some downsides, it is much better than the crap they tend to pull like they did on Dexter.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life is a difficult show to rate. Pulling together the old group after many years was in and of itself great and they didn't miss a beat in working together pulling off the relationship portion extremely well, 10 stars to the actors! I likely would have been happier without much of episodes 2 and 3. I understand there is filler that needed to be created, but there is so much history I don't understand why they didn't simply throw in a couple of the wacky town festivals they seem to have an abundance of in Stars Hollow instead of wasting our time in the Spring and Summer episodes with the painful play rehearsal (which was long, horrible, and only Lorelei noticed) was one of the several scenes that was far to long and strayed from the humor of the original show. GG was always special because their humor was special and built on the history of the show and references that transcended an episode. But the viewers of this were die hard fans who know the legacy and stories from which so much could have been mined to fill in those episodes with greater quality. The dysfunction between Lorelei and Emily was so well established we really didn't need a third of the Spring episode to re-establish it just for it to be resolved in the Fall a quick call not even relating to the therapy. Two huge gaffe's; the play and the therapy.

G.G. was always famous for the quirky humor and while they did a good job of keeping up the trend, they took some of it way to far. That was part of what made the quality, a little bit made the joke and went a long way, it didn't have to go on and on like a bad Jerry Lewis skit (ie. the air conditioning noise at the middle of the night town meeting).

But then overall the episodes simply hit one out of the park with allowing us to go back to Stars Hollow, visit some old friends (even if they overused Kirk, he was a minor character who was spread thin making him likable not irritating, it was the fact that so many of the characters where just a flash in each appearance that made their strangeness funny not annoying; someone seems to have let the writers forget. But then again Winter and Fall were SO GOOD that it made up for some of the shortcomings. They allowed Lorelei and her mother's relationship to heal, they drove the point home that Lorelei had finally become grounded and her and Luke were going to be together for good because they had always been together from the beginning whether acknowledged or not. They covered a lot of ground in the Fall episode filling it with a lot of joyful events of which many were in the making during the first 7 years making them all so sweet to savor.

Of course having the whole thing end with Rory telling Lorelei that she is pregnant and then immediately cutting to credits in the final episode is the all time anti closure act ever written. Put it in and a series can now be written on Rory's pregnancy; possible relationship(?), stabilization of her career direction, and simply continuing the show as a cycle of life story as from the original through A Year in the Life we now have 5 generations of Gilmore Girls covered. No question Rory would have a a girl, and it would be name Lorelei; like her mother, and 4 before her.

All said I loved it and had no choice but to stream it in a 6 hour session followed by a 3 hour session the second day of release. I can get past the imperfections because the rest was simply so good!!!

Not knowing much of the history that went into the story behind the Crown since it circumvents WWII and occurred before I was alive I was surprised at how good I found the shows first season. Great drama, cinematography, character development, and throwing in some history and education on how the royal family worked with the government all go into making the show an excellent work. The writing and acting are great, the story chosen well building steadily causing me to watch it in a two day marathon stream when I didn't even expect to be interested. Goes to show that a good show can win over a skeptical viewer when done well. I would say it was done exceptionally well and is well worth watching and expect to continue doing so in the seasons that are yet to come. Netflix produces another winner.

Good Girls Revolt uses Season 1 to lay the foundation for what may be an excellent show. I'm rating it 9 stars based on the potential that the quality writing of season 1 established. A show set in 1969-70 about a group of woman using what was a new law requiring employers to provide equal opportunity to women that they provide men by filing a complaint with the equal opportunities officials with a pending lawsuit to force their employer should they not provide that opportunity willingly may be an old story, but this is the first show of this quality I have seen which tells the story in a fictional setting that very closely mirrors the reality of history. To some degree we may take this for granted today, but we didn't get here without a fight and this show documents that fight. If Season 1 is an indication I expect season 2 to be riveting. Ending on the press conference in which the filing is announced after season 1 captures how these women were taken for granted by being built into a process that had a ceiling built in at which women could rise no higher (the woman researched and wrote the copy printed, yet couldn't compile the final article published and get the byline). In many ways it reminds me of Mad Men in that it captures the state of society at that time very well (I'm old enough to remember much of it). Season 1 lets us get to know the characters and see how the system was built to exclude them. It also portrays the men as being oblivious to the fact that their process broke the law, something that I don't know if is true, but they do a good job of writing it such that you see that while they are quite aware of the process and its prohibiting women from being writers, they also don't give it any thought because that is simply the way it had always been. Well written, good young actors/actresses, and laying a foundation that took the time to convey what things were like for the many who watch who are not old enough to remember. I see this as being a show that has done a great job to this point and has the potential to go on to tell a great story as it is obvious that the women who filed this claim didn't really grasp the hornets nest they were stirring by filing this complaint. I have high hopes for the coming season, but they appear to have the right people in place to make this a quality show. I know I just finished season 1 and am ready for season 2 right now!