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Reviews
American Horror Stories (2021)
Not Great
You will find two camps in these reviews, apparently. People are mad it isn't American Horror Story, and people who are mad that people are mad that it isn't American Horror Story.
I am not a huge American Horror Story fan, I find it entertaining and I do watch it. But I wasn't expecting it to be American Horror Story. I came in with no expectations. It's not bad! I'll probably watch it all, but it is definitely not great, or even good.
Main problems: Two cast members stand out as preeetttty bad actresses. Paris Jackson and Kaia Gerber. As others have mentioned, Jackson's character is a high school student, but she looks about 30 years old in the role and her acting is extremely stiff. Kaia Gerber has striking appearance but also delivers lines like she's in a bad high school play. Her lines are also corny, so that might add to it.
The main character is pretty good and delivers her corny lines with conviction, and as others have mentioned, the dads are pretty good characters, with Bomer being the stronger of the two. I hope the plot and execution get better to make the stiff acting and iffy writing fade away.
October Faction (2020)
Not half bad
Which is why it gets 6 stars. The pilot episode is quite bad, but it gets better from there. It drops off again a little toward the end and then finishes fairly strong. I noticed a lot of reviews mentioning the father character--I didn't think he was that bad I just didn't get any chemistry whatsoever between he and the wife and he had the most trope-y lines.
Pros: Story. Average to above average performances
Cons: Weak script with some cheesy lines. Lots of TV tropes
In conclusion, if you like the genre and you're looking to kill some time on netflix, you could do a LOT worse. I don't regret watching this and I'll continue to watch if it gets another season.
V-Wars (2019)
Wasted potential
I love the genre and this title is very disappointing in spite of pretty good source material. The dialogue is truly painful, but perhaps you could suffer through it with more interesting characters and better casting. Example: Dr. Swann: "They could hold you... (dramatic pause) indefinitely." Sidekick: "You mean... (another dramatic pause) forever?!" Yes, ma'am, that is roughly what indefinitely means, what is the purpose of this dialogue?
The lead is a fairly interesting character and almost well-acted. The anti-hero/villain is brutally boring despite being one of the better actors. They barely use the beautiful and talented Kandyse McLure, to the extent that she doesn't even show up on the cast on despite being featured in one of the show's main promo pictures ( I added her).
In essence, this is just The Strain with terrible writing and without the interesting characters. Doctor trying to find a cure. Dozens of other almost identical plot points (his son. his ex. his new flame. his sidekick. seedy organization.military.)
It does differ in many important respects, but most of them make this show worse. File this under: wanted to like it, kept watching trying to like it, actually just pretty bad.
Wir sind die Welle (2019)
Do not watch to the end, does NOT get better
About halfway through the first episode, I was so overcome with how corny this show is that I checked IMDB to see if it gets any better. Sure enough, first review I see says to stick with it to the end, it gets better and is worth it.
ABSOLUTELY NOT. Even if you like the politics of this show, it is so corny and on the nose it is unbearable. There is no subtly, no nuance, just absolutely cheesy politics throughout. I thought at one point they may introduce some nuance (hey these are real people and businesses we're hurting), but no, they run right back to the cornball politics.
I hope that it is better if you are a native German speaker, but i really regret wasting my time on this. I've enjoyed other German series in the past so I don't think that is it.
Thirteen (2016)
Excellent acting and storytelling, but unrealistic at its core
So I highly enjoyed this series. The mysteriousness of the way they slowly revealed information kept me engaged through the end. Excellent storytelling and great acting from everyone involved. Some of the more minor players in the story weren't well-acted, but that can be expected in a relatively large cast to have a few weak links.
Spoilers below:
The thing that bothered me the most about this story is how everyone interacted with her once she escaped. The police especially but also her family to a lesser extent. The police would never NEVER treat someone who had been imprisoned since they were a child the way the police treated her. They also have methods to get the information out of her much more quickly about the location of her abductor, etc. Yes the girl was being cagey about giving up information and was scared, but there is absolutely no way it would've gone down the way it did.
Given what a central role this plays in the show, it makes it somewhat painful to watch throughout. The other elements of the show lift it to a 7/10, but this major problem really made it incredibly frustrating to watch. Don't even get me started on the series finale.
Young Ones (2014)
Pretty good, major plot holes
Mostly reviewing to point out that the focus on the donkey/mule being needed to carry water around, then the focus on the robotic walking donkey to carry around the water is really stupid.
It makes no sense at all. He's later seen driving around in a pickup truck!
As someone with a cabin, I know that a truck can haul a heck of a lot more water than the little robot they bought, and really anything with wheels would be more efficient than a stupid walking robot. They'd be better off pulling a cart themselves.
Still a well made little indie dystopian movie but I laughed out loud when i saw him in a truck.
Nightflyers (2018)
Don't listen to the haters
Seems to be a lot of people upset about the Expanse getting canceled. I watched that show too and this one is significantly higher quality. Much better acting and overall production value. I will say that this is still a syfy original, so it is a little corny here and there and they really seemed to try and stretch the plot out to fill their time.
I read one review that said the show is unsettling without ever really being scary. I'd say that's accurate. I think the big success of the show is their ability to set a tone and a mood. The show just exudes the exact right atmosphere. It is the dull, dark, bleak space movie.
The characters do a lot of really inexplicably stupid things in order to keep the plot moving forward. They also randomly do a massive 8 month time leap partway through that felt like kind of a cop out.
Positives outweigh the negatives if you ask me. Good little syfy show and worth my time sitting through it.