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Author Topic: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched  (Read 226361 times)

1SO

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Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched
« Reply #2440 on: September 18, 2020, 11:11:18 PM »
American Horror Story Season 4: Freak Show
★ ★ ½

They tweaked the formula. A smaller quantity of ideas, more focus on the central location, develop and draw out the smaller amount of storylines. It's a slight change, but everything is slightly off now because the writers show their weakness because these are characters that don't have a lot of depth so you can hurl them though a lot of plot, but when you try to flesh them out they become repetitive and less interesting as they draw on dramatic ideas we've seen in many other television shows.

The biggest victim here is Jessica Lange. She is the leader of the freaks, yet not a freak herself but a failed star who watched her sister (Marlene Dietrich) become everything she desires to be. In secret she is a double amputee, but she puts herself above the performers in the show and is just using them to keep her own dream alive. A lot of potential there, but they're spending all her time on her delusional pursuit of a fame that will never happen, when the real horrific situation is her less private hatred of the freaks, believing herself to be not one of them and better as a person and an entertainment act. It's the actual plot of the 1932 film that the whole season is based on, and they're ignoring it for high-contrast showtunes. The first three seasons not only used every part of the horror buffalo, they would stitch multiple animals together. Freak Show is ignoring some of the meat and chewing too much fat.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2020, 04:28:00 PM by 1SO »

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched
« Reply #2441 on: September 19, 2020, 01:31:50 AM »
I have just watched the first 2 episodes of season 11 of Archer. Still great.

1SO

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Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched
« Reply #2442 on: September 20, 2020, 12:49:16 AM »
American Horror Story Season 6: My Roanoke Nightmare - Episode 1
The end of Season 4 felt like the conclusion of Phase 1 of AHS. I always intended to skip S5: Hotel because I'm too impatient to experience what comes after. I've only seen the first episode, but I love what the show is doing, putting the older, broader style behind them and favoring a more modern horror aesthetic. I love the conceit of two cast members playing a character - one telling the story while the other re-enacts it - doubling the joy of never knowing where  the regulars will appear and how the new  guest cast will be incorporated.

Best of all, this episode of TERRIFYING. The single scariest episode of AHS to date, and comparable to Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House.

Junior

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Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched
« Reply #2443 on: September 20, 2020, 07:37:27 AM »
Yup, its the most formally inventive season and it's also pretty scary throughout. I'm not saying everything works, but I am saying that it worked for me overall quite well. Good luck!
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1SO

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Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched
« Reply #2444 on: September 20, 2020, 09:12:31 PM »
Junior, I'm on episode 7.  ;D When I got to Ep. 6 I was like "wut?" but this is making a strong case for my favorite season. It reminds me of that shot in Mary Poppins Returns where you can tell the people who made this get it and know how to recapture the magic. I'm kind of disappointed the directors of Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity didn't do any of the episodes, but that's okay because it looks like they did.

Episode 6 sets up so much potential, it's the kind of delightfully overstuffed quality I like most about the show. Also, while Eps 2-5 pulled back to a more baseline AHS level of terror, 6 has raised the pulse again with warnings about what eventually happens to the people and a very scary scene where the Producer's assistant attempts to leave the show.

1SO

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Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched
« Reply #2445 on: September 21, 2020, 12:47:58 AM »
What a ride. Episode 10 is probably the worst AHS I've seen so far and I quickly grew tired of the hillbilly family. So, for 7 episodes Roanoke was the best season, but I want a better ending.

Junior

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Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched
« Reply #2446 on: September 21, 2020, 07:59:49 AM »
Yup, it doesn't end particularly well, but the rest is pretty fun, huh? I should revisit because I only remember the top details super well. Glad you mostly enjoyed it!
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1SO

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Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched
« Reply #2447 on: September 21, 2020, 09:49:57 AM »

"I'm just so scared now."
"Everyone is."

I could write pages on the first 5 minutes of AHS S7E1: Cult, which depicts election night 2016 within the context of a Horror show. For years we've been saying the Trump presidency is a nightmare and the opening captures those exact emotions. I don't know what I'm in for because I know IMDB ratings for this season are MAGA-skewed. Plus, what they're going for is already walking a knife's edge and I don't trust Ryan Murphy to keep things so balanced when he leans heavily liberal in the best of situations. For example, Evan Peters celebrates Trumps victory by blending up some cheetos and painting his face orange. That's a move that sits on the polar opposite of subtlety, but after hours of more monster-based horror, it didn't seem to me like the show had gone too far into camp and the overall serious tone kept it from being a silly idea, though I can understand others thinking that.


EDIT: 15 minutes in... "You want us to just let chaos reign in our community so that everyone gets so scared that they'll give us some sort of unlimited power to protect them?"
« Last Edit: September 21, 2020, 05:05:21 PM by 1SO »

smirnoff

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Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched
« Reply #2448 on: September 21, 2020, 12:03:19 PM »
Queen of the South (Netflix)

It feels similar to Sons of Anarchy in how it trots out a neverending string of gangs/cartels and their eccentric leaders which the protagonist is made to deal with. It's a few steps below Sons in terms of watchability/enjoyability, but my girlfriend kept putting on episodes and I found myself looking up from my computer often enough to follow it. The show becomes highly cyclical which on the one hand I sort of respected because it felt like a deliberate choice and theme of show, but on the other hand that repetitiveness often made me roll my eyes because it feels like the everything resets just as the story is about to take a step forward. In that way I began to tire of it and long for it to be over... but we were also deep enough into it, and into the outcomes of certain characters, to keep watching. Never as engaging as Sons or Ozark, but I hung in there.

1SO

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Re: Review the Last TV Episode/Season/Series You Watched
« Reply #2449 on: September 22, 2020, 10:54:43 PM »

American Horror Story Season 7: Cult
★ ★ ★ - Very Good

I'm giving this season a lot of latitude because after 5 season I watched set around a particular Horror setting and/or sub-genre, the show uses a bunch of different threads to create a tale of modern terror that can be called completely original, while still owing a debt to many pop culture monuments. It's the most ambitious and thought-provoking season even though parts of it are as bad as the show gets, including an entire episode centered on attempted Warhol assassin Valerie Solanas, played by Lena Dunham acting way out of her depth. (It's like Stranger Things S2E7, derailing but not destroying the show.)

The season begins with 3 epsiodes centered on Sarah Paulson's character, who has an irrational fear of many things, from honeycombs to the Trump presidency, but nothing terrifies her more than clowns. The writers suppose what if all her irrational anxiety came with good reason, including a gang of clown-masked murderers. (The masks are Asuperplus.) Her fear is so constantly realized, we can't tell if she's being gaslit or if it's just the show doing it's thing.

Eventually, we get the other side of events. Evan Peters plays a hyper-intelligent, 4chan, Trump supporter with a plan to start the revolution with an army of followers. Peters has been a constant MVP to the show and this season he delivers his Tyler Durden (Fight Club). He also gets to play other real life cult leaders in side stories, from Jim Jones to Charles Manson. This may sound scattershot, but Evans charismatic psychopath is one of the most stable benefits to the season.

Paulson is at the top of her game too, but playing an irrational character means occasionally behaving irrationally, and some of her stupid mistakes are easy to see coming. Paulson is handed the gift of Alison Pill to act off of and the pair are exceptional, which helps because Paulson stops making sense by the final stretch of episodes. Peters has a sister played by Billie Lourd, and their relationship is more logical, but Lourd doesn't have the acting skill yet to hang in with Peters.