Thu Nguyen

Start with Season 2, Episode 2, and watch until the end. That's my advice to anyone who wants to make the best out of this show. Luckily I did, and it was the BEST comedy I've seen in a while. So ingenious, so perfect in its comedic timing, so creative and just genuinely FUNNY. Easily 5/5 stars. Fast-paced, exciting, and you really don't need any prior information or context to enjoy it. You can make good inferences. It was just so SO good, and I was hooked. Yes, there were some 'WTF?' moments, but it's incorporated in a way that doesn't make you feel lost or bored. Just SO GOOD!!! When I finished I went back to watch the first episode of Season 2. And I can see why some people really hate this show, and why my initial negative judgement was right. And don't get me started on Season 1. I read through the plot summaries and it just sounded awful. Tonally dissonant, dark, and it just didn't make sense. There's no meaning or humanity or depth. Just gratuitous sex, violence, and muddy ideological overtones. There's no message, and if there were it's not earned. 1/5 stars. Complete opposite of what I enjoyed. So overall, it's 3/5 stars. You can love some parts and hate others. Fortunately I started watching at just the right episode. VERDICT: Skip the entirety of Season 1, and the first episode of Season 2. Start with S2:E2, and watch until the end.

If "Cunk on Earth" was a clever masterpiece, "Cunk on Life" is a sh*tpost that seems to contain the most idiotic of musings from its producer, Charlie Brooker. That is the most concise and accurate description I could give about this dumpster fire. The subject matter often didn't have anything to do with "Life" itself; the "jokes" did not land—most of them are just horribly dark, lewd, and juvenile cringeworthy skits; and the show seems to have been unburdened by a sense of respect for itself, its actors and its interviewees, and knowledge in general. "Cunk on Earth" was an informative, relatable, and riotously funny chronicle of human history, at just the right times. "Cunk on Life" was an absolute mess of the writers throwing everything, and I mean everything, at the wall and see what sticks. Spoiler/mental health alert: when the movie turned into a fake interview with a death row inmate, an irresponsible s*icide contagion promoter, and a p*rno for a few minutes, I grimaced and felt physically sick. It's so astonishingly bad, I wanted to give it a zero. But that's not possible, so I give it a one. After halfway through I decided to skip towards the end of this madness. "Mirrors are windows into other universes, aren't they?" she asked a physicist. After a few more mindnumbing volleys of "jokes," he appears dejected and conspicuously exhausted. "Sorry, am I wasting your time?" she asked. After a pregnant pause, he replied, "Yeah." VERDICT: NOT worth watching.

Honest review: It’s just as mid as I expected. If you expect it to look anything remotely like A Quiet Place or its worse sequel, you’d be dead wrong. A terminally ill woman with cancer decides against being rescued to instead eat pizza. This is what the entire movie is about. Why? Because Nostalgia and, of course, Not Afraid to Die When You’re Dying Anyways, all the while putting her therapy cat in the most danger possible in the midst of an alien invasion, and dodging every monster attack because Plot Armor and Deus Ex Machina. I’d almost forgotten the supporting actor because he contributed nothing to the story other than as a dialogue filler. The middle becomes repetitive, there’s no climax and denouement, and everything becomes predictable—right up until the very last moments, where you can tell exactly when Michael Bublé’s overused “Feeling Good” beat would drop. Hell, we aren’t even supposed to root for the main character’s survival because she herself does not want to live. What is there to celebrate? That playing with Death for a continuity of human hedonism is a brave act of Resistance? It’s heartbreaking, but pity does not confer excellence. I already read the reviews beforehand and knew it was going to be mediocre. Everyone in the room started playing on their phones after half an hour or so knowing they’ve wasted their money. If there was one thing the movie wanted us to take away from, it was that no cat will ever be that calm, and if there were several things, it was that the scariest thing in the world is a cat’s desire to do whatever the hell it wants. Two stars for Frodo only, he’s the real star that stole the show. VERDICT: Not worth it.