Robert M

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After trying hard to watch this series and each of it seasons, I can sum up my experience in one word: disappointment. Before I go further, I’d say the worst part of “Picard” is that the show runners think they are doing such a good job. They think this is all deeply moving art, instead of the nostalgia cash grab that it actually is. I watched season 1 thinking it was mostly okay until I began to notice the “Nu Trek” way everyone was talking and acting, that I first noticed on “Discovery”. In this new version officers openly argue with each other on the bridge and they get panic attacks. Starfleet is also no longer the shining beacon of the future it was once depicted as, instead a huge bloated government filled with secret operatives and organizations. Star Trek TNG was such a wonderful series. There was still excitement and conflict, to be sure, they just didn’t rely on a bunch of infighting and character assassination to move the story along like this series does. Season 2 was in no way an improvement over season 1. Same issues. An example of the terrible writing in this series is the fact that every single unique character introduced into “Picard” is horribly written, annoying, and pointless. They tried and failed to introduce any compelling new characters to this series at any point from 1-3. I also don’t enjoy how this series “resurrects” characters from TNG in order to quickly kill them off to generate cheap drama. This happens multiple times throughout the 3 seasons. They just can’t bring themselves to kill off the OG crew, but all ancillary players are completely expendable. Season 3 though has to be the worst. Smartly, the show runners realized by S.3 that their new characters just weren’t working, so are mostly sidelined here, but the generic plot itself isn’t even from TNG, it’s from DS9. I loved DS9 but maybe give it’s characters their own show? The season 3 was originally touted as the big reunion of the main crew, but all the characters, and I mean all of them except Worf, act completely against their characters. Good writing job guys! It’s all a big trick to shoehorn fake drama into the series by bad writers who don’t know the material. “Let’s have Riker yell angrily at Picard, that’s what the audience wants to see!” No. They don’t.

Beyond inane. Anyone labeling this as a “masterpiece” truly has no understanding of writing, direction, plot, set design, casting, or anything else having to do with cinema or how to be entertaining, to be honest. I can’t fathom “how” this film got any positive reviews at all? I’m honestly perplexed at even a 20% approval rating. I’m assuming it’s trolls and those involved in the production of the film, as no other reason makes sense. Trump’s Presidency was the death of truth and honesty, and this film wants to herald the death of good taste, apparently. Maybe it’s fitting this came out in 2019, a pretty terrible year for the world ends with one of the worst films in cinematic history.

I’m shocked at all the positive reviews of this show. Is everyone’s “this is bad” sense broken, or something? Ever since Game of Thrones it’s like the nerd fandom in general just automatically loves anything fantasy with a big budget and “adult” levels of violence, language, nudity, etc. Just because you have money to blow doesn’t mean you’ll spend it well, and just because you CAN show nudity and language, also doesn’t mean you necessarily should. Now, I’m no prude, I have no problem with violence, language, or nudity, if it serves a purpose. Often times in this series it does not, it has another reason for the random displays of nudity and violence. This series was obviously given direction to “be like GoT”, as it displays in spades, and the lazy hack writers figured the easiest ways to do this was random shots of topless women and extra-bloody battles. Again, I have no issue with such things if they aren’t injected without purpose, but the writing on this series in general is just painfully bad. Around the time a magic-imbued couple had a phantom audience watching their lovemaking, complete with applause, mentally I was about done with the series...and yet, still 4 more episodes to go! The worst part is that it’s all very boring and dull. I never thought a show about magic and monsters and boobies could be so dull, and yet it is. Henry Cavill is serviceable in the lead role, but perhaps he needs to give up on science fiction.

Weird and terrible. The premise of this film is intriguing, but the delivery is totally flat. I see a “just here for the paycheck” performance by Paul Rudd, who is horribly miscast in the role of an “evil doer.” That’s about all I can say for his character arc, as the film makes his character so preposterously bad in every way that it’s obvious this was just an attempt at creative casting that falls flat. I hope Adam Sandler and Paul Rudd are happy collecting their giant paychecks for the dreck they make for Netflix, because watching this film actually made me think less of Paul as an actor, was it worth the money? Anyway, beyond odd casting choices, the film narrative itself is just random and wanders from one scene to the next like our wide-eyed, silent protagonist. I’m not sure what to think of the lead’s role in this film, but it reminded me a lot of Frodo’s portrayal in TLOTR Return of the King, where he spends most of the film staring blankly, overcome by his situation, and doing very little about it. It’s almost as if being “mute” has impacted all of his other faculties as well, or someone cast a stupidity spell on him. Is it because he’s Amish, a plot point introduced in the first frame but quickly disposed of afterwards? Maybe, but the film doesn’t do much to explore this. I’m assuming the script was redone by multiple people, hence the hackish pace. For a big budget film with a big budget cast, it was just an overall bore.

Well, I wasn’t a theater buff in school nor out of it, except the occasional musical done on film. I’d say I am definitely not Disney’s target audience for this show. That being said, I found “Encore” to be surprisingly easy to watch. The former high school drama club members spotlighted in each episode manage to mostly pull off a functional version of their musical, but you didn’t come here to watch “stars”. This show is actually about real people who live normal lives and are briefly given a shot to do what most never get to do, “go back again”, and the drama these reunions may cause. The most fascinating part of the series has been learning how individuals struggled or succeeded post HS, and unresolved issues and conflicts that arise during taping. I haven’t seen anything over the top, ridiculous arguments or staged drama yet, so here’s hoping Disney keeps this show on the level. My only 2 complaints are: 1) I feel like each episode is too short, because they are trying to juggle reunions, personal drama, practice, and the final show, all in less than 1 hour. My advice would be to dive deeper into the human interactions, and less about the musical itself, which would create a more compelling drama for the audience (or just make it longer). The stilted editing pace results in many story arcs without any form of resolution, so even covering them to begin with seemed like a waste of time. 2) I’ve noticed some repetition in the format. People reunite, air initial grievances / memories, dumb “practice” singing session (that only exists to embarrass the performers I think), roles cast, practice, some personal drama is revealed, practice, show airs, people do “good enough”, end. This repetitive narrative style may cause me to lose interest in the show quickly, but I’ll keep at for a few more episodes, at least.

Netflix must have deeper purse strings than 15th Century French Kings, because they (seemingly) have endless amounts of cash to throw away on forgettable films such as "The King". I'm sure a large portion of the budget went to the films stars, Timothée Chalamet and Robert Pattinson. The stars of the film certainly know how to look like spoiled brat royalty, but when it comes to actual dialogue, they kind of say...nothing. I would say that's my biggest complaint about the entirety of "The King", kind of nothing happens. Oh, that's not to say stuff doesn't "happen", it does, it's just that everything on display, has been on display in countless "political intrigue" movies about the Middle Ages, many times before, and nothing new is added to the mix with this one. I found the movie especially annoying though, due to its leads. Timothée Chalamet is just a wonder of an actor to me, as in, I wonder how the heck he became such a big deal? Whenever he appears on screen, he looks sad, about...something? We are never quite sure. His character motivations spring from absolutely nowhere. One second he is desperate to avoid conflict with France to save innocent lives from conflict, the next moment he is executing prisoners to avoid being bothered with their care. I think the attempt is to portray Henry V as a "troubled" or as a "conflicted" king, but Timothée Chalamet's portrayal is such a hack performance that any attempts to portray Henry V as such just comes off as a permanently pained look on Chalamet's face. Seriously, get this guy a laxative. Robert Pattinson does slightly better than Chalamet, but that's only because he is capable of portraying 2 emotions on screen: Bemused and anger. I suppose that's 1 better than Chalamet. I shudder to think what sort of cash Netflix threw at the leads of this mess. Considering they are still paying Adam Sandler $30 million a pop to flounder about on-screen like its 1998, and I'd like to guess: too much. On the bright side, at the very end of the movie, we get to see Johnny Depp's kid in a completely pointless, 3-5 minute cameo that screams "My Dad is famous! Look! I'm in a movie!"

This show is just so...stale. NBC’s 2019 comedy lineup shows that their writers have learned nothing from past mistakes. Boiled down to its most basic elements, this show is basically just AP Bio all over again. A cast of “kooky” characters led by a man who doesn’t really want to lead them...but he does, because (secretly) he needs them more than they need him blah blah blah. Could we please get some originality on network TV? No wonder streaming services are killing network ratings. I doubt this show lasts it’s original run of episodes before it gets canceled.

If I had to sum up this series in one word, it would be “insufferable”. The main cast are some of the most charismatically unlikeable people I’ve ever seen. And I get it, the “big reveal” makes it obvious why everyone is kind of terrible, but in real life “bad” people don’t show their cards so soon, they manipulate, they seem “good”. There may have been an attempt at this, but I suppose maybe the caliber of the acting might explain why these people seemed especially annoying. Beyond that, the premise was good, but the reveal comes way too soon for it to be emotionally impactful, at all. Also, once the characters realize the truth, their actions go from implausible to downright absurd. They are specifically told what not to do to not die, then are incredibly shocked when they break the rules...and die?? The protagonist was especially a problem, because she is borderline unwatchable from the moment she comes on the screen, such an abrasive personality. This show was, ultimately, a big waste of time. Skip it.