Ben Bradley

While some of the "aw shucks" writing can be a tad cringey at times, overall, I really enjoyed this show. I've been a fan of pro wrestling off and on for my entire life; as a child, pulled in by the larger than life characters and stories; then, as an adult, utterly fascinated by the business, its inner workings, and the people who populate it. One of the most important goals of the show, as told by O'Malley, was to make the show appealing to both wrestling fans and non-fans alike. An obvious goal, sure, but it's a really tricky line to walk. Extended dialogue explaining the definition of "kayfabe" and why it's important to make your heels as interesting as your faces feel like a waste of time to someone who regularly watches shoot interviews on YouTube. At the same time, someone who's never watched wrestling won't fully appreciate some things, like the extended appearances of wrestling couple CM Punk and AJ Lee and clips of AEW used as promos for the villainous FWD. Overall, they managed to walk that line quite well, although I often wished they'd let go of the clunky exposition and just let the audience do their own research. One of the greatest strengths of pro wrestling is its mythical, visceral storytelling that is engineered to connect with anyone who's willing to give it a watch. So, lean into that strength; so much 'splaining sometimes rings as insecurity, or worse, desperation. Some of the archaic good ol' boy morality I could've done without - one of Jack Spade's biggest inner conflicts in the first season is him coming to terms with the idea of his wife having a job - yet deeper Southern issues, like racism, are deftly sidestepped. Everyone is the nice, charitable, milk toast version of Christian. Without a doubt, Chris Bauer and Mike O'Malley elevate a decent, watchable show into something special. Bauer inhabits his aging Rassler character Wild Bill effortlessly, navigating insanely flowery dialogue that would be downright ridiculous coming from anyone else. O'Malley absolutely kills as Charlie "God of Chaos" Gully, a villain so insidious that one must begrudgingly admit, damn...sometimes the Devil makes a good point. His relationship with his daughter is oddly likable. The rest of the cast is great to adequate, but in my eyes, those two are the clear standouts. I'd love to see a third season, as there is clearly plenty of business still to be handled. If they do continue, I hope that they can trust the audience a little bit more, and focus on telling a good story within the wrestling business, rather than explaining to us what we're watching and why it's good.

Ugh. Just watch Oz again. The setup doesn't make any sense. Based on the description, I assumed Tyrese's character was an undercover cop going into the story - heh, no - he's just some dude who breaks into houses (assuming these houses are full of drug dealers, I guess he's been right so far), kicks the stuffing out of whoever's there, and robs them! When he gets caught and (gasp) sent to prison for doing this, and apparently he's done it more than once...?...oh, and by the way, he only got a ten year sentence. For trespassing against, terrorizing, maiming, and stealing from, just, so many people. I guess because his victims were poor and had it coming. So anyway, after he's caught, this police chief calls him into his office...to offer him a job! This evil, corrupt (REPUBLICAN) warden runs this evil, corrupt prison, and the only solution he can come up with is giving this sociopath a cell phone like some kind of bizarre social media experiment. Jeremy Piven plays the cartoon character hyucking warden, Terrence Howard plays Terrence Howard, and Lil Yachty plays a guy who can't act. Curiously, all three are executive producers. That must have been a fun Zoom meeting. The footage from that lost meeting, I imagine, was the only compelling footage involved with this project. F -

It's the best TV show ever made. Period. This is how good it is: My wife isn't a fan of mob stories like I am, but nevertheless I managed to convince her to recently binge the whole show followed by Many Saints. After we finished the movie, I jokingly turned to her and said, "Cool, now we can start the show over with a new perspective!" Ever since then, she's been casually bringing up starting the show over again. Personally, I have a hard time "finishing" shows. I'll get frustrated with the characters or the direction of the show, or just distracted or bored, move on to something else and never come back to it. The Sopranos is an extremely rare combination of quality and originality, with characters and choices that will have you debating back and forth well after the show is over. Oh, and the ending... it's genius. It's the best possible ending, and that's all I can really say about that. If you haven't watched the show before, I'd be curious to see how well it holds up culturally twenty years or so later. Some of the viewpoints may seem archaic, especially as far as race and sexuality, and ESPECIALLY the overall treatment of women, but maybe it can also serve as a cultural touchstone, to a certain extent. It's a pretty rough ride; maybe not quite as consistently raw as Oz, but it definitely has its moments. This was my third viewing of the entire series, and I noticed myself getting more frustrated with Tony Soprano and liking him less this time around. More than anything else, I think that signifies changes within myself - it isn't like the characters are doing anything differently than before - and reflected questions in my own morality. In 2000, I was 18, watching Sopranos with my dad, and Tony was COOL. I would've even been proud for Tony to be my dad. That's a profound thought twenty three years later, when I find myself disgusted with both Tony and even myself a little bit for ever feeling that way. These aren't just mob guys on the fringes of society shooting each other over territory - they're fully fleshed people with the same strengths and weaknesses - most notably, looking for something profound - maybe even pure - in the mundanity of everyday life. I'm looking forward to the fourth viewing... when my wife manages to wear me down.

I'm pretty shocked that this movie is currently clocking 82% on rotten tomatoes. The story is an extremely straight forward, A-B-C survival type affair, with the lightest of flashbacks sprinkled in. I thought the acting was quite good, in fact what these folks did with the material might have been a small miracle. I was in a tug of war with myself over liking the main character, enjoying the performance but HATING the choices laid out in the script. Yes, she does a couple of really, really dumb things while presumably trying to stay alive, and we all feel the consequences. Let's be clear: if I were ever in that type of situation, a mano-a-mano to the death while cut off from civilization, I'm sure I'd make a lot of mistakes, especially from the vantage point of a casual outside viewer. But that's only one of many reasons why I'm not the hero in an action movie. I don't have to be likable to an audience. The main character of a movie, however, at least one through which we're vicariously experiencing the story, does. We want to be behind the hero, cheering for her when she gets in a good shot, or gritting our teeth when she's in danger. Otherwise, it's just frustrating. That's how I left this movie: frustrated. Yes, there are some positives; the performances are universally solid, the Steadicam is DAMN good in some places, make-up and effects perfectly competent, and an interesting if not a bit heavy handed score. It would have been cool if this was all servicing a compelling, complete, and ultimately satisfying story.

There is some potential here, but to me this feels like another 1/2-3/4 of a horror story that was rushed out to dupe as many viewers as possible into watching as long as possible. Well, I watched all the way to the end, and I regret it. It isn't an egregious affront to cinema - I've seen much, much worse, and in many different ways - it's just....eh.

I was trying really hard to give this movie a fair shake. It isn't going to be the manga...which I only read sparingly (my wife is a die hard fan of the series and she owns the books)...and it isn't going to be the anime, which just happens to be one of the smartest and most gracefully genre-defying shows ever made. Seriously, ask any anime fan, it'll be in their top ten if not top three. So those are some big shoes to fill. Adam Wingard, while not producing anything mind blowing so far, is the kind of filmmaker I like: quick and dirty, and a true fanboy of the genres in which he works. My point is, I tried really hard to like this movie. The problem is, it has the wrong title. While there is a Death Note in the movie, and a death god, and characters named Light and L, the resemblance immediately ends there. I understand that it's an adaptation. The point of an adaptation is not to copy the source material, but rather attempt to capture its essence in a new form. And that's exactly where this movie fell dramatically short. The appeal of Death Note is the cat and mouse game between the two main characters and how they choose to conduct that game. Underneath the surface, there's the complicated moral dilemmas placed in front of these characters, and therefore the audience. This movie is way too cool and emo to even question whether or not what Light and his dingbat girlfriend are doing is ethically debatable. They're young and mad at the world, so let's decapitate some bullies. So the filmmakers weren't trying to do the original source material, that's obvious...and it would have been fine if they had given us a satisfying alternative. In the book, Light was arguably a bad guy, or at the very least megalomaniacal, but he was likable because he was such an interesting, and damn formidable, and therefore credible, character. In the movie, once they introduced L, the super genius kid detective, I was like, "oh, Light is screwed," because his characterization as a formidable opponent was all but non-existent, adding up to doing other kids' homework for cash, and just other characters saying that he's smart. I could go on, but I just don't care enough about this movie to continue, and my brain is otherwise busy trying to forget it ever existed.