Jamie Reviews

Overall: One of the best shows on TV. Review: Excellent show. The first episode is pure 80s horror, but if you don't like horror and can get through the first episode you will be rewarded. Excellent cast, acting, story.

Overall: Very good. Just gets stranger and stranger - in a good way. Review: I saw it and thought 'I don't want to watch a stupid cowboy show' but the good reviews dragged me in. After the first episode it just gets cookier and more mysterious. I loved the bit where two characters are playing cards, there's a thump on the window and somebody opens it to see a Bison knocking, which is the deciding factor which makes one character gamble big. Season 2 was also good, but they did the thing (like Back to the Future) where somebody changes events that already happened in the show - I don't like when they do that sort of thing so if there is a season 3 I hope they can dig out of that as that to me is the only thing wrong. Worth a watch for anybody looking for something.

Overall: Generic and boring modern fantasy show, atrocious adaption. Ruined what could have been great as there is enough source material for 10 seasons. The Show: As a TV show in itself, it's another fantasy show. The showrunners have made it into yet another of the plethora of similar shows, however more poorly made than others. The sets look cheap, like Dr Who sets, e.g. the White Tower is supposed to be majestic and ancient, they make it look like the sets of Blackadder. If I was Jeff Bezos I'd be demanding to see where my 10m dollars per episode went - I'd be calling in the forensic accountants. For some reason there appears to be a lot of bots leaving positive reviews, all sounding the same. As an Adaption: Where do I start - in fact, don't rely on me for information, feel free to search the hundreds of youtube videos and forums trashing the adaption. Briefly, the showrunners completely misunderstood the story, or simply didn't care. The books have a massive following due to the charm of the story, there is the battle of the sexes, clash of cultures with amusing consequences, action, mystery etc. The show completely misses all of this. Two examples: first, it starts in an isolated village where few people have visited in hundreds of years and so everybody looks the same except for one person who looks different - this is a major plotline of the early story of why he looks different, however the show has the village looking like New York City with a mix of people from everywhere - completely misses the point. Second, one of the main characters, Matt, is a charming rogue in the books, but in the show they just have him as a dishonourable thief (in fact I think they mixed him up with Jimmy the Hand from the Feist books). Final example: Although I only got to Ep 2 of Season 2 before I couldn't watch any more, I did see a youtube video of the Battle of Falme (finale of Season 2), in the books this is a huge battle with resurrected heroes in a mist, the show appears to have made it into a dozen people dressed for a cosplay event. Casting: Not great, some act ok but nothing brilliant. The best cast member left after the first season. Rosamund Pike is annoying when she pulls her stupid faces trying to look mysterious. Most of the female actors appear to have been made to look quite masculine. My background: Have read the books.

Overall: Great show, a lot of fun. Review: The show follows somebody leaving an underground bunker community generations after a nuclear war. The characters are likeable and the story is good. Definitely worth a watch. Prior knowledge: I haven't seen the games and was not familiar with the franchise when I saw the show.

Overall impression: Good but missed the opportunity to be great. Still worth a watch though. Rating: Season 1 was quite good, Season 2 was good in parts but a bit of a drag. Review: Season 1 went quite well, good story line. It deviated from the books (see below) but held itself. The clone emperors weren't in the books but they actually worked quite well. Season 2 really dragged in parts - the 2 stranded characters seemed to add nothing to the progression of the story - I thought the showrunners were trying to make that storyline into the Gaia storyline from the books, which should have occurred centuries after, but I'm glad they didn't do that in the end. However, that whole storyline was painfully slow. It has the modern trope of gender swaps and 'standard' characters unnecessarily inserted into shows these days, e.g. an athletic woman with short hair and sassy attitude who always wears a flightsuit/overalls/workwear with GI boots (first time I saw this was in Aliens, but have since seen the same generic character in The Expanse, Edge of Tomorrow, Silo and a lot of other stuff - studio research must show that this character appeals to some group), the gay relationship in season 2 where the partner could be completely written out and not affect the story at all (I'm guessing the studio decided 'hey, we'll add a gay character to show how diverse we are' - not patronising at all), the tough guy with the beard and short hair in flight suit/overalls and boots (been in shows and movies for the past decade or so). Missed Opportunities: My main complaint about this is the character who is supposed to be R Daneel Olivaw from the books. His purpose was to advance the human race and to do so he established the empire, occasionally ran it in the background, replaced it with the Foundation by tinkering with Harri's brain etc etc - he would have been willing to destroy the empire to save humanity. The show version has him (now her) just devoted to the emperors, more specifically a deceased version. I sincerely hope that in Season 3 they can dig out of this hole. Daneel's purpose would add so much complexity to the show other than just being a servant to a dead emperor. My prior knowledge: I read the books more than a decade ago.