Obi-Wan Kenobi This was trash, worse than I expected. It's like they were trying to channel their inner CW, and the actress playing the main antagonist Reva cannot act to save her life. She was constantly trying to act tough and enraged, and it felt so hammy and inauthentic like she was a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers villain. SPOILER WARNING The writing matched the acting ineptitude putting forth premises such as Reva discovered Anakin's twins right under Vader's nose without anyone suspecting anything, yet he knew of her ridiculous secret plot against him all along? And there are numerous near fatal close encounters for the young twins Leia and Luke (Vader's kids, who had been hidden away from him) yet no other inquisitor or Vader notices any of this? Also, why is the great Jedi Master who defeated Anakin/ Vader twice now, General Grievous, and Darth Maul constantly fleeing for his life from this nobody inquisitor, who Vader completely thrashes without trying? Obi-Wan is 2-2 with Darth Vader but doesn't dare mess with this clownish Power Ranger villain? And there is no way a subordinate disobeys and speaks to superiors the way she does without getting their neck snapped or chopped in half with a light saber within 10 seconds. Garbage.
Yeah I had all the same problems with the show. You got to turn off the voice in your head to enjoy any of it.
The Last Kingdom Take Vikings and flip the perspective to the Saxons and you have this show. It's set in the same time period and has many of the same characters.
Started watching Succession. It's loosely based off the Trump and Murdock families. It's a total back stabling train wreck of dysfunctional people. It's good, but I'm not sure if I want to keep watching it.
I've been watching the show The Silo on AppleTV+ and have found it to be pretty good. I wasn't familiar with the source material at all and thus can't tell you how well it's being adapted. Direction and acting have been pretty good. It has done a good job at maintaining mystery and suspense to hold my interest.
The Slio 8.5/10 I finished the series The Silo, and it was actually pretty damn good all the way through. Also of interest was that although I have not read the books it was based on, the fans of the books seem to be quite satisfied with the adaptation despite it not necessarily following everything in the books. The fact that there are 3 solid books in place that are already written and well liked also bodes well regarding future seasons. If you have AppleTV+, I'd recommend running through the 10 episodes, which are all available now. Do NOT go near reviews or videos about the show because it is very sensitive to spoilers, which is why I barely disclosed anything about it. From one episode to the next perceptions change quite a bit. You want to form your own theories about what is going to happen, which will continue to be modified as new information is revealed. I can't really think of a major weakness of the show, as the creative, artistic, and technical teams were all stellar in addition to the cast doing a great job. Blackbird 7.5/10 I also watched the 6-episode series Blackbird based on a real life serial killer and a drug dealer turned informant given the option to get dirt on the pedo screwball so he could have his sentence commuted. I was initially worried they were going to follow the corny Hollywood multiple personality plotline, as there were some behaviors suggesting that might be the direction things were going, but thankfully they didn't take that route. Acting was pretty solid, and they included some info about the real life counterparts and had a cameo from the real guy the protagonist is based on, a nice touch. It's also among the last roles of Ray Liotta, who played a character dying of cardiovascular problems before he actually later died of cardiovascular problems, which was a bit eerie. Very solid acting all the way through. It ended up being better than I expected.
Severance I decided to watch the rest of the episodes. This was so much better than I expected and had one hell of a finale. I was previously watching this series with a family member who wasn't nearly as into it as I was, and waiting on getting together to watch any more episodes I ended up distracted and watching other shows without finishing this one. I'd very strongly suggest avoiding spoilers, videos about the show, and perhaps even trailers given how sensitive it is to spoilers, particularly the final ~3 episodes. I'm probably going to eventually watch this a second time given the break I took between the early and later episodes and see if I notice things I missed during the initial viewing. I'm very much looking forward to Season 2 and thanks to this not being a Netflix series, I know it's not going to be immediately cancelled like most of their best shows.
I wanted to talk about Severance, but talking about it will spoil it. It's a fantastic show that people should just watch.
I'm trying to force myself to finish The Crowded Room starring Spider-boy. I should have stopped as soon as I saw it was written by Akiva Goldsman. I knew it was probably going to be a trainwreck in terms of storytelling but hoped having such a talented cast (Jason Isaacs is in it, for example) would help. It didn't.
I watched the first episode of Ahsoka. It feels low budget. Also a few episode into Season 3 of the Witcher and it's messy. I think they are trying to recover from their departure of the source material and it ends up being confusing. Cavill carries the show and I can't imagine it continuing without him.
I've been watching the series "Warrior" on Max, which I believe was originally made by Cinemax rather than HBO. It's based on Bruce Lee's original pitch for a martial arts series that seemed to be copied and stolen and turned into the "Kung-Fu" series with David Carradine. It is very well written and acted and looks fantastic, and even the social justice nuts are crazy about it because of all the "representation" bullshit they like to fawn over and racial issues being a major topic (as you'd expect from that time period). They have some legit martial artists in the cast and from what I understand there are no wires used in the martial arts scenes. It's very stylistic and set in the late 1800s in San Francisco. Similar to the Spaghetti Westerns being samurai movies remade as westerns, this series is kind of like a kung-fu show styled as a Western. I'm just in the middle of Season 1, but so far I can't really think of any major flaws so far. Given it seems to have originated from Cinemax/ Skinemax, it is also features graphic violence and lots of nudity of very attractive Asian actresses, which I have no complaints about.
Started watching the new season of Loki on Disney. I think it's one of the best Disney/Marvel shows they've made. WandaVision was pretty good too.
I finally forced myself 2 months later to finish the final 2 episodes of The Crowded Room. Don't watch this trash. It was abysmal. Everyone involved should be ashamed. I've watched the first few episodes of Apple's new Godzilla series Monarch, and it's pretty decent. They've made a few odd choices with the direction, having a second timeline via flashback and have been moving backwards in time there while progressing forward normally in the current day timeline, which I think some viewers will find confusing, but otherwise it has been enjoyable. The effects team is doing a bangup job. Some of the shots of Godzilla are putting these bloated budget superhero films with terrible CGI to shame.
Foundation I read the books many years ago. They have a lot of world building and broad conceptual stuff about future history, but almost nothing in terms of a plot or characters. I can see why the show is kind of doing its own thing within the world Asimov created. There's just not much to go on in the books. The clone emperors were not in the books, but I think it's a great addition. Overall the show is decent but not great.
I've watched an episode or two of Foundation, but decided I would wait a bit and give it some distance between watching all 6 seasons of The Expanse. It looks interesting, and I was amused by the contrast between the characters Jared Harris played in these two series.
The Last Narc 8.5/10 Everyone should see this crime documentary mini series consisting of 4 episodes. I'm familiar with the brutality of the Mexican (and previously Colombian) drug cartels, who are even more savage now than during the time period of the events in the documentary, but other factors turned this into a far more screwed up situation than I could have imagined. The primary focus is the capture, torture, and murder of an elite DEA agent. That is awful, but I was prepared for that component of the atrocity. But it got much worse and far more disturbing when more details were revealed. Something particularly unnerving about this docuseries is the fact that it's told by people in close proximity to this crime, including former henchmen involved in the agent's capture and the exemplary agent who cornered and squeezed the details out of them and revealed details no one expected or perhaps even wanted to know, including him. It's currently free on Amazon Prime Video. I highly recommend watching it while it is available.
ZeroZeroZero 8/10 I seem to be on a cartel kick, this time with an excellent semi-fictional series also on Amazon Prime Video. It's semi-fictional in the sense that the component in Mexico is based primarily on the development and rise of the Los Zetas, which became a brutal player in the cartel wars and the primary group responsible to elevating the warfare from street gang combat to high level military training, tactics, and equipment seen in the exceptionally brutal and ruthless combat of today's cartel battles. There is also a Italian mob/ cartel component and component of a small American family involved in only the smuggling of product between countries. It's an 8-episode series that covers the entirety of the source materials from what I understand, so a second season is very unlikely. The series is stylishly shot and well acted and directed. It's quite gritty and brutal, but there are actually relatively few major battles for anyone anticipating blockbuster action movie pacing. The majority of the focus is on the drama with some elements very reminiscent of Godfather and Traffik/ Traffic (series/ movie, which was inferior to that series). The actors playing the Mexican leader of the developing cartel and the American siblings are particularly impressive, but acting and direction are very good throughout. Apparently this has been out for a few years. I'd recommend watching it if you have Prime.