My wife and I loved every second of this remarkable series! We grew up listening to the Beatles in the 1970s. What an amazing treat it was to sit in on their recording sessions and to watch them give birth to some of their greatest songs! I know there was a lot of acrimony between the band members during this period, but what comes through in this series is that, despite it all, Paul and John had a tremendous amount of genuine affection for each other. Another thing made clear is that Yoko Ono had nothing to do with the split.
I especially loved the scene when George (my favorite Beatle) quits the band. I love Paul, but have always been sad about the way he and John were in denial about what a genius George was. If they had let him, he could have contributed so much more when the band was still together.
The only criticism I have of the show is directed at the original filmmakers who neglected to put a camera on Billy Preston during the rooftop concert. This series is a must see for every Beatles fan!
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Jean Yoon are brilliant and, although there are other good performances in "Kim's Convenience," the two leads really carry the show. I often wish it had been written with more depth as a dramedy instead of as a mediocre sitcom. I'm sure most of the cast would have been up to the task and, given the genius of Yoon and Lee, it feels like a squandered opportunity. Another thing I find disappointing about the show is that Simu Liu's character is written with very few likable traits. He never goes out of his way for anyone and it's hard to understand why anyone else on the show would want to be friends with him. Lastly, I find myself cringing at the jokes written at the expense of Terence. The character played by Michael Musi seems to be on the autism spectrum and his tendency to take everybody literally and inability to pick up on social cues are supposed to be funny. Are we still making people with disabilities the butt of jokes this far into the 21st century?
"Midnight Mass" is the best written show I've seen since "The Leftovers." I'm not really a big fan of horror, but this series blew me away. If you can suspend your disbelief, it's probably one of the most accurate depictions of religious cult in fiction you'll ever see or read.
We started watching this show because we like Stephen King and love Julianne Moore, but this show is unwatchable. It might have made a decent two-hour movie, but Lisey's Story is endlessly repetitive and aggressively boring.
I stopped watching this show halfway through the second episode because I was unimpressed with the dialogue and lack of ethnic diversity in the cast. The overbearing male toxicity was also hard to take, until I realized that it was actually the point. This miniseries supersized me in a good way. I gave it another chance and ended up being impressed.
When I was in middle school at the end of the 1970s, there was a similar scandal in my school when it came out that a 14-year-old male classmate of mine was sleeping with a 21-year-old student teacher. I remember well how devastating the experience was for my friend and I don't think he ever got over it. Amazingly, neither the parents nor the school pressed charges. Thinks certainly have changed.
I'll watch anything with Ann Dowd and Elisabeth Moss in it. The rest of the cast in this show is pretty awesome too. But I agree with the folks that say it's time to wrap this series up.
It's remarkable how little happens in this show. The dialogue gets quite tiresome by the second season. In a single episode, the character played by Boris McGiver demands: "What have you done?" as many as 20 times. I can't believe the producers of this show read the treatment and thought they could milk two seasons (or is it three?) out of a story that might have made a boring 90 minute film. Two stars because Boris McGiver is in this and he's great.
The first season of Schitt's Creek is weak, but I promise you it only gets better and better. I rarely found myself laughing out loud during this show, but I enjoyed it very much. Maybe that's because I couldn't help falling in love with the Roses and the rest of the crazy characters in this small town in some never-specified-region of rural North America.
The premise of Schitt's Creek has been done before. In some ways, it reminded me of Arrested Development, especially in the absurdity of Moira and Johnny's thirty-something children being forced to move into a motel suite with their parents as if they were dependent underage children.
What I liked most about the show was the very gradual transformation of some of the characters from season to season. I enjoyed this aspect of the show so much that I kind of wish it had been rewritten as a drama with comedic elements, instead of the other way around.
I have long enjoyed the work of Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara in Christopher Guest films, but I was delighted to be introduced to Daniel Levy. I can't wait to see what he does next!
The fact that the stock footage of the white house and grounds they use for this show never depicts the same season twice in a single episode tells you everything you need to know about "Designated Survivor." In one shot, the trees are bright orange, in the next, it's mid summer. By the end of the episode, the trees are bare. They approach the rest of the production in the same way.
It's fair to say that all television productions are commercial ventures, but the best shows appeal to a large audience and are not written merely to satisfy the lowest common denominator. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's when characters are referred to as "brilliant" without actually doing or saying anything even particularly clever. This show was not written by Aaron Sorkin!
That said, I'm up to episode ten of the first season and can't stop watching. I've never seen Kiefer Sutherland in anything in decades and he's eminently likable as President Krirkman.
I've been intrigued by the story of Eli Cohen my whole life and was thrilled that it was finally made into a mini-series. Sacha Baron Cohen is a superb dramatic actor and I loved him in this! The only thing I would have changed is the language. It would have felt more authentic if it had been in Arabic and Hebrew like "Fauda" instead of heavily accented English.
