Reviews by charidotes20

It was so good I had to watch the whole first season in one sitting. (Got it from Netflix.) It was that good.

I've read a few novels that I like set in the Victorian period, and this was even better than reading about it; it was like being there. I also really liked it because I think this is a period in history that is generally *very* mis-understood by most people--people don't really understand why things happened the way they did back then, much less how people felt about it. Downton Abbey paints a picture of the Victorians in all their troubled glory, in their veritable eleventh hour--the last moments before it all came crashing down....The last episode in particular, has a terrible elegance, and a tragic beauty to it.

Update: And no, I haven't read the book, 'The Strange Death Of Liberal England', but I heard about it, and I thought, Hey, I watched that on TV.

And, since I guess it deserves a more personal note too...well, if you can't feel bad for Matthew, then I don't wanna be your friend.

Anyway.

.....

A pretty good show-- a pretty good show, in itself.

An over-rated show, which comes with being a historical drama. Not bad, in itself.

Although the thing about historical stuff is that it's a little.... fan-like....

Usually better as a sort of aide-memoire to studying something else, than drama totally in itself.

So that's why it's not *as* good, maybe, as some people carry on.... I mean, there's certainly worse, I don't know.... it's like with "Rome"-- although this actually a bit better than Rome, although Rome isn't bad, it has characters too-- Rome is, like, *really good*, if you're, like.... *that guy*, but actually it's kindof average. And this is better than average....

{And anything is like that, it's just that there's a difference between a use of the medium and the medium itself, and its quality-- even when we're not talking about something which is a base exploitation, or like that....

And some things are (stupid) you know, I'm just not in the mood.... because this isn't bad, itself, so why compare it to something that is.}

I don't know-- they're good shows, and I don't think that they're exploitations, like, you know, you buy the rights to a certain author's work, and then you just sell the label and the grand idea-- I don't think I need to get into another one of those speeches, you know-- and this isn't that, and in a way I'm not even disappointed or anything, it's just that.... I'd prefer, not to over-rate it or anything.

It is, rather good.

(9/10)

Atlantis was not a bad show. But I never thought it was a great show. It's main problem is that it is a spin-off that never really quite defined its relationship to the parent show--the phenomenal SG-1-- well enough. It loses much of the appeal of the original, both by its change of location (Atlantis was, for me, never as interesting as Earth) and, more importantly, its change of emphasis. SG-1 was always about the team, SG-1, that the show took its name from. Atlantis seemed unsure whether it wanted to be a show about the teams that explored via the wormholes, or a show about the space station, Atlantis. (I understand that this created some interesting conflict/tension between Sheppard and Weir, but in my opinion this was just not done well enough to justify the ambiguity about the subject matter that this does to the show. Also, this relationship is not as interesting as the similar relationship between Adama and Roslin in Galactica--Atlantis' treatment of military-civilian conflict is mediocre in comparison.) SG-1 is a great show about exploration, (Star Trek) Deep Space Nine is a great show about a space station, Atlantis, in my experience, tries to do both, but excels at neither the one nor the other. Also, although I can see the writers obviously put a lot of thought into character development, the cast of Atlantis was never as interesting to me as the cast of SG-1 (or DS9, for that matter). Occasional cameos from SG-1 characters did not make up for this, or the fact that Atlantis wanders too far from the ground well-trodden by SG-1 to really bask in its reflected glory, while still never actually achieving real independence either.

This is not to say that the show is terrible; it's generally OK, sometimes rather good. I know my criticisms have been lengthy, but only to explain why I don't think the show is as great as its predecessor. Also, since I lost interest in the series after a certain point, I honestly don't know if it made any amazing improvements in its last season or two; I can only comment on my personal experience with the show.

(7/10)

Larry David is funny, always getting himself into trouble; and he kinda makes you think, about....

*deletes sentence*

I don't know what he makes you think about.

I'm just going to try to *avoid* making any false steps myself, right now....

(9/10)

I saw this when I was a kid; my dad told me it was good, but it sucked.

Everything about it was bad--the characters sucked, the plot sucked, the total unrealism insulted your intelligence, the sci-fi wonder-workings were bland and ordinary, even the much-hailed final fight was stupid and not worth watching.

....And, on further reflection, I'll admit: maybe it was supposed to be funny. And, God knows, sci-fi could use a little more comedy and a little less drama. But, still...it wasn't that funny, so I'm only going to increase my rating of it in the most marginal way....

I try not to overdo my comparisons (tho who knows if I do), but "Galaxy Quest" was a much better execution of the much-neglected comedic aspect of this genre. I think it was unique in a way that this one could only dream of being.

So, in the end, I think that, while this movie was not terrible, it was pretty *stale*, at the very least. You know, like bread that would've been great, if you hadn't left it out overnight. And, maybe that has something to do with the fact that it's a pretty damn old movie for such a young genre (the dim hazy beginnings of Star Trek and Star Wars only go back to the 60s and 70s, respectively), but...

You know, dig up some review from the 80s, then, if you want to hear somebody rave about it.

....

What I mean is, that it tries to be funny, but it's just too suck-y to be funny.

That is, sometimes it's fun to be goofy, but if you're going to talk about the big bad world, then sometimes you've just got to be a little real....

It's hard to say, but.... Confusing two different kinds of things, is rarely good.

(6/10)

"Monk" is pretty cool...not least because Adrian Monk himself is so crazy. He has a basically unbeatable ability to solve crimes, but he also has so many phobias and quirks that he can manage to get himself into almost as much trouble as he solves...or at least it seems like that, sometimes. ;)

(Basically, he's a neat freak, an organization freak, and a bit of a paranoid, in general. And we love him. :P )

Monk is very clearly the main character, but the supporting characters are also very likeable and pretty real too. So, it's a good show.

~~ Best Episode Ever: "Mr. Monk And The Garbage Strike"

{'Mr. Monk, you're now sitting in the cleanest room in the world.'}

.....

"I love my work; is that a crime?"

.....

And it's sorta the one to end it all, you know.... I mean, it is a little bit like "The Big Bang Theory", (and the people who use Jim Parsons as the symbol of the geek shop are missing the point, IMO), and that's actually why "Monk" is the better show, I think, (with apologies to TBS, which I love), because nobody would use Tony Shalhoub as the symbolic center of anything.

I mean, it's funny, in a way, that it's on "Cloo", because if you took the show seriously, you might stop watching cop shows.

'8 Simple Rules', you know.

'Very funny'.

"Who cares, one day you and your father will both be dead, but that plaque by the soda machine is *forever*!"

Days without incident. ;)

.... It's just that alot of the guest characters on this show had a bit of a mean streak, you know?

(9/10)

Family Guy is kinda wierd. It's kinda funny, it's just not....about...anything. Y'know?

.....

*chuckles* But, hey, Meg is *Mila Kunis*!

And Stewie! And. Stewie.

So.... just think of it, as an idea-ball. Love is an idea-ball.

And, really, isn't it the same with Seinfeld, or really anything that's about a family, or a group of friends, instead of a grand politico-kill-y narrative?

....

And it is like "King of Queens" on steroids.

Although Kevin James is more sympathetic on a show with Jerry Stiller and without Mila Kunis.

But, hey, it's an animated show, and at least it's not a Star Wars.... television series (!), hmmm, I didn't even know that they did that.

Anyway, it's not South Park, is it.

(8/10)

Great story, great cast, great experience. I made a point to watch every episode; it was so good it would almost be hard not to.

Although I suppose that the one potentially negative thing that you could say about it is that it's a tad heavy, sometimes philosophical (maybe political) and very military: the survival of the human race, and all that. Well, nothing's perfect.

But if you want sci-fi that is realistic, gritty, and dramatic: this is it.

Update: N.B.: However, there is one small discrepancy; if I saw this show again, I would despise it....

I have, therefore, decided to subtract one point.

.....~~~

But, fuck it, I'm not giving this a '9'; I'm giving it a '4', because it makes me angry as fuck.

Fucking fascists, all they know how to do it fight.

You guys are bitter? You guys want to go on fighting? (There are still 750,000 guys left in the Wehrmacht; we can hold Berlin!) Good, then I hope you go on fighting until all of you are dead.

*Politics and Military are running towards Commander Adama's office, shouting*

Politics: The civies are hungry!

Military: Our warship is catching fire!

*They run into Adama's office, and stop dead*

Mark Wahlberg as "Commander Adama": You guys want to hear a story of betrayal? Well, I'll tell you one, so that you don't wanna hear it no more.

*waves gun in left hand at Politics* You, you're no girl.

*waves gun in right hand at Military* You, you ain't even human.

Politics: C'mon, let's just compare our political rivals to zombies and the nazis; wasn't that fun????

Military: Why is this happening to me? Haven't I killed enough people, Lord?

Mark Wahlberg as "Commander Adama": *still pointing one gun at both of them* You want to know why? You wanna know?

*Because you shot John Lennon! Not Nixon! YOU!!!!*

*two shots, simultaneously*

Mark Wahlberg as "Commander Adama": *standing over both of, 'it'* 'HEY JUDE. DON'T LET ME DOWN.'

'Because it's a fool who plays it cool, by making this world a little, colder.'

..... *sometime later*

Steve Carell: 'When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, Let it be.'

Mark Wahlberg: *drinking* Yeah.

Steve Carell: 'There will be an answer, let it be.... There will be no sorrow, let it be....'

Mark Wahlberg: Yeah.

Steve Carell: You know, Disney bought Star Wars.

Mark Wahlberg: *after pause* Good. I hope they scrap it.

(4/10)

Probably my favorite of all the Star Trek shows. I especially like the storylines that owe something to Ronald D. Moore (who also did the new Battlestar Galactica). Also, the cast and the characters are very real, very likable. Has a very unique feel, and is much more "down-to-earth" (so to speak) than Star Trek usually is.

Update: And that's all true, but do you know what else (I just realized)? And I think that this is also a RDM thing, because it's also something shared with BSG, (albeit perhaps not done here to the freakishly exaggerated degree that it is there)-- it's also more *militarized*. It's *military*.

It's not just Star Trek without the starship, but also, to a large degree, without the *diplomacy*, without the (non-war) *drama*: this is war-diplomacy, and war-drama.

Because, God, I liked Garrick-- and I still have this thing against Patrick Stewart-- but maybe, you know....

Maybe I shouldn't have trusted that scale-y, reptilian, Cardassian *fascist*....

*Bravo moment* (*sobbing*) "I trusted the wrong people...."

And it's still a cool show, and since it deserves marks at least as good as those for BSG, and since that show really *is* very good, and better than average, I had to give it at least a 9, so.... I guess that DS9, can keep its 9-- lol.

Even though maybe, say, Constable Odo isn't *really* as cool as, say, Captain Stacy, (to whom I refer to as "Police Chief Swan"), although I grant that he may be better than Monk, *at least in a certain sense*.

{And, to paraphrase Commander Adama: the military and the police have different duties: it's the duty of the police to protect & serve the people, while it's the military's duty to kill people and break their things, and I wouldn't know the difference between an army security detail in a civilian zone, and a scandal waiting to happen. And to paraphrase President Roslin: Eh, let's just roll the dice, and hope that the hypocrisy leans in our favor.... After all, there aren't many consummate career politicians portrayed sympathetically on TV today, now are there? Adama: *serious* That isn't funny, Laura. Roslin: *exasperated* Well, at least tell your pampered British son, 'hi', for me, okay, *chicano*?}

But anyway, what's good is good.... I guess.

And, yeah, I guess that Sisko is still my favorite captain, and I guess that that must (still) count for something.... (I've gotten to the point where I sorta prefer Kirk to Picard.... But I still can't quite bring myself to whole-heartedly approve of anything that William Shatner does....)

I mean, I guess that I used to really like the doctor, (and fuck knows that he's better than the doctor on fucking *Voyager*), but, to honest, I can't quite think of Alexander Siddig without thinking of that fucking agitprop flick, "Syriana", that I used to like.... And then, I can't quite help but think-- Was I a fool to.... *like* Julian Bashir too? Ooooh, Section Something, it's Section Something-- Section Something is out to get you Julian! Hell, man-- you better run like hell!

*embarrased laugh* Yeah, you *better* run like hell.... With your empty heart, and your, Hungry smile-- You better run!

It would be a mistake to try to write more-- the archives can be deceiving.... And maybe the less said about Dax, (and 'Bronte', lol), and so on, the better.

Bottom line: I hate it....

And I used to like it.

And I know that I've babbled a bit, but let me try to say one last thing, and say it straight, so that it won't matter as bad if I botch my 'and' and 'although'.... (Sometimes I write that that, or even there, there', although I at least deleted the 'than there, there, or whatever it was, *that* was ugly!).... *Anyway*, with RDM, the stuff is good, and has a good technical quality-- even with character development, sorta! But this is military stuff, and it gives you this grand feeling, this feeling of a great story unfolding, of a vast arch-- a story arch!-- being set in place, from a *war*, and *war's egotism*.

*shrugs* And at least William Shatner's smarmy arrogance is so *painfully obvious*.... But, now, so is this other's, eh!

*sighs* Even though, yes, in one sense, it's better.

(9/10)

I used to watch this show religiously....The overall concept was very simple and easy to understand, but although there were many things that were relatively stable and unchanging, generally speaking, it did not feel repetitive, because there was always more for the team (and the audience) to explore and discover. It also had a way of taking themes and situations that it had already used before, and continually remaking them--creating experiences that were familiar, yet unrepeatable. And the characters were just wonderful and loveable.

(Update: N.B.: *But*, I also wouldn't like it as much anymore.... I mean, I (almost) hate to do this, but.... Nowadays, I'd really just rather go from Colorado to Aspen, you know? Lol, sry....

Because people say that Aspen is expensive, but with the money it takes to keep the *Stargate* open for, a minute, you could stay in Aspen for.... Ever!

And now *there's* a fantasy, eh?

*chuckles* Sry.)

....

{Instead of only being able to alternate between the outer galaxy and Washington.... the military wilderness and the capital, you know....}

Wouldn't it have been better if they had made a show about The Beatles and Ed Sullivan?

Ed Sullivan: That was very nice.... That was very very thoughtful of you guys, to prepare that for us, incidentally, 'Hello Goodbye' is their latest hit record....

(Holy shit, it's like Jimmy Fallon, only he's white!)

*blinks* They weren't on the show, were they? As late as 1967? I mean.... they're all.... different.... {I thought that 1965 was it, you know....}

*shrugs* Anyway, this is as good as "Downton Abbey", even if it isn't as good "Abbey Road", or....

.... Or Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The British military was much smarter in the 60s/70s, you know.

Do you know what the British military was up to in the 60s/70s?

*shakes the CD* *Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band* *shakes the CD*

Teal'c: I believe the year was 1969, Daniel Jackson.

{Korean War doc tagline: They would show the world that bravery was not, like, one single race.... *drama voice: off* specifically, not, like, the pink race, right.... oh, no, wait.... it was also almost the last time we went with the Brits, since it was a UN-thing.... yeah, during the 60s, Britain was slowly de-colonializing and the world was slowly thawing, and large, special different America was taking its large weight and its uncertain differentness into a totally different place.... whoops, what happened to the Korean War doc drama voice?.... Well, maybe the Koreans are more like the British, Gangham Style.... the Americans aren't as much like anyone sometimes.... so important and different, but then, so, why.... .... .... *I don't know why you suck, America, I'm an English dude....*}

Daniel Jackson: Ah yes, that was the year that me and my friends in the *British* military--

Richard Dean Anderson: Shut up Sheldon, you don't have friends. *That was the year*, that me and my friends (east of Suez), heard "Strawberry Fields Forever", only it's too bad that we didn't have, uh, a piano or anything.... And then later, we got "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and that's when we got a deck of cards and started the Hearts club, except it was really Sgt.-- *has a flashback of this other guy, a young muscular 20-something American army guy in that green thing they used to wear, *in that slightly less military way*, sitting around the campfire, looking down and grinning, with a copy of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", by the English rock band, the Beatles, and he says, 'How did they manage to use military themes in their new outfit to make themselves look even less military than they did when they all civilian and shit....'* (£) *Richard Dean Anderson smiles*

Samantha: Hey, guys, I made cookies! I've been watching Rachael Ray and everything.

[(£)-- And do you have any idea how difficult that is-- that's the problem that I have with, say, "Vanity Fair", among other things-- Rebecca *Sharp*: Oh, whatever, Charlotte Lucas, I don't care one bit if your husband Sheldon gets ripped to bits in some little hamlet that we've not ever heard of, whatever. Charlotte Lucas: *runs off crying* Rebecca Sharp: *shrugs* What. I have no feelings. I have no soul. *Arnold Schwarzenegger appears out of nowhere and handcuffs her to a corpse* WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?]

Teal'c: I love cookies.

Samantha: Good. So lose the weird alien weapon, *takes the weird alien weapon*, uh, *Tom*, and, here, *hands him the cookies*, *puts in Beach Boys CD* *starts dancing* Wouldn't it be nice if we were older....

Richard Dean Anderson: That's what I told my granddaughter the other day-- wouldn't it be nice if you were older.

Samantha: *starts laughing*

Tom: That was quite a funny joke, Richard Dean Anderson.

Daniel Jackson: Stop talking like that.

Richard Dean Anderson: That's right-- listen to Sheldon!

Samantha: I have to go.

Richard Dean Anderson: I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello.

.... But, whatever.

It could have been way better. IMO. In a different world.... {I mean, there is still the thing about the military wilderness and the capital.... I watched this while coloring in maps from history class, (with different kinds of pens), you know.... so that's why it's fun, and that's why it's only got that one kind of thing, lol....}

It's as good as "Downton Abbey".

(George Harrison: *does not sound like George Harrison* Hello Goodbye Hello Goodbye, Hello Goodbye, Hello Goodbye. *Ed Harris pops out of nowhere* Hey look, it's George, son of Harris. *grabs him* C'mon, let me show you around Jersey, we can DO/AC....)

And, unlike "Battlestar Galactica", (which sorta takes the Richard Nixon POV on the John Lennon point-of-view, if you notice), I, yeah, can actually say that it's better than average, kinda, without that being, a problem or anything.

That was very nice....

(9/10)

The cast was great, but the movie was really bad. I hated it.

I mean, I never clicked with the main characters; they were boring. And the whole--OMG, It's Ancient Greece! thing--yeah, that got old. Fast.

There could have been some redeeming value, if the part with the Lotus Land Aphrodite Girls had been drastically extended.

Or if they had just given Kevin McKidd some more air-time.

But, I suppose Uma Thurman's cameo as Medusa was pretty cool.

.....

But, anyway, it sucked. And, at least, movies of this sort, which suck, make me feel better about my decision to turn my back on the whole thing.

And, for those of you less crazy and obscure than me, that's the "Lightning-Struck Tower".

And no, I am NOT Harry Potter...thanks for asking.

Or...Rick....Potter. Whatever.

Update: Also note-- Chris Columbus is skilled in the art of failure.

(6/10)