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30 Monedas: El ojo de Dios (2023)
Really bad
Bad, really bad... The last episode of the first season was already, clearly, the weakest one of an overall satisfying and very original series.
The second season started on very different bases, with disjointed plot threads, different groups of actors, spread out in many different areas of the world (as opposed to the village of Pedraza where virtually the entire first season was taking place). Moreover, the addition of Paul Giamatti to the cast was a disaster : normally a decent actor, in 30 coins he is just awful, and I'm not sure what part of this wreck is his responsibility, or just the terrible writing...
To go back to the episode itself, the bounds of ridicule are completely ignored : the scenario, the dialogue, the cinematography, the acting, the relations between characters... everything is just a joke without grace, fantasy or fun.
The Good Doctor: Expired (2021)
The best so far
Best episode of the season, no question, it's just great writing and great acting by the entire cast.
All the dynamics, all the tensions between characters that had developped and that had built up in previous episodes find here their high point, their their moment of crisis. We feel that some things may be fixed, probably at a cost, but we know that others have reached a point of no-return.
We've seen so many medical dramas that we have to be grateful to the writers to be able to provide us with fresh ideas and situations. The premise of economic rationality vs. Patient care that could seem initially "forced" is here brilliantly utilized.
The Sinner: Part VIII (2021)
Great series
I'll regret this series, that joined superb acting, clever writing and nice cinematography.
Even when not completely realistic (as in this episode maybe), the characters' psychology was always finely studied, and eventually quite convincing. There were a lot of sinners in the series, and it took one of them to expose them all...
We left the main character up on a bluff, after a moment of self-analysis, and he may have found some level of inner peace... Unfortunately we'll never know what follows for him. One way of seeing this is to say that the series ended precisely because he found peace, that in a way the series was based on the fight with his inner demons and that it could not go on without this. So he saved himself and killed the series... oh well... Anyway, kudos to Bill Pullman for his great work here.
True Detective: If You Have Ghosts (2019)
Brilliant
Brilliant scenario, brilliant dialogue, brilliant acting. This final scene on the porch !! With all this unsaid or partially said that leaves you wanting to learn more, to know more, and served by two brilliant actors...
True Detective: The Hour and the Day (2019)
Superb craft
I never liked season 2, which I thought was a terrible let down compared to season 1. But I love season 3 : superb acting and fantastic scenario. Having three different time lines without confusion is in itself quite an accomplishment, but each of the time lines (1980, 1990 and "now") has its own suspense, its own investigative momentum and dynamics, its own nuances - with the three being related of course. Quite a feast in scenario writing, really !
Sentimental (2020)
That moment...
Funny and sometimes touching movie. What I loved is this moment when an until then fairly « normal » conversation skids out of control, in this case when the neighbors begin to describe their sex life. Javier Cámara's face as he hears it is unique, and his reactions seem so true and funny... He's such a great actor !
The Sinner: Part VI (2020)
Fine line
The whole series is based on the Ambrose character being both a cop and a man who can feel a form of empathy for the killers, who can relate to them, establish a connection with them. But he has also to act like a cop, if he doesn't, something's missing. So it's always a very fine line between the two sides of the character, one cannot take over completely the other, or the series loses its balance. And I agree with most comments, in this episode, the empathy goes a step too far (final scene) and it feels like the cop has vanished in front of a character recognized as still dangerous.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine: 99 (2017)
Cows
Very nice episode, with all the 99 staff being together the entire time, and with each one contributing with his/her specific talent. And in addition the cow bit was short but hilarious...
Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Two Turkeys (2017)
West Wing
Nort a great episode, the pie sub-plot was dull, but it was fun to see reunited Jimmy Smits and Bradley Whitford, aka congressman Matt Santos and campaign manager Josh Lyman...
Stranger Things: Chapter Six: The Dive (2022)
Too thin
I do understand some of the low reviews and ratings. The point is that many story lines, or sub-plots, are stretched way too thin. The "Hopper rescue" sub-plot has ridiculous cartoon-like characters, and at this point the whole Hopper story is developped in complete isolation with the rest of the show. The "Eddie pursuit" sub-plot is getting boring (with a ludicrous Town Hall scene). And worst of all, even the El sub-plot does not seem to ever ends, stretched to the point where we almost lose interest, and unfortunately with Millie Bobby Brown acting talent being wasted. In other words, less is more...
Stranger Things: Chapter Four: Dear Billy (2022)
Intense
Incredible Sadie Sink in this episode. Last 20 minutes are just amazing... Only 9 stars because of the Russian sub-plot of the episode that is getting boring, way too stretched, with virtually no connection to the rest of the story.
Stranger Things: Chapter Two: Vecna's Curse (2022)
A bit disappointed
Nice to meet again all these characters. But I agree that the bullying sub-plot is rather disappointing, and this for two reasons : 1) it´s not very well done, neither well-written nor well-acted, and it´s been seen a hundred times; but mostly 2) it distracts from the main story line the most interesting character of the whole series, El, brilliantly (previously...) interpreted by Millie Bobby Brown. I hope we´ll soone see the El that we knew and loved...
Covert Affairs: Good Advices (2011)
Paris...
A so-so episode as far as I'm concerned. My comment here is on the representation of Paris. Of course, as a Parisian, I've known for a long time that the representation of Paris in US films and TV series is totally unrealistic. But the chances to stop a taxi in a street of Paris in one second just by raising your hand (like if it were New York) are one in a million. And the chances or getting that taxi to get you to Epernay without prior notice (2 to 2 and a half hour drive), again, are one in a million, even for 500 euros... And the geography of the city is all over the place, jumping from Saint-Germain to Montmartre...
Bones: The Scare in the Score (2017)
Just to clarify
Just to clarify :
Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb, colonel-general, convicted of genocide and crime against humanity
Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian-Serb, politician, convicted for genocide and crime against humanity
Dragomir Milosevic, Bosnian-Serb, commander of the Army, convicted for war crimes
Slobodan Milosevic, President of the Serb Republic, died in his cell before sentencing as he was accused of war crimes
To name only a few...
Bones: The Turn in the Urn (2014)
Seriously ?
Bones has an overall watchable quality, with recurring characters that you end up liking, with some episodes better than others. But I couldn't help being irritated by this one.
We are familiar with the know-it-all character of Dr. Brennan, a modern Pico della Mirandola, de omni re scibili (et quibusdam aliis...), fluent in all languages of the world from Mandarin Chinese to Krio of Sierra Leone..., expert in martial arts... and in all kinds of arts. But it takes a turn to the absurd when she qualify as a Mesopotamian 3.000 BC artifact an urn which is so obviously not Mesopotamian, and certainly not from 3.000 BC.
Something else : Bones "literality" if I may say. OK, we know, we understand the character... But in this case, let's see. Booth remarks "when you're so rich and when you have it all, how can you be a drug addict and overdose ?", Bones answer : "you roll up your sleeve and stick a needle in your vein"... Seriously...? Such a level of misunderstanding ? And she's supposed to write best-sellers...???
Conte d'hiver (1992)
A Rohmer gem
Another Rohmer pure gem... To address a few negative comments, it´s important to stress that Rohmer named this movie a "tale", un "conte" en français, the word that is used to qualify Perrault or Grimm´s writings. Which is to say that, yes, magic will occur... First of all, the wonderful first five minutes: they´re on an island, they´re alone in nature, seuls au monde, they´re young, beautiful, they´re naked, they invent love, they create life (literally), they´re Adam and Eve. But then they leave the island, they leave Eden, they start to move, the beginning of the exile. Notice how many scenes take place in various means of transportation...
Félicie cannot be whole again, she gets torn between practical life with Maxence and intellectual life with Loïc. It´s never clearly said what specific word from Maxence made Félicie decide to enter the church and then to leave him, but it´s most likely "patronne", this purely social role and denomination. The word that she will eventually accept, at the very end, accepting that it can be part of who she is and will be as a whole. Félicie is in a journey to find her paradise lost, to return from exile. Metro and train are the means of transportation associated with Maxence, as car is with Loïc, and this one-time occurrence, the bus, finally with Charles. And isn´t a bus like a mix between a metro and a car...? At the end of this journey, she finds and regains her true soul mate. In addition to Pascal´s "pari" and Plato´s anamnesis (or réminiscence) myth, another Plato reference should be made here, the androgynous myth : once separated from our double, our other self, we can never stop yearning and searching for him or her.
A final word on Rohmer´s style, once more without comparison : the acting so just, the direction so subtle (see how the two main characters get progressively closer to one another in the final scene, as their dialog also gets them closer), the dialog both so well-written and so real, one small example when the little girl at the end says "je pleure de joie..."
The Man in the High Castle: Fire from the Gods (2019)
It was great
It looks that the people at the end were quietly coming back looking for something. I like to think that they were all the blacks and the Jews murdered in the camps who were coming back in a nazi-free America to reclaim their lost lives. I think it makes sense in the dynamic of the series. Very good series overall.