Oh my god, this show really deserves headphones, for reasons beyond Jonah Hill tending towards mumbly.
When Lance gets gunned down by the cops - hilarious, btw - I managed to hear his very quiet last words before the shotgun caught him in the chest this time:
I'm on episode 5. It's cool, but I'm not in love with it yet. All the detached characters make it hard to find myself not somewhat detached in the story itself.
Every time she spoke, it reminded me of something, and I can't for the life of me place it. A videogame? Something else? It was instantly familiar, and I'm weirded out by it because I can't place it.
Every time she spoke, it reminded me of something, and I can't for the life of me place it. A videogame? Something else? It was instantly familiar, and I'm weirded out by it because I can't place it.
I love this show but Episode 7 is really stupid. I don't think the playing around in different genres thing was entirely justified, it comes off as a gimmick and feels detached from the heart of the show. It's all still impeccably crafted thanks to Fukunaga, but that's my one complaint.
that was always called "season 1" not "limited series". I'm not talking about what we think should or not should continue, im talking about what they call them (they as in Netflix).
Oh I know, and my comment still stands. USA called The Sinner a "limited series" and they just started a second season. So I'm just saying--it wouldn't shock me.
Personally, I don't want it to happen, but it woukwoul shock me. If it does huge numbers for them they'll probably take another stand at it with a mkstmo all new cast.
Loved the show as soon as it started. I confess I had a little bit of prejudice when I saw the ads (mainly due to the big stars cast) but since I like Fukunaga I thought it was worth at least a one episode try (sometimes it's good to see things by yourself without reading thousands of reviews first, just sayin'!).
The aesthetic caught me right away, and also the kinda hidden explanations about the universe right in the first scenes (you can kinda imply it is ''2016'' - there is an election newspaper stuck to the ATM Annie uses to get cash to pay for the cigarettes with Trump's and Hillary's faces on it.)
I suppose it is an alternative timeline where there wasn't anything like the Silicon Valley innovation gold rush and IBM, unchallenged, molded all the access to technology and that's why everything is so archaic even though there were some tech breakthroughs like VR games). IBM also created a lot of daughter companies and lobbies in all fields possible and that's why everything has their aesthetic and the world is even more polluted and everyone smokes so much).
I also really like how they had this big emphasis on mental health through the whole series and especially, on how familiar relationships can mold your brain, and ultimately, you.
I can't complain about anything, I think it is just awesome (that goddamn tape LOL). I really like it doesn't take itself too seriously (cof cof West cof world) and dedicates a lot of its time to the characters, even the ones that aren't the main couple (Mantleray and Azumi, Muramoto, Greta and GRTA).
I would like to see it coming back, but as an anthology in the same universe. I think it is very rich and it would be awesome to see more GOOD futuristic stuff on TV.
PS: Azumi's voice and accent are honey to my ears <3
Jonah Hill was awful in this. The only time I think he did well was the
Icelandic Alien episode
Emma Stone was damn good and so were the scientists. They were the best part of the show and I feel like the moments when they were in their minds were the weakest parts with a few exceptions towards the end. The ending felt manic and empty to me.
The show was pretentious whenever it did the dream stuff. The best writing and visuals were during the real life segments.
a cigar-chomping fishnet-wearing CIA murder-machine stopping an alien invasion with the Icelandic assistant deputy administrative subcommittee co-chair who talks like that
? Or the
1980s Long Island couple that's (re)stealing a rare lemur from a dual-uzi wielding bulletproof fur gangster with dance routine sons that wear Napolean Dynamite American flag parachute pants
?
Or Jonah Hill's absolutely insane hair in any and all of the above?
I really think this show lacks the self-seriousness and is far too self-aware to be pretentious.
3 episodes in. Really liked Ep.1, Intriguing and off-beat.
Ep.2 is the opposite, fairly dull and uninteresting(except the ending). Ep. 3 gets pretty good again.
Yeah, this is kind of the opposite of pretentious. Watch Mr. Robot then come back and call this pretentious. It's way too goofy and over-the-top, plus it's not trying to say anything truly profound. The low, personal stakes, and goofy bits work really well here. The science is initially bad technobabble for Christ's sake.
Pretentious : attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.
Call it dumb, but that other label is just flat out wrong. I don't see how making Jonah look like a budget Post Malone is supposed to impress anyone lol
I should have specified the way it was shot was where it felt pretentious to me.
Although an argument can be made that the way it tried to portray the characters' mental illness through the dreams was a little up its own ass. It was a little too self aware at points which made the manic dreamy ending all the weirder. I didn't like the overly gratuitous mobster scenes and the obvious connection between that and his real life family/court issues and the ending of that episode where Jonah jumps out the window because he was unhappy with his imagined future with Olivia and then it turns out the city was just miniature. That visual had no real purpose to me. The elf sequence had a decent interaction between Emma and her idealized version of her sister but even that lacked some heft. The icelandic alien section was funny but that whole escape set piece felt like a reason for the director to shoot a shooty bang scene just for the sake of it. A lot of the scenes during the dream sequences felt masturbatory like that.
The only dream sequence I enjoyed as a whole was the first combined one with Hospice worker Emma chasing after a Lemur stolen by a bulletproof fur wearing criminal with two wannabe dancer idiot sons. Jonah felt invisible in that dream too but I'm guessing it was on purpose. Still doesn't change the fact that his character was completely uninteresting and so was his performance throughout.
I feel like if you cut his character out entirely and the show had just been about the eccentric scientists and Emma getting stuck in her own mind it would have been a lot stronger. I get the need for her to have a friend to help pull her out of her funk but everything involving Jonah's character fell flat for me. He didn't feel like an actual person. He was like a manic pixie dream girl but instead was a depressive mopey nightmare boy to help Emma the real character and give her a scene where she decides to help someone herself.
As a whole I still enjoyed the show as the real life sections were incredibly strong for the most part and Emma Stone's acting was great. The aesthetic of the real life sections was also interesting with its whole parallel universe theme and I feel like in the end they did right by the characters with them accepting their illness and trying to move forward.
Yep, my wife at first thought they were still stuck in the computer Inception-style until it was revealed that Emma Stone's character signed in under that name.
Yep, my wife at first thought they were still stuck in the computer Inception-style until it was revealed that Emma Stone's character signed in under that name.
Are you sure? Watching it I thought she just put inverted commas in her 'to see' field so that it looked like she was there to see the same person, but hadn't written Wendy Lemure herself.
I should have specified the way it was shot was where it felt pretentious to me.
Although an argument can be made that the way it tried to portray the characters' mental illness through the dreams was a little up its own ass. It was a little too self aware at points which made the manic dreamy ending all the weirder. I didn't like the overly gratuitous mobster scenes and the obvious connection between that and his real life family/court issues and the ending of that episode where Jonah jumps out the window because he was unhappy with his imagined future with Olivia and then it turns out the city was just miniature. That visual had no real purpose to me. The elf sequence had a decent interaction between Emma and her idealized version of her sister but even that lacked some heft. The icelandic alien section was funny but that whole escape set piece felt like a reason for the director to shoot a shooty bang scene just for the sake of it. A lot of the scenes during the dream sequences felt masturbatory like that.
The only dream sequence I enjoyed as a whole was the first combined one with Hospice worker Emma chasing after a Lemur stolen by a bulletproof fur wearing criminal with two wannabe dancer idiot sons. Jonah felt invisible in that dream too but I'm guessing it was on purpose. Still doesn't change the fact that his character was completely uninteresting and so was his performance throughout.
I feel like if you cut his character out entirely and the show had just been about the eccentric scientists and Emma getting stuck in her own mind it would have been a lot stronger. I get the need for her to have a friend to help pull her out of her funk but everything involving Jonah's character fell flat for me. He didn't feel like an actual person. He was like a manic pixie dream girl but instead was a depressive mopey nightmare boy to help Emma the real character and give her a scene where she decides to help someone herself.
As a whole I still enjoyed the show as the real life sections were incredibly strong for the most part and Emma Stone's acting was great. The aesthetic of the real life sections was also interesting with its whole parallel universe theme and I feel like in the end they did right by the characters with them accepting their illness and trying to move forward.
Ok. Now I understand how you came to that conclusion. Thanks for explaining. It can be masturbatory but that's one reason I loved it. You can tell that Netflix gave them carte blanche and they just ran with it.
Are you sure? Watching it I thought she just put inverted commas in her 'to see' field so that it looked like she was there to see the same person, but hadn't written Wendy Lemure herself.
You might be right, but I think she was just lying to get out of the door. I figured it was another thing like the estate car in the parking lot, just another thing that bled through into reality from the dreams.
I really liked the real life aesthetics, that 80's inspired futurism is awesome, more with the Japanese culture influence all over the place (just like they thought in the 80's until the economic bubble popped in the early 90's).
However, I thought the ending was kinda weak & generic, like your average indie Oscar-bait dramedy movie.
What really made me wonder is how Netflix algorithms works, because I can clearly see that this mini-series was tailor-made for a specific audience that likes certain movies. It's like they thought "Ok, we don't want to renew the streaming license for Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind, nor Inception, but according to our algorithms we know our customers loves these and they also dig the series format. Lets find some scripts that fits these criteria!Start digging!".
A very enjoyable series start to finish with some great characters and performances, mostly by the supporting cast.
I also really liked and appreciated the ending.
I was very happy that it was not a romantic ending but just platonic. These people were friends and romantic love was not some bullshit be all, end all.
For everyone who disliked the ending--what were you expecting?
I thought it was perfect. Sure, they could've tried to go with some huge reveal, or hinged the story on some huge mystery, but it's a fairly straight forward tale about two broken people. I admired the writer's restraint.
I think some people really wanted Owen to be "The Chosen One" and for the story to take some huge turn, but that would've been so forced. I like that the two leads didn't really even kiss or anything in real life (did they?), and at the end it seems more about friendship than romance. So it's not that generic, if it was they would've had a crazy make out session or something.
A very enjoyable series start to finish with some great characters and performances, mostly by the supporting cast.
I also really liked and appreciated the ending.
I was very happy that it was not a romantic ending but just platonic. These people were friends and romantic love was not some bullshit be all, end all.
I finished it earlier. The acting and production values were really good but as a whole it just didn't click for me. It left me really cold emotionally and then the parts that were emotional near the end just felt kinda sappy.
I did think the last 2 episodes were by far the most interesting though.
I don't think it's for me but I also wouldn't dissuade others; it's cool something this out-there even exists, and I'd recommend people watch at least 3 episodes to see if it's for them.
After episode 3 I thought this might become one of my favorite shows of the last few years. Loved everything about it
Once they started delving into these dream worlds it lost me. Except for the first one with Annie's memory of losing her sister. Mainly because it was an actual memory IRL and not some fantasy world.
Episodes 4-8 I was at times fast forwarding through some parts and I really don't see myself watching any further. Even tho it's just two more episodes
After episode 3 I thought this might become one of my favorite shows of the last few years. Loved everything about it
Once they started delving into these dream worlds it lost me. Except for the first one with Annie's memory of losing her sister. Mainly because it was an actual memory set in the real world and not some fantasy world.
Episodes 4-8 I was at times fast forwarding through some parts and I really don't see myself watching any further. Even tho it's just two more episodes
The dreamworlds give you insight into what's going on with the characters. They're not as random as they seem (the callbacks to earlier conversations/things is really impressive and each dream is filled with them) . Sounds like you wanted a straight-up family drama. Which is fine.
The dreamworlds give you insight into what's going on with the characters. They're not as random as they seem (the callbacks to earlier conversations/things is really impressive and each dream is filled with them) . Sounds like you wanted a straight-up family drama. Which is fine.
The dreamworlds are all relevant but go on for too long to get to the important points. I think this show would have been stronger if you trim it down by 2 episodes.
The dreamworlds are all relevant but go on for too long to get to the important points. I think this show would have been stronger if you trim it down by 2 episodes.
"I'm OK - You're a Bitch" as a title of one of the books made me laugh pretty hard. It's a reference to another book, wonder how many things like that are buried in the show that you miss.
First dramatic Netflix show in a long time that didn't feel like busy work or that it overstayed its welcome and that I actually wanted to binge. I'm sure this has been repeated ad nauseam here or elsewhere but the Kaufman/Jonze/Gondry influence is all over this thing and you have any affinity for their work you'll probably get some enjoyment out of this. Funnier than I expected. Justin Theroux is one of the most under appreciated actors around. The guy loves weird and surreal stuff and looked like he was having a ball with the absurdity of his character at every turn. Liked it quite a bit.
There are bus stops with ads for this show here in Germany, but they are really bad. They didn't even use Emma or Jonah for those. Not really effective marketing in my opinion. I would've used a split image, left side the shot of Emma wearing those sunglasses and looking angry, right side Jonah
as he landed on that rooftop
with the name of the show centered.
As it is, it's just the three doctors standing together with a boring slogan.
