Reviews

Whether it was on purpose or though some sort of misguided attempt at youthful angst, the writers and producers of this show have managed to gather together a group of the most conceited, despicable, spoilt, hateful young people it's ever been my misfortune to watch. There is barely one/two likeable characters out of them all and they aren't the leads, more the sidekicks.

As a European, I had thought that, being a more adult take on University life, with lots of sexually charged shenanigans and some nudity, that this American production would either get rid of the sex scenes where they are half clothed when doing it or be mature about it. But no, the hypocrisy here is that the Americans can't stand to see a boob and despite a lot of sex in this and lots of male bums on display, as well as various sexual acts that are for a mature audience, the Americans can't seem to get past the need to have clothing on when having sex. It's an annoying distraction which tells the viewer, this isn't real, we can't show real as they do in Europe, can't show a boob, but we can show ass. And I'm not even a fan of boobs, but if you're going to make a show as overtly sexual as this one, then either do it properly or don't bother. You can see here how the American film/TV industry has tied itself up in knots in pandering to every concern and there's nothing genuine about any of it.

The other aspect here which annoys is the narcissistic behaviour and manipulation of the main lead, coupled with the willing complacency, neediness, cheating and backbiting of his victims. Hopefully, it's not a true representation of anyone's real life or there's no hope for them.

In that respect, the reason I watched until the end is that this series makes you dislike the characters so completely that, ironically, you find yourself wanting to see if karma will ever level the playing field and teach them all a lesson. We live in hope.

Past lives is a story of what might have been. It is subtle and slow with some good performances, but it is a far cry from the emotional rollercoaster I had expected from the buzz surrounding this film.

To many, it will seem like a simple arthouse film in which nothing much happens, but there is merit in simplicity and that works well here. However, it is light on drama and the emotions are constrained and the overall picture doesn't chime with what one would expect in typical behaviour. Whilst the reticence and constraint might be expected from the two Korean leads, if only due to the cultural norms of polite restraint that are typical of Koreans, the same shouldn't be expected from her husband as a westerner. Yet, he accepts without objection, much qualm or discussion the visit from a man clearly in love with his wife. This isn't very believable though and they used it to construct a situation where they all meet and socialise, albeit awkwardly. In many respects, a more realistic objection from a more protective husband would have been truer.

At the end, I was left wondering what the hype was all about because there are many Asian and European films which do this reality type drama so well and with added nuance and layering.

The acting was good and the script was also good, just not ... great.

It seems likely that budget constraints ruined what was an interesting premise in Captive State and this is becoming a formulaic type of production for Netflix, reminiscent of BirdBox where the story construct is solid but there's no follow through. It's all about leaving the audience guessing and wanting more and as we've seen in BirdBox Barcelona, the "more" never comes.

And so this is how Captive State was left, feeling more like an initial installment of a series rather than a rounded film with a satisfying end. The problem with starting a SciFi movie with some good SFX at the beginning is that if you don't continue that, if it's piecemeal, then the audience is left unfulfilled and frustrated. So here we had that same frustration, feeling more like a padded TV show where there are lofty ideas but the vast majority of what should be an alien invasion epic is confined to dirty alleyways, warehouses and humans. This is annoying because an occupied world full of aliens should show us aliens, no? Yet the writers decided that they'd bury all of the aliens underground, probably to make it cheaper to produce.

In the end, this isn't good enough and they should have realised that they had a good enough story to justify further expenditure on SFX and developed it more. Netflix is starting to look cheap and by that I don't mean their subscription prices.

It's a pity because the cast deserved better.

It's a pity this is based on a memoir by the eponymous lady as it's suspiciously sterile and washed in a way which seems set out to preserve an image rather than any visceral truth. Undoubtedly, some of it is factual, however there's an overriding impressiion that it seeks to lend Priscilla some sympathy without ruining the wholesome image we have of Elvis as presented in many other biopics of his life.

The main problem with Priscilla is that the book to screen adaptation presents the famous couple as very two-dimensional and despite this being somehow slotted into the catalogue of contemporary film with some credence to its director and associated expectations, it isn't much more entertaining than a Hallmark movie and equally as bland and insipid. It was a chore to get through and there was no insight into aspects of his personal life and sexuality which have long been discussed and to which Priscilla herself must have been privy. In that respect, it's a washout and adds nothing much. Therefore, it seems to be a case of Hollywood milking the fatted cow yet again by telling the same story from just a slightly different perspective and it is a story that seems to have only been demanded by the studios rather than the audience.

Jacob Elordi is miscast and very sameish here, difficult to find him convincing in the role, while the young actress playing Priscilla does a good job with a stereotypical cutesy interpretation of a life which surely can't have been this ordinary or boring in reality.

This is probably one of the dumbest and most irritating movies I've seen in a while. The director seems to be a drone enthusiast and the film is looded with spiraling drop-shots similar to the stuff the kids post on social media. If you've seen a drone shoot down the side of a building towards the ground, or fly through a gap in a wall, you get the picture. The problem with this is it's not always necessary and just smacks of the director experimenting with his toy rather than adding anything. It also pulls the viewer away from being immersed in the action because it's jarring-I found myself saying "oh yeah, another drone shot" and then thinking it shouldn't be that noticeable.

The story is a crock of manure and the acting is shouty and mediocre. I didn't hate Jake Gylenhaal's acting before this, but the script and dialogue don't do him any favours. In fact, it is a mess which makes the two lead actors seem to have a very limited range indeed. Scenes where he freaks out because his cashmere sweater got dirty, as bullets fly and a cop clings to life while they're being chased by every cop in the city, just serve to annoy the viewer. These lines are crass and pathetic and it's full of such rubbish. I really don't know how this got made, who it's targeted at, nor why. Why?

It's the kind of YoYo script which makes the antagonists violent thiefs who shoot at will, then they're instantly regretful as they try to save a cop they shot and apologise while laying a trail of devastation behind them. Pathetic, but that's what happens when bad writers try to make the bad guys into good guys whist doing awful things. It's dire and insulting to the audience. Avoid at all costs.

On paper, this film is ideally suited to my tastes: fantasy/sci-fi with a multi-dimensional plot and I expected so much given all of the awards and Oscars. Well, I was badly disappointed and forced myself to watch it despite wanting to give up as the expectation of something marvellous spanning dimensions, time and space never actually materialised. Instead, most of it is flashes of alternate scenes whilst a large part takes place in an office block.

If the seriousness surrounding the Oscars had hinted at all that it was a cheesy farce, I perhaps wouldn't have been so disappointed but it is truly slapstick comedy and only vaguely funny. It isn't even Sci-fi but more of a fantasy akin to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, just not as dry or self-effacing enough to be very funny. There are funny moments and crass ones too, daft scenes also, but more than anything, there is a lot of noise and silliness as the mother, Evelyne, has to do stupid things in order to jump between universes, picking up skills from other lives along the way. Although those skills are questionable as are the fight scenes and they weren't able to make those convincing at all so should have made them more comedic.

It seems that this is a hit due to hype rather than much discerning truth about the actual quality of the film and story. Reminds me of Crash, another poor movie which did well at the Oscars and which not many probably remember. This too won't stand up as one of the great movies of the last few years and that is precisely what we should expect from a film that sweeps the board at the Oscars. I'm sure most of us can think of notable examples, of which this is not one.

There is a complexity to The Creator that is hard to fathom at first. It draws the viewer firmly into a world where AI Robots are as ubiquitous as mobile phones today and they are partly human with faces that reflect the diversity of the human species in both ethnicity and age. To some, this makes no sense as we're used to seeing Robots in sci-fi that all look the same, however if you accept the premise that these simulants are meant to blend into all aspects of human culture, it makes sense. It also adds more conviction that the simulants represent an entirely seperate species aside from humanity with their own diversity and complexity. Contrasting this are the utilitarian faceless robots that perform functions such as the police and army bots. I think it worked very well.

There's are aspects here which remind me of Blade Runner in terms of the city scapes and the infrastructure around this robotic world, but on the ground it reminds me of District 9 and Elysium to some degree, where technology is advanced but also used , scratched, dirty and worn. This conveys reality and is very likely what will happen when we eventually have robots everywhere.

The story is somewhat original and the acting is excellent, particularly John David Washington who is eminently watchable and the child robot, Alpha who is remarkable. I loved the fact that most of the cast were Asian, the languages and locations were Asian, and it was a refreshing change from always having these blockbusters set in the USA. It was also a metaphor for American interference in other parts of the world and the remote warfare which is today conducted by technology mostly and mostly happens in silence from western media. There is some deep commentary here on the morals and societal ignorance of stealth warfare, but it is delivered mostly visually, there for those who might wish to dwell on it if they like, rather than any outright political monologue that might seem preachy. This was smartly done.

Not just Sci-Fi, it has heart and is a film for everyone. One of the best of it's genre in the last decade.

The clips on social media and trailer show this to be a Vampire story but that is a deception because it's 90% about religion and the tired tropes of human fallibility and the conflict of beliefs. The Vampire story is confined firmly to the shadows and the real horror is the insipid religious analysis and evangelical screenplay which casts every parishioner as either a raving Looney or a lost sheep, in extremis.

The priest is equally obnoxious and if you've ever seen the shows referred to in the title to this review you'll be familiar with the nauseating hyperbole that American screenwriters employ to examine religious belief, extending their pen to obnoxious passages of pontification as if attempting to convince themselves of what they should believe. It is so obnoxious and dated that it amounts to audience flagellation and is unforgivable hogwash.

This is clearly written for the American audience where that polarization of politics and religion too is a way of life and for that audience I can understand why many love this show because it resonates with them. However, for Europeans where religious belief is part of life, not a way of life, this show is tediom personified and impossible to get past the first three episodes. It is unoriginal and a mishmash of religious heavy shows that have gone before, and which many had hoped were confined to the archives. There are aspects here too of Stephen King's sometimes too frequent delving into religious fare and it always struck me as audience targeting when he did, especially in stories like The Mist, where there is an extreme religious antagonist as a character who is so religious that she's actually evil, as in murder all the non-believers kind of evil. It seems that this kind of thing has an audience still but for many it's a tired mechanism and very boring in this day and age.

What's most annoying is that it seems surreptitiously forced upon the audience because it's dressed up as a Vampire story primarily, when in fact the majority of it is religious mumbo-jumbo. By the end of the third episode we'd seen a few shiny eyes in the dark, one person killed in a fleeting swoosh,dead cats and finally a vampire.

The name might be apt, however for it's sheer annoying script, tedious lecturing & boredom, lack of tension or vampiric horror (there's plenty of horrific religious tropes) it has to be said that Midnight Mass ... sucks mass.

On paper this might have seemed interesting but in execution there are so many gaffs that it led me to believe that the writers, director and producer either think the audience is stupid or they are. Maybe they just found it too difficult and gave up.

There's not much to say about the story except that it's kind of impossible to spoil a story about a woman trapped in a floating container at sea. However there are so many annoyances and very dumb gaffs that I'll highlight a few here, if only for the sake of amusement and venting.

She finds a smartphone and tries to unlock it by tracing the pattern randomly at a million miles an hour without noticing that she's going so fast that she only traces the first two dots in a line. The phone shows the attempted pattern as a handy aid but no, she just bats her finger across it as if swatting flies. Also, she doesn't attempt to dial emergency services which you can do from a locked screen on all phones.

She saws through plate steel with the tiny saw from a swiss army pocket knife. Nope.

Her first smartphone wouldn't work, had no reception being in the middle of the ocean and all, but a few minutes later she swaps out the Sim card and it suddenly has reception. Must be the Clamshell Network. Oh, and when she lost this phone she apeared to throw it away like a hot turd and then pretend it was an accident.

She had the quickest birth in history, three pushes and voila!

She tries to plug bullet holes with sticky tape when there's a crate of bottled alcohol with corks in the tops.

Her drenched clothes are suddenly dry even though she's wading around in a half filled/submerged steel container. Dry ... yes that old chestnut we've seen so many times in other films. Do they learn nothing in film school?

And there are more gaffs but you get the picture.

She doesn't seem that upset about much and the acting is mediocre at best, although it's all on the shoulders of one actress so that's hard but perhaps also a mistake. I don't think the story would have changed much with two actors present, would probably have been better.

Overall it's badly written which is saying something when all they had to do was get the details right, given the sparseness of cast, scenes and props how difficult could it be? As filmed entertainment, Nowhere essentially went nowhere.

Having watched him on social media and seen his funny clips, I was surprised that there was a lot of backlash against this show, much of it about certain jokes that some said were misogynist. So, I decided to look and see.

The jokes many claim were misogyny were rather tame compared to much of the harder hitting comedians out there, and I'd use Dave Chapelle as a comparison as he's said way worse about practically everybody in my view, as have many British comedians.

The problem with Matt Rife's Netlfix special is it starts with a standing ovation, which is really odd and scripted it seems. Then he speaks and I didn't recognise him as the same person because he seemed to be doing an impersonation of the dudes in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, where every second word is dude and everything is rad. It's simply embarrassing to watch as he's trying to be something he's not: ghetto and hood.

The nerves were evident and he wasn't natural or relaxed and probably had too much expectation placed on him by the audience, producers and most likely himself. If he's going to recover from this, he should do what he does well and rip the hell out of himself for this dud of a performance. And drop being a dude, dude?

Fellow Travelers isn't for those who know nothing about history nor much about the struggle and plight of gay men in the several eras this book-to-screen adaptation recounts. I mention this because I've seen some comments berating the creators for showing the power imbalance between the two leads and it's generally coming from people who were born into a world where it wasn't illegal to be gay, the world they arrived in was one where LGBT equality was at the fore and gay marriage was starting to become legal in many countries around the world, coupled with the introduction of anti-discrimination laws in the workplace and hate crime laws in many modern societies.

So, for those people who don't get this story about the paranoia and hatred stemming from a government of the day, a government steeped in the mire of a cold war and itself paranoid beyond reason, it's principally because they are shocked and expect every gay story to be like Heartstopper or Red, White and Royal Blue, both very enjoyable in their own right, but equally unrealistic and cuddly.

For my part, I like the cuddly stories but I also like the grit, and Fellow Travelers has plenty of grit: from the underground gay-scene to the dom-sub dynamic between the two leading men and then on to the paranoia of McCarthy-ism and the horrendous persecution and witch-hunts of gay men and all that that entailed. Then onwards through the 60's and 70's it goes to the height of the AIDS crisis in the late 80's, spanning the lives of the cast and the struggles of being gay at that time, and is it no wonder that the shying flowers who've never had those same struggles believe it's made up or inappropriate to convey. Well, I have news for them, that was the harsh reality even if they don't want to believe it.

It's a reality that's conveyed so very well in Fellow Travelers, with lavish production values from sets to costume and script. To top it all, we get to see two actual out gay actors give amazing performances and I must say that there is a realism to the sex scenes and an animalistic intensity which I don't believe two straight actors could quite achieve so convincingly. Although it shouldn't matter, if an actor is good, wheter he's gay or not and I've not seen love making as convincing since Free Fall, the German gay film, and that was a straight cast as far as I know. Nevertheless, there's something special going on between Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey in Fellow Travelers and perhaps it's the fact that we know they're both gay men that helps us to buy into it more.

Amid other reviews here taking of ratings bombing and social media with various moaners who want cuddly stories I felt the need to write a review and point out that this production and story is top notch, it's special and it's a rarity to find two out gay men playing two gay characters in a serious drama.

This is without question, one time where it would be very remiss to believe any of the reviews, including this one, and just simply make up your own minds after watching this outstanding show. If you like it, it deserves your support, if you don't, please remember that there was a time when a story like this one wouldn't even be considered for production and it is books that have made these TV series possible. More importantly it's about remembering the persecution and then writing about it, it's those stories that have liberated gay men to the extent that they now have the luxury of watching themselves, and lives which went before, portrayed on screen by two out gay actors. That alone is remarkable. If we want more real gay stories, the equation is simple: lend your support, it will be rewarded by a great story and excellent acting such as that of Fellow Travelers.

There are SciFi series twenty years old that deliver more story in one episode than this insipid dribble did in twenty episodes.

Yes, since series 1 people said give it time, it's a slow burn and two series later it still is. Worse, it's not even a slow burn, it's something they seem to have made up as they went along and it shows, it really, really shows.

The end of this second series is an insult to those who stuck with it, another cliffhanger, just not one that holds you in any way on tenterhooks as a cliffhanger normally would. Why? Well, because any goodwill and interest has been smothered from the saner audience members who gave it more than a chance, only to find that the disparate wanderings of our soldier, kids, and resistance fighter family were pointless filler and their existence was merely to drag this out over a very padded 20 episodes. Pointless because this bait and switch SciFi baited us with glossy artwork and misleading trailers only to switch to a paranormal story in a large part where everything happens psychically, even teleportation.

AppleTV has really made something that's "made for TV" only it is B channel standard and dire, annoying and worst of all, a pointless waste of time. I will forever warn every Human, Parrot, Dog and Cat or any being who might sit in front of a TV to avoid this audience bait insult to the intelligence of a doorknob.

The first few seasons of Billions were very good but, as often happens when something is successful, the writers and producers get affected by a sense of self importance which has culminated in their complete delusion as to their own talent, and this is evident in the last two seasons.

The diatribe of nonsensical references to famous quotes and robotic self-speak has become so nauseating that you could be quite easily forgiven for concluding that the last two series are the antithesis of what made this series interesting in the first place.

Since the introduction of Mike "Prince", not Pence and his linguistically licky sidekick, the writers have indulged themselves in so many references that they have every character walking around as if mumbling quotes for a memory competition and pausing mid-mini-monologue to self analyse, dissect themselves, sign-off and move on. It is so bizarre that I would liken it to a group of Data-like androids from Star Trek wandering around agog as if discovering the world for the first time and being surprised by the words stemming from their own lips, having to analyse and discover what they themselves mean and then tuck themselves into a mental futon once done.

There was always an element of the haughty pschoanalysis about the show but it was balanced by a good deal of interest stemming from the wider story, particularly the wheelings and dealings of the hedge fund business. With the lurch towards a political drama and Mike Prince being the thing nobody thought could ever happen i.e. A bigger idiot running for election than any president that has gone before IRL, it's simply not convincing when they keep fearfully referring to this idiot's intelligence. Why? Because the writers have made him into a babbling buffoon without any menace beside the fear of having to listen to him self-psychoanalyse ... over and over again.

The rest of the cast has had their roles decimated to accommodate this badly conceived bucket of verbal incontinence and that's a shame. End it now as it's well and truly done.

Well this episode is just a continuation of the previous ones where we follow our sleuthing soldier, ragtag brigade of refugees and kids on their rather hapless and meandering journeys. What is so annoying is the insulting way everything is drip fed and padded with this second series of invasion. Not just that, but there are moments when the acting is so bad that it makes you wonder if the Director was actually watching when it was filmed and edited.

And for those of you who think you recognise the Parisien gallery marketplace it's probably because it's the same place used for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter and that's the Leadenhall market in London. Why they thought this was a good choice or that it in any way represented the architecture of Paris, I don't know. It is just another example of the mediocrity that the creators of this show think will pass as acceptable. You'd be hard pressed to find a red bricked building in Paris and this scene ruined it as it was clearly London.

Besides that big faux pas, there are others which annoy, particularly the script mechanism of now having two young lads able to sense the aliens mentally (plus the Japanese woman) and know exactly what to do, together with the endless quest of the kids and their insipid psychoanalysis of their situation and reasoning out why they should do every stupid thing no matter what. It's really dreadful and very badly written.

So drawn out as mentioned that we get practically nothing but filler and the big reveal this episode was that they're all on a course to intercept at ground zero where Sam Neil was poked by a tenticle in series 1. I pointed this out a few episodes ago, but they are so out of tune with audience intuition that it's taken another two episodes of laborious filler to tell us what we knew would happen weeks ago.

Given the few episodes left in this series, there's a high probability we'll be left with another annoying cliffhanger and that'll be it for me as I won't stomach the same drip feed of nothingness for a third season if it's even made.

Well, this episode finally started to piece together many of the disparate aspects that we've bemoaned were drawn out and incoherent, ever since the first series. There are aspects shown in Episode 5 which would require you to recall the very first episode of series 1 with Sam Neill's character and his brief appearance. Poked by an alien appendage, he's assumed dead but now we see some hint that this may not be the case and in fact the mothership may well be taking visitors.

We also, and it's hard to believe I'm writing this, but we're also seeing the first communication with these visitors after 15 episodes and they speak our language. Imagine that. The humans could have taken a leaf out of Amy Adam's character in Arrival and tried communication at the outset.

The billionaire egoist is still annoying and his presence adds nothing but to drag the whole thing down, although his looks are probably his greatest charm. Likewise, the ongoing sub-story of our wandering family and sleuthing soldier is interminably drawn out and frustrating, particularly as the pace keeps shifting from what has become a somewhat compelling storyline with Mitsuki and her attempts to understand and communicate with the aliens, versus these padded, filler, sub-plot wanderings. They are however starting to tie all of that together and in that respect it helps one to forgive what's gone before to some degree.

There may well be redemption in this series yet and this is the most interesting episode so far, but it's one episode good, one bad, so let's wait and see.

Surprising to see some of the reviews saying there's lots of filler in this series, for anyone who's ever watched a series of "You" would realise exactly what filler looks like, and this isn't it. I am one of the first to complain about unnecessary padding and do so often when it's excessive. There's some repetition in this series, flashbacks and time-jumps as a story mechanism but it does move along well enough.

What's good about Wilderness is the writing and two great lead actors. The writing manages to avoid many of the stereotypes we've come to expect from the characters in these kind of marital murder thrillers. In that respect they don't default to the stereotype of the female victim who loses her mind with nerves nor the overly boorish, entitled husband. Sure, he is entitled and privileged but they deftly weave in some aspects which show why she is so in love with him and why she found him attractive in the first place. This is cleverly contrasted with his customary excuses for cheating: "it was a mistake, a one-off", and then his promises to change, him playing the victim of his own avarice and terpitude. And anyone who's been there will know those hollow words but will also know why she doubts herself and her plans for revenge as she's pulled between hurt, hate and reminders of how nice he can be. There are clear aspects of coercion here and overall it is well thought out and written.

Some plot holes exist and perhaps that explains some of the frustration, the police being a bit too trusting or not convincing in their role, as well as her reaction to her husband's other women, let's just say that there's an excess of female solidarity and not a cat-fight in sight. This simply isn't realistic and we all know how most women react to another woman taking their man. So it's slightly on the virtuous side in that respect and rings hollow there.

I found the role of her Welsh mum to be well written and played, those familial ties and resentments another thread that was intelligently woven into the evident drivers of the daughter's character and demeanor.

Overall, it was well written and acted and stands up very well against comparable series. I would say it's a decent 7/10 and don't quite understand some of the negativity or what drives it. If you make up your own mind, it won't be the worst offering available on streaming, not by a long shot and if you're looking for series that showcase what fillers and padding in a series look like, just read through my other reviews.

As mentioned in my review of episode 3, It was very likely that we'd get the kids on a road trip in episode 4 and that's exactly what we got after the remake of Independence Day we saw in episode 3.

The problem with this sub-story is it isn't much more serious in tone and urgency than an episode of Dr Who, which is trademark cheesy and tongue-in-cheek. This would be ok if that was the intention, but sadly it's not and we're left then with just abject disappointment and frustration at the naff acting and daft writing. For example, the little girl warns that the aliens are coming and that is what happens. When she warns again, her brother decides to kneel down and counsel her on how everything will be alright instead of running with her to safety. It's reminiscent of 1980's TV sci-fi where nobody ran until the monster was three feet from devouring them, but that was mainly due to a need to capture everything in one frame in those days. This episode of Invasion is similarly last minute and it's insultingly dumb and silly.

The acting of this group of kids is pretty curtailed by bad writing and I'm sure they could have done better with better lines and more intelligent exploration of the way kids resolve issues of bullying. But no, instead the writers decide that the bully be conveyed as a victim because a kid is wary of him and that kid then gets accused of being a bully to the bully because he hasn't instantly forgiven the evil little tyke for years of verbal, physical and mental psychopathy. And it's at moments like those that the writing really stinks as it's just trying to alter what went before and recast the bully as a different character. It doesn't work and is awful writing and imagination.

What's worse is the fact that most of this series of Invasion so far is practically the same as series 1: road trips, sleuthing, the odd encounter with aliens where nobody important really gets hurt ... the menace just isn't there. So, it's padded beyond reason again but even worse, it's imbecilic and churlish in plot and character development.

Why the aliens have now developed permanent legs instead of sprouting an appendage as needed is unclear, but hey, I guess that they didn't think they needed permanent legs on the first series. Such imaginative creations would leave your jaw hanging low if you fit into the target audience for this rubbish, which I suspect is the clueless. Luckily, that's not most of us and there is some quite justifiable annoyance at this episode and the repetitive nature of the writing when compared to series one.

They also seem to have given up on the science and taken it into a paranormal angle which I guess removes the need for logic, lucid thought and explanation.

Dismally bad.

First off, the lack of more than two seconds of episode 2 included in the recap: "Previously On Invasion..." prior to episode 3 confirms that many of the negative reviews of episode 2 were spot on as nothing happened to even justify inclusion in a summary of the story thus far.

Although episode 3 is a big improvement there were too many coincidences in the plot and story when compared to Independence Day. I noted the following coincidences:

1. Canny humans manage to hack into alien communications/computer systems and bring down their defences, by piggy backing a hack onto a radio signal which is interpreted by their cloaking tech.

2. President of the resistance gives rousing speech prior to event (unworried that the highly advanced aliens might be listening to the plan they broadcast to the entire world.)

3. Post-hacking obligatory round of applause as ...

4. Alien drones/craft drop like flies because it's a hive mind and the queen/mothership has just had the motherload of human computer virus/hacking code magically inserted into their alien tech which is coincidentally binary, two-dimensional and on silicon it seems. The way they arrive at this breakthrough is suspiciously vague in technical explanation.

Someone should send this to tech manufacturers as the ultimate goal for compatibility because currently we can't even use the same charger on different devices, nevermind seamlessly interface with alien tech and know in advance we can hack it. Alien tech, which for all we know could use methane bubbles to store data. Turns out it's also binary, compiles to two dimensional byte-code and is easily overlooked by alien security systems. But hey, the important thing is that it worked. All that was missing was Jeff Goldblum's ineffaceable nonchalance and wet cigar.

Meanwhile, ego-maniacal billionaire talks down to the leaders of world defense as if they're imbeciles when in reality he's a buffoon who says stereotypical Britishisms like "Ta Ta!" This character doesn't add anything but annoyance and is very contrived.

That aside, how anyone in writing and production didn't notice the "coincidences" with Independence Day escapes me as I'd say there were a few film buffs picking their jaw up off the floor after watching what unfolded in episode 3.

So I get that some found it much better but it was by no means great, it's just a relief for many I guess given what went before. The problem remains however that much of episode 3 still included the naff plotline of our sleuthing Soldier and his copybook of fortuitous kid's drawings. That isn't going to somehow go away so I suspect we've more slow burn filler episodes to come and I expect we'll be following the British kids on their road trip to Paris in episode 4. Can't ... wait.

Any expectation that the second series of Invasion would correct the many, many failings and exasperation of the first have been well and truly dispelled by Episode 2.

After spending the first series watching our wandering soldier try to find a way back to the USA from across the world, he's realised that nobody wants him there, particularly now that he saved his sister's son from drowning and was immediately kicked out of the house for that --his sister unable to reconcile the fact that he shouted at the not-dead boy and she took the time after her son drew a waterlogged breath to tell our soldier this instead of comforting her child. This is the level of writing they've given us and in fact it's now evident that the extent of mediocrity in this series knows no bounds. The writing and acting are really awful. It takes a while to fully grasp this but, never fear, the realisation will come to you after the razzle-dazzle of the shiny trailer and enticing in-app artwork wear off. It will reveal itself to be nothing of substance, a padded, drip-fed exercise in audience baiting.

Not content with sending our wandering soldier on another walkabout, the writers and directors have now sent our band of soap-opera standard young actors on a walkabout to find Casp (short for Casper, because we must economise on syllables whenever wanting to convey familiarity) as if watching the family in the first episode wander about, then our soldier on walkabout again in episode two wasn't enough. And despite all of the cordoned-off zones and countries in this Invaded world, everyone seems to be able to wander about with free abandon, even from country to country, far easier than we could during lockdown. You may make the observation that this wandering is simply a repeat of the first series and who am I to disagree with that?

If you like watching people wander about, then enjoy. But if you, like myself, thought the trailer for Series 2 signified that it would be better than the first series, then you're likely to be abjectly disappointed and a little peeved if you're in any way of balanced patience. Why, because dropping one episode per week as a way to draw out monthly subscriptions would be palatable if only the episodes themselves were something of substance, with an actual story. Sadly, two episodes in, they're well short of delivering anything near what the marketing promised ... yet again.

There's so much that is top notch about For All Mankind, but let's start with the cinematography and filming. As visual effects go, it is one of the few productions in either film or streaming that has so effectively conveyed what it must feel like to stand on our nearest celestial body, the Moon. The creators have managed to produce stunning visual effects which are so perfect as to feel utterly convincing. They have succeeded in so many ways, from sets and costumes spanning decades starting in the late 1950's, stepping assuredly through the different eras, to architecture and technology that is so on point that if you think about even the smallest of details, you'll realise the sheer dedication, love and professionalism that went into making this gem of a series. Much of it feels like a nod to Kubrick, especially the Moon and modernist 50's/60's sets and aerospace technology.

Stepping away from the serenity of the Moon and it's dusty skittish regolith brings us to Mars in the third series and that is very well done also, really convincing.

And the visuals aren't even the best of it; for the story, although fictional, deftly merges fact and fiction utilising vintage footage and merging it with CGI to really convey the story in an integrated way. The acting of the main cast is outstanding and some of the actors deserve awards, mainly those who at first appeared to have secondary storylines, such as Margo Madison, Molly Cobb, Danielle Poole, Sergei Orestovich and many more. In fact, the only critique I have is of the main character: Ed Baldwin played by Joel, Kinneman, whom I do like as an actor. However, by the latter half of the second series he becomes very wooden and unconvincing for some reason and maybe it's due to breaks in filming, it's hard to tell. It's a minor criticism though as he delivers a good performance overall, just not outstanding like many of the others.

After failing to get into it at first, I came back to try again after the third series arrived and, to my surprise, found that the story is captivating and has pace so is engaging and bingeable. In fact, I binge watched the entire three series. Need I say any more?

Outstandingly out of this world.

Much of the criticism of the first series was the drawn out drip-feeding of 10 episodes where nothing much happened except script errors and plot holes. And so, the last episode of the first series was actually the beginning of the story, "A New Dawn" they called it and left us hanging yet again.

Now that the second series is here, have we gotten the new dawn, not quite. It is better, with more action and special effects, set-pieces etc. But, they had established a rythym and tenor of story-type in the first series that is hard to escape to be frank. And so, we're faced with some more boring time fillers as our hapless little family scrape around to survive and get arrested etc. All very boring and pointless padding.

And, as a first episode of a new season you'd expect it to be full of captivation and hook people into the rest of the series, so it's annoying that they couldn't get away from their established pattern of rationed writing and direction for even the first episode. Annoying but hardly surprising given what went before.

The good parts were the slight pushing ahead with the story, but we're yet again seeing this unfold at a micro level, through disparate stories, rather than the macro view they left us with at the end of the first series ... Remember the huge spacecraft luring through the atmosphere? ... hardly mentioned at all.

We're instead led on a trip to the Amazon where the first mothership was downed by the power of a boy's mind alone(eye roll) and are introduced to megalomaniac billionaire, Kapoor (modelled on, take your pick of well known rich egoists) played by a British actor who for some reason seems to talk to everyone as if they're a newborn puppy and he seems to suffer from a kind of inflection-tourettes as his delivery places inflection and emphasis in all the wrong places, while he cajoles in an insipid, chidish way. This character doesn't work and is irritating beyond the patience of anyone reasonable or sane.

At the end of the first episode, we're left with not much more knowledge than we had at the end of the first series so their title "Something's Changed" seems oddly innacurate when precious little has actually changed.

It's a bit better, but as an introduction to the second season, this first episode doesn't hold much promise that the second season will correct the huge amount of negativity which the drip-feeding, padded first series evoked. [Update: It seems that Episode 2 has confirmed that suspicion and is a big nosedive compared to Episode 1.]

Let's hope we won't see people tearing their hair out after 5 episodes again, wondering why nothing much has happened.

This film isn't an easy watch because it puts the viewer firmly in the seat of a boy afraid of a bull of a man: a bully and a coward, but a dangerous one nonetheless. It is incredibly well acted by all of the cast, particularly the boy and the father, whose unstable temperament simmers threateningly throughout and will make you hold your breath and squirm, perhaps even scream at the TV, "call the police!"

Although set in France, it highlights the abject failure of the court systems when it comes to the allocation of custody and visitation rights, highlighting the way in which violent men are taken at their word and women who understandably can't provide witnesses to domestic abuse, coercion and control, are simply told it's her word against his. This happens in nearly every country and nothing is done until things reach a point of placing the woman and children at such peril that it shames the whole system. At least it should; bureaucrats should watch it and reflect. Don't worry, we've heard all of the excuses; it needs to change.

And that's precisely where the story takes us, without adding a spolier, to extreme peril. And it is a shocking climax to an absolutely engrossing film. Not easy to watch, particularly the confliction and angst of a young boy trying to protect his mother, but it is one you shouldn't miss. French cinema shines yet again ... très bien fait.

Only fans of the book could really find this offering from AppleTV enjoyable.

It is one of those stories which presents an overarching dystopian scenario of a small population living in an underground bunker, a Silo, and proceeds to pack it out with sub-stories and attempts at intrigue whilst dragging the overarching story out beyond reason or the patience of any reasonable person. It reminds me of series like The Dome or The Stand where you think you're getting one story but all you get is boring fillers about politics, pseudo-religion, murder and mediocre sleuthing. Each episode is padded beyond what is decent or tasteful and usually amounts to one thing of major interest happening in 50 minutes and that's it.

Following the drip-feed mundanity of Invasion, it seems that these slow burn series are a policy decision of AppleTV but they aren't really Sci-Fi as the science fiction aspects of these series are minimal and tenuous, and importantly, delayed until you've waded through the full series.

It is interminably boring and like watching paint dry. It should have been made into a movie, if developed at all.

Although this is a typical romcom drama, it feels seminal because it takes Gay movies quite firmly into the mainstream. Yes, we've had many mainstream LGBT films over the years, but they tended to be hard hitting dramas or sad tragedies, with many focusing on the challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community. Yes, we can refer to movies such as the brilliant Pride or recent (not so great) Bros, the sweet Love Simon etc. But this takes it into the fairytale realm: the love between an American President's son and a British Prince, and so, feels that bit different and special as a result.

What Red, White and Royal Blue does is cross the final barrier in placing a gay love story slap bang in the midst of the romcom genre that has traditionally been so straight for so long ... too long, with gay characters merely ancillary storylines if included at all. It reminds me of the Princess Diaries, for example, and just has that sense of being groundbreaking because it's firmly a movie that anyone would watch and everyone should. In essence, it is a family film, innocuous and largely innocent like most others in the genre.

The lovemaking and conversations around sex were no more and no less in your face than any teen romcom and it was pitched well at a wide audience. It would be an ideal movie for young Gay and Bi people who can see themselves represented unashamedly in a mainstream Hollywood type romcom. In that respect, Hollywood is very late in bringing forward a movie like this and similar have existed for many years in Europe, particularly French/Belgian cinema, and the Irish film Handsome Devil to a good degree.

The two lead actors were very good indeed but Nicholas Galitzine, who plays Prince Henry, really steals the show, not just through his stunning beauty but his remarkable acting ability and subtle emotionality which convey such presence that you'd think he was a very seasoned actor indeed. Taylor Perez isn't far behind and also very handsome and talented. They made a very sexy onscreen couple (swoon!) and they should both be very proud of this film, as should the direction and production teams.

There is a moment of great hilarity when the elusive King of England finally enters, played by none other than Stephen Fry, and it crossed my mind that he'd be equally comfortable playing the Queen, and I did laugh at the idea that he might have. I'm pretty sure he'd be amused by that.

Of course, we wouldn't have films such as these without the original story so much credit to the author Casey McQuiston who wrote the book of the same name. People should credit the author of a story in my view because without them, we wouldn't have cinema and writers are forgotten in many cases, with those who write the screenplay often mistakingly assigned the credit for the story. Lots of people are saying that the script leaves out a large part of the book, certain important scenes and characters and that's a pity that they feel it's not as good as the book, but as someone who hasn't read the book I probably will now and look forward to an even better story.

Overall it's higher end for a romcom in production quality and budget and the cast in general are great. There are the customary cheesy speeches and sappy emotion but underlying it is a strong emotional love story that was very touching and I know there will be much excitement in the LGBTQ+ world about this, Heartstopper style excitement. It is justifiable and well deserved.

Yet again, the American movie industry has the audacity to spend money on this insulting garbage and to shamelessly distribute this pile of manure to the unwitting public.

What confounds reason is how in the name of all that is fair and decent they can present this to the public without being deeply embarrassed. This movie defies categorisation and wouldn't even rank as a B movie, possibly a Z movie. It is so bad that you might be forgiven for thinking it's satire if it were in any way satirical or a commentary on the stereotypes it has created in this story of dumb, young, vacuous adults.

I cannot emphasise strongly enough how desperately people need to avoid watching this horrendous bile and would go as far as to say it should come with a public mental health warning.

Only after wasting my time watching this pointless expenditure of electricity on abject nonsense did I realise that life is too short to be robbed of even a second by the cretins who created this oh-so-dumb garbage-fest about a smart house. How they ever had the nerve to include the word smart here, I will never know, for it is beneath the intelligence of a lobotomised snail.