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Reviews
Dexter: New Blood: Sins of the Father (2022)
Hard to review
Honestly this is so hard to review. Part of me kinda hoped in a "they lived happily ever after", and to be honest the plot in this final episode takes a sudden turn which is not that believable.
But we're talking about a series built on a serial killer as one and only protagonist. Really, what other ending it could have had? The son ending the dark passenger, moving on, leaving the killer behind.
Yes it's a bit sad, just like it's sad saying goodbye to the character of a good series you loved for years. But in the end, I came to understand that every other ending would have fell flat, trivial, unimaginative. Did we really believe that Dexter would have start anew somewhere else, like nothing happened?
This is not just an end. This always have been the only end. Goodbye Dexter, thanks for a final season that's been original and different, and farewell.
CSI: Vegas: Signed, Sealed, Delivered (2021)
Kind of disappointing finale
Overall I appreciated parts of this new csi installment, particularly all the parts revolving around the Hodges case (while the accessory cases, changing from time to time, were boring and uninteresting).
The final episode is entirely devoted to the main case, and that's good; the disappointment is that, after 9 episodes where the bad guy acted flawlessly, like a genius mastermind, in the end the entire case is solved thanks to stupid errors and behaviors he had in the last episode.
He practically had already won, and in the end he's defeated by his own fault.
Somehow, this makes it look like hardly believable, diminishing the value of it all.
That said, good series with a nice plot.
Just please, replace the girl.
Foundation (2021)
Quickly going south
Many focus over the male characters who have become female ones. I'll admit that Demerzel as a woman is SO hard to watch. But after the first two episodes, I feel like this is going way south and quickly, for much worse reasons.
- Turning secondary characters to protagonists only to give them annoying lines and unbelievable behaviors.
- The many relevant changes to original plot; I understand adding things to make it a series, but not changing the story to this extent.
- One of the best twist of the books - one of the best ever, actually - is the discovery of Demerzel as Daneel. Here, they create a character which seems weak and useless, a banal pawn of the emperor, and they immediately reveal the truth. And you are left wondering why.
- Salvor Hardin was a great character because he was a simple, common man, only smart enough to solve two crisis. Here, they hint she has some supernatural (mental?) ability. Can she be a jedi?
- The love story. Immediately, it feels like it hits you in the face right from the start. Really? Did we really need it?
- Raych. Why? No seriously, why?
Foundation is visually astounding, great picture, nice effects. But the series already seems to be falling truly short on the writing. It's not just being unfaithful to the books, it'd be poor writing by itself. The fact this should come from the books, makes it only more painful and hard to bear.
CSI: Vegas (2021)
Not a masterpiece, but overall enjoyable
I started to watch this with low expectations. Way too many spin-offs were tried from the original CSI, and the quality got thinner and thinner.
Now while this isn't a masterpiece, and you could miss it without losing your sleep, I'd say it's actually better than I expected.
Perhaps it's just me who desperately want to like it, after so many disappointing/awful series recently (Foundation damn you).
The only real downside so far is, the main plot (the story revolving around Hodges) is by far the one catching the viewer's attention, pushing all other cases they investigate into the background, to the point they tend to be a nuisance - you'd like to focus more on the main story and less on these other distractions.
That said, I like it so far.
Foundation: The First Crisis (2021)
Perhaps I should rate this 10...
.. so mr. Apple will pay me too.
It's truly disheartening to read some enthusiastic reviews, saying this is the best sci-fi series of all times - it's not even sci-fi anymore, once they abandon science for magic, it's fantasy.
Ok you can like this. God knows I can't even imagine why, but let's just say it can happen. What you cannot do is to rate this 10 out of 10, writing that the authors made an excellent job, when major characters are truly offensive for how ridiculously incoherent they are. Not to mention their pitiful, unexplained magical powers, and those awful lines.
And please, oh dear god please, stop stop stop saying all the critics are the ones who dared to read the books. This is truly awful in its own way. Do yourself a favor, forget the books and absolutely DO NOT compare them: this show will be horrid by itself. It leaves me wondering how an author who wants to protect his name, would ever sign this.
But ok, if you send me home an iPhone you might convince me to write it's great. I won't watch it, but you could go to your boss showing that beautiful review. I promise it won't be less believable than those others 10s.
For All Mankind (2019)
So much better than Foundation
I just had to write this down: this is a good series, and it becomes quite a masterpiece compared with Foundation.
This is sci-fi. Slow at times, but meaningful, rich, and gifted with capable actors.
CSI: Vegas (2021)
Not a masterpiece, but overall enjoyable
I started to watch this with low expectations. Way too many spin-offs were tried from the original CSI, and the quality got thinner and thinner.
Now while this isn't a masterpiece, and you could miss it without losing your sleep, I'd say it's actually better than I expected.
Perhaps it's just me who desperately want to like it, after so many disappointing/awful series recently (Foundation damn you).
The only real downside so far is, the main plot (the story revolving around Hodges) is by far the one catching the viewer's attention, pushing all other cases they investigate into the background, to the point they tend to be a nuisance - you'd like to focus more on the main story and less on these other distractions.
That said, I like it so far.
Foundation: Mysteries and Martyrs (2021)
Sooooo boring
Useless characters, nonsense dialogues, unbearable love stories. Plus all the more usual horrific stupid behaviors and terrible acting.
And in the end everything comes down to this boring, boring, boring show.
Foundation: Death and the Maiden (2021)
Explain it to me
The people giving high rates have never read the books. I get it. But please, explain to me what you consider good about this.
Just a few things in just this one episode:
- utter nonsense like a child who inexplicably defeats a trained warrior. Sure, why not? After all that's only a skilled warrior attacking the Foundation, one of their chosen soldiers against a 10 years old child.
- Hardin and her father sharing a nice moment walking together, smiling and laughing like they're goin fishing, remembering the good ol' times on Trantor. Never mind the enemy army on their trail, plotting and killing people just behind them.
- yes, another unbearable love story with oh so boring moments about the young Emperor - oh wait, he's inexplicably the one and only clone who's different from the others! That's strange, indeed.
It's ok, you never read the books. This could be a GREAT series even by changing most things from the books. But it REALLY isn't.
What made good the original story was a bunch of great ideas, starting from the capacity of one man, Hari Seldon, to foresee events on a huge scale: even in this series they said many times he couldn't foresee events regarding a single man. And here, in episode 6, they betray even that: "the galaxy revolves around you, one man!". Yeah right.
Then Demerzel; they took away the great reveal - look she's a robot, ok, so what, not that interesting after all - and they even made her a RELIGIOUS puppet. This robot supposed to have a plan for the galaxy.
And finally Salvor Hardin. This is probably what I despise the most. They took the one character that achieved great many things without ever touching a weapon, and repeating that "violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" (a phrase so big it became famous much beyond the books), and they turned him into a magical character who goes around shooting like in a videogame, and never accomplish a damn thing.
I get it, they wanted freedom to devise a plot entirely new. But they only had to follow a couple important ideas, like the basic concept of psychohistory. Instead they turned even those upside down - the first seldon crisis due to a single person and one unexpected event, the rogues finding a ship - and this should have been foreseen by Seldon? Something which goes entirely against everything it should be?
It's not just different from the books: it's nonsense. This plot just makes no sense at all.
And it's damn boring too.
Foundation: Barbarians at the Gate (2021)
Did she really say that?
I must be wrong. It can't be.
The woman they call Salvor Hardin, when another character reminded her that "violence is the last refuge of the incompetent", did she really respond "that an old man's doctrine"???
They took the one fundamental phrase of Hardin, defining SO MUCH about his philosophy and his cleverness to avoid violence, and turned it around like it's something someone else believes and this pathetic Hardin opposes.
It's like watching a TV series upon the Pope where they make him say abortion is great, and poors and migrants should all be killed.
No seriously, it can't be. It's getting worse and worse.
Foundation (2021)
Quickly going south
Many focus over the male characters who have become female ones. I'll admit that Demerzel as a woman is SO hard to watch. But after the first two episodes, I feel like this is going way south and quickly, for much worse reasons.
- Turning secondary characters to protagonists only to give them annoying lines and unbelievable behaviors.
- The many relevant changes to original plot; I understand adding things to make it a series, but not changing the story to this extent.
- One of the best twist of the books - one of the best ever, actually - is the discovery of Demerzel as Daneel. Here, they create a character which seems weak and useless, a banal pawn of the emperor, and they immediately reveal the truth. And you are left wondering why.
- Salvor Hardin was a great character because he was a simple, common man, only smart enough to solve two crisis. Here, they hint she has some supernatural (mental?) ability. Can she be a jedi?
- The love story. Immediately, it feels like it hits you in the face right from the start. Really? Did we really need it?
- Raych. Why? No seriously, why?
Foundation is visually astounding, great picture, nice effects. But the series already seems to be falling truly short on the writing. It's not just being unfaithful to the books, it'd be poor writing by itself. The fact this should come from the books, makes it only more painful and hard to bear.