alexnapo Reviews

American Crime Story (2016– )

Great work

[10/10 · 18 March 2017]

I discovered at the end credits of the 10th episode that this a true story, that the character portrayed have been real. I had no knowledge of that court case, living and growing abroad. It was a very surprising and fascinating discovery.

In call cases, this series is absolutely tremendous. The acting, the storytelling, the writing, editing is of the highest calibre. I wish that judge Lance Ito's character would have been developed a bit further. That the story would show more of him and his life outside the courtroom, like for other important characters, as it's very interesting character as well. It's possible the production tried some episodes doing that and may have realized it works better by keeping the judge Ito more mysterious by showing less of his personal life.

Finally, the cinematography is technically excellent but I think it could have gone a bit "further" and more "creative" in some scenes as there is potential to play with in the courtroom especially. But of course, usually, on these series, there is so much pages of script to get in one day that it just reduces opportunities to play with the image and lighting... which is often what makes the difference with feature films.

Regardless, this series is absolutely great work.

Mad Men (2007–2015)

Faboulous

[10/10 · 18 March 2017]

When I started watching Mad Men, the rhythm of it felt slow.

Pretty quickly did I realize how much more powerful the slow story & plot development rhythm would be, allowing us to discover the characters, mostly in seasons 1 and 2, and then really be in the thick of it in subsequent seasons.

Indeed, this series has pushed character development so far that they are the entire and only reason why this series is interesting. The actual events happening at the advertising agency is a pretext to throw more things at those characters and have them deal with it. In fact, the characters are so interesting that there is practically no violence needed (except a few minor events) over 7 seasons to keep this series going. I find that tremendously respectable to be able to craft a series in this way, not using gun shots and bombs to make it lively.

Finally, I have not lived in the early 60's time period the series is set in, but I can only say that it's all seemed to me very interesting and all these "vintinge" props and costumes, hair style and such made it all the more fascinating to watch.

Absolutely great work.