Inherent Vice– Like half of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie, I didn’t get this one. I liked the visuals, there are some great actors (Joaquin Phoenix was fantastic in the lead role) I found it really hard to follow. It’s 1970’s Los Angeles and private investigator “Doc”, looks into the disappearance of an ex girlfriend. A plot like that is right up my ally, but I think the movie is just too long. I think I mentally checked out too many times and couldn’t put the pieces together as I missed too much. It’s something that happens to me in many of PTA’s movies. Can’t recommend it.
Sense8- The Wachowski siblings reach into the TV format for the first time in their storytelling careers. Many say their latest movies have been too packed with content to tell in the constraints of film so going on Netflix is pretty promising for them to really get into a new and fleshed out world for fans. Unfortunately, Sense8 is just a bloated TV show. While it has some good ideas and characters, it takes forever for anything meaningful to happen. With 12, 50 minute-ish minutes, the first season is a good three episodes too long. Multiple, overindulgent montages produce little more than eye rolls in lieu of good storytelling. There’s simply too many characters at play, this should be Sense6. Even if everyone has a big roll to play in the second season, Lito and Kala are a waste in this one. They drag these episodes down like boat anchors. There’s just not enough payoff in the end for anyone to care about them clogging up the rest of the show. Along with the spotty ideas is the dialog. While mostly well written, there are some terrible cliches and stupid dialog (that the actors are well aware of given their delivery). Comes off as really amateurish.
Orange is the New Black- I’m on the last half of the season and so far it’s the worst of the three so far (still good though). The really interesting thing is how the main character, Piper, isn’t the main character any more. It’s an ensamble show and she can be written out and wouldn’t be missed. The show would just be about the women of Litchfield prison (which it already is).
Transparent- Great show with Jeffrey Tambor as the lead, a real pick up for Amazon Originals. Really well written, acted and at 10 episodes gets a lot done. I just hate how Josh dresses, drives me nuts.
Hannibal is back for season three in all of its horrible decadent glory. This season is ditching the “killer of the week” formula so it’s shaping up differently than last season. The show that looks like every episode cost $5 million to produce is sharpening its claws in the darkness again.
Orphan Black ends this week, I’ll be back with more on that this weekend.
Ink Master returns next week, nice since I have no contest shows on right now until Face Off returns in July.