Genre: Action & Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Dallas Liu, Daniel Dae Kim, Gordon Cormier, Ian Ousley, Kiawentiio
Genre: Action & Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Dallas Liu, Daniel Dae Kim, Gordon Cormier, Ian Ousley, Kiawentiio
Buddy comedies, especially those that pair up total opposites, are almost guaranteed to be fun at the beginning, just from the surprise factor of having these personalities clash. But a show needs more than that to sustain interest, and The Brothers Sun just doesn't fill out its characters enough beyond their respective archetypes within the first two episodes watched for this review. So far, this is a series that seems to be built around moments—in particular, the impressively choreographed fight scenes that communicate both peril and comedy—but without more substantial themes to prop itself up. It's definitely slickly made and has production values to show off, but it can't help but feel like it's just ticking boxes.
Genre: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Drama
Actor: Highdee Kuan, Joon Lee, Justin Chien, Michelle Yeoh, Sam Li
Genre: Animation, Kids, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Judah Edwards, Layla Capers, Sevien Desuyo, Sid Kamat
Genre: Drama
Actor: Afrah Sayed, Akshita Sood, Aneet Padda, Avantika, Dalai, Gauri Malla, Loveleen Mishra, Pooja Bhatt, Suchitra Pillai, Tanya Abrol, Tenzin Lhakyila, Vidushi, Zoya Hussain
Director: Karan Kapadia, Kopal Naithani, Nitya Mehra, Sudhanshu Saria
At its core, The Trust is everything you expect from American reality TV, complete with several highly irritating contestants and drama that just never hits as hard as it tries to. So it's good that the central game mechanics are simple yet designed to have the players sow as much discord among themselves as possible. With the constant temptation of higher individual shares dangled in front of them, and each contestant having the power to send somebody home with a single, anonymous, uncontested vote, the paranoia runs rampant fairly quickly. Unfortunately, the players themselves aren't the most interesting bunch to watch, and their strategies are decent at best, completely illogical at worst. There's still lots of excitement surrounding every voting session, but getting to know the players becomes a slog.
Genre: Reality
Actor: Brooke Baldwin
Genre: Drama
Actor: Bimbo Ademoye, Gabriel Afolayan, Kunle Remi, Sola Sobowale, Taiwo Hassan
Nutrition is a complex topic that’s affected by so many factors, so it can be hard to navigate this on a personal level. You Are What You Eat depicts one Stanford study examining only one of these factors– whether a vegan versus an omnivore diet would be considered healthier. The mini-series does have an interesting approach, as the show introduces four sets of twins out of the 22 sets in the experiment. These four pairs are funny and full of personality, especially when they react to their new diets and the results they receive, so it’s annoying when the show suddenly drops various scientific findings in between, and takes most of the runtime away from these relatable individuals. And when these findings are presented by scientists and politicians known to promote vegan diets, You Are What You Eat feels more like vegan propaganda masking itself as scientific, rather than the interesting journey real people took in the experiment.
Genre: Documentary
Genre: Documentary
Director: Mauricio Albornoz Iniesta
In a world of constant surveillance– CCTV, mass-market trackers, social media– it would seem that it’s not possible to create a murder mystery that wouldn’t be easily solved by just checking the tapes. Fool Me Once proves that it’s possible to do so, it just won’t be satisfying. The series at first seems to have an unexplainable mystery, with a possible resurrection/fake death of Maya’s husband, but the series throws away certain footage (like the CCTV during Joe’s death, or the hospital he was brought to) only to bring back the technology when convenient. The show does keep certain tidbits from us, but for far too long, and without giving smaller clues that would hopefully piece together the whole mystery. And with eight whole episodes that drag out the plot, Fool Me Once seems to have fooled us into thinking that it would have all been worth it in the end.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Actor: Adeel Akhtar, Emmett Scanlan, Joanna Lumley, Michelle Keegan, Richard Armitage
Genre: Reality
Actor: Eric Adjepong
Genre: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Drama
Actor: Alfonso Dosal, Andres Baida, Bruno Bichir, Ester Exposito, Juan Pablo Medina, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Mabel Cadena, Nicolás Furtado
Genre: Comedy, Reality
Actor: Justin Willman, Kimberly Congdon, Kyle Marlett, Simon Taylor
Genre: Animation
Actor: Emily Tunon, Josh Brener, Keith Ferguson, Laura Post, Maya Tuttle
Good ol’ fashioned live-audience sitcoms feel like a thing of the past, especially with Netflix’s whole season drops, and the binge-watching culture that has developed due to streaming. End of the Line brings back the sitcom approach, with Rodrigo Sant'anna and Roberta Rodrigues leading the comedic ensemble as a bickering driving divorced couple forced to share a space, but the fast-paced Brazilian show isn’t the laugh-out-loud, hilarious comedy of yesteryear. With an actual live audience that they actually show, it’s possible that some of the humor might be specific to the country. There are some moments that might pull out a chuckle or two, but most of the comedy feels more like clumsy improv, rather than well-written jokes based on characterization, set-up, and chemistry.
Genre: Comedy
Actor: Rodrigo Sant'anna
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Chou Wasir, Huang Li Feng, Lara Chen, Wu Ping Chen