Genre: Animation
Actor: Emily Tunon, Josh Brener, Keith Ferguson, Laura Post, Maya Tuttle
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
Genre: Drama
Actor: Aml Ameen, Chanté Adams, Diane Lane, Jeff Daniels, Jon Michael Hill, Lucy Liu, Sarah Jones, Tom Pelphrey, William Jackson Harper
Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Kids
Actor: Amari McCoy, Grey DeLisle, Griffen Campbell, Jakari Fraser, Josh Keaton
Stilted and awkward from the beginning, the first two episodes of Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale that were watched for this review promise a rough start for a series that just doesn't have enough of its own personality. Characters and conflict are introduced in ham-fisted fashion, with this fantasy world never given enough shape to make the magic elements feel significant to the story. It's not necessarily a problem that the show functions more as a small-town crime drama—it can be interesting to have magic be so normalized in this setting—but even these hints of mystery feel obligatory, rather than motivated to explore more of its story.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Amy De Bhrún, Elaine Cassidy, Hazel Doupe, Kelly Campbell, Stephanie Levi-John, Stephen Lord, Valerie O'Connor
The idea of claiming territory like on a board game makes for an interesting premise for a game show, but unfortunately The Floor fails to do anything with its format that would allow its players to make use of any meaningful strategy whatsoever. It only takes watching one "duel" to realize how tedious this show is, as the contestants are made to play a series of image identification or fill-in-the-blanks games—hardly the best way to test one's expertise in a given topic. Not only that, but the format of the questions seems to change unfairly as well, with some being made to name simple images, and others (like for the topic of "Bands") to take the extra step of interpreting a visual pun or metaphor. At least for the early episodes, this is all the game ever amounts to, which makes for an increasingly boring viewing experience.
Genre: Reality
Actor: Rob Lowe
Sweet heavens, this is cringe. Starting with that edgy, dated intro sequence with the hardcore track. It isn’t accurate to say that there’s a lot of cringe writing because that's just the default here, with a lot of the material being 'you won't believe how strong I am.' The elaborate fight sequences are full of heavy blows like a button-mashing game and it's where the show shines, but any semblance of story feels like incidental world-building for a tough guy anime. Maybe the kindest thing to say about it, apart from it promoting martial arts, is the fact that it's generic enough that you won’t have to remember anything about it afterwards if you don't want to.
Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation
Actor: Rintaro Nishi, Ryota Takeuchi, Shunsuke Takeuchi, Tessyo Genda, Tetsu Inada