Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 26th, 2021
In the HBO limited series The Undoing, we get a scandal and murder that affects the high society of New York’s elite. I’ll admit at first glance this doesn’t seem all that original, but then when you see it stars Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman, it was enough to give this a closer look. Then I notice the six-episode series is penned by David E. Kelley (The Practice, Ally McBeal, and Big Little Lies), and this really grabs my attention. Helming the project behind the lens is Susanne Bier, who directed the Netflix hit Birdbox (though I wasn’t impressed) but also the limited series The Night Manager (which was pretty great). With all these combined along with the backing of HBO, this seemed like it had more potential than I first thought, and for the most part this series didn’t disappoint, but is it worth sitting through six episodes to get answers in this whodunit?
Episode one of The Undoing introduces us to Jonathan Fraser (Hugh Grant) and Grace Fraser (Nicole Kidman) who seem to have it all: successful jobs, a happy marriage and family. Jonathan has a successful and noble career helping children who have cancer, and Grace is a successful therapist. The Frasers are a part of the elite, and their son Henry (Noah Jupe) is enrolled in one of the most prestigious private schools in New York. Everything goes sideways when a parent at the school is found murdered,, and the last people that may have had contact with the woman are the Frasers. It definitely has the feel of Law and Order, just with better writing and better dialog. The first episode does a good job with baiting the audience, but it’s the following episodes that definitely elevate the series.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Michael Durr on January 20th, 2020
As a man, I have watched my fair share of Desperate Housewives, Mistresses, Sex and the City, and even reality shows like Real Housewives of "Insert Name Here" county or city. I'm not sure any of it was by choice. Well, Mistresses did have Alyssa Milano, so there is that. I have learned, however, that while it might be undesirable to watch these types of shows, typically, it can be a good thing to do with your better half. It can broaden the lines of communication, and if nothing else you can sit there with your loved one and collectively wonder how high your tolerance for pain is. Enter Big Little Lies Season Two.
At the end of the first season, we learned that Perry Wright (played by Alexander Skarsgard) was murdered. Technically, it was Bonnie Carlson (played by Zoe Kravitz) who issued the final push which sent him down the stairs to his demise. However, there were four others involved in the altercation including Madeline McKenzie (played by Reese Witherspoon), Renata Klein (played by Laura Dern), Jane Chapman (played by Shailene Woodley), and Perry's wife Celeste (played by Nicole Kidman). While it was justified due to the repeated abuse of Celeste and rape of Jane, the fact remained that it was murder. The five women collectively decided to say that Perry slipped and that the murder was accidental with nobody at fault. But as we know, secrets are sometimes hard to keep.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on December 7th, 2018
“They destroyed the man I was, but then I was reborn. And this time I came out breathing fire.”
Season 1 of Westworld — HBO’s mega-budget adaptation of Michael Crichton’s 1973 film of the same name — spent a lot of time exploring the nature of reality and humanity through a high-tech theme park’s robotic hosts. And while the show still has plenty of time for those themes, the second season can be tidily summed up with a phrase that nods to another Part II of an iconic sci-fi franchise: The Hosts Strike Back.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 28th, 2018
“…I’ll show you how to be rich.”
HBO’s fantastic and fiercely funny Succession is about a group of people who are great at being rich…and not much else. The show’s fictional Roy family controls the powerful conglomerate Waystar Royco, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the late Rupert Murdoch’s media and entertainment empire. The show would be entertaining enough if it merely lampooned the spoiled brats who stumble into becoming masters of the universe. But Succession goes to another level by wringing legitimately powerful family drama out of an objectively absurd and despicable cast of characters.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on September 11th, 2018
“It's hard to believe your pathological inability to make a decision finally paid off.”
Since its debut, Silicon Valley has brilliantly lampooned the tech industry by showing us both the proverbial “guys in a garage” and the self-important, aggressively eccentric billionaires obsessed with staying ahead of the curve. Given the fact that we're now in season 5 — and the Pied Piper gang has improbably managed to stay in business this long — the days inside the boys' fratty “hacker hostel” seem especially far off. But while Silicon Valley still delivers an entertaining mix of brainy and bawdy laughs, the series seems to be running out of ways to show us how these brilliant dorks can continue to fail upwards.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 17th, 2018
"Some of you may know he history of The Section. Rumors of operatives going rogue, the Whitehall assassination. None of that matters now. What matters is that Section 20 stood for something. They were the soldiers who kept going when others fell, who saw the odds and didn't blink, who got the job done, even when it meant paying the ultimate price."
Two years ago I wrote a review for the fourth and final season of the Cinemax series Strike Back. Now here I am telling you about the fifth season. So what's up with that?
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on March 16th, 2018
“I was just trying not to offend you and yet I wound up offending you, which is quite ironic.”
Six long years passed between the last Curb Your Enthusiasm episode in 2011 and the show's season 9 premiere last fall. And yet it only takes about two minutes for Larry David — the curmudgeonly comic genius who stars as an exaggerated(?) version of himself on the long-running HBO sitcom — to utter the words above after inadvertently offending his latest unsuspecting victim. In other words, even though portions of this season feel creakier than past years, it is absolutely great to have Curb back!
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 21st, 2018
If The Wire isn't the greatest television show of all time, it's certainly in the conversation. That landmark HBO series was created by David Simon, who took a journalistic and novelistic approach in telling the story of a decaying city (Baltimore) and its various institutions. Now, Simon has teamed up with crime novelist George Pelecanos for The Deuce, which takes a similarly 360-degree approach in examining Times Square in the early 1970s and the evolution of the porn industry. Capturing every facet of that time and place doesn't just mean that The Deuce depicts the lives of pimps, prostitutes, and police officers. It also means the show is alternately thought-provoking, tragic and darkly funny.
“You got some pimp in you.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on December 19th, 2017
“There is only one war that matters. The Great War...and it is here.”
Ever since Game of Thrones premiered in 2011, viewers have been tantalized by the notion that “winter is coming.” (And it's been a *much* longer wait for book readers who fell in love with the first installment in George R.R. Martin's “A Song of Ice and Fire” saga more than 20 years ago.) Ned Stark's famous words have launched a thousand memes, and this shortened seventh season of HBO's spectacular fantasy drama — 7 episodes instead of the customary 10 — seemed poised to begin delivering on their promise. While the show is still able to thrill audiences like nothing else on TV, the strain of wrapping up such an epic story finally started to show.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 6th, 2017
“In our conversation, he seemed relaxed, unfailingly candid, earnest, and trustworthy. That is his talent and his curse.”
You probably know the name Bernie Madoff, the notorious fraudster who used a Ponzi scheme to steal almost $65 billion dollars from his victims. (Yes, that's “billion” with a B!) But if you were hoping to gain some insight into the man and his methods, this HBO film isn't really the place to look. The Wizard of Lies features a fantastic cast, some effective directorial touches, but is too often guilty of telling rather than showing.
