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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Invaders in TV

Mar 15, 2018 (Updated Mar 15, 2018)

The Invaders

1967 | Sci-Fi, Thriller

6.8

(13 Ratings)

TV Show Rating

One of the classic TV alien invasion shows; the theme tune and the various visual gimmicks (aliens with crooked little fingers who incinerate when killed) are quite well-remembered, along with (possibly) the fact that many of the episodes aren't actually any good.

Larry Cohen's original concept - a paranoid thriller with few overt SF elements - was rapidly abandoned, and Cohen himself had little involvement. The programme is really a victim of the time it was made: episodic storytelling means that the aliens come up with bizarrely different schemes on a weekly basis (weather control, infiltrating industry, man-eating butterflies), and there are nagging problems with the format - it is required that the aliens never just kill Vincent, and that he never manages to get evidence of their activity, either. Some would say that Roy Thinnes' intensely dour performance is not exactly what a show like this needs.

Still, there are some good individual episodes, and the iconography of the show does hang around in your head (it's clearly one of the shows that was a major influence on The X Files). It's a shame this kind of story has since been done to death as you could easily imagine a contemporary Invaders remake being really good (even though the 90s mini-series really wasn't).

Kudos

Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Westworld - Season 2 in TV

Jul 5, 2018

Westworld - Season 2

2018 | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

7.4

(30 Ratings)

TV Season Rating

A Step Down

I have seen a bunch of articles online talking about how bad Westworld Season 2 is and how this show has went off of a cliff amongst many other over-exaggerations.
Westworld Season 2 is in absolutely no way a bad series of television. Sure, it isn't as good as the first season, but what you need to remember is that Season 1 of Westworld is one of the best series of TV ever broadcast.
In my opinion, Season 2 was never going to be as good as it's predecessor and that's okay. It's still intriguing, exciting and well made and without spoiling too much, I thought that the way this series ended was pretty bold and rather refreshing.
The first half of the season has it's ups and down and (SPOILERS from the end of Season 1,) the presence of Sir Anthony Hopkins is sorely missed. However, there are moments of brilliance in every episode of this series, it's just unfortunate that they are sometimes surrounded by convoluted padding.
Overall, yeah it's not as good as series 1, but you know what? I still felt like it was a pretty great season of television and I am looking forward to what this show has to offer in the future.

Kudos

Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated MASH (1970) in Movies

Jul 31, 2019

MASH (1970)

1970 | Comedy, Drama, War

7.9

(17 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Broke new comedy ground (3 more)

Biting social commentary

Excellent cast

Moderately funny

Less a plot than a loosely-connected set of escapades (2 more)

Not the show you remember

Some of the stuff the protagonists get up to is legitimately awful, and this shouldn't have been okay even in the 70s

Groundbreaking at the time, but unremarkable today

If you're looking into this on account of the TV show, don't bother. It's very different. An anti-Vietnam movie about Korea, MASH is a dark comedy that's moderately funny and broke new ground at the time, but there's not much to recommend it today. Worth seeing? Sure. But it's not necessarily deserving of its cult status.

Plus, the protagonists are legitimately despicable people. You're supposed to cheer for them against the by-the-book fuddy-duddies like Burns and "Hot Lips" Houlihan, but honestly? The scene where they pull up the sides of the shower tent and expose HLH mid-shower is a bit uncomfortable, made more so by her breakdown/rant next scene as she berates the unit Commander for letting them get away with crap like that - and she's not wrong. The protagonists deserve to be court martialed for this, but no consequences are ever leveled. Even for the 70s, that's messed up....