2024 TV Highlights Thus Far, Pt. 1 | Bite-Sized Reviews

(L-R, 1st row, then 2nd row) SHOGUN (FX / Hulu), RIPLEY (Netflix), FALLOUT (Prime Video), MR. AND MRS. SMITH (Prime Video), and Presumed Innocent (Apple TV+).

You don’t really understand it when you’re a kid, but, boy, it really feels like time flies by as you get older. When you’re stressed or overworked or even just have more important things on your mind, it can be difficult to find the time to do what you want to do before it feels like you’re too late. This is, in part, why I started doing these review compilation posts sometimes containing bite-sized reviews about shows or films that I feel like I still need to talk about, even though I missed out on the moment right after the release. If you read my website frequently, then you know that I’ve recently posted two backlog/catch-up compilations for last year’s TV series. With that out of the way, I now want to focus on some of the shows of the past seven or eight months that I really want to give you my thoughts on. Today, I’ll focus on some of the shows that I think are the very best of the year thus far, including, but not limited to, a video game TV-adaptation and an incredibly stylish reimagining of an iconic Patricia Highsmith story.

Continue reading “2024 TV Highlights Thus Far, Pt. 1 | Bite-Sized Reviews”

REVIEW: The Irishman (2019)

Release Poster – Netflix

The following is a review of The Irishman — Directed by Martin Scorsese.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Martin Scorsese would arguably be on the Mt. Rushmore of American filmmakers if such a thing existed. When Scorsese laments the supposed death of cinema or questions the artistic merit of modern blockbusters, you listen to him for the simple reason that few people know the medium, the power of cinema, or the industry as well as he does. His understanding of the power of what is within or out of the frame of cinema is indescribable. Though his detractors may suggest that he is a glorified gangster film director, nothing could be further from the truth. With The Irishman, Martin Scorsese has given us a haunting and elegiac historical epic disguised as a greatest hits gangster film that stresses that, even in the autumn of his life, the master hasn’t missed a beat. Continue reading “REVIEW: The Irishman (2019)”

REVIEW: The Night Of – “Subtle Beast”

The Night Of Reviewed

The following is a quick spoiler review of the second episode of the HBO Limited Series “The Night Of.”

In the second episode of The Night Of (“Subtle Beast”), Naz (played by Riz Ahmed) struggles with his new surroundings and realizes he has no one to truly trust. No one truly cares about our Naz. Detective Box (played by Bill Camp) and Jack Stone (played by John Turturro) represent both sides of the system, and Naz is, sadly, being used by both of those sides. Continue reading “REVIEW: The Night Of – “Subtle Beast””

REVIEW: The Night Of – “The Beach”

The Night Of Reviewed

The following is a quick review of the first episode of the HBO Limited Series “The Night Of.”

The Night Of, which is based on Peter Moffat’s Criminal Justice, follows Nasir “Naz” Khan (played by Riz Ahmed), a Pakistani-American college student, on the night that he is arrested for the murder of a young woman (played by Sofia Black-D’Elia). But there’s more to the story than meets the eye.  Continue reading “REVIEW: The Night Of – “The Beach””