You know that feeling when you watch a show and you just can’t stop watching. Going into something completely blind, with no idea of what this is going to happen, that surprise feeling as the episodes pass and things get crazier and crazier. Sometimes it’s a nice surprise, others it isn’t. Going blind into Warrior Nun was the best thing I did. The only thing I knew about this show was because of the trailer that Netflix released. It was a nice surprise, a surprise that after I finished I wished I had taken more of my time watching because while the show is far from perfect, Warrior Nun reminds me a lot of another great little supernatural show that deserves a lot more attention, Wynonna Earp.
Author: Arianne Binette
I wanted to like John Stewart’s Irresistible, it seemed to be the type of film that I usually enjoy. It boasts a stellar cast and the premise seemed poised to create a great satire that could have created a conversation about politics and our society. Instead, Irresistible fails on every front and even a pitch-perfect Rose Byrne can’t save the mess that this film ends up being.
Here’s the thing, I am a sucker for musicals. Musicals always have this way of making you feel like no other movies can. It’s something that I always loved and from the very first trailer for The High Note, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to see it and the soundtrack was already something that I loved from the trailer. Because a musical is nothing without the music, it can have the greatest story of all time but if the music doesn’t work, well the film won’t work either.
Comedies are a work of art. The balance of comedy and story can be the one thing that brings the film down. Too often, the best jokes are put in the trailers and when you start the film everything else falls flat. The Lovebirds is not that. Not only is it funny from beginning to end and the jokes hit perfectly and the chemistry between Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) and Issa Rae (Insecure) elevates the end product. The movie might not change the game in terms of comedies but it works so well that you end up getting something really good and entertaining.
If there is one thing the second season of Dead To Me was able to do is to up its game and stakes. There’s something special when a show comes into its own brilliantly, so much so that it is even a little bit hard to find a way to talk about it without gushing too much. But also, it’s hard to find flaws when you found yourself enjoying it so much that all of a sudden the season ended and you just wanted more. That is exactly what Dead To Me delivered in its second season, a show that is not only funnier but is able to expand on its first season and even, at times, surpass it. The second season of Dead To Me might have flaws but it also helps elevate the show as a whole.
A secret love deserves to not be kept a secret anymore. It’s cheesy to say but the story of Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel should have been said much sooner. Terry Donahue is already a legend on her own, being one of the inspirations behind the great movie A League of their Own. She might have been one of the few women that played professional baseball when that was still not the norm for women but maybe what is the most impressive, and sad, is how who she is was never known, not only to the public but to her family until just a few years ago. Their story deserves to be told and A Secret Love tries to do them justice but the short run time and the overstuffing of the documentary impairs it from going in deeper in their story and a lot gets lost in the process.
In 2004, a film called Saving Face written and directed by Alice Wu came out. Telling the story of an Asian-American doctor who must learn to balance her life with her unwed pregnant mother and her dancer girlfriend. I was too young at the time to see it but once I discovered it as a teenager in the closet, I fell in love with it. I fell in love with Wu’s writing and directing. So waiting for her second film felt like ever, it felt like it would never come and then, Netflix announced that they would produce a film written and directed by Wu. To say that I have been anticipating The Half of It is an understatement. Alice Wu won my heart with her directorial debut, a film that had been able to win my heart and made me feel accepter. With The Half of It, she was capable of recreating those feelings that I had felt as a closeted teenager but she did it in a very unexpected way.
Never judge a show based on its first episode, Feel Good reminded me of that. I have to be honest here, after watching the first episode of the series, I thought that this show wasn’t for me. I didn’t particularly enjoy the first episode and while I couldn’t find anything wrong with it per se, I also couldn’t say it hit it out of the park. But I decided to continue, to give it a shot and honestly, never judge a show by its first episode is now going to be my motto. Sometimes you have to remember, the first episode isn’t everything and I should always remember that. Because by the end of it, I found myself enjoying this show a lot more then I anticipated. I laughed out loud, cried and smiled more than I ever thought I would.
Sometimes after you sit with a show for a while, your opinion of it can change, for better or worse. After my first watch, I found myself loving I Am Not Okay With This, but with time and space, I realized that most of what I felt was just falling short of what I had hoped. That doesn’t mean this show isn’t enjoyable, it is but it also isn’t as good as it could be. It falls just a little short and takes to long to finally get to what it needs to be. By the end, you think you are satisfied but in reality, you are just okay with this. Coming from the producers of one of my favourite shows, It’s The End of the F***ing World and coming from a graphic novel written by the same author then the show, I Am Not Okay With This as a lot of expectations to live up to. Using a very similar way of telling the story, by having the main character narrate their side of the story, but what was very effective in It’s The End of the F***ing World just doesn’t work as well in this.
The first To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was a nice little surprise when it came out last year. It wasn’t really what we expected when we all logged into our Netflix account to watch this romantic comedy. Instead of getting a movie that we would all forget and make fun of overtime, we got a film that actually was good. Yes, it did play into most of the young adult tropes that we are all very used to but the elevated cinematography for this type of film and a charming cast brought something refreshing and, quite frankly, unexpected. With all that and the success of the film, it wasn’t a surprise at all when a sequel was announced. Not only was one sequel was announced but the announcement came with the news that the third book of the series would also find it’s way to being adapted and on Netflix in the near future. But like any sequels, being able to recreate what had made it special could be hard, so the arrival of To All The Boys: PS I Still Love You was something that, while I was looking forward to it, I was also a bit scared. I had enjoyed the first film and really hope that I would find myself enjoying this one too.
The UnderSCENE 