Month: January 2023

Irma Vep (2022)

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Eight 1-hour episodes
Synopsis: TV show based on a movie about making a movie based on a movie
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: good scenes, satire
What I don’t like about it: unbearably pretentious and mumbly

Review:
In this meta-mess, Alicia Vikander plays a Hollywood actor filming a passion project, a remake of Les Vampires by Louis Feuillade. The show gives behind-the-scenes satire, restored footage of the original serial and modern remakes of key scenes in each episode. Not bad by any means but very slow and ultimately pointless.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sex, drugs, violence

Reboot (2022)

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Eight 25-minute episodes
Synopsis: It’s a sitcom about a sitcom
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: good cast, relatively inoffensive
What I don’t like about it: missable, forgets its premise

Review:
A fictional early-2000s sitcom is revived (not rebooted, as the title suggests) and this sitcom follows the behind-the-scenes production. Has a similar tone to the creator’s earlier Modern Family but the setting is bound to limit its appeal to those who can tolerate television about making television.

As an aside, I believe you can judge how confident a show is in its own pilot using a metric I call “Time to Tits”. Essentially, if a show has little else to offer, it will offer nipples as early as possible. I hope Judy Greer was paid well for providing this, just over ten minutes into the pilot.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sexual references and brief nudity

Dark Winds (2022)

Where to find it: No UK streaming
Length: Six 50-minute episodes
Synopsis: Native American crime drama
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: compelling start, good acting and setting
What I don’t like about it: bad story, loses steam, confusing timeline

Review:
In the 1970s, Navajo Tribal Police chief Joe Leaphorn investigates a brutal double murder which may be linked to witchcraft. He has a new deputy, Jim Chee, who is an FBI plant investigating a bank robbery years earlier which may be linked to Leaphorn and the nation. Squanders its early interest by not developing much character and killing off mysteries with anti-climax.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence, racism