Month: July 2025

Yellowjackets (2021)

Where to find it: Paramount+ on Amazon
Length: Twenty nine 50-minute episodes
Synopsis: Mystery about a plane crash
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: drama and mystery (some of it good), acting, music
What I don’t like about it: sometimes resembles Lost, often unbelievable, confusing start

Review:
Showtime’s latest drama hit is crafted with a confident coolness and features mysteries and characters that will get their hooks in you if you give them chance, but it remains to be seen whether that is worthwhile. As is common these days, we see two timelines at once: the distant past of the late 90s where a girls’ soccer team suffer a plane crash in the famously-filmable woods of Vancouver, and the present where four of the survivors try to get on with their lives despite great trauma. The present timeline provides some great roles for actors “of a certain age” – including the always-welcome Melanie Lynskey and creepily quirky Christina Ricci – but it’s the past timeline that proves most interesting. Mystery builds in an intriguing way as we get to know characters in the past who are not represented in the present (will they die or be revealed next season?) and the appeal is carefully constructed towards the archetypal husband-and-wife: gore for him, relationship drama for her etc.

Overall, it’s good but not great and could go either way before it’s done. They have an eye for a great visual but don’t linger, the plot is intriguing but ultimately not that interesting and the acting is good but may be worth nothing more than a few Emmys if they don’t pull it together.

UPDATE AFTER THREE SEASONS: It never has the firmest grip on where it’s going but I have a lot of fun with Yellowjackets. They have a unique vibe and a great theme song. It’s like the better bits of Lost combined with a twisted tale of trauma-bonded female friendship. Often makes me gasp and comment snarkily to the television and I recommend it despite its flaws.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sex, violence and horror, drugs, animal killing, psychosis, cannibalism

Severance (2022)

Where to find it: Apple TV+
Length: Nineteen 50-minute episodes
Synopsis: Workplace mystery
Recommendation rating: 1/5

What I like about it: a couple of the actors
What I don’t like about it: everything

Review:
It’s a puzzle box with no idea where it’s going, the characters are flat, the satire is weak, Adam Scott is not a good actor, it’s ugly and way too digital, I can’t understand how the severance procedure benefits anyone, it’s laughably over-the-top, doesn’t pay off often enough for the time investment, most episodes are incredibly boring and the dialogue is overwrought and laughable. I really don’t understand the appeal, it’s like all the worst bits of Lost but set in a series of white corridors.

Content notes (may contain spoilers):

MirrorMask (2005)

Where to find it: Buy or Rent on Amazon
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: Circus kid processes trauma in fantasy world.
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: visuals
What I don’t like about it: plot

Review:
The real selling point for this family fantasy movie is the direction by maverick artist Dave McKean. He manages to transfer his unique style to film very well, with lots of juxtaposition and collage and intricate inkwork in most of the shots. The CGI can be a little ropey but considering it was made for £4m twenty years ago, it holds up pretty well. The plot and dialogue are typical Neil Gaiman and would be a very mediocre family film if it weren’t in service of a singular artistic vision.

Content notes (may contain spoilers):

Bet (2025)

Where to find it: Netflix
Length: Ten 30-minute episodes
Synopsis: Silly horny teen show
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: over-the-top campy fun
What I don’t like about it: unnecessary, incomprehensible creative choices

Review:
Netflix’s latest live-action anime adaptation is cheaper than One Piece but just as committed to ridiculous fun. Yumeko is a compulsive gambler sent to a high school whose curriculum is based around betting. Winners and losers have a dominant/submissive dynamic and the whole thing is horny as heck. Somewhere between the inexplicable pro wrestler cameo and the Japanese-language cover of Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley, you realise the whole project is a prank on the viewer but everyone is having too much fun to care.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence, sex references, lots of gambling