Tag: Disney+

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Twenty four 45-minute episodes
Synopsis: Overcooked political drama and half a billion dollars add up to a wasted day
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: cool designs, relatively easy-to-follow plot, great VFX
What I don’t like about it: rigid formula and pacing, terrible representation, poor worldbuilding

Review:
Firstly, I watched Rogue One before this, thinking it would enhance the experience. It didn’t and it’s terrible.

This most-hyped and most expensive Disney+ show is probably the best later Star Wars I’ve seen. The plot feels grounded and the stakes are small enough to make sense through the first season. The (largely British and European) actors are good and the tech concepts are mostly well-realised.

Unfortunately, the whole thing is stretched and squashed with a formula of two episodes of set-up for every one episode of payoff and it becomes painfully obvious after the first three. Its worldbuilding is lazy, with locations amounting to “Space Morocco”, “Space New Zealand” and “Space France”. Because it’s such an investment, it’s shockingly regressive with representation – people of colour die first, gays can’t do more than hold hands (except one easily-deleted kiss) and all are buried, even just the queer-coded ones.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): overlong scene threatening sexual violence, violence and blood, bury your gays trope

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Eight 25-minute episodes
Synopsis: Heart-filled sitcom about a wounded healer
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: psychological, fun, acting
What I don’t like about it: not the funniest

Review:
Paige (Kerry Washington) is raising her teenage son and has a career as a therapist/influencer when her father (Delroy Lindo) is paroled into her custody, bringing up many childhood traumas that Paige hasn’t worked through as much as she thought she had.

It’s very informed and well-acted, once an episode Paige’s inner child shows up to swearily tell her off and it’s always the highlight. Also explores the sorry state of America’s prison-industrial complex, healthcare system and employment security.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sex

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Ten 25-minute episodes
Synopsis: Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem get a family sitcom
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: puppets, consistent characters, funny enough
What I don’t like about it: not very funny, forced drama, musical numbers, tiresome cameos

Review:
We’re introduced to legendary touring band Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, who have never recorded an album, and Nora (Lilly Singh) who works for a failing record label. When Nora discovers an unfulfilled contract for a Mayhem album, she believes she can save the label, but corralling Muppets is never an easy task.

The script could have used a few more passes, there’s too much exposition about Nora’s dead dad and the endless cameos are mostly expendable. The musical numbers are horrific and it wasn’t a good idea to have screechy puppet voices cover “classic” rock songs as much as they did. Whether to watch this one depends how much you like the Muppets, I don’t regret it but I’d watch them file taxes.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): drug references

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Ten 25-minute episodes
Synopsis: A psychotherapist is held hostage by a serial killer who demands to be cured
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: short episodes, good acting
What I don’t like about it: it’s bad in just about every way, never delivers on its premise

Review:
A grieving therapist (Steve Carell) is visited by a new patient (Domhnall Gleeson) who soon chains him up in his basement. The worst thing is it isn’t even psychologically interesting. It could have been better without the kidnapping; that kind of killed their ability to get any actual therapy done.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence, the holocaust

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Eight 35-50 minute episodes
Synopsis: Decent drama about dancers
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: good acting (especially Bartlett)
What I don’t like about it: drags in the middle, doesn’t say much

Review:
Kumail Nanjiani stars as Steve Banerjee, yuppie founder of a Los Angeles club which became known for male exotic dancing, and Murray Bartlett is Nick De Noia, the never-satisfied choreographer who takes the brand to new heights and incurs Steve’s jealous wrath. It’s a moderately interesting story with plenty of sex, drugs and disco music pulling it along.

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

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

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Six 45-minute episodes
Synopsis: Superfan turns superhero
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: characterful, funny, good acting
What I don’t like about it: second half is too Marvel-y

Review:
This show has a winsome charm and a very fun lead. There’s a lot of fun had in the editing of the pilot that sadly (but predictably) isn’t sustained further in the series and it definitely lulls in the second half as the CGI action is turned up to 11. This is the most fun I’ve had watching a Marvel product since The Avengers but it would be better if all the character weren’t replaced by garden-variety comic book action at the half-way point.

Content notes (may contain spoilers):

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Nine 35-minute episodes
Synopsis: Hulk’s cousin gets powers, keeps being a lawyer
Recommendation rating: 1/5

What I like about it: Tatiana Maslany
What I don’t like about it: deeply annoying, uncanny valley CGI

Review:
The affected quirks of this show are so forced that they could inspire rage in a Buddhist monk. Our quirky lead pushes her way through the fourth-wall constantly, preaching to the choir with tired white feminism like a first-year women’s studies student. Occasionally she turns tall and green (still unbearably quirky!) and looks like a cutscene from L.A. Noire. Even by the standards of over-produced and churned-out Marvel timewasters, this is a bad one.

Content notes (may contain spoilers):

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Eight 30-minute episodes
Synopsis: Disney wasted their money, don’t waste your time
Recommendation rating: 1/5

What I like about it: serviceable pulpy murder mystery
What I don’t like about it: no likeable characters, bad plot, pacing and tone, just awful

Review:
Told in a confusing back-and-forth fashion, we see a romance between Stefan (a man with the screen presence of slightly-annoying wallpaper) and insufferably mysterious Katie, along with a murder investigation when Katie is suspected of killing a whole crime family. All of the above manages to take place at weddings. Providing extra comic relief are Stefan’s diverse friend group, who share a fury-inducing energy with early 2000s advertising. Nothing about it is worth seeing.

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