11 hours ago
i'm sorry is not great, but kind of okay. The media seems to compare it to Curb because apparently they only have one reference, but it feels more like The League. It has the same pacing and scripted dialogue rather than Curb. It also has a number of shared cast including Rafi, but also a reunion scene along with another part of Human Giant. Unfortunately, he disappears from the show midway through and it's a major loss. The biggest problem, and the major flaw of the show, is that Andrea isn't likeable or funny. She's not remotely like Larry, she's a social climber and wants to be popular. She also frets endlessly over her kid maybe being racist, maybe being homophobic, maybe being not feminist, etc. Her husband never disagrees and mostly exacerbates this. Andrea causes basically all her own problems by being weird and not keeping it to herself, but not in the Larry way where you can sympathize with her or because she's stubborn. Which mostly leads to all the side characters, like Rafi and other moms played by people like Judy Greer, being the best part of the show. Andrea Savage is fine and funny in other stuff, so I guess she just shouldn't write her own show. Some of the other writers went to Always Sunny for a bit, which makes sense since The League is no longer around.
Shooter was the opposite in terms of low expectations, great enjoyment. Especially since it was a USA Network production. Yes, it's the same license as the movie and even produced by Mark Wahlberg, and yes, the first season is mostly the same general plot as the movie. That said, it's much better than the movie. Although if you really know the movie, you'll know many of the twists in the first season because they didn't really change the characters other than their gender or skin color or made their last name their first name or whatever.
What made it work for me is that it seemed very committed to lampshading and subverting every possible trope that would traditionally come up in such a show. And despite the fact that the main character does seem to have a superhuman shooting ability, and along with everyone on the show seems to have superhuman ability to withstand near mortal injury, almost all of the sniping in the show is determined more by positioning, preparedness, etc. A number of situations are handled not by having anyone try to take some silly shot instead of withdrawing. Indeed, one of the recurring things of the show is the wise characters being established by their refusal to do something stupid in a situation asking a person to do something stupid against impossible odds rather than just stand down. Most shows would have somebody go all Batman and shoot like five guys in the head to escape.
If there's one complaint, it does get a little silly about the UNDERLYING CONSPIRACY at times even if it's mostly well constructed and the conspiracies aims are actually appropriately trivial. Also the show does seem to skip ahead at points while otherwise mostly being real-time-ish which makes it seem like characters have teleportation because they'll be in DC and suddenly appear in Texas or similar. The ending also definitely feels like they were told they were cancelled and allowed to shoot some new stuff to conclude things because it's kind of resolved as a season ending to continue on and then a ton of stuff happens in like ten minutes with very compact scenes (both in length and the sets) and there's no expected resolution for any of it. Which does make me wonder if the most shocking part of it wasn't added after they were cancelled or if they were really willing to do it had the show continued. It does more to make the final season villain a real villain than anything that happens earlier other than the fact Gerald McRaney plays him.
Of course, now that I've watched that and Patriot, Amazon is trying to get me to watch Jim Halpert: Super Spy and Reacher.
Shooter was the opposite in terms of low expectations, great enjoyment. Especially since it was a USA Network production. Yes, it's the same license as the movie and even produced by Mark Wahlberg, and yes, the first season is mostly the same general plot as the movie. That said, it's much better than the movie. Although if you really know the movie, you'll know many of the twists in the first season because they didn't really change the characters other than their gender or skin color or made their last name their first name or whatever.
What made it work for me is that it seemed very committed to lampshading and subverting every possible trope that would traditionally come up in such a show. And despite the fact that the main character does seem to have a superhuman shooting ability, and along with everyone on the show seems to have superhuman ability to withstand near mortal injury, almost all of the sniping in the show is determined more by positioning, preparedness, etc. A number of situations are handled not by having anyone try to take some silly shot instead of withdrawing. Indeed, one of the recurring things of the show is the wise characters being established by their refusal to do something stupid in a situation asking a person to do something stupid against impossible odds rather than just stand down. Most shows would have somebody go all Batman and shoot like five guys in the head to escape.
If there's one complaint, it does get a little silly about the UNDERLYING CONSPIRACY at times even if it's mostly well constructed and the conspiracies aims are actually appropriately trivial. Also the show does seem to skip ahead at points while otherwise mostly being real-time-ish which makes it seem like characters have teleportation because they'll be in DC and suddenly appear in Texas or similar. The ending also definitely feels like they were told they were cancelled and allowed to shoot some new stuff to conclude things because it's kind of resolved as a season ending to continue on and then a ton of stuff happens in like ten minutes with very compact scenes (both in length and the sets) and there's no expected resolution for any of it. Which does make me wonder if the most shocking part of it wasn't added after they were cancelled or if they were really willing to do it had the show continued. It does more to make the final season villain a real villain than anything that happens earlier other than the fact Gerald McRaney plays him.
Of course, now that I've watched that and Patriot, Amazon is trying to get me to watch Jim Halpert: Super Spy and Reacher.