211. Web-Series Reviews – 59

More web-series reviews…

The White Lotus – Set in a tropical resort, it follows the exploits of various guests and employees over the span of a week.  Came out in 2021.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

"HBO" has once again done it and produced a limited hit series this time "The White Lotus" from Mike White("Enlightened"). And you can best sum this up as a dark comedy, and journey type drama a spin and showcase of the well to do as it shows that all of the characters live far from perfect lives and each have skeletons in the closet and personal ego issues. Set in Hawaii's fancy resort called "The White Lotus" the series is a dark tour guide each week of privileged guest. Each week characters discover things about each other and even find out things they didn't know about themselves. Resort manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) shines as closeted politician like business man who does his best to keep guest happy. And the Mossbacher's Nicole (Connie Britton) and husband Mark (Steve Zahn) are the conflicted yet nice queen and kings of the resort who let drama and past things form a cloud over them, hey it's just tough for the couple to win sometimes as they deal with their stubborn teenage daughter and lonely lost son, who also have to deal with Olivia's determined friend Paula and each are hard party type girls who love reading by the pool. In other wild card moments and subplots Jennifer Coolidge's Tanya who's lost mom gets only relieve from a spa friend named Belinda. And it's nice to watch the power struggle of the young sexy newly married couple Shane (Jake Lacy) and Rachel (Alexandra Daddario) as nothing in their new marriage or honeymoon seems to go as planned. Really an interesting and entertaining watch of characters as each episode twist with dark humor and light suspense surprises proving that so many are just raw souls with flaws.

My Take – An ok watch

 

The Girl From Oslo – Israeli Series😊!  Came out in 2021. Pia and two Israelis are kidnapped by terrorists in the Sinai desert and threatened with death if 12 prisoners are not released.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

I was positively surprised by this suspenseful thriller series. It starts off when three new friends - a young Norwegian woman and two Israeli siblings - are abducted while on vacation in the Sinai peninsula. Soon thereafter the Norwegian mother and diplomate travels down to Israel in an anguished attempt to locate her daughter. That's the beginning of the series that keeps you captivated during numerous twists and sudden turns with all double-dealing characters with their hidden agendas, along with the politicians trying to capitalize on secret information against their opponents.

I greatly enjoyed the character gallery from Norwegians lawyers and criminals to Israeli politicians and security forces to Palestinian doctors, Hamas leadership and ISIS terrorists, and the varied scenery from the geographies.

The tenacious mother soon contacts old friends in both Israel and Gaza to come up with creative ways to leverage her knowledge and find the necessary win-win exchange to cajole the recalcitrant parties to cooperate.

Neither Israeli or Palestinians people are painted as purely good or bad, which makes the series more interesting and realistic. And who knows, maybe the countless conflicts and tensions in the Middle-East would have been solved with some Norwegian pragmatic, non-judgemental and good faith approach in dealing with the parties in the region.

My Take – A definite watch!

 

Salamander – Belgian Series. Came out in 2012 and second season in 2018. Brussels, Belgium. Sixty-six safes are robbed during a spectacular and bloody raid on the small but influential and extremely discreet private bank, Jonkhere. The owners of those safes form a select club of the most powerful people in Belgium, with high-level positions in industry, finance, the military, the law, politics and the unions. Strangely enough, while the perpetrators took no money, they did take documents. Pandora's Box has been opened. When a detective starts investigating, things become ugly.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

Lately I've been watching and re-watching many films in my favorite exploitation sub-genre, the Italian Poliziotesschi or Eurocrime- thriller, and it's undoubtedly thanks to those films that I valorized and enjoyed my second viewing of "Salamander" on Belgian television even more than the first time. Apart from the different country setting and not featuring the guerrilla filming-style or overly excessive violence, "Salamander" basically is a Poliziotesschi stretched over 12 episodes. The story of one tough and unbreakable police detective single-handedly battling against an unknown but relentless criminal organization, but even more so against his superiors and the corrupt national legal & political system! Of course I realize this series isn't really modeled after gritty and sleazy Italian cop thrillers, but it was fun to see the same ideas and principles here in a much more polished and prominent (for Belgian standards) TV-format. Of all the great things about this series, the most praiseworthy aspect certainly is the script. The basic idea is already fantastic, but the further unfolding of the mystery, with all its crucial supportive characters and numerous convoluted twists, is so unbelievably compelling and intelligent that it's actually unseen on Belgian television.

Early one morning, well-organized and utterly disciplined men break into the vault of a bank and steal the content of 66 specific safety deposit boxes. The bank in question – Bank Jonckheere - is a private and very prestigious bank, however, and the safe-owners are all highly eminent and influential people (ministers, senators, magistrates, business tycoons, generals…) who use their deposit boxes to safeguard secretive documents like hidden financials, photos of orgies and sexual escapades, blackmail, political cover- ups and slush funds. Whoever owns all this stolen information has the power to destabilize and literally pull the plug out of the entire country, and that is clearly what he/she wants to achieve. Via Joachim Klaus, the top-criminal who organized the heist, the instructor gradually sends back copies of the safes' content to the rightful owners, and abrupt resignations, chaos in the parliament and even suicides immediately ensue. The heist was never reported to the police, for obvious reasons, and the concerned magistrates are holding off an investigation. Inspector Paul Gerardi nevertheless examines a tip from an informant and quickly ends up in a position that put his career, healthy and loved ones in great danger.

With all the scandals and corruption that occurred here in Belgium during the past 20-25 years, the script of "Salamander" becomes extra realistic and plausible. I'm convinced that every fellow Belgian who watched this series also thought at one point or another (and probably several times): "Surely this is really going on in those ivory towers in Brussels". The mystery around the bank heist is upheld very admirably and, in the end, all the little pieces of the large puzzle neatly fit together. "Salamander" contains a lot of action compared to traditional Belgian detective/krimi-series, and every episode features at least a few grisly murders, violent shootouts or wild chases. The acting performances are really high- level, with familiar and famous Belgian faces even in the smallest supportive roles. Everybody gives stellar performances, and several cast members even play their best roles in many years, like Jo De Meyere, Mike Verdrengh, Vic De Wachter and An Ceurvels.

My Take – A definitive watch!

Only Murders in the Building – Came out in 2021. Follows three strangers (Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez) who share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one. When a grisly death occurs inside their exclusive Upper West Side apartment building, the trio suspects murder and employs their precise knowledge of true crime to investigate the truth. As they record a podcast of their own to document the case, the three unravel the complex secrets of the building which stretch back years. Perhaps even more explosive are the lies they tell one another. Soon, the endangered trio comes to realize a killer might be living amongst them as they race to decipher the mounting clues before it's too late.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

When this series came my girlfriend wasn't especially interested. I'm a huge fan of comedy mysteries and loved Steve Martin when I was young, but her enthusiasm for either is mild.

But after five minutes I had to stop and make her watch it, because we are New Yorkers and this series nails New York in five minutes. The weird relationships with bypassers, the artsy types, the justified paranoia, it was all there and immediately hilarious.

The series is about a trio of murder-podcast fanatics who bond over an actual murder in their luxury apartment building. Soon they are investigating and podcasting. But they are also each keeping secrets from one another in a wonderful mysteries-in-a-mystery structure. Everyone has secrets, the series says, and digging deep is fascinating exercise.

The cast is terrific. Martin is low-key funny, Short, who I am generally lukewarm towards, is very funny as a flamboyant theater director, and Selena Gomez more than holds her own as a hilariously snarky temporary tenant.

This show has been a hot-ticket item as far as I know - certainly my friends (and fellow New Yorkers) love it - so I was shocked to see how many user reviews just hate this show, or only find it mediocre, to the point where they insist all favorable reviews are paid for. This response is inexplicable to me. The show is amazing. When a new episode dropped we watched it immediately. It's just so, so, so, so good.

Ignore the naysayers, this is a must watch.

My Take – A definitive watch!

Cheers till next time😊!

Daffy Definition

Polling Booth – A place where you stand in line for a chance to decide on who will spend your money😊!