231. Web-series Reviews – 77

More web-series reviews…

 

Collision – Came out in 2019 with 5 episodes. The story of a major road accident and a group of people who have never met, but who all share one single defining moment that will change their lives.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

This is a smart and intelligent mystery. John Tolin is a police detective (Douglas Henshall) who is asked to investigate a pileup on a minor highway (A12) outside London. Three people are killed and Tolin reviews the evidence to find out what caused the crash. He ends up probing into the lives of ten people caught up in the accident. What starts as a straight forward car accident quickly turns into a story full of twists and turns as the police start to dig. Tolin unravels a number of mysteries which involve murder, smuggling, whistle blowing and a government cover-up. There are another couple of deaths after the accident.

The characters are ordinary people with complicated lives and the acting is excellent. Douglas Henshall who plays a scientist on "Primeval" is playing a policeman with problems. He's tough, tenacious, damaged and flawed. Also examining the crash is Ann Stallwood (Kate Ashfield) who seems to be a former lover. She was also the love interest in Shaun of the Dead.

The cast is full of experienced and recognizable British character actors who have appeared in numerous films and shows like Chariots of Fire (Nicholas Farrell), Vera Drake (Philip Davis), Valkyrie (David Bamber), Robin Hood (Lucy Griffiths) and Hornblower (Paul McGann). I have been living abroad and fondly remembered Jan Francis from Secret Army and Just Good Friends. She was very attractive in the 1970s but is now playing pensioners, which made me feel old.

Collision grabs your attention and is very enjoyable. However, there were a few loose ends which I felt were not satisfactorily tied up. Overall, I would recommend the series.

My Take – Worth a watch!

 

Defending Jacob – Came out in 2020 in Apple TV with 8 episodes. The limited drama series is a gripping, character-driven thriller based on the 2012 New York Times bestselling novel of the same name by William Landay. An assistant DA's world is shattered when his beloved son gets charged with murder.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

Much like platforms such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ has been adamant about releasing quality content to get their name out there. Defending Jacob is one of the most recent series' to come to an end and if shows like this and many others like The Morning Show, Dickinson, and Mythic Quest are any proof of how their future entertainment will be, I can't wait for more. This mini-series is far from perfect, but if you're able to ignore certain aspects, it's actually pretty fantastic. The subject matter may be a little too much for some viewers to take in, but here's why this series deserves attention overall.

After the body of a young boy is discovered in the woods, young Jacob Barber (one of his classmates) is accused of murdering him. His father being an assistant DA, things begin to get interesting. Taken off the case and placing himself in the heat of the trial, Jacob's father will stop at nothing to fight for his son. As the series progresses, it keeps a lot of things vague, leaving it to the audience to decide whether he's guilty or not. By the time this series reaches its peak around the seventh episode, the story really begins to unravel in surprising ways. I wasn't a huge fan of the last 20 minutes or so of the final episode, but I think that's only due to the fact that I was expecting it to go in a way that it didn't.

Jaden Martell has been a superb young actor for many years now. Appearing in films that I love, such as St. Vincent, Knives Out, and Midnight Special (to name a few), his dedication to this eerie teenager was unnerving to watch. Although he's had some major roles in feature films, I can see his career being pretty great as he progresses. On top of his great performance, Chris Evans as his father Andy was just as good. In fact, I've never disliked any of his performances, even in terrible films, so maybe I'm a little biased on that one. Who I'm struggling to praise, however, is Michelle Dockery. There were moments where she was the best performer in the series, but others where I felt the screenplay wasn't giving her enough to show her range. She did a great job, but I felt that this character could've been shown a little more love in the script.

Where this series really shines is in the surprise factor. Yes, it's very slow-moving, but I think that's what they were going for. I felt that the amount of time focussed on each character was meant to try and put the audience in their state of mind. This is the type of series that will have fans divided in terms of their opinion on the subject matter and who is really good or bad throughout the story. I certainly have my opinion on certain characters, but I won't ruin that here. I thought the payoff more most of the characters felt right, even some of the secondary ones.

In the end, Defending Jacob deals with some very harsh subject matter and some of the outcomes will probably disgust or offend some viewers. For myself, it felt like a dirty story, but also something that needs to be out there. There's a lot of violence in this world and we really need to weed out who should be accused. That's what I thought the message of this series was. Look, it's not perfect and the finale left a little to be desired, but I believe, if you can stomach some harsh subject matter, definitely check this mini-series out. Defending Jacob is now streaming all eight episodes on Apple TV+.

My Take – An engaging watch. The series ending is different from that of the book😊!

 

The Ripper – Came out in 2020 with 4 episodes.  Investigators and witnesses recall how a modern-day Jack the Ripper terrorized the north of England during the late 1970s.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

In 1970's Yorkshire, starting around the Chapeltown area, a vicious killer began slaying local working girls, in a crime spree chillingly reminiscent of the unidentified killer who stalked the streets of Whitechapel a century before, before extending his reach to more 'respectable' young women. A bungled police investigation and derogatory attitudes to the murdered women allowed him to evade capture for a considerable length of time, before the seventies ended and he was finally brought to justice.

While murder, in most societies, is considered the most heinous crime, there is, as a commentator observes in the first episode of this latest Netflix docu series, something about it that draws us in and makes us want to learn as much about a certain killer (or killers) as possible. And so, after his recent death, we have the latest in a series of 'true crime' documentaries about Peter Sutcliffe, and the latest Netflix 'limited series.'

It seems to have spawned the ire of a lot of reviewers for pushing a 'feminist' narrative down everyone's throats, but while it does become arguably more excessive towards the end, at the time, as we learn and have heard before, it did galvanize women to 'take to the streets' as they say, as they started to feel increasingly vulnerable as an uncaught killer roamed around targeting them, as well as having to contend with the sexist attitudes of the police chiefs and the media, which, as we know, directly contributed to Sutcliffe going free for so long.

There's a timeliness to it, with Sutcliffe's recent death, the trouble is it just covers old ground that we've heard about numerous other times, with the various other documentaries about Sutcliffe. Still worth going over, just nothing really revelatory or new.

My Take – Worth a watch!

Cheers till next time😊

Daffy Definition

Worry – Interest paid on trouble before it falls due😊!!