283. Web-series Reviews – 116

 More web-series reviews…

Beef – Came out in 2023.  After an incident in a parking lot, road rage ensues resulting in a bitter feud between the two antagonists. The vendetta between them and the lengths they'll go to to avenge themselves on the other spirals out of control, jeopardising everything and everyone in their lives

One of the reviews from IMDB...

"Beef", created by Korean director Lee Sung Jin, encapsulates a certain malaise within the needy, insecure and gratitude-seeking millennial generation to which the two protagonists belong, Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Amy Lau (Amy Wong). It's a desperate need to overcome the dullness of being average, or conquer the delight of having the final word through childish acts of revenge or behind the shield of smartphone screens, modern props to our struggle for existential meaningfulness. Jin knows how our mentalities function and It's all fitting that I was convinced to start Netflix' new sensation "Beef" by a WhatsApp message from my brother: "I'm not used to binge but in two days I watched "Beef", it's really something",

The series, like the film "Marathon Man" opens with a road rage incident, between Danny and Amy, a down-on-his-luck contractor and Amy, an upper-class plant-business owner, he's poor, she's rich, he's childish, she's egotistical, both are overwhelmed by their past failures and their near-accident will trigger a series of acts of revenge, involving people from their own circles, and generating more disaster and mayhem. If the famous "Boy, that escalated quickly" mame ever had an overarching series, that would be the one. And if one series will swap next year's awards, that is the one.

I identified with the man-child Danny from the very start, a man victim of the 'Fredo' complex. Would I have reacted the same if someone honked at me and give me the finger? Well a few years ago, I had a near-accident with a biker who had such harsh words I followed him and shouted at him... For all I know he could have pulled a knife or spit on my windshield but frustration is one hell of a nerve fuel. Danny is frustrated, he doesn't contemplate suicide as failure but as the one last honorable option he can take, but clearly he's engaged in a path that would restore the trust of his family and the respect of his brother Paul (Young Mazino) whose hobbies consist of gaming, crypto money making and iron pumping. But Danny is also accident-prone, having ruined his family after the involvement of his shady but fun cousin Isaac (David Choe)

Amy is a pint-sized woman with a handsome sculptor of a husband named George (Joseph Lee) and a cute 5-year old girl named June (Rey Holt) they're about to make a profitable business deal with a wealthy and extravagant art collector named Jordan (Maria Bello). Amy isn't hard to dislike as much as he hard to relate to, even the disdain from the mother-in-law (Patti Yasutake) seem to be hold some ground The troubled history of the family, involving a gun and a safe, seem to indicate that unlike Danny, Amy is a woman who has some mental issues. And as much as I loved Wong's performance, I wasn't too sure about her fake smiles and eye language fooling any sensitive person around her, especially a couple therapist. Never mind, she's smart and while Danny can only think of peeing in a rug, she goes as far as flirting with Paul by stealing her's associate Mia's Instagram.

There's a shortage of likable or straight characters even among the recurring ones, George is a talentless hack who doesn't know much about life and take pride in fixing a plumbery problem, Mia (Mia Serafino), is jealous of Amy's confidence, Paul appears to be smart but does stupid things out of impulses. The normality of life is so sketchy that maybe the 'beef' between Danny and Amy gave a purpose to their lives. Maybe that's the series' point, we all commit questionable acts but even the shortest victory provide a delightful taste. Maybe Danny and Any are so desperate for such thrills that they become addicted to their own beefs, even if it means taking hazardous decisions.

But there's a limit to how long you can carry a premise without challenging credibility. Danny is clearly a cowardly man who sees how dangerous Amy so there's not much sense in the way he keeps titillating her fury. Halfway through the series, the revenge pingpong turns into a Murphy's-Law-Butterfly-Effect fantasy where every act has savage consequences. When the wrong people keep coming at the wrong moment, the escalation stops to be a plot element but a gimmick. And the more it escalates the less optimistic are the prospects but the series is obviously designed like a thrill ride with a spectacular climax and some quiet moments before the storm.

Still, the episodes trying to inject backstories infuriated me, and made me suspect the writers would be so carried away they would take the "Lost" way and the series almost 'lost' me with the 'strange lady' flashback or the talking crows. Seriously, did we need some dark memories of Amy to justify her attitude? Wasn't she such a strong character that the writers wanted to give her 'excuses'? Do we need surrealism after so many efforts to inject time-relevant realism? Some concepts are so good you can't extend them for too long before they become an exercise in stylishness, the backstory of Amy or Danny derailed the series from its linear trajectory and I don't care if it's meant for the next seasons.

In fact, I found something quite satisfying in the action-packed ninth episode where everything could finally implode and the series could end with Amy and Danny finding themselves in their cars and exchanging a 'what have we done?' look. If not a perfect ending, that would have brought some closure... but the writers felt it couldn't end that way, that Amy had to act despite common sense, and that the two enemies had to be together for a whole episode... and that we would have an umpteenth misunderstanding... as if the writers were intoxicated by their own need for escalations, as if they got high on their own supply.

My Take – Worth a watch!

 

Jury Duty – Came out in 2023. Ronald Gladden serves jury duty on a civil trial in Los Angeles. To him there is nothing out of the ordinary in proceedings. Little does he know, however, that all the other participants - his fellow jurors, the judge, the plaintiff and defendant, everybody - are actors, the trail isn't real and everything is staged

One of the reviews from IMDB...

A great TV series from about 20 years ago was The Joe Schmo Show. It focused on particular competitor in a Big Brother-type reality TV show. Thing was, he was the only competitor - everyone else was an actor and everything was staged to test him. Jury Duty reminded me of that and having now watched it is definitely comparable.

The show doesn't immediately click into top gear. The first two episodes are interesting and engaging but not brilliant. Much of what happens is scene-setting and getting to know the characters with the humour being quite sporadic.

With Episode 3 the scene-setting is over and the series hits its stride. From then on almost every scene has a large amount of humour in it. It's not just the quantity, the quality improves too. Hysterically funny at times: the brand consultant witness in Episode 3 was absolutely hilarious.

The show from then became a fully immersive experience. It wasn't just the humour, there's a warmth to proceedings as Ronald is tested by the producers, giving him moral and practical quandaries to navigate.

It helps that Ronald is a genuinely nice guy (I guess that's how he was selected to be the central character) otherwise things could easily have fallen apart or at least taken a far less warmer and friendly tone. This was the case in the Joe Schmo Show too: "Joe Schmo" was a wonderfully friendly, honourable and ethical person, which was incredibly refreshing and faith-in-humanity-restoring.

In the end we also get to see what went into producing the series, which is quite eye-opening. For all my comparisons with the Joe Schmo Show this series is very original and not just because of the different setting. Incredibly novel and entertaining.

My Take – Worth a definite watch!

 

Chimp Empire – Documentary on Gorillas. Came out in 2023.

One of the reviews from The Guardian...

For those who are not tired of the machinations and manoeuvrings at the heart of Waystar Royco, the Ngogo rainforest and its Chimp Empire have plenty to offer in the way of power struggles and inter-familial conflict. Moonlight’s Mahershala Ali narrates this saga of two rival chimp troops in Uganda, known as the Centrallers and the Westerners. Over four beautifully filmed and dramatically charged episodes, we follow the two troops’ never-ending battle for territory, as well as exploring the complex personal relationships within the groups themselves.

It is directed by James Reed, who won an Oscar for the underwater weepie My Octopus Friend. Reed has spent time with the Ngogo chimps before, for the 2017 film Rise of the Warrior Apes, but that was before they split off into two rival groups. Now, the dangers are more grave, and the lower-stakes storylines heaving with portent. The Central group, the largest ever recorded, has the ageing Jackson as its alpha, though there are younger, hungrier chimps biding their time, waiting for any weaknesses to make themselves apparent.

Like most wildlife documentaries with an anthropomorphic leaning, it presses human-like storylines on to these wild animals, to the soundtrack of a sweeping score; it gets away with it by arguing that chimps are our closest animal relatives. (There is an excellent, very old episode of the podcast Radiolab, called Animal Minds, that carefully examines the idea that animals can experience human-like emotions, and it is well worth revisiting.) But whether you agree with a narrative that suggests, for example, that a chimp’s “presence” may linger long after his death, or not, these storylines are effortlessly compelling and told with grace.

The headline draw is the battle for power. Jackson is protected by an enormous enforcer called Miles, who is enough of a menace to put off any internal threats, such as the smart and confident young pretender Abrams. For now. When the Westerners enter the picture, staking their own claims for territory, it becomes a grand portrait of turf war, with peril lurking on every boundary.

But it is also about the smaller stuff, too. Outsider Gus is a loner struggling to find his place within the social dynamic of the group, despite the regular grooming he offers to those with more status than him. Christine has a young baby, though she will not be given a name until she is a year old, as baby chimps are particularly vulnerable in their first year of life. The baby’s older sister, Nadine, is not getting enough attention from Christine. Is this jealousy? Will the siblings ever be capable of bonding? And will the baby live long enough to be given a name?

There are moments that are truly astonishing. The film-makers and scientists were embedded with the chimps for more than a year, and they capture moments of life and death with what appears to be great intimacy. The battles, when they inevitably come, are a frenzy of noise and brutality. The series is fairly squeamish about showing the actual violence of the groups, but then again, at one point, Ali has to say: “His face is infected by parasites. He needs help,” so it isn’t exactly dainty, either. When the chimps eat meat, including monkeys, it is a gruesome and fraught process. One of the key components of social relationships between chimps is grooming, ie picking bugs off each other’s bodies and eating them, so there’s that, too. If only human relationships were so simple.

It is Succession-like, then, and its betrayals and backstabbing and sagas of familial love and rejection lend it a Shakespearean feel, but it is also EastEnders-ish, at times; there is a sense that these chimps are only one grunt away from shouting: “Leave it, he’s not worth it, we’ve all had a few [figs].” By humanising their stories, there is a plea for empathy, understanding, and support, of course, for this horribly endangered species. My only complaint is that there is an odd coyness to this aspect of Chimp Empire, which adds a brief note, at the end of the series, noting that chimpanzees are endangered “due to habitat loss, hunting and disease”. It is a paltry concession. You want the film to shout about it. It seems the least that it can do.

Still, perhaps viewers will be led there independently, thanks to the magnificent storytelling. This is masterfully done, as you would expect from a film-maker of Reed’s calibre and experience, and Ali gives it a wonderful narrative heft. By the end, as the wheels turn on this ongoing tribal war, and the chimps’ strengths and weaknesses dictate their positions in the hierarchy, it is impossible not to be in thrall to the Ngogo and its mighty inhabitants.

My Take – Worth a definitive watch!

Cheers till next time😊!!