Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 10:28:20 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Maniac

Started by Sebastian Cobb, October 07, 2018, 06:47:27 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Sebastian Cobb

Any of you watched this delightful miniseries? It's on Netflix.

It gets 4 out of 5 cobbs. Emma Stone and Jonah Hill are very good in it. I'm a bit of a sucker for anachronistic stuff, but aye it's worth a punt.

Alberon

Watched the first one and it has a little bit of the 'Legion' vibe design-wise.

Can't say I really understand what it is trying to do or be right now, but hopefully that will become clearer as the series develops.

Z

Wasn't keen on it at all tbh. Felt like it was trying to go for some similar things as the Leftovers but couldn't ever get past its own gimmick to deliver anything substantial.

Mr_Simnock

Watched the first three of these and so far it fucking MINCE

chveik

I thought it was quite good (for a Netflix serie that is).

PlanktonSideburns

Is my TV fucked or is the dialogue drowned in the music like a Nolan film? Was struggling

mothman

Did anybody stick with this? I just finished it. It really had its ups and downs, I'll admit. Loved the design of it all the retro-80s look. Thought Emma Stone was really good, and her dramatic arc made some sense at least. Jonah Hill, though, most of his act seemed to be just sitting there looking blank. Maybe that makes sense in a way, if you are at the point where you don't feel you can trust anything you perceive in the outside world, maybe you would just not react to anything ever. But I didn't really get an understanding of how the process helped his ental state or what the purpose (and eventual disposal of) his imaginary brother. Though one thing I will say, I loved the parts of the penutimate episode where he's the hapless Icelandic/Argentinian/etc. scientist called Snorri, with his cod accent (helpfully hand-waved away but the six different nationalities in his background), wracked with guilt for the killing of his alien friend. And I wouldn't be surprised if the hilarious action sequence where Stone kicks butts and shoots heads contributed towards Cary Joji Fukunaga's getting the Bond gig.

What struck me though was how perfunctory the final episode felt. The other test subjects were no more than ciphers to begin with (though it was good to see Allyce Beasley in there among them), but you were left with no sense of how the NPB process had helped them, if at all. Moreover, Hill's Owen Milgrim remains convinced the process didn;t do anything for him, so is happy to allow himself to be committed to an asylum. There is personal growth there, in that he stands up to his horrendous family and refuses to lie under oath to protect his brother Jed from sexual assault charges (and perhaps that's what lies behind the leaving of his imaginary brother/friend Grimmsson, played by the same actor as Jed?), meaning that they complete their lifetime of rejecting him and frame him as an anthrax terrorist. I felt that there was so much more that could have been done with his family life, it was just so horrific. It didn't feel like there was any sense of surprise in his changing his story under oath, because that's what we all think he should have done to begin with, and the show didn't make clear why he'd help these ghastly people who so obviously disdain him in every way. And then to cap it all off there's a mid-credits scene which calls that reality itself into question.

Other good points: the Furs By Sebastian session; Stone and Julia Garner as elf warriors.

Artemis

At about half way through, we started to find this a bit of a struggle, and gave up to or three episodes before the end.


Alberon

I watched it to the end and it did drag in places, but it generally ended up being one of those strange little oddities that you can't understand how it got made even in the Netflix era.

It did have some nice story touches and great design, but I'm far from convinced it did enough to fully justify its existence.

But I'm glad it does exists, if that makes sense.

Sin Agog

Quote from: Alberon on January 20, 2019, 05:53:03 PM
I'm far from convinced it did enough to fully justify its existence.

But I'm glad it does exist, if that makes sense.

Those are the exact words which go through my father's head every time he looks at me.

Icehaven

Binged today, enjoyed it mostly but having totally lost track of which episode we were on we were quite surpised that 9 wasn't the last one. Given it was only a few hours ago now we finished it tooI'm struggling to remember that much about it.
Along with Russian Doll though I'm glad things like this are popping up reasonably regularly on Netflix. None of them have set my world on fire yet but I've enjoyed them enough and sooner or later there's bound to be a stone cold classic.

Dr Syntax Head

Enjoyed it greatly, just finished watching it. It was no Twin Peaks and not as clever as it hoped to be but I'm glad I watched it. Justin Theroux was my favourite thing about it, the cheap advert he does at he beginning was brilliant.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: icehaven on March 17, 2019, 10:30:16 PM
Binged today, enjoyed it mostly but having totally lost track of which episode we were on we were quite surpised that 9 wasn't the last one. Given it was only a few hours ago now we finished it tooI'm struggling to remember that much about it.
Along with Russian Doll though I'm glad things like this are popping up reasonably regularly on Netflix. None of them have set my world on fire yet but I've enjoyed them enough and sooner or later there's bound to be a stone cold classic.

It's the same problem with a lot of this Netflix stuff... great everything aside from plot script and characters.