Tag Archives: review

Paradise: Mayday [S2:E2] – TV Review

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TL;DR – A fascinating look at survival in a world trying to kill you to survive.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

A plane crash

Paradise Review –

Today, we dive into the second episode of Paradise’s second season. While the first episode was all worldbuilding, here we get stuck into the meat cube of things when we get to see how love first bloomed. But also see just why you never want to find yourself in Arkansas.  

So, to set the scene, after taking off in a light plane at the end of Season One towards Atlanta, Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) was flying south when a sudden flashback and a surprise hailstorm forced the plane to come down in quite a crash. Xavier survives the crash, but little does he know that he came down in Arkansas, and the last place you ever want to find yourself is Arkansas. Especially when you have a dislocated knee, and you have to put it back in place by yourself… Crunch … Scream. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Paradise: Graceland [S2:E1] – TV Review

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TL;DR – They take a gamble with this first episode of the new season, but I think they pulled it off.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Day 24.

Paradise Review –

Last year, there was one TV series that caught me off guard, because I was completely surprised that we were actually in a post-apocalyptic world. Season One of Paradise had its foibles, but it was also an electric romp all the way to the end. But that season was very self-contained, and I wonder if the show has the strength to branch out? Well, that is what we will start looking at today.  

So, to set the scene, Annie (Shailene Woodley) has not had the best of lives, looking after mother in trouble, who died young, bouncing out of medical school, and ending up as a tour guide at Graceland, which turned out to be a bunker when the world fell apart. But tragedy is everywhere in a world where summer never came, ash blots out the sky, and the simple things now kill. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Fallout: The Strip [S2E8] & Full Season – TV Review

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TL;DR – While it did manage to pull most of the threads together, you can’t help but feel that they were too ambitious this season for what they were able to pull together in the end.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime subscription used to watch this series.

Post-Credit – There is a post-credit scene

The Dead Caesar.

Fallout: The Strip Review Introduction –

And so we have reached the end of the season, and I do have some feelings as we hit some real highs and then some head-scratching decisions. It’s a cavalcade of choices that show the creators love Fallout deeply, even if they don’t always have a firm grip on the world they’ve built. Honestly, it means that while the season had some high moments and a surprise Canada, I was left disappointed by the finale, and today we will dive in to see why that was.   

So, to set the scene, things are going down in the Wasteland as most of the characters in the show have convened in New Vegas. However, around the Wasteland, things are on the move. Caesar’s Legion has finally sorted out their civil war, Hank’s (Kyle MacLachlan) assortment of weaponised people is growing, and Lucy (Ella Purnell) just discovered what is powering them all. But while people are out there all trying to find their destinies, little do they know that there is another organisation out there more powerful than they can dream. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there may be [SPOILERS] ahead.   

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The Boy in the Woods – Movie Review

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TL;DR – I look at one boy’s life during truly unrelenting times.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Max alone in the woods.

The Boy in the Woods Review Introduction –

Today, we explore a film that touches on one of the juxtapositions of humanity, our propensity for great evil, but also our profound ability to survive in the face of insurmountable odds. Add to this the fact that this is a real story written by the person who lived through it, and you get a profound setting for a film.

So, to set the scene, during the height of World War II, Poland had been occupied for about two years by the Nazis. It is a place of ghosts as Jewish towns and quarters across the country have been devastated, with few remaining. Maxwell Smart (Jett Klyne) and his family are among the few left, and as they were being rounded up for ‘relocation’, he manages to escape after his mother tells him to run. His aunt finds a place for him to hide out, a farm run by Jasko (Richard Armitage). It is a tough transition for Max, who had spent all his life in the city, but when you are hiding from the Nazis, you need to become someone else. Jasko teaches Maxwell how to survive in the wild, which soon becomes a necessity.  

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Tension That Kept You On The Edge Of Your Seat In 2025!

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Well, we have looked at Action, then Emotion and swung wildly across the spectrum to Fun, and now we are completing that series by looking at Tension. Tension is one of the most challenging facets of filmmaking because it requires the script, direction, acting, and editing to all work in tandem to evoke the perfect pace. If just one part of that group misses, then an essential part of the film falls apart.

In 2025, we continued to see some excellent use of tension to build mystery, to be the harbinger of the coming dread, or even to tick the clock of inevitability.   

Our Highly Commended Films in 2025 are: 28 Years Later, Drop, The Long Walk, The Lost Bus, Nosferatu & Sinners
Our Highly Commended TV in 2025 are: Andor, The Diplomat, Paradise & Silo

So, without further ado, these moments of tension kept us on the edge of our seats in 2025. Be warned that there may be slight spoilers ahead.

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The Diplomat: Season 3 – TV Review

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TL;DR – While there is joy in watching this cast eat up the screen in every frame, this is a messier season as they try to transition to something different.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Military Helicopters flying over Big Ben.

The Diplomat Review –

My background is in International Relations, and it does not come up here as much as I would like, other than the occasional The Hitman’s Bodyguard jaunt. Well, today, given the situation of the world, I thought I would take a chance to have some wishful thinking in a world where the right things still matter, integrity still matters, to pretend for a couple of hours that everything hasn’t just gone to shit everywhere. But to understand why Season Three feels so volatile, we need to look at where Season Two left us.

So, to set the scene, at the end of Season Two, things went from bad to worse when the person, Grace Hagen Penn (Allison Janney), behind the scheme that blew up the British Ship in Season One has become the new President of the United States after the former suffered a heart attack during a conversation with Hal (Rufus Sewll). What was the conversation you ask? Well, it was informing him that his Vice-President may have committed a terrorist act on an ally, that very same Vice-President who is now the President of the United States. This is not a good day for Kate (Keri Russell) because the person she wanted removed just became the most powerful person in the world. Now, from here, we will be looking at the series as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Heated Rivalry: Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is a profoundly compelling if fundamentally risqué series that explores relationships in the harshest place through the lens of a visionary auteur.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the HBO Max service that viewed this series.

Hollander on the back of a jersey.

Heated Rivalry Review –

When people were mapping out what would be the go-to pop culture event for the end of the year, it would have been a safe bet to pick something like the final season of Stranger Things, or maybe the bombastic Avatar. Few predicted that the year’s breakout cultural moment would come not from a blockbuster franchise but from a modest Canadian drama. Well, if you spend any time on the internet, you know how successful it has been in cutting through the noise of the algorithm, so let’s have a look and see.

So, to set the scene, in 2008, Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) has had one drive all his life: to be the best hockey player of all time. But on the cusp of being drafted, he meets the new Russian prodigy Ilya Grigoryevich Rozanov (Connor Storrie) at the International Prospect Cup final. Six months later, they have been drafted to rival teams, Boston Raiders & Montreal Metros, of the Major League Hockey (MLH). When the two of them meet again, they find they have undeniable chemistry, and one thing leads to the other. But there are no out gay players in the MLH, so the two keep this tryst/relationship/booty call/whatever you want to call it a secret, lest anyone find out and their careers are ruined. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Dogpile – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – Charm from the first click to the last.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for this game.

A sleeping dog.

Dogpile Review Introduction –

Every now and again, you don’t need a hundred-hour RPG or twitch shooter or even a dudes diving into an asteroid to mine dig-fest, what you need is something quaint and full of charm. The sort of charm that knocks your socks off or makes you say audible ‘awwww’. Well, today we look at just such a game, one that has charmed me all week. It is also interesting that two of the games that I have gotten the most out of this year, this and Peak, have been indie-studio collaborations. I am not sure what that means, but it is a fun anecdote for me.

So, to set the scene, you run a kennel where many dogs with many different behaviours come to be found. You’ll need to keep everything from spiralling out of control, while making sure you get to the dog wash, buy items in the shops to help you, and also, don’t forget to give your dogs all the pats in the world.

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Savage Hunt – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It commits one of the most cinematic of crimes: it makes a film about a bear on a slashing spree dull.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

A blood stained torch.

Savage Hunt Review Introduction –

Unfortunately, today, we are looking at a film that flounders at almost every single possibility. Partly because of the budget, I assume, and also because the narrative and the characters are written in such a way that I found every single one of them insufferable before the end credits rolled.   

So, to set the scene, we open on a forest being cut down to build a new resort and spa. But deep in these woods might lurk something that you don’t want to disturb, something that might be stalking you, hunting you, and if you are not careful, killing you. When a man walks into the construction site covered in blood and clearly mauled by an animal, the local rangers get called in, shutting down the site, but not even they were prepared for what is out there.

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Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

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TL;DR – An odd finale full of charm from start to finish, but also a great deal of awkwardness.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid-credit scenes.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Downton Abbey.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale Review Introduction –

It looks like we have reached the end of the grand experiment that was the Downton Abbey cinematic experience. After the original Downton Abbey film in 2019, and the follow-up Downton Abbey: A New Era back in 2022, I had wondered if there would be any more, especially after the passing of Maggie Smith’s character, who was such an anchor for the series. Well, today we get to see if they will land this series in a triumph or worse with an uninteresting thud.

So, to set the scene, it is now the 1930s, and grand changes are looming on the horizon of both England and the world. In Downton Abbey, this is marked by Robert Crawley, 7th Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), hoping that Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) will be ready to take over running the entire household. This was meant to be a great handing over from one generation to the next. However, a scandal erupts throughout higher society when it is announced rather publicly in the press that Lady Mary is getting a divorce, an unmitigated scandal for those prim and proper people in polite society. Now the entire household has been shunned, and the question remains if this will be enough to shut down Downton Abbey for good.  

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