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Reviews
True Story with Ed & Randall (2022)
Really funny and different
This show is surprising and funny but in a really unique way. Every week they take a different real person who has a story that is strange or outrageous and they retell it to Ed Helms and Randall Park who have never heard the story before. Their reactions and commentary are part of the joy! It's a different take on a show and one I really enjoyed. A couple of the stories were abit slow but overall it was really good and heartwarming in places. The great thing is that it is normal people telling their story rather than just actors rehashing it and Ed and Randell are literally like two normal people sharing their reactions, you totally forget they are famous when your watching it to be honest. It works really well. Comfort food TV that makes you smile is always a winner for me
I'd like to see more of this show so hope there is another season.
Rutherford Falls (2021)
Good but could be SO much better
Let's start by saying I think Ed Helms is super talented and I appriciate the effort, Helms, Shur and the writers wanting to do something different.
Sadly like a lot of reviews on here something is missing as in effort to almost be super diverse in every category they have forgotten to cast better actors and add better writers to the room.
Michael Greyeyes, Ed Helms and the very underused Beth Stelling are all fantastic but the rest of the cast are exceptionally hit and miss and as a result so are the plots and the level of acting in varying episodes. Sometimes it is hilarious, satirical and heartwarming and sometimes it's a bit like a school play.
Season 2 is much better than season 1 with a range of much funnier scenes but the awful romance between Nathan and Dedria is so desperately cringeworthy and contrived for a show that is largely trying to be at the forefront of something, the whole set up seems so bad. Normally Ed has so much chrisma he can pull off a romance and you root for the two characters but these two have NO chemistry and the whole story seems forced to give Nathan a plot for the season.it's all very odd and disjointed. The show desperately needs to clean house for season 3 shifting out some current cast for new characters that can support its growth.
It can be developed but they need to add to the cast and bring more established names in to help it progress. Truth be told I should have given it a 6 but I love Ed Helms so much and don't want to bash a show that is trying to do a good thing and clearly has a good heart but if you are not a Native American or an Ed Helms fan you may struggle to stay with it,
Inventing Anna (2022)
Far too long and fictionalising a factual story
The story of this narcissistic sociopath is quite interesting when you read about it online but in this version is hard to understand even which bits Shonda made up and which bits Anna (who sold her story to Netflix) made up for TV and it's way too long. I don't understand why when the story was intriguing anyway , they made up parts and added lots of characters in to tell the story through. It gets lost in something else by the end and as most of the characters have almost no emotional depth, it's hard to care.
By all accounts Anna is unlikable, incapable of living in society appropriately and most probably mentally ill but the actress playing her is exceptional. Anna devereux smith is also exceptional and the journalism scenes added light humour to the story but I found myself completely uninterested in the Vivian story, who cares if she had a bad interview years ago and now she is more obsessed with Anna Sorokin than her own child! It's all seemed contrived. Also Anna Chlumsky screwing up her face and making funny faces was cute in My Girl but it's annoying as an adult!
I wasn't expecting amazing things because it's a Shondra Rimes production rather than an Aaron Sorkin one so it was bound to be over blown and style over substance but it certainly also hounds the victims, making her friend Rachel, who she stole from, out to be a bad person and in parts celebrating her Annas inadequacies and painting her as a poor girl who her lawyer gives up his marriage for and her journalist gives up time with her newborn baby for so she can fly to Germany and obsess over her Anna who dislikes her and go bully her parents! A very odd take on the story and largely a disappointment much like Anna Sorokin in the end!
The Good Doctor (2017)
Started off amazingly but lost the plot by season 3.
The premise for this series was excellent. In the beginning it offered a fresh perspective on the tired medical show format but over time it began to loose the edge. Some time after the nonsense in season 2 with a two part infect episode that was both dramatic and unnecessary, the writers started to forget what the show was, moving it towards soap like love stories and a lack of basic sense.
Freddie Highmore is consistently outstanding but the same cannot be said for many of the others. Whilst season 3 has bought some of the characters into a more close knit group and made cold and unlikable characters such as Dr Resnick and Park slightly more likeable, it has also pushed out Dr Melendez and to a certain extent Dr Lim who aside from Shaun and the always wonderful Richard Schiff as Dr Glassman were the only two engaging characters.
There is a desperate focus on Claire which I don't understand as the character is two dimensional at best and should be a side part character. Lea is also unnecessary and utterly annoying.
The season 3 finale shows how desperate the show has become and not only has it lost good people, it also has strayed so far from what it could have and should have been.
My only hope is season 4 goes back to the grassroots and has Murphy and Glassman as the main two characters as well as introducing some new LIKEABLE actors and characters in. Without more watchable characters and a focus on the acting talents of Highmore and Schiff I am afraid season 4 will be it's last.