Friends: The Reunion (06.18.21)

As far as TV pitches go, “six friends live in New York City and do friend things” is not exactly what many people would call inspired or exciting, yet somehow the world ended up getting ten seasons of just that with the now-classic sitcom Friends. Even after all those years many found it hard to say goodbye in 2004 when the show finally ended, and I can’t remember a time since then when people weren’t clamoring for some kind of reunion or continuation. Seventeen years (and a pandemic’s worth of free time) later, HBO Max gives us Friends: The Reunion (also known as The One Where They Get Back Together), a heartwarming movie-length stroll down memory lane that is full of variety, surprises, and more than a few Jennifer Aniston tears.   

            As a fan of the show, it would have satisfied me to simply watch the six of the Friends reminisce about the old days on the old sets in the old soundstage for two hours, but the folks at HBO wisely determined that such an approach would be boring to most people and infused the reunion with an array of formats. There are indeed some free-wheeling, unstructured conversations amongst former castmates (again, this is a unscripted celebration, not a special “where are they now” episode that features the characters themselves), but the special also has a more structured interview portion hosted by James Cordon, several welcome pre-recorded interviews with the three primary creators, a trivia competition amongst the primary cast that brings to mind a particularly memorable episode and reminded me that the people who make the show rarely know it as well as the fans, and many other segments that keep the proceedings from getting stale. There are also plenty of surprises to be had, from cameos (both welcome and superfluous) to a couple of juicy backscene tidbits that are only now being shared. The highlight for me had to have been a particularly soulful rendition of the classic that is "Smelly Cat," starring Lisa Kudrow and… well, it’s a surprise.   

                If The Reunion has any problems, it’s that it occasionally dips into self-aggrandizement territory, which I suppose is normal for this type of thing. Some of the cameos also didn’t make much sense and seemed to boil down to “find out which famous people like Friends and see if they want to record a talking head or wear Ross’s Sputnik costume from that one Halloween episode for a wheelbarrow full of cash” (looking at you, Bieber). I also felt a tiny bit uncomfortable watching these real-life friends share a tear or two as they caught up, as if I was involved in some kind of mildly exploitative emotional voyeurism. But I guess that’s a me problem, yeah? Chalk it down to my dislike of “reality” television in general, I guess.   

But these minor annoyances can’t put a damper on the pure fanservice that is Friends: The Reunion. It is a celebration of all things Friends, and the trip down memory lane is one well worth making if you’re a fan.   

Friends: The Reunion is now available on HBO Max.     

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on June 18th, 2021. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/ 

 

Shadow and Bone Season 1 (06.11.21)

 

For a genre that is bound only by what can be dreamt up in limitless imagination, there are a surprising amount of commonalities and suspiciously similar themes that often crop up in fantasy literature. Why is it that so many fantasy stories, for instance, seem to be set in eras akin to the real world’s Medieval period? How many of them involve elves, orcs, or a comparable species living in tandem with humans? Many creators are undoubtedly inspired to jump on the bandwagons fashioned by virtuosos and trend setters such as the Brothers Grimm, Tolkien, and Lewis, but in today’s heavily saturated market the stories that tend to stand out the most are ones that take risks and move away from the usual Middle Earth and Narnia-esque worlds of established canon. Shadow and Bone, a new Netflix series based on the works of Leigh Bardugo, sets itself apart from the pack admirably with its impressive world-building, style, and intriguing characters, but also stumbles a bit thanks to a few decidedly cliché story beats and a certain side plot that seems oddly detached from the rest of the action.  

            The thing that struck me the most while watching Shadow and Bone was the unique setting. Breaking free of the usual sword-and-shield era, the characters in this world have access to commodities such as guns, trains, and all the tall hats they could ever desire. This alone gives the world character, and the show has an admirable show-don’t-tell policy when it comes to explaining how the inner workings of the society functions. That policy also means that conversations can occasionally be hard to follow, however, as the script seems to feel comfortable throwing, left and right, silly words that are typical of this type of story with the assumption that those who didn’t read the books (like me) will catch on eventually. And catch on I did, for the most part, even though I felt hesitant to learn yet another set of made-up phrases at first (come on, guys… don’t we have enough words as it is?) The costumes are impressive, the cast effervescent and refreshingly diverse, and the story is plenty interesting if not terribly original.  

            What do I mean by that? Well, the story starts when an average orphan girl finds out that she is special and destined to save the world. There is a clan of wizard people who are born with innate abilities and are prosecuted for unclear reasons (I guess they are more akin to the X-Men/mutants of the Marvel universe now that I think about it), and there is a love triangle between the girl, the childhood friend, and the dark newcomer. These are just some of some very familiar beats that flew in the face of an otherwise unique world and story, and the show suffers slightly from them. As a result of combining multiple books, there is also a story thread that makes the pacing suffer a bit, as it is only tangentially related to the main plot. You’ll know it when you see it.  

            And see it you should, because Shadow and Bone is, overall, an exceptional piece of television that will please even the most diehard fantasy fan. Look it up if you get the chance.  

            Shadow and Bone season 1 is now available on Netflix.  

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on June 11th, 2021. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

 

Hindsight: I really gotta cut back on the long introductions

Stowaway (06.04.21)

 

“Do not grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many, outweigh…” 

            “The needs of the few.”  

            “Or the one.”  

            These words, part of the last conversation Spock and James Kirk ever had (or at least until Spock was resurrected one movie later), reflect one of the many themes that are explored in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a film that some still consider the pinnacle of Star Trek cinema. Weighing the lives of the rest of the crew of the Enterprise against his own, our favorite half-Vulcan sacrifices himself in the highly radioactive core of the Enterprise’s warp drive and saves the day (no, I don’t feel bad for spoiling a nearly forty-year-old movie). Not satisfied with posing this question to only one crew, space decides to be a jerk and do the same thing decades later to the small cast of Netflix’s Stowaway, a film that has some great dramatic and emotional moments but one that is also held back by asking the audience to willingly suspend far too much disbelief (as well as some pacing problems).   

            I am pretty sure that it is not a spoiler to say that Stowaway has a stowaway in it. The plot is straightforward—a three-persons crew on its way to Mars find make some tough decisions when an unexpected fourth member somehow finds his way aboard their already-launched ship. How do they keep everyone alive when the ship has a finite amount of air? Is it worth it to save one life if it risks the lives of the other three? These are some interesting moral questions that Stowaway asks (think the runaway trolley problem but in space), and the dialogue and cast (which includes Anna Kendrick and Toni Collette) more than sell the drama and stakes of it all. It is a film that is well-shot, well acted, and offers a few moments of tension.  

            The problem is that to get to these moments, the plot makes some downright illogical leaps. The mere presence of the titular stowaway is ludicrous if one stops to think about the “how” for even a second, and I kept thinking that there was some exciting mystery that was going to unfold… one that would lead to some clever ah-ha moments that would make his presence on the ship make sense. This is not the case. The guy is there, and the three astronauts and the audience just have to accept that so we can get to the tense parts. It is a lot to swallow and not at all helped by the fact that the shortage of air itself only makes sense if the people who made the ship were absurdly stupid. Normally these would be small annoyances, but when the entire plot depends on you ignoring basic logic you have a problem. 

            And then the movie just kind of… ends. We never learn too much about who these characters are and the lives they had before they went to space, and it feels like a wasted opportunity. But despite these missteps, Stowaway is still a worthy time-filler that gets a lot more right than it gets wrong. For a Netflix original movie, that is a pleasant surprise.  

            Stowaway is now available on Netflix.  

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on June 4th, 2021. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/