Reviews

Netflix’s The Witcher falls short of a phenomenon, but there’s still fun to be had

With the conclusion of Game of Thrones, it was inevitable that mythical, semi-medieval source material with an established following would be pushed by networks and studios alike, hoping to be adopted by its worldwide fanbase hungry for more. The Witcher ticked all those boxes; this time being both a successful book series, and a much…

Read More

Film Review: 6 Underground is what you get when Michael Bay ups his own Bayhem

When director Michael Bay gets handed $150 million from Netflix to make a movie you can be guaranteed that he’s going to make something pretty insane. Where in the past he has felt a little hamstrung by studio expectations or interference, his latest effort feels like a return to form. For Netflix, 6 Underground is…

Read More

First impressions of The Mandalorian and the Disney + launch original series on iOS

Next week, Disney’s hotly anticipated steaming platform Disney+ finally launches in Australia, with close to a dozen original series, a couple of original films, and a ridiculous amount of archived content from Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar And Nat Geo brands. We went to town on the new platform on our iOS device, coinciding with…

Read More

Supanova Adelaide 2019 Round Up: John Travolta, Deborah Ann Woll, Jason Isaacs and more brought the star power

Every year, in November, the Adelaide Showground springs to life with colourful characters when the Supanova Comic Con & Gaming Expo rolls in and offers a chance for Adelaide’s creative community to come together, show their art or cosplay and meet some of the biggest Film & TV stars out there. Sunday morning began with Julie Benz of Buffy the Vampire…

Read More

Film Review: The King is exhaustingly long but has moments of medieval greatness

There have been many adaptations of Shakespeare’s work to the big screen with varying results. Twice before Australians have tackled the Bard’s work with Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet and Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth both hitting the silver screen with positive critical response. Once again it seems the combination of Australian director David Michôd, with fellow…

Read More

First Impressions: Netflix’s Unbelievable is a consistently engaging drama that stays true to the sensitivity of the case at its core

Despite prominent billing, Toni Collette and Merritt Wever are both absent for the first hour-long episode of Unbelievable, Netflix’s latest limited series that centres itself around a serial rapist and the duo of hardened detectives that investigate.  Instead, Kaitlyn Dever, as arguably the series’ most sympathetic character, earns our attention as Marie, a troubled teen…

Read More

First Impressions: Amazon Prime’s Good Omens is a black comedy doomsday romp

In these current dark and tumultuous times it can often seem like we’re rushing faster towards an impending apocalyptic like end. But fear not, the world continues to turn and we can rest assured that in the meantime watching Amazon Prime’s new series Good Omens will alleviate some of that tension. The show is based…

Read More

Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 2 Review: Final Preparations, Final Goodbyes

Season 8’s premiere, “Winterfell”, was a surprisingly disappointing and robotic brush of box-ticking. Reunions and moments of levity took up the most of it, appealing to the masses with schlocky CGI dragon-riding and destined-for-meme Bran stare-downs. The only thing remotely impressive about the episode was John Bradley’s acting. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” was…

Read More

First Impressions: STAN’s Miracle Workers is a weirdly relatable existential workplace comedy

What do you get when you take a reluctant easily distracted God, a bunch of overworked angels and a bet that has the continued existence of Earth on the line? The new 7 episode mini-series on STAN called Miracle Workers, based on the novel “What In God’s Name” by series creator Simon Rich gives us…

Read More

First Impressions: The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel makes a triumphant return to Amazon Prime

Walking away from both the Primetime Emmys and the Golden Globes with awards galore, including accolades for lead Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has been a runaway hit for creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and streaming service Amazon Prime. Set in the late 1950’s, Brosnahan stars as Upper West Side housewife Midge Maisel, who discovers she…

Read More

Netflix Review: Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina conjures a dark edgy twist to high school drama

Back in the mid 1990’s Sabrina The Teenage Witch took the original Archie Comics character and gave her a more kitschy comedic vibe. With Sabrina often having to learn deep moral lessons after her attempts at magic go awry. But if you ever did read those original comics, you’d be aware that Sabrina and co…

Read More

Netflix Review: Maniac is entertaining and well done but less mind blowing than intended

Last Friday, Netflix released a new series called Maniac. Following up on Black Mirror and Stranger Things binges, Maniac has already flickered across many TV-lovers’ screens. The format is limited to ten episodes and based on the, four years older, Norwegian series with the same name. This genre-bending sci-fi drama is written by Patrick Somerville and directed…

Read More

First Impressions: Netflix’s mind-bending Maniac starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill from True Detective Director

With series like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, Netflix has cemented themselves as a platform that regularly delivers exciting original formats to binge watch. Well known for giving their writers and directors plenty of creative space to develop new material, series like like Black Mirror and Stranger Things have flourished. And now we have the thrilling Maniac, which playfully exhausts…

Read More

First Impressions: Jim Carrey shines in Kidding (USA, 2018), but the show hides in darkness

Showtime’s new comedy-drama Kidding sees Jim Carrey return to our screens in a show that makes it very clear that life isn’t all glitter and rainbows. Carrey is one of those actors whose presence alone can fill up the whole screen, either as the most energetic leading man (The Mask) or the average, everyday man…

Read More

Netflix Review: BoJack Horseman (USA, 2018) keeps its stride in its fifth season

When any television show enters its fifth season, they can begin to suffer with the fear of repeating old storylines or struggle with finding new, compelling ones to keep audiences engaged. Luckily, this isn’t the case for BoJack Horseman. Saddle up, because the anticipated fifth season proves that the popular Netflix animated show hasn’t run…

Read More

First Review: Is Netflix’s Insatiable harmful, or was the controversy premature?

The 12-episode first season of Insatiable comes to Netflix early August, but it will not air quietly. Within ten days of its release date, over 200,000 signatories have joined a Change.org petition seeking to have the show cancelled before it screens. The petitioners have rallied against the new series, intimating that the show objectifies women and…

Read More

Netflix Review: Matt Groening’s Disenchantment brings the laughs and an engaging story

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening is back with Disenchantment, his first new animated series since Futurama dropped way back in 1999. Disenchantment is a medieval fantasy which follows the adventures of rebellious princess and self-proclaimed alcoholic Bean (Abbi Jacobson), her elf sidekick Elfo (Nat Faxon), and her trusty personal demon Luci (Eric Andre) through the kingdom…

Read More

TV Review: Season 2 of Netflix’s Luke Cage packs quite a punch

After the success of his first season and his recent stint in The Defenders late last year, Luke Cage (Mike Coulter) returns to protect the people of Harlem caught in the middle of an explosive gang war between the nefarious Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard) and the new kid on the block, Bushmaster (Mustafa Shakir). Luke…

Read More

TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead ends its final series with a bang

Spoilers for the Ash vs Evil Dead finale to follow It was only a week ago when the news dropped that the beloved The Evil Dead (1981) followup series Ash vs Evil Dead would not be returning for a season 4 and this season 3 finale all of a sudden became the series finale. As heartbreaking as…

Read More

TV Review: Santa Clarita Diet’s second helping is a funny treat of blood, bone and heart

The Undead, Serbian vile, Nazi Lobsters and an ancient taskforce against the supernatural are all stories we hear about on a day to day basis, (are they not?) but when watching Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet‘s second season, they make so much more sense than that entire paragraph I just wrote. Check out the trailer! We…

Read More

TV Review: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3 Impresses With Ample Comedy, Horror, and Absurdity

Ash vs Evil Dead has returned for its third season, proving that this classic franchise still has a lot left in it as long as Bruce Campbell’s Ash is blasting away Deadites. When this season opens, Ash, Kelly, and Pablo have been somewhat moving on with their lives since supposedly ridding the world of evil,…

Read More

TV Review: Altered Carbon is a nuanced and detailed Blade Runner for the small screen

In 1982 the film Blade Runner by Ridley Scott brought to audiences a new genre of movies – the neo-noir science fiction thriller that paved the way for many to follow its style. In 2017 the sequel Blade Runner 2049 by Denis Villeneuve was heralded a successful return to that, bringing a blend of a…

Read More

TV Review: Black Mirror‘s fourth season marks a plateau point for a groundbreaking original

As it has done well over its past three seasons, Black Mirror has surprised me. However this year, the surprise hasn’t come in the form of a deadly plot twist halfway through the narrative’s third act, or a realisation that comes in the form of sad ending. No, this year it was the episode that I had,…

Read More

TV Review: Mick Taylor is as chilling as ever in the second season of Wolf Creek

The Australian outback has provided the Wolf Creek universe with a terrifying, swallow-them-whole landscape across both film and TV for the past 12 years now. When director, producer and writer Greg McLean first unleashed his horror concept (and debut feature film) to the world back in 2005, word-of-mouth was swift and excitable, championing Australian horror…

Read More

TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 8 “How It’s Gotta Be”

I’m not quite sure what I just watched, and I find it hard to imagine a team of writers turning that script in and thinking that it would make for a satisfying, entertaining or even reasonable Mid-Season Finale. I love The Walking Dead, honestly, but “How It’s Gotta Be” was truly poor form for a…

Read More

TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 7 “Time for After”

Eugene is a broken man. With his loyalty and decisions a major focus of “Time for After”, the penultimate episode before the Mid-Season Finale, we get to explore this character in a much more meaningful way than before. There’s some real depth here as he visibly struggles against his own conscious and deals with the…

Read More

TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 6 “The King, The Widow and Rick”

“The King, The Widow and Rick” is an episode title that suggests a clear and deep focus on all three leaders of the war against Negan and The Saviours. I mean, at least that’s the logical interpretation, right? Wrong. This sixth episode in The Walking Dead’s eight season took certain liberties to slow things down…

Read More

TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 5 “The Big Scary U”

“The Big Scary U” was The Walking Dead’s finest outing so far into Season 8, revisiting the premier’s cliffhanger and further exploring The Sanctuary as Negan was presumed dead by his lieutenants. Time is again splintered so the episode can jump between various happenings as All Out War is slowly pieced together, which means some…

Read More

TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 4 “Some Guy”

Building King Ezekiel’s regal facade has been given little screen time on The Walking Dead. The “king” with a knack for role-playing to build a sense of escapism and confidence for his “Kingdom” only took on a pivotal role deep into last season, and with the way the show is structured the writers have had…

Read More

TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 8 Episode 3 “Monsters”

“Monsters” is very much a direct continuation from last week’s “The Damned”, and on the surface that is very wise choice for The Walking Dead, treating these as installments in a wider thread rather than thematically distinctive “episodes”. This week, we were dropped right back into the all-out assault against The Saviours, coming from Team…

Read More