Rob’s Review of Star Trek: Picard
I waited until my vasectomy to dive into the Picard series, set at the end of the 24th century, 18 years after the events of `Star Trek: Nemesis’, with Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as the now retired admiral Jean-Luc Picard. I figured having 5 episodes of a series starring one of my favorite actors of all time (I flew to New York just to see Stewart on Broadway years ago!), playing one of my favorite characters of all time (Picard), based on one of my favorite series’ of all-time (STNG) was a “can’t miss.” And this, apparently, is why I never made it to the big leagues because this was as big a swing-and-a-miss as you can get.
I was in no pain from my procedure and was merely begging to be entertained for 48 hours of lying on the sofa with ice on my crotch…and watching these five episodes was the most uncomfortable thing I did.
I’ll forgive the fact that Stewart is 79 years old and moves slower and has a voice that no longer resembles that of the thundering Captain of the Enterprise. What I won’t forgive is that for years people have been trying to drag him back into the role of Picard and he refused until this project; swearing that this was the story that the iconic character deserved. I am now officially worried about Patrick Stewart’s mental well-being. The story is slow, plodding, nonsensical, forced, and quite frankly, lame. I was uninterested after the second episode but forced myself all the way through episode 5. When episode 6 dropped on Thursday, I ignored it.
Whatever Stewart saw in this story has no resemblance to what made The Next Generation great. The various cameos by Data, Riker, Troi, and others do not provide the nostalgia needed to make you overlook the painfully dumb premise and agonizingly putrid plot. Thank God I can cancel CBS all access after my week long trial. Total garbage.
THUMBS DOWN
Rob’s Review of Hunters on Amazon Prime
Described as “A diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City discover hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials are conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S. The eclectic team will set out on a bloody quest to bring them to justice,” this 10 episode Amazon Prime series featuring Al Pacino (and a bunch of other people most of us have never or rarely seen) had me intrigued. Having grown up in the 70’s and 80’s, the “period” piece part of the story didn’t bother me, and I’m always intrigued by the tales of society’s darker side, especially the sickness that is bigotry.
“Hunters,” opens with a powerful backyard BBQ scene that quickly turns into a mass murder and makes you lean forward and say “OK, this I can get into,” and then you spend hours wondering why you’re still watching this crap.
In an effort to check myself, I read some reviews online and found a very sad, yet consistent trend; the only people raving about this series are Jewish people like Noah Berlatsky who wrote for NBC: “Amazon’s ‘Hunters,’ starring Al Pacino, finally gives Jews the chance to be anti-fascist heroes…As a Jewish viewer, it is satisfying to watch Jewish people get to kill the Nazis themselves, directly, rather than having to be rescued by gentiles.” Other than that, most people agreed with me, like this headline from The Verge: “Hunters review: good at killing Nazis, and very bad at most other things.” Jordan Peele can, and has, done so much better. This was a monumental waste of time and talent. To even begin to explain to you the attempt at a plot is to waste more of my brain cells and your time than either of us have to spare.
THUMBS DOWN
