RichardGonci

Sadly, virtually totally derivative material here. Maybe the "writers" should have re-visited Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" to understand how to do a sweeping western saga right. I was primarily drawn to watch by virtue of a credible cast. But, if you put sophomoric dialogue in their mouths, it's not gonna elevate the final product. I am only rating it this high as there is so much junk on the summer schedule that anything watchable gets a partial pass...

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Though I love these kinds of action dramas, this one is brought to the ground by the wooden acting of its putative star, David Boreanaz. As a director myself, believe me this guy is hopeless. And to say that is for me to insult trees. He is awful: one-dimensional, non-expressive, and barely literate. Where did they find him? His CV on IMDB ain't exactly stellar!

This is an extraordinary bit storytelling. Who of us knew the dense and enthralling backstory of an investigator who was as emotionally 'out of the box" as his prey? I did not, and I lived through the whole sordid "reality." I will not go so far as to compare it to ESPN's near perfect rendering of the OJ story, but it is damn good. I hang on every episode for the moral ambiguity and bureaucratic morass each one reveals. Chris Noth also has a bit of a "star turn" in the series. He inhabits a difficult role with aplomb.

I really wanted to be drawn into this work. Now, I know it was not constructed to be a comedic piece, and frankly, I'm fine with that. More than fine. But, that said, the timings are like comedic timings. I applaud the risk-taking. I also applaud the story premise, but as a guy who worked on "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf," "Fortune in Men's Eyes," and the like for decades, when an essentially dramatic work is ostensibly written and shot for the small screen it should not ignore its stage antecedents. Thanks to a most remarkable cast, the unsure writing is often saved.

Geez, just wanna like anything that Kiefer Sutherland stars in (and produces.) But, the writing for this show is so puerile and sophomoric that I want to use it when I teach, as in "How not to do it!" I'm pretty sure some members of this cast could deliver better lines improvisationally! When Kiefer speaks as the President, he is so wooden you would think there was a 2x4 up his sphincter! Kiefer doesn't do "inspirational." He's not his father (the truly great Donald Sutherland.) He does action. I will keep watching because the side plots are engaging, but also stupid, as in unassisted assaults. BTW, I totally agree a with previous reviewer named "robmixalot!" Except he used an accent grave over the word "cliche," instead of the proper accent aigu. But, as an award-winning 3D-HD creative director, I also must agree with his evaluation of the SFX... third-rate junk! But, again, I am a hopeless junkie who will keep watching this show. BTW, the middle-aged Republican leader of the House is hotter than Kiefer's own wife who looks a bit like a "Stepford Wife!"

Quirky, visually arresting, character-driven, true ensemble acting... and maybe the most luminously beautiful police detective ever (as played by Aliette Opheim.) That should tip the scales, and for me these elements surely do. I have shared scenes with students for their sheer originality. The "stairs" scene in Episode 4 is worth a few replays! Surprises abound - some borderline disturbing. But the understated "action" of this series eclipses the cookie-cutter scenes we've all already gorged upon in dozens of other series or films.

Oh why have I wasted so much time watching this show? Maybe because other episodes dealt with subject matter more foreign to me? Hence, I was gullible? This time the episode peripherally dealt with working boats, something about which I am familiar. Few sample nonsense points: 40' working boats are not powered by gas engines since dinosaurs walked the earth: diesel only. Diesel engines don't explode, though they will catch fire; Working boats have SOLUS self-inflating life rafts for the crew, complete with food and water; You don't walk the decks of a working boat 60NM at sea in elevated heels; submersibles (especially homemade ones do not progress at 20 knots; It took me years to qualify to run my 53" boat, now I'm no Walter O'Brien, but you still need time at sea. I guess in the next episode he will fly a Beech King Air (something I also know how to do after 700 hours) by reading the manual for 20 minutes. I think it's the same thing that pisses me off about the new MacGyver show. Who would believe that little **** could do anything?

This is by far the dumbest "reality" show I have ever seen. It's actually hard not to deliver "spoilers," as anything one can say about this show would spoil anyone's interest in watching it. Full disclosure: 45 years ago I actually did have to "hunt" people in distant climes. Today, as a producer/director I was appalled at the exceedingly high cliche/minute mind-numbingly stupid scriptwriting; the wooden performances (no, that description dishonors trees); the cheezy camera work; the skanky "protagonists," (suffice it to say you HOPE these morons will be caught!); The "Hunters," most of whom would not succeed in acquiring a date at the Perkins School for the Blind. That is so unfair to folks who are sight impaired. It's really more that the Hunters have no discernible personalities beyond cardboard and stereotyping. Imagine you took the least appealing character from every procedural currently running and put them all into one show. There you go!

When there is a fairly wide discrepancy between "critic" reviews and "user" reviews, I often find myself more in agreement with the users. That's the case here. While there is nearly universal consensus on the fine performances of Billy Bob Thornton and William Hurt, I think that the rest of the ensemble holds up very well indeed. And, even though there is an adolescent in a tertiary role in this drama, he does not annoy me as do the peripheral youth characters in "The Americans" or "Madam Secretary." For the record, I have a 17 year-old son who is neither narcissistic nor stupid, so maybe my "bar" is unusually high! Anyway, this is also a very stylish production. There is lovely camera work which imparts a filmic viewing experience to each episode. Sound design is also very solid in this series, with audio FX standing in for a score much of the time. David Kelley creates shows for grownups. I, for one, am glad to have his work back in front of my eyeballs.

First off, when you start with Nick Nolte and Sela Ward you are already in my wheelhouse. This show will inflame some viewers, as it is obviously casts slings and arrows at the right wing crazed dialogue in the country now. Though, it was sooo funny that the producers got Rudy Giuliani to appear! The obvious "blush" to George W. Bush as the "worst President in America, with Nolte rendering a reconstructed version thereof in the post-presidency space, is brilliant. We need antidote to hate speech now, and this is a hoot and a half.

Oh darn... more dumbass writing by kids who know **** Regarding the "pilot," one does not slit one's wrist horizontally, but vertically if you actually want to die. A soldier would know that. Just a goofy "buddy show" starring two people who aren't remotely convincing.

I so loved season one. I must admit to some disappointment with season two. That's not to say it's not still in a class by itself. It's just that the primary characters, excepting Jeffrey Tambor's exquisitely wrought lead role, are written in a very unsympathetic palette of near-psychotic "colors." I am not looking for some "Pollyanna-like" resolution to crazy family dynamics, but, gosh, would it kill the show to make a few human connections go unbroken, or at least be reparable? Cherry Jones breathes remarkable life and nuance against the 2D figures with whom she interacts. Of course, she's also a brilliant actor. Like Jon Voight's character of Mickey Donovan in "Ray Donovan," she commands the screen when she occupies even a portion of it. So, for the flashes of brilliance that endure, I will not pan this show.

I'm afraid that with the exception of "Chicago PD," **** Wolf's Chicago franchise is a sorry shadow of the Manhattan originals. Chicago Fire is puerile, and the latest offering, Chicago Med is formulaic in the extreme. Thank God for stalwarts S. Epatha Merkerson and Oliver Platt, either of whom could probably have saved the Titanic. This may be a greater challenge. Imagine an ER filled with narcissists, but wait, I'm not just talking about nurses and docs here, but patients as well! I'm sorry, was there a WGA writers strike occurring when the "script" for the first episode was written? Every hackneyed ER plot point from better shows was resurrected here. Even David Koch would not buy the naming right to this new ER center... and that's saying something.

I am going to go along for the ride with this effort. I find its premise a clever conceit. There were a couple of annoying anomalies (no spoilers here,) when given two large cups to determine a preference for coffee or tea, "Jane Doe" lifted a clearly empty (or near so) cup so fast that it surprised the actress. Re-shoot... fill cups. Also, the SUV's of the good guys can clear mid-town NYC bridges faster than Moses could part the Red Sea. But, hey, it's a TV show and I am not giving it a "10."

So, while Season 2 does not have the "Aeschylus-like" panache of Season 1, it is still leagues above most TV fare. You can assume a show is worth your attention when it draws as much "water-cooler conversation" as Season 2 has. There is a quirky affect to the show: almost everyone has bad hair. Really bad hair!

While I know there can be room for disagreement between people of good faith, giving this "show" a 100 rating begs the question of who is in bed with whom! The acting? By far, the best actors are the animals. The "writing?" Not much in evidence. The concept? Well, others have said it better than I. Male lions are slothful layabouts who expect the females to do all the work. Bats actually cannot fly above 5000' because the air is to thin for their thin little wings. This show could be improved with the hiring of a highschool freshman science advisor. The humans depicted in this show so far largely deserve extinction... by any means! All that said, my son and I watch it as a "guilty pleasure," it's kinda like the great "Mystery Science 3000" series in that regard. Watch it and make fun of it in real time!

While no one would contest that this good show is a "star-turn" for Liev Schreiber, I must put in a plug for Jon Voight in his supporting role. In real life, Voight is somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan, which is more than a little ironic as his daughter is Angelina Jolie. That aside, he is a masterful actor. Like Frank Langella in the "Americans," whenever he is on-screen everyone else looks like a paper cutout. God, he is good. Every little body movement is perfect for his essentially predatory self. He truly knows how to "occupy" a role, not just to don it like a nice bathrobe. He can also switch-gears on a dime and invoke ingratiating slime. Thank goodness the writers are wise enough to give this thoroughbred his "head," and let him rum. For the rest of the show, it ranks on the higher level of guilty pleasures, as fans can pretty well guess the "arc" of any episode. Sadly, "Ray" is constructed a little too thinly to be a vehicle for moral surprise. As in there are few surprises. Happily, Schreiber has a screen magnetism just a little south of Liam Neeson, whom I will watch in anything.

Now, this is a very engaging show, but as a director myself, I really wish that Rami Malek had more than two facial expressions to convey to the audience: bemused and more bemused. There are figures in Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London that would eclipse his "mask." Fortunately, the other actors actually have working facial muscles. I hope that Christian Slater will play an even greater role going forward, as he is a viable actor.

I really wanted to like this show (I'm up to episode 9 now.) However, the level of implausibility, and worse, the utter stupidity of the main characters drives me nuts. I almost want all the protagonists to die off for the sake of the species (Darwin effect.) The antagonists are much more richly drawn characters. And, OMG, the "not-widowed" husband is like the Gold Medalist in the dweeb Olympics. I guess I will stick with it as one does with a cloying dessert served up by hosts. I also am coming to hate all teenage children in series of this type. "Madam Secretary," and "The Americans" come to mind. While I am pro-choice in real life, I favor retroactive birth control for these annoying brats!

The usual John Ridley over-writing, but my God, how freakin' great that something this raw shows up on network where more than a relative handful of people will see it! Let's stop navel-gazing, people, and be thrilled at the risk-taking involved here. No heroes. All complexity. Which face in the mirror are you, or I? Plenty of mirrors to go around. Maybe this kind of story requires the heavy hand of Ridley. It's not about nuance, afterall, or subtlety. This ain't no Downton Abbey nonsense, thank God! I doubt PBS would have had the cojones to run anything this relevant, unless it originated in Great Britain first! So, all praise to ABC and Ridley.

I was really disposed to like this show at first, but now, it takes real "fortitude" for me to keep watching. My basic premise is that any show, no matter how bleak, has to have a few sympathetic characters. At this point, only the character portrayed by Stanley Tucci remotely fulfills that role... and even he is slipping. I can no longer recommend this show to any one who is not already on anti-depressant meds.

This show is growing on me me week by week, As much as I love The Americans, but if I think if have to watch the daughter's religious arc for freakin' ever, I may have to take a pass! Note to producer/directors of these shows: we really don't care that much about the kids! Allegiance does have some soft spots in the writing. And, let's please leave the some of the Asberger's conceits around the genius son in the gutter... boring. But, the mother being the action figure is so engaging to me!

Every shot "prettier" than the last. How is one branded without the searing of flesh rendered without smoke? Terrible art direction and camera work. No evidence of living scriptwriter. Don't get me started on the lighting direction. A worthy story reduced to a child's fairy tale level of production values.

here is only one serious problem with this show: Frank Langella. He is such a superlative actor that whenever he is on-screen, the otherwise fine co-stars fade to two-dimensional cut-out characters. Some of the thematic "tropes" this season also seem to reveal writers doing research on Wikipedia, rather than more scholarly background work. But, I'm guessing most viewers won't have a clue about that anyway. Still about the best work overall available on this medium. As a producer/director myself, I am consistently impressed at the production values. Remember, this is a "period piece." Very difficult to get the little details right all the time. BTW, I am 65. I would know the difference if they got it wrong. Collapse

Terrible disappointment. Goofy plots... and worse yet, utterly predictable. Bad direction. Worse acting, especially by secondary characters. Atrocious combat. It has lost all style, and if "Frank Martin's" romantic interests skew any younger, he will be seen as a borderline pedophile. Very sad, as I used to view this show as one of my "guilty pleasures." I wish the producers understood that the original audience for this show actually comprised half-smart people with aspirational tastes.

Where to start? Terrible writing? Terrible special effects? Terrible videography? Terrible editing? Yeah, I guess what zombies will deliver to television: Death to creativity. BTW, the notion that no-nothing 20-somethings will save you from anything requiring a knowledge of how the world actually works is a totally loopy idea!

This show shamelessly uses every device ever conceived by actual writers, throws them into a writing Cuisinart, and churns out a hilarious melange every week. I finally realized they use the top-secret "JB" principle: use primarily character quirks from lead characters from other shows and movies whose names conform to that principle: Hence: the utterly erratic behavior of Jack Bauer; the past identity confusion of Jason Bourne; and continental accent of James Bond. Throw in supporting characters whose loyalty may be suspect, estranged exes, adorable children who serve no useful function whatsoever, and you get a Mulligan Stew that would confound even Mulligan himself. BTW, it's virtually impossible to deliver a "spoiler" review on this show, as it is so disjointed and schizophrenic in its plot structure, that even the most dedicated viewer can barely keep up. It's like having Thanksgiving dinner with your extremely bi-polar great uncle... many stories, not all connected very well. That said, I watch it regularly for the raucous ride.

The scripts are getting painfully predictable as this show slogs on. A recent one involving an art heist from an art gallery was just embarrassingly sophomoric in its utter lack of knowledge about fine art or the gallery world. The steam has mostly run out of the boiler on what once promised to be a good locomotive of storytelling.

Full disclosure: I am such a **** for stories like this. But, that said, there are an awful lot of anomalies one has to overlook to stay on-board (pardon the pun) with the arc of this narrative. The critic "Wolivere" got a lot of it right, btw. More and more I see shows written by people who know squat about the actual world. As a cruising sailor I was aghast at the stupidity of the Robert Redford film "All is Lost." Completely ridiculous situations that no skilled sailor would ever find himself/herself confronted by. Likewise, both the science/technology errors and the the chain of command nuttiness of this series should drive me running away in frustration. But, I do keep coming back. Must be a character flaw on my part. I am going to give this nautical turkey a 6.5 because it does keep me coming back. Some real effort has gone into the production values. And, for no reason I can explain yet, I do care about some of the characters.

EludiumQ36 was quite correct in criticizing the lazy/sloppy screenwriting convention that even my 14 year-old son spotted vis-a-vis erasing footage on a space mission. What is this, a reprise of Rose Mary Woods with the 18-minute gap on the Nixon tapes? It's a shame to take us out of an otherwise good story arc by insulting our intelligence. I think there could have been acceptable work-arounds for this problem. On the other hand, a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is critical for any of these summer-filler shows to take us out of out doldrums. This show is infinitely better than the Godawful dreck that is getting "universal acclaim": "The Strain." At least here there are some some more conundrums to work through. An IQ better than a good golf score is required to recount last night's plot-line over the water-cooler to one's buddies the next day... unlike "The Strain." And then, there is Halle Berry, a constant delight to the eye.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]