Widow's Bay2026
WOMAN OF THE LAKE?! 🤩 She spooky, giiiiiirl I actually liked this episode because it's spooky AND dangerous. I loved playing into the Woman of the Lake aspect mixed with Jaws! The supernatural was actually felt this episode
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Ivan Montero’s reviews
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Will Trent2023
"I would call Will Trent, an agent with the Georgbia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) who is legally illiterate due to his severe dyslexia, is the modern-day darkest timeline Adiran Monk from Monk. For those of you who have seen and love Monk, you are probably either like, ""AW HECK YEAH!"" or are preparing your pitchfork and torches. BOLD CLAIMS! Both have a disability of some kind that only makes them stronger in other areas, they annoy the crap out of everyone with whom they work because of how smart they are, and they both have a personal familial mystery to solve. Note though, i said ""darkest timeline"" version of Adrain Monk, meaning, this show can get PRETTY DARK PRETTY FAST. Like I said in my initial first thoughts, this show is VERY good, but what I didn't know at the time is that because I haven't seen many cop shows in my time, that is likely why. Now, I am not going to pretend like I understand why certian people don't like this show because of my non-frame of referenes for crime shows, but this and The Rookie: Feds are solid modern-day takes on truly awful crimes that really do happen in today's day & age; although, they do take it to extremes, I would hope, so that nobody does attempt these murders. That's always my wonder when watching things like this. I can never stop asking the question, ""But why are we giving these guys ideas thoouuuggghhh?"" It's ridiculous to assume that crime shows lead people to commit crimes, it's like saying video games influence crime & violence, which neither do. Can say the same thing about BOOKS! In any case, this first season was a ROLLERCOASTER as we dove deeper into each character's lives throughout the span of 13 episodes. This show is NOT for the faint of heart, i must warn you. Some of these murders and crimes are pretty intense; especially the finale episodes, but the FINALE EPISODES , MAN... WOW, WHAT A SERIES FINALE! That is the only reason why I give it an 8.7/10 because it isn't as versatile for the general public, but I would imagine the intended target audience is adults, mostly. Will Trent WAS given a second season order, SO IM PRETTY HAPPY ABOUT THAT because I. Need. MORE."
Avatar: The Last Airbender2024
Like I said for the Percy Jackson series: are you REALLY going to be upset with this when Shamallama-ding-dong's version exists? No. Otherwise, I truly have no idea how you have any semblance of enjoyment within your husk. Netflix has created something special for us to enjoy as adults and fans of the original show. Obviously, we can't have a live-action beat-by-beat adaption. The Lion King already did that and to what degree? Total and utter hatred toward a completely unoriginal, uncreative, and lazy product. Is that what you wish for your favorite cartoon? You have to look upon this show with fresher eyes; there are GOING to change, there are GOING to be similarities, and there are GOING to be brand new angles upon which to view this story. It's called "an adaption" for a reason. The original exists, now here is this version, take it or leave it, but Shamarmalade's STILL EXISTS. This show is D.A.R.K. and perfectly highlights the GRAVITY of not just war, but CHILDREN in war! Most of our favorite fandoms feature children during wars (Star Wars, Dune, ATLA, Star vs FOE, Percy Jackson, etc) that we gloss over because PEW PEW SUPER COOL! (I am a victim of ignoring the gravity often, myself) So, having this new live-action version focus heavily on the consequences, the cruelty, and the brutality of war, especially from the Fire Nation, was INSANE to witness. HOLY. COW. Honestly, comparing the original show's seasons amongst themselves, I would give Season 1 right about the same rating I gave this one, perhaps, a bit higher, but a B+ for sure. Mainly, because Season 3 was and is my all-time favorite ATLA season and I CANNOT WAIT to see it fully realized in live-action! Next few years are going to be A TREAT!!
My Adventures with Superman2023
This is coming from someone who doesn't watch anime (much) nor likes Superman (much). However, "My Adventures with Superman" perfectly blends the two into something A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Honestly, I don't think I have actually CHEERED in a cartoon as much as I have during season 2's finale. In fact, I even shed a few tears of joy—I KNOW, I'M SUCH A LUSH. I only know so much from the Superman mythos, so, I would say it's not hard to appease me when it comes to making something Superman-y. (Y'all, I actually liked Man of Steel—I acknowledge it's not great, but It's fun). However, the icing on the cake is Clark Kent's insane reliability. We are watching Calrk learning how to become the Superman he is destined to be. THAT is wildly interesting to me. AND... my fellow writers who may be reading this... there IS a difference between "invulnerability" and "invincibility." Invincible Superman SUCKS. Invulnerable Superman ROCKS. Watch the show, I want a season 3!
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man2025
INTRO YES… in response to the title of this video, that is. YES. “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” is absolutely worth taking the time to watch. Especially with all ten episodes now released on Disney+ and roughly 26 minutes each, this show is bingeable “aff.” YELLO! CONVINCED IT’D FLOP I am going to keep this brief—AS. IF.—because my episode 1-2 review pretty much stands for the remainder of the series, just magnified by the fact that the ending result was a phenomenal piece of storytelling, in my opinion. And even more so by the fact that I was fully convinced this show would be a complete flop. I didn’t like that this show was going to be the MCU Spider-Man origin, mainly because I don’t like the MCU Spider-Man. They MCU-ified my boy, and I haven’t forgiven Jon Watts or Amy Pascal for “Far From Home”—and likely never will. And say what you want about “No Way Home”—the movie is just a giant cash grab for me. Yes, it is regarded as one of the best Spider-Man films of all time… but it’s a Spider-verse movie! Not really a “Spider-Man” movie, especially if all the villains… weren’t actually Tom’s villains. In fact, none of Tom’s villains have actually been Spider-Man’s villains. “Ivan, what do you mean?! Vulture and Mysterio are too Spider-Man villains!” Yes, but in the MCU, they’re Spider-Man villains in name only. Adrian Toomes is angry because of Tony Stark and wants revenge on Tony, and Quinten Beck is also angry at and is motivated by Tony Stark. Spider-Man was just there both times! So, to me, I felt giving more attention to something that, in my opinion—and the opinion of many hardcore Spider-Man fans—simply wasn’t working. Again, Tom Holland apparently needed THREE movies to get his origin, but Andrew and Tobey only needed one AND they showed Uncle Ben. OUCH! Shots fired [too soon?]. I mean, Spider-Man: Homecoming is actually incredible and serves as a great origin story for the MCU Spider-Man! I just have no idea what happened after that, they went downhill so fast. And now with “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” proving that an origin story is not only needed but seems to be wanted by many fans! EXPECTATIONS BLOWN AWAY Now, is “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” perfect? No, it’s far from perfect, but it did manage to expel every nitpick or worry I had for the series all thanks to the brilliant writing of this show. However, these are just nitpicks at this point, because, yes, the art style is weird. However, it did grow on me by the end of the series, and now I actually kind of like it for this show. It makes the show feel unique with its own visual personality. There were just a few instances where the animation seemed a bit wonky, but it eventually grew on me. But what didn’t grow on me was the theme song. I hit skip EVERY time. I am not one for nostalgia-bait, and that’s really what the theme song was considering the end credits song is basically this Spider-Man’s theme song. I mean, they even play it in the final swing and they only play the respective Spider-Man’s theme song during the final swing! So, if they fix season two by giving us the anime theme song—THEN I’LL GIVE IT MORE POINTS, but the corporate rap wasn’t the move, Jeff! The rest of my expectations? They got BLOWN AWAY leaving me wanting more each episode and theorizing where things would go next. AND IF YOU WATCHED MY FIRST VIDEO… I WAS CORRECT WITH MY TIME TRAVEL SPIDER THEORY. Again, I don’t know how I do it, I just do! The wool is never thick enough for mine eyes! And you’ve got to give credit where credit is due. It’s VERY DIFFICULT for any show to pull people around once there’s some negativity already surrounding the project! I mean, “The Acolyte,” anyone? Granted, that show shot itself in the foot with a bazooka in episode 7 and tried to cover it up very poorly. Yet, contrastingly, there’s “Agatha All Along,” another show that most everyone thought wouldn’t do well, and it’s currently the highest-rated MCU Disney+ show to date! It might’ve even passed WandaVision for me, AND I LOVE WANDAVISION. The point is, you really have to put the right person in charge of these projects who actually cares about the characters, sure, but the story; story over message. It’s okay to have a message, but only if it serves the purpose of your story! In fact, “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” has a hidden message that BLEW ME AWAY when I realized what it was! And that is the secret villain of this series: CORPORATE CAPITALISM. I KNOW! It’s SO subtle, you don’t even know it’s there! But it’s there, but it’s not the focal point or in your face about it! It’s just a part of the characters, which in turn, motivates their decisions and thus creates this really tightly constructed narrative! IT’S REALLY WELL WRITTEN. THE WRITING Honestly, there are only three writers attributed to the show, according to IMDB: Charlie Neuner, Raven Kone—who only wrote one episode: episode 7—and Jeff Trammell, who served as head writer and showrunner for this show. These three constructed what might be the best Spider-Man adaption of all time… am I too quick to say that? Yes, because it’s not the greatest, but it’s very close to it! I mean, if you consider the word, “adaptation,” and that it’s not going to be a literal, beat-by-beat translation from one media to the next, but rather a version of the original source, then, all of these “Elseworlds” stories become easier to either digest or simply push the plate away. To me, 2018’s PS4 Spider-Man will always be the best Spider-Man adaptation of all time. Excluding the games, Sam Raim’s Spider-Man 2 takes that title. And I say “adaptation” instead of “movie,” in this regard, because “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” is that good! Despite this being a STREAMING SHOW, it does feel quite cinematic, and I genuinely think that’s because of the writing. Jeff Trammel chose to avoid having another “villain of the week” series making this show feel not only fresh but like “somehow it just makes sense.” Instead, what Trammel went for was a narrative-focused approach, and again, “it just somehow made so much sense!” Each episode ends with such a gripping hook that gets you excited and puts you in the mood for the next episode! I think having more than one episode to watch might’ve been the move for this show! You get TWO for the price of ONE?! (Sometimes you even got THREE for the price of one!) It was incredible! But what impresses me most about the writing are the payoffs from season 1 and the setups for future seasons. I can’t get into it now because of spoilers, but the show has outstanding payoffs—sometimes you gotta work for them, but there’s there and they’re SO NICE! And the setups—BEAUTIFULLY HANDLED. At first, I wasn’t fully on board with how some things ended in the finale, but after discussing with Mike, he made me realize what Trammell is likely doing and it’s GENIUS. Jeff Trammell is COOKING! His agent’s probably like, “Don’t talk to anyone online, don’t post anything online, don’t even talk to anyone in person. Just. Stay. Good. We don’t want another Beau DeMayou & X-Men 97 situation.” The scripts for season 2 were already locked in! But Marvel’s gotta Marvel, so, we’re all worried about X-Men 97 Season 2 and Season 3. Though, this then begs the question, “Is Spider-Man a movie-level character or is he a series-level character?” I think he’s both! It just depends on who’s in charge of the project, as I said. It also depends on the story you're trying to tell. Imagine if “No Way Home” was an 8 to 10-episode series rather than an overstuffed two-hour movie? It would’ve been MUCH better as we would’ve had the room to comfortably tackle a stacked cast. I digress, but the argument is very much there! After “Secret Wars,” could Spider-Man’s live-action future lie on Disney+? Mmmm, I’d hope not! They don’t tend to give their series the same love and care Marvel gives to the movies. Still, I’m now tickled about the live-action Spider-Noir later this year on Prime Video! Will Amazon MGM do a better job at handling a live-action Marvel superhero show than Disney+? And if they do, what will that mean for future Spider-Man deals?! A lot is riding on Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man 4. I can totally see a future where Sony actually holds onto the rights for Spider-Man and simply licenses media rights to different studios to make Spider-Man series. WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT PERSPECTIVE But what I think elevates this show above other Spider-Man shows, perhaps, even other Spider-Man movies, perhaps, is the fact that each main character has a different perspective on what it means to have “great power.” And I mean, everyone. Nico has things to say, Harry has things to say, and even Lonnie ] has things to say! But most importantly, Peter and Norman both have different ideas on what it means to have “great power.” At first, when this became evident, I didn’t like it at all! However, mulling it over, I actually super like it, especially when I realized, everyone essentially has their own version of “great power” that drives their choices in the show! I’ll go over it in my spoiler breakdown; it’s going to be a GREAT TIME!! FINAL THOUGHTS & MY RATING This show is chock-full of amazing storytelling. I cannot stress how important writing is for me, especially in movies and TV. “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” is definitely something that should be looked to for inspiration for anyone who wants to world-build. I haven’t seen all of the Spider-Man series out there, so I am not sure how this stacks up with the others, but it’s high up on the list, for sure. In the end, I give “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” a resounding 9.8 out of 10.
Happy's Place2024
There's something about the spirit of "Happy's Place" that has captured the essence of "a classic sitcom" both striking up nostalgic feelings of "watching sitcoms in my younger years" while also establishing itself as a modern-day sitcom done right. Nowadays, mockumentaries are what we typically see as easier to make, and the humor is more attuned to today's audience. However, everybody loves a classic multi-cam sitcom done correctly (I'M LOOKING _RIGHT_ AT YOU, MIKE O'MALLEY [Extended Family]), and I would say Happy's Place does it correctly! It certainly has its rougher moments, but they're excused by solid performances and solid writing. Perhaps it's just Reba bringing her Reba-energy, but Happy's Place is one to stay and I am happy with that. Happy's Place gets an 8.6 out of 10.
Happy's Place2024
Better than the first season, though both are a great palette cleanser show with low stakes. Turn your brain off and just enjoy a good and harmless time!