JoeBobJones

It's hard to express just how bad 28 Years Later is. Maudlin and unrelated to the rest of the franchise, it is filled with stupid character decisions and hamfisted plot devices, eliciting "no way" groans and laughs from the audience. And not in a good way. The whole audience was as disappointed as I was. The guy down the row from me left midway, which I considered.

It drags on toward Land of the Dead levels of comical absurdity, with alpha zombie bosses, a wildly improbable Ralph Feinnes surviving alone among the infected with nothing but a stream that "keeps them away", surrounded by totems to those hundreds of victims he outlasted, and frankly, far too much other stupid stuff to go into. Like a 'dawn of the dicks' - a zombie junk parade - 28 Years Later was a great trailer, but an abysmal film. What in Sam Hill happened to the 28 Days/Weeks Later franchise? Those were excellent. The first was a classic. This? Never have I felt so cheated by a profoundly bad sequel to such great films, which includes Jar Jar and friends.

Extra star for Allie Williams, the young lead actor. I thought he was great.

Boo!

There is something so charming about this entire episode. Miranda's braces. Samantha dealing with entitles 13year olds (and I worked midtown nightclub bar mitzvah that cost upwards of $100,000 or more, a VIP lounge at Tatou full of posing children all chain smoking Marlboros. It was both bizarre and sad.). Trey squeezing one's out to Juggs. And finally, Carrie is so wonderful with the kind of teenage reversion she goes through, especially with the mom. This is the perfect standalone Sex and the City episode, unencumbered by that tool Big, or any other recurring boyfriend drama. The show would have been well served to do some more of these kinds of stories.

Season 1 was really quite riveting. It was tight, it made sense, and was plausible. A few liberties taken with the science, but that's fine, it's a show. From there? It spins downhill fast and augurs in hard.

I'm on season 4 now, and "ridiculous" keeps coming to mind. Characters are deranged, making impulsive, irrational, unprofessional choices IN SPACE, where in reality, crew would be vetted and trained ten times over. I can't even go into the absurdities, because they're just too numerous. Tonnage everywhere, contraband and people being shipped with no accountability. A baby. It has become a bad soap opera, a nighttime teevee show, filled with scientific liberties only to serve the stupid dramas and extend the show inexorably to a 5th season.

Think of season 1 as the film Stalag 17. Now think of seasons 2, 3, and 4 as Hogan's Heroes. One is serious, the other slapstick. On I plow toward the conclusion of season 4, not caring at all.