Blechtrommel

Ryan Murphy is currently well into his downward spiral. The camp that was acceptable in the early seasons of AHS or in Feud only narrowly dodged the bullet in more serious projects such as Nip/Tuck, Monster, or Pose. He simply cannot help but be dazzled by star value and kitsch, from Glee to the pitiful The Prom, passing through rare cases where camp actually works but which have been abandoned (I'm talking about Scream Queens but also Ratched). Overall, he seems like a child who just does whatever he wants and has nothing to lose. Feel like making a carbon copy of The Boys In The Band? Feel like switching to another series (quite literally) halfway through Grotesquerie? Feel like ruining an entire project and the work of so many talented people by writing something on chat gpt and giving the lead role to Kim Kardashian? Well, he can and does. Here's a piece of advice: don't waste your time with this rubbish.

When we talk about Portuguese TV fiction, it's easy to start thinking about telenovela. A format inherited from Brazil, but one that has never grown in Portugal beyond being a sub-product of something that is in itself a cultural sub-product. In recent years, and with the rise of streaming, Portugal has been producing series that almost appear embarrassed by the legacy of the telenovelas. Some filmmakers who once tried their hand at auteur cinema are now trying their hand at auteur series. But if it's easier for a TV director to make an auteur series, it's practically guaranteed that mega-nepobaby Ivo M. Ferreira won't be the maker of a TV masterpiece. The plot is perhaps the most lifeless (and sexless) thing that has ever graced our screens. Pretensions to being American in style are undermined by a verbose script with no particular literary force, informative dialogue that would make the series better as a radio drama, and flimsy performances that don't lift the story's madcap potential beyond the academism of dimensionless character types. As much as the true story piqued my curiosity, the first episode didn't make me want to watch the second.

It was an exceptional experience, even in a year when the majority of films without an established director proved to be absolutely worthless. Donnie Darko looks like he has been botoxed into a permanent Sean Connery smirk, and even his voice sounds like it has been put on auto-tune throughout the movie. I assume that's what his AI version will look and sound like. Newcomer Daniela Melchior can't act her way out of a cardbox. It's painful to watch her not know what to do with her hands and eyes in every scene. The rest of the cast isn't brilliant either, with the exception of Lukas Gage and Billy Magnussen, although they too don't seem to know how to carry themselves through such a substandard script and such pedestrian direction. Why has this been done? It's not even Halloween yet...