ravivenkitaraman

The Bear boasts some superb episodes but sadly, they are few and far between. Most of the show (Season 3 in particular) is the same-old same-old...marginally funny, with contrived stress and no real spine to its story-telling. The choice of music is excellent throughout, I'll give them that.

My tip for first-time viewers: go straight to the episodes that have an IMDB rating of 8.5+. (Jamie Lee Curtis and Olivia Colman make superb cameos in a couple of these.). Enjoy said episodes. Then skip the rest.

A 600 character minimum is too long to expect for a viewer review. IMDB, I hope you're listening.

I typically enjoy Malayalam movies much more than other Indian movies. The plot lines are far more realistic, the acting is much more unpretentious, the dialog is just as it would be in real life, and the scenery is often spectacular (without feeling "manicured.")

This miserable movie, however, is the antithesis of everything that good Malayalam movies typically offer. A blaring "Bollywood" sound track (intended to manipulate our feelings because the script cannot?), Shakespearean deliveries of ordinary lines (read: serious overacting), a script full of holes, too many twists for its own good....and on and on. How do I count the ways?

Avoid this stuff like the plague. It gives the genre a bad name and unfairly so; there's so much other good stuff on offer from Malayalam cinema.

Whereas GOT was fresh, well plotted, and helped us care about its characters, HOTD is derivative, boring, and over-emoted. It plays out like an amateur drama, with no clever twists or creativity, living on the laurels of its predecessor. I found myself doing other stuff while watching it (the only way I could get through this mess).

What a waste of a big budget. And sadly, I cannot think of a single character who broke the hammy stereotype. Well, a couple of the dragons tried. I'll give them that.

Advice to the producers: when you next create warring factions playing a fantasy game, at least make them interesting.