vivisected

This story takes place in the near future, so the show doesn't beat you over the head with "futurey stuff," but presents these elements in a much more organic way. The setting is close enough to our own world that it doesn't require explanation and none is offered. From the first episode, the characters feel sympathetic and that helps a lot. I deducted one star, because the leading man is a bit weak. A flaw for which CGM more than makes up for with her own very charismatic performance.

The first few episodes see our heroine drawn into a mystery for which she's become totally invested through no fault of her own. High stakes having been established, she tries to establish alliances and close ranks in hopes of surviving the ordeal and uncovering the secrets behind The Peripheral.

While this film has amusing and humorous elements, it is NOT a comedy and to call it one is to delegitimize it. This documentary explores the commercialization of the Christmas tradition, which it rightly concludes has lost most of its spiritual meaning in favor of gift giving and the shopping that precedes it. The film further engages the viewer to consider the possibility that this obsession with commercialization bleeds into everyday life.

While many of the points are made by examining the sermons of the dubiously respectable self-styled "Reverend Billy" and his Church of Stop Shopping, which often makes for laughs, to say it is a comedy does not do it justice. This is a true documentary about a true phenomenon in America and a political organization that seeks to challenge it.