hugues-talbot

The film revolves around an unlikely and fantastic scenario, which is the pretext to explore the dynamics of a failing, sexless, childless and unlikeable bourgeois couple. The relationship to the man's mother is explored in way too much details and everything that happens can be interpreted as an unresolved Oedipus complex, which is the overwhelming, simplistic default explanation when men talk about their mother in french cinema.

Not a single character is likeable in this intensely misognistic comedy. If find it utterly repulsive, uncouth and definitely unfunny. It gets worse as the film progresses. I kept watching in the hope of a meaninful twist at the end, but there were none. It was like a slowly evolving disaster.

This was originally a play, where the distance between the audiance and the cast is totally different. In this film, everything is in your face and nothing is spared to the viewer.

Totally not recommended, even though the performances and the production values are pretty good.

I was hooked when I read the series of short novels by Hugh Howey. The idea was good, the delivery excellent, the claustrophobia, suspense and intelligent writing was compelling.

The show takes the main ideas of the novels but does not try to follow them to the letter. This is good. I feel the result is better suited to a video series.

There are many things that the fans of the novels will not like as not being in the books to begin with, and even contradictory to some extent, but I really feel novels and video series are different and not really compatible. The show writers are perfectly within their rights to be inspired by a series of novel and write something different.

The acting by the leading lady is good, although I feel she plays mostly to one register, the tough, uncommunicative technician who follows through a single train of thoughts without fear of consequences. I feel she was better in Dune as the Lady Jessica.

There are some dull and unnecessary moments especially in the first few episodes, but the second half of the season ramps up in interest, suspense, action, mystery and grit. I really enjoyed it.

This rating is for the 3 first seasons.

I like the premises and the acting in the first 2 seasons, especially from the leading lady.

High Intellectual Potential is seen by many as an advantage in life. In this series, it is shown in an hyperbolic fashion. The main character has superior memory and associative intelligence that allows her to solve deep mysteries in an instant, when unrelated triggers are put in place. This is not very realistic.

What is more realistic is how possessing high intellectual potential can be detrimental in life. No one understands her, she is a constant misfit and a societal failure, in part because her super-smart aura makes everyone around her feel stupid. She is also unable to set her mind to a long-term task and stick to it. She is easily distracted and very easily bored, and so she has no qualification, no diploma, no job, no money and everyone who has tried to live with her has given up on her. She has no fear of consequences and does not care for anyone's feelings, even when people genuinely try to help her, and even for her own children. She is also very good looking and uses that to her advantage, yet comes across as uncouth and gaudy with a very poor sense of taste.

That should have made her a profoundly unsympathetic character, yet, the main actress manages to overcome all this and show that her character is actually trampled over and used by everyone to her detriment, in particular by her family, and most particularly by her father, who has the same problems as her, even worse in a way. So in the end, she is rather lovable in spite of many flaws. This is quite a feat.

So I feel this is rather a good show. The down side is that the rest of the cast is basically a support cast. No one else is remotely as interesting as she is. No one rises to her level even the various love interests with rare exceptions. There is a main story in addition to each of the episode storyline, and this is one of deep sadness and betrayal.

The third season, however, magnifies all the downsides to a point where it become an unfunny caricature. I recommend the first 2 season, not really the last one.