mikealike

Great movie. First of, it brings twists and turns in the plot, or at least I really did not expect it to go in the direction it did. Therefore, I could say that the movie is "alive", it follows its own path and it does so sublimely. So it went like this - we thought we are watching a comedy, then at some point we were glued to the screen, but someone asked "Is this supposed to be a comedy, really?". Then by the end we had cried and laughed and it all felt nicely and yet powerfully cathartic. A good movie to watch when wondering what is life and living all about. And to remember that children are the future and the hope for healing the soul of humanity, so tired and entangled in its complicated problems nowadays. No spoilers, just watch it. And wait for it...

The puzzle is being put together, meaning that the series attacks sf ideas that so far have been scattered in less publicized series, some of them very good but tanked. of course these ideas had to be picked up by Spielberg, but I will not go on on this line of ideas. I will just say that we need a hardened sf movie fan to explain to us which idea came from where. Notice that the director of the pilot, Alex Graves,also directed Fringe's pilot and Journeyman, that Jason O'Mara was in Life of Mars US (which I like best that the UK version...), that René Echevarria was in fact the producer of The 4400 (great show until it went downhill and away) in which we find the same aliens-are-from-the-future and change the past ideas. Also Brannon Braga produced Flash Forward and Star Trek. There are things familiar from lost and from Jurassic Park, so there a huge mix of old and recent anticipative ideas. The crazier genre lovers would say "they are showing us what we always suspected it happened", and, less crazy would be to say that the ideas go well together and make sense in the "what if" world, and that we have a great show ahead of us if they do not over do it. Indeed, the teenager drama is a bit out of tune, the talking and acting in the future just as now is also...safe, but not so memorable. But if the action has some pretty good twists and strong sf ideas tied up together, original or not, we might just skip over the lamer parts just to see what's next. I don't know why I was under the impression that JJ Abrams is working on this one, too :)That would have been a reunion all right.

This feels so familiar, because so many times we have seen the people who sit at the counter, stock the goods or chop the meat in the "no man's land" that supermarkets are, yet we have seen them with the corner of out eye. In Trollied they are filmed, they have names and lives, they actually don't care too much about the hatred management, which is repulsive to the managers themselves after all...spending day after day in the "merchandise forest", the guys get around the stiff rules and go on being the guys.

It's a slow paced comedy, under the neon lights everybody knows that the surveillance cameras or the bosses eyes cannot work everywhere and all the time. Before the digital supervision, a friend once told me stories about working in a supermarket and stuffing his face in the back alleys together with the other shelf boys. Now it's a bit harder, but still...everyone is bored, everyone compensated...talks, is naughty, reads from the shelves, eats from the shelves. the scenes are like bits and bobs, sometimes cameos. As I said, it looks so familiar, but not from other shows, but from life.

The show stand out because it does not wretch of forced script, concept or performances. They just struck gold by keeping it real, observing and adapting for screen.

Good one.