sdetlef's reviews

The motion (panning, zooming, shakey camera, ect) they used both on photographs and interviews left me sick to my stomach. There is constant movement. You can not take in the imagery because it's in continuous movement that flashes only for a second or two. To be clear, the speed and incessant frequency the images move (FLY) that is distracting and causes a sort of motion sickness.

This Clockwork Orange style of documentary making is visual chaos and leaves me feeling anxious and nauseous. Remember when The Blair Witch project made people physically ill with it's shakey camera work. This documentary had a worse effect on me because The unnecessary movement was near constant.

From what little I could take in, there seemed to be interesting information about Westport, CT and the Fitzgeralds. The presentation shouldn't ruin the information. Documentaries aren't adrenaline action films.

I literally had great difficulty hearing and understanding the soft spoken BBC reporter because the background music was so loud and intrusive.

This is a very disturbing trend in documentaries. Background music shouldn't override the actual content! Knock it off!

Otherwise, the documentary was very informative and avoided schizophrenic choppy cuts, which sadly are also trendy.

The pace, choppy cuts, and incessant driving background music makes this documentary really hard to watch and absorb.

There's some good info, but the way they present it is very clockwork orange. For me, the editors killed any enjoyment.

It has a retro feel, but that's a trojan horse for it's woke writing.

Such a shame. I was looking forward to seeing Mount reprise this role and trek being trek. But, I have no interest in woke sermons. How much money does Hollywood need to loose before they stop forcing feeding us this junk? Hard pass.

The use of intense background, unceasing music meant to drive viewers' heart rate up to unhealthy levels must be called out and documentarians should end this shameful practice. It is intentional. The goal is to cause anxiety and stress.

There was nothing objective about this documentary. I was interested in an historical account, what I got was an over emotional carnival side show.

It's a shame, because I was interested in a balanced account since I grew up in the shadow of Rancho Seco, TMI's sister nuclear power plant. I was not interested in a docudrama that noticably affected my heart rate and caused anxiety not from the subject, but from the shameful production cheap tricks.

Netflix stock is in a freefall. The company should be reflecting on the low quality programming they are producing.

Meltdown wasn't worth the price of a monthly subscription. Netflix is over.

I find offshore accounts and the use of tax havens a really interesting economic subject. But this documentary doesn't even go into depth about how the system works. It is purely about the supposed ramification of offshore accounts. It's poverty porn told purely from the British colonial viewpoint.

There's more to tax avoidance than all the social ills you can blame on it. Also, the production value is extremely low. Often the sound is cheap and VHS like during poverty interviews.

The dramatized narratives constructed seem very anthropomorphic. It's a penguin soap opera. Each episode ends in the worst ever "to be continued" drama cliff hanger. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with animal education intermixed with a heavily dramatized story lines. Will infusing these penguins with human dramatization/narration help these endangered species? Making them named celebrities isn't exactly the same thing as conservation. Feels more like exploitation. Do the penguins get royalties?

I think young children would find the heavy dramatization scary. There's always penguin is going to die scenarios with scary music. Be careful with little kiddos.

I don't give 10... This was a 10.

I showed it my sister for the first time tonight. Afterwards she wouldn't believe me that it was intended as a music video. It feels more like a mini silent film, with one hell of a soundtrack. Every second and every detail matters. Nothing is wasted. Sissy and David are the best of the best and they are putting on extraordinary performances for the lucky few who know about this music video. I'll never get enough of this video/movie.

Take a hard look at this 20 years after the fact. Disgusting.

This documentary cuts between interviewees every few seconds, images change every second, and the bad generic techno soundtrack is constantly pounding.

Did tell purposefully want this movie to feel like a cocaine overdose?

It's just too much. It caused a very anxious reaction watching it. It's a shame, because they had a great subject and interesting people to interview.

How can you screw up a documentary about gaming and Nintendo? Never fear, they found multiple ways.

The driving (driving me mad) soundtrack overtakes the video and certainly the interviews. It's OBNOXIOUS and you can't hear the "experts", half of which are just obnoxious, irrelevant, semi-celebrities.

Such a shame... I really wanted to walk down memory lane and gain some perspective while looking back.

This documentary effort was KILLED BY BAD EDITING, terrible D-List "celebrities", just how it was presented.

This film is 2020. There are no good guys, only the opportunistic bad and pure evil. The characters are viciously greedy, shamelessly selfish, carelessly lawless, and have no problem getting away with it. Ruining lives and abusing the legal system is just another day.

I got no sense of vindication, punishment, or justice. You shouldn't feel HATE the main characters. I not only hated them but wanted to see them brutally punished and disposed of.

2020... Only the evil people prosper and survive.

At least it didn't go crazy with the woke casting and agenda.

I'm glad I didn't have to pay to see this.

There's either something wrong with Hollywood or Society. Both need mental help.

I ended up watching all of it and I sorta liked it.

Yes, very bad production value, but that made it kinda endearing. It's in no way shape or form horror. Nobody will be frightened by watching this. It's more in the line of Creepshow or Tales from the Crypt, but more amateur.

You will end up HATING the supporting characters because the writing is so impossibly contrived. The supporting characters are evil caricature villains that are dead set on ruining the main character and ignoring all common sense and reason. They can not possibly be that bad at their jobs. They have to be intentionally working against the main character....

It all magically resolves itself on the last episode of the series... season after season.

I don't enjoy that. That's not good writing. That's insulting. This series could be so much better with decent writers.

I've watched 2 seasons and I want those 15+ hours of my life back. Refund please!

One last thing, the actress playing the daughter is distractingly pregnant through the whole 2nd series/season. The 2nd season is so awful and melodramatic that they should had written in a pregnant Fern instead of ignoring the elephant in the room.

I was really impressed how chronological and complete this documentary was.

Multiple society angles, multiple opinions, Multiple people who part of crack years were interviewed.

I disagreed with a few people interviewed, but that's a sign it was unbiased. This was great documentary making.

Documentaries have devolved and this is as bad as it gets.

Interesting subject. But the haunting suspenseful music, dramatic fade in and fade outs, long silent shots in the victim interview, shots of goldfish and rats for reason are terrible, TERRIBLE documentary film making.

Ever since Making of a Murderer, Netflix is funding and encouraging these exploitive horribly made documentaries.

This happened in real life, many people remember these crimes, and the subject matter deserved a little respect.

Instead you get something exploitive that feels more like fiction or a bad discovery channel ghost hunting series.

It's a show that has turned blind people into eye candy and the viewers into voyeurs. The characters are barely believable as blind and are clearly vain. The writing is YA fiction ridiculous. It's visually stimulating... I mean stunning... No, I mean stimulating... I'm off to "pray" like ridiculous characters do. 😉