Hacker Cinema
Shining Girls
2022 · TV series · 1 season
Created by Silka Luisa
Years after a brutal attack left her in a constantly shifting reality, Kirby Mazrachi learns that a recent murder is linked to her assault. She teams with veteran reporter Dan Velazquez to understand her ever-changing present—and confront her past.
2 positive1 negativefrom 3 commenters
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5 comments on Hacker News
Very much agree. Lately, I’ve been watching The X-Files as back in the nineties, I’d only ever seen the odd episode here and there and never saw them in order. It turns out that many of the monster-of-the-week episodes are quite superfluous and not really worth watching – though you don’t know until after you’ve watched it). Likewise, I’d be reluctant to (re)watch old Star Trek, Stargate or other shows that don’t focus on a well-developed story arc.
Some of my favourite shows of recent years have been stories that get wrapped up in one season: True Detective, The Terror, Shining Girls.
Invasion was good but not great. It got off off to a solid start with well-developed, interesting characters (well-acted), good music and good direction. I also really liked how the story-line for the character played by Sam Neill dashed my expectations (don’t want to spoil it for others). Not knowing what exactly was happening required a certain investment in the fate of the characters and while watching I wasn’t sure if they pay-off would be worth it. Unfortunately, the second half of the season did not quite live up to the potential that the first part hinted at. After finishing the show, I found it didn’t really leave a lasting impact on me though it’s probably still worth a watch if you like science fiction.
Not quite science fiction – but I’d highly recommend the Shining Girls mini-series. I like self-contained shows that tell their stories in one season and both my wife and I thought this was excellent (story, acting, direction, visuals). Again, the viewer doesn’t know what’s happening at the start: does the protagonist have some sort of schizophrenia or is there something stranger going on? (not going to spoil it). Apparently, it was (loosely?) based on a book but I’d never heard of the book so can’t say anything about that.
I haven’t (yet) watched Twin Peaks but I’d wholeheartedly concur with that endorsement. For quality / episode ratio, I’d put it up there with the first four seasons of the Wire (10/10).
The first episode of Severance is quite slow with regards to plot but still visually compelling. The cinematography, music and character building stay consistently excellent throughout the series but the drama and tension increasingly ramp up so much that my wife and I were on the edge of our seats for the last few episodes. It was so good that I intend to re-watch Season One before watching Season Two (I’m guessing that there will be follow-up) comes out.
My wife and I both really enjoyed the first two seasons of For All Mankind. She generally dislikes science fiction and anything to do with space but was soon won over by the human element and the great characters. However, we both felt that the quality of the show (particularly the writing) fell hard with the third season.
We both also thought that Shining Girls was an excellent mini-series and have Slow Horses lined up to watch next.
That was the thing that got me to sign up for Apple TV+ and I was shocked by what a terrible film CODA turned out to be. Just complete schlock. I put it up there with "Crash" among films that won Best Picture purely due to lack of candidates that year.
I tried to watch some of the stuff they were heavily promoting, but couldn't get into them. Shining Girls is really bad. Tehran, a 3rd-party adaptation from Israel, is Netflix-grade trash that strains one's ability to suspend disbelief. Adding Glenn Close, an elderly American WASP, as a Mossad agent, did nothing to make this weird Israeli propaganda vehicle more believable.
Anyway these are all matters of taste but objectively I believe Apple TV+ has very few subs, which was my main point. It doesn't seem like a massive advertising opportunity.
Who cares how popular a streaming service is? Just look at reviews and such to find series/movies you'd like. Apple TV+ has a lot of good stuff IMO; I'm really enjoying Shining Girls at the moment.