 While I'm working on the next installment of the 2001 franchise videos, I am working on it by the way I don't have any excuses. I'm just taking too long. I Have a handful of television and movie Recommendations I want to make I don't want to take the time to give each one of these their own video review So instead I'll just go through this list quickly number one is Jonathan strange and mr. Norrell on BBC one. I've tweeted and posted about this on tumblr and Facebook It's I just finished watching episode five of a seven part series. It is excellent The series is very faithful to the book. I think it is doing it great justice There are some tremendous performances in the series that's something that's missing in most television and film is actual acting I highly recommend it speaking of BBC one Again, this is something else. I've tweeted and posted about as orphan black. They're just about done with the third series if you haven't watched this series before You should start at the beginning episode one of season one. It's very complex There are a lot of characters most of the characters are played by one actress Tatiana Maslani Who you're seeing here. I have to tell you the the first season I Started to get the feeling that I get with most television series that it was going in circles The same things were happening over and over they were never resolving anything They would start to fall into that trap a number of times during the first season and in the second and third seasons Honestly, but they always end up surprising me and going in some new direction or adding some new character or some new plot device that again Surprises me and if you've been following my reviews for any time at all You know that unpredictability is the thing that I value most and also the performances by Tatiana Maslani It's not just a gimmick. She's actually doing a really amazing job of playing all these different characters and I didn't think much about it until Most of the way through the first season I realized that I regarded these Different characters as entirely different people not one person playing different parts even when there are Multiple characters on the screen simultaneously. I don't catch myself thinking. Oh, this is just a camera trick So yeah, I recommend orphan black And again as long as we're talking about BBC There's a series called black mirror is difficult to describe I've seen people compare it to Twilight Zone and I don't think that's an accurate Comparison I I have to say though the only memorable episode is The first episode of series one and I can't even describe it to you other than to say it's One of the most amazing things I've ever seen one of the most remarkable Pieces of television. I have ever seen They established the premise within the first minute and all the way through the show. I was I was shaking my head thinking They're not gonna do this. They can't do this, but they did That first episode of black mirror I can't say it enough. It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen and You have to see it that one episode anyway Daredevil the Netflix Marvel series now I've said before that I don't recommend Marvel movies or Marvel productions because Marvel and Disney they cheat artists. They don't pay artists and they treat artists badly They don't even credit artists and I haven't changed my mind about that. However Having grown up with comics and having grown up with Daredevil I wanted to see the first episode just out of curiosity to see if it was any good and I couldn't stop watching it I ended up watching the entire first season 13 episodes I think It wasn't just good. It was excellent It was excellent all the way through Good performances excellent script excellent direction except for a Vincent Dinafrio who played Wilson Fisk the kingpin I thought he was pathetic He just he looked like a giant baby but Here's where the strength of a good script and good direction can get around a Bad actor or a bad performance The rest of the show was so good and so well done that I could I could look past that and That's a that's unusual speaking of comic book Series the flash I tried to watch the flash and It was the opposite of Daredevil it was the opposite of Jonathan strange and orphan black it was Bad acting bad script. It was exactly what I expected It's what I usually expect from television a bunch of lackluster characters that I don't care anything about who are Too cute too good-looking too young standing around in a room with transparent walls and magic computers Trying to look flinty and badass and just reciting lines There was nothing interesting going on in the show. I watched episode 12 by the way that had a villain named plastic I was never interested all the way through the show. I Was never entertained The whole time I was just thinking this is really bad and between the times that they were Standing around doing nothing but talking about solving crimes in their in their crime lab They would take turns pairing off and giving heartfelt speeches to each other while Soap opera music swelled. It was pathetic. It was really bad and again, it's exactly what I expected from the flash honestly Okay, now a couple of pilots that I happen to see the first episode of a show called parallels This is Created by the the same man who created a miniseries on sci-fi channel about ten years ago called The Lost Room, which was one of my favorite television shows of recent years Parallels is a very similar concept. In fact, I'm tempted to call it the same concept just in a different setting The first episode was entertaining it started to fall into this even just with this one episode this this Circular events and tropes happening But I'm willing to give it to a second look when the second episode comes along I'm afraid it might be too similar to sliders Which I did not like But we'll see I like the first episode anyway now another pilot of a show called mr. Robot. I Had no idea what this was I Saw it there online. I downloaded. I watched it. It was very good It's about a hacker Who uncovers not so much a conspiracy, but he he uncovers something that needs to be exposed in the press The performance by this young man who plays the lead character Was amazing. He did a really effective job of playing an uncomfortable introvert loner His performance was so uncomfortable that it had me Squirming just watching him and that's a sign of an excellent performance So mr. Robot, I recommend that you find the first episode and when the series starts Watch it. I Hope it stays good now A handful of movies I saw three movies over the weekend Jada Rasky's Dune or Yada Rasky's Dune about a Alejandro Yada Rasky the filmmaker Who the Spanish filmmaker who tried to create a movie version of Dune in the mid 1970s? I've heard raves about this documentary and people saying after seeing this people saying this movie needs to be made It needs to be made. I was never that impressed With what I saw during the show. I think people are overselling it. Yada Rasky had a talent for finding New young talent. He discovered HR Giger, Mobius, Chris Foss, Dan O'Bannon The people who became the best in their field. I have to say though I don't think this would have been a good movie. I really don't. I think it would have ended up looking like Barbarella or Star Crash. I think it would have been really bad. I Think it's just as well that it wasn't made and Yada Rasky himself at one point in the film made some really uncomfortable rape jokes Really really uncomfortable rape jokes I found very off-putting. All right moving on recent films X Machina Which got a lot of positive reviews I have to say this was better than I thought it was going to be and when I say better. I mean it was watchable. I Was expecting it to be just Unwatchable. There's so many movies these days, especially science fiction movies that people rave about and They're terrible. They just stink This had a lot of good things going for it The plot though was not one of them in hindsight. It was entirely predictable. I mean The description of the movie would go something like a hateful genius invents thinking robot and What would be the next sentence in that description? You've already determined the rest of the movie just by me setting it up like that hateful genius builds thinking robot robot kills him. I Didn't spoil it by saying that just now because you already knew It was better directed than most films the script was pretty good. The performances were okay I would say watch it. Don't pay money for it though I do have to say that I spotted a moment near the end of the film where I said This is where the movie should end. This is exactly where the moment where the movie should end But it didn't end the director continued on too long and created a kind of Fairy tale silly ending that I didn't accept at all The reason I thought this was going to be so bad is because the the director was the guy who wrote the screenplay for The most hatefully awful excuse for a science fiction film. I've ever seen in recent years called Sunshine Someday I'm gonna have to devote an entire video just to that movie because it's so so bad Hatefully bad and I'm using that that word hateful Deliberately and Speaking of movies and the way they should end. I also saw it follows a recent horror movie Plot-wise this movie was not again not at all unique. It was about a group of teenagers who encounter a ghost and they do all the things that teenagers do the The adult nature of the movie Was was a bit unique When I used to see movies like this when I was younger the thing I found most aggravating about them was how these teenagers They never made the right choices. They never did the right thing. They never made any rational choices They never went to any adults. They never went to their parents They never went to the police and the and the characters in this film They did all those same things except they weren't isolated in camp or or Or on a road trip or anything like that. They were in their own homes Their parents were supposedly right there. They talked about their parents all the time But the parents never appeared. They were just like, where are they? But as an adult as a middle-aged adult I've come to realize that That kind of irrational Behavior is the most realistic thing about these teenage horror movies Teenagers are stupid and their assholes So I can't really say that that's a problem with the movie The the the script and the plot in that sense are typical The direction is better than most films like ex machina it ended In a very unique way it ended in a way that I don't see movies end And if you watch it, I think you'll see what I mean It neither of these movies is gonna change your life They do have things about them that are worth seeing one of the thing I have to say about it follows the There was some original soundtrack music composed by disaster piece Whose work I like a lot However, the disaster piece tracks for this film Sounded exactly like the soundtrack of the game Fez which disaster piece composed So much like Fez that I thought they were from Fez And it was very distracting they were very out of place They didn't belong at all in the film. I I'm not prepared to blame disaster piece though I can tell you what happened the director came to disaster piece And he said I really like that Fez soundtrack put in make some stuff that sounds like Fez I'm sure that's what happened And it was a mistake Anyway, there you have it and the the next video I make should be the 2001 part 4 see then You can support 30 second sci-fi and my other projects by becoming a patron There's a link in the description below and visit the 30 second sci-fi tumbler That's my headquarters in addition to my videos. I publish links and updates there every day