Love, Death & Robots - Season 4

 

Image Credit: Netflix

The fourth season of Netflix’s animated series Love, Death & Robots was released yesterday and while its lack of a truly stand-out episode means that it doesn’t hold up quite as well as previous seasons, I still found it entertaining. If you keep up with this blog you know I wrote about seasons one, two, and three in the past so continuing the tradition feels like a natural. Like previous seasons there are several big names involved in the writing, direction, and acting in these 10 episodes including David Fincher, John Scalzi, Tim Miller, and John Oliver, some more successful in their contributions than others. The episodes are short enough that watching all 10 in a single sitting is easy enough, but if you want to cherry pick, I’ve written brief descriptions of each episode below in my order of best to worst.

 

The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur

This episode seems to be catching some static based on the fact it features the voice talent of Mr. Beast, but I really enjoyed this one. The story itself isn’t all that original, but the setting, the characters, the animation, and the action make it my favorite 15 minutes of the season.

How Zeke Got Religion

This is one of those shorts that is so good, you wish it were longer. Watching the WWII aerial crew set out on a mission only to find themselves beset by flying demons bent on killing them all mid-flight, I loved the gory action. I just wish I had more time to get to know the crewmembers before the action kicked in.

For He Can Creep

This historic fantasy tale of a cat that is dead-set on protecting a poet locked up in an insane asylum from Satan himself is lots of fun. It’s the last episode of the season and ensures the season goes out on a high note. I hope to see more like this one if Netflix makes a Season 5.

400 Boys

I love the animation style in this short and it does a nice job of painting a set of unique characters in minimal time. The first two thirds of the story warrant consideration for being the best of the season. The let-down is its choice of villain. The ending falls short of the set-up.

Spider Rose

I loved the animation in this sci-fi horror short, but the story didn’t do much for me. Character motivation was odd and the ending left me unsatisfied. I rank it in the middle of the pack because it feels like it has plenty of potential. It just could have used a good rewrite.

Smart Appliances, Stupid Owners

Easily the funniest episode of the season, this 8-minute short provides the perspective of increasingly unfortunate appliances who have to deal with humans and their oblivious behavior. It features well known comedic voice talent including Kevin Hart, Melissa Villasenor, and Amy Sedaris.

The Other Large Thing

This amusing episode features the voice acting of Chris Parnell and has a satisfactory ending, but I’m not a fan of the over-the-top caricatures and animation style that represent the human bad guys that the feline and robot main characters must defeat.

Golgotha

This one is actually live action so it’s a departure from the series norm, but it’s one of the weaker episodes in this season. I liked the human characters and the alien villain well enough but the punchline of an ending felt too abrupt.

Close Encounters of the Mini Kind

I didn’t like the miniatures when they did it with zombies last season and this version with aliens isn’t any better. I know it’s supposed to be humorous, but it just feels lazy to me. This is an unoriginal story without any character development or even a unique gimmick.

Can’t Stop

David Fincher has directed some great films. Why he agreed to direct a marionette concert video of the band Red Hot Chili Peppers is anyone’s guess. This might have made a decent extra clip for a band documentary, but it’s the weakest episode this series has produced so far.

Love, Death & Robots – Season 3

 

Image Credit: Netflix

Friday marked the release of Netflix’s sci-fi/horror series Love, Death & Robots Season 3 and like the two seasons before it, the show offers some entertaining short stories told through a host of talented directors and animation studios. The nine episodes this season range from 7 to 21 minutes long and they feature returning writers John Scalzi, Neal Asher, and Michael Stanwick along with series co-creator Tim Miller and award-winning sci-fi writer Bruce Sterling.

There’s enough variety in the stories and styles that everyone is bound to have their personal favorites and I encourage you to give them all a try. Below are my brief descriptions of each episode in my order of preference.

 

In Vaulted Halls Entombed

A military team sent to rescue a captive from terrorists runs afoul of something much more sinister deep in the caves of Afghanistan. This violent, creepy tale ends in a Lovecraftian twist that makes it my favorite of Season 3.

Bad Travelling

I didn’t find the main character to be particularly likeable and the ending felt a little too convenient, but watching a crew battle a tank-sized crustacean who has taken over the ship and developed a taste for human flesh was still a lot of gory fun.

Jibaro

This episode doesn’t include a word of dialogue, but the animation might be the most visually arresting of the series. An invading knight is initially spared from death by a seductive river siren because he is deaf, but her fascination and his greed get the better of him in the end.

Swarm

Another minute or two of exposition to fill in some of plot would have made this episode way more successful. As it is, the story feels a bit disjointed, but it still features excellent world-building as a space-faring human attempts to enslave a uniquely adaptive alien species.

Mason’s Rats

I tend to like the serious episodes more than the silly ones, but this gore-fest about a farmer who goes to extraordinarily violent lengths to rid his barn of intelligent rodents is a fun ride and it features the voice talent of one of my favorite comedians, Craig Ferguson.

The Very Pulse of the Machine

Imagine an astronaut exploring a peyote fever-dream and you’d have the general idea of this episode. While short on action, the artwork is beautiful and it has the sort of ambiguous ending that allows your mind to ponder the story long after it’s over.

Three Robots: Exit Strategies

This humorous continuation of an episode in Season 1 doesn’t offer much in the way of new ideas, but it’s still amusing to imagine what future robot archeologists might think of our strange and self-destructive culture long after we’re gone from Earth.

Kill Team Kill

There’s plenty of violence and vulgarity in this episode, but not much characterization or story. A group of mercenaries runs across a cybernetic monster that’s nearly indestructible and apparently a result of their own government’s experimentation.

Night of the Mini Dead

Given my love for zombies, you’d think I’d rank this one higher, but it just didn’t do much for me. I appreciate the novelty of telling the tale of a zombie apocalypse via miniatures, but other than the fact they’re tiny, this episode doesn’t offer anything you haven’t seen before.

The Most Formidable Characters in Netflix's Castlevania

 

Image Credit: Netflix

I’ve been on a bit of an animation kick as of late between Love, Death & Robots Season 2, Invincible, and the final season of Castlevania. The Castlevania series was so well received that last week Netflix announced an upcoming spin-off of Castlevania that will be based on the characters from the 1993 video game, Rondo of Blood. I thought that was as good an excuse as any to delve deeper into the characters, both vampire and human, of the just-ended dark fantasy show. Which ones truly dominated the land of Wallachia and which ones ended up being more bark than bite?

Warning, spoilers ahead!

 

Saint Germain

Ostentatious and odd from the start, this traveling alchemist never amounts to much in a fight, but he still manages to make a hell of a mess by the grand finale.

The Bishop

It’s this guy who starts the whole bloody tale by burning Dracula’s human wife at the stake. He’s a religious fanatic and they’re usually dangerous one way or another.

Sala

Sala isn’t much of a warrior, but he’s definitely crazy and he’s definitely dangerous. Don’t worry; he gets what’s coming to him in the end.

The Judge

Creepy from the moment he’s introduced, you don’t find out just how bad this guy is until his final scene. Sometimes formidable isn’t obvious.

Taka and Sumi

These two attempt to seduce then kill Alucard to slake their hatred of the vampires who once enslaved them. You’ve got to give them credit for their creativity, but it doesn’t go as planned.

Hector

One of the weaker and more foolish characters in the series, Hector falls under the spell of the lovely vampire Lenore. He’s then forced to use his forgemaster skills in service to her and her vampire sisters’ cause until he finds a sad sort of redemption at the end of the tale.

Lenore

Perhaps the weakest of the four vampire sisters, she was nevertheless wily and seductive enough to entrance Hector into building an undead army that gave Isaac’s forces an entertaining fight for supremacy.

Greta

This guardian of the underground city of Danesti is self-important and more than a little deluded, but she proves her skill in battle when vampires invade in search of the means to bring Dracula back from Hell.

Godbrand

This Viking vampire deserved more screen time and a more glorious death, but what little time he did have, he made the most of with his unique style and hunger for human blood.

Morana and Striga

These two vampire lovers spend more time complaining about Carmilla’s ambition than fighting their common enemies, but Striga shows her battle skills on occasion and looks like she stepped off the cover of Arcadia’s So Red the Rose album from the 80s so that earns this pair a bit of extra credit.

Isaac

This forgemaster starts out as a servant of Dracula who is capable of making undead monsters but he soon finds his self on a journey of self-discovery, coming into a different sort of wisdom and power along the way.

Ratko

This vampire is one of the biggest, meanest, and most brutal in the bunch. He doesn’t earn many style points, but his straight-forward power is more than most characters in this show can match.

Dracula

The King of all Vampires only plays a major part in the first two seasons of this series, but he’s a force to be reckoned with. Castlevania plays up the tragic side of his persona rather than the rage, but you definitely get to see what he’s capable of when provoked.

Alucard

Not being particularly familiar with the games this series is based on, I can’t say how close this character cleaves to them, but he does a hell of a lot of cutting other vampires and their assorted undead minions into pieces. He looks more like his human mother than daddy Vlad, but he’s certainly got his father’s thirst for blood.

Carmilla

From her betrayal of Dracula to her pursuit of ruling the entire world as immortal Queen, this vampire means business. She’s one of the fiercest, cruelest characters in the series and her final battle is one of the best the show has to offer in its 32 episode run.

Dragan

This massive vampire general doesn’t get a lot of dialogue, but he more than proves his self in the siege of Dracula’s castle at the end of the series. He single-handedly takes on Alucard, Trevor, and Sypha in battle and more than holds his own.

Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades

The banter between these two lovers is laid on a little thick for my taste, but there is no doubt about their prowess in battle. Between Trevor’s ferocity and skill with weapons and Sypha’s calm mastery of magic, almost nothing can stand in their way.

Varney

Voiced by Malcolm McDowell, the early impression of this ancient creature is that he’s one of the weaker foes our heroes will need to face. Looks are deceiving. The final battle with this insidious villain in the penultimate episode of the series is one of the coolest animated fights ever.

Love, Death & Robots – Season 2

 

Image Credit: Netflix

Yep, I’m delivering the rare “riff” twofer. New posts in back to back days! Why the sudden prolificacy you might ask? Well my 2019 synopsis of Season 1 of Netflix’s sci-fi/horror animated series Love, Death & Robots is the most read post on my blog. Naturally I’m going to follow up on Season 2 as soon as possible. Released yesterday, I binged the season last night and enjoyed it almost as much as its predecessor. The bad news is that the latest season is only 8 episodes long verses the 18 episodes of Season 1. The good news is that all 8 are entertaining. Like Season 1, there’s plenty of graphic violence, vulgarity, and sexual content so it’s not exactly kid friendly, but if you’re an adult who enjoys animation, add this season to your watch list. Season 2 includes several episodes based on short stories by well-known authors including Paolo Bacigalupi, Harlan Ellison, John Scalzi, and Joe Lansdale.

Here are my brief descriptions of each episode, from my favorite to least favorite.

 

Snow in the Desert

At 18 minutes in length this is one of the two longest episodes of the season and it’s also the best of the bunch. It feels like a spin-off from The Mandalorian and that’s high praise from as a big fan as I am of that show.

Pop Squad

This might be the darkest episode of the season despite the cute-sounding name. Imagine Blade Runner retiring unauthorized children instead of replicants and you’ve got a pretty good idea how this one goes.

All Through the House

At 7 minutes in length, this is the shortest episode of the season, but it’s a good one. Animated in traditional holiday style, the creature delivering gifts this Christmas Eve is not what you expect. Extra points go to this one for its visual references to Alien 3 and Pan’s Labyrinth.

The Tall Grass

No matter how much man strives to control his environment, some strange and ancient things will always be beyond his power or understanding. A bored passenger confronts this truth when his train makes an unscheduled stop in the middle of the night.

The Drowned Giant

Quiet, somber, and philosophical, think of this episode as Season 2’s version of “Zima Blue”. It’s a fairy tale about just how shallow man can be when faced with the miraculous.

Life Hutch

After a near fatal crash of his starship, a fighter pilot find his self in an even deadlier situation when the remote habitat he seeks refuge in turns out to be guarded by a deadly, malfunctioning robot.

Ice

I love the animation and world-building in this story of modified humans and ice-breaking whales, but the characters and story feel half-baked. Chalk this one up to having tons of potential but wanting for better execution.

Automated Customer Service

Even my least favorite episode is fun. This tale is similar to some of the more comedic stories in Season 1. A resident of a futuristic retirement community must fight for her and her dog’s survival when her house cleaning robot goes haywire.

The Old Guard and Top 10 Action Film Female Bad Asses

Photo Credit: Netflix

I watched the hot new Netflix offering The Old Guard last night. Based on a comic book of the same name, it tells the story of a group of immortal soldiers led by millennia-old Andromache of Scythia (now known as “Andy”) and their battle against an evil pharmaceutical executive who wants to harvest their DNA to cure disease and drive his company’s stock price through the roof of the fancy downtown tower where the film’s action-packed finale takes place. Charlize Theron plays the lead and like just about everything else she does, she nails it as the guilt-ridden bad ass heroine with a tragic backstory. It got me thinking, who are the best female bad asses in action movie history? Here are my picks in a countdown from 10 to 1.

10. Lucy in Lucy (2014)

Scarlett Johansson has starred in several action movies over the course of her career, but this one is my favorite. Writer/Director Luc Besson has a knack for the genre and this story of an unwitting woman who taps into the full power of the human brain via an overdose of a new synthetic drug and uses it against the cartel who created it is a fun ride.

9. Sofia in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

Like Johansson, Halle Berry has played tough before, but never has she been more of a bad ass than she was in the third installment of the John Wick franchise. Watching her character Sofia fight side-by-side with Keanu Reeves’ John Wick was a blast even if the movie’s script doesn’t hold up to the original.

8. Ilsa Faust in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

Every one of the films in this long franchise is entertaining, but Rebecca Ferguson brought a welcome shot of female adrenaline to this fifth installment as British agent Ilsa Faust. She holds her own against Tom Cruise’s series lead Ethan Hunt and wound up making other series newcomer Jeremy Renner feel like an afterthought.

7. Miho in Sin City (2005)

There are several murderous women in this stylish hard-boiled thriller from Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, but my favorite is the mute, deadly sword-wielding assassin Miho. Played by Devon Aoki, she does a number on dirty cop Jackie Boy that’s one of the highlights of the movie.

6. Alice in Resident Evil (2002)

Sure, like just about every film based on a video game, the writing in this one is pretty sub-par, but there's no denying Milla Jovovich’s appeal as zombie-killing heroine Alice. From the iconic slinky red dress to the inventive scene in the laser hallway, Alice definitely makes an impression.

5. Jane Smith in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

Angelina Jolie could have filled half this list, but I limited myself to just one of her roles and picked Jane Smith. This film is a blast and the chemistry between her and costar Brad Pitt was so palpable no one was surprised when they wound up getting married in real life. That marriage didn’t have quite the same happy ending the film did, but that doesn’t take away from our fun as an audience.

4. Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

One of the earliest cinematic examples of the modern female bad ass, Linda Hamilton nailed the part of Sarah Connor in both the original film and this sequel. Going against Arnold Schwarzenegger in his muscle-bound prime, you’d better bring your action A-game and she did.

3. Lorraine Broughton in Atomic Blonde (2017)

Starring in another film based on a graphic novel, Charlize Theron is both brutal and sexy as MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton. Sent to solve a murder in Berlin in the midst of the Cold War, Broughton’s mission includes a series of fantastic fight scenes, a great car chase, and one of the best film soundtracks ever.

2. Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill (2003)

Yes, technically this movie was broken into two chapters, but I’m counting both because there is simply no choosing between Uma Thurmond’s performances as The Bride. Writer/director Quentin Tarantino has written some of film’s best characters ever, but vengeful mama assassin Beatrix Kiddo might take the cake.

1. Ellen Ripley in Aliens (1986)

For me, Sigourney Weaver’s four turns as alien-fighting Ellen Ripley represent the matriarch of the film female action hero. No one before her took what was traditionally a male role and made it something truly female and yet still completely bad ass. She was great in all four of the movies she did in this franchise, but this 1986 sequel was the cream of the crop.

Andromache didn’t quite make my list and I’ll bet plenty of you would argue for some other characters and films I left out, but if you’ve already seen these 10, I highly recommend you add The Old Guard to your Netflix queue.

I just watched Triple Frontier and I have a LOT of questions

Photo Credit: Netflix

WARNING. This post is chock full of spoilers. If you haven’t seen Triple Frontier and you want to be surprised by all its plot holes, stop reading now. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt my feelings.

Now then... I watched Triple Frontier last night on Netflix and I have lots of questions. I like a good action movie and I love a good heist film, but man! Don’t get me wrong, plenty of movies leave me wondering about some of the decisions the screenwriter and/or filmmaker made, but this one... This project was once associated with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Both bailed before it finally got made and after watching it, I can see why. The movie starts out promising. I enjoyed the set-up and character introductions, but by the time their South American caper gets going, the wheels start coming off big time. For instance:

Why make a show of Pope’s (Oscar Isaac) knee problems being so bad? Yovanna (Adria Arjona), a character that doesn’t appear to be particularly athletic, outruns him after the drug bust then he talks about his knees and neck surgery being the reasons he’ll need to retire from his mercenary job, yet these ailments don’t impair his hike over the Andes Mountains in the slightest.

Why did Redfly (Ben Affleck) get greedy during the heist and blow their deadline to leave before the drug lord’s scheduled reinforcements showed up? He’s the planner. He knew the importance of timing and when the new guards would arrive. If anything, shouldn’t Pope have been the one to get greedy? After all, Pope’s the one who lied to the team to convince them to conduct the raid in the first place.

Why did this team of trained soldiers not properly sweep the house before beginning to tear down the walls and bag up the loot? How could they not have found the safe room the bad guy was holed up in?

Why in the world did all five of these guys go nuts when they found the money in the walls? They busted those walls and bagged up the money without even a glance to make sure no more bad guys showed up to shoot them in the back during the robbery. Isn’t a look-out kind of a common thing to have during a covert mission?

Why have Ironhead (Charlie Hunnam) get wounded during the heist if the wound never plays into their trek over the mountains? It didn’t seem to slow him down at all.

Why did no one stop to consider the extra money they gathered would be too heavy to transport by air while they were bagging it up? Again, Redfly is supposed to be this badass commander and planner. How could he not realize there would be no way to get the extra hundreds of pounds of cash over the mountains?

Why would these trained soldiers and newly minted murderers not hide their faces when driving by the family of the man they’d just killed as they cruise right by them in the very driveway of the scene of the crime?

Once they realize the helicopter is going to be overweight at the airfield, why didn’t the team just give more of the money to Yovanna or the pilot who delivered the copter? Both could have carried more than they received.

When the helicopter is approaching the cliff and Catfish (Pedro Pascal) realizes they won’t make it due to being overburdened, why didn’t they turn around and find a place to bury the excess money instead of dumping it into the jungle?

After they crash and end up being forced to kill the villagers to protect their loot, how could five mules possibly carry a large helicopter-sized load of money bags? The amount of bags was obviously much smaller than what they’d originally loaded into the copter. Shouldn’t the filmmaker just have shown the team giving what they couldn’t carry to the village elder as payment for their dead instead of the piddly $2M Pope negotiated?

Why have Ben (Garrett Hedlund) light a fire on the mountaintop, giving away their position, when the team had just talked about the danger of this idea the night before? Are we to believe they’re all so frazzled that the danger just wasn’t important to them as they were fleeing for their lives and laden with millions of dollars of stolen cash?

Why ask the boatman to meet them outside a town when they have hundreds of miles of empty coastland to do it without the drug lord’s henchman swarming down on them?

And finally why didn’t Pope, the guy who came up with the plan and was most interested in getting the money home, not think to record the coordinates of where they buried it in the mountains? Was he really just going to consider it sunk forever? Only Ironhead was level-headed enough to think of this contingency?

I could probably list even more questions, but you get the gist. Why did Netflix spend a big budget and quality cast on a film with so many fixable problems?

Love, Death & Robots

Photo Credit: Netflix

Netflix is slowly but surely chipping away at my general disdain for television. If you’d asked me a year or two ago, I’d have told you HBO was the only thing on television worth consistently watching, but with shows like Killing Eve, Babylon Berlin, Altered Carbon, and Narcos, I’m almost as enamored with Netflix’s offerings as I am with the decades of solid programming HBO has delivered. Netflix’s latest binge-worthy show is Love, Death & Robots. Released on March 15, the show includes 18 animated episodes of various lengths in the genres of sci-fi and horror. With many of the shorts featuring graphic nudity, extreme violence, and vulgarity, Love, Death & Robots is definitely not for kids or the faint of heart, but it’s right up my alley. Several episodes are based on short stories by well-known authors including John Scalzi, Joe Lansdale, and Peter F. Hamilton and if I had contact information for creators David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Social Network) or Tim Miller (Deadpool), you can bet I’d pitch some of my short stories such as “The Unthreading” or “Anvils from the Sky” for Season 2.

Like any collection of work by different teams, some pieces will appeal to an individual viewer more than others, but all of them are worth watching. Here are my brief descriptions of each episode, from my favorite to least favorite.

Beyond the Aquila Rift

This 16 minute sci-fi gem wouldn’t be out of place in the Aliens universe. Three spacefarers leave Earth via an ill-advised short-cut and wind up some place very different than planned.

Secret War

I’d love to see this story made into a feature-length live action film. As a short, the narrative gets a little muddled in the middle, but this gory tale of Red Army soldiers fighting a demonic invasion in Siberia is really entertaining.

Sonnie’s Edge

An undefeated gladiator faces a ruthless opponent in the ring and a treacherous villain willing to do anything to witness her monstrous avatar’s demise. What they don’t take into account is the terrible secret that gives the gladiator her edge.

Good Hunting

This steampunk tale of revenge set in colonial China features some of the series’ best animation. My only complaint is that despite being one of the longest episodes of the season, it ends too quickly.

Lucky 13

A rookie pilot is assigned a ship with a bad history, but she proves the right match for the flying war machine. Like a Vietnam movie that takes place on a distant planet, this episode gets the adrenaline pumping.

The Witness

Several minutes of full-frontal female nudity may turn some off, but this one feels like if Phillip K. Dick took a turn at Run Lola Run. Its twist ending isn’t that much of a surprise, but this post-apocalyptic chase is fast-paced, sexy, and violent fun.  

Zima Blue

With no sex, violence, or vulgarity, this segment is a rarity in the series and it’s one of the stronger episodes. A reclusive artist of the future seeks a higher truth and finds it in a place you might not suspect.

Ice Age

This episode combines live action Topher Grace and Mary Elizabeth Winstead with some impressive animation to tell the story of an antique icebox that hosts a miniature, rapidly evolving civilization.

Sucker of Souls

An archaeologist and his team of mercenaries open Dracula’s tomb to find the newly awakened King of Vampires is anything but happy to see them. This short is 13 minutes of vulgar, gory horror adventure.

Helping Hand

If you liked the Alfonso Cuarón film Gravity, you’ll like this episode. It tells a much shorter but similar tale and includes one excruciating scene that will haunt you long after it’s through.

Blindspot

Visually this one is more cartoonish than most of the series, but it’s still a fun ride. A group of cybernetic thieves try to take out a heavily-armored train but run into stronger opposition than they anticipated.

Suits

If CMT did a spin-off based on the alien bugs from Wreck-It Ralph, it might resemble this countrified sci-fi tale. The down-home farmers loading up their mechs to do battle against an invading alien horde is surprisingly suspenseful for just a 17-minute short.

Shape-Shifters

A pair of werewolves faithfully serves the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan despite their human peers’ fear and resentment. Trouble arrives when equally ferocious locals decide to fight back.

The Dump

A gross little tale of terror, Ugly Dave and his pet trash monster don’t take too kindly to a city inspector who arrives to evict them. For anyone who didn’t get enough full frontal nudity in “The Witness”, this one features the male variety.

Three Robots

Unless it’s The Fifth Element, sci-fi comedy isn’t really my thing, but this 11-minute tale of a trio of robots exploring an Earth long rid of humans has its moments. The opening visual reference to Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a nice touch.

Alternate Histories

I despise Hitler as much as the next non-white-nationalist, but this cartoonish spoof on different ways Hitler could have died and the effect each would have had on history feels a little played.

When the Yogurt Took Over

This one is as silly as its title suggests. I think yogurt-overlords are just a little too far-fetched, but President Yoplait couldn’t be any worse than President Trump, right?

Fish Night

This one is the most fantastical episode in the series, but also the most pointless. It has an interesting premise, but the set-up feels forced and the ending doesn’t satisfy.