Recent Shows

 You S4- terrible. The first half is really solid with some great characters, but it goes down such a dark direction after that where you can't root for any characters at all. The plot twist is easy to see coming and Joe crosses over into pure evil territory in a way that isn't satisfying at all. 

Severance S1- good. Explores the really interesting concept of being severed- your work memories and personal memories are separate so you essentially live two lives. Felt it could have gone into more "thriller" category but instead played it slow, but overall a really solid watch. 

Mandalorian S3- decent. Half the episodes in the season are unfocused filler like some of the S1 episodes. Then there are some really good ones in there too. But much worse than S2 on a whole. 

Ted Lasso S1-3: awesome. Hilarious show with great characters and consistently has excellent and satisfying moments. Absolute bummer that's over. 

Beef S1: pretty good. Starts off a bit weird but I really like the whole flawed protagonist approach. Everyone has massive flaws/does terrible things but at least attempts to be good every once in a while so you have to make decisions about who is worth rooting for. Episode 9 goes into hard crime thriller territory and is excellent. A little disappointing in the finale, wanted 10 more minutes or so to check in on the other characters as it leaves it on such a cliffhanger and likely won't get more content. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3

 Pretty good overall- give it an 8/10. First half is fairly dull and it feels like a bad movie, actually wanted to leave the theater early on. Gets significantly better in second half with the final act (last hour) being really excellent and having a lot of great moments. It wraps up the guardians arc super well without closing the series off for more adventures if need be. 

Spoilers below:

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Rocket is essentially the core of the movie as he is out and needs saving. His flashbacks are actually really good and there's some dark + very sad material in there that's done well and typically the MCU is more lighthearted. His final scenes and also redemption like material are fantastic. 

The villains are really mediocre/forgettable. Not terrible but Adam Warlock is really underused and not in it much. His mom is annoying and has zero impact. The real villain is fine but not especially fleshed out or intimidating. 

Most of the characters are pretty good and have their moments. Mantis and Drax are both called out as being useless by Nebula and then it's cool to see Drax actually knows a language they don't and Mantis calms down the beasts at the end. Star Lord is pretty good and has good moments. Wasn't a big fan of Gamora. 

Thoughts on Fast X

 Really mediocre movie- 5/10. Wasn't expecting it to be great, but definitely fell short of the recent movies at least having great action sequences. For the most part, everything was just okay- it was never terrible or unwatchable, but there were few good moments either. 

The good:

-Dom/Vin Diesel is better than usual. He's still a bland character, but it feels like there's less stupid Dom stuff than usual (like him jumping into the water for no reason in F9)

-Similar John Cena/Jacob is way better. Went for a somewhat comedic approach which was a much better fit for a John Cena actor. His scenes aren't great, but they're not bad either, and at least he's not Dom. His last scene in the movie seems really pointless.

-Han and Deckard are some of the better characters in the franchise and their action sequence was on the better of the one. Unfortunately Jason Statham was not in the movie much at all. 

-The post credits scene is a good and at least confirms that a character that has been missed is returning. 

The okay/whatever:

Many of the characters: letty, cipher, tess, little nobody. None are bad, but none are particular good either. 

The bad: 

-lack of exciting action. All the other issues are expected, but for a fast movie this far in to have so few action spectacles is disappointing. F9 clearly has a ton of issues but it was one of my favorites in the franchise because the action sequences were great. The same can't be said here of the boring, less big/explosive sequences or the final action sequences where the CGI is awful and the picture is so stupid looking it's bad. 

-the tej/roman/ramsey combo who I thought was pretty funny and had enjoyable banter throughout F9 has horrendous dialogue here and are easily some of the worst characters. 

-Dante. Jason Momoa should be a good addition, but his villain is absolutely terrible. So poorly written with the character supposedly motivated by revenge but acting like an absolute child at all times seemingly just there for fun and never actually hurting Dom or his friends. So many times where he could have been taken down and then randomly gets away because of ridiculous plot situations. 

Series rankings:

1. Furious 7

2. F9

3. Fast Five

4. Fast and Furious 6

5. Hobbs and Shaw

6. Fate of the Furious

7. The Fast and the Furious

8. Fast X

9. 2 Fast 2 Furious

10. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

11. Fast and Furious