Movies that I've managed to see this month.

So when it comes to the movies that have been released in the theatres lately, I have actually managed to see some of them in the recent weeks. I managed to watch these films with my friends who were kind enough to join me at the local cinema.

Indeed, over the last month or so we managed to watch the Matt Damon / Christian Bale vehicle 'Ford v Ferrari', Rian Johnson's homage to Agatha Christie called 'Knives Out' and of course the latest Star Wars film 'Rise of The Skywalker'. 

So when it comes to the first movie that I saw, I saw 'Ford v Ferrari' with my friend who was visiting us all the way from Canada. We decided to give the movie a chance because it looked good and seemed to be a great experience based on its reviews.

After all, based on its rave reviews alone (92% fresh from the critics and 98% fresh from the audience) the film looked like it was must watch stuff. There was no way we were going to miss an opportunity like this to have fun together.

Not surprisingly, the movie about the 'underdog' car manufacturing company Ford trying to challenge the ultimate race car Ferrari in the Le Mans 24 h race did not disappoint. Both me and my friend were totally on the edge of our seats almost from start to finish.

Indeed, even though 'Ford v. Ferrari' works well as a drama - thanks to its competent acting (especially the incredible Christian Bale) and writing - what really 'made' the movie was its racing scenes. I have never seen a better racing movie in my life if I'm being honest.

As a whole. what made the film and its racing scenes especially great is that special effects were used relatively sparingly. It really felt like you were part of the race and you couldn't help but to feel the danger and the rush that is involved in being a racing driver.

In hindsight, the only tiny problem that I had with the movie had to do with its ending. Like probably many others, I'm not sure that we really needed that last ten minutes of the film, even though it had to do with the filmmakers being honest about the aftermath too.

Still, when you put it all together, 'Ford v Ferrari' was certainly a movie that managed to deliver. I absolutely loved seeing the film - especially in a theatre - and I would highly recommend it for everyone to see it on the big screen if only possible.

So the second film that I saw with my friend is 'Knives Out', a classic who-dune-it murder-in-the-family mystery about the murder of a successful patriarch. This is a film that we saw since my friend was excited about it and thought that it would be worth watching. 

Indeed, since my friend is a big time reader among other things, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that she would like to see a story like this on a big screen. She clearly has a knack for movies that have a 'classic' story written all over them.

Fortunately, going to the cinema with her to see the film wasn't a hard decision. The fact that 'Knives Out' had gotten superb reviews (96% fresh from the critics on Rottentomatoes.com) made it a safe choice to go watch it in theatres.

So having seen the film, I have to say that 'Knives Out' turned out to pretty exciting and entertaining. Even though I still had some tiny doubts before seeing it, this ensemble movie kept us entertained from start to finish and didn't disappoint us.

Indeed, as you kept watching the film and trying to guess what really happened - and who actually killed Christopher Plummer's character, there's something for everyone. There's solid drama, there's humour and there are some genuinely touching moments too.

Storywise, the biggest reason that the film works so well is because of the maid character (played by Ana De Armas). Once this genuinely relatable character runs into trouble (no spoilers here), you can't help but to empathize with her and hope for the best.

In hindsight, the only tiny problem with 'Knives Out' is that even though the story makes sense on paper, it feels a bit too convoluted as you watch it unfold. I couldn't help but to think (wrongly though) that there were plot holes and other issues too.

Still, when it all is said and done, as a whole I'm more than happy that we saw the film together. 'Knives Out' turned out to be a solid film and certainly redeemed director Rian Johnson a bit after his not-so-well-received 'The Last Jedi'.

Finally, the third and the last film that I (in this case) saw with my friends is 'Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker'. This a film that we saw last Saturday when we didn't have anything better to do during that evening.

After all, when it comes to the movie, we didn't have our hopes up since we had already read the reviews for the film and knew that it wasn't going to be that great (54% fresh at Rottentomatoes.com). We knew that there were going to be problems in it.

Not surprisingly, having seen 'The Rise of The Skywalker', it has to be said that there are a lot of flaws in the movie and the new trilogy. As unfortunate as it is, this final chapter just didn't work as well as one would have hoped.

Indeed, when it comes to the problems and issues, one of the biggest reasons that the new episodes didn't work is that the writers didn't have a roadmap to follow. There was no overarching story for the trilogy, which made the movies inconsistent and incoherent.

Another problem with the new movies was that the producers - as sad as it is - killed all the original characters. I don't know what they were thinking when they got rid of Han Solo's or especially Luke Skywalker's character, because we really cared about them.

Still, perhaps the biggest problem with the new saga was that the main character Rey had no noticeable arc (no development). Instead of going through 'a hero's journey,' she immediately knew everything about being a Jedi and had no real struggles.

In that sense, even though this new trilogy and its last movie had its moments - especially the last 30 minutes of 'The Rise of The Skywalker' were solid, I was pretty disappointed. I was disappointed how underwhelming the new trilogy turned out to be.

After all, even though I haven't been a 'super fan' of the series, I still expected more from these new movies. I expected more from these films, because clearly the series had potential to deliver something better and more exciting than what we were eventually given.

Know when to trust your eyes as a writer.

So when it comes to making assessments about the quality of your writing, it's not always easy to figure out whether your stuff works. It's not easy to automatically see where you possibly went wrong with the script and why.

After all, as a writer, it's pretty much guaranteed that you tend to get lost in the process as you keep going. The longer you write, the less you're able to see the forest for the trees, no matter how much you might keep telling yourself otherwise.

At the same time, once you actually manage to take that break from writing and get yourself a fresh pair of eyes, things change considerably. It's pretty remarkable how quick and accurate your assessment about the script can be sometimes.

For example, if I take that break from my project and later (the very next day with articles) get back to the task, even a fast glimpse at the text can show that things don't work. A quick cursory look is all that it might take to see that there are problems.

What this means in practice is that if I'm about to start rewriting the article and have read the first half of it (that works), I might already see that there's a problem with the latter half. Without reading the rest, my eyes are already telling me that I screwed up.

The reason for this is that even though I haven't read the full text, I already see that there's something wrong with it length-wise (missing stuff, too short). My mind can see (based on the pacing & the correct structure) how the text should look when it's done right.

After all, if you notice that the second half of the text seems to be too short (or way too long), it's certain that there are logical / transition problems that need to be fixed. (note: 'correct' length doesn't guarantee that the text works as it should).

This same approach - trusting your eyes - also applies to bigger projects like books where you really have to make sure that your structure / pacing works well. In these cases it's crucial that you're able to see when things don't seem to work.

For example, when I started rewriting my book and went through the pages on my notepad, it became obvious pretty fast that there were problems. As I went through the pages, my eyes (that looked at the sidebar) knew that the pacing was simply off.

By that I mean that once I had read the first 1/3rd in the story (structure-wise), as I kept checking the sidebar, I noticed that I had already gone past the 50% mark in actual pages. This was an absolutely terrible thing pacing-wise and meant that I was in trouble.

After all, even though the script doesn't have to be completely in sync with the story 'structure' or the 'formula', it still has to be close enough. You cannot tell a good story if (for example) the latter half of the story happens in the last 10% of the pages.

Fortunately, in this case, once I started rewriting the story and tried to make sure that the chapters would be well paced, little by little the script started to look better. It didn't seem like the pacing was as obviously off as it was in the beginning.

After all, once I had finished the rewriting process, I noticed that the whole thing seemed to work really well now. The story had finally a solid flow from start to finish and actually felt good (I had increased the word count by a whopping 60%).

In that sense, when it comes to this whole thing, it's pretty clear that if you ever find yourself in a situation where it 'looks' like there's a problem with your script, you should take that feeling seriously. You should take the gut feeling seriously and not ignore it.

After all, even though there are certainly exceptions to the rule (like being too tired from too much writing), in most cases your eyes are onto something. They know that there's a problem, even though your brain might not have figured out the details yet.

In that sense, especially when it comes to my book project, it's fairly clear that had I not trusted my eyes when I re-read the draft, I probably would have not fixed the script. It's very likely that I would have just thought that the book was good already and that was it.

After all, especially considering that I had gotten good reviews from my readers and other stuffs, I was clearly in the danger zone here. There was every reason for me to get too comfortable and complacent with my 'very first book ever'.

Fortunately though, even though I lacked experience, in the end, I did trust my eyes once I gave the draft a fresh look after a break. Once I gave another look at the script, I knew that there was a big problem and that my work with the task had not been finished.

Observations about the rewriting process (book).

So when it comes to my book writing project, it can be finally said that - after months of rewriting - it looks like that I've managed to get it more or less completed. It looks like that I'm in a situation where I can't do that much to make it better anymore.

Indeed, over the last few days I've noticed that the story finally seems to work pretty well from start to finish. The book is long enough, the pacing is solid and the story doesn't seem to have moments where you think that it's not believable enough.

Not surprisingly, getting the story to work and readable enough hasn't been that easy or effortless. There have been moments when I have really needed patience and resilience because otherwise things wouldn't have worked out at all.

So when it comes to those annoying surprises that I had during the rewriting process, one of them was how difficult it was to fix certain specific problems in the story. No matter what I did, the fixes didn't seem to work (they initially looked good, but not later).

The problem in these cases was that I had a tendency to micromanage things too much. I more or less thought that as long as I would change some of the specific words, the whole thing would miraculously start to work again (it never did).

In reality, in case you face a situation that doesn't seem to work, it's usually a better strategy to find a solution where (for example) your character simply tries to do something else. That way it's much more likely that the scene will feel more natural and plausible.

Another thing that surprised me during the rewriting process was how much I actually needed to rewrite the book. It's not enough to give your chapters a couple of rewrites and think that it's enough - especially when it comes to those later chapters.

In my case, I found it to be especially frustrating that even though I had fixed the earlier chapters in the book, I had not polished the latter ones enough. I just thought they would be solid because the earlier ones worked too (complete lack of logic there).

Thankfully, when it came to these later chapters, you pretty much 'just' needed to have the patience to revisit and re-re-rewrite them again. You needed to have the patience to keep going and rewrite so that the story could actually become good enough.

Still, when it comes to this whole rewriting process, there was clearly one thing that surprised me the most. By far the biggest surprise (a positive one) was how much the rewriting process actually can have an effect on the length of the book.

After all, when I first wrote here about me starting to rewrite the book, I wrote that perhaps at best I could increase the page count by something like 25%. That was pretty much the best case scenario and I thought I was already reaching a bit with that estimation.

Yet, once I was finally done with rewriting the last chapter in the book, it turned out that I had increased the length of the book by almost 60%. That was a big surprise and made all the difference in making the story as well paced and enjoyable as possible.

In that sense, now that I've finished the script and have started sending it to different publishers, I'm pretty sure that I've done my best here with the project. I'm pretty certain that I've tried my best to make sure that the story could be as good as it can only be.

After all, not only did I manage - in all likelihood - to fix those specific problems in the book, I also managed to re-re-re-write the latter chapters. These efforts helped to make the story 'long enough' and also gave the book as a whole a good flow.

In the end, whether the book is eventually at some point going to get published, is another issue. There are certainly no guarantees and I shouldn't be thinking that it's a shoe-in to get it published by one of the major companies out there.

After all, no matter how good the book is and how much value it might have, it's still a bit of a crapshoot to break it in the industry. It's not guaranteed that I'll be published with this story (it was difficult for J.K.Rowling too) no matter how much I'd want it to happen.

At the same time, considering how hard I've worked with the project, I think I would deserve to get lucky here. I think I deserve to get lucky here, because even though the book could always be a tiny bit better, in my opinion it's still good enough to be published.

Review: 'Super Size Me 2 - Holy Chicken'.

So when it comes to things that I've seen lately, during the last couple of weeks me and my friend have watched documentary films. We've tried to watch some of the latest documentaries that we have found to promising and that could be worth our time.

After all, even though I prefer watching movies in general, I can't deny that watching documentaries might actually make you a bit more informed. There's a chance that you might learn something and that the stuff might enlighten you as a person.

So when it comes to the documentary that we watched, it wasn't a difficult decision to choose what to watch. Once we noticed that filmmaker Morgan Spurlock had come up with a sequel to 'Super Size Me', we wanted to see the documentary right away.

After all, the original 'Super Size Me' was about a guy who tried eating junk food for 30 days at McDonalds. It was about testing and monitoring what happens to your health and your body when you eat nothing but fast food 24/7. 

Thankfully, in 'Super Size Me 2 - Holy Chicken' Spurlock does not stuff food in his mouth (except in the poster). Instead, this time as a chicken farmer / restaurant owner he studies the chicken fast food industry in the U.S. and the industry's marketing.

Indeed, the film is basically an expose of the living conditions of chickens and the claims of the fast food marketing department. It shows all kinds of ethical lapses within the industry and how false most - if not all - the claims that the restaurant chains make are.

So when it comes to story of the film, the first part (out of three) is about Spurlock setting up his own chicken farm. This is the part when see how easy it is to find loopholes for raising the chickens and how individual farmers are being destroyed by the corporate greed. 

The second part in the film is about the advertising industry and how fast food chains mislead about their products. We visit marketing firms & taste labs where we see all kinds of examples about how we are lied about stuffs ('free-range', 'all natural', 'bbq grilled' etc.)

The third part of the documentary is when he finally decides to open his brutally honest 'Holy Chicken' restaurant. He does that so that he could educate people about the industry and how completely misleading it is (with some unexpected results).

So when it comes to the quality of the film, like many others, I found the documentary to be mostly pretty well made. There are a lot of things to appreciate and one can't help but to respect the fact that Spurlock takes a hands on approach with the subject matter.

After all, what is better way to get know about the industry than to start raising those so called free-ranged chicken by yourself. This way we get to see what is required to be in the business and how things are done (thankfully he doesn't blame the farmers).

Another good thing about the film has to do with the marketing claims and 'cheats' with the chicken products. You can't help but to laugh at things like the fact that those charcoal stripes in barbequed chickens are actually painted in.

At the same time, even though I did enjoy the film, I also have to say there were some story problems in the documentary. The 'story' in 'Super Size Me 2' didn't feel particularly natural or smooth and the transitions felt a bit too forced and contrived.

After all, there are clearly timeline problems in the film that make you wonder what happened and when. These really hurt the film's flow - like the fact that they didn't use his chickens to provide meat for his restaurant (chicken footage 2016, restaurant 2018).

Still, when I think about the film as a whole, it has to be said that despite these flaws in the story, the positives nevertheless managed to outweigh the negatives. There's clearly enough material to keep you interested and that these points are pretty well made in the film.

In that sense, if you haven't seen the movie yet, you should give it a chance and watch it. You should watch 'Super Size Me 2 - Holy Chicken', because even though the film could have been better, it was still worth watching and was worth my time.

Movies that I've managed to see this month.

Even though I've been busy with my writing project this month - that seems to go on and on and on, I've also tried to find some time to watch some movies with my friend. We've tried to watch some of the interesting films that have been released lately.

Indeed, over the last two weeks we managed to watch movies like Pixar's 'Toy Story 4', James Cameron's Alita: Battle Angel' and Seth Rogen's comedy 'Long Shot'. We thought that these films would be worth our time and that they would keep us entertained.

So when it comes to the first movie that we saw, it wasn't exactly a difficult decision to watch 'Toy Story 4'. Based on its reviews and the success of the series, it was pretty much guaranteed that the 4th film in the series would work too.

After all, when you have a movie that has a 97% fresh rating on Rottentomatoes.com by the critics and a 94% fresh rating by the audience, things look pretty good. It's pretty clear that the movie is going to be at least somewhat watchable.  

Yet, having now seen the Pixar animation with my friend, I have to say that the movie - surprisingly enough - wasn't as good as I had expected. Even though the film is okay, there were certain story problems in it that shouldn't be overlooked.

For example, one of the problems with 'Toy Story 4' had to do with its 'Forky' character (picture above). I thought that the character was just too depressing (it barely was even a toy) and it didn't really fit in with the rest of the characters and the universe of the film.

Another story problem in the movie had to do with its villain character 'Gabby Gabby'. The fact that the writers decided to turn her into a somewhat misunderstood 'good' character in the 3rd act of the film didn't really work and felt contrived to me.

Furthermore, there were other questionable things too in the story, like that the characters weren't much of a team anymore. Especially when it comes to Woody being selfish and the fact that the movie neglected the supporting cast was pretty awkward.  

Still, despite these mistakes in the movie, I can't deny that the film nevertheless had tons of good qualities about it. There's no question that the film looks beautiful, is well acted and that there are a lot of solid action scenes that keep the thing going.

In that sense, if you haven't seen 'Toy Story 4' yet, you should nevertheless give it a chance. You should watch it, because even though the film has its flaws, there certainly aren't too many good movies to watch out there anyway.  

The second movie that I watched with my friend is 'Alita: Battle Angel'. This is a scifi-action movie produced by James Cameron and the story in the film is based on a popular 1990's Japanese manga series by Yukito Kishiro.

The reason that we watched the film was not because I was super excited to see it. I hadn't really heard that many good things about it and I also didn't feel that good about James Cameron's 'career choices' lately either (he definitely should make movies more frequently).

Yet, once I noticed that the film had a pretty solid 7.4/10 rating on Imdb.com, that was more than good enough. Since the film also had a positive rating on Rottentomatoes.com (62% fresh by critics) I couldn't say no to the film.

So having now seen 'Alita: Battle Angel', even though the film has some minor problems in its story, I have to say that it wasn't that bad at all. The movie turned out to be surprisingly watchable and both me and my friend like it quite a bit.

Indeed, when you look at the movie, among other things, there's no question that the whole thing looks absolutely incredible (its protagonist is 100% computer generated). It's clear that insane amount of work went into making this movie as awesome looking as it is.

Story-wise, the biggest flaw in the movie is that there are way too many story beats and exposition in the film. The writers - one of them was Cameron - and the producers - as unfortunate as it is - weren't able to make the story work as well as it should have.

Still, when I think of the movie as a whole (it has the always great Christoph Waltz in it), I was still more than entertained by it. I liked the characters and the basic story in the film and also its 'Blade Runner meets The Hunger Games' atmosphere.

In that sense, if 'Alita: Battle Angel' doesn't get a sequel (it more or less broke even box-office wise), I would honestly be disappointed. The film was certainly good enough for me and is good enough to deserve a sequel.

The third and the last film that I saw with my friend is 'Long Shot', a Seth Rogen vehicle that I had heard some good things about. The movie had gotten solid reviews (81% fresh at Rottentomatoes.com) and I thought that it might perhaps be worth our time.

After all, even though some of Rogen's comedy films haven't been that good, this one had potential. The premise of Rogen's journalist character being hired to become a presidential candidate's (Charlize Theron) speechwriter was something that intrigued me.

So when it comes to the romantic comedy, I have to say that I was positively surprised by the quality of the film. I was delighted by how well written the movie was (especially the romance part) and how much substance and actual message it had.

Indeed, over the course the movie our odd couple goes through all kinds of situations that are entertaining. These situations (meeting, falling in love, honing policies, campaigning etc.) are something where you can't help but to root for these two.

Substance-wise, the movie is about environmentalism and shows how insanely manufactured politicians can be and how corrupt they are policy-wise. The film does a surprisingly good job at taking jabs at corporate politicians and the media (especially Fox News)

Naturally, since this is a Seth Rogen comedy, the movie is full of naughty dialogue and dirty / funny jokes. The movie is absolutely jampacked with raunchy material, which might not be for everyone if we're being completely honest here.

Still, when it comes to the film as a whole, if you're someone who can even remotely tolerate Seth Rogen as an actor, there's a good chance that the movie is for you. You should not think that the movie is all about silly jokes and being as raunchy as possible.

On the contrary, even though the film is definitely raunchy, it also has a good message. Its honest message preaches about being true to yourself and not taking the easy way out, no matter how difficult or embarrassing doing the right thing might seem at first.

'Yesterday' is an uplifting movie that has integrity.

As a pretty big fan of British comedies, when I heard that there was a new movie by legendary writer Richard Curtis called 'Yesterday', I got my hopes up. I thought that there was a good chance that the film would deliver and that it would be worth my time. 

After all, since my hero Curtis had written movies like 'Love Actually' and 'Notting Hill' and the new film had a strong premise, things looked good. I was confident that the movie about 'a guy who's the only person to remember that The Beatles existed' would work.

Having now seen the movie with my friend, I have to say that 'Yesterday' as a film did turn out to be really good. Even though some critics haven't like it that much (62% fresh at Rottentomatoes.com), the movie was definitely worth watching. 

In essence, the story in the film is about a struggling musician (played by Himesh Patel) who one day notices something truly weird. Once a global power outage occurs, he seems to be the only one who remembers that a band called 'The Beatles' ever existed. 

Not surprisingly, once our protagonist casually starts playing the band's music to his friends, they immediately think of him as some kind of a musical genius. How on earth did a guy like him suddenly come up with awesome songs like 'Yesterday'? 

Later on in the film, once he gets past the usual struggles for an unknown artist, the inevitable happens. After he gets enough exposure as a musician, he becomes the biggest artist on the planet and things start to get more and more complicated.

So when it comes to the quality of the film, one of the best things about the film is that the story in it is creative. Even though the script follows the standard story structure, the movie fortunately doesn't take the easy way out with its story beats.

By that I mean is that had 'Yesterday' been your usual 'Hollywood' hack fest, you would have guessed all the story beats way before they happened. In that case you'd have gotten the usual 'guy gets famous, gets too cocky, loses it all and needs to learn a lesson'.

Fortunately in this movie, the protagonist has integrity throughout the movie. He tries his very best to do the right all the time and at no point of the movie acts like a jerk (which I can guarantee would happen in a Hollywood movie).

Another major reason why the movie works so well - not surprisingly - has to do with it how well it's acted. The movie relies on its main actors not only to be able to act well but also to be capable to perform all those various songs.

After all, without the ability of Patel as a solid actor and a gifted musician, I doubt that the movie would have been as entertaining as it turned out to be. He genuinely manages to deliver here and brings that much needed authenticity and honesty to the film.

In hindsight, when I think about the movie, the only real problem in it has to do with some parts of its screenplay. Even though the story is well paced and didn't feel boring at any point, the 'romance' part in the film didn't work as well as it should have.

After all, especially when it came to the moment of Ellie (played by Lily James) finding someone else, I felt that this part in the story was a bit rushed. That part could certainly have used some polishing and could have been better written.

Still, when I think about the film as a whole, it's pretty clear that even though there were some tiny problems in the story, these minor flaws were not that important. They did not prevent me from enjoying the movie as a whole.

After all, despite the film's minor flaws, there are so many good aspects to the movie that make it shine. These solid comedic and dramatic moments and the overall uplifting tone of the movie certainly made me enjoy the film very much.

In that sense, if you're someone like me who likes to watch romantic comedies and likes to listen to 'Beatles' songs, 'Yesterday' is almost definitely for you. You should give the film a chance and not be discouraged by what some critics have said about it.

After all, even though some critics complained that the film doesn't go deep enough in exploring the premise of 'what if', you shouldn't believe their criticism too much. That aspect of the story is not what the movie in its essence is about.

On the contrary, when you look at the movie as a whole, what the film really is about is about idealism and kindness. It's about being good and kind to each other and making sure that no matter what happens, in the end we are still able to do the right thing.

Remedy's 'Control' is a disappointing game.

So when it comes to storytelling in games, it's not exactly a secret that telling a good story is not easy. Being able to tell a story (in a pc or console game) that last for 10-15 hours requires a lot of effort and attention to detail from a writer.

Indeed, in order to be able to create a game that works from start to finish, that means that you have to get things right in the story. You have to make sure that you respect the basics and the fundamentals of the craft without taking anything for granted. 

Unfortunately, over the last few years there have been attempts in 'reinventing the wheel' and not taking the craft seriously. Especially when it comes to a 'story-driven' gaming company like Remedy, these guys have been really dropping the ball lately.

By that I mean is that in Remedy's case, the biggest problem with their previous game 'Quantum Break' (a time travel game that bombed) was that they didn't pay attention to their story. They didn't pay attention to their premise, characters or storylines. 

Indeed, as unfortunate as it was, 'Quantum Break' was a game that didn't know what it was about. There was no proper introduction to the characters, the story made little sense and the game even had those 25 minute live action clips between the gaming scenes.

So based on the meltdown of 'Quantum Break', one would have thought that 'Remedy' would have learned from their mistakes. Surely they would try to correct their storytelling ship and try to come up with something that would actually make sense. 

Yet, when me and my friends managed to finish their latest game 'Control' last week, we had to admit that they didn't learn anything from their almost 100 million dollar bomb. The story in 'Control' is even worse than what it was in 'Quantum Break'. 

By that I mean is that even though 'Control' - fortunately - doesn't have those live action clips, this time those other basic elements are even worse. The story doesn't make sense and the writers are completely clueless about what they're supposed to do.

Indeed, once you start playing the game - a female character called Jesse Faden - there's zero exposition in the 'story'. Her visiting (in the beginning) some Federal Bureau office and having super powers is something that is simply supposed to be accepted at face value.

Later on, once our protagonist starts fighting the bad guys, things aren't explained either. There's some evil entity, her brother is missing, there's some scientific experiments going on in the building and she even talks to someone inside her head (!).

Story-wise, what is so unfortunate about these moments in the story (inner dialogue + protagonist talks to someone in her head) is that none of them make even remotely sense. None of the stuff is explained to the gamer in any meaningful way.

Indeed, as you kept playing the game, this 'character knows everything, gamer knows nothing' just keeps getting more and more out of control. There's no story arc, there are no stakes and you just don't know what the point to the whole thing is. 

Not surprisingly, once we finally reached the end credits after playing the game for like 13 hours or so, me and my friends had had enough. We just couldn't believe how incredibly bad every single storytelling aspect in the game had been.

After all, even though our expectations for the ending were low, the so called 'finale' that lead to the end credits was so bad that we felt like throwing things at the screen. It was such an anti-climax that you simply had to see it in order to believe it.

In that sense, when I think about this game and its problems as a whole, it's pretty clear and obvious that the game didn't do well commercially. Despite the usual hype it didn't manage to make the players excited enough to purchase the game.

After all, even though gaming critics did their best to puff up the game's reviews and its reputation (81% on Metacritic), that wasn't enough. 'Control' didn't even make the top-30 lists on any of the platforms that it was released on. 

In that sense, in the end, if you're someone who's thinking about buying the game and thinking that there's something special going on in here, you shouldn't get too excited. You shouldn't get too excited and think that this game has a story that is executed well.

After all, even though in 'Control' there admittedly were some good things about the concept (some super powers and some shooting modes), as a whole these simply were not enough. These weren't enough to offset the bad qualities that the game was full of. 

On the contrary, problems like the game not having any story, the characters & the dialogue being terrible, the pacing issues etc. were simply too much. They were too serious and made it impossible for me and my friends to enjoy the game as a whole.

'Rocketman' is a pretty entertaining film.

Like many others, when I heard that there was going to be a biopic about musician Elton John, I was pretty excited. I felt that there was a pretty solid chance that the film would be at least relatively watchable and worth my time.

After all, since I had already enjoyed 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (same director) and 'Eddie The Eagle', same director & main actor) it wasn't a difficult decision to watch the film. All the signs pointed to the movie being entertaining and enjoyable.

So having now seen 'Rocketman' with my friend this week,  it has to be said that the film didn't really disappoint. The biopic / musical turned out to be pretty entertaining, even though I do have so minor reservations about its story and how it was written.  

In any case, when it comes to the film, the biggest reason that the movie is as watchable as it is, is of course because of its 'star'. There's no question that Sir Elton John is someone who deserved a movie about him and his fascinating life. 

After all, not only is Elton (born Reginald Dwight) an accomplished musician with a long career, but he's also someone who really knew how to push the limits as a performer and who was willing to give his all to make his concerts as entertaining as possible.  

Indeed, in the film's story, it doesn't take long before Elton's (played by Taron Egerton) rare musical talent becomes obvious. Once he gets his hands on a piano as a young kid and learns his craft, it's obvious that he's going to go far.

Not surprisingly, once he finds an equally talented partner to write lyrics for him (Bernie Taupin - who has written pretty much all his lyrics), it's time to go big. The duo moves to the States and wins people over thanks to his catchy songs (and despite his outfits). 

Filmwise, what I really appreciated about the movie is that before I saw 'Rocketman', I didn't know how good of a musician, composer & piano player Elton was. I just hadn't thought about him that much - even as a somewhat fan of his.

After all, even though Taupin wrote the lyrics for his songs, it took so much talent and creativity to compose songs that were that good. His compositions ('Your Song', 'Crocodile Rock' & 'Rocketman' among others) are simply wonderful and timeless classics.

Storywise, it has to be said that even though I enjoyed, the movie, there aren't really that many obstacles for the main character's success in the story. Unlike in 'Bohemian Rhapsody', Elton becomes a superstar almost instantly (in the 1st act of the film).

The problem with this is that since that there aren't that many obstacles later in the movie, there's not that much of a story to tell. This leads to the film being padded with musical bits and being a bit anticlimactic in its final.

In hindsight, even though Elton's struggles with his addictions and not being loved by his parents are relevant and part of his dramatic arc, one could argue that they're not enough. The script could have used some additional character moments to make it stronger.

Still, when I think about the film as a whole, in my opinion the filmmakers were able to the thread the needle rather well and managed to put together a fairly compelling story. They were able to come up with a solid movie despite the flaws in the screenplay.

After all, especially when it comes to Taron Egerton's performance as Elton, he does an absolutely incredible job here. He's so good that his performance should easily earn him at least an academy award nomination - if not an outright win.

In that sense, if you're one of those who enjoyed 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'Eddie The Eagle', you should definitely give 'Rocketman' a chance and watch it. You should give it a chance and not be discouraged by some of the negative reviews that it has gotten.

After all, even though the film isn't perfect and has some issues, it's still a good movie. 'Rocketman' is a good movie and as long as you don't take it too seriously, it's likely that you'll enjoy the film and that watching it will put you on a good mood. 

Writing a book can be an exhausting process.

When it comes to writing projects that take a lot effort, it's not exactly a secret that making them work isn't usually that easy. In most cases it takes a lot of effort, rewrites and re-evaluations before the quality of the project can be as good as possible. 

After all, the more demanding and the more time consuming your project is, the more difficult it is to make every aspect of the task work. You cannot expect things to work immediately, no matter how good or talented you might be as a writer.

So the reason that I'm writing about this is that I have had some problems in my own book writing project. I think it's pretty clear that it has been an exhausting process to deliver stuff that meets certain quality standards and that is good enough.

In practice, one of the best indicators of this is that I haven't really felt that good about the quality of the book. At no point did I feel completely confident about the overall quality, even though the script had already been proofread and was well received too.

After all, among other things, I felt that the pacing of the story wasn't good enough and that the structure in the book version was lacking. The chapters were too rushed and in some cases clearly didn't have a balanced beginning, middle and end.

Furthermore, even though the story as a whole was well thought out, I felt that there was content in the adaptation (the story is based on my movie script) that perhaps didn't fit in tonally. There were some 'comedic' and 'ironic' scenes that just didn't work.

What made the process so gruelling is that even though I tried my best to rewrite and keep pushing with the project, my rewrites just weren't good enough. I didn't manage to spot all the problems even though the book kept getting somewhat better.

Fortunately, once I managed to take a complete break from the project during the summer (more than two months) this helped to clear my thoughts. This 'lucky' break gave me a chance to think about something else than writing.

Not surprisingly, once I got back to writing, I managed to get things done. I managed to do things like make the book longer (by 25%), give the chapters a better pacing and even kill some of those 'darlings' from the script that didn't work in the book version.

As a whole, all these good things happened because I finally took a long break and managed to give up on some of those stubborn ideas that I was desperately clinging on to. I had finally accepted that certain things in the story needed to be adjusted or changed.

In that sense, when I take a look at this project as a whole, it's pretty clear that writing good stuff is not just about putting in the hard work and putting in the hours. You shouldn't rely too much on your almighty persistence to fix your problems.

After all, even though it's crucial to have a good writing routine and to have a good work ethic, you should remember that simply pushing hard won't always be enough. There are other factors too that affect your success as a writer.

In the end, especially in my case, had I not taken a break from writing three months ago, there's no chance that I would have written something decent. There's no chance that I would have managed to get the book in a shape that is 'good' enough.

After all, even though I did try my best, before the break I was entirely too married to some of my ideas and wasn't able to see the forest for the trees. I wasn't able to understand that the book wasn't finished and that I still needed to make some changes.

In that sense, if your task doesn't seem to go well either, you should try giving yourself a break too. You should try that break, because even though taking it might not be easy, there's a good chance that it works and that it's something that will actually work for you.

Movies that I've managed to see lately.

Even though I've lately been busy doing other things, this week me and my friend found time to watch some films that have been recently released on dvd. We watched some movies after having not seeing anything in the last couple of months.

In order to entertain ourselves, we gave a chance to three recent movies. We watched a Transformers spin-off movie 'Bumblebee', a female 'Superbad' film 'Booksmart' and 'Mary Poppins Returns', a remake of the classic movie from the 60s.

So the first movie that we watched is 'Bumblebee', a Transformers spin-off that had received pretty solid reviews. This was supposed to be a film that gets the series back on track after all those terrible movies in the series.

After all, it's not exactly a secret that every Transformers film after the first one has been more or less completely unwatchable. There hasn't been any real 'story' in these cgi-films that have been all about mindless action and explosions. 

Fortunately, 'Bumblebee' as a spin-off works surprisingly well and doesn't repeat the mistakes of the sequels and works as a stand alone movie.  Instead of taking its audience for granted, it pays attention to its premise and its origins.

Indeed, when I watched the movie with my friend, we couldn't help but to notice that the film does a good job in being 'childlike'. The story is entertaining and pays attention to all those things that can make a script work.

Still, the biggest star in the movie (even though the actors do a good job) is definitely the 'Bumblebee' character itself. As an audience member, you can't help but to find the 'machine' to be likable and you can't help but to feel for it over the course of the film.

In that sense, if you're like me and so many others who gave up on the series a long time ago, 'Bumblebee' is certainly a movie that you should watch. It's well made, entertaining, funny and as a whole, manages to put you on a better mood. 

The second movie that we watched is 'Mary Poppins Returns'. This is a movie that I had wanted to watch for quite some time, because I thought that there was a good chance that watching it would be fun and that the film would lift my spirits.

After all, even though I can't remember much about the original 'Mary Poppins', it was likely that the remake wouldn't disappoint either. Those responsible for the musical would do their best to respect the spirit of the original and make it as good as possible.

So when me and my friend watched the film, it didn't take long before we fell in love with the world of the film and its universe. There's just something special about the story of the flying nanny who comes to help those in need.

After all, over the course of the film I couldn't help but to enjoy how entertaining and immersive everything was. The characters, the action scenes and the musical pieces were great, even though I'm usually not a big fan of musicals.  

Not surprisingly, when it comes to the acting in the film, the cast is also wonderful. Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack and the rest (Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury) are just superb in their roles.

In hindsight, the only real problem with the film has to do with its screenplay that is a tiny bit lacking in certain places. Especially when we reach the third act in the movie, it feels that the story doesn't 'turn' well enough and the drama is a bit too clumsy.

Still, when I think of the movie as a whole, it's clear that this is a fun movie. 'Mary Poppins' is an uplifting movie that I would recommend for everyone who wants to feel like a child again and who doesn't want to take everything in life too seriously. 

The third and the final movie that we watched with my friend is 'Booksmart', a comedy starring Johan Hill's sister Beanie Feldstein. This a film that I thought we needed to watch based on its positive reviews by the movie critics. 

After all, since the movie had a really good rating - a solid 97% fresh on Rottentomatoes.com - we more or less had to give it a chance. Clearly this film had to be at least somewhat watchable and not completely hopeless. 

So when it comes to the movie, 'Booksmart' is pretty much a female version of 'Superbad'. Almost every aspect of the film (story beats, premise  and the overall theme 'desperation') mirrors the 'original' version pretty closely.

Not surprisingly, when you watch the film and its characters, it's difficult not to see Jonah Hill in Feldstein's character. They clearly resemble each other and have many of the same manners and characteristics as actors.

Qualitywise, I managed to like the movie more than my friend did.  The film - even though formulaic and episodic - was funny in places and was better than some of the other female comedies that have been released lately (Ghostbusters, Bridesmaids etc.). 

Still, when it comes the film as a whole, I'm not sure that it is necessarily worth all its critical praise. It isn't in my opinion necessarily any better or different than movies that we've already seen many times ('Superbad', 'Harold & Kumar'). 

In that sense, whether you'll like 'Booksmart' really depends on your taste in movies. There's a chance that you'll like it, but there's also a chance that you don't find it entertaining and that it won't be worth your time.

'I think you should leave' is an awful sketch show.

When it comes to television shows or movies that are funny, it's not exactly a secret that things aren't looking good at the moment. There aren't really any funny films or tv shows out there currently that would be even remotely worth watching or worth your time. 

After all, the reason that most shows - as unfortunate as it is - are so bad is that they lack even the most basic ingredients that would make them good. There's nothing in them that would give them even a tiniest chance to be about something that would make sense.

So when it comes to one of these current horrible, yet supposedly 'funny' shows, one of them is Netflix's 'I think you should leave'. This is a sketch show that a lot of critics (even in my country) have been raving about and saying that it's the best show in years. 

However, having now given the series a proper look, the problem with the show is that it just isn't any good. Despite the assurances by the critics, the show doesn't work and is easily one of the worst comedy series' that I have seen in a long time.

So when it comes to the series, the biggest issue that I have with it is that the show isn't even trying to be smart or well thought out. It's not even trying to create characters or situations that would be realistic or that would make sense.

Instead, the whole point seems to be that it just tries to be as dumb as possible as it could ever be. Its hacky approach falsely pretends that there's value in being pointless and convoluted without even trying to be remotely coherent.

Indeed, the basic 'formula' (if there's any) is that a sketch starts with some random scenario and then it gets pointlessly more 'cringe' as it goes on. The skit keeps dragging on without really coming up with any sort of decent ideas or structural beats.

For example, on the show there's stuff like a sketch with baby crying on a plane (picture above), which leads to a passenger yelling at another passenger as annoyingly as possibly. That's basically all there is to this 3-4 minute unfunny skit.

Another example is the uninspiring and pointless skit in which a tv lawyer asks the audience for 3 minutes whether something (sueable) has happened to them. This pointless sketch just went on and on and wasn't funny at any point of its duration.

Still, possibly the worst sketch was the one that had to with 'Baby awards'. This 'best sketch ever' (according to avclub.com) with a baby on stage was so banal, pointless, lacking in creativity and empty that I felt embarrassed on behalf of its performs.

So not surprisingly, once I was finally done with the episodes that I watched, I wasn't impressed at all with the series. I simply wasn't sold by the skits and couldn't understand why anyone would voluntarily watch them and think that they're great.

After all, even though comedy is admittedly at least a bit subjective, there should still be some universal standards that apply. Clearly these guys behind the show weren't coming up with anything that would make even remotely sense.

In that sense, when it comes to this show as a whole, if you're one of those who are thinking about giving this show a chance, you shouldn't get your hopes up too much. You shouldn't be getting too excited about the series despite the hype that it has received.

After all, even though critics have been giving this show their seal of approval, that doesn't mean that you should automatically believe them. You shouldn't be fooled by their supposed critical expertise and think that they know better.

In the end, at least in the case of me and my friends, we absolutely positively hated almost every second of the episodes & sketches that we watched together. We hated the sketches and could barely believe how bad they were.

After all, not only were the skits in general extremely poorly written, but there wasn't really anything else that would have redeemed the show. It was totally obvious that this Netflix series didn't work at all and was totally hopeless.

In that sense, if there's any chance that you could watch something else instead, do that. You should do that because there are so many other classic old shows (like Friends on Netflix) that are actually funny and meaningful, unlike this horrible and awful 'comedy' series.

'Chernobyl' is a great mini-series.

When it comes to television shows that matter and that are important, it has to be said that there aren't really that many of them. Most tv shows just aren't good enough to make us think and to make us reflect about how our society works.

In reality, in order for a show to have actual merit and value, it has to be about something real and meaningful. Its premise has to be 'important' and good enough so that we could actually care about the show and its characters. 

So when I noticed that there was a new HBO series called 'Chernobyl', I for once managed to get my hopes up. I knew that there was a solid chance that the series would work, since its premise was so important and real (a nuclear power plant disaster). 

Having now finally seen all the episodes of this mini-series, I can safely said that 'Chernobyl' indeed works. It is easily one of the best mini-series ever made, even though watching it was admittedly a rather harrowing experience.

So the biggest reason that the series works so well is because it looks and feels completely authentic. The series does a really good job in showing all the horrors of the disaster and what happened during and after of the horrific accident.

Indeed, during this five episode mini-series, we go systematically through every aspect of the disaster: the explosion, the rescue operation, the operation to prevent an even bigger disaster, the investigation and the trial for those who caused the disaster.

When it comes to the series, its narrative comes from its three main characters. You have Valery Legasov, a scientist/investigator (Jared Harris), Boris Scherbina, a politburo chief (Stellan Skarsgård) and Ulana Khomyuk, a nuclear scientist (Emily Watson). 

Over the course of the series, they help to give us a good look of what really happened during and after the accident. Their brave efforts (Watson's character is a composite though) help us understand the scientific, political and the human aspects of the case.

Not surprisingly, we get to see that there were so many things that went wrong that lead to the disaster. It took extreme negligence, hubris and secrecy from the leaders of the power plant and the political establishment for the disaster to occur.

At the same time, just because the series brings up these problems and the flaws in the soviet system, the show isn't just about these things. Criticizing the Russians clearly wasn't the main reason that the show was made in the first place.

Indeed, as you watch the series, you can't help but to notice how the main focus is on the heroic efforts that the soviet servicemen and workers did in the aftermath. Many of them risked their lives knowing that they had to do it in order to save their country.

After all, let's not forget that had they not managed to mitigate the fission process that happened during the explosion and its aftermath, millions would have died. The effects of the explosions would have been severe even in western Europe too.

In that sense, when I think about the series as a whole, I'm so glad that those involved with making the series got the story right. I'm glad that they managed to show who the real heroes were and what they managed to do once the disaster happened.

After all, even though there are certainly some bad 'guys' in the story too, they are not what 'Chernobyl' is about. The series is clearly a tribute to all those who sacrificed themselves and did their part to get things right.

In that sense, if you're one of those who haven't managed to watch this HBO mini-series yet, I would certainly recommend it for you. You should definitely give it a chance and not think that the subject matter is something that you might not like.

After all, even though watching the series isn't always easy, that doesn't mean that this is not an important or a rewarding series. You shouldn't be thinking that just because there are a lot of heart breaking moments, it's not worth watching.

On the contrary, 'Chernobyl' as a whole works and shows that when things get bad, as human beings we'll do the right thing. We'll do the right thing and won't give up, no matter what the human cost is or no matter what political repercussions we'd eventually have to pay.

'Big Little Lies' - Season 2 (so far).

Like many others who spend time watching tv, I enjoyed watching the first season of HBO's miniseries 'Big Little Lies' quite a bit. I found the series to be really well made and was sad to see it coming to its dramatic (and inevitable) conclusion.

Naturally, once I learned that the show would get another season, I was feeling pretty excited. I was eager to know what would happen to these characters and how they would react to the aftermath of what happened at the end of season one.

So having now seen the first three episodes of season two of 'Big Little Lies', I can say that the series still works. There are a lot of things going on, even though story-wise the series climaxed in its first season's finale (Perry's death).

When it comes to the second season, the main story continues with the aftermath of the homicide. The grieving mother of Perry (played by Meryl Streep) comes to snoop around and to find out what really happened during that fateful evening.

Not surprisingly, it doesn't take long before she becomes suspicious about the incident and its aftermath. She notices that things certainly aren't as they seem and that almost everyone in town has something to hide about their lives.

Indeed, during the first three episodes of the season we're reminded again that pretty much all of these characters have problems and are messed up. Perry's homicide is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the secrets that these characters have.

Among other things, Celeste is still having nightmares about Perry beating her up, whereas Jane is trying to bring up her son (Perry's). Madeline is dealing with her adultery issues, whereas Renata furiously hates her husband.

Furthermore, when we also remember that Bonnie is feeling guilty about saving Celeste (that led to Bonnie accidentally killing Perry), it's not surprising that there are a lot of things going on. Clearly Streep's character has a reason to be there.

So when it comes to these storylines and the quality of the series, the biggest reason that 'Big Little Lies' works so well is that it actually cares about its characters. It pays attention to them without making the characters over the top or too melodramatic.

After all, I couldn't help but to notice that there's a really wonderful balance between drama and comedy on the show. It manages to bring laugh out loud moments between some of those more dramatic and even heart wrenching moments.

Especially when it comes to those scenes that involve the school principal and Madeline, the writers on the show manage to pull off some amazing scenes. It's clear that we're dealing with some absolute world class stuff here.

In that sense, when you consider that there are still four episodes to be aired, I'm confident that this is going to be a good season. I'm confident that the quality of the season is going to stay high and that the storylines are going to be solid.

After all, there are so many talented people working on the series (actresses like Streep, Dern, Witherspoon,  Kidman, Woodley & a writer like David Kelley). Clearly they have done their best to make sure that this series would work as well as possible.

In the end, even though there have been some very minor issues with the episodes (some of the scenes have been a bit too short), those mistakes don't mean that much. The positive aspects clearly outweigh the negative ones here.

In that sense, if you're one of those fence sitters who hasn't given this show a chance yet, you should definitely give 'Big Little Lies' a go. You should give it a go and not be discouraged just because you might think that this is not a series for you.

After all, even though the series might at first seem like it's a bit superficial, it's not. It's not a superficial show and once you get to know to these characters, you can't help but to feel for them and be interested in knowing what is going to happen to them. 

When to give your eyes a break as a writer.

So when it comes to the craft of writing, it's not exactly a secret that it's not always easy to get your projects to work. No matter who you are and no matter how hard you might try to get things done, there are days when things just don't seem to go your way.

The biggest reason that we struggle with our writing tasks is that it's not always possible to control the writing process. There are a lot of situations in which our brain isn't working well enough and when we lack the ability to see things straight.

So when it comes to these moments, the most likely situation in which we 'can't see the forest for the trees' anymore is when you get tired from trying too hard as a writer. You keep pushing your task even though you might feel absolutely horrible inside.

The problem with this approach is that in too many cases (even though there are certainly exceptions to the rule) it won't work. There's no real upside to writing anything after a certain amount of time has passed during a hopeless session.

So when it comes to handling these moments, even though it's not easy to do, especially for a perfectionist, you need to be forgiving toward yourself. You need to be able to take a break, no matter how frustrated you might be about fixing things.

In practice, what this basically means is that if you haven't managed to get things done during the first two hours of your session, you need to cut yourself some slack. You need to walk away, even though it's not easy to take your eyes off the screen.

After all, if you manage to give your eyes and your brain that well needed break, it becomes easier to clear your head. There's a much better chance that you'll be able to figure out where you went wrong and how to get back on track later.

In contrast, if you're too stubborn and not smart enough to give yourself a rest, you shouldn't be expecting things to turn around. It's pretty much guaranteed that things will turn even worse the more you keep trying and pushing during that session.

Indeed, the very worst scenario is that you get so frustrated and so hopeless about the whole thing that eventually you'll just give up on the task completely. You'll give up on finishing that project and think that it was simply too difficult for you.

In that sense, when I think about this thing as a whole, it's clear that we as writers need to be aware of these bad writing days. We need to be aware of how things can go wrong if we don't react to them fast enough and keep pushing instead.

After all, there are so many situations in which we have to be able to re-evaluate the situation and our progress in the task. We have to be able to take an objective look of what's going on and how to get back on the right track again.

In that sense, if things start to go into a completely wrong direction, the faster we take a timeout and react to these situations, the better. The faster we understand that things are not going our way, the less damage we do to ourselves.

After all, even though it might be hard to do, there's no shame in admitting that you didn't manage to get things to work right away. You shouldn't be thinking that just because you had a bad session, you won't be able to get things done later.

On the contrary, as long as you take a break and come back later, that break will help you. It will help you and you'll notice that even though there's still a lot to do with the task, it's something that can be finished and that eventually you can make it work. 

'Cobra Kai' Season 1 & 2 Reviewed.

Like many others, when I heard that there was a new series based on the 'Karate Kid' franchise, I didn't exactly have my hopes up. I didn't think that there was a good chance that the series would be any good or that it would be worth watching.

After all, even though the first 'Karate Kid' was a somewhat well made movie and had nostalgia value, what was the point with this new series? Why would we want to watch these actors in their roles thirty years later after the movies were done?

Fortunately, having now seen the first two seasons of 'Cobra Kai', I have to say that my expectations for the series turned out to be wrong. It turned out that this show works and that it manages to keep you entertained. 

So when I think about the show, the biggest reason that 'Cobra Kai' has been such a surprise hit is that it's actually well made. Unlike on so many others shows, on this one you actually care about the characters and what happens to them.

When it comes to the premise of the series, it was a really good idea from the producers and writers to make 'Johnny Lawrence' the main protagonist. Unlike in the original movie, in this series he's the star - as a classic anti-hero.

So not surprisingly, on the show we get to see Lawrence's (played by William Zabka) progression as a character. He slowly progresses from an out of work / out of luck alcoholic failure into a decent human being who runs his Cobra Kai dojo.

This transformation, of course, turns out to be much harder than it might seem at first. There are a lot of obstacles and setbacks for Lawrence's character and it takes a lot of effort to get his personal and professional life on a better trajectory.

In contrast, the star of the original movies, Danielle LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) is not actually the hero on the show. Even though he plays a big part on the show, as surprisingly as it is, he plays a rather neutral / even unlikable character.

After all, on the show as a successful businessman (he owns a car dealership) he more or less keeps punching down on Lawrence. He can't accept the idea that Lawrence might be on a pathway to a redemption so he tries to sabotage his life.

So when it comes to evaluating the quality of the show,  I have to say that I - like so many others - enjoyed the first season of 'Cobra Kai' quite a bit. I thought that first season as a whole managed to be really well made and entertaining.

Among other things, the episodes are well written and the drama in these episodes feels organic. The characters are believable and you can't help but to feel for Johnny Lawrence's character and how he tries to get his act together, 

Another thing that I also liked about the first season had to do with its fighting scenes. The fighting scenes involving Karate are well choreographed and you just have to appreciate all the great references to the 80s (the show has an awesome 80s soundtrack) 

The only real problem with the first season had to do with the storyline involving LaRusso's cousin. Especially the plotline where he goes to burn Lawrence's car with his mc-buddies just came out of nowhere and wasn't good at all.

So based on the overall solid quality of the first season, I - like many others - had great expectations for the second season too. I expected that the show would perhaps get even better and that we would see great drama on season two too.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the second season of 'Cobra Kai', I have to say that the show - as unfortunate as it is - isn't as good as the first season. The series gets a bit too out of control and tries to be too big with everything.

After all, even though there are a lot of awesome fighting scenes and the soundtrack is still awesome, the storylines in season two just aren't that good. Many of the characters just aren't as believable and relatable as they should be.

Especially when it comes to the behaviour of the characters (Lawrence, Larusso, Kreese, the kids etc.) I just found the stuff to be too extreme. The writers made the characters change too much based on what the storylines told them to do.

Still, when I think of 'Cobra Kai' as a whole, just because there were problems with the show's second season, that doesn't mean that I haven't enjoyed watching the series. I'm not saying that the show is not worth watching or that you shouldn't give it a shot.

After all, there are clearly a lot of great things going on here that cannot be denied. Especially when it comes to William Zabka's acting as Johnny Lawrence, he's a true revelation and is absolutely convincing in his quest to turn his life around.

In that sense, if you're one of those who haven't had a chance to see this drama  / action / comedy series yet, you should definitely give it a chance. You should give it a chance and not automatically think that this won't be a show for you.

After all, even though 'Cobra Kai' could be an even better a series than it is, it still manages to deliver. It manages to deliver and is easily - despite some of its minor flaws - one of the best television shows that are currently out there.