HBO:s 'Avenue 5' is an awful comedy series.

When it comes to creating quality comedy shows for television, it's not exactly a secret that coming up with quality shows is not easy. Most shows that get produced aren't even remotely well made and don't have what it takes to keep us entertained.

Indeed, in order to create a solid series that could be funny, you need to come up with stuff that actually makes sense. You need to have a solid premise, relatable characters and you also need to have storylines that would feel relevant, which is pretty difficult.

So a couple of months ago, when I noticed that HBO was coming up with a new sci-fi comedy called 'Avenue 5', I was not getting my hopes up. I was pretty certain that this would not be a series worth watching and that it would not be worth my time.

The reason for this is that 'Avenue 5' was made by the same guys who had done 'Veep'. 'Veep' was a wildly overrated 'satire' about politics that had nothing going on in it except for excessive cursing and unnecessary vulgarity (Hollywood at its worst).

Not surprisingly, having now finally seen the first episodes of 'Avenue 5', I can say that my predictions (based on the trailer) turned out to be completely correct. The series, unfortunately, is exactly as empty as I had thought and possibly even worse.

So when it comes to the show, one of the worst things about 'Avenue 5' is that no one seems to know what the purpose of it is. The premise of a carnival cruise space ship full of passengers that malfunctions isn't well thought out and doesn't have much potential in it.

In reality, once you start watching the series, it doesn't take long before it becomes obvious that there's just something terribly wrong here. The whole thing feels unfocused and disjointed (everything seems to be all over the place). 

When it comes to the characters on the series, things aren't unfortunately any better. As the supposed main protagonist, you have a 'captain', played by the usually awesome Hugh Laurie, who doesn't know what he's really supposed to do.

Indeed, on the show as a 'fake' captain wearing the outfit, he just keeps scrambling and is clueless. This is somehow supposed to be funny, even though it really defies all kind of logic and feels like the creators of the show weren't even trying here. 

Unfortunately, the supporting cast is peppered with characters that are even worse. You have characters like an obvious 'Jack Black' doppelganger, an arguing married couple, poorly crafted token minorities and other weirdos that just feel out of place.

Not surprisingly, since the premise of the series isn't well thought out and the characters aren't well defined or interesting, the storylines don't work either. There doesn't seem to be any real stakes, even though the ship is supposedly in real trouble.

Indeed, once I kept watching the episodes, all I could think was that the characters behave as if there was nothing wrong with anything. Their superficial and vain behaviour is just so out of touch that at least to me it felt super infuriating. 

In hindsight, the only 'good thing about the series is that its production values seem to be really solid. It's obvious that a lot of money was spent on the series and that at least at some point the top brass at HBO actually believed in the show. 

After all, when you look at the visual production values, things at least in that department look good. The sets look really expensive and you can tell that the CGI-folks have been working on the show quite diligently (the ship looks pretty good). 

Still, when it comes to the show as a whole, even though the production values are high in 'Avenue 5', those production qualities are obviously not enough. It's apparent that everything else about the series is totally abysmal and does not work.

After all, even though (among other things) Hugh Laurie is a superb actor, there are just too many basic problems here. These flaws (like concept, characters, storylines) are just too serious and too severe for the show to have potential to work in any decent way.

In that sense, if you haven't seen 'Avenue 5' yet, it's safe to say that you should not waste your time on this series. You should not be excited about it and thinking that it would be worth your time or worth watching at some point.

After all, even though there are some big names involved here, in the end, the show just doesn't work. It doesn't work and despite its big production values, the series manages to be disappointing and doesn't have anything meaningful or real going on in it.

Review: Pixar's animated film 'Onward'.

Over the course of the last few weeks I've tried to find time to watch some movies with my friend. We have tried to find time together so that we could watch films (preferably animated ones) that would be worth our time and worth watching.

Thankfully, once we noticed that Pixar had recently released a new animated movie, it wasn't a difficult decision to give it a chance. It was a pretty safe bet that we would find their latest film, 'Onward', to be at least somewhat entertaining. 

So when it comes to the movie, the basic premise in 'Onward' is that you have a society that has over the years given up on using magic. Once the technology kept advancing, there was no reason to use magic, since it more or less became obsolete.

When it comes to the characters in it, as a protagonist we have a 16 year elf Ian, who is a role playing game fan. He's a socially awkward teen who lives with his brother, mother and her new boy-friend cop who has come to replace Ian's father who died when he was young.

Story-wise, the catalyst in the film happens once Ian gets a wooden staff as a birthday present from his mother. The gift also includes a spell that he could use to summon his dad for twenty four hours, in case he wants to spend time with him.

Not surprisingly, once Ian decides to cast the spell, things don't go as planned. As the staff's crystal breaks during the cast, he only manages to summon the lower half of his dad's body - which leads him on a journey to find another crystal to complete the spell.

Quality-wise, when it comes to the film, it's safe to say that there are a lot of good things that can be said about 'Onward'. A lot of these qualities are things that we all have learned to expect from films by Pixar studios over the years.

After all, there's no question that the movie looks really amazing and that it's genuinely a joy to look at all those things happening on the screen. The characters are lively (and likable) and you can't help but to be interested in what's going on.

Another good thing about the film is that there are a lot of visual jokes and other funny observations that made me and my friend laugh. I thought that a lot of the action scenes had absolutely superb gags that you don't seen in most animated films.

At the same time, even though the film is rather entertaining, there's no question that the storyline in 'Onward' is a bit contrived. It takes a long time before the story gets going and I don't think that many of the film's emotional moments were that well earned.

Indeed, especially when it comes to the last act's 'bucket list' before the climactic battle, I just didn't feel that it made much sense. It felt a bit too out of place based on my viewing experience and perhaps should have been trimmed down.

Still, when you look at the movie as a whole, I have to say that despite these flaws and the story being a bit muddled, the film still managed to be watchable. The movie certainly had solid laughs, even though there were some problems in the screenplay.

After all, even though the story and the characters could have been better defined, at least in my case, that's not to say that the negative aspects managed to outweigh the positive aspects. The story flaws in the film weren't still that serious in my opinion.

In that sense, if you haven't managed to watch the film yet, I think it's pretty safe to say that you should watch it at some point. You should watch it (especially if you happen to be a gamer) and not be discouraged by some of the film's weaker aspects.

After all, especially when you take into account all the absurd fantasy aspects in 'Onward', they saved the movie. These comedy moments saved it and made me enjoy the film, even though the story should have been better and the themes in it should have been clearer.

Movie review: 'Spies in Disguise'.

So when it comes to animated movies, it's not exactly a secret that I'm a pretty big fan of these movies. I genuinely like these films in the genre and do my best to watch pretty much every animated movie that has gotten even remotely decent reviews. 

After all, for me watching animated films is something that gives me hope as a person. Watching these films helps me to forget my usual worries and allows me to become something else while I get immersed in these captivating stories.

So naturally, when I noticed that there was a new animated film out there called 'Spies in Disguise', I had to give it a chance. I thought that I had to watch the film, even though its premise of a 'secret agent becoming a pigeon' sounded pretty silly.

Having now seen the movie with my friend last week, I have to say that, I was pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of the film. The movie managed to be surprisingly entertaining and funny, even though I had my doubts about it at first.

So when it comes it to the story in the film, the plot in it is admittedly fairly basic. We have a nerdish 10-year old kid inventor coming up with his gadgets and hoping that one day he would manage to join the law enforcement / intelligence community. 

Not surprisingly, once the kid (voiced by Tom Holland) grows up, he finds himself being a scientist in this MI6-like organization inventing stuff. He works as one of the assistants for the super secret agent (Will Smith) who has managed to save the world again and again.

Later on, as the agent gets framed for a crime that he didn't commit and needs help, our scientist helps with the invention that he came up with. Together they go on a journey (the agent as a pigeon) and manage to save the day.

Quality-wise, the real reason that the movie works is because the writers manage to do a good job with script even though the premise just isn't that plausible or strong. It's really a positive surprise how well the story beats work in the film.

After all, as I watched the movie, I couldn't help but to notice that they did a lot of right decisions with the script. These decisions, like making the chasing team (semi antagonist) making rational decisions etc. really elevated the movie to another level.

In that sense, when it comes to 'Spies in Disguise' as a whole, even though this isn't the greatest animated film ever, I had no problems being entertained by it. There's really tons of good things happening in the film structure-wise.

After all, even though the basic idea of a 'secret agent transforming into a pigeon' isn't strong, the rest of the story somehow works. I was pleasantly surprised how the writers managed to make the right decisions story- and character-wise as the film kept going on.

In that sense, if you haven't seen 'Spies in Disguise' yet, I think it's safe to say that you should probably give it a chance. You should watch the film (75% fresh by critics and 92% fresh by the audience at Rottentomatoes.com) at some point.

After all, even though the film isn't that well known and didn't do that well at the box-office (only 166 million dollars world-wide) that's not all there is to it. You shouldn't give up on it based on its lacklustre commercial performance.

On the contrary, when it all is said and done, the film does work well. It works and shows that just because your premise isn't strong, the story can still work, as long as your writers know what they're doing and as long as they are willing to take their jobs seriously.