'Reacher' - season one review.

So when it comes to my tv watching habits, I haven't recently been watching almost anything on television. Especially when we're talking about drama shows, lately there hasn't been pretty much any shows that I have found to be worth my time. 

Indeed, most drama shows that you see on tv - as unfortunate as it is - are so badly written and so uninteresting that I'm just not able to stomach them. There's almost zero chance that watching them would make me feel better about myself or life in general.

At the same time, every now and then, if there's enough hype for a show, I might give the series a chance. This is what happened with the freshly released 'Reacher', a show that I felt it could be worth my time, since I had seen clips from the Tom Cruise 'Reacher' films.

So having now seen the first season of this Amazon Prime series, I have to say that I had a mostly positive experience watching 'Reacher'. The show was pretty well made and interesting, even though - not surprisingly - as a writer I had some issues with its story.

Premise-wise, what we're dealing here is that our protagonist is Jack Reacher, a massively built army major, who lives his life as a vagrant. He doesn't have a permanent place to live and instead goes where he feels his services might be needed (like Incredible Hulk).

Indeed, in this story he's on personal mission trying to figure out what happened to his brother and why he died in a small town in the state of Georgia. Something fairly big must have likely been happening there and he's determined to get to the bottom of it. 

Not surprisingly, as a man who knows how to use his big physique when needed, it won't take long before he gets into action. The locals, cops, business elite and others are determined to stop him from unveiling the mystery of what's going on.

Luckily, as the story progresses, he doesn't have to do everything by himself. Together with the help of a local head of a police department (Malcolm Goodwin) and a female police officer (Will Fitzgerald), they team up, even though the odds seem to be heavily against them.

Quality-wise, there's no question that one of the best things about 'Reacher' is that Alan Ritchson genuinely fits the part. Unlike Tom Cruise in Lee Child's books, Ritchson, besides being a solid actor, is actually a big guy who feels intimidating size-wise.

Indeed, as he almost from the very first moment starts beating up bad guys, it feels rather enjoyable to watch the stuff. I was surprised how much I - as a person who in general is against violence - managed to find these fight scenes satisfying and even worth cheering for.

Production-wise, when it comes to the positive aspects of the series, it has to be said that 'Reacher' is well shot and looks good. It's clear that a lot of attention was paid to making sure that the production values would be high enough and that the series wouldn't look cheap.

Script- and story-wise, the few problems that I had with the first season was that it definitely took too long for the audience and for the characters to know what's going on. The conspiracy of a local / international counterfeit ring felt a bit lacking.

After all, drama-wise, when almost every episode (eight of them total) started with someone getting killed and we didn't really know what was going on, it was a bit frustrating. As a writer, I wasn't always feeling super confident that the story would actually go somewhere.  

Still, once we finally got to the conclusion of the season, I guess the story was explained 'almost' adequately. These flaws that were sometimes rather apparent with the narrative (from a professional viewpoint), didn't prevent me from enjoying the series too much. 

In that sense, in the end, when it comes to the question of whether you should the show a chance at some point, I think you should probably give 'Reacher' a go. You should watch it and not be discouraged by the original author's 'not quality fiction' reputation.

After all, even though the story could have been better and more believable, I would recommend the series as a whole. 'Reacher' is a watchable and immersive show, especially for those who want to be entertained and don't want to watch something that is 'too' serious.

'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' movie review.

Last week as me and my friend were looking for a movie to watch, we decided to give chance to a film that I had wanted to see. We're talking about 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife', a movie that was released late last year and had been received rather well by the fans of the franchise.

Indeed, unlike the rather awful 'all female' Ghostbusters from 2016 that wasn't received well by the fans, this one actually seemed promising. The original creators were behind this new one, so there was a solid chance that me and my friend would enjoy the movie. 

So having now seen the film with my friend, I have to say that 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' is a fairly solid movie. The film works rather well and manages to respect the original movies from the 80s, even though there are some minor issues in it that need to be addressed.

Premise-wise, the movie takes place in Oklahoma, where Callie, the daughter of one of the 'ghostbusters' (Egon Spengler) has relocated with her family. Her dad Egon has recently passed away and the family - in financial distress - is there to check what Egon had left for them.

Exposition-wise, as we're introduced to the characters trying to restart their life - as the story slowly unfolds - we get to know that things aren't going great for them. The farm that Egon left for her daughter / grandkids is in poor shape and more or less worthless.

When it comes to the film's catalyst, the movie starts to get going when granddaughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) finds that Egon's farm has all kinds of things going on in there. The place is inhabited by a seemingly friendly ghost and the farm has some freaky gadgets and stuff there. 

Indeed, as Phoebe introduces the 'ghost trap' to her summer school teacher (Paul Rudd), it becomes apparent that her grandpa was an infamous ghostbuster from the 80s. This is something that surprises our young protagonist who wasn't even alive back then.

Plot-wise, the big mystery in the story is what is causing the earthquakes in a place like Summerville. There's no real scientific reason for this occurrence in the heartland of America, so something weird has to be causing the phenomenom there.

Not that surprisingly, as the films goes further, it's revealed that these quakes happen because of ghosts that are residing in Summerville. They're about to come back to terrorize us and our 'new' ghostbusters need to find a way to stop them in order to save the world.

Quality-wise, when it comes to the overall quality of the film, there's no question that this movie, unlike the 2016 'abomination' is an honest effort. The emphasis was clearly on making sure that the story would feel real and 'believable' to the audience.

Indeed, had this film not been so well cast (everyone seems to like the kid actors), so beautifully shot and so respectful to the original films, it wouldn't have worked. In that case we would have been delivered a disappointing movie like the 'non-canon' 2016 version was.

Story-wise, the only real problem in the film is that the script in 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' is a bit weak in places. It takes almost too long for the story to unfold and some of the (lack of) exposition in the film, like Egon's ghost is a bit questionable story-wise.

Still, when it all is said and done, despite these certain flaws, these pacing issues weren't at least in my opinion too serious and didn't hurt the movie too much. They weren't too serious and didn't prevent me and my friend from enjoying the story that much.

In that sense, if you haven't managed to see 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' yet and are thinking about giving it a go, you should do it. You should watch the movie, because even though the film could have been better, it still managed to be surprisingly well made and entertaining as a whole.