His Dark Materials (serial)

Season 1

Based on the trilogy by Philip Pullman which amazingly, I haven't read. So now I suppose I must. Lyra lives in Oxford. Well, an Oxford. In her Oxford, all people have Daemons, their animal spirit creatures that are with them all the time. She becomes embroiled in a child kidnapping ring and encounters both of her long lost parents as she does everything she can to save her friends. This is a fantastic world created with armored bears and dirigibles and ... well just watch it. Well done.

4 stars (out of 5)

The Professionals (serial)

 Season 1

The 2020 version of the A-team. A group of professional mercenaries get hired on by a billionaire to track down who sabotaged his rocket launch. And the writing and dramatic content is about equal to the A-team as well. Cheesy, but low key fun. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Wonder Woman 1984

I must say that I was underwhelmed. I don't know if it is the times, or if 80's flashback movies are past their prime, or if it was just not a good story. The story is set in 1984, so we get all the typical 80's paraphernalia (neon spandex, leg warmers, malls, and cold war tension). We get Diana encountering a god-made stone that grants wishes (at a cost of course) and then she needs to put the cat back in the bag. If this had released in 1984, or even 1994 it would have been amazing. But now, just Meh. Perhaps I expect more social commentary by my heroes. I expect them to speak to the greater good. Instead, we get Wonder Woman pining over a man, and nearly willing to sacrifice humanity for said man. And it's 2020, which means that pining over a man is not anywhere close to the message that anyone wants to hear. And even so, we know she won't really sacrifice humanity so there isn't even any real tension from this core motivational driver. But she did finally get her invisible plane...

2 stars (out of 5)

Army of One

 Somewhere in the backwoods of Appalacia (we presume) a local gang encounters a couple of campers and kills them for seeing their operation. Well, kills him. She turns out to be a former Ranger who survives and goes Rambo. I would say definitely B-level. But I would also guess that if I actually watched Rambo now, it would be on par. 

2 stars (out of 5)

The Honest Thief

Really, this is Liam Neeson playing the character of Liam Neeson. A bank robber trying to confess finds that corrupt FBI are threatening the love of his life. Time to take matters into your own hands.

2 stars (out of 5)

Superintelligence

 Melissa McCarthy is an "ordinary woman" (who happens to be a former dot com founder and is currently "moving on to the next thing"). She is chosen by an AI, that has been released into the wild, as a representative sample of humanity to determine if humanity is worthy of existence. Kinda fun, with James Corden as the voice of the AI. Mostly predictable.

3 stars (out of 5)