TELE PICS

HITS & MISSESS OF THE WEEK...
  • 10 Nov - 16 Nov, 2018
  • Malaeka Amir
  • TV TIME

ALONE TOGETHER

Esther (Esther Povitsky) and Benji (Benji Aflalo) are two best friends, having the time of their lives in Los Angeles minus all the self-loathing and constant bickering. They’re the type of people who do everything but work, and then have the nerve to whine about the lack of money (even with Benji being the youngest in one of the wealthiest families in LA.) “I only like Benji because he lives in a nice house,” says Jeff (Edgar Blackmon), the duo’s best friend, and Esther agrees.

To me, Alone Together’s destination is still unclear since all I’ve seen the characters do is mope, laze and pity themselves. As annoying and frstraing the show gets, its initial appeasement remains regardless of the out-of-character actions Esther and Benji do. It’s also apparent that the two will ever get romantically involved. Sorry, Dean (Chris D’Elia, AKA Beni’s big brother) who says, “They bicker like an old couple.” It’s one of my favorite scenes because right before that Esther tells Benji, “Watching you talk to hot girls is like watching a white person try to explain why all lives matter.”

Just a second away from being depressing, the creators add enough humor to balance it out. The stand up comedies really did pay off at last. Jeff at some time points out, “Neither one of you want to admit that you’re wrong so you dump it on the third party.” It was true, the pair never really admitted their mistakes.

Anyhow, Alone Together is something I’d call perfectly imperfect – a new face but an odd fit.

Rating: 3.5Stars


LIGHT AS A FEATHER

Based on Zoe Aarsen’s Wattpad story, Light as a Feather stars Liana Liberato as McKenna Brady, a student with a perplexing past and three best friends; Candace (Ajiona Alexus), Olivia (Peyton List) and Alex (Brianne Tju). However, when new girl Violet (Harley Lamm) shows up, things go awry. After a game of “Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board” in which they change the rules and read aloud an imaginative cause of death of the person being lifted up, one by one the girls begin to die.

Meant for the spooky season, the series barely contains anything that will genuinely spook you out of your wits. The generic premise does become boring at some point with all of the self-centered characters and awkward dialogue deliverance. Violet is too obviously portrayed as the villain but the camera still zeroes in on her devious looks (which she passes to no one. Weird girl) every three seconds to remind us of her schemes as if we’d forget. McKenna is that whiny, confuse teenager stuck in a love triangle between Olivia’s brother and her neighbour. Aside from these two girls, the rest are given little to none character development as the show progresses, which is a disappointment.

The friendship between the group seems forced and the story line gets more absurd when characters are more concerned about who kisses who and jealousy, rather than the fact they are about to get killed. A bad mix, really. Maybe it would’ve been better if it stayed as a book instead of becoming a full fleshed series.

Rating: 2Stars


HEATHERS

Inspired by a movie of the same name, Heathers is about a clique called “The Heathers”, the leader being body positive Heather Chandler (Melanie Field) with biracial and pretending to be gay Heather McNamara (Jasmine Mathews) and gender-queer Heather Duke (Brendan Scannell). Along with them are JD (James Scully) and Veronica (Grace Victoria Cox), both striving to bring peace back to Westerburg.

The series doesn’t stay with one thing for long and moves on its way quickly. For example, the suicides. Before you can even grasp the situation, teenagers all across the school are killing themselves. Heathers also moves to show that now, body shape doesn’t matter, the money in your pocket does.

“We don’t do irony anymore, keep up.” Heather Chandler clearly states in the pilot and it’s obvious if all the insults, hate and aggression mixed into an unoriginal high school is anything to go by. Also, the dialogues are less dialogues and more like random tweets picked off of twitter. The series had been aiming for wittiness but I couldn’t spot anything like that.

I wouldn’t have minded the lack of chemistry between JD and Veronica, I really wouldn’t have but the amount of focus their relationship has been given is ridiculous. Neither of them have any general reason to be attracted to each other and it makes no sense why they would date or why they would be given the center at so many points.

Honestly, the creators could’ve done a much better job seeing how successful and amazing the original Heathers was. Or they should’ve just not remade it again.

Rating: 2Stars

RELATED POST

COMMENTS