All User Reviews

So far, Anti-woke and raunchy, but good.

(No Spoilers)

It's a solid show if you like Berts comedy style. Reminiscent of a early 2000s comedy/drama but much more raunchy. Satirized characters but the overall story shows a strong male dynamic (For once, in Hollywood.). It's a cross between Married With Children and The Simpsons. Fun character arcs and even though it's raunchy, it's centered around a family first aspect that is sorely lacking these days. There's only 1 season so far but up to this point, there's nothing woke I've noticed.

Show Rating: 6.5/10. (Season 1)
Wokeness: 1/10 (Not woke at all unless you consider the raunchiness woke from a traditional conservative place.)

A rushed adaptation

NOT WOKE.

I watched the first episode twice and didn’t notice any malicious feminism at all. The first time I watched it, I liked it. Sure, it has flaws - the cinematography isn’t perfect, and the pacing is rushed - but to be fair, coming from a production company jumping into a genre where Game of Thrones set the bar pretty damn high, this is not a bad attempt. They deserve some credit for that. And no, nobody’s paying me for this take.

I watched it because it popped up as a new release on a streaming site, not because it came from the right or the left. Who the hell watches things based on that? Seriously. What does left or right even have to do with it? Unfortunately, like 60% of the mainstream industry leans left, and the 30% that’s apolitical is scared to say anything out of fear of getting canceled.

What actually matters is whether it’s good art or not - and on this site in particular, whether it has woke content or not.

I also know there’ll be the ultra-sensitive, anti-everything crowd smashing the NOT HELPFUL button just because they can’t stand seeing a strong female character on screen anymore. And yeah, I get it when it’s forced - but this is NOT the case. Maybe people should do a bit of homework before trying to sound edgy and posting ragebait in a community that’s clearly trying to stay away from that whole rainbow-spiral nonsense.

That said, to be fair, let me add some context to my take.

After watching it the first time, it was immediately clear to me that the women represent gods or humans close to divinity. There’s no girlboss nonsense or anything like that. On the contrary, Charis (Rose Reid) is shown as an Atlantean warrior who saves her people by fighting a massive bull. After that, I came here and saw it labeled as “feminist.” So I started digging to see if I’d misunderstood the episode - and nope, I hadn’t. Nothing felt forced. At least the first episode is a pretty straightforward, faithful adaptation of the books. Honestly, maybe too faithful - I would’ve liked the fantasy elements to be pushed a bit harder.

There are a couple of moments where the practical effects are amazing, and others where the AI stuff makes you want to look away, and my brain just went: bruh 😒

For some background:
The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin is based on the books by Stephen R. Lawhead, specifically the first two volumes: Taliesin (1987) and Merlin (1988). It’s a reinterpretation of the Arthurian legends, set in post-Roman Britain (4th-5th centuries), with elements of fantasy, Atlantis, and a strong Christian subtext.

The two main characters the first episode focuses on are:

Charis (Rose Reid): An Atlantean princess from the fallen Atlantis. She represents the Lady of the Lake, the mystical figure who gives Excalibur to Arthur and is tied to water magic. In the books, she’s Merlin’s mother and becomes a spiritual, salvific figure.

Taliesin (James Arden): The great Celtic bard and seer. He represents the historical and legendary Taliesin, the most famous bard in Welsh tradition (the mythical author of The Book of Taliesin). He’s Merlin’s father - a prophet who gives up his destiny as a great king to follow a higher calling.

So then I came here and saw it labeled as “feminist.” What?!

They’re two damn goddesses, dude.

What were you expecting?

That they kneel before men while the princess is out there fighting a huge bull in an arena to protect her people? Give me a break. Go complain on Twitter.

Bottom line: I watched it, and I’m here to tell anyone reading this (and thanks for sticking till the end) to judge it for yourself. My girlfriend and I are going to give episode two a shot. Maybe it’ll be good, maybe it won’t - but one thing’s for sure: it’s NOT woke.

ℹ UPDATE ℹ
After watching the second episode (which, along with the first, basically turns into a two-part intro about Merlin’s parents) I went into episode 3 kind of excited. The cinematography isn’t exactly top tier, but the fantasy vibe is cool and you can tell they put real effort into the production. Some of the locations are actually really well done.

But that excitement hit the floor fast when the actor playing Merlin started delivering his lines like he was reading off a teleprompter. So, I pushed through for about 15 + minutes and just couldn’t do it anymore. It’s a shame, because the story itself is interesting, but the acting is so rough it makes it unwatchable, at least for me.

I struggled to finish the first episode of this train wreck. Marketed as a comedy/crime/mystery. There is no crime/mystery here. It's all comedy and none of is is funny. This is network tv stupid silly sitcom levels of humor. There is not one likable character in the bunch. The lead female detective is the most annoying irritating one of them all. The story is so bare bones it could barely fill out a movie much less an episodic ongoing series. I never laughed once in the entire 1st episode. This might of worked if the lead detective wasn't so horribly miscast and the comedy toned down to a less corny silly subtle humor. Is it woke, of course. Every DEI box gets checked. Black, Asian, Indian and a couple characters I'm pretty sure will turn out to be gay if I wanted to suffer a couple more episodes to confirm. The black male character is obsessed with the mixed Asian/white female. The lead detective is a black female who is naturally brilliant and her incompetent idiot white male partner. She is acts and talks straight out of the ghetto and couldn't be more unprofessional. If you look at the cast list it is dominated by even more DEI characters than I saw in the first episode so I'm sure it gets worse as it continues.

Another must-see special

Summary:

• Sticking to his apolitical comedic style, this time it’s Trump’s turn.

• He touches on sensitive topics and, as always, it’s very funny.

Enjoy it!

Another one of his big hits

Quick summary:

• In this show, he introduces a new character, different from what he’d been doing before.
• His comedy stays apolitical and he’s always gone after everyone equally, but given when this was recorded, Biden got his turn, and it’s hilarious!

Perfect to watch anytime.

Highly recommended.

Enjoy it!

Slightly above average 80's slasher. Nothing woke. Basic killer returns years later to take revenge on a group of people that wronged him story. Masked killer than stalks and kills a group of friends throwing a party on a moving train. The acting is average, the kills are ok if a little bland. Lite on the blood and gore. It'll pass the time but that's about it.

Generic rather boring slasher from 1981 starring Linda Blair. A college hazes new pledges my making them stay in an old house where a father
killed his family but they never found 2 of the bodies. The 2 surviving family members have been living hidden in the house ever since
and kill everyone. The acting is what you would expect from something like this and while it's rated R I would say it's actually fairly tame by todays standards. Minimal blood and all the kills are kind of bland. The story doesn't make much sense either as this school does this hazing every year yet nothing ever happens until this year, even though the 2 have been hiding there the entire time. Nothing woke.

Good movie

Perfect movie to watch if you are looking for something woke free

Please stop.

I know history needs rebalancing in certain areas, but this is nonsense and propaganda. Thew cinematography is good, but everything else is awful. It reminded me of a rehash of Malcolm X meets the Peaky blinders. Yes the music is good, but that is ultimately a contrast to everything else in the film

A slice of the past

Good cinematography.
A solid narrative based on real events.

Nothing woke.

If you’re in the mood to learn a bit about the Holocaust through a simple, straightforward approach from a different angle, this is a good movie to watch.

BAD MOVIE

I don’t even know how they manage to make movies this bad.

Terrible cinematography, and a good actor giving a really bad performance in a cliché narrative.

On the woke side ⚠SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠ there’s the completely unrealistic idea that the protagonist willingly gives up any chance of walking again to “save the planet,” even though he could’ve been cured earlier. For some stupid reason, he chooses not to, like some kind of protest against technological progress… which gave me twisted body-positivity vibes, while at the same time using a cybernetic exoskeleton that lets him fight in the final act. Total nonsense. Way too hippie for my taste.

That’s pretty much it.

I wouldn’t recommend it.

P.S. Felton is one of the producers.

Vile, vain and avoidable

Disgustingly vile is how the series begins, with the main character being shown graphically defecating diarrhea within the first few minutes. Not only do we get to hear it, we are shown it jetting across the screen, like thick oil spurting from a blown gasket. I have never seen anything so awful despite surfing the Web for years, as one is rarely surprised with such content and can avoid it. Not here, as the viewer is ambushed with nothing to telegraph the depravity one is about to witness. Shock tactics from toddler temperaments.

Then, like a gullible fool, I disbelieved my own eyes and decided to give the crew a second chance by watching the next episode. I should be more judgmental it seems, as again, I was appalled to be subjected to a grizzled old man's full frontal nudity as he relieves himself by spraying towards the viewer. I turned away but was too slow; you see it all and if ever there was a need for brain-bleach then these were it. Even irl, normal men have the grace to conceal this act from others so putting it front and centre is a deliberate act to degrade the viewer. The writers must hate their audience.

What kind of loathsome people (Ira Parker & Aziza Barnes) needed to make millions of people see this? It must be something twisted in their early lives... Indeed, one has already committed suicide at age 32 and we might wonder how long before others follow because these scenes were the product of sick minds. Fair warning: mental illness is contagious. You might recover from food poisoning or an infection but repeat exposure will permanently damage your body. So too the mind can shrivel and die from slow poisoning.

Notice, I have not yet covered anything on the unrealistic racial and gender agenda, which denigrates men and deludes women. White men are shown as obnoxious fools, women as suffering or sex workers, and the love interest is now an ugly, female PoC (I think that's an acceptable term?) because of unrealistic wish-fulfillment fantasies. There are countless incidents scattered through-out the episodes and the political push ruins the immersion. It was dastardly disappointing because I really wanted to enjoy this series as the original tale is wholesome but this portrayal is a betrayal of all that made the tale good.

It is not for me to tell others how to live their lives but, as a mental health worker, I have often been called upon to help the vulnerable and sick minds in society. Prevention is far better than attempting a cure, both for chainsaw accidents and mental illness. Thus I would recommend that decent people Do Not Watch this series. Boycott it and everything these perverts produce as they seek to defile and drag you down to their level by desensitising you to unhealthy and unhygienic behaviours, which ultimately lead to sick, shortened lives and dysfunctional relationships.