While being stuck at home, Netflix hails as my savior these days. So in the effort of being more productive, I'm streaming shows, movies, and documentaries that I haven't gotten around to watching yet. Unfortunately, I had to start off with these three disappointments.
Lucifer (Season 4)
It was a very beautiful day when Netflix decided to pick up Lucifer after being canceled on Fox. However, the finished product wasn’t as satisfying as I imagined it to be. The storyline is one of the show’s weakest so far, and the unbelievable character arcs add nothing to improve it. It’s kind of a given the Lucifer will eventually go back to ruling hell, but the big villain reveal was delayed too much for it to be a reasonable reason for his return. The use of the Priest as the season’s main antagonist was too cliche to ignore. I liked the relationship between Maze and Linda, but it was also kind of sad to see Amenadiel fade in the background due to his lackluster arc. Chloe’s entire decision making during the season didn’t make sense, she simply had too much trust and love between her and Lucifer to sacrifice it all. Lucifer’s relationship with Eve was fun but I knew it wasn’t going to last because Chloe and Lucifer were always meant to be. One of the season’s weakest points is that the relationship between Lucifer and Chloe wasn’t explored more romantically earlier since we’ve already had three seasons of teasing back and forth between these two. The under-utilization if Scarlett Estevez’s Trixie was almost criminal. While I got used to seeing beauty work on tv, the heavy filters used on Eve’s character was too distractedly obvious. Overall, the ending leaves a world of possibilities for Season five, and hopefully, Lucifer’s new home would be explored in ways we haven’t seen before on the show.
History 101
Natalie Silverman’s soothing voice narrating world history could have been better if the show was more accurate. You don’t need to be a history buff to see the clear bias in the episodes, especially when information is as easily accessible as today. While I was expecting the episodes to delve into ancient civilizations, Religions, Medieval Europe etc…, it was based on modern history. The topics explored in the 10 episodes series had no connection or timeline whatsoever, which left the show feeling random instead of cohesive. The use of manipulative and persuasive language was a strange choice for a history show, despite agreeing with what is being said a lot of the time, it still left a bad taste in my mouth. I loved the style of the episodes, the length, and editing, and despite all the negativeness, I think it would be a good idea to renew it with more interesting and unbiased topics.
Space Force
I’m not going to lie, when I first heard of this I expected The Office In space. That hope was carried throughout my viewing of this show which did more harm than good. Comparing a product for what it could have been instead of what we got is an unfair judgment to follow through, yet even after I tried giving it a chance it still fell short. The problem started with the trailer that didn’t even make me chuckle once, yet I persisted and regrettably watched the entire season. The political jokes were too safe to be hilarious, unlike shows like Veep where the jokes are anything but politically correct. I liked the story and how every episode is unique, the same goes for the camera work and editing which were a bold choice for a comedy but I liked this refreshing change. The show slows down in the middle which is an indication that it probably could’ve worked as an eight or six-episode series instead of ten. Steve Carell and the rest of the cast are a great assembly, I loved how they played their characters and took themselves seriously despite the ridiculousness around them. If you’ve never watched The Office you would find yourself enjoying Space Force, unfortunately, this is a bias I’m trying to get over. Space Force is a chuckle, not a burst of laughter-inducing comedy that is too politically correct to cross over the edge of mediocracy.
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