Schmigadoon! 2021-2023 TV SHOW REVIEW

 

I never knew I could be more addicted to a show like Schmigadoon. I was able to watch it when we were paying for the Apple TV+ add on on Amazon Prime. We were paying for it because we were watching Ted Lasso and cancelled the subscription once we finished watching it. It has been renewed for a fourth season so we may have to pay for it again. However, I was able to binge watch the entire series before the cancellation fully came through. Let me tell you, I have a lot to say about it.

Before I start the review, I must tell you what it is about. It tells the story of a couple, both doctors, named Josh (played by Keegan Michael-Key) and Melissa (played by Cecily Strong) that go on a couple's retreat because their relationship is falling apart. The first season is set in the town of Schmigadoon (a play on Brigadoon), which blends elements of various Golden Age musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. However, the second season relocates the action to the city of Schmicago (a play on Chicago) and incorporates the darker, edgier themes of 1960s and 1970s musicals. In my personal opinion, season 1 is far better than season 2. This is because the plot, characters and the soundtrack were better developed and more iconic. The jokes as well were more funny because they would sometimes reference the fact that women essentially had very little civil rights back then and that the female characters in the musicals were according to Melissa "not fully developed" because times have changed and that women have more rights than ever before. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled after those two seasons. It turns out that season three would have been titled Into the Schmoods, a play on Into the Woods, and would have parodied that musical as well as Cats, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera and other stage and film musicals of the 1980s and 1990s. I don't think it would have worked and not as good as the previous two seasons. I feel like the ending of season was perfect. I'm not going to spoil anything. However, there is a recently adapted stage show and it adapts the first season only and that Cinco Paul, the creator and songwriter of the show, is hoping to adapt all three seasons (yes, including the third season that didn't happen).

Key and Strong lead a interstellar cast including Dove Cameron, Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, Ariana DeBose and Aaron Tveit. Some of the cast actually returned to star in season 2 playing completely different roles than season 1, which really made me happy and amused because I really enjoyed everybody's performances as they were all able to play very different characters effectively. What I found very surprising was Dove Cameron's singing voice. I was fully aware that she has a music career and starred in the Descendants film series (with Chenoweth playing her mother). I have never seen Descendants and the only song that I have heard is Boyfriend and she sounds completely different in that song than what she sounded like in this. I think she sounds so much better in this because she is showing off her musical theatre talents and not gonna lie, she should be in more musical theatre stuff on stage. 

Danny Bailey. Let's talk about him. For context, Danny Bailey is a character in season 1 and he is played by Aaron Tveit. He is the so called "rapscallion" of the town and he works as the carnival barker. For those who don't know what a carnival barker is, it is a person who loudly promotes and attempts to attract customers to a carnival or other entertainment event. The character is based on Billy Bigelow from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Carousel. He is by far my all time favourite character in the ENTIRE show. I always like to watch an absolute dream boat in a film or TV show (because, you know, they are the best part of the whole thing) and Danny Bailey is one of them, He can sing, he can dance, he can do the whole lot. He can convince me to come to the carnival (and to his bedroom I know that for sure *wink* *wink*). The moment he started singing You Can't Tame Me was the moment I realised that I was going to have this strange crush on him. Aaron Tveit did a really good job at playing a charismatic, proudly single man who dresses fabulously. He really suits a turtle neck and high-waist trousers. He needs to wear them more often. 

The overall vibe of the show is just so vibrant and positive throughout. Despite season 2's whole aesthetic is meant to be more gritty, dark and negative overall, it still has the positivity and excellent soundtrack that season 1 had. The costumes for both seasons are very colourful and obviously very fitting for the time period it is meant to fit (1940-1950s musicals being set in Civil War/1900s time and 1960s/1970s musicals set mainly 1920s to parody Chicago with a sprinkle of 1960s with the hippy scenes). The soundtrack and characters was actually meant to parody, or should I say sample, actually characters and songs from the musicals they were meant to parody. These unfortunately lowers my rating because I am not a musical nerd, but I do enjoy some musicals, and I didn't get most of the references. I got some of them, but not all of them. However, the soundtrack and characters receive all of the positive feedback from me. If I had the opportunity to binge watch the show again, I  would definitely take the opportunity.

7/10

Wrinkly Orange vs Hollywood

 

It has just been announced that Donald Trump, a man that looks like an outdated tangerine wearing a wig with a lifted lace, has just announced that he has plans to put 100% tariffs on films that were made outside of the United States, or as he states it "foreign lands". This man is so desperate for attention it's unreal. I can't escape any of his bullsh1t. After he broke the code of conduct at the Pope's funeral and posted AI pictures of himself dressed up as the Pope as well as a jedi for May 4th, I dreaded to think what is coming to come out of his crusty, wrinkly arsehole next. 

Now he is turning around and saying that he wants to put tariffs on movies that were made outside of the US. Does this absolute melon realise how many films this applies to in total? If this goes forward, he will be responsible for wrecking America's economy. To take some random recent examples: Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning was mostly shot in the UK, at Longcross studios in Surrey and the Lake District, but also in Malta, Norway and South Africa, as well as an American aircraft carrier docked in Italy. Marvel’s new film Thunderbolts* was filmed in Atlanta Georgia, but a key scene took place at Merdeka 118, a skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and its score was recorded at Abbey Road studios in London. If Trump introduced these tariffs before those films were released, those films would potentially have never been made and the film studios would have a lot less money than they did before the films were made.

Trump had to pause tariffs because he knew that the economy was plunging in a very concerning rate. He clearly hasn't learnt from the previous tariffs that he has put in place. Americans don't deserve to go through The Wall Street Crash 2.0, apart from his delusional supporters who look up to him as a king and a deity. I've always had a strong hatred for Trump's supporters. Like I have just said, they look up to him like a king, which completely goes against the US constitution by the way. It's like a f3cking cult! They are such hypocrites who are incapable of explaining why Trump is so amazing and they can't even explain what polices they agree with. I've watched Trump supporters getting interviewed and the interviewer usually ask which of Trump's policies is their favourite (Dean Whithers is a very good example of this) and the interviewer usually annihilate the Trump supporters by using logic and real statistics and facts. GET F3CKED TRUMP SUPPORTERS!

Trump is essentially doing this because he believes that foreign films are a "national security threat" and that Hollywood is dying. Read the full tweet. It's utterly ridiculous.

I don't know if Trump is mentally ill or developing dementia, but I DO know that he is a blithering idiot that needs to be impeached, third time lucky if you know what I mean. I totally understand that Trump had a cameo in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, but that doesn't make him an actor or an important figure in the entertainment industry. He has no voice over what goes Hollywood and what goes on around it. His appearance in The Apprentice doesn't count as him being in entertainment because he was pretending to be a businessman on a TV show. I can't even call him a businessman given that he has been bankrupt more than once. I wonder if Stormy Daniels has made a film outside of the US.  This tweet is anti-marketing AND anti-art. It can be argued that it is also an attempt to promote American propaganda, which nobody is liking or buying. If this goes forward, this would mean that major film companies will be limited in film locations and budgets will be a lot lower than they usually are. This could mean that film studios could lose a lot more money than they are in some cases. This will also impact the US's economy and workers's wages. Does the The SAG-AFTRA strike ring any bell?

In conclusion, Trump you are an idiot and you need to be put down like a dog and impeached at the same time.

Étoile 2025 TV SHOW REVIEW

I was completely invested into this Amazon Prime original series when I found out that it was from the same creators and producers that made The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (also Amazon Prime original) & Gilmore Girls and that Luke Kirby, who also stars in Mrs. Maisel and one of my favourite actors, was going to star in the lead role. I was able to binge watch the show in a couple of days watching two episodes a day and here are my overall thoughts.

This definitely isn't on par with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but I still enjoyed the whole aesthetic and every episode of this show (the show only currently has eight episodes, so you can get it done in a couple of days or so. Maybe a whole day. Do whatever that floats your boat). I also enjoyed both its comedic and dramatic elements. They are almost perfectly balanced. It tells the story of the dancers and artistic staff of two world-renowned ballet companies, one American and one French, embarking on an ambitious gambit to try and save their storied institutions by swapping their most talented stars. The name of the show, Étoile, is French for Star. It can be referred to a celestial body or a shape resembling a star. In the context of ballet, "étoile" also refers to the principal dancer or prima ballerina. The character of Cheyenne Toussaint (played by Lou de Laâge) is the so called Étoile, or Star, of the show. 

Most characters in the show, including Cheyenne, I didn't really like. This was probably due to them being either bitches, god awfully annoying, or perhaps both. It definitely isn't the show's fault, it's just me being picky and having taste. The only character that I actually liked was Jack McMillan (played by Luke Kirby obviously). I felt like he was the only character that was full developed and had a human-like personality. He looked like he really cared about his ballet company and the future of it and his job. Everybody else just felt so inhuman and somewhat poorly developed. Let's take Tobias Bell as an example, the absolute worst character in the show by the way. He is constantly emotionally unstable and gets pissed off at his dancers all the time. There is a particular scene in  the final episode of the show that is so unhinged and would never happen in real life. I won't spoil the whole scene in heavy amounts of detail, but I'll describe it as vague as I possibly can. Tobias is a famed choreographer who is best known for losing his absolute sh1t at his dancers for very little things. Think Terence Fletcher from Whiplash, if you know you know. There is a scene in episode 8 where Tobias interrupts a performance that HE choreographed by entering the stage, has a hissy fit and changes the choreography on stage while the audience in the theatre and the whole of France watches. I'm sorry, but that was probably one of the most unhinged and most second-hand embarrassing moment in television history. This does not happen during any theatre performance whether it be a musical, ballet or even an opera. Yes, protesters invade the stage and interrupt a performance, I've seen that happen a couple of times online, but the CHOREOGRAPHER of a production does not rehearse while the audience and everybody else watches. What made the scene worse was that the audience didn't even leave the the theatre during that scene. They just stayed in their seats. To be fair, if the audience were to try and leave, Tobias would stop them in their tracks and probably tie them up to their seats. He is that much of a psycho. Somebody better make a Tobias Bell mentality video otherwise I'll have to make it myself.

It is clearly obvious that Amazon Prime is trying to appeal to younger audiences through the references of TikTok and gender neutral toilets (If you watch the show, you'll know what I am talking about). I completely get that it is 2025, gender neutral toilets are on the rise and the definition of a woman has to be relooked, but I know damn well that people will think that this show is "woke" and that it supports left-wing beliefs. I DON'T CARE! I JUST WANT TO WATCH A SHOW AND BE ENTERTAINED. POLITICS IS BORING!

The theme song and the songs chosen for the soundtrack are actually really good. I had never heard of Sons of Raphael until I started watching this series. They actually do pretty good music and I might have to start reviewing their albums or something.70s rock band Sparks also performed their song I Married Myself and was completely blown away by that performance too. I think this show has completely altered my music taste. Some of the songs were classical music and French pop songs, obviously because ballet dancers dance to classical music and also some of the characters are French and some of the scenes were filmed in Paris. Speaking of France, some of the characters speak in French in some of the scenes as well as English. The majority of the show is spoken in English. Because I can't speak French, I couldn't get on board with the characters speaking French. Even thought the subtitles translate the conversations, I still feel like those scenes were unnecessary and worthless to the story. This is not because of the language, but because of the context of the scenes. I was quite slow at understanding them.

This is the part where I talk about just Luke Kirby and how amazing he is. I just found out while I was writing this post that he is married, which definitely doesn't upset me at all, like at all. I was introduced to him when I watched him play a fictional version of the real life comedian Lenny Bruce in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He was only in a couple of episodes, but I still enjoyed his performance. Overtime, I would watch him in a bunch of stuff such as Boston Strangler opposite Keira Knightley and in No Man of God where he plays Ted Bundy. TED BUNDY! THE SERIAL KILLER!  He is an incredible actor in literally anything he does, especially this show and No Man of God. Honestly, I don't know how he does it. I need to find out who his acting coach is or whoever taught him to be an exquisite performer. To be honest with you, I can see him being nominated for an Academy Award one day. If he wins one, I will fly to the moon and back. There was  a film that he was in called Little Woods (titled Crossing the Line in the UK) where he stars alongside Lily James and Tessa Thompson and I need to watch it so badly. It's just sat there on my Amazon Prime watchlist. He is such an underrated actor that needs more appreciation and love from the cinephile community. Trust me when I say that he is one of the best actors of this generation. I would never lie. 

Anyways, overall, this show is pretty enjoyable if you enjoy music and dancing and if you have a patience for bitchy and annoying characters. It is definitely not the best show that I ever watch and if they make a season 2, I'm more than happy to watch it...only for Luke Kirby (sorry, it's becoming an obsession). ;)

6/10

King Kong 1933 FILM REVIEW

Merian C. Cooper, Edgar Wallace and the cast and crew at RKO Radio Pictures are essentially responsible for the success and legacy of the King Kong franchise that is still going on today. It all started with this Pre-Code picture from 1933. Directed by Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, it tells the story of a film crew that go to a tropical island to shoot a picture. I know that sounds like a terrible idea, but they went along with it anyway. They eventually capture a giant ape, Kong, who essentially has a crush on the blonde lead actress named Ann Darrow (played by Fay Wray), and the crew bring him back to New York City where he will be known as "The Eighth Wonder of the World".  The film also starts Robert Armstrong as Carl Denham, the film's director and Bruce Cabot as Jack Driscoll, a sailor who is another member of the crew and Ann's love interest. The film was eventually remade in 2005 with Peter Jackson directing, Naomi Watts playing Wray's role, Adrien Brody as Cabot's role (where he job in this version is a playwright and screenwriter and not a sailor) and Jack Black playing Armstrong's role. Both films are equally great by the way, but I might make a blog stating which one is better based on casting, directing, cinematography etc. There is also a remake made in 1976 starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange (in her film debut), but it is a modernised version and doesn't follow the original storyline, whereas the 2005 remake does. 

This was the film that got me into old Hollywood movies as a whole as well as old horror and film noir movies. It is considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time due to its set, storyline and stop motion portrayal of Kong and I believe it is an essential movie for those who want to get into old Hollywood movies and those who want to watch something thrilling and exciting.

"And lo! The Beast looked upon the face of Beauty, and it stayed its hand from killing. And from that day, it was as one dead."

Based on the so called "Old Arabian Proverb" that isn't actually a proverb but instead a quote written by Cooper himself, it is clearly obvious as to what is going to happen in the movie. Kong is going to feel somewhat attracted to the lead actress (you know, because most male leads in old films like this one do) and try to make her his for life. When I first watched this, I genuinely thought that this was an ancient proverb that a wise man once wrote, but unfortunately I was exposed to a complete lie for many years. When I found out that it was written by Cooper, I was severely disappointed and the film felt a little different and the magic sort of faded away, but the overall vibe of the film felt exactly the same. I still enjoyed its original beauty.

Speaking of love interests, the one thing that I believe shouldn't be written in was the romance between Ann and Jack. I know it was expected at the time to have a little romance in literally anything that was shown on the silver screen, but for a genre like King Kong or The Creature From the  Black Lagoon, I don't think it goes very well. I do enjoy a little romance in a film, but I don't enjoy it if it is in an action or a horror movie and it is a main part of the story because that is not what I am here for. I am here for the action, fright and death. The romance is quite distracting to the audience. For Ann and Jack especially, their romance was definitely unnecessary and should've made it without them having a small fling. Cabot and Wray's performances separately were very melodramatic and over the top, especially Wray who was best known for being a quote "scream queen", which is a phrase used to describe an actress who is prominently known for starring in the horror film genre and are often portraying damsels-in-distress or other vulnerable characters. Ann Darrow is an example of a character who is a damsel-in-distress and she is played by one of the first scream queens in Hollywood. I think we can all agree that Fay Wray was a very beautiful woman who can play over the top damsel-in-distresses very well. That was what she was known for. I must watch her in other projects. I'll look into what other stuff she had done, but King Kong made her famous and rise to stardom. I'll tell you one more thing. She really suited blonde hair and it really stands out. I don't know and care if it is natural or dyed, she looked really pretty.

A lot of horror movies back in the golden years of Hollywood are definitely not scary to a modern audience, but they probably scared the undying sh1t out of the audience at the time. I can picture them in the stylish, vintage cinema quivering in their seats with their eyes wide open and the shocks escaping their vocal cords. I do this every time I watch an old horror movie. I actually remember having this thought when watching The Creature From the Black Lagoon and the I thought the contrast between the creature and the dramatic music in the background every time it comes on the screen. I should rewatch it and give it a review. Anyways, my point is that it is not as scary as it is making it out to be. If you watch the trailer, it is advertised as this absolutely terrifying and electric picture that will startle millions of people in cinema. However, the one thing that I did find creepy was Kong himself. He looked like he had a rare mutation and not like a gorilla at all. He also moved like a robot and was completely emotionless. I totally understand that it was 1933 and that CGI wasn't fully developed and not cared about until many years later, but they could've made him look more like an animal. My favourite scene does actually involve Kong, and no it is not the famous scene with Kong climbing the Empire State Building with Ann in his giant hand and attacking helicopters. It is actually the scene where he fights a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the middle of the jungle while Ann watches in fear. This is because I really enjoy action scenes that don't go on for a very long time. Yes, I must admit that this scene and actually the majority of the film is slow paced, but this scene is actually very underrated and not talked about enough. It's essentially robotic-looking creature vs another robotic-looking creature. Seriously though, the stop motion for both creatures and making them fight each other is actually really impressive for its time. I bet absolutely nothing at all that audiences at the time would have been absolutely shocked and stunned by that scene and any scene with Kong in it as a collective, especially the Empire State Building scene.

The cinematography is better than most old Hollywood films that I have watched. This was probably due the budget being more than the average movie that year (ranging from $200,000 to $400,000). This film's budget was exactly $672,254.75 ($16,537,415.14 in 2025). There was a lot going on, which is good for me because I love a film that has a lot of stuff going on in one scene. I prefer that over watching two people having a long conversation that is completely irrelevant to the storyline. The music too really showed how dramatic and over the top this film is. Max Steiner, who is considered to be one of the greatest film composers in Hollywood, did a really good job at capturing the key moments in each scene and creating magic by using just sheet music, a pen and an orchestra.

Overall, I personally believe that it was a pretty good watch, not one of my favourite films but it was still pretty good. If you want to get into films from the golden age of Hollywood, then I would definitely recommend this one. This film may not be for the faint hearted.

8/10