Originally published at: Brand New Cherry Flavor shocked and thrilled me | Boing Boing
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2 Likes
It was just alright; more ‘gross’ than actually scary.
The ending was underwhelming and lacked any satisfying resolution, IMO.
10 Likes
LA is scary enough, needs no modification to scare the shit outa of a person.
6 Likes
Mainly I didn’t care for all the people who died needlessly in service of Lisa Nova getting her ‘revenge.’ I don’t really care for shows where there’s no one to root for because the characters are all utterly horrible.
It just seems so nihilistic.
10 Likes
My Dear Wife forewarned me of your exact description, she was momentarily a fan, then dropped it. As well nihilism is repugnant, lacks imagination and boring in the end.
7 Likes
It had potential, at first; and then it just went… nowhere.
A perfect description of that last ep.
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14 Likes
You ‘can’t imagine’ that other people have extremely different opinions and tastes than you do?
Sounds problematic, yo.
8 Likes
“Say what you want about being a passive aggressive dick online; at least it’s an ethos.”
9 Likes
Thanks for your review. I think I’ll give this a miss. Not just because of your reveiw, but also becasue I’m not really up for anything scarier than “The Chilling Adventure of Sabrina” these days 
I’ll be off to watch Lower Decks Season 2 that I recently realized is on a streaming service I can access. 
4 Likes
I always recco seeing something for oneself, regardless to the opinions of others.
That said, it wasn’t scary IMO, and even the body horror wasn’t as gory as the Cronenberg influences it was clearly inspired by, (along with some David Lynch.)
It’s not even that I require a ‘neat and tidy’ ending, all wrapped up in a pretty little bow - ambiguous endings can still be satisfying, if the narrative is strong and the characters are engaging - and unfortunately, BNCF just didn’t meet those standards for me.
5 Likes
I watched this pretty much randomly so I didn’t have any expectations going in. The first episode really seemed like it was going for Lynch/Refn levels of weird and unexplained creepiness. Starting almost immediately in the second episode, it started going much more normal and straightforward. It’s like somebody watched Neon Demon and Too Old To Die Young and said “let’s do THAT but overexplain everything instead of explaining nothing”.
I wouldn’t say it was a waste of time to watch it, there were some great scenes (the orifice opening on her side!) and I love the lead actress. But overall it felt like it wasn’t confident enough in itself to just make things happen without trying to fit it into some kind of coherent flow.
Lack of that is what I like best about Refn. I know there are clear references to Cronenberg as well but outside of some pretty obvious parts of this, that’s definitely not the overall feeling I got from it.
I loved it, especially the lead.
6 Likes
To be clear I welcome and celebrate the opinions of others. I also wholeheartedly agree with the Cronenberg knock-off viewpoint.
That being said, Iam happy that I am someone who can still find joy in light entertainment like this show and have a good laugh and a bit of reflection while watching it.
It seems (personal reflection here) that “graphic-novel-esque” shows like this one really end to draw out the grumpy vitriolic comments like no other type of show does. Personally I like them. Your mileage, clearly, may vary. You do you. I will keep on enjoying fun shows like this one and I celebrate your freedom to find no joy in them.
2 Likes
I didn’t realize this 'til reading up on it a bit: It’s based on a novel of the same name, and these eight episodes are about 1/5 the page count.
The series has essentially taken the opening incident of the novel and expanded it to a full story arc of its own. And there’s a LOT of expansion going on. The series and the novel are very much related-but-very-different works. (For instance, the kitten thing was invented for the series…)
So, the rather unresolved ending of this season may simply be because things are ACTUALLY unresolved…
9 Likes
I really enjoyed the show, even though I fell asleep during a few episodes I had to rewatch (granted, I did watch them late at night already sleepy to begin with).
Was it a perfect showcase of the best that horror and suspense and cheeky camp have to offer? No. But it wasn’t exactly a failure at those attempts either.
1 Like
I knew it was based on a novel, but not that the series covered so little of the narrative - which might explain why it seemed so incomplete.
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Unless you’re claiming to welcome and celebrate grumpy vitriol, I think you’re trying to have things both ways here, and it’s not convincing.
3 Likes
Hey you are absolutely right that I was being passive aggressive. Thank you for taking the time to point that out.
Tangentally, the reference to Weinstein and other men in power in Hollywood being correctly called out for their horrible behavior was one of the things that really appealed to me in this show. It is good to see that we are collectively addressing this through the “grotto” or subconscious reflection of modern filmmaking.
