Bonding (Seasons 1 & 2) - 7/10
For a show clearly about BDSM and sexual fetishes, it honestly isn't so much raunchy as it is adventurous, funny, and fairly light-hearted. Admittedly, I didn't watch season 1 in entirety, as I just so happened to be a passerby in my own house and saw my husband watching it and catching snippets. As such, those snippets drew me in and before I knew it I was finishing the season and going right into season 2.
In season 1 there is some drama, but it's not so drawn out or weighed down that it takes away from the main story. While I did find Tiff, the main character, a little cliched with the whole "I'm a mysterious girl with walls and I can't open up to anyone" persona, she's still a good character. The relationship between her and Pete -- again I found to be another cliched character of simply being the funny gay friend/sidekick -- is well portrayed and their character development as a whole is satisfying. The first season is fast-paced and funny and made me really look forward to season 2.
Season 2 I found to be vastly different from season 1. I know a lot of viewers complained about this, but honestly I don't think I hated it as much as everyone else did. It is a lot more dramatic, possibly to the point where it does weight everything down too much. The overall story with Tiff trying to find herself and be a more open person while also learning from her past mistakes was slightly dull and drawn out, but not bad. I didn't totally understand why they sent Pete the direction they did though, him going his separate way to achieve his goals as a stand-up comedian while also leaving a mess behind with quite literally ALL of his relationships. I felt that drama wasn't exactly necessary, but it still left for an interesting turn of events, in my opinion. With everything that happened this season, it does slightly irks me that they tried so hard to fit all of it in the 15 mins they have per episode, with only 10 episodes for the entire season. It was almost like the writers gathered around and said, "Hey let's see how much stuff can we fit into 150 minutes of show, then let's try to connect the dots in some random way! What if we had Pete (a character originally written to be caring and mindful) out his boyfriend to his conservative homophobic father at work. This way he's single and can have his own story. We don't know what exactly we're going to do with him, but we'll figure that out later." Regardless, the end of the season left me wanting more, but I haven't quite figured out if that's a good thing or not.
Good Girls (Seasons 1 & 2) - 9/10
To simply put it, this is a "dramedy" about three women who are mainly struggling financially and decide to rob a grocery store to get the money they need. Little do they know that doing so opens a door to a life of crime by getting caught up in a gang and having to do their leader’s bidding in order not to get killed, or caught by the FBI. When first watching the previews for this show, I was expecting it to be like a chick-flick comedy sort of show. Thankfully it’s none of those things. For a drama, it definitely touches some deeper topics -- rape culture, racism, misogyny, transexuality to name a few -- but doesn’t weigh the whole show down that the funny parts aren’t funny or it’s leaving you feeling so anxious it’s not enjoyable. Speaking of comedy, it’s “funnier” scenes flow well and don’t try too hard with funny dialogue or situations. They don’t feel forced, rather it feels like a nice breath of fresh air within the show and I like that.
While Season 1 was absolutely fantastic, I think Season 2 fell just a little short. It was still good, nonetheless, but there were times it left me saying, “Why did Beth do that? Why didn’t she do this instead? That would’ve made more sense.” One thing I don’t like about dramas -- and this happens often with so many shows, which is why I really don’t care for a lot of dramas -- is that I feel like sometimes the writers write out common sense from the characters and have them play stupid just to have something big screw up simply for the “drama”. It’s different when that character is written to be not very smart or to screw up a lot. But in this case, Beth is the shining star here. She’s a do-good housewife who has spent the last 10 years supporting her husband and kids, cleaning house, cooking meals, running errands, basically the whole 1950s perfect wife ensemble. She’s overall viewed as a naive woman who can’t do no harm, but she’s out to prove them wrong, and maybe herself too a little bit. This whole transition is honestly what drove her to become addicted to her life of crime, to (eventually) prove to others that she’s a complete badass, she’s incredibly smart and knows how to work the system. I absolutely love how she’s written, so when she started making some stupid mistakes in Season 2, it just felt pretty out of character for me.
Another gripe I had with Season 2 was the finale. It was good, but it wasn't as good as it could've been. I feel like the whole end scene (spoilers) with the whole showdown between Turner, Rio, and Beth could've been so much better. I felt like they missed the suspense here. Those three people who have been playing cat and mouse (dog-cat-mouse?) for over an entire season finally wound up in a standoff, wondering who was going to kill who. They should've played the whole scene out, drawn out that suspense, but instead it was broken up into a couple transition scenes. After watching the first episode of Season 3, I can now see why they did the ending the way they did. But still, I was hoping for a finale as good as the first season and it fell short.
I just started Season 3, so hopefully some of this writing picks up like it did in Season 1.
. But for situations like the one you mentioned I try and chalk it up to youth/scared/adrenaline response/ too honest or innocent to think of that in the moment type of things, it makes it easier to accept
, and overall just a great story. You can tell the producers and writers had a lot of fun with this film. It shows through the whole movie. I feel like a lot of animated films these days have fallen flat with recycling themes geared more towards children, not families as a whole, and therefore lacking in originality. Not this one. I have heard Sony Animations has been the production company to watch recently for animated films and now I can see why. If this comes out as a physical release I'll be picking it up to add to the collection.