Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Dreamland, Season One:
Originally called Utopia, this is a fun, light-hearted comedy about government bureaucracy. It's nothing that hasn't been done before, but feels fresh because it takes place in Australia. It has some similarities to The Office, but focuses more on the ridiculousness of situations, rather than exploring the characters themselves (who are mainly ciphers for eliciting the ridiculousness). Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: B+

Comedy Camisado by Hannibal Buress:
I really enjoy the comedy of Hannibal Buress, but this new comedy special was awful. There were too many pauses and less momentum than a rolling pyramid. About twenty minutes of downtime and reaction shots could have been trimmed and replaced with funnier jokes. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: D+

Parks and Recreation, Season Seven:
I enjoyed the finale of the sixth season, and felt like it would have made a perfect series closer. That said, this abbreviated season is a harmless way to laugh with your favorite characters one more time and has a nice, if forgettable, final episode. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: B

Top Boy, Season One and Two:
This British series about drug trafficking in the council estates has vague echoes of The Wire, but lacks the same socioeconomic impact -- it merely uses ideas as a setting for a passable, occasionally exciting tale from the streets. Each season is four epsiodes long and the early episodes tend to drag a bit, but the final episodes of both seasons are well done and vindicate the slow burn. The music is uniformly awful and sounds like something Trent Reznor would write for the video game, Quake. Watch with subtitles unless you're up to speed on your bruvs, your food, and your innits. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: B-

This post was not sponsored by Netflix -- it's just slightly easier to stumble upon things to watch on Netflix than Amazon Prime.