More of the worst films of 2017.  Seriously bad.

13 Reasons Why

The idea behind this film (and the original novel) is an interesting one, a girl who commits suicide plots it ahead of time by leaving several audiocassettes in a box with instructions about who is supposed to receive them before she kills herself.  Those people you would assume would be the ones who caused her death, but really they aren’t.  In several cases, they are other victims.  Hannah was actually outing other victims and trying to shame them into coming forward.  What a terrible person to do this.  Yes, she was a victim.  But she made many more victims with her tapes and her method of exacting revenge which really didn’t help any of the victims, just made more victims.

0 out of 10 stars.  Awful.

Goliath, Season 1

This show had a lot of gaping plot holes.

In the first five minutes we see the basis of the future lawsuit against Borns Tech by the family of Ryan Larson. Two Hispanic men are putting dynamite in dead fish and dropping them in the ocean off the coast of Los Angeles to kill seals. They see a boat in the distance and then suddenly there’s a massive explosion. Molten hot particles rain down on the two men and then comes a 12 foot tidal wave that capsizes their boat. Two years later, Rachel Larson, Ryan’s sister, hires her neighbor Patty Papagian to sue the DOD Weapons Manufacturer Ryan worked for, Borns Tech. Patty thinks she sucks in court so she nags Billy McBride into taking the case. Billy knows Borns Tech because he created the massive law corporation that has Borns Tech as its largest client, Cooperman and McBride. In fact his ex-wife is still a managing partner. No sooner does McBride file the paperwork than suddenly he’s getting pulled over on a fake DUI, beaten unconscious as his teenage daughter is tasered, and wakes up in the drunk tank of the local jail. He misses his show-cause hearing and the case is dismissed. But he pulls in a favor and gets it reset for another court date. On that date, McBride and Rachel are walking across the street and a van mows Rachel down in a moment you really don’t want to miss. That’s the moment where Billy is in the case for good because he’s fallen in love with Rachel.

It turns out Borns Tech created a fuel that’s a weapon and Ryan Larson, as Borns Tech’s employee, was illegally dumping it in the ocean when it exploded, causing his death. This comes out of nowhere in the last half hour of the ten one-hour episodes. Everything else was a red herring.  That’s just bad writing.

3 out of 10 stars.  I’d like my 10 hours back.

Colony, Season 2

The first season of this show was very vague and disappointing.  Season 2 was marginally better but they contradicted themselves from Season 1.  🙁

In Season 1, aliens take over the planet and drop walls surrounding small areas of big cities.  They do this in LA and trap the Bowman family.  Will Bowman begins working for the occupation so he can protect his family.  Katie Bowman begins working for the resistance.  So the terrorist Will is looking for is actually his wife.  :0

In Season 2, we get more background on the day the aliens took over and the Bowmans got separated.  Aliens arrive and instead of these two parents focusing on their kids, one goes off to work and the other goes off to tend bar.  :0  Throughout the season we learn more about the aliens, but it’s mostly a lot of unlikable characters doing things I didn’t really care about.  It was frustrating to watch everyone they came into contact with die for them.

3 out of 10 stars.  Super frustrating.  I want my 10 hours back.

The Daughter

This is an unusual Australian film and it has a pretty awful ending which is why it received bad reviews.  It also starts out very slowly.  Henry owns a large lumber mill in a small Australian town.  He is the chief source of employment for the entire town and they rely on that lumber mill for employment.  His best friend, who also works for him, is Walter.  Henry has been cheating on his wife with a myriad of women, including his housekeeper, which finally drives his wife to kill herself for which Henry’s son Christian blames himself.  This drives Christian to become an alcoholic and to move to the United States where his mother was from.  Christian’s best friend is Walter’s son Oliver.  Fast forward twenty years and Oliver has married Charlotte who used to be Henry’s housekeeper.  That should click.  They have a daughter Hedvig who is now a teenager.  When Henry invites Christian to his wedding to his new housekeeper who is only 30 (he’s about 70), Christian comes and realizes that Hedvig is his half sister since he knew the reason his mother killed herself was because his father was sleeping with the housekeeper who happened to be Charlotte.  To get even with Charlotte, Christian tells Oliver and Hedvig.  Oliver leaves Charlotte and tells Hedvig he can’t even stand to look at her, even when she tells him he’s the only father she has ever known.  So Hedvig steals her grandfather’s gun (Walter’s) and shoots herself.  As the film ends, she’s in a hospital on a respirator but there is no bullet wound which makes no sense, hence the reviews about the crappy ending.  There’s also a side story about Henry and Walter embezzling money from the company for which Walter went to prison for many years.  Henry never went to prison and never really made it up to Watler so there’s animosity there as well.  Henry, and his son Christian, both destroy all the lives they touch.  Most of the characters, especially Hedvig, were extremely unlikable.

3 out of 10 stars.  So depressing. I wish I had never watched it.

Reviewed by Jill.