what is going on to all my tv fans out there and welcome back to my channel movie files elliott
back again with a brand new early tv series review for a new hbo max limited series based on a dc
comic by the name of dmz which will become an hbo max on thursday march 17th i got a chance to check
it out early and i'm really excited to let you all know what i thought about this series who
happened to be executive produced by ava duvernay who also directed an episode it's based on a dc
comic it has a really great cast is it worth checking out we're gonna break it all down here
in this spoiler free review but before we do so make sure you're checking me out on all my other
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if you enjoyed this spoiler free tv review but make sure to give it a thumbs up and also share
this review to anyone you know that might be interested in this series but more importantly
once you've seen it what did you think about it also if you read the comic that this is based
upon did it do it justice did this four episode limited series do the comics justice and if so
which one did you prefer more and then if you were like me and never read the comics what did
you think about this series as a whole your pros your cons were you satisfied by the ending when
you underwhelmed by the ending let's talk about it all in the comments below so going back to it i've
never read dmz but i was pretty excited about it when i heard about this project a couple years ago
when we got the news that unfortunately ava duvernay wasn't going to be directing new gods
which still upsets me to this day but that she had two other dc products he was working on one
i believe is on cw by the name of naomi if i'm not mistaken and then of course dmz well here
we are discussing it is it worth checking out let's break it all down first and foremost let
me put you all up on some game that might not be too familiar with dmz like i was it it basically
is a 72 issue that ran between the years of 2005 and 2012 and the series is set in the near future
where a second american civil war has turned the island of manhattan into a demilitarized
zone also known as dmz caught between the forces of the united states of america in the free states
of america so what did i think about this four episode limited series well first and foremost
let's focus on the positives and i gotta say this show has a lot going on there's a lot of political
stuff going on a lot of characters subplots that don't really add up which we'll talk a little bit
about later but focusing on the pros there is a theme and a story about redemption a character
changing who they used to be and trying to be better right and i kind of enjoyed that element
of the story and more focusing on the narrative at hand when we have our main character alma who is
played by rosario dawson if you saw the trailer they pretty much laid out pretty simply where
once the war kind of breaks out which is eight years prior to the main storyline
her and her son who she loves so much they unfortunately get split up and for
the last eight years alma has been in search to looking for her son and if she's gonna find him
is he gonna be the same person that she knew eight years ago and that's kind of the intrigue of the
story and kind of the main heart and soul of the narrative is the family dynamic i think there are
a lot of things to be said about how you used to know someone how their their product their
environment can you change that person can you redeem that person and i kind of like what the
story had to add to that conversation and not just alma and in the search of her son but also there's
other like leaders within because again this is manhattan island is his own you know country at
this point and there's different groups of people and within those different groups the leaders they
have to kind of redeem themselves because the last eight years they've had to harden themselves they
had to kind of shut themselves off to society and kind of the normalcy of being a human being
so there are different other characters within this show that have to rediscover what it means
to be a human being so i kind of like when the story focuses on that as well as the family
dynamic and oma looking for herself was probably the most interesting aspects of this story but
transitioning into the performances i got to say it because i'm going to focus on a little
bit later my criticisms i thought that the performances really gave me more than they
were given what i mean by that was i felt like what they were given on the page they had to kind
of improvise and kind of add more life to the character and i want to start off with rosario
dawson who i'm a big fan of her work she as alma or as you watch the series she later becomes goes
by the name of z her story of a mother in search of her son and if she is able to find him who is
this boy is he the same kid i knew eight years ago or has he changed has he become a product of his
environment i really enjoy seeing her journey even though sometimes it was a little bit frustrating
what she did and what how she put herself before others and we'll get that a little bit later but
focusing on the mother and son relationship can she find her son if so all these other people that
she's interacting with the past that she has with them the belief that she has in the people again
she has a very different kind of thought process because she's been removed for the dmz so she kind
of knows what the outside world looks like and she's bringing in all of those kind of feelings
and those emotions those kind of rationalities into this kind of area that has kind of went
mad max and people are doing their own thing and people kind of have a second chance to be
maybe better or for worse and seeing her bringing her kind of kind of heart and soul she's a nurse
she's naturally wants to help people seeing that journey that she goes on was was definitely a a
positive of the show and again i thought that rosario dawson gave me more in the role than
what she was given on the page and you can see that a lot throughout the show especially
when it comes to the emotional aspects but transitioning into benjamin pratt who is the
villain of the show by the name of parko now he is the leader of the uptown crew he has his whole
group of people he's trying to run for mayor and really trying to take control of the dmz and he's
really interesting because he tells the people what they want to hear but he has his own kind of
selfless reasons of why he's doing what he's doing i thought that and i'm a big fan of benjamin i
thought that he really kind of brought a different side of himself to this because i normally see him
as like the good guy or the you know the the the guy that the women want to be with rome
rom-coms and i see him in some dramas but i really enjoyed this other side of him because he
as the show kind of goes on he becomes less and less of a good person and becomes more
selfish and menacing so i enjoyed what we got with parko and he has some of the more
entertaining aspects of this show and i have to say this next actor here han lee now i i've
only seen one thing upon lee and he was in the most recent season of c and he was one of my
favorite characters of this new season i've been saying it and i gotta watch it because after this
performance and what i've seen him in with c i gotta watch warrior which i know is on hbo hbo max
i think there's gonna be a new season but either putting that aside he as wilson who is the leader
of the chinatown crew he was fantastic i wish we got more from the character because he was someone
that kind of reminded me speaking of dc which is based on a dc comic he reminded me a little bit of
harvey dent aka two-face because he has two sides of him he has his one side that oma knows is this
the sweet guy who has you know aspirations and goals of being someone important but then when he
switches over to his leadership side you see that menacing nature of the character so i really enjoy
wilson again i wish we got more of them but i love what we got with them because he really kind of
stole every scene that he was in but a surprising young group of actors one by the name of odie
and nico speaking of oldie i really enjoyed that young man's performance because he has a subplot
involving him and his grandfather and a story about discovering who he is as a person again kind
of redeeming himself from being kind of closed off and being by himself to kind of open himself
up i really enjoyed that young man's performance i thought odi even though it was a really small
plot and then didn't have a lot of stuff going on besides him as grandfather but i enjoyed that
element of that character and his friendship with nico i really enjoyed that i thought those
young actors even though overall they didn't have a ton to do besides once you get to the
finale and something kind of shakes out there but i enjoyed those younger performances as well so
wrapping up my last things i want to mention with positives the story does have some type
of relatability factor because it is a very kind of political show and it kind of reflects some of
the political stuff that we're going through in today's time so i thought it made it very
topical and relatable in some sense and then again going back to the family element that was the best
part of the show the family drama the ties of alma honestly for her son you know parko and his
relationship with his close second hand man and also his hitman and all that stuff that that stuff
was the best stuff of the show so getting into my cons now i have to relate this show to a very
normal thing that we all do doing our laundry this show to me is a perfect metaphor of when you put
too many clothes in the washer what happens will the washer start shaking you know it's in balance
and this show has a lot of imbalancing going on i mean there's so many things going on with
the dmz there is a political uh politician thing going on there's an election going on
there's the subplots that this show almost had a feel to i almost felt like i was watching a season
two of something because there's a lot of like oh you should already know this and now i don't know
if the show expects its audience to have read the comics but i felt that type of inclusivity to the
story because i felt like wait who is this why how do you know each other where is all the subplot
where's all of the the character development it's lacking very heavily in the show i mentioned how
it's based on a 72 comic book issue that took place between a span of seven years
they took those ideas and those characters in the world building and condensed it to
a four-hour mini-series it's like whose idea was that because there is just so
many fill in the blanks you got to know who this character is just look it up look up the
comics it's like there's so many times where the creators expect you to know certain things
without giving you it and there's like a hint of exposition where you get these little quick
little one-offs with characters like oh i remember this time when we did this oh or they say
when the war happened it's like i want to see those things i can't just take for take your word
from it i want to have those emotional beats i want to see those moments because they left it on
deaf ears it made everything feel hollow and the biggest thing that i had an issue with this series
i didn't really care too much because the show didn't take its time to develop the characters
and the stories that they had at hand there is little to no character development the world
building is almost non-existent like i have mentioned there's a governmental aspect of the
show and there's a world global kind of aspect the show doesn't spend any time on focusing on
that at all we're just condensed to the dmz and not really understanding what is the world going
through at this moment so it was very frustrating and it felt cheap at times that they couldn't
expand the world and everything was just rushed to get to the finish line which was so
frustrating with this series going back to the characters i mentioned how i felt rosario dawson
did her best job as she as she possibly could but alma she was so frustrated at times because again
without giving too much away she's been outside the dmz and she's given the task to go without
giving the task she wants to go on the task to look for her son and in doing so she comes across
all these different uh fractions and groups that have been you know a staple in the dmz for over
eight years and she comes into the rec she comes to the situation and wrecks shop on everyone's
thing i'm like what the what is going on she had so much plot armor it was so frustrating she would
come into these establishments chinatown uptown all the different groups which by the way there's
like eight different groups and we spend like five minutes with each group so it was almost like
what was the point of the groups what was the point of breaking them up when we don't spend
any time with them again four episodes was the biggest enemy of this show or in the series but
she would go into these situations and just literally switch up everyone's ideology she would
switch up all the stuff they had going on i'm like y'all are seriously gonna want me to watch
the show and believe that this person that has no combat skills no authority no type of you know a
menacing nature to her that she can come in and switch up all their plans that was so frustrating
to watch because i'm like seriously this is what you all expect me to believe this show
it was unbelievable at points and very frustrating at points which also brings me into these subplots
and these unnecessary things that really didn't add up to anything there's relationships between
parkour and his new girl and how that ties into alma and again without giving too much away in
regards to this mystery character that you find out about it episode one a lot of that stuff just
became unnecessary again the family drama was the best part of the show but it was also one
of the more frustrating parts of the show at the same time and when you see the show you know what
i'm talking about and again i can't understand how they took i i haven't read the comments
but i would imagine over seven years 72 issues the world building the character developments
the more quieter moments the action moments were probably more highlighted in the comments because
if you think this is a comic book show based on action you know maybe some fight sequences
you get close to none of that in this series and i wasn't really expecting this high obtained action
show but i was hoping for a little bit more spunk like for example there's an element in this show
without giving it away this is is like second third episode where we have two of our bigger
groups coming head to head having this kind of all-out war someone falls out of a window and in
the midst of this fighting to the death they just stop it's like what is going on with this show it
lacks action it lacks stakes but more importantly it lacks care for the characters that's really
my biggest issue with the show and i gotta go back to ava duvernay who i love to pieces when
they see is one of the greatest limited series i've ever seen she directs the first episode
right off the gate i'm like this show is troubling because i'm not feeling anything with this show
and ava duvernay is such a director that brings feel she brings emotions but i just wasn't feeling
for her and ernest dickinson who's the also who directs the rest of the series who's a fantastic
director he's done some really great amazing projects on television i didn't feel it i just
didn't feel it so before i go into this whole rant which i've already kind of went into let me give
you all my overall thoughts and let you know if it's worth checking out but before we do so make
sure if you haven't already to like share comment and comment join the community by subscribing
overall dmz has a interesting family drama dynamic but when you take that aside when the show tries
to be this political kind of war dmz demilitarized zone that really doesn't dive deep into the
character that really doesn't do any world building that rushes to the finish line and it's
just so much going on and all of it doesn't really add into anything so if you ask me hey elliot
should i take the four hours which by the way i watched it in one sitting because i had a you
know four hours just to kind of kill i think four episodes was the biggest detriment to the show
this should have been a minimum eight episodes to really expand on the characters should you watch
it i say no i don't think it's worth your time but hey if you want to give it a chance you like these
performers uh these actors you like ava duvenay again i support her to the fullest but this was
a strikeout to me and it's not just abel dubney she's not the only one that's behind the show she
only directed one episode she exactly produced this she didn't write any of the scripts but
she's the big standout so i have to save a save for avaday for me it's an l it's an l for ernest
dickinson and it's an l for these writers this was a show that had a lot of potential but just
kind of fell short for me so i don't think it's worth checking out but that's just my thoughts
i want to know yours in the comments if you read the comics how well did the show handle
it if you haven't read the comics how did you take in the show your pros your cons were you
disappointed like me let's talk about it all in the comments i wish i could have loved this show
because i really wanted it to be great but it was pretty bad but hey that's just my thoughts again
appreciate you all watching this review up until this point if you haven't already just a friendly
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