Tried to watch two historical fiction streamers on Apple TV and was disappointed, but an NFL documentary is making up for it.
Manhunt, Apple TV, story of Lincoln’s assassins and the aftermath. Made it about 15 minutes. The guy playing Abe Lincoln was a joke. Stupid voice, stupid beard. I’m guessing he has a small role for obvious reasons LOL but when you’ve seen Daniel Day Lewis in the role, it’s a letdown with any other actor, especially the amateur they picked. It has good reviews, maybe I was just in a mood, but didn’t see anything appealing about the show.
Napoleon. Apple TV. The reviews weren’t that great, but I’ve always liked Ridley Scott films, so gave it a chance. Really liked the beginning, had a strong start with the events of Revolutionary France, and I was starting to think that maybe the critics were too hard on it, but it went downhill pretty fast by the halfway point which is where I stopped watching. I don’t know much about the real history behind Napoleon, but Joaquin Phoenix did a good job in the beginning portraying him as a cautious, calculating general, and then suddenly he turns into some comical version that makes his portrayal of Comidus in Gladiator actually look like a grown mature man. The court politics are boring, and it doesn’t do a good job at all putting you into the shoes of France and why they viewed this man the way they did, enough so to crown him Emperor. Hard skip recommendation for this one.
Patriots, The Dynasty. Apple TV. This is The Last Dance version of the Patriots dynasty. I believe there are about 10 episodes and I’ve made it through two and enjoying it very much. One gripe is so far they’ve completely skipped Bill Parcells’s impact on turning that franchise around. They come at it from an angle of Bob Kraft and Drew Bledsoe turning the Pats from a laughingstock to a competitive team, and then take it away with Belichick and Brady. Bill Parcells built that defense with Belichick, we saw what he did with the Cowboys, and many of his former players were the ones who held the fort down while Brady got up to speed. One thing they do different than The Last Dance is besides the former personnel and local media, they involve a lot of fan takes including fans in Cleveland who tried to boot Belichick out of Cleveland after he cut Kosar. Makes it easy to understand how much pressure was on Belichick, Pioli and the former Cleveland staff that came with Belichick to Boston, because the Pats fans and media were acting the same way about him benching Bledsoe. But anyways, makes me a little sad watching some of the early Brady stuff because a lot of it reminded me of Dak Prescott as a rookie. What could have been…. Can’t wait to watch the Cowboys 1990s dynasty documentary whenever it comes out.
