#countdown review

[sherlocking-out-loud]

I just binged the first three episodes of Countdown and I barely noticed the time going by. it's a very entertaining, interesting and high paced story with interesting characters, high stakes, a sprinkle of humor and, last but not least, a charming Mark nothing-to-lose Meachum.

to anyone that likes thrillers (or just Jensen Ackles in general), I highly recommend.

a little preview: 😁

(gifs by @inacatastrophicmind)

[dearmrshudson]

So I finished watching the first 3 episodes of countdown. I am not an expert or a critic obviously, just want to jot down what I really felt.

The very first thing about this series is, it offers nothing new. Heavily depending on the 100 times tested cop show formula with more or less same set of drama, this show is just a ott version of those old action copaganda tv shows of a few american heros saving the day by fighting against the russian villains (belarusian here for that matter). Although the makers didn’t promise anything else. I can only hope they give the villain some solid background and it is not a black and white story of good old america is in danger of some big baddy, maybe some present political scenario with some bold statements- but I am pretty sure they are not going to take that route.

Moving on. I thought the story itself still has a lot of potential, not sure if they are being used properly. The cinematography is good, making of some parts are fun- gives a proper big screen vibe. But still the factor which draws the viewers to the screen is lacking somewhere. There is a lot things going on without a proper arrangement. I liked the pace at the first episode, as I think the first episode is crucial for a series to pick up the speed and urgency. Also the pace and the actions provide kind of an adrinaline rush which is enjoyable to some extent. However, while rushing through the episodes, the writer clearly misses the part of anchoring the character arcs or build their internal chemistry. No character is properly established and everyone is too much detached. The balance between the plot and the character growth is very important to any series- countdown is missing that balance from the very beginning which ruins the experience of watching this show badly. By the end of episode 3 we were supposed to get some poignant scenes to feel for the characters, but we don’t get to get attached with them. Also, there is a lot of scenes which sets a tension, makes you sit at the edge- but the actual urgency of everything- the dreadful danger of a ticking timebomb- is still not felt- at least by me.

The writing of the characters look shallow to me. Mark Meachum is too cliched, came off so irritating at first that his brain tumor troupe felt forced to me. Oliveras has an interesting background with her history, that might catch my interest later. Other characters are so forgottable that I cannot even remember. Yet to reveal what is the darkness behind the other's so that they are expendable by their departments. Other than oliveras and Meachum everyone looks pretty sweet. For me, Eric's character rather seemed much intriguing with his sofisticated persona and calm leadership. While I started disliking Mark in the first episode, he might grow on me depending on the direction the story takes his arc or establish his story.

There is nothing special in acting. Not too bad, not anything great. Acting wise Jensen doesn’t add a lot to the cast according to me. Tbh, at the first episode I felt that he is overacting. By the third episode he looks okay though (its a good thing I didn’t watch three of them at a stretch). I don’t think Jensen is showing his dean 3.0 version everytime even though there are a lot of similarity - rather I feel he is trying to force some 'deanism' here and there to be extra charming. And in those parts he looks fake and over the top. No need, his one smile is enough for his fans to drool allover. His serious acting parts where he is not 'dean' are much more better and he looks like a convincing LAPD officer. I liked his presence from the end of episode 2 and episode 3, and think if he tones down a bit or gets the space of establish his character he will be good. Jessica looks smart and she has a good chemistry with Jensen. But yet to see any groundbreaking performance.

It is not that I disliked the series that much. There is a tight pace to keep you hooked in the runtime, some packed actions and different build ups. Mostly a happening series throughout. A series which you can watch for pure adrinaline without taking it seriously and forget after watching. There is a lot of potential in the storyline which can be used more smartly to make it a really good watch. I wished they could pay heed to those parts.

[bluebonnetblues]

okay, I need to say something, and it's not actually that important, and some people might get mad at me, but I really need to say it, as someone who genuinely enjoyed many things about Countdown, was rooting for it as a show, and also found many things in it to be disappointed by.

Y'all, Countdown did not "get cancelled". It simply wasn't given an additional season. And you're sitting there going, "but Blue, that's what cancelling a show is!" and you're RIGHT, EXCEPT that Countdown wasn't originally supposed to have more than one season (at least, that's what we were told). And I truly believe that Derek Haas trying to parlay it into a multi-season series is what, ironically, led to it ending after only one.

Here's the thing: The show was billed as a limited series. That has some pretty significant implications for writing, production, and marketing. As a viewer, when a show is marketed to me as a limited series, I expect certain, specific things from that show, among them a single, high-stakes overarching plot that is introduced at the beginning of the season and neatly wrapped up by the end; subplots that help me get to know the characters and more deeply engage with certain themes of the show but which ultimately tie back into the main plot in some way and which are also generally wrapped up by the end, to the extent that it is possible to do so; and writing which doesn't waste a single second of the, by definition, limited time the cast and crew have to tell me this story.

Countdown had none of those things, and the show paid a price for it. Which is sad for a lot of reasons.

Full analysis under the cut. (There are spoilers; read at your own risk.)

I was genuinely excited by Countdown when it was first announced. I thought the premise was intriguing, and obviously the cast was, too. The "task force" mechanic seemed pretty well suited to a limited series: a group of previously unconnected people (who turned out to be even more interesting than just that), brought together to solve a high-stakes problem over a specific period of time. This, layered with the Mark Meachum brain tumor subplot, seemed actually pretty promising. The stakes were high in both the individual and global sense, which are critical for any kind of action story. I felt that this interweaving of "countdown" themes was clever, if a little heavy-handed, and I was looking forward to watching Jensen do his thing on a platform with broader reach alongside a cast that, by all accounts, was pretty damn wonderful together. I was a little leery of the terrorism plot, and knew the show was likely to amount to naked copaganda, but was hopeful that there would be some nuance to the storytelling and was more than willing to give it a try.

In short, I was rooting for the show and everybody involved.

And I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it the entire time, actually. The cast were all incredible, and I fell hard for them and, crucially, for their characters, despite the fact that we didn't get to know most of them on any kind of human level.

There were also a lot of things that drove me insane.

From the very beginning, the pacing of the show felt off to me. They would spend entire episodes doing what amounted to basically nothing that actually furthered their overarching plot or the primary subplot. Not uncommon on a 22-episode-per-season series, but unforgivable in a limited series. Every moment counts. Even my husband remarked on it. There were plenty of times when the show actually felt, well, boring.

Despite that, I was willing to wait for the payoff, if only because I got to watch some awesome people being awesome together every week. So every Wednesday we'd watch the new episode together, and every Wednesday we'd be disappointed. But I kept the faith. Every week I'd mutter, "Derek Haas, I'm trusting you." (My husband did not trust Derek Haas, but he watched with me anyway.)

Then we got to episode 10. This is the episode where the team finally takes out their Big Bad, the one they've been chasing all season (the only one that ever showed up in any promos), managing to both miraculously defuse the dirty bomb that will destroy LA and kill Volchek, saving their city and the day.

This all happens within the first ten minutes of the episode.

Meachum starts treatment for his previously-believed-to-be-lethal brain tumor shortly after, with the rest of the team showing up to support him at the hospital. It's a nice moment. Meachum and his love interest, Oliveras, intentionally part ways without hooking up.

Everybody goes their separate ways, and there's a ten-month time jump, followed by the introduction of a new character we know nothing about, who discovers a fresh new terrorist plot (a white nationalist this time, guys--see, we don't think only foreigners are terrorists!), which brings the team back together, sans Oliveras (so Mark can have a bitch fit about it, to show he still cares) and plus the new guy, Fitz.

There are only three full episodes left in the season at this point.

"Oh my God," I said out loud. "Haas is shooting for a second season."

I was furious. Not that Haas would want the show to go on--it seems like everyone did, and I wasn't opposed to having more of the show. I wanted more time with these characters, actually, especially since I still didn't feel like I knew most of them ten episodes in. I was furious about the way that he did it: blatantly, unapologetically setting up for a second season, rather than doing a really good limited series and letting that speak for itself and lead to more.

Here's the thing: there was absolutely no payoff from either of the major plots that the show was marketed on. None. All we got from Volchek was a very brief shot of him with a hole in his head. All we got from Meachum's brush with death was a paltry love triangle (between Meachum, Meachum's doctor, and Oliveras, who introduced them), and a throwaway exchange designed purely to make Supernatural fans scream, which, yeah, I did: when asked how he's feeling, Mark responds, "Like Lazarus." That's all we get. During the ten-month time jump, this man beats fucking brain cancer, the primary subplot of the show, and we never hear a goddamn word about it.

The stakes were so incredibly high, and there was so much they could've done with them. But where they ended up didn't live up to what Haas had promised.

The last three episodes of the show introduce a new villain and main plot, waffle around a few old subplots, and end on a deeply unsatisfying cliffhanger, which, thanks to Haas's hubris and blatant scrapping for a second season, will never be resolved. There are few, if any, meaningful callbacks to anything that happens in the first 9.5 episodes; it's as if the only thing that happened in them was the team got together and Meachum and Oliveras had some brief will-they/won't-they action. My husband and I kept waiting for something to bring us back to the original plot. "It was too easy," we kept saying. "We missed something. They missed something. Maybe Volchek's not dead. Maybe Drew's not dead. Maybe Meachum's cancer isn't gone and he's faking it." We were, of course, wrong on every. single. count.

But we felt that way because we were promised a limited series, and viewers expect certain things from that type of production. Countdown simply didn't deliver, and now we know why: Haas never actually intended to create a limited series. He intended to create a new blockbuster cop show, and he failed. And what's awful about it is that, if he'd simply written a good limited series, that could've become something more! Instead he wrote something that was neither a good limited series nor a good first season of a television show, and that's pretty fucking sad, actually.

So yeah, I was bummed when Jensen made his announcement. I loved this entire cast, and it seemed like they really loved each other and put a lot into their characters, and I wanted them to have a chance to do that again, hopefully with a better script this time. I was planning to watch, even though my husband informed me in no uncertain terms I would be doing so on my own this time.

I was bummed, yes. But was I surprised? Not even a little bit.

I hope all of these wonderful folks get to work on new projects they're excited about. I will be an Evan Shepherd adorer until I die. And I hope Derek Haas learned his goddamn lesson, because I think what he did with a show that had so much going for it is actually pretty unforgivable.

[killjoyang]

okay, countdown absolutely sucks and I tried to watch it with an open mind after episode 2…but it sucks. this show is definitely a show that I would LOVE: action, drama and characters from different backgrounds coming together.. but unfortunately there is a lot of stuff that isn’t working.

here’s what i’ll say i love: jensen’s acting, mark meachum is the only character with actual substance and personality

what i don’t love? pretty much everything else. there’s no personality or any complexity to any of the characters! everyone is flat, there’s like no chemistry with anyone (i will say amber and mark have like 50% of chemistry, most of it is jensen/mark tho)

the plot? I know what the surface level plot is but there seems to not be any good connections between what the tasks force is doing versus the villian.. like the flashbacks are useless, the back and forth seem weirdly placed.

the pace? the pacing of the show gives like so much action but then everything is so abruptly slow, boring and just becomes flat.

the dialogue? i love cliche things sometimes, and idk if i can call this dialogue on the show that cliche but its flat, boring, has been done before and doesn’t seem that original?

I gave this show a try, and im on the recent episode! I now will be real: the only reason why im still watching is for Mark’s storyline, character and jensen ackles.

[kubrickstaring]

Spoiler-y review of Countdown (2019)

When I first saw the trailer for Countdown, I'm not gonna lie. It looked like every other run of the mill teenage slasher movie. And after seeing it in theaters I... was mostly right. But not completely!

The movie is about a young nurse (Elizabeth Lail) who downloads an app that supposedly predicts the timing of your death after her teenage patient tells her it predicted his girlfriend's death. After she downloads it, she finds out she is supposed to die in two days, when she is scheduled to visit her mother's grave with her father and sister. She cancels these plans, and the app tells her she has broken the user agreement. After that, it's a race against time to stop the clock and stay alive.

Now, let's get this out of the way right now: this is not a groundbreaking film. It doesn't really do anything new, and it's filled with jumpscares. There are moments where it doesn't make sense, as well. Two of our main characters have a conversation about why they downloaded the app- what made them curious about their own deaths? They both talk about losing loved ones through traumatic events and the like. But honestly, it feels like just a tool to give the characters tragic backstories. Who WOULDN'T be curious about when they would die? Very few of us would resist downloading that app, especially if we didn't believe it was real.

Besides the shortcomings, a demon using an app to find victims? Like Hell's version of Tinder? That's the sort of ish I'm into. And I won't lie, some of the jumpscares definitely got me. It also doesn't hurt that our protagonist is pretty smart, which is few and far between in the horror genre.

The acting leaves something to be desired, which isn't surprising, but I particularly enjoyed Tom Segura's portrayal of an incredibly rude electronics store manager. As someone who has worked retail, it's a beautiful thing.

Overall, the movie is pretty predictable, but it's fun. If you're feeling the post-Halloween blues, go see Countdown. There's not much weight to it, but it's a good spooky popcorn movie you can enjoy with a few friends.

Final assessment: 6.5/10

[killjoyang]

LMFAOO IM SORRY JENSEN ACKLES I LOVE YOU BUT WOW THERES 0 CHEMISTRY BETWEEN MARK AND OLIVERAS HOLY SHIT

[rapiddrama-blog]

Countdown 2019 Movie Review - RapidDrama

Countdown stars Elizabeth Lail, Jordan Calloway, and Talitha Bateman and was directed by Justin Dec. It tells the story of Quinn, a nurse played by

[thefilmagazine]

Countdown (2019) Movie Review

An app that counts down to when you die, and a premise that reaches too deep to find logic according to Jacob Davis in his review of 'Countdown' (2019).

Read here.