autumnleafspice
Cette critique peut contenir des spoilers
started with a bang ended with a whimper
The first half of this show is immaculate. I love everything from the acting, the storytelling, the visuals, the music... I was super hyped for how the second half. And while the acting and most of the other positives carried over into the second half, there was one thing that definitely fell off. The Storytelling.
But in true shit-burger fashion, let's start with a positive first. The cast.
These actors really know how to put up a show and get you invested in the characters. Even though there were a lot of them, I was invested in them all from episode 1. So, yes, definitely a round of applause for Bible, Jes, Bas, Fuaiz, Lilly, and everyone else.
I really enjoyed what Jes did with Tyme's character, he was in no way the stereotypical brooding emotionless stone of a man. From the very beginning he allowed us to see that there is so much more to Tyme than meets the eye. Similar compliments go to Bible, of course. He proved that he has great range. Great was very intriguing, yet irritating and it was thanks to Bible that I was still rooting for him through all the bullshit he pulled. I was going through it with this man, truly.
The cinematography was stunning, as to be expected for the production company of Kinnporsche, I guess. Every shot, ever frame, you felt the love. You could randomly pause this show and it would look amazing. The special effects were underlining the emotions rather than distracting from what was happening on screen. I can't really praise this show for these things enough.
Now to the negatives.
The biggest gripe I had with this show was the ending. But let's start from least to most aggravating.
13. I know the whole thing of this show is that your brain can survive 4 minutes without oxygen when your heart stops or whatever, but--I'm not a doctor or anything--wouldn't it result in brain damage or any other lasting effects if you'd actually nope out for four full minutes? This show is like the five second food bacteria rule but for death. Like these four minutes are some sort of dream land you can go to whenever you are unconscious and only once the clock strikes 4 minutes, you are dead, exactly 240 seconds. Not a second less or more. Then again, it's a show, so, you know.
12. Why do these BLs keep shoving guitars into shows that have nothing to do with music? What was the reason?
11. While I appreciate that we have now reached a point in BL shows where girlfriends have not to be villanized, I'm not sure why Tyme had to have a girlfriend here because she was there for like two scenes(?) and in both scenes they broke up so... Idk.
10. Medical dramas or shows with medical elements are rarely 100% accurate but I still can't help but notice and nag at the little nonsensical stuff like doctors/nurses not wearing mask when they should, a doctor telling a random visitor where to find the surgeon who was performing a surgery this very second, etc.
9. Why did they randomly choose to put a very identifiable Kinnporsche song as the last song for this show? It isn't that big of a deal but I thought it was odd. Why would your last goodbye for this show be a reminder of another show?
8. The different timelines and alternative versions of reality got me tripping. What happened to Manee who had tried to kill herself in the first episode? Last we saw of her she sat in front of the TV and was smiling menacingly and and doing something at the temple. I think she died in the final timeline so that was... pointless? Or am I messing things up? (if anyone could explain this to me, I'd be forever grateful)
7. While I really enjoyed the chemistry of Tonkla and Korn, I wished we would've seen more of them. The flashbacks of their first meeting and relationship was cute but their breakup was... harsh and I didn't really feel like there was much left after they parted ways. Hell, Tonkla lost his brother and Korn didn't think about checking in on him after he threw him out? Only after his own life blew up and he was left with nowhere to turn he suddenly seemed to remember his so-called love of his life. And then they reunite and suddenly everything is well until Tonkla reveals the cheating and then Korn is ready to die with him?? I really, really am a sucker for parallels and that shot of them on the bed and the cut to them on the ground GOT ME but that doesn't erase that their reunion felt very lackluster and sudden. (also Tonkla was revealed to be serial killer but we didn't really get time to sit with that because he died a second later)
6. I don't mind explicit sex scenes, I think that in the right hands they can convey a lot and really add something to a story and the characters. (I'm not sure why Tonkla was begging to do it raw with his men but maybe it was some deeper emotional reason that we were not privy to or can only assume.) We are already familiar with the kind of explicitness BOC shows seem to come with but I was surprised just how much we got and with how many different people. And I didn't mind for the most part, but looking up the age of Tonkla's actor had me clutching my pearls, not gonna lie as he got not one but three very explicit scenes if I remember correctly (no I will not go back and fact check). I hope that he was working with a great intimacy coordinator and was comfortable because that does seem a lot for an 18 year old (same goes for the rest of the cast as well of course). I don't know why BOC feels the need to cast these very young barely 18 actors do to play these roles (at least with Barcode they kept it all PG).
5. I'm not really sure how I feel about the way Tyme's arc ended, to be honest. While I was on-board with everything else, I am not a huge fan of "let go of revenge" trope. Because I am petty and if someone not only killed my parents but also killed my grandma aka my last living relative, you know it's on sight. "You forgive someone not for them but for yourself, you have to let go to be free, if you lose yourself in revenge you will always be trapped" okay maybe that works for you but I can only know peace if they suffer for what they did (for legal reasons this is a joke). I guess that they sort of had to go down that road for Tyme to be still considered a "good (enough) person" and because of the doctor ethics thing they sort of had to do that, but it felt.. easy. I mean this guy was doing it all from revenge porn to willingly have a victim of abuse go back to her abuser to gather information for him, etc. I'm just saying that sometimes you have to let your characters go apeshit and let them own it, and sometimes you have to go a little less apeshit if you want them to still be seen as these Good People TM.
4. I think that applies to Great as well. While I appreciate Great going to the police to "own up" to what he did to Dome and help covering up his murder but the "pep talk" from Tyme felt very tone-deaf. What Great did was bad. You don't cover up a murder accidentally. There is no way to "well, actually" it. What baffled me is that in the OG timeline he decided to leave this woman he ran over to die and somehow that didn't bug him as much as the Dome-thing. Interesting.
3. While I understand that in the end the people Great saved by his 4 minutes power had to die, since it was all in his head, but it felt a bit... comical almost? These people were dropping like flies in what felt like minutes (I was binge watching this show so maybe that's on me). First Manee, then Dome, then Nan, then his mother, then Great himself, then Tyme, then Tonkla and Korn, etc. Like, at some point I wasn't sure who HADN'T died.
2. Like I mentioned, I was going through it with Great. His character was fine in the first few episodes when he had the "look into the future" power (which was in the end meaningless because it was all in his head and nothing of that happened but at least he regrets his actions I guess), but as soon as that fell away and we saw what really happened, he was really messed up. He ran over a woman and left her to die, was friends with a guy who kept his girlfriend locked in his room until she took him back, witnessed him killing a classmate and then helped him hide the body and watch another woman get killed right on front of him without trying to intervene. There's so much blood on his hands, I'm not sure his good deeds could ever outweigh that in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate him or anything, but if he had died by Tonkla's hands, I wouldn't have felt sad or bad for him at all.
1. The way this show cut between the in-their-head 4 minutes and the real world timeline without any context or change of color or filter or anything (as a lot of shows do to make it easier for the viewer to differentiate) had me confused big time. I don't know why they decided to cut back and forth like that especially because they decided to show some scenes twice to help you catch up to where in the timeline we are right now but on the other hand decided to change or leave out other scenes and you had to sort of piece it together yourself what had happened like in Great's 4 minutes timeline and what had happened differently in the OG timeline. I think there was a better way to tell this in a less confusing way with a little "Great's 4 Minutes" or filter or color grading thing, but I guess a lot of the "plot twists" and "shockers" were sort of depended on having you think this was real or not real, so maybe they did want to confuse us, I don't know... In the end 4+ characters had their own 4 minutes going on, so that didn't really help at all. During episode 8 my brain was just dial up sound on a loop. I'm sorry, maybe that's a me problem and it actually is super logical and all that time I wasted on that clock app finally caught up to me, but come on.
And to complete the shit-burger and end this review on a sweeter note, let's have a look at another positive: The Chemistry. No matter if it's the main course or the side dish or the desert, it was definitely filled with chemistry. The tension was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. I don't know what BOC is doing to these people but keep it going.
To sum it all up: 4 Minutes was a show with an interesting concept with an amazing cast and crew that started out great but eventually fell off due to confusing storytelling and disappointing character arcs and ending.
But in true shit-burger fashion, let's start with a positive first. The cast.
These actors really know how to put up a show and get you invested in the characters. Even though there were a lot of them, I was invested in them all from episode 1. So, yes, definitely a round of applause for Bible, Jes, Bas, Fuaiz, Lilly, and everyone else.
I really enjoyed what Jes did with Tyme's character, he was in no way the stereotypical brooding emotionless stone of a man. From the very beginning he allowed us to see that there is so much more to Tyme than meets the eye. Similar compliments go to Bible, of course. He proved that he has great range. Great was very intriguing, yet irritating and it was thanks to Bible that I was still rooting for him through all the bullshit he pulled. I was going through it with this man, truly.
The cinematography was stunning, as to be expected for the production company of Kinnporsche, I guess. Every shot, ever frame, you felt the love. You could randomly pause this show and it would look amazing. The special effects were underlining the emotions rather than distracting from what was happening on screen. I can't really praise this show for these things enough.
Now to the negatives.
The biggest gripe I had with this show was the ending. But let's start from least to most aggravating.
13. I know the whole thing of this show is that your brain can survive 4 minutes without oxygen when your heart stops or whatever, but--I'm not a doctor or anything--wouldn't it result in brain damage or any other lasting effects if you'd actually nope out for four full minutes? This show is like the five second food bacteria rule but for death. Like these four minutes are some sort of dream land you can go to whenever you are unconscious and only once the clock strikes 4 minutes, you are dead, exactly 240 seconds. Not a second less or more. Then again, it's a show, so, you know.
12. Why do these BLs keep shoving guitars into shows that have nothing to do with music? What was the reason?
11. While I appreciate that we have now reached a point in BL shows where girlfriends have not to be villanized, I'm not sure why Tyme had to have a girlfriend here because she was there for like two scenes(?) and in both scenes they broke up so... Idk.
10. Medical dramas or shows with medical elements are rarely 100% accurate but I still can't help but notice and nag at the little nonsensical stuff like doctors/nurses not wearing mask when they should, a doctor telling a random visitor where to find the surgeon who was performing a surgery this very second, etc.
9. Why did they randomly choose to put a very identifiable Kinnporsche song as the last song for this show? It isn't that big of a deal but I thought it was odd. Why would your last goodbye for this show be a reminder of another show?
8. The different timelines and alternative versions of reality got me tripping. What happened to Manee who had tried to kill herself in the first episode? Last we saw of her she sat in front of the TV and was smiling menacingly and and doing something at the temple. I think she died in the final timeline so that was... pointless? Or am I messing things up? (if anyone could explain this to me, I'd be forever grateful)
7. While I really enjoyed the chemistry of Tonkla and Korn, I wished we would've seen more of them. The flashbacks of their first meeting and relationship was cute but their breakup was... harsh and I didn't really feel like there was much left after they parted ways. Hell, Tonkla lost his brother and Korn didn't think about checking in on him after he threw him out? Only after his own life blew up and he was left with nowhere to turn he suddenly seemed to remember his so-called love of his life. And then they reunite and suddenly everything is well until Tonkla reveals the cheating and then Korn is ready to die with him?? I really, really am a sucker for parallels and that shot of them on the bed and the cut to them on the ground GOT ME but that doesn't erase that their reunion felt very lackluster and sudden. (also Tonkla was revealed to be serial killer but we didn't really get time to sit with that because he died a second later)
6. I don't mind explicit sex scenes, I think that in the right hands they can convey a lot and really add something to a story and the characters. (I'm not sure why Tonkla was begging to do it raw with his men but maybe it was some deeper emotional reason that we were not privy to or can only assume.) We are already familiar with the kind of explicitness BOC shows seem to come with but I was surprised just how much we got and with how many different people. And I didn't mind for the most part, but looking up the age of Tonkla's actor had me clutching my pearls, not gonna lie as he got not one but three very explicit scenes if I remember correctly (no I will not go back and fact check). I hope that he was working with a great intimacy coordinator and was comfortable because that does seem a lot for an 18 year old (same goes for the rest of the cast as well of course). I don't know why BOC feels the need to cast these very young barely 18 actors do to play these roles (at least with Barcode they kept it all PG).
5. I'm not really sure how I feel about the way Tyme's arc ended, to be honest. While I was on-board with everything else, I am not a huge fan of "let go of revenge" trope. Because I am petty and if someone not only killed my parents but also killed my grandma aka my last living relative, you know it's on sight. "You forgive someone not for them but for yourself, you have to let go to be free, if you lose yourself in revenge you will always be trapped" okay maybe that works for you but I can only know peace if they suffer for what they did (for legal reasons this is a joke). I guess that they sort of had to go down that road for Tyme to be still considered a "good (enough) person" and because of the doctor ethics thing they sort of had to do that, but it felt.. easy. I mean this guy was doing it all from revenge porn to willingly have a victim of abuse go back to her abuser to gather information for him, etc. I'm just saying that sometimes you have to let your characters go apeshit and let them own it, and sometimes you have to go a little less apeshit if you want them to still be seen as these Good People TM.
4. I think that applies to Great as well. While I appreciate Great going to the police to "own up" to what he did to Dome and help covering up his murder but the "pep talk" from Tyme felt very tone-deaf. What Great did was bad. You don't cover up a murder accidentally. There is no way to "well, actually" it. What baffled me is that in the OG timeline he decided to leave this woman he ran over to die and somehow that didn't bug him as much as the Dome-thing. Interesting.
3. While I understand that in the end the people Great saved by his 4 minutes power had to die, since it was all in his head, but it felt a bit... comical almost? These people were dropping like flies in what felt like minutes (I was binge watching this show so maybe that's on me). First Manee, then Dome, then Nan, then his mother, then Great himself, then Tyme, then Tonkla and Korn, etc. Like, at some point I wasn't sure who HADN'T died.
2. Like I mentioned, I was going through it with Great. His character was fine in the first few episodes when he had the "look into the future" power (which was in the end meaningless because it was all in his head and nothing of that happened but at least he regrets his actions I guess), but as soon as that fell away and we saw what really happened, he was really messed up. He ran over a woman and left her to die, was friends with a guy who kept his girlfriend locked in his room until she took him back, witnessed him killing a classmate and then helped him hide the body and watch another woman get killed right on front of him without trying to intervene. There's so much blood on his hands, I'm not sure his good deeds could ever outweigh that in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate him or anything, but if he had died by Tonkla's hands, I wouldn't have felt sad or bad for him at all.
1. The way this show cut between the in-their-head 4 minutes and the real world timeline without any context or change of color or filter or anything (as a lot of shows do to make it easier for the viewer to differentiate) had me confused big time. I don't know why they decided to cut back and forth like that especially because they decided to show some scenes twice to help you catch up to where in the timeline we are right now but on the other hand decided to change or leave out other scenes and you had to sort of piece it together yourself what had happened like in Great's 4 minutes timeline and what had happened differently in the OG timeline. I think there was a better way to tell this in a less confusing way with a little "Great's 4 Minutes" or filter or color grading thing, but I guess a lot of the "plot twists" and "shockers" were sort of depended on having you think this was real or not real, so maybe they did want to confuse us, I don't know... In the end 4+ characters had their own 4 minutes going on, so that didn't really help at all. During episode 8 my brain was just dial up sound on a loop. I'm sorry, maybe that's a me problem and it actually is super logical and all that time I wasted on that clock app finally caught up to me, but come on.
And to complete the shit-burger and end this review on a sweeter note, let's have a look at another positive: The Chemistry. No matter if it's the main course or the side dish or the desert, it was definitely filled with chemistry. The tension was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. I don't know what BOC is doing to these people but keep it going.
To sum it all up: 4 Minutes was a show with an interesting concept with an amazing cast and crew that started out great but eventually fell off due to confusing storytelling and disappointing character arcs and ending.
Cet avis était-il utile?
