The Leverton Review

 Imagine having a great unexpected thing happening to you, which is amazing and great.  Then imagine that this unexpected thing is tarnished and slimed by a great darkness.  Three boys at the age of 19 discover that they are twins, and find some similarities and try to rebuild a relationship with each other.  Later they discover that they are at the center of a remarkably unethical experiment-they have been separated at birth and placed in homes which had been picked due to their different parenting styles. They dealt with this in various ways, and suffered a new tragedy. But what I don't understand is how no one was punished for this.....surely human experimentation without consent is illegal?  A good documentary about a horrible story. 

 When this show came out I watched a few episodes and fell for the superficiality of the premise-look at that man with a mental disorder-how funny! It falls into the same trap as Big Bang Theory, where someone who clearly has a different brain is made fun off by his friends for it, and in this case, is the cause of frustration to all who know him. But beneath this veneer of low comedy, there's a compelling portrayal of a very troubled man. There's one episode where you can see how deeply unhappy he is, and usually his suffering is a joke in the series.  It was well acted and written,.  There's another time a culprit that Monk catches says, 'are you happy now?' and he says, No, but this is as good as it gets.  There's another scence where he is tortured at the dentist that is chlling.  I think you could do cut of the series without the quirky music and it would work as a thriller. 

 I think while the creators of this file definitely have an agenda, it stands on its own as a great work of art. The animation is excellent, and the world building is solid. A lot of films for children do not do a great job at establishing the universe that the characters live in, but this one does. The movie is full of some things that are shocking for a kid's film (and I don't mean two men dating)-the twists are unexpected.  It's great story telling.  I can see why Disney dropped it, they had a much weaker film, Buzz Lightyear banned in China because two same sex characters held hands.  This would definitely not receive a wide release in China, which is a shame because it is a great movie.

 I can get why this show has an appeal for some, but I did not like it. I don't like my fiction to be so bleak. I get that life is sometimes dark and no fun, but this show is completely without fun, and slow. It's hard to sympathize with the main character, who was money-laundering for the cartel.  It is a victim of the Skylar syndrome. Skylar is the wife of Walt in Breaking Bad, and when that series came out, many criticized her character for being shrill and unpleasant, when of course that would be natural behaviour if you found out your husband became a drug lord. Marty's wife had no idea about his money laundering ways, but that's okay because she was having an affair. This is a bleak, depressing waste of time. 

 There have been a slew of documentaries recently about the troubled teen industry, but this is the first that was made by survivors of one particularly bad institution. This industry feeds off of the idea that parents have made the mistake of coddling their children and some 'tough love' will turn their lives around. Who knows if this method could work in the hands of experts? The problem is that most people who start these kinds of programs have no educational qualifications, and they hire people with no educational qualifications because it is cheaper. They charge much more than traditional private schools because of this 'special' program-it's a scam. Not only that, the lack of outside supervision makes these places rife with abuse. And for what? A damaged beyond repair relationship with parents and, in this case, a phoney high school diploma. Yeah, the diploma from the school feature in this documentary was not recognized by the State of New York, so the people...

 Not a great show, but it certainly has its moments of fun. An alien is sent to Earth on a secret mission, and it does not go well. He attempts to blend in by taking over the life of a doctor with a cabin in a small town, and his lack of knowledge of humanity leads to funny encounters. The best part of the show is the relationship between the alien, Harry, and Max a young boy who can see his true self. Not the best show to watch, but if you like science fiction, it's a fun watch.

 This series shows why it is important that the legal system is run by professionals with the highest level of competence and integrity. The documentary focuses on a scandal that erupted after an investigation involving paedophilia in one family in Outreau, France.  The children in this family were one hundred percent victims of this horrible crime. Unfortunately, their mother, apart from being an enabler of abuse, was a pathological liar, and this led to many innocent people being accused of this crime. When word of this got out, it sparked a scandal in France, and many of the accused were cleared of any wrong-doing.  Perhaps prematurely (which the documentary does not address).  Three people who were cleared were subsequently charged and convicted of crimes against children. The trail itself was a sham....child victims were subjected to hours of testimony in public court, which is not something that is good for them, or conducive to the interest of justice. The def...