With an IMDB Score that began at 7.7 and dropped to (as of now( 6.6 after people actually watched it beyond the anticipation of a Woody Allen television project, I'm not sure if Woody lost that much time since for one, it's only six episodes, not 8 like Stranger Things on Netflix or 13 like House of Cards.
People on this board have all said this so I'll sound like just one of the many, but this "series" is really, truly a three-hour film broken up into 25 minute segments.
The sub-plot about Woody's character's reluctance on writing or working on pitching a TV series as opposed to regaining some kind of status for a novel (which transitions, for Allen, into filmmaking) was obviously written into the script from the get-go, and I think he was having a flood of second-thoughts well after the thing was written, and filming began...
Maybe he was nervous about his acting. Personally, I think Woody'x been doing sort of an imitation of himself since Manhattan Murder Mystery. As a director, that's one thing, but as an actor he seems to be going thru the motions, and that's prob why he's rarely in his own films. He was more edgy than usual in Deconstructing Harry, which was one of his better post-MIa films, but even in that, something was off, forced, in his acting.
What I'm trying to say here is maybe Woody's bad feelings about the project had to do with his own ability as an actor at 80 years old. Elaine May, for those few of us who really dig Small Time Crooks, is good just by her delivery, but Woody might have had a feeling that perhaps someone else should have starred.
I had read that he was going to have Elliott Gould in Deconstructing Harry, which... I'm not sure about that... But then it was to go to Albert Brooks... Brooks working with Allen would be like when Pearl Jam jammed with Neil Young... and better...
Brooks might have been a good choice for this part; he's far younger, and would seem more tuned into things in order to be tuned out of them, like everything Miley's character is into. Communism 101 basically. Which I guess is a parody but she's so bland, one can't tell if they're paying homage to revolutionary hippie types or poking fun at them...
One thing for certain, Woody's character... it's just never quite clear what he truly FEELS about this new houseguest. Right off the bat he agrees with her on just about everything -- he simply doesn't like her attitude, and that she eats his food.
I don't know. This show is a failure, really, and if it's anyone's fault, it's the artist's own, not Amazon or the modern society that actually does prefer binging online than going to movies and spending $14 bucks per picture.
Anyhow... May the Force be with you, and thank God for Woody's... to quote STARDUST MEMORIES... "older, funny ones."
MY REVIEW OF CRISIS: http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/10/streamingwoody.html
All Movie Reviews www.cultfilmfreaks.com
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