hyped garbage

As Good As It Gets

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The first time I saw Endgame, I thought it would be your usual "brillant guy shows all the cops and those with real know-how how to solve crimes." The show is nothing like that. Endgame's protagonist has a phobia that will not let him leave the hotel he is staying at. After his wife's murder, he was so traumatized that he could no longer be part of the "real world," unless it is through quips of his knowledge and intellect.The supporting cast literally marvels at his genius and scoffs at his arrogance.Every character in every episode plays a relevant part in telling the story.In one hour, we see one of television's most vulnerable characters show everybody what he feels and sees.Great show, Do yourself a favor and watch it if you can.

Arkady Balagan, an agoraphobic grandmaster chess player cannot leave the hotel he was staying in when he saw his fiancée killed. Nearly skint, he accepts commissions to solve crimes brought to him by others. He conscripts a young chess playing admirer, a chambermaid, a bartender, and the hotel's head of security - who does not like him (great relationship there) - to do his footwork for him. As they bring back the results of their investigations and research, he runs it all through his imagination, like envisioning a chess game and all his future moves, until he comes upon a likely scenario. He always inserts his own avatar into the playback, asking questions and getting advice from the characters even as he watches his scripts unfold. While having similarities to Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, and Bobby Goren, he deserves not to be seen as derivative of those characters, but on a par with them.Canada's Shawn Doyle portrays Arkady Balagan with finesse, arrogance and bravado appropriate to his egoistic appreciation of his own skills and intelligence. The supporting cast is just as good, and each episode is as good as the last.

Going into this show with the thought of, how is this going to work and how will it set itself apart from all other crime solving shows, such as the CSI franchise and the mentalist? For one, I wasn't sure how chess and crime solving would mesh and if it would mesh nicely, for another I didn't know if it would be realistic for a man, with many issues, to solve said crimes, all the while never leaving his prison (Agoraphobia) or the hotel. I was going into the first episode of Endgame thinking how is this Canadian actor going to pull off a stuck up Russian or how long will he be able to do it before I start to lose interest?! In the end I was pleasantly surprised and quite addicted! First two episodes in I had a completely different mindset about the show. Endgame proved to have a very nice balance going for it, one I appreciated. For it set itself apart from the other, very similar, crime shows. I found Arkady Balagan(Shawn Doyle)quite refreshing, as well as the supporting actors/characters, Hugo(Patrick Gallagher) Sam(Torrance Coombs), Danni(Katharine Isabelle)and Pippa(Melanie Papalia), to name a few. As far as Arkady, chess and crime solving go, I loved it, the story line had a smooth flow to it, The episode "Mr. Black" is a prime example of this. If anything my interest and need for the show grew with each new episode, considering they kept getting better and better, there was a new and unique idea to each episode, which made it impossible for the show to get "old"!!! So now of course i've fallen in love with the show and all it has to offer, the fact that it is Canadian and shot in Vancouver only made me love it more. I was heartbroken to hear that it had been canceled. I joined a movement known as Save Endgame and became what people have started to call "Endgamers", in order to save this show. Facebook pages(Save Endgame, and Endgame) were set up to allow not only North Americans but the rest of the world to have a voice, a fighting chance to save this amazing show. A petition was started(go to the facebook page- Save Endgame for the link) So that everyone around the world could actively take part in saving the show!!! Now we have a global voice, that is growing every minute of every day, we want this voice to shout so loudly that the producers and anyone affiliated with Endgame hear us and give us what we scream for, A second, third, fourth, we'll even take a fifth season, perhaps even throw in a movie to top it all off!! Join the cause and save an amazing Canadian show, if not for you, do it for us!!! Save Endgame!!!!

what I usually do is only watch the first 20 min of a new show and this let's me know if it is something I will enjoy to watch, and I can tell you that with-in the first 10 min I new that this was going to be a very entertaining show to watch. I keeps you under suspense the entire time, and it is very well written, and the acting is fantastic... very sad to hear that it has been cancelled, what a shame especially when there was finally something to watch that was worth watching... The story lines are very interesting and it is very difficult to tell what the out come will be. Most of the shows on TV now are so very predictable and bravo to the writers that pulled this one off and did a fantastic job doing it, and the production value is great as well.