a review of 明星伙伴

Shouldn't exist. The show, for all its flaws, had a lot of conversations on the psychologically complicated nature of creativity, the corrupting nature of fame and wealth, and the corrupted state of the film industry and its influence on the pop-culture. It often stretched storylines across multiple episodes, if not entire seasons, and built high dramatic stakes, which would eventually resolve in sincere and touching moments that revealed the flawed but ultimately endearing inner worlds of these characters. The ending had these guys evolve into better people and venture off into the bright futures of their own making. This movie pretty much cancels that ending. The characters are back to what they were doing at the start of the show, more or less. Except this movie doesn't have the runtime to actually develop those long and complex story arcs. Much like The Many Saints of Newark, another HBO-derived movie (coincidentally created by another Italian with the surname 'Chase'), it feels like a couple of weaker episodes of the show that, lacking an overarching meta-narrative, don't have a direction and rush towards some quick, half-assed plot device to simply wrap the story up. It's mildly entertaining at most.