Prime Video ‘I’m a Virgo’ Series Reviews
Imagination is not lacking, but perhaps a little too much.
In You and me and everyone we know two people walk into a studio and think it’s a mess, but it all turns out to be art. But when one of them sees a hamburger wrapper lying on the floor and praises it, it turns out that it really is garbage. Art: Doing something and seeing if the experts determine if it has depth and value. Writer-director Boots Riley has fantastic creativity that he deserves praise for, but he sells his work as much without really feeling like it.
Cootie is a giant. Literally the child is already three times the size of the others from birth. His uncle and his aunt take him in, where they keep him hidden from the outside world. Because others in the past who also had such an exceptional condition were eventually labeled as bad and killed. Once Cootie is a young adult, he can’t resist going out anyway. He will know if his educators were right or not.
i’m a virgo it is much more than a series about an extremely big boy. Obviously there is something behind it, but creator Boots Riley has created a complete reality. It’s all based on the real world, but he put his own spin on everything. The show is full of pop culture that doesn’t exist and it’s all a critique of something.
For example, there is the Bing Bang Burger, a parody of the Big Mac or the Whopper. Cootie has seen commercials for this burger her entire life, but she can’t have one of hers because her uncles say it’s poison. When she eats one, she doesn’t really like it. The bun is symbolic of all the junk that is sold in the Western world that is meant to be something special.
It’s a general issue: what is your position in society and how does society shape your position? At first, Cootie sneaks out at night disguised as a giant bush. He doesn’t take long to show himself, but he’s already been given a monster moniker and he sticks to it, even though it’s been clear for some time that he’s not a monster. Even others blame him when they have nightmares about him.
But yeah, that kind of criticism is of course a bit easy. And that’s why i’m a virgo not as deep as the series purports to be. It’s more like a stereotypical philosophical stance that starts after smoking a joint. In the last episode there is even a long monologue (with images, of course) about capitalism. But more than “You’re right” this does not loosen up.
Cootie is the starting point for the viewer in this strange world and she is a beautiful main character. Poignantly, Jharrel Jerome plays a young man who is in awe of everything and desperately doesn’t want to seem awkward in social situations, but he does it for that. Understandably, he hits it so hard when his idol, The Hero, considers him a criminal.
Another beautiful character is Flora, the girl Cootie has a crush on. Because, just like him, she has a special gift: she can be super fast at times. But then it turns out that Flora simply lives at a different speed than everyone else, and when she acts ‘normal’ it’s because she actually talks and moves extremely slowly. She is not very realistic and looks like a horrible life. But maybe this is Riley’s portrayal of someone who is intellectually gifted and thinks much faster than everyone else.
In terms of visual effects, the series is somewhat reminiscent of Michel Gondry (known for the Björk and Eternal glow of the mind without memories): Instead of leaving everything up to the computer, it’s hands-on work on set. It works effectively and gives the series a unique look. To turn Cootie into a giant, often just a fake perspective is used, executed so flawlessly it’s nowhere to be seen.
Presumably, Riley will never be able to touch her audience more deeply than this. But if he can keep up with his crazy brilliant inventions, no problem. i’m a virgo he shares a story and a world that most can’t imagine for themselves, so it’s great that he’s doing that for us.
i’m a virgo can be seen in first video.