AMO (2018)

STORY: Amo revolves around crime and drugs within the Philippines. As someone who has never been to the Philippines and is not involved with drugs/crime in general, I can't officially say that it is an accurate portrayal of corruption/drug wars. But from my judgement, I believe the use/sale of drugs and corruption within the police to be correct. The story itself was okay. I found it entertaining. However, the introduction to new characters was highly poor and you are sometimes left confused on who the hell is this new person. It's like the writers expected you to already know. Another asset that left me confused was in episode 9 the story line completely changes. The plot seems to split into two. Episodes 1-8 focuses on Joseph and drugs. While episodes 9-13 changes to Rodrigo and a totally different case that barely involves drugs. With episode 13 briefly showing Joseph. Also, it was done poorly, like what the fuck happened to Joseph? Additionally, the "second half" of Amo takes such a dramatic turn. You are left wondering what the hell just happened? It was kinda sloppy, but bearable. I still enjoyed it. You can see by the ending that it is left open for a second season, which I hope does happen cause I need closure.

DIRECTING: To me, Amo occasionally felt as if I were watching a documentary. But after some research, I found that it was supposed to be like that. I like it. There were frequent times when the camerawork was shaky. Amo also included awkward and unwanted close ups and pans. LIKE OMG JUST CUT TO A DIFFERENT ANGLE. It probably annoyed me more than it should. Also the editing for some of the shooting seemed really unprofessional. But some of the camerawork was really well done.

ACTING/CASTING: Wow! Probably the best thing about this series. It wasn't awkward and it was professionally done. I was very impressed with their acting. If anything was awkward it was due to poor character writing. I only found some of the extras' acting weird, but who gives a shit. Props to the main actors.

MUSIC: Nothing really special, the music suited the situation. Although the guy who was always on the street rapping was one sick lad. If anyone knows the theme song, just let me know I kinda liked it after hearing it 13 times.

REWATCH VALUE: I would probably re-watch this if one of my friend's wanted to watch it. Might re-watch some scenes I found enjoyable.

OVERALL: I liked it and found myself learning about the Philippines' drug war and corruption. I looked it up and found an article about the drug war and Amo. At least the writer's managed to portray the crime correctly.

Here is the article if you are interested ~ https://www.bustle.com/p/is-amo-based-on-a-true-story-the-filipino-drug-trade-drama-is-causing-controversy-8736239

I enjoyed it. Nothing in this series is that graphic. Just a lot of drugs, about two very basic sex scenes, swearing and a lot of violence. Give it a try! I do recommend it if you have nothing to watch, you might learn something new.

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