It's just dull. The mythology of the original toy advert cartoon wasn't ever anything special, so building a while show around deconstructing it is mildly baffling.
I am also kind of entertained by the rage in the IMDB reviews - there are a lot of very angry nerds railing against "the woke sjw agenda" in the sequel to a show that ended every episode with five minutes of direct-to-camera moralising about equality and compassion.
I assume "woke SJW agenda" means "the main character is female", yes?
Also, that montage is hilarious. He-Man is a sanctimonious twat. I can't decide whether I prefer "I am a character expressly designed to head-butt things, don't head-butt things kids" or the more straightforward "don't take magic drugs" as a life lesson.
I assume "woke SJW agenda" means "the main character is female", yes?
Yes.
Finished it.
It didn't get any better.
It just can't decide what it wants to be or who it's for; it relies on you recognising every obscure Z-tier Masters of the Universe character, because it doesn't introduce or explain anyone, but it's also determined to Be Its Own Thing. It has deliberately goofy, corny jokes like the original kids' show, then Evil-Lyn says, "bollocks". It has a monologue about control and fear in literal hell, but it's delivered by a guy called fuckin' Scare Glow.
I also realised partway through episode 4 that it's structured like an animated retelling of someone's He-Man-themed D&D campaign.
I am, once again, watching cartoons.
This time, it's a Cartoon Network show called Infinity Train, of which I have finished the first of four seasons; it's ten episodes, twelve minutes each, and follows a teenage girl who accidentally ends up on a seemingly infintely-long train made up of bizarre, themes carriages.
Imagine Snowpiercer, but the cars are full of ducks, or grow blocks out of any surface you stand on, or can contain spaces which are functionally outdoors. The main character, Tulip, is trying to find a conductor who can let her off the train, and is accompanied on her journey by a bipolar spherical robot, looking for its mother.
It's quirky in a way I find extremely charming, mysterious in a way I find extremely satisfying and funny in a way I find actually funny. It also goes places, as modern cartoons are wont to do, with some pretty heavy themes about accepting your responsibilities, as well as recognising where those responsibilities end.
(Also there is an excellent recurring performance by Kate Mulgrew as a cat.)
I suspect the subsequent series' are going to shift gears a little on the characters and plot, for… reasons, but I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed that they never actually answer any of the questions about the Train and where it came from. Those sorts of mysteries are always better as narrative texture than as something to actually solve; the answers are never as satisfying as the empty space.
https://twitter.com/bebopnetflix/status/1429790948708392960
Get it in my eyes right now. RIGHT NOW.
Spoiler - click to show(AND MY EARS.)
Like I said in the anime thread, I think it looks disappointingly cheap. At least one of the photos has an air of "Brooklyn Nine Nine Halloween Episode" about it.
I'm hoping it looks better (a lot better) in motion, because these do not inspire confidence.
I'm torn on it. I love the changes they've made to Faye's outfit, but also think she comes across as looking like Ramona Flowers. The images are a little too dark, as if they're hiding something and Spike's hair hasn't quite the volume i associate with the character.
Of course this is all unimportant stuff because we've not seen anything of the actual show yet so I'll remain cautious because there's not really been a good track record of live action adaptations of anime properties.
I mean, they're promotional shots, not stills from the show. I think they've nailed the look of the thing pretty well, though I, too, would like to see it in motion - I'd also like to see the ships, though I expect they've not changed much.
Yeah that's my point, can't really tell anything at the moment so in trying to remain optimistic
Rick and Morty's latest Season is a bit of a head scratcher. It starts out literally taking the piss out of the fan base and then ends up disappearing up its own arse. Bit of a shame really, mid Season 1 to mid Season 2 it was something really special. But the fact it has no real constraints on what they can do or where they can do means, that like Doctor Who, it is basically shafted by its own narrative.
I checked out Lower Decks for a bit of less mentally draining animation and I thought it was fine. I know Gar likes it and I think it's pretty good. Everyone seems to be having fun with it and even the references I don't get I appreciate.
I also finally finished the last season of the Mentalist. Like most Genius format American TV series' it has basically had the same plot done over and over again for 100s of episodes, but I am 100% gay for Simon Baker and don't care. I quite liked the ending. Most of the series was just brainless stuff I had on in the background while working, but as comfort food (like House or American Sherlock) it did the job. I now need another similar thing to stave off the darkness.
By American Sherlock - I assume you mean Elementary?
I spotted that on Amazon Prime the other day. Am I right in thinking it's supposed to be quite good? I could also do with something fairly easy-going to watch, and I got fed up with Agents of Shield.
Yeah, it has a British lead and Lucy Liu as Watson. And is set in the US. The lead guy is actually not a bad stab at Sherlock as he's a bit of a fuck up and actually a dick. UK Sherlock tries for more of a Sheldon/on the spectrum approach, but Elementary is slightly towards the arrogant dickhead end of the spectrum. He's a recovering addict and it doesn't really shy away from not making that a neat and pleasant arc.
And I like that the romance aspect between him and Watson really seems utterly implausible from the get go and more interesting things about their relationship/power dynamic are explored. I think it would've been tempting to go with a Sam and Diane type thing from the off, but the female character is an actual character.
I think a Season or two will give you all you need as ultimately it has to fill 756 episodes a season and some of the content begins to creak, and it is absolutely riffing on the Genius/House format (genius as fucked up human) template which can only go so far. It's not the Wire or Breaking Bad either, but it's well filmed, well put together, well scripted, well acted and I would indeed recommend it as a sort of background thing to slap on if you can't find anything more engaging.
Excellent, I'll add that to the list. Thanks.
Having just watched The Undergroad Railroad - which is amazingly good but relentlessly grim - I need some straightforward entertainment, and the 5 episodes of Money Heist they just released didn't last me any time at all.
I'm a big fan of Elementary. It's gets a lot of praise for their representation with an Asian woman in a lead role and not as a love interest. she isn't constantly playing catch-up either.
Leverage is worth a look and it's on Amazon Prime just now. Which is ironic since it's an anti-capitalist show about modern day Robin Hood heists. It's a bit silly, but if you are looking for something with a bit of thought behind it and characters who aren't insufferable arseholes, this will fit the bill.
Have I already sung the praises of DC Legends of Tomorrow in here? Probably. We are up to Season 4 now and it's wonderful. It makes no sense ever but it's a hybrid of Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr Who with the enthusiasm of a Spaceman Spiff comic strip.
I also really like Legends of Tomorrow. The first season was a bit rubbish, and to be honest the rest might still be too, but I find it seemingly impossible to dislike, despite being unsure whether it is a bit rubbish.
It'd be fun when Gar gets to one of the later additions to the roster too, and has to look up why he sounds so familiar…
Speaking of terrible tv, we watched the first episode of The Strain last night; incredibly uneven performances, by a bunch of miscast actors lumbered with amazing hairpieces/fake facial hair, playing characters who almost never act remotely like real humans would.
Honestly, I can't wait to watch more.
The Orville has just landed on Disney+. Apparently it's really good, if you can make it past the first couple of episodes.
It is very good. It's basically more Star Trek TNG.
It takes a while to decide what it's trying to do, and is heavier on dick and poo jokes than you might like, but takes a remarkably short time to settle into the best Star Trek series since TNG. It understands what Star Trek is, what it's for and how it should flow and embarrasses whatever the fuck the last thing on Netflix was and the recent films.
We watched Motherland which is pretty good. It has something to do with Graham "now officially batshit insane on Twitter" Linehan, so YMMV if you're avoiding his output but it's genuinely quite amusing. Basically a woman who hates her own kids, the Philomena Crunk woman playing the same character as After Life and a centrist stay at home dad play out the sort of escalating situational farces that have always been the backbone of UK comedy. But the lead is brilliant and some of the scripting is very sharply observed - it had the potential to be completely predictable, but quite often the obvious payoffs are subverted and cranked in ways you might not expect. I think you'd probably need to have kids to find it amusing but I have watched far, far worse.
Just watched the first episode of The Orville and yep, this is going to be great. 90% of it was an utterly blatant Star Trek tribute, from the primary-coloured uniforms to the bumpy-headed aliens to the slightly-longer-than-necessary ship flyby. It's even got whatsherface from DS9 in a lead role. The other 10% was completely childish but I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me laugh. I can absolutely see how this is going to turn into something tremendous after it takes a couple of episodes to find its feet.
It'll go a lot further than you might think - by about ep 4 is doing the sort of thoughtful high-concept scifi set ups that the Netflix one forgot about in a blaze of lens flare and exploding spaceships. It genuinely feels like McFarlane sold it to Fox as Family Guy Star Trek, kept it that way until the TV execs got bored double checking it, and then he switched to making a love letter to OG Trek and TNG.
I do have some issues with it (some of the characters aren't quite cast correctly, it still has some weak episodes with shaky concepts, Seth himself can veer into smug Seth, and it occasionally relishes shoving a dick joke in where it could've been just as funny without it), but by and large it's brilliant. And almost feels like a special club - I've told loads of people who love Trek to watch it, and like Spec Ops the Line have pretty much threatened them with violence if they don't get a fair way in before giving up on it.
Yep, you are absolutely correct - the Orville is just amazing. It's like someone made a show just for me. It takes about half a dozen episodes to find its groove (although the earlier episodes are by no means bad) and after that it doesn't put a foot wrong. I'm at the start of the second season now and I haven't loved a show this much in a very long time.
The characters are superb and the jokes are actually funny but what it really nails effortlessly is having each episode standalone but yet also feeling joined up. Everything feels earned and there are callbacks to earlier episodes all the time. It's brilliantly done and quite honestly makes whoever is in charge of Star Trek: Discovery look like an absolute clownshoe.
Yeah, that and Lower Decks are the best Star Trek has been for years.
I made it about ten minutes into Lower Decks. Didn't so much as smile once. I just don't get it.
I enjoyed Picard. With all that spectacle it should have maybe been a movie but it was still pretty good.
I made it about ten minutes into Lower Decks. Didn't so much as smile once. I just don't get it.
It starts off all shouty and abrasive but (a bit like The Orville) it settles into something a bit different after a few episodes. By the time of the second season it's basically a slightly silly TNG. I really like the show, and it's continuing to improve.
I enjoyed Picard.
For the most part it was fine, but the last two episodes shit the bed. And the trailer for the new season looks terrible. Still better than Discovery, though, obviously.
Lower Decks is, undeniably, patchy and takes a bit of time to find its feet, but by Season 2 it knows what it's doing and does it very well. I don't think it's riotously funny and I'm sure a lot of the more obscure references pass me by, but it's amusing and quite grand in ambition at times.
On the Orville what do you think of some of the casting? It feels as if there's a really tight core cast but some of the satellite members aren't either in on the joke or are effectively attempting to make a different TV show. It does smooth out a bit as it goes on, but I do think the casting would've been different if the casting people had (in some sort of temporal anomaly) been able to see how the show played out. I think it's a bit of an issue in a lot of McFarlane's non animated stuff, where the character as written doesn't seem to hit the right actor.
On the Orville what do you think of some of the casting? It feels as if there's a really tight core cast but some of the satellite members aren't either in on the joke or are effectively attempting to make a different TV show. It does smooth out a bit as it goes on, but I do think the casting would've been different if the casting people had (in some sort of temporal anomaly) been able to see how the show played out. I think it's a bit of an issue in a lot of McFarlane's non animated stuff, where the character as written doesn't seem to hit the right actor.
I'm only at the start of the second season but I think the weak link, if there is one, is Seth McFarlane himself as Captain Mercer - I just don't find the guy, as played, particularly likeable or funny. (I'd never heard of him before this show so I'm just taking him on face value here). The woman who plays Kelly Grayson is fine but I've just watched a series of Agents of Shield where she played basically the exact same character so that's a bit distracting too.
Alara took me a while to warm to, I do wonder if her "alien appearance" was deliberately designed to look cheap and tacky back when the show was supposed to be a parody. Bortus, Isaac, John, Gordon, the Doctor, Yaphit, and whoever the guy with the head shaped like a lightbulb is, are all absolutely perfect. The "one and done" side characters are no worse than any other show. I think overall it's a pretty great cast. Were you thinking of anyone in particular?
Did anyone stick with Lost in Space? Gar?
There's a trailer for the final season, due December 1st.
Oh wow, yes, I've been waiting for this. Didn't realise it was so soon. Loved the first two series and may now have to rewatch them in the runup to this.
We watched all of season 1, which had a kind of hokey charm, but the first episode of season 2 was so dumb we just couldn't keep going.
On the Orville what do you think of some of the casting? It feels as if there's a really tight core cast but some of the satellite members aren't either in on the joke or are effectively attempting to make a different TV show. It does smooth out a bit as it goes on, but I do think the casting would've been different if the casting people had (in some sort of temporal anomaly) been able to see how the show played out. I think it's a bit of an issue in a lot of McFarlane's non animated stuff, where the character as written doesn't seem to hit the right actor.
I'm only at the start of the second season but I think the weak link, if there is one, is Seth McFarlane himself as Captain Mercer - I just don't find the guy, as played, particularly likeable or funny. (I'd never heard of him before this show so I'm just taking him on face value here). The woman who plays Kelly Grayson is fine but I've just watched a series of Agents of Shield where she played basically the exact same character so that's a bit distracting too.
Alara took me a while to warm to, I do wonder if her "alien appearance" was deliberately designed to look cheap and tacky back when the show was supposed to be a parody. Bortus, Isaac, John, Gordon, the Doctor, Yaphit, and whoever the guy with the head shaped like a lightbulb is, are all absolutely perfect. The "one and done" side characters are no worse than any other show. I think overall it's a pretty great cast. Were you thinking of anyone in particular?
Interesting, I think Seth is decent in the role, though I was a lot kinder on a Million Ways to Die in the West than most people, so maybe I'm willing to be lighter on him. Alara and the Doctor don't work for me, Kelly is also borderline. Alara in particular, as you say, feels a bit like a joke that ended up too embedded to back out of. The Doctor seems quite annoyed a lot of the time at the tone of the show, I think she has more gravitas than the show needs in that role. And the blob thing is, again, a joke that ended up too embedded to reverse out of as the show went on.
By and large though I think it's great. So just nitpicking really.
I'm probably predisposed to like the Doctor because the actress was in Deep Space Nine and is therefore Star Trek royalty. Thinking about it she was a bit rubbish there too, so I need to rethink my opinion on that one.
I've just started rewatching Person of Interest the last few days, which has finally showed up for free streaming (with ads, admittedly*) on Amazon's IMDbTV section.
Parts of the show are a little dated now - the phones everyone has, in particular, just scream 2011 - but the actual meat of the thing is still great. I'm only on, like, episode 6, but I'd forgotten how early some of the Big Plots start getting seeded in. This was one of my favourite things back when it first aired, and I'm very pleased to see how well it's held up.
*The ads aren't actually too bad - there are only one or two, they're short, and they're fairly well-placed at each act break, so it's less disruptive than, say, trying to catch up with Bake-Off on All4.
I never saw the final season of Person of Interest but I enjoyed the other four.
It's been a long time since I watched it, but my memory is that they stuck the landing pretty well.
Yeah definitely, I enjoyed the last season a lot. Everyone got the right ending. Definitely one of the best case of the week type series I've watched, really pushed the format as much as they could.
Plus the characters were great, such a good balance once the scooby gang were all in place. Plus genuinely funny in places as well.
Anyone watch Only Murders in the Building on Disney+? Staring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. I was watching it week to week but all of season 1 is out now.
It's a bit slow to find its feet but I really enjoyed the story. It does get a bit meta but in a good way.
I've heard good things about it, it's definitely on the list. Is it more of a comedy or a drama?
We've started watching Parks & Recreation, looking for a comedy fix after we finished the amazing Schitt's Creek. The first series of Parks & Rec was so bad we nearly gave up on the whole thing, but everyone said to stick with it and indeed the second series is almost like a different show. 7 or 8 episodes in though and it's all still gently amusing rather than uproariously funny. Kind of wondering when it turns into the classic everyone says it is.
I found Parks and Rec rarely hilarious but pretty consistently cleverly amusing and wry (post season 1 at least). The characters and relationships are great, and Ron is one of the best characters in anything. Jean Ralphio can do one though.
I found that with the Good Place too. Not much hilarity but a lot to recommend it none-the-less.
Parks and Rec S1 was terrible, and I never really warmed to it over the remainder of its run either. It's clever enough, but never sparkles and is very, very rooted in American tropes and in jokes and every episode follows a near identical rhythm. I've always preferred 30 Rock which ran at a similar time and was probably in the same quality tier (one below Community, Arrested etc).. 30 Rock was braver, more creative and happier to break 4th walls and skirt the ludicrous. For example, if you compare Jack and Ron, they're both right wing comic characters but 30 Rock manages to extract a lot more comedy mileage out of the concept over seven seasons than Parks ever does. Parks' characters are more realistic, I guess, but there's no Dr Spaceman, Greenzo, or Devon Banks - Parks never really feels particularly escapist which is something I quite enjoy in a comedy.
Good Place S1 is excellent. S2 onwards it doesn't really have anywhere to go, but while it lasts it's great. It does lean a lot on the actors all being so likeable.
I thought Good Place S2 was the match of 1, especially the ethics lessons, trolley problem, etc. Chidi is such a great character and his relationship with Eleanor is the best thing in the show. After that it tailed off a bit though, got too focused on silly plot developments not character, became a bit cameo-heavy and overly pleased with itself. All of Shur"s stuff is a bit prone to that though.
Tru dat
Doctor Who last night was incomprehensible gibberish, involving a whole load of shouting and running around, and a dog costume that made Bungle from Rainbow look like an outstanding achievement in special effects.
I can't tell if this a positive or negative review.
Classic Who
I see Legion has been added to Disney+. I think aniki is a fan?
I remember watching the first series a few years back and thought it was great. Does it keep it up for the other two series? If so a rewatch/continued viewing might be in order.
It absolutely keeps up the energy of the first season until the end, though it doesn't always go in the direction you expect. It's always worth sticking through, though, even when it seems to be taking a roundabout route to the point.
Excellent. That's on the list then.
I do remember being slightly concerned when, right at the end of the first season, it
Spoiler - click to showsuddenly introduced a villain from the comics who hadn't previously been mentioned up to that point, and all the characters clearly knew who that was; it was a bit jarring, as up to that point the show hadn't really had any overt X-Men references at all and as a casual viewer it had appeared to be something entirely standalone
but as long as it doesn't make a habit of that sort of thing then it's all good.
There's one throwaway reference to the Shi'ar at one point that doesn't really make much impact (it's not referenced again and doesn't become a plot point), and one fairly major comics character does come into the third season in a big way, but you'll definitely know who it is and not be missing any context.