On season three of The Magicians, still a great show. I`m a little lost on Katey`s story motives but honestly, I think she is too. They all go through just constant traumatic experiences, and I do like how it does actually affect them over the long term and is addressed rather than shaken off. The episode with Penny getting stuck on the astral plane and just following around all the spread out characters and storylines where great. Not only did it work, to kinda connect and recap/catch up on the simatantouis storylines going on but seeing Penney be an audience surget for a bit and just react to the wild ride that is the show from a viewing only role was great. Posted a Brooklyn 99 clip earlier, reminded me I still need to check how the new season doing on the new network.
Just started watching Anne with an E based on the Anne of Green Gables stories. I probably read them when young, but can't honestly recall. What I find interesting about viewing the story now, is how well Anne's (an orphan, exploited and abused by contemporary standards) troubled / disturbed emotions are portrayed: her rapid and overwhelming fits of anger, her prolonged dark moods, her frequent habit of dissociating from the here and now and remove into an inner fantasy world, the moments of flashback to overwhelming experiences. All very well portrayed. I like that they don't make a huge noise about it either. It's all just a part of her character. I also love the fact that Jane Eyre is her heroine, another embattled but courageous female character.
Just got all caught up on Orange is the New Black. The next season is the final one, so I'll stick it out, but... I dunno. I guess the thing that bothers me about it is the fact that it can't decide whether to be a comedy or a drama. Not that either genre can't have moments of the other, but to me, the show keeps wrenching back and forth, especially around season 4-5. One moment there's horrible brutality against and by the inmates, and then we're treated to another round of yucks with one of the comedy duos, Flocca and whatserface or the two meth-heads who used to be Doggett culties. Then somebody's getting threatened with extra time or SHU, but look, a squirrel! As for the actors... Jason Biggs will never be more than the punk kid he played in American Boobage. His character in the series even makes me think "Yeah, that's about what that little high-school douche would have grown up into." Laura Prepon, on the other hand, was always mature beyond her portrayed years in That 70s Show, and I like her performance in this series. Samira Wiley's Poussey Washington was a very well-written character, although I'm still a little unclear on the circumstances surrounding her arrest, and I was happy to see her in Love, Death, and Robots. I'm really hoping to see what else Uzo Aduba can do, I hope she doesn't get pigeonholed by appearing in this show. Finally, I hope that if the real life Piper Perry* is as much of an asshole as the character Piper Chapman is she got Son-of-Sam lawed and didn't make a dime. She's still listed as a consultant, which might be an end-run, dunno. *Yes, I know that's the wrong name. Just testing you.
Just finished Ricky Gervais' Afterlife. No spoilers. Starts good, gets really good, gets a little preachy (in a Sam Harris/Stephen Fry kind of way), gets really good, then ends... well, not quite The Hallmark Channel, but I guess I expected something different from him. 7/10.
I started watching Vikings, but I stopped at Season 2, ep11 if I'm not mistaken. It's a show I recommend, and I would like to come back and finish.
Caught up on the Magicians for now. Both the show and the books are brilliant. Love every bit of it, the relationships and characters are complex, and it`s just a great show. One that never fails to surprise me. Back to speeding through Titus the short-lived genius sitcom. I`m normally not a sitcom guy but if one can tickle my sense of humor just right...I'll be in for it. The writing and performance of it is just hilarious and insightful at the same time. Without feeling preachy because...the tone and setup is kinda the exact opposite of preachy. A fun tidbit about it because many of the actors had live theater backgrounds and Titus is a live comedian they did a lot of it in a live style. Live audience very few sets. Never feels limiting to the show though gives it a unique charm. Plus they intercut with skits, and monologues. Started watching Umbrella Academy at a friend`s. I dozed off during it, it seemed ok wasn`t really following it. Might give it a better shot eventually. I did chuckle when I realized they had a Diego character with his ex girlfriend being, Dora. Well Theadora but still.
I like The Magicians, but I wish it had a better start. It's just a little boring and conventional for the first several episodes before the things get more interesting. They tease you with bits of the more interesting stuff early on but the generic magic school teen drama takes the spotlight when it shouldn't have, except maybe in the first couple episodes. Umbrella Academy is worth the watch. I would compare it to Watchmen in that it plays with superhero tropes, but is more quirky and less dark.
Yeah, season two and onward are the strong ones whereas season one is mostly set up. Which is still understandable, but still you`r right if you went back and compared bits of season three (where they really hit there stride) to parts of season one it would look like different shows. Things really don`t pick up until they hit Fillorey not counting maybe Julies plot line. I`d argue it does let us see growth though. Margo and Elliot as sexually "liberated" frat kids conventional convential and tired but it sets up an almost hero's journey for them in ruling Filoray and becoming very different people then they started. The bits of Penny and the Library where always slightly boring and out of place in season one but end up being highly important in later seasons. Josh and his whole group was kinda a throwaway at first, hell even when they added him in more in season three I wasn`t sold until season four. Now he`s nice little part of the group and the romance they have with him right now is unexpected but heartwarming. The first seasons not great, but it`s a long con the show likes to set things up and then let them breathe before going back sometimes.
True, but I feel they could have set things up while being more interesting. Just don't focus on the setup parts as much but on something else, for example. Or find a more interesting way of portraying them, with nuance.
I don't recall how far I got into the show, but I do recall that everytime that whiny Crispin Glover wannabe MC got on the screen I wanted to throw an ironing board through the TV. I did like the gesture-based magic system though. Perhaps a hangover from Piers Anthony's Split Infinity series, where each magician had his or her own way of creating magic. The MC used rhymes, there was one who made amulets, one who did potions...perhaps he was aiming for or coming from an RPG system?
Yeah Q does suffer from being the least important/interesting character in his own story syndrome. Especially early on, he gets better at points but it`s still there. The bits we get about the magic system are always quite interesting kinda wish they`d expand more on how it specifically works. They`ve had plenty of opportunities, could have used the early focus at Berkbills, Alice`s entire plot line, and etc. Oh, is it? Like I said I wasn`t fully paying attentoin I just heard Dora and went hey that`s a thing.
Okay, something that was bugging me about this show. Spoilers, so...yeah, spoiler: Spoiler He's getting a lot of praise for realistically portraying depression, but the problem I have is that it's what I'm going to call "situational" depression. Tony is depressed, suicidally so, because his wife, whom he loved more than all the world, has gone off and died of cancer. I recognize a lot of what goes through his head, although you'll never trap me with a formal diagnosis. Some of his lines and attitudes are spot-on, scarily so, but... Well, he's depressed because his wife died, and once he realizes that he's being a prick about it and that his life has to go on, he gets all better. No, not all better, but there's just that moment of realization and he's pulling out of the tailspin and flapping his way wearily upward. Nice work if you can get it, but next time let's see someone with chronic depression. Someone with a lot to lose. Riches Corey Robin Williams Tony Bourdain (yes, I know those last two had some exacerbating factors, but...). Not someone who just "gets over it."
I've recently started watching The Last Man On Earth. I caught a random episode of it on TV in the middle of the night, and liked what I saw, and have binged watched the whole of Series 1 online, this week. I like it, I think it's funny and well written. Kristen Schaal is fast becoming my celebrity crush at the moment.
I cannot help but cringe at the tactical unsoundness of most recent battles on Game of Thrones. This last battle and previous Battle of the Bastards would horrify any competent military commander... I know as an armchair general I can hardly speak myself, but I would have thought they would have taken the time to at least make sure the decisions taken made logical sense and not all just for plot convenience and aesthetics, which was what I suspect got the higher priority.
To add to this, I also found it frustrating that he had a boss who 'enabled' his depression further. Most of us wouldn't have a boss so understanding if we continued acting like a complete prick and we would be fired, further adding to the downward spiral.
I don't want to be 'that guy' who's a book snob as I've really enjoyed the TV show too; but the existential threat, nuance and motivation of the WW that has been built up for over 23 years was destroyed by Arya, the ninja turtle. in less than 10 seconds. 'The long night' that everyone was so worried about lasted 24 hours! GRRM always said the WW had an agenda and weren't just another generic 'big bad' Sauron clone, so I struggle to believe he will take the books in the same direction. The showrunners have really dropped the ball in my opinion, very very poor writing.
By the sounds of the showrunners, Spoiler they were dreaming up who should be the one to kill the NK, and didn't want it to be Jon, because it would be too 'obvious'. But they never actually decided to at least foreshadow any other viable candidate. Arya's story is totally disconnected from the NK plot. Whereas the Red Wedding/Ned's death are shocking, they do drive the plot forward and in hindsight think maybe you should have seen it coming. But now, they've seemed to have descended into writing shock moments just for shock's sake... something I will try to avoid as I try to write. I think you're right that the books will almost certainly not go in this direction, and the GRRM doesn't have the need or pressure to cave into fanservice.
In a single episode of Game of Thrones, we saw the two greatest sins of the action genre:- What I like to call The James Bond Villain Death - monologuing,w having dinner with, or otherwise delaying the hero's death when you have a perfectly good opportunity to kill them (orotherwise come up with some extremely slow or convoluted way of doing so rather than just shooting them), and so end up dying/defeated themselves instead. The One At a Time, Please when evil hordes attack, they will swarm absolutely everybody, expect for the main characters, who they must run at Agent Smith-style one at a time so that they can be easily dispatched.
Everyones' moves became less sound after season 4. Just turn your brain off, and enjoy the super high budget DnD campaign reenactment.
I'm watching the Flash with my mom. I don't really like the show, it's becoming predictable, yet another will they/won't they romance/love triangle subplots that every show seems to have (so, so annoying, drags on forever), and the main actor guy has these weird head movements, he looks like a bobble head every time he talks. But, my mom is really enjoying it and since the only time she can watch it is with me, because I have Netflix and she doesn't, I put up with it. One show my mom wanted to watch was Supergirl, so we started that series, but by episode 3 or 4, I was being driven insane by sheer boredom, the actors were acting okay, but to me they weren't portraying characters, just.... acting, so I just couldn't get into that world they were trying to build. That's when I told my mom to please pick a different series, anything, to watch. That's how we ended up watching the Flash. At least it's not as boring, even with a bobble head! I started watching Agents of Shield, but at the moment I don't know what to think of it. Kinda an odd show, keeps referencing the movies, but the world they live in doesn't seem to match, so the references seem out of place. I enjoy SG-1, have the entire series on DVD, and would like to binge-watch it again sometime soon since it's been a few years since I watched any of them, but I have to wait until I get around to ordering a DVD player with the correct region code. So far it's my favorite series, next is the 60's Mission: Impossible tv show, third is Hogan's Heroes, and fourth is the Addam's Family.
We've been watching Chambers, a supernatural thriller/mystery about a girl who has a heart transplant then starts experiencing hallucinatory type echoes of the former owner. Started out really well. I like the fact that it based its idea of haunting or possession on popular superstition about transplants carrying memories. Good sound premise. But it's going off the wall a bit now we're getting to the end. Why do they do that? Built up a good level of mystery and tension, then go all in and destroy all the mystery and stuff with increasingly implausible bs, loads of screaming and a bunch of old cliches.
That is how I expressed it to a colleague when we were discussing it at work: it's enjoyable as long as you don't think about it too much! Have you seen Jessica Jones or Daredevil? They seem to be two of the more acclaimed Marvel/DC series that have been on. I've only seen the first season of the former, but what I saw I thought was good, and the acting decent enough. The Flash, on the other hand, is nigh on unwatchable in that respect.
I thought the first series of both JJ and DD, were great. After that they both dive bombed into miserable slow boring land. The antagonists in the first series' of both, were great. Fisk (Kingpin) was amazing in DD and David Tenant was amazing as the psycho in JJ. I also really like the actress who plays JJ, she's got great screen presence and pulls off funny, minimal and moody at the same time. Pity both series pantsed out (IMO). I don't know how well some graphic novels translate to the screen. Depends on what the schtick is maybe? Brooding angry superheroes don't seem to fly so well on telly.
That's a shame to hear. Although I have to admit that part of why I put off returning to JJ was because I just didn't see how they would proceed without David Tennant's character, and that things could only go downhill with his absence. Not an open viewer mindset to have, I know - but it sounds like I was correct! I think particularly in the superhero genre more than any, it is the antagonists that really drive the show and once they weaken the whole thing starts to fall apart.
