Random TV Show Thoughts

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

You didn't know who Air Supply was aside from South Park?

Dang, I'm old. Their best songs were being played at my middle-school dances when they were current.

I mean I may have heard them in stores and places like that. South Park, though, was my primary point of reference; it's the main thing that came to mind.

 

[Totenkindly]

Blue-eye Samurai wins animation award at the 76th Emmys

 

[The Cat]

 

[The Cat]

Watching season one of True Detective, for my Chronicles of Darkness chronicle.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Wait, Denver: The Last Dinosaur was set in Los Angeles? That's confusing.

I don't think I ever watched the show but I remember the theme song for some reason.

 

[The Cat]

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Still can't bring myself to watch Rings of Power. What little bit I've seen in clips makes it look like high budget fanfic. Maybe I will get around to it some day but I'd rather just read the tolkien Legendarium and come up with my own images of those events.

Is it true that the producers were basically only allowed to adapt a limited number of notes from the Appendices of Return of the King?

My main gripe, why not set the series in a completely different region of Arda? There was this whole area to the south and east that Tolkien barely wrote about. There were also the Blue Wizards, who he barely wrote about but were said to have gone east to help the people of those regions. Why not do a series about their adventures, or about the struggles of free eastrons and southrons that resisted Sauron's sway? Or how about a series about some of the Pirate corsairs? So many possibilities but they had to stay in the northwest of Middle Earth and muddle up the lore. It reminds me of how almost every Star trek series has to focus on TOS and TNG era, fucking up the lore with stupid retcons when they could jump ahead of TNG a couple centuries and have pretty much free reign without fucking up the timeline. It's so redundant and uninspired to see all of these properties tread the same water over and over

 

[Totenkindly]

Watched the first two episodes of "Agatha All Along." I think the first 15 minutes or so is played like a riff off WandaVision but the series diverges from that point -- it's a little jarring, and Hahn is purposefully hamming it up BECAUSE it is supposed to be hackneyed, but it takes a few minutes (and knowing that Hahn can actually act) to recognize that. I like how it builds off her predicament from WandaVision, and this episode shows the ramifications of that. It's clear also that Schaeffer respects the character of Wanda even if Elizabeth Olsen never quite shows up this episode.

Episode 2 was written by Laura Donney, who arguable wrote the best Wandavision episode (e8, the back history of Wanda that made her into the Scarlet Witch and finally introduces her as such), and it shows -- it's a pretty solid episode and the main witches of the makeshift coven all are written with the right blend of needing to connect with them but also being kind of unlikable in their own ways. Agatha's also still kind of a bitch. I think it's a really solid episode to set up the rest of the series -- but Donney only writes one more episode, she's cowriting the finale with Schaeffer (the showrunner), so we'll see how the rest of the series actually goes. The setup is there, but the execution could end up sucking.

Aubrey Plaza was pretty great. It's hard to believe she's 40 already.

 

[The Cat]

God forbid you have good television shows that entertain and make one think to compete with your bad television shows designed to shut down creative thought and foster controversy for its own sake...​

 

[SensEye]

Watched Ep 1 of HBO's Penguin. I quite enjoyed it. Good tone and atmosphere. Collin Farrell cuts quite the menacing figure as Oswald.

The first episode was just basically criminal underworld stuff with Oz operating as a capo in the Falcone crime family. So no superhero/supervillian comic book nonsense. If they can keep away from that stuff in the main (it's bound to creep in there somewhere, there was a passing reference to Batman at one point), the series will have promise.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Watched Ep 1 of HBO's Penguin. I quite enjoyed it. Good tone and atmosphere. Collin Farrell cuts quite the menacing figure as Oswald.

The first episode was just basically criminal underworld stuff with Oz operating as a capo in the Falcone crime family. So no superhero/supervillian comic book nonsense. If they can keep away from that stuff in the main (it's bound to creep in there somewhere, there was a passing reference to Batman at one point), the series will have promise.

It was pretty good. There's even some Sopranos type humor in it. Consider his line about how he was going to go straight to Al to give him the valuables he found in the hiding spot. This show is full of characters lying to each other and knowing that they're lying and it's great.

Sofia's kind of spooky; it's those eyes. It's as though she's really excited at having a glimpse of her prey.

 

[Totenkindly]

I was feeling bad for Ted Levine for similar reasons, after he played Jame Gumb in The Silence of the Lambs.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Just kill me. Sheesh, I hadn’t seen that new Minecraft teaser until today. It really is that bad. Someone please beat Jack black with a fucking dildo

 

[The Cat]

Just kill me. Sheesh, I hadn’t seen that new Minecraft teaser until today. It really is that bad. Someone please beat Jack black with a fucking dildo

So Hollywood has learned NOTHING. Fantastic. I was afraid we might get out of the shallow pool before we all drowned, but turns out, the solution is just to stop struggling and surrender to the sweet embrace of books.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

So Hollywood has learned NOTHING. Fantastic. I was afraid we might get out of the shallow pool before we all drowned, but turns out, the solution is just to stop struggling and surrender to the sweet embrace of books.

That's about where I'm at. I get so bored in front of a screen unless I'm gaming or watching a select handful of old favorite movies.

I'm really glad my kid is past the age of me having to sit through crap like the smurfs and trolls movies and I'm thankful I won't have to watch the minecraft movie. I don't know why they used live action actors. Momoa and Leslie Jones look absolutely bored to be in the film. The green screen effects look like shit. The CGI world looks like shit compared to the game, a lot of people are saying it looks AI-generated and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.

 

[The Cat]

I don't know what's broken inside me but Hector and Lenore from Castlevania. Wowzers what a fun dynamic that would be.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

KAOS (Episode 1)

I was disappointed in this, but there are redeeming qualities.

It's good whenever it's on Mount Olympus. Jeff Goldblum kills it as Zeus, of course.

I also like how they made Prometheus a central part of the show. I am fascinated by the fact that the ancient Greeks had a story about a guy who tried to do the right thing (give humans fire), and then gets punished for it for all eternity. It tells you something about how they saw the gods. I can relate to asshole gods much more than benevolent ones.

The story of the humans is not as good and could have been edited down. How many shots do we need to see of Eurydice driving? It's also a problem in a story about Orpheus that his music just isn't that good, which is a problem, because the whole story hinges on Orpheus being the best musician ever. The music is sub-Coldplay bullshit, and I don't even like Coldplay.

The "twist" was also no shock for me because I know Greek mythology relatively well.

I guess this story is mostly going to be a retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, and might be getting into the Orphic tradition, which I don't know a ton about.

I'll give this one more shot. I'm concerned because I'm afraid I'll be getting a lot of scenes of Orpheus playing music that just have me looking at my phone.

 

[The Cat]

KAOS (Episode 1)

I was disappointed in this, but there are redeeming qualities.

It's good whenever it's on Mount Olympus. Jeff Goldblum kills it as Zeus, of course.

I also like how they made Prometheus a central part of the show. I am fascinated by the fact that the ancient Greeks had a story about a guy who tried to do the right thing (give humans fire), and then gets punished for it for all eternity. It tells you something about how they saw the gods. I can relate to asshole gods much more than benevolent ones.

The story of the humans is not as good and could have been edited down. How many shots do we need to see of Eurydice driving? It's also a problem in a story about Orpheus that his music just isn't that good, which is a problem, because the whole story hinges on Orpheus being the best musician ever. The music is sub-Coldplay bullshit, and I don't even like Coldplay.

The "twist" was also no shock for me because I know Greek mythology relatively well.

I guess this story is mostly going to be a retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, and might be getting into the Orphic tradition, which I don't know a ton about.

I'll give this one more shot. I'm concerned because I'm afraid I'll be getting a lot of scenes of Orpheus playing music that just have me looking at my phone.

I dipped after the pilot.
Shows not for me.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I dipped after the pilot.
Shows not for me.

I'll let everyone know what I think of the second episode.

 

[Totenkindly]

Still my favorite season of AHS