Good TV

[GreenFlashlight]

@arkandel Yeah, don't even get me started on the show's sexual politics. The new season is better about it, but still kinda pings my creep radar.

[Ganymede]

@greenflashlight said in Good TV:

Yeah, don't even get me started on the show's sexual politics. The new season is better about it, but still kinda pings my creep radar.

Yeah, that's good old-fashioned 1980s nostalgia sexism.

[Wizz]

Return of the Mandalorian is just proof that in the right hands, the really cool concepts in the Book of Boba Fett can work. I liked this episode so much it made me angry, haha. I had sworn off the show, goddammit!!!

[GreenFlashlight]

Most of Futurama is returning.

[BetterNow]

@wizz said in Good TV:

Return of the Mandalorian is just proof that in the right hands, the really cool concepts in the Book of Boba Fett can work. I liked this episode so much it made me angry, haha. I had sworn off the show, goddammit!!!

And then Episode 6 was even BETTER. And Episode 7 had some serious squee moments where I turned into a little girl sitting in that theater in 1977 watching the original for the first time.

[Lotherio]

@betternow @wizz I said it early, I was good with it near the beginning even with the mods looking half as much like the mods in 60s UK as much as a cyber gang. I see the critiques after the final are all over with the less Boba Fett they showed the better. I think in part they didn't overly show him to help keep some of his more silent nature, less words more action. I see some critiques about too much of other arcs, but I think it served as a good teaser for other things going on to help other upcoming series. I liked it at through and more so with how it wrapped up in the last few episodes.

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I like that they brought in more fan favorites from the EU, like Vanth from books and Cad Bane from the clone wars series. It was becoming a nice collection of bad asses that could defend the quiet of Tatooine, to be done with all the stuff that's come its way from empire and bombardments to criminal syndicates and jedi alike.
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The only part that I didn't like so much was the end of his tribe of Tusken Raiders. I bought into playing up more of their Fremen/Dune origins to give them a philosophical/religious bend tied to the now gone oceans of the world. They could have been the element in place of the mod gang to help with defending the city/Boba Fett's claims. Another group already worked with Vanth's group to get the dragon. At the least the female tusken that trained him could have been a part of the rogues gallery he collected to help. I know it got a little confusing with the western overtures, all the rogues where like outlaws/bandits/marshals and they're distancing Tusken's from the savage/indigenous tones from the originals. I feel there could be more there.
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There might be with room for more later with the hints of their culture shown in the few episodes they were part of, who knows.

[Arkandel]

Ultimately I liked Boba Fett. The first half of the season was not nearly as good as the second though, and I am not sure this was because storylines paid off.

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The main question I have is why the best episode of the season didn't even feature the titular character and was only briefly about any of its plots. Watching the Mandalorian drama over the darksaber and The Way was simply engaging television, and I quite thoroughly loved it.

But it was no Boba Fett episode. It was a Mandalorian episode.

Then the final battle was fun but... so many bad decisions were made for the sake of staging the fight. I'll give it a pass though because it showed some heart.

I'll be interested in seeing where all these moving pieces end up. Disney+ is basically creating its own Star Wars microcosm which can be fun since they are all on the same timeline (only Obi Wan, for obvious reasons, is not).

Here's a question though: Should we be seeing Luke Skywalker as often as we are? Don't get me wrong, I love it. But at some point is he there for fanservice? Not to mention he is a fucking juggernaut power-wise at this point.

[Lotherio]

@arkandel Agree to disagree. No the better ones didn't feature him as much but I still like his episodes.

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The set up is for the three upcoming series. Luke and Ahsoka for her series. Luke was probably fan service, but he may show up more for Ahsoka, the gave Grogu some training, he'll survive the last of the jedi. The modified nabo fighter ending is the lead into the return of the Mandalorian series. I may be wrong but Cad Bane may return in the Obi-Wan series, they've fought before. Vanth at the end hopefully leads into something too.

[Arkandel]

@lotherio One thing...

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I'm kind of bummed they didn't show Ahsoka and Luke's first meeting on screen.

That should have been a very meaningful, emotional scene. There is so much to unpack and ways they could do it.

[Lotherio]

@arkandel I concur, as their first on screen time it could have been better, but more opportunity in her series.

[Coin]

@lotherio said in Good TV:

@arkandel I concur, as their first on screen time it could have been better, but more opportunity in her series.

I think they'll flash back to it in Ahsoka.

[BetterNow]

@lotherio said in Good TV:

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Vanth at the end hopefully leads into something too.

I think that maybe that could lead to...

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Rangers of the Republic. It was supposed to be a show for Cara Dune before Gina Carano cancelled herself. Maybe it could be done with Modded Marshall Cobb Vanth. I could certainly see it, with Tattooine under Boba's protection now.

[Wizz]

@lotherio said in Good TV:

I was good with it near the beginning even with the mods looking half as much like the mods in 60s UK as much as a cyber gang

My issue wasn't that that the Cyborg Mod Squad existed, because again, I could totally have seen them existing on Coruscant or whatever with no issue. But I ask again for the ages: Tattooine? The fuck? These young kids with the disposable income to dress in high fashion and buy shiny, brightly colored mopeds and get cybernetic limbs and shit are just...hanging out on Tattooine, a dust ball ridden with crime, described by Luke as the place furthest from cool possible. Right.

It is just glaringly out of place aesthetically and logically. The most infuriating example of what I mean is when they meet the ripper doc or whatever and Boba asks the guy why he is leaving the internal parts exposed and the dude is like "because that's awesome" like a complete fucking moron even though they are ON A PLANET COVERED IN SAND which would wreak utter havoc to said parts, literally one of the first fucking few lines in New Hope is C-3PO complaining about how all the sand will freeze his joints.

It's just pants on head stupid and amateurish, and proof they didn't stop and think about what they were filming for five minutes, which is how the entire season comes off to me.

If they wanted to have some Cyberpunk in their Star Wars, there was a blatantly better example of the right aesthetic right there: the Nomads. Like, come on now.

The finale was real dumb, imo to probably the surprise of no one, haha. I liked the intentionally comedic moments, that Twi'lek guy is just pure gold, but otherwise it was full of more just purely silly or poorly executed crap. Bah.

[Lotherio]

@betternow Oh yeah, i forgot about that potential show, good point.

[Lotherio]

@wizz Agree to disagree. Gerrera existed on a sand world and he was more true cyborg than Fennec even, and the mods were just modded at best with a few benefits from the gear. The out of place thing for me there is the bright vespa speeders. I've seen nothing like that before, but I'm not as versed in the EU as some. I can see it as being a modded speeder bike, but I imagine speeders and swoops being more common on Tatooine then colorful modded speeders that go slower and don't look too tough. Like a mod prior to the modding up the naboo fighter that gives it a spoiler/air filter above the engine (I didn't know star fighters used air filters similar to older cars - and we know Jon Favreau like classic cars). I don't see a chop doc as being out of place on Tatooine, the exposed part is questionable, but other cyborgs have been on Tatooine in the cannon and covered up as much as Fennic does.

But Agree to Agree, I could have done without the mod gang in favor of nomads or tuskens or some other group filling in as low hired guns while Boba filled in the ranks. The look out of place as they're too shiny compared to the rest of the aesthetic.

ETA: I know there is mixed criticism, but from me, one of the older folks that saw SW in the theaters during its first run back in the 70s, Boba Fett has left me excited to see some of the upcoming star wars. It wasn't as good as the Mandalorian for sure, but I enjoyed it. I'm also the guy that would have been good with the continued Solo films even with some of the cannon changes it made to Solo himself.

[Wizz]

@lotherio said in Good TV:

I don't see a chop doc as being out of place on Tatooine, the exposed part is questionable, but other cyborgs have been on Tatooine in the cannon and covered up as much as Fennic does.

I don't disagree with you that he belonged on Tattooine just for being a cybernetic technician, cyborgs seem relatively common in Star Wars and he or someone like him would obviously be needed there. Again, it was purely the aesthetics that bother me about him. He's in a little shack in the middle of absolutely nowhere, mostly doing these like highly stylized prosthetics for...rich kids? What?? It's just silly!

@lotherio said in Good TV:

ETA: I know there is mixed criticism, but from me, one of the older folks that saw SW in the theaters during its first run back in the 70s, Boba Fett has left me excited to see some of the upcoming star wars.

I get that Star Wars in theaters was a formative experience for so many people and completely changed the way we make sci fi. I do.

It was a formative experience for me too, even if I first saw it on VHS instead.

If I seem over the top in my criticism about it that's probably fair.

It just really bothered me that for such a beloved character they often left directing in the hands of a goofball like Robert Rodriguez and made so many questionable or outright nonsensical choices in the writers' room. We have proof that they could have done better because they already did!

[Arkandel]

@wizz said in Good TV:

If I seem over the top in my criticism about it that's probably fair.

We all have our nerdrage-inducing pain points. I'm still angry with WoT.

It just really bothered me that for such a beloved character they often left directing in the hands of a goofball like Robert Rodriguez and made so many questionable or outright nonsensical choices in the writers' room. We have proof that they could have done better because they already did!

I agree with you on this. One of the issues I have overall with fandoms is when 'names' are hired who want to make the material their own. That almost always misfires. The material should be catered to, else controversial or nonsensical things happen.

I liked this show overall but I think it got bailed by the stuff we just discussed behind spoiler tags, else it'd have crashed hard.

On the other hand Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni basically bailed Star Wars between the two of them. After the third trilogy wrapped up and it was... not exactly on a high note I can't say I had much hope for it.

But they took it back to its roots and did a really good job of it overall; it looks, feels and smells like Firefly ought to - westerns meet space opera in a used, dusty world. And sometimes space wizards show up with laser swords. It's really fun stuff.

[Arkandel]

Ray Stevenson is Admiral Thrawn.

[Coin]

@arkandel said in Good TV:

Ray Stevenson is Admiral Thrawn.

Uh.

"As first reported by our sister site The Hollywood Reporter, Stevenson will play a villainous admiral, but not Thrawn. Dutch Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen (Borgen, House of Cards) voiced Thrawn in Star Wars: Rebels."

Not unless they're trying to pull a switch, buddy.

[Derp]

Picard just continues to be absolutely amazing. Chef's freaking kiss to this season.