Good TV

[Wizz]

@Coin said in Good TV:

@tragedyjones said in Good TV:

At least The Hand had a reason to raze New York. In fact, razing NYC wasn't even their goal, just a byproduct of getting what they are after.

Except alexandra goes on this spiel about how you get used to seeing cities fall and how they were behind all the big ones like Pompeii. So it's still the same story beat.

This is what I meant by the Hand's end goal and motivations being pretty confusing, especially for someone like me who never read Iron Fist/Daredevil and doesn't know much about the Hand in comic canon. It's first established in the show that the

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS wall/door is some kind of portal to the dimension in which K'un-Lun can be found and the Hand wants to return there for some reason, but when the seal is broken it just...reveals a dragon skeleton? Which they want to harvest as the "substance" they use to come back to life/maintain their immortality is in the marrow or whatever. Was trying to get to K'un-Lun just a ruse, or is every doorway directly through dragon remains under every major city they destroyed, or...? And the dragon's skeleton honestly did not seem all that huge, how would removing it destabilize the city?

[Arkandel]

@Wizz It wasn't even that deep. That part makes no sense.

But that's fine, magic. Whatever. But they didn't explain so many things about even the basic parts of their own plot - what the Black Sky is at all, why they wanted to get back to K'un-Lun at all if all they wanted was the dragon bones since it's obviously not the only place they can be found, etc.

They don't need to give us all the answers of course, but they explained almost nothing. For what I can tell there is nothing under the surface.

[Thenomain]

@Coin said in Good TV:

@tragedyjones said in Good TV:

At least The Hand had a reason to raze New York. In fact, razing NYC wasn't even their goal, just a byproduct of getting what they are after.

Except alexandra goes on this spiel about how you get used to seeing cities fall and how they were behind all the big ones like Pompeii. So it's still the same story beat.

Sometimes that’s the only way some people can get off.

[Lain]

@Arkandel There's a marked lowering of quality since D&D started writing it, which feels bad to me. It's all too predictable now. It's better than most other TV I see, but I continue to watch it mostly because of how much of it I've already watched.

[Jaded]

@Wizz
From what I gathered they were harvesting the dragon marrow. And there were doorways to these dragons lairs that they were using Iron Fists throughout the centuries to seal up. And the Hand was just harvesting these lairs where there are dead dragons and the results ended in the destruction of the cities close to them. At least...that was my headcanon for it. The others wanting to return to K'un Lun was...that was odd. But I think it was a 'want to go back' in a sense of 'want to take it over.' Since the monks would just exile them again.

@Arkandel
I agree. They did not develop the Black Sky enough. And I remember S1 DD where Matt and Stick fought over murdering a kid who was supposed to be Black Sky too. Ultimately, I was thinking 'Black Sky' was the coffin thing they resurrected Elektra in. But I guess not. I am still not quite sure what 'Black Sky' is supposed to even be short of 'the Hand's ultimate weapon' per Stick in DDS1.

[Arkandel]

About the Defenders again, something that occurred to me during a chat with coworkers is that Danny Rand is the only one among them who ought to have his shit together; he's the only one who had a path laid in front of him from a young age, who followed a specific curriculum, and whose job actually is (well, except for fleeing his city) doing exactly what he's doing.

And yet he's the newbie in the bunch who has no clue about how the world works and has to figure it all out. Good job, dude!

[Kanye Qwest]

Danny Rand is an idiot, though. That's a pretty big disadvantage. Being an actual idiot. I mean he's just not a smart guy.

[surreality]

@Coin said in Good TV:

I would also love for them to do some East Asian or even Indian stuff. That would be fucking fantastic. Or some of the South American stuff would be great. Honestly, they could use a little diversity, especially since their flagship show is now Ash vs. Evil Dead, which is great, but very slapstick and a half-hour show.

Don't they have American Gods now, though? Or is that somebody else? (I get all the networks confused every so often.)

Henry VIII has been done, pirates done, Spartacus done, time traveling through Scotland is done, Versailles has been done, there was Deadwood and the dustbowl with Carnivale -- a lot of the interesting periods have been covered by the networks in recent years. Netflix has Marco Polo, too. There was the (goofy) DaVinci's Demons. HBO did Rome an age ago but I still love it.

I am still hoping somebody picks up Nightbreed for a series. It looks increasingly unlikely, but every so often it gets kicked around as a notion.

[Coin]

@surreality said in Good TV:

@Coin said in Good TV:

I would also love for them to do some East Asian or even Indian stuff. That would be fucking fantastic. Or some of the South American stuff would be great. Honestly, they could use a little diversity, especially since their flagship show is now Ash vs. Evil Dead, which is great, but very slapstick and a half-hour show.

Don't they have American Gods now, though? Or is that somebody else? (I get all the networks confused every so often.)

Henry VIII has been done, pirates done, Spartacus done, time traveling through Scotland is done, Versailles has been done, there was Deadwood and the dustbowl with Carnivale -- a lot of the interesting periods have been covered by the networks in recent years. Netflix has Marco Polo, too. There was the (goofy) DaVinci's Demons. HBO did Rome an age ago but I still love it.

I am still hoping somebody picks up Nightbreed for a series. It looks increasingly unlikely, but every so often it gets kicked around as a notion.

Netflix had Marco Polo, they canceled it.

And you're right, American Gods is Starz.

Someone should fucking do some Romance of the Three Kingdoms up in this bitch, though. God that would be amazing. Segway into Journey to the West... nnfff...

[Bobotron]

@Coin

CAOCAO-SENPAI NOTICED ME!!!!!

[Deleted]

The closest you'll get to Romance of the Three Kingdoms is King's War and Qin Empire: Alliance, at least over here. @WTFE can probably watch the Three Kingdoms TV series, the lucky bastard.

I've watched all of King's War and most of Qin Empire. The former is much better. Liu Bang is awesome. Xiang Yu is also awesome.

[Ganymede]

And then they'll give Matt Damon a major role.

[Coin]

@Ganymede said in Good TV:

And then they'll give Matt Damon a major role.

That movie was so boring every time he was on screen. It was otherwise a fun action romp without much plot. His character could easily have been some Chinese dude wanting some other thing. There was absolutely no need.

[Lain]

I just got done watching episode one of American Gods. I'm impressed by how they seem self-aware about CGI looking cartoony, and thus have confined its use to things like dreams and the obviously supernatural, to accomplish a not-quite-real vibe.

There was one thing that caught my eye, though:

Why did they cast not-DMX as Shadow and why is the soundtrack of the first episode all country music? I can't help but wonder if this is the weed talking but me and my roommates spent about fifteen minutes alt-tabbing between clips of Shadow brawling with the leprechaun and clips of the Party Up music video. The music played in the background as it cut between images of DMX waving his hands in the camera's face and not-DMX kicking leprechaun ass.

[Aria]

@Lain -- American Gods is fabulous in every possible way and I highly recommend sticking through the entire season. So, so, so good.

As for the "Why country music?" question, the setting of middle-of-nowhere middle-America is incredibly important to the plotline, particularly the end-game that is the entire purpose behind the insane journey that Shadow is on. I can't really explain more without giving away massive spoilers to the (novel) ending, but I strongly suspect that the showrunners did it to establish setting.

[Lain]

@Aria said in Good TV:

@Lain -- American Gods is fabulous in every possible way and I highly recommend sticking through the entire season. So, so, so good.

As for the "Why country music?" question, the setting of middle-of-nowhere middle-America is incredibly important to the plotline, particularly the end-game that is the entire purpose behind the insane journey that Shadow is on. I can't really explain more without giving away massive spoilers to the (novel) ending, but I strongly suspect that the showrunners did it to establish setting.

I read the book and enjoyed it quite a bit. I'm also enjoying the television adaptation. I just found it hilarious that they cast a DMX lookalike as Shadow. From that point forward, it became clear to me that the only appropriate soundtrack for this show would be DMX songs.

[Kanye Qwest]

So Defenders (spoilers)............

Wow, what a let down. The HAND (and Elektra, specifically) were the nasty, fugly anchor dragging DD season 2 down. I mean, the portrayal of the punisher was great, Karen and Foggy were being developed and no longer saying the absolute worst dialogue every time they were on screen...and then KMART ninja clan and a character so bitchy and stupid it was shattering the limits of my suspension of disbelief to try and comprehend why Matt would still have a thing for her.

I was really scared when she showed up in the Defenders. But Sigourney was killing it and Elektra herself was an expressionless killbot so I thought ok maybe this won't be so bad.

Wrong. So wrong. I hate that character. I hate what the MNU has done with her. I hate her stupid accent, and her stupid OUTFITS and her stupid existence, and I hate what she does to Matt Murdock when she's around. The. Worst. Fuck.

[Arkandel]

@Kanye-Qwest Even though I liked the Defenders more than you did, I do think something's increasingly missing from Marvel's Netflix titles and that's inspiration. I think they are beginning to run things by the numbers there instead of continuing to innovate.

When Daredevil launched I was speechless by the production values - I haven't ever seen fighting choreography like that in a TV show, and the Year One feel was really well handled in my opinion despite a few awkward dialogues. And Jessica Jones was just freakin' amazing, portraying for the first time heavy duty PTSD in regards to a supervillain while running a tight, interesting script (and Tenant was incredible). Even Luke Cage was fun - the music, the style of the series was pretty good even though I found the ending a bit cheesy.

But Iron Fist and the Defenders didn't try to excel, they just... ran a show about exactly what's on the tin. Not bad, not great, just... a show. They didn't even try to use Netflix' unique format (not having to cater to commercial cuts, realizing many viewers would binge watch, etc) to do something particularly cool.

It felt kinda like they mailed those in. Nothing wrong with that but it puts them on par with The Flash and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, not a tier over them.

[Kanye Qwest]

@Arkandel Agree with this whole post. FOR ONCE

ETA: i didn't hate the defenders. I thought it actually really redeemed Danny Rand for me because of all the winks the writers gave. Like yeah, this guy is a literal child, and also a dumbass. The fight with him and Luke Cage was delightful. I really liked the dynamic of him and Luke, and Jessica and Matt.

[Arkandel]

GoT - no spoilers, just a bit of trivia I read last night!

Apparently Bronn and Cersei's actors contractually can't share a scene, since their actors went through a bad breakup iRL years earlier and they wrote that into their contracts that they can't share the screen.

Seeing your hated ex every day you go to work for years must be awkward!