Good TV

[Testament]

@coin I think a lot of people's gripes was the fact that the trailers gave the expectation that there'd be a lot more He-Man when the first half the season is based more around Teela. Which is fine. Besides the fact that they only released half the first season, I think people should calm down a bit before getting out the pitchforks.

[ZombieGenesis]

I get being disappointed by some of the things in the show. Like I said, it wasn't quite what I was expecting. In the end, however, it made me wish there was more of it so that's a good thing. My main gripe is that this season(or 5 episodes) felt like they came after something we didn't get to watch. I wish there had been a setup season to this one.

[Coin]

@testament said in Good TV:

@coin I think a lot of people's gripes was the fact that the trailers gave the expectation that there'd be a lot more He-Man when the first half the season is based more around Teela. Which is fine. Besides the fact that they only released half the first season, I think people should calm down a bit before getting out the pitchforks.

I mean, I guess?

I thought it was VERY telling that they called it Master of the Universe rather than the original title...

[Arkandel]

@coin I haven't watched it yet, but it's legitimate to be peeved if the protagonist of a show you really like becomes (or seems like it) part of the support cast in a reboot.

I don't think that's necessarily a gender thing.

[Coin]

@arkandel said in Good TV:

@coin I haven't watched it yet, but it's legitimate to be peeved if the protagonist of a show you really like becomes (or seems like it) part of the support cast in a reboot.

I don't think that's necessarily a gender thing.

I mean, a couple of technicalities in that it's not the same show and not a reboot; it's more of a sequel, or continuation.

And I mean, people can be peeved, but like, I didn't say a single thing about gender; in fact, I think you're the first one to bring it up.

If people are complaining because the main characters are the women of the show, then it definitely is about gender in at least some way or another.

Like I said: it's very telling that they named it Masters of the Universe: Revelations instead of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Revelations. I think it was on purpose, and a lot of the people who are gonna rage and feel bamboozled are also the kind of people who will sit and nitpick tiny little details and rant about them on YouTube.

So. >.> Whatevs. They can die mad. XD

[GreenFlashlight]

@arkandel said in Good TV:

I don't think that's necessarily a gender thing.

I agree it's not necessarily a gender thing, but I'm already tired from all the YouTube reviews I see whose thumbnails complain, "WOKENESS RUINED HE-MAN!" or whatever.

That's all I have to contribute, though, since I haven't watched the show. Not my thing.

[Arkandel]

@coin said in Good TV:

And I mean, people can be peeved, but like, I didn't say a single thing about gender; in fact, I think you're the first one to bring it up.

As I said I haven't watched the show, but the only reason I know about this controversy were posts I read (aside from this thread) which are largely about gender.

I doubt there would be as much outrage if the focus of the original series was on Evil-Lyn but this one was more about Teela. It's about shifting it from a male protagonist to a female one, and as such I have no sympathy about people who complain about that factor alone.

But I can definitely understand being peeved if fans liked He-Man and he's not in it enough (which I don't know if he is or not) or he's a secondary character.

Is it the worst thing in the world? No, they can just not watch the show, and if enough people don't then it will fail. There are certainly other remakes, revival and tribute projects of popular 80s properties out there.

[Lotherio]

I mean, as a fan of He-Man semi-fan. The story of Teela and the Sorceress that helps Prince Adam become He Man is pretty important along with Man at Arms role in the story once he comes into play. I think its good they're exploring more roles of the various Masters involved, they had great back stories that never really got much time cause we had to see Prince Adam running around with his nasaly voice, his crazy cat, and muscle tranformation scenes.

[Wizz]

Masters of the Universe is okay so far. It's not fantastic, not terrible, just...meh. Relies a little too heavily on nostalgia for the characters and campy writing of the original, the former of which made it a little impenetrable for a newcomer like me and robbed a lot of dramatic moments of any real weight.

Definitely nothing revolutionary or special, but the animation is cool and the action sequences are fun to watch. Dunno that I feel any real motivation to finish it when the rest of the episodes are released, tho. ‍️

[ZombieGenesis]

The dialogue in the first couple of eps was pretty bad. I thought it got better as the series went. I still think it really could have benefited from a prequel series to setup some of the things from this series and to help those people who might not be familiar with the original series.

Even so, I still enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the next batch of eps.

[Ganymede]

@testament said in Good TV:

I think a lot of people's gripes was the fact that the trailers gave the expectation that there'd be a lot more He-Man when the first half the season is based more around Teela.

I think these complaints are stupid too. That's not why I was disappointed.

After watching the first half-season a second time, I think my peeve arises in the development of its ideas. I find Teela's character arc difficult to believe given her choice revolves around a single-albeit-important event. There's a lot of unspoken, unwritten background information that a casual fan like myself did not quite grasp. And there's a whole lot going on that could have been better developed. The half-season could have easily have been a full season of material.

This is similar to what I found in the War for Cybertron series. And it is the opposite of what I concluded for the failed Thundercats reboot. So, yes, I definitely wanted more because there was so much more there to be done.

Also, they could have done a full reboot, as they did with their other successful Filmation series.

On a whole other note, Netflix continues its development of 80s nostalgia, but I am happy that they have the original author on board (as Sapkowski was for The Witcher) and let James Wan do the producing.

[Arkandel]

On a different note, how do we feel about the big productions in progress?

There are separate very expensive shows we'll watch at some point:

• A Lord of the Rings series based on events from The Silmarillion.
• A Wheel of Time production that's apparently already renewed for season 2 but has stopped twice due to Covid-19.
• Hawkeye, teased in Marvel movies with Hailee Steinfeld costarring.
• I... think House of the Dragon, a Game of Thrones spinoff is also in the works although I don't know if it wasn't the one being cancelled? That whole franchise was poison-pilled by GoT's last season, damn.

Anything else you all might be into that's coming up?

[BloodAngel]

@ganymede I own all of Usagi! SO PUMPED to watch it with my boy, who I converted as kiddo.

[Lotherio]

@arkandel Dune!

I know I know its not TV, but I'm still of the mindset it needs to be a TV series to really get into the content of the book. This movie looks good though (and not like the Sci-Fi chan with the mortal combat looking Fremen outfits).

[BloodAngel]

@lotherio It looks amazing.

[Testament]

Speaking of the War for Cybertron trilogy, I think Siege was far better than Earthrise, but only the premise that not a lot happened in Earthrise. As much as I enjoyed Siege, there's a lot of history and backstory that could've been explored, but the creators choose to focus on the literal last day of the war. Which fine, but I feel like it was a minor cop out.

Now Kingdom on the other hand I'm actually pretty excited about because it goes back to my all-time favorite Transformers series, being Beast Wars. I'm not really sure how they're going to pull it off, but I'm interested to see what they do when it releases this week.

[Vixanic]

@arkandel said in Good TV:

A Wheel of Time production that's apparently already renewed for season 2 but has stopped twice due to Covid-19.

I am desperately hoping that this doesn't suck. I don't want to get excited (we've all been burned before I'm sure with the disconnect between expectation and result) but... I kinda am anyway.

My fingers, toes and other noodly appendages are crossed.

[Arkandel]

@vixanic said in Good TV:

@arkandel said in Good TV:

A Wheel of Time production that's apparently already renewed for season 2 but has stopped twice due to Covid-19.

I am desperately hoping that this doesn't suck. I don't want to get excited (we've all been burned before I'm sure with the disconnect between expectation and result) but... I kinda am anyway.

My fingers, toes and other noodly appendages are crossed.

I think it will come down to how well they can translate the elements that made the books a fun read to the screen.

There was hundreds of pages' worth of content about how the One Power worked for example can't be quite transferred over as-is without it being boring, but they could spread it out across multiple seasons in a simplified form.

Then the sheer number of characters will need to be seriously fucking trimmed. We all have our favorites of course but there's no way in hell they can possibly bring them all in.

Also... well, Robert Jordan himself should have also trimmed so much of the plotlines because there were a ton in the books but we'll see what they can do with that.

I read the first season will have Moiraine as the protagonist which kind of makes sense both thematically and because Rosamund Pike is the one big name they have. The three ta'veren won't have a lot to do early on other than follow along, and even Egwene and Nynaeve would barely know how to weave yet. I'm hoping later on they'll all get the chance to shine.

In my opinion it will all come down to how good the casting is - that's after one of the things Game of Thrones was extremely successful at. For example Rand al'Thor's actor will need to carry a ton of weight on him after the first season as there's no way to hide the freakin' Dragon Reborn.

[Ganymede]

@testament said in Good TV:

Speaking of the War for Cybertron trilogy, I think Siege was far better than Earthrise, but only the premise that not a lot happened in Earthrise.

We differ here.

Earthrise was more nuanced and interesting to me. The interaction between Prime and Megatron in the station was great, even if it was so poorly voice-acted that I cringed. The fact that there's something about Elita-One that isn't voiced that links Prime and Megatron is also interesting to me, if only because she clearly served as Prime's sounding board in Siege. But they apparently elected to do nothing with the nuance, and ejected it all because, fuck it, children don't appreciate a slow burn.

I mean, you almost understand why Megatron hates Prime so much, and see how it actually has very little to do with the Autobots. Meanwhile, I appreciate how they made Starscream's racism overt and oh-so-amusingly synecdoche for modern Republicanism.

[Testament]

@ganymede That's still an on-going thing, in which the onus falls completely on Netflix. For whatever reason, likely to save money, they hired non-VA union talent for a lot of the VA work, which is still going be a thing. So while the guy who does Prime does a passable job, it's by no means good.

That I think, ruined a lot of potential nuance. Especially when you act with a certain level of stiltedness to your voice that it almost sounds like you're trying to make a homage to Shatner.