Good TV

[Derp]

@arkandel said in Good TV:

@wizz I haven't watched it yet but as a more general question.

Did it feel like they are trying (possibly too hard) to create 'the next Game of Thrones'? That's kind of my main concern about the series, that its producers would try to make it into something it's not to recapture the magic of a different blockbuster series.

Not really, no.

They've modernized some of the things in the books, and brought a few of them in line with what we would assume about teenagers in the contemporary era, rather than when it was written, as well as how people just relate to each other in general. But I didn't get any kind of Game of Thrones vibe from it. Except for one big major change right in the beginning, it felt fairly consistent with the source material, and didn't try to riff off of anything else, from what I saw.

[BetterNow]

Arcane Season 1 is fully up on Netflix and my GOD. I can't even. I know it will never in a million years be considered, but this show is seriously Emmy worthy. The animation is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The character designs are gorgeous even when they are hideous. The voice acting is superb, and the story? Well, I cried probably a half dozen times over the course of 9 episodes. It's holding at 100% Fresh on Rotten tomatoes with a 98% audience rating.

Season 2 has been officially announced as in production. I am over the moon.

[Arkandel]

I watched the first three episodes of the Wheel of Time series. Some comments about it in spoiler

tags:***=WoT Spoilers***

click to show

• Perrin having a wife who dies almost immediately - yes, this is pretty much the definition of fridging. She barely had dialogue lines or a personality, she only existed to create drama for another character. Eh. I'll wait to see what they do with it, I guess. But it really feels it wasn't needed.

• 'The Dragon Reborn can be a he or she'. I don't care but unless they address it, it's inconsistent with the mythos. The whole point of false Dragons is that they are male, and thus hunted by the Red Ajah since they will go insane.

• The casting was okay. Some of it worked really well for me (Lan and Thom stood out, Mat and Moiraine were fine, not as sure yet about Rand or Egwene). But as they are all given more to do and time to find their voices it could be fine. There was no casting choice though that felt as solid and right as Tyrion Lannister was.

• Speaking of that, the production values are definitely not up to Game of Thrones standards. The music score is downright forgettable. The special effects are... okay. Not sure yet. But it works, it's not like they are bad or anything.

Overall I liked it. And I hope it does well - if this fails I don't see another big fantasy book series getting adopted any time soon.

[Three-Eyed Crow]

@arkandel
I read the books way back when and thus far I've enjoyed the series, though I have some issues with the pacing (it seems REALLY structured around big action sequences without a lot of room to breathe for the characters). I also have some issues with how they're positioning the central 'mystery' (book reader spoilers to follow).

tags:***=WoT Spoilers***

click to show

I think my ambivalence boils to...I don't see them actually changing who the Dragon Reborn is, but they're doing some stuff to keep it mysterious that feels like it'll ultimatley make it being Rand more of a letdown. Egwene, Mat, and Perrin all got a little bit of extra screen-time or fleshing out apart from what was in the books. In the case of Egwene and Mat this worked for me. Perrin's less so, but I see what they're doing especially in terms of his wolfism so...I'll ride with it for a bit. Some of Rand's backstory and time with his dad got actively cut, I think because he has the VERY obvious portent heavy Luke Skywalker parentage that pretty much anvil's 'this is this guy's heroes' journey.' Which, OK, if you want people to not be sure who the Dragon Reborn is for a while, that's a choice. But they didn't replace it with anything, so he feels like the thinnest and most annoying character at this point. Which feels like it's just going to lead to an inevitable let-down when this dude who they've been kinda avoiding fleshing out to make the other characters seem more plausible as protagonists is revealed to be the Dragon Reborn. As a friend of mine who's also watching put it: I can't imagine anyone who didn't read the books is going to be both surprised and satisfied, anyone who's surprised is probably going to be disappointed, and that's without even getting into how Rand's actor is the most boring of the white dudes in the cast at this point, so dragging out the reveal feels kinda not great to anyone who invests in Egwene or Perrin as real possibilities for the lead of this thing.

All that being said I'm interested to see how they round out the season and am here for it.

[Derp]

***If you haven't read the books yet***

click to show

@three-eyed-crow said in Good TV:

Rand's actor is the most boring of the white dudes in the cast at this point

How is this a surprise? This is genuinely the same as the books. I even mentioned to @Devrex that that character being flat and boring was pretty much spot on for the books.

***NSFW content***

click to show

@arkandel said in Good TV:

Perrin having a wife who dies almost immediately - yes, this is pretty much the definition of fridging. She barely had dialogue lines or a personality, she only existed to create drama for another character. Eh. I'll wait to see what they do with it, I guess. But it really feels it wasn't needed.

Dev again pointed out a thing -- perrin's biggest story arc, outside of the wolf thing, is the struggle between the hammer of the creative and the axe of the destructive. This is just a way to set that struggle up early, in a visceral way.

[Three-Eyed Crow]

@derp said in Good TV:

***If you haven't read the books yet***

click to show

@three-eyed-crow said in Good TV:

Rand's actor is the most boring of the white dudes in the cast at this point

How is this a surprise? This is genuinely the same as the books. I even mentioned to @Devrex that that character being flat and boring was pretty much spot on for the books.

It's not a surprise and is indeed probably inevitable if they're sticking more or less to the book's characterization, I just think the way the series is positioning some mystery stuff creates additional problems down the line.

[Arkandel]

A concern I heard is that Amazon isn't yet used to running creative projects like that, and it interferedoffered opinions a lot during production. This is one of Amazon Prime's intended carrots, after all, so they want to make it as appealing to everyone as it can possibly be.

I was listening to a Ringer podcast this morning and one of the folks on it who actually got to watch some scenes being shot and was asked for his opinion in screeners mentioned a number - 12,000 notes were passed on to screenwriters to ensure audiences in Sweden found it as compelling as ones in Utah.

Oh I'm just curious to see how they will handle some of the more controversial but integral parts of the series. Damane, Rand's romantic partners, etc.

[BetterNow]

@arkandel said in Good TV:

A concern I heard is that Amazon isn't yet used to running creative projects like that, and it interferedoffered opinions a lot during production. This is one of Amazon Prime's intended carrots, after all, so they want to make it as appealing to everyone as it can possibly be.

That isn't necessarily true. They have The Boys and Invincible and they haven't interfered on those at all really, and both were big hits for them.

[Arkandel]

@betternow Yeah, that is true. It may be that like other things about Amazon, it depends on which team is responsible for a project. Or it could be that WoT is just a scale of budget higher than those other productions so they're more strategically careful about it. It could also be other projects were ran by people who stood their ground better.

It could also all be bullshit. Ultimately all of these things are judged by their results. I feel so far, being just in episode 3, it's hard to tell if it'll end up closer to The Shannara Chronicles or Game of Thrones.

***NSFW content***

click to show

Let's see what happens when the group reaches Andor or the White Tower. So far it's all RUN RUN RUN. I want to see how they will open up the plot and expose it to the Great Game. And how they will handle training in the One Power in general or audience exposition to its many, many, many, many, many intricancies.

[Wizz]

@arkandel said in Good TV:

And how they will handle training in the One Power in general or audience exposition to its many, many, many, many, many intricancies.

WoT's magic system is still one of my favorites in fantasy, and I think it translates particularly well to a visual depiction. They have already done well with that imo, so as long as they don't try to dumb it down or stumble hard this actually isn't one of my concerns personally!

[Arkandel]

What do y'all think about Hawkeye?

I found it pretty endearing. I'm not a Jeremy Renner fan but there was chemistry there and the dynamic was fun.

I also dig how different Marvel's TV shows are from each other. So far we've seen metaphysical themes, political/espionage thrillers, time traveling adventures, an animation casting the real A-list actors, and now basically a holiday series. I also have high hopes for She Hulk.

They're experimenting, and for better or worse that's pretty cool.

[Alamias]

@arkandel So far I like it. I know it is drawing some inspiration from the Hawkeye 2012-2015 comic series, but since I didn't read that series I can't make too many comparisons.

[BetterNow]

@arkandel said in Good TV:

What do y'all think about Hawkeye?

It has Lucky the Pizza Dog. That is all I needed it to have.

[Three-Eyed Crow]

@betternow said in Good TV:

It has Lucky the Pizza Dog. That is all I needed it to have.

I've been pleasantly surprised by how much it's taking from the Matt Fraction comic from the reviews (to the point where I now have to watch this thing).

[Ghost]

Cage has been cast as fucking Dracula in an upcoming movie/show called Renfield.

This will inevitably be good tv.

[Arkandel]

@ghost Waitwhat? You are shitting me.

[Ghost]

@arkandel https://nypost.com/2021/11/30/nicolas-cage-to-play-dracula-in-new-monster-film-renfield/

[Arkandel]

@ghost Well, clearly the art of cinematography is about to hit its absolute peak.

[Ghost]

FYI.

Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas is on Amazon Prime. If you haven't seen it you owe it to yourself.

[reimesu]

@ghost Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas is fucking phenomenal. I agree with you on this.