TV The Television Show Thread

[Jammin]

Hit Monkey is a Hulu show right? Not signed up for that at the minute. Will probably check out Super Crooks though.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 20, 2021, Original Post Date: Dec 19, 2021 ---

The one thing about this Witcher show that still bothers me is the casting of Triss. I really don't understand what they were thinking there. It's just such a bad casting job.

 

[Sanity Check]

"Good thing they call you hawk eye."
"And not hawk ear."

-Kate BIshop

 

[Jammin]

Finished Witcher S2. I liked it better than season 1.

Spoiler: For more in depth and spoilery thoughts.

Just a lot better balance this season. More Geralt. More Ciri. Still a lot of witches and politics but it was much less obtrusive. Also really liked that it started strong with that Beauty and Beast story, which should have been in season 1.

Still wasn't perfect. I'm finding with a lot of these TV adaptions it seems like the people adapting it don't really respect or try to understand what made the original popular at times. For example, in the books I love the part where Ciri is brought to Kaer Morhen and the Witchers are trying to figure out how to handle a teenage girl. It's fun and funny, and the tone is mostly "slice of life". But what does the TV show do? Insert drama and kill Eskel (one of the few Witchers everybody knows from the game). There are only 3 Witchers the whole audience knows besides Geralt, why they would kill one of them is completely beyond me.

I don't care if they deviate from the source material in adaptations when necessary but I wish they would at least try to keep a healthy respect for it. Because some hack TV writer is not going to be able to do better than something beloved enough to get a TV adaptation in the first place. If they could they would be doing that instead. But, over and over, they do it anyway. And as this season went on that did start to be the case. It was more dramatic but I didn't think it was as good because of it.

On the balance though it was still good enough to enjoy watching. Ciri, Geralt, and Yen were great. Still didn't care for the Triss casting and Fringilla's story ate up more screen time than it should have. It deserved some but nowhere near that much.

 

[gnut]

That Hawkeye finale

 

[Jammin]

Just watched it, couldn't agree more. So satisfyingly Christmas-y.

 

[Sanity Check]

Did not like the hawkeye finale.

Spoiler

Kate Bishop snitches on her mom for her criminal activities.

But Hawkeye gets a free pass for all the people he killed as Ronin.

No.

 

[Jammin]

Spoiler

There is a bit of a double standard there, I agree, but in Hawkeye's case he did what he did in the context of trying to do the right thing(of a sort). And he regrets what he did, where her mom straight up murdered and framed people without a hint of remorse over it. That was sort of a telling part of her character, where she was ready to just move right along.

The genuine concern for her daughter made her pretty sympathetic though and I'm sure it will be revisited in whatever they have planned for Kate Bishop. They wouldn't cast Vera Farmiga if they don't have bigger plans for that character.

Also surprisingly likeable stepdad guy. He went from being a creepy weirdo to a pretty likeable weirdo. I hope they bring him back.

 

[Sanity Check]

2nd episode of Book of Boba Fett was good.

 

[Faust]

@gnut

 

[Sanity Check]

Book of Boba Fett ep 3:

Spoiler

...

 

[Jammin]

Caught up with the last few weeks of Boba Fett myself just now. The last two episodes were pretty goofy but I feel like that's in line with what this show is turning out to be.

This is a very family friendly type show. I was expecting something darker than the Mandelorian and I think this show is turning out just not to be that. This show is way lighter. I don't necessarily object to that. It's just not something the promotion of this show communicated at all.

 

[Faust]

Thirty-Nine had me in tears.

Highly recommend it.

 

[Sanity Check]

Rewatching the Doctor Who (2005) reboot from season 1.

 

[Jammin]

That'll be a good time. At least until you hit Steven Moffat era. Things get pretty rough after that. But for the Christopher Eccleston and David Tenant it's pretty damn good.

Anyway, I've been watching a few shows recently. Namely..

Marvels: Moon Knight

It's a B- Oscar Issac is really good. Ethan Hawk is good. Everything else is passable. Plotline just feels like a rejected marvel movie script honestly. As a superhero show it's pretty forgettable but not as bad as Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Basically tune in if you like Oscar Issac, if you don't it's a safe pass.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

It's early so I don't feel comfortable rating it yet. By far the most promising Star Trek show to come out in a long time. Which isn't saying much since it's pretty much been a dumpster fire since Discovery launched. If it can stay free of the stupid plotting and misanthropic cynicism that has plagued new star trek, this might first dose of quality star trek in a long while. Only one episode in though so lots of room for CBS to screw this up.

 

[Faust]

@gnut

 

[Sanity Check]

Obiwan Kenobi (2022)

Good cinematography, backdrops and set design.

Wish they had taken a different direction with it and left all the generic, unimaginative and predictable elements out.

 

[Jammin]

The show definitely looks good visually.

And I don't necessarily agree that being generic is the problem. The problem is that, for the first two episodes at least, it's focusing on all the worst things they could possible focus on.

Spoiler

Like the kid. They've written her in a way that just makes her the most annoying and hateable child ever and on top of that the performance is bad to the point of being hard to watch. Bad writing and casting decision there. Also, honestly, I don't understand why the kid is even there. This show is tonally pretty dark. She adds nothing.

And the Inquisitors. The least interesting of them seems to have been chosen as the main antagonist. The grand inquistor was so much cooler than her. Should have just kept him as the main antagonist. He seemed far more competent and threatening. Another bad writing decision.

So my initial impression, after having seen the 2nd of what will be 6 episodes. is that it's not a bad idea for a show but the execution has been terrible. Mostly from the writing but there hasn't been a lot the show has done well so far other than the visuals. Questionable creative decisions have really plagued it.

 

[Sanity Check]

The show definitely looks good visually.

And I don't necessarily agree that being generic is the problem. The problem is that, for the first two episodes at least, it's focusing on all the worst things they could possible focus on.

It may be possible to prove authors of the Kenobi TV series did not see Revenge of the Sith.

Spoiler

#1 Clone troopers murder the jedi in ROTS under order 66.

#2 Kenobi sees a homeless clone trooper beggar in the streets, gives him money.

"Oh, hey bro. Thanks for gunning my jedi homeys down in cold blood."

The authors wrote a generic script without knowing the source material.

 

[xi0]

It may be possible to prove authors of the Kenobi TV series did not see Revenge of the Sith.

Spoiler

#1 Clone troopers murder the jedi in ROTS under order 66.

#2 Kenobi sees a homeless clone trooper beggar in the streets, gives him money.

"Oh, hey bro. Thanks for gunning my jedi homeys down in cold blood."

The authors wrote a generic script without knowing the source material.

He's Obiwan Kenobi though, not Kyle Katarn

I haven't watched though, so don't really get all of the context. The lamest part of the mainline series' Jedi is that they'd do something like that IMO.

 

[Jammin]

I thought that was a trooper from before the clones turned storm trooper. Because I believe he had a blue line on his armor. One of the republic commandos. Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things because Obiwan is awful. Some of the screenwriting has honestly be embarrassingly bad.

Here's an example.

Spoiler

Darth Vader has Obiwan at his mercy. He knocks over some stuff to set this ~40'x30' area ablaze that use the force to drag Obiwan through it. Then he puts out the fire with the force and tells some storm troopers to bring Obiwan to him. Somebody shoots at them and hits something that explodes igniting the same area between Obwan and Vader ablaze once more. Then proceeds to slowly go rescue him and walk away.

What does Vader do? He stands there. Presumably waiting for the fire to burn out. Because he doesn't extinguish it with the force(like he did literally seconds earlier) He doesn't walk through it with this metal legs that were shown that very episode. He doesn't jump over it. He doesn't even walk around it. He doesn't tell Storm troopers walk around it. Nope he just stands there for no reason. And Obiwan gets away. Because whoever wrote this show is apparently stupid.