Unofficial tv series review thread 2

For the talkin' of jibba jabba.
Post Reply
User avatar
speaker-to-trolls
Posts: 766
Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 12:34 am
Location: The World of Men

Unofficial tv series review thread 2

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

The original thread was last visited in 2010 so I thought posting in that might be pushing this board's lenient attitude to necromancy and other satanic practices.

So I am just posting to post a completely unnecessary opinion about the two most recent Dr Who specials, because I guess I think about Dr Who more than anyone really should if they aren't paid for it (but much less than many others who still aren't paid for it).

I am going to include few to no spoilers, so the reviews will be mercifully brief.

So first of all the 50th Anniversary special episode Day of the Doctor:

Was really very good, there is a nonsense subplot with a 'classic monster', which was nevertheless done pretty well, but the main action is on a reunion of three versions of the Doctor trying to save the world and make peace with him/themselves/self. Two of them are played by Matt Smith and David Tennant and one is not played by Christopher Ecclestone but is played by the legendary John Hurt, which is okay by me. The interaction between these three is magnificent and the whole thing has a great deal of human drama, humour and a triumphant finish that celebrates the 50 year legacy of the show while lighting a bright path for its future. Nice work all around!

The Time of the Doctor, the Christmas special and last appearance of Matt Smith, on the other hand, I am not so happy with. The word that springs to mind is 'incoherent'. Basically the Doctor has to protect a bunch of people from all the monsters in the universe on a planet where he is destined to die. The situation should be an epic, inescapable tragedy, but unfortunately there are a dozen ways it could be resolved without bloodshed and nobody really acts in a way that makes any sense. That doesn't bother me so much as the fact that this episode wraps up all the long plots from Matt Smith's run as the Doctor, and it does a really rushed and unsatisfying job of it. I won't go into detail, but 'Silence Will Fall' was the catchphrase for the Dark Plots throughout the Smith years, and here it is explained and finished in what I found to be a really dull way. There were huge, epic, inspired, creepy, chilling, awesome ideas all tied up into this, and they were just tidied up back in their box and put away in a corner somewhere to gather dust. Matt Smith does put in a good performance, but for me it was blunted by the fact that the whole situation was so contrived, there didn't seem to be a need for him or any of the other characters to do anything they did. It did its job and ended the Matt Smith years, but I think he deserved a better ending.

But in any case;

The Doctor is Dead, long live the Doctor!
"Little monuments may be completed by their first architects, but great ones; true ones leave their copestones to posterity. God keep me from completing anything."
User avatar
Siege
Site Admin
Posts: 2563
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:03 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Unofficial tv series review thread 2

Post by Siege »

Capaldi's outfit made its round over the web yesterday and it looks promising. Classy, a little more serious and a little less whimsical, it looks. I've been meaning to catch up on Dr. Who (stuck somewhere mid-last season) because I rather liked the way things were going despite the overall negativity on the interwebs. I'm very looking forward to Hurt as the lost Doctor, so it's good to hear that's up to snuff. Pity about Smith's last episode but I guess you can't catch 'em all.

I also still have to catch up on Person of Interest. I really dig that show and I hear great things about the last couple of episodes but I'm still somewhere mid-2nd season. For some reason it feels like a really big commitment to get back into it, like 40 minutes of idle TV-watching is a monumental achievement that will take huge chunks out of my schedule. It's rather silly, but it's seriously hamstrung my usual keeping-up-with-the-shows.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
User avatar
Booted Vulture
Posts: 965
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 9:33 pm

Re: Unofficial tv series review thread 2

Post by Booted Vulture »

I skipped out on Doctor Who after the snowmen Christmas special was unbearably awful to me. So I didn't see any of the regular Clara companion episodes. (and of course they were then reputed to be quite good)

I mostly agree what you said about the specials. The three doctors aspects of Day Of The Doctor were the strongest, the alien plot to earth was the weakest. It was also deeply steeped fanservice with for me varying amount of success.
All the Doctors showing up at the end = win for me. The fourth Doctor/tom baker specific fanservice. Less so.
The Time Of The Doctor on the other had. Tried to do way too much in way too little time. And if nothing else had a severe problem of tell not show with its narration aspect. They also tacked on Christmas elements as it was the Christmas special. Can't help but think they'd have done better to give Matt Smith whatever he wanted to do an extra special or half a season or something. So they could do a really christmassy special at christmas and save all the 'high drama' regeneration story for later.
Ah Brother! It's been too long!
User avatar
speaker-to-trolls
Posts: 766
Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 12:34 am
Location: The World of Men

Re: Unofficial tv series review thread 2

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Wow, this is old, but still on the front page. I apologise if reviving it at this stage is necromantic.

So having now seen the first Capaldi season of Doctor Who (about 8 months ago) I have to say I have mixed feelings about it. Capaldi is great in his role, obviously, and I think it's interesting that the way they play it is that he isn't necessarily darker than Smith or Tennant, it's just more visible now that he's become a gravelly old Scotsman. I also liked Clara in this series, and I think Jenna Coleman has really come into her own in the role now, and most of the supporting cast was good too, especially the villain, who had no depth and made very little sense, but was entertainingly nuts in the end. There were some very interesting concepts in there as well.

I have second thoughts about saying this because I will sound like a jaded dickhead, but I found myself quite annoyed by the tone of the season overall. Many of the episodes seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time going on this... exploration into the Doctor's psyche and the nature of his transformation and... I just find it irritating. To be honest I am not sure there is that much more I can learn about the dark recesses of the Doctor's mind which would really be that interesting. The most gratuitous example is, episode 4; Listen, it is just so pointless, it is almost like a parody of all Moffat's other ideas, but it is based upon the idea that it plums the depths of the Doctor's inner life.

I really shouldn't complain about this so much because the actual execution of many of the episodes was really very good, I do like Moffat's style with the fun montages and the ongoing series plots and everything (I just wish they had better resolutions in general). My favourite episode is episode 5, Time Heist, which is great, a little bank heist story which keeps you guessing as to exactly what is going on, perilous adventure and entertainment in a weird alien environment, which is really what I would like to see more of.
"Little monuments may be completed by their first architects, but great ones; true ones leave their copestones to posterity. God keep me from completing anything."
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: Unofficial tv series review thread 2

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

I... haven't been watching any Doctor Who at all, the last I saw was Let's Kill Hitler and the ridiculous melodramatic Doctor and River Song bits were too much for me.

Serieses I'd recommend would be the new JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE, Space Dandy and the Gundam Unicorn OVA. I'd expound more if it weren't midnight. More, later.
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: Unofficial tv series review thread 2

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

So, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure...

Image

Is an amazing series that progenated the tropes used by shows like Shaman King and perhaps Naruto and others, those fighting animes, the other grand daddy aside from Dragon Ball. It started off as a manga, became an anime decades ago, and now they're making a new anime - and the creator is a mangakka who worked for GUCCI.

Thus, aside from the incredible fight scenes, everyone is FASHIONABLE and FABULOUS (refer to the above image, which if you haven't already realized from the obvious visual cues, is a threesome of primordial nigh-omnipotent vampire organisms). It is outrageous, obscene, overly fun and melodramatic and yet the most ridiculous aspect of it is how the sequence of events make some sort of insane logical rational sense... which is the charm of this thang as the characters one up each other and such in martial might, in their WISE WARRIORLY WAYS AND WILLS as they test each other's mortalities. But I'm going ahead of myself. I haven't even explained the basics of the show!

It follows the multi-generational stores of the Joestar family. The titular heroes are named Jonathan Joestar, Joseph Joestar, and the other descendants... explaining the name. And their adventures, trust me, are fucking bizarre and... GLOURIOUS.

I just watched the first two seasons, which are the saner and more sensible ones. It begins in late 19th century England with the first JoJo, who is the son of an English nobleman... and how his fine upstanding life and coming of age and youth and all that is shattered by the coming of douchebag extraordinaire DIO BRANDO, an impoverished young man whose father "saved" JoJo's father's life. Actually, Dio's father was a scumbag and after Jojo's father suffered a carriage accident, he tried to steal stuff from the corpses, but Jojo's father regained consciousness and mistook their acts of thievery for first aid and was thus thankful and indebted to them. As Dio's dad dies of scumbag disease, he tells his just-as-scumbaggy son to go to the Joestars and collect on the debt by being adopted by the rich family.

The first thing Dio does after being welcomed by the Joestars is to punch young JoJo in the gut and tell them that he is the new boss now, for he plans to usurp JoJo's place as the favored son (using total douchebag tactics to endear himself to the Joestar patriarch) while scheming to kill everyone else to gain the inheritance. He bullies JoJo, steals the first ever kiss of Jojo's girlfriend, and burns JoJo's beloved dog alive. Because.

AND THEN he finds this artifact, a stone mask, which causes VAMPIRISM and he starts gathering VAMPIRIC LEGIONS including Jack the Ripper. As he seeks to attain godhood over all humankind and turn the populace into food. When asked if he even remembers how many victims he has drained of life, he says that he cannot even remember, for normal people can neither remember how many breads they have eaten.

Lots of people die. A desperate JoJo encounters a strange eccentric Italian named BARON ZEPPELLI, who teaches him the Art of the Mystics, which uses breathing techniques to channel the absorbed solar energy of the body, converting it into ripple energy, HAMON ENERGY. Which is based on the principles of Chi.

Invictus told me that the JoJo depiction of HAMON is one of the more accurate takes on chi in mainstream fiction.

So Jojo and his allies and their mystical kung fu powers fight vampire legions. The hamon can channel the body's inherent solar energy and thus melt vampires. But clever vampires like DIO can use their VAMPIRISM to super-cool their anatomies and even freeze the bodies and limbs of hamon-users, disabling them for hamon ripple energy cannot travel through solids - like frozen body parts.

The explanations are totally understandable and sensible. The vampires can also channel concentrated sprays of blood from their eyeballs, so focused and potent that they can cut through flesh like lasers.

Yes. The first season is about how the first JoJo deals with Dio. But the second season shows how his grandson, Joseph Joestar, deals with the reawakened PILLAR MEN - ancient superpowerful vampiric beings who created the stone masks that infected Dio. And I just finally finished this second season and it's incredible. Whereas Jonathan is an upstanding English gentleman, a do-gooder protagonist, a total baby-face, Joseph is a douchebag... a cocky rogue, Han Solo-esque, but he's also prone to bluffing and really really damn good improvisational ass-saving, because he's a dumbass who blunders into all sorts of shitty situations that he has to salvage through sheer pluck and natural talent and assholery. Part Indiana Jones, part John McClain. Including the trash talking and cocky bullshit. A brash young asshole. And his ally-rival-bestfriend CEASAR ZEPPELLI, who is also the grandson of the Baron Zeppelli.

This occurs in Europe, there are techno-Nazis who become allies because even they realize the threat of the fucking omnipotent vampire ancient beings, and it's ridiculous. Absolutely fucking ridiculous and wonderful and bizarre. Vampires spew out superheated blood and lash people with their blood vessels. Other vampires have vents in their body that suck in air, like turbines, allowing them to blast out whirlwind gales. They have crystal blades inside them, snikt-ing out. Man. There is so much homo-eroticism. So much fabulousness. Battlefield philosophy. MANLY TEARS. Macho bullshit. Jesus.

I learned that Streetfighter's all-American hero Guile is based on this asshole reluctant ally, ironic protagonist CYBORG NAZI. This is set in the 1930s and yeah, it was kind of off-putting to have Nazis as situational allies of the heroes... but they're such ridiculous Wolfenstein caricatures... always screaming about THE SUPERIOR SCIENCE OF THE FATHERLAND before being mowed down by the primordial vampires.

The primordial vampires slaughter Nazis while being half-naked, clad only in codpieces and g-strings, while assuming fabulous masculine poses with their absolute ripped bodies.

That picture above? Those are the primordial vampires assuming their COMBAT STANCES. This is great.

Watch it.
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
Booted Vulture
Posts: 965
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 9:33 pm

Re: Unofficial tv series review thread 2

Post by Booted Vulture »

Star Trek Picard is really quite good so far.

It does have the advantage of well done nostalgia behind it and of course a Patrick Stewart on his game and excited about the role again.

thus far it looks to be a follow up to Measure of a man and the implication of android slave race. There's also Romulan and Borg plot getting a slow start in there, Bbut there's a big but for me and that's there's a 9/11 style terrorist attack blamed on (clear hacked) synthetics and it seems terribly likely it's an america did 9/11 situation that will arise.

Still there is an awful lot to like and it's probably the most faithful star Trek show in feel for ages.
Ah Brother! It's been too long!
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: Unofficial tv series review thread 2

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

I think Peregrin directed Raised by Wolves cause it's actually batshit insane and has androgynous gynoids that can shapeshift. But also it's actually totally out there and isn't afraid to be ridiculous without being ironic, a rarity in sci-fi stuff these days I think.
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
Post Reply