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drwexI might've mentioned that I noped out on the third season of Jessica Jones. There simply was no one I cared about, everyone was being awful to everyone else and I didn't give a crap about the fact that the show's writers couldn't seem to come up with an original plot bit.
I watched all of Star Trek: Enterprise, with mixed reactions. There were a few notably bad episodes, ones in which I have figured out what's going on less than ten minutes into the ep and I am not inclined to watch the cast bumble about for another half hour failing to see what is evidently in front of their noses.
On the tech side, I found it frustrating AF that the writers seem to believe humanity will give up all robot and drone tech between now and a couple centuries from now. 90% of the stupid stuff could've been avoided with judicious use of robotic probes but apparently light-speed starships don't carry any of those. SRSLY?
Jolene Blalock carried a lot of the weight for me. I liked how she played her character and most of what the writers did with her relationships. I also liked that the series at least attempted some level of universe continuity. Beyond the big season-long arcs you'd have an episode where so-and-so did such-and-such and many episodes later you'd see people doing things in reaction to that. I also liked how the writers slowly evolved the tech over the seasons of the shows. If you know original Trek you know where they're going so it wasn't exactly a surprise but it was fun to see.
I also liked how they ended it. Like, "we're done here, thanks" proper ending and all.
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I watched Sherlock, again all of it except for one episode that was set in a historical period that required the show to jump back on all the things it was doing. The attempt to update this show to modern times required them to deal with many of the canon's problematic elements, like casual drug addiction and rampant misogyny. In telling the stories in the present day, I think the show did pretty well.
I particularly liked their updating Holmes' eccentricities into recognizable mental conditions. He refers to himself as a "high-functioning sociopath" a couple times but that's really not right. He's wildly on the spectrum and many of his good and bad characteristics are framed in that way. This makes them understandable even when not likable. As one of the characters says to him, "You always say such horrid things" and it's true. Like other people I know on the spectrum (including myself) he says things that pop into his head without actually stopping to understand how his words are going to affect the people who hear them.
I also particularly liked how the series incorporated technology. It's modern times so people have computers and cell phones and much interaction happens through them. Rather than stopping the action for exposition, Sherlock's writers opted to make the technology into characters that are present in the scene and "speak" through text on the screen. The techniques reminded me a bit of some of the better graphic novels and let things flow better.
One of the best aspects was the women - what they did with Irene Adler, and with Mary Morstan (who becomes Mary Watson). Even their updating of Mrs Hudson was generally delightful. Perhaps as a result, I felt the last season was the weakest of all. I would love it if they did more, moving back to some of the better things of the first couple seasons.
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I watched the one season (so far) of The Witcher. There has been some comparison of this with Game of Thrones which is not entirely wrong but also kind of misses the point. GoT is a big sprawling epic. Witcher is an exploration of what it means to be a monster, both in the literal sense and in the sense of humans who do monstrous things.
Both series have magic/fantasy themes and elements and both are quite violent. Witcher derives from the series of computer games by CD Projekt Red, a Polish-based games company that adapted local folklore into an RPG world. If you've ever read the original Brothers Grimm stories you'll know that central European fairy tales are nothing like the sanitized things American kids get fed. The tales from which Witcher draws are like that, only amped up a lot.
The Witcher game series so far has had three installments. The first was execrable and I only played 2 because people assured me it fixed most of what was wrong with 1. That's not entirely wrong and I actually enjoyed 2 enough to play it through. (I abandoned 1 when the awful misogyny got too much even for me.)
The third installment was the best by far, both in terms of storytelling and in how it addressed modernizing these old tales. Like with Sherlock, there's a lot problematic in the source material and CD Projekt Red took it head-on, telling a new and interesting story while staying largely true to the universe they had created.
This is relevant because in the Witcher series so far I'm seeing characters and locations I know from the games. Knowing what happened in the games makes me interested to see how the material is going to translate to screen. So far it seems like they are staying true to the struggle that Geralt (the titular witcher) goes through in the games - constantly finding that the humans are more monstrous than the deadly beasts he is hired to fight.
Also like Sherlock, Witcher turns significantly on the female characters. In this universe most magic wielders are women and it's said that women can't become witchers (hold that thought, we may yet come back to it). Still, the women are often rulers of nations and powers behind the thrones. Yennefer (played here by Anya Chalotra) has such an important role that I'm willing to put up with Henry Cavill (whom I basically do not like).
Yen's origin story and development are given full throat in Season 1 and I have a lot of hope for what they'll do with her and Ciri (Freya Allan) based on what I saw so far.
I also give the writers a lot of credit because they did an excellent job of putting together a non-linear narrative throughout the season. Like, you watch episodes and then you realize "wait, this is taking place in the past of that other thing". Stay with it, because it'll all come together for the season climax that manages both to pay off much of what was promised and also be a bit of a cliffhanger for what may come.
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I'm currently almost through Season 1 of Altered Carbon another take on source material that I really liked. I'll try to remember to write this one up when I'm through season 2.
I watched all of Star Trek: Enterprise, with mixed reactions. There were a few notably bad episodes, ones in which I have figured out what's going on less than ten minutes into the ep and I am not inclined to watch the cast bumble about for another half hour failing to see what is evidently in front of their noses.
On the tech side, I found it frustrating AF that the writers seem to believe humanity will give up all robot and drone tech between now and a couple centuries from now. 90% of the stupid stuff could've been avoided with judicious use of robotic probes but apparently light-speed starships don't carry any of those. SRSLY?
Jolene Blalock carried a lot of the weight for me. I liked how she played her character and most of what the writers did with her relationships. I also liked that the series at least attempted some level of universe continuity. Beyond the big season-long arcs you'd have an episode where so-and-so did such-and-such and many episodes later you'd see people doing things in reaction to that. I also liked how the writers slowly evolved the tech over the seasons of the shows. If you know original Trek you know where they're going so it wasn't exactly a surprise but it was fun to see.
I also liked how they ended it. Like, "we're done here, thanks" proper ending and all.
---------------
I watched Sherlock, again all of it except for one episode that was set in a historical period that required the show to jump back on all the things it was doing. The attempt to update this show to modern times required them to deal with many of the canon's problematic elements, like casual drug addiction and rampant misogyny. In telling the stories in the present day, I think the show did pretty well.
I particularly liked their updating Holmes' eccentricities into recognizable mental conditions. He refers to himself as a "high-functioning sociopath" a couple times but that's really not right. He's wildly on the spectrum and many of his good and bad characteristics are framed in that way. This makes them understandable even when not likable. As one of the characters says to him, "You always say such horrid things" and it's true. Like other people I know on the spectrum (including myself) he says things that pop into his head without actually stopping to understand how his words are going to affect the people who hear them.
I also particularly liked how the series incorporated technology. It's modern times so people have computers and cell phones and much interaction happens through them. Rather than stopping the action for exposition, Sherlock's writers opted to make the technology into characters that are present in the scene and "speak" through text on the screen. The techniques reminded me a bit of some of the better graphic novels and let things flow better.
One of the best aspects was the women - what they did with Irene Adler, and with Mary Morstan (who becomes Mary Watson). Even their updating of Mrs Hudson was generally delightful. Perhaps as a result, I felt the last season was the weakest of all. I would love it if they did more, moving back to some of the better things of the first couple seasons.
----------
I watched the one season (so far) of The Witcher. There has been some comparison of this with Game of Thrones which is not entirely wrong but also kind of misses the point. GoT is a big sprawling epic. Witcher is an exploration of what it means to be a monster, both in the literal sense and in the sense of humans who do monstrous things.
Both series have magic/fantasy themes and elements and both are quite violent. Witcher derives from the series of computer games by CD Projekt Red, a Polish-based games company that adapted local folklore into an RPG world. If you've ever read the original Brothers Grimm stories you'll know that central European fairy tales are nothing like the sanitized things American kids get fed. The tales from which Witcher draws are like that, only amped up a lot.
The Witcher game series so far has had three installments. The first was execrable and I only played 2 because people assured me it fixed most of what was wrong with 1. That's not entirely wrong and I actually enjoyed 2 enough to play it through. (I abandoned 1 when the awful misogyny got too much even for me.)
The third installment was the best by far, both in terms of storytelling and in how it addressed modernizing these old tales. Like with Sherlock, there's a lot problematic in the source material and CD Projekt Red took it head-on, telling a new and interesting story while staying largely true to the universe they had created.
This is relevant because in the Witcher series so far I'm seeing characters and locations I know from the games. Knowing what happened in the games makes me interested to see how the material is going to translate to screen. So far it seems like they are staying true to the struggle that Geralt (the titular witcher) goes through in the games - constantly finding that the humans are more monstrous than the deadly beasts he is hired to fight.
Also like Sherlock, Witcher turns significantly on the female characters. In this universe most magic wielders are women and it's said that women can't become witchers (hold that thought, we may yet come back to it). Still, the women are often rulers of nations and powers behind the thrones. Yennefer (played here by Anya Chalotra) has such an important role that I'm willing to put up with Henry Cavill (whom I basically do not like).
Yen's origin story and development are given full throat in Season 1 and I have a lot of hope for what they'll do with her and Ciri (Freya Allan) based on what I saw so far.
I also give the writers a lot of credit because they did an excellent job of putting together a non-linear narrative throughout the season. Like, you watch episodes and then you realize "wait, this is taking place in the past of that other thing". Stay with it, because it'll all come together for the season climax that manages both to pay off much of what was promised and also be a bit of a cliffhanger for what may come.
----------
I'm currently almost through Season 1 of Altered Carbon another take on source material that I really liked. I'll try to remember to write this one up when I'm through season 2.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-29 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-29 11:35 pm (UTC)People did mention Elementary to me at Arisia this year; I have to figure out if it's available on any service I'm paid into.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-29 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-30 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-04 07:09 pm (UTC)I'd say that its portrayal of Sherlock is also pretty clearly spectrum, albeit to a somewhat lesser degree, and the overall arc of the series is pretty strongly about Joan Watson helping him understand how to cope with the often-infuriating world around him. Joan is very much the coequal lead, unlike most versions of Holmes/Watson, and is very clearly his equal in competence (which is delightful and refreshing).
It's not particularly a spoiler, and worth noting, that they manage to completely avoid the "our leads are opposite-gender, so they must fall for each other" trap. They are absolutely best friends, and very nearly married in the degree to which they are partners in the later seasons, but quite explicitly not each others' type (Sherlock's kinks come up as a brief topic from time to time), and it's one of the rare examples of a network TV series that never goes there.
Not art, and not flawless, but probably Kate's and my favorite procedural of the past ten years.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-30 05:36 am (UTC)This may help:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/20/21029881/the-witcher-netflix-show-best-books-games-wild-hunt-the-last-wish-sword-of-destiny
Neat
Date: 2020-01-30 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-30 09:44 pm (UTC)Um, ::shrug:: yeah.
I've been rewatching Russian Doll on Netflix while mom's been in town. Definitely a fun one. I'm sure we talked about it ever, but I have a brain like a ... what? hi.