What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I wrote about each episode of the first half of the entire series of Batman: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/search/label/BTAS

I had originally planned to write about all of them, but kind of stalled on it last summer. I should get back to it.

Got completely sucked in to Smash! on Netflix last night and binged my way through. It starts off as a parody on 80s Saturday morning cartoon shows but partway through goes off on a weird tangent with a background tale of sibling jealousy bleeding through both the indent scenes and the animated shorts. It’s also smart and respectful in the satirical approach to its subject matter compared to the sneering bombast of many other ‘adult’ animation shows. Weird, dark, clever fun.

I've started watching Community for the first time recently as well. I started with season 2 because I heard the first season wasn't that great. It's grown on me pretty quickly, so I understand why people love it. It's not afraid to be weird and quirky, and it's just standard 3 camera sitcom stuff, which is refreshing.

I have a question, though, for any big fans. A few episodes into the 2nd season, Pierce as two broken legs. He's in a wheelchair for about five episodes. Then he isn't. I don't remember anything in any episode explaining how he broke his legs. Did I miss some post-credits gag or something?

He broke them getting double bounced on the secret trampoline.

Gregarius wrote: I've started watching Community for the first time recently as well. I started with season 2 because I heard the first season wasn't that great. It's grown on me pretty quickly, so I understand why people love it. It's not afraid to be weird and quirky, and it's just standard 3 camera sitcom stuff, which is refreshing.

I have a question, though, for any big fans. A few episodes into the 2nd season, Pierce as two broken legs. He's in a wheelchair for about five episodes. Then he isn't. I don't remember anything in any episode explaining how he broke his legs. Did I miss some post-credits gag or something?

If you're enjoying it, I'd definitely watch Season 1. The second part of Season 1 has some of the great episodes, like the chicken tenders and the first paintball episode. There's probably some slow starts in the character intros, but S1 isn't a write-off like Parks and Recreation. The core is all already there.

I haven't watched in a while, so I'd forgotten about the wheelchair stint, but it was a "trampoline accident" from the previous episode (with the racist groundskeeper).

It's sort of sad that a dumb 5-second blackface gag (with Chang, who is of course chastised because that's the joke, Chang is horrible) means the "Advanced Dungeons&Dragons" episode doesn't get streamed. That's one of the best ones.

I agree that Community season 1 is great, especially the paintball episode. If anything, season 4 is not quite as good as any of the first three seasons, at least the first half of season 4. (I just watched the Christmas episode of season 4, so I assume I am halfway through it.)

Was there more than one Dungeons & Dragons episode of Community? Because I saw one in season 2 via Amazon Prime. Maybe not all streaming services censored that episode.

Jackwraith wrote: I wrote about each episode of the first half of the entire series of Batman: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/search/label/BTAS

I had originally planned to write about all of them, but kind of stalled on it last summer. I should get back to it.

Hey, this is great! I read all it all even though I don't think I've seen most of the early episodes. I've actually seen a bunch but they must have been from the second season. It's interesting to see your perspective as someone who knows a bit about Batman, I really know very litttle about him.

I don't like superheroes and I didn't see it when I was a kid, but I liked Batman the Animated Series. The art direction is great and It hink there's a deep humanity to the characters that really make it stand out. Batman can be happy, sad, scared, funny. The villains are clear comic book characters but also grounded enough not to come across as dumb. As someone who is completely ignorant of comics, he's my favourite version of the character.

Shellhead wrote: I agree that Community season 1 is great, especially the paintball episode. If anything, season 4 is not quite as good as any of the first three seasons, at least the first half of season 4. (I just watched the Christmas episode of season 4, so I assume I am halfway through it.)

Was there more than one Dungeons & Dragons episode of Community? Because I saw one in season 2 via Amazon Prime. Maybe not all streaming services censored that episode.

Amazon didn’t pull the episode but Netflix did. There are two D&D episodes. One in season 2 and one in season 5 I believe. The fact that the joke is dealt with quickly and sensibly in the episode but was still found offensive enough to purge the entire episode (many years later) baffles me.

Season 4 being weaker isn’t a surprise as that’s the season where Dan Harmon parted ways with the show but he returns in season 5 and they even poke fun at his absence and how much weaker the show was during that season. In spite of its shortcomings, the cast is charismatic enough for me to not skip season 4 on a rewatch. And Community is one of those comfort food shows that I rewatch a lot.

Erik Twice wrote: Hey, this is great! I read all it all even though I don't think I've seen most of the early episodes. I've actually seen a bunch but they must have been from the second season. It's interesting to see your perspective as someone who knows a bit about Batman, I really know very litttle about him.

Thanks! I think they worked hard to make the BTAS version broad enough to encapsulate a number of the different facets of the character and yet still be an identity unto itself. Your impression of it as the standard is shared by many people that I know and know of. Always good to know that someone is appreciative. I'll make an effort to get back to it.

Thanks, everybody! I saw the trampoline episode, but somehow I totally missed that Pierce broke his legs. Maybe I'll skim through it to find that scene again. I'm glad you guys knew what I was talking about because I didn't feel like scanning through reviews or blogs just to find that little tidbit. I'm also glad to hear that Season 1 is worth a watch. I don't remember where I heard otherwise, but I'll watch it as soon as I'm done with S2.

I loved B:TAS when it aired, and I enjoyed your blog (although I didn't read every post). I don't revisit it as much as I should, but part of that is competition from unseen shows, and part of it is just having them so ingrained in my memory. I actually taped them when they aired (VHS!) and watched them several times back in the day.

No Witcher comments yet? I’m going back to bed.

I saw the first episode and liked it quite a bit. It's not Art but it captured that Brothers Grimm element that makes the witcher a little different than d+d sword and sorcery.

I think the Witcher works best when he's darkly funny too and I felt the tone was a little one note tragic.

2 eps in witcher s2 and it hasn't lost a beat. I'm not a fan of all the Fringella time this early in her arc (though I gotta imagine that stuff won't happen now) but I get that they want to show more women than just Ciri.

Effects seem much better. Boar guy looked great even in prolonged dialogue scenes. Bruxa effects suitably creepy. Not feeling Visemir yet, but I'll give him time.

I dont really like how they portray elves in this series. They come off as almost trailer trash hill billy types a lot of the time. But then the books never seemed to really nail them either other than a vague "they are not quite human" vibe.

Anyway, looks like they are gonna make sure there is witcher stuff no matter what, which is fine because in the main books there was actually very little of it. I just wish the writing team was a little better at capturing that polish weirdness present in the source material that is absent in their original stuff. You know Baba Yaga would have been way more disturbing had Sapowski written it.

Finished up Witcher season two and thought it was excellent. The actor playing Vesemir was kind of off but not enough to say he's bad. Did make me wish they'd gotten someone like Ian McShane for the role though. All of the monster designs continue to be cool and the ten-second cameo of the Wild Hunt at the end was sufficiently terrifying.

I haven't watched S2 of Witcher yet, but I did catch a new series, Station Eleven, which is excellent. Its premise hits a little close to home, since it's about a pandemic that wipes out something like 99% of the population, but the source material came out in 2014.

It tells the stories of several different characters at different times, but it's very clear (not deliberately obfuscating like Witcher S1). What it most reminds me of is Watchmen, in that you're getting all of these puzzle pieces and waiting to see how they will connect.

It's on HBOMax. The first three episodes dropped on Thursday, and they'll dole out the remaining 7 once a week. Highly recommended.