What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Not Sure wrote: I agree that I like the episodic WWD a little more than the movie. The movie sort of dragged the joke out a little too long, and I think it fits better into a shorter "problem of the week" TV format.

It's still great when Waititi or Clement guests in the show though.

Yeah, that's kind of why I didn't persist with the tv show though. I don't know how many seasons or episodes there are but whatever the amount it's a hell of a lot more than a movie.

Fringe is still one of my all-time favorite shows. I really like that a major theme throughout the show is actions have consequences. It's why I like the 4th season timeline change not being changed back. They fucked with the universe in a big way and there were permanent changes. Also all the David Bowie references and various hidden stuff like the Observers are fun.

Witcher thoughts. I'm not going to spoiler tag them because I'm not going to reveal anything except talk about the broad thematic direction of the show. If it bugs someone, I'll tag it.

First, I like the show, it's trash fantasy and it is executed reasonably well. Cavill does a good job with the Witcher, making him grouchy stoic guy but also couching it in a humor that stems from his long life experience.

I think the Witcher is a casualty of the prestige TV structure we're now drowning in. Given that they got a 10 episode prestige series, I think they did the best they could with material they were going to have to make deeply serialized and plot arc driven. I probably would have done the same thing they did---zero in and mine the newly adopted family arc between Ciri, Geralt, and Yennefer in the shadow of the wild hunt as the driving force behind every episode.

But by doing this, they really missed two of the greatest things about the Witcher video game and as far as I understand it the written material as well. Geralt is a working man with some super powers, but mainly pales in comparison to the beasts he deals with day to day. Being a Witcher is, at its core, more like being a private detective character in a noir police procedural than a superhero. At his best, Geralt is often like a Michael Mann professional character---he wins because he prepares, knows his enemy, and sets the terms of all his engagements. The prestige TV nature of this series means that this only gets the briefest of touches around the edges. Second, the other thing the video game nails because of its structure is that Geralt is a working stiff---and has been for a hundred long years. He barely scrapes by town to town, solving their problems for gold in accordance to his supernatural guild's rules, taking what he can get, and occasionally is drawn into Big Time Politics. This would fit perfectly into a pre-prestige TV model of many episodes! This series would deeply benefit from an X-files organization with many monster of the week/job episodes with interspersed plot episodes. You could even fold the Ciri training stuff into this easily too, so you wouldn't have to abandon that thematic focus. I think it might even work better if you saw them onscreen constantly dealing with (literal) monster of the week problems. Because of its tight constraints and prestige TV constant driving plot arcs, though, the netflix show instead plays more like a A Game of Thrones clone with the brotherhood intrigue, court intrigue, and politics, all with Geralt near the center of every everything on the continent. What a missed opportunity. I love the ways in which Witcher is an underpowered magic private detective character---it's what makes it a special fantasy property to me. And it's barely in the show, unfortunately!

Also, separately but apropos of my comments about our streaming prestige TV present---I laughed out loud at this:

Speaking of prestige tv, I'm slogging through Mare of Easttown on hbo. I think this was praised a bit ago in this thread, but good grief, pretentious and slow burn is being GENEROUS. This is the epitome of "the last 2 minutes of the ep is always a cliffhanger".

I'm 5 eps in and there is about 45 minutes of detecting and police work and HOURS of family drama, friend drama, girlfriend drama, boyfriend drama, custody drama, kid drama, priest drama, grandma drama, you name it, there is drama about it, expect POLICE HUNTING KILLERS DRAMA! If it wasn't for the absolutely spellbinding performance of the sad girl who gets wacked in the first ep and however they roped Guy Pierce into this (needed a gig to keep his work visa perhaps?) I would have bailed out long ago, but the ability to power through 7 eps or whatever just to see how in the hell all these unrelated plot threads even remotely come together has me hate watching intently.

The consensus is that Mare is a straight up shit cop though, right? Not a good cop going through a rough spot or three, but an outright public menace not even worthy of being an anti-hero.

On a brighter note, Hilda and the Mountain King is really fun. As a movie it is more focused and avoids some of the quibbles I have with series length Hilda adventures. I think they have about exhausted Trolls in that world though, so I hope a season three explores some new mythology other than giving everyone witch powers.

Gary Sax wrote: Also, separately but apropos of my comments about our streaming prestige TV present---I laughed out loud at this:

Ken Tremendous @KenTremendous

I mean this is incredible twitter.com/DarthAmin/stat…

01 Jan 2022 12:54

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The perfect example of what shit writing the whole Star Wars cinema package has been almost since its introduction? Remind me again why they didn't choose to mine some of the novels and comics for the most recent trilogy? Was it just because it was mostly about fan service to something that was the equivalent of a B-movie Western in 1977?

Re: Mare of Easttown. The point is that it's not really a cop show. That's a framing device. It's really about Mare, how she relates to life in small-town Pennsylvania, and the various dramas surrounding her family and neighbors. I thought it was obvious that she became a cop because she was used to being the small-town hero from the basketball game and, in some way, was trying to live up to her own inflated expectations as well as everyone else's which, of course, didn't really pan out.

Jackwraith wrote: Re: Mare of Easttown. The point is that it's not really a cop show. That's a framing device. It's really about Mare, how she relates to life in small-town Pennsylvania, and the various dramas surrounding her family and neighbors. I thought it was obvious that she became a cop because she was used to being the small-town hero from the basketball game and, in some way, was trying to live up to her own inflated expectations as well as everyone else's which, of course, didn't really pan out.

Yeah, I get that. She mentions that she became a cop because her dad was a cop. But it doesn't really explain why she is STILL a cop when all we see is her abusing her authority or just making bizarre choices that clearly should have gotten her canned long ago. I suppose the moment where she talks the tweaker out of his own bedroom is supposed to show her empathy powers and I guess when compared to "I can't stand the sight of blood" cop she looks pretty good. But you are right, the cop aspect of this show is tertiary at best, but it isn't clever and atmospheric like True Detective season 1, at least IMHO.

jason10mm wrote:
On a brighter note, Hilda and the Mountain King is really fun. As a movie it is more focused and avoids some of the quibbles I have with series length Hilda adventures. I think they have about exhausted Trolls in that world though, so I hope a season three explores some new mythology other than giving everyone witch powers.

What were your quibbles?

Personally I found it a bit too precocious cutesy-poo "let's learn a valuable lesson", much less subtle than the books. Disappointing, because my kids devoured the books and I had high hopes.

I gotta stop reading this thread.

jason10mm wrote: But you are right, the cop aspect of this show is tertiary at best, but it isn't clever and atmospheric like True Detective season 1, at least IMHO.

Well, I'm with you there, but comparing it to one of the best things HBO has ever done is a pretty big ask. I'm also a Winslet fan, so I'm biased in that direction, too.

Cobra Kai - Season 4 is good. More Johnny/Daniel bromance along with mild teen drama that always ends in karate fights. Johnny makes good points about Iceman being the real hero of Top Gun.

Prior to watching Mare of Easttown, I was neutral about Kate Winslet. She is a decent actress, but tends to work on movies that don't greatly interest me. I found her compelling and realistic as Mare.

I'm the one who made the comparison to True Detective upthread. Like the cops in True Detective, Mare is a very flawed individual and a rogue cop who tramples the rules when she becomes obsessed with a case. Rogue cops are common as dogshit in Hollywood, and the trope has probably encouraged generations of police brutality. But like the cops from True Detective, Mare has a keen eye for detail that is essential to a good detective, and her close connection to the community she polices makes her highly qualified to solve a tough case.

Frankly, her community connections and all the attendant drama is actually much more crucial to Mare of Easttown than, say, Marty's failings as a father and husband in True Detective season one. Lengthy sections of that show dwelled upon Marty's family drama, and it was all irrelevant to the case aside from perhaps intensity due to being a father of two daughters. Maybe it all served to make Rust a bit likeable in contrast, despite Rust being borderline inhuman in his bleak outlook. I'm not saying that Mare was a better show than True Detective season one, though it was easily better than TD season two. But I think that two shows are close enough in overall quality that the comparison is not a stretch.

ChristopherMD wrote: Cobra Kai - Season 4 is good. More Johnny/Daniel bromance along with mild teen drama that always ends in karate fights. Johnny makes good points about Iceman being the real hero of Top Gun.

I do think the show is starting to get a little stale. I never saw the movies beyond the original, so the additional of the K3 villain didn't really do anything for me other than to further dilute what is already a fairly large cast. While William Zabka continues to shine as Johnny, the writing for his character seems to have lost a little bit of the edge/snark from earlier seasons . The end of this season features by now the seeds of setting up which kid is going to switch sides/dojos for next season.

I never saw past KK2 so I don't really know him either. I think he's mainly there to give Kreese an adult to talk to.

Shellhead wrote: Frankly, her community connections and all the attendant drama is actually much more crucial to Mare of Easttown than, say, Marty's failings as a father and husband in True Detective season one.

I'd argue that the case in TD season 1 is actually irrelevant to the story, overall, in a similar fashion to Mare. That, to me, is just a framing device to the essential conflict between Rust and Marty. The former is a nihilist who professes that nothing in life is worthwhile in the face of inevitable entropy, but finds himself compelled to preserve some aspects of the society he so disdains. The latter is a hypocrite who professes the good and noble things to be found in modern America, but does his best to undermine those same values with most of his actions. Their struggle is an attempt to both understand each other and understand themselves with the long-running murder case as just a lever to commit to both of those actions. It's kind of what makes it the classic that it is. Is it important for them to find the killer of Carcosa? Not really. It's more important that these characters evolve and come to grips with their personal worlds. Mare is the same way. This, the Hero's journey, is an essential element of most Western heroic stories, which is what both of them are, to one degree or another.