Television programmes [2]

Haram!

Anyway, speaking of disappointment in the productions of one's country, I saw the first episode of this Willow show. Suffice to say, it sucks, and shows all the usual signs of having been written by people who either do not understand or do not care how to make a story that appeals to real people.
All the usual tropes:
-princess who wants to control her own fate and not get married! (literally a lesbian too)
-random blacks, asians, and easterners in the background (two of the main characters are eastern too)
-Sorsha is a single mother (LOL)
-grey slude CGI Hellraiser monsters who like to twist their heads sideways and emote with their tongues a lot
-These monsters kidnap a ditzy slut character who in any other era would be female but now is bravely a male character!
-A competent old man (who just happens to be white)? NO WE CANNOT HAVE THAT, kill him off using a sight gag! lol fun for the whole family
-a prophesy! About something blah blah blah. As I was watching I zoned out so hard during the description of the prophesy that I missed the whole point. I had to turn to my sister and ask her what it was, and she didn't remember either. What captivating storytelling.

Anyway, you may have picked up that I did not like it. There are other reasons too: a general lack of likeable characters, boring villains, uninspired CGI, and midgets who are way too old for this shit.
The movie has charm, beauty, fun, etc. This show has barely any of that.
And it's not as though Willow is some grand piece of film-making. It's pretty dumb and commercial.

On a side note, I went to school with Joanne Whalley-Kilmer. She was in the years above me and she once beat me up in the local youth club for looking at her boyfriend. She was small and vicious like a ferret.

She must've gone nuts being married to Val Kilmer: in his glory days everyone was giving him the eye.

Though I normally approve of scrappy young women I hope you took some skin off her.
(and you must have posed some threat in the looks department yourself or she wouldn't have bothered)

 this was before she met Val, I was only 16 at the time.

Mrs Figg wrote:On a side note, I went to school with Joanne Whalley-Kilmer. She was in the years above me and she once beat me up in the local youth club for looking at her boyfriend. She was small and vicious like a ferret.

Ha!
She has shark's eyes. Quite unsettling.

So I watched the first episode of Andor, and find it quite intriguing. I don't completely know what's going on, which seems to be by design: they have complete scenes with kids speaking a foreign language, and though it's obviously supposed to be important for the character development, the creators hold the line and refuse to give subtitles. It's so well acted you don't mind. The whole show has mysterious moments that obviously would make sense if you knew what was going on. I like it, it shows confidence in the audience and feels convincing enough to catch you up in the intrigue of trying to figure out what's going on rather than being annoyed at the lack of clear exposition.

Is anyone watching The Last of Us?

{{ I watched the first episode and was impressed by how well it recreated many scenes and imagery from the game, parts are damn near identical. Its probably the best game to film adaptation Ive seen so far (hoping the Fallout series will be good when it comes later this year). But I won't be watching the whole thing as I know where the sequel goes and its not so great a place so knowing that I just cant get invested in watching the whole thing. }}

I know nothing about the game, but both main actors intrigue me, so may catch an episode just to see them in action. They never had a scene together in Game of Thrones, but each were justifiably fan favorites, and also the first time being seen in a major production. If their performances in Last of Us are as memorable as GoT then it's a must see. But they had great characters to play in GoT, may be an unfair expectation.

Lancebloke wrote:Is anyone watching The Last of Us?

yes, must say I have found it predictable and boring. If you have watched Walking dead, its just more of same. Zombie films ended after 28 Days Later. I find the characters really dull and don't care what happens to them really. I don't find either of them likeable. Also there are some bizarre side stories, for example the two gay guys. I have seen 5 episodes and only two were interesting imo.

{{ 28 days is not a zombie film in my view- zombies cant run, they are dead! Pet peeve of modern zombie films!
But yeah, might not be technically zombies in Last of Us either, but effectively its zombies. And if your sick of zombie films trying being a gamer too where even games that dont have zombies (like western Red Dead Redemption) find a way to have a zombie mode Half my VR games seem to involve twatting zombies about with whatever comes to hand, though that at least is fun. }}

Maybe it helps that I am not watching those other zombies shows then because I really like it!

The only thing I think is original is the deadly fungus. I liked the opening of the series with the Asian lady saying the only thing to is bomb everything to fuckery. That was cool. went down from there.

That was episode 2 so at least there was a little hump!

It's hard to be original when so much has already been done. I prefer when it is done well and I think this has been, for the most part.

I am liking the new big underground monsters though.

Watched Wednesday and thought it was great. Really enjoying The Last of us.

I watched a great series this week called Curfew. Its got some great actors, Sean bean and Billy Zane having some fun and games. The soundtrack is fabulous.  Its so 80s it hurts  

"Painfully 80's" Trailer didn't explain how the curfew was related to the race.

halfwise wrote:"Painfully 80's" Trailer didn't explain how the curfew was related to the race.

The people that made this series smashed together some 80s classics and ran with it. There's Mad Max, Robocop, and loads of others. it came out in 2019 and its quite spooky to see everyone in lockdown, obviously before....everything. There is a connection to the race and the zombies.

chris63 wrote:Watched Wednesday and thought it was great. Really enjoying The Last of us.

Me too!

{{ I watched the first 3 or 4 eps of Wednesday and thought, for what it was, it well done and performed. But it also seemed to me I was not its target audience and that teenage girls probably were and I lost interest among the teenage dating dramas and cliches.
The main thing that surprised me about it was that is not really an Adams Family show, its quite sneaky that way, really its just a gothic Nancy Drew Investigates style tale. }}

I haven't seen Wednesday yet, but think it's attraction is encapsulated in the viral dance scene.

So recently I saw episode 1 of season 3 of the Mandalorian, and thinking maybe it seemed terrible because I didn't have context from something else I went off and watched the opening episode of the Book of Boba Fett. It was also terrible. Both written by John Favreau, who we know can write. I think he's overstretched and nothing more that is good can come from him.

Saw a Peter Gunn marathon on TV and am being reminded that good writing and atmospherics still exists.

I have not watched any of these shows at all.

Apparently the 2nd series of The Last of Us isn't out till 2025. What's with 2 years to make a series all about. Goes for most shows these days. I might not be alive to see the end of series 6.