The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

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The Other Dave
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Re: The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

Post by The Other Dave » Thu Nov 25, 2021 7:34 am

Hi, it's me come to the thread to rave about Arcane on Netflix. You might have seen ads and thought "huh, a cash grab League of Legends tie-in," and so did I! And, well, sure, yes it is. But! I know nothing about LoL before watching and do not care about it a whit - or didn't*, until I gave the show a chance, and holy crow is it good. Like 10 times better in terms of storytelling and characterization than it has any right to be, and if you're into animation at all it is just *chef's kiss*. Bee-you-tee-ful. Plus the fights are really cool. Good stuff all around!

*In like 5 hours of show, there was one instance where I was pulled out of it, thinking "ah, that weighty namedrop is something for the fans but meaningless to me." The rest had me hooked and hooked good.

Like, here's a music video of the opening credits song. The whole show, nine 30-plus-minute episodes, is that level of animation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5tSoaJ93ac
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Re: The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

Post by me_in_japan » Thu Nov 25, 2021 9:25 am

I actually just started episode one of Arcane last night. I’ll confess, it’s significantly better than I had expected it to be.

A question to Dave - is it ok for kids to watch? A bit of swearing and suchlike is fine, violence is also fine. Other stuff of an Adult nature is not so acceptable (the kiddoes are 8 and 9 respectively.) They keep asking me if they can watch it, and I have to shrug and say I dunno. Based off ep 1 it’s fine, but I have zero idea about eps 2 and onwards. Your opinion would be most welcome.

Speaking of things which were surprisingly not ok for kids, what are folks’ thoughts on the Wheel of Time on Amazon? I started watching it with the kids around, assuming it’d follow the books. And while it kiiiiinda does, there’s a bit too much skin showing. Nothing that quite warrants a no-kids rule, but it skirts sufficiently close that my wife was giving me the stink eye, so I had to put it off until the weans were in bed. I had kinda hoped it’d be a good Sunday afternoon family tv show we could watch together, but alas, the legacy of GoT is long and grim :(

I have completely separate opinions on the show itself, but I’ll save em until all y’all say if you’ve been watching it or not.
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The Other Dave
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Re: The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

Post by The Other Dave » Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:11 am

Episode 3 and the end of Act I is where Arcane really kicks into high gear.

Ah, yeah, there's a (not at all graphic, it's firmly in "no visible nipples" territory if you know what I mean, but it's still clearly a) sex scene - just the one, so you could probably watch ahead and make note of time stamps to know when to click around it when watching with the kids. I wouldn't leave them with it alone. Some of the violence gets pretty visceral too, and one of the character's whole thing is massive emotional trauma. It's pretty heavy!
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Re: The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

Post by Karantu » Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:09 pm

I ended up watching all 9 episodes last Sunday and it was better than I expected. I used to play League of Legends and thus have some prior knowledge of the characters but like Dave said it's totally fine even without. (I still wouldn't recommend playing LoL if you value your blood pressure staying at normal levels.)

Also in terms of how kid-friendly it is, there are a significant number of on-screen character deaths as part of the violence and a sex scene, as well as some nudity so I wouldn't recommend it for kids around 8 -9-ish. More than just the isolated violence and other scenes, its more of the themes that span the entire show that might be a bit inappropriate in my opinion.

(Warhammer plus better up their game...shame that a shitty game like LoL can put out such quality content while we're stuck with the Ultramarines movie.)

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Re: The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

Post by The Other Dave » Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:56 pm

Yeah, nothing I hear about the game makes me think I would in any way enjoy playing it. :lol:

Riot is by all accounts on a whole nother level than GW in terms of money coming in, and they've shown they don't mind loss leaders for building their "brand identity" or whatever. Arcane is basically three feature-length animated movies with animation very much on the level of an Into the Spiderverse, and then on the top of that they just sort of casually got, y'know, Sting to do the finale end-credits song. No big.

But, yeah, adult themes abound - personally I'd worry more about the impactful violence (as in, named characters who we've gotten to know fairly well dying) and psychological trauma with associated ugly crying than the one pretty-tame sex scene for screening for kids. I'd let my 11-year-old watch it, but then we've talked about it and the violence led her to choose not to. :shrug: Definitely definitely don't take our word for it, and watch it through before letting your kids watch.
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Re: The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

Post by me_in_japan » Sat Nov 27, 2021 7:24 am

I'll keep on watching it. There's been a sudden glut of stuff to watch in the past week or so - Wheel of Time, Hawkeye, Cowboy Bebop etc, so my limited time for TV is getting stretched pretty thin. I'll get to it, though, as I did quite like the most-of-ep-1 that I saw. Many thanks for your info - it's most appreciated and very helpful :)
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Re: The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

Post by Balloonacorn » Wed Mar 02, 2022 6:03 am

Finally got some time off so I binged The Legend of Vox Machina on Prime. I thought I would like it. I didn't know I would love it. A great mix of D&D and the something out of Adult Swim. Best thing I have seen in a long time.
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Re: The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

Post by Konrad » Tue Apr 12, 2022 2:29 am

Balloonacorn wrote:
Wed Mar 02, 2022 6:03 am
Finally got some time off so I binged The Legend of Vox Machina on Prime. I thought I would like it. I didn't know I would love it. A great mix of D&D and the something out of Adult Swim. Best thing I have seen in a long time.
That's the animation based on the ....forget the DM's name...and...I don't even know what to call "Watching people play DnD on Youtube", anyhow that stuff right? I had some of that going in the background while painting a while back. I should give that a watch. I've been playing DnD with my old high school buddies via Skype. Been fun, but 5e is a lot to get used to.

I gave "The Book of Boba Fett" a try. Pretty bad, actually. The acting, dialogue, the "huh, what?" plots are bad even for Star Wars. Gotta wonder at this point if it is done on purpose. The writers must have realized Boba and Co. is just a plodding, boring Mandalorian, so they sort of sidelined him and brought back Mando and baby Yoda to save it the last 3-4 episodes.
That being said, I'm up to the last episode. :D I do love the.....childish simplicity and ridiculousness of the Star Wars universe. For example, Mando and his mechanic sidekick cobble together a custom Naboo starfighter which is apparently better than an X-wing. In Star Wars any grease monkey can build an F-22 in their garage after all. And it is really, really cool looking. I mean, really cool. The whole series is a visual spectacle. There are videos on the making of the series. The state of the art in special effects these days is just amazing. There are scenes with that digital, young Mark Hamill that are so good they are frankly terrifying. It is spooky how real this Unreal Engine can render things.
...and now his Head was full of nothing but Inchantments, Quarrels, Battles, Challenges, Wounds, Complaints, Amours, and abundance of Stuff and Impossibilities.....
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Re: The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

Post by me_in_japan » Tue Apr 12, 2022 2:24 pm

I agree that Boba fett kinda sucked. It's a shame, because the character has real potential, and Temuera Morrison is a more than adequate actor. Twas just bad writing, sadly. They really should've gone for him being not all that nice actually. Like, Mando is what you get when a bounty hunter discovers he has morals. Boba fett shouldve been what you get when a bounty hunter learns he really doesn't.

On the plus side, Cad Bane was great.

I've finished watching the last season of The Expanse recently, and it really is some of the best sci fi in years. I went straight from that and bought the first book. Very readable, and I'm now on book 3. Interestingly, the casting was spot on. I can't read without seeing the Amazon cast in my mind's eye. The only minor change is that belters are routinely described as being universally very, very tall, but in th grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter. Oh, and the protomolecule effects are...less twinkly and blue, and a lot more Dead Space. But again, minor point. I've also been enjoying season 2 of The Witcher. More so that S2, to be honest. I think I'm just a bit more invested in the story now. It's worth your time, though.

Oh, and Moon Knight is good so far. I mean, it's a marvel TV show, so you know what youre getting into, but still, they do do it well.
current (2019) hobby interests
eh, y'know. Stuff, and things

Wow. And then Corona happened. Just....crickets, all the way through to 2023...

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Re: The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

Post by Primarch » Tue Apr 12, 2022 11:53 pm

The Expanse was awesome, though parts of Season 6 were setting things up for a storyline that was never going to happen. Hopefully we'll see it in the future in a sequel series.

Recently I finished watching Star Trek PTSDiscovery season 4, and I am done with the show. The concept isn't terrible, but the delivery is awful. In S3, to solve the ethical/scientific conundrum, the crew has to help someone deal with some trauma. In S4, they kick it up a notch and everyone has trauma they have to deal with. What should have been a meaningful story arc for one character is watered down to nothing because everyone has the same problem. Also, after 4 seasons, I couldn't even tell you the names of most of the bridge crew despite them being in every episode. For some characters, we get to see every aspect of their lives. For the others, when any effort is made to add any kind of backstory, it is incredibly forced. Most shows take a while to find their feet, but 4 seasons is enough.

Star Trek Picard is a little better, but it isn't great. A couple of continuity issues aside, all of the characters do get a bit more personality and are more fleshed out.(It helps that several of them have previously been in Trek). There is, however, a lot of name dropping and referencing. Sure, fans like it when there is some 'inside joke' that only they get, but ST:P is pretty heavy handed.

On the other hand, Star Trek Lower Decks is also all about the name dropping and referencing, but it's all tongue in cheek and very well done. I also quite liked Star Trek Prodigy. Even though it is aimed at kids, or maybe because of it, it is easy to watch and kind of fun too.

Last weekend I started watching Peacemaker, I found it surprisingly entertaining. It has a very different feel to the Marvel shows it is competing with (Peacemaker is from DC), but that is probably a point in its favour.
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