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TV Series Thread

Started by PickelledEggs, August 26, 2014, 06:28:36 PM

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trdsf

New Animaniacs is just as good as it ever was, I am pleased to report.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Blackleaf

Quote from: trdsf on November 22, 2020, 02:29:45 PM
New Animaniacs is just as good as it ever was, I am pleased to report.

I've heard about 70% of it is as good as it was, with the other 30% being a departure from the original.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

trdsf

Quote from: Blackleaf on November 23, 2020, 02:23:16 AM
I've heard about 70% of it is as good as it was, with the other 30% being a departure from the original.
I'm going to stick with 'as good as it ever was'.  It's all there, the wordplay, the pop culture references, the songs, Pinky and the Brain... yeah, I'm definitely okay with the new series.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Hydra009

#918
I forgot how wonderfully strange Legend of the Seeker was.  They got so much stuff past the censors, it's unreal.

My favorite scene is where an evil sorcerer has the hero stuck in a dreamworld and the sorcerer appears before the hero in his dream as his childhood crush and tries to seduce him for information.  So this evil sorcerer, in the waking world, is saying that he loves him and wants to start a family together (no homo) while simultaneously, the female character is saying it in the dream.

And the best part is that the sorcerer is doing all this with his apprentice (another dude) in the same room with him, hearing all this homoerotic stuff without flinching or smirking in the slightest.

It's like Biggus Dickus except you really will be flayed alive if you laugh.

GSOgymrat

Quote from: Hydra009 on November 23, 2020, 08:49:04 PM
I forgot how wonderfully strange Legend of the Seeker was.  They got so much stuff past the censors, it's unreal.

My favorite scene is where an evil sorcerer has the hero stuck in a dreamworld and the sorcerer appears before the hero in his dream as his childhood crush and tries to seduce him for information.  So this evil sorcerer, in the waking world, is saying that he loves him and wants to start a family together (no homo) while simultaneously, the female character is saying it in the dream.

And the best part is that the sorcerer is doing all this with his apprentice (another dude) in the same room with him, hearing all this homoerotic stuff without flinching or smirking in the slightest.

It's like Biggus Dickus except you really will be flayed alive if you laugh.

I remember wondering what kids who watched the show were thinking about all these leather-clad women deriving pleasure from torturing bound, scantily clad victims with their vibrators agiels.



The New Zealand locations really enhanced the show.

Hydra009

Quote from: GSOgymrat on November 23, 2020, 10:14:20 PM
I remember wondering what kids who watched the show were thinking about all these leather-clad women deriving pleasure from torturing bound, scantily clad victims with their vibrators agiels.
I have no evidence, but I strongly suspect that someone brought their BDSM outfit and accessories to the set in a bag and one of the stagehands mistook it for an official outfit and that person complied rather than admit its true purpose.  And no one else objected because they all assumed that the higher-ups signed off on it.

drunkenshoe

Do you guys remember the flogging scene from Flash Gordon? That could be the first BDSM scene of my generation I guess. LOL
"science is not about building a body of known 'facts'. ıt is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good." - tp

Hydra009

#922
Let's talk about The Mandalorian.  Cause I have some gripes.

First off, I love this show.  And season 2 has been phenomenal so far - half of my 4 favorite episodes are in season 2.  And I'm talking S-tier, watch over and over episodes.  So not only is it good, it has stayed good.  But already, I'm starting to see some cracks.

Side-quest treadmill - A lot of the episodes are pretty formulaic, Mando walks into town for something, but has to do some task before he can get it.  They can even be nested, so he has to do a job for a contact A but has to do a job for contact B in order to complete contact A's mission.  That's all well and good for a while, but you can't do that literally every episode.

Mando's main quest can never be completed without the show coming to an end - both the audience and the writers know this.  Yet every episode, he seems to be on the verge of completing it but darn it, it's put off just a little bit longer.  Whoops, just a little longer.  And a little longer...  There's only so much of that that the audience can stand.  Just shift gears already and a really good way of doing that is for Mando to come to some sort of revelation that makes him change his mind and now he's working towards a different goal.  Problem solved.

Tying itself too closely to other shows - the primary selling point of the Mandalorian is that this is the story of just some guy making his way in the Star Wars universe.  It's literally in the name.  He's not blowing up the Death Star or saving the galaxy.  Nothing big-scale.  This is all small-scale.  And because of this, he can pretty much do whatever - there's very little constraining his story.  We the audience have no idea how his story plays out, which is a welcome change from like 70% of Star Wars content over the past two decades.

Well, ever since Mando season 1 made it big, it has become increasingly tied to other shows, like Clone Wars or even the Sequel films.  I understand the temptation to do this, I mean who wouldn't love to see ███████ on TV?  The problem is that the more this story gets interwoven with those other stories, it becomes less about Mando and more about them.  I'm worried that this small, personal tale bloats into this big space opera thing that imo I'm not sure the audience signed up for or wanted.  Besides, I don't see why that big space opera stuff couldn't just be its own show.

Also, it seems like the stakes have gone down a lot because there are action scenes where there isn't even a sliver of a doubt that the good guys will be a-okay.  If they're getting shelled, all those shells are gonna miss.  If they're getting shot at, it'll only hit the armor.  Compare season 2 invulnerability to say, s1e2 (my personal favorite) where defeat is absolutely a possibility and you'll see what I mean.  Hell, the Mando could probably go into battle with baby yoda strapped to him and the blaster bolts would miss baby yoda, as crazy as that sounds.

And finally, there's some weird tone issues like "wacky" stuff during dark and gritty scenes.

Ultimately, it's a great show and a lot of its problems are due to suffering from success - having Mando spin his wheels in sidequest after sidequest because the show has episodes to burn and can't progress the plot yet, having Mando try to tie together the Clone Wars, the Sequels, and half the Legends content because it's a rare Star Wars hit, not hurting or killing off any of the main cast because they're veritable cash cows (again, compare to season 1), minor tone problems, etc.  None of this stuff is really all that bad right now, but after a few seasons of this stuff festering, it could be.

Blackleaf

https://www.michaeldantedimartino.com/an-open-letter-to-avatar-the-last-airbender-fans/

Whelp... The co-creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender have left the Netflix live-action reboot due to creative differences. Despite Netflix's talk of respecting the vision of the creators of the original show, it appears they just wanted to have the (limited) involvement of the two to give the project legitimacy. I was already skeptical of the project, as I would rather get a new story than another live-action adaptation. Fortunately, the two still appear to be open to expanding on the Avatar universe more in the future. Just not with this.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Baruch

I had seen a British sci fi TV series in the late 80s that I really l couldn't remember the name of it and missed it for over 30 years,  Well tonight I followed a hunch when I saw randomly a picture of the lead actor, David Calder.  And I found the complete series uploaded on YouTube.  Star Cops, if you haven't seen it, it's really good.  Imagines what the early 20th century might be like.  They got so much right and wrong ;-)
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Hydra009

I just realized that this month, I'm going to be watching RWBY and Attack on Titan back-to-back.

I think I'm going to have to get a neck brace for the mood whiplash.  And my dreams are going to be pretty wild...

the_antithesis

Quote from: drunkenshoe on November 24, 2020, 04:33:16 AM
Do you guys remember the flogging scene from Flash Gordon? That could be the first BDSM scene of my generation I guess. LOL

I have seen the 1950's TV series that was produced in Germany, IIRC. In one episode, Dale Arden is strapped to a table and spun around as a form of torture, but the real torture was the missile cone brassiere she was wearing. Sweet Jesus!

Baruch

Quote from: the_antithesis on December 03, 2020, 01:14:45 PM
I have seen the 1950's TV series that was produced in Germany, IIRC. In one episode, Dale Arden is strapped to a table and spun around as a form of torture, but the real torture was the missile cone brassiere she was wearing. Sweet Jesus!

They had Capt Kirk spun around on a table, to make an android of him.  But he wasn't wearing a bra ;-)
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

the_antithesis

Quote from: Baruch on December 03, 2020, 02:53:36 PM
They had Capt Kirk spun around on a table, to make an android of him.  But he wasn't wearing a bra ;-)

Weirdly, androids were a part of that episode, somehow.

Here's a screen grab.


trdsf

Been poking through Roku and stumbled across Space: 1999, which held up better than I thought it would've.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan