What TV SHOWS are you watching?

the_jake_1973 wrote: We are unrepentant consumers of trashy reality telly. FBoy Island is silly and does not take itself seriously. Enjoyable and also garbage like Andy Capp Hot Fries.

FBoy Island is best when it is silly and fun, but the drama is crucial to the formula. There are so many things that I enjoy about this season. The sad trombone theme for super-emotional Tom. The villainous masterminding by Mercedes, despite his average IQ. The wry commentary by comedian Benedict and especially host Nikki Glaser. The occasional tormenting of the FBoy exiles by Nikki. My favorite moment so far was when Mia was talking to the camera. She said that this little voice in the back of her mind was telling her to trust FBoy Peter. Then she laughed and admitted that the voice was actually Peter himself telling her to trust him, "but I'm listening!" [self-aware laughter and chagrin followed]

We're three episodes into Peacemaker. I've enjoyed it so far, but I thought that a lot of the gags were stretched out a beat too far. James Gunn has forgotten more about comedy than I'm ever going to know, but still...

I've been sorta watching Shooter on Netflix because I like it when a show continually insults my intelligence.

ratpfink wrote: I've been sorta watching Shooter on Netflix because I like it when a show continually insults my intelligence.

Heh heh, just wait till you get to the 2nd (3rd) season plotline about the wife and her struggles with obnoxious guys at the gun range. That poor actress seems doomed to be the wife in these genre shows (shooter, Boys, For all mankind) and she does a great job until they run out of material for her and she makes the inevitable descent into soap opera plotlines.

Paper girls on amazon. If you had told me a week ago to watch a show about 4 tween girls and their adventures I would said "get tha f' outta here!!!" but allow me to eat a plate of crow! Just got through ep 3 (4?) and HOLY SHIT is this show going places! Not only are the kid actors holding their own but they often out act the adults. I hope the "sci-fi-ness" of the show is well served, so far there seems to be a somewhat consistent use of it but it seems like only one character really "groks" it (and I have susssspicions about why....) and she doesn't get the "lets talk about these films that reference the rules of " scene that is so common in more self referential works. Given these are kids in 1988 I'd have expeected at least 1 very popular film to have been name dropped but instead we get Alf and Kirk Cameron

I like the structure of the show, they have made a very plausible framework for a diverse cast and they, so far, address it in a genuine way. Rich white girl deals with anti-semitism, poor white girl has an abusive background (and BOY, does that pay off!), chinese girl has issues that are not inherentely tied to her background, black girl is a bit underserved so far buuuuuuuuuuuuut I think I see where the smart girl is going.

This isn't quite "Stranger Things meets Dark meets The Goonies" or however Vaughn pitched this (the comic I think predates ST and Dark, for starters) but so far at least is scratches the same itch. I hope this does well so SAGA gets a chance, 'cause that story BEGS for a well done adaptation.

ratpfink wrote: I've been sorta watching Shooter on Netflix because I like it when a show continually insults my intelligence.

The original book was pretty good; the show diverged from the follow up novels and is a classic case of just trying to eke out more content than exists in source material. And the Swagger character in the books was older and more grizzled/detached than in the show.

I liked the Swagger books quite a bit even if they get a little silly later on. I liked the TV show (liked most of the adaptations of Point of Impact even if the peculiarities of ballistics that novel relies on are hard to translate to film) but so many of the later books hinge on Swaggers past or even his dad it all gets in the weeds and I think the show suffers a bit between book stuff and more modern thriller stuff.

I was bummed that the Wahlberg movie adaptation of SHOOTER didn't follow thru on the courtroom showdown , it was kind of fast forwarded thru at the end in what was likely an acknowledgement the movie was running long. The shootout at the cabin of the Russian was well done, if more reliant on special effects and explosions than the pure shooting skill of Swagger as in the book.

Watched the first few episodes of Sandman on Netflix. It’s enjoyable despite being quite slow and the lead having almost zero emotional expression, both of which are however stylistic influences from the source material I suppose. I love the casting choices though, and the plot and drumbeats are largely retained without going too far afield. So far it’s a successful adaptation and well worth the long years of wait since it was first optioned.

I enjoyed the Sandman comics up through at least issue #50. At some point after that, it became a disjointed series of random stories with minimal connection to Dream of the Endless. And then it became one lengthy story about Dream being hunted and ultimately replaced with some other Dream character.

But I'm not going out of my way to watch this show. Gaiman's involvement in the American Gods show was not entirely good for the show, and I don't know how much he learned from that experience.

And this is really petty, but I am unhappy with the casting of Death. In the comics, she appeared as an archetypal pretty goth girl, but now she is just some average black woman wearing dark clothes. I don't care if she is a great actress and Neil is super-happy with her, this is just a flat out denial of one of my favorite subcultures and I can hate this if I choose. I don't have a problem with black women, and I was in a relationship with one for nearly 18 years. Back in the '90s, I also dated a woman who liked Death in the Sandman comics. On the single occasion that I met Neil, I got him to autograph a couple of photos of her. He even drew silver ankh necklaces on her pictures.

I watched the first two episodes of Sandman. I never read any of the books so it's all new to me, and I am enjoying it. You can tell that money and care went into it.

I saw a screen-cap of new Sandman and thought it was a still from Twilight.

The casting of Death in the series is kind of a mystery to me. I'm too young to have been into The Cure during their heyday but Dream and Death were modeled specifically after Robert Smith and Siouxsie Sioux. I haven't read much about the casting - does New Death allude to a different artist from that period or is it more about capital-R representation?

I think it’s simply the case that it’s no longer the 1990s. If we had this twenty-odd years ago then it’d be a Tim Burton joint no doubt with Helena BC as Death. But this is a TV show made for 2022 and in that respect it’s hitting the right notes. I understand why people get in a twist about stuff like this but I’m personally all for it. I was pleasantly surprised at the cast being jam-packed full of talent and well-known faces, even in minor roles and cameos.

mezike wrote: a Tim Burton joint no doubt with Helena BC as Death

I'll be in my bunk.

Death seems like a late 80's Winona Ryder to me.

My wife was a YUGE goth back in the day, keeping Death true to the comics would have made her day.

I hear a lot of complaints about the casting, including Dream. I only really did the Sandman audio book so I'm not really vested in the visual appearance of the characters, it's the tone and attitude I'll be watching for.

The casting complaint stuff is beyond me, like, I don't really get it. The characters change in the comics, both plot wise (death of cats, 16th century death etc etc) but also based on who drew them which sometimes changed how the characters looked from chapter to chapter, sometimes disconcertingly. I imagine the show as a result of it being, you know, a TV show, will find it impossible to replicate lots of stuff from the imagery too. So if there's going to be complaint it's a bit like, "hey! This tv show is not a comic!" which there's an easy solution to. Also somewhat ironic that a comic essentially about morphing stories upsets people for maybe changing a bit.

Anyway, I know, it's not her race, it's the fact that she's meant to be a goth, so, yeah, interesting to join the dots on that one, because as far as I can tell it looks like she's wearing the same understated clothes like in the comics, just like a female black goth might.