What TV SHOWS are you watching?

ANDOR - no spoilers

Watched the first three episodes this morning. This series has a VERY different look and feel than the other SW series from the mouse house, that's for sure.  There is not a single storm trooper, light saber, very little blaster fire and almost no real call outs to prior movies/characters other than maybe a quick shot of  a younger character from one movie, that's it. And that's just guesswork on my part, I could be wrong and it might not be that character.   No Tattooine; none of the planets shown have been seen or even mentioned before .  The Empire is only mentioned in passing and the only visible evidence is one Imperial logo on an item in the third episode. No talk of Jedi, the Force. 




Visually all the scenes from what I read were shot on sets/location. No virtual reality trickery used; thus it looks much different than MANDO. 




The story is a bit slow to develop, but since they have 12 episodes this season, its not a bad thing since they have time to develop the character of Cassian Andor and show his background.  These first three were clearly shot to be aired back to back and wrap up nicely at the end of the third episode . 

I've only watched the first 5 minutes of Andor and it already feels like an actual movie in a way none of the D+ SW stuff does. Depth to the sets, some smoke in the air, a cinematographer that knows how to focus the camera and move properly, interesting lighting. Fett and ESPECIALLY Obi-wan felt so goddamn amateurish, D+ should be ashamed to have released those when they could have been doing more of this. Curious what the respective budgets are.

It's like you're entirely forgetting that Disney owns Star Wars. These aren't made for us, they're made for younger adults and kids now.

stormseeker75 wrote: It's like you're entirely forgetting that Disney owns Star Wars. These aren't made for us, they're made for younger adults and kids now.

I think this is a myth. Disney is a money machine. If there's money in an audience that's not kids, they will find a way to get it. We are decades removed from Disney being identified solely with animated films and a famous mouse. They know their audience and they know the same thing that Marvel knew back in the sixties: the money is in the adults' hands. This is especially apparent in the case of a property like Star Wars, given all of the flak from recent releases. While they will still cater to the kids with things like Baby Yoda, there's little to indicate that they would tie their economic fortunes solely to that raft.

Agreed, She-Hulk has had several overt sexual references and is not aimed at kids.

Watched the first three episodes of ANDOR. Pretty good, definitely a surprising turn -- references to brothels, being drunk, and discovering that friends are dead. I'd put it behind MANDALORIAN, above KENOBI, and vastly above BOOK OF BOBA FETT.

SHE-HULK is still fun; I can only hope that we are returning to an era of explicitly rejecting grimdark and everyone needing to save the world the whole time.

Jackwraith wrote:

stormseeker75 wrote: It's like you're entirely forgetting that Disney owns Star Wars. These aren't made for us, they're made for younger adults and kids now.

I think this is a myth. Disney is a money machine. If there's money in an audience that's not kids, they will find a way to get it. We are decades removed from Disney being identified solely with animated films and a famous mouse. They know their audience and they know the same thing that Marvel knew back in the sixties: the money is in the adults' hands. This is especially apparent in the case of a property like Star Wars, given all of the flak from recent releases. While they will still cater to the kids with things like Baby Yoda, there's little to indicate that they would tie their economic fortunes solely to that raft.

If the CEO of Disney said "we're mainly interested in kids and pre-teens and not really adults" he would be out on the street so fast. There isn't a corporation on Earth now that isn't about making as much money as possible as fast as possible.

Andor -- about damn time. I've been hoping they would develop a separate arc somewhere, given that the setting is so rich. Loved that opening scene, loved that woman's haircut.

That said, I'm waiting for frikkin Boba Fett or someone named Skywalker to show up for no good reason. They just can't lay off it. I put the over-and-under for that at episode six.

Best series to date.

House of the Dragon - maybe I was just in a mood, but for me it was pretty terrible. Characters making stupid decisions and doing stupid things.

I thought it was a very weak episode. And what the fuck, they sure have a thing for childbirth gone wrong.

Des and I tore through The Anarchists on a lark. It's a delightful bit of schadenfreude, a documentary about a bunch of Americans who double down on their privilege and throw caution to the wind to try out being anarchists in Acapulco. Make sure you don't have anything nearby to throw at the screen. The whole time I couldn't stop thinking about these US citizens who have been threatening to leave the country in response to Trumpian politics; funny how when when white people feel like they need more space to enjoy their God-given fReEdOmS, they do so in a considerably browner part of the world.

RobertB wrote: House of the Dragon - maybe I was just in a mood, but for me it was pretty terrible. Characters making stupid decisions and doing stupid things.

Warning: Spoiler!

For example, Ser Whatshisname the Lame puts together a King's Landing Dirty Dozen, to do some criming. He has their tongues cut out so they can't give out who they are. Then they all get a little pin with Whatshisname's sigil on it.

For what it's worth,

But yeah, the changes they are making creak a bit when they still try to hit all the major events. They know the points they Want to hit but some are a stretch given the changes. Cole killing XXX, not at a tourney, but in the middle of a feast, is a prime example.

Sagrilarus wrote: That said, I'm waiting for frikkin Boba Fett or someone named Skywalker to show up for no good reason.

Weirdly enough, I read this comment a couple days ago and ended up having an extremely vivid dream about RotJ-era Luke and C-3PO just walking around talking to each other.

Up until the last few days, I have been enjoying Rings of Power and House of the Dragon. They both seem like good shows that might possibly become very good or even great. But the last episode of each show has diminished my enjoyment of either.

Rings of Power clearly wants to be Game of Thrones. There are a variety of parallel story lines that may overlap or converge at a later time in hopes of making this show finally feel as epic as the Lord of the Rings movies. With these different storylines, we have different POV characters, much like in Game of Thrones. However, Game of Thrones was working off great source material, so sometimes even lesser characters became very memorable from a single scene or a few good lines, and the major characters were all compelling. Rings of Power doesn't have that level of writing, so the characters don't stand out enough, leaving the multiplicity of storylines a bit weak and unfocused.

House of the Dragon, at least until this week, never lacked focus. A small cast of core characters confined to a single court in a single city, for the most part. I saw that as a weakness, because it diminished the large and interesting world of Westeros and Essos to a single theater of action, reducing all else to trivia for Game of Thrones fans to speculate about. I don't object to the time jump itself, but suddenly it feels like there are three times as many characters crowding into the same narrow storyline, and too many of them have similar names because apparently Valyrian parents lack creativity.

But I have a bigger problem with House of the Dragon: I don't like any of the characters. Nobody is boring, but they are nearly all bad people and most of them aren't very bright. Maybe I am a shallow viewer, but I don't feel like spending even one hour a week hanging out with a bunch of people that I dislike, even if they are merely fictional characters on my tv screen. Given that this show is at least somewhat based on the writing of George R.R. Martin, I expect better characters and better stories. But I don't know how closely this show follows the source material, because I decided many years ago that the next Martin book that I read will be titled Winds of Winter. Anything else he is writing is just a distraction from finishing a book that has allegedly been nearly finished for many years.

For what it's worth, House of the Dragon seems to be inspiring better online memes than Rings of Power. Maybe because people like House of the Dragon more, or maybe because the fanbase of House of the Dragon skews to somewhat younger and more social media savvy viewers.

Based on the memes and online comments, it seems like Daemon Targaryen is a particular fan favorite. He is the worst of a bad lot, but he executes his villainy with considerable panache, especially compared to the various other idiots of the court, such as Larys Strong and the weak King Viserys.