Television Round Up
May. 30th, 2018 09:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Well, hmmm...Roseanne Barr incites fury with a racist tweet and ABC cancels her show. Good. Thank you, ABC. It was the right thing to do. Wish you'd not rebooted the series to begin with...
I'm not surprised by it. Although, I'm wondering about something...is it better to force people to be mindful of what they say and to not say it, or better for them to say it? What if Roseanne kept her mouth shut? Never went on Twitter? Or doesn't have a twitter account? Would it have been better if she thought the words and said nothing? I don't know. Been wondering that for a while now. Is it a good thing to censor -- or better to hear them? And how do you know if a person is joking or really means the words in the way you've perceived or interpreted them? I think it's easier to misunderstand others than to understand sometimes.
That said? I despise Roseanne. I think she meant the words. And I'm glad the show got cancelled.
2.Finished binge-watching "Angel S5", now binge-watching Netflix's "Lost in Space", which I saved for this period of time.
Further thoughts on Angel S5:
In hindsight, the season makes much more sense than when it aired. Partly because I've read the Angel IDW comics - Season 6, the Buffy comics, and Angel & Faith. (By the way, if you dislike Spike and saw Angel as a classical hero and heavily shipped the character, and heavily shipped Buffy and Angel, skip Angel S5 except for the following episodes: You're Welcome, Origin, and the episodes leading up to and including You're Welcome, skip all the comics but the Angel & Faith. Trust me, it's not worth the pain. If you are like me, and didn't see it that way, and loved Spike, and shipped Buffy and Spike together, and saw Angel as a tragic hero or a commentary on the classical hero as a tragedy straight out of Shakespear's MacBeth or Othello...go ahead and watch all of it, and read all of it -- you'll be fine. You might want to skip over some of IDW Angel comics...which have nothing to do with the storyline and thread and contradict it.)
Whedon clearly does not like the classical hero trope -- or he feels the need to subvert it and comment on it rather heavily. (Thinking about this....it clarifies much of his writing. It really doesn't matter to Whedon who the hero is, or what gender, he has issues with anyone who says they are a hero. This actually tracks and explains some of my issues with his take on various superhero action comics. He handled the X-men best -- because they aren't classical heroes, they are reluctant heroes, they get themselves into trouble when they try to be heroes. So it worked there for the most part.
Justice League and Wonder Woman on the other hand...not so good. You really shouldn't undercut or comment on DC's Classical Hero trope...without well being a bit confusing. The Avengers? A mixed bag.
It worked best with Firefly, Angel, Buffy, and to a degree the first Avenger's film. Also made his black and white version of Much Ado About Nothing rather brilliant in places.)
I'm wondering if Whedon and Greenwalt saw eye-to-eye on this? I'm not certain they did. Whedon to give him credit -- does manage to knit it together convincingly, at least thematically -- I mean, if we go with the idea that we're in the characters point of view and they are "unreliable" narrators.
And view themselves as "heroes" when they aren't? If you go from that perspective, S5 works, as does S4 and the previous seasons. In their perspective they are doing what needs to be done to save the world, which leads neatly into the Buffy comics...where Angel is once again acting to bring about an apocalypse in a misguided attempt to play savoir of the Universe and achieve Shanshu.
Also, it's rather flawed in places. The plot is a convoluted mess. You can tell the writers changed their minds and directions, and sort plotted off the top of their heads. The thematic arc works, and for the most part the individual character arcs work...although I'm not sure what they were doing with Gunn, and it doesn't really jive with the character from past seasons, and Fred seems to be there for Wes, as Spike is there solely to emphasize the dark side of Angel, or show how there isn't as much difference between Angelus and Angel as we may have thought. As result only Angel and Wes really have a true and extensive character arc, everyone else just sort of supports theirs. (I think Buffy handled this better.)
That said, there are some marvelous episodes in there --
* Destiny -- if you ignored the plot, which, well, doesn't make sense. But the character bits are marvelous.
* Lineage -- again the plot makes no sense, we've no clue who the enemy is, and neither does anyone else...but the character bits are great.
* Damage -- for once the plot and the character bits work. This may well be among the best episodes of the season. It also is the counter-point to "Lies My Parents Told Me", where the characters have to own their actions. Spike realizes for the first time that the slayers he killed had families, it wasn't just a great fight. He never looked back at the victims, never saw them. While Angel admits that's all he was interested in, he got off on hurting them. And the episode asks the question does the intent really matter? Spike answers it for us, no, not really. He's as much a monster as Angelus was and Walter Kendall who tortured the antagonist, Dana, in this episode, and now Dana as well.
What fascinates me about this episode upon re-watch, is it depicts the consequences of both Angel and Spike's crimes as vampires. Dana references the two slayers Spike kills, and Kendall, whose crimes, Angel admits, he would have considered art back in the day and done himself. Drusilla is Angel's Dana, after all. This may well be the best of the season.
* Smile Time -- another stand-a-lone, so the plot and characters for the most part make sense. Also like Damage it fits within the thematic arc. Both episodes explore Angel more than anyone else. In this one, Angel becomes literally speaking a puppet (and I actually think the puppet is more expressive than David Boreanze. LOL!)
* Underneath -- which focuses more on Gunn, and is also a lovely metaphor. Plot-wise it also makes no sense, since it's hard to understand why they pulled Lindsey out of WRH purgatory, only to have him provide zero information. (The Lindsey/Eve arc doesn't quite work.) So, if you ignore plot. Here we have the juxtaposition of what is happening in the WRH hell -- aka suburbia, where you go down to the basement each day to get your heart cut out, with Illyria pretending to be Fred when Fred's parents visit.
* Origin -- this episode is one of the few that the plot and story hold together well. Although, I still think Angel got off way too easy for the mind-wipe. What's interesting about
3. Finished binge-watching Lost in Space - Netflix version of the 1960s/70s era Irwin Allen television show. They've kept a few bits from the series, the diabolical Dr. Z. Smith (now played by Parker Posey) who manages to be even more diabolical, and improved on others. The Robot is now part of an alien race. And there's more emphasis on the female characters. Also both the other leading male adult character and Dr. Smith are more developed than they were in the original series. We actually get to meet them separately from the Robinson's and see how they end up lost in space with them.
This ten episode arc is really an origin story of sorts. It gives the back-story on how The Robinsons, Devon, Dr. Smith (aka June Harris), and a robot end up lost in space. Also, here, the robot is an alien -- and the reason they end up lost in space.
While I enjoyed it more than the first version, I had similar issues with it. The plot is furthered for the most part by the characters making increasingly stupid decisions. After a while, I wanted to kick the characters. And some of the characters decisions make no sense -- except as a contrivance to further the plot or conflict.
* Dr. Smith for some reason decides to disrupt all activities to get off the planet to get her own personal pet robot. Because she wants something to protect her. I'm thinking, eh, that's all well and good -- except if you are stuck on the planet. And the only person who can get you off -- is being used to put together a robot -- as opposed to you know, getting you off the planet. Wouldn't it make more sense to lie low and wait until you get back on board the Resolute to do all of this?
* Will decides to trust Smith and let her out, after he's found out that she's done horrible things and knows what she's capable of. Really Will?
* The Robinson's take in Dr. Smith, with little information. And trust her with their kids, personal information, etc. Will even asks why they trust her, but not the robot. In Will's defense the robot saved their lives.
* Sending the two guys into space, when there's no oxygen really to support one, and it's unlikely they'll make to the Resolute...
* Will brings in his walkie-talkie code device to the cave where the creatures are, that they are removing the creatures excrement to fuel their ships. Knowing perfectly well that any sound will set the creatures off -- and you have to be absolutely quiet. So the kid takes the device in and it goes off with a reply from his father. And he's thrilled, only to have all the creatures in the cave wake up and leap down on the humans. Seriously, Will? You found the cave, you know the creatures in it respond to sound.
* Judy decides to dive into the water and get what they need, after a fifteen minute argument that the parents have regarding sending their ten year old boy down to do it. And I'm thinking -- really?
It's been too long, you're going to get trapped.
* Judy decides it's more important to save the guy trapped under the fuel tanker than the fuel. Even if the guy is probably dead already -- since they have little medical equipment and no real way of helping him and her medical knowledge is rudimentary. Devon goes along with her. And they lose the fuel.
* Instead of telling everyone about the fact that the planet is rapidly becoming dangerous, heating up, and falling into the sun -- the scientists decide to keep it a secret -- even though it may have motivated a couple of people in a different fashion. Once they find out -- it does motivate them. Because a lot of people are like, oh, we have plenty of time, we can do whatever we please.
* Instead of telling the parents about the robot, the dumb kids decide to keep it a secret for a long time, allowing Smith time to manipulate the situation.
* It doesn't occur to anyone that the person who had the most access to the things in the Robinson's ship and the most motive to give a gun to Angela was Dr. Smith, no -- Victor makes more sense??
Stories built on dumb decisions by characters -- frustrate me. Other than that? I did like the characters and actors, quite a bit. Parker Posey does a better job with the Smith character than previous actors, and the character is better written. So too are the female characters. The male characters are oddly the weak links. The kid playing Will is captivating. And the robot is rather cool and well conceived -- particularly as the alien. There's a neat twist regarding the robot, which worked very well. Overall it is by far the best version of the story to date.
If there's a second season, I'll tune in. I liked the characters.
4. Lucifer -- the two stand-a-lone's that Fox burned off sort of explained why this show hasn't been that successful. Too much focus on the procedural or buddy-cop formulaic elements. The second episode was a little less focused on buddy-cop mystery than the first episode.
* Note to television writers -- mussed up hair on male actors is more attractive than slicked back hair. Seriously. The rugged rough and tumble look is great on some actors.
* I can tell these episodes were filmed as a means of advertising Lucifer to other networks in case of cancellation. Both episodes are stand-a-lone, neither matter to the arc. And add nothing to the current storyline.
- the first is about Ella and focuses mainly on the mystery (which I had troubles following or caring about). There's a supernatural element, but it is handled in a frustrating manner.
- the second is a what-if story, what-if Chloe had become an actress instead of a cop, what-if her father lived, how would this have affected everyone's lives? And to what degree is God a manipulator?
This episode is more interesting and entertaining than the first, but I'm not sure if it's a good episode to sell a show to another distributor.
Anyhow...they were okay. I liked the second episode better than the first. But was disappointed in both. The writing just isn't there anymore ...the dialogue is just not as good; I'm not quite sure what happened.
I'm not surprised by it. Although, I'm wondering about something...is it better to force people to be mindful of what they say and to not say it, or better for them to say it? What if Roseanne kept her mouth shut? Never went on Twitter? Or doesn't have a twitter account? Would it have been better if she thought the words and said nothing? I don't know. Been wondering that for a while now. Is it a good thing to censor -- or better to hear them? And how do you know if a person is joking or really means the words in the way you've perceived or interpreted them? I think it's easier to misunderstand others than to understand sometimes.
That said? I despise Roseanne. I think she meant the words. And I'm glad the show got cancelled.
2.Finished binge-watching "Angel S5", now binge-watching Netflix's "Lost in Space", which I saved for this period of time.
Further thoughts on Angel S5:
In hindsight, the season makes much more sense than when it aired. Partly because I've read the Angel IDW comics - Season 6, the Buffy comics, and Angel & Faith. (By the way, if you dislike Spike and saw Angel as a classical hero and heavily shipped the character, and heavily shipped Buffy and Angel, skip Angel S5 except for the following episodes: You're Welcome, Origin, and the episodes leading up to and including You're Welcome, skip all the comics but the Angel & Faith. Trust me, it's not worth the pain. If you are like me, and didn't see it that way, and loved Spike, and shipped Buffy and Spike together, and saw Angel as a tragic hero or a commentary on the classical hero as a tragedy straight out of Shakespear's MacBeth or Othello...go ahead and watch all of it, and read all of it -- you'll be fine. You might want to skip over some of IDW Angel comics...which have nothing to do with the storyline and thread and contradict it.)
Whedon clearly does not like the classical hero trope -- or he feels the need to subvert it and comment on it rather heavily. (Thinking about this....it clarifies much of his writing. It really doesn't matter to Whedon who the hero is, or what gender, he has issues with anyone who says they are a hero. This actually tracks and explains some of my issues with his take on various superhero action comics. He handled the X-men best -- because they aren't classical heroes, they are reluctant heroes, they get themselves into trouble when they try to be heroes. So it worked there for the most part.
Justice League and Wonder Woman on the other hand...not so good. You really shouldn't undercut or comment on DC's Classical Hero trope...without well being a bit confusing. The Avengers? A mixed bag.
It worked best with Firefly, Angel, Buffy, and to a degree the first Avenger's film. Also made his black and white version of Much Ado About Nothing rather brilliant in places.)
I'm wondering if Whedon and Greenwalt saw eye-to-eye on this? I'm not certain they did. Whedon to give him credit -- does manage to knit it together convincingly, at least thematically -- I mean, if we go with the idea that we're in the characters point of view and they are "unreliable" narrators.
And view themselves as "heroes" when they aren't? If you go from that perspective, S5 works, as does S4 and the previous seasons. In their perspective they are doing what needs to be done to save the world, which leads neatly into the Buffy comics...where Angel is once again acting to bring about an apocalypse in a misguided attempt to play savoir of the Universe and achieve Shanshu.
Also, it's rather flawed in places. The plot is a convoluted mess. You can tell the writers changed their minds and directions, and sort plotted off the top of their heads. The thematic arc works, and for the most part the individual character arcs work...although I'm not sure what they were doing with Gunn, and it doesn't really jive with the character from past seasons, and Fred seems to be there for Wes, as Spike is there solely to emphasize the dark side of Angel, or show how there isn't as much difference between Angelus and Angel as we may have thought. As result only Angel and Wes really have a true and extensive character arc, everyone else just sort of supports theirs. (I think Buffy handled this better.)
That said, there are some marvelous episodes in there --
* Destiny -- if you ignored the plot, which, well, doesn't make sense. But the character bits are marvelous.
* Lineage -- again the plot makes no sense, we've no clue who the enemy is, and neither does anyone else...but the character bits are great.
* Damage -- for once the plot and the character bits work. This may well be among the best episodes of the season. It also is the counter-point to "Lies My Parents Told Me", where the characters have to own their actions. Spike realizes for the first time that the slayers he killed had families, it wasn't just a great fight. He never looked back at the victims, never saw them. While Angel admits that's all he was interested in, he got off on hurting them. And the episode asks the question does the intent really matter? Spike answers it for us, no, not really. He's as much a monster as Angelus was and Walter Kendall who tortured the antagonist, Dana, in this episode, and now Dana as well.
What fascinates me about this episode upon re-watch, is it depicts the consequences of both Angel and Spike's crimes as vampires. Dana references the two slayers Spike kills, and Kendall, whose crimes, Angel admits, he would have considered art back in the day and done himself. Drusilla is Angel's Dana, after all. This may well be the best of the season.
* Smile Time -- another stand-a-lone, so the plot and characters for the most part make sense. Also like Damage it fits within the thematic arc. Both episodes explore Angel more than anyone else. In this one, Angel becomes literally speaking a puppet (and I actually think the puppet is more expressive than David Boreanze. LOL!)
* Underneath -- which focuses more on Gunn, and is also a lovely metaphor. Plot-wise it also makes no sense, since it's hard to understand why they pulled Lindsey out of WRH purgatory, only to have him provide zero information. (The Lindsey/Eve arc doesn't quite work.) So, if you ignore plot. Here we have the juxtaposition of what is happening in the WRH hell -- aka suburbia, where you go down to the basement each day to get your heart cut out, with Illyria pretending to be Fred when Fred's parents visit.
* Origin -- this episode is one of the few that the plot and story hold together well. Although, I still think Angel got off way too easy for the mind-wipe. What's interesting about
3. Finished binge-watching Lost in Space - Netflix version of the 1960s/70s era Irwin Allen television show. They've kept a few bits from the series, the diabolical Dr. Z. Smith (now played by Parker Posey) who manages to be even more diabolical, and improved on others. The Robot is now part of an alien race. And there's more emphasis on the female characters. Also both the other leading male adult character and Dr. Smith are more developed than they were in the original series. We actually get to meet them separately from the Robinson's and see how they end up lost in space with them.
This ten episode arc is really an origin story of sorts. It gives the back-story on how The Robinsons, Devon, Dr. Smith (aka June Harris), and a robot end up lost in space. Also, here, the robot is an alien -- and the reason they end up lost in space.
While I enjoyed it more than the first version, I had similar issues with it. The plot is furthered for the most part by the characters making increasingly stupid decisions. After a while, I wanted to kick the characters. And some of the characters decisions make no sense -- except as a contrivance to further the plot or conflict.
* Dr. Smith for some reason decides to disrupt all activities to get off the planet to get her own personal pet robot. Because she wants something to protect her. I'm thinking, eh, that's all well and good -- except if you are stuck on the planet. And the only person who can get you off -- is being used to put together a robot -- as opposed to you know, getting you off the planet. Wouldn't it make more sense to lie low and wait until you get back on board the Resolute to do all of this?
* Will decides to trust Smith and let her out, after he's found out that she's done horrible things and knows what she's capable of. Really Will?
* The Robinson's take in Dr. Smith, with little information. And trust her with their kids, personal information, etc. Will even asks why they trust her, but not the robot. In Will's defense the robot saved their lives.
* Sending the two guys into space, when there's no oxygen really to support one, and it's unlikely they'll make to the Resolute...
* Will brings in his walkie-talkie code device to the cave where the creatures are, that they are removing the creatures excrement to fuel their ships. Knowing perfectly well that any sound will set the creatures off -- and you have to be absolutely quiet. So the kid takes the device in and it goes off with a reply from his father. And he's thrilled, only to have all the creatures in the cave wake up and leap down on the humans. Seriously, Will? You found the cave, you know the creatures in it respond to sound.
* Judy decides to dive into the water and get what they need, after a fifteen minute argument that the parents have regarding sending their ten year old boy down to do it. And I'm thinking -- really?
It's been too long, you're going to get trapped.
* Judy decides it's more important to save the guy trapped under the fuel tanker than the fuel. Even if the guy is probably dead already -- since they have little medical equipment and no real way of helping him and her medical knowledge is rudimentary. Devon goes along with her. And they lose the fuel.
* Instead of telling everyone about the fact that the planet is rapidly becoming dangerous, heating up, and falling into the sun -- the scientists decide to keep it a secret -- even though it may have motivated a couple of people in a different fashion. Once they find out -- it does motivate them. Because a lot of people are like, oh, we have plenty of time, we can do whatever we please.
* Instead of telling the parents about the robot, the dumb kids decide to keep it a secret for a long time, allowing Smith time to manipulate the situation.
* It doesn't occur to anyone that the person who had the most access to the things in the Robinson's ship and the most motive to give a gun to Angela was Dr. Smith, no -- Victor makes more sense??
Stories built on dumb decisions by characters -- frustrate me. Other than that? I did like the characters and actors, quite a bit. Parker Posey does a better job with the Smith character than previous actors, and the character is better written. So too are the female characters. The male characters are oddly the weak links. The kid playing Will is captivating. And the robot is rather cool and well conceived -- particularly as the alien. There's a neat twist regarding the robot, which worked very well. Overall it is by far the best version of the story to date.
If there's a second season, I'll tune in. I liked the characters.
4. Lucifer -- the two stand-a-lone's that Fox burned off sort of explained why this show hasn't been that successful. Too much focus on the procedural or buddy-cop formulaic elements. The second episode was a little less focused on buddy-cop mystery than the first episode.
* Note to television writers -- mussed up hair on male actors is more attractive than slicked back hair. Seriously. The rugged rough and tumble look is great on some actors.
* I can tell these episodes were filmed as a means of advertising Lucifer to other networks in case of cancellation. Both episodes are stand-a-lone, neither matter to the arc. And add nothing to the current storyline.
- the first is about Ella and focuses mainly on the mystery (which I had troubles following or caring about). There's a supernatural element, but it is handled in a frustrating manner.
- the second is a what-if story, what-if Chloe had become an actress instead of a cop, what-if her father lived, how would this have affected everyone's lives? And to what degree is God a manipulator?
This episode is more interesting and entertaining than the first, but I'm not sure if it's a good episode to sell a show to another distributor.
Anyhow...they were okay. I liked the second episode better than the first. But was disappointed in both. The writing just isn't there anymore ...the dialogue is just not as good; I'm not quite sure what happened.