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Well, after a lot of jumping around, finally landed on a television series that for the most part held my interest. Andur - the latest of the Star Wars series to land. Based solely on the first episode, it is by far the best to date in production, writing, editing, direction, sound, etc. Small wonder, Tony Gilroy is helming - you know, Michael Clayton, House of Cards, and Beriut.
I'll probably stick with it. It's not making waves, but the best television shows don't - or remain under the "mainstream's noses" or so it has been my experience to date.
I like the Star Wars franchise. It's a nice blend of WWII movie, Western, and Space Opera Sci-Fi.
What did I try previously?
Reacher - first episode wasn't bad, it was actually fun. It dropped downhill from there, and I gave up. Wales was right the dialogue was stilted and kind of dumb, and the delivery flat.
Apparently its hard to adapt these kind of novels to the small screen or any screen?
House of Dragon Ep 8 - my difficulty with HoD is I don't care about anyone or what happens to them for that matter. I stopped caring. (I read ahead - it gets worse.) All of the characters are interchangeably gross, and there's one too many that look alike. Daemon and Rhaenrys aren't enough for me to stick with it. Also Rhanerys's father the King is just painfully gross (he does die in the eighth episode, finally). The conflict feels a bit contrived. And the whole bit about R's kids being bastards because she slept with a member of the King's guard, since her husband was gay, and well, also sleeping with a member of the King's guard, is ludicrous. I mean, if they can accept cousins marrying cousins, and niece's marrying uncle's - they can get off their hypocritical moral asses and deal with that. It annoys me to no end. And I cannot abide Alicent or her father. So in that show - there's just levels of dislikable people. I'd rather watch something else.
Fleischman is in Trouble - a dysfunctional marital satire about divorce and living in Manhattan among the dysfunctionally entitled wealthy or upper upper middle class, who want more money.
I was annoyed five minutes in. We gave up on it yesterday at fifteen minutes. The writers think they are "all that" and it shows.
I may be the wrong demographic for it - it scans thirtysomething, very whiny thirtysomething. And admittedly whiny thirtysomething never entirely worked for me, and we kind of did it better in the 20th century.
Peripheral - on Amazon - and I finally gave up on it after about four episodes. It's a cyber-punk sci-fi series - about a female vidder who finds herself jumping ahead 70 some years to a futuristic England - in a vid program. It's adapted from William Gibson's novels - so I was intrigued, Gibson is the king of the cyber-punk genre (he kind of created it) and I like his sci-fi for the most part, but the pacing is slow and I lost interest quick. Also I don't really care that much about anyone. It's cyber-punk meets Southern Military, with a bit too much slant on post-apocalyptic southern military for my liking.
Elton John Concert Disney + - I got bored. It was okay, but I'm not that big of an Elton John fan.
Oppy - the Mars Rover's Journey - Documentary Amazon - I was disappointed. I thought I'd follow the rover more - it's mostly staring at NASA employees who are waiting/anticipating messages from the rover. Watching employees at NASA is not that interesting to me. Watching them build it was fun, and engineer how it gets over terrain. But watching them talk in interviews or stare depressed or in anxiety at computer screens - is kind of painful and boring.
I couldn't focus on it - at any rate. Did watch all of it. It was okay. I found out how rovers are made and sent to Mars (but I kind of already knew that).
Disenchanted - the sequel to Enchanted starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey (who is kind of hurting for roles since starring in Greys), Idenza Mensel (who is the only one who can actually sing - it's a musical),
James Marsden and Maya Rudolph (who I felt sorry for).
Sigh, what happened? The first one was actually pretty good. This? Is dumb.
Worse, it's poorly made. Too much bad CJI, and not enough cinemagraphic contrast. Also the dialogue is dumb. The songs are forgettable and kind of dumb as well.
Makes me want to re-watch the first one. I didn't necessarily love the first one, but it worked far better than this one does, and looks actually really good in comparison.
Shame, this had a good comic set-up, Giselle turns herself into a Wicked Stepmother by wishing for the wrong thing. I could see the writer's pitch room in my head:
Disney: Can we get a sequel to Enchanted, that did well.
Writers: Uhm okay...
Disney: Any ideas?
Writers (ponder): Oh we know, how about we make Giselle the bad guy in the sequel, but actually it's the Queen, and Giselle's adopted daughter has to save the day? And she does it in such a way that bonds them as mother/daughter not stepmother/daughter, saving everyone in the process.
Disney: a twist on the Cinderella story, oh and a nice uplifting little moral ending that's politically correct - love it, go for it.
If only they executed it better. Disney has been hit or miss lately. Andor was really well done, this...was not.
Same with Netflix and Amazon.
Soo... Andur won. Until I feel the need to go back to the Crown again. I'm having issues with The Crown S5. I'm finding the casting jarring in the extreme, so too is mother who can't get used to the new Diana and thinks she horrific in the role. I'm ambivalent about Diana, my trouble is everyone in the cast. I find the new Diana too tall - she literally had a huge growth spurt between S4 and S5, that just is not possible, also she's too skinny. Charles is too appealing - he's too handsome, too charismatic, and too adorable for words - and ahem, that's not Charles, who was kind of the exact opposite. (They needed to cast a less charismatic and appealing actor in that role - I'm certain there's someone out there that would fit?) Jonathan Pryce doesn't quite fit Philip. Imelda Staunton is an odd choice after Olivia Coleman. Margaret shot up a few inches and lost a lot of weight. The Queen Mother also got way too skinny. And Anne looks too much like Margaret, I can't quite tell them apart.
Jarring cast. It makes it hard to watch at times.
So, again, Andur won.
I'll probably stick with it. It's not making waves, but the best television shows don't - or remain under the "mainstream's noses" or so it has been my experience to date.
I like the Star Wars franchise. It's a nice blend of WWII movie, Western, and Space Opera Sci-Fi.
What did I try previously?
Reacher - first episode wasn't bad, it was actually fun. It dropped downhill from there, and I gave up. Wales was right the dialogue was stilted and kind of dumb, and the delivery flat.
Apparently its hard to adapt these kind of novels to the small screen or any screen?
House of Dragon Ep 8 - my difficulty with HoD is I don't care about anyone or what happens to them for that matter. I stopped caring. (I read ahead - it gets worse.) All of the characters are interchangeably gross, and there's one too many that look alike. Daemon and Rhaenrys aren't enough for me to stick with it. Also Rhanerys's father the King is just painfully gross (he does die in the eighth episode, finally). The conflict feels a bit contrived. And the whole bit about R's kids being bastards because she slept with a member of the King's guard, since her husband was gay, and well, also sleeping with a member of the King's guard, is ludicrous. I mean, if they can accept cousins marrying cousins, and niece's marrying uncle's - they can get off their hypocritical moral asses and deal with that. It annoys me to no end. And I cannot abide Alicent or her father. So in that show - there's just levels of dislikable people. I'd rather watch something else.
Fleischman is in Trouble - a dysfunctional marital satire about divorce and living in Manhattan among the dysfunctionally entitled wealthy or upper upper middle class, who want more money.
I was annoyed five minutes in. We gave up on it yesterday at fifteen minutes. The writers think they are "all that" and it shows.
I may be the wrong demographic for it - it scans thirtysomething, very whiny thirtysomething. And admittedly whiny thirtysomething never entirely worked for me, and we kind of did it better in the 20th century.
Peripheral - on Amazon - and I finally gave up on it after about four episodes. It's a cyber-punk sci-fi series - about a female vidder who finds herself jumping ahead 70 some years to a futuristic England - in a vid program. It's adapted from William Gibson's novels - so I was intrigued, Gibson is the king of the cyber-punk genre (he kind of created it) and I like his sci-fi for the most part, but the pacing is slow and I lost interest quick. Also I don't really care that much about anyone. It's cyber-punk meets Southern Military, with a bit too much slant on post-apocalyptic southern military for my liking.
Elton John Concert Disney + - I got bored. It was okay, but I'm not that big of an Elton John fan.
Oppy - the Mars Rover's Journey - Documentary Amazon - I was disappointed. I thought I'd follow the rover more - it's mostly staring at NASA employees who are waiting/anticipating messages from the rover. Watching employees at NASA is not that interesting to me. Watching them build it was fun, and engineer how it gets over terrain. But watching them talk in interviews or stare depressed or in anxiety at computer screens - is kind of painful and boring.
I couldn't focus on it - at any rate. Did watch all of it. It was okay. I found out how rovers are made and sent to Mars (but I kind of already knew that).
Disenchanted - the sequel to Enchanted starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey (who is kind of hurting for roles since starring in Greys), Idenza Mensel (who is the only one who can actually sing - it's a musical),
James Marsden and Maya Rudolph (who I felt sorry for).
Sigh, what happened? The first one was actually pretty good. This? Is dumb.
Worse, it's poorly made. Too much bad CJI, and not enough cinemagraphic contrast. Also the dialogue is dumb. The songs are forgettable and kind of dumb as well.
Makes me want to re-watch the first one. I didn't necessarily love the first one, but it worked far better than this one does, and looks actually really good in comparison.
Shame, this had a good comic set-up, Giselle turns herself into a Wicked Stepmother by wishing for the wrong thing. I could see the writer's pitch room in my head:
Disney: Can we get a sequel to Enchanted, that did well.
Writers: Uhm okay...
Disney: Any ideas?
Writers (ponder): Oh we know, how about we make Giselle the bad guy in the sequel, but actually it's the Queen, and Giselle's adopted daughter has to save the day? And she does it in such a way that bonds them as mother/daughter not stepmother/daughter, saving everyone in the process.
Disney: a twist on the Cinderella story, oh and a nice uplifting little moral ending that's politically correct - love it, go for it.
If only they executed it better. Disney has been hit or miss lately. Andor was really well done, this...was not.
Same with Netflix and Amazon.
Soo... Andur won. Until I feel the need to go back to the Crown again. I'm having issues with The Crown S5. I'm finding the casting jarring in the extreme, so too is mother who can't get used to the new Diana and thinks she horrific in the role. I'm ambivalent about Diana, my trouble is everyone in the cast. I find the new Diana too tall - she literally had a huge growth spurt between S4 and S5, that just is not possible, also she's too skinny. Charles is too appealing - he's too handsome, too charismatic, and too adorable for words - and ahem, that's not Charles, who was kind of the exact opposite. (They needed to cast a less charismatic and appealing actor in that role - I'm certain there's someone out there that would fit?) Jonathan Pryce doesn't quite fit Philip. Imelda Staunton is an odd choice after Olivia Coleman. Margaret shot up a few inches and lost a lot of weight. The Queen Mother also got way too skinny. And Anne looks too much like Margaret, I can't quite tell them apart.
Jarring cast. It makes it hard to watch at times.
So, again, Andur won.