TV You Have Watched

[fallenangle]

Enjoying again re-watching Band Of Brothers on Sky Mix.

Quality never ages; just a pity that its sister series Pacific just did not have the same impact. I waited years to see it and when I did it did not engage me as much as I'd hoped. Certainly worth seeing and if they repeat that too I'll give it another go but what I remember most is that the non-combat episodes set in Australia were the more interesting ones.

[fuse]

Daisy Jones and the Six (Amazon). We stuck the first episode of this on when in a hotel and I went from knowing nothing about it to blurting out "it's bloody Fleetwood Mac, isn't it" within about a minute. It's... not actually about them, but it at the same time it really bloody obviously is - a 70s rock band with familial connections that starts imploding in a haze of drugs, sexual tensions realised and not, in-fighting over roles and sniping at each other in lyrics - you get the picture. It's watchable but also quite annoying in that anything interesting you think you take away from it you have to then go and see if there's any truth in there. Plus you have to keep hearing songs that, to put it bluntly, are not even in the same league as the ones they're aping.

We also watched the first season of Happy Valley (BBC). Great vehicle for some of the cast to flex their acting chops, but bloody hell are the storylines quite overdramatic. After the setup and everything that happens in the first episode I was expecting the second one to reveal that someone in the Yorkshire Dales had gotten hold of nuclear launch codes. Other half loved it so no doubt we'll be back in for seasons 2 and 3 soon enough.

[Neon Ignition]

Bodies
Meh. Well made but thanks to devolving into being a wibbly wobbly timey wimey T2 time travel redux so quickly it sucks the air out of the opening mystery really quickly and lost interest as it went along.

[fallenangle]

Caught a repeat of a the art documentary on Dutch artist M.C.Escher: Journey To Infinity on Sky Arts yesterday. The visuals, sometimes using CGI to animate his work, are the real treat.

Stephen Fry narrating mostly from Escher's own diaries is less successful and whilst there is plenty of self-criticism involved it tended to make his musings on life, his own artistic 'journey' and general hubris, sound more pompous, dogmatic and above all obsessional than he probably was.

Still if you enjoy M.C.Escher's work then this will be a good watch for you.

https://mcescher.com/

[Neon Ignition]

Secret Invasion
Yeah... I can the need for Marvel to rethink its TV content. This is naff.

[Dogg Thang]

It's awful.

[Lebowski]

It's awful.

The best thing about it was they filmed a lot of the stuff near where I live, and used areas of Leeds and Halifax and pretended they were Russia, I'm not sure what that says about the north of England is it really that grim or did they just put a grey filter over everything.

I listened to an excellent podcast about secret wars and how the ending is completely stupid, spoilers follow. So you end up with this super skrull who has access to the DNA and superpowers of all these super beings that overlap or outdo each other, what's the point of having Thanos, Captain America, Drax, Gamora, Valkyrie and the Hulks super strength at the same time as their power is that their super strong. you would never use Drax like she does in the fight, when Thanos or Hulk is stronger, it makes having 12 other "strong guy" superpowers pointless. You also now have this person in the marvel universe who has everyone's powers and is pretty much now the pinnacle of power in that universe, so how do you create a threat now you have a good guy with this much power?

[Dogg Thang]

Just spoilering this reply -

->Open Spoiler<-

I listened to an excellent podcast about secret wars and how the ending is completely stupid, spoilers follow. So you end up with this super skrull who has access to the DNA and superpowers of all these super beings that overlap or outdo each other, what's the point of having Thanos, Captain America, Drax, Gamora, Valkyrie and the Hulks super strength at the same time as their power is that their super strong. you would never use Drax like she does in the fight, when Thanos or Hulk is stronger, it makes having 12 other "strong guy" superpowers pointless. You also now have this person in the marvel universe who has everyone's powers and is pretty much now the pinnacle of power in that universe, so how do you create a threat now you have a good guy with this much power?

Yeah, this was ridiculous not just because of the character we were left with at the end but how stupidly easy it was to do this. Somehow someone had magically collected all their DNA and that's all that's needed to give someone all their powers? It creates all sorts of stupid possibilities.

I did not like it.

[Neon Ignition]

One of the first things we said when we started watching the show was say 'that's not Russia'. Out the gate it faltered, there's something inherently unengaging about the whole show but despite how low key the character has always been it felt insanely cheap and misplaced to deal with Maria Hill the way it did, the 'who's real' concept is tired and a turn off and perhaps most critically... I know they're a prominent thing in the comics but the Skrulls are frankly ****. That's before getting into the actual characters and plot etc. To be honest, it feels like it makes the case for them just stopping making new MCU series full stop. Much better if they do a Loki and look at the ones they've already done to see what worked and if second season possibilities exist to flesh the sheer glut of 2D characters they've birthed out. Only introduce more new IP series when those many lines have been covered.

[MartyG]

Fallout (Amazon)

Watched the first two episodes so far and it's been very well done. True to the source material, well acted, sets and costumes look authentic and believeable. It seems more character driven than story driven, but I don't think that's a bad thing. If you enjoyed the games, then there's a lot to like here.

[Atticus]

Fallout (Amazon)

Watched the first two episodes so far and it's been very well done. True to the source material, well acted, sets and costumes look authenticate and believeable. It seems more character driven thatstory driven, but I don't think that's a bad thing. If you enjoyed the games, then there's a lot to like here.

Looking forward to giving it a go. Heard nothing but good things.

[Yakumo]

MartyG
Thanks for the wright up. Think I'll check out an episode or two tonight 👍
I'm always quite wherry when a game is used as the base for a movie or TV show.

[Yakumo]

Saw the first episode of Fallout last night. It's shot extremely well plus looks great in Dolby Vision. In some parts it can easily be mistaken for a big budget movie.
Did anyone do a double take when the main character mentioned heir name? I did! Had to pause and rewind to make sure I heard it correctly 😅

->Open Spoiler<-

it's the same name as John McClean's daughter from Die Hard 1 and 4

[Lebowski]

Joining the two episode Fallout train, really enjoying it and everything works well for me except some of the props feel a little off, The power armour feels like the worst part of the show so far in that it looks like a big plastic suit, a bit more grime and oil would sort it out and stop it looking like its made of foam and plastic. Sets and world building are top-notch so far, though can't wait to watch some more tonight.

[Neon Ignition]

Loki: Season 02
Finally finished this one and for the first three episodes struggled with it, the back and forth with Victor etc was fairly tedious compared to the first season. When things pick up more in the fourth episode though it seemed to get back into gear and by the end it finishes on a pretty strong note. I'm assuming this will dove tail into the Avengers films otherwise it leaves Loki's arc on an irritating note for film only fans that Marvel have recently learnt isn't wise when it comes to their audience. The show is unquestionably the strongest or at least joint strongest of the Marvel series, it's almost shocking that its presentation and delivery is so much better than the other stuff they've put out recently. I'm assuming there won't be a third run given how it seems to have an end point and that's probably wise.