Main Menu

Current TV Boxset Addiction

Started by radiator, 20 November, 2012, 02:23:29 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

smilersaltash

Quote from: ChickenStu on 10 April, 2013, 09:19:48 PM
Never EVER watch the 1985 series of V. Just don't, OK?

I remember watching this as alternative to the 1984 Olympics, and had high viewing figures. Was groundbreaking tv at the time.
Tried to watch it when the series was repeated on Syfy recently, but found it had not stood the test of time, and was in fact shite.

Beaky Smoochies

I too watched it that week of the Olympics, although I disagree that it's what you said it was, was it the sequel mini-series you were watching, V: The Final Battle, in which case I would partly agree with your assessment, it's clearly inferior to the original eponymous two-part mini-series, which remains for me one of the very best sci-fi allegorical dramas of recent years (flaws notwithstanding).  V's creator/writer/director Kenneth Johnson left the sequel mini-series early in it's development (after mapping out the basic story outline) because Warner Bros were being overly tight with the budget and wouldn't give Johnson the money to do it right... hence why he walked rather than make a compromised version! 

And I agree about Michael Ironside being a real highlight of The Final Battle, but it's still a pity that Kenneth Johnson didn't get the requisite budget to remain on his creation, it clearly would have been better than how it turned out (which is still pretty good), and more akin in style and tone to the original mini-series - darker and more somber - but that still doesn't detract from just how good a piece of sci-fi drama the two-part original was and still is.

Lastly, if you want a great new series, grab the Season One box set of Person of Interest, hands down the best thing on telly right now... and proof you don't need either bloody violence, excessive profanity, or overt sexual content to pull off a first-rate drama.
"When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fear the people there is LIBERTY!" - Thomas Jefferson.

"That government is best which governs least" - Thomas Jefferson.

ChickenStu

Guys, in 2008 Kenneth Johnson wrote a novel called V: The Second Generation which was set 20 years after the original mini-series. It ignores the events of V: The Final Battle and V: The Series and picks up on a cliffhanger from the end of the original mini-series where the resistance send a distress call into outer space to another alien race who are enemies of the visitors. In the book... help arrives.

It may be jarring to anyone who was a fan of V: The Final Battle and V: The Series cause not only are those events completely ignored (Kenneth Johnson has never even watched them), but characters who died in those (Harmony, Robert Maxwell, Martin) are walking around alive and well in the book as if nothing ever happened. No star child bollocks, no Ham Tyler, no red dust... no nothing.

If you can get past that, it's a pretty good read. It's definitely one for the fans though.
Ma Ma's not the law... (you know the rest)

Dandontdare

Helped a friend move yesterday and noticed she had Game of Thrones season 1, so I've borrowed that to find out what everyone's so giddy about.

HdE

I'm sort of moderately interested in Game Of Thrones... just not a fan of the HBO 'bewbs wiv everyfing' modus operandi. I might give it a peek when there's more of it available on DVD.
Check out my DA page! Point! Laugh!
http://hde2009.deviantart.com/

Hawkmumbler

Now watching The Big O season 1.

radiator

QuoteI'm sort of moderately interested in Game Of Thrones... just not a fan of the HBO 'bewbs wiv everyfing' modus operandi. I might give it a peek when there's more of it available on DVD.

Tbh I find the more lurid/titilating elements a bit annoying. Just remember that the boobs/incest/genital mutilation etc etc are there to get the attention of the average punter, and there is so much more to the show than that.

What I love is the grand scale, the world-building (it's so intricate and crafted that just one small corner of Westeros would be the entire setting in another fantasy saga), the intrigue and the shocking twists.

Charlie boy

I'm one of the few other people to have never seen Game of Thrones. I used to really want to see it because I was still working in a bookstore when the first series started and one or two people I worked with were talking about it and every day you'd have loads of lads who you'd usually look at and think "They think all books are stupid" coming in and asking what order to purchase them in. The reason why I sort of lost interest in seeing it (I'm still a little curious about it but it's so far in now and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything by not watching it, having never seen it) is down to noticing it was being shown on Freeview's PickTV when it was 3 or 4 episodes in to the first series so I felt I'd somewhat missed that boat.

Professor Bear

Quote from: Hawkmonger on 15 April, 2013, 01:49:47 PM
Now watching The Big O season 1.

When you get to the end of season 1, don't watch season 2.  That way you can always believe it might be good, rather than knowing for a certainty that it was horseshit.

Hawkmumbler

Quote from: Professor James T Bear on 15 April, 2013, 06:28:05 PM
Quote from: Hawkmonger on 15 April, 2013, 01:49:47 PM
Now watching The Big O season 1.

When you get to the end of season 1, don't watch season 2.  That way you can always believe it might be good, rather than knowing for a certainty that it was horseshit.
Yeah, I hear it's a sequel best left alone. Just watched the 4th episode and already this might be a strong contender for best TV series i've watched in a good while. Really encapsulates everything I loved about old school animation before everything was either trying to be Naruto or Spongebob dependent on which side of the other pond you are on.

Tiplodocus

Quote from: radiator on 15 April, 2013, 01:55:55 PM

Tbh I find the more lurid/titilating elements a bit annoying. Just remember that the boobs/incest/genital mutilation etc etc are there to get the attention of the average punter, and there is so much more to the show than that.

Colour me average then because I love those.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

HdE

The Big O is pure class, and I'll not countenance any talk of season 2 being crap. Just because it isn't.

[/internet dogma.]

Seriously - I LOVE The Big O! It's jam packed with style and character, and it's a helluva lot of fun.

DO NOT skip season 2. You may find it very difficult to get hold of if you don't already have it, is the only drawback. I can appreciate that not everybody likes the way it continues (or, indeed, concludes) but I was thoroughly entertained all the way.

If only there were more TV shows that were this much fun.
Check out my DA page! Point! Laugh!
http://hde2009.deviantart.com/

Professor Bear

Season 2 is superfluous (especially if you've seen [spoiler]the Truman Show and/or The Matrix[/spoiler]), needlessly convoluted, and only exists not because the makers thought it was necessary to the story (they cut the original 26 episode story down to 13 after the show's poor reception in Japan), but because American tv bods wanted more episodes after the show's surprise success in the west.

Hawkmumbler

Talking about classic anime and current TV box set addictions, here's an upcoming release that fits into both categories nicely indeed. And I just pre-ordered it.

HdE

Quote from: Professor James T Bear on 15 April, 2013, 11:26:42 PM
Season 2 is superfluous (especially if you've seen [spoiler]the Truman Show and/or The Matrix[/spoiler]), needlessly convoluted, [snip]

I disagree with you on all counts there. Principally because if a first time viewer were to leave off at season 1 episode 13, it really doesn't offer a satisfying ending. Season 2 builds ta conclusion, whatever you might think of it. Personally, I love it. But, y'know, each to their own.


As for Cowboy Bebop - what a great show! I'm suddenly reminded that I need to go back and re-watch it. Really pleased to see this getting another release.
Check out my DA page! Point! Laugh!
http://hde2009.deviantart.com/