Current TV Boxset Addiction

[Funt Solo]

Dunno who here is enjoying WandaVision (I suppose it depends on your tolerance for over-engineered corporate smugness masquerading as creativity (my own threshold is alarmingly high)), but this week (Episode 5) they tried the meta-gag to beat all meta-gags.

It'd be entirely appropriate if a retro-sitcom-themed show jumped the shark, but I'm hoping this trick works. It's been an enjoyable weekly event (my daughter in particular loves it) and an interesting way to create an epilogue to Endgame and indeed what I assume is a bridge between the MCU's Phases 3 and 4.

I had to hold off for a while to gear up for it, but I just dove in and am really enjoying it. I don't know if it helps that I've only watched about two thirds of the MCU movies, so I'm not entirely au fait with who everyone is.

I'm thinking of it as a reverse jump-the-shark series. Most series have a normality, and the shark-jumping is when they abandon their reality because they've run out of ideas. With this show, the central conceit is that there are enormous cracks in the presented reality, so it's normal for it to be toyed with. It's shark-ception.

[Bolt-01]

With WandaVision the main thing my that my lot have picked up on is that this is apparently the foundation story for where they go next with the MCU. The next wave of content, film wise, all come along after the TV shows that are running.

So, for me the most telling thing here is where is Wanda getting the power from? She is not this powerful (in the MCU) so what other sources of power are there available to her? Infinity Stones? possibly, but I think the in-show ads have hinted at other things - especially the one in episode 06 (at time of writing).

I'm wondering if we are seeing the first instances of a character that could be termed as supernatural, seeing as Wanda is also going to be appearing in the next Dr Strange film. [spoiler]Mephisto?[/spoiler]

Either way, I'm very much enjoying the show and loved the sit-com setting.

[Mardroid]

In the past I would usually stick to one series, watching it through, then move on to the next.

I've been alternating between these series however. I'm enjoying the experience.

Ratched on Netflix.  This is a TV series about the wicked* controlling head Nurse Mildred Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest when she first comes to the sanitarium in 1947. I'm enjoying it a lot. It's disturbingly dark in places but has moments of poignancy, mystery and lots of machination. Ratched is played by Sarah Paulson. (I remember her as Merlin the ghost girl from American Gothic - remember that weird show? Paulson's appeared on a lot since then, including several series of American Horror Story.)

Paulson is great in the role. I thought they might go down the cliched route of portraying her as a good person and showing her moral decline, and while there is an element of that, she shows great ruthlessness from the start.  She's got her reasons though, and she is certainly a complex character, and it's fun to see her machinations. In one episode she [spoiler]organises a horrific murder -which doesn't go to plan, but also shows great sympathy for other characters.[/

The supporting cast are very good too. I don't think we've met any of those characters yet (one plus of setting this so far before One Flew... ) so that gets rid of any worries, of "I know how they end up" that may be an issue for prequels. (It's rarely an issue for me, as it's all about the journey, for me, but I know many are bothered by that sort of thing. There's a doctor character who struck me as a pretty awful man,[spoiler] performing lobotomies willy-hilly (and awful hot cold bath treatment, in this case to cure two lesbians of their 'deviancy'. An awful, ambitious, cowardly little fellow. And seeing some of his back-story was incredibly disturbing.

And then last episode, he made me almost feel like I had something in my eye with his tearful "I think I actually helped someone!",  moment, after apparently successfully treating a MPD patient with great empathy. And it didn't come across out of character. [/spoiler]. That's range for you.

Paranormal on Netflix. Another period piece, this time set in 1970s Cairo. It's a foreign language series mostly performed (if that's the correct term) in Arabic. I'm enjoying this a lot. The filmography is very dismal (in a good way) considering this is set in such a hot country. I like the melancholic cynical lead character a lot, and the supporting cast are good. If I had any criticism, it would be that I find some of the paranormal stuff a bit on the nose. I don't mind some straight supernatural elements, but I wouldn't mind some things being a bit more ambiguous. I appreciate the X Files already did that, though.  Oh there's a creepy little girl in it too, and spooky children always hit the right chill factor with me, and I like that we aren't sure what her motivations are.

Vikings - final series on Amazon Prime:  Enjoyable series so far. Kudos for continuing the quality after [spoiler]killing off Ragnar Lothbrock. (Name is misspelt as it has Norse characters).[/spoiler]

Ripper Street on Amazon Prime: I've only seen one episode of this Victorian police drama, but I enjoyed that a lot. It went to a pretty nasty place some might find disturbing, but it's kinda in the title, isn't it?

The next two I can't really help seeing piecemeal since they're released weekly (although American Gods missed a week for the last episode, apparently due to American Super Bowl and Starz schedule. (It premiers in Starz in the US the day before apparently, then on Amazon Prime the next day.)

WandaVision on Disney+:  I won't say much about this, except I'm enjoying it a lot and, concerning last episodes end: "A-HA HA HA HAAA!" Also don't switch off during the over-long end-credits for this episode as there's a little mid-credits bit. You might want to ffwd though.

American Gods (latest series) on Amazon Prime: Its a little slow with the main series thread, but it's enjoyable enough. Glad they're doing more with Bilquis than Gaiman did.

It occurs to me, all but the latter two are period pieces.

*In the literal sense of the word. I don't use that word to mean 'good'.  Actually that was something that occurred when I was at secondary school, decades back. Do the kids still do this? I think they say 'sick' now instead.

[Mardroid]

Tell a lie: Paranormal is apparently set in the sixties not seventies. (I'm unable to edit the above post.) I was sure I saw a 70s year at the start of the first episode.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Speaking of the 70s, I've been watching old episodes of Tales of the Unexpected on Youtube - not exactly a boxset, I know, but cheaper.  Some are great, some aren't, but I hadn't realised at the time what an impressive cast it had.  Joan Collins, Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, Cyril Cusack, and John freaking Gielgud. And, er, Toyah, and Makepeace from Dempsey and Makepeace.

Also, I'd forgotten that the early ones were presented by Roald Dahl himself, looking and sounding just as creepy and sinister as one of his characters.

[Woolly]

Speaking of the 70s, I've been watching old episodes of Tales of the Unexpected on Youtube - not exactly a boxset, I know, but cheaper.  Some are great, some aren't, but I hadn't realised at the time what an impressive cast it had.  Joan Collins, Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, Cyril Cusack, and John freaking Gielgud. And, er, Toyah, and Makepeace from Dempsey and Makepeace.

Also, I'd forgotten that the early ones were presented by Roald Dahl himself, looking and sounding just as creepy and sinister as one of his characters.

It was my Mums birthday at the end of January (78!) and she loves horror and stuff, so I got her the complete DVD set of all the episodes. Honestly, there's not much that lives up to the very first episode (and even that was ripped off in Four Rooms!)

[Woolly]

Brian Blessed...

I can't watch that episode without thinking of Alan Partridge... 

[JayzusB.Christ]

Honestly, there's not much that lives up to the very first episode (and even that was ripped off in Four Rooms!)

]

Bugger.  I was just about to get stuck into it when I realised I'd listened to it as a short story in audiobook form a couple of weeks ago, which was what started me looking for TotU on Youtube.  Might watch it anyway, despite knowing the twist at the end.

Brian Blessed...

I can't watch that episode without thinking of Alan Partridge... 

Bugger again,   I'm very well-versed in the life and times of Partridge but I'm not getting the reference.  Help me out, man!

[Link Prime]

Last night I made it though the first 20 minutes of the first episode of 'Another Life' on Netflix before bailing.

Quite possibly the worst Sci-fi show I have ever seen, and I've been watching this shite for 4 decades.

[broodblik]

Start watching WandaVision. Did struggle through the first episode not sure I have the energy to continue this.  My first try at the Disney+ Marvel stuff, so the next show at least has a very low bar.

[wedgeski]

Start watching WandaVision. Did struggle through the first episode not sure I have the energy to continue this.  My first try at the Disney+ Marvel stuff, so the next show at least has a very low bar.

We've loved this. 4:3, widescreen, black and white, colour, shot in front of an audience, all kinds of absurdity. It comes inside a shiny plastic MCU frame, and as the mysteries are resolved it has become less interesting, but overall, quality telly.

[broodblik]

I am always prepared to watch a second episode, does it get better? Will Red Bull help to get the necessary energy levels?

[wedgeski]

I am always prepared to watch a second episode, does it get better? Will Red Bull help to get the necessary energy levels?

If you didn't like the first episode, no amount of caffeine will turn you on to the rest.

[Funt Solo]

++MINI-SPOILERS AHOY!++

WandaVision certainly changes over time. There are hints in episode #1 that not all is quite right with their perfect world, and it's not a sitcom of the era each episode as much as the first couple suggest. We move gradually more and more into the realm of what's really happening, even though there's still that bubble of inside::outside going on.

I *thought* I was going to hate it, because it looked cheesy like nachos, but I've found it quite compelling, and something I look forward to each Friday.

It reminds me quite a lot of an old Sapphire and Steel where there's some invisible barrier in the middle of a field.

[Woolly]

Brian Blessed...

I can't watch that episode without thinking of Alan Partridge... 

Bugger again,   I'm very well-versed in the life and times of Partridge but I'm not getting the reference.  Help me out, man!

[spoiler]'..you could hit someone over the head with it, and eat the evidence..'[/spoiler]