Current TV Boxset Addiction

[TordelBack]

I have enjoyed the books in general, being sometimes partial to long over-detailed fantasy stuff,  whereas I never really warmed to the TV series - beyond being gobsmacked to see what TV could do technically with scale and with fantasy, and enamoured of some of the performances (Dinklage, Flynn, Dance, Rigg etc). I haven't seen it all yet, but I probably will at some point.

I am looking forward to the next book,  but I found that Martin's big Targaryen history volume they brought out a while back was unreadable.

[Apestrife]

I'm 1/6 into Clone Wars on Disney +, watching it in chronological order

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-the-clone-wars-chronological-episodeorder

Damn good stuff. I think it nails both the space opera feel of episodes 4 - 6 as well as the world building aspect of episodes 1 - 3. It also has the modular aspect of both those film trilogies. It can be watched stand alone as well as working really well in conjuction with both trilogy. I'd also like to mention that each episode works well "stand alone", even if you catch one in the middle of a 3-4 episode story ark. There's a beginning and ending to each of them. And on a side note, Jar-Jar never bothered much in episode 1. But he didn't make me laugh: In Clone Wars he has. But he's not the central character of the show, there are a bunch of them. And for me the eye of the storm is Ashooka. A young Jedi padawan which I think not sports the boy scout qualities of Luke Skywalker and -at times - pain/doubt of Anakin, but even a bit of the weariness of Obi Wan. The clone troopers are also good bunch. They're all the same, but the tiny details really stands out. They all live to die in battle, but also know that they are seen as expendable. Good men, but not much better than droids. But you feel each of them try to find something making it worth while. Be it a nick name, or hair cut. Something small to make a clone soldier feel a sense of self, or just having something to cling on to.

[TordelBack]

100% agree Apestrife. There's some hokey episodes and arcs, but for sheer volume of non-stop SW fun (and depth) there's little that matches Clone Wars.

(Although I always have to note that the vocal part of  online fandom absolutely hated it, and 'that mouthy Mary Sue' Ahsoka, and Dave Filoni, and Lucas' involvement, for almost all of its run. Plus ça change).

[Professor Bear]

To be entirely fair, Ahsoka was just as lame as all the other characters in Clone Wars' theatrical pilot, but didn't have decades of audience investment to entice viewers to sand down her rough edges in their head canon in the way they inevitably would with Anakin or Obi-Wan.  The best (and worst) thing about Clone Wars was seeing these dull characters get turned into something better to the point that when Ahsoka walks away from the Jedi I didn't really buy it, but assumed I missed something important along the way.

[pictsy]

I like Ahsoka.  She develops into one of the best Star Wars characters.  I like she left the Jedi, because the Jedi are dipshits.

I found that Clone Wars want not consistent in its quality, starting off extremely ropey and almost laughably bad in places, but developing into a much better realised show.  I still maintain that Rebels is the better show.

[TordelBack]

Rebels is a great show, no question - but for some reason it didn't hold my attention quite the way TCW did. Hera, Kanan, Chopper and the Ghost appealed to me, the other characters not quite so much. And the reworking of the old EU origins of things like Wedge and the B-Wings felt like they didn't quite have the heft they needed as replacements. But still, mighty fun, and Rex, Ahsoka and Vader were all great additions as it went along.

[pictsy]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7

I have just finished this and I'd like to post some thoughts on the series overall at some point.

Like all other seasons of Buffy, this Season has some problems.  I'm not going to bother writing about them because I think this is the best Season.  It might not have the most memorable episodes (though it does have some imo), but it is the most consistent and complete Season.  It also ends the show really well.  I think this is why I've kept coming back to Buffy year after year.  It really is nice when a show can finish when it is at its best.

[Jim_Campbell]

I've come to the conclusion that people just don't like it when a series ends. I've read loads of people be really sniffy about S7, but it wasn't cancelled — it ends on its own terms, and with Buffy breaking the patriarchal hold of the Watchers over the role of the Slayer.

There's stuff in there I don't like, but overall it's true to itself and delivers a decent resolution to the themes the series has been grappling with over its run. It's a worthy finale to a series that is almost always good, intermittently excellent, and very rarely genuinely bad.

[TordelBack]

Yep,  the end of Buffy is as good as these things ever get. But they shouldn't have killed the wonderful Anya, and conversely they shouldn't have subsequently resurrected the equally wonderful Spike in Angel.  Other than that, spot on.

(see also: Wash)

[pictsy]

There's stuff in there I don't like, but overall it's true to itself and delivers a decent resolution to the themes the series has been grappling with over its run. It's a worthy finale to a series that is almost always good, intermittently excellent, and very rarely genuinely bad.

Very much my feelings.

Yep,  the end of Buffy is as good as these things ever get. But they shouldn't have killed the wonderful Anya, and conversely they shouldn't have subsequently resurrected the equally wonderful Spike in Angel.  Other than that, spot on.

(see also: Wash)

I was always somewhat annoyed that Anya died, but on this viewing I found I didn't like her character as much so I am more conflicted on the matter.  It does come across as a bit cheap, like they wanted to kill off a main character but didn't want the ending to be too much of a downer and decided that Anya was the most expendable character.  It also sort of works for the character who was telling everyone throughout the season that they were going to die.

[repoman]

Half way through S2 of The Boys.  Really liking it but it is soooo stressful.  Homelander makes me so nervous.

[wedgeski]

Half way through S2 of The Boys.  Really liking it but it is soooo stressful.  Homelander makes me so nervous.

We watched the final episode last week. A bit of a stunner, this series, IMHO.

[spoiler]Stormfront: "People love what I have to say, they just hate the word Nazi."[/spoiler]

[TordelBack]

Motoring through Hap & Leonard on Amazon at the mo. Tonally very uneven, and the characters seem to shift about significantly between series, but Purefoy and Williams are never less than loveable as the dynamic duo. The first run fancies itself as a Coen Bros flick (no bad thing), the second becomes an astonishingly grim serial killer show, and so far the third is firmly in X-Files small-town-madness territory. But I'm still sorry there isn't any more. To the books!

[pictsy]

Just watched the first episode of Star Trek Lower Decks.

I'm on board with this (geddit?).  Interested to see where they go with it.  Made me chuckle a couple of times, that's a good sign.

[repoman]

I just found The Armando Iannucci Shows on the Channel 4 website.

It's still amazing.