Television

Lord Diaper Baby said:
Finally got into Schitts Creek. I believe I mentioned pages back - when they were gobbling up awards for the final season and people were going on about it here - that I had watched the first 2-3 episodes but it didn't really grab my interest.

I knew - given all the praise here and, specifically to me, from @MsLoganHenney - that I'd eventually revisit it. It just wasn't on the top of my list. I feel like, for me, it became like the most recent version of A Star is Born. I knew I'd eventually watch it but put if off for a while 'cause I figured it would be a fine watch, but I wasn't necessarily champing at the bit. It became a "when I didn't have anything else to watch" movie. And...boy was I wrong 'cause it was a great movie. So much like that, Schitt's Creek has held that place for me - when I didn't have anything else I really wanted to watch. When Schitt's Creek should have been something I really wanted to watch all along.

I rewatched through the few episodes I'd seen and about 2/3 through the first season I knew I was hooked. I'm now mid-way through S03.

What a great set of characters. I like the way they're developing them all - the tightening relationship (albeit at a somewhat glacial pace, but it fits the Roses' whole attitude) between the family members (especially the parents to the children and Alexis and David to one another - I just finished the episode where David takes his driver's test and he and Alexis have a moment on the way home and it was sweet).

I am just on edge wanting to see how the relationships between David and Stevie and Alexis and Mutt develop. Now, I have little doubt they will revisit a relationship between Alexis and Mutt (don't correct me if I'm wrong); but David and Stevie I'm not so sure. I could see that relationship having a pin put in it as a strict friendship. Speaking of Stevie, I like how she is kind of becoming a kind of surrogate Rose - Johnny just took over her books after she inherited the motel and I appreciated the crying embrace she gave him (even if it was prompted by a moment's relief of desperation he brought).

The ending of S02 was so beautiful - gave me a warm feeling. It's the Roses' anniversary and they go to the restaurant and run into their old friends. The tongue-lashing that Johnny gives to them and in defense - replete with some Rose-esque backhandedness - of Roland and Joceyln was a lovely moment. And the shot of them all dancing at Mutt's barn party at the end, both as a family and becoming - to varying individual degrees - more integrated into Schitt's Creek capped off the episode and season very well.

Finally, all of the characters and their respective characters are wonderful. But, hot damn Daniel Levy and Catherine O' Hara! Levy is wonderful in his facial expressions and conveyance of (mostly) disgust with them.

But O' Hara's Moira is in a league of its own on that show - and that's saying something because, again, it's a great ensemble cast (both main and supporting). I've, of course, seen O' Hara in many things throughout the years. But, I was saying to the wife that no matter what I saw her in I think there was always the "Oh, Home Alone mom" in the back of my mind; mainly because of the age I was when it came out (we had it on VHS so it's greatly tied into the childhood nostalgia factory). But I think her portrayal of Moira Rose may be the best role I've ever seen her in. I'm not going to say anything new about what makes her so great in it that hasn't already been said by the numerous accolades of critics, but....

The affectation of her voice (the way she pronounces words get me all the time), her almost signature way of dressing, etc....so wonderful. I've read a couple things online about the character and it seems most of these things that make the character so great were not written by the show writers but were choices made and brought by O'Hara herself. Total respect!

Any way, I'm glad I couldn't think of what else to watch 'cause it is a total gem of a show.
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You're welcome! Glad you finally listened to me and gave it another chance! Netflix also has a BTS special about it that was really good to see how everything came to be from trying to develop the show, having it picked up, and further produced. Worth the watch too IMO. I like that the show has rewatchability (not sure if a real word). 👍 Either way, welcome to the fan club!
 
Ginormousthumbs said:
Just finished S1 of Cobra Kai. What. A. Riot. I love that it doesn’t take itself seriously. Can’t wait to start S2!
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I just blew through S1, S2, and half of S3 this past weekend, I quite liked it too. Also, I've never seen any of the Karate Kid movies 🙈

These half hour shows with 10-episode seasons are great, so easy to catch an episode or two in between doing things around the house.
 
Pergo said:
I was just about the biggest Karate Kid fan alive as a kid in the 80s, so its like this show was made for me, but with that said it's still amazing to me how good this damn show is. So much better then it really has any business being!
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Yessssss! The writing is hilarious and good!
Zabka is fantastic. The way that they use the movies is also well done!
 
Indymisanthrope said:
The writers’ room did Mr. Bates dirty in the latter seasons. He goes from being a figure of sort of noble humility to a patronizing caricature of himself over time.
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I kind of feel at least half the cast got this treatment.

We only have two episodes left (and the movie) and I am looking forward to it wrapping up.
 
ranbalam said:
While I won't say Downton Abbey is bad in this final season, I am just kind of waiting for it to end. It's fine.
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You gonna give the movie a go? I enjoyed the movie quite a bit but I think it helped that the show had been off the air for a while. It was like checking in on old friends. I enjoyed the Deadwood movie in much the same way. I don’t know if either would have been as much fun had I watched them immediately after the Show had ended. Though in both there is a decent amount of time passes so part of the fun is figuring out what’s happened to everyone.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
You gonna give the movie a go? I enjoyed the movie quite a bit but I think it helped that the show had been off the air for a while. It was like checking in on old friends. I enjoyed the Deadwood movie in much the same way. I don’t know if either would have been as much fun had I watched them immediately after the Show had ended. Though in both there is a decent amount of time passes so part of the fun is figuring out what’s happened to everyone.
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I'm sure we will. My wife is fully vested; she sheds a tear almost every episode now, more from the sweetness of certain scenes than anything.

I will say I don't care at all about Carson and Hughes now...and yet I'm fully intrigued with all things Barrow.
 
swamp jazz box set said:
Wandavision finale was disappointingly straight-forward for a show that started with so many clues and mysteries but the series as a whole was a fun time.
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Yeah I gotta admit I have not drive to watch the finale, and hearing the reasons people didn't like it and the reasons people did both drive my interest away from the episode.

I was not in the conspiracy-mongering, what-is-happening camp, and really just enjoyed the ride of the first 4 or 5 episodes. But as the SWORD stuff took precedence, the show just became more straight-down-the-middle Marvel stuff. It sounds like the finale is that to the nth degree, lots of floating with glowing sfx flying around.

From the jump I had the inkling "this sitcom stuff is caused by Wanda in response to her grief at losing Vision," and the show eventually confirmed as much. The second-to-last episode held that "reveal" (which I feel the show had already made clear to us), then turned into a bunch of typical superhero-movie blasting-one-another-with-colored-light "action," and the show distilled itself to a very boring villain/hero binary, where Agatha needed to be defeated in order for everything to be okay again. I just see no depth in that, and kinda hoped the show would conclude with a more emotional struggle, not "I've got to save my (made-up) kids!"

And tell me if I'm way off base on this, but is anyone else arching an eyebrow at the way grief is used as a device in this show? I've seen people call it an "exploration" of grief, but with the emotional depth of which the show's unwilling to scratch beneath the surface, grief just feels like a device. Pietro barely registered in Ultron, and the Wanda/Vision relationship barely had a chance to develop (remember when they were weird prisoner/roommates?), yet her entire motivation is based on the loss of the men in her life. And later on, her nonexistent children. There's definitely an argument to be had about this being one of the first Marvel properties interested in the inner life of a female protagonist, but it seems a bit regressive that the Marvel writers can only frame a woman's emotions and agency through the lens of motherhood (remember Ultron's "I'm a monster due to my inability to make children" Black Widow subplot?).

This show did exactly what the Mandalorian did, which was stand out for having its own tone and disconnect from the previous franchise installments, only to come running back to familiar territory as quickly as possible.
 
swamp jazz box set said:
Wandavision finale was disappointingly straight-forward for a show that started with so many clues and mysteries but the series as a whole was a fun time.
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Bull Shannon said:
Yeah I gotta admit I have not drive to watch the finale, and hearing the reasons people didn't like it and the reasons people did both drive my interest away from the episode.

I was not in the conspiracy-mongering, what-is-happening camp, and really just enjoyed the ride of the first 4 or 5 episodes. But as the SWORD stuff took precedence, the show just became more straight-down-the-middle Marvel stuff. It sounds like the finale is that to the nth degree, lots of floating with glowing sfx flying around.

From the jump I had the inkling "this sitcom stuff is caused by Wanda in response to her grief at losing Vision," and the show eventually confirmed as much. The second-to-last episode held that "reveal" (which I feel the show had already made clear to us), then turned into a bunch of typical superhero-movie blasting-one-another-with-colored-light "action," and the show distilled itself to a very boring villain/hero binary, where Agatha needed to be defeated in order for everything to be okay again. I just see no depth in that, and kinda hoped the show would conclude with a more emotional struggle, not "I've got to save my (made-up) kids!"

And tell me if I'm way off base on this, but is anyone else arching an eyebrow at the way grief is used as a device in this show? I've seen people call it an "exploration" of grief, but with the emotional depth of which the show's unwilling to scratch beneath the surface, grief just feels like a device. Pietro barely registered in Ultron, and the Wanda/Vision relationship barely had a chance to develop (remember when they were weird prisoner/roommates?), yet her entire motivation is based on the loss of the men in her life. And later on, her nonexistent children. There's definitely an argument to be had about this being one of the first Marvel properties interested in the inner life of a female protagonist, but it seems a bit regressive that the Marvel writers can only frame a woman's emotions and agency through the lens of motherhood (remember Ultron's "I'm a monster due to my inability to make children" Black Widow subplot?).

This show did exactly what the Mandalorian did, which was stand out for having its own tone and disconnect from the previous franchise installments, only to come running back to familiar territory as quickly as possible.
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The part I bolded is true for me too. I was liking that it wasn't a straightforward Marvel show. The first 4-5 episodes were about a 9/10 for me, the last 4 were 5/10. Overall it's a 7/10 show for me. It was good but dropped off very quickly.

Any show that has SWORD or a military type organization as a big baddie or part of the protagonist is really boring to me. I don't care about tactical teams, faceless organizations, old white guy who is secretly evil the whole time is such a tiresome trope, I was so disappointed to see it go down that route.

Additionally, there were a lot of questions that remained unanswered; about the characters, Wanda/Pietro/Vision, about the rest of the Avengers, about the general universe that the show takes place in. It was SO INTERESTING in the first few episodes and slouched into another "typical superhero-movie blasting-one-another-with-colored-light action" as you said.

I will say that the Mandalorian stayed away from the Star Wars universe for a very long time. It wasn't until the last episode that it went all in. WandaVision went to that familiar territory in episode 4.
 
wokeupnew said:
Any show that has SWORD or a military type organization as a big baddie or part of the protagonist is really boring to me. I don't care about tactical teams, faceless organizations, old white guy who is secretly evil the whole time is such a tiresome trope, I was so disappointed to see it go down that route.
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YES. Marvel is so very guilty of the old "there's no such thing as bad government/military, just bad individuals in the government/military" saw. It's not that the system is broken, it's that the Good Guys need to work within the system to prove the bad person in the system wrong, so we can go back to living under the system.

In fact, most Marvel movies hew to this "arc"; the main character knows what's wrong, pushes against an apathetic or misunderstanding establishment, then fights and fights and fights until the establishment understands they were right all along. There's no personal setbacks to overcome, no internal growth that needs to happen, just being told you're wrong until you're proven right.
 
Bull Shannon said:
YES. Marvel is so very guilty of the old "there's no such thing as bad government/military, just bad individuals in the government/military" saw. It's not that the system is broken, it's that the Good Guys need to work within the system to prove the bad person in the system wrong, so we can go back to living under the system.

In fact, most Marvel movies hew to this "arc"; the main character knows what's wrong, pushes against an apathetic or misunderstanding establishment, then fights and fights and fights until the establishment understands they were right all along. There's no personal setbacks to overcome, no internal growth that needs to happen, just being told you're wrong until you're proven right.
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this was the first superhero thing I have seen since learning about how the military/governments/cia/nsa, etc review hollywood scripts because they all want to make sure the film isn't going against the military industrial complex. And this one fits that to a T. The organization is not bad, it's just one bad apple. We did the right thing and identified him and removed him, now everything is back to normal, etc.
 
IMO, if they wanted to pivot from a stand-alone, weird character exploration with grief as its theme to go full brain-off MCU action climax mode, they should have gone all the way and had big cameos from the A team movie characters or introduce a future A team movie character. I do get the argument that having Dr. Strange swoop in is terrible optics for a studio producing a show about one of its few woman leads and I *hope* Kathryn Hahn is a big player in future movies...but Marvel undercut the weight of Wanda's grief episodes ago and they are dumb enough to decide that they won't use Kathryn Hahn again...so give me dumb cameos and Easter eggs while you're being dumb already.
 
wokeupnew said:
this was the first superhero thing I have seen since learning about how the military/governments/cia/nsa, etc review hollywood scripts because they all want to make sure the film isn't going against the military industrial complex. And this one fits that to a T. The organization is not bad, it's just one bad apple. We did the right thing and identified him and removed him, now everything is back to normal, etc.
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One of the big takeaways from Captain Marvel is "look at how bad ass the air force is!" They've been guilty of this for a while.
 
ayayrawn said:
One of the big takeaways from Captain Marvel is "look at how bad ass the air force is!" They've been guilty of this for a while.
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Don't get me started on the way every African country (beyond Wakanda) is a warlord-harboring shamble of bombed-out stucco and every eastern European country is full people in cable-knit sweaters who have to hide their Dick Van Dyke tapes in the wall while tanks roll through the streets day and night.
 
So Raised by Wolves just kinda doubles down on a lot of the stuff I find irritating about latter-day Ridley Scott. And the mullets. THE MULLETS.
 
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