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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Magnum, p.i.

It’s on Prime, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.

Like a suave A-Team. And pretty good fun.

Which one? The 1980 original starring Tom Selleck or the 2018 remake starring Jay Hernandez and Perdita Weeks?

Original one

Nautilus

Been meaning to give this a whirl, and it’s pretty good. Sets are really cool, and the cast are solid.

SAS: Rogue Heroes Season 2

Not as good as season 1 but still very enjoyable if a lot more depressing looking at the PTSD angle of things.

 aku-chan wrote:
DanDaDan

So disappointing this one.
10 awesome episodes of wacky supernatural, shounen battle, rom-com anime hijinks absolutely ruined for me by the final two.
First problem was the late introduction of a prominent side character I found incredibly annoying, but the final nail in the coffin was deciding that the end of season cliffhanger would be

Spoiler:

Lets threaten the main female character with gang rape, again.

Probably won't come back for the next season, I'm so soured on the show right now.

I've spent the whole season trying to math out where they were going to end it and they definitely chose an odd spot. The Cursed House arc is fantastic. Probably the first big payoff of everything set up so far that gives nearly the whole cast time to shine. Jiji in particular gets a lot of layers and by the end becomes key in expanding the cast into a real group of friends with layered dynamics beyond the basic romance.

But I'm with you that its totally baffling to show two episodes of the arc and cut to cliffhanger literally mid assault. In the manga the attempt to drown her doesn't even happen and the creepy confrontation is mostly a quick action beat to kick things off. Leaving the story off here for 6 months is just a terrible stopping point and would have been far better to leave us with Momo's first crush as something to leave off on and tell the whole arc in one go.

Enjoying my Christmas gift:

The Japanese live-action Spider-Man series, known as "Supaidāman," aired in 1978 and presented a unique take on the iconic Marvel character. This adaptation diverged significantly from the original comic book narrative, introducing a distinct storyline and a variety of new elements.

The protagonist, Takuya Yamashiro, is a motorcycle racer who gains spider-like abilities after a fateful encounter with an alien named Garia. This encounter not only grants him superpowers but also sets him on a mission to combat evil forces threatening Earth.

Takuya faces a range of formidable foes throughout the series, primarily the Iron Cross Army, a villainous organization led by the sinister Professor Monster. The Iron Cross Army is composed of various monstrous henchmen, each with unique abilities and designs, posing significant challenges for Takuya.

Notable adversaries include the likes of the Spider-Man's nemesis, the monstrous "Giant Spider," and other bizarre creatures that showcase the show's imaginative approach to villainy.

In addition to his battles against evil, Takuya is supported by a few key allies, including his mentor Garia and his friends, who assist him in his fight against the Iron Cross Army.

Takuya's character is also marked by his use of firearms, a departure from the traditional portrayal of Spider-Man, who typically refrains from using guns. This aspect adds a layer of complexity to his character, as he navigates the moral implications of wielding such weapons in his quest for justice.

One of the most iconic elements of "Supaidāman" is Takuya's giant mecha, the Marveller. This transforming vehicle serves as both a mode of transportation and a powerful combat machine, allowing Takuya to engage in battles on a grand scale. The Marveller can also transform into a giant robot , further enhancing the show's appeal to fans of mecha and tokusatsu genres. This combination of superhero action, mecha battles, and unique storytelling elements helped "Supaidāman" carve out a distinct niche in the landscape of Japanese television and contributed to its lasting legacy.

Tokusatsu shows rarely fail to satisfy.

Missed this announcement when it was made around June of last year:

AMC Networks Greenlights Third Series in its Anne Rice Immortal Universe, A New Drama Set in the Secretive World of the Talamasca - AMC Networks

NEW YORK, NY – June 11, 2024 – AMC Networks today announced it has greenlit the third series in its expanding Anne Rice Immortal Universe, a drama slated for AMC and AMC+ focused on a secretive society called The Talamasca. With a working title of Anne Rice’s The Talamasca and slated for a 2025 premiere, the series will feature the men and women responsible for tracking and containing the witches, vampires, werewolves and other creatures scattered around the globe.

Members of The Talamasca are introduced in Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire and Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, the two current series in AMC’s Immortal Universe franchise. Oscar-nominated John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and Mark Lafferty (The Right Stuff, Halt and Catch Fire) are serving as witers, co-showrunners and executive producers of the new series. Hancock will also direct.

I really enjoyed the first two seasons of Interview and Mayfair Witches first season was good enough (just a little confusing at times) that I'm watching the second season which just premiered this week.

Goosebumps, The Vanishing

Goosebumps is back for a serialised anthology series on Disney+. David Schwimmer is our token adult, and we’ve a largely late teen cast.

I’m on the first episode, and I’d say this is a little strong for tweens and younger. No gore as such, but it has a decently creepy atmosphere which probably isn’t suited to younger viewers.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Kind of torn on the tone.

Goosebumps (books and tv show) served as many now veteran horror fans’ first brush with the genre, and was aimed at the young teen market.

So whilst as an adult I can appreciate the more serious tone, I can’t help but wonder whether it’s truly worth the bother. I mean, the late teen/young adult market is already served pretty well, Spesh as at the age of our protagonists (17), I was already on to proper horror, rating system be damned. And I doubt much if anything has changed since the late 90’s in that respect.

And so when you go that bit darker, and reduce the lighter things, there’s an argument you’re serving the wrong audience. Serving said audience well (the show is well made and pretty creepy, relying on atmosphere over gore), but still arguably the wrong audience.

Hmm.

Ooh, will have to flag that up for my youngest. He loves a scare - loved the Goosebumps movies, Creeped Out etc.

Crispy78 wrote:

Crispy78 wrote:
Not a review as such - but really excited about Shardlake, which hit Disney+ today.

Tudor murder-mystery, based on a series of novels by C J Sansom - who sadly died just a few days ago. I love the books, and previews saying that the series does them justice have me very keen to watch ASAP.

Watched it - it's great. Very close adaptation to the book - biggest change is introducing the 'main' sidekick character early (in the books, Jack Barak does not appear until the second), but it makes more sense editorially. Certainly does the book justice, and I want them to make more. Please watch it!

Bah! Didn't listen to me, did you? Disney just bloody cancelled it. Also pulled the plug on Extraordinary, which I was also very much enjoying. Got to concentrate all their efforts on buggering up Star Wars I guess...

Fargo Season 4

Not sure why I skipped out on this season for so long, as I've loved every season. I guess it was a pandemic thing and I never saw it get much fanfare and I forgot about it. I had been seeing Season 5 clips(mostly Jon Hamm scenes) popping up in my YouTube feed and it reminded me to watch this season.

Pretty fun, quirky, brutal story of criminal gangs/syndicates coming and going in running the Kansas City crime scene. Started with Jews, then Irish, then Italian and now African American gangs making their moves and how it affects the various members of the community. Chris Rock is the leader of the the black gang, with (as per the norm for Fargo) a solid ensemble of actors in support. Its also the origin story for Bokeem Woodbines character of Mike Milligan in season 2 of Fargo.

8/10.

Yellowstone

Catching this now that I can binge it. I can see what all fhe fuss was about. The characters are mostly degrees of horrible people but they can be dramatic. Gotta hand them that.

I feel bad for Jamie. Jamie got horrible advice from everyone and just shat on from all sides. Even when he gets out of his abusive home life, he just keeps getting bad advice from other people. Tragic.

Beth is a psycho but she is a psycho who is consistently entertaining to watch. I feel like many of the other characters were kind of just there. Kayce and Monica kind of 'vanish' as their own characters after season one. Kind of wish we'd gotten more from the wranglers. They were a group with a lot of interesting and underused characters. Give me a Jimmy spinoff. Jimmy could make for a fun character/star of another show after all his development by the end of season 5.

Good show. Solid 4/5 entertainment.

FROM - Season 3

Wasn't planning on watching more of this, but it pulled me in again.
About halfway through now, and while it's still pretty meandering and I remain unconvinced that the writers actually know where it's all leading to, it feels like a step up from the very side-questy second season.
Now to see if it has a decent ending or goes for big, cliff-hangery, nonsense again.

I just finished Creature commandos. It leaned a little into what you'd expect from adult cartoons, graphic for the sake of being graphic, but mostly it had an interesting story to tell with great characters. The highlight for me was that it didn't waste much time- other than a backstory flashback for each character, it really just came in, told the tale it wanted to, and got out. Very compact and efficient, I'd highly recommend it.

PENNYWORTH

Now on ITV-X and seems to be shaping up to be a good show (I know nothing of it before watching). One wonders how bad the Raven Society is when the UK is currently stuck in V for Vendetta mode. The show is a bit more Rated: 18 than I was expecting, but Bannon's portrayal of a young Alfred is worth a watch, with hints at issues with PTSD. But Paloma Faith's comedy-working-class-psycho-from-up-north is already tiresome, and I'm only three episodes in.

 aku-chan wrote:
FROM - Season 3

Wasn't planning on watching more of this, but it pulled me in again.
About halfway through now, and while it's still pretty meandering and I remain unconvinced that the writers actually know where it's all leading to, it feels like a step up from the very side-questy second season.
Now to see if it has a decent ending or goes for big, cliff-hangery, nonsense again.

Darn cliffhangers!

Overall the show continues to have the same problems, a very slow pace (You could easily cut about 5 episodes out of the middle and not miss that much), an annoying new character, adding yet more mysteries and plot lines that ultimately go nowhere .

But it remains an oddly fascinating show, and it does now feel like it is getting somewhere, just very slowly.

Looking forward to season 4 if/when it pops up.

 aku-chan wrote:

 aku-chan wrote:
FROM - Season 3

Wasn't planning on watching more of this, but it pulled me in again.
About halfway through now, and while it's still pretty meandering and I remain unconvinced that the writers actually know where it's all leading to, it feels like a step up from the very side-questy second season.
Now to see if it has a decent ending or goes for big, cliff-hangery, nonsense again.

Darn cliffhangers!

Overall the show continues to have the same problems, a very slow pace (You could easily cut about 5 episodes out of the middle and not miss that much), an annoying new character, adding yet more mysteries and plot lines that ultimately go nowhere

Spoiler:

Although I am torn on the whole "Evil baby" story line simply resulting in the Smiley Nightperson getting resurrected as he was always the creepiest of the bunch

.

But it remains an oddly fascinating show, and it does now feel like it is getting somewhere, just very slowly.

Looking forward to season 4 if/when it pops up.

Yeah, wild premise that drew me in immediately, but towards the end of the 1st season it started getting ridiculous. Tapped out halfway through the 2nd.

Its like the Key & Peele sketch where everyone got to make a gremlin.

Its like the showrunner just went around giving everyone a mystery box to put in every episode.

V

The original mini-series, something I was aware of as a kid, but much too young to have watched, let alone understood.

What’s wild to me is the use of John Williams’ Star Wars suite in-universe. Wonder how much they had to cough up for those rights!

Got to say though, for a TV Mini-series made more than 40 years ago, the sets and uniforms and that really hold up. I mean, they’re nothing fancy, and that I think is its strength. The Visitor’s wardrobe absolutely stands out without silly flashy materials.

Even the acting is pretty decent, and the plot spend some time exploring different human reactions.

Now you have another miniseries (V: The Final Battle) a 19-episode TV series and a 2009 remake to go

And now on to V, The Final Battle

Again, I’m struck by just how well this has held up. It’s no more campy than it needed to be, and plays everything pretty much straight.

I think what really works here is the directors know how to work around the effects and scenery. It’s all used fairly sparingly, which works nicely, letting the plot and acting do the talking, rather than the spectacle.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, snap!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
And now on to V, The Final Battle

Again, I’m struck by just how well this has held up. It’s no more campy than it needed to be, and plays everything pretty much straight.

I think what really works here is the directors know how to work around the effects and scenery. It’s all used fairly sparingly, which works nicely, letting the plot and acting do the talking, rather than the spectacle.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, snap!

Make sure to watch V:The Series next. Michael Ironside joins the cast. I think it only lasted 19 episodes. Let me fact check myself...

Yep. 19. The downside to the series was that writer, producer, and director Kenneth Johnson was not involved in the production of the weekly series. So some of the plot isn't as tight.

Oh Michael “I think he was born looking middle aged and just stayed there” Ironside is in V, The Final Battle.

Irritatingly, V The Series doesn’t seem to be on Prime.

But, I’ve also got three seasons of the A Team lined up. Which should make today feel like the 80’s, and ideal for painting to.

I'm watching my favorite 1980s show and my favorite show I watched as a youngin: Airwolf!

Just don't watch season 4. It was a pale imitation and a wonky relaunch that didn't work.

Ah, Airwolf. The series that made every kid point up at every passing helicopter and say, “that was Airwolf!”

The theme music will live in my head for the rest of my life, and possibly beyond.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@MDG

If you enjoyed V, check out Alien Nation the series, and the TV movies that followed it. Better than the film upon which it is based.

V the Series is no great loss. Nor is the remake. The original miniseries however is still aces.

As Mad Doc said the costumes and ships were great, and the story of creeping totalitarianism is still scary.

I wonder if the Q-Anon conspiracy theory about lizard men running the world ultimately comes from this show.

I am super tempted to pick up Crooked Dice's Not~V Not~Shuttlecraft.

https://crooked-dice.co.uk/products/alien-invader-shuttlecraft

My brother and I would sing the air wolf theme to each other as we flew the gunship about in Battlefield 2. Great stuff.

Brushes down for the night, and a bit of A-Team.

This is my brain right now.

Fallout

as a fan of the original games and new vegas, I thought this was alright, pretty good in some parts. The characters acted really odd in certain places though, and it felt more like it was a show for people who don't know a lot about Fallout with some references thrown in to tide over more hardcore fans. Certain plot points felt a bit unnecessary, and I really loathe how they dumbed down the complex 'war is something humans will always partake in, given time' and the parodic elements into 'capitalism le bad (coming from the multi-billion dollar company that neglects its workers) and that corporations would....drop a bomb to make more money? Mate what are you spending the money on if society has collapsed? Johnny Pemberton was great in it though, I must admit.