Furst TV roundup of the fall
Oct. 9th, 2017 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthSo I think I should probably post this before all the CW shows start up this week and I end up with a lot of shows to have thoughts on. I’m not caught up on much, but here’s what I’ve been watching the last couple weeks.
The Orville 1x01
This looks promising, not great, but promising. I assume Admiral not-Stein isn’t going to be in that many episodes, and it was weird to have both him and not-Bobbi in this episode (especially since Palicki’s character isn’t yet that different from Bobbi).
Something I’ve been saying for years is that what I miss the most about the sci-fi shows we used to get and don’t seem to any more is that they just aren’t very imaginative when it comes to science fiction. This goes all the way back to BSG’s imo shoddy attitude to world-building (even though that’s still better than so much Earth based sci-fi out there) and why I get so frustrated with Legends for not embracing the full possibilities of time travel; it’s why, as much I have no real desire to go back to watching DW, I kind of miss that it does have actual imagination about space and time. This show is actually a return to that kind of story, we have actual aliens, a proper future setting, a whole universe we can go explore. There isn’t much definite world-building yet, but I’m so swept up in the idea of having a whole world that I’m not really bothered.
I’m also willing to wait and see if the characters get more development and depth. I don’t really find anyone that great so far, but it is only the pilot and it was a pretty ambitious pilot in other ways so I’ll give it a little time on the character front I suppose. If that doesn’t improve in a couple episodes we have to revisit this as a problem though.
The Good Place 2x01
...it was a double episode but is only labeled as one episode so I’ll trust that for now.
I’m not sure how this season is going to go, but I still really like this show. I hope they don’t keep repeating the first part of the scenario, but they definitely made it different this time so I think they can manage one more round if that’s what they’re going to do. It does seem like it’s going to be a bit more of an ensemble piece this year with less specific focus on Eleonore, divided between the four humans, Michael, and even some of the other residents. I feel like ex-real-Eleonore is going to be quite the wild card (I know she has a new name, but it hasn’t sunk in yet, with me or her).
I doubt this is ever going to require much in the way or reaction thoughts, comedies usually don’t, but it is something I’m watching this year and I’d like to encourage others to watch it too.
The Orville 1x02
This was a much better character episode; of course it could be since it wasn’t having to do all the setup that the pilot had to shoulders. Of the other hand I feel like a lot of things weren’t set up within this episode so it’s a mixed bag in a way (or things that felt like obvious setups didn’t pay off). The humor of this show continues to be hit-or-miss, though this episode only occasionally felt like it was trying too hard the way much of the pilot did.
This time out I kind of got the feeling like this show wants to be the grand space adventure of Star Trek meets the casual absurdity of Red Dwarf, but I don’t think it’s found the happy middle ground quite yet. I’m not sure there is a happy middle ground (that isn’t Farscape), but we’ll see, it definitely showed more potential here.
I did wonder pretty early if this was a setup, running into Ed’s parents so randomly felt like a trap. Maybe part of my niggling problem is that she show wants to be somewhat cynical without being genre savvy, and I feel like it should have more of that. Plus even I know this was a repackaged version of The Cage; not that I didn’t enjoy it on that level, because it’s a solid concept for updating, but it makes the character’s lack of genre-savviness stand out even more.
The Orville 1x03
So this is getting more and more straight up Star Trek with each episode, even the comedy early scene is just a slightly more in-your-face style than a lot of the stuff that happened in comic opening scenes on Star Trek. It does have a slight problem in that although the technology is futuristic, the verse’s history and culture seem to have stopped progressing much around our modern times, but that’s a common problem in sci-fi, just a touch more noticeable here since there’s more references to that kind of thing.
I’m also a little surprised by the subject matter for so early in the series. Having a main character with a kid and that kid being plot relevant in such a way seems like something I would have expected to happen a bit more down the road. I’m still having a tough time getting any of the characters’ names in my head, not helped by the fact that the opening credits are practically illegible so I can’t refresh with those. But I am getting a sense for who the characters are even if not what to call them.
As a side note, I can’t find any excitement for the new Star Trek series. I’m so sick of prequels, I want to go back to the Prime universe and see what happened *after* we left it. Also I want the Klingons to look right. So for now I’ll stick with off-brand Star Trek, it feels more like real Trek to me in a lot of ways.
The Good Place 2x02
...We’ll stick with tat numbering even though I don’t know that it’s right.
That was very much a transition episode to actually set up for whatever is going to happen in this season’s story. A lot of the montages really reminded me of the Community clip show episode where they had so many short clips of unseen plots pushed together. They were also quite funny (I especially liked the one where Jason actually figured out the twist; yeah, new low on that one Michael). Interestingly this means this experiment must have been going on for years at this point, not that that means the show has so do anything futuristic since this place is suspended in time and it’s not touched by Earth time.
It was also good for my Eleanor/Chidi slight ship tendencies. It’s not the big draw but I do ship it and will be curious where they go next with it.
Inhumans 1x01
I’ve still got the second half of the pilot to go, but a couple short thoughts at the break. I don’t know how I feel about this, except that the effects are not good and way more lazy than they should be considering this was given a theatrical attempt. It looks cheap for TV; aside from the fact that it isn’t all filmed in the dark it looks worse than AoS, or at least more noticeable since it’s far more ambitions...or supposedly more ambisious.
I’m also fairly sure Maximus is going to end up framed as the bad guy and overlook the fact that he has a point. And, I’m just not sure how I feel about trying to fit this, however it goes, into the existing larger MCU. I may have more to say on that after part 2, so onward.
Inhumans 1x02
As a second episode that I watched several days later that was...okay I guess; anyone who saw these two eps in the theater and wanted a coherent story got gipped. Moving the primary action to Earth means the effects are less distractingly bad (the sets in Attalan are super cheap looking, in a way I suppose is a bit hypocritical as someone who enjoys cheap sci-fi to complain about) along with taking out Medusa’s terrible looking hair that never actually looks alive (for which reason I would be okay with it if it weren’t so obviously done as a cost saving measure).
I have one pressing question, what are they mining on the moon? It’s apparently a huge part of their society but what are they actually doing? If they were expanding their city underground that would make a lot of sense, but we sure haven’t been told anything like that.
It’s still early but I’m not sure this show knows what its moral stance is. Maximus is framed as the bad guy but he’s also more right than not, and the MCU doesn’t do so great with recognizing when its morally ambiguous figures are also right. Medusa is clearly a bloodthirsty asshole that I’m equally clearly supposed to sympathize with. It’s equally confused, though I think it’s a modern problem to face, that the police are played as dumb abusive assholes in a universe where so many of our heroes are governmental secret agents (don’t trust the cops but trust the shadowy government men).
I will keep watching because I’m Marvel’s bitch (except for the Netflix shows, I’ll probably watch JJ season 2 eventually once it hits, but nothing else appeals), but I’m mainly waiting for AoS to come back.
The Good Place 2x03
I don’t know that I liked that as much as the first couple episodes, but it remains solid and was definitely a necessary episode. As I said at the start of the season I don’t know if I really need to do reactions to this show since it’s generally solid, the episodes are short, and there isn’t a ton of plot to each one. It’s very much meant to be binged later and judged as a whole story as opposed to this, but I enjoy it enough to watch it each week, but I’m not left with much to say.
I do suspect Vicki’s got some more tricks up her sleeve though, so we’ll see how this takes different turns.
The Orville 1x01
This looks promising, not great, but promising. I assume Admiral not-Stein isn’t going to be in that many episodes, and it was weird to have both him and not-Bobbi in this episode (especially since Palicki’s character isn’t yet that different from Bobbi).
Something I’ve been saying for years is that what I miss the most about the sci-fi shows we used to get and don’t seem to any more is that they just aren’t very imaginative when it comes to science fiction. This goes all the way back to BSG’s imo shoddy attitude to world-building (even though that’s still better than so much Earth based sci-fi out there) and why I get so frustrated with Legends for not embracing the full possibilities of time travel; it’s why, as much I have no real desire to go back to watching DW, I kind of miss that it does have actual imagination about space and time. This show is actually a return to that kind of story, we have actual aliens, a proper future setting, a whole universe we can go explore. There isn’t much definite world-building yet, but I’m so swept up in the idea of having a whole world that I’m not really bothered.
I’m also willing to wait and see if the characters get more development and depth. I don’t really find anyone that great so far, but it is only the pilot and it was a pretty ambitious pilot in other ways so I’ll give it a little time on the character front I suppose. If that doesn’t improve in a couple episodes we have to revisit this as a problem though.
The Good Place 2x01
...it was a double episode but is only labeled as one episode so I’ll trust that for now.
I’m not sure how this season is going to go, but I still really like this show. I hope they don’t keep repeating the first part of the scenario, but they definitely made it different this time so I think they can manage one more round if that’s what they’re going to do. It does seem like it’s going to be a bit more of an ensemble piece this year with less specific focus on Eleonore, divided between the four humans, Michael, and even some of the other residents. I feel like ex-real-Eleonore is going to be quite the wild card (I know she has a new name, but it hasn’t sunk in yet, with me or her).
I doubt this is ever going to require much in the way or reaction thoughts, comedies usually don’t, but it is something I’m watching this year and I’d like to encourage others to watch it too.
The Orville 1x02
This was a much better character episode; of course it could be since it wasn’t having to do all the setup that the pilot had to shoulders. Of the other hand I feel like a lot of things weren’t set up within this episode so it’s a mixed bag in a way (or things that felt like obvious setups didn’t pay off). The humor of this show continues to be hit-or-miss, though this episode only occasionally felt like it was trying too hard the way much of the pilot did.
This time out I kind of got the feeling like this show wants to be the grand space adventure of Star Trek meets the casual absurdity of Red Dwarf, but I don’t think it’s found the happy middle ground quite yet. I’m not sure there is a happy middle ground (that isn’t Farscape), but we’ll see, it definitely showed more potential here.
I did wonder pretty early if this was a setup, running into Ed’s parents so randomly felt like a trap. Maybe part of my niggling problem is that she show wants to be somewhat cynical without being genre savvy, and I feel like it should have more of that. Plus even I know this was a repackaged version of The Cage; not that I didn’t enjoy it on that level, because it’s a solid concept for updating, but it makes the character’s lack of genre-savviness stand out even more.
The Orville 1x03
So this is getting more and more straight up Star Trek with each episode, even the comedy early scene is just a slightly more in-your-face style than a lot of the stuff that happened in comic opening scenes on Star Trek. It does have a slight problem in that although the technology is futuristic, the verse’s history and culture seem to have stopped progressing much around our modern times, but that’s a common problem in sci-fi, just a touch more noticeable here since there’s more references to that kind of thing.
I’m also a little surprised by the subject matter for so early in the series. Having a main character with a kid and that kid being plot relevant in such a way seems like something I would have expected to happen a bit more down the road. I’m still having a tough time getting any of the characters’ names in my head, not helped by the fact that the opening credits are practically illegible so I can’t refresh with those. But I am getting a sense for who the characters are even if not what to call them.
As a side note, I can’t find any excitement for the new Star Trek series. I’m so sick of prequels, I want to go back to the Prime universe and see what happened *after* we left it. Also I want the Klingons to look right. So for now I’ll stick with off-brand Star Trek, it feels more like real Trek to me in a lot of ways.
The Good Place 2x02
...We’ll stick with tat numbering even though I don’t know that it’s right.
That was very much a transition episode to actually set up for whatever is going to happen in this season’s story. A lot of the montages really reminded me of the Community clip show episode where they had so many short clips of unseen plots pushed together. They were also quite funny (I especially liked the one where Jason actually figured out the twist; yeah, new low on that one Michael). Interestingly this means this experiment must have been going on for years at this point, not that that means the show has so do anything futuristic since this place is suspended in time and it’s not touched by Earth time.
It was also good for my Eleanor/Chidi slight ship tendencies. It’s not the big draw but I do ship it and will be curious where they go next with it.
Inhumans 1x01
I’ve still got the second half of the pilot to go, but a couple short thoughts at the break. I don’t know how I feel about this, except that the effects are not good and way more lazy than they should be considering this was given a theatrical attempt. It looks cheap for TV; aside from the fact that it isn’t all filmed in the dark it looks worse than AoS, or at least more noticeable since it’s far more ambitions...or supposedly more ambisious.
I’m also fairly sure Maximus is going to end up framed as the bad guy and overlook the fact that he has a point. And, I’m just not sure how I feel about trying to fit this, however it goes, into the existing larger MCU. I may have more to say on that after part 2, so onward.
Inhumans 1x02
As a second episode that I watched several days later that was...okay I guess; anyone who saw these two eps in the theater and wanted a coherent story got gipped. Moving the primary action to Earth means the effects are less distractingly bad (the sets in Attalan are super cheap looking, in a way I suppose is a bit hypocritical as someone who enjoys cheap sci-fi to complain about) along with taking out Medusa’s terrible looking hair that never actually looks alive (for which reason I would be okay with it if it weren’t so obviously done as a cost saving measure).
I have one pressing question, what are they mining on the moon? It’s apparently a huge part of their society but what are they actually doing? If they were expanding their city underground that would make a lot of sense, but we sure haven’t been told anything like that.
It’s still early but I’m not sure this show knows what its moral stance is. Maximus is framed as the bad guy but he’s also more right than not, and the MCU doesn’t do so great with recognizing when its morally ambiguous figures are also right. Medusa is clearly a bloodthirsty asshole that I’m equally clearly supposed to sympathize with. It’s equally confused, though I think it’s a modern problem to face, that the police are played as dumb abusive assholes in a universe where so many of our heroes are governmental secret agents (don’t trust the cops but trust the shadowy government men).
I will keep watching because I’m Marvel’s bitch (except for the Netflix shows, I’ll probably watch JJ season 2 eventually once it hits, but nothing else appeals), but I’m mainly waiting for AoS to come back.
The Good Place 2x03
I don’t know that I liked that as much as the first couple episodes, but it remains solid and was definitely a necessary episode. As I said at the start of the season I don’t know if I really need to do reactions to this show since it’s generally solid, the episodes are short, and there isn’t a ton of plot to each one. It’s very much meant to be binged later and judged as a whole story as opposed to this, but I enjoy it enough to watch it each week, but I’m not left with much to say.
I do suspect Vicki’s got some more tricks up her sleeve though, so we’ll see how this takes different turns.
