This year I shall be mostly watching

[Pinwig]

BBC4 have had a children's TV evening, including the documentary on Oliver Postgate. I enjoyed seeing that again and am now watching Pogles Wood DVDs.

[The Doctor]

Balls. I had no idea that was on today.

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

It's all on iPlayer.

[The Doctor]

Gave up on Gladiators. Crap banter from most of the gladiators: too few lacking in personality and too nice!!!

YOU WANT TO DESTROY YOUR FOES, NOT SAY "THEY DID A GREAT JOB".

DESTROYYYYYY!!!

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

There does seem to be a mandate with this about promoting good sportsmanship, with Viper being the heel exception who's allowed to be bad because he typifies bad sportsmanship and gets laughed at for it. I can see they're doing that for the impact it'll have on kids, and to be honest with the number of arguments I have to cope with in PE lessons it isn't a bad thing.

[Fortmax2020]

The Gladiators are growing into their roles more as well as it progresses and starting to flex their character muscles a bit more now. Legend especially.

[The Doctor]

I tried watching Dune Part 1 but gave up after a while. Too much voiceover exposition and slow-mo at the start. And too much bloody whispering! I had no idea what Willy Wonka's mum was saying. It was all WHISPER WHISPER WHISPER.

Willy Wonka seemed very wooden with zero screen presence.

Portentious bollocks but then I don't like the book so maybe I am not the audience for it.

-Ralph

[legios]

I have now seen almost all of Space 1999. I kept Bringers of Wonder Part 1, Bringers of Wonder Part 2, and The Dorcons back, so as to hopefully finish the season on a high note. I now only have The Dorcons remaining.

"The Bringers of Wonder" was brilliant nonsense. The Sack-Monsters were absolutely great. I think if I had seen them at age six they would have been downright terrifying. As it is their corrugated blobbiness makes them possibly the most entertaining monster I've seen in the whole season. Kind of lovely to see Martin Landau decide that this is the script he's going to just cut loose and go radio-rental on - it is a brilliantly up-to-11 performance by anyone's standards, making it all the way up to 12 compared to Landau's usual somewhat controlled performances. And always nice to see Stuart Damon turn up to play Stuart Damon.

Episode two also has the funniest "high-speed" foot chase I have seen in pretty much anything. (If you've seen it you know the one I mean). It also has some of the funniest stupid pseudo-science in the season.

* The aliens are doing their plan because their planet ran out of energy the can absorb, and they have to get more or die. The only energy they can absorb is the energy from a nuclear explosion... So you are saying that their planet used to have lost of nuclear explosions but they ran out explosions?!

* Maya "Oh, the creature I turned into stores oxygen the same way a camel does water."
Karl *stares confusedly* "It turns oxygen into fat?"

It was nonsense, but it was fun nonsense that refused to pretend that it was anything other than silly. That is its saving grace.

One episode remains, and then I will have completed my forty year journey into Space:1999!

Karl

[The Doctor]

Yes, the 'high-speed' chase is amazing.

-Ralph

[legios]

And so, a forty year voyage ends... and it turns out that "The Dorcons" is actually quite good. All of the guest performances, in their space-toga backstabbing glory are rather good. The first half actually feels like it has some dramatic weight, engaging with the question of sheltering one life at the cost of others to a degree that you don't see in most of the Season Two episodes. Sure, a hypothetical Season One version of this same idea would be a much more weighty and interesting piece of drama. But this is at least trying. Then we move onto the royal shenanigans in space toga-land and for once everyone has the same memo and has the same understanding of what the tone is. Patrick Troughton is great, bringing a certain dignity to a role of a horrible individual who believes they are doing a sad but necessary thing. Much more restrained and interesting than the role had any real reason to be.

Then Koenig wins the day by the power of telling the truth and the Dorcons inherently corrupt monarchial system, stuff blows up, our heroes live to travel on in their unending search for a safe haven and we can turn the telly over satisfied before the stock Frieberger "Yucks" tag-scene comes along to ruin the mood...

It's been a long, strange journey from "The Metamorph" from here, but if nothing else, it is nice that I am ending the journey on a high note.

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Blu-ray bingeing over the Easter season. Knocked off work early today, watched episodes 2.8 to 2.10 of ST: Discovery and episode 1.1 of Wednesday, as that has now popped up on discy format in HMV. Enjoying everything.

Martin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Finished Discovery s2.

Finished the Wednesday s1 Blu-ray. Enjoyed the humorous deadpan delivery. Thought the four episodes directed by Tim Burton were particularly good.

On to Short Treks s2.

Martin

[Bogatan]

Paramount+ have just added What We Left Behind: Looking Back At Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

A lovely, but all too brief 2 hour look back on DS9. Been wanting to watch it for years.

[legios]

Been introduced to Kamen Rider Gaim, which is a slightly different take on a Kamen Rider show. Usually these things start off with a single Kamen Rider fighting mysterious monsters and trying to work out what the agenda behind them is. Instead we've got multiple riders from the outset, all connected to street dance troupes that are using a strange game using "Lockseeds" to summon monsters from another dimension to duel over status and who holds the right to perform on which public stage.

But all that is also an allusion to the warring factions of the Sengoku period of Japanese history... (No, really - there is a line right there in the opening song that translates as "Today is just like the Sengoku", and the song continues to talk about dyeing the world in your colours. And the there is quite a bit of making and breaking alliances in the first arc and a sense of a balance of power in rapid change...)

It is certainly an interesting choice! The closest analogue I can come up with is if someone made a CBBC show about armoured superheroes fighting each other in Manchester - themed them as Knights - and made allusions to it being based on the War of the Roses...and expected the kids to know what they were talking about. Certainly different to my other experiences of Kamen Rider, but its not a bad set-up at all.

Also, the various Riders have armours that are stylised around whichever fruit is associated with the Lockseed they are using to transform. There is something gloriously mad about seeing a giant CGI fruit descending from another dimension onto someones head, and then turn into a practical costume of armour with fruit themed shoulder guards and stuff, whilst a disembodied voice makes a series of declarations like: "Banana!", "Banana Arms!", "Knight of Spear!"

(I am developing a huge love for Tokusatsu transformation sequences - the whole disembodied announcer voice, the costumes that appear from nowhere, the complicated arm gestures and the heroic poses. It is theatrical, hugely larger than life...and in the technical sense of being deliberately performative arguably camp, and I think that is something I rather like in my superheroes. A quality not unlike the Christopher Reeve Superman films I think).

Karl

[legios]

I have started Fallout on Amazon. Quite enjoying it so far. It may be a little too gory for my tastes, but in places that applies to the later games as well. (There is a reason I much prefer centre-mass shots in New Vegas and Fallout 4). They really have gone all out to capture not just the design language of the franchise, but also a real sense of the tone. There is a fine balance of melodrama and humour being shot for, and I think they are mostly landing the tone they are going for.

The cast is also marvelous. Walton Goggins is one of the standouts - his "I've had two-hundred years of bull5^&*, this is just Tuesday" performance is absolutely marvelous. But everyone else is absolutely solid as well. I'm looking forward to seeing where they go with this. Two episodes down, six to go. Hopefully they can keep delivering all the way through.

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

May 6, 2024 18:01:51 GMT legios said:

I have started Fallout on Amazon. Quite enjoying it so far.

Likewise. My latest free one-month trial period has come around so I'm making the most of it. Finished off Invincible season 2, and started on Fallout season 1. On episode 4 currently.

I'm not familiar with the game, but it's a decent story so far. Great design.

Martin

[legios]

I've just, at the time of typing, reached episode 6. Really pleased that the show is very much a story that intends to stand on its own feet. It is set within the setting of the Fallout games, but it is telling a story of its own that doesn't really need previous knowledge to appreciate

One of the things I like is that it neither assumes that the viewer is familiar with the games, or really makes any big deal out of the references it makes to the games. It makes references, sure, but they are either very casually made - Molerats being implied to exist, Radroaches being a thing. Or exist because they service the story that the show is telling - e.g. Power Armour, Ghouls.

And yes, the design is absolutely fantastic - genuinely one of those shows that has made its design language a proper part of its storytelling is a wonderful way.

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Finished Fallout. Cracking season finale.

Now moving on to 'Carnival Row'.

Martin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Finished watching all 18 episode of 'Carnival Row'. Really enjoyed it.

Martin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Three seasons of The Boys was more than I needed of that sort of thing. I can't muster the enthusiasm to start on season 4.

Martin

[Fortmax2020]

Watched 4.1 last night. Very good.

Muster yourself, McVay.

[legios]

I had a similar reaction to the comic it is adapted from. I gave reading it the old college-try, but at a certain point I just filed it under "life is too short" and moved on to things I didn't feel I was forcing myself to read.

(Also the reason I have not started the TV version).

Karl

[Bogatan]

I havent read the comic but from what I can tell the consensus is that the tv series is significantly better than the comic.

[Bogatan]

The ads on Prime are putting me off watching it though.

[Bogatan]

I watched Clarksons Farm seris 3 (very good), but got increasingly annoyed by them. Not been back to Prime since.

[Fortmax2020]

Jun 16, 2024 17:47:55 GMT Bogatan said:

The ads on Prime are putting me off watching it though.

They vex me.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I've taken full advantage of my latest free month's trial: Fallout season 1, Carnival Row seasons 1-2, and caught up with Invincible, all in three weeks. But I think I'd had enough of The Boys after two seasons, to be honest. I quite enjoyed the spin-offs, Diabolical and Gen V, because they were a bit different, but season 3 dragged. And I gather there will be a season 5. Time to call it a day.

Martin

[Andy Turnbull]

Jun 16, 2024 17:36:36 GMT legios said:

I had a similar reaction to the comic it is adapted from. I gave reading it the old college-try, but at a certain point I just filed it under "life is too short" and moved on to things I didn't feel I was forcing myself to read.

(Also the reason I have not started the TV version).

Karl

Yes, it starts off alright, but becomes increasingly mean spirited - superheroes bring the worst out of Ennis in his writing and it just got too much and I bailed. Eventually read it it all, and wished I hadn't.

[The Doctor]

I read some of The Boys in the original comic form and it was just nasty so I have zero interest in the TV show.

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

Watched episode 1 of '3-Body Problem'. Leaden direction, a truly awful score and the usual lack of pacing that infects streaming shows. Dull surprise.

I'll leave it there.

-Ralph