The Sword and Laser discussion
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What else are you watching?
I'm guessing that some of them would be the ones who unironically view "Born in the USA" as the most patriotic song ever recorded.
Oaken wrote: "I'm guessing that some of them would be the ones who unironically view "Born in the USA" as the most patriotic song ever recorded."Heh. Yep.
Traded in NHL.TV for Apple +. Binged Ted Lasso and started Silo.
100 years ago an immigrant from Sicily carved out a sprawling underground home/complex in the desert of Fresno, California. It really is quite remarkable. Reminds me of the Skywalker residence on Tatooine, except this is real.https://youtu.be/mUKRPoQKynk
Oaken wrote: "I'm guessing that some of them would be the ones who unironically view "Born in the USA" as the most patriotic song ever recorded."One of my favourite ever facts is that “Born in the USA” was originally titled “Vietnam”.
Last week I had my first ever weekend away from the baby. Naturally I went to visit a friend and we spent the whole time eating snacks and watching tv together.We watched the Dungeons and Dragons movie which I thought was a great combination of a fun fantasy adventure with some nice Easter eggs for D&D players.
Also watched the first few episodes of the Amazon Prime adaptation of the Wheel of Time, I didn’t love all the choices that were made but overall I enjoyed it- enough to keep watching on my own.
Trike wrote: "100 years ago an immigrant from Sicily carved out a sprawling underground home/complex in the desert of Fresno, California. It really is quite remarkable. Reminds me of the Skywalker residence on T..."Absolutely remarkable.
Trike wrote: "100 years ago an immigrant from Sicily carved out a sprawling underground home/complex in the desert of Fresno, California. It really is quite remarkable. Reminds me of the Skywalker residence on T..."I took the tour of what's left years ago. I wouldn't mind living in a home like it (except perhaps during heavy rain).
Just watched Across the Spiderverse and loved it as I expected to. It's one of those movies that I'm going to have to watch frame by frame to get all the stuff in the background. My son, who is trans, had said it was a trans-allegory and I don't know if I would have noticed or that it was really meant that way but I can certainly see why he said that.I also didn't know it was a "to be continued" situation and I want it now!!!
I started watching Avatar 2 last night and stopped after an hour. It was very pretty but I found the story and characters boring and cliche and didn't give a crap about any of it.It reminded me about a recent thread we had about long and short novels. If it was 90 minutes I would have finished it but it's well over 3 hours long so I moved on. It's not that I hate long movies; I'll watch the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings any day but this wasn't worth my time.
I might eventually finish it off in half hour installments some day.
^OTOH my wife and I watched first Shaun of the Dead and then World's End on nights where we promised ourselves we'd stop halfway through, but then just went on and finished. Altho it helped that they were both 2 hours or less.Meanwhile despite my wife being a huge Doctor Who fan she can't get through the Whitaker era. (I should call it the Chibnall era, Jodie Whitaker's acting talents were criminally wasted.) We really enjoyed Gallifrey and all the talent visiting that con, and the S3 finale is pretty good. I'm watching one or two a week. We're going to give a shot at watching the end of S2 with a Cybermen, then Timeless Children, then a Dalek episode. If only for the setups for the finale. But it's a slog and we love the underlying material.
Mod
It reminded me ab..."
I watched it in 2 goes. About 90 minutes + each time and I felt it finished off much better than it started.
It's no masterpiece, but I'd rate it a solid 7/10 for popcorn action movies.
I’m also rewatching Dr. Who right now. I stopped watching as they aired sometime after Clara became the new companion. Currently working my way through the Capaldi era. Finding it a little hit or miss, but still enjoyable enough. I’m excited for the return of Russell T Davies as showrunner. I always liked his character work. Figure I’ll be able to get caught up in time for the new season.
Absolutely not SF&F but I am really enjoying Joe Pickett.
Watched the first episode of Secret Invasion, the new Marvel show on Disney. It was… less than good. The ending was a real WTF moment, there just for shock value, I think. (view spoiler)Other than that, half the time I couldn’t tell what was going on, and people got from point A to point B randomly and instantly, in ways that didn’t make sense. Plus, a major character that’s been in several movies is just gone, I guess to create tension. It’s kind of a mess.
Trike wrote: "...It’s kind of a mess."That's a good description of a lot of the Marvel TV shows unfortunately. It feels like there is starting to be too much "studio interference" with the creative process.
I didn't love the storyline in the comics but parts of it were worth reading. The way the show director was asked not to read the source material makes me feel even less interested. I'll let a few episodes go by and see the response.In the meantime Star Trek: Strange New Worlds had a great first episode. It could be taken as an allegory for today's geopolitical environment...or is just a great story involving war, depending on how you look at it. For me that's the sweet spot for an SFF show. Raise questions, not lecture.
I watched the second episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. A++ in my opinion.
Cool. It looked like courtroom drama so I was modestly concerned it might be dull. OTOH the TNG ep with Riker/Data and the original Cage (or Menagerie, I can never recall) with Captain Pike beeping for responses, both worked out well. Either way I'll see the ep this weekend.
Trike wrote: "Watched the first episode of Secret Invasion, the new Marvel show on Disney. It was… less than good. The ending was a real WTF moment, there just for shock value, I think. [spoilers removed]Other..."
No idea what you watched but it was fine. We'll see if there's payoff for the thing you put behind spoilers but I think that's (view spoiler).
Fine was the word I was going to use too. I was (view spoiler) but we don't know what it will lead to yet as there are 5 more episodes to go. I thought the show had a nice espionage air to it and the fact that the antagonist can shape change added a lot of tension.
And 'fine' to me doesn't mean "amazing" etc. First eps are usually setup and this was no exception. It did that competently but it was a bit by the numbers (view spoiler)One thing they can't do, though, is dawdle. Some of the series, like Ms Marvel and Moon Knight, took 2+ episodes to really get to it but they had more episodes period. With only 6, Secret Invasion can't do that.
Re: Secret InvasionIf you’re right about the death getting Fury to fully engage, that hews a little too close to fridging for my taste. But even leaving that aside, it’s such a tired trope that it has been mocked mercilessly for decades. One of my favorites is in the (quite bad) movie The Last Action Hero where Schwarzenegger goes, “Someone killed my favorite second cousin. Big mistake.” That was 30 years ago already.
There is a genuinely great movie called Fallen, which is jam-packed with great actors. Denzel Washington, Donald Sutherland, James Gandolfini, John Goodman, Embeth Davidtz, etc. It’s about the demon Azazel possessing people in order to kill. It has one of the greatest chase scenes ever, as Azazel chases Denzel through a crowd by jumping from body to body. This is not that scene, but it’s the moment Hobbes realizes Azazel can literally be anyone: https://youtu.be/563xkXq4duw It is scary as hell. When you rewatch it, you can see all the players in place in the background, setting up the scene.
Compare that to the exact same scene in Secret Invasion where the Skrull that Fury is following constantly changes forms. From the camera’s point of view he switches whenever he’s momentarily blocked from sight. At first he’s a little girl who becomes an older man twice her size, He turns a corner by a food truck, and changes from the older man to a smaller, younger woman. He goes behind a cart, switches from the small woman to large man. But he’s only blocked from Fury’s perspective: anyone else can see the change, and there are people looking right at him. Watch: https://youtu.be/M284UQGQyrA
At the very least people would be staring and pointing, if not freaking out. It’s lazy, especially given that there have been better versions.
I liked the line about midlife shopping spree, but unfortunately the rest of the show doesn’t match that moment.
RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Trike wrote: "...It’s kind of a mess."That's a good description of a lot of the Marvel TV shows unfortunately. It feels like there is starting to be too much "studio interference" with the creative process..."
There’s always been that sort of over-arching shared-world demands for the MCU which has caused people like Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange writer/director) and Edgar Wright (original Ant-Man writer/director) to bail, but it does feel like they’re over-extended now. The Marvel Disney+ series have been a mixed bag for sure, with some great (Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel), some good (Loki, WandaVision), a couple weird with cool moments (Moon Knight, She-Hulk), and a couple bad. Secret Invasion seems to be heading toward the “bad” category.
John (Taloni) wrote: "I didn't love the storyline in the comics but parts of it were worth reading. The way the show director was asked not to read the source material makes me feel even less interested."
It’s an entirely different universe, so I’m fine with changes, but you’d think familiarity with the source material would be helpful. Lift the stuff that works, alter the things that don’t.
The melding of the Matt Fraction Hawkeye comic Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon and the MCU storyline is flawless. That should be the template.
BTW, s2e1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, like all of season 1, is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-lf0arjnFu4
Trike wrote: "Secret Invasion seems to be heading toward the “bad” category...."This is the only part of your comment (which I agree with otherwise) that rankles. It's the 1st episode. If you damn a series after one ep it's like reading the first chapter of a novel and saying "well this book is going to suck". I guess my reply to that is twofold - first, you're setting yourself up to nitpick every other slight problem and magnifying that it in order to confirm your take and second... don't watch it?
If the first chapter or two of a book really annoys me, I don't hate read it. I DNF it and move on. Same for series - I've bailed out of a bunch of them because the first episode pushed one or more of my buttons and there's no way I'm spending hours and hours of my life on something that I don't like.
Me, I mostly like the MCU stuff and I'm a fan of spy fiction so I'm curious to see the MCU take on it. Might be good, might suck. We'll see.
The shared world stuff doesn't bother me, though I do see how it limits properties. I don't (and never have) expected high art from the MCU. It's escapist science fantasy.
Rick wrote: "Trike wrote: "Secret Invasion seems to be heading toward the “bad” category...."This is the only part of your comment (which I agree with otherwise) that rankles. It's the 1st episode. If you damn a series after one ep it's like reading the first chapter of a novel and saying "well this book is going to suck". I guess my reply to that is twofold - first, you're setting yourself up to nitpick every other slight problem and magnifying that it in order to confirm your take and second... don't watch it?"
Except it’s not like reading a first chapter, it’s akin to reading 100 pages of a 600-page book. You’ll know by then if it’s good enough to continue.
I will watch it at some point because I’m a huge Marvel fan and the MCU has more hits than misses, but after all these years of consuming media, I can tell when something’s not going well. I also don’t buy into the notion of “just give it an few episodes” to find its rhythm. That’s an entire movie worth of screen time. No one ever says, “Yeah, just wait until the fourth installment of this franchise, when it really starts getting good.” Watching 6 hours of something to “get to the good stuff” doesn’t appeal.
For things I’m not a fan of, I bail immediately. Star Treks Discovery and Picard, terrible first episodes with lots of red flags. No, I’m not tempted to watch season 3 of Picard just because people claim it’s good. It can’t possibly be good enough to overcome the inherent brokenness of what’s gone before. To this day I don’t know how ST: TNG ended, nor what happened in Enterprise, nor do I care. But I still gave Strange New Worlds a shot, and I loved it.
Which is similar to my Star Wars viewing: Clone Wars, nope. Prequels: garbage. Still gave Rebels a go and thought it was great. Mandalorian, good; Boba Fett, bad. Watched all of Mando, never finished BF.
I will give anything a shot in the hopes it will be good, even franchises where I’ve not enjoyed previous installments, but I can sense a stinker pretty quick at this point, and Secret Invasion is starting in a hole.
Trike wrote: " I can sense a stinker pretty quick at this point,..."🙄
Trike wrote: "I watched Crater on Disney+ tonight and it’s actually surprisingly good. I wish they’d done more accurate science stuff, but I get the limitations of budget and audience expectations. At least they..."Well, I went to rewatch Crater tonight and it’s no longer on Disney+. No idea why. It’s literally only been 3 weeks since I watched it.
I honestly do not understand these corporate shenanigans. Why are we paying for these services when they just arbitrarily delete stuff after a couple weeks? It’s starting to feel like pre-VCR days when if you missed a show then you missed it. But at least then the stuff was free.
My wife and I watched the last episode of Silo tonight. Oh boy did she hate the (view spoiler) I knew what was coming but to her it was “So why should I care about watching this again next season?”
Mod
Questions I'd be asking (if I didn't know the answers already)
(view spoiler)
Even knowing where the books go, I'm looking forward to seeing more Seasons of Silo and more of the characters from this season (view spoiler)
At her insistence I explained a bit more of the background that doesn't come out until the end of book 1 (so presumably next season.) Season 1 is kind of vague on answering the question of why Judicial doesn't think people can handle the truth (queue Jack Nicholson rant.) I think for her it was the simple fact that (view spoiler)I stopped after the first book so I'm not sure how the last one ends but I think after COVID and Station Eleven and a plethora of never-ending-zombie-apocalypse movies she's kind of doomsday-scenarioed-out and the abrupt reveal (view spoiler)
Just finished Ooku: The Inner Chambers in netflix, a grimdark anime, alt history reverse-harem story. Very good. Trike wrote: "Watched the first episode of Secret Invasion, the new Marvel show on Disney. It was… less than good. The ending was a real WTF moment, there just for shock value, I think. [spoilers removed]
Other..."
and I was just about to start it. Well, zero expectation then....
@silvana Secret Invasion is fine. It's not perfect and it IS a spy series much more than a fantasy/SF one. If you don't like espionage fiction I don't know how it will sit. Don't expect lots of SF stuff at least in the first 3 eps. It's not, say, Ms Marvel which flashed a lot of that. But then Ms Marvel was pretty light on the effects and powers initially, too.
My wife has been binging Suits and I’ve been dipping in from time to time to catch a few episodes each season. It is ridiculously unrealistic about lawyers and lawyering, in much the same way Boston Legal was, but it is passably entertaining. It is especially fascinating to watch Gina Torres tower over everyone.
If you are into royal family drama, The Windsors was downright hilarious. The actress playing Meghan regularly says "I was in Suits!"
Would you brand new 007 game by IO ?
Watching the 3rd Chibnall / Whitaker season of Dr. Who. First ep, the "Halloween Episode," was a real struggle. I remember seeing it at the time and shaking my head. The dog people were at most chuckleworthy and the rest just stunting. Next one was a little better, intro'd the pilot I saw in the finale so that's one for the "understand the finale better" goal. Third ep in the temple of Atropos was actually fairly engaging. I still dislike the Timeless Children bit but if you're going to do it, good use of the past Doctor in this show. Crossing fingers that the next three eps finishing the "Flux" storyline will be at least OK.
I watched Dead Ringers on Amazon. Its a series with Rachel Wies based on the book/movie. I am just going to say wow.
I'm just about done with Star Wars Rebels - I'll probably watch the final episode tonight. The fourth season has been...interesting. Some good stuff but also a little far out there at times, like the fourth season of the Battlestar Galactica reboot. I think both shows peaked somewhere in the third season.
RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I'm just about done with Star Wars Rebels - I'll probably watch the final episode tonight. The fourth season has been...interesting. Some good stuff but also a little far out there at times, like t..."I'm not sure I agree. I understand what you are saying, I just think it sort of all built up to season 4. And while I did watch it originally when it aired, and so had a break between seasons. I also did a rewatch a while back. So I don't think it was just that distinction that gives it that feel for me. That being said I also really liked the mystical stuff in Clone Wars as well, so that may be where are tastes differ.
I'll be curious after you finish the whole thing, but I'm not sure it will change your opinion.
Ahsoka is apparently framed as season 5 of Rebels, which is interesting.
John (Nevets) wrote: "...I also really liked the mystical stuff in Clone Wars as well, so that may be where are tastes differ.I'll be curious after you finish the whole thing, but I'm not sure it will change your opinion."
It didn't. I liked Season 4. I just think I liked Seasons 2 and 3 better. The end of Season 2 was amazing, and my favorite part of Season 4 was probably the brief moment where they revisited the Season 2 finale briefly. Kanan's character arc was terrific of course. I just didn't really like the ending for Thrawn and Ezra, which seemed like a cop out of sorts. And hyperspace wolves? I was already having trouble enough with hyperspace space whales...
Trike wrote: "Ahsoka is apparently framed as season 5 of Rebels, which is interesting."
I've heard that, and I'm interested to see how it plays out. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is an interesting choice for Hera - I like her as an actress but she doesn't really sound like Hera, or even really look like her, despite the green makeup and compression shorts on her head.
RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "compression shorts on her head."😂 Now I can’t unsee it.
Some SFF nominees for this year’s Emmys:.
I feel like this is the year of Succession, with 25 nominations, but who can say?
75th Emmy Awards, September 18th, 2023
Outstanding Comedy Series - 2023
Wednesday
(This one is a toss-up, with Barry, Mrs. Maisel and Ted Lasso all ending this year.)
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series - 2023
Jenna Ortega, Wednesday
(Another “who knows?” category. Probably not Ortega, though.)
Outstanding Drama Series - 2023
Andor, House of the Dragon, The Last of Us
(I predict Succession will win, but Better Call Saul might win.)
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series - 2023
Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us
(He won’t win.)
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series - 2023
Elizabeth Moss, Handmaid’s Tale; Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
(I think Sarah Snook of Succession will take it.)
Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series - 2023
Murray Bartlett, Lamar Johnson, Nick Offerman, Keivonn Montreal, all for The Last of Us
(Either Offerman or James Cromwell for Succession)
Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series - 2023
Melanie Lynskey, Storm Reid, Anna Torv, all for The Last of Us
(All the others are for Succession, so probably one of them, but Lynsey is not just a superb actress but also has lots of sympathy for how she was treated.)
Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series - 2023
1 each for Andor, The Last of Us
(Again, Succession, which has 3 noms here)
Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series - 2023
Andor, The Last of Us
(Andor might get a win here, but Succession…)
Outstanding Limited Or Anthology Series - 2023
Obi-Wan Kenobi
(Ha! No.)
Outstanding Television Movie - 2023
Hocus Pocus 2, Prey
(I think Prey has a good chance, but Fire Island might surprise)
Outstanding Directing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie - 2023
Prey
(Also a decent chance, but probably won’t because it isn’t flashy enough.)
Outstanding Writing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie - 2023
Prey
(See above)
Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction Or Reality Series - 2023
House of Dragons Inside the Episode, The Last of Us Inside the Episode
(It’ll be Succession: Controlling the Narrative)
Outstanding Animated Program - 2023
Primal, Rick & Marty, The Simpsons
(Anybody’s chance, but I think it’ll be Entergalactic, which isn’t SF)
Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour Or More) - 2023
The Last of Us
(Might be Ted Lasso upsetting Succession, you never know; but TLoU has monsters, so…)
Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Period Or Fantasy Program (One Hour Or More) - 2023
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, House of the Dragon
(Weird category, but I predict Mrs. Maisel will take it)
Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Program (Half-Hour) - 2023
Schmigadoon!, What We Do in Shadows
(The Bear will win. All those white t-shirts: chef’s kiss.)
Outstanding Casting For A Drama Series - 2023
The Last of Us
(TLoU should because it was impressive, but I suspect it’ll be The Crown)
Outstanding Choreography For Scripted Programming - 2023
Schmigadoon!
(Beats me. It should be Schmigadoon because it’s an actual musical.)
Outstanding Cinematography For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie - 2023
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
(No idea)
Outstanding Cinematography For A Series (Half-Hour) - 2023
Mandalorian, Schmigadoon!
(If it’s not Barry, I’ll be stunned. It is legit brilliant.)
Outstanding Cinematography For A Series (One Hour) - 2023
Andor, House of the Dragon, Wednesday
(Toss-up)
Outstanding Contemporary Costumes For A Series - 2023
The Last of Us, Wednesday
(TLoU should, but Wednesday might, so might Succession)
Outstanding Period Costumes For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie - 2023
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
(No idea again)
Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes - 2023
Hocus Pocus 2, House of the Dragon, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rings of Power, Mandalorian, What We Do in Shadows
(House of the Dragon. All those white wigs: dragon’s kiss.)
Outstanding Emerging Media Program - 2023
For All Mankind Season 3 Experience
(I have zero idea what this category is about)
Outstanding Contemporary Hairstyling - 2023
The Last of Us
(?)
Outstanding Period And/Or Character Hairstyling - 2023
Mandalorian
(Do we even see any hairstyles in this show?)
Outstanding Contemporary Makeup (Non-Prosthetic) - 2023
Picard, The Last of Us, Wednesday
(No idea what “contemporary” means in this context.)
Outstanding Period And/Or Character Makeup (Non-Prosthetic) - 2023
House of the Dragon, Stranger Things, Mandalorian
(Mrs. Maisel feels like a shoo-in for this.)
Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup - 2023
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, Picard, Rings of Power
(I feel like TLoU should take it, but I’m suddenly wondering if the anger towards David Zaslav, head of WB-Discovery, will torpedo all shows on HBO. Might have to revise my picks.)
Outstanding Main Title Design - 2023
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, Hello Tomorrow!, The Last of Us, Rings of Power, Wednesday
(I wasn’t taken by the show, but the titles for Hello Tomorrow are terrific: https://youtu.be/AqiKEFE6J6g)
Outstanding Music Composition For A Limited Or Anthology Series, Movie Or Special (Original Dramatic Score) - 2023
Hocus Pocus 2, Ms. Marvel, Prey
(I appreciate the Prey score more than enjoy it, but the Ms. Marvel score is a brilliant melding of superhero themes with Pakistani music.)
Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (Original Dramatic Score) - 2023
Andor, The Last of Us, Wednesday
(None of these wow me. It’ll almost certainly be Succession.)
Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music - 2023
Andor, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, Ms. Marvel, Rings of Power, Wednesday
(All SFF nominees. Ms. Marvel is clearly the standout here.)
Outstanding Music Supervision - 2023
Stranger Things
(Anyone’s guess.)
Outstanding Picture Editing For A Single-Camera Comedy Series - 2023
What We Do in Shadows
(?)
Outstanding Picture Editing For A Drama Series - 2023
The Last of Us
(Succession)
Outstanding Picture Editing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie - 2023
Ms. Marvel, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Prey
(?)
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (Half-Hour) And Animation - 2023
Mandalorian
(Gotta be Barry.)
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour) - 2023
Stranger Things, The Last of Us
(My choice would be Mrs. Maisel.)
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie - 2023
Obi-Wan Kenobi
(I think Daisy Jones & the Six will take this one.)
Outstanding Sound Editing For A Limited Or Anthology Series, Movie Or Special - 2023
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Prey
(?)
Outstanding Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour) - 2023
Andor, House of the Dragon, The Boys, The Last of Us, Rings of Power, Stranger Things
(Again an all-SFF slate. I’d give it to Andor, but who knows.)
Outstanding Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (Half-Hour) And Animation - 2023
Mandalorian, What We Do in Shadows
(It’ll go to Barry.)
Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Season Or A Movie - 2023
Andor, House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, Rings of Power, Mandalorian
(Andor was so good, everyone else was 2nd place)
Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Single Episode - 2023
Shadow and Bone, The Nevers, The Umbrella Academy
(?)
Outstanding Stunt Coordination For A Comedy Series Or Variety Program - 2023
Wednesday
(Either Barry or Poker Face, probably the former)
Outstanding Stunt Coordination For A Drama Series, Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie - 2023
Mandalorian, The Boys
(?)
Outstanding Stunt Performance - 2023
Stranger Things twice, Mandalorian
(?)
We’ll see in September.
I've started watching The Bad Batch. Once I get caught up I'll shift over to that topic and get caught up. The art style is similar to The Clone Wars, but much more refined, which makes me happy since the Clone Wars is hard to watch these days - it looks like early Playstation game footage. The space sequences in Bad Batch are fantastic, probably the best in any animated Star Wars series to date.
And it was nice to see the origin of Kanan in the first episode. Makes it a little easier to understand why he hated the clones so much.
I watched the first three episodes, and it seems like this series has more plot threads that overlap multiple episodes, whereas Clone Wars (and early Rebels) episodes were much more self-contained. There is still a nod to the youth audience by finding creative ways to show that the good guys don't actually kill any of the bad guys (in the extra-long premiere episode, after dropping a ceiling grate on three stormtroopers and then pummeling them a bit during a prison break, the camera remains on the fallen stormtroopers long enough for each one to move slightly and groan, so we can be sure that they are just "sleeping").
After I'm caught up on this series, I think the only animated series I will need to watch is Resistance, although I might re-watch Tales of the Jedi, especially if they release some new episodes.
Overall, I like the idea that these animated series are plugging some holes between the film trilogies. Bad Batch seems to be explaining the transition between clone troopers to conscripted and volunteer troopers as well as whatever happened to the Caminoans.
I thought we'd get more of an appearance of the Death Star in Rebels, but there were just rumors and hints. I wonder if we'll see it in The Bad Batch?
Watched Nimona on Netflix. It’s different from the comic in the details but arrives at the same destination. Where the comic is subtle, the movie is obvious. Where the comic is dark, the movie is light. Blackheart is more misunderstood than evil. It’s quite good, even though it does feel somewhat simplified and there are some stock scenes added to the story that we’ve seen in every mainstream animated flick, like the musical montage. The animation itself is terrific.I think I like The Bad Guys a smidge better, but mostly because I had no preconceived notions going in. If you like one, you’ll probably enjoy the other, because they have similar stories and similar styles.
The Bad Guys: https://youtu.be/m8Xt0yXaDPU
Nimona: https://youtu.be/f_fuHRyQbOc
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Books mentioned in this topic
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (other topics)The Thursday Murder Club (other topics)
Ironheart, Vol. 1: Those With Courage (other topics)
For He Can Creep (other topics)
The Shadow Rising (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
George R.R. Martin (other topics)Robert Jordan (other topics)
George R.R. Martin (other topics)
Robert Jordan (other topics)
George R.R. Martin (other topics)
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Um… what? o.0
They are blithely unaware that the protagonist of that movie is a woman. And that the theme is motherhood. And that the two bad guys are white men. And oh by the way, Lambert is canonically trans. Yes, really.
These doofuses, I swear. Guess I’ll be hitting that Aliens Directors Cut tonight.
Larger:
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