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brokenmnemonicI've spent the start of this year largely hibernating for various reasons, but I have ended up watching a lot of tv, in part because of lack of headspace and energy for much else. Thanks to my dad, I'm now able to catch up with some of those shows on Prime I've heard about over the last little while. I meant to post about them at the time, but never seemed to muster the time and energy, so now there's a bit of a backlog. Still, here are some I rambled through...
It turns out that I'd watched less of This is Us than I thought I had. One of the things I enjoy about this show is that the way the episodes show us events from the different character's lives in a non-linear fashion means that characters keep coming back - William's become one of my favourites, and I appreciate the way he continues to be a presence in the show. One of the strongest themes in This is Us that works for me is the way people can genuinely love and support each other, while at the same time screwing up or being unable to talk to each other. I appreciate that the show can be embarassing without making me cringe, and how much it's made me care about these characters.
Outlander has moved past the point I'd read up to in the novels, so I may have to read the next novel or two before the next series. There are some things that've bugged me since the start of the show that still bug me now, so it's consistent on that front, but I thought this season was largely solid. There are times when the show makes me distinctly uncomfortable, but I keep watching because of the relationships between the various characters, and how they fit into the period. I'm not sure I've seen a show set in this time period before, and that holds a certain amount of fascination as well.
It turns out that The Expanse is another show where I thought I'd seen more than I had - I started S4, and had to backtrack when I realised I'd not actually watched S3. Whoops. Some things surprised me a little - I expected to see more of Fred Johnson, for example. It also seemed a shame that Bobbie and Avasarala didn't get to do a lot together on S4, because their interactions in S2 and S3 were a highlight for me. The misfit family who crew the Rocinante are the heart of the show for me, but it still surprises me at times how much I enjoy seeing them interacting. I found that I preferred S3 as a season to S4 - possibly I was getting Babylon 5 flashbacks with the march to war part of the show, but it really felt like an inevitable conclusion to the buildup of previous seasons, and I like that it didn't end up being something that was sorted out with a military solution. In contrast, S4 felt much slower to me, and while the threat posed from whatever destroyed the ring civilisation is clearly a huge threat, it felt somehow much more distant than the prospect of war and the damage it could cause. While Bobbie's plotline in S4 was fairly detached from the others, seeing how Martian society was starting to unravel after the discovery of the rings was a really strong plot point for me, and one I enjoyed seeing play out, but I really want Bobbie and Avasarala to have a nice heavy plotline to work through together in S5. One of the surprises for me was how much I enjoyed seeing Ashford on the show - I liked how difficult I found it to judge what his intentions were, and how well he and Drummer played off each other. The end of Ashford's plotline felt very fitting to the character, too. I'm looking forward to S5.
I'm not sure if I knew anything about Carnival Row before I watched it, but it was one of those things I decided to give a try when cycling through what was available on Prime. Visually, it felt like it was tryingto pull on the same sort of aesthetic as Peaky Blinders/Ripper Street/the two Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes films. Urban fantasy shows don't seem to have really hit their stride yet in tv terms, even though they've been around a while, and I'm not sure I've seen much of anything set in this particular time period. The racism applied to the fae seems pretty in keeping with the era it's mimicking but it also didn't feel particularly subtle. Some of the things that were possibly meant to be plot twists felt fairly obvious from the start. On the other hand, there'd clearly been a lot of efforts to make the show look good, and the CGI used worked well for me, although I must admit my eyes feel older than I do these days. My favourite performance of the show was actually David Gyasi as Agreus Astrayon - I don't think I've ever seen him in anything else, and he brought a lot of intensity to his character. I'll watch the next season if there is one, although I think I like this show more for the way that if it's successful, it might spawn more shows in the same genre that may be able to do more.
It turns out that I'd watched less of This is Us than I thought I had. One of the things I enjoy about this show is that the way the episodes show us events from the different character's lives in a non-linear fashion means that characters keep coming back - William's become one of my favourites, and I appreciate the way he continues to be a presence in the show. One of the strongest themes in This is Us that works for me is the way people can genuinely love and support each other, while at the same time screwing up or being unable to talk to each other. I appreciate that the show can be embarassing without making me cringe, and how much it's made me care about these characters.
Outlander has moved past the point I'd read up to in the novels, so I may have to read the next novel or two before the next series. There are some things that've bugged me since the start of the show that still bug me now, so it's consistent on that front, but I thought this season was largely solid. There are times when the show makes me distinctly uncomfortable, but I keep watching because of the relationships between the various characters, and how they fit into the period. I'm not sure I've seen a show set in this time period before, and that holds a certain amount of fascination as well.
It turns out that The Expanse is another show where I thought I'd seen more than I had - I started S4, and had to backtrack when I realised I'd not actually watched S3. Whoops. Some things surprised me a little - I expected to see more of Fred Johnson, for example. It also seemed a shame that Bobbie and Avasarala didn't get to do a lot together on S4, because their interactions in S2 and S3 were a highlight for me. The misfit family who crew the Rocinante are the heart of the show for me, but it still surprises me at times how much I enjoy seeing them interacting. I found that I preferred S3 as a season to S4 - possibly I was getting Babylon 5 flashbacks with the march to war part of the show, but it really felt like an inevitable conclusion to the buildup of previous seasons, and I like that it didn't end up being something that was sorted out with a military solution. In contrast, S4 felt much slower to me, and while the threat posed from whatever destroyed the ring civilisation is clearly a huge threat, it felt somehow much more distant than the prospect of war and the damage it could cause. While Bobbie's plotline in S4 was fairly detached from the others, seeing how Martian society was starting to unravel after the discovery of the rings was a really strong plot point for me, and one I enjoyed seeing play out, but I really want Bobbie and Avasarala to have a nice heavy plotline to work through together in S5. One of the surprises for me was how much I enjoyed seeing Ashford on the show - I liked how difficult I found it to judge what his intentions were, and how well he and Drummer played off each other. The end of Ashford's plotline felt very fitting to the character, too. I'm looking forward to S5.
I'm not sure if I knew anything about Carnival Row before I watched it, but it was one of those things I decided to give a try when cycling through what was available on Prime. Visually, it felt like it was tryingto pull on the same sort of aesthetic as Peaky Blinders/Ripper Street/the two Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes films. Urban fantasy shows don't seem to have really hit their stride yet in tv terms, even though they've been around a while, and I'm not sure I've seen much of anything set in this particular time period. The racism applied to the fae seems pretty in keeping with the era it's mimicking but it also didn't feel particularly subtle. Some of the things that were possibly meant to be plot twists felt fairly obvious from the start. On the other hand, there'd clearly been a lot of efforts to make the show look good, and the CGI used worked well for me, although I must admit my eyes feel older than I do these days. My favourite performance of the show was actually David Gyasi as Agreus Astrayon - I don't think I've ever seen him in anything else, and he brought a lot of intensity to his character. I'll watch the next season if there is one, although I think I like this show more for the way that if it's successful, it might spawn more shows in the same genre that may be able to do more.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 07:22 pm (UTC)I am really into shows where relationships are at the heart of everything else so it's no surprise I'm watching This Is Us (season 1&2) and Outlander. Totally agree on the non-linear story telling with TIU, it's used very skillfully and with purpose without being too confusing or just gimmicky. Outlander is like ice-cream, soo tasty and addictive but not really substantial and too much of it is bad for you. I adore the first couple of seasons but once they leave Europe it loses something - the Scotish Nature and Culture were such a vital part of the story for me that I'm stuggling with the Carribean/American vibe (plus the BAD CGI to make Scotland look like the US).
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Date: 2020-02-22 09:32 pm (UTC)Are you enjoying This is Us? I was surprised by how cosnsitent the show quality was - even when the characters were doing stupid, self-destructive things, it felt really in character, and I was surprised how my perceptions of a couple of the characters shifted over time. S3 delves into some of the things that I'd been waiting to see since S1, and did so in a way that felt very organic...
I didn't realise that Outlander was still shooting in Scotland and then using CGI to try and make up the difference. I think they had to move away from Scotland to avoid the show/books getting too depressing... after the last Jacobite uprising, the history of Scotland was basically all clearances and actively destroying as much of Scot culture as possible. Even the tartans were destroyed - most of the modern tartans now were reinvented in Victorian times. I think diana Gabaldon was trying to follow the Scottish diaspora? Although most of the Scots have gone from the series now, and I don't find the plotline involving surviving ruggedly in the wilderness all that intersting. I'm more interested in the character dilemmas and seeing the different relationships between all the characters :) Were you surprised when Geilis returned, albeit briefly?