TV Shows

[dunie]

Started Luke Cage. The first episode was slow, and even though I like Luke's character traits I thought that his lines were pretty flat. Episode 2 is a bit better; I'm currently at a 3/5 for this incredibly superblack show.

[NotMiki]

He should call himself Superblack.  Way better name than Power Man imo. (does he call himself Power Man in the show?)

[dunie]

Not in eps 1 to 2, but someone further along can answer that! So far, just Luke Cage. You should check it out!

[Meeplelard]

I've seen 3 episodes of Luke Cage.  One of his friends, as a tease, calls him "Power Man" from time to time as a little friendly tease, which is probably the best way to handle that nod.  The reference is obvious but it's not drawing attention to it at the same time.  Just kind of there and feels natural.  I'll reserve judgment of the series until it's done.


Speaking of Super Hero shows, finished Supergirl.

I have to say, it's quite good.  I was convinced the show was going to suck based off it's goofy trailer, but the first episode hooked me almost immediately when it basically showed "no, it's nothing like that" and really demonstrated "we get Superman!"   In fact, the show feels like it was SUPPOSE to be for Superman, but Warner Bros. didn't want one of their big titans relegated to TV to draw attention away from the BIG BUDGET MOVIES to compete with Marvel, so they compromised with the gender swap, and adapted it well.  Yeah, obvious "This is female Superman" things are in there, like having a Male!Lois Lane equivalent in Winn, and a female!Perry White in Kat Grant...I don't know anything about the Supergirl lore I should note.

There's a lot I could say, but honestly I'll just leave it at "it's a show that GETS Superman, and demonstrates it through his cousin."  They also sidestepped some issues like early on you worry "oh no, she's going to constantly compare herself to Superman" but by the Reactron Episode, they pretty much end that ark, and they make it clear that Superman is really just an inspiration and frame of reference , rather than beat us over the head with "THIS IS FEMALE SUPERMAN!"  They really sell you on "She's her own hero, treat her like one."

But yeah, the big thing is it gets how to do a Superman show.  Focus on all the positive aspects of being a hero, and bring in the negatives when absolutely necessary.  Don't focus on the tragedy, focus on the hope and heroics, overcoming the odds.  Make the hero a POSITIVE, optimistic figure, not a brooding, angsty individual.  Really, her speech at the end of Season 1 really comes off as "THIS is what Superman is all about, Zach Snyder, NOT your own fucked up vision of him." 

Oh yeah, and the Flash crossover was a lot of fun.  Worked well because both heroes are fun and positive figures, and so the chemistry between the two was fun.  Even when Barry's like "I'm stuck in another world that I reached completely by accident" his reaction is "well, this is awkward, but might as well make the most of it and help you out."   


That said, ranking the "Arrowverse" shows, I'd probably do it like this:

1. Flash: Consistently good and most developed, just hammers "it's fun being a super hero, even with all the baggage!" aspect. 
2. Supergirl: A lot like Flash, only FLash has 2 seasons to develop vs. Supergirl's 1, so call that a tie break for Flash.
3. Arrow when it's Good: When Arrow is good, it's really good!  It's not as "Fun" as Flash, but it's good
4. Legends of Tomorrow: When all is said and done, it's fluff.  Fun fluff, but fluff.  Can only give the series so much credit.
5. Arrow when it's bad: I have to separate this from Arrow when it's good because the two feel like completely different shows.  Arrow is PAINFUL when it's bad.  This is emphasized best in Season 4, where when it focuses on Damien Darcc? It's really good and fun...oh wait, OliCity kicked in, STOP PLEASE GO AWAY NO I WANT TO WATCH SOMETHING ELSE

[dunie]

Anyway, Luke Cage's picked up at episode 6; better lines, better pacing. I'd say the lines go for everyone, actually, which does the actor Mike Colter some good. Mahershali Ali's surpassed his Remy Danton phase, which is good because it's stuck with him for some time. I'm not finding the generational critique of black manhood strong at all; let's see where it goes!

[DjinnAndTonic]

Finished Luke Cage in like two sittings over the weekend. Overall impression is pretty great. I do agree the first two episodes are kind of slow because they are introducing a ton of characters to you all at once. But once they start killing them off, the series really picks up!

Sarcasm aside, I really like Luke himself. This is really strange for me since Luke is basically perfect and always right and calm and flawless. Well at least when it comes to super heroing. He is awful at relationships, but not because of the super hero thing, which is usually how you see this pairing of traits. Interesting to see someone so utterly selfless and unrelatable in terms of always doing the right thing for justice but just being awful at holding together a relationship, which I can uh definitely relate to easier...

The plot itself is pretty solid. But the focus definitely feels like it's got something to say about being black. And I like that too. As someone who is interested in this topic but who has no personal stake in it, I thought it was handled very well. Definitely a lot of care went into making it feel believable and I appreciate they didn't shy away from it. Though it's so intrinsic to the story of Luke Cage I suppose they had to. It'll be interesting to see how he functions outside of his own story when he comes into the other series. The flip side of all of this is that the series definitely comes off as preaching more often than it should but perhaps that's a result of binge watching it.

Also, Miranda and Shades are my favorites. I don't know if they exist in the comics but holy crap they are fun to watch on screen!

[Captain K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gpED0Z57RU

[dunie]

So I finished Luke Cage.

The writing became way too corny after EP 7. The backstory between two central characters was incredibly rushed and felt too mechanized for the sake of story progression. Way too predictable.

I'm tired of the need to introduce a love story (especially when poorly executed and there's little magnetism on screen).

The final episode was disappointing.

The best thing this show did for me was have four incredibly strong Black female characters with different dispositions.

Meh. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good for me. What it could have done was fill potholes and edit a few scenes better (her arm healed that quickly, tho? Come the fuck on).

[SnowFire]

Westworld was quite good.  I'd recommend it especially to gamers, as the fundamental idea is something close to a real-life Skyrim of sorts.  You can go to the main town hub and have nice pre-packaged quests thrown at your feet, or go to the edges and make your own crazy plot.  Honestly, if anything, the only "problem" with it is that idiot assholes who think it's funny to just barge into the middle of your plotline and shoot everyone weren't more common.  Ah Logan, you're too true-to-life, so I think I'm happy to not get a steady diet of him.

Very high production values, some thinky thoughts on AI, it doesn't devolve into treacly love-conquers-all nonsense OR uber grimdark nonsense.  It's neat.

[dunie]

Mindy Project - I marathoned this show and am current with today. The first three seasons were great, awesome writing, fun gaze reversals. Now the show is just shit. I admit I only watch because I feel what's irredeemable is my ability to actually keep up with a show. 1/5

Empire - eh. The way bipolar is equated to evil is.... 1/5.

Game of Thrones - just started this up during my annual Christmas marathoning of a new show. I ranted about it a bit in chat last night. Team Arya. 3/5

Fresh off the Boat - in it just for the husband and wife. Granny's borderline annoying now. 2/5

I discontinued Blackish and its anecdotal messages to some presumed ignorant white audience. The Cosby Show wasn't even this patronizing.

Power - okay. I wanted to rant about this show. I realize that love stories and cheaters and the other man and other woman are the bedrock of many narratives. I fucking get it. But this show reminds me of why I truly found no pleasure in watching Scandal. The most intelligent people are mentally incapacitated by pussy or dick. Most of the times writers build a story that is as good as celebrity gossip, so it's going. But I am so sick and tired of 70% of a show being given over to a man/woman cheating on their man/woman or fucking on the sidelines for multiple seasons! I don't remember this being a big thing to watch in my childhood/watch shows parents forbid.

The background of Greg is SO forced only to keep Angie's alliance to Ghost a possibility... Team Tommy Team Angela.

Shitty writing. I'm in it for the side characters. I've been in all these shows I've listed for the support characters. At least Games of Thrones gives you good writing and acting in all this debauchery, and have slowed down with all the tits.

God, and most of these salacious cheating adventures is only a girl getting dicked. Like... this idea of sexual pleasure is so fucking boring.

unedited, unorganized plop of crap here.

[superaielman]

Leverage: Watched several episodes of this at my parents place this weekend. Highly entertaining with a strong cast (People con for good ala burn notice or The Pretender). Definitely good times.

Yeah, finished this a few weeks back. Quite fun, didn't overstay it's welcome and did a good job developing the main cast. Jim Sterling was a lot of fun, worked well as a sometimes foil, sometimes friend for Nate's crew.


Rewatching DS9, in season 7. (I started in season 4). This remains so much better than the rest of star trek.

[Shale]

If you haven't been watching The Good Place, go watch it. The whole season (13 episodes) is on Hulu, the cast is fantastic (Ted Danson! Kristen Bell! Other people who aren't famous yet but should be!), it's from the Parks & Rec/Brooklyn Nine-Nine guys, and holy BALLS the finale that aired last night is incredible.

[dunie]

Stranger Things - 8/10.

I watched for Ryder; but there are some gems. Ending was anti-climatic; seeing little kids channel adults is cute enough. Show tossed out some staying binaries. The one I found most impressive was nerdle love, but the daughter's arc is okay too. Not a fan of the overall monster though. Like, there's monsters and then there's monsters and it definitely wasn't designed in a way to maintain fright levels.

[Grefter]

Horror isn't really a thing you can sustain I think?  Without a turnover rate in monsters I don't know if you can engage the brain properly for it (not having seen Stranger Stuffs, querying just on the concept of serial horror stories)?  You need surprise as part of it and fight/flight responses are biologically not something you can engage for long periods (well without it likely being a disorder).   Horror just kind of regresses to Mystery as a mean in my experience.   That's kind of why horror serial stuff tends to be either short or an anthology series if t wants to stay as horror, otherwise it just shifts gears.

[dunie]

I hear that. I wonder, though, why Pinhead is still creepy to me? I love horror, even the b-rated and silly stuff, and there are just some designs that have a lasting impact. Perhaps the villain in ST looked too much like a videogame monster.

[Hunter Sopko]

I hear that. I wonder, though, why Pinhead is still creepy to me?

Possibly the sadomasochism.

[Captain K]

The new Samurai Jack episodes on Cartoon Network are really good.  The old series never quite clicked with me and seemed to be lacking something.  But man this new stuff is fucking STYLISH.

[dunie]

New Samurai Jack!? Gotta share that with folk!

I'mma keep posting about all my shows black folks're following in the event that I can eventually kiki w/ someone here. If you have not watched Chewing Gum but love hilarious insanity, dooooo it. I had held off from beginning season 2 because it's impossible for me to watch it all in one sitting, but...  bahahahahahaahahahahaha...

I don't even know the exact quote here but in episode 1 s2 "I mean, come on! We were THE interracial group! And we did it more interesting - you know it's s normally black guy white girl but we're the opposite, we're black girl white guy!"

The show is about a super-awkward Nigerian British virgin growing up in the estates with a crazy Christian mother, meek but incredibly aggressive sister, crazy friends from all walks, and her attempts to get a boyfriend.

[dunie]

Watching stories about the black middle class is one of my favorite things to do. In many ways, the chilling politics of respectability trickle downwards and I vividly remember a lot of defense and attack mechanisms that my own family's approrpriated from them. Greenleaf has been filling that space for me at the moment. I thank the bejeebus I never attended any mega church, but really do remember smaller black churches having similar scandals without all the glitter and jewels.

I am screaming at my computer screen though and very often. There's a running line about a family molester. Mississippi Damned, which is a movie about similar sexual politics, took my breath away. This Netflix series has me wondering very curiously and uneasily how long they'll let a particular character linger. I am not quite sure about any other ethnic enclaves in the United States, but I do know that family molestation and child molestation is an incredibly huge yet swept under the rug lump of a problem for several decades now. It's interesting to see this taken up, but I would not be able to handle it a la Scandal's tendency to move slowly from core issues.

[dunie]

GLOW is fun. Netflix series, women's wrestling, comedy based off of eponymous 80s women's wrestling org. I didn't experience much of the decade myself, but apparently set and costume are on-point. I absolutely love Ruth. And therefore I love Russia.

You know, I forget that I loved wrestling a lot. I stopped watching around the time Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were doing stupid things, and after learning the McMahon family was one of the most recent and largest donors to the Republican party. Memory is vague but it was around the 08 Black Prez and nativist/nationalist stage set for what is today. Plus I was younger and my Republican friends made no sense to me, maybe I made no sense to them. But to return, man, I even remember going to wrestling matches in Philly when I lived in NJ. I sort of kind of miss masculinist ring dancing. The Rock left just in time. They say that wrestling is still on the air. Huh.

House of Cards is a bit disappointing. I cannot wait for Broad City to return. Watching Power unhappily.

BUT.


WINTER IS COMING.

[dunie]

This Is Us is really, really, really good. I have two episodes left in season 1. I've officially been through one entire tissue box.

I don't know why, but I am still watching the Mindy Project. It is awful.

Game of Thrones happened and no one here is talking about it!

I'm a bit nervous about seeing more Stranger Things, partly because I'm not sure how they can keep it interesting. Season 1 finale was a bit boring, even if an homage to The Stand.

[dunie]

Big Little Lies-

I totally get it.

And it made me bawl at the end and I didn't expect to, but yeah, domestic violence stirred too much

[Sierra]

Game of Thrones happened and no one here is talking about it!

I haven't watched Game of Thrones since season 3. For a lot of reasons--writing being < the books, the initial thrill of "Wow they did a really good job visually bringing this world to life" wearing off, torture scenes--but mostly it's the despair. I found it too much a reflection of the mood of the times even before 2016 happened. The theme of the books fundamentally was abuse of power and how those who misuse it tend to bring about their own downfall. I've never been convinced that the showrunners really get that, or at least know how to make it felt by the audience, which mostly leaves a spectacle of unusually bloody soap opera violence.

[Captain K]

I also stopped watching at season 3.

[Captain K]

So I finally got Netflix.  Welcome to 2009 Cap.

Daredevil:  This was good.  Not the standard depiction of the Kingpin, but it works.

Jessica Jones:  This dragged on too long.  Oh we caught Kilgrave, oh he escaped, oh we caught him again!  And the sideplot with the super soldier pills was terrible.

Voltron:  This can't decide if it wants to be cheesy or serious.  It's not very good at either.

Castlevania:  Not bad.  Actually covers the story of Castlevania III pretty respectfully.

Stranger Things:  This is darker than I was expecting.  It's like E.T. if they took the walkie talkies away from the FBI agents and gave them guns instead.