What Are You Watching (19)
- Thread starter whatdBuffyDo
- Start date
- Status
thetopher
Member of the Church Of Faith
Willow The TV show: episode 1: Probably the worst thing I've seen this year. And I sat through Rings Of Power and She-Hulk. 🙁
Skanky Vamp
Sniffin' the Slayer
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2008
- Messages
- 26,460
It's sad as, like Rings of Power, I was actually excited when the news first came out about the shows. But I can't be bothered to even watch either one.
thrasherpix
Scooby
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2016
- Messages
- 5,314
- Age
- 43
Good to know as I was tempted.
Just curious...is Willow's family even mentioned? What happened to them? They were such a big deal to him in the movie and his motivation, after all (other than to become a sorcerer). But I'm not seeing any mention of them.
thetopher
Member of the Church Of Faith
They're just mowing through IP's to ruin at this point, but with Willow its like they're not really even trying, no pretense. Half-assed cheap fantasy where half the cast sound like Southern Californians. Not just the accents but 'like' this and 'like' that every other word. Use of modern idioms, etc. The other half at least try to talk like GoT characters.
The writers/showrunners just don't care, and the cast are simply the worst actors playing unlikable obnoxious characters.
Rotten Tomatoes audience score is currently standing 28%, so perhaps the world hasn't gone all the way insane yet.
Willow's daughter (don't know if its the same actress) briefly appears in the Elwin village in the second episode (of the 4 I've watched). Basically the whole thing is Warwick Davis leading some awful rando kids to rescue Queen Sorsha's abducted son. The adventuring party include the Queen's daughter (sure, send along your only other heir) and a serving girl who turns out to be the sacred magic baby from the movie.
Somewhere between the movie and this show Davis forgot how to, y'know', act. He phones in his lines so hard I suspect that he's been forced onto the set at gunpoint and is currently being held hostage. I keep on looking to see if he's blinking 'help me' in Morse code or something.
Also, unsurprisingly Val Kilmer declined to appear.
Mr Trick
I'm not invested in Middle Earth anyway. As a casual that one seems fair enough. Its a story which can easily be retold and made a decent job of and lends itself to the TV form.
Hunga Munga
Scooby
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2015
- Messages
- 1,488
- Age
- 56
TamsinValencia
Scooby
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2017
- Messages
- 4,146
Stake fodder
What about my me?
Succession S1&2
I was a little slow to warm to this, but now I'm fixated. All the actors are amazing, and there's so much subtle humor and mockery of the situations and characters, without making the viewer disconnect with them - just brilliant writing.
I was a little slow to warm to this, but now I'm fixated. All the actors are amazing, and there's so much subtle humor and mockery of the situations and characters, without making the viewer disconnect with them - just brilliant writing.
thetopher
Member of the Church Of Faith
@Mr Trick : I'm not invested in Middle Earth anyway. As a casual that one seems fair enough. Its a story which can easily be retold and made a decent job of and lends itself to the TV form.
Kinda puzzled since I never mentioned Middle Earth but I still entirely disagree anyway. Rings Of Power was garbage; IP's can absolutely be damaged by cynical cash-grabs, lazy adaptation, awful writing or ideological taint. Looking at the number of properties that are now on life-support these days its baffling to think otherwise.
Kinda puzzled since I never mentioned Middle Earth but I still entirely disagree anyway. Rings Of Power was garbage; IP's can absolutely be damaged by cynical cash-grabs, lazy adaptation, awful writing or ideological taint. Looking at the number of properties that are now on life-support these days its baffling to think otherwise.
Skanky Vamp
Sniffin' the Slayer
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2008
- Messages
- 26,460
Mr Trick
Scooby
I disagree fans of the Jackson films or the source material are still going to love those things. Doesn’t make a difference if this show is garbage or not. It feels like it’s own thing that’s the point. Doing LOTR as a series is justify because there’s so much you can explore. In a way it fits more as a series than in movie form. I feel the same way about Dune and The Dark Tower. It’s funny to me how people never complain about all those versions of a Christmas Carol or classic period dramas, yet freak because something like LOTR is brought back for the first time in like 15-20 years.
Skanky Vamp
Sniffin' the Slayer
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2008
- Messages
- 26,460
Yet they aren't exploring it. Instead they are writing their own fan fiction version and inserting characters and events into the narrative that have no purpose or place in it. They aren't exploring the rich source material, they are exploiting it and casting it aside.
T
thrasherpix
Yes, a bunch of us (in real life) were talking of the wasted potential of expanding Middle Earth, and they could still insert all that they want, and then it would be awesome rather than...this.
thetopher
Member of the Church Of Faith
Surely people should care about the source material, the lore and the craft for the sake of the future, not the past. Yes, LotR will always be there but poorer quality adaptations diminish the IP appeal and make attracting new fans harder and harder. The Hobbit trilogy was bad enough- cynical cash-in that it was- but by comparisons it was a halcyon era than today.
And shouldn't we care about quality in art on principal, instead of just shrugging our shoulders at poor product 1 as we await product 2 made by same/similar people?
If the answer is yes then that's profoundly depressing, and its the reason that the Star Wars franchise is now reduced to friggin' TV shows when once it was movie blockbusters.
Yeah, its almost like that in those cases the source material is respected a hell of a lot more as 'proper literature' as opposed to Tolkien who was just some dead white guy who wrote about elves and stuff. 'Nerd stuff' just isn't treated with anywhere near the same level of artistic faithfulness than Jane Austin or Bronte or Dickens or even effing Paddington Bear, because its seen as a lazy cash-in that 'The Fans' will just have to shut up and enjoy new product, doesn't matter if previous product was terrible.
And if they don't like it? Well, they're just toxic fans and part of the problem.
The sad truth of it; The Muppets Christmas Carol is more respectful to its source material than Rings Of Power is.
HowiMetdaSlayer
𝕔𝕠𝕔𝕠𝕒 𝕒𝕕𝕕𝕚𝕔𝕥 ☕️
Watching Rick & Marty throw more money down the pit! 😀
Skanky Vamp
Spanky has never seen that show. Heard it was really bad.
November
I love that show haha
BibliophileAnn
Bangel shipper/fan
thrasherpix
Scooby
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2016
- Messages
- 5,314
- Age
- 43
I was going to wait before saying anything (if I shared anything at all), but the above on some other shows has inspired me to share.
One reason I really love The Addams Family movie is because even though it's its own thing (Thing?), it pays homage to the TV series before. It respects the franchise and the fans.
Plenty that have been hated failed to do this. At best, it was a generic story with a paint job of a popular franchise. At worst, it was not only the show, but actually had the opposite messages and/or made the beloved characters very unlikable. Not because of any changes to race or gender, if that was even present, but because the writing was so horrible. It disrespects the franchise. It disrespects the fans.
The one I'm mentally digesting is Wednesday on Netflix. I'm a lifelong fan of the franchise, even the pre-TV comics. Offhand, I liked it, but it was off in more ways than one (and ironic in that in the movie where Fester returns, if with amnesia, I found Wednesday far more compelling, but in Wednesday's show, Thing stole the show, and it was a good thing Fester only had half an ep or he'd have stolen it as well).
One of things I'm trying to decide right now is, was it heavily influenced by Addams Family Values? I think a case could be made for this, like this was the last movie they watched before writing the season. If so, I'm tempted to give it a bonus point. (I'd give it more if Gomez was shown to be the acrobatic fencer he was in the first movie, which would explain Wednesday having similar skills, but I have a hard time connecting that--at first I said "his dad bod finally got to him" but the flashback scenes didn't portray either him or Morticia as master fencers, despite that Morticia was like captain of the fencing club.)
However, I suspect it's not that, but that it homogenized it with too much Riverdale trash (plus the Harry Potter school being drained of its last drop as in too many Netflix and Disney shows today) with some (admittedly good) Fear Street instead. It's a cynical corporate formula, but have to find another popular franchise to draw in old audiences as well as to cover up the fact that it's about the same, trying to make what worked before (be it for good or bad reasons) to work for them again. That's not respectful to the franchise or the fans. If so, I'll have to dock them 2 points.
But, I haven't decided yet. Someone I know got curious and he's going to rewatch the Addams Family movies and then weigh in, and he could be a good movie critic if he wanted to be (better than many professionals in their analysis, and comparing/contrasting with other movies and previous incarnations). But again, I did like it...but it was more like "watchable" to me more than great until the last 2 eps in which I thought the payoffs for having watched the eps leading up to it were fantastic. So even at its worse, I'd rate it above a 5 (better than most that Netflix plunders for a quick cash grab), and I think 8.5 is possible.
One reason I really love The Addams Family movie is because even though it's its own thing (Thing?), it pays homage to the TV series before. It respects the franchise and the fans.
Plenty that have been hated failed to do this. At best, it was a generic story with a paint job of a popular franchise. At worst, it was not only the show, but actually had the opposite messages and/or made the beloved characters very unlikable. Not because of any changes to race or gender, if that was even present, but because the writing was so horrible. It disrespects the franchise. It disrespects the fans.
The one I'm mentally digesting is Wednesday on Netflix. I'm a lifelong fan of the franchise, even the pre-TV comics. Offhand, I liked it, but it was off in more ways than one (and ironic in that in the movie where Fester returns, if with amnesia, I found Wednesday far more compelling, but in Wednesday's show, Thing stole the show, and it was a good thing Fester only had half an ep or he'd have stolen it as well).
One of things I'm trying to decide right now is, was it heavily influenced by Addams Family Values? I think a case could be made for this, like this was the last movie they watched before writing the season. If so, I'm tempted to give it a bonus point. (I'd give it more if Gomez was shown to be the acrobatic fencer he was in the first movie, which would explain Wednesday having similar skills, but I have a hard time connecting that--at first I said "his dad bod finally got to him" but the flashback scenes didn't portray either him or Morticia as master fencers, despite that Morticia was like captain of the fencing club.)
However, I suspect it's not that, but that it homogenized it with too much Riverdale trash (plus the Harry Potter school being drained of its last drop as in too many Netflix and Disney shows today) with some (admittedly good) Fear Street instead. It's a cynical corporate formula, but have to find another popular franchise to draw in old audiences as well as to cover up the fact that it's about the same, trying to make what worked before (be it for good or bad reasons) to work for them again. That's not respectful to the franchise or the fans. If so, I'll have to dock them 2 points.
But, I haven't decided yet. Someone I know got curious and he's going to rewatch the Addams Family movies and then weigh in, and he could be a good movie critic if he wanted to be (better than many professionals in their analysis, and comparing/contrasting with other movies and previous incarnations). But again, I did like it...but it was more like "watchable" to me more than great until the last 2 eps in which I thought the payoffs for having watched the eps leading up to it were fantastic. So even at its worse, I'd rate it above a 5 (better than most that Netflix plunders for a quick cash grab), and I think 8.5 is possible.
Last edited:
BaskingINBangel
Agent of Nothing
Terra Nova. This show was SO much better than La Brea. I wish it had continued. Need more dinosaur time travel shows! Sick of period dramas and medieval torture porn. More family fun civilization building and dinosaurs!
- Status