Some Random Thoughts About Television... [R]

There was something DBZ-ish about Mark's fight with Anissa.

 

The voice actress for Anissa is Shantel VanSanten, who was Becca on The Boys, Patty Spivot on The Flash, and has had roles in the TV version of Shooter, For All Mankind, the FBI shows on CBS, One Tree Hill, etc. It's fascinating to see her career really take off in her mid to late 30s.

 

The musical episode of Strange New Worlds, Subspace Rhapsody, is being released on vinyl and the pre-order started today.

https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-subspace-rhapsody-vinyl-1851374676

 

Just finished The Brothers Sun.

It's an ok watch. Cast is good but I feel the directors missed a few opportunities to turn this into something bigger than it was.

Netflix were quick to say no to a 2nd series which they seem to be doing more and more often.

 

Chance Perdomo has passed away at the age of 27 following a motorcycle accident. pic.twitter.com/C7HcSxJk1R

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) March 30, 2024

Damn. Wasn't he rumored to have a part to play in the Boys as well?

 

Invincible.

Just so good and I love how they adapted that part of the Levy storyline while still leaving so much open for season 3 and beyond.

 

Loved the second season but it felt short, mostly because of the long midseason break.

 

Not even 15 minutes into the second episode of A Gentleman in Moscow and it's all that I could have asked for and more. The tone feels just right, they're hitting the major plot points while splicing in bits of the depth that the book had, and every bit of the casting, costuming, and set design seems to be absolute perfection.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Anna Urbanova is utterly inspired and the fact that she's married to Ewan McGregor makes their on screen chemistry feel as authentic as can be.

 

The Regime was a tough watch. Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts gave it their best effort, nothing could hide how mediocre the writing was. I'm amazed I finished the season, which was only six episodes.



In other news, I stumbled upon the pilot they shot around a decade ago for an adaptation of the comic book series "The Sixth Gun".
I like those and when I heard at the time a possible adaptation was in the works, I was excited. Unfortunately the pilot was not picked up. Watching it, I thought it was okay. Production values not always up to doing the source material justice. They did do a great job on the cast, especially with the benefit of hindsight.
Pedro Pascal, Michiel Huisman, Graham McTavish, Aldis Hodge, W. Earl Brown, Elena Satine and René Auberjonois were all in this.
This is a pretty big Sliding Doors moment for Pedro Pascal's career, if this gets picked up he probably doesn't get to do both Game of Thrones and Narcos, the two shows that arguably helped make him a worldwide star.

 

Evil returns in May, unfortunately for what will be the fourth and final season.

 

I was just looking at this for a new miniseries to watch after rather enjoying her work in Mare of Easttown so that's a shame to hear.

 

If the first two episodes are any indication, Sugar is the best thing on TV in decades. It's almost a perfect take on a modernized approach to the private detective show with some interesting noir elements thrown in. Collin Farrell is putting in the performance of his life.

 

Took us some time to get to it, but we finished season 1 of Slow Horses last night. I don't like to watch episodes of anything particularly close together unless it is something l use as comfort (like The Good Place), but this one I wanted to watch over about a seven-day period. That the story propelled me along wasn't surprising, but that in a handful of relatively short episodes I quickly became interested in the characters did surprise me. I look forward to more.

 

Fallout: Saw the first episode. Fun. Also wonder how much appeal it will hold to people who aren't familiar with the games.

 

Saw the first free episode as well, and I had the same thought. I guess they will do more explaining later. But as a fan of the games, I loved it. It had the look and the emotion and the little easter eggs (that Junk Jet!) were spot on. I guess I will watch the rest when it gets to Freevee in 5 years.

 

I've never played the games and I enjoyed the first episode.

 

Mrs. Ismitje is a huge Fallout nerd; I have never played. We watched episode one together and it really worked equally well for both of us. There's a remarkable balance of humor, pathos, and scary vibes in episode one.

 

I'm amazed at the sheer amount of assets, brands, locations, ... that have been recreated from the game. I have spotted a lot of them but still feel like I have missed just as many.

And yeah they have nailed the tone. Not that it's 100% equivalent to that specific Fallout tone from the games, but it has been transposed to the series in a way that is similar whilst slightly adapted to the TV format. It's really well done. You can tell that the people involved understand Fallout very well. Which I guess has been the problem with a lot of far less successful video game adaptations.

 

I should add that the tone across the entire Fallout games franchise itself isn't consistent or homogeneous throughout. There is a huge difference already between the Interplay era and the Bethesda era. And smaller differences between the various games we have had from Fallout 3 onward.

 

Finished Fallout (first season since it's getting a second one).

I enjoyed it. I will say that I thought episodes 1-4 were noticeably stronger than episodes 5-8. I hope this doesn't mean that the writers room was already running out of steam a bit.

 

It's not the tone I was expecting. It's neo-noir with scenes from classic noirs edited in (the selection is fun to discover in the moment). But there is also an undercurrent that hints at something far weirder.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

Is this going to turn into a show about aliens?

 

If my theory is correct then:

Sugar theory (open) Sugar theory (close)

Davy Siegel and his "Boy Friday" Kenny won't find anything in Flagstaff, since Sugar's backstory is all a front, carefully managed and monitored by Ruby. Possibly Sugar's love for classic noir might also be linked to how long he has been on Earth.

 

I like that, but I think it's something slightly different:

Alternate Theory (open) Alternate Theory (close)

I'm thinking more along the lines of time travel. There's definitely an element that hasn't been made explicit yet that will probably require re-watching some scenes. I'm thinking the videos are his memories and the issue with his left hand is something akin to stroke that's a result of the time travel process.

 

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By the videos, do you mean the clips from classic noirs? I think I remember clips from The Killers, Double Indemnity and In a Lonely Place in the most recent episode.
The reason I'm more on the aliens path myself is because of a few things.
His repeated mantra of not liking violence because there is already enough violence "on this world".
It's a throwaway statement but can also be interpreted as him being a visitor there.
Then there was Ruby's line about them only being there to observe people, not get involved in their lives.
And also the thing where he has a metabolism that stops him from getting drunk, would also suggest he isn't really human.

 

For All Mankind gets a 5th season from Apple and a spinoff show, called Star City, that will focus on the Soviet Space Program from the beginning of the alternate timeline.

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/fo...et-space-program-spinoff-apple-tv-1235973854/

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters gets a second season AND an unspecified number of spinoff shows within the MonsterVerse.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t...-monsters-season-2-spin-off-apple-1235872046/