Only two episodes left of Evil. Was that the first time they have used Katja Herbers Dutch language skills in the show?
Umbrella Academy just got worse every season. The only reason I gave the final season a look was because they cut it down to 6 episodes. The interesting plot elements get dropped while the moronic stuff shows up every episode. The finale has a character essentially turn into a lava monster as the big bad for a ridiculous CGI battle, and it wraps up in a truly lazy, nonsensical way. Special bonus points taken off for Elliot Page. I don't care what someone does personally, but the transition is not going well. Ellen Page was one of the more interesting, talented young actors in the world. Elliot seems to have none of the physical nuance or facial expressions, none of the screen presence, and the drugs have made his voice sound like it's being created by an AI that has a serious case of laryngitis. A good, fun show in season 1 turned into an absolute disaster by the end of season 4.
Oh, you are just enticing me more and more. I am looking forward to watching the season. Hey, don't give away the ending, though.
Bruce Timm says they gender-swapped Penguin because Batman lacks good female villains 🐧"You’ve got Catwoman, you’ve got Poison Ivy, [and] you’ve got Harley Quinn"(via @TheEmmys | #BatmanCapedCrusader) pic.twitter.com/a22c0KpMt8— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) August 13, 2024 I liked the gender-flipped Penguin a lot but I honestly thought that they had a better reason for the creative decision than "Batman has insufficient good female villains". Talia Al Ghul, Lady Shiva, the Phantasm (when is she going to get another turn), ... are three others just from the top of my head. And also, no one is stopping Timm & co to create a new female villain for him. Harley Quinn was a creation of his for Batman: TAS! So they have done this before.
Those About to Die: Season 1 - Peacock 2024 A good enough show that could have been very good. The dialogue is all over the place, subplots get dropped and picked back with multiple episodes between them, and just when it seems like the show is hitting its stride there's an episode with nearly 20 minutes of characters walking in on different characters having sex that felt like a 13-year-old wrote the scenes immediately after seeing porn for the first time. Apparently it's done really well, and season 2 is all but officially announced, but they've got something that could be a legitimate legacy hit for their streaming service and it's not going to attain that status without someone overseeing it who puts more emphasis on the story itself.
Evil final episode: not the best series finale I have ever seen, nor the worst. I guess it was always going to be hard to work towards a satisfying conclusion with the four episodes the King's were ultimately given to do so.
Just started Paramount + today (free offer from Spectrum). But my better half is in Poland so I guess I will wait for her to return before watching.
Lady In The Lake - 2024 The trailers made this seem like a completely different show than it was. Once I got past the initial disappointment of those expectations not being met, it was an interesting period piece about race relations, the roles of men and women, and the general idea of society changing slowly and with great difficulty.
This message is for spejic because I think he's the only one who cares, but the BBC is going to be releasing fully remastered Blake's 7 on Blu Ray with new CGI special effects this November.
Dish Network just launched a BritBox-run, 24 hour Doctor Who network (similar to the one on Pluto TV) and a second SciFi channel with 12 hour blocks of Blake's 7. Sorry, not the remastered version. Dish channels 092-10 and 092-11. Just an endless loop, with minimal commercials. Not as good Brit Box, since there some commercials, but the randomness of which Doctor they show is fun. Discovered it Friday and, well, my productivity has plummeted this weekend. However, since my better half is in Poland for another 11 days, I am full in control of the remote.
Netflix' Terminator Zero wasn't bad. Essentially an alternate timeline story in which a scientist in Japan becomes aware of Skynet and the impending Judgment Day. He creates an A.I. of his own in the hope that this will help save the world. Then both Skynet and the future resistance send someone back in time to find him: a Terminator and a human soldier. I especially liked how they adapted some elements of the story to the new location. For instance, how it is much harder to get guns (for both the resistance member and the Terminator) in Japan than it was in America.
I'd consider watching it! I was a huge B7 fan back in the day Of course the frustration of watching it in the late 70s is one would frequently miss episodes and it became very disjointed - especially due to repeats etc, and no info of even what season/episode you are watching So one week you are watching them in the liberator, then 2 weeks later they have no liberator and no blake?? Basically i have never watched the thing in order.
Sunny on Apple TV+ was insane in the most A24 way possible. I'm fairly certain I missed about 75% of what was going on but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Not sure what they can do for a second season.
Seen three of the six episodes of Netflix' The Perfect Couple. Not bad, certainly one of the better Netflix originals, definitely if we are talking semi-recently. It's pretty clear that the pitch was "get us something like Big Little Lies or The White Lotus". Even if this show itself is based on a book. I don't think it would exist in the way it does without the aforementioned HBO shows. It even shares some cast members with them in Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies) and Meghann Fahy (White Lotus season 2). I think tonally, Mike White's work on White Lotus is the most obvious influence. Not that it's a pure copy, but I don't think this show would exist in the manner that it does without White Lotus. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler So after three episodes, my prediction is that Dakota Fanning's character is the killer. Or if she did not kill Merritt herself, she at least orchestrated the killing. She has been shown to manipulate various members of the family, including Amelia.
English Teacher is fun. Only two episodes so far, but I like its tone. Not familiar with Brian Jordan Alvarez and Stephanie Koenig's earlier work but apparently they made similar comedy online prior to this show?
Really enjoyed the first two episodes of Agatha All Along and the first episode of Penguin. It feels like we might be getting back on track a bit in the superhero world.
I cannot muster the enthusiasm for another MCU show after how horrible all of the recent ones I have watched have been.
The only reason I have Disney+ right now is the hope that Agatha would get us back to the creative, entertaining days of the MCU shows. It's not quite as good as those first few, but the first two episodes are a major step up from the stuff they've been tossing out there recently.
Summer Anime Round-up Didn't get into too many new anime this season. Isekai Suicide Squad ~ Wit Studio Harley Quinn is an anime girl and gets transported (along with others) to a fantasy world. That's the hook for this DC brand exercise, which is admittedly pretty solid. There's nothing else here, though. I'm not a Suicide Squad or DC fan, but I enjoyed HBO's Harley Quinn series. This has none of the charm from that series. It's just boring. 5/10 Failure Frame: (Insert Long Subtitle) ~ Seven Arcs Gave this one a few episodes. Another isekai, though an entire high school class gets teleported to another world. Except the fairy or whatever that summoned them turns out to be a Mean Girl and banishes the main character to a dungeon because she thinks his powers are weak. But, get this, his powers are actually super strong!!! Total garbage with bad animation. 3/10 No Longer Allowed in Another World ~ AtelierPontdarc Wait, isekai can be good. An author trying to commit double suicide is transported to another world and rather than actively trying to help the fantasy denizens, he mostly tries to die in interesting ways. His secret power is depression. Loved it. 8/10 Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian ~ Doga Kobo A trashy high-school romance that didn't need to be as trashy as it was. The slacker protagonist is surrounded by girls that think he's amazing. I don't really get it, and this show isn't really for me, I guess. 6/10 Delicious in Dungeon ~ Trigger I was behind on this one because I thought it was pretty one note at the beginning. It does evolve into a much more interesting show in it's second half. A group of adventurers too poor to buy supplies make there way to where they lost their companion by eating the monsters in the dungeon instead. One Piece Through Thriller Bark arc at 380 or so episodes. Still thoroughly enjoying it.