Stuff Wot I Watched
Dec. 4th, 2020 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
I've been meaning to make one of these posts for er... a very long time. There were things I had opinions on and wanted to talk about, like Devs and Picard, and then I procrastinated until it was long enough ago that it seems pointless. Anyway, this is what I've dabbled in more recently.
Raised by Wolves. In the distant future, humans gamble on two different ways to colonise another planet. But the factions that were at war on earth are bringing their battle to the new world too.
This series starts out weird but intriguing, and slowly leaks its information as the episodes go on, stitching together the backstory and character details. The cinematography is fantastic, and Amanda Collin is absolutely brilliant. She really captures an incredible alien-ness, utterly convincing as an android closely mimicing human behaviour, but never quite closely enough. As the story develops, it becomes more than just interesting and grows the needed emotional punch. And then after most things are explained and tied together, the last episode throws out a complete WTF and sets up a second series that will be as crazy weird as the first!
The Great. There have been four different series about Catherine the Great that I know of over the last few years. Hulu's take on her is almost entirely devoid of historical accuracy, and very big on lewd comedy. It is definitely funny, but there's also an underlying political seriousness and emotional heart to it. If you saw the brilliant film The Favourite for which Olivia Coleman won an Oscar, that's exactly the vibe running through The Great.
Bojack Horseman. I've been hearing the word about how good Bojack Horseman is for several years now, and finally got around to starting on it. The word was not wrong. I watched the first episode, and by the end I was laughing hard and saying, 'This is genius!' That is so rare with comedy. The Good Place grabbed me from the start, but Parks and Rec and Brooklynn 99 both had entire first series that struggled to find what worked before they got it honed.
What works so well for Bojack Horseman is that he is bitter and cynical and often horrible, but there's enough heart to him and enough occasions where he tries so hard, even if he fails, that you still feel for him, especially since the backstory makes it all so understandable. Funny, stabbing, vicious, but still with characters that make you genuinely care underneath. So hard to get the balance right, and so brilliant when it's nailed like this.
Schitt's Creek. Another series where I've been hearing much about how good and funny it is. We watched the first episode and we both hated it. I really don't like comedy where all the humour is about how awful these people are. Yes, I agree, they're awful, and I don't want to laugh at them, I want to slap them. It's the same reason I bailed on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which a lot of people seem to like. With Schitt's Creek, it wasn't just the fish out of water rich people who were awful, the locals (in the shape of the town mayor) were the worst kind of stereotyped hicks too.
So the SO got onto his twitter people and asked them when Schitt's Creek actually gets good. Like I said, some comedy takes time, and I'm willing to sit through a ropey first season if it's short. Unfortunately, the most common answers were that it gets good about season 3 or 4. I'm not willing to sit through that much pain. One episode is all Schitt's Creek will ever get!
Raised by Wolves. In the distant future, humans gamble on two different ways to colonise another planet. But the factions that were at war on earth are bringing their battle to the new world too.
This series starts out weird but intriguing, and slowly leaks its information as the episodes go on, stitching together the backstory and character details. The cinematography is fantastic, and Amanda Collin is absolutely brilliant. She really captures an incredible alien-ness, utterly convincing as an android closely mimicing human behaviour, but never quite closely enough. As the story develops, it becomes more than just interesting and grows the needed emotional punch. And then after most things are explained and tied together, the last episode throws out a complete WTF and sets up a second series that will be as crazy weird as the first!
The Great. There have been four different series about Catherine the Great that I know of over the last few years. Hulu's take on her is almost entirely devoid of historical accuracy, and very big on lewd comedy. It is definitely funny, but there's also an underlying political seriousness and emotional heart to it. If you saw the brilliant film The Favourite for which Olivia Coleman won an Oscar, that's exactly the vibe running through The Great.
Bojack Horseman. I've been hearing the word about how good Bojack Horseman is for several years now, and finally got around to starting on it. The word was not wrong. I watched the first episode, and by the end I was laughing hard and saying, 'This is genius!' That is so rare with comedy. The Good Place grabbed me from the start, but Parks and Rec and Brooklynn 99 both had entire first series that struggled to find what worked before they got it honed.
What works so well for Bojack Horseman is that he is bitter and cynical and often horrible, but there's enough heart to him and enough occasions where he tries so hard, even if he fails, that you still feel for him, especially since the backstory makes it all so understandable. Funny, stabbing, vicious, but still with characters that make you genuinely care underneath. So hard to get the balance right, and so brilliant when it's nailed like this.
Schitt's Creek. Another series where I've been hearing much about how good and funny it is. We watched the first episode and we both hated it. I really don't like comedy where all the humour is about how awful these people are. Yes, I agree, they're awful, and I don't want to laugh at them, I want to slap them. It's the same reason I bailed on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which a lot of people seem to like. With Schitt's Creek, it wasn't just the fish out of water rich people who were awful, the locals (in the shape of the town mayor) were the worst kind of stereotyped hicks too.
So the SO got onto his twitter people and asked them when Schitt's Creek actually gets good. Like I said, some comedy takes time, and I'm willing to sit through a ropey first season if it's short. Unfortunately, the most common answers were that it gets good about season 3 or 4. I'm not willing to sit through that much pain. One episode is all Schitt's Creek will ever get!
no subject
Date: 2020-12-06 06:47 am (UTC)