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Tiggy's Long Overdue TV Round-Up
Oct. 7th, 2019 04:42 pm
Or good stuff I've been watching over the past 6 months:
Santa Clarita Diet: The third season of this was just as funny, smart and twisty as the first two. Great comedy, great satire, with characters that really work and constantly throw you with the way they evolve. I always knew Timothy Olyphant gave great drama, but this was the first time I'd seen him do comedy and he kills it (hah! puns, yes). Sadly it was cancelled, but at least it didn't carry on until it got bad.
Legion: Another show where the third season came out, and another season just as insane and brilliant and mesmerising as the first two. F/X really let the creative team behind Legion run from the start, they never tried to contain it, and it was gloriously original. Fortunately the third season of Legion had only just been confirmed when Disney brought the great hammer of cancellation down on every Marvel TV show, so unlike the sad case of the Netfix properties, the writers of Legion knew they had to wrap it up once and for all and they actually got to write an ending. Did Legion sometimes take its unique brand of trippy insanity a little too far? Possibly, now and then, but I'd far rather have it that way than get yet another series that's boring and formulaic.
Chernobyl: Really good drama, not easy to watch though. The story of the disaster and its consequences was brilliantly told, with a solid script and great actors. If I had to pick holes, I wish they hadn't dwelled so much on the pregnant wife - I find your story and your scientists and your politicians and your workers fascinating, I don't need a sad woman hanging around to add 'human interest' and slowing everything down. I'm interested enough in your plot-relevant characters and their science, really I am.
Killing Eve: I got a bit annoyed with this back when I was watching season one. I was hoping for Hannibal-esque intense psychological drama, and I kept those hopes up for quite some time, with Eve seeming brilliant and dedicated and generally awesome at her job. And then at the end of season one she flaked out - she set everything up beautifully and then panicked, which left me sulking. Anyway, I watched season two, going into it with the knowledge that Eve was prone to being irrational and impulsive, and watched in a lighter vein, it was very entertaining. If anybody but Jodie Comer had won the Emmy, it would have been a lie, she is AMAZING.
The Umbrella Academy: Love, love, love! Crazy and twisting comic book adaptation and it all actually hangs together, with an absolutely awesome cast of characters (Luther I found dull, but he was the only one I could have lived without). Aidan Gallagher is absolutely unbelievable as Five. I keep forgetting how unbelievable, because he's so convincing as a traumatised, bitter fifty year old stuck in the body of a 15 year old boy that it's really hard to remember there's actually a 15 year old actor having to play all of that.
Guardian: Obscure (in the west anyway) Chinese drama based on a boys' love novel where the central relationship is openly gay, but because of Chinese censorship issues, it’s downgraded in the TV version to merely Very Very Slashy. (Chinese censorship seems to be a bit odd – it’s apparently fine to have other characters refer to their relationship in romantic terms as long as what they actively DO is confined to gazing at each other yearningly and clinging to one another in dire situations, which they do a lot.) It’s a fantasy plot involving super-powered aliens which is clearly set on earth, although they claim it’s a planet called Haixing, because again Chinese censorship is weird (the book is set on earth). The premise is that some aliens came to earth/Haixing millennia ago and there was a nasty war, at the end of which a deal was struck. Two different races of aliens have since been living quietly out of the way on earth, looking like humans, and most humans now regard the existence of aliens as a myth. But the authorities know they’re real, and one of the main characters is the head of a police department which investigates any weird stuff that happens in case it involves super-powered aliens who have broken the agreement.
Upsides – the central relationship is an absolute delight and involves one of the prettiest guys you could ever imagine laying eyes on. It also has a great supporting cast, most of them really interesting characters (only one is actively annoying). Initially it seems quite alien-of-the-week-y, but I like the way that’s handled because a lot of those early guest stars will be back in one way or another – there are very few throw-away characters, which fits with its origins as a novel.
Downsides – the budget was small, and the sets and special effects aren’t always up to the ideas! If you grew up like me watching dodgy BBC sci-fi, it won't bother you at all XD
If anybody wants to try Guardian, the only way to get the version that wasn't as heavily censored is via download - let me know in the comments if you're interested :-)
Santa Clarita Diet: The third season of this was just as funny, smart and twisty as the first two. Great comedy, great satire, with characters that really work and constantly throw you with the way they evolve. I always knew Timothy Olyphant gave great drama, but this was the first time I'd seen him do comedy and he kills it (hah! puns, yes). Sadly it was cancelled, but at least it didn't carry on until it got bad.
Legion: Another show where the third season came out, and another season just as insane and brilliant and mesmerising as the first two. F/X really let the creative team behind Legion run from the start, they never tried to contain it, and it was gloriously original. Fortunately the third season of Legion had only just been confirmed when Disney brought the great hammer of cancellation down on every Marvel TV show, so unlike the sad case of the Netfix properties, the writers of Legion knew they had to wrap it up once and for all and they actually got to write an ending. Did Legion sometimes take its unique brand of trippy insanity a little too far? Possibly, now and then, but I'd far rather have it that way than get yet another series that's boring and formulaic.
Chernobyl: Really good drama, not easy to watch though. The story of the disaster and its consequences was brilliantly told, with a solid script and great actors. If I had to pick holes, I wish they hadn't dwelled so much on the pregnant wife - I find your story and your scientists and your politicians and your workers fascinating, I don't need a sad woman hanging around to add 'human interest' and slowing everything down. I'm interested enough in your plot-relevant characters and their science, really I am.
Killing Eve: I got a bit annoyed with this back when I was watching season one. I was hoping for Hannibal-esque intense psychological drama, and I kept those hopes up for quite some time, with Eve seeming brilliant and dedicated and generally awesome at her job. And then at the end of season one she flaked out - she set everything up beautifully and then panicked, which left me sulking. Anyway, I watched season two, going into it with the knowledge that Eve was prone to being irrational and impulsive, and watched in a lighter vein, it was very entertaining. If anybody but Jodie Comer had won the Emmy, it would have been a lie, she is AMAZING.
The Umbrella Academy: Love, love, love! Crazy and twisting comic book adaptation and it all actually hangs together, with an absolutely awesome cast of characters (Luther I found dull, but he was the only one I could have lived without). Aidan Gallagher is absolutely unbelievable as Five. I keep forgetting how unbelievable, because he's so convincing as a traumatised, bitter fifty year old stuck in the body of a 15 year old boy that it's really hard to remember there's actually a 15 year old actor having to play all of that.
Guardian: Obscure (in the west anyway) Chinese drama based on a boys' love novel where the central relationship is openly gay, but because of Chinese censorship issues, it’s downgraded in the TV version to merely Very Very Slashy. (Chinese censorship seems to be a bit odd – it’s apparently fine to have other characters refer to their relationship in romantic terms as long as what they actively DO is confined to gazing at each other yearningly and clinging to one another in dire situations, which they do a lot.) It’s a fantasy plot involving super-powered aliens which is clearly set on earth, although they claim it’s a planet called Haixing, because again Chinese censorship is weird (the book is set on earth). The premise is that some aliens came to earth/Haixing millennia ago and there was a nasty war, at the end of which a deal was struck. Two different races of aliens have since been living quietly out of the way on earth, looking like humans, and most humans now regard the existence of aliens as a myth. But the authorities know they’re real, and one of the main characters is the head of a police department which investigates any weird stuff that happens in case it involves super-powered aliens who have broken the agreement.
Upsides – the central relationship is an absolute delight and involves one of the prettiest guys you could ever imagine laying eyes on. It also has a great supporting cast, most of them really interesting characters (only one is actively annoying). Initially it seems quite alien-of-the-week-y, but I like the way that’s handled because a lot of those early guest stars will be back in one way or another – there are very few throw-away characters, which fits with its origins as a novel.
Downsides – the budget was small, and the sets and special effects aren’t always up to the ideas! If you grew up like me watching dodgy BBC sci-fi, it won't bother you at all XD
If anybody wants to try Guardian, the only way to get the version that wasn't as heavily censored is via download - let me know in the comments if you're interested :-)
