A modest Fall nerd TV guide

Desdichado · Sep 26, 2014

Of those, I'll absolutely watch Rebels, and I'll give Flash and Constantine a try. Anything else that gets solid reviews, I'll catch later on Netflix or DVD (which I'll also get from Netflix, come to think of it.)

As for Rebels being a kids' show; maybe. Not any moreso than the Clone Wars show, I don't think. That was good from the start, and only got better (and more mature) as the seasons progressed. I give major props to Dave Filoni and the rest of the Clone Wars crew who--along with some help from BioWare--rehabilitated the Star Wars franchise enough that I can be cautiously excited about Episode VII again.

Desdichado · Sep 26, 2014

Of those, I'll absolutely watch Rebels, and I'll give Flash and Constantine a try. Anything else that gets solid reviews, I'll catch later on Netflix or DVD (which I'll also get from Netflix, come to think of it.)

As for Rebels being a kids' show; maybe. Not any moreso than the Clone Wars show, I don't think. That was good from the start, and only got better (and more mature) as the seasons progressed. I give major props to Dave Filoni and the rest of the Clone Wars crew who--along with some help from BioWare--rehabilitated the Star Wars franchise enough that I can be cautiously excited about Episode VII again.

WayneLigon · Sep 29, 2014

Gotham was a very pretty show, and it gave us an absolutely stunning view of the City of Gotham that the last two Nolan movies never bothered with. All of the cast is amazing, and the whole dynamic is pretty darn good. It's still an exercise in futility though, and the only thing that would really make it palatable would be for second season to follow the Arrow idea of ramping up the fantastic elements after getting people used to the characters, and start off with 'Ten Years Later...', ending with adult Bruce jumping off a gargoyle in full costume for the first time. Then season three is 'Batman: Year One', and ends with the death of the Flying Graysons.

Forever. I watched the pilot and wasn't really impressed. I try not to be nit-picky, but it seems... a little strange. I like the medical angle, and I like the fantastic element that not only is he just long-lived but that he gets resurrected. And it's kind of fascinating that because of this, he has no fear of death - he's pretty much willing to 'commit suicide' to do what needs to be done. Then we have to tie that all up with my single most hated trope in all of fiction: Boo Hoo, I Have Superpowers, I Hate Them So. You're good-looking, rich, AND you can't die or age. What kind of complete moron is this idiot that he wants that to end? Even the whole '200 years' is a little annoying - if he'd been doing this for a couple of thousand years, yeah, maybe I can see him hating the idea of losing yet another lover to Time, but 200 years seems far too short for him to develop some of the ideas he has. Speaking of those: OK, apparently the body vanishes when he resurrects. That means everything he's carrying on him, every time, vanishes. Now, I can see him preparing for this eventuality but we should have seen it in the pilot, with him having a box of identical ID's, credit cards or pre-loaded debit cards, etc, etc. It seems... odd to have him in such a public job. I may catch a couple more episodes to see if they develop this idea any more.

Tonguez · Sep 30, 2014

SteveC said:
So I managed to catch the first episode of Gotham, and it was kind of what I feared. We were introduced to way too many characters right off the bat, and Catwoman, yeah, not really liking that she has a part in Bruce's orgin story.

Yet, I actually liked the show enough to keep watching it, because the two main leads are interesting enough. I have this weakness for characters who are trying to be the good guys in a world of bad. I know it's a cliche, but hey, it's not the worst thing.

Hopefully they'll tone down the number of characters they introduce ... when they get to Killer Croc in season one I'm definitely crying uncle.

I'm still trying to get over the shock of an Australian Alfred!!! oh and I fell asleep

Morrus · Sep 30, 2014

Tonguez said:
I'm still trying to get over the shock of an Australian Alfred!!! oh and I fell asleep

Huh? Sean Pertwee? He's not Australian. Neither was his dad, Jon Pertwee, the third Doctor.

Homicidal_Squirrel · Sep 30, 2014

SteveC said:
The Flash (CW)
Okay, here’s a new show on the CW. Of all the new shows I’m going to talk about, this is one of them that will get me the most flak. Yes, it’s the CW, and that means it’s going to have a lot of soap opera elements. It’s going to have wooden acting and ridiculous plots.

And yet, I give you exhibit A... the comic book. The literary form that is pretty much a soap opera for adolescent boys. Oh, did I just say that? And even more: this is a DC show, and the second DC show I’m plugging. Is my Marvel cred in jeopardy?

Okay, I’m granting you all of that, but as someone who watches Arrow (also on the CW) I can tell you it’s a much better show at being true to comic books than, say Agents of SHIELD. Agents is a dull caper of the week show that, aside from Agent Coulson, has almost nothing to do with Marvel’s cinematic universe.

Arrow, on the other hand, is chock full of references to the DC universe that even I (a Marvel, remember?) get. It’s also, for all of it’s faults an actual comic book show. We’re not talking high art here, but it does a very good job of portraying the conflicts that happen in the comics. The first season of Arrow even had a huge plot behind everything called The Undertaking that pretty much involved all of the characters at one point or another with bad monologuing. It was a really good example of superhero storytelling.

It also had time for a lot of character exploration and development by way of being an entire season of a TV series. And the second season had crazy crossovers with other parts of the DC universe and all of the characters that they have the rights to (everyone but Supes and Batman are fair game it seems).

About in the middle of Arrow's Season Two, they introduced us to Barry Allen and we got to see a little of how he becomes the Flash. It was fun. Not so dark and somber, just fun.

Here’s the trailer.

I’m really going to suggest checking this series out of you’re really a comic book nerd. It’s a really interesting contrast with what Marvel has done with their movies, and it’s much better than Agents of SHIELD. Beyond that, it seems to have a more positive overall attitude than Arrow, which can be dark at some times.

Flash is really the only show I'm going to try and check out. The trailer looked good. The ads they keep running look pretty good, too. I'm just hoping it's not like Arrow. I wanted to like it, but it got boring rather quickly. Hopefully Flash doesn't do the same.

SteveC · Oct 1, 2014

Morrus said:
Huh? Sean Pertwee? He's not Australian. Neither was his dad, Jon Pertwee, the third Doctor.

Yeah, I think it will keep me watching for a while based on this alone. I trust we'll get to know more about Alfred pretty soon.

Ryujin · Oct 1, 2014

"Gracepoint" is the Americanization of a truly great UK show "Broadchurch", which also co-starred David Tennant. Hopefully it won't end up getting the "Red Dwarf" treatment in translation.

Morrus · Oct 1, 2014

Ryujin said:
"Gracepoint" is the Americanization of a truly great UK show "Broadchurch", which also co-starred David Tennant. Hopefully it won't end up getting the "Red Dwarf" treatment in translation.

I understand the reasoning behind some remakes. It's rarely because the foreign audience won't understand it, or the accents, or will reject anything that doesn't look exactly like the street outside their houses, as folks often like to say, but it's because of show formats and lengths; the US has different season lengths and the like, and often wishes to continue a series for longer than the story told in the original in multiple seasons of 12 or 24 episodes. That's cool. It makes sense. Being Human made sense as a remake for that reason, for example.

Why did I say all that? Because this, as a choice, seems weird to me. I know True Detective has done well, and there's a market right now for realistic cop dramas (just look at The Bridge/The Tunnel, The Killing, and all that stuff, which is what has prompted this recent trend - a trend I thoroughly approve of because it's resulting in some really good TV). But remaking Broadchurch? I dunno. It seems kinda pointless to me. Especially since they're using David Tennant in the exact same role as the original. I assume they're changing the ending?

Ryujin · Oct 1, 2014

Morrus said:
I understand the reasoning behind some remakes. It's rarely because the foreign audience won't understand it, or the accents, or will reject anything that doesn't look exactly like the street outside their houses, as folks often like to say, but it's because of show formats and lengths; the US has different season lengths and the like, and often wishes to continue a series for longer than the story told in the original in multiple seasons of 12 or 24 episodes. That's cool. It makes sense. Being Human made sense as a remake for that reason, for example.

Why did I say all that? Because this, as a choice, seems weird to me. I know True Detective has done well, and there's a market right now for realistic cop dramas (just look at The Bridge/The Tunnel, The Killing, and all that stuff, which is what has prompted this recent trend - a trend I thoroughly approve of because it's resulting in some really good TV). But remaking Broadchurch? I dunno. It seems kinda pointless to me. Especially since they're using David Tennant in the exact same role as the original. I assume they're changing the ending?

Tennant's American accent is good, but rather jarring when you've seen his previous work.

Given that most American series now do a 'mid season break', the length of series is beginning to look more and more like the UK 10-12 episode model. There may be be 22 or 23 shows in their 'season', but there's a definite split in the middle. Some shows are even doing the 12 episode model, over here in North America. With how long some rather good American series have been dragged out, to the point at which they've become caricatures of themselves (ER and House, to name two, with Castle being in danger of going the same way), I'm beginning to envy how many UK series have a beginning, middle, and end that resolves the lot.

Odds are they won't make any changes to the original story, despite some already having seen the original on cable. In fact I believe Broadchurch is currently running in the US. That makes the choice of remaking it even more odd. I saw if several months ago, on Canadian cable.

And I mentioned Red Dwarf for a specific reason. When they made two separate pilots, for the American audience, they tried to retain much of the English slang that's part of what made it so funny. The majority of North American viewers had no idea what they were saying and hearing the expressions said with a Mid-Western American accent, except for the lines delivered by Jane Leeves (I could have sworn that she called herself 'Jan' when she first got over here), made them make absolutely no sense.

Unfortunately North American television and film making has become largely moribund. They're casting around in all directions for the ideas of someone else, that have already been successful, because they have none of their own left. They're even going to be making a movie based on the old "Man from Uncle" series, that's slated for release next year. To be frank I expected that back when "The Avengers" (Patrick MacNee, not superheroes) was released, some years back, but they've waited until now.

A modest Fall nerd TV guide

Desdichado

Hero

Desdichado

Hero

WayneLigon

Adventurer

Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Homicidal_Squirrel

Adventurer

SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself

Ryujin

Legend

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Ryujin

Legend

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