The Golden Axe TV series on Paramount+

[MarkB]

But you already are, right? For Star Trek?

Not anymore, in my case. After a certain dire episode, I bailed on the series and cancelled my subscription. First time I've done that with a Star Trek streaming show.

 

[Jahydin]

Sorry, I didn't actually check to see if they worked, I just posted the links I found.

They work, just region locked to USA. I don't think there's a way to check for that either, right? Be nice to know so we could tag appropriately and find links that do work for others.

 

[Willie the Duck]

So I only had time and inclination to watch the first 5 minutes or so of ep.1, and I can't say I liked it.

Maybe that's what the younger generation likes these days, but I hated the first episode.

Wow... that was awful. Was really hoping for a Western Record of Lodoss War, but of course it's the same tired millennial meta humor as ever other "adult" cartoon.

I feel exactly the same, except I think that "Younger generation" = millennials in their late 30s and early 40s (at least as far as writers are concerned). My only guess is a lot of these people grew up loving that style of humor when it was new and novel, but lack the love of the original source material and the actual wit to say something insightful as say, Kevin Smith waxing intellectual about Star Wars in Clerks.

Creator Mike McMahan is 45, so in that regard it is 'younger generation,' 'millennial,' or 'millennials in their late 30s and early 40s' (assuming one is older than that and 45 can qualify for 'early 40s'). However, I'm not sure I'd lay the blame for the parts of this I don't like at the demographic's feet. This really more reminds me of Southpark, sure Kevin Smith, and most significantly Matt Groening's Disenchantment. I'm more inclined to say that this is just a poor implementation of a thing, rather than it be a distinct thing (particularly from a distinct timeframe or creator date of birth timeframe or something like that).

Most of it just comes off as shallow observations of story patterns without any real thought into why there's patterns to begin with. Like noticing most strong, male leaders are stoic fellows with large muscles and long beards, so I'm going to make my mine an insecure, asthmatic pipsqueak! I'm so smart!

This being a good example. That same pattern, applied well, is how we got Bugs Bunny -- noticing that most cute fluffy forest animals run away from the advancing hunter, so let's make ours pull out a carrot, sneak up behind the hunter, and confidently inquire 'what's up doc?' (I'm so smart!). One has better execution than the other, but I'm not convinced they are systematically different.

I played a fair amount of Golden Ax on my friends Sega, but i am not sure I remember any of the lore or that it had a story outside of hack hack hack. So it feels like a odd choice to make a series about regardless if it is serious or not.

Im kinda surprised folks expected this to be a serious drama.

I don't think I ever even heard of the original game, much less played it. But having clicked around at bits of the video GMMicheal posted, I saw nothing in that which says it should be taken seriously.

I think that's the other bit of it. There isn't a lot of 'there' there for the IP, so it isn't specifically clear that it shouldn't be a parody. I'd almost say any version that got made was going to be. Ax Battler and Tyris Flare are pretty clearly Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja with the serial numbers filled off, so if you were going to make a serious series, you'd probably try to use them instead (if you could secure the rights). As to why a Golden Axe series at all, I'm not sure. It could be someone's favorite game from bitd. It could be a lower-value property being used to field-test Joe Chandler (McMahan already being known for Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Chandler being the showrunner for the post-pilot episodes). I suspect part of it was that it was an IP that was just sitting there without anyone doing anything with it at the moment. So kinda like the Rob Zombie Munsters or Mindy Kaling Velma (and assuming many people agree that it isn't great), this is probably not what many fans of the IP wanted, but in the end an easy to ignore side trip the IP took that didn't pan out.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

They work, just region locked to USA. I don't think there's a way to check for that either, right? Be nice to know so we could tag appropriately and find links that do work for others.

There is, but it’s

 

[sevenbastard]

I didn't watch the show, but I did play Golden Axe on my girlfriend switch this weekend. I forgot how bad I was at it.

 

[Tonguez]

People keep quipping about the Golden Ax lore but really its no more shallow than a whole lot of other properties of its kind.
You have a cluster of medieval kingdoms in the Land of Yuria being conquered by a giant Warlord, an ancient relic from a mythic battle between giants and the gods, a full roster of monsters, including rideable cockatrice and dragons, and three survivors from the Warlords first conquest who vow to seek vengeance and recover the eponymous Golden Axe - Barbarian hero, an Amazon Princess and a Dwarf Soldier each with their own elemental affinity and traumatic loss. With the expanded Lore of the 9 crystals, and fractured kingdoms and ongoing war you have a great setting for swords and scorcery story telling

 

[Sossij]

I'll give it a go because Lower Decks actually did a great balance of parody with genuine love for the material, but what I'm seeing here and what I've seen of the trailers isn't encouraging.

 

[Jahydin]

There is, but it’s

Don't leave me hanging!

 

[cbwjm]

Noooooo! Not Volcano Larry!