The TV and Streaming Thread: Summer Reruns

[LadyCrimson]

Speaking of dragons, a while back I seem to recall Warner Bro's getting the rights to Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern at some point (dunno if they're still the holders). But there has been silence re: products. Seems like that would be ripe for an Amazon/HBO/Disney/whatever streaming series at this point (tech and cgi being what they are now). I would watch that. Or try to anyway, not sure how it would translate to screen, even if done "well."

Pern dragons/that world still hold a fave dragons spot for me. Early teenage reader nostalgia probably. Now I want to re-read the "Dragonriders trilogy."

[Amentep]

It was optioned in 2014 last.  Screenwriter Sarah Cornwell was tasked with writing the adaption.  Hasn't been any news since, that I can tell, on the project.

[Raithe]

The Sound of 007

Stumbled on an interesting documentary following the development of music across the Bond films. Lots of talking heads from throughout the years, singers, songwriters, etc.

Some amusing little stories behind some of it all.

[Chairchucker]

Season finale of She-Hulk went some interesting places. Enjoyed it, but after the second last episode, I was kinda hoping for a little more violence if I'm honest. I get it, though.

[uuuhhii]

last few episode of she hulk what the show try to do become more clear and competent.but what it was trying was not that interesting to begin with and end up a pretty boring show that probably wasted a lot more budget than standard tv show

[Lexx]

Finished Fear the Walking Dead season 7. My god this was such a heap of garbage. I have no idea how they were able to write this crap. It's probably the worst writing in any of the Walking Dead franchise that I have yet to see.

Just one thing about it ... the rules of the universe keeps changing all the time. Zombies are radiated and kill you if you touch them only if necessary for the story. One time they are so deadly, you can't go near them, and the next time you can just whatever them with a puny knife.

Anyways, did they never heard about spears? Why do they keep knifing Zs? Humanity uses spears for as long as we can remember, but not in the Walking Dead, no sir, spears are an absolute no-go here.

It's also funny how a group of like 10 Zs is a big problem in one scene and absolutely no big deal in another scene. They just keep making up whatever is necessary for the story. Granted, this issue is also in the normal Walking Dead since forever, so whatever I guess.

Anyways. Need to find a new tv show now, preferably something that won't melt my brain.

[majestic]

Are there really going to be five seasons of Rings of Power, or is there a chance - any chance, really - that we somehow magically get spared a second one because Bezos is unhappy and cancels everything?

edit:

Spoiler

Had to stop watching for now after it was revealed that Sauron fell from the sky with no memories.

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by majestic

[Hurlshort]

It's only going to get cancelled if people don't watch it. I doubt anything else matters.

[majestic]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

Are there really going to be five seasons of Rings of Power, or is there a chance - any chance, really - that we somehow magically get spared a second one because Bezos is unhappy and cancels everything?

edit:

  Reveal hidden contents

Had to stop watching for now after it was revealed that Sauron fell from the sky with no memories.

 

I should have not turned that episode off so soon, because it gets even 'better' from there.

Spoiler

Man fallen from the sky with no memory is one of the Istari, the weird cultists made a mistake, so we're back to him most likely being Gandalf, like 2000 years early.

Spoiler

Halbrand is Sauron.

 

35 minutes ago, Hurlshort said:

It's only going to get cancelled if people don't watch it. I doubt anything else matters.

Vanity projects of rich people have a way of getting the axe whenever they feel like it, and Rings of Power is most certainly not the Game of Thrones of Amazon Prime that Bezos for some reason so desperately wants to happen. Point in case, although entirely unrelated to filmmaking, we once had a billionaire invest in a local football club here. They hired a couple of good players and a new coach, everything was going well. Played good football, were leading the league with more than a decent margin, finances were fine, the works.

Billionaire investor went ahead and fired the coach and installed one of his own choosing because the old one was too 'provincial' for his more sophisticated taste, and he wanted someone with an  international reputation, so the club in question ended up with a known cocaine addict. They still won the championship this year, but not with the same comfortable lead they enjoyed he sacked the old coach, and while not playing nearly as entertaining football.

Of course, the equivalent here would be to fire the showrunners while they enjoy high praise from both professional critics and the audience alike, but as we say here, not everything that has a limp is a comparison (it makes more sense in German ). 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I have not seen more than 10 minutes of Bezos' Billion Dollar Fanfic and already that is too much.

1 hour ago, Hurlshort said:

It's only going to get cancelled if people don't watch it. I doubt anything else matters.

I think it's not that simple, we have to take into account production costs as well. If millions of people are watching RoP or WoT or whatever that's fine and dandy, but if they average $50 million an episode, they're gonna need a lot more than viewers than most shows. Maybe RoP is getting that, maybe not.

I do feel obligated to say that I don't think such number crunching is conductive to good TV or cinema, but it is how most studios are working today.

40 minutes ago, majestic said:

I should have not turned that episode off so soon, because it gets even 'better' from there.

  Reveal hidden contents

Man fallen from the sky with no memory is one of the Istari, the weird cultists made a mistake, so we're back to him most likely being Gandalf, like 2000 years early.

  Reveal hidden contents

Halbrand is Sauron.

 

Vanity projects of rich people have a way of getting the axe whenever they feel like it, and Rings of Power is most certainly not the Game of Thrones of Amazon Prime that Bezos for some reason so desperately wants to happen. Point in case, although entirely unrelated to filmmaking, we once had a billionaire invest in a local football club here. They hired a couple of good players and a new coach, everything was going well. Played good football, were leading the league with more than a decent margin, finances were fine, the works.

Billionaire investor went ahead and fired the coach and installed one of his own choosing because the old one was too 'provincial' for his more sophisticated taste, and he wanted someone with an  international reputation, so the club in question ended up with a known cocaine addict. They still won the championship this year, but not with the same comfortable lead they enjoyed he sacked the old coach, and while not playing nearly as entertaining football.

Of course, the equivalent here would be to fire the showrunners while they enjoy high praise from both professional critics and the audience alike, but as we say here, not everything that has a limp is a comparison (it makes more sense in German ). 

The thing is they hired two guys who didn't have a credit to their names, so it'd be like if the billionaire in question hired some guy he found yelling at a TV in a bar to coach the team. Obviously everyone starts from somwhere and it's a good thing to take a chance on creatives, but for a show that screams no expense spared you'd think they'd have gone with veterans instead of a couple of geen dudes who speak Elvish. So much about this show is mind-boggling.

Edited October 14, 2022 by KP From Another World

[Hurlshort]

There is nothing mind-boggling about the Harfoots. They are adorable. But this LA Times column seems to break it down pretty well in terms of reception: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-10-13/lord-of-the-rings-rings-of-power-amazon-season-1-audience

I'm enjoying it tremendously and look forward to a 5-season run. But I'm also not hung up on the lore. I see a lot of debates about the lore when I play LotRO, which makes me chuckle. The whole premise of LotRO is that you make a character that as basically standing next to Aragorn and Gandalf during all the biggest moments. It's totally lore-breaking.  But it's fun and the world is a joy to live in for a bit. I enjoyed the visuals of Numenor, and the making or Mordor, and the Dwarven halls. The high price tag shows in the eye candy.

Unlike this guy from WoT:

I think they hired the same people that did the Kilrathi in the Wing Commander movie. 

[Amentep]

I have to admit, I kinda want to rewatch the Wing Commander movie sometimes.

[HoonDing]

I'm still looking forward to Eliza Dushku's Black Company vanity project

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

56 minutes ago, Hurlshort said:

There is nothing mind-boggling about the Harfoots

I don't know what a harfoot is.

Frankly I don't care about stuff like lore much, Better Call Saul broke the Breaking Bad lore by not having Jimmy catch his second wife with his stepdad and the show still works because it's got a great cast playing great characters and beautiful cinematography. When I see stuff like RoP it just doesn't have that X factor, no matter how much money got poured in to teaching the cast Elvish or great makeup on the goblins, it just doesn't do it for me. Maybe I'm too jaded to enjoy high fantasy and need to see mind-breaking or depressing stuff to be interested, but I just can't seem to care about Elves or incest royals riding dragons.

[Zoraptor]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

Are there really going to be five seasons of Rings of Power, or is there a chance - any chance, really - that we somehow magically get spared a second one because Bezos is unhappy and cancels everything?

No. If nothing else sunk costs are almost certainly too high.

There is also, of course, the example of Wheel of Time which has somehow got renewed for three years despite being so bad even Hurlshot finds it hard to say anything nice about and having an even less experienced/ competent showrunner.

[Zoraptor]

Was going to edit it in, but meh...

Got a bit of a laugh from this article.

"“Sauron can now just be Sauron,” McKay adds. “Like Tony Soprano or Walter White. He’s evil, but complexly evil. We felt like if we did that in season one, he’d overshadow everything else. So the first season is like Batman Begins, and the The Dark Knight is the next movie, with Sauron maneuvering out in the open. We’re really excited. Season two has a canonical story. There may well be viewers who are like, ‘This is the story we were hoping to get in season one!’ In season two, we’re giving it to them.” "

Nothing says Sauron can be Sauron quite like comparing him to a succession of other characters who aren't Sauron and seem to have been picked solely because they're the most critically acclaimed televisual villains of the past 20 years. And, I guess, the most acclaimed film villain of the same period (if you count a single playing card in BB as being an appearance by the Joker).

If there's one Soprano that would make a good Sauron it's Livia anyway.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

If Sauron is Walter White, who is Jesse Pinkman? The Harfoot?

[Malcador]

2 hours ago, Amentep said:

I have to admit, I kinda want to rewatch the Wing Commander movie sometimes.

Self harm is not the way, Amentep.

[majestic]

There are a couple of main issues with Rings of Power, and Sauron and whatever 'canonical' story they think they have for season two not being in season one was not one of them.

1. The series is, by far and large, boring. This is the largest issue, because it gives the viewer plenty of time to appreciate the other failings in more detail.
2. The acting is serviceable at best, atrocious (hello Galadriel) at worst.
3. Plot points feel like they're making me dumberer just for look at them. Me will smash you. Smash you to goo!
4. The dialogue writing is, well, terrible, and its delivery is stilted and unnatural.
5. So many flat shots.
6. Costume design looks like cosplayers can do a better job of it, even when it is decent they went with the Hobbit look, not the Lord of the Rings look.
7. The combination of 2 and 4 means poor casting and direction.

Much of that is to be expected when you have a largely inexperience showrunning crew. Everyone has to start at some point, but a project of this size and budget could have done with some veterans to help out.

Then there are some minor problems:

• The lore is not consistent even with what preciously little of it they licensed, the show directly contradicts Lord of the Ring's appendices.
• The ultimate prequel issue of trying to fashion drama from foregone conclusions.
• The elves are so unelven that I feel like apologizing to Liv Tyler for calling her a terrible choice for Arwen.

Overall it just translated into something that is simply not enjoyable. The cinematography is boring, the cast was chosen for their ability to make vapid faces or gaze wistfully just beyond the camera while speaking their dialogue in a terribly stilted, unnatural and often monotone way. There are way too many plot lines in way too many locations, all at once, something that worked in Game of Thrones for a while but even there eventually became problematic.

Edited October 14, 2022 by majestic

[Hurlshort]

49 minutes ago, KP From Another World said:

If Sauron is Walter White, who is Jesse Pinkman? The Harfoot?

Nah, it's the kid with the mark of Sauron, I think. Theo?

[InsaneCommander]

I saw only a few scenes of RoP and it was enough to notice some of the problems @majesticmentioned. I don't think I'll see any more of it. I'm enjoying House of the Dragon so far as at least it has an interesting story and the dialogues are much better than  the little I saw in RoP.

Now let's hope the show is not cancelled immediately so that these guys don't end up involved in a possible Cosmere tv show.

And talking about that, wasn't there a rumor once that Beniof and Weiss would join the Rings of Power team? Not sure how that would have turned out, better, worse or simply a different kind of terrible.

[majestic]

6 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

And talking about that, wasn't there a rumor once that Beniof and Weiss would join the Rings of Power team? Not sure how that would have turned out, better, worse or simply a different kind of terrible.

They were also supposed to do something related to Star Wars, funny how nothing of that materialized after that final Game of Thrones season.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

23 minutes ago, Hurlshort said:

Nah, it's the kid with the mark of Sauron, I think. Theo?

I'm pretty sure Sauron is going to put the Harfoots to work cooking fantasy meth in Mordor.

[Hurlshort]

7 hours ago, majestic said:

I should have not turned that episode off so soon, because it gets even 'better' from there.

  Reveal hidden contents

Man fallen from the sky with no memory is one of the Istari, the weird cultists made a mistake, so we're back to him most likely being Gandalf, like 2000 years early.

  Reveal hidden contents

Halbrand is Sauron.

 

 

I thought this was pretty standard TV misdirection stuff. I just watched it.

Spoiler

I never bought that grey robed guy was Sauron. 

I'm going to add Celibrimbor's forge as one of my favorite sets, too. I'm also happy with all of the acting performances. Galadriel is great. Elrond is a little jarring because Hugo Weaving sets a high bar. The Harfoots were even better in episode 8.

[Hurlshort]

On further reflection about RoP and the conclusion of Season 1:

Spoiler

The forging of the Elven Rings at the end was beautifully done. I'm glad they didn't end it with some battle. The song at the end was perfect. It's my new favorite show for sure. The last episode focused on the best storylines and I appreciated that. I'm excited that I hopefully get another 4 seasons of this.