Netflix and Kill Me

[mharr]

Neil Gaiman has a long history of saying very progressive-sounding things on social media, and then doing some Rough Shit in his actual work and life.

Like giving speeches about how artists should reject being undervalued and expect actual no-shit payment for their work until Amanda wanted his fans to make her a bunch of free shit for the exposure?

[Blossom]

Let's not forget boosting the crowdfunds of people who wanted to raise money to pay for his Master Class writing videos.

[Thad]

Neil Gaiman has a long history of saying very progressive-sounding things on social media, and then doing some Rough Shit in his actual work and life.

Like giving speeches about how artists should reject being undervalued and expect actual no-shit payment for their work until Amanda wanted his fans to make her a bunch of free shit for the exposure?

I'm more inclined to lay that at her feet than his.

Now, flying to a different hemisphere because you and your wife had a fight, violating quarantine during a pandemic, and then spending the next several months publicly being Very Sad that you can't see her and your son? That reflects not just extremely poor judgement, but the rarefied sort of total disconnect from reality that's only accessible to the rich and famous.

(Though I guess at least by celebrity breakdown standards, that's pretty mild.)

[zaratustra]

Neil Gaiman's work was an important stepping stone in inclusivity in comics, but the thing about stepping stones is that you move on to the next one.

And believe me, there is only so much well-off white dudes on their late thirties can say about society.

[Mongrel]

And believe me, there is only so much well-off white dudes on their late thirties can say about society.

Oh I dunno. Seems to me like there's no limits whatsoever on what a middle-aged white guy might say about society. :V

[nosimpleway]

...we live in a society?

[Thad]

Neil Gaiman's work was an important stepping stone in inclusivity in comics, but the thing about stepping stones is that you move on to the next one.

And believe me, there is only so much well-off white dudes on their late thirties can say about society.

I think all that's true, but in the context of TV, I think he's still got some use as a stepping stone. As risk-averse as comics publishers are, TV studios are much moreso. They love their Brands, their known quantities, and when they've got a couple of Brands like Sandman and Neil Gaiman, they see that as offsetting the risks of things like hiring black and queer people. (To be clear, I'm not endorsing the notion that inclusion is risky; I think that's absurd. But I think that's still very much the way studio execs think.)

And while comics is certainly a collaborative medium, TV is, of course, moreso. Gaiman's not even the showrunner (though he apparently does have some pretty significant influence on the production), and obviously the production's going to involve a whole lot of other people in the cast and crew.

From what we've seen of the cast, at least, it looks like the show's taking diversity seriously, and I think it's probably safe to say that in terms of representation among the cast, at least, it's more reflective of 2021 than 1989. Hopefully that's the case in the writers' room and elsewhere too.

As for the final product, and how far it moves past the source material? That very much remains to be seen. I think we're seeing some positive signs so far, but I agree that there are a lot of things to be wary of, and A Doll's House is right at the top of the list.

[Mongrel]

Netflix execs greenlit a show entirely for reaction memes

[KingRoyal]

Netflix had some leftover makeup and costumes after filming for Sweet Tooth wrapped

[beatbandito]

this trailer may actually be a hate crime

[KingRoyal]

All I'm gonna say is if you have a TV show idea, no matter how dogshit you think it is, go ahead and pitch it to Netflix. They will not say no.

[Joxam]

Netflix execs greenlit a show entirely for reaction memes

This new season of Beastars looks wack.

[Thad]

The Mitchells vs The Machines got delayed and dumped onto NetFlix .. Today! Formerly known as The Mitchells vs The Machines and then as Connected and now as The Mitchells vs The Machines, it's the next evolution of the animation tools used to create Spider-verse and the Lego movies, written by Gravity Falls alums.

In other words, it's absolutely worth your time. It's legitimately funny and sweet and has an incredible art style.

Finally got around to watching it, and yep, another excellent entry in the Lord-Miller canon.

[Mongrel]

Fair warnings from a friend whose opinion I generally trust with these sorts of nerd content reviews.

My expectations for the Resident Evil series on netflix were low but holy shit how can you make something this bad and actually release it

I'm going to be angry about this for DAYS if not weeks

There's just so much to unpack. The voice acting was more wooden than most trees. None of the characters were likeable. When the giant franchise mascot monster guy was giving his big bad speech at the end I was like 'Yeah makes sense to me.' The 'hero' valiantly...upholds the status quo of US imperialism to protect the interests of big pharma? Is this what we're doing now? ok

Also if your miniseries is 107 minutes long and 20 minutes of that is credits and intro then like...I don't know just cut it to an hour why does this need to be four episodes

[Thad]

The Mitchells vs The Machines got delayed and dumped onto NetFlix .. Today! Formerly known as The Mitchells vs The Machines and then as Connected and now as The Mitchells vs The Machines, it's the next evolution of the animation tools used to create Spider-verse and the Lego movies, written by Gravity Falls alums.

In other words, it's absolutely worth your time. It's legitimately funny and sweet and has an incredible art style.

Finally got around to watching it, and yep, another excellent entry in the Lord-Miller canon.

Forgot to mention the cast. I've been impressed by Maya Rudolph's voice work lately (particularly on Bless the Harts, but she's good here too), and I think Danny McBride did a great job playing against type in a role that seems like it was probably written with Nick Offerman in mind.

[Destynova]

I'm looking for some dumb fun after watching Stranger Things. Just how suitable is THE 100?

[Upthorn]

While The 100 sure is dumb, I'm not sure I would call it fun.

[Niku]

Speaking of dumb fun; we watched all of Daybreak last week, which came out and was cancelled extremely shortly afterward sometime in late 2019. It is the absolute most HOW DO YOU DO FELLOW KIDS show perhaps ever made, but if you can get through the show thinking itself infinitely fucking clever in the first two episodes it mellows out and becomes pretty alright. The bird's eye view is that the apocalypse happens, but it only kills all the adults, and now the various high school cliques have become Mad Max-esque tribes across LA. So the villains are the jocks run by a Lord Humungus type, the cheerleaders have become amazons, gamers have become bunker dwelling assassins (??), and the ragtag losers who fit nowhere are the protagonists who start forming their own non-cliche tribe oh wow.

it's not great, but it's watchable, and honestly some of the character moments and growth land really well. the problem as with so many things is that the actual lead is a milquetoast white dude who's hung up on saving The One girl he was obsessed with pre-apocalypse and it is booooooooooring as sin. also one of the other main characters is a supergenius sociopathic ten year old girl who is some of the worst adults-putting-words-in-kid-mouths offenders on top of just being the source of some of the legitimately shittiest "jokes" in the series. beyond that though, some of the jokes really do land, some of the pathos actually works, and the show is trying to have a good time so it manages it often enough. by far my favorite part of the whole thing is the biggest celebrity headliner in the series; when the main character's teacher is droning his last name during attendance, it shouldn't be a huge surprise when the milquetoast shitty principal of the school turns out to be matthew broderick.

which becomes even better further in the show; despite all adults being vaporized in the apocalypse due to some biological warfare stuff, there's a fair amount of flashbacking to pre-bomb stuff. but all of the adults who remain have become mindless kid-eating zombies -- except broderick, who was in a bomb shelter and so maintained all his intelligence, and is instead an extremely enthusiastic child-eating mild-mannered monster as the main villain of the series.

6/10 but overall liked more than i cringed.

[beatbandito]

The Mitchells vs The Machines got delayed and dumped onto NetFlix .. Today! Formerly known as The Mitchells vs The Machines and then as Connected and now as The Mitchells vs The Machines, it's the next evolution of the animation tools used to create Spider-verse and the Lego movies, written by Gravity Falls alums.

In other words, it's absolutely worth your time. It's legitimately funny and sweet and has an incredible art style.

The use of different styles and animations was really well done, and I like a lot of the voice cast, but I didn't really think Mitchells was that good a story. Besides a pretty standard cop-out that always bothers me when a movie about people working around limitations or against great odds suddenly just win the day through extreme violence. But also the main theme of family seems to want us to think a child who is doing their best to express themselves to their family is just as responsible for dealing with her father's shit as he is for supporting her. Like, they don't even attempt to make it an even field where they're both hurting each other's feelings. The dad is shown putting his family in danger, breaking things, and making rash decisions all for his own interests. The daughter... reacts poorly when her dad says he expects her to fail and breaks her laptop. These are not the same thing. Not even remotely.

But it was fun. It didn't blind me through pure force of eye rolling like Don't Look Up. And the introduction scene for Eric & Deborahbot 5000 had me laughing actually out loud.