Netflix and Kill Me

[Upthorn]

My partner and I just finished watching Legion on Hulu.
It's very loosely based on the X-Men/Marvel Comics character, Legion, and it has a lot of mind-fuck to it--I'd peg it somewhere between Serial Experiments Lain, and Key: The Metal Idol on that scale.

I was actually just searching the boards to see what Thad's take on it was, and was extremely surprised not to find any mention of it.

[Thad]

Weird, could have sworn I'd talked about it before.

Short version: I'm stalled out somewhere in the back half of season 2 but I enjoyed the hell out of season 1. Noah Hawley may be my favorite showrunner in all of television right now; have you seen the Fargo TV series?

Fox tapped him to make a Doctor Doom movie, too; I would have loved to see that but the Disney buyout means it's almost certainly never going to happen now.

[Mothra]

Finished She-Ra - loved it. Very strong, satisfying last season, full of great pairings. A little rushed in the last two eps, never really impacts the enjoyment.

Also caught up on Kipo, which is a completely delightful surprise. I'm stunned to find out it's based on a comic, considering how much the music makes it what it is. Great guest characters, my favorite among them John Hodgman and GZA as Billions and Billions, the rapping science wolves.

[Niku]

Muppets Now! on Disney plus is a return to more classic Muppets sketch comedy. The first episode is cute, if not particularly laugh out loud, and sets up the current premise of everything being a live-streamed series of YouTube esque skits hosted by the various Muppets players. The framing device lends itself to some quick sign gag type jokes with the various apps and files on screen, but does feel a little empty compared to backstage chaos.

The second episode feels much, much stronger in the premises of the skits on display and the writing. Bunsen and Beaker essentially hosting one of those "technically science, but mostly destroying a bunch of shit" YouTube shows is perfect. There's a reoccurring Miss Piggy health and beauty skit that I think worked better in the second episode than the first, but time will tell how many of the various skits will be repeated across the episodes and how many unique ones there'll be throughout the season.

[Thad]

The Sandman cast is announced with Tom Sturridge and Gwendoline Christie



Looks like solid casting all around. I admit I was kinda hoping they'd bring back Tom Ellis as Lucifer, but Christie is a much better fit for the comics version.

No announcement on Death or Hob yet; IIRC they show up at the end of the first book. And I think this means an earlier introduction for the Corinthian? Because I don't remember him appearing until book two. (Been ages since I read them, though, so I could be misremembering some of the details.)

[Thad]

I enjoyed the first season of Lupin. The twists are all predictable AF (and the characters frequently seem a little dim for failing to predict them), but formula isn't always a bad thing, especially when you're adapting stories from 120 years ago. And the cast -- and, in particular, leading man Omar Sy -- is strong enough to carry some heavy suspension of disbelief.

I also appreciate the choice not to make it a straight adaptation, to go with the postmodern touch of acknowledging the books exist and focusing the series on a copycat fan.

It's good stuff. I'm a little concerned that the story arc isn't wrapped up by episode 5 and I'm not so sure it can really sustain another 5 episodes, but we'll see how season 2 (already confirmed) goes.

[Friday]

I can't remember who recommended that I watch San Junipero (Black Mirror, s3e4) but thank you. Really amazing show.

I won't spoil anything, but like the other good Black Mirror ep (The Star Trek one) it actually has an ending that doesn't make you want to cut your face off. But that's just the icing on the cake, really. The story is very very solid all-round, with some really good acting and set design.

Highly recommended. And no, you don't need to watch any other episodes of Black Mirror to "get it."

EDIT: I guess I should at least talk about the episode with no spoilers. It's about an interracial lesbian couple meeting and falling in love in the 80s. OR IS IT because this is Black Mirror after all.

[mharr]

Just for completeness, do you have the other good episode number to hand?

[Friday]

"USS Callister", s4e1.

Warning: It's a fair bit darker than San Junipero. Some pretty fucked shit goes down. But again, the ending is one of the few "doesn't make you want to jump off a cliff after lighting yourself on fire" that Black Mirror has to offer.

If you're a classic trek fan (like me), though, it's fucking amazing.

[Niku]

if you don't mind LOL EVERYTHING'S BLEAK AND HOPELESS endings regarding black mirror i'd probably recommend s1e2 (Fifteen Million Merits), s2e1 (Be Right Back), s2e2 (White Bear), s3e1 (Nosedive), s3e4 (San Junipero), s4e1 (USS Callister), s4e4 (Hang the DJ), and s4e5 (Metalhead) as ~the ones you should watch~ because a.) not all of these have depressing shitty no-hope endings and b.) these are the episodes that I think have the best worldbuilding, tone, or style. Like most anthologies a loooot of Black Mirror is a big swing and a miss, but those eight episodes'll give you a pretty good variety and they're all solid-to-great.

we found out you can use plex's playlist function to only play episodes you haven't watched yet, so we've been roulette-wheeling our way through an episode or two of tales from the crypt every night. similarly, lotta huge fucking swings and misses, but most striking of all is just how goddamn many of these things end with LOL, SURPRISE TRANSPHOBIA. at least black mirror avoids that by virtue of being twenty five years later.

[mharr]

Thanks all - I'll queue those up with the unanimous ones at the end for brain bleach purposes.

Did something happen to Charlie Brooker or does he just have a weird BDSM relationship with science fiction specifically?

[Friday]

There's a certain personality type that really thinks dark = good.

Don't get me wrong, dark can be good, but doing it just for the sake of doing it is.

Well, it's dumb. And bad. And stupid. And boring.

My position on dark themes or endings in media is the same as my position on whether or not an author should kill off a character:

If it makes the media better, then do it. If you're just doing it because "i want the audience to be surprised/shocked i did it" then you are fucking doing it wrong.

[zaratustra]

personally i think black mirror is a real important slap to the face of people that think elon musk is gonna save the world

but tht's me

[beatbandito]

Did something happen to Charlie Brooker or does he just have a weird BDSM relationship with science fiction specifically?

Charlie Brooker had a specific dark socio-political humor that is perfectly put on display in absolutely wonderful pilot episode, and seen a bit in the second half of 15-Million Merits. Then it's never really seen again because he only wrote the first episode and is basically just a producer from that point.

[mharr]

I guess he's always been an acerbic, dark comic type but Black Mirror blindsided me because as a fellow 70s nerd brit I mostly knew him as that one BBC host that understood what videogames were and could enthusiastically explain them to your dad. I was expecting his SF series to be more like Banks' dark humour, or 2000AD, Red Dwarf, Blackadder, Hostile Waters... Determinedly bleak and humourless dystopia is supposed to be Eastern Europe's thing.

I guess it was making money, therefore not broke don't fix it.

personally i think black mirror is a real important slap to the face of people that think elon musk is gonna save the world

I've found Elon quite capable of delivering those slaps personally averaging about twice per year, and with slightly more slapstick wind-up each time.

[Friday]

techbros are fanatics and you can't convince or sway a fanatic away from their god/beliefs anyway.

Elon Musk could literally nuke the largest city in each nation on Earth and he'd still be defended by a bunch of bros who think the singularity is gonna happen in 2-5 years.

[beatbandito]

2-5 years is the timeline I give for Musk to be like "ugh, this space shit is so much harder than I thought and I'm in my fifties. Fuck it, we made rockets that explode on landing I guess we're a weapons dealer now."

[Mazian]

2-5 years is the timeline I give for Musk to be like "ugh, this space shit is so much harder than I thought and I'm in my fifties. Fuck it, we made rockets that explode on landing I guess we're a weapons dealer now."

Would you accept negative one years?

[mharr]

They're really not understanding the tech feedback loop idea if they think any individual person is neccessary, let alone them being able to steer it. I'm expecting something more like the end of Ex Machina and humans don't get to hitch a ride.

I rate this as a hopeful outcome. Dunno if that feeds back into the Dark Mirror watchlist at all.

[Blossom]

Techbros still think Tesla is about saving the planet by making electric cars. No saving them.