Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

[Mantis]

The still frames don't even do it justice. It is just staggeringly beautiful in motion, particular the action sequences with all the extra fun animation styles thrown in.

I loved it so much but do feel like that second season was quite rushed. Where the first season gave everything time to build up, season two throws so much at you each episode to advance the plot that you have to be really on the ball following everything to keep up with the sheer pace. A shame that they drew a line at two seasons as it certainly would have benefitted from a bit of slower burn, even extending the season to 13 episodes would have probably been enough. It is a masterpiece of work though, a thorough joy to watch from beginning to end.

[Raid]

The still frames don't even do it justice. It is just staggeringly beautiful in motion, particular the action sequences with all the extra fun animation styles thrown in.

No, they don't. I thought about posting a link to the fight between Sevika and Smeech, as it's probably the most visually impressive while not being much of a spoiler, but I didn't think seeing it out of context would really have the right impact.

[Animalmother]

I watched the first episode, thought it was great but never went any further for some reason. I'm currently re-watching Castlevania on Netflix which is just fucking awesome. I'll probably give Arcane a proper look after.

[Mantis]

The still frames don't even do it justice. It is just staggeringly beautiful in motion, particular the action sequences with all the extra fun animation styles thrown in.

No, they don't. I thought about posting a link to the fight between Sevika and Smeech, as it's probably the most visually impressive while not being much of a spoiler, but I didn't think seeing it out of context would really have the right impact.

On a related note, the official art book arrived today and I've just had a quick browse through it. I highly recommend you pick it up, it's one of the best concept art books I've ever bought, and I've got quite a hefty collection of them. So many excellent pieces of work in there and a bunch of little extras like little posters, double fold out pages, stencils, a map of the city. A lot of care and attention went into this book, it's absolutely awesome.

[Raid]

I actually looked for one after watching the finale, but I think it was only released today so I didn't find any reviews. I take it it's this one? I was absolutely going to pick the art book up for this, good to hear it's worth it - I wasn't sure how decent it was going to be given that it's a property where a lot of the character designs began with the game a decade ago, so wasn't sure if it would have much in the way on the design process, but then the Arcane designs are so much better looking.

Incidentally I did have a quick look at the League of Legends website, and man, it's a bit of a letdown. The character designs are good (and there're a hundred or so, I think maybe 10% of them appeared in Arcane), but I think this was the game that grew out of a Warcraft 3 mod, and so they all have about 30 polygons each. Suffice to say Arcane had humble beginnings.

[Mantis]

That's the one.

From the limited skim I've had it doesn't appear that there are any real production sketches or anything like that. A lot of it is written from the perspective of Jinx as if she's collated pictures of people together so there's graffiti over them and things like that, but there are also quite extensive paragraphs from the designers on how they made their choices and what they changed between seasons. Character-wise there are a lot of lineups and alternate costume images, but they're all more like final renders rather than sketches or line art. There are also an absolute ton of concept art location paintings and full matte paintings. It's a really fantastic book, it's really jam packed with content.

My understanding is that the lore for League was kind of pieced together over the years as they released each hero and that the Arcane team have retconned a bunch of it and put their own spin on a lot of the backstories. I think there are quite a few sections dedicated to how they decided on adapting the game material into the show.

[Raid]

I kinda guessed that; something that started as a Warcraft mod was unlikely to have 20 years of storyline and character relationships mapped out. The world of Piltover and Zaun is *so* well realised that it doesn't feel pulled from a videogame at all, or certainly not one where narrative isn't the focus.

I may grab the book myself, I may ask for it as a christmas present. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Tommy]

Just finished the new episodes of Cobra Kai.


I thought it was excellent, although I hadn’t realised it wasn’t going to be the end so was concerned the ‘final episode’ was going to end up imbalanced and rushed.

That being said, I’m unsure where it goes from here. The

Spoiler

lack of time spent on the new antagonists in that Ivan Drago bloke and the influencer just doesn’t make me dislike them enough. The Kwon character they spent time on in the first part of the season but presumably he’s now gone.

[eny]

Don't know why I posted this in Currently Reading Reposting here...


There was a show I was addicted to in my early teens, about an escape line that ferried RAF aircrew survivors back to Blighty from Belgium. I vividly remember feeling rapt and engrossed in the way it presented the perpetual fear of being discovered. It was a fantastic production, with every aspect of society slowly revealed, both occupied and occupier, and a severe Gestapo Sturmbannführer Kessler constantly trying to root out the LifeLine network. Anyway, I recently discovered it again in the Internet Archive, and every show is available. It was called Secret Army and still stands up very well today.

https://archive.org/details/secret-army ... vette..mp4

Takes a while to bed in, but the storylines change each episode and it gives a fantastic insight into the pressures felt on all sides.

[Wrathbone]

My parents love Secret Army. I tried watching a couple of episodes with them a few years ago but couldn’t get on with it. On a similar vein, though, I watched through both series of Colditz last year and thought it was superb - holds up well and is genuinely gripping.

[Animalmother]

Season 2 of the very enjoyable Silo is out. If you haven't watched, its about people living in a giant Fallout style vertical vault after an unknown disaster has poisoned the surface. If also has Rebecca Ferguson in it as a bonus reason to watch.

[Tommy]

Been using my time off wisely…


Watched The Penguin. I’m not ordinarily a superhero person (though this season isn’t really superhero), but I think this alongside Fallout are my standout shows for the year.

Also started watching (incredibly late on this one) Derry Girls. Brilliant, funny and interesting. Season One final scenes were excellent.

Not deep insight but going to try and watch a few other new shows before the festive break is over. Unsure what yet…

[Animalmother]

Squid Game Season 2
I didn't think we'd get another season of this so soon. Watched first episode and its off to a very strong start. I think they've released all the episodes in one go so it's going to be hard to not binge watch the entire thing.

[Alan]

Squid Game Season 2
I didn't think we'd get another season of this so soon.

[Animalmother]

So my epic journey with Stargate came to an end this week. Finally finished all of Atlantis S5. It wasn't a great season and the ending felt very mundane if I'm honest. But I enjoyed it overall and was glad I watched it. I've already seen Universe and not sure I'm bothered with the brief web series that came out a few years ago.

Did a bit of reading and apparently they were promised 2 films to round out Atlantis but Universal went belly up. There was also plans for a series about Teal'c but that got canned when Amazon took over. Pity.