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

[Wrathbone]

The Wheel of Time (episode 1)

I hesitate to label this a car crash after one episode, but I don't know what else to call it. It's a total pileup. The acting is (mostly) bad, the dialogue is worse, the music is incidental, the costumes are from the Generic Fantasy warehouse, the CGI is laughable and the pacing is a mess.

It's clear that the writers aren't afraid to adapt from the source material, which is good as long as it's faithful to the spirit of the source. I've only read about a third of the first Wheel of Time book and they seem to have hit most of the major story beats so far (if a bit wonkily), but what I don't understand is why they've been willing to change things and somehow made it even bloody slower than the book is at the start. Not a single noteworthy thing happens in the first 30 minutes. It's like being stuck in a broken lift with the most boring person in the world trying to recite the events of the book to you.

I'll keep going with it for now, if only out of morbid curiosity. This is not the next Game of Thrones though. Even season 8's stupidity had a glossy sheen of shallow aesthetic quality waxed over it.

[eny]

What We Do In The Shadows S.3 Brilliant as ever!

Taskmaster S.12 one last episode next week. Laugh a minute! Morgana drips with lusciousness and her unique grace as always...

Clarkson's Farm thanks for the reminder Snowy! Jezza is perfectly suited to the occupation tbh, it's a tough life and requires humour and swearing, and he has taken to it perfectly. Quite an exaggerated, but accurate, depiction of the challenges farmers face.

[Sly Boots]

The Wheel of Time (episode 1)

I hesitate to label this a car crash after one episode, but I don't know what else to call it. It's a total pileup. The acting is (mostly) bad, the dialogue is worse, the music is incidental, the costumes are from the Generic Fantasy warehouse, the CGI is laughable and the pacing is a mess.

It's clear that the writers aren't afraid to adapt from the source material, which is good as long as it's faithful to the spirit of the source. I've only read about a third of the first Wheel of Time book and they seem to have hit most of the major story beats so far (if a bit wonkily), but what I don't understand is why they've been willing to change things and somehow made it even bloody slower than the book is at the start. Not a single noteworthy thing happens in the first 30 minutes. It's like being stuck in a broken lift with the most boring person in the world trying to recite the events of the book to you.

I'll keep going with it for now, if only out of morbid curiosity. This is not the next Game of Thrones though. Even season 8's stupidity had a glossy sheen of shallow aesthetic quality waxed over it.

Not read WoT, but I thought it looked pretty shoddy just from the trailer. Shame.

[Animalmother]

Not a total shock is it really and indeed that trailer did nothing to inspire confidence.

[Alan]

I'm sure I got a pop up IGN review advert saying its so good it could be the next game of thrones.

[Animalmother]

Amazon would never, ever stoop so low as to pay off reviewers or over promote a series they created. They have integrity...

[Wrathbone]

Aside from being fantasy (which is VERY broad genre terminology), it's nothing like Game of Thrones so the comparisons are a bit daft. Ironically though, the WoT TV series apparently came about from Jeff Bezos throwing a tonne of money at his minions and demanding they make the next Game of Thrones.

In terms of quality, it's not a patch on the early seasons of GoT. The dialogue in WoT is atrocious at times, like a poor first draft that hasn't gone past another set of eyes before filming. The acting is mostly community theatre levels. The characters may as well have all been wearing jeans and a t-shirt. GoT's first episode was a masterpiece in how to introduce a complex world with a huge cast and make it interesting and exciting, with every line building character and delivered in a believable way. The costumes had clearly gone through careful design consideration and exquisite tailoring. And the soundtrack was superb. I watched WoT a few hours ago and I couldn't hum a single note from it.

I think the lesson here is that money does not always translate to quality.

[Hatredsheart]

Foundation (Apple TV)

Well, that's season one over. I enjoyed it for what it was and am looking forward to season two, although it has only the barest connection to the novels.

Spoiler

The only things that are carried over from the book are
The name of the series
The names of the main characters (Cleon, Hari Seldon, Gaal Dornick and Salvor Hardin)
The names of the planets (Trantor, Terminus, Anacreon and Synnax)
And the idea of the fall of the Galactic Empire, The Seldon Plan and the idea of Psychohistory.

[Hatredsheart]

I agree with you guys' assessment of Wheel of Time , reminds me greatly of the series that attempted the Shannara novels of Terry Brooks. In fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were made by the same company, so generic and formulaic I lost interest halfway through. Disappointed.

[Sly Boots]

Weirdly, WoT is getting good ratings on IMDB, while Cowboy Bebop, which I'm enjoying, is being a bit panned. No idea what's going on there.

[Raid]

I think if Bebop is being panned, it's only because of how popular the original is.

Cowboy Bebop (Netflix)

Watched the first one, seems like good fun. I'm not familiar with the source material so can't speak to accuracy or anything, but stylish as hell and worth a look.

I'm intimately familiar with the source material (I must have watched the series 5 or 6 times over the last 20 years, it's in my top 5 TV programmes of all time), and I'd say it's... alright. I wasn't expecting it to hold a candle to the original, partially because the original is just so fucking good, but also because it's borderline impossible to adapt an anime to a live action series well. You just can't replicate the feel that an action anime has with real actors; our limbs don't move like that, we can't fly through the air without very obvious wire work, and the low animation framerates give anime a style that just looks really awkward in real life. Sadly this was always going to be the case with Cowboy Bebop. Just watch the original fight between Spike and Asimov (ignore the American dubbing that I never much cared for) and tell me that the live action version even comes close.

But adaptation issues aside, they've made some stylistic changes that I can't say I agree with. The soundtrack to the original was always one of the biggest highlights, and while it's technically present here, they've used tiny little snippets of tracks that had so much more impact in the anime. There's a track named "What Planet is This" that's very briefly used in the opening scene of Netflix's version, that was originally present in its four minute entirety over probably my favourite scene from the anime (actually from the movie Knockin' on Heaven's Door). And have they seriously removed The Real Folk Blues from the end credits? The song that's like a warm, comforting embrace from your lover, except your lover's horribly depressed and your cat just died? I know the lyrics are in Japanese, but it's just so iconic.

But I think what irks me the most is how forced it all feels. The original is just effortlessly cool - every one of the main characters is so much more aloof, and the soundtrack gives it all a style that this new interpretation can't replicate. I hasten to add that I really don't hate it, and honestly I wasn't expecting much more than this, but the anime is still completely watchable and this just doesn't feel necessary. I'd thoroughly recommend going and watching the original, which is also on Netflix.

---

I'm also caught up on Arcane, which I'm still very much enjoying. It's extremely stylish, and I adore some of these character designs and the world they've built, to the point where I'm actually now interested in the source material. It's one of the most striking animated series I think I've ever seen.

[Sly Boots]

I think if Bebop is being panned, it's only because of how popular the original is.

Cowboy Bebop (Netflix)

Watched the first one, seems like good fun. I'm not familiar with the source material so can't speak to accuracy or anything, but stylish as hell and worth a look.

I'm intimately familiar with the source material (I must have watched the series 5 or 6 times over the last 20 years, it's in my top 5 TV programmes of all time), and I'd say it's... alright. I wasn't expecting it to hold a candle to the original, partially because the original is just so fucking good, but also because it's borderline impossible to adapt an anime to a live action series well. You just can't replicate the feel that an action anime has with real actors; our limbs don't move like that, we can't fly through the air without very obvious wire work, and the low animation framerates give anime a style that just looks really awkward in real life. Sadly this was always going to be the case with Cowboy Bebop. Just watch the original fight between Spike and Asimov (ignore the American dubbing that I never much cared for) and tell me that the live action version even comes close.

But adaptation issues aside, they've made some stylistic changes that I can't say I agree with. The soundtrack to the original was always one of the biggest highlights, and while it's technically present here, they've used tiny little snippets of tracks that had so much more impact in the anime. There's a track named "What Planet is This" that's very briefly used in the opening scene of Netflix's version, that was originally present in its four minute entirety over probably my favourite scene from the anime (actually from the movie Knockin' on Heaven's Door). And have they seriously removed The Real Folk Blues from the end credits? The song that's like a warm, comforting embrace from your lover, except your lover's horribly depressed and your cat just died? I know the lyrics are in Japanese, but it's just so iconic.

But I think what irks me the most is how forced it all feels. The original is just effortlessly cool - every one of the main characters is so much more aloof, and the soundtrack gives it all a style that this new interpretation can't replicate. I hasten to add that I really don't hate it, and honestly I wasn't expecting much more than this, but the anime is still completely watchable and this just doesn't feel necessary. I'd thoroughly recommend going and watching the original, which is also on Netflix.

---

I'm also caught up on Arcane, which I'm still very much enjoying. It's extremely stylish, and I adore some of these character designs and the world they've built, to the point where I'm actually now interested in the source material. It's one of the most striking animated series I think I've ever seen.

Yeah, I think I will go back and watch the anime, but after I've watched the live action version - largely so it doesn't spoil it for me!

And same on the LoL source material, in fact they've just released a quasi-JRPG type thing that looks pretty good, that I was considering picking up.

[Raid]

I'd argue that you're spoiling the anime by watching the Netflix version, but then it's possible I have a small bias.

In fairness, the anime doesn't have much of a series-long plot, in fact Netflix are introducing characters far earlier and I'm guessing that they're going to make it a bigger part of their version.

[Animalmother]

Watched the first episode of Cowboy Bebop, it was ok. I know nothing about the original source material either so I'm pretty neutral going in. Felt a bit like style over substance if I'm honest but I'll watch another episode or two.

Spoiler

The main bad guy looks like Rick from Rick & Morty..

[Raid]

Spoiler

The main bad guy looks like Rick from Rick & Morty..

Spoiler

Yeah, they really haven't done a very good job (at least visually) with Vicious.

His features are supposed to be pencil-thin and angular, but he's wide-eyed with a bushy monobrow. I don't think Vicious was ever a particularly good villain, his whole deal was simply "menacing", but I didn't get that from the brief bits he's in in the first episode.