Topic: The TV Show Thread

So. The Mandalorian.

Pretty good two episodes in. Or at least - not bad is possibly the better descriptor. It isn't doing anything 'wrong' or particularly objectionable. Thankfully, I know almost bugger all about Mandalorians other a few bits and bobs from some of the animated Star Wars stuff.

I do get the sense that Favreau was offered a Star Wars show and he watched a bunch of Firefly. The 'space western' theme is very strong in the general presentation. There's a fair amount of derivative work going on that stands out quite a lot in such a sparse show, the worst of which being a 'Last Crusade' action riff in a scene that seems like it was actually tacked on and a too speedy repeated-ridicule for the titular bounty hunter. But, it looks nice at least.

The music is great, again - really pushing the 'space western' feel. The theme and incidentals work with the on screen proceedings very nicely (the closing titles are probably the best thing about the show) - though again, there a certain amount familiarity with the music that took me a minute to grasp. The main theme borrows pretty heavily from the (excellent) Stallone Judge Dredd movie theme and to a lesser extent parts of the Rocky theme. None of that is a bad thing, as it makes for a satisfying wild-west feel; but perhaps (and I certainly like to think) the composer had the 'never takes his helmet off' trope buried in his subconscious somewhere and it spat out Judge Dredd and Rocky.

Generally though, first 2 episodes are quite nice.

The only other TV goings on for me over the weekend was the new BBC production of The War Of The Worlds.

I'm a very big fan of the source material and Jeff Wayne's musical version - so I actually wasn't expecting much from this. Good job really.
It's not terrible - the production value seems good - but the pacing of the events depicted is entirely bizarre. The decision to linger on the core relationship yet speed through the rather important arrival and set up of the martians is an odd one.

Casting is OK, Spall is decent as per, Robert Carlyle is rather under used as Ogilvy. He's ideally placed to offer exposition, but doesn't do much and is almost immediately faced with the first 'idiot official' of the show, of which I'm certain that there will be several more.
Eleanor Tomlinson is fine, but - and this is an issue that comes up in plenty of period work - she has an incredibly, distractingly modern face. The cinematography doesn't really help this, but she looks very 'insta' ready the majority of the time. If you've ever seen Jenna Coleman And Queen Victoria, it's like that.

At several points, I felt like this new interpretation was handled by a smelting pot of different people with vastly different visions leading to a drama that is rather incoherent in it's execution. The family drama and the martian invasion just don't coalesce snugly, too much time focusing on one and not the other.

The design of the martian sphere is lazy, followed too swiftly by the extremely lazy transformation from sphere to fighting machine. This occurs with no input or exposition from the supporting cast. That feels intentional, but also limiting. The fighting machine design is OK - nothing groundbreaking and could be lifted straight from deviant art or pintrest. The scale comes across well enough though.
The saving grace as I was watching is the 'heat ray' effect, which is brilliant!

I wrote earlier about the great music in the Mandalorian; how it suits the tone, content and direction of show and supports what is a clear vision of what the creators want the show to be. Sadly, this new War Of The Worlds doesn't fare quite as well. Given the source material's best ever adaptation is as iconic a musical as it gets - getting the music (and edit) right should've been given priority here.
The presented score and cues for the show are, fine. They just don't fit. It's a synth heavy, alien sound almost throughout - whether that is terrified observers looking at the striding tripod, or George and Amy having a 'deep & meaningful' in the parlour of their Edwardian terrace. In one frenetic sequence, this transforms to a pulsing, 80s synth reminiscent of a Kavinsky tune or any one of dozen 'retrowave' type releases. It never feels like it fits properly or has enough scope to adapt satisfyingly to the breadth of scenes on show.

There's room for this all to improve of course. It'll be interesting to watch it move forward.

Interestingly a few reviews I looked at this morning are saying that War Of The Worlds is needlessly "Woke" (I loathe that word) @KALofKRYPTON

Not quite sure why they're saying it though. The only thing that really seems out of place from your description and their opinion, is the divorce drama aspect that serves little purpose whatsoever...

... Unless I'm really missing something obvious.

I only watched like ten minutes halfway through to see the sphere and machine mind

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
It skirts the 'wokeness', or perhaps just courts it in places - but it's not woke particularly. Having Ogilvy ham-fistedly comment on local attitudes towards him as a flamboyantly dressed ageing bachelor is as close as it gets other than perhaps the setting up of the male protagonist as being an adulterer (and therefore 'bad'). I'm not even sure I spotted any token ethnic minority faces actually.

I suppose there will be those that object to Tomlinson (I'm assuming) read the opening monologue. I object to it being re-written in a rather clunky way - but again, nothing particularly woke about it.

Well it was the Independant and Telegraph that were actually saying about it trying to be too socially relevant.

As far as I know those newspapers usually aren't particularly fussed about those sorts of things @KALofKRYPTON so that's why it caught my eye in particular.

Not like the Sun and Daily Star that love making a fuss about those things and making it out to be the end of the world 😅

As you said the effects for the heat ray were pretty good and they got the size of the titular machines right. Design of it was a bit... meh though.

I quite like the 2005 film though so... What do I know?

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
They're interested enough when it comes to a depiction of Edwardian England (the good old, old days) I'm sure!

The 2005 film is a really strong adaptation. It was as good as a modern day take that could've been made. I also really like Tom Cruise, despite him being creepy and mental!

I wanted the BBC version to be better than it is. Part of that is because I'd like them to follow up with a sequel series that adapts The Massacre of Mankind (Stephen Baxter's 'official' sequel novel, which is great). It would lend itself to modern sensibilities easier than the original as it has a 1920's, woman protagonist in the best tradition of independent, dare I say it 'spunky' depictions of young women in the 20's.

... Sounds about right @KALofKRYPTON more or less 😅

Apparently there's another adaptation of War of the worlds out now as well (French I think) seeing as this is offically public domain now.

George Orwell's Animal Farm goes out of copyright and into public domain next year from what I read soooo... Expect that rather then that sequel novel to war of the worlds (Though thanks for the info, never knew about it!)

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
Just had a quick gander for the French one - reads like the old American sequel TV show from the 80's.

Created by Howard Overman though, he was behind Misfits - which was a great little show!

Massacre of Mankind is a good read. A nicely reasoned out sequel that doesn't ruin anything. Baxter also wrote a sequel to The Time Machine - that's on my list.

I'll look forward to the inevitable terrifying CG/live action Animal Farm!

The Mandalorian Season 2 is already in the works.

@WanderingBullet Cool.

The first 2 episodes have been pretty good.

@LN78
Regarding Rise of Skywalker,. even more is around now...

Yeah, I was surprised at the episode length initially, but I think it's actually a good move. It's a relatively slowly (but well) paced affair so far and lends itself well to the format. The story telling is concise and direct and it doesn't seem like it's going to feel particularly drawn out, meandering or padded out like the vast majority of American shows seem to be.

I've got one for here first about Doctor Who - which I'm more interested in.

While I quite like Jodie Whittaker's 13th Doctor and took to her companions after really disliking them at first. The season wasn't all that great. Some highlights here and there, but sod all time in the TARDIS and some of the stories were very weak.
I was quite enthused by the rumoured departure of showrunner Chris Chibnall earlier this year. Sadly, that has turned out to be quite, quite false and Chibnall has proceeded to hire some rather dire writers and directors for the new season who have no sci-fi experience between them, let alone any Doctor Who (but they have collectively written for Emmerdale and 4 'women in prison' shows).

On to the recent spoilers.

!!!POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR DOCTOR WHO 'SEASON 12' BELOW!!!

@KALofKRYPTON Yeah, that's what I've heard. I've haven't read or watched any reviews so far to avoid spoilers. I have seen some thumbnail images of baby Yoda on YouTube, though and he looks so cute.lol

@callumthompson If that is the same show I'm thinking of, it was on BBC a couple of years back. Didn't Hardy write it with his dad or something?

@JohnnyShoulder That's it - it's bloody awful!

'Tom Hardy voice #2' very much deployed for a show that seems mostly about filming TH from wacky angles wandering about in his coat and hat! hahaha

Marvel's What If...? footage.

Had a feeling it was gonna be GG and not hand drawn. At least it looks great.

@LN78 Thanks for the heads-up! Would have to wait for some kind of Blu-Ray release, but I was aware of it (there were some teasers popping up on YouTube and whatnot) and curious to see what people thought. Glad you liked it, and hope it ends its season as well as it started.

I'm not really into nature documentaries, but Seven World, One Planet is stunning in UHD and by far the most visually impressive thing I've seen since getting my new tv. You can only get UHD content from BBC on the iPlayer I believe, and this is the only programme I've noticed in UHD so far.

Apparently there is gonna be a big update to the service next year, with more content available for longer periods and hopefully more stuff in UHD.

Been watching The Mandolorian on Disney + these past few weeks and I am really enjoying it. Now I dont like the new Star Wars movies and I didn't have high expectations for the show but it has definitely surprised me.

@Tasuki That's really great to hear. Roll on March!

Teaser trailer for season 2 of The Boys