Topic: The TV Show Thread

@nessisonett live-action Powerpuff Girls? I've not heard of this. I should ask my kids.

@zupertramp It looks mad.

Oh god

It's Powerpuff Girls Z all over agan

@TheFrenchiestFry It’s perfect. In this show they’re adults struggling from the pressures of being child stars. It’s gonna be rubbish but to be honest, the Winx Club one wasn’t too awful and was a great nostalgia hit so I’m optimistic.

I'm watching Call My Agent! (in French it's "Dix pour cent'') on Netflix, a French comedy-drama that actully premiered 5 years ago. It's very funny

Falcon and The Winter Soldier seems to have finally redeemed itself in the last 20 minutes. Sort of.

Senran Kagura (Funimation) - Anime adaptation of the (in)famous gaming franchise of the same name, following the misadventures of a group of female ninja students.

Season one, "Ninja Flash", is an apt adaptation of the main series games. It has a surprising level of quality that you wouldn't expect of a franchise of this nature, with the animation quality hitting highs I'm not quite used to seeing in fanservice focused fare, and it does a good job of following the narrative of the first game pretty closely (only with some of the personal character dynamics glossed over due to the short 12 episode run time). Of course being Senran Kagura it is consistently lewd & full of innuendo, so it's definitely an acquired taste, but it does seem to have some level of restraint as it stops just short of full on nudity (even during bathing scenes there's always a conveniently placed gathering of steam or some such), and it even brings the girls' male teacher in on the innuendo (though admittedly only two instances from memory).

Season two, "Shinovi Versus", takes a pretty big dip in quality however. Animation quality takes quite a noticeable hit, and any sense of restraint or "witty" innuendo is completely thrown out in favor of almost constant wall to wall nudity (nudity in and of itself probably isn't a con if you're watching a Senran Kagura anime in the first place, but the problem is that it's so constant that it's depiction is just as cheaply animated as every other aspect of the show. I mean, fanservice shows generally know where to spend their animation points in this regard, but here? I swear there was a moment where a nipple wasn't lined up right, partially floating in mid-air). Narratively it seems to jump ahead several games as well, with the girls (and presumably the audience) already acquainted with the girls of Gessen academy, the new group of Hebijo students, & a group of Shrine Maiden (as well as the existence of Yoma, demonic enteties at odds with the ninja). It does try to take an emotional turn with the story by the end, but the constant silliness of the first half along with the bloated cast keeps it from really being effective.

@nessisonett meh. Overall I see what they were going for but it was all a little messy and idk, flimsy if that makes sense. Also I can't seem to get myself to care about Sharon, like, at all.

But I didn't hate it.

@zupertramp Yeah, the rest of that final episode was hot garbage but they at least attempted in the last 25-30 minutes to correct the dreadful moral leaps in logic they’d made the previous 5 episodes.

@maryeddington I keep hearing excellent things about Call My Agent! and really wish I got along better with subtitles, because I think I'd like it.

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@nessisonett @zupertramp I actually loved the last two episodes of Falcon & the Winter Solider because they stopped softballing some of its opinions and turned subtext into outright text. Whatever people's opinion is gonna be (because it's sadly gonna be divided on such issues), I think I'd have respected the show more if it had planted its flag and defended it for the entire run. Instead, it overburdened itself with a lot of wasted time and wheel-spinning and, as such, what was supposed to be the major fist-pumping triumph of the finale fell really flat. There was still a lot to love, and there's been a lot of groundwork put in place for the future (almost too much) but... yeah. Good, but not great.

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but I remain convinced that the whole "delayed by lockdown" thing was a smokescreen, and that both this and WandaVision were ready at the same time. Disney switched the broadcast order for tactical reasons. Falcon & the Winter Soldier felt like a filler show, sandwiched between "events" in order to retain month-by-month subscriber numbers, and I think somebody in a suit realised this ahead of time and made the call.

Star Wars: the Clone Wars season 1 (Disney+) - with the Mandalorian & WandaVision behind me & the Falcon & Winter soldier not yet fully available I was looking for something on Disney+ to stream & gave this a shot after hearing some good things.

I always used to overlook this show back when it was airing on Cartoon Network due to the blocky character design & the fact that it usually displaced an anime in whatever action block was airing, but after giving it an honest to goodness shot I quite liked it.

The character design wasn't nearly as off putting as I had feared, and while it does feature some trappings of typical kids' action fare (though I can't blame the writers for having the big villains always escape at the last minute every time, due to the fact that their fates have been pre-determined in the preceding live action films), I was surprised at how much it felt like a genuine Star Wars adventure, just animated (while never bloody, it certainly never shied away from acknowledging & featuring death, for example).

My only real gripe is that the pacing was really odd in spots. For example in one episode they deal with a spy that endangers them to enemy attack, & while they catch the spy by episode's end, it's clearly setting up for a part two as it ends with them bracing for an all out attack with their own weapons reserves depleted thanks to the spy's actions, however upon the start of the next episode this plot is completely dropped and they're suddenly dealing with a virus on Naboo (ironically, while that storyline is seemingly tied up in a bow by episode's end, that's the one they decide to backtrack on & give a part two). There were a couple more moments like this, but nothing quite as jarring as that instance.

Still, it was a solid watch & I'll definitely watch further seasons whenever I find myself in this scenario again.

@RR529 I think the second part of that abrupt cliffhanger episode you are referring to was incorporated into the Clone Wars movie. I could be wrong on that and I'm sure @RogerRoger will correct me.

So either that episode should be at the beginning of the series/before the movie or the movie should be watched after that episode. The latter doesn't make sense because if I remember correctly the movie introduces Ahsoka but she has been in the episodes leading up to it 🤔

But yeah I thought it was weird and I bent my brain trying to work out the continuity and just gave up in the end because I couldn't remember the exact order of certain events lol. I'm sure there's a way that it makes sense but I just figured that they gimped the episode order so they could make a movie out of it to kick the show off

@RR529 Falcon & The Winter Soldier is fully available. The finale premiered yesterday

I'm watching Shadow & Bone on Netflix. It's not the best thing I've ever seen but it has an interesting new fantasy setting.

@Voltan I tried that but I have a pet hate for the whole ‘let’s introduce a million fantasy terms, factions etc with zero context’. Like TV is very different from a 700 page book with paragraphs full of exposition. It’s very, very hard to do fantasy right on TV.

@nessisonett I see what you mean but I actually don't mind that

@TheFrenchiestFry, yeah, but I was referring to a couple weeks ago when I decided to watch Clone Wars.

F&WS will definitely be the next thing I watch on D+, though.

@RR529 Yes, as @ralphdibny suggests, the running order for Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a little erratic in its first three seasons. It's basically because George Lucas and Dave Filoni were making the show for quite a while before its launch, and so had a huge library of assorted episodes to choose from when it came time to broadcast. Some stories just ran and ran, and therefore some episodes were overlooked, or pushed down the schedule because of animation challenges that they didn't know how to tackle yet (as the entire team were learning how to animate on the job, as it were).

Lifting out three episodes to upgrade to movie status didn't help and it's true, the episode "The Hidden Enemy" would've directly led into its opening act, but you'll continue to encounter the odd story which, halfway through, you'll realise is in the wrong chronological place (for example, there's an episode in Season Two which takes place immediately before "The Hidden Enemy", adding a prequel to the prequel to the movie). Bouncing around for standalone gap-fillers is apparently something anime does, which you'll know more about than I do, but I seem to recall a couple of Naruto episodes which went back in time without any context, and just fleshed out more of the characters and world.

@RogerRoger Sounds like a Lucas, looks like a Lucas, adds prequels like a Lucas....must be a Lucas! 😅

Oh yeah, I forgot to share this funny video with you that I saw on YouTube the other day!

You may have already seen it!

@ralphdibny I'd heard about it, but I'd never actually seen it, so thanks for embedding it! The random-yet-perfect addition of the Metal Gear Solid alert music made me laugh!

You can tell he's looking at the camera and thinking, "Whatever they're making, it needs more Jar Jar."