Topic: The TV Show Thread

I honestly couldn't be happier that RTD is coming back to Doctor Who. Capaldi's last season was dreadful, and it just got worse once Whittaker took over the role. It'll be nice to actually look forward to watching this show again.

They really need to soft reboot the show again like they did with Whittaker.

I haven’t seen much of Whittaker Who other than the first couple of episodes. Those episodes didn’t do much for me, I found Bradley Walsh an odd companion, and it felt like there was a bit too much of an entourage going on. The move to the Sunday slot didn’t help and I’ve never felt compelled to catch up on it.

@Ralizah I actually thought Capaldi’s last season was way better than the couple before that. The whole one with her from Game of Thrones was rubbish. At least the one with Bill as the companion had Heaven Sent which is probably the best New Who episode. Although it also had Matt Lucas.

I decided to catch up on some Netflix tonight, for the first time in weeks, and… I guess I killed it. Sorry, everyone.

@Ralizah I only started watching Doctor Who since David Tennant's run and then all way through to Capaldi’s last few episodes... and then completely lost interest for some reason. Not even looked at it since.

@nessisonett Heaven Sent was season nine, I believe. That and the one after it (Hell Bent, I believe) were both fantastic episodes. Capaldi's entire run has been uneven, but his uncompromising characterization and sporadic good writing made the first two seasons worth watching.

Large swaths of his last season were profoundly forgettable, but the death stroke for me was the replacement of Clara Oswald (probably the strongest companion character in the reboot series to date) with Bill Potts and gag Nardole, the worst companions in the reboot series.

I was hopeful for Whittaker, since Capaldi's arc had crashed and burned by the end, but... my god, everything about her first season was awful. Forgettable side characters. The blandest doctor in memory (not sure if it was the choice of actress or the script she was given; kinda hope the next doctor is another woman so that when the show's quality inevitably improves now and more people start tuning in we don't get insufferable media screeds about audiences not liking Whittaker's run because of misogyny or something, like the media gaslighting over the failure of Ghostbusters 2016). Poor character writing. Preachy and sometimes moronic story writing (I'll never forget that one where the time-traveling white supremacist endeavored to stop the American civil rights movement from kicking off by... stopping Rosa Parks from getting on a bus 😂). The writers also made a conscious decision to soft reboot it and move away from almost all established aspects of the series' fun and rich mythology, which robbed that season of much of its identity. It didn't feel like Doctor Who. It was depressingly mediocre, and, frankly, after coming off Capaldi's last season, I just had enough and stopped watching. And, like a lot of Americans, I'd mainly discovered the property via the reboot and had been watching since Eccleston first kicked it off. I didn't like all of the doctors (Matt Smith still creeps me out, personally), but there was always something to love in the show. That indescribable quality that made it stand out from other TV science-fiction dramas. And that just disappeared, and I was done with it.

Really hoping they can re-capture the magic of the show before late-Capaldi.

@Ralizah Ah yeah, I’m getting mixed up because I hated most of that Capaldi season but those two episodes were a standout. Bill was a great companion imo, with loads more to give. Clara was just sooooo drawn out towards the end. There were some great episodes in that final Capaldi series like Knock Knock and I really enjoyed Thin Ice as well. Nardole is dreadful but then he still isn’t quite James Corden so there’s that. Whittaker’s time just hasn’t been good at all but I reckon it’s more that there isn’t as talented a writing pool on that show as there was 10-15 years ago. They need an equivalent of Moffat during RTD’s time who just put out great episode after great episode.

@nessisonett I... don't really expect they're going to find another writer of Moffat's stature any time soon. IMO, the best years of the show are probably long gone. But if they can fix the brain drain problem they've clearly suffered from in the writer's room, hopefully they can make sure the show watchable again, at least.

tbh I kinda feel bad Whittaker was never given the opportunity to have any good material to bounce off of (at least, based on what I watched, which was her first season; I've heard mixed things about the following two seasons, and, frankly, many of the "it gets better... kinda" rationalizations I've heard from other friends and family members who were also fans had a whiff of desperation to them). I also quite liked the first season of the reboot, and, frankly, Eccleston's doctor wasn't particularly magnetic.

Well, whatever. I'll always give a new doctor at least one season to sway me.

Never played League of Legends, but really dig the art style. Kinda like a handpainted water colour element to it.

@JohnnyShoulder Agreed. That looks pretty awesome. Don’t know much about League but this seems more Cyberpunk than fantasy.

Quite liked tonight’s Doctor Who. It was like an old-fashioned episode but still had ongoing plot attached. Nice to see a proper historical period being explored again.

We started Y: the Last Man this evening and are actually quite enjoying it. We had pretty low expectations given all the hate it’s received but we’ve been pleasantly surprised.

My memories of the graphic novels are vague but the TV show does seem quite different iirc… perhaps that is why there’s been so much negativity, I don’t know. Whatever is the case though, the missus and I are glad we gave it a shot.

@colonelkilgore I loved the first 4 episodes and then found out it had been cancelled and stopped watching it. I would say that I have no idea why it’s receiving hate… but it was inevitable given the concept.

@nessisonett that (episode 4) was where we called it a night actually. There are a few things which definitely could’ve stirred some anger on both sides of the political spectrum (Y being a bit of a selfish idiot on one hand and society collapsing into chaos under female rule surprisingly quickly on the other)… they’re not affecting our enjoyment too much though.

At the suggestion of several users, I have been watching Netflix Castlevania. I’m 4 episodes in and I have enjoyed it more than I thought I would. In fact, I had tried the series in the past and didn’t really understand or feel interest in the show the first time around, but this second attempt seemed to click better. I have been really busy so I like how the episodes are really short, at like 20-25 minutes so far. (Although each episode is hardly self contained and they seems to just pick immediately back up where the former one left off)

Overall, what I’m most impressed with is the voice acting. The animation is decent, the storyline is okay, but the way the actors perform their parts has really kept me engaged this go-around.

Similarly, in my brief moments of free time I have also been watching a few more episodes of the refreshingly short What If?… but I’ll put thoughts in the Marvel thread.

@RogerRoger Oh man, I had no idea Science SARU did a couple of those. I’m much more likely to watch them now, I love Masaaki Yuasa’s work and his protégés are promising too. Disney+ must have a connection with them since they’ve licensed a sequel to The Tatami Galaxy, one of my best anime I’ve ever seen!

I started watching Arcane on Netflix. It’s an animated series set in the world of League of Legends.
I don’t know the first thing about LoL characters and lore but I gotta say this is worth checking out for the animation alone, because it looks absolutely amazing.
It’s 9 episodes with 6 available now and the final 3 releasing this weekend.

@Voltan I posted one of trailers on here a few days go, as I really liked to art style. Good to know it holds up.

Oh boy, Doctor Who was actually good tonight. Like really really good. Glad to see actual love for it from the fandom as well, think everyone’s over Chibnall but that episode has been pretty universally praised!

The missus and I binged the whole of The Foundation today. I’ve been looking forward to it since it was first announced and it didn’t disappoint. Probably the best show I’ve watched all year… and maybe my favourite sci-fi show ever (which is a very a tough one to call as I love Battlestar Galactica so… maybe if the subsequent seasons live up to season 1)!