Topic: The TV Show Thread

Since it's Halloween I'm watching Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of curiosities. Both episodes so far have been great!

@JohnnyShoulder
I just don't know how they will write in a proper explanation for a complete recasting of a character four seasons into a show. This isn't Doctor Who, I don't see how they could make it make sense.

@PegasusActual93 They probably don't. Won't be the first time a character has been recast and there has been no explanation for it in the show.

Apparently Cavill left due to not agreeing with how much the show was deviating from the books.

@JohnnyShoulder Think the ‘not agreeing with the deviations’ thing was just an old quote taken out of context from an interview a year or so ago propagated by Fandom Menace types who still can’t get over Triss being black. The only people reporting it are sites like ScreenRant who’ll publish literally anything if you send it in. There’s absolutely no way that somebody like Henry Cavill would leave a show that he’s fully committed to for a seven season run fairly recently for reasons other than bigger opportunities. Superman is his way back into Hollywood rather than doing TV. If anything else, I’m sure there are quite a few Armie Hammer roles out there he could replace him in 😂

@nessisonett Serves me right for believing someone on twitter! I thought they were a bit more reliable than that lol.

Cavill could play along himself if they were to do another The Man from U.N.C.L.E film! 😂

@nessisonett Driving School? As in Maureen? That Driving School?

@Gremio108 Yeah, that exact one! Maureen almost killing her husband is genuinely one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. It was put onto iPlayer recently!

@Kairu To be honest he felt like a side character in S2 anyway. Both seasons have been "meh" at best for me, I watched them as it's something to do and I'm not sure if I'll bother with the next series.

If they write a series dedicated to the hunting, capture, torture and execution of Jaskier and his entire family then I may return.

Cavill is too good for the show, besides he'll be busy being James Bond if the producers of the next phase have any sense.

@Kairu Those news articles are basing it on an interview from 2019 where he says he likes the games and books. There’s absolutely zero evidence that he dislikes the direction of the show and it seems more like people who don’t like Netflix are projecting.

@nessisonett The stuff of legend. May have to watch it.

Just finished watching For All Mankind up to s3 on Apple TV+ (free sub with PS5).
Very entertaining what if show. Lots of drama most of which quite plausible within the narrative. Has the odd over the top moment, and episodes are often too long for my tastes, but overall a great series. If you’re interested at all in space flight you should definitely watch it.

Man, how have I slept on the Netflix show Arcane? I’ve watched the first four episodes and up to this point I think it’s really brilliant. I have absolutely no familiarity with League of Legends and I’m wondering why they even licensed it as a related product, but regardless I’ve had no issue following the story or setting. So far it’s one of my favorite shows that I’ve watched in the last few years. The wheels may fall off in the second half, I guess, but to this point it’s got everything I like in an animated show. I love the visuals and art design. The story is much better than the typical animated fare. The voice acting is great. Even the music is fitting.

Speaking of voice acting, Hailee Steinfeld is quickly becoming a favorite for me. She really won me over as Kate Bishop in the Hawkeye series and I really liked her character Spider-Gwen in Into the Spider-Verse. So far she’s pretty ‘one-note’ in her castings, but as she ages I expect she’ll take on more complex roles.

Anyways, I’m really high on Arcane, so for anyone on the fence about it you should give it a try. I was hesitant because of the LofL connections, but it seems to be pretty extraneous. If anyone knows of other animated shows to recommend to me with similar stunning animation and storyline, let me know.

... Didn't we all tell you multiple times Sol to give it a watch when it first came out and we were all gushing about it?

Glad to hear you're enjoying it though! Episode 3 was the episode where I was well and truly hooked. Such a downer of an episode but so good.

The story and cast of characters are exceedingly well written and so layered that I sincerely doubt to think you fall off in the second act 😄

... Ya know I might just get around to watching it again myself!

@HallowMoonshadow I know, I know 😅 - people have been praising it for a while, but I guess I just figured it was simply “good for a one-off video game tie-in show” rather than actually a “really great show” by any metric. So I was in no rush.

For example, I had heard a lot of praise (well-earned I might add) for the Castlevania animated show and when I watched it I liked enough, but after a while honestly it failed to really get to a top-tier level of story and animation. It was at the level of “good for a video game show” imo, and after the initial surprise that the show didn’t actually suck, it eventually lost its momentum for me. With all due respect to anime style shows, I have trouble really engaging in the way they portray their narrative, and often there’s just tons of filler in the episodes, which is what Castlevania reached after the third season, so I didn’t feel compelled to finish it. Arcane, on the other hand, has really had great pacing so far. And the production value is so high.

That Cyberpunk animated series is the obvious next one up, and I’ve heard great things about it, but I have a feeling it’s more of a nice novelty for gaming fans rather than an independently well-crafted series.

Without spoiling the ending, do we know yet if Arcane will get another season? I want to savor the last episodes if they will be my last.

Ha ha I know I know just lightly teasing you @Th3solution

Yeah I recall you not quite getting on with Castlevania. A shame as that 4th and final season was a good sendoff for it (And I admit Season 3 did drag it's heels a little).

I've heard Edgerunners is good even without context. Studio Trigger is a renowned anime studio for what they put out. Do wanna give it a look myself too even if like yourself I didn't think much of Cyberpunk as a game.

As for a season 2 of Arcane? Netflix have ordered a second season yeah. That's all I'll say Sol 😏

@HallowMoonshadow Lol, the next thing ya know I’ll be saying, “I started playing this little game called Divinity Original Sin 2 and it’s great. Why didn’t anyone tell me?!” 😜

Well, I still might return to that last season of Castlevania, so we’ll see. If you try Edgerunners then let me know how you get along with it.

And that’s good to know we will hopefully get Arcane season 2. The only other series that has reached its level of animation and punchy storytelling is Love, Death, and Robots. It’s way different, but if you’ve not tried that then you might like it. It’s not a continuous storyline, but rather each episode is standalone, yet you might enjoy nibbling on that to hold you over as well.

Welp, that is another one that has gone. Surprised as I thought Westworld was one of the more popular TV shows under the HBO umbrella.

@JohnnyShoulder
Honestly not surprised. They really started to lose viewers around season 3. Season 4 was pretty good but most of the viewers who left were not coming back and it was one of HBO's most expensive shows too. We still got 4 seasons and an ending that works fine enough, Netflix would have cancelled it after 2 at most.

@PegasusActual93 Yeah just saw a breakdown of the viewing figures. They really did take a nosedive around about when you said.

@JohnnyShoulder
Nosedive would frankly be an understatement, they lost 85 percent of viewership from the end of season 1 to the end of season 4.