Stuff I've Been Watching - 11/Dec/2016

Westworld Season 1



Oh, yeah, the thing is not just a reboot of that haunting-yet-hoary 70s thing with Yul Brynner, it's also right out of 'The Simulacrum' by Philip K. Dick. Indeed, the robots played by humans are in exactly the same trap that the Replicants in 'Blade Runner' find themselves, and the problematic that follows from there is a refreshing update of that Frankenstein-ian nightmare. That's just one part of it. The other art of it is a serious consideration of humanity's responsibility towards and over the Artificial Intelligence units it creates and what that responsibility would entail.
I'm only up to Ep 4, but it's gripping stuff.

HBO sure have found their flagship to carry themselves through after 'Game of Thrones' winds up in the next 2 years!

Archer Seasons 1-5



I watch this show when I have a spare 25minutes. I've been doing it for a while and now I've sort of gotten to the end of Season 5. The banter grows on me. I guess I like rude, crude, foul banter.

It's more of a distraction, but there's a proper school of thought that says, that's exactly what good entertainment does. The show is beautifully rendered, written with the most sardonic cynicism, and as the seasons progress, gets ever more gross, strange, politically incorrect and in part deviant and degenerate. It's great. I don't recommend it to everybody, but as side amusements go, this is a beauty.

'Invasion!' - The Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl Crossover Thing



Yes, I'm still watching all this stuff. Just got through the 4 part crossover, which was more 3.1 episodes because the Flash and Cisco only turn up in the last segment of the Supergirl episode for 'Invasion!'. Anyway,  it strained and groaned mightily as it also included the 100th episode event for Arrow which confused things mightily. Overall, I don't think they did a good job with the crossover. I hope next year they'll do a better one - this one was showing all the strains of trying to fit everybody in.

Also, it's really silly that an alien fleet travels halfway across the Galaxy to wipe out metahumans, but give up and go home crying when their big bomb doesn't work. I mean, really? I know they're all kids' shows, but... really?

'Legends' is the most childish of the lot and perhaps with the greatest desire to sell toys. 'Supergirl' has gone funny this season with the Alex-the-sister-comes-out story line. It's politically correct, that's for sure, but it feels really preachy. Arrow looks like it's recovered its old form. The Flash is still developing. Like 'Arrow' it actually has its best moments in melodrama. I guess that's true of all of them.

Quick Shots - 10/Mar/2016

TV Drama Heaven

I've been doing some research and watching a raft of programmes lately. It's interesting how TV eats up content and ideas. It's partly because the format allows for only so much investigation of ideas and so those have to go on the slow burner while the action parts have to come to the front. The other interesting thin about TV writing at the moment is that right across the board on so many shows, the past definitely informs the present, so we're regaled with vast exposition of what happened before the story. Backstory is king in TV in a way that normal cinema never has the time to cover. It's a little like the 'Lord of the Rings' book where every character comes into the story with a boat load of backstory.

Anyway... If in doubt, introduce a relative and a random bad guy because this complicates what the protagonist can do. That's the other rule.

'Arrow' - Season 1 & 2

This is an interesting series based on comic book content. Normally this stuff sits with me uncomfortably because the stories never get close to the deeper issues of beating up on bad guys. This show actually marches right into there, as well as continuously run a back story as a growing narrative. It looks pretty much the way the other shows in the CW stable look, and as the first cab off the rank, has established the tropes for 'The Flash' and 'Legends of Tomorrow'. As comic book content goes, it's pretty adult in its exploration of the ethics of beating up on bad guys.

The problem with these CW stable of shows is that somehow even when some people die, they keep finding a way for them to come back. The internal rationale for it happening makes some sense but people not dying tends to take the risk out of the adventure.

'Broadchurch' - Season 2

I imagine this second season wraps it all up. although there are some new threads hanging loose. It's very well directed - I can see the care and attention to detail that's been put into each and every shot of this series. It's very good work. I don't know if I like the characters all that much and there are moments where the murder mystery aspect of the show veers into more pulp British murder mystery fare but overall it comes together nicely. You could do a lot worse than this show.

'From Dusk Till Dawn' - Pilot Episode

This is a tight little caper. It sort of leans into the part just before the movie begins so it's all about the Gecko brothers on the run. Back with the original film, it always struck me that the mode change from being about gangsters on the run into a splatter horror vampire pic was rather dissatisfying. Episode 1 at least sticks with the gangsters on the run and it's really tight.

I'll probably end up watching more of this series.

'Shadow Hunters' - Pilot Episode

Actually I only watched 1 episode of this one and stopped. It's not terribly appealing. It must have some interesting idea about demons on the loose in the material world that have to be hunted, but there's something juvenile and shallow about this one. I'm probably not going to watch more of this show.

'House of Cards' - Season 4

I'm working my way through this one a bit more slowly than previous years. It's funny how the 2016 election in Frank Underwood's world is unfolding at the same time as our Preselection in 2016. It underscores that Frank Underwood's universe is a parallel universe to ours - and Earth 2, if you will. In fact, who you accept it that way, it makes for more interesting viewing as to what exactly is going on in this alternative universe outside of the main story.

Here are some interesting, anomalous events that marks their alternative universe from ours.
- They seem not to have had the GFC in Earth 2, certainly not as badly as we've had it. It's amazing how politics in Frank's world is devoid of Donald Trump or Occupy Wall Street.
- They have a 'G-7' summit that is not a G-8 like ours. This is weirdly interesting because this G-7 of theirs includes China AND Russia. Our G-8 used to be a G-7 summit consisting of USA, UK, France,   Italy, Germany, Canada, and Japan. Russia got added after the Cold War ended to make it G-8.
- they seem to be having an Oil Shock Mk III in Earth 2. This indicates that there is no Shale Oil and fracking in Frank Underwood's universe. That would be sort of consistent with the no GFC universe.  It flies totally contrary to the collapsed commodity prices of our universe, so it's kind of cool.
Or it could just be scriptwriters not knowing their topic very well.