Telly Stuff
May. 14th, 2015 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightMore personal post to follow.
Behind cut, telly thoughts, with spoilers for the season finale of Agents of SHIELD, slight spoilers for the Daredevil series on Netflix, also, more griping about Marvel comics.
So, only of interest to me, probably. ;)
I finished my BtVS re-watch. Found the last five episodes a disappointing way to end the series in many ways. That said, I for the most part enjoyed it enormously. I'm even considering starting again from the beginning quite soon.
So that tells you something, and could well explain why I periodically delete my icons to do with other dead TV shows but can't bring myself to delete the BtVS ones.
Agents of SHIELD isn't a dead TV show but I've deleted my icons anyway. I thought the first part of season 2 was a vast improvement on season 1, but the second half has been a complete let down. The plot of the show is so obviously in thrall to the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe bid for world domination that it hardly matters what happens in it. Also, I ended up yet again not caring about any of the characters (well, Hunter and Bobbi are okay, though only because Hunter's a Brit and the actress who plays Bobbi looks (almost) tough enough to do the things she does), and finding SHIELD as an organisation a bit Fascist.
I mean, don't your hackles automatically rise when people start wanting to 'index' other people? I know mine do. I don't care how 'noble' their motivations are, or if the leader of the people they want to index turns out to be a homicidal nutcase.
But it's not just that, of course. Frankly, after the way the comics arm of Marvel has shown themselves so willing to throw twenty years of comics universe continuity down the toilet to bring the comics more in line with the movies, I just don't care what they do any more. Also, all that eye-rolling by Marvel big cheeses about paranoid X-Men fans who're worried their favourite characters might get shafted because of the whole Marvel/Fox snarling at each other over the fence about character rights business is well and good, but it looks to me like the paranoia is not ill-founded.
For a start, the final scene in the AoS finale showed exactly how Marvel plan to replace the X-Men with the Inhumans.
So, yeah, I'm not sure I'll bother with another series of AoS for all sorts of reasons, from sour grapes about what Marvel are doing/have done to characters/relationships I've loved for decades, to not finding the AoS characters/situations at all compelling, to finding some of them quite repugnant.
Chief among the repugnant situations was the drawn-out Ward/Agent 33 torture of Bobbi Morse. I hate torture scenes anyway (is there anyone who actually likes them?). Didn't need something like that to be reminded that Ward is a rabid dog and the world would be better off is he was put down like one. Yes, he's more interesting now he's evil - definite Angel/Angelus parallels there - but he still isn't that interesting. I'm glad that at least Bobbi called him on his whining self-pity. About time someone did.
Meh!
Actually, speaking of Marvel and violence, I'm finding the Daredevil series on Netflix tough-going because of how violent it is. I know that probably sounds weird coming from a GoT fan, but the thing is, I've become invested in the characters in GoT (well, some of them), enough to grit my teeth and endure the violence (usually by shutting my eyes and not watching it). With this show, I've no incentive to do that so far. Okay, it's well written etc, but Daredevil was never one of my favourite Marvel characters (Frank Miller's run on the book is a classic, of course, but apart from that I'm not much interested).
I probably will keep watching, though. For the moment anyway, though more because the in-put of various Joss-related alums (Petrie, DeKnight, Goddard - even Christos Gage, though he hardly counts) means that the scripts have some zing to them.
I am invested enough in the characters from The Americans, though, to keep watching no matter what happens, and despite the violence. I'd kept my DVDs of season 1 out of storage (actually thought I'd have time to watch DVDs last year. Silly me) so since the BtVS rewatch ended I've started watching them. It is such a good show. It really is. And I can't help rooting for Philip and Elizabeth despite the awful things they do.
Only other thing of note TV-wise is that the BBC adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell starts on Sunday. Can't wait. It's a long time since I read the book - long enough, I hope, that I can treat the TV series as a whole different animal.
Anyone else read the book, or planning on watching the series?
Behind cut, telly thoughts, with spoilers for the season finale of Agents of SHIELD, slight spoilers for the Daredevil series on Netflix, also, more griping about Marvel comics.
So, only of interest to me, probably. ;)
I finished my BtVS re-watch. Found the last five episodes a disappointing way to end the series in many ways. That said, I for the most part enjoyed it enormously. I'm even considering starting again from the beginning quite soon.
So that tells you something, and could well explain why I periodically delete my icons to do with other dead TV shows but can't bring myself to delete the BtVS ones.
Agents of SHIELD isn't a dead TV show but I've deleted my icons anyway. I thought the first part of season 2 was a vast improvement on season 1, but the second half has been a complete let down. The plot of the show is so obviously in thrall to the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe bid for world domination that it hardly matters what happens in it. Also, I ended up yet again not caring about any of the characters (well, Hunter and Bobbi are okay, though only because Hunter's a Brit and the actress who plays Bobbi looks (almost) tough enough to do the things she does), and finding SHIELD as an organisation a bit Fascist.
I mean, don't your hackles automatically rise when people start wanting to 'index' other people? I know mine do. I don't care how 'noble' their motivations are, or if the leader of the people they want to index turns out to be a homicidal nutcase.
But it's not just that, of course. Frankly, after the way the comics arm of Marvel has shown themselves so willing to throw twenty years of comics universe continuity down the toilet to bring the comics more in line with the movies, I just don't care what they do any more. Also, all that eye-rolling by Marvel big cheeses about paranoid X-Men fans who're worried their favourite characters might get shafted because of the whole Marvel/Fox snarling at each other over the fence about character rights business is well and good, but it looks to me like the paranoia is not ill-founded.
For a start, the final scene in the AoS finale showed exactly how Marvel plan to replace the X-Men with the Inhumans.
So, yeah, I'm not sure I'll bother with another series of AoS for all sorts of reasons, from sour grapes about what Marvel are doing/have done to characters/relationships I've loved for decades, to not finding the AoS characters/situations at all compelling, to finding some of them quite repugnant.
Chief among the repugnant situations was the drawn-out Ward/Agent 33 torture of Bobbi Morse. I hate torture scenes anyway (is there anyone who actually likes them?). Didn't need something like that to be reminded that Ward is a rabid dog and the world would be better off is he was put down like one. Yes, he's more interesting now he's evil - definite Angel/Angelus parallels there - but he still isn't that interesting. I'm glad that at least Bobbi called him on his whining self-pity. About time someone did.
Meh!
Actually, speaking of Marvel and violence, I'm finding the Daredevil series on Netflix tough-going because of how violent it is. I know that probably sounds weird coming from a GoT fan, but the thing is, I've become invested in the characters in GoT (well, some of them), enough to grit my teeth and endure the violence (usually by shutting my eyes and not watching it). With this show, I've no incentive to do that so far. Okay, it's well written etc, but Daredevil was never one of my favourite Marvel characters (Frank Miller's run on the book is a classic, of course, but apart from that I'm not much interested).
I probably will keep watching, though. For the moment anyway, though more because the in-put of various Joss-related alums (Petrie, DeKnight, Goddard - even Christos Gage, though he hardly counts) means that the scripts have some zing to them.
I am invested enough in the characters from The Americans, though, to keep watching no matter what happens, and despite the violence. I'd kept my DVDs of season 1 out of storage (actually thought I'd have time to watch DVDs last year. Silly me) so since the BtVS rewatch ended I've started watching them. It is such a good show. It really is. And I can't help rooting for Philip and Elizabeth despite the awful things they do.
Only other thing of note TV-wise is that the BBC adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell starts on Sunday. Can't wait. It's a long time since I read the book - long enough, I hope, that I can treat the TV series as a whole different animal.
Anyone else read the book, or planning on watching the series?