Other TV stuff

[shapinglight]

I finished watching The Expanse season 2. I'm still going through Stranger Things 2.

Spoilers for The Expanse behind cut.



Still think The Expanse is the best sci-fi series I've ever watched. Not my favourite -B5 will always be that, I suspect - but the best, absolutely.

'Course, they could totally f**k it up in season 3. We'll see. Judging on what we've had so far, I don't think so, but it's all dependant on the source material, of course, and I know nothing about how the story goes in that. I hope, though, that it involves Anderson Dawes getting his comeuppance.

Some really moving scenes in season 2, including the fate of Miller and Julie and the stoic - and heroic - end of the refugees on Ganymede. That scene somewhat balanced out the horrific mid-season scene where other refugees were spaced by their so called rescuers just because they came from the inner planets. Horrible. Naomi's my favourite character. She seems to me an admirable person. But in fact, I like all the characters, even Amos. The only one I'm less enthused about is Holden, but even then I don't dislike him. I'm just pretty indifferent (and unsure why the others call him captain).

Not sure what I think yet about Stranger Things 2. I do like it a lot but it feels more episodic than the first series. Inevitable, I suppose, when you decide on a five season story arc, or whatever. I do like it, though. More about it when I've finished it.



petzipellepingo already linked to this story about Amazon winning the rights to make a TV series based on LotR. I'm not particularly invested in the source material any more so the thought of this didn't make me shudder the way the news that there was to be a Bladerunner sequel did, but even so, :shudder:. I just don't see how it's going to work and I'm not sure I want to.

Speaking of Bladerunner, I did say I was going to make a post about Bladerunner: 2049 and I haven't done so yet. Will try to tomorrow, as I do have some thoughts I want to get down.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, Expanse develops its characters, which is always important regardless of plot (and it's not like the show falls down there either). And horrible, yes, but that spacing scene was not only unexpected I think it made a statement the way few other massacres do. It was the whole mass murder as if people were worth no more than garbage aspect -- not something you usually see. I think we've become immune to bloodbaths (in the news as well as fiction -- as I type this I'm hearing something about yet another school shooting).

Haven't seen Stranger 2 yet as we've such a lot to get off the DVR still and we're making such slow progress. We're current on 3 shows and have just started going through S2 of Dirk Gently. First episode was slow but the second one is already pretty funny.

[shapinglight]

but that spacing scene was not only unexpected I think it made a statement the way few other massacres do. It was the whole mass murder as if people were worth no more than garbage aspect -- not something you usually see.

Yes, I admit I wasn't expecting it - not until the crewman wouldn't let Prax into the hold with the others because he was a fellow Belter. I had a horrid feeling what was going to happen then. Both sides in this series have been guilty of treating their fellow human beings like garbage - the whole Eros incident was horrific - but this was particularly ghastly.

[orangerful]

I agree with you on The Expanse. I LOVED Season 2 and it really made me invested in the show. It is just as complex as something like Game of Thrones but IN SPAAAAACE. I can't wait for Season 3 to start up. The books are supposed to be well done too, so they have plenty of source material to keep it going.

I am still processing my thoughts on Stranger Things 2. I wasn't as enamored with it as the first season but it did have some great moments. I didn't realize they had a 5 season contract though, might explain some of the random characters that made brief appearances.

As far as the LotR series, I'm not interested. I adore the original films but everything else has left me cold/annoyed. My theory is that Amazon saw that Netflix picked up the rights to the Witcher series and wants in on the high fantasy action.

[shapinglight]

I agree with you on The Expanse. I LOVED Season 2 and it really made me invested in the show. It is just as complex as something like Game of Thrones but IN SPAAAAACE.

Yes, there's something of that about it, though have to say for the most part I like the characters more than the GoT ones.

The books are supposed to be well done too, so they have plenty of source material to keep it going.

I'd quite like to read the books, but I'm now so invested in the TV series that I'm a little concerned they would spoil it for me. ;)

My theory is that Amazon saw that Netflix picked up the rights to the Witcher series and wants in on the high fantasy action.

Well, they definitely want their own GoT-style series, but I honestly don't see how this is going to work. The books were written in the 1940s and in many ways are of their time. How can a series set in that 'verse include any casting diversity (which, IMO, there's no excuse not to have these days) when it's well established in both books and films that all the non-white humans in Middle Earth are under Sauron's thrall?

Yet if they do, I dunno, cast a POC actor as an elf or whatever, they're going to have the purists down on them like a ton of bricks. I just don't see how it's going to work without being either offensive or looking like it's just ticking boxes.

[shadowkat]

Amazon is picking up the rights to a lot of fantasy and sci-fi ventures lately. Not sure how much of it will pan out. I'm more interested in the sci-fi ventures, which are more innovative. Agreed on LoTR -- this has been done. My favorite version is still the animated one by Ralph Baski done in the 1970s and 80s.

Haven't seen all of S2 the Expanse yet...it's sitting on the DVR. Nor have I seen Stranger Things 2 (saving it for Thanksgiving. The Expanse, I think I may be saving for post-Christmas.)

Curious what you thought of Bladerunner 2049. Can you give me a non-spoilery response? ie. Yes, it was great, go see it. No, don't bother. Or ...you can wait until it pops up on netflix or on-demand? (I own the director's cut of the original BladeRunner on DVD. It's my favorite Sci-Fi movie, but I'm hesistant to see the sequel. Mainly because the best thing about the first movie was well Rutger Hauer. That and the sequel is almost 3 hours long...)

[shapinglight]

I like Peter Jackson's LotR movies quite a lot. More than the books really. That said, some things in both - the fact that all non-white people in Middle Earth are under Sauron's thrall, for instance - makes me quite uncomfortable. And seeing the very few scenes featuring non-white characters in the films- well, you can hardly call them characters since they don't have names - at the cinema made me pretty uncomfortable too. Not least because my husband and kids were the only non-white people in the audience. ;)

Curious what you thought of Bladerunner 2049. Can you give me a non-spoilery response?

Erm...hmm.

Okay, Bladerunner is one of my all time favourite films and I was rather dreading seeing the sequel, but now I have I've dismissed it as an irrelevance. It looks amazing and the soundtrack is fantastic but it's completely disposable. It didn't spoil the original for me because I dismissed it from my mind almost the moment I left the cinema, whereas the original stayed with me for weeks. Years, even.

IMO, they should have left well alone, but since the movie flopped in theatres and will probably remain a one-off (it's pretty clear when you watch it that they were aiming for a trilogy) it hasn't spoiled the original.

I'd say wait till it appears on Netflix or wherever.

ETA: There are actually things in it that I disliked intensely, but to tell you what those were would probably be spoilery.

[shadowkat]

Thanks! I think I'll wait. Because I did adore the original film and it still is vivid in my mind. Even read the book upon which it is based -- which is nothing like it.

I've dismissed it as an irrelevance. It looks amazing and the soundtrack is fantastic but it's completely disposable.

From the non-spoilery reviews that I read that was my general interpretation. The people who loved it -- loved the visuals but not the plot or story, they went on and on about how pretty the film was. Nor did they have much memory of the original and in some cases hadn't even seen the original film.

It's was the spectacle they adored.

And well, I need more than that in a film to justify three hours.

[shapinglight]

Glad to be of help. ;)

[shadowkat]

That said, some things in both - the fact that all non-white people in Middle Earth are under Sauron's thrall, for instance - makes me quite uncomfortable. And seeing the very few scenes featuring non-white characters in the films- well, you can hardly call them characters since they don't have names - at the cinema made me pretty uncomfortable too

This is true of most films done prior to 2010 (filmed prior to 2014-2010, can't remember when I started picking up on a change exactly). I've been noticing a change of sorts for films filmed or created after that. It's subtle but changing. And definitely with television - far more diversified casting since 2014. So, I'm thinking you may find the Amazon series to be different than the film version in regards to diverse casting choices.

There's no reason why they can't be diversely cast -- since Tolkien never states that Hobbits happen to look like short white guys and gals from Britian in the books. That's Hollywood's lack of imagination -- which again, I think is changing. Today, you go into a movie theater and not everyone in the film is white nor are all the good guys white. That wasn't true about ten years back.

Also, the current generation or millenials, have less tolerance for non-diverse casting choices and they make up the bulk of the viewing audience.

[shapinglight]

They do, it's true. We'll see, I suppose. I still think Amazon would have been better off choosing less problematic (from the diversity POV) source material. The Earthsea books, for instance. I know a horrible film was made of them with everyone in the cast being white but they could have rectified that and done a version that was truer to the books.

[shadowkat]

I'm not sure who is doing it, it may be Amazon, but Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower is being developed into a television series by Ava Duvernay.

[shapinglight]

That might be interesting. I have read some of her books in the past, but it was a long time ago. I don't read sci fi much nowadays.

[shadowkat]

I'm not reading much sci-fi right now, either. (OR any to be honest at the moment.) And I've only read one of Octavia Butler's books.

[dalmeny]

Yes, we really enjoyed Season 2 of the Expanse. I was worried for a bit that Naomi had just started following Holden's lead, but no...

That said, I also find it inexplicable that Holden is captain, unless it's a Default White Male thing.

[shapinglight]

Well, it's the same in the books (so I gather, I haven't read them yet) and the authors are white males so maybe Holden is a kind of authorial insert.

Or the guy is just not a very good actor. Nothing he's done convinces me he should be captain, or, though the Rocinante crew do argue a lot, that ultimately his decision should be final. If anyone should be captain it's Naomi, though I understand why she doesn't want the role.

Their relationship is nice and all - definitely a relationship of equals, IMO - but I can't say I'm particularly invested in it. I'm more interested in discovering more about Naomi's past, and Alex's, for that matter. We still don't know why he left Mars.

[dalmeny]

I'm more interested in discovering more about Naomi's past, and Alex's,

Yes, that would be great.