TV stuff, Star Trek: Discovery etc

[shapinglight]

No new episode of Lucifer this week, or next, though according to show writer Chris Rafferty on Twitter, it will then be back for five weeks straight, off for a single week, then back again for the final five. That would be nice. We'll see. No sign yet of renewal or cancellation. I hope they don't get too cocky and end on a horrible cliffhanger. :(

Spoilers behind cut for the Star Trek: Discovery finale, and brief not really spoilers for The Good Place, Altered Carbon and McMafia.



The Star Trek: Discovery finale, IMO, shared the good points and bad points of the entire season. In other words, it was uneven. Mostly I liked it, but there were some things that were a bit obvious (of course they were never going to blow up the Klingon home planet, of course ex-Emperor Philippa was going to do something nasty), which makes you question the decision-making going on, not least on the part of Michael Burnham. I also found the grand speeches a bit trite, even if I agreed with the sentiment. Not sure what I think about the very end either. Kind of...let down really, the way I felt about the Lorca business, though in this case I'm not sure why. Also felt let down that it seems Dr Culber is just dead, though with both him and Lorca the door has been left just the slightest, tiniest bit ajar that they could come back (or versions of them anyway). On the other hand, I liked all the stuff on the Klingon homeworld, and - unlike with Lorca, who I felt was ultimately wasted - thought they book-ended Tyler's story very well.

One thing I would like to say to the showrunners, if they could hear me, is, please can there be 100% less cannibalism in season 2? Thanks.

I carried on watching The Good Place. Am now a couple of episodes into season 2. Everyone who told me I'd be surprised by the season 1 finale was quite right. I did not see that coming at all. The whole dynamic of the show has changed now. Not sure whether it's for the better. It is still lots of fun, though.

I started watching Altered Carbon on Netflix. The Bladerunner-esqueness of the trailer sucked me in. I'm quite impressed with it so far, even though I find the actor playing the main character (well, playing him in the present) quite off-putting -physically repugnant, even. He reminds me of Brian Thompson who played the Bounty Hunter character in The X-Files (and Luke in the pilot episode of BtVS, of course), who I felt the same way about. What else may put me off is the prospect of horrible torture in one of the episodes. The blurb for episode 4 says that's what happens in it, but even if it didn't, this interview with the writer of the books on which the show is based would be enough to clue me in.

Hmm.

I know my tolerance for onscreen violence has plummeted in recent years (it must have been greater at one point or I would never have started watching Game of Thrones), but I honestly don't get the attraction and never will, and I don't like that so many things I would like to watch contain scenes that I can't watch at all. There have even been a couple of scenes in Lucifer where I've had to cover my eyes because I couldn't stand to watch. :(

McMafia - weirdly, considering the subject matter - wasn't too bad. It remained completely downbeat to the end, and finished pretty much as I thought it would. Alex is now an international drugs dealer. You could pretty much see it coming from episode 1.

Comments

[ex_peasant441]

The on-offness of Lucifer is very annoying.

[shapinglight]

Well, they're doing a lot better than last year. At least the show is only off for a couple of weeks this time. Last year, they went on hiatus at the end of January and didn't come back till May.

[sibilant]

The Star Trek finale was a bit meh, I thought. Not much - if any - come-uppance was dealt out, which, depending on your mileage, may not surprise you, but felt plain wrong considering the awful things that had happened. All that speechifying bored me to death and there was far too much of it. I want it to come back, but hope it has a bit more oomph and nuance. Needs to develop the secondary characters a bit as well, otherwise, without Lorca, it may become a bit too one-note.

Just started The Good Place. I'm enjoying naughty Kristen Bell most, but I like Chi as well. Altered Carbon - only watched the first episode, which I found rather cliched, but will probably have another go when I run out of other options. We've also watched the first ep of the Marvelous Mrs Maisel. Mr Sibilant liked it more than I did, but I did love the atmos and the production values.

[shapinglight]

All that speechifying bored me to death and there was far too much of it. I want it to come back, but hope it has a bit more oomph and nuance. Needs to develop the secondary characters a bit as well, otherwise, without Lorca, it may become a bit too one-note.

And, I'd argue, without Tyler. At least his character was all conflicted.

I just this article about the finale and I tend to agree with most of it.

The speechifying was weird. My impression was that it wasn't really happening in real time, as it were, because mostly it felt like Burnham was addressing the TV audience rather than a bunch of Starfleet types.

There's definitely going to be another series, which makes me wish more than ever that Enterprise hadn't shown up at the end of this episode. I just don't see how that's going to work.

We've also watched the first ep of the Marvelous Mrs Maisel. Mr Sibilant liked it more than I did, but I did love the atmos and the production values.

I hope it grows on you. It certainly did on me.

[yourlibrarian]

Glad you're enjoying Good Place. I'd be more surprised if you find S2 dull considering how it goes ;)

[shapinglight]

Well, it's certainly growing on me as I get further into it. Just watched the episode about the trolley dilemma, which was great. :)

[shadowkat]

I'd be surprised if it's not renewed, it's been doing well over here. And, it's not exactly off this week, so much as in reruns -- due to the Olympics. No one is showing new episodes during the Olympics. I think they are all convinced that everyone is watching the Olympics.

[shapinglight]

Yes, they were showing that episode about the journalist in hell this week, weren't they?

[shadowkat]

I think so yes. Didn't look too closely at the description.

[rogin]

Just finished Discovery and I dunno. It didn't make much sense. I am very mad at them for offing Lorca, when he would have been so interesting as a villain.

And after that it all was a bit meh for me. The whole, only the ruthless dictator can save us now was very silly and the idea that the secret klingon homeworld nobody had seen in a 100 years just happened to harbor a bunch of alien smugglers, seemed pretty farfetched. They just ruined the Klingons.

I got to warm up to some of the characters though, mainly Saru, Stammets and Tilly. Maybe by the time season two shows up I will be game. In the meantime, the Expanse is a thing of beauty.

[shapinglight]

In the meantime, the Expanse is a thing of beauty.

It is, isn't it? I'm so glad you like it. When did you start watching it? I love Naomi. She's one of my favourite TV characters ever.

I agree with what you say about Discovery. It started off ropey, got better, then blew it all in the last couple of episodes. A pity.

[tinny]

Funnily, I can accept gore in shows quite well when it's important to the plot (e.g. on ER), but hate it when it's there just to shock the audience (e.g. GoT).

I was very impressed with the second season of the Good Place, because they managed not to make it boring. I didn't think they could pull it off, but they did.

[shapinglight]

Season 2 of The Good Place was better than the first, I thought. Very, very clever indeed.