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1. One more episode of Beauty and the Beast, and all my summer shows are over. Not entirely certain what to make of this season of BatB. There are parts I really like, but the main plotlines of the season just haven't grabbed me. Also, massive waste of Gloria Vostis and Natasha Henstridge.
2. When Dark Matter and Killjoys started, I preferred Dark Matter of the two, but it's pretty firmly the opposite by the end of the season. Dark Matter just has too many microaggressions against Two-as-leader, and while it isn't exactly fond of rape threats, it came up enough for the show to lose points for it with me. Also, much as I like MOST of Dark Matter's crew, I liked One less every single episode, whereas D'Avin in Killjoys, who I initially also disliked, grew on me a fair bit. I mean, I like him less than pretty much every other named and main or recurring character, but I'll take him over One easily.
Both shows broke out the big guns for the finales (though I think the rebellion in Killjoys was a bit too background for the whole season to work the way they wanted it to in the finale). Killjoys is absolutely forbidden to open season 2 with sad music playing as the camera does a slowmo pan over the bodies of dead recurring characters (the show had it's chance with the "what's behind the door?" tension. It isn't allowed to pull anything like that.), and while I'm not pleased with the reveal of the traitor in Dark Matter, there aren't many ways that could have gone without my objecting.
Fingers crossed that both will get renewed.
3. Continuum is back, though, for it's fourth and final season. I wasn't big on the new future introduced towards the end of season 3, but we'll see how things go. If nothing else, I do at least trust the show to have a good ending. (Though I hope Kiera/Brad isn't end game.)
4.Years after Moon Embracing the Sun was the big Kdrama of the Moment, I'm getting around to watching it. I remember being moderately interested in it when it aired but not enough to watch it at the time, and that it seemed everyone either loved it, or hated it because everyone else loved it. It also came out in what seems to have been a bit of a Flower Boy craze in fusion sageuks after Sungkyukwan Scandal (another that i need to see, though most of my interest is Park Min Young) and it really shows.
I'm 8 episodes in and enjoying it, though in a somewhat passive way, largely because of my disinterest in the adult version of the main character. Kim Yoo Jung as Yeon Woo in the childhood (really early teens) part was really great, and I loved the character then, but Han Ga In as the adult Yeon Woo is rather...blank. I mean, part of it is because the character has amnesia, I think, but the acting is (IMO) rather bland. There have been a couple scenes where the character grabbed me, but they were exceptions, not the rule. There are a lot of other characters that I like, but it's hard for me to get invested when I don't feel anything for the female lead. I don't dislike her or anything, she just doesn't grab me.
Sseeing Kim Min Seo as Bo Kyung is a little odd, as she's also in Hwajung, where she also plays an evil scheming lady who wants to be queen. Though i'd say that, despite the type, the characters are completely different. I actually wouldn't have even realized it was the same actress because she looks and acts so different in the two series, but she has a rather distinctive face.
Speaking of faces, I don't know what casting was doing with the child actors, to a certain degree. It's like they actively sought to find young actors who bore a strong resemblance to the adult actors, then randomly assigned the roles without paying attention to which adults the younger actors actually resembled.
5. Fall shows start up again soon, though I'm not sure there are any new ones that I'll be checking out. Nothing grabbed me when I glanced through new shows a while back, but I might have missing something.
6. I rewatched the K Project anime as a refresher before season 2 airs, and also watched the Missing Kings sequel movie, which was pretty good, despite someohw managing to make Seri's skirt even shorter. I'm never forgiving the series for the reveal about Shiro's true identity, but I do still like it, mostly for the characters. I went ahead and watched the series dubbed and...most of the dubbing was ok, but Reisi and Fushimi's dubbed voices would have made me dislike the characters even if I didn't already have issues with them. (Reisi I would like if he wren't prone to manhandling prisoners and din't seem to enjoying showing off his powers to those weaker than him so much. Fushimi just annoys me. A lot.) I'll probably rewatch Noragami before the second season of that airs, too, though I watched the first season much more recently than my first watch of K Project.
2. When Dark Matter and Killjoys started, I preferred Dark Matter of the two, but it's pretty firmly the opposite by the end of the season. Dark Matter just has too many microaggressions against Two-as-leader, and while it isn't exactly fond of rape threats, it came up enough for the show to lose points for it with me. Also, much as I like MOST of Dark Matter's crew, I liked One less every single episode, whereas D'Avin in Killjoys, who I initially also disliked, grew on me a fair bit. I mean, I like him less than pretty much every other named and main or recurring character, but I'll take him over One easily.
Both shows broke out the big guns for the finales (though I think the rebellion in Killjoys was a bit too background for the whole season to work the way they wanted it to in the finale). Killjoys is absolutely forbidden to open season 2 with sad music playing as the camera does a slowmo pan over the bodies of dead recurring characters (the show had it's chance with the "what's behind the door?" tension. It isn't allowed to pull anything like that.), and while I'm not pleased with the reveal of the traitor in Dark Matter, there aren't many ways that could have gone without my objecting.
Fingers crossed that both will get renewed.
3. Continuum is back, though, for it's fourth and final season. I wasn't big on the new future introduced towards the end of season 3, but we'll see how things go. If nothing else, I do at least trust the show to have a good ending. (Though I hope Kiera/Brad isn't end game.)
4.Years after Moon Embracing the Sun was the big Kdrama of the Moment, I'm getting around to watching it. I remember being moderately interested in it when it aired but not enough to watch it at the time, and that it seemed everyone either loved it, or hated it because everyone else loved it. It also came out in what seems to have been a bit of a Flower Boy craze in fusion sageuks after Sungkyukwan Scandal (another that i need to see, though most of my interest is Park Min Young) and it really shows.
I'm 8 episodes in and enjoying it, though in a somewhat passive way, largely because of my disinterest in the adult version of the main character. Kim Yoo Jung as Yeon Woo in the childhood (really early teens) part was really great, and I loved the character then, but Han Ga In as the adult Yeon Woo is rather...blank. I mean, part of it is because the character has amnesia, I think, but the acting is (IMO) rather bland. There have been a couple scenes where the character grabbed me, but they were exceptions, not the rule. There are a lot of other characters that I like, but it's hard for me to get invested when I don't feel anything for the female lead. I don't dislike her or anything, she just doesn't grab me.
Sseeing Kim Min Seo as Bo Kyung is a little odd, as she's also in Hwajung, where she also plays an evil scheming lady who wants to be queen. Though i'd say that, despite the type, the characters are completely different. I actually wouldn't have even realized it was the same actress because she looks and acts so different in the two series, but she has a rather distinctive face.
Speaking of faces, I don't know what casting was doing with the child actors, to a certain degree. It's like they actively sought to find young actors who bore a strong resemblance to the adult actors, then randomly assigned the roles without paying attention to which adults the younger actors actually resembled.
5. Fall shows start up again soon, though I'm not sure there are any new ones that I'll be checking out. Nothing grabbed me when I glanced through new shows a while back, but I might have missing something.
6. I rewatched the K Project anime as a refresher before season 2 airs, and also watched the Missing Kings sequel movie, which was pretty good, despite someohw managing to make Seri's skirt even shorter. I'm never forgiving the series for the reveal about Shiro's true identity, but I do still like it, mostly for the characters. I went ahead and watched the series dubbed and...most of the dubbing was ok, but Reisi and Fushimi's dubbed voices would have made me dislike the characters even if I didn't already have issues with them. (Reisi I would like if he wren't prone to manhandling prisoners and din't seem to enjoying showing off his powers to those weaker than him so much. Fushimi just annoys me. A lot.) I'll probably rewatch Noragami before the second season of that airs, too, though I watched the first season much more recently than my first watch of K Project.
1. After the early meh-to-me episodes, I got into Wayward Pines once it got over "ZOMG! MYSTERY!" and got to the actual plot. And then the epilogue happened and taught me my lesson about considering trusting M. Night.
I will say, though, that there appears to have been a woman on staff whose main duty was to go around and thwap people upside the head with a rolled up newspaper when it looked like they were about to Do It Wrong with the women. Not that it was perfect, but there were a lot of times it looked like it was heading into terrible cliches, and then saved itself.
(Also, How dare you, show, make me think you're about to end with morally ambiguous frenemy secretly bisexual coleaders, and then take that from me. HDU.)
Uhm...if you watch it, just stop the second Ben wakes up in the last episode, and I guess you'll be OK?
2. Despite also technically ending on a cliffhanger, The Messengers had a much more satisfying and rewarding finale, even with the literal Deus Ex Machina. I'm still not thrilled with the SURPRISE! plot twist midway through and wish Zahir had had more development, but overall, I enjoyed the series, and wish it'd been given more of a chance.
3. Dark Matter and Killjoys pretty much had the same 5th episodes, though I think Killjoys did it better.
Over in Dark Matter, my liking for 6 of the 7 cast members is steadily increasing, but my feeling for One are on a starkly opposing trajectory. The latest episode made him crossover from "annoyed" to "dislike" though. I'm also really tired of people comparing Three and Five to Jayne and River. I always thought the Five/River comparisons were stretching it (River Tam is neither the first nor the last "mysterious teenaged girl" to pop up in a SciFi show), but they're really stretching it now that we know more about Five and how she does the things she does (ie: actual skills developed over months/years, not because someone did something to her head). Three/Jayne had more basis since Three actually does exhibit a lot of the same traits and behaviors as Jayne, but while Jayne's assholishness and selfishness were largely sincere with "not so bad" and fairly genuine loyalty coming through when absolutely necessary, since around the third episode, it's been pretty obvious that a lot of it with Three is an act, and at this point, it seems to mostly being an act.
( spoiler for episode 7 )
4. I watched season 6 of The Good Wife. The performances are still strong and I've always mostly watched because the actors are really, really good at what they do with their characters, forcing me to like almost every character, but the plot really is all over the place now. When the season was airing, I saw people commenting that it was like the characters were in two different shows without realizing it, and that's very true.
5. Hwajung has finished up with Gwanghae's rein, and started on Injo's. While the show is taking the typical sageuk liberties with Princess Jeongmyung's life, from what I can tell, it's actually being truer to history in other ways than is often the norm for sageuk biodramas. I'm currently deciding whether I was to watch The Scholar Who Walks the Night as it airs (or rather, as DramaFever gets it on their 2 week delay, since I can stream it on my TV through Hulu then) or wait until it's finished and binge.
I will say, though, that there appears to have been a woman on staff whose main duty was to go around and thwap people upside the head with a rolled up newspaper when it looked like they were about to Do It Wrong with the women. Not that it was perfect, but there were a lot of times it looked like it was heading into terrible cliches, and then saved itself.
(Also, How dare you, show, make me think you're about to end with morally ambiguous frenemy secretly bisexual coleaders, and then take that from me. HDU.)
Uhm...if you watch it, just stop the second Ben wakes up in the last episode, and I guess you'll be OK?
2. Despite also technically ending on a cliffhanger, The Messengers had a much more satisfying and rewarding finale, even with the literal Deus Ex Machina. I'm still not thrilled with the SURPRISE! plot twist midway through and wish Zahir had had more development, but overall, I enjoyed the series, and wish it'd been given more of a chance.
3. Dark Matter and Killjoys pretty much had the same 5th episodes, though I think Killjoys did it better.
Over in Dark Matter, my liking for 6 of the 7 cast members is steadily increasing, but my feeling for One are on a starkly opposing trajectory. The latest episode made him crossover from "annoyed" to "dislike" though. I'm also really tired of people comparing Three and Five to Jayne and River. I always thought the Five/River comparisons were stretching it (River Tam is neither the first nor the last "mysterious teenaged girl" to pop up in a SciFi show), but they're really stretching it now that we know more about Five and how she does the things she does (ie: actual skills developed over months/years, not because someone did something to her head). Three/Jayne had more basis since Three actually does exhibit a lot of the same traits and behaviors as Jayne, but while Jayne's assholishness and selfishness were largely sincere with "not so bad" and fairly genuine loyalty coming through when absolutely necessary, since around the third episode, it's been pretty obvious that a lot of it with Three is an act, and at this point, it seems to mostly being an act.
( spoiler for episode 7 )
4. I watched season 6 of The Good Wife. The performances are still strong and I've always mostly watched because the actors are really, really good at what they do with their characters, forcing me to like almost every character, but the plot really is all over the place now. When the season was airing, I saw people commenting that it was like the characters were in two different shows without realizing it, and that's very true.
5. Hwajung has finished up with Gwanghae's rein, and started on Injo's. While the show is taking the typical sageuk liberties with Princess Jeongmyung's life, from what I can tell, it's actually being truer to history in other ways than is often the norm for sageuk biodramas. I'm currently deciding whether I was to watch The Scholar Who Walks the Night as it airs (or rather, as DramaFever gets it on their 2 week delay, since I can stream it on my TV through Hulu then) or wait until it's finished and binge.
TeeVee...IN SPACE
Jun. 23rd, 2015 01:25 pmStar Wars Rebels came back for a 2 part season premiere, and then...went on hiatus again for a few months. For reasons?
( spoilerish )
Hey, remember when this was the light, cute kids show about space!jedi!Robin Hood family, and GrimDark theories seemed entirely out of place for it? Yeah, me too.
Killjoys is a new SyFy series about a bounty hunter named Dutch whose Dark And Tragic Backstory appears to be the intergalactic version of MCU's The Red Room, complete with Rob Stewart. Her partner, Johnny, gets both of them in trouble when he sees a kill order for his brother , D'Avin, and uses Dutch's clearance to try to save them. And Stuff Happens. There's also an intergalactic war going on that bounty hunters are neutral in, and everyone but Johnny having Deep Dark Secrets. I liked the show in general (the pilot is exposition heavy, but that's to be expected) and really liked both Dutch and Johnny, but I couldn't care less about D'Avin and his Deep Dark Secrets, and am annoyed that the pilot seems to want me to ship him with Dutch. At least Dutch (played by a biracial actress) is set up as the central protagonist, with the brothers as her support. I really could have done without the rape threats in the opening scene, though.
Dark Matter is another new space opera show, this one a Canadian show also showing on SyFy. Six people wake up from stasis with amnesia, finding themselves on route to a mining planet, along with a large cache of weapons. They name themselves One-Six, in the order they woke up in, and try to figure out what's going on. It's very, very tropey, but I'm ok with that. Like Killjoys, this appears to be a "corporations rule the universe, Our Protagonists must choose a side" show.* There are a lot of familiar faces, particularly Zoie Palmer, Roger Cross and Anthony Lemke. Rob Stewart (non-evil version) also guest stars in the first two episodes, and Torri Higginston is in the second. Hopefully, her character is meant to be recurring, and they didn't cast her for one measly scene. The cast is pretty diverse and largely good, though I really wish they weren't acting like One (the obligatory Idealist) was so charismatic and inspiring. I mean, nothing against the character or actor, but roger Cross, Anthony Lemke, and the actress playing Two all have more charisma and screen presence in their pinkies than he does in his whole body. Though, mind you, I have yet to see Lemke play a character that anyone should look to for inspiration.
For now, though, Two is set up as the leader, and I hope it stays that way.
( spoilers )
I'm a bit leery about Dark Matter, as it's by the SGA folks, and I had a contentious relationship with that show in the two seasons I watched, and didn't like much of what I heard about the rest, but Jay Firestone is also involved, and that's usually a plus.
*That said, the shows are pretty different, despite appealing to largely the same audiences. Killjoys is a very very SyFy show, kinda campy and all about buddy space bounty hunters adventures, with a side of Dark And Angsty Pasts. And an Ashmore twin. (You can tell the Ashmore twins apart by whether or not they're in a SyFy or CW show, or a SciFi movie. Unless they guest star in the same episode of a show.) Dark Matter is a more Serious Business (but not too much) show more focused on mysteries and identity.
The Astronaut Wives Club is not set in space, but is about the wives of some of the first Americans to go into space. The first episode focus primarily on Louise Sheppard, wife of Alan Shepard, and it was...ok? There was just too much going on for a 42 minute episode, and Louise's characterization relied pretty heavily on internalized misogyny. Like a lot of US shows set in the early/mid-20th century in recent years, it has a "wants to be the next Mad Men" feel to it. (And for my money, MM only worked the first few seasons.) I'll watch more people it was enjoyable enough, and in hopes that it'll improve.
( spoilerish )
Hey, remember when this was the light, cute kids show about space!jedi!Robin Hood family, and GrimDark theories seemed entirely out of place for it? Yeah, me too.
Killjoys is a new SyFy series about a bounty hunter named Dutch whose Dark And Tragic Backstory appears to be the intergalactic version of MCU's The Red Room, complete with Rob Stewart. Her partner, Johnny, gets both of them in trouble when he sees a kill order for his brother , D'Avin, and uses Dutch's clearance to try to save them. And Stuff Happens. There's also an intergalactic war going on that bounty hunters are neutral in, and everyone but Johnny having Deep Dark Secrets. I liked the show in general (the pilot is exposition heavy, but that's to be expected) and really liked both Dutch and Johnny, but I couldn't care less about D'Avin and his Deep Dark Secrets, and am annoyed that the pilot seems to want me to ship him with Dutch. At least Dutch (played by a biracial actress) is set up as the central protagonist, with the brothers as her support. I really could have done without the rape threats in the opening scene, though.
Dark Matter is another new space opera show, this one a Canadian show also showing on SyFy. Six people wake up from stasis with amnesia, finding themselves on route to a mining planet, along with a large cache of weapons. They name themselves One-Six, in the order they woke up in, and try to figure out what's going on. It's very, very tropey, but I'm ok with that. Like Killjoys, this appears to be a "corporations rule the universe, Our Protagonists must choose a side" show.* There are a lot of familiar faces, particularly Zoie Palmer, Roger Cross and Anthony Lemke. Rob Stewart (non-evil version) also guest stars in the first two episodes, and Torri Higginston is in the second. Hopefully, her character is meant to be recurring, and they didn't cast her for one measly scene. The cast is pretty diverse and largely good, though I really wish they weren't acting like One (the obligatory Idealist) was so charismatic and inspiring. I mean, nothing against the character or actor, but roger Cross, Anthony Lemke, and the actress playing Two all have more charisma and screen presence in their pinkies than he does in his whole body. Though, mind you, I have yet to see Lemke play a character that anyone should look to for inspiration.
For now, though, Two is set up as the leader, and I hope it stays that way.
( spoilers )
I'm a bit leery about Dark Matter, as it's by the SGA folks, and I had a contentious relationship with that show in the two seasons I watched, and didn't like much of what I heard about the rest, but Jay Firestone is also involved, and that's usually a plus.
*That said, the shows are pretty different, despite appealing to largely the same audiences. Killjoys is a very very SyFy show, kinda campy and all about buddy space bounty hunters adventures, with a side of Dark And Angsty Pasts. And an Ashmore twin. (You can tell the Ashmore twins apart by whether or not they're in a SyFy or CW show, or a SciFi movie. Unless they guest star in the same episode of a show.) Dark Matter is a more Serious Business (but not too much) show more focused on mysteries and identity.
The Astronaut Wives Club is not set in space, but is about the wives of some of the first Americans to go into space. The first episode focus primarily on Louise Sheppard, wife of Alan Shepard, and it was...ok? There was just too much going on for a 42 minute episode, and Louise's characterization relied pretty heavily on internalized misogyny. Like a lot of US shows set in the early/mid-20th century in recent years, it has a "wants to be the next Mad Men" feel to it. (And for my money, MM only worked the first few seasons.) I'll watch more people it was enjoyable enough, and in hopes that it'll improve.
