TV Series Thread

[the_antithesis]

So, I just watched Arcane, the TV series based on the League of Legends video game that I will never play. I thought it was pretty good, but the thing that kept coming to me is that it's RWBY done better.

Now, I haven't watched RWBY, but I did watch this two hour plus fucking video about what's wrong with it and it's almost like the Arcane creators did too and took notes.

At the end of the day, I don't know why I watched it other than video essays about it have been popping up in my feed and I decided to give it a try.

[Hydra009]

I haven't seen Arcane, and I'm behind on RWBY, but I don't need to watch a feature-length youtube video to know that RWBY has some pretty big flaws.

The tone was all over the place, from cutesy slice-of-life to a lot of surprisingly dark stuff.  Some shows made that work well, RWBY did not.  For the first few seasons, the animation was choppy as hell, the dialogue was stilted at times, and it seemed to run on video game logic.  Hell, I posted a screenshot from those early seasons and the screen is like 90% gray and brown and it's genuinely hard to tell what I'm looking at.  Fortunately, things have improved a lot since then.

Still it has huge things going for it - the characters are pretty good for the most part, the actions scenes are very good, there's decent worldbuilding towards the latter seasons, and the music is absolutely phenomenal.  Some of the intro songs are permanently on my playlist.

And personally, I love Atlas.  I am 1000% pro-Atlas and so the last couple of season both delighted and terrified me.  Technologically-advanced country with a distinctive culture of duty and honor.  Sign me up!  Also, sign me up for homeowners insurance :'(

RWBY also deserves some props for helping pave the way for the current blossoming of independent western animation.  A lot of the other shows I watch (Hazbin/Helluva and everything made by Glitch) might not exist if RWBY hadn't paved the way.

[Mr.Obvious]

Haven´t watched arcane neither. And am also behind on rwby.

I´ve come to think of rwby as dinner at your favorite restaurant when the usual chef is off duty and he got replaced by their aspiring and talented but ultimately too inexperienced sous-chef.

I like the atmosphere. I can appreciate the new takes in an attempt to elevate the known to something new.
But in the end, I want my damn steak the way I like it and the experience falls short.

[Hydra009]

Haven´t watched arcane neither. And am also behind on rwby.

I´ve come to think of rwby as dinner at your favorite restaurant when the usual chef is off duty and he got replaced by their aspiring and talented but ultimately too inexperienced sous-chef.

I like the atmosphere. I can appreciate the new takes in an attempt to elevate the known to something new.
But in the end, I want my damn steak the way I like it and the experience falls short.

I like that metaphor.  For me, I'm so hungry and the inexperienced sous-chef is so enthusiastic that I don't quite have the heart to send my order back.  Plus, it's nice to be able to go out, especially at such a convenient and welcoming locale.  So, I'll just cut around the undercooked parts.

But seriously you guys, I would've totally gone for a show about team JNPR (the second-stringers in the main show).  The reviewer is right in that it could've been presented better and completely blown my socks off but it was presented in kind of a messy way that was entertaining but didn't quite wow me.

[Hydra009]

Oh and the first time I learned about semblances (everyone has a unique semi-unique power at their disposal, like X-Men) I came up with my OC hunstman:

Heavy armor, shield and mace (moderately tanky with a moderate damage output, but somewhat slow and oafish), semblance is a slow but constant healing aura (can be turned on or off, but otherwise uncontrollable)

The heavy armor is due to the fact that any enemy with brains would likely focus-fire on him.  This creates a dilemma for the enemy, since focusing too much on the healer without landing a KO puts you at a huge disadvantage.  But ignoring the healer altogether is also disadvantageous.  The best move is to either nuke the healer quickly, knock him far away from the group, or - and this is the sneaky option - provoke the other squadmates to rush forward without him, not only splitting the party but also depriving it of its main healing.

[the_antithesis]

Haven´t watched arcane neither. And am also behind on rwby.

I´ve come to think of rwby as dinner at your favorite restaurant when the usual chef is off duty and he got replaced by their aspiring and talented but ultimately too inexperienced sous-chef.

I like the atmosphere. I can appreciate the new takes in an attempt to elevate the known to something new.
But in the end, I want my damn steak the way I like it and the experience falls short.

You might want to give Arcane a peek, then. It's got a similar steampunk kind of setting with good action, not as elaborate as the late Monty Oum, maybe, but I think they work. But there's also heavy character drama going on. Main reason why I watched it because of a video essay on writing badass female characters and how Rey and Captain Marvel didn't work but Arcane does. At one point, the main character says "You still punch like a little boy," to which the other responds "And you still block with your face!"

I dunno. I enjoyed it.

[drunkenshoe]

I haven't seen RWBY, but I liked Arcane. Haven't finished it though.

[Hydra009]

While we're doing autopsies on dead shows: let's talk The Walking Dead

This show used to pull in 17 million (legal) viewers at its peak, and then dropped down to 1-2 million, tops.  That's a hell of a drop.

And to really show you just how badly the show fell, my main youtuber who reviewed all the episodes shortly after they aired - noting all the important details and call-backs and really emotional moments - the guy who got everyone pumped for the show every week - apparently he decided to lose his mind at some point and put out conspiracy theory videos where he goes on weird unhinged rants about the Illuminati and reptilians and stuff instead.  That's not a joke, and none of that stuff is related to anything in the show.

The video is very long, and just like the show, dragged out unnecessarily, so I'll summarize.

It was initially a brilliant take on the zombie genre - take all the action and excitement of a zombie film but with a lot of diverse characters and drama, where each day is a struggle, not just against the zombies, but to keep it together and not go evil or insane.  Like Fallout, it also has a political dimension: the survivors are trying to build back civilization, so are they going to stay true to western-style democracy or become more authoritarian?  The comic book it's based on was absolutely brilliant...until it wasn't, which was pretty far towards the end.  The TV show gave out much, much earlier.

Season 1: amazing, no notes
Season 2: a bit sluggish with noticeable pacing issues, but one hell of a big reveal and Shane's descent was great
Season 3: first real villain of the show

This stuff was really good...for the most part.  Where it started to go off the rails was after the prison, they started doing Bottle episodes, where you follow only some of the main cast for an episode.  That was tolerable in small doses, but it was constant and very frustrating for audience.  You'd see your favorite character once a month, which obviously limited their impact on the story and gave very little room for character development.

But the real nail in the coffin was several VERY controversial deaths, and the reason they were controversial was ultimately bad writing.  A huge fake-out death, a major offscreen death at the very climax of the season finale (for months, fans were waiting to see who would die.  After the season finale, they were still waiting...for the better part of a year), then a really pointless, unsatisfying death.

Here's a really good video about why the "realistic" violence in TWD - which I have often praised - doesn't really make sense for a work of fiction:

(edit - it won't embed, but it's worth a click, I promise it's worth your time)

I'm now on the fence on the issue.  In some cases, I am all about abrupt and cruel character deaths, like the one with Axel:

It's shocking and also gives immediate sense of danger/urgency, it keeps the audience on their seats and utterly destroys any illusion of safety.  When used sparingly, it's fine.  The problem is when you do in a major cast member like that, it causes issues.  Also, it can seem arbitrary - that the character died merely because the writer decided they would, rather than their own actions (robs characters of agency).  To these criticisms, I have only one retort: git gud.  Just kidding.  I have no idea how to reconcile dramatic death (i.e. Eddard Stark) with "realistic" death (like Axel or redshirts)

[Hydra009]

I tried to watch the new Walking Dead show, this one apparently set in Manhattan many years after the apocalypse.

A survivor uses binoculars and spots a herd of zombies across the water.  The buildings are decaying and overgrown.  Clothes are dirty/post-apocalyptic.  All that makes sense.

The survivor is somehow surprised by a smaller herd near her position.  She hides, and one of them grabs her from behind, but she manages to kill it before it bites her with a handy rock just in reach.  That's a little weird, but I'll let it slide.

Then she's at a bar complete with bartender, neon signs, and a juke box.  And...I can't continue.  I just can't.  Bear in mind that we're at the point in the apocalypse where cars no longer work, guns are rare, buildings are starting to become structurally unsound, etc.  Some real agrarian stuff, for the most part.  Unless there's a helluva explanation - like some big warlord or something - ain't nobody getting their drinks from the tap anymore.  You'd be lucky to get some moonshine.  How am I supposed to take an electrified bar seriously?

What the hell happened to this show??  At first, they paid a lot of attention to detail.  Now, they just kinda forgot how zombie apocalypses work in general and how their own setting works in particular.

[Mr.Obvious]

I tried to watch the new Walking Dead show, this one apparently set in Manhattan many years after the apocalypse.

A survivor uses binoculars and spots a herd of zombies across the water.  The buildings are decaying and overgrown.  Clothes are dirty/post-apocalyptic.  All that makes sense.

The survivor is somehow surprised by a smaller herd near her position.  She hides, and one of them grabs her from behind, but she manages to kill it before it bites her with a handy rock just in reach.  That's a little weird, but I'll let it slide.

Then she's at a bar complete with bartender, neon signs, and a juke box.  And...I can't continue.  I just can't.  Bear in mind that we're at the point in the apocalypse where cars no longer work, guns are rare, buildings are starting to become structurally unsound, etc.  Some real agrarian stuff, for the most part.  Unless there's a helluva explanation - like some big warlord or something - ain't nobody getting their drinks from the tap anymore.  You'd be lucky to get some moonshine.  How am I supposed to take an electrified bar seriously?

What the hell happened to this show??  At first, they paid a lot of attention to detail.  Now, they just kinda forgot how zombie apocalypses work in general and how their own setting works in particular.

I dunno man.

Loved season 1. It was like a great big selfcontained movie.
Stopped after season 2 ep 1 because I realized: I just don´t care about these characters anymore. Their story has been told in season 1.
Got convinced to restart watching, because ´it got so much bettern´.
Season 2 was alright, but already showed too many inconsistancies in the world (And the zombies) for my liking.
Stopped someway through season 3, again. Because they became just too much.

Had the same thing with tlou part 2.
I could just accept the videogame tlou world, at that point in time. But like six or whatever years later, in tlou part 2: it has changed zich and you still have as much ammo lying around Willy Nilly?

[Hydra009]

I dunno man.

Loved season 1. It was like a great big selfcontained movie.
Stopped after season 2 ep 1 because I realized: I just don´t care about these characters anymore. Their story has been told in season 1.

The season 1 story arc was mostly just Rick reuniting with his family (which essentially gathered the core cast).  That's just Act 1 in just about any piece of fiction.

Got convinced to restart watching, because ´it got so much bettern´.

I dunno if it was necessarily better, but this is where they start really fleshing out the core characters - Rick, Shane, Darryl, Carol.  It's also where they start having more drama-centric stuff and wars of ideas like mercy/wrath with one's alignment towards Hershel or Shane.

I'm rewatching The Grove right now and it's startling how different it is from any later-season episodes.  There's some really good camera shots, acting, themes, etc.  It's firing on all cylinders.  The newer stuff has the setting, but it's more like a generic action show that one with any important themes or character growth or anything like that.

[Blackleaf]

I just got Crunchyroll a few days ago so I could catch up on My Hero Academia. Apparently, a lot of people don't like this anime, but those people have no goddamn taste. This show gets better every season. It ramps up the intensity slowly and naturally, setting up story threads that get very satisfying pay offs later on. The writing is clever and surprisingly emotional. The show is on season six at the time of writing, and it appears like it's all building up to a conclusion in the next season. It's very dark and depressing, with the country in a state of chaos, the main character Deku is in isolation due to fear of attracting powerful enemies to his friends and innocent bystanders. He's breaking down, exhausted and anxious, effectively neglecting all of his needs. The boundaries between hero and villain are starting to blur, with Deku sympathizing with villains more and seeing that the world is not as black and white as it seems. Except for the BIG bad guy, of course. He's the one guy who is absolutely evil, like the White Walkers from Game of Thrones. lol

Very much looking forward to the next season. The atmosphere they built up in the last few episodes is perfect for an upcoming showdown. It feels like watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, without the knowledge of the author of the series being a bigot.

Little frustrated that the movies aren't on Crunchyroll, though... At least they're cheap on YouTube. They also don't appear to have all of the OVAs; just three of eight. These appear to be soft canon, not written by the manga's author, but I hear the manga does make reference to them, so... I dunno. I enjoy them, at least. They don't seem to contradict the canon the way the Dragon Ball movies do.

[Hydra009]

I just got Crunchyroll a few days ago so I could catch up on My Hero Academia. Apparently, a lot of people don't like this anime, but those people have no goddamn taste.

It is an extremely popular shonen anime, and both traits can garner ire in certain circles.  *shrugs*

[SGOS]

The ten episodes of Silo on Apple TV held my attention, and I hear they are going to a season 2.

[Blackleaf]

I'm getting tired of people acting like the "Goku is a bad dad" thing was invented by Team Four Star. The guy was locked in a room with his son for an entire year, and Piccolo had to tell him that Gohan didn't like fighting. How did he not know that? The guy was forcing his interest on his son, and it never occurred to him that maybe Gohan wasn't like him. Yeah, Goku was right about Gohan's hidden potential, but it took severe psychological trauma for him to find the power to win.

Besides that, Goku is never around. He spends most of Gohan's childhood either dead or training on some other planet. Now that Goku is a grandfather, who's the go-to person for babysitting Pan after school? It's the guy who was always there for Gohan, Piccolo. When TFS joked about Piccolo being Gohan's real dad, they didn't pull it out of their ass. It's basically canon.

Unfortunately, Gohan seems to take after his biological father, as he's turned out to be a neglectful father, prioritizing his personal passions over spending time with his kid. Now he's overrelying on Piccolo to pick up the slack, just as he did with the previous generation. History is repeating itself, only Gohan hasn't died. Yet. While she's alive.