Tag Archives: Television

You Should Be Watching

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This post was originally published in Watch The Skies fanzine – August 2020

Great artwork for the apocalypse!

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts.


I will admit that hearing a statistics type description for this show might make it sound unappealing. It’s an animation with a Y-7 rating, meaning it’s generally aimed at an audience of ten year old kids. That does not tell the story at all.

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is a Dreamworks production that currently has two seasons on Netflix. It is the story of Kipo and her adventures in a post apocalyptic world. Humans do not dominate here as they did some two hundred years ago – they are now the bottom of the food chain and have moved into underground ‘burrows’ to survive. On the surface of the world mutations have created outlandishly over-sized plant life and many powerful ‘mute’ factions. If you want to survive in the world you’ve got to stay on your toes. You’ll need to deal with all manner of mutes roaming around and staking out territory. The world is a dangerous place for humans.

Kipo’s adventure begins when she finds herself suddenly outside of her burrow. She begins to wander the surface world and has to deal with a knowledge loving wolf pack, timber cats that love pancakes, giant two headed flamingos, mod frogs, scooter skunks, deathstalkers and of course a giant six armed monkey. That really just scratches the surface of the weird. Kipo is also musically inclined. There are a number of episodes that contain songs, musical inspirations for characters and (yes, sadly) even Karaoke. Eventually Kipo teams up with a number of other surface folks to help her along her journey as she attempts to find her way back home.

This show is light, fun and relentlessly positive. Each episode clocks in under a half an hour so it’s also a great show to squeeze in when you might not otherwise get to sit and watch something. It is genuinely the sort of show that feels like a perfect fit for the current times. Grab some popcorn and turn this show on when you want to smile!

You Should Be Watching

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This post was originally published in Watch The Skies fanzine – July 2020

Netflix has been dominating in the production and release of new works. It has recently released two comic adaptations, and I am going to recommend one of them. Warrior Nun was released at the beginning of July and it has committed the most egregious of transgressions. It just stops. You invest, you watch, you reach the 10th episode and it just stops. There is no ending and there is no part two. Netflix as a network churns shows at a massive rate and even reasonably successful shows never get more episodes made. I can’t in good conscience recommend Warrior Nun. Instead, I can and will say that you should invest two hours and watch the movie The Old Guard.

The movie tells part of the story of Andromache the Scythian (Andy), an immortal warrior and the other immortal warriors that make up her small team. These warriors join various battles across time working toward some unknown, unclear goal. They fight, sometimes they are killed and every time they survive to move on to another battle in another place at another time. There is no competition between them, there is a connection and a drive to find others. They may not understand the goal, but they do understand the battles. The film itself takes place in modern times. A new immortal warrior is found and the team sets out to fight a new, modern battle.

The movie is self contained. The story, the clips of history, character motivations and action all fit neatly into the allotted time. The acting, the action and the emotion is all extremely well done. The writer of the comic was also the writer that adapted the story for the screen. I believe that genuinely helped make this tight package successful. The actors were all fantastic. Fair warning for those that don’t like action / violence / fighting – there’s a lot of it in this movie. They are after all warriors. Fighting is what they do, and they are very good at it.

Another part of what makes this story work is that we buy in on what the characters are feeling. They are numb to the violence that surrounds them, but they’re all still searching. Living for hundreds and hundreds of years has not dulled the need for them to connect. They have each other, but connections to others slip away as people age and die while the warriors stay as they have always been. Pain and loss are constant companions. Searching for family and a place to fit with others gives this decidedly action flick enough depth to keep non-action fans on board.

The movie isn’t perfect, but it’s easily worth the time to watch it. Yes, there is a set up at the end for more but you can be satisfied with the ending as it stands. I hope the film is successful enough that they decide to produce more. I would love to see the old guard in action again. This is definitely a movie you should be watching.

Watch Party

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Do you actually put it in a bucket at your house?

The longer I go, the more I accept that I enjoy doing many things on my own. I am clearly headed directly to the land of curmudgeon ~ however there can be something said for a shared experience. Having the musical Hamilton released on a streaming service lately brought that into focus for me. During these trying days of “shelter in place” and “social distance” to avoid the plague those shared experiences can be difficult to find. To enable that, some people have turned to technology. What did we do for Hamilton? A Watch Party.

You can’t have your friends over to watch a movie any more. So? Jump on your streaming service of choice and have a watch party… except.

I like the concept of the watch party for certain circumstances. Those circumstances are remarkably similar to when I’d actually like to go and see a movie with somebody… that is to say not very often. A watch party exacerbates the one thing I really hate about watching a movie with others. You’re listening intently in the middle of a deep and moving scene and the person next you says, “Wait. I thought she didn’t like that guy…” or “I think I missed something. What’s he doing that for?”.

Rage.

Just watch the movie. Nobody knows because we haven’t seen it before. Shut up and pay attention. Stop distracting me from my experience. NO, I don’t want to chat about it now, I’ll wait until the end thank you.

Now – If I’ve seen the movie in question before and we’d like to all watch it together to talk about various parts of the film, that’s fine. If it’s a goofy comedy and you’re tipping a couple of adult beverages back on a Saturday night and you want to share that with some friends, excellent plan.

Technology then becomes the barrier.

Are you all on the same streaming service? Are you all in the same region? Yes – services like Netflix change what they have to offer by region. Are you in the same time zone? My daughter is communicating with some students in other countries and they’re off our time by 6 hours. When can we all actually do this? Schedules are still a real thing, even if you can’t go out to do certain activities anymore. Technology is the main barrier here. What platform will you use for watching? Are you all on Discord? Oh, wait, I thought we were doing this through the Chrome app… But what about Facebook? Wait – I run my streaming service through a Roku, how does that work? I don’t want to sit at my computer screen when I have a large TV in a room with a comfy recliner. There are lots of folks out there making this work, but it is very dependent on shared tech and preferred method of consuming media. I suspect this shared preference will not be something that happens to me much as we go forward.

I am not opposed to the concept of the watch party. I don’t suspect I’ll find myself participating in many. I like to view a film and talk about it later, perhaps watching it again for a more nuanced view. Enjoy the entertainment for what it is. Get drawn in by a good story. Go along for the ride… tweet about it when you’re done. Your phone won’t miss you and ‘yousuckland’… I mean twitter, will be there when you’ve got time.

In the end, you could also try reading a good book and joining a group to chat about that. Those don’t seem to have changed as much as the movie going society.

You Should Be Watching

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This post was originally published in Watch The Skies fanzine – June 2020

You Should Be Watching OR more precisely, you should watch again.

Netflix has recently made the Nickelodeon show Avatar – The Last Airbender available for viewing. Airbender is an animated series following the journey of Aang, the last of the air nomads as he travels a world where adepts have the ability to change the elements around them using a form of martial arts known as bending. Aang is the Avatar, a person who has the ability to blend all forms of bending (earth, water, air and fire) together. His quest? Save the world.

I originally watched the show with my daughter when it first aired back around 2008. As soon as the show became available we grabbed it up on DVD so we could revisit it when we wanted to. As happens with many discs, the show languished for us at the back of a dusty shelf. We did revisit an episode now and again, but less frequently than we might have. Since the show has popped up on Netflix we sat down and re-watched the entire series in order. It might be more than a decade old, but the show holds up.

This show is one of those rare animated series that combines so many parts that anyone in the family can enjoy it. The world building shows a fantasy world with a number of cultures. There are matters of daily life, holidays, politics and any other sort of thing you’d expect in a world. It’s a place that feels lived in. The characters are as varied as the cultures they visit. Diversity is on display without making a big deal about said diversity. Characters with physical differences and abilities were not treated as if they were somehow lacking, it was the spirit that mattered. As the heroes journeyed through three seasons of shows they dealt with corruption of those in power, sexism, love, loss vulnerability and the use of true power. Heroes can make mistakes. Villains can redeem themselves. Mistakes can be forgiven. I will even say that the ending was one of the most satisfying I’ve watched for any series.

If you’ve seen Avatar, it’s worth a re-watch. If you haven’t seen it you should seek it out.

“I’m not looking for anyone’s approval, I know who I am…” Toph Bei Fong (aka The Blind Bandit)

You Should Be Watching

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This article was previously published in Watch The Skies

There has been a lot of binge watching out there since folks have gone into isolation. The global pandemic has put a whole new focus on finding something to watch that doesn’t exacerbate the anxiety of the real world. A number of shows have leaped in popularity that might never have gotten the chance in the past simply for the lack of other entertainment. Many of those shows likely won’t last, but parts of them might endure. It’s difficult to predict. The same has always been the case with the big screen. Movies that “flop” in the theater become cult classics. Movies that people had modest hope for endure for generations. These movies can have an impact that lasts long after their run in the theater is done.

That lasting impact, in the form of physical objects, is the focus of the show Prop Culture now streaming on Disney+. The show hosted by Dan Lanigan digs into the physical props that remain from some Disney films that have had a significant impact on pop culture. The first season includes: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Mary Poppins, Tron, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Muppet Movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Chronicles of Narnia, and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

Dan digs in behind the scenes and hunts down various creators and actors to reconnect them with the objects that helped make these films great. Hats, swords, puppets, matte paintings and all manner of samples. Not all props are small either. Ten foot tall models, cars and tall ships are part of this as well. Seeing these real world things give both the creators and the viewer a very strong sense of nostalgia.

At a half hour in length these episodes are just the right length. They don’t drag and they don’t hold back for the sake of false anticipation. There are expected pieces along with little things that evoke strong emotions for all. Along with strong emotion there is a fun sense of humor. You get quotes like, “There’s a lot of bald yaks out there…” from a effects studio head. It hits all the right notes to help the viewer feel good after each episode.

If you have the opportunity and love to know more about the movies this show is definitely worth a look.

The Dragon Prince

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The Dragon Prince main characters

I am a long time fan of the fantasy genre. Yes, I was first hooked by The Hobbit a long time ago, but since then the heroic sword and sorcery story has always had a place in my heart. I love it.

I admit, for a while I wandered away. I’d seen plots that looked, felt and moved the same way for a long time. Before I began writing and learning what a trope was I began to see and understand the commonality among my favorite stories. I still like them.

Since then I have always hunted for fantasy stories that could give me the heroic journey without making me bored while doing it. Subtlety, nuance, shifts in the way things are presented or the way worlds are constructed are all things that catch my attention. I am a particular fan of changes to world building.

IF you’re of a similar mindset, I humbly suggest you find a way onto Netflix and watch The Dragon Prince. It is excellent fantasy – the best I’ve seen in a long time. You might look at it and think it is a show aimed at children. That is and is not true. This show takes on a number of very deep themes and issues. These affect people no matter how old they are and we all still need to deal with those things.

This article: How The Dragon Prince Became the Best Fantasy Show on Television, Animated or Not has a number of very good things to say.

This article:
The Dragon Prince Ended Season 3 With a Battle That Could Rival Any Lord of the Rings Movie is full of spoilers but also covers a lot of excellent points about the show.

My quick hits from the show?

The characters are strong and complex. There are good examples of behavior and bad examples of behavior. Both examples show the consequences of those actions, and it’s not always black and white. Clear cut answers are few and far between in this show.

The story is stronger because it can’t take short cuts. There’s something to be said for avoiding the cheap method of getting a point across. The romance isn’t punctuated with explicit sex – that’s not an option. There is no violence simply because an ‘action scene was needed’. The story needs to carry the day.

Things that are considered divergent to many people are shown in this show without needing to sledge hammer the point home. Nobody bats an eye at the fact that one of the best generals for the humans is deaf. I don’t know ASL, but I’m betting those lines are actually animated with real words. There is a creature missing a leg (trying not to be spoilery) that has been made to look ‘normal’ because of preconceived viewpoints. It’s there, but it’s not the point and that’s what I really like about it. You can’t use your standard assumptions because they might not be the case. I think that’s a very strong argument for world building and quality story telling.

IF you’re not worried about spoilers, check out those articles. Either way, do yourself a favor and go check this show out. Totally worth your time.

More of what everyone is talking about…

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I was excited. I’m still a little excited… but it’s dulled now.

Spent some time with Disney+ last night. Guess what you can’t binge? That’s right – they’re not dropping the Mandelorian all at once, they’re spacing it out and dropping one episode at a time.

I watched the first one. It’s good. It’s the Star Wars Universe. SPOILER ALERT – there are storm troopers in there too. As I was watching the show I caught a couple of very disturbing things. Things that make me question certain aspects of the show – and exactly how appropriate it is for kids.

IF you don’t want spoilers, turn away now.

There’s a scene in one of the bars where a fight breaks out ~ like it would in any movie frontier situation. Then one of the individuals involved in the fight gets cut in half. Yes, they allowed that to happen mostly off screen, but it was pretty clear what went down. Episode 1, right off the bat. Dude was cut in half by one of those iris doors. I suppose all the safety measures had been removed because frontier or something. I guess if it’s mostly off screen that’s fine.

The part that really bothered me was a passing little piece in the market. You remember this guy from Jabba’s place?

Salacious B. Crumb

They’ve got one of them in a cage in the market… watching another one of their race being cooked on a spit. A sentient creature – able to express emotion – being cooked on a spit in front of another of it’s race. I’m not sure I’m OK with that. I need to give it some real consideration.

Other people are far less circumspect. There has been a ripple of backlash against Disney and how… dominating? overpowering? destructive? they’ve been in the entertainment industry for a very long time. IF you get a chance you should check out this article in Variety about the warnings that are popping up on some of the cartoons / movies they’re playing on their channel.

I have to agree that the folks at the WB seem to have handled that a lot better. I wonder what their thoughts are on sentient being rotisserie as torture…

Disney +

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It started yesterday. I went out and pulled the new Roku streaming channel and signed in. It was actually really simple. My house now has Disney+, the new streaming service.

Let’s be honest, this was the biggest draw for me:

Binge!

Then I started scrolling through all the choices available on the channel. Two things became apparent right away… first – Disney owns a HUGE amount of entertainment. Second, we’ve seen a HUGE amount of what they have to offer.

We immediately fell down the rabbit hole so to speak (there are 2 versions of Alice In Wonderland on there). We looked at a number of the Pixar short films right away. Some we remembered, some we didn’t, some we couldn’t say we’d ever seen. IF we had started the channel on a weekend I think we’d still be sitting there.

There were two disappointing things. First – the short film that I presume accompanies Toy Story 4 is on there, but the film is not. I don’t know how the powers that be determine when stuff goes to streaming – but having one and not the other seemed odd. Second – I thought that ESPN+ and HULU were part of the package when I signed up. That is not the case. If I want those things, they cost extra.

I have a feeling that we’ll be spending a disproportionate amount of time on this channel in the very near future… and I can’t wait to binge the Mandalorian!

Disney+

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I did it. A few weeks ago I saw an article talking about Disney+, the next big streaming service that was coming out. I had heard rumors of it for quite a while, but figured I’d wait and see if anything actually came of all the noise. Something DID come of all the noise, and when I looked at the absolutely massive offering from all the things Disney now owns I had to check it out.

The article sent me to a link, the link made an offer. It was one I couldn’t refuse.

What a collection, just on the front images, right?

I actually paid for 2 years up front to receive some kind of crazy discount thing. I did it. Anyone that’s read here for some time will realize that I’m not usually an early adopter of this sort of thing. In this case, I couldn’t resist.

I’m hopeful that it will be worth the investment for more than just the collection of things I’ve seen before, but given my past experiences with Disney if there’s one thing they DO know how to do it’s entertain.

I really can’t wait…

Nerd Pub and Robots

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Last week I had the opportunity to sit and chat with fellow fans on a YouTube show called Nerd Pub. Being on the show was a very interesting experience. I don’t think I’m cut out for video. As slow as I am with writing, I still think it’s a better place for me to express opinions. If you have some time on your hands you should head over to their channel and subscribe (click here).

Let’s drop fuel into a vat of acid and chat…

One of the things we chatted about was the Netflix show “Love Death + Robots”. This is a series of animated stories based around that theme. I recommend this, there are some good stories and amazing artwork. I was blown away by the art of these shows. There was more than one time while watching that I forgot I was watching animation. It’s that good. Be prepared – these are violent, sexual and graphic. They do not shy away from any of it.

The stories you say? Sort of an ‘oh by the way…’ moment on that one. One of my favorite stories was ‘Lucky 13’ by Marko Kloos. It’s edge of your seat military science fiction action combined with love and superstition. Great stuff.

I’ve read may of the other authors work as well. You’ll find Ken Liu, Joe Landsale, John Scalzi, Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds and others. For anyone that hasn’t read their longer fiction – you should. Go find them. A number of these short stories are also available on line for free.

We talked some on the video about this being the next ‘Heavy Metal’. I understand why people would want to give this new series that title, but this is an anthology. There is no Loc-nar to follow through each story. There is no connective tissue between the stories. It is easily on the same graphic / sexual level but it’s just not quite the same. I’m willing to call it ‘inspired by’ or ‘in the tradition of’, but I am not ready to give it the crown yet. Give it longer than a month before we declare it the next coming.

While we’re giving things, let’s hope that Netflix digs up another set of stories and gives us another series of animated stories like this. I’d watch every single one.