Topic: The Unoffical TV Show Mega Thread

@Pizzamorg, I still have 2 episodes left but yeah, Moon Knight hasn't entirely clicked for me either.

I think the best part so far was the car chase early in the series, which I thought was good fun. A lot of the action since getting to Egypt has been so (visually) dark that I've had a hard time seeing what's even going on (even with the picture setting on "Vivid"), especially in the tomb episode (maybe it's to hide all the dodgy CGI creatures). Not sure what's up with the CGI suit either, unless it's supposed to signal to the audience that we're not supposed to know whether or not it's "real" ourselves (they could certainly afford to make one), though TBH that in and of itself hasn't bothered me much.

Maybe it's just because it doesn't have any established figures, but I've enjoyed all the other D+ Marvel shows much more that it so far, and this is coming from someone who liked the Falcon & Winter Soldier more than most.

EDIT: I really hope Obi-Wan can step things up, as between the Book of Boba Fett & Moon Knight, the D+ content seems a bit weaker so far this year than it has in the past (though Boba Fett was overall better than Moon Knight, and admittedly had a few really good episodes).

The novelty of him blacking out and waking up to find everyone dead was fun to start with, but when it becomes an excuse for major fight scenes to happen off screen. Not so much.

But yeah, throughout, the action was honestly pretty rough. I think with the way it was hyped up, we were expecting some crunchy, Daredevil like fight scenes. Not a lot of flash, but a lot of bloody, visceral, hard hits. Instead, the action scenes were all basically straight from a Saturday morning cartoon. It did kinda add to the whole tokusatsu vibe it had, in a way, but those are made on a shoestring compared to what Marvel shows should be on theoretically given how much money they make, but I think you'd hardly notice a difference.

Talking of the shows, Agents of Shield will always be my favourite, but of the canon Disney+ stuff I think I ended up liking Hawkeye the most out of all of them in the end. I think it probably got off to one of the weaker starts, but just all came to such a satisfying conclusion, whereas I feel like almost every other Dinsey+ show has been the other way around.

My least favourite was probably What If. I'd probably rank Moon Knight one above that and maybe one above Wandavision depending on the time you asked me.

@Pizzamorg, yeah, all the comparisons to the Netflix Marvel shows (which are brought up constantly by mainstream press whenever I read an article about it on MSN) probably aren't helping it in my eyes either now that you bring it up. It really doesn't feel all that tonally different to the other Disney+ Marvel stuff so far IMO (as you said, while he often does end up pretty bloody, we almost never see how that happens). That said, I don't get where you're getting the Tokusatsu vibe either. I'll occasionally watch an episode of Ultraman or some such on Pluto TV whenever I don't have much else going on, and no part of Moon Knight has in any way particularly reminded me of that particular genre.

Surprised you rank WandaVision so low. That one might still be my favorite. I also really warmed up to What If? as it went on. It had a few duds as it started, but I absolutely loved the Doctor Strange episode, and it was pretty solid from then on with an epic conclusion (even the Thor episode, which was maybe a bit too silly, had a really fun fight).

EDIT: So at some point did Agents of Shield become non-canon? I only ever really watched the first season back when it was new, but it seemed pretty tied to the movies at the time, being directly impacted by Thor: the Dark World & Captain America: the Winter Soldier (particularly the latter).

Seems kinda pretentious to talk about wanting high art from a popcorn franchise like Marvel, at the very least talk about Legion which is something that transcends a guy in costume hitting bad men, might makes right etc from Marvel. It's like complaining the actions sucks in a Harold Pinter or Ken Loach film.

I am so bored of people talking about forced representation, it's just such a laziest complaint and has taken over people who say it's overrated as sign to not listen to that person's view.

It is just something about him transforming into the suit and then having fight scenes where he is almost entirely CG and the way in which the fights are put together, just felt very Kamen Rider to me. Then there is stuff in the final battle which I won't spoil and you'll see that driven home even further.

In regards to AoS canonicity, I don't know whether it was officially stated or what, but it is all widely accepted it is no longer part of the canon. The longer the show went, the more it deviated from the MCU and honestly the better it became.

?

You read my post wrong. I wasn't asking for high art, just setting expectations and context for the point I was making. When I say challenging ideas, this isn't Beasts of No Nation, it is still in the context of the MCU.

And I tell you what is lazy, forced representation.

@Pizzamorg The context of the Marvel is shallow popcorn fun though and looking for more depth and ideas is a pretty hollow experience, don't get me wrong they are great flicks and I've seen the bulk of them at the cinema at opening weekend but c'mon they refer to it as the Marvel formula for a reason.

With all the effort you put into that not lazy description I can see how all these women and ethnics are ruining a show about a man wearing a jaunty costume hitting people now. lol

If a character isn't well written or whatever why not just say character x is badly written? That's my issue as it voids any legitimate criticism for the sake of populist non-articulate jargon. Not to mention all you really doing by calling it "forced representation" is okaying the mediocrity of white cisgender male characters (I hate that term!) but anything that is not a white cisgender male needs to be justified which kinda proves the point of the old adage work twice as hard to get half which in turns makes the concept of "forced representation" more aggregable if people are so not use to minorities in these types of roles.

But that is the whole point, the other MCU Disney+ shows do provide those things, perhaps in more shallow ways than less mass market products but still nonetheless. Moon Knight failed for me because it didn't take that extra step, like the other shows did. We do get a hint of that when the truth about one of the characters was revealed and I thought that was by far the best episode of the whole show.

Also everything else you just put words into my mouth so you can ***** off with that *****. I was simply referring to the "OMG YOU ARE AN EGYPTIAN SUPERHERO?!" scene, which was almost as cringe as the 'Girl Powah' scene in Endgame. Like thank you brand for telling me how socially aware you are.

@Rambler Yeah after season two they lost both Phoebe Waller Bridge (who did Fleabag) and Emerald Fennell (who did Promising Young Woman) which probably explains the dip.

I've not heard of Gentleman Jack. I've just googled it and seen it's on BBC so I may give it a try, I'm at the point where unless I hear good word of mouth on something I can rarely be bothered to watch it. It took me years to start Fargo despite liking the movie as I didn't hear anyone talk about it.

@Pizzamorg You're welcome, let me know if you need any leaflets on the issue

And it is funny, because the MCU can do these things well. Like contrast it to the way race was handled in Falcon and the Winter Soldier (and the various other themes in that show), they are universes apart from each other. Depending on the day you ask me, I'd probably rank that as my favourite of the shows (it is between that and Hawkeye). And I think because that precedent has been set, it just makes Moon Knight all the more disappointing than it already is.

@Rambler Sunday evenings so no swearing, sex scenes and gruesome deaths then?

@Rambler Is there dirty xxx stuff in Normal People then? I don't remember much naughtiness in it but I've only watched the first episode (I think I checked it out because I was curious about the actress after seeing her in Fresh which is the tamest shocking film I've ever seen) but I seem to have got distracted with finishing it as a million other shows came out.

I will give Gentlemen Jack a watch and I imagine I will instantly start complaining it should be more like True Detective , Sons Of Anarchy and Hannibal.

@Rambler You've just sold me on Gentleman Jack now!

Fresh is alright but not nearly as controversial as the hype warranted, it's too slickly made for its own good. It was built up to me like it was the Hollywood version of Raw however it's more like if the people that made The King of Queens or The Big Bang Theory tried to make a serious horror-thriller film but couldn't shake off the Americana clean sitcom feeling to it.

@Rambler You need to watch Raw, it's a ruddy fantastic flick. Whenever someone asks me for horror movies suggestions I say the same five names of Raw, It Follows, Oculus, Shaun Of The Dead and The Evil Dead films to them.

The Greasy Strangler is on my ever growing list too, it was on All 4 but then it left so now I'm just waiting for it to be added again to see it.

I just started All Of Us Are Dead on Netflix, watching the first episode in full.

Finished up Moon Knight last night.

It had it's moments (and I thought episode 5 in particular was interesting), but overall I think it's the weakest Disney+ exclusive yet (between the Marvel & Star Wars stuff). The blackout segments were fun at first (and I really did like the car chase scene early on in the series), but I wasn't a fan as they went on (especially since they used one to skip over how he got the upper hand in the final fight, even though I knew what twist they were foreshadowing), other times it was so dark I could barely see what was going on (especially during the episode in the tomb), and I was really disappointed that after how relatively little we saw him suit up (and with how personal the conflict between Khonsu & Ammit is) that the final fight wasn't a one on one (multiple personalities notwithstanding), and that they insisted on introducing another hero last second to take part (by all means introduce them, but maybe wait until season 2). I don't really mind the "Are you an Egyptian Superhero!?" bit, other than the fact that it wasn't directed at the titular Egyptian themed superhero. Also, entities that regular people can't see (outside of outright ghosts) are a bit of a pet peeve of mine for whatever reason, so I didn't care for the bits with the invisible Jackals (or whatever they're supposed to be).

@RR529 I watched the show in the dark (lighting wise) and I still couldn't really see.

Goku: Midnight Eye - Two episode OVA series that follows a private investigator named Goku (not THAT Goku) as he takes on criminals outside the reach of the law in the cyberpunk dystopia of Tokyo... in 2014. Aiding him in his quest are a cybernetic eye that gives him control of every computer system on the planet, and an extendable staff that shoots lasers.

It doesn't have much of an overarching narrative (each episode is largely standalone, and how he got the eye/staff is a mystery even to the protag), but it's worth checking out if a gritty sci-fi anime with gratuitous violence/nudity that wears it's Blade Runner/Mad Max inspirations on it's sleeve floats your boat (just be aware that it's still in SD). Free on Tubi.

For US region, wednesday evening two PBS NOVA shows back to back regarding the recent dinosaur leg discovery - preserved with amazing detail. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

I'm currently watching the Three Mile Island mini-series on Netflix......really cool to see a lot of that archived footage from the time that was not so accessible before......but some of the dramatization elements in the re-created scenes are irritating (Chernobyl definitely had some of these moments too) and so are the dramatic interviews with residents.

But I think it accurately highlighted what a PR nightmare it was......that was worse than the actual accident.

Still recommend a watch.

The latest episode of Inside No. 9 just finished and god it got weird.
Literally this.