Things I've been watching
Sep. 7th, 2022 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eye_of_a_catAll spaceships all the time, at the moment.
Season 1. I found this a bit tonally uneven (jokes, bright colours, GRITTY TALES OF PAIN AND SUFFERING LET ME TELL YOU MORE ABOUT THE GORN THE LIVING WILL ENVY THE DEAD, Pike cooking, etc etc) but overall it seemed to have settled itself down by the end of the season. And also did a better job of being a more traditional main character ensemble than Discovery, which sort of was structurally but took me two years to stop referring to the bridge crew as "you know, thingy".
The episode where they did an alternate version of ST:TOS 'Balance of Terror', as 'what if Pike had been in command instead of Kirk', was both good in and of itself and then made me go and watch 'Balance of Terror' (which I don't think I'd seen before), which was also great in a way that I wasn't expecting from, well, TOS in general but Kirk in particular - more of a quiet, thoughtful presence than I often remember him as (or than he is in ST:SNW), in an episode which involves a lot of quiet tension and patiently waiting.
I keep approaching this as "oh yes, it's the animated fun one", and then it keeps surprising me by being just so much better than it has any right to be (grumpy dolphins in Cetacean Ops! statue of Miles O'Brien! Borg babies! World being run by a triumvirate of a telepathic baby/evil robot/sentient volcano described as "overkill", to which a booming voice declares "IT PROVIDES A SYSTEM OF CHECKS AND BALANCES"!) At some point I am probably going to get invested in it enough to remember all the characters' names and then get annoyed it's not developing them as much as I want to to be a whole other kind of show, but for now I will happily settle for the Predator-type alien slinking along the ceiling and hissing "Thanks for the mimosas".
aka the Seth MacFarlane show which is in space but definitely NOT Star Trek, absolutely not, we can do whatever we like here, we can swear! we can talk about sex! we don't have to take ourselves too seriously! Let's just keep rolling with this spaceship ensemble show and see where we go and see what works and... three years in, through a process of TV convergent evolution, it is basically Trek.
It's okay. I don't ^love^ it, but it's decently watchable about 75% of the time. Also points for having Victor Gerber as a Starfleet-equivalent recurring guest star (forever 'Admiral SpyDaddy' in my house now), and Bruce Boxleitner as a very blue alien ambassador.
which I am watching very slowly because nobody else in my house is as keen on Star Wars as I am. Which is not to say that they're not fans. Husband and eldest child are very keen on the main films, Husband's fine with the newer TV series (Mandalorian/Book of Boba Fett/Obi-Wan), but Star Wars was my first and best-loved fandom to the point where I would watch anything in the Star Wars universe back to back for days at a time. And yet I have never seen Clone Wars! Until we got Disney Plus recently. So anyway, we're about three-quarters of the way through Season 1, and I am watching them all and not skipping a single one, including the Jar Jar Binks ones. (I read every Star Wars novel published by the late 90s; nothing frightens me.) On balance: have not got into it enough yet to properly fall in love with it, but will keep watching anyway.
aka the other other Ronald D Moore spaceship show, in an alternate 20th century where the USSR got to the moon first and the space race just kept rolling on. By Season 3, we are up to the early 90s and humans on Mars. I am about halfway through Season 3 and won't say much about this yet because I was honestly watching through my fingers in the last episode and I am going to be so furious with this show I may never want to speak of it again if one particular storyline gets resolved in a way I don't like, but it is really growing into itself by now and it is amazingly compelling.
Season 1. I found this a bit tonally uneven (jokes, bright colours, GRITTY TALES OF PAIN AND SUFFERING LET ME TELL YOU MORE ABOUT THE GORN THE LIVING WILL ENVY THE DEAD, Pike cooking, etc etc) but overall it seemed to have settled itself down by the end of the season. And also did a better job of being a more traditional main character ensemble than Discovery, which sort of was structurally but took me two years to stop referring to the bridge crew as "you know, thingy".
The episode where they did an alternate version of ST:TOS 'Balance of Terror', as 'what if Pike had been in command instead of Kirk', was both good in and of itself and then made me go and watch 'Balance of Terror' (which I don't think I'd seen before), which was also great in a way that I wasn't expecting from, well, TOS in general but Kirk in particular - more of a quiet, thoughtful presence than I often remember him as (or than he is in ST:SNW), in an episode which involves a lot of quiet tension and patiently waiting.
I keep approaching this as "oh yes, it's the animated fun one", and then it keeps surprising me by being just so much better than it has any right to be (grumpy dolphins in Cetacean Ops! statue of Miles O'Brien! Borg babies! World being run by a triumvirate of a telepathic baby/evil robot/sentient volcano described as "overkill", to which a booming voice declares "IT PROVIDES A SYSTEM OF CHECKS AND BALANCES"!) At some point I am probably going to get invested in it enough to remember all the characters' names and then get annoyed it's not developing them as much as I want to to be a whole other kind of show, but for now I will happily settle for the Predator-type alien slinking along the ceiling and hissing "Thanks for the mimosas".
aka the Seth MacFarlane show which is in space but definitely NOT Star Trek, absolutely not, we can do whatever we like here, we can swear! we can talk about sex! we don't have to take ourselves too seriously! Let's just keep rolling with this spaceship ensemble show and see where we go and see what works and... three years in, through a process of TV convergent evolution, it is basically Trek.
It's okay. I don't ^love^ it, but it's decently watchable about 75% of the time. Also points for having Victor Gerber as a Starfleet-equivalent recurring guest star (forever 'Admiral SpyDaddy' in my house now), and Bruce Boxleitner as a very blue alien ambassador.
which I am watching very slowly because nobody else in my house is as keen on Star Wars as I am. Which is not to say that they're not fans. Husband and eldest child are very keen on the main films, Husband's fine with the newer TV series (Mandalorian/Book of Boba Fett/Obi-Wan), but Star Wars was my first and best-loved fandom to the point where I would watch anything in the Star Wars universe back to back for days at a time. And yet I have never seen Clone Wars! Until we got Disney Plus recently. So anyway, we're about three-quarters of the way through Season 1, and I am watching them all and not skipping a single one, including the Jar Jar Binks ones. (I read every Star Wars novel published by the late 90s; nothing frightens me.) On balance: have not got into it enough yet to properly fall in love with it, but will keep watching anyway.
aka the other other Ronald D Moore spaceship show, in an alternate 20th century where the USSR got to the moon first and the space race just kept rolling on. By Season 3, we are up to the early 90s and humans on Mars. I am about halfway through Season 3 and won't say much about this yet because I was honestly watching through my fingers in the last episode and I am going to be so furious with this show I may never want to speak of it again if one particular storyline gets resolved in a way I don't like, but it is really growing into itself by now and it is amazingly compelling.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-09-07 12:25 am (UTC)I do like it better than Discovery because it's ensemble (Disco is the Burnham Show and they didn't even name the crew for ages) but I don't do horror well so I haven't finished yet because I keep thinking the Gorn will turn up again. I had to play a game during ice-world one.
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Ooh, I forgot about this! Thanks for reminding me; I was looking forward to it. At least I hope we have it here.
The Orville
I did like the first two seasons more than the current one which is lacking in their trademark humour. The political one with the anti-abortion stuff in it was awful - yep, played a game again. The next ep coming up is about Bortus's horrible sexist mate who I've always wanted to be spaced so I haven't yet faced it.
Clone Wars, season 1
Surprisingly good! I think I prefer Rebels, though it's set afterwards and I watched them at the same time. I recommend Rit if you haven't seen it.
For All Mankind
I resisted this one for ages because of the title, but was convinced to watch because female astronauts. However when I got to the finger-filtered watching, earlier than you I think, I decided I needed something lighter. So I've yet to finish.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-09-07 08:19 pm (UTC)