TV series, news, recommendations

[Kestrel]

I’m very late to this party, but I watched Our Flag Means Death on @Selira’s recommendation and loved every second of it.

It’s largely known as the gay pirate show and I’m not a gay man, so I’ll leave better equipped individuals to express what that representation means to them. (Other than just, from my perspective, the romantic storylines are all wholesome as heck.)

What I wanna say is that for a show with (expectedly) very few women characters, it’s kind of amazing that every single one who shows up, without exception, is genuinely three-dimensional, interesting and fun. My favourite character ended up being Mary Bonnet and I didn’t expect to like or even care about her. She could’ve easily been sidelined as a joke character, and instead ended up a dark horse frontrunner for me.

Spoiler

Also as someone with a male ex who came out as gay, and whom I remain very close friends with, the hug at the end was heartwarming and relatable as heck.

After an endless parade of gritty shows like Game of Thrones, at every turn I also expected shock value and trauma, and was pleasantly surprised by how it subverted expectations by … not trying to subvert expectations so hard? Man it’s just a nice show to watch. It’s endless smiles. I feel like we need more of that, actually.

[Faraday]

YouTube helpfully summarized my childhood.

30 '80s TV Show Opening Themes

Missing Battlestar, but otherwise pretty thorough. Eerie how many of the theme songs I can still hum despite not having seen the shows in decades.

[Cobalt]

The Fall of the House of Usher is really good, but very gorey and brutal and if you are sensitive about depictions of animal harm you may want to pass.

I’m usually very good about it but there’s a scene involving a cat and it was really shocking and upsetting.

[GF]

Heartstopper is so stinking cute it makes me squee in ways that I thought only playful puppies could do. I want to rub Charlie and Nick’s bellies and tell them what good boys they are.

[OnceWas]

@Cobalt 10/10. Loved the series, contained many references to Poe works, did enjoy greatly. Cat-based trauma scene notwithstanding, good times to be had.

[Cobalt]

@OnceWas It is really good and shocking. The cat scene had me just pausing the show for several minutes while I processed what happened and reminded myself it was CGI. Because oh my god.

The scene an episode prior with the villain on the exam table in the lab, where she starts beating on her chest was spine chilling.

[Smile]

I didn’t think I’d see so many horror scenes with

Spoiler

chimp attacks

this past year.

[Cobalt]

I just finished The Fall of the House of Usher tonight and holy crap.

[OnceWas]

@Cobalt The show’s writer, Mike Flanagan, currently owns the film television rights to “The Dark Tower”, and had the strongest-possible blessing from King himself on his work for “Gerald’s Game” as a movie.

So, y’know, in case you’re curious about cause for excitement in the future.

Edited to reflect reality

[GF]

@OnceWas I really don’t know how the Dark Tower can be translated out of the medium it was created for without completely disregarding the metanarrative that is the entire point of the series, but I’d nevertheless be very interested to see.

[Pyrephox]

@GF said in TV series, news, recommendations:

@OnceWas I really don’t know how the Dark Tower can be translated out of the medium it was created for without completely disregarding the metanarrative that is the entire point of the series, but I’d nevertheless be very interested to see.

I think of current directors, I’d trust Flanagan to do it over anyone else, if anyone can. Provided he’s given the SPACE to do it, which is the part I don’t see happening. Doesn’t feel like anyone wants to commit to something the right length to do the whole story right.

[SpaceKhomeini]

If you’re not the type of person who is put off by animation and really like an atmospheric Moebius-style SF vibe, you could do a lot worse than Scavenger’s Reign.

I’m only two episodes in so far but I’m really enjoying just how much they lean into an alien world being, well, alien.

[Floof]

@SpaceKhomeini Holy shit, I just finished this last night. Definitely second the recommendation!

[TNP]

Just watched the 4 new Dr. Who episodes on Disney+. (The first three came out in November, the Christmas special today.) Gotta say, I LOVE the new doctor. And just to make it even better, he is totally hot.

[Aria]

“So, Aria. What do you do on Christmas?”
“Cry into a pillow over a K-drama/romance/fantasy series about a gumiho.”

I highly recommend Tale of the Nine-Tailed if that sort of show is your thing.

[GF]

I need Hazbin Hotel to come out now. Sigh.

[Kestrel]

My heartbreak over the cancellation of OFMD is eclipsed only by my undying love for Zheng Yi Sao.

[Floof]

Hey robot friends, are you watching Bang Brave Bang Bravern?

[Tez]

@Floof I have not been, but someone sent this clip my way the other day:

https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_s7hdhocpLf1ruoz9w.mp4

Incredible. Just incredible.

[GF]

Hazbin Hotel is out and it’s frigging delightful; an insane mishmash of Disney parody, dark humor, and thoughtful deconstruction of the shape Heaven and Hell’s societies would take and the purposes they would serve. It’s also occasionally heart-wrenching: friendly heads up, there should REALLY be a trigger warning for intimate partner abuse and SA on episode 4.