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Post by Incandescence 112 on Feb 17, 2022 21:06:59 GMT -8
Peacemaker is a ton of fun. Even moreso than with The Suicide Squad, DC gave James Gunn a camera and told him to just go nuts. The show is pretty cavalier with its R rating, but often genuinely funny, and - much like Harley Quinn - really underscores how little concern DC has in preserving the sacred text of their comics lore. (Apparently Bat-Mite is a thing in the DCEU now. Don't think too deeply about it.) And the opening credits sequence is terrific. Recalls the intro to Jack of All Trades (which is a reference that only Jay will understand), and really sells the show's complete bonkers tone. All of this based on an obscure comics character who was created by a third-string publisher in the 1960s. Incredible. Yeah, Peacemaker was really, really good. One of the better seasons of superhero tv I've seen. James Gunn's interesting philosophy of putting more effort into third acts than most people in Hollywood certainly payed off--the finale was pretty spectacular. Superb production values and a fascinating conclusion to the 'troubled parental relationships' theme he wrote into the season. I'm not an MCU fan by a long shot, but I'm looking forward to Guardians 3 now. When it comes out in 2025.
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 18, 2022 12:00:40 GMT -8
The main problem with Peacemaker is that the more whimsical and fantastical elements of the show didn't really mesh with the more serious overtones of the white supremacist storyline. This was a similar problem with S2 of The Boys, but less noticeable in that series because the cast and satirical themes had been well-established in the season before Stormfront appeared. It's a little more jarring in this series. (To an extent, it seems like Robert Patrick's character was an attempt to rehabilitate Peacemaker by contrast. He's introduced in The Suicide Squad as a proto-fascist nut, and it's easier to humanize him if you reveal that his dad was #LiterallyHitler.)
That said - Peacemaker is a really entertaining, no-holds-barred assault on superhero tropes and established comic book lore. Marvel gives James Gunn a lot of creative freedom with the GotG films, but at the end of the day he still needs to color within the MCU's lines. DC just handed Gunn a camera and a budget and let him run wild. The show toys around with the established continuity of both the comics and the DCEU, but it's all in the way of laugh-out-loud comedy. (How did Peacemaker team up with Matter-Eater Lad, a superhero from the 31st century? Don't overthink it.)
Gunn is never going to have this much freedom with Marvel, but he's carved his own corner in their universe, and between the upcoming third film and the Holiday Special later this year, I expect we've got some fun stuff ahead.
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 21, 2022 20:55:47 GMT -8
Even though Search Party is over, people are still discovering it - in some very unlikely ways. Conservative pundit Andrew Klavan just endorsed the series on his YT channel, calling it the best under-the-radar show on television. His suggestion that it's an anti-woke show is something I've considered in the past, though I don't know how much of that is intentional on the writers' part. In a way, Search Party feels like an inverted Always Sunny in Philadelphia - centering on a group of narcissistic young friends and inviting viewers (depending on their own politics) to either laugh with or at them. Always Sunny's protagonists are usually depicted on the right, and Search Party's on the left, but both shows thread the needle quite well - an increasing rarity in modern comedy.
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Post by ThirdMan on Feb 22, 2022 1:40:52 GMT -8
I'd been watching new episodes of It's Always Sunny in recent years, but their excursion to Ireland at the beginning of the current season caused me to check-out. The humour was so lowbrow and lazy. These sorts of field-trips usually don't go well for long-running series, and for me, this was no exception. As FX shows go, though, I'm looking forward to the final season of Better Things. It's surely gonna end with Mikey Madison being set on fire, because that's her thing these days, it would seem.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Feb 22, 2022 8:09:53 GMT -8
I'd been watching new episodes of It's Always Sunny in recent years, but their excursion to Ireland at the beginning of the current season caused me to check-out. The humour was so lowbrow and lazy. These sorts of field-trips usually don't go well for long-running series, and for me, this was no exception. As FX shows go, though, I'm looking forward to the final season of Better Things. It's surely gonna end with Mikey Madison being set on fire, because that's her thing these days, it would seem. The focus of of the three creators has been split for awhile now, and as the series has gone on, it relies more on 'topical' humor rather than the depravity of the gang like it used to. To be fair though, Sunny has a very high degree of difficulty as far as comedies go, and it held out for an impressively long time. In fact, I'd say Seasons 5-10 were better than its first 4. Not many comedies you can say that about.
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Post by ThirdMan on Feb 22, 2022 11:57:26 GMT -8
I believe that, for the most part, I've only watched episodes from the latter section of its run. It's never been completely my cup-of-tea (too much overbearingly gross humour from DeVito at times), but I've generally enjoyed it. But yeah, I think I've reached the end of my time with the show after those Ireland-set episodes which, to me, had very little going for them. I think the show may have finally run out of steam.
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Post by Jeremy on Feb 22, 2022 18:05:38 GMT -8
The early seasons of Always Sunny are fine, but can feel like they're trying too hard to be the basic cable version of Seinfeld. It's around Season Four (specifically the episode "Mac and Charlie Die") where the show really takes off, routinely and unapologetically heading in weird and hilarious directions. The stretch between Seasons 5 and 10 is indeed probably the show's strongest, although more recent seasons have still routinely delivered on the experimentation and laughs.
I haven't yet watched Season 15 (which put the show in the record books as America's longest-running live-action sitcom), but it does seem to be polarizing. Somehow the shift abroad for a show that has so long been defined by a sense of place (even if said place isn't nearly as sunny as the show contends) wasn't the best idea.
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Post by Jay on Mar 14, 2022 7:36:59 GMT -8
I finished watching season two of The Witcher the other night. In many ways, it's crisper than the previous season, but it's also lost a fair bit of personality in the process and the bigger budget has made way for more genre trope special effects. The best way to watch it, plainly, is to imagine Vesemir as a version of Carl from ATHF.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Mar 16, 2022 21:48:08 GMT -8
What the hell is The Thing About Pam?? Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Is it an excuse for Renee Zellweger to get an Emmy for wearing a fatsuit? The most likely explanation is it's an hourlong advertisement for a true crime podcast, but if this is supposed to make us interested in the source material, uh, mission failed!
Anyway, drop everything, because do you know what's better than ONE Enver Gjokaj sighting? TWO Enver Gjokaj sightings!! He had a bit-part-bordering-on-future-series-regular-role on the midseason finale of Resident Alien (opposite Alan Tudyk, har har) and he is apparently appearing in a similarly recurring capacity on NCIS: Hawai'i. Note the okina. Because this is a culturally authentic show about telegenic soldier-marine-cops running around shooting people.
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 16, 2022 23:00:59 GMT -8
Is it an excuse for Renee Zellweger to get an Emmy for wearing a fatsuit? This, mostly, I would imagine.
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 17, 2022 7:05:01 GMT -8
NCIS: Hawai'i. Note the okina. Because this is a culturally authentic show about telegenic soldier-marine-cops running around shooting people.
This reminds me of Hawaii, a short-lived crime procedural starring Eric Balfour which ran on NBC some years ago. It featured cases like a murder victim who had been thrown into a volcano, which is apparently a thing that happens in Hawaii. So glad to see we've progressed since then.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Mar 23, 2022 14:44:40 GMT -8
OK, so, I've mostly been using my HBO to watch romcoms. But I will say - Starstruck (a show whose second season drops on Max tomorrow) is definitely worth a watch if you want something light and fun and dedicated to like, actually making you laugh. The first season was immensely charming + only, like, six episodes over two hours? Very much zoomer Notting Hill, but better than that sounds.
I also greatly enjoyed the second season of Love Life, which... I'll cop to being shallow here and mostly wanted to watch this show because I thought William Jackson Harper was hot on The Good Place and wanted to see him as a romantic leading man. I didn't watch the earlier season with Anna Kendrick but you don't really need to at all. Anyway, yes, he's great as a romantic leading man, and the show itself is very charming in its own right. I wish Keith David would narrate my various romantic failures. Bonus: it's maybe one of the few shows to deal with the pandemic and George Floyd without being heavyhanded about it.
Also, fun Love Life trivia - Harper's main romantic foil is played by Jessica Williams from The Daily Show and 2 Dope Queens. Harper's sister is played by Punkie Johnson of SNL, which, as you may have guessed, is not her real name. No, Punkie Johnson is a stage name, and her real name is... Jessica Williams. This... has to be the first time this has ever happened on any TV show ever, right? Two completely unrelated members of a show's regular cast having the exact same real name?
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 23, 2022 15:04:12 GMT -8
I would wager the same-name thing has happened a fair amount in films (which is why so many actors use different names, to avoid confusion with already-established ones), but hard to say w/r/t television.
Have James Stewart and Stewart Granger (real name: James Stewart), or Michael Douglas and Michael Keaton (real name: Michael Douglas) ever appeared in the same film with one another?
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 23, 2022 19:34:36 GMT -8
I can't think of any other film or TV series where this has happened. Though there was a reality show some years ago called Same Name, in which famous celebrities swapped lives with ordinary people who shared their name. So you had people like Kathy Griffin and Mike Tyson learning how the other half lived, simply by dint of having the same name as some random joe. Social commentary as only TV can offer.
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Post by otherscott on Mar 29, 2022 6:19:05 GMT -8
Had I watched it before I made my list, Season 2 of The Great would have worked my way into the top 10. I do think the central love story feels pretty unearned most of the time, but Elizabeth is such a terrific character and there's an underlying message of forgiveness (which is purposely taken to ridiculous extremes) that I appreciated.
I do kind of get Vic Mackey flashbacks with how the show treats Peter, which isn't necessarily a good thing. That being said, I've always maintained the problem with the "softening" of Vic Mackey in Seasons 2-4 of The Shield is not those seasons particularly, but rather the pilot went too extreme too quickly to get a shocking moment, and as a result Vic just felt like a different character after a while. Peter has a bit of an issue with feeling like a different character than the first season as well, but the show at least tries to present it as him changing which I can buy slightly more.
Good show, pretty underrated I would say.
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