Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Dec 11, 2021 11:22:16 GMT -8
Admittedly I'm not too familiar with the original He-Man show, though what clips I've seen are pure '80s cheese. Ok, weird addendum to the above He-Man comments. Apparently Netflix has two new He-Man shows streaming this year. One is the 2D-animated Masters of the Universe: Revelation, which is a direct sequel to the 1980s cartoon aimed at an older audience. The other cartoon is the CG-animated He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which is a reboot of the 1980s series aimed at young children. Neither of the two shows have any connection to each other, nor to She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, another Netflix cartoon that's a reboot of an old He-Man spinoff in which He-Man does not appear. Oh, and She-Ra is also set to star in a live-action TV series produced by Amazon, that has no connection to the animated She-Ra series or either of the aforementioned He-Man shows. I never realized that '80s cartoon reboots could be so confusing. Is He-Man really that iconic as a character? Maybe this is just my age showing, but I think of him first and foremost as "that guy who fought the much cooler Skeletor, and also sang 4 Non Blondes." Mostly I find this fracas about Kevin Smith and "toxic masculinity" in fan culture very funny when applied to a character who is generally agreed to be, and I don't mean this pejoratively, the gayest gay gay to ever gay.
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 11, 2021 14:02:31 GMT -8
Yeah, from what I remember of the cheesy 80s show, He-Man's alter-ego (I think he was named Adam) was a very sensitive fellow, and I don't recall He-Man being all that aggressive either.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 11, 2021 17:30:36 GMT -8
I'm from the post-He-Man generation, so I also became initially familiar with him through the memes and myriad gay jokes. Fair to say that a lot of people view the original series as pretty silly.
Still, a bit of perspective: Most cartoons of the '80s were pretty tame by modern standards. As spearheaded by the Reagan-era FCC and activists like Peggy Charren, shows like He-Man, GI Joe, and Transformers were heavily limited in their violence and typically played out as half-hour toy commercials. He-Man comes off as pretty cheesy nowadays, but it was a massive commercial hit for its time - spawning a spin-off and a live-action movie - and it carries a lot of '80s nostalgia. (And '80s nostalgia appears to be a hot commodity nowadays.)
As for my earlier "toxic masculinity" comment, it was a little tongue-in-cheek. I just think that a white male hero named "He-Man" would make a lot of modern TV producers think twice (which is why Netflix purposely subverted expectations with their new series).
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Post by Jeremy on May 20, 2022 15:31:41 GMT -8
I've lately been sifting through some of the Adult Swim cartoons on HBO Max, past and present, some of which are quite funny and creative. (And quite easy to watch, at 11 minutes per episode.)
Smiling Friends - This is a new series created by a pair of YouTube animation talents, and their background certainly shows in the final product. The best way to describe the show would be "S***post: The Animated Series" - it is chockablock with surreal and absurdist humor, with several episodes feeling like long shaggy-dog jokes concocted by Internet trolls. Some of it works better in short bursts (i.e. quick 30-second skits), but much of it is quite funny, on levels both verbal and visual. (The series has fun making use of Microsoft Paint 3D-style animation, whenever it feels the need to get extra whimsical.) Not for everyone, but an inviting series for those who crave more animated insanity between seasons of Rick and Morty.
Moral Orel - I disliked this show at first, particularly since it initially felt like an uninspired rip on religious red-state America, combining Davey and Goliath designs and archetypes with R-rated humor. But the series develops in some surprising and intriguing ways. It begins as a crass, one-note comedy, then slowly morphs into a very dark drama dealing with a bevy of adult themes. Better yet, a lot of early episodes and side characters that initially seem to be pointless and disposable soon turn out to be integral to an increasingly serialized story. S1 is not very good on its own, but taken in context with S2 and (especially) S3, the series tells a surprisingly nuanced story about family and community that does not shy away from its more disturbing implications.
Xavier: Renegade Angel - This is quite possibly the single weirdest TV show I have ever watched. It's only 20 brief episodes long, yet packed with endless streams of bizarre exchanges and non-sequiturs that somehow blend together as enticing pseudo-philosophical poetry. The awful CG animation is part of the charm, as is the show's cluelessly vainglorious main character, who serves as both a catalyst and hapless observer of the mad world around him. Utterly bonkers yet thoroughly mesmerizing, and perhaps the closest I'll ever come to experiencing an acid trip. (Can't say for certain, don't know what it actually feels like, have no intention to find out.)
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 23, 2022 6:36:45 GMT -8
Been catching up on Primal recently, and just finished Season 2. Genndy Tartakovsky's work on the series has been widely praised, and while I enjoy the Hotel Transylvania films, he usually does his best work on the small screen, with 2D animation and lots of creative freedom.
As with Samurai Jack, the first season of Primal suffers a bit from weak plotting and simplistic characters, but the incredible animation and visual technique - particularly as displayed in bold, striking action sequences - are the main event. The show's extreme levels of violence can be a little much at times, but it underscores the perils of living in prehistoric times, when everything and their grandma is trying to kill you.
Season 2 of Primal improves in several ways on the first, with a larger cast and more of a running storyline throughout. (Though the premise of man and dinosaur fighting side by side gets even more anachronistic in the back half of the season.) The animated action is still the main event, and the show executes those scenes impressively (particularly in a brutal extended battle sequence in "The Red Mist"). The show has also grown more confident in its themes about raw human brutality in the face of nature, and has begun to get more experimental, with one episode that breaks the show's format and ignores the main cast and storyline entirely.
It's only in the season finale - particularly the last 10 minutes - that the show really stumbles, with a rushed, unspectacular climax (maybe some more time could have been allocated away from the flashbacks?) and a frankly ridiculous coda. Long-term payoffs have never been Tartakovsky's strength, and it's unfortunate to see the trend continue here. Shows like Primal may be all about the journey - with scale and spectacle the main attractions - but that's no excuse to botch the destination.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Nov 26, 2022 17:31:21 GMT -8
Been catching up on Primal recently, and just finished Season 2. Genndy Tartakovsky's work on the series has been widely praised, and while I enjoy the Hotel Transylvania films, he usually does his best work on the small screen, with 2D animation and lots of creative freedom. As with Samurai Jack, the first season of Primal suffers a bit from weak plotting and simplistic characters, but the incredible animation and visual technique - particularly as displayed in bold, striking action sequences - are the main event. The show's extreme levels of violence can be a little much at times, but it underscores the perils of living in prehistoric times, when everything and their grandma is trying to kill you. Season 2 of Primal improves in several ways on the first, with a larger cast and more of a running storyline throughout. (Though the premise of man and dinosaur fighting side by side gets even more anachronistic in the back half of the season.) The animated action is still the main event, and the show executes those scenes impressively (particularly in a brutal extended battle sequence in "The Red Mist"). The show has also grown more confident in its themes about raw human brutality in the face of nature, and has begun to get more experimental, with one episode that breaks the show's format and ignores the main cast and storyline entirely. It's only in the season finale - particularly the last 10 minutes - that the show really stumbles, with a rushed, unspectacular climax (maybe some more time could have been allocated away from the flashbacks?) and a frankly ridiculous coda. Long-term payoffs have never been Tartakovsky's strength, and it's unfortunate to see the trend continue here. Shows like Primal may be all about the journey - with scale and spectacle the main attractions - but that's no excuse to botch the destination. Agreed on all accounts. I'm surprised that most people are saying Season 2's a step down from 1? Outside of that typically underwhelming Tartakovsky climax (remember Samurai Jack S5, which was so good until the ending?), I thought it was an improvement on all fronts. I wish there were more shows in America that broke from the traditional adult animated comedy show format and aimed for adventure or drama.
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 26, 2022 19:08:24 GMT -8
Season 1 was more about the visuals than the story, with every episode pretty much a standalone tale, which gave each episode merit to be enjoyed on its own. But I'm glad they upped the ante and got more serialized in Season 2, even if it didn't stick the landing. (As I think I've mentioned in the past, Samurai Jack is a show I've long respected more than loved, since the great visuals and action were somewhat undermined by the thin characters and story.)
Apparently Season 3 of Primal will be an anthology series, focused on new characters (and perhaps more standalone experiments, like "The Primal Theory"). Could be interesting, but I hope they don't wipe the slate of the first two seasons entirely.
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Post by Jeremy on Jun 5, 2023 16:05:15 GMT -8
A tale of two MTV revivals - one notably better than the other...
Beavis and Butt-Head - I was never a regular fan of the original B&BH, and certainly never held it in as high regard as I did its spin-off Daria. But I've been watching the new series on Paramount+ (kickstarted by the movie Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe), and it's pretty funny. The new show maintains the clever humor of the original - Beavis and Butt-Head remain both stupid and self-centered, and the shows mines a lot of great humor from both their own misunderstandings and those of the people around them. The most notable update is in the comic interludes dispersed throughout the episodes - in the '90s show, the title characters routinely snarked on music videos of the era (and unwittingly presaged the rise of Internet critique); the new show has them mocking viral YouTube videos as well. And the animation, while understandably more polished than the crudely hand-drawn original series, doesn't lose the roughness that made the character designs compelling. It's not particularly deep, but there are some inspired moments of silliness - the S2 premiere, in which B&B mistake a polling station for a pole-dancing club, was among the funniest things I've seen this year.
Clone High - I've loved the original Clone High for years, and always bemoaned the fact that it was tragically cut short after just 13 episodes. So I was naturally intrigued when the series was revived for HBO Max. I'm only three episodes in, but thus far, the new season lacks the sense of whimsy and absurdity that made the first season so memorable. Most of the original characters and voice actors are back (minus Gandhi; bummer), but the episodes are longer, the writing more obvious, and the jokes less funny and creative than before. There are also too many new major characters, more than the show can handle, who at this point simply clutter up the stories without developing well-defined personalities of their own. Where the original show satirized high school dramas of its era, the new series leans into some of these tropes, with more drama and less irony. There's also an alarming number of jokes where the punchline involves a character bleeding profusely. I dunno, it's certainly not as bad as Velma, but it feels pretty limp, and mainly just has me pining to revisit the original show.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Sept 25, 2023 8:57:45 GMT -8
Really curious what Jeremy thought of Krapopolis, a show that I went into expecting to like and found so sorely lacking that I'm starting to retroactively wonder whether I actually liked Community!
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 25, 2023 18:03:06 GMT -8
For some dumb, probably anti-Semitic reason, Fox chose to air the first couple of episodes of Krapopolis on the night of Yom Kippur, so I was too busy fasting to watch anything. But I suppose I'll check it out. Have heard mixed things, but it's not uncommon for animated Fox sitcoms to get off to a rough start. (The first few episodes of Bob's Burgers were quite weak.)
In any event, it's wild that Fox has already ordered the show for three full seasons. When was the last time that's happened for any new TV series?
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 12, 2023 15:31:40 GMT -8
I haven't done a full animated update in a while, so here are some 'toons I've been watching in recent weeks and months:
Futurama (season 8... or season 11?) - I actually have no idea what season this show is up to, and I don't think the writers do either; it's been cancelled and revived so many times that everyone's lost track. Anyway, the new season (on Hulu, which leads to an annoying "Hulurama" fakeout logo at the start of every episode) is fine, about on a qualitative par with the Comedy Central seasons, if still a cut below those classic Fox years. The main issue continues to be all the anachronistic 21st-century references that 31st-century characters keep making, even as it undercuts the whole original purpose of the show by too-clearly paralleling the show's futuristic setting with modern times. And ironically, since Futurama has been off the air for ten years, some of the new jokes end up feeling kind of dated - I understand the compulsion to make (not particularly funny) stories about Covid and cancel culture, but are we seriously still doing "locker room talk" jokes in 2023? Anyway, the show is pretty much the same as it was when we last left it a decade ago, which is both a good and somewhat disappointing thing.
Solar Opposites (season 4) - The firing of Justin Roiland has generated repercussions across multiple shows, particularly when it comes to voice casting. Rick and Morty has replaced him with a pair of as-yet-unnamed sound-alike actors, and we'll see how the Internet handles that. Solar Opposites, however, throws caution to the wind, hiring Dan Stevens to do a very un-Roiland-like British accent for Korvo. It... doesn't really work. Nor, for that matter, does much of the show, which feels kind of tired in its fourth year, with arid plots and bumpy scripts. The show increasingly reaches toward more obscure corners of its cast for storylines, with an entire episode devoted to the "Silvercops" (it's about as filler an episode as you can get). Even the Wall plotline - consistently one of the more interesting aspects of the show - feels shopworn. Feels like this show is reaching its sell-by date.
Unicorn: Warriors Eternal - This new show from Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Primal) flew under the radar earlier this year, which is a bit unfair - as with his previous work, it's one of the best-looking cartoons on TV, with gorgeous character designs, cityscapes, and action scenes. The writing is a bit rougher, with an underbaked mythology (think a steampunk fantasy version of the Avengers, and just as confusing as that sounds) and some characterization issues. (It's the first Tartarkovsky show with a female lead, and regrettably she spends much of her time caught in an annoying love triangle.) Still, there's no denying the show's creative potential; the finale suggests there's plenty more to tap. Worth checking out, though it helps to be a fan of GT's prior works.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Oct 13, 2023 8:14:24 GMT -8
I'm curious what Jer made of the recent Bob's Burgers episode featuring Rudy. I think the show is now at the decade-plus mark and feels obliged, much like the Simpsons did, to flesh out its supporting cast.
I liked the episode, for what it's worth, and will cop to having cried a little bit - but I think it really illustrated for me what I find irritating about a lot of modern cartoons, which is that the clean vector lines of Flash animation are so antiseptic that it's hard to feel any serious emotion while watching the show, even as the soundtrack goes into overdrive with PLAINTIVE PIANO CHORDS telling you to CRY, DAMNIT!!! Oh, and that the show's brand of "humor" where Gene spouts non-sequiturs about poop isn't funny anymore, if it ever was in the first place, but we already knew that. In conclusion, I will never watch Bojack Horseman.
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 14, 2023 17:45:12 GMT -8
So I haven't really been watching Bob's Burgers in recent years (apart from the movie, which was... fine). But I checked out the new episode, since it's being sold as a departure from the show's usual formula. It was decent. I don't find Regular-Sized Rudy to be that memorable a character, even by the standards of the show's supporting cast, but this was a nice and understated portrayal of a kid going through a rock time. The animation is indeed a little too "clean" for the emotion to feel genuine, though I think it's also an issue of character designs on the show, which always look a little flat.
The Simpsons has also done plenty of episodes focusing on supporting characters, although those have been a regular thing dating back to the mid-90s (helped by the fact that many of the supporting characters on The Simpsons have well-developed personalities and can sustain multiple episode spotlights - Krusty, Skinner, Milhouse, Apu (before his unfortunate cancellation), to name a handful.
Speaking of Simpsons, it's been interesting to watch the last couple of seasons, which have been a little more creative and experimental than much of the show's other 21st century output, but which now insist on throwing in an anivilicious political message into the script every other week, to ensure that audiences don't go back to liking it too much. It's a weird mix!
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Oct 14, 2023 18:34:40 GMT -8
You know, I've been seeing a bunch of people saying "oh, the Simpsons is good again!" - I suspect that the hamfisted political commentary of the more recent seasons is a feature and not a bug, for some of them. Certainly, people liked Robert Reich showing up playing himself in that episode about the death of the American middle class!
You definitely can track that most of the writers on the Simpsons now were born after the show first went on the air, though. I wish there was any serious attempt by the show's fandom to split the show up into distinct eras beyond "the golden age" and "Zombie Simpsons" (with maybe a four-year transition period into suckitude around the turn of the millennium) - admittedly the obvious way to do this would be by showrunner, and Al Jean's been at the helm for two decades or so now, but still. Maybe tracking what particular writers have come and gone? (Hey, the next episode is by the guy who wrote "The Zeppo" !!) Or maybe tracking how many episodes have had a metafictional gag or frame narrative in them (which seems to have increased conspicuously, having the episode be a Searching pastiche or whatever). Hm.
S1/S2 - The Weird-but-Good Early Years S3-8 - The Golden Years S9-12 - The "They Killed Maude! The Bastards!" Years S13-20 - The Rut Years S21-30 - The Still in a Rut, But We Switched to Using Flash Years, And Yes I Know the Show isn't Animated in Flash but You Know Exactly What I Mean S31-34 - The Weird-but-Good Later Years
...could be a good approximation, but it's still writing off a solid 20 years of the show, including the period when I most distinctly remember tuning in for "24 Minutes" or "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpsons Mind" or "Brick Like Me" or whatever as they first aired. And look, just now I put an entire decade's worth of content into a single sentence without any qualms, but surely these all represent distinct eras of the show, right??
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Oct 14, 2023 18:58:09 GMT -8
The Foundation (S1/2) The Prime (S3-8) The Transition (S9-12) The Decline (S14*-19) The Perpetual Motion Machine (S20-29)
*not a typo, they just skipped season 13 entirely apparently
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