Like everybody else, I loved Star Wars: A New Hope. By The Last Jedi, I lost faith in the franchise. After that, there had to be good buzz to bother watching. The first two seasons of The Mandalorian and Andor were well done.
The Acolyte is interesting because it is getting extraordinarily bad reviews. Following The Acolyte on Youtube is more rewarding than watching the show. Two topics I haven’t seen discussed.
I haven’t watched The Acolyte because hate-watching a show isn’t appealing. It may not seem fair to judge a show without watching it, but the show creator, Leslye Headland, has made it clear in interviews that the show should be categorized as lesbian fantasy. Using the logic of the lead actress, Amandla Stenberg, none of the actors are like me. Representation is so important.
I could be watching The Acolyte, or some other queer new show, but instead, I’m working my way through Xena: The Warrior Princess. It can be campy and ridiculous, but the women are attractive and dress to distract.
NYT: Will the Force be with The Acolyte
NYT: Will the Force be with The Acolyte
In two days, a Star Wars spin-off TV show, The Acolyte, will premier on Disney+. The eight episode season will cost $180 million. It’s hard to believe anyone thinks this show will be successful.
Season 3 of Clarkson’s Farm just dropped on Amazon Prime. It’s getting some coverage and is rated highly on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.
You should watch it anyway. Think of it as a real-life version of Green Acres, but with much better production values.
Scavengers Reign coming to Netflix.
If you have Netflix and are open to something different, watch Scavengers Reign. Don’t bother reading up on it or watching a Youtube review. The music and animation are fantastic. The world is creative and surprising. There isn’t much dialogue and the characters aren’t memorable. It just a beautiful show to experience.
NYT: The Comfortable Problem of Mid TV
NYT: The Comfortable Problem of Mid TV
This NYT article makes some good points, but without a good conclusion. Many TV shows are good, but not great. It is suggested that actors who were in great shows are used to make new, uninspired shows.
In February, Glover and Erskine returned in the action thriller “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” on Amazon Prime Video. It’s … fine? A takeoff on the 2005 film, it updates the story of a married duo of spies by imagining the espionage business as gig work.
If you’ve played Fallout, then you are already watching this show, and know that it pays off.
Fallout is a TV show based on a game series with 9 editions. I haven’t played the game, but didn’t have any trouble figuring out what’s going on. Fallout takes place in a post-apocalyptic alternative universe that is similar to ours until the 1950’s, when computer chips weren’t invented. The technology and culture advance, but with a retro feel. The show, like the game, is satirical. It can be plenty violent, but in a quirky way.
The plot isn’t complicated. The show focuses on the three main characters as they work their way through the post-apocalyptic world to get what they want. Lucy is good and attractive, Ghoul is corrupt and mutated, and Maximus a regular guy who wants to be heroic.
Fallout looks and sounds great. Much effort went into making it seem like a plausible 1950’s world with technological advances. It seems like a show that I will be rewatching.
One aspect of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters that hurt the show is that the young characters aren’t appealing. They aren’t attractive, charismatic or clever. One Asian girl, Cate, is petulant, whiny and aloof. I wasn’t familiar with the actress, Anna Sawai, so couldn’t tell if it was the writing or the actress.
When watching Shogun, I didn’t realize it was the same actress. The character, Toda, is alluring, strong and sympathetic even though she is rarely talking or even doing much. For Sawai to do so much, so subtly, she should get an Emmy.
The writers and director for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, clearly want us to not like or be sympathetic to the young characters. I don’t know why. That could have been a good show.
Shogun, on ABC and Hulu, is one of those rare TV shows that gets my full attention when I watch. It’s along the lines of Game of Thrones, but without the dragon fantasy. Palace intrigue shows suffer if everyone is too grim and earnest, and the line between good and evil is too clear. That’s what Shogun and Game of Thrones gets right.
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