Category Archives: TV
With the distraction of the election, on top of the distraction of the pandemic, my note pile has started to accumulate again. I’m way behind on my “Fall Clearance” plan to either finally write the posts or throw away the notes. (The issues I’ve been having with my laptop’s WiFi incompetence haven’t helped.)
Between winter and social distancing, I’ve had plenty of time to catch up on reading. I’ve also been catching up on TV shows I wanted to either check out or re-watch. There have been some new shows I liked so much the first time that I wanted to see them again.
So for this TV-Tuesday I’m channel surfing over all those shows.
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12 Comments | tags: Ben Edlund, David Tennant, Good Omens, Michael Sheen, NCIS, Neil Gaiman, Northern Exposure, Patrick Warburton, Terry Pratchett, The Blacklist, The Simpsons, The Tick (TV series), The West Wing, TV Tuesday | posted in TV
The post’s title is something of a misnomer (as there has been little, if any, science fiction for me this month), but I have an absolute and abiding affection for alliteration. (Which explains Sci-Fi Saturday, Mystery Monday, TV Tuesday, and Wednesday Wow.) I couldn’t resist the title once it popped into my mind.
Seriously, about the only SF in September was opening and shelving a box of books. But since October will be so political, I want to clear some notes. Call it a Fall Clearance — Low, Low Prices! — Everything Must Go!
Some rake their lawn of fallen leaves. For me, it’s that pile of notes that I seem unable to ever fully vanquish.
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12 Comments | tags: Cluster series (SF books), Michael Crichton, Piers Anthony, Sphere (book), Sphere (film), Spider-Man, Spider-Verse, The Andromeda Strain, Xanth | posted in Books, Movies, Sci-Fi Saturday, TV
I watched the first season of The Feed (2019), a British SF-horror series on Amazon Prime. I can’t say I was terribly whelmed by it. By the time I watched the last two episodes (of ten) I was mostly kinda over it. It has some neat ideas, but far too many tropes and cliches.
Full disclosure, I am not generally much of a horror fan. As with fantasy, I need a bit of something special — original — in my horror (like alien face-huggers or alien trophy hunters). Ordinary horror stories (especially outright slasher flicks), or, for that matter, ordinary Medieval magic fantasy stories, just don’t make the cut.
The problem I had with The Feed was finding it pretty ordinary.
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5 Comments | tags: Amazon Prime, science fiction, science fiction TV, SF, SF TV, television | posted in Sci-Fi Saturday, TV
Synchronicity pops up a lot in my life. Between working on drafts about my disappointment with a science fiction series, I took a break to read my news feed and saw an article asking why so many popular SF TV series are so awful. The article made a number of points that resonated a lot with me.
The article calls out Westworld (season three), Star Trek: Picard, and Devs, as examples of awful science fiction television, which seems to match what I’ve read. By which I mean, just about everything I’ve heard, both negative and positive, doesn’t incline me towards these shows (I might check out Devs at some point).
Unfortunately, I don’t think the author answered the question.
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20 Comments | tags: Gene Roddenberry, science fiction, science fiction TV, SF, SF TV, Star Trek | posted in Sci-Fi Saturday, TV
My last post was about my disappointment in the science fiction novel series, The Expanse, starting with book four. As it turns out, for me, that’s just the start of my disengagement — it goes seriously downhill from there. To be clear I’m speaking strictly in terms of my personal taste. As the saying goes, ‘One person’s mead is another person’s poison’ (not that I’m a fan of mead).
Given the steep downward trend, book four seems better in comparison. While I like it much less than the first three, I like it much more than what follows. It has some good protomolecule bits, and frontier colony stories are pretty standard science fiction fare.
But I’m particularly struck by what the TV version changed and added.
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21 Comments | tags: Babylon 5, science fiction, science fiction books, science fiction TV, SF, SF Books, SF TV, The Expanse (TV series) | posted in Sci-Fi Saturday, TV
I feel like a jilted lover. Or a very disappointed one. I found what seemed a delightful bit of science fiction color in an otherwise increasingly grey and dismal world. I let myself get attached (despite a few alarm bells going off in my head). I thought I’d found something truly worthwhile — something to invest myself in.
And it seemed really good at first. There was all the excitement of exploring something new and interesting. But after that great start, there came a most unwelcome left turn into a stinking swamp I want no part of.
This isn’t a Sci-Fi Saturday post or a TV Tuesday post… this is a spleen vent.
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20 Comments | tags: hard SF, science fiction, science fiction books, science fiction TV, SF, SF Books, SF TV | posted in Books, TV
This is turning into a habit. Three weeks ago I binged (and loved) the entire first season of Solar Opposites (created by Justin Roiland). Two weeks ago I binged (and loved) the entire first season of Upload (created by Greg Daniels). Last week I caught up on other stuff, but did watch all of the first season of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, although that took two evenings.
Last night I was up until after 3:00 AM watching the entire first season of Space Force, created by Steve Carrell and Greg Daniels. I very much enjoy the work of both, so I was very much looking forward to seeing this show. It may not be “the best show I’ve seen in awhile,” but it kept me watching to the end.
That said, I think Upload is the smarter comedy of the two.
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7 Comments | tags: Greg Daniels, Harry Nilsson, John Malkovich, Netflix, Space Force (TV series), Spaceman, Steve Carell | posted in TV
I see them often, headlines that blare urgently: “Fans Flip Out Over _____” On the flip side, the ones that proclaim giddily: “Fans Are Thrilled About _____” The blanks differ, week to week, but the mood is always vocal eleven; outrage or delight; thumbs up or thumbs down. (As Jerry Seinfeld put it recently, it either “Sucks!” or it’s “Great!” His genius is pointing out they can be the same thing.)
For me that level of involvement in fiction is a bit alien. Even as a young Star Trek fan, I distinguished between Trekkers (the sensible sort of fan that I was) and Trekkies (those goofballs running around with Spock ears and toy phasers). Love versus obsession; appreciation versus Let’s Pretend.
What concerns me sometimes is we’re amusing ourselves to death.
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28 Comments | tags: fanatics, fans, Koyaanisqatsi | posted in Movies, Rant, TV
A week ago Sunday I stayed up late binging Solar Opposites. This Sunday I stayed up to 4:00 AM binging Upload, a new comedy from Greg Daniels (just released on Amazon Prime). In both cases, my intent was to check out just an episode or two, but in both cases I couldn’t stop watching.
Solar Opposites was more like a fun party I didn’t want to leave (I’m a night owl, anyway). Upload, likewise, was a delight I didn’t want to end, but I was also seriously sucked into a really good story. I am very much anticipating season two.
I don’t hand out Wow! ratings lightly, but Upload just might rate one.
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2 Comments | tags: Amazon Prime, Greg Daniels, TV Tuesday | posted in TV
I was planning on curling up on the couch with some good reading material today, but I bumped into something in my news feed this morning that raised my blood pressure and gave me the perfect excuse to get rid of another old note and vent some spleen (I like to keep it aired out).
The bitter irony is that what I see as a problem just doubled. It used to involve just one episode of a TV series I really like. Now it involves another episode of another TV series I like. Two episodes I will never, ever touch. If they were the last TV episodes in the world, I’d stop watching TV.
I’m talking about Netflix and their @#$%ing interactive videos.
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1 Comment | tags: Black Mirror, interactive video, Netflix, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | posted in Movies, Rant, TV
