Tag Archives: Netflix
It’s funny, sometimes, the twists and turns of life. When I first heard of The Three Body Problem (2006), a science fiction novel by Liu Cixin, it didn’t grab my attention because I’m a little weary of “alien invasion” stories. But I’d read and enjoyed Ball Lightning (2004), so I watched Three Body, the Chinese adaptation of the first novel.
I posted last year about how much I liked it. So much so that I recently watched and posted about it again. And re-read the first novel (I read the trilogy last year). I even watched the first season of the Netflix adaptation.
To my eyes, it demonstrated everything that’s gone wrong with modern writing for TV and movies. The contrast between the Chinese adaptation and the Netflix one is stark and revealing.
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1 Comment | tags: 3 Body Problem, adaptations, Barbie, Liu Cixin, Netflix, three-body problem | posted in Movies, Sci-Fi Saturday
Bye-bye, TARDIS, bye-bye!
It’s TV Tuesday and time for another episode of channel surfing over what I’ve been watching on the TV machine. Speaking of which, I kind of miss channel surfing. It was fun seeing what else is on. (It’s how I stumbled on Little Big Town, now a favorite band.)
People with my (take your pick) interests, background, point of view, do not find most modern fare favorable. I’ve gone on about that plenty in the pages and years of this blog.
And that’s mostly what this post is, so caveat lector.
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6 Comments | tags: Doctor Who, Grown-ish, Jack Reacher, Leverage (TV series), Netflix, Star Trek, three-body problem | posted in TV Tuesday
I’m not posting about the 1997 sci-fi-ish action thriller John Woo movie with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage (which was titled Face/Off). As much as I like John Woo films, parts of that movie really bother me, so I have mixed feelings.
No, today’s post is about an obscure Vietnamese comedy-action series of movies (up to six now, as far as I can tell). It’s so obscure that Wikipedia has never heard of the films or the director. Even IMDb doesn’t have much detail on these.
Which is a shame, because they’re delightful fun, and of the three I’ve seen so far, they’ve gotten better each time. The third one was really touching and memorable.
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7 Comments | tags: A Chinese Odyssey, comedy, Ly Hai, Netflix, The Great Magician, Tony Leung, Vietnamese Movies | posted in Movies
Friday Notes are fun and fairly easy. (None of the science or technological rabbit holes I love so much — my underground lair?) But I can’t seem to break the habit of posting articles explaining stuff. I guess that’s part of who I am.
As I’ve mentioned, lots of preachers and teachers in my family tree. Number of authors, too, so I suppose there’s no escaping it. And I do put considerable value on the experience of trying to explain something. It really does push you into knowing it better.
But today is Friday (thank God), and I have notes…
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8 Comments | tags: Amazon Music, Amazon Prime, Hulu, internet, interweb, irrational numbers, Netflix, offended, punctuation | posted in Friday Notes, Music, Writing
I don’t know how it is with hobbies and interests for others, but mine — the ones that persist, anyway— are typically cyclic. I’ll be into something, reading, blogging, programming, trying to learn quantum mechanics, whatever, and then I’ll burn out or get temporarily tired of it and take a break.
Watching TV is definitely an interest that waxes and wanes. Through most of March, it was more or less on the wane. In April, though, it waxed, and one result of that is another TV Tuesday post.
Perhaps not surprisingly (given my tastes), the main entry today is a Japanese anime series, but there are a number of side dishes, including some movies that snuck in because I watched them on TV.
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3 Comments | tags: anime, Japanese anime, Netflix | posted in Movies, TV Tuesday
Over the last week or so I’ve been watching The Umbrella Academy (2019-2022; Netflix; three seasons; 10 episodes each). Speaking as someone who is beyond being over live-action superhero stories, I rather enjoyed it. Enough that I plan to check out (in both senses of the word) the same-named graphic novels the show is adapted from.
And that right there says even more about my enjoyment of the series. How many times have I written here that doing a live-action adaptation of comics or animated shows is a mistake that usually ends badly? (A lot is the answer.) And it’s a Netflix show to boot.
Yet, despite some small annoyances, I found it quite engaging.
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6 Comments | tags: adaptations, Netflix, superheroes | posted in TV Tuesday
One of the main posters for the Netflix adaptation of the Neil Gaiman graphic novel The Sandman seems to encapsulate and illustrate an approach by Hollywood that many, myself included, find problematic. This post continues a series of posts pondering the issue of actor swapping in film and TV roles.
I spent two posts (one and two) on The Sandman adaptation because of its examples of actor swapping in key roles. These stand out because they apply to especially well-defined characters. Similar, say, to the characters on Futurama.
I hadn’t intended a third post, but the poster caught my eye. It’s the one in the lede of the two posts (and this one). Its layout out intrigues me.
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6 Comments | tags: adaptations, comics, Neil Gaiman, Netflix, Sandman, science fiction TV | posted in Rant, TV
The last post expressed some key disappointments (and a few things I liked) about the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman (1989-1996), a widely respected, much loved, graphic novel series from writer Neil Gaiman (and numerous artists). Once I started writing that post, 2000 words came easy, but I never got to most of the notes I had.
I have three pages of said notes, so I figured I needed a follow-up post. I’m not bothering with any plot synopsis, so if you aren’t already familiar with the story and the adaptation, neither of these posts — especially this one — will make much sense.
Suffice to say, the show has its fans, but I’m not among them.
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4 Comments | tags: adaptations, comics, Neil Gaiman, Netflix, Sandman, science fiction TV | posted in Rant, TV
This past week I watched the eleven episodes of the first (and possibly only) season of the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman (2022), which is based on the famous Neil Gaiman comic series, The Sandman (1989-1996), considered by many to be one of the greatest graphic novels ever.
I think live-action adaptations of comics and animated shows are very hard to get right. And Netflix seems to have a bad history when it comes to adaptations, even of live shows (they’ve had a number of notable fails along those lines). On the other hand, Gaiman was attached to, and involved in, the production, which seemed hopeful.
But to say I was disappointed by the series is putting it mildly.
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11 Comments | tags: adaptations, comics, Neil Gaiman, Netflix, Sandman, science fiction TV | posted in Rant, TV
I’ve been awaiting the sophomore season of Netflix’s Russian Doll with both anticipation and dread. Anticipation because I thought season one was outstanding, one of the best shows of 2019. I only mentioned it briefly in a post back then (and gave it a solid Wow! rating). I meant to write a whole post about it but never did.
The dread came largely from how complete the story arc of season one was. It was hard to see more story there. Dread also came from how good it was — a very hard act to follow. Maybe best not to try?
Season two finally came out last month. My best reaction is something along the lines of “Huh?” but the phrase “muddled mess” keeps running through my mind.
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10 Comments | tags: animation, anime, Futurama, Hulu, Japanese anime, Netflix, Russian Doll (TV series) | posted in TV Tuesday
Logos con carne 