Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you WATCHING?

I was enjoying "Last Resort", but haven't been able to get myself into the mood to watch the last couple of episodes.

The one episode we tried to watch of Archer started with the same juvenile "adult" jokes in other of the lesser adult swim stuff and my wife turned it off (it was the one where his mother gets caught covering herself in whipped cream in front of a video screen). Maybe it was just a bad one to start with?

Archer is sophomoric in its humor, but it does it better than most other shows.

I love it and laugh out loud at something every episode I have seen.

THIS. AHS:A is absolutely horrific this season!! What happened to Shelly last episode was HORRIFYING!

The alien angle is what is cunfuzzling me the most. Everything else ties up so well together, I am not sure how they are going to fit the alien angle in... or if the alien angle is really even needed (personally I don't think it is, but I am keeping an open mind about it).

The Sister Mary possession has me on the edge of my seat!

SEASON ONE SPOILER STATEMENT FOLLOWS HERE!!!

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I do hope they avoid another "nobody gets out alive" ending, even though Season 1's bizarre and feel-good twist on that ending was genius.

We are currently catching up on the Newsroom, and I must say it is EXCELLENT. Wow, Sorkin really got back into form after the West Wing sort of petered out there. I think a 10 episode season may really be a great format for him to stay on task and not dilute the progress.

I saw one episode of the Newsroom, it was excellent, I have heard that some episodes are really good and some are too contrived/preachy.

I am muddling through Season 7 of the West Wing, apparently Sorkin left after season 4. You can really tell .... the show is all over the place. with all these weird new characters ... the different camps running for president ... its not the same type of show, much less the same quality.

and what the frack happened to Sam?

I've started watching episodes of Spider-Man, aka Spider-Man 1981, aka the old Spider-Man cartoon that has no amazing friends, on YouTube. I haven't seen these since about 1987 or 1988. I saw one of the six Spidey vs. Dr. Doom episodes, which wasn't very good. But then I saw "Under the Wizard's Spell," written by my heroine Christy Marx and guest starring Medusa, and that was very good indeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnRcDfBw_FM

I saw a visually stunning film in the theater over the weekend - Ang Lee's "Life of Pi".

It's basically a parable about the nature of belief and god but - taken on a strictly literal level - it's also movie about a young boy lost at sea for 8 months, sharing a life boat for various amounts of time - until nature takes its course - with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a freaking Bengal tiger!

It was an incredibly engaging movie, if a little pat in it's overall message, but it truly had some of the most amazing CGI I think I've ever seen. The animals in the movie were so realistically rendered that I had to keep reminding myself that they were just digital creations.

A warning though, if you happen to see a preview and think its a heartwarming tale or something, this movie has some pretty brutal scenes and is probably not the best for younger kids.

WESTERN ANIMATION:

Legion of Super-Heroes
Late to the party.

Kim Possible
Later to the party. Since my earliest Internet days, I couldn't have avoided exposure to its fandom if I tried.
It's exactly what I expected. Glorious ridiculousness. Some plots do get tired fast, and the "calling an old friend for a ride" thing is never amusing.
After growing used to anime, several things struck me about Western animation, though Kim Possible may be a pretty extreme example. Super-simplified backgrounds. Hectic pacing. Fluid movement. The anime martial arts I've seen look choppy in comparison, though I'm not sure that's a bad thing. One of KP's outstanding moments: the zero-G fight. The animators don't use this as an excuse to up the wire-fu quotient. Her moves look talented yet awkward in this environment.
The "robot fighting underground" which looks like Robot Wars when the overall weirdness level leads you to expect Super Robot Wars. And then a boxy wheeled machine transforms into a humanoid mech.
Comb fights. "I added another L." Lanyards. "I gave him a few pamphlets." Jack Hench. "The student has surpassed the master."
I'll say it: This show was the 2000s' answer to The Tick.
I find it weird if this ends up on a list of "girls' action cartoons". She's an Action Girl, but it feels like one of those shows aimed at boys and everyone else.

ANIME:

Heartcatch Precure
Probably back in 2010, with inadequate information, I decided to be a Pretty Cure completist. I got the impression the metaseries was better than it was. I notice now that I decided this when apparent fan-favorite Heartcatch was the newest series. Anyway, I skipped Fresh to get to it, and this'll probably be my last. (One review I saw of Suite killed any chances of my watching it. That show has the attitude of a really annoying art teacher I had.)
I really don't like the Doremi style. I can't understand reviews that say this has better animation but weaker characterization than the early series. The backgrounds look cheaper than anything I've seen since Doki Doki School Hours.
Aside from that, this is a pretty good show. It does break some conventions, but not enough or often enough. (It does at least answer a standing question I had: if you interrupt an attack sequence, does what you've done carry over to your next use? Answer: Yes.)

Michiko and Hatchin
I heard this described as a buddy series with an odd relationship. What I heard about it wasn't accurate - in a good way. The team of a sexy escaped convict and the abused 10-year-old girl she saves doesn't feel contrived. Interesting rendering of the Brazilian setting, but it would be better if it could escape the lingering anime conventions.

Space Brothers (Uchuu Kyoudai)
The first time I've ever started an anime while it's still airing. A decent slice-of-life-ish show, but the starting situation (older brother makes a career change and goes back to the shared childhood dream the younger brother already followed: becoming an astronaut) doesn't feel real enough.

TOKUSATSU:

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger
I've dipped into Japanese live-action, even tokusatsu, before, but this is my first entry into the best-known metaseries. My reason for choosing this one? The monsters looked better, though part of that is context. They're mythical creatures, not aliens or the weird golems I've grown too used to.
Anyway, it's about what I expected. It does start off really quickly, though. I guess they know the audience is used to this by now.

The Quick and the Undead ... so far I wouldn't recommend it.

I admit to watching it with one hand permanently over my eyes, much as I did when South Park first came down the plank.

I don't know exactly why it works better for me than, say, Family Guy and many of the AS shows. I think it has to do with the pacing. Or perhaps that it feeds my own deep-seated suspicions regarding the mindset most "super-spies" would have if they existed in real life.

I watched Ted ... it wasn't as funny as the trailer ... and most of the jokes were just nasty not really funny.

Archer is crass. I like Archer because it is over the top ... like its making funny of itself ... or spy genres rather than being straight jokes.

Its more of a laugh at show for me. Some episodes are way more funny than others ... and others are just so so.

I don't find South Park or Family Guy interesting ... or the Simpsons ... or pretty much anything that is too entrenched in pop culture.

just too hard to keep up with.

I DID see one episode of South Park ... it was the Brittney episode where she shoots off her own head and then everyone's like "oh Brittney I love your new look!" and she records an album ... with no mouth ... and everyone loves it! haha

btw I was listening to Brittney recently, my music was on shuffle, and she was talking about shaving her <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text"> ass </span></span> in one song!

ha! did she even realize she said that ... or does she just mindlessly read what they put in front of her? or is she really crude and funny?

I saw a movie over the holiday that I previously didn't know existed and - if I had - never would have thought that I'd not only enjoy it, but also still be thinking about it three days later... and slowly coming to the opinion that I'd seen a work of art.

Trust me, no one is more surprised than I that I dug this so much - but I'm talking about movie from 1968 called, "Head," starring... The Monkees.


First off, although I'd seen The Monkees TV show before, I've never liked it. I don't enjoy the sort of dumbed-down slapstick and random jump cut thing that typified the show.

That being said, though... "Head," - made after the cancellation of the show, and during a drastic wane in the Monkees popularity - was a pop art deconstruction of the prefabricated nature of the band, from the same production team that would go on to make "Easy Rider," and "Five Easy Pieces." In addition, it's also a meta-fictional reflection on the nature of reality and free will.


Yes... really.


It's very difficult to describe the movie in terms of plot... there actually isn't much of one, apart from an overarching theme of the four band members attempting to break free of the various levels of fictional constructs in which they exist. Instead, it plays out in a series of vignettes, connected in a stream of consciousness fashion that follow a sort of dream logic.

Throughout these vignettes, the band members are continually confronted with the artificial nature - not only of the world in which they exist (breaking out of staged scenes only to find that the "behind the scenes" reality is staged as well) - but also of their selves (having their actions cut short to be informed that they are not in line with the archetypes that they are supposed to be filling; being torn apart as their very bodies are revealed to be mannequins).

The ultimate journey toward trying to assert free will involves them realizing the only way out of this illusionary world is by death, so, in the final scene (which connects to the first scene in a "Finnegan's Wake" type loop) they attempt to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge... only to find even these actions are nothing more than part of a pre-scripted world.


I'll know that "meta-fiction" is not everyone's cup of tea... but when combined the "psychedelic" sheen of the era in which it was made, as well as some of the most bizarre cameos to ever be in a single movie - Frank Zappa, Annette Funicello, Jack Nicholson, and Sonny Liston, as well as others - it all just really clicked for me.


To sum up my feelings on it, I'd say it was like "A Hard Day's Night" as imagined by Grant Morrison.


If that sounds like something you'd like... check out "Head".

Watched the entire season of VEEP over the holidays. Really funny stuff.

Oddly enough, I saw a PBS documentary on The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" on New Year's Eve. "Head" was essentially The Monkees' "MMT"--and, like the latter, was panned by critics and left fans scratching their heads.

And, like "Head," MMT is now regarded as an artistic masterpiece that influenced subsequent filmmakers (including Martin Scorsese, who was interviewed in the documentary).

If you want to get even more crazy, you should do a little searching around about what some conspiracy-theorists think of "Head" and how it connects to CIA brain-washing / the CIA control of the counter-culture (particularly in Laurel Canyon where the Monkees, Zappa, etc all lived) and how it was a "clue" to the true nature of who controls the world. Trippy stuff indeed.

Mike Nesmith controls the world? Why are we not all wearing wool caps?

Supposedly it is spun off of the British show, "In the thick of it".

which is incredibly funny. It is on hulu.

Oddly enough, I've never actually seen Head, though I will say that I think the Monkees tv show is actually a lot more meta-fictional than is perhaps initially apparent.

I watched the full "Head" movie on YouTube the other day, and I agree with everything Ex said.

What struck me was that these were four young men who, through luck, perseverance, and talent, had achieved what most people want to become at one point or another: they were famous, and could make any sort of movie they wanted to make. (They include a tank, cowboys and Indians, and every conceivable film "wish" they could have wanted), yet they tried to make a meaningful statement about being caught up in the artificial construct of fame.

That the Monkees were also caught up in the '60s ethos is equally apparent. They were four actors (two actors and two musicians, really) who were hired to pretend to be a rock a band and, then, because they were young and naive and believed in something, they became an actual rock band. And then they tried to deconstruct the very mythology upon which they were based.

But, unlike The Beatles (and, to a lesser extent, The Beach Boys), The Monkees never did manage the transition from being fabricated celebrities to being "artists" who transcended their genre and pushed its boundaries. In retrospect, there are probably many reasons for that (The Monkees mostly relied on outside songwriters, the members themselves fell apart into individual pursuits and vices, they couldn't control media forces which seemed allied against them). Yet "Head" shows they had tapped into the zeitgeist of the times and were willing to ride that wave wherever it crested.

American Horror Story: Asylum continues on with all the threads coming together. For such an intense season it was a surprise to see the upbeat musical number plopped in, but it fit and it was a lot of fun. The Thredson/Kit/Lana plot is stretching it a little bit for me I think, but they can certainly get it back on track quickly enough if the rest of the plots are any indication. i find it fascinating that every week you don't know who to root for. Sister Jude started the season as the main "villain" and by the mid-way point you were rooting for her to take control back, and now she's another victim to be pitied. Same with Arden and the Monsignor. All the role reversals and subverted expectations are a real gas.

Wowee Wow did American Horror Story ever deliver this season. Easily tops last season. It was solid every single episode and scary, moving, creepy and pointed all around. Just great.

Maybe I ought to give that another try. I had the first season of AHS from the library, made it about five minutes after the annoying neighbor lady (Lange) showed up and said "nope."