I watched Shin Kamen Rider and what can I say? This is sooo boring... I'm not familiar with the story so I was expecting it would be a good introduction for new watchers... but I have the feeling this is the exact opposite.. Costume design was top though!
Yep. Kamen Rider Black Sun (TV Series) is still on Amazon. I thought it was quite a bit better. Of course it has more time to tell the story, but the characters are much more engaging.
Just an interesting side note: MXC is NOT available on Amazon Prime Canada. It can be found on something called Dailymotion. Spoiler: Outside-US / Regional RANT When it comes to Amazon Prime Canada, that's not even the worst part of being outside of the US: frequently, there are episodes of a some series that are just "Not currently available". No explanation why, when or if it will become available. My understanding is this has to do with some bit of the episode being copyrightable that makes it non-distributable in Canada or some such nonsense. I understand some of this is solvable with VPNs, but why bother teasing me with the not available shit. Although, APC does do that as well, that is in a given season, one or more episodes are not listed at all. Not sure, but I bet they do this in other locals as well.
Oppenheimer documentary on Criterion: The Day After Trinity. It's from 1981, so many then living Manhattan Project participants are interviewed. Well worth the watch, especially in light of the current movie about him perhaps. Free to watch for now, not sure how long.
'Scavengers Reign'. Anyone else watching? I've seen three episodes and i love it so far, its proper grown-up science fiction. I can highly recommend it. It makes me think of artwork by Moebius or Studio Ghibli, but its still its own thing. 'A lush, magnificent, hypnotic story of human survival in a place that feels, in a way that sci-fi planets only occasionally manage, truly otherworldly.' - James Poniewozik of The New York Times 'Equal parts beautiful and brutal, and it might be the most original piece of science fiction of the year.' - Andrew Webster of The Verge
Wham documentary on Netflix is great- well-done, fascinating look not just at a pop culture phenom but at a lifelong friendship and how it changed over the course of their rise. I would recommend whether or not you liked them/their music or not. Wham hit when I was in middle school, so I very much did not like them then, as I was firmly ensconced in my punk/skate scene. Over the years, I have definitely come to appreciate them for what they were, and to recognize the great talents of George Michael. As the doc points out, the world at large found it hard to give someone so ridiculously good looking, fronting such an overtly pop/teenybopper outfit, any credit at all for songwriting and production; but he definitely had considerable vision and skills in those departments.
Your comment on middle school resonates. There was a lot of music I didn’t listen to in my youth ‘because it wasn’t cool’, only to revisit it in later years and not only come to appreciate it but also really enjoy it. Wham is still one that whilst there are a few great pop songs, I wouldn’t chose to listen to a whole album; however, some of George Michael’s solo album work is excellent. Pretty sure they may have already been mentioned but if not: Gen V (Amazon) and The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix) worth a watch. Didn’t enjoy the second phase (Bly Manor) but Usher was a superb riff on Poe.
Very cautiously optimistic. The animated show was so good, I don't think this was necessary, but I'll check it out anyway. really excited to see Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh. He was awesome in Kim's convenience and he's a fellow toy collector (mostly Hot Toys I believe).
To speak about the social aspect at play back then a bit more: I think anyone here who was a punk and/or skater growing up will agree that those scenes attracted a lot of really smart people... and an almost equal measure of complete knuckleheads. It was the latter group which really constantly reinforced a gross, misogynistic, anti-gay "masculinity" within the tribe, that I never liked or felt comfortable with but went along with when I was that age. Much more than the music, Wham was verboten for the (then-sub rosa but correctly perceived) queerness of GM. And to speak a bit more about just how impressed this doc left me about GM's vision for the music, Spoiler it is nothing short of AMAZING that a 20 or 21-year old kid from Britain, his life already turning upside down with the pressures and responsibilities of rising fame, is flown to the states to make a song at Muscle Shoals with Jerry Wexler and an ace session team... is rightfully wowed by/reverent of the people and the place... but has the instinct and wherewithal, upon hearing the finished product, to immediately and correctly say, "Nope. That's not it." And then rework and re-record the whole thing! That's awesome to me. Much respect.
Thread drift but an interesting comment. Based on you're post above about middle school, I don't believe we are miles apart in terms on what music was in the charts during high school. When Wham was on the scene, my friends were punks, I walked the line between skater and punk; however, we attended a school which was filled with kids who listened to heavy metal or light rock. If you deviated from that tribe: the way they dressed, the hair style, the slang they used and, of course, the music they listened to, the most common insult was to call you a "f*g". Shoving you into lockers, knocking your books out of your hand, sucker punching you in the back, threatening you with a kicking after school, the list goes on... these were kids in grade 12, whilst most of my core group of friends, and myself, were grade 8. There were a couple of kids in grade 10 who fit into our mould and they got it just as bad but at least were in a slightly better position to fight back due to their being less of a size/strength differential. Thankfully I changed schools halfway through grade 9 but that year and a half was horrendous and certainly made me dislike bullying of any form. What I would say is that the skate / punk crowd I knew were very tolerant. There was no "gross, misogynistic, anti-gay "masculinity" expressed and perhaps this stemmed from the abuse we experienced? I also knew a much wider skater circle and again, I don't recall anyone being overtly anti-gay, sexist or misogynistic. The restricted music seemed to stem from 'it was either on brand' or it wasn't. The blinkers seemed fixated on whether it was cool (something the tribe would listen to) or wasn't. Why some bands got a pass when they moved towards a more pop sound (The Clash with Combat Rock) is another interesting point (John Lydon with PIL being another). However, the general rule of thumb seemed to be, anything played on the radio was pretty much deemed to be mainstream and square; thus chart music was always going to be a non-starter. Thanks for the recommendation and the trip down memory lane.
Oh, that treatment absolutely happened to us too, all the time, at the hands of bullies who liked to label us freaks and f*gs... but it did nothing to influence our skate tribe away from similar behavior. The bullied would go on to do their own bit of bullying, in turn. The word "f*g" and all permutations of it were constantly in use to denigrate things and people that were "suspect" in terms of their masculinity, or just as a way to "other" people, like kids who came from other towns to skate ours. (I did not engage in such bullying, I'm only slightly proud to say... because I never (or hardly ever) called out my "friends" on it, either... just kind of frowned or ignored. #youngdoofus) Maybe my scene (in north Jersey) was particularly predisposed to this type of behavior as we were very beholden to/tried to emulate the hard, territorial, hypermasculine attitudes of the skate scene in nearby NYC at the time (this was the era of SHUT, et al)... but that is how it was. And yes, this too applied for us, naturally:
Just realised my teen self would admonish me for even using the word "square" - I guess I am as uncool as I always feared I was!
Thanks for the heads up on Akuma-kun. Didn't think they'd bring that one back, but the power of Shigeru is strong. There was a torrent years ago of the first ep of the late 80's anime, which was fan subbed. It was really good, but I never saw any other translations. Same for the manga, never been officially translated to English. It's nice to see the same director is doing the new anime ...
I am three episodes from the end of Scavengers' Reign. I really wanted to fall in love with this show but there are a few things that are keeping it in "the friend zone." The main criticism I have is that most of the characters feel very flat, and it's a combination of the writing and the acting. They don't always seem to react appropriately to what's going on around them. For example, there's that scene where Ursula witnesses that luminous "pollination" in that thicket, and they spend so much time on it, intimating to us that this was a profound experience that granted some sort of insight. And, nothing. No lasting effects on Ursula, no connection with anything else they see later on, no references to it afterwards. Then there are the scavengers, who seem to be written as Belter-type folks from The Expanse, rugged individualists who are able to adapt to any situation. But they are extremely incautious on the planet and when the worst happens, they just act like it was nothing. I think the writers were trying to portray these people as rough and tumble but nothing about it feels genuine. Along with this, I don't think they made the right choice to use screen actors instead of experienced voice actors for an animated show. I know, I know, Max probably never would have paid for this show unless there were people like Alia Shawkat involved, but I feel like they should have gone with what usually works. Sunita Mani has been awesome in everything I've ever seen her in, but she was on sets reacting against real actors and situations. I don't think they got the same level of performance from her in a recording booth watching animatics. And when Azi talks to Levi about Fiona, there's no sense of loss or regret in the spoken dialogue. It's delivered as coldly as when Azi is ignoring Fiona on the Demeter. There are other things that nag me a bit, like how that "pollinator" was so primate-like, and how the animals seem to have red iron-based blood like us, and are biologically compatible on a fundamental level with humans. None of these things would be in a serious science fiction story, but I guess it's more about the visuals than the plausibility. This post is 90% complaints but I genuinely like it. I just wished that it didn't feel so empty at times. It's beautifully animated, it is heavily infused with the spirits of Moebius and Miyazaki, and I appreciate that Max took a chance on it, but I'm hoping that this show feels more lively to me when I get to the finale.
Leave the World Behind on Netflix is pretty lousy. It feels like an end of the world movie made by people who have never seen one.
Scaevengers Reign. Probably the most captivating TV I've seen this year. Rebel Moon. Slow mo seeds?!?!? Noooo it's so bad. At least Yellow Jacket dies right away.
I finally finished Scavengers Reign, I think the character work improved a bit by the end but I wish they would have committed to resolving some of the mysteries of the first season instead of spending time on groundwork for a second one.
I keep neglecting finishing ‘Scavengers Moon’ because I really wanted to focus on seeing everything, and we keep having other Holliday commitments (annual ext. Hobbit/LotR trilogies rewatch, for one). I was liking it so far, even if I felt it was a bit stream-of-conscience with the plot/logic. It was beautiful. We watched the Doctor Who specials. ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ was peak!!! For some dumb reason, I gave ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ a shot. Why are characters written to be such brats to each other in modern stuff? I understand you need conflict for a dramatic story. They meet, there is tension, they grow, etc. But no progress near the end of the season? Just makes their personalities feel insufferable. Also just an endless loop of Monarch gets them, they let them go, repeat. Sorta knew there wouldn’t be many monsters (ironically), but I wish they at least TALKED about monsters more. It feels like something that only would have made sense after Godzilla 2014 to hype up KotM. So a show with a plot a decade too late? Legendary Monsterverse remains pointless.
Yeah, I was enjoying Monarch for the first couple of episodes but it wore out its welcome. Kurt Russell is practically looking straight into the camera and saying "I can't tell you what this is all about but you will understand when you follow me to our destination in the next episode." Also, for a show called Monarch, we haven't learned much about Monarch.
1000% It could have spent a few episodes behaving like that, but it really needed to get past all that young adult angst and get on with SOMETHING. Insane how repetitive each episode has felt.
Prime Video with ads is coming in February. Unless you pay for the ad-free version. What's not clear is how this works on the add-on channels, like Paramount+. The weird thing is that some channels, like Citytv+ in Canada, are already showing commercials even though it's 5$/mo.
Supposedly Disney is hitting with price increases as well. Netflix just went up... I'm going back to sailing the seas. Wife is keeping PBS, because that's worth supporting. The rest of em can fly a kite.
