Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

[Mantis]

For sure Arcane was a far better show for bringing in new fans. I knew pretty much nothing about LoL apart from recognising the Jinx character and I was hooked every step of the way with that show, it was absolutely beautifully written, animated and scored. Top class. But then it's origins are very different from Critical Role.

[Wrathbone]

The Book of Boba Fett

It's a weird state of affairs when a show about Boba Fett is best when Boba Fett takes no real part in it. I've really enjoyed the last two episodes, but that's because they're The Mandalorian season 2.5. Spoilers for the latest episode:

Spoiler

How is it that the CGI for Luke is extraordinary (a huge leap over Rogue One's efforts with Tarkin and Leia), yet the voice acting for him is inexplicably terrible and wooden? It's not that the voice doesn't resemble a young Mark Hamill, it's that the delivery barely registers as human. I won't say it spoiled the episode for me, but it was a frequent niggle. The scene with him and Ahsoka was nice, at least.

EDIT - Good Jebus, I've just checked and it's actually Mark Hamill voicing him. Digitally altered to sound younger, but him all the same. I'm astounded - I was sure it was someone doing a flimsy impersonation. I guess he's just phoned it in? His feelings on The Last Jedi are hardly a secret.

[Animalmother]

When is it set?

Spoiler

I haven't watched past episode 4 of the Mandalorian so was a bit shocked when Luke appeared. Very confused I must admit being.

Peacemaker
I love this show, it's an absolute hoot! Only 2 episodes left in the first season so might be worth waiting then just binge watch the whole thing if anyone is tempted.

[Wrathbone]

I think it’s 5 years after Return of the Jedi.

[Animalmother]

Ah right, that explains it

[Raid]

Book of Boba Fett episode 6 spoilers:

Spoiler

I agree on Hamill's voice acting. I wonder if it's just a problem with the de-aging pass they have to run his lines through - Hamill's voice is practically a growl these days, getting him to sound like himself from the best part of 40 years ago can't be easy. I reckon the technology can't deal with particularly emotive speech yet. I think we'll see if that's true next week.

I really wasn't expecting Cad Bane to show up. He was pretty weird looking in the animated series, but he's quite menacing in this, albeit bloody strange looking. I think it's the fact that his mouth is much higher (Bane's animated appearance has it practically in his chin) because there's a real human face underneath all of that. They've done an excellent job otherwise.

And fuck you, Luke. You rushed off to save your friends and abandoned your training to do it. It's a bit bloody rich making Grogu make that choice.

All in all it's been a fantastic couple of episodes, but there's only one left. A good chunk of this series so far has been a different show, and another chunk has been wasted on a pretty dull set of flashbacks that I really don't think added much. 7 episodes just wasn't enough for what they've tried to do. There's clearly room for a Scum and Villainy, criminal underworld series, but they've not paced this well at all. Part of me wonders whether they'd written it as an eight episode series, same as Mando, but it ended up being too expensive and they had to cut one.

[Wrathbone]

Probably not a lack of money so much as a lack of anything worth saying about Boba Fett. I’ll reserve full judgement for the final episode, but I’m not at all convinced by the direction they’ve taken the character. I don’t really understand the point of the series, as the few fans who wanted a Boba Fett series had their bounty hunting thrills fulfilled by the Mandalorian, and Fett has instead taken a hard left into a story that could have featured almost any random Star Wars underworld type. I don’t know what I’m meant to take away from it - that Fett is now a crime boss and had some frolics with the sand people? Couldn’t that have been covered in a two paragraph bio on a wiki?

Also, why the book of Boba Fett? What book? Who’s writing this book? Are books even a thing in Star Wars outside of the ancient Jedi texts that Luke had in a cave in TLJ (and had apparently never read)?

[Raid]

I'm spoiler tagging this for the people who are waiting for the series to be over before watching, but it's not massive spoiler material.

Spoiler

I don't agree with "lack of anything worth saying about Boba Fett" because they clearly have no interest in making the character consistent with his film appearance. They can make up whatever they like so long as it's interesting.

I really can't understand why they did The Mandalorian before they did their Boba Fett show, because they gave everything cool about Fett to Din Djarin, leaving nothing for Fett himself and forcing him into a role that made no sense. Din's also a more relatable character suitable for being a series lead. And then they made him the main character of two episodes of Fett's series?[/i] Fett should have been a recurring character in The Mandalorian. All of his backstory about escaping the Sarlacc Pit could have been done in a single flashback episode, and then he could have just turned up when Mando needed someone ruthless and deadly.

There's a way I can see this being redeemed; the Pykes conquer Tatooine, and Fett has to leave the planet. Then we get the opportunity to see him travel the galaxy gaining allies in an attempt to bring down one of the largest criminal organisations in the It Star Wars universe. It could easily feed into The Mandalorian's storyline, as the Pykes were partly responsible for a major regime change on Mandalore. If it stays on Tatooine, then I don't really see it staying around for long, particularly when the Pykes could just park a single cruiser in orbit and shell Fett's palace into dust.

[Wrathbone]

I don't agree with "lack of anything worth saying about Boba Fett" because they clearly have no interest in making the character consistent with his film appearance. They can make up whatever they like so long as it's interesting.

That’s the point - they could say whatever they want and they’ve so far chosen to say nothing about Boba Fett that was worth mentioning.

[Raid]

Right, sorry, thought you meant they'd said nothing about the character we got in the films, rather than just saying nothing at all. I dunno, they've said enough about the character I think, it's just that none of it was interesting or novel, or really made sense for the character that showed up in Empire. Oh he's a hard man with a sense of honour. Yawn. Where's the brutal bounty hunter who Darth Vader had to warn about being too deadly? Isn't that the character that people wanted? Maybe there was a ton of material in the books and comics that suggested there was more to him than that, but that's not something that Disney's ever cared about in the past.

[Snowy]

Reacher on Prime.

For years Lee Child books were one of my guilty pleasures, since my dad loaned me the first Reacher story back in the mists of time. Having a lead character who was basically a moral compass in terminator form, an absolute shitkicker who never flinches from the right thing to do and is not shy about creating a few bodies along the way.

Along come the films and they cast the scientology dwarf in the role of 6'5" man mountain Jack Reacher, and chose to run him through the weaker books in the series, well suffice to say they weren't very good for fans of the books.

Suddenly here is this series on Prime, with a properly huge protagonist and the series is based upon the first, and arguably best, book in the series. I have only watched the first episode, and it is a long time since I read the book, but so far they have not missed a beat, every detail has been correct to the written story.

A brief sojourn from The Expanse before I dive back into Season 3. Happy Snowy.

[Wrathbone]

Oh he's a hard man with a sense of honour. Yawn. Where's the brutal bounty hunter who Darth Vader had to warn about being too deadly? Isn't that the character that people wanted?

This. It was a mistake making him a protagonist, or even a sidekick, when there was plenty of potential for him as a villain. We only ever got to see him following Han in Empire, so it would have been good to see his full talents in action, perhaps hunting down Mando like a terminator for his armour after losing his own, or as a bounty from the Empire remnants. They could have played up how ruthless and tenacious he is and contrasted his indifference to the traditions of Mandalore with Din’s struggles to follow the Way. That would have been a story worth telling.

[Raid]

Yeah, that could have worked. Din Djarin hunting down Boba Fett (having been hired by the New Republic) could have been a season-long arc, and if they really wanted the two inter-connected shows, they could show that same chase from both sides.

[Animalmother]

It's Disney, if they did a series about Grievous he'd end up living with a band of Ewoks and get redemption through the medium of dance or some such shit.

[Rusty]

Reacher on Prime.

Loved about 6 out of 8 of the episodes. The last 2 just seemed to want to wrap everything up in a weird way.