Well, I wanted to like this. I like Noel Fielding's whimsy, but I was worried it was possibly going to be like Our Flag Means Death and...
Well, it is... if you misunderstand what the heart of OFMD is and so rip out that queerness and replace it with Noel Fielding's whimsy...
Turns out that whimsy itself does not work well at the heart of a show - it needs something else to play off against and here... there isn't.
Worse, the bits of queer whimsy come off as homophobic - as the butt of the joke.
I did enjoy it, but…
There were too many misogynistic jokes in there which felt out of place and really diminished the “not the one” line from Zathras about Lochley with their earlier inclusion…
The animation style is not a favourite of mine and I really disliked the Shadows.
It was so short that nothing felt explored and B5ish… the series was a wonderful in-depth exploration, this was a few minutes in each timeline/reality without much more than was needed for the plot to happen…
JMS has suggested this could be part of a series of spin off movies (separate to the live action reboot I believe) and where he’s left it is an interesting proposition - Shadows not wakened, but with enough tantalising hints for them to go do so… fun 8-)
As you might expect, this is weird. Bits of it are very good.
As you might not expect, this is violent. In a way which is actually quite off-putting - especially the way it intersects with taking ideas from queer experiences and pushing them onto “being weird”. The jokes from that were not bad, but overall left me cold when they, um, didn’t really do much with it…
It’s described as queer, horror comedy… yes, it has queer characters but to me it was hard to say there was enough humour to elevate it to comedy and the horror elements only really kick in for the last two episodes (fairly standard mystery/thriller up ‘til that point, imo)
When the horror hits though, it hits…
With Season 2 - I was right there with the humour from the get go - maybe the humour will stand out more in Season 1 if I go back to it...
Rewatched this after a long gap and it goes just as hard as the first time. Baz Lurhmann gave a masterclass in Cinematic Magic and the whole thing is amazing fun from beginning to end. Almost every scene is “oh, wait, no, this is my favourite!”
This is pretty much the first “proper documentary” I remember watching (I was 16 when it came out). I was mesmerised. It is still good watching it 22 1/2 years later.
It’s a bit like a less dark version of Dark (German, Netflix, timeywimey drama). Some good humour some good themes around parents and children. Enjoyed, but Dark was better if you want something to sink your teeth into…
There are two shows in this... one - the Foundation side - is... bad... the Empire side (which I don't think is based on the Empire series) is mostly quite good/interesting...
The Foundation side though... absolutely awful adaptation of the books. The character of Salvor Hardin in the book has "violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" as a very firm ideal... he (in the books) solves the crises peacefully... Salvor in the films hears that, but races to the guns all the time. Also the resurrection in Episode 9 is ridiculous...
