EnochLight wrote: ↑20 Oct 2017
Also, they use a lot of cast members from an old series
And an ex-Doctor. Indeed,
The ex-Doctor. The definite article, you could say!
EnochLight wrote: ↑20 Oct 2017
on HBO called "Rome" which was fantastic (and one of the reasons why the world got Game of Thrones, Vikings, and other high production "period piece" TV shows).
The reason we got GoT was probably
because HBO axed "Rome"
. In current world, where
Games is a behemoth and Netflix and Amazon are established producers, Rome, Deadwood and Carnivale would probably have survived to at least one more season. HBO are pretty damn ruthless killing briliant with expensive shows - arguably better than GoT. Few expected GoT to survive beyond s2 because of HBO's history. I did recently read that a Deadwood HBO movie is looking increasingly likely, though.
I'm a bit on the fence about
Last Jedi atm. I'm looking forward to it, and I'll give it chance, but I wasn't as excited by the trailer as I was when the TFA one appeared, but that may just be old age kicking in. It looks a tad too obviously bait-n-switch, which means it's probably a double-bluff of a bait-n-switch and so it can be taken literally and Rey is really Palpatine's great-neice. Or something.
I rather enjoyed TFA, though, I know plenty didn't, despite the obvious remixing of the original, but at the same time, I hope TLJ is not as egregiously box-ticky as TFA was. It needs to plot a unique path. The loss of Carrie of course may have a significant impact if they've opted to retool her arc in this movie, rather than defer it to the next one and merely have General Leia quietly managing the New Republic off-screen. I'd be surprised if Leia is killed off in either XIII or IX, on or off-screen, but if written effectively, any possible option for her character could be the right one, so we'll just see what happens there.
Rebels, though!
Aside from one aspect (which the s4 opening two parter demonstrated in such spades that at one point I started shouting at the screen), and accepting the target audience is skewed young, I've been quietly impressed with
Rebels, as I was with
Clone Wars (once that got past a fairly rubbish first season).
Clone Wars, while often repetitive with its fight scenes, at other times revealed the best Star Wars produced since the Jedi Knight games and the OT come seasons 3-6. Hell, I even liked the utterly bizarre but really fun R2D2 espionage arc with General Gascon. Fuck, even super team of Mace Windu and Jar-Jar near the show's death was entertaining. That's how good Dave Filoni is awesome.
Ahsoka's arc especially, going from one the most aggravatingly annoying characters in the entire 2,500 years of written fiction in season 1 (fourth only to Prequel Movie Anakin, Binks and both Fetts (yes, every other character in the entirety of human fiction is better than that sorry group of WTF)), to arguably the best character in the entirety of Star Wars by the time of her departure.
In terms of female characters specifically, I think Ahsoka is often a better character than Leia, and vastly better written than Jyn*. It was bloody great to see her back in
Rebels, and up against Vader to boot. Overall,
Rebels has been a little shakey, but it's been mostly solid, and often brilliant (the aforementioned battle with Vader, or the long awaited Obi-Wan vs Maul rematch, which was dramatically improved by totally undermining expectations of how it would play out
) (And that one dodgy aspect? The inability of any character, good or bad, to hit another character with a blaster, ever. You'd think occasionally someone would get a lucky shot off, even at point blank range?
It seems to have occured to no character to point their blasters in, you know, the actual direction of their enemy. I know, it's a kids show, but modern kids' drama is like
Bambi never happened.
This week's
Rebels would have been dramatically improved had the ending of Part 1 had been followed through in Part 2 instead of being erased. That was a rare but total misstep for the show IMO.)
It's a shame that Ahsoka is probably limited to the Clone War/Rebels era: I'm definitely one of those people who would let out a loud squee, in public, if she appeared in a movie... There'd be a little bit of actual leakage if Ashley Eckstein played her.
* I loathe that "Mary Sue" bullshit I saw in some forums like "wah female women cant be taht good!1". That said, the writers have a big part to play, and it does make a big difference. There is a significant gulf between Leia, Ahsoka and Rey, ... and Jyn. The former group have arcs, especially Ahsoka's: their skills develop, the characters grow. While both Leia at the start of ANH, and Rey at the start of TFA are already smart, resourceful characters—regardless of any latent, but clearly rough, force-sensitivity we see later—to me it's clearly established in those early scenes that their skills were developed and honed off-screen over a period of years before we first see them (while by comparison Luke's skills are discovered and then honed on and off-screen during the course of the OT); Leia because she's a well-educated princess and diplomat; Rey because ... we're still not entirely sure, but it's clear she's had years of off-screen development, partly due to her isolation, so I bought into that aspect of her abilities without question, because that resourcefulness and willingness to learn and adapt was demonstrated in an efficient, but effective manner. Whereas for me, Jyn feels lazily underwritten: conveniently precocious for make benefit of glorious plot, something something Saw Gerrara something. This is particularly evident in the scene that she addresses the Rebel council like she's suddenly Jeremy Corbyn. That leadership quality kinda came out of nowhere.
Share and download patches!
Join ReasonTalk on Slack!