TV The Television Show Thread

[zelllogan]

Not a post for Jammin but here I go .

I tried Defiance again with episodes 2,3,4. I found the pilot "mehhhh" , now I find this TV serie just appaling.

Episode 2 is really irritating: Humans are showing a complete "no-respect" towards a non-human culture & even worse, the show is actually saying "yeah, the human are right anyway". If they didn't do anything from start to finish, they would have avoided a lot of problems. The mayor is supposed to be the mayor of every races present in defiance & she take a stand against the whole culture of maybe the most influencial race ? We have to remind the setting here: all of them are survivors of a very big war. It's not the moment to go sentimental and save a guy against his will when there is a risk to alienate a whole culture. They are facing extinction and they risk it all for a guy who doesn't want to be saved & who represent nothing. A whole episode for this. Irritating.

Episode 3: Honestly, I was cooking during the episode. So, I didn't pay that much attention

Episode 4: The mayor being clueless, the hero playing the badass, no surprise ... And then the mayor trying to explain the badass he was wrong & only manage to show her shortcomings.
Following this, we have the little chat between that indian dude & his son with his worker on the side. After the exchange, the indian is threatening his worker because the poor worker simply heard that relations are not good in the indian family. That's supposed to be cool ? I'm supposed to care for those characters ? And I stopped watching at this point.

I'm not going to try again that TV serie. I really wanted to like it though & that's why I tried to watch it even if I already didn't like the pilot.
All my bad impressions from the pilot are reinforced (very poor characters, stereotypes, ...) & the show even managed to add a new one: the music. Who the hell thought that butchering "come as you are" from Nirvana was a good idea ? Classic music for Jogging ? French Music for those two "white trashes" in an american car ? Bad choices all over the place.

Given the budget & the expectations, appaling.

 

[Jammin]

Not a post for Jammin but here I go .

I tried Defiance again with episodes 2,3,4. I found the pilot "mehhhh" , now I find this TV serie just appaling.

Episode 2 is really irritating: Humans are showing a complete "no-respect" towards a non-human culture & even worse, the show is actually saying "yeah, the human are right anyway". If they didn't do anything from start to finish, they would have avoided a lot of problems. The mayor is supposed to be the mayor of every races present in defiance & she take a stand against the whole culture of maybe the most influencial race ? We have to remind the setting here: all of them are survivors of a very big war. It's not the moment to go sentimental and save a guy against his will when there is a risk to alienate a whole culture. They are facing extinction and they risk it all for a guy who doesn't want to be saved & who represent nothing. A whole episode for this. Irritating.

Episode 3: Honestly, I was cooking during the episode. So, I didn't pay that much attention

Episode 4: The mayor being clueless, the hero playing the badass, no surprise ... And then the mayor trying to explain the badass he was wrong & only manage to show her shortcomings.
Following this, we have the little chat between that indian dude & his son with his worker on the side. After the exchange, the indian is threatening his worker because the poor worker simply heard that relations are not good in the indian family. That's supposed to be cool ? I'm supposed to care for those characters ? And I stopped watching at this point.

I'm not going to try again that TV serie. I really wanted to like it though & that's why I tried to watch it even if I already didn't like the pilot.
All my bad impressions from the pilot are reinforced (very poor characters, stereotypes, ...) & the show even managed to add a new one: the music. Who the hell thought that butchering "come as you are" from Nirvana was a good idea ? Classic music for Jogging ? French Music for those two "white trashes" in an american car ? Bad choices all over the place.

Given the budget & the expectations, appaling.

To each there own. I'm still enjoying it. There is plenty that can be said about the show as negatives so far, that I won't dispute.

I do not think that the plot is appalling, however. What it was doing with the Castithan cultural conflict is a classic western and sci-fi theme. A culture sometimes brings with it something that another culture views as immoral. It was a question of Castithan culture versus town law(or in this case the morals of the sheriff). I don't find this conflict appalling at all. A little unimaginative maybe but hardly appalling.

Which is not to say there aren't things I would like to see fixed. Because quite a few of those things come to mind. Such as....

1) Needs more character development and less self contained story lines.

In other words I think Defiance really needs focus on familiarizing the audience with who these people are as indivuduals, what motivates them, etc more than it has been. The last episode was a little better in this respect it provided us with details on the mayor and the madam's back stories. But all the other episodes felt like the story was trying to run before it could walk.

2) Less sex/nudity.

Look, I like sexual content as much as the next guy (boobies yay!) but there is a place for it. And every episode is not THAT place. I'd like to see them turn that down a few notches.

3) The soundtrack

I actually agree with you to some degree on this front zelllogan. Though I don't they butchered the Nirvana song ("Come as you are" is not a very good song to begin with IMO). But I think a mix of classic and folk music would fit the series much better. Like the song episode 5 ended with.

4) More humor

Sci-Fi shows should never take themselves seriously all the time. I think Defiance would be well served by switching up the humor to drama ratio quite a bit. At the very least the show needs an established comic relief character.

5) More shooting of people and... things

I think if Defiance is really going to succeed as a sci-fi western. It's going to have to be less emotional and cerebral about it's problem solving. In westerns that's not how such things get resolved. They get resolved with people shooting each other. While this may be morally wrong, it's entertaining as hell and I'd like to see Defiance embrace that more.

6) Oh yeah and NEVER do the Iratian vision quest thing again!

Look, I know the Iratains are none too subtly the native americans of the Defiance aliens but spirit quest scene featuring a sweatlodge full of oiled up, bare chested, dudes chanting gibberish just plain sucked. I'm hope that if there's more of that they offscreen much much more of it. It reminded me a little of the awkwardly long Klingon matting scenes in star trek the next generation.

------------------------------------

But whether or not you like it, it seems like a fair number of people like myself are enjoying it. The ratings have been quite strong and the game is performing well too. The show has even gotten an early renewal for a second season.

So while I think there are a ton of ways both the show and the game can improve, it seems like both will get the chance to do just that. And as a viewer I'll probably be around to see if it does.

 

[zelllogan]

the setting is not bad. The white aliens and their culture is interesting. You re right about that. But I m still surprised that the show is doing well. Critics are mixed. It s the kind of show that can gain a cult status :d.

Appaling is bit too much but it s what i feel given my expectations.

 

[Jammin]

the setting is not bad. The white aliens and their culture is interesting. You re right about that. But I m still surprised that the show is doing well. Critics are mixed. It s the kind of show that can gain a cult status :d.

Appaling is bit too much but it s what i feel given my expectations.

I came with expectations pretty low, I think. A "Firefly" quality show Defiance most certainly isn't. But I think there is a lot of room for growth. Could it ever be "that show" I kinda doubt it, but it's good enough for me to watch until something better comes along.

While I know a lot is made of the 100 mil development budget but that was actually for both the game and a 13 episode order of the TV show. There hasn't been much info on what the expense ratio of game to show really is but I'd wager it leans very much toward the game. Given what I've seen I'd be pretty surprised if the actual production cost of defiance exceeded 3 mil per episode (making the total cost 39 mil for the season, with maybe a bit extra for the pilot) . To put that in perspective Warehouse 13 supposedly costs around 2 mil an episode (26 mil per season) pulls a little over half the ratings and is considered a "hit" by Sci-Fi standards.

And the plot hasn't been all bad IMO, though certainly not great. I am starting to enjoy the evil Castithan family. Mia Kirshner is also becoming more endearing as the hooker with a heart of gold. Nolan, his foster daughter (when there's no Irathain weirdness going on), and the deputy (who has the best dialogue in the show by far) all seem like winners.

The weak parts are the human mine owner (who seems to be about half bad guy anyway) and his boring semi-stupid daughter. The mayor is also a bit of a weak point mainly due to how she jumps between headstrong and insecure all the time.

 

[raDar]

Is this news? At least it is for me. ABC officially announced they'll be doing a series about the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. entitled Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Clark Gregg seems to be the lead with his role as Agent Phil Coulson from the movies.

source: http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/176845-abc-officially-picks-up-marvels-agents-of-shield

 

[xi0]

It better be really well-written...because if there are no superpowers, not sure I care.

 

[zelllogan]

It better be really well-written...because if there are no superpowers, not sure I care.

Coulson + a bunch of teenagers, not sure that we are the target for this show. It seems to concern a much younger audience.

 

[xi0]

Coulson + a bunch of teenagers, not sure that we are the target for this show. It seems to concern a much younger audience.

It's a primetime drama based around the SHIELD and maybe the Marvel universe, I don't see how it's any different from the movie demographics.

 

[raDar]

I don't know but I think it would be fun, hope so. It's being produced by Joss Whedon (not sure if he's gonna be writing some episodes too) so it's worth checking out at least.

 

[zelllogan]

It's a primetime drama based around the SHIELD and maybe the Marvel universe, I don't see how it's any different from the movie demographics.

There are older characters as primary heroes in the movies. Hugh Jackman, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson & Edward Norton are not teenagers. But that picture with coulson and the others. I just see coulson in a "daddy" role with young "supposed cool" characters (the 3 on the left). Of course, it could be more centered on the two characters on the right (Ming Na & the other one) but I doubt it.

 

[xi0]

There are older characters as primary heroes in the movies. Hugh Jackman, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson & Edward Norton are not teenagers. But that picture with coulson and the others. I just see coulson in a "daddy" role with young "supposed cool" characters (the 3 on the left). Of course, it could be more centered on the two characters on the right (Ming Na & the other one) but I doubt it.

No, but they're not really playing their age either. And I don't really see the people in the cast as "teens". Teen drama is for the CW, not ABC. So I doubt this is the case, but we'll see.

 

[goldb]

Happy Endings has officially been cancelled. Dammit. Hopefully USA or someone else picks it up. Community has been renewed for a fifth season though.

Now I just gotta finish both these last seasons.

 

[xi0]

Happy Endings has officially been cancelled. Dammit. Hopefully USA or someone else picks it up. Community has been renewed for a fifth season though.

Now I just gotta finish both these last seasons.

It's two different networks, but this is unbelievable to me...that Community is renewed by Happy Endings isn't

 

[goldb]

Same here, I was expecting this season of Community to be its final one; ratings have gotten lower and lower, and personally I haven't followed it much this season or seen any episodes past the first handful. I would have thought Happy Endings would be picked up for sure, it's such a good watch. I don't get it....

 

[zelllogan]

Same here, I was expecting this season of Community to be its final one; ratings have gotten lower and lower, and personally I haven't followed it much this season or seen any episodes past the first handful. I would have thought Happy Endings would be picked up for sure, it's such a good watch. I don't get it....

Community, the beginning of the season was not good. You can feel that without Dan Harmon, they were lost. There were many issues, many bad ideas (the couple Troy-Britta is an horror, no alchemy between the two actors ... It's not possible to believe in it for one second) but the last episodes were good.

But I agree that the renewal is surprising. Chevy Chase is gone. And the authors are running out of ideas.

 

[ibra87]

While Happy endings isn't as good as last season, I've been regularly watching it every week and enjoying them :S What a shame. Go USA pick it up! If it's not quick then Brad will return to New girl and all is lost

Or HBO

 

[Xerous]

It seems 24 is returning that's good for fox.

 

[Jammin]

Does anybody here, besides me, watch Doctor Who?

If so I'd be curious what you think about this new season with Moffat writing. Because, as much as I want to love it, I've found it to be a pretty big disappointment.

 

[xi0]

It seems 24 is returning that's good for fox.

Seriously?

I watched the first 3 seasons and was really entertained by it, but then I found it too repetitive. Is Kiefer coming back as Jack Bauer?

 

[raDar]

@xi0, it seems there will be superpowers.

Long live Coulson!