Wait was that Herr Starr there? The trailer didn’t seem interesting to me, but I love the actor who plays Herr Starr so I might watch it for him
X-files set in Victorian London. I skimmed a few paragraphs of the review. It sounds intriguing.
We watched the first episode of this last night. It’s a fun romp that only takes itself semi-seriously, hitting the Whedon vibes nicely in that regard. That Collider review is pretty spot, at least for us. We’ll definitely keep watching!
I’ve been kinda surprised at all the reviews going “yeah, this is just more Whedon” like that’s a bad thing. I mean, he seems to be a shit boss, but I’ve consistently enjoyed his stuff. Was this identifiably his work? Yuuuup. But you know, that’s a good thing, IMO. We both enjoyed the first episode with one glaring false note: Maladie.
She’s just such a shitty, dull caricature of the psycho killer, massively overacted. And I know Whedon’s capable of writing a good psycho character, because he’s done several - Angelus, Glory, the killer whose name I forget in Dollhouse, fairly sure there’s been others but I haven’t watched a Whedon show in a while. But random so-wacky babble and wild rolling eyes and charging around with a knife? ugh.
That said, that seems to be just one of a bunch of threats facing the main characters and the others are generally better so far.
Whedon is one of the great talents in TV, up there with Serling IMO. He’s apparently a bad dude but I guess this show will test the age old art/artist separation question.
Also that review noting the nudity…I don’t think anyone would have found the like 40 seconds of multi-gender nudity that are on screen in the first episode worthy of comment if it weren’t Whedon’s first time with a show that’s allowed to do nudity. It’s much less explicit and nudity-filled than a lot of HBO and Cinemax shows. And Starz. (We also watched the first two episodes of Banshee yesterday, since I was introducing my GF to it, and, yeah. Multiple scenes of full frontal nudity, and one of the main characters gets eaten out by her husband in the first episode.)
adds Banshee to list
Haha, it’s great. Not just for the nudity. :P
Yeah I’ve actually heard good things about it from multiple people, it just never quite made it onto our queue.
I started watching Banshee recently and it’s amazing. Really enjoying it.
You made me think about whether I enjoy Whedon or not.
Let’s see:
Buffy (movie) - yes, not bad
Buffy (tv show pilot and next few episodes) - no, terrible? (Maybe it gets better)
Toy Story - Yes!
Alien Resurrection - No, hated it
Titan A.E. - forgettable.
Firefly - no, didn’t like it at all
Serenity - Yes! I loved it. Went to the theater twice
Dollhouse - no, didn’t like the first two episodes at all
The Avengers - Enjoyed it, It was okay, not one of the best MCU movies though.
Age of Ultron - Yes, I enjoyed it, as good as the first one.
Justice League - No, Terrible.
Ok, that did not help. I have no idea whether I like Whedon or not.
I unabashedly love almost everything he’s done. The original Avengers is still my favorite of the MCU movies (by a very narrow margin.)
Buffy (the series) gets so, SO much better.
Odd to me you didn’t like Firefly but enjoyed Serenity, but ya know…to each his own and all that.
There was a lot to like in Dollhouse, as well, had you delved in a bit farther.
What Joss does really, really well is ensemble casts, well-developed characters, and clever banter. His stories can be hit-or-miss, but usually story takes a backseat to characters in his work.
Not that…any of that probably helps you decide, unless you decide to give Buffy another chance – push through to season 2 when they found their footing and got a little better budget and fight choreography, and the show really elevates a lot beyond S1.
Anyway, back to the show at hand – I’ll definitely be checking this out very soon. The premise sounds fun, I like several of the cast members, and you guys saying it “feels” like Joss – well, even if he’s not a great person to work for, I like the stuff he creates. I sincerely hope he can reconcile with Hollywood and abandon the shitty tendencies he had, because I want him to keep making stuff.
Whedon has said what is onscreen in Resurrection bears little resemblance to what he originally wrote, and his style is not well meshed with Jeunet, so yeah, that one’s a bit of a mess. And while I can’t say if you’d like the Buffy show or Dollhouse based on your negative reaction to Firefly, they both start really rough and get way way better. I’d say buffy hits its stride with season 2, Dollhouse about…5-6 episodes in? When it stops just being Eliza Dushku being asked to play a completely different role without actually having the range to pull it off. (Sadly, it never stops having that element, but once the serial elements come into stronger focus it gets good.)
Justice League was a Snyder movie that WB brought Whedon in to touch up. I’ve heard the Snyder Cut is better but I am very skeptical as in my view the man’s never made a good movie with the possible exception of Watchmen. I’m certainly not 4 hours curious. There’s probably some element of why Justice League theatrical is bad that is directly attributable to Whedon but it’s certainly not something where he was in primary creative control or that can be considered a reasonable litmus test of whether you’d like Whedon’s work.
The serial elements, but also as the side characters start getting more to do. Dushku aside (who I think was “good enough” but certainly not amazing or anything,) that show had a REMARKABLE cast.
She’s fine, but she would have been better in a more side character sort of role. She just doesn’t pull off total chameleon the way the role demands. I’d bet someone like Tatiana Maslany would have managed much better. (I don’t recall the timeline, that may be unrealistic.)
And yet Enver Gjokaj, as Victor, is one of the most versatile actors I’ve ever seen, and the episode where Topher programs him to be Topher and they have a phone call is one of my favorite moments of the whole show.
yeah, he’s terrific. (Sorry not to talk more about the actual show at hand but, I mean…one episode.)
Maslany in Dollhouse is a great thought. I think I liked that show more than most. It’s a shame they had to rush to wrap it up prematurely (IIRC).
As far as I recall, mandated by the studio. 6 episodes with no plot development to not scare the audience, a choice that did, actually, scare them away.
Surprised I never saw much of the actors for the other, err, (what were they called?) programmable humans.
I think the word you’re looking for is “dolls”.