[QuickTidal]

Daughter was down with a virus all weekend, so I was sat at home looking after her, so I binged a season and a half of WHO'S THE BOSS on PlutoTV and it's still a fun show...but it wasn't till yesterday that I sat down to binge some old FAMILY TIES and it struck me how inventively genius that show was.

Here you have two ex-hippies (who met while working for greenpeace in Africa) who settled down to have a family and end up with 3 (Eventually 4) kids in the Conservative and Consumerism-addled 1980's...Alex P. Keaton is a young Republican and yet a genius who is often greedy about money and backwards 1950's about social politics and gender roles, a middle daughter who is flighty, dim and obsessed with consumerism, and a tomboy youngest daughter who hearkens at least a BIT to the kindness and hippie-ness of her parents. It's such a striking dichotomy off the hop because Alex (at the very least) to us in the 2020's with a few decades of terrible backwards conservatism and Republicanism, at complete odds with what his parents have always stood for, behind us SEEMS repulsive...but in the early to mid-1980's that the show takes place in, the Reagan-era had the public entirely snowed into believing that Reaganomics worked, trickle down was a thing, and the 'Fiscal Conservative' was not the carefully crafted fiction we now know it was...and so Alex P. Keaton, nerdy little Republican who liked money over all else...was a colloquialism to be dealt with in a half hour sitcom. And the show CONSTANTLY throws curveballs at Alex...he dates 3 women on the show, two seriously...and both are women just like his mother, Feminist, Democrat, and artsy bu driven...the OPPOSITE of the things he claims to want and how he claims the world is. In fact, very often on single episodes he shows that he's not only capable of growth, but that the veneer he's painted of himself as a 1950's type Republican is just that, a veneer. I read an article about how someone said they can't watch FAMILY TIES without feeling that in 2016-2020's Alex P. Keaton would definitely be a Trumper. I would argue that all the evidence we have of him in 7 seasons of TV show that he very much would not have been. Alex is whipsmart, and very often shows that he's capable of holding even those from his political side of the spectrum accountable. There's an episode in S4 where Alex struggles with a political speech class where he gets an F because he refuses to engage initially with the topic with his own discerning eye and instead regurgitates what the SCOTUS judge of the topic he was talking about said...the professor upon learning that Alex is upset about the F on the paper asks him what he truly thinks of the topic and pulls, begrudgingly, out of Alex that he sides with the Left wing POV and that the SCOTUS judge was wrong...it's little moments like this that show me that this fictional young Republican would have abandoned that spectrum when it was clear it was headed off-course and I think that would have happened even before Trump was even in the spectrum of politics. And by the end of S7 Alex P. Keaton is so much more like his own parents than he'd ever admit. I also like that this family, at odds politically, exists and functions well as a family...something that I feel is lost today in the USA and families who are divided politically into tribalism and lies. Because while Alex P. Keaton was a misguided young Republican who believed in Conservative goals that might help him in the corporatist 1980's...he was almost ALWAYS willing to learn lessons and understand and accept if he'd been wrong. I don't think Alex P. Keaton endures as a character for who he would be today, I think he endures because the ideal of someone learning and growing has been lost to modern politics. He's a throwback to something we've all lost.

[QuickTidal]

Spoiled myself and grabbed a copy of SMALLVILLE (20th Anniversary) Complete Series BluRay last night. Arguably, pricey on the face of it, but it's always been one of my fave series and my wife loves it too. It will be nice to see the first 5 seasons upsampled to look better than the old DVDs, and 6-10 should look crispy on BluRay.

As with movies, I've taken to buying physical media for TV stuff I REALLY like and want to own (as opposed to longterm "rent" like when you buy digital copies of stuff off Amazon or iTunes)...plus the compression artfiacts of streaming and even HD digital is super noticeable on some shows and movies.

Anyways. YOLO. So I'll be re-watching ten seasons of one of the better shows the CW ever made. The only downside is having to deal with watching Allison Mack now that she's had all the NXVIM shit...but she disappears from most of the show after about S6.

One day I'll splash out for the SUPERNATURAL set too....but it is not this day as that one is about $320 all in and I'm not that wealthy.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 27 September 2023 - 02:02 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Let me know how Smallville ends because I couldn't bring myself to keep watching after it became so terrible around s7 or so...

Having said that, s4 (I think it was 7 - the one where Kristen Kreuk became a witch?) was one of the worst seasons of TV I've ever seen. The show became loads better when she left it, at least for a while.

[QuickTidal]

 Tiste Simeon, on 27 September 2023 - 02:34 PM, said:

Let me know how Smallville ends because I couldn't bring myself to keep watching after it became so terrible around s7 or so...

Having said that, s4 (I think it was 7 - the one where Kristen Kreuk became a witch?) was one of the worst seasons of TV I've ever seen. The show became loads better when she left it, at least for a while.

At a certain point, I want to say around S7 (S4 was indeed the Witch storyline) it switched gears from Smallville to more of Metropolis, Kreuk was minimally in that season and left the show by the end, Chloe's plotlines drizzled off to much ado about nothing, Erica Durance (BEST LOIS LANE EVER; I will be taking no questions) stepped up her plotlines, Justin Hartley's Green Arrow (Best Green Arrow ever...way better than shitty whatshisname) became almost a sidekick for Clark which was great, Laura Vandervoort showed up as Supergirl more often, and the plotlines began to get more Krytpon/universe focused...the gear switch made it far more comic-booky than it had previously been...but I think I liked that? I didn't watch SMALLVILLE originally as it aired, and only started once I met my wife and her and her sister watched it weekly, so I joined in around S5 I think? (I only watched the earlier seasons much later)...so the later seasons are very much what I feel SMALLVILLE is? So we probably come at it from different angles.

Also, fun fact the set comes with the hour long pilot (that didn't go to series) attempt to make an Aquaman show (with Justin Hartley prior to them making him Green Arrow)...so that will be fun to watch.

And I REALLY enjoyed the last season of SMALLVILLE with the focus on the nebulous threat of Darkseid being this shadow hanging over the season but never really showing up.


I'll let you know how it al goes on a re-watch. For fun, here is Tom Welling and Erica Durance when they showed up as Smallville Clark and Lois on THE FLASH Crisis crossover eps:

[Tiste Simeon]

Yes I do remember Lois Lane being a great breath of fresh air (and we're watching the Flash through at the moment the nods to Smallville were great, like when the theme song came on and Clark Kent was listening to it hah)

You've got me thinking actually. I don't remember why I stopped watching, especially as I liked it a lot more when Kreuk left... maybe I got mixed up because as I recall my friend had seasons 1-8 or maybe 9. So maybe I just didn't finish it because at the time I just simply didn't have access to the final season or two?

Maybe I'm being harsh on it because of how much I disliked Lana Lang...

And yes, I also loved the guy who played Lex Luthor he was great. (Didn't he voice the Flash in JLU or JL the Animated Series?)

Dang it QT am I going to have try and find a box set of Smallville?

[QuickTidal]

 Tiste Simeon, on 27 September 2023 - 05:11 PM, said:

Yes I do remember Lois Lane being a great breath of fresh air (and we're watching the Flash through at the moment the nods to Smallville were great, like when the theme song came on and Clark Kent was listening to it hah)

You've got me thinking actually. I don't remember why I stopped watching, especially as I liked it a lot more when Kreuk left... maybe I got mixed up because as I recall my friend had seasons 1-8 or maybe 9. So maybe I just didn't finish it because at the time I just simply didn't have access to the final season or two?

Maybe I'm being harsh on it because of how much I disliked Lana Lang...

And yes, I also loved the guy who played Lex Luthor he was great. (Didn't he voice the Flash in JLU or JL the Animated Series?)

Dang it QT am I going to have try and find a box set of Smallville?

Here's the thing, in all honesty, this show hearkens back to the days of 22-24 episode seasons of TV and that sort of system was RIFE with filler episodes. SMALLVILLE has many of them. Lots of Monster of the Week stuff (like FLASH actually). But as long as you give it room to breathe as you watch (like don't binge 10 seasons in one concerted go), you should be fine. And be aware that Miller & Gough, the shows creators left in S7...so S8-10 are someone else's baby, which is why it feels so different for those seasons. But yeah, the wife and I did Episode 1 of S1 last night, and we might watch another tonight, but I'd argue generally 2-3 eps a week TOPS is fine.

And yeah Michael Rosenbaum did the voice of Animated Flash, and he was excellent. This show was filled with great actors over its run...I think it was Season 9 or 10 when Sam Witwer (voice of Darth Maul from The Clone Wars, Rebels, SOLO) showed up as a fairly MASSIVE comic Superman villain and he was phenomenal.

And no one can tell me that Laura Vandervoort isn't the PERFECT comic-accurate Supergirl (I met her in person...she looks like this in real life)

 SG.jpg (181.24K)
Number of downloads: 0

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 28 September 2023 - 12:56 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Dang it again QT it's on the ITV streaming site here so I don't even need to pay to legally watch it.

Like I don't have enough to catch up on!

Might skip s4...

[QuickTidal]

 Tiste Simeon, on 28 September 2023 - 02:34 PM, said:

Dang it again QT it's on the ITV streaming site here so I don't even need to pay to legally watch it.

Like I don't have enough to catch up on!

Might skip s4...

I bet you there are lists online that could help you skip any filler stuff. Otherwise, just add it into your rotation of TV viewing and it should not disrupt stuff too much. Especially if you can stream it free!

[worry]

Reservation Dogs ended this week after a near-perfect 3-season run. Best thing on TV since it started imho and I'm gonna miss it.

[amphibian]

 worry, on 28 September 2023 - 09:05 PM, said:

Reservation Dogs ended this week after a near-perfect 3-season run. Best thing on TV since it started imho and I'm gonna miss it.

I saw the first season on the plane in May and loved everything about it. The writing staff, acting group, and show runners are unafraid to be weird and it pays off so much.

[worry]

Awesome. It's well worth seeing it all the way through.

[worry]

Watched the first episode of Gen V, the spinoff of The Boys. So far it's not a departure from the main show at all really, like zero tonal shift despite the younger cast/focus. Maybe that'll change, but I doubt it. It still had a number of genuine surprises though.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

 worry, on 04 October 2023 - 01:37 PM, said:

Watched the first episode of Gen V, the spinoff of The Boys. So far it's not a departure from the main show at all really, like zero tonal shift despite the younger cast/focus. Maybe that'll change, but I doubt it. It still had a number of genuine surprises though.

Watched the first two episodes (putting off WoT episode 7 until Friday so I can watch 7 and 8 back to back).

It's not as laugh-out-loud funny as The Boys, though it's still frequently humorous, very cynical, and somewhat graphic. (In The Boys, the violence or terrible behavior often seemed like dark comedy; in Generation V they generally don't seem 'funny'---though YMMV OC....) There's a very obvious 'school-for-kids-with-special-powers' genre vibe, 'oh look at all the different weird characters', and a focus on the 'issues' one might expect contemporary college students to have.

It also centers Black and female perspectives, whereas The Boys is mostly centered around white males (though it does have two or three female protagonists (one of them Asian, the other white) and one Black protagonist... and A-Train).

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 04 October 2023 - 03:09 PM

[Cause]

For me Castlevanis Nocturne was a huge disappointment. Has none of the kinetic energy the original had.

[Tsundoku]

 Cause, on 04 October 2023 - 09:07 PM, said:

For me Castlevanis Nocturne was a huge disappointment. Has none of the kinetic energy the original had.

It took a while to get going but I didn't mind it too much. Not as good as the original though, and that opera singer character was really annoying.
I'm sure they went for a certain effect with the singing, but it definitely didn't work for me.

[Abyss]

 Abyss, on 07 October 2023 - 04:20 AM, said:

 QuickTidal, on 06 October 2023 - 12:38 PM, said:

Kevin Costner, starring and directing in a multi-part Western epic?

Count me ALL the way the fuck in. This is reportedly his passion project and one of the main reasons he walked away from YELLOWSTONE.

Oh please, he's just still angry that TOMBSTONE - a movie he passed on - was so so much better than WYATT EARP and a few decades later he wants another shot.

Pun intended.

Speaking of which, am on ep5 of the YELLOWSTONE prequel 1883 and damn, this is some fine TV.

[Cause]

Is Kelsey grammar a sex icon? He certainly pulls in Frasier like a black hole.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

 Cause, on 22 October 2023 - 05:48 PM, said:

Is Kelsey grammar a sex icon? He certainly pulls in Frasier like a black hole.

He's supposed to be famous in that isn't he? But from the radio, so IDK if they'd recognize his face. Maybe his voice?

IDK if you realize this but the actor is a Trump supporter:

Quote

'Frasier' Star Kelsey Grammer Has Never Shied Away From Sharing His Political Beliefs

[...] "In terms of policy, I don't have a lot of problems with what [Trump] is doing."

"He's a bit of a brat, I guess you could say, and that is astounding for people, especially (those) who come from the more liberal side of politics – they're used to being the brats and so they've never had anybody come back at them the same way,"

Kelsey Grammer's Politics: Details on the 'Frasier' Star (distractify.com)

Those royalties he's getting from you watching his show? Some of them are almost certainly going to Trump....

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 22 October 2023 - 06:29 PM

[QuickTidal]

[Slow Ben]

Sad news friends. Season 12 of Letterkenny will be the final season. Time to binge them again.

Good news friends. Shoresy season 2 is out.