What are you watching?

Ye olde G1 Trnsformers

Watching some teen horror and horror flicks in general.
Scream was great.
House of Wax was even better!
scream 2 failed to keep my attention.

I've been slowly watching through Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I'm about a quarter of the way through Season 4.

With the exception of the beginning movie they did for it, which I didn't really care for at all, I've been solidly enjoying it. It doesn't fix the problems of the prequels exactly, since it has to use the same frame-work, but in general the things that were insufferable about the prequels are less-so here, and there are a lot of things to recommend it.

As far as insufferable things being improved, some example would be episodes about the Gungans that I actually found interesting. Jar-Jar himself is still very annoying the odd time he shows up, but substantially less so than in the films. I found a lot of the political action on Coruscant boring in the films, but they actually manage to do a fair amount with political intrigue here, even if a lot of the political stuff is simplified to the point where a child can easily get what is going on.

The films only show us the very beginning and end of the Clone Wars, so there was a lot to fill in. The feeling of it doesn't quite jive with either Episode 2 or 3 (for example none of the character development in Anakin during the series is present in Episode 3), but I found that by a few episodes in, I didn't really care.

The series is organized into stand-alone episodes and small arcs. The arcs might follow actions with the Senate, various Jedi, the Clones, R2-D2 and C3PO, and a number of other plot threads. For the stand-alone episodes, the announcer at the beginning (basically taking the place of an opening crawl) brings us up to speed on some kind of off-screen, action, usually plunking the viewer down into what feels like mid-way into act 2 of a 3-act story where the action starts. It wouldn't work for a lot of stories, but for a Star Wars cartoon, it works pretty well.

So far, I've been pleased at series development of a lot of characters, particularly various clones (all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) who are made to feel like individuals with different hopes and perspectives despite identical genetic makeup and training.

At the point I'm at, character development for Anakin has been much better at "the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker" than the films did, in particular showing that what makes him a great warrior and general seems to be leading him to the dark side. (Aside: I've always felt that Jedi are functionally terrible as military leaders, since hard decisions in war seem like they'd inevitably cause Jedi to fall.)

Obi-Wan also has some interesting character development, and we see how decisions he'd made in his youth parallel Anakin's own decisions and failings. One of the few things I dislike about the series is James Arnold Taylor's portrayal of Obi-Wan. I've liked him in many other roles, but he seems to deliver all of Obi-Wan's lines as if they were smirking one-liners, even if that in no way makes sense.

Ashoka's been an interesting character to see develop as well, and I can see why she's become a fan favourite.

I only watch 2 or 3 episodes per week of this, so I have a fair way to go yet, and then I'll start on Rebels.

I've also just finished the first (and only) season of 'The Grinder', on the recommendation of a friend. It stars Fred Savage and Rob Lowe, and struck a lot of similar chords for me as Community and Arrested Development. That said, its full arc plays out by the end of the first season, and it felt like it didn't really need a second.

If someone is in the mood for a weird, self-aware sitcom, I'd recommend it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grinder_(TV_series)

I just watched the entirety of Wilfred (american version). Such a great series! The trailers don't do it justice, but here's one just to give an idea of what it is about:


The australian version is a completely different series, by the way, so it's worth to watch both of them.

Without internet for the whole of January, I pretty much just sat around watching FOX HD day in and day out...
Them new shows -24 Legacy & Legion- are off to pretty promising starts...