TV review :: All Things Andy Gavin

Archive for TV review

The Witcher (TV) Season 1

Dec26

Show: The Witcher

Genre: High Fantasy

Watched: Season 1 – December 23-25, 2019

Summary: Loved it, but I was prepared

It’s been a while since I wrote a TV review, but after binge watching the show, and given my love of Fantasy, The Witcher (both novels and games), and the general process of adaption, I pretty much had no choice.

This is a show written for fans and perhaps not for the uninitiated. It’s unabashedly High Fantasy and is (mostly) extremely faithful to both the source novels for plot and character and to Witcher III in terms of visuals. This last surprised me as the show (I believe) has no connection with the games other than that they draw on the same source material — but it really does (again mostly) look like them. It’s loosely adapted from the first two books, short story collections The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny with chunks of the novel Blood of Elves worked in. These are simultaneously both great material to work from and challenging to adapt, as the world and characters are sketched impressionistically via a series of short stories — and this “episodic” feel permeates this first TV season .

Essentially, season one is preamble, being the tale of this unique alternative history Slavic fantasy world and three (at first) disconnected characters: Geralt (the witcher), the sorceress Yennefer, and the princess Ciri. The trio inhabit parallel stories on a collision course — but not yet obviously connected.

And while I loved the show, it’s not without its issues, so let’s break down the parts:

Characters and their actors:

Henry Cavill nails Geralt of Rivia. I’m not a Man of Steel fan — although that was mostly the barfarific writing — but he really inhabits The Witcher. Sure, Geralt isn’t exactly the most emotionally available character in the history of fiction, but Cavill brings exactly the right confidence, ambiguity, and charisma to the bleak “hero.” His pale stringy hair and cat-like contacts give him this wide eyed stare — but it works — as does the gravely voice and the continual grunting. Geralt’s combat skills are superbly fluid and perfectly in line with the character.

Freya Allan is ghostly and intensely slavic as Ciri. Just the right kind of vulnerable and a distinctly elven quality. Also great. I heard there was some initial thought of switching up her “race” and I’m glad they didn’t.

Now the mages are one of those total modern melting pots of ethnicity and looking — but the conceit works well with them both because they presumably hail from around the world and because their appearances are sculpted as much by their own magics as by nature.

Compared to Geralt and Ciri, I was more mixed in my opinion of Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer. Early Yennefer is pretty good, and her transformation quite intense. But while post-transformation Yennefer looks the part, she doesn’t bring to it the level of forceful (and petulant) intensity that I have always considered to be a hallmark of the sorceress. Basically, she lacks some of the swagger that is essential to Yennefer.

Anna Shaffer’s Triss was very flat, not at all what I was looking for. But many other characters were solid, particularly Cahir, Tissaia, Mousesack, Eist, and others.

Visuals and setting:

Art direction was excellent. Maybe not quite as sweeping as the games, but very similar in style and often haunting. It brought the slavic setting starkly to life. Costuming is a bit varied, but so is the game. Sometimes gritty and medieval, sometimes colorful and a bit more Renaissance. Often the backgrounds were very desaturated. This was fine.

I was not bugged by the gratuitous nudity. This is at its heart an early 1990s fantasy series. It has elves and dwarves and nudity. That’s just part of its thing.

The spell fx could have been better at times. Sometimes they were good, but sometimes a touch offscreen or fake. This is a world (and a show) with a lot of direct magic. It’s not like Game of Thrones where the magic is “subtle” like Melisandre’s. No, this has mages hurling bolts of energy and opening up portals and all that. They handled it ok, but the magic could have benefited from looking even “more expensive” and dramatic.

The creatures on the other hand looked great, as did the settings generally.

Music and sound:

First rate. Particularly the sound track. I loved the video game sound trackers, and this one is good as well — similar in its exotic quality.

Writing:

Writing was generally good, but I had two problems. Sometimes the dialog seems overly modern, particularly some comic characters like Dandelion (returning to his Polish name Jaskier in the show). And the patching together of the short story based material periodically led to jarring transitions and some tonal shifts. The show maintains the grim pathos, high fantasy, and snatches of humor characteristic of The Witcher. All of these tones being there in the source material, but I wonder about the ability of new viewers to follow the multiple interwoven time frames — which taking a page from Westworld offer only minimals clues for distinguishing the period — particularly given that many important characters in this show do not age significantly (Geralt and the mages). It’s also a show that like its source material throws about the complex “noun soup” of a complex fantasy world and its moderately complex politics. Part of the enjoyment for a fantasy or SciFi reader — and a part not appreciated by people who aren’t steeped in these genres — is the joy of trying to piece together the rules and details of the world without too much handholding. And The Witcher show is fairly true to these roots.

So, given that I’ve read the books and played the games and “get” the world of The Witcher, it’s hard for me know how a new viewer would experience the show. My wife — having neither read nor played — did watch with me, and she enjoyed the show as well, but she also likes fantasy and was peppering me with questions. So if you’ve seen the show, and particularly if you are new to the franchise, feel free to tell me your experience in the comments.

So overall, despite some cheese and some flaws, I really enjoyed the show and am deep in that cathartic sadness that follows the end of a good season. Fortunately it’s already been renewed. I know the professional critics hated the show and the fans loved it. And I think that’s because unlike Game of Thrones, which is a bit of a crossover gateway drug into fantasy, The Witcher (and I speak of the franchise overall) is something rarely done at all, and even more rarely done well on TV: an unabashed masterpiece of genre fantasy — and that’s all right because I love genre fantasy.

For my thoughts on Witcher III (it rulez), click here.

Yep, there are even knights cursed to be hedgehogs

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Television

Tagged as: Adaption, Anya Chalotra, Fantasy, Freya Allan, Henry Cavill, season 1, The Witcher, TV review

Game of Thrones – Episode 48

Jun01

Show: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 48 – May 31, 2015

Title: Hardhome

Summary: Zombie attack!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

NOTE: SERIOUS SPOILER WARNING. This review/discussion contains tons of spoilers about the episode and even ones crossing over from the books. It’s really my free-for-all musing given all the information at my disposal.

Dany – entertains Ty and Jorah in you guessed it, her favorite, the throne room. And thus begins some first rate work by the ever excellent Mr. Dinklage. Dany is trying to tease out this new opportunity. A chance to string up an enemy? Or, as he offers, a new advisor to fill the roll vacated by Barristan and Jorah (even if he is in the room). Having perked up from his post murder funk, launches into an enthusiastic self sell. Dany puts him in the difficult spot of advising on what to do with Jorah (right in front of him) and Ty, using that perceptivity he (and the writers) are well known for, does what he does best, telling the truth as he sees it. He sings Jorah’s praises at the same time convincing Dany that she out to exile the poor guy again. So for a second time the (newly) old bear is given the boot and stuck back on the original GRRM track. He notes his grayscaled arm, decides he has little to lose, and marches right over to the gladiator boss to sell himself as the new great pit champion. Why he thinks showing off in the arena will win Dany back is anyone’s guess, or maybe he just hopes to die fighting where he can make her feel guilty.

Tyrion-and-Daenerys-in-her-throne-room-Official-HBO

Back in the lego throne room

Meanwhile, Ty and Dany sup in her second favorite set, the bedroom. Ty, long deprived of his favorite beverage pounds back the wine They bond over they’re shared shitty fathers. Tyrion does an amazing job with his little speeches and comes off perceptive as usual. Dany feels a bit more like the innocent girl. He talks about the different houses, weighing this one and that for what advantage it might yield her, and she retorts with her “I’m not going to stop the wheel, I’m going to break it” line that we’ve heard 1000 times on the previews. Interesting how these quotes are almost always in a slightly different context in the show itself. But Ty does his job and she takes him on as advisor, although not without getting a good joke in (about his drinking).

This dining scene was one of those awesome typically GOT banter scenes that rocked, much like Ty and Varys, or Olena and Tywin, etc.

This is the nicest chair Ty has sat on since Joff’s wedding night

Arya – is in the House of Black & White practicing her lies. Jaqen watches, switch in hand, ready to whack her at the slightest crack in her story. She imagines “Lanna” (Cat of the Canals in the books) as an orphan girl selling oysters and the like. The way in which Arya’s story segues into the visual coverage of her new roll though felt a bit odd for GOT. Was the first clip on the streets something that happened — flashbacks being very rare in the show — or her imagination of how it might happen. This POV inconsistency jolted me out of the moment, as much as I enjoyed seeing “Lanna” in her new outfit and hair. Her smile even seemed like a different girls, coming more freely then Arya’s mischievous smirk. Anyway, Jaqen steers her to the fish market and to what appears to be a cold-hearted naval insurance salesman with a taste for oysters. She is told to further investigate and given a Nameless God special brew for the guy. The jealously angle with the blonde initiate comes up again as she complains to Jaqen that Arya isn’t ready.

In not entirely clear on the role of the temple here — other than in setting up this guy’s death, which is obvious. Did one of his wronged customers pay them to knock him off? Is it an assassination business? Or is there a justice component? But regardless, even at 2-3 minutes, this was a fun little bit of Arya time.

There is a girl under there!

Cersei – Is not loving the dungeon time. The obnoxious Septa Unella has a simple but effective torture method of holding out water and demanding she confess. Loving Cersei getting a taste of the bad life. Eventually, Qyburn is admitted as a guest. We haven’t seen him in a while but he remains the only one strongly in the ex-queen’s camp and proceeds to info dump the goings on in King’s Landing so we can save the minutes and the money for the big zombie battle to come. Apparently Tommen is sulking in his room and not eating and Pycelle has summoned Kevan back from Casterly Rock to serve as hand of the king. Qyburn hints that Cersei should consider confessing to buy her freedom. He for one agrees with Karl Marx, faith is the death of reason. Cersei, however, hasn’t hit rock bottom yet.

Then Septa Unella gets back to withholding water again and she slips a few notches down. Her pride holds while the giant woman stays in the room, but she isn’t too proud afterward to lick the water from the filthy floor.

I still am not totally sold on this takeover by the faith of the normal apparatus of power. Yes, this kind of thing has happened historically, but it requires a complex infiltration of the fanatical in said power structure. The normal mode of this is that established rulers would surrender individuals at the second tier of power to the church in order to appease the fanatics and avoid excommunication and other political/social nastiness that the church hierarchy threatened. I can’t think of a scenario where (two) reigning queen(s) were imprisoned against the wishes of the king. But there are limits to showing this kind of religious fear in a the context of a show, particularly one with other focuses.

Not the Ritz

Sam and Gilly – continue to bond as works some salve onto his wounds. He asks how she is after their bone in encounter, and while she deflects his question, it’s a sweet evasion. Then Olly interrupts to help remind the viewers as to the purpose of Jon’s mission and the fact that he hates the wildlings because they ate his parents. Sam does a good job with the defense and I can’t tell if Olly has turned the corner or is being set up as a major ringleader in the et tu brute action that is to come.

Sansa – puts the emotional/verbal flaying knife to Theon next time he brings her dinner. She asks him why he did it, and she lays into him. Reek, for his part has sufficient self-loathing, and lays it bare, which lets him slip out the important little fact that the boys he burned weren’t actually Bran and Rickon. Uh, oh, bad Ramsay wouldn’t like Sansa knowing that little factoid.

But the Boltons – are busy downstairs plotting their defenses against Stannis’ invasion. He has cavalry, but they have tall walls. Ramsay isn’t one for sitting around waiting and suggests that if dad gives him 20 good men he might take the fight to the enemy (and leave a Feast for the Crows in an obvious book nod).

Guilt trip!

Jon – finally heads to Hardhome. I like that instead of making this a “Hardhome” only episode (like Blackwater or The Watchers on the Wall), the battle is essentially the second half. Anyway, Jon, Tormund, Edd, etc row into Hardhome. In the background is an armada of CGI ships and their destination is a giant glacier-front resort. The show pulls out the big bucks from the get go and really shows off the scope both in terms of extras and the vast CGI host.

One way boat trip?

The Wildlings for their part look on grimly as the party disembarks and the Lord of Bones marches up to provide a bit of opposition to the idea of getting together for a friendly chitchat. Tormund reacts to this, and importantly a personal insult, by literally beating the life out of the man. This serves the dual purpose of moving them along to their goal and of putting the Lord of Bones right back where GRRM had him (in the grave). Now some might say this is gratuitous writing, but really it isn’t so off from medieval Danish warrior code (aka Viking).

Speaking of Vikings, the big wooden building the pow wow moves into looks right off the set of that other less fantastical show. Inside are the “elders” including show invention “Karsi”, tough Wildling woman, a big Thenn, the remaining giant, and the like. Jon intros himself and like Tyrion early does a sales pitch. For Jon, he does a pretty good job of it. He and Tormund tag team back and forth selling the move south of the wall as the Wildling’s only chance at survival and the rest of humanities best bet at defeating the dead. Jon hands them over the dragon glass daggers from last week as a gift and confesses to killing Mance. At first this goes over badly, but Tormund leaps in with a save. Eventually, the woman comes over to their side, then the giant, leaving only the Thenn to balk. Well, apparently Karsi “fucking hates Thenns” too.

Kick ass and die

So about half the Wildlings load up on the army of CGI boats and start off for the bigger CGI boats in the distance. Karsi has a couple little girls that she packs off too, laying on the emotional baggage (uh oh for her).

Then the dogs start barking. If you’re living in a movie/show/book with monsters, get really worried when the dogs start barking.

A storm, or an avalanche, or who knows what form of white graphics is boiling over the far glaciers and pouring toward them. People start to rush the boats, the big Thenn slams the stockade gates shut, locking out hundreds of Wildlings who scream and cry then suddenly vanish. He peers through into the storm to be shocked by — surprise! — the undead! And so begins TV’s most epic zombie attack. Frantically, zombies hurl themselves at, through, over, and under the walls. Jon, Torund, the Thenn, Karsi, etc all hustle to the fight.

Wights-and-White-Walkers-coming-Official-HBO

Here come the dead!

What ensures is quite the epic battle, if a tad divorced from the political maneuvering that often dominates the show. World War Z combined with Dead Alive! Inside the Viking hut the giant and Edd fight another wave that pours through the ceiling. The shots of the giant pulling the skeletons off himself and stomping them, then bursting through the walls and stomping some more are totally awesome. Karsi slays, slays, then is finally confronted with a wall of the creepiest kid zombies ever, they overwhelm her physically and emotionally.

Super creep!

Up on the ridge line above stand the White Walkers on their dread steeds (my WOW Warlock has one of these!)

The Thenn and Jon go back into the hut after the dragon glass, but a White Walker joins the fray. After a bit of valiant effort, the Thenn crosses weapons with the creature and has his shattered by the cold, then is speared himself. Thus the principal that White Walker weapons can freeze and shatter normal ones is established. Jon looses his own sword, Longclaw, and spends a bunch of time dodging and bending away from the walker. Finally he grabs back his sword and blocks a blow — but it doesn’t freeze! As we know from the “previously on”, Longclaw is Valayrian steel. Apparently good stuff to have when fighting White Walkers because Jon slashes into the monster and HE shatters. So now in the show, two things do that, obsidian and Valayrian steel. I doubt that will be the case in the books, but who knows? (GRRM)

The Night’s King (that Walker with the icicle crowns on his head) glowers down at Jon and calls forth his signature move. A new army of zombies pours over the cliffs like water (or WWZ) to fall still below, then rise again. Very effective both for the Walkers and as a theatrical move. They just swarm the camp and anyone not on a boat heads toward one at full speed or ends up hacked, bitten, or clawed to death. The giant grabs up a huge burning pole and plays zombie cricket. Then covered in the creatures wades into the bay, which is a pretty great shot. Jon, Tormund and Edd manage to get on the last boat (good) thing and row out into the water. Seems zombies and Walkers aren’t much for swimming, but the Night’s King strolls out onto the docks, raises his hands, and in terrifying silence raises all the dead.

The series ultimate villain?

All in all, a pretty awesome episode. We have Arya, Cersei getting the shaft, Tyrion at his best, and then the ultimate TV zombie fest. Sure, the giant scale of the attack distances it a bit from the more intimate creepy of a scene like the one where Sam killed the Walker. That big action scene operates on a different vibe than the more personal or political scenes. Still, it’s an element that has always been a part of the show, all the way back to the very first scene of episode 1.

One of the most exciting hours this year!

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

HBO’s official inside the episode videos:

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Television

Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 48, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, George RR Martin, Hardhome, HBO, Jon Snow, Season 5, Season 5 Episode 8, TV review

Shameless

Apr14

Title: Shameless

Genre: Comedy / Drama

Stars: William H. Macy (Actor), Emmy Rossum (Actor)

Watched: April 8-12, 2011

Status: First Season

Summary: A guilty pleasure

Shameless is Showtime’s latest entry in the “edgy comedy” category, a slot they’re fond of (Weeds, Dexter). In any case, Shameless is an American remake of a British show, and centers around a working class Chicago family with an extraordinarily bad and alcoholic father named Frank (William H. Macy) and a bevy of often delinquent children and associated hangers on.

While Macy is great, nicely straddling the line between likable and incorrigible, the show is anchored by oldest daughter and effective mom Fiona (Emmy Rossum). I never noticed her before (she had minor roles in a couple movies I’ve seen), but she’s fantastic in this role. She brings to the table a wining hand of tough, sexy, vulnerable, and sheer chutzpah.

Tone wise, this show is much like Weeds in that it mixes (attempted) social satire with the ridiculously scandalous and the sketchy. This blending of comedy with the truly unwholesome seems to be more and more popular, but it first knocked itself on my consciousness in the mid 90s with Reese Witherspoon‘s Freeway. I mean in Shameless we’re talking baby-napping, highly inappropriate sex, “borrowing” the elderly, all sorts of fraud, at least 4 or 5 different portrayals of male backdoor action, blow jobs under the kitchen table, some really really bad parenting, and I’m just getting started. But the show tries to wash down this heavy stuff with a big tongue in cheek and a medium dose of Guy Ritchie-style cinematography.

It’s a pretty titillating show too — like watching a sexy train-wreck with lots of nudity.

And overall I think it succeeds, and succeeds well, not so much because it’s funny — it is — but because it manages to make us care about the characters. This is a complex tonal balance, and the season finale isn’t perfect, but despite all the unrealism, and the unbelievable (and unacceptable) stuff spun with a comic touch, there remains a realistic feel to the people. I found myself glued, pounding through the season in 3-4 episode-at-a-time video-on-demand bindges. While the players’ actions may at times be comic, their emotional response is not.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Television

Tagged as: Chicago, Comedy, Dexter, edgy comedy, Emmy Rossum, Guy Ritchie, Justin Chatwin, Reese Witherspoon, review, reviews, Shameless, Showtime, Television, Television Review, TV review, Weeds, William H Macy

TV Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer – part 6

Feb11

CONTINUED FROM PART 5 ABOVE.

The rest of the series can be found here: [1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6]

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS:

Season 7:

So at long last we meander to the final, and worst, season. Not that it’s awful, but it does suffer from a number of serious problems.

1. The big bad is diffuse. This season, in an effort to be even more apocalyptic, they decided on an incorporal season villain called “the first evil.” A vaguely couched badness that takes the form of dead people, often Buffy herself (she did, after all, die twice). Frankly, the first is kinda lame, and not very funny. It certainly doesn’t measure up to Glory or the Mayor (although it occasionally looks like the Mayor). It’s “first” appearance (haha) where it slowly winds back through all the villains in reverse order is however kinda cool.

2. The slayerettes – About 40% into the season Buffy is inundated by a collection of 17 year-old idiots known collectively as the slayerettes. They totally suck, are just anoying, gum up the relationships we really care about, and often get themselves killed (good riddance). Only Kennedy has any redeeming qualities — mostly in the form of implied girl-on-girl action with Willow.

3. Andrew – For some reason, this lamest and most annoying of the “Trio” is held captive in Buffy’s house, where he can serve to annoy us, the viewers. He does have his occasional moments and lines, like “Episode one boring?” But mostly he grates on the nerves of the cast and viewer alike. Oh Andrew, why at least couldn’t you have died in “Chosen?”

4. Mysterious documentary-style shooting – Certain episodes have a more documentary style that is not evidenced anywhere else in the series. Notably “Storyteller” (deliberate there for sure) and bits in “Touched” and “End of Days.” It felt amateurish and out of place.

5. No good creative episodes – Nothing like “The Body” or “Once More with Feeling.” Nothing. They may have tried with “Storyteller,” but it was lame lame lame.

At least the writers knew it would be the last season, and so in a neat and orderly manner arced the story toward a decent conclusion. And the first half of the season starts pretty decently. The new character, Principal Wood is good. “Help” is a great episode and the Anya episode, “Selfless” has some totally priceless 1,000 year flash back scenes between Anya and Olaf the troll — totally priceless, and made all the better for being in some Germanic/Scandinavian tongue and subtitled. “Conversations with Dead People” and “Sleeper” aren’t bad either.

Ug. Then enter the slayerettes. The only compensating bit being the sub-boss bad guy, the “ubervamp” who is pretty cool and kicks some ass, including Buffy’s.

The second half of the season is uneven, including my least favorite episode in a long time “Storyteller,” but the pretty good “Lies My Parents Told Me.” The new sub-boss Caleb is decent too. Then we have “Empty Places.”

I don’t know what they were thinking, but it’s obvious the writers decided they had to separate Buffy from her friends for dramatic effect, and so they stage a show down in which they all turn against her. In no other episode of the entire series is there a moment where so many characters just act completely out of character. I can buy a few of them turning on her like this, but the writers failed completely to give each and every one of them a valid personal reason visa-via their relationship with Buffy to do so. I could barely watch it.

The return of Faith however is good, and the last three episodes are pretty strong, particularly the series finale “Chosen.” Despite the lame cameo from Angel, it does all end up in a pretty good place, and reasonably satisfying — a difficult thing to do after such a long and emotional series. Overall, it’s certainly a must watch, but just not on par with the magnificent pair of seasons that preceded it.

As with the previous two times I’m depressed that it’s over. This time I’m going to make a serious effort at Jos Whedon’s season 8 in comic book form.