7th Station ~TV, movies, games~

[Celedam]

Speaking of puppets in classic '80s fantasy…

The movie was the end of the story.

[Zunu]

Another good series coming to Amazon Prime Video?

Supes have been committing atrocities, which keep getting swept under the rug because they are revered by the adoring public. Billy Butcher recruits The Boys who have all been wronged by The Seven, the world’s most notorious superheroes, to bring them down and stop the corruption. Based on the best-selling comics by Garth Ennis, The Boys is a revenge story where the nobodies take on the somebodies.

It is good. It is very, very good.

It was pretty good, not as balls-out fun as Hulu's Future Man but definitely above average for a superhero series. There were a few truly unexpected twists. I really appreciated that it had exactly the right number of episodes to tell the story, hi Hetflix. Some minor nits follow:

Spoiler: show

It really stretched credulity to me that Starlight could just walk around as Annie and maintain a private life, and without Vought Corporation keeping constant tabs on her 24/7 as one of their main assets. I was also disappointed that they fell into the standard TV trope of the good guy keeping a secret from his girlfriend past the point where both his conscience and common sense should have compelled him to at least partially confess, and then naturally his dishonesty backfires. On the plus side fortunately for the sake of the story they wrapped up her disappointment phase pretty quickly, unrealistically quickly, but still, thank you for not having them all mopey and bitter for two episodes.

Anyway, the main reason for this comment is that the "Asian" supe, played by Karen Fukuhara, really reminded me of Murotan.

[Celedam]

Season 5 of iZombie just arrived on Netflix.

From June of last year, when Season 4 arrived…

It's nice that Netflix gets CW shows immediately after their seasons end. Hulu lost the CW contract, and CW's own website is unusable.

…and…

I look forward to the final season, because I genuinely want Liv to have a happy ending.

viewtopic.php?p=234405#p234405

So, here we go.

[Celedam]

Good Eats: The Return – "American Classics X: Chicken Parm" *

Eight years away can change a man… and a kitchen… but not a salt cellar…



Yes, it's the full episode on the official Food Network channel. I assume it's not going to be a regular thing, however, and that it was posted in order to promote the series on the network proper.

So if you still subscribe to regular TV and therefore can tune into the network proper, here's what you can expect to see on Sundays this fall…



Anyhow, most of what I know about cooking I learned from Alton Brown and the original Good Eats. I also met him once, during his first book tour in 2002. A very nice man but obviously stressed by his sudden fame (at that time) and exhausted by the tour. I'm glad to see he's back doing what he does best and not hosting that idiotic game show anymore.

* "American Classics" is a recurring theme in the series. Thus, "American Classics X" is the tenth episode with this theme. I like that he's continued the numbering as if the series didn't go on hiatus for eight years, and I think his decision to make it the first episode of the return is a deliberate nod to long-time fans.

[Celedam]

It's been weird seeing all of the renewed interest in Neon Genesis Evangelion, since it arrived on Netflix earlier this year…



I'm thinking about rewatching it for myself. I've been waiting for the Rebuild tetralogy to be completed before I watch that, because after A Song of Ice and Fire and The Kingkiller Chronicle, I've learned my lesson about taking on an incomplete series and then having to wait for the final installment. But it looks like the fourth and final Rebuild movie is definitely set for release next year, so now is a good time to rewatch the original series.

[Nayoko-Kihara]

I finally got around to watching the BBC/PBS "Les Miserables" adaptation today. It's been sitting on my DVR for months. I wasn't sure what to expect since the only other non-musical adaptation I've seen isn't exactly high on my list for re-watching, but it was great. They managed to make it feel complete (compared to the book) without cutting back on character development/motivation and kept it concise enough that it never felt dragged out - and the whole main cast was fantastic (the only person I had trouble with was Josh O'Connor as Marius. Not because he didn't do well, but because I couldn't stop thinking about what an annoying ass his character is on "The Durrells in Corfu".)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C ... miniseries)

[Celedam]

For anyone who has Amazon Prime: the Satoshi Kon masterpiece Millennium Actress (2001) is now available on Prime Video…

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07VDKQ65D/



This film — or at least the English subbed version — has been practically unavailable for many years since there was a very limited DVD release in 2003. When I wanted to watch it a couple years ago for a club discussion, I had to torrent it.

Well, apparently it is being / has been re-released with a new English dub (if that matters to you). There was a special event in theaters back in August, and it's finally getting a Blu-ray release / DVD re-release in December. Which is probably why it has also shown up on Prime Video.

I heartily recommend it. It is full of Kon's trademark twists and illusions, but they're in service of a relatively light adventure/romance rather than a psychological horror/thriller like Kon's better-known works (e.g., Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent, Paprika). It is actually closer in spirit and tone to Kon's Tokyo Godfathers.

NOTE: The version on Prime Video is subbed, not dubbed, regardless of what the description says. I have it playing in another window as I type this.

[Shoujo Q]

Nice! I’ve always wanted to watch this but have never been able to find it.

I’ve always had issues with finding anime on Prime. I wish their setup was easier to navigate. So I tend to forget to even look to see if anything is on there that’s new.

[TotallyUncool]

I saw this decades ago, and it's still far ahead of its time, and of this era as well...

[Celedam]

Season 2 of Westworld is brilliant. Much better than Season 1, in my opinion. Maybe I'm biased because I don't like westerns to begin with, but I stuck with it because I knew the whole "western" thing was literal set dressing for the real story. And I was right: Season 1 serves only as a setup for Season 2, and I think the story would have ended perfectly with the end of Season 2.

But it's a television series that must get people to keep paying money for HBO, especially after the end of Game of Thrones, so of course they clumsily inserted a bunch of hooks for a third season and then dumbed down that third season to win back the majority of viewers who loved Season 1 but hated Season 2.

Sigh.

EDIT: Well, maybe not brilliant…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0pBbp_eLQg