[ACT] What shows have you been watching?

[Oedipussy Rex]

Oh wow wow wow wow. Were you aware that there was a Conan tv series? Lasted only a single season. Watched two episodes so far. It's not good. The acting, the sets, the music, the dialogue, the fight scenes, . . .. As awful as the show is, I expected worse. Can't wait to watch more.

Fine. Danny Woodburn didn't suck.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Reacher starring Hawkman (Alan Ritchman) as Jack Reacher, Willa Fitzgerald (from shows I haven't watched), and Detective Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin) as Capt. Finlay, with D-Day (Bruce McGill). I'm not so sure about Ritchman's portrayal, but he definitely has Reacher's physicality, unlike some people with a diminutive stature. Not that Cruise had the character down, either.

Watched some more episodes of Conan. It's still bad, but I've decided that the stories aren't any worse than the first season of Stargate SG-1.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Follow-up review of the '90s Conan tv show after finishing the series (only one season): I'm glad I watched it. Despite all its flaws, or perhaps because of all its flaws, it had charm. The series told the story of how Conan came to a new land and became king, but really it was about family, friendship, loyalty, and honor. Four strangers come together because of a common enemy and because they they learned to trust each other, protected each other, helped each other, even at personal risk, they overcame all obstacles and triumphed. Schmaltzy, sure, but who doesn't like a little schmaltz every now and then.

That said, the last episode -- not the final episode, that was the episode before, but the last episode aired -- really pissed me off. Not only was it not in the right order (should have been episode four or five) but it was probably the best episode of the series. And it guest starred James Garner's Polaroid not-wife!

Mariete Hartley, for you kids out there. Mariette and James Garner made a bunch of very popular commercials for Polaroid. When Garner found out how little she was earning for those commercials (James was making a LOT of money for them), he refused to make any more until they paid her as much he was making, or put her under contract instead of daily wages. You can look it up online, I'm certain.

Fun fact, Hartley and Garner's on-screen chemistry was so good that people thought they were married in real-life. It got to the point that Mariette had t-shirts made that read, "I am not Mrs. James Garner," for herself, "I am not James Garner's child," for her infant, and "I am not James Garner," for her husband.

Anyway, Conan. Check it out on Tuvi or Freevee or some other commercial-funded streaming service.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Amazon Video has dug up The Kids in the Hall and produced a new season. Episode 3 is one of the darkest shows I've seen. Seriously. Makes me yearn for the male full-frontal nudity of Episode 1.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Back when it came out I watched and enjoyed The Book of Boba Fett, mostly for Ming-na Wen, but I knew it for what it was: escapist entertainment. And/Or isn't Boba Fett, in fact, I'm surprised it's on Disney. And I'm astounded Kathleen Kennedy allowed something of this quality to be aired, let alone produced.

[Oedipussy Rex]

"Andor"

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Oh yeah, season 2 of The Bad Batch starts Jan. 4.

[rredmond]

How many Star Wars shows are there??!!! Wow.

[Kersus]

"Andor"

What do you think of it so far? I'm mostly bored but it's nice to have something pedantic sometimes to drone in the background or fall asleep to. Like Rings of Power or that Game of Thrones prelude. Or Dollface, which is actually sorta charming after awhile.

[Oedipussy Rex]

"Andor"

What do you think of it so far? I'm mostly bored but it's nice to have something pedantic sometimes to drone in the background or fall asleep to. Like Rings of Power or that Game of Thrones prelude. Or Dollface, which is actually sorta charming after awhile.

Best Star Wars show/movie in decades. Better than The Clone Wars, and I liked The Clone Wars. It's up there with Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back (the original cuts, not the re-release/re-edit garbage). (And it's about more than Han Solo shot first.) (On a different forum at the time of the re-releases, a woman posted that Lucas said that these were his original vision for the movies and that it took this long for technology to catch up, and she was having a hard time coming to the realization that the visionary who played such a significant role in forming who she would come to be as an adult was just a hack.)

If I had to rank my top 5 Star Wars,
1) Star Wars - The one that started it all. A simple, straight-forward story of Good vs. Evil done well.
2) The Empire Strikes Back - Not so simple or straight-forward, anymore, but still done very well. It's a better film than Star Wars, but because of it depends on the first movie, it comes in second.
3) Andor - Yes, above The Return of the Jedi. No fan service. No pandering. Great storytelling, three-dimensional characters, beautiful cinematography, character arcs that make sense . . ..
4) The Bad Batch - Because I'm a big softy. Might change with season 2.
5) The Clone Wars - Best portrayal of Anakin. In the second prequel we learned that Anakin and Obi-wan were good friends. Because they said they were good friends. In The Clone Wars we learned that Anakin and Obi-wan were good friends. Because we were shown that they were good friends.

Preemptive rebuttals:
The Return of the Jedi - A half decent movie -- the first half. And that's a bit sullied with how is Luke now a Jedi? Also, ewoks can burn in a fire.

Rogue One - So what if it answered the question of how the plans of the Death Star were obtained? It wasn't a question I ever asked and it wasn't a story that needed to be told. "But it corrected the exhaust port plot-hole." Who cares? I never had a problem with a space station the size of a moon built by galactic bureaucracy (likely with slave labor) having a critical flaw in its design. Hell, Sherman tanks were built by a USA-sized bureaucracy and are small enough that if they were meteors, they'd vaporize upon entering an atmosphere, and those things were deathtraps. No exhaust port needed. Rogue One is a crappy movie where the only character with anything resembling an arc is the the frickin' droid, and it was programmed that way.

The Mandalorian - I liked it but it was too uneven and too fan-service-y in the later episodes.

Legos Star Wars - Never seen any.