Tag Archives: series

Series premiere: Watchmen

The PolyBlog
November 27 2019

I knew that the Watchmen as a comic book genre was on the weird side, and I saw a version of it a few years ago (oops, it was 2009 apparently). So I thought I had an inkling of what to expect…superheroes, kind of weird ones, outlawed, but kind of doing the vigilante thing. Okay, I can work with that.

Instead, the new series version goes heavy on the alternate history, police officers wearing masks, and race wars. Umm, okay. Considering I’m watching the latest season of Black Lightning during an occupation, it didn’t feel a whole lot different. Particularly when the lead female cop wears an outfit an awful lot like Blackbird’s.

And at the end of the episode, all I could think was, “What the hell is going on?”. Okay, I sort of get it. A race war in Tulsa in the 20s ignited a huge schism. Nixon is considered awesome. And the 7th Cavalry is a white supremacist organization that has “risen” again to challenge law and order. Except there isn’t anything shown that explains the law and order side or the white supremacist’s specific beef/trigger. The rallying cry other than race. There is almost NO backstory provided. Which is a huge problem to follow.

Don Johnson plays the head of the cops, and he’s pretty good. Spoiler alert though, he’s dead by the end of the episode. His daughter Angela is a go-get-em cop, wears a superhero outfit (FYI, she’s called Sister Night), and is played by Regina King. She also is awesome, and eminently watchable in most scenes, even if you can’t get a handle on her life — cop, superhero, mom, daughter. She has a huge list of roles on IMDB, most of which I haven’t seen, and I didn’t recognize her at all from Big Bang Theory. But she’s watchable.

The rest of the characters and actors? Relatively secondary. And no superheroes. I had no real idea what was going on, but sure, okay, let’s say the cops wear masks, they hunt a bad group, the bad group kills a cop, the cops retaliate in force, I kind of get all that. I’m okay with an alternate history, figure it out as we go, fine. But then there’s a scene with a Lord of the Manor who’s clearly nutters, dealing with loyal servants, celebrating an anniversary of something, and it HAS NO CONNECTION TO THE REST OF THE SHOW. It seemed like the start of a bad Monty Python skit.

I get that it is HBO. I get that renewal / continuing is a totally different business model. But I don’t know how many people beyond the hard-core fan types will stick around past Ep 1. I can’t even decide if I will watch, and I have a pretty high tolerance. I had the same problem with Doom Patrol and passed.

I did see some trailers for later in the series, and it seems a bit more normal in places. Not completely, but enough to give me a preview of something to follow.

Eeny meeny miny moe…Nope, I’m out too.

Series premiere: The Mandalorian

The PolyBlog
November 17 2019

Disney+ has its new Star Wars TV series called The Mandalorian taking place five years after Return of the Jedi. The Mandalorian, a renowned bounty hunter in the style of Boba and Jenga Fett, is working far away from the Galactic Core, and getting by collecting low-value bounties. It was a no-brainer to predict renewal.

I don’t normally give a full recap of the episode, but it is relatively necessary here to explain the plot. A new client offers a large sum to retrieve a 50-year-old package, and other than coordinates, they provide little else in the way of details. Upon arrival, the bounty hunter receives help from a local who wants the group of mercenaries who protect the package removed from the area. The mercenaries are many, he is just one, but the odds are evened out by another bounty hunter who shows up first — a droid with super fast gun reflexes. They end up working together, get to the package, and there are two surprises. The droid bounty hunter has been paid to kill the package, while he gets more money if it is brought back alive; equally, the package turns out to be a young creature of the same species as Yoda, a relative infant. The Mandalorian kills the droid, and the episode ends.

The show has been accurately described as almost a Western, and it has a very strong Western feel to it. Lone gunman rides into town, doesn’t say much, does his job, and rides out. And while that is a great premise, it is really hard to bond with the protagonist if all he does is look blankly at the audience. This is a problem for The Mandalorian because he doesn’t take off his helmet the entire time.

You might be thinking, “But there have been lots of characters with no face that have bonded with their audiences”, including androids and robots. True, yet in almost all cases, they give them other ways to communicate. Heck, even R2D2 had whistles to convey changes in emotions.

For me, it was a challenge in the episode. I like the plot, I like the action, but I find it really hard to care about the Mandalorian. Not that it matters, the show is already renewed for Season 2, and I have no doubt Disney will milk it for several seasons. I just hope there is more than a helmet to react to in the future.

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness (2014) – BR00171 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
November 16 2019

Plot or Premise

After falling in love (book 1), and hiding in the past (book 2), Diana and Matthew return to the present to start a family and figure out what is in the Book of Life.

What I Liked

This third book recaptures some of the mystery from the first book and tackles head-on the issue of the lineage of demons, vampires and witches. Gone are the long, loving descriptions of places, and instead, there are multiple action scenes, broad moving parts across multiple continents, confrontations with the Congregation, and a reckoning for some wayward players. More importantly, you get to see Matthew and Diana weave all of it into a family. It even rectifies one of the glaring gaps from book 2 regarding a young boy named Jack.

What I Didn’t Like

The true villain of the trilogy is revealed, as is a hidden hero. But while the villain is vanquished, the hidden hero who is around for most of book 2 and is revealed in book 3 ends up disappearing near the end. It left a feeling of incompleteness, as did two other villains who are not really dealt with at all, except politically.

The Bottom Line

An action-packed but not completely satisfying ending

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness (2014) – BR00170 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
November 14 2019

Plot or Premise

A witch and a vampire hide out in 1590 Europe while she learns to control her powers.

What I Liked

After timewalking from present day, Diana has to learn to live in Elizabethan England, adapt to the customs of the day, and attempt to blend in. Lots of historical figures pop in and out, friends of Matthew in the “School of Night”, and she feasts on the living history. But it is only when she is at Sept-Tours that the book really brings the same sense of place that the first book did. She learns about the nature of her witch powers from a coven, and her family grows in size, including a nephew named Gallowglass.

What I Didn’t Like

The sense of place that was so common in each of the locales in the first book is not as vivid, except in Sept-Tours with Philippe (Matthew’s father). In addition, the book drags on and on in places with hardly anything happening relative to the mystery of magic, rather than just politics of the day, yet there are two fairly important events regarding children that are practically ignored as commonplace (with seemingly no emotional impact at all). There are also major happenings that happen elsewhere in time, and you only hear about them as throwaway news, including the death of a significant character.

The Bottom Line

A slow middle book with no ending.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (2011) – BR00169 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
November 13 2019

Plot or Premise

A witch who has ignored her powers feels them re-awaken in Oxford as she does research on alchemy and encounters a vampire interested in the same book.

What I Liked

The story is far removed from the world of young magicians or young love. Instead, we see a budding partnership, collaboration and even romance blossom between Dr. Diana Bishop, hidden witch, and Matthew de Clermont, vampire. But it is the richness of every place and event that overwhelms the senses…Oxford comes alive, his castle in France is a presence all on its own, the changing relationship between Diana the witch and Ysabeau the mother-in-law vampire, and even the life in America with Diana’s aunts. Each segment is visual, sensual, tangible to the reader. Yet at the same time, it combines all the magical elements with DNA tests and the use of science.

What I Didn’t Like

The sheer magnitude of the story is hard to keep straight with all the characters and the various histories that intertwine. There is also not enough info about demons, while an abundance for vampires and witches. And the ending is basically “to be continued”.

The Bottom Line

A fantastic start to a fantasy series.