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Fun With Netflix, Part 1
7 years ago
Journals on FA now are usually just advertising, and I don't find that very interesting as I am usually broke,anyway. So, I thought I would give people something hopefully interesting to read, at least before I post my availability for commissions , again.
I don't have a cable subscription and use my TV , usually as a second monitor for my computer. What I watch is strictly internet based, as I only pay for cable internet, and no other services. I am Cheap. So there are a lot of services available through the internet, but I tend to watch YouTube and Netflix mostly. I've had a Netflix Subscription since I think the early part of 2016 and watch it fairly regularly, but I think what I will do now is just comment and/or review some recent offerings I have watched on Netflix, and let other know about what I have watched and what I have enjoyed.
Lost in Space. Netflix recently offered up a remake of the 1960's CBS Television show, staring the Robinson Family, Their pilot Don West, their Robot and their stow-away (Secretly a spy) Dr. Zachary Smith. In the remake things are updated, with the broad strokes, but the reasons for the launching a family into space remain intact. The Show updates a lot of the visuals, and the style of acting isn't nearly as stilted as it was in the 1960's, The changes however did manage to keep the show fresh, and in the same mood of seriousness that the early first season of the 1960's show managed.
In the update, each colonist group or family is assigned a "Jupiter" ship that is their landing craft, and also their home upon landing. The original plan was that a "frame ship" called the Resolute transports the people and their various Jupiters to the newly established Earth colony of Alpha Centauri. The ship is attacked and it flees into jump space, and upon emergence is damaged and boarded by a hostile alien object, which wreaks havok inside the Resolute. Survivors flee into their Jupiters, and we follow the Robinson Family as they crash land on the glaciated slopes of an alien planet.
Differences in the new show from the old are that, now, Dr. Smith is no longer a spy, but a petty criminal, Stealing her sister's Identity until she is caught by the Resolute's crew after she on camera spaces a guy who threatens to expose her fakery to the captain. Caught, she is detained until the alien attack, whereupon the steals the badge of an injured Doctor Smith, and uses it to gain entry into his Jupiter, also containing two crewmen from the Resolute looking to abandon ship due to the aliens. The Robot in the show, rather than, a piece of hardware brought with them from earth is instead found in the wreckage of an alien ship by the youngest son, Will Robinson, who manages to repair it and bring it back with him to their family's crashed Jupiter.
The "science" in this science fiction show is dodgy, but that is overshadowed for me by the quality of the acting, as the family dynamics of the Robinson family feel very authentic. Dr. Smith, played by Parker Posey has created televisions most punchable villain, in the character of Dr. Smith, which contrasts with the appeal of the rest of the Robinson family. The Visual and effects are very good individually, though occasionally there are inconsistencies like Shots of a jupiter vibrating through a dense cloud layer, where a cut away showing it in the distance flying shows a clear sky.
Each Episode is around an hour long and there are 10 of them for the first season.
One Punch Man. I watch a fair amount of Anime on Netflix, but not a lot of Japanese humor works for me. This show is one of the exceptions, with it's take on Anime, and Western superhero conventions, it is a well observed parody of most Shonen anime, as well as a meditation upon achieving ultimate power. it's short, as series go, but the parodies of various genre conventions, as well as the absolutely lush animations of the often brutally short fight scenes, keep me amused. If you are amused by Superheroes, I could recommend this as a decent watch. Each episode is a half hour and there are 10 episodes total.
Star Trek:Deep Space 9. The follow up to the successful Star Trek: The Next Generation, this show was 8 seasons focused on the comings and going of a Star base newly acquired by the Federation, from a former occupying power that has left ill feelings all around. Assigned to this command is I think my favorite Star Fleet Captain, Benjamin Sisko.
The show ran for 8 seasons, but I am just starting the 6th season at the time of writing. Like all modern Star Trek shows, it started badly with the first season being kind of tepid, and not very good, but by the third season when Ronald Moore took over the leadership of the writer's room, the show picked up, with the addition of the new ship, the Defiant in the late Second season and the addition of Commander Worf in the fourth season.
At the time of it's initial run, there were charges of plagiarism leveled against it by J. Michael Straczinski, who had pitched Babylon 5, another station based science fiction television show, with heavy doses of politics, to Paramount before DS9 aired. Back then I was a rabid fan of Babylon 5, and sort of boycotted DS9, also as I wasn't a big fan of Captain Picard, preferring character development through pugilism as illustrated by the original Captain Kirk. But watching DS9 now, other that perhaps a broad similarity of premise, the differences are quite pronounced and the show only gained it's serial story structure mostly after the 3rd season, unlike Bab 5, which was serial to begin with.
Sisko has the most resolve, and spine of any star fleet officer, so far (and I don't count Star Trek : Discovery), but the supporting characters around the station are interesting to watch. Each Episode is an hour, and the entire 8 seasons is available.
Aggretsuko. This is another animated Japanese comedy, but quite strange. Imagine a comedy about office stress starring cute Sanrio characters. The main character Retsuko is a cute little Red Panda, and office lady that works in the accounting department of a trading company, who is plagued by a shitty boss and unreliable co-workers and who's only stress relief is renting a Karaoke booth at the end of the work day, alone to belt out Toxic death metal rants about her shitty day and her shitty boss. Sometime the stress gets so bad she goes into the ladies' room with her microphone and indulges in a session of death metal before counting to 10 and recomposing herself.
My watching this show was a case of seeing the notice for it pop up on the Netflix banner and I was intrigued as the style presented wasn't Anime per Se, but was strange/ cute Sanrio characters, and a jaggy font and a bit of the write up. It's a short series of only 12 episodes, each one about 20 minutes long, but it's amusing, though the initial novelty wears off, and it becomes a bit of a soap opera as Retsuko interacts with her co-workers. An interesting look into Japanese office culture.
Wakfu. I am an animator. As an animator I tend to watch a lot of animated content, especially on Netflix. I am not a fan of the formless Tumblr-style artwork that is pervasive on cable channels in the U.S. these days. I instead gravitate these days more towards older material, and anime, as I have always been an art snob, shunning primitivism, and a lack of polish. ("punk" sensibilities are an anathema to me) While poking around YouTube looking for some animation examples for someone, I ran across clips of a French animated Television show. Some breathtaking action sequences, I became curious and started to poke around.
Wakfu is a show based on a collectible card game, the second of two made by "Ankama". From these two card games came a very extensive background and mythology, and as such the show, which starts off light and fluffy, gets deeper and darker as the show progresses. The cast of characters is fairly stable, but each character is given time to develop and learn. Relationships develop, or sour over time. The show is lushly animated in Flash according to the sources i can find, and has that smoothness found in most Flash cartoons, but with the layouts and an emphasis on rotations and a lot of "front to back" action, it seems far more cinematic. The pacing is French, which means to Americans, used to a steady increase in tension/action until the climax, will find the pacing "uneven", However it has a strong anime influence, including massive fight scenes, and extended, almost "dragon ball" style padding of dramatic events at the ends of seasons, when the stakes get to the point of "World Shattering". The displays of power also get near to the point of high end anime, especially in the later seasons.
Netflix has all three current seasons, plus the three Hour long Episodes of the OAV that should be watched between the Second and Third season. The first two seasons are 26 episodes each, the OAVs are, as said before three, one hour episodes making one long story, and the Third season which is only 12 episodes. If any of you remember the earliest day of Nickelodeon, with cartoons like The Seven Cities of Gold, the feeling of adventure is similar, The show is presented as Dubbed, with a voice cast that is not terrible, though it changes between the OAV and the third season. The Character designs run the gamut from cute to unsettling, though most are humorous, having a style somewhere between French comics and Anime, and the movement is just delicious for this animator in most aspects. A couple of the world's races could be classed as "furry", so there is that. It takes a few episodes to hit it's stride in the first season, but after that if you let it, it may drag you in.
I will post more Netflix finds as I watch other series, but I would be interested in other recommendations you might have for shows there I might be interested.Look forward to hearing your thoughts.
I don't have a cable subscription and use my TV , usually as a second monitor for my computer. What I watch is strictly internet based, as I only pay for cable internet, and no other services. I am Cheap. So there are a lot of services available through the internet, but I tend to watch YouTube and Netflix mostly. I've had a Netflix Subscription since I think the early part of 2016 and watch it fairly regularly, but I think what I will do now is just comment and/or review some recent offerings I have watched on Netflix, and let other know about what I have watched and what I have enjoyed.
Lost in Space. Netflix recently offered up a remake of the 1960's CBS Television show, staring the Robinson Family, Their pilot Don West, their Robot and their stow-away (Secretly a spy) Dr. Zachary Smith. In the remake things are updated, with the broad strokes, but the reasons for the launching a family into space remain intact. The Show updates a lot of the visuals, and the style of acting isn't nearly as stilted as it was in the 1960's, The changes however did manage to keep the show fresh, and in the same mood of seriousness that the early first season of the 1960's show managed.
In the update, each colonist group or family is assigned a "Jupiter" ship that is their landing craft, and also their home upon landing. The original plan was that a "frame ship" called the Resolute transports the people and their various Jupiters to the newly established Earth colony of Alpha Centauri. The ship is attacked and it flees into jump space, and upon emergence is damaged and boarded by a hostile alien object, which wreaks havok inside the Resolute. Survivors flee into their Jupiters, and we follow the Robinson Family as they crash land on the glaciated slopes of an alien planet.
Differences in the new show from the old are that, now, Dr. Smith is no longer a spy, but a petty criminal, Stealing her sister's Identity until she is caught by the Resolute's crew after she on camera spaces a guy who threatens to expose her fakery to the captain. Caught, she is detained until the alien attack, whereupon the steals the badge of an injured Doctor Smith, and uses it to gain entry into his Jupiter, also containing two crewmen from the Resolute looking to abandon ship due to the aliens. The Robot in the show, rather than, a piece of hardware brought with them from earth is instead found in the wreckage of an alien ship by the youngest son, Will Robinson, who manages to repair it and bring it back with him to their family's crashed Jupiter.
The "science" in this science fiction show is dodgy, but that is overshadowed for me by the quality of the acting, as the family dynamics of the Robinson family feel very authentic. Dr. Smith, played by Parker Posey has created televisions most punchable villain, in the character of Dr. Smith, which contrasts with the appeal of the rest of the Robinson family. The Visual and effects are very good individually, though occasionally there are inconsistencies like Shots of a jupiter vibrating through a dense cloud layer, where a cut away showing it in the distance flying shows a clear sky.
Each Episode is around an hour long and there are 10 of them for the first season.
One Punch Man. I watch a fair amount of Anime on Netflix, but not a lot of Japanese humor works for me. This show is one of the exceptions, with it's take on Anime, and Western superhero conventions, it is a well observed parody of most Shonen anime, as well as a meditation upon achieving ultimate power. it's short, as series go, but the parodies of various genre conventions, as well as the absolutely lush animations of the often brutally short fight scenes, keep me amused. If you are amused by Superheroes, I could recommend this as a decent watch. Each episode is a half hour and there are 10 episodes total.
Star Trek:Deep Space 9. The follow up to the successful Star Trek: The Next Generation, this show was 8 seasons focused on the comings and going of a Star base newly acquired by the Federation, from a former occupying power that has left ill feelings all around. Assigned to this command is I think my favorite Star Fleet Captain, Benjamin Sisko.
The show ran for 8 seasons, but I am just starting the 6th season at the time of writing. Like all modern Star Trek shows, it started badly with the first season being kind of tepid, and not very good, but by the third season when Ronald Moore took over the leadership of the writer's room, the show picked up, with the addition of the new ship, the Defiant in the late Second season and the addition of Commander Worf in the fourth season.
At the time of it's initial run, there were charges of plagiarism leveled against it by J. Michael Straczinski, who had pitched Babylon 5, another station based science fiction television show, with heavy doses of politics, to Paramount before DS9 aired. Back then I was a rabid fan of Babylon 5, and sort of boycotted DS9, also as I wasn't a big fan of Captain Picard, preferring character development through pugilism as illustrated by the original Captain Kirk. But watching DS9 now, other that perhaps a broad similarity of premise, the differences are quite pronounced and the show only gained it's serial story structure mostly after the 3rd season, unlike Bab 5, which was serial to begin with.
Sisko has the most resolve, and spine of any star fleet officer, so far (and I don't count Star Trek : Discovery), but the supporting characters around the station are interesting to watch. Each Episode is an hour, and the entire 8 seasons is available.
Aggretsuko. This is another animated Japanese comedy, but quite strange. Imagine a comedy about office stress starring cute Sanrio characters. The main character Retsuko is a cute little Red Panda, and office lady that works in the accounting department of a trading company, who is plagued by a shitty boss and unreliable co-workers and who's only stress relief is renting a Karaoke booth at the end of the work day, alone to belt out Toxic death metal rants about her shitty day and her shitty boss. Sometime the stress gets so bad she goes into the ladies' room with her microphone and indulges in a session of death metal before counting to 10 and recomposing herself.
My watching this show was a case of seeing the notice for it pop up on the Netflix banner and I was intrigued as the style presented wasn't Anime per Se, but was strange/ cute Sanrio characters, and a jaggy font and a bit of the write up. It's a short series of only 12 episodes, each one about 20 minutes long, but it's amusing, though the initial novelty wears off, and it becomes a bit of a soap opera as Retsuko interacts with her co-workers. An interesting look into Japanese office culture.
Wakfu. I am an animator. As an animator I tend to watch a lot of animated content, especially on Netflix. I am not a fan of the formless Tumblr-style artwork that is pervasive on cable channels in the U.S. these days. I instead gravitate these days more towards older material, and anime, as I have always been an art snob, shunning primitivism, and a lack of polish. ("punk" sensibilities are an anathema to me) While poking around YouTube looking for some animation examples for someone, I ran across clips of a French animated Television show. Some breathtaking action sequences, I became curious and started to poke around.
Wakfu is a show based on a collectible card game, the second of two made by "Ankama". From these two card games came a very extensive background and mythology, and as such the show, which starts off light and fluffy, gets deeper and darker as the show progresses. The cast of characters is fairly stable, but each character is given time to develop and learn. Relationships develop, or sour over time. The show is lushly animated in Flash according to the sources i can find, and has that smoothness found in most Flash cartoons, but with the layouts and an emphasis on rotations and a lot of "front to back" action, it seems far more cinematic. The pacing is French, which means to Americans, used to a steady increase in tension/action until the climax, will find the pacing "uneven", However it has a strong anime influence, including massive fight scenes, and extended, almost "dragon ball" style padding of dramatic events at the ends of seasons, when the stakes get to the point of "World Shattering". The displays of power also get near to the point of high end anime, especially in the later seasons.
Netflix has all three current seasons, plus the three Hour long Episodes of the OAV that should be watched between the Second and Third season. The first two seasons are 26 episodes each, the OAVs are, as said before three, one hour episodes making one long story, and the Third season which is only 12 episodes. If any of you remember the earliest day of Nickelodeon, with cartoons like The Seven Cities of Gold, the feeling of adventure is similar, The show is presented as Dubbed, with a voice cast that is not terrible, though it changes between the OAV and the third season. The Character designs run the gamut from cute to unsettling, though most are humorous, having a style somewhere between French comics and Anime, and the movement is just delicious for this animator in most aspects. A couple of the world's races could be classed as "furry", so there is that. It takes a few episodes to hit it's stride in the first season, but after that if you let it, it may drag you in.
I will post more Netflix finds as I watch other series, but I would be interested in other recommendations you might have for shows there I might be interested.Look forward to hearing your thoughts.
If you're a fan of gritty westerns, and police (not procedural) in contemporary times: Longmire (it gets really crazy around season three). It's a complete run, now, finished up last year. Very compelling, and I'm only nominally interested in Westerns.
Wakfu is responsible for a "slow simmer" of fanart. For a while there was a MMO Dofus based on the same setting, entirely in French language, and loaded with puns, and I learned about Wakfu backwards, via Dofus. The animation is news to me. :)
So it's a computer game? I had thought it was a card game? Interesting.
B5 is still the better story, don't miss out on it.
I switched into one episode of R&S long ago, and hated falling asleep waiting for the inevitable gags to happen. to wake up to them not even happening... I remember missing out on some Tom&Jerry gags because I was busy laughing from the previous ones. timing is essential, much like with the early slapstick movies I devoured as a kid.
Though I still love BoJack more.