BTW, one of Amazon's previous pilots became an excellent series (it wasn't my favorite of the available choices, but the result was excellent): http://smile.amazon.com/Pilot/dp/B0...F8&qid=1421349808&sr=1-2&keywords=alpha+house
Well, it looks like the majority of people agreed with me on "The Man in the High Castle" -- Amazon approved it, so there will be more episodes. If an alternate history series sounds interesting to you, you should definitely check it out. As I said, the pilot can be viewed for free without any amazon prime membership.
I wanted to give a heads-up about something I just found out about. Technically, I knew it was coming, I just didn't realize it was coming so soon. I've previously raved about the awesome French television series called "Les Revenants" (aka "The Returned"), how great it is. And I still don't know when season 2 will come to the U.S. However, tomorrow night, A&E's English language remake will be premiering. Now I cannot say if this will be any good, but you may want to check it out. I'll report on my opinion tomorrow night after I see it. Based on the following trailer, and the fact that the first episode has the same title as the French version, I'm guessing that A&E is leaning towards a relatively faithful translation. Anyway, it looks to be every bit as creepy and unnerving as the French series was/is. I really hope so.
BTW, I just found this also: The trailer for season 1 of the original: And a teaser trailer for season 2: The French-language version (no dubbing or subtittles) is available on Youtube for free. You can also stream it on Netflix (with subtitles).
I watched the first episode last night... all I can say is that the American series does nothing much new, but it has its highlights. Note that one of the major characters in the show is the town it takes place in, itself. And I have to say that the town indoors and outdoors, even the sets, all look nearly identical to the original. A lot of attention was paid to the details to the extent that there's even one actor, the guy who plays Simon, who is made up to look almost identical to the French actor who played the same character. I did like a couple of the actors a lot -- the young actress who plays Camille, India Ennenga -- I recognized her from the HBO series Treme (which she, along with the entire rest of the cast, was superb), and she's certainly good in the role. And Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who plays Rowan, is also quite good. On the negative side, I found the young actor who plays Victor less... creepy. In the French series, he is SUPER creepy -- he doesn't even have to act much, he just has this look... like you know something just is not right with him. Then again, he could get better as the series progresses. EAch episode will focus more on different characters and story threads, and maybe when they start focusing more on his story that I'll realize why they chose him for the role. Maybe they purposefully were trying to get him to seem more innocent as a different interpretation. But we'll see. Anyway, if you can only watch one version, I'd recommend the original. If you've seen the original, then watching this series might be a good way to refresh your memory of the story in time for season 2. That's really why I'm going to watch it. /edit BTW, Victor is the 'kid' in the teaser trailer for season 2, and the kid in the middle of the highway overlooking the dam, when the bus goes over the edge. Because of how long it took to film the second season, the delays because of the weather, and so on, he actually looks much older than he does in the first season. That's one problem of using young actors, is that they get growth spurts, and even in as little as 1 or 2 years, they can change so much. To see how tall he is in the teaser trailer, while understandable, is just a bit odd. I think his small size and youth is part of what made him feel so creepy in season 1 -- like he knows more about what's going on than someone his age ought to. As a taller kid... he just doesn't seem quite as creepy..
I've only watched one episode so far but if the rest are anywhere near as good, the new "Daredevil" series on Netflix is outstanding. I wish I wasn't so busy tomorrow, or I'd probably binge-watch all of the rest (as it is, I stayed up far too late watching it). /edit And btw, it's obvious that it takes place after the events in "The Avengers". Anyway, here's a taste:
I finished watching the series this afternoon. I think that the quality was fairly consistent. The story was satisfying and dark, violent, and a bit bloody. I wouldn't recommend it for younger kids. I will say that it's VERY different from any of the other Marvel productions. The story is a lot more grounded -- other than Daredevil's ridiculously heightened senses, it's pretty much a straight-forward noire crime story, dealing with corruption and drug dealers, and human trafficking, and so on. Vincent D'Onofrio makes for a great Kingpin (they never actually use that name from the comic books, but having been a fan of Daredevil back in the 1980's, it was obvious that's who he was supposed to be). Because of the 13 episode format, they were able to spend a lot of time making many of the characters real and memorable. Anyway, I can't wait now for next season.
I may be the exception rather than the rule, but I hope they keep delivering whole seasons at once rather than the stupid one episode at a time until you have to spend half of each episode on the "previously on this stupid show" stuff. But I did not find it particularly enjoyable. It was certainly not bad, but it is pretty rough at this point. I expect future seasons will ground it more and give some actual depth to the characters. (I mean face it, Fisk has exactly zero personality. Same for Murdock.)
Fisk has lots of personality, but he's very tightly wound. D'onofrio shows a lot in the character's hands and mouth and eyes than in his actions. Watch him in the mirror, and watch how sometimes his hands shake, and how he smiles when he goes into a rage. I think you learn a lot about the character by how he deals with the various people in his life. The problem with Murdock is that his eyes are nearly always covered, so you have to watch his mouth and the rest of his mannerisms. Like Fisk, he's also very tightly controlled. It's not a lack of personality, but the fact that he has to keep a lot of different secrets.
I suppose I am the minority in this then. Oh well. I like the "Whole Season in a Day" concept enough to ignore my petty gripes. I think any good science fiction or fantasy series does poorly in the first season because they are trying not to overwhelm the Seasons to follow. Deliver too much good content at the start and people tend to hate the rest of the series. I recently watched all of "Dexter" and was impressed by the concept. I had my gripes, but in context they were few and too insignificant top outweigh the positives. Like Daredevil, it was one of a few series made that is clearly not made purely for children.
I also watched Dexter about a year ago -- I never watched it while it was on TV, but I discovered it later on Netflix. I liked the early seasons the best. If you like series that are more adult, there's a few that I could recommend, but the one that comes to mind, seeing as how you liked "Dexter", is "Six Feet Under". It's one of these series that when you hear the description, you think 'I'd never like that', but it actually was really good. The guy who plays Dexter, Michael C. Hall was one of the co-stars in it. It's about a family that runs a funeral home. And yeah, it doesn't sound that great, but it really is.
Orphan Black season III premiers tomorrow -- and you can watch Season I for free today only on Amazon Video (no Prime account required!) If you're into sci-fi on any level, watch it while you can. It's one of the two best shows Syfy has put on the air in the last decade. (The other being Continuum, if you're curious.)
I've previously recommended both shows, but of the two, "Orphan Black" is the better of them. I think that story in "Continuum" became a bit of a mess, honestly. They kept adding characters and different factions and duplicate people from different timelines. And they've even said that effects of people's actions are simply unpredictable (they should have known that from the start, honestly). And yet, knowing that the effect of your actions is unpredictable, the story is still going on and on. If they kept everything a lot simpler, I think you'd have a more interesting story. If your premise is that anything you do is irrelevant, that's when the story is done. As far as "Orphan Black" is concerned, everyone ought to give it a try. It has a great first episode that hooks you right from the start. One of the problems with it, imho, is that it deals with contemporary legal issues (in addition to the science) -- the problem with that is that this stuff actually is moving faster in reality than it is in the story (especially the legal aspects, so some of the legal questions as far as ownership of genetic data has become law after the show started, hence some of the legal issues in the show seem silly now because they've been settled in a much more sensible way (ie. you can't own any of the genetic data that makes up an actual person -- since the show started, a company had actually tried it and failed). That's always the danger when trying to root your science fiction in the near future -- it's too easy to become irrelevant.
BTW, "Daredevil" was renewed for another 13 episodes. Also, Netflix is supposedly going to be producing 3 other comic book movies ("Luke Cage", "Iron Fist", and "Jessica Jones"). I'm mostly unfamiliar with the first two, and I've never heard of the third before (then again, there was only a brief period where I was reading Marvel comics, so that's not a surprise). An update on "Les Revenants" -- it's supposedly premiering in France in the fall of this year. When it will appear in US TV, I have not been able to find out.
Re: Marvel shows http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/150408.html http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/150410.html I'd heard of most of these, but it's still amusing
Wait. Luke, Jessica, and Iron are all getting individual shows? That's...bizarre. Seems like they'd do much better as a single show for all three. Basically, Luke Cage is a blaxploitation character with unbreakable skin (read: very limited invulnerability) and superhuman strength. Iron Fist is a Fung Fuxlpoitation character with peak-human strength/speed/agility, the Vulcan Mind Meld, limited healing touch, and the Iron Fist attack, which is basically your typical chi-infused superpunch. Jessica Jones is a detective who also happens to be superhumanly strong and has poorly-defined limited invulnerability. Luke and Jessica are so similar in powers and style that they end up married, and Luke and Iron First are best buddies and own a freelance heroing business together. Like I said, not sure why these are three separate shows. Then again, they had freaking Howard the Duck at the end of the Guardians movie, so Cog only knows what they're shooting for...
A bit off-topic: When I mentioned "Master of Kung Fu" elsewhere, someone suggested that I was confused, and I meant "Iron Fist". Apparently I was not confused. It was a different Comic book, and a different character: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang-Chi He certainly was not an A-lister, but I liked his comic.
A bit of stuff you missed here. Honestly, I don't know that much about Luke Cage, but Iron Fist and Jessica Jones have extremely massive potential. Calling Iron Fist a "Fuxploitation" character, while amusing, does not do service to his rich backstory, which was slightly (and potentially moderately, depending on a certain character) alluded to in Daredevil. His universe is far deeper into Marvel Magic than most, which might just be a good way to get audiences ready for Dr. Strange. Jessica Jones, on the other hand, is a chance for Marvel to do a detective show, and if it's in the least bit like the Superman TV show Lois and Clark, count me totally in for that. Also, to grant your wish, all 4 (including Daredevil) will meet up together in their own mini-series called The Defenders.
