Topic: The TV Show Thread

@KALofKRYPTON i would say at the end of the day it's the BBC that decides to overall look, look feel and direction, if they are happy with what he is doing then they wouldn't interfere but if they wasn't they would and i think they did, hence the new producers and the year long gap

as for them leaving i never believed that, i know a lot of people did but it would have been a PR nightmare to just drop them after one series and the BBC can't afford that, better to place a overseer there and make sure he doesn't go too far (which is what i think they did)

also the viewing numbers are in and currently it's sitting at just under 5 million, that's...not good

@FullbringIchigo Nothing has changed though. They've used a slightly improved budget on location filming and upgrading the TARDIS a bit. I watched through most of last season recently, it really isn't markedly different.

Other than a swift regeneration and regime change should the figures not improve - I really don't see the BBC even attempting to make any significant changes to the current Doctor Who series to 'right the ship'.

@KALofKRYPTON it's not the lowest numbers to be fair ( i think Capaldi had the lowest numbers of new Who) but a lot of people gave up during the last series and i don't think they have done enough to bring them back, they have improved it though

@KALofKRYPTON I really enjoyed Dracula. Like you say, it is Gatiss all over but that is definitely no bad thing!

I had no problem with the dialogue at all either but did enjoy the few dark humorous lines in there. The guy playing the Count is fantastic and the main nun is brilliant too. I'm looking forward to part two tonight.

I also finished watching the BBC's version of His Dark Materials over Christmas.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and thought the cast were great. The CGI was well done without being too over the top as well. The parallel story was a bit odd and seeing as the series was the first part of the trilogy it felt a little underwhelming at the end as it didn't really feel like the end of a series with so much still to tie together.

@Thrillho I've been watching that also. I've only got a couple of episodes left. I've only found it ok though, nothing special or anything like that. Not quite sure why but it's I've just been watching it just get to the end, and not because I've been enjoying it. 🤷‍♂️

Finished Dracula last night.

I've seen (and enjoyed) my share of self-indulgent tripe in my time - but Gatiss and Moffat really have topped it all.

That was terrible.

I take my hat off to Dolly Wells, she is by far the highlight of the whole thing; and indeed was her character Agatha Van Helsing - who could have made quite a good anchor for a supernatural monster anthology series of some sort, perhaps even with elements of this mess of an adaptation.

@KALofKRYPTON The first episode was great, the second good, but by god the third one was awful. I’ve not seen many positive things about that final episode and rightly so.

@Thrillho The first was probably the better one of the three, but none of them were particularly good.
Overall that is truly one of the worst adaptations of anything I've seen recently.

Another one I watched on Netflix in the post-Crimbo period was Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer which was just a bonkers three part documentary.

These real life crime pieces can get dragged out a bit but this was well paced, the right length, and just an utterly crazy story. Well worth a watch.

I only really wanna see Dracula as I note that it is in UHD on the iPlayer.

@KratosMD Conversely - I felt that Legends became a far better thing for the farce and once they'd dispensed with Rip (casting for which I'll never forgive! )
They manage to largely avoid the morose and formulaic nature of the rest of the Arrowverse shows, which tend to feel like they're all just doing the same thing; apart from Batwoman, that's just straight up terrible.

Started on the newest and final season of The Deuce over the weekend. It remains a fantastic show top to bottom and even in the newest season, the shift to the mid eighties is handled well complete with the much storied rise in HIV/AIDs without feeling cliched. It really is great.

I caught a few episodes of Messiah too - which is a much better thing than I expected.

Doctor Who looks to be going down the path that some spoilers/leaks flagged up. The second episode of the season was quite a bit weaker than the first and felt stuffed to the brim.

@KratosMD I get where you're coming from. Team ups are always a difficult thing to manage - especially with some of the most powerful characters available (Firestorm, Atom) on hand.

I remember the first rumours of a Rip Hunter show, I was really looking forward to it since the showrunners were going all in on The Flash and circulating hubbub about Booster Gold; I was fully expecting something in line with Geoff Johns' 2007 Booster run.
Then Darvill was cast and more details emerged. To say I was bitterly disappointed is an understatement

@KALofKRYPTON did you see the numbers for Spyfall Part 2, they were lower than Part 1 was, if this keeps up it doesn't bode well for the future of the series

@FullbringIchigo That's quite surprising. I guess it was on sooner after episode 1 than people were expecting.
I guess the iPlayer figures will have to tell the bigger story on that.

The upcoming episode looks like fairly standard fare, but I do wonder whether the Timelords are dead... again story arc may be a bit off-putting. 12's interactions on Gallifrey were some of the best of his run. I'm hoping that 13 will be travelling back to some recognizable points on Gallifrey as they resolve the Timeless Child thing. I also think that if the big lie is what was rumoured, that may really, really lose them viewers.

@KALofKRYPTON the issue is they gave the show to a guy who doesn't understand the show he is running, they need to dump Chibnall and get in some one else

@FullbringIchigo Every showrunner since the revival of Doctor Who has tried to put their own 'stamp' on it; leave some sort of legacy or make a sweeping set of changes and story decisions to pander to either their own ego's or simply to generate more publicity.

Chibnall's approach is worryingly reminiscent of John Nathan-Turner in that he abandoned previous writers and production staff. If he's not careful, Chibnall's legacy on Doctor Who could end up as tarnished as JNT's. (JNT did oversee some of my favourite Doctor Who, but the trend of reusing villains and calling back to older stores largely started with him).

@KratosMD
Cool. Have you seen any of Crisis?

@KALofKRYPTON yeah but remember what happened under JNT, the show was cancelled and i don't know if the show would survive that again

@KratosMD
They probably aren't - in fairness, you can find most of the stuff that's worth watching from Crisis on YouTube.