It's no secret that I generally despise Mark Miilar as both a person and a creator. Every dictionary entry for the word "pander" should be accompanied by a picture of Millar wearing his sickening "Who, Me?" grin.
BUT...I might actually give this a fair chance when it premieres one month from now:
https://youtu.be/TY3IAqm-gpECan the showrunners turn poop into gold? We shall see.
Interesting. Good trailer. Probably not a show I would enjoy but that doesn't mean it isn't good. We shall see. Thanks for the link.
I'm curious, Stile, what is it about the premise that you seem to find off-putting?
And FTR, I forgot to mention in my opening post that I have no emotional investment in the comic book source material. In fact, I haven't read a single issue (and the art's by the great Frank Quitely, so that should give everyone an idea of how much I dislike Millar in general.)
My problem is I am a hopeless romantic. I like happy stories. It doesn't mean that I don't appreciate deeper stories with characters who are struggling. I do. Nevertheless I like watching characters who overcome in spite of their flaws. Lately it seems to me the attitude has been to portray flawed characters as "succeeding" when they only fail somewhat instead of a lot. That's how the trailer struck me, not as people overcoming adversity but sort of muddling through and not succeeding mostly with the occasional minor success but mostly failing. Conventional wisdom seems to be that characters and storylines like this are more relatable as that is how most people see their life. Well it's not how I like to view my own life. My heroes are those like Superman and Captain America who despite flaws maintain their heroic ideals. I can't live like them but I can admire the attitude that refuses to give up and accept "reality" and chooses to do the best for others no matter the personal cost. That aspect at least I can try to live out in my personal life.
Whew that got out of control and became a rant pretty quick. I thought about editing it but decided to just leave it.
Anyway I am intrigued by the character development and interaction but what I can see from the trailer suggests that I would find the show depressing. I hope I am wrong.
I finally saw the trailer, and it looks pretty compelling, honestly.
That being said, the only real original Millar property I'm familiar with is the Kingsmen film, which has a really interesting premise, then kind of goes off the rails for me towards the end (Don't even get me started on the sequel).
I've not read any of his writing.
If its anything like Kingsmen, I'll likely wait until I hear how people are receiving it and jump on if its positive. The time investment for a bingeable series is something I have to take seriously so its not wasted.
I agree, GL, the trailer does make it look compelling. I'm also impressed by the look of the show -- the budget must be astronomical.
Oh no doubt. Netflix has been swinging for the fences with their original content lately, moreso than Amazon, I think.
I just tried to watch the first episode.
I couldn't even get all the way through. I gave up after 21 minutes.
I haven't seen such a waste of money and craftsmanship since Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi.
Mean-spirited, paternalistic, derivative, and worst of all -- boring.
And the acting -- oh, Gods, so awful.
Ah, well, I gave it a chance.
I'm still interested in reading what the rest of you think.
Oh, its out now? I'll have to check it out. I may have some free time this weekend to watch it on my phone.
OK, so I just did watch the first ep. I actually made it through the entire thing.
Didn't have a problem with the acting - in fact, I enjoyed some of the lead players of the show.
Without going into any spoiler territory, I'll agree with the Salon review in that it's someone else's copy version of a Super team, an analogy I found to be spot on.
Ann, I think you summed it up in one word - Boring. I'd also add a tad predictable. I got to the scene where they were having dinner and I was checking my phone totally losing attention and trying to figure out where I'd seen the actors before. (Often on these super-shows, if the writing is bad, my mind starts to wander and I start thinking about how I can recast the actors in a Legion show, which is exactly what I ended up doing for Titans season 2).
The plot and pacing was backwards of what it should have been. If they had started with the fight at the end of the first episode and worked their way back to it, I would have been much more invested in an unfamiliar world of supers. But I got to a point where I didn't care what happened next. The most interesting character to me was drunk and in the first episode for all of about three minutes, but I'm not interested enough to find out more.
I haven't yet watched The Boys on Amazon, and keep meaning to, as I've heard a lot more consistently good about that show, so I'll give that a chance while I'm bracing for Titans S3.
I'd be interested in hearing and discussing with someone who has gone farther in this show.
GL, the dinner scene was exactly the point where I decided I couldn't watch anymore. LOL
I, too, would be interested to hear from anyone who made it past the first episode.
I haven't watched the show but I came across this short video review/comment. The guy is a comic-store owner so brings a slightly different perspective, but he actually liked it as opposed to the other views above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK1XFt7333s
Thanks for that link stile! I guess the summary of that review would be "if you liked the source material, you'll like the show" which is fair enough, I guess.
I totally get that the original superhero comics came about during the 30s and in the war and all that. The problem that I have with how they are presenting this show is that there were apparently extremely high powered supers by todays standards created in the 20s/30s. Yet the world is as it is in 2020 is the same. There is no way that would happen, and that was another element of why I didn't grok the show. Watchmen (both the book and the HBO series) did a MUCH better job with that, and Perch (the reviewer) compared Legacy favorably to Watchmen, which I did not think was apt.
Also when I'm listening to a podcast or watching a show like this, if I hit the accelerated playback feature on the player, its either because I have a backlog of episodes I'm trying to get through, or I'm just trying to get through the episode. This situation was the latter.
So, I'll start a separate thread on this, but my oldest daughter just showed me Invincible on Amazon Prime. She showed me the first episode, and I asked for her to play #2 before the credits finished.
Its the complete inverse of Jupiter's Legacy, from a story, pacing and character perspective. As long as you don't mind animated gore, its a STRONG recommend for reasons that will fast become obvious.
Put a fork in it. It's done.
No real surprise here given the pilot's sluggishness.
Of course they are still throwing cash at Millar for other properties. Isn't that the definition of insanity??
Yep.
But then, Millar is, after all, the man of whom Grant Morrison said, "He destroyed my f___ing faith in humanity."
LOL Morrison actually said that? Damn.
There's also a story about Millar insulting Alan Grant by saying, "I know what's going on in the streets, not like those older writers who live in castles." Alan retorted with, "You're the one who eagerly accepted my tea and my career advice!"
You only accept another man's tea if you're willing to have his baby...
