TV/Movies Megathread

[viper37]

It's not clear whether Paramount's execs just liked those ideas, or whether they decided to make a show that would drive B5 off the air so as to maintain their monopoly on US space operas.

it can easily be both.

[Josquius]

Babylon 5 is a thoroughly Meh show so it's not something I'm too interested in, but from what I gather is the case (the view held by the guy behind B5 too) is the DS9 ripped off B5 stuff is largely coincidence.
The worst blame seems to be that the money men for DS9 who were aware of B5 didn't tell the DS9 developers about it. Which could be seen to be immoral in itself.

[grumbler]

Babylon 5 is a thoroughly Meh show so it's not something I'm too interested in, but from what I gather is the case (the view held by the guy behind B5 too) is the DS9 ripped off B5 stuff is largely coincidence.
The worst blame seems to be that the money men for DS9 who were aware of B5 didn't tell the DS9 developers about it. Which could be seen to be immoral in itself.

JMS definitively DID believe that DS9 ripped off his B5 presentation to Paramount.  What he noted was that he had talked to Berman and Pillar, the showrunners, and believed them when they said that they were never shown the B5 presentation.  But he believes that the Paramount execs steered Berman and Pillar into choices that would confuse audiences as to which show was which (including the title of the series).

We'll never know, of course, but the similarities are too numerous to be believably coincidental.

[celedhring]

Babylon 5 is a thoroughly Meh show so it's not something I'm too interested in, but from what I gather is the case (the view held by the guy behind B5 too) is the DS9 ripped off B5 stuff is largely coincidence.
The worst blame seems to be that the money men for DS9 who were aware of B5 didn't tell the DS9 developers about it. Which could be seen to be immoral in itself.

JMS definitively DID believe that DS9 ripped off his B5 presentation to Paramount.  What he noted was that he had talked to Berman and Pillar, the showrunners, and believed them when they said that they were never shown the B5 presentation.  But he believes that the Paramount execs steered Berman and Pillar into choices that would confuse audiences as to which show was which (including the title of the series).

We'll never know, of course, but the similarities are too numerous to be believably coincidental.

Given my experience (granted, not in the American industry) I find hard to believe that Berman and Pillar were not aware of B5 and that all the similarities were due to execs astutely manipulating them. That's just not how the sausage is made.

[Sheilbh]

Given my experience (granted, not in the American industry) I find hard to believe that Berman and Pillar were not aware of B5 and that all the similarities were due to execs astutely manipulating them. That's just not how the sausage is made.

Don't know about the US - but in the UK I'd assume that saying "obviously those guys didn't know anything but they were probably getting info from unnamed executives" sounds like trying to say something that might be libel without the risk of getting sued for libel

[celedhring]

Finished season 2 of His Dark Materials. Again, it's not a great show, but it's based on a great book so there's still something there. One of my favorite things in the books is that it's essentially the story of a bunch of people that are assholes to their closest ones because they have their mighty-super-important-world-saving missions, and so far the show seems to capture that.

Also, Miranda's Lee Scoresby has ended up growing on me.

Now onwards to DS9.

[grumbler]

Given my experience (granted, not in the American industry) I find hard to believe that Berman and Pillar were not aware of B5 and that all the similarities were due to execs astutely manipulating them. That's just not how the sausage is made.

B5 was an independent effort, and only started production a short time before DS9 did, so B&P wouldn't have had a lot of time to steal concepts, even if they knew them.

For sure, DS9 copied what B5 was doing during the runs of the respective shows; B5 started as a show with a story arc, and DS9 didn't switch to that format until the third season.  The B5 crew got their own spaceship so they could go out into the galaxy, and then DS9's crew got the same.

But I regard them as two very different treatments of the same basic story.  It is the differences that are interesting, not the similarities.

[Sheilbh]

Finished season 2 of His Dark Materials. Again, it's not a great show, but it's based on a great book so there's still something there. One of my favorite things in the books is that it's essentially the story of a bunch of people that are assholes to their closest ones because they have their mighty-super-important-world-saving missions, and so far the show seems to capture that.

Also, Miranda's Lee Scoresby has ended up growing on me.

Yes. And I thnk the second season was far, far better than the first. I actually found it engaging for a start.

I'm not sure what it is that the adaptations keep getting kind of wrong.

[Eddie Teach]

Fargo season 4. It's remarkable how consistent this show has been.

[Josquius]

I couldn't get into fargo s2 at all. 3 and 4 are better?

[celedhring]

They're great, but it's the same kind of show. If you didn't like 1, you won't like the others either.

[Sheilbh]

The Sir Alex Ferguson documentary on Amazon is well worth it.

[Josquius]

They're great, but it's the same kind of show. If you didn't like 1, you won't like the others either.

1 was one of the best TV series ever.
2 though just... Meh. Didnt have the same hook.

[celedhring]

They're great, but it's the same kind of show. If you didn't like 1, you won't like the others either.

1 was one of the best TV series ever.
2 though just... Meh. Didnt have the same hook.

Can't really pick a favorite between 1-3. 4 I actually found a bit weaker.

[Habbaku]

2, 1, 3, 4 here. Four was...very weak in comparison to what came before, despite spots of the usual brilliance. Three was the beginning of the dip. I'm not sure the break between 3/4 helped Hawley figure things out. Maybe season 5, if there is one, will be a return to form, but I have serious doubts.