TV/Movies Megathread

[Darth Wagtaros]

I thought the wheelchair was cool, but then I thought, "they built in missiles and darts but didn't give the woman a way to get up stairs with a hoverchair?"

The Meep was kind of cliche, but I thought it was funny.  But the rest of the plot was lazy. 

[Crazy_Ivan80]

As said. Blaming the diversity ignores the naffness of the episode on its own merits and how it managed to be silly completely unrelated to trans and disabled people.

I did like the "we all do" joke about weaponised wheel chairs... But it could have been handled less silly.

Being extra dumb on top of an already bad episode doesn't take away from the extra dumb being bad or making the episode especially bad.


Caveat, I haven't watched the episode.

Having a trans daughter or there being a scientist in a wheelchair could be perfectly fine plot points.
The clunky dialogue and cringe worthy monster design... Hard to deal with.

The main example of this kind of blaming diversity for shit being shit that comes to mind for me is witcher.
Triss being mixed race is irrelevant.
Its the rest of the production from series 2 on which really fucked up.
Yet the fandom is always raging about teh woke ruining it because Triss isn't a white woman with red hair and giant boobies on display

maybe if certain producers didn't shit on the fandom so much it wouldn't rage so much. After all, it's the fandom that's the reason these producers get to produce something since it's the fandom that made the product a valuable IP.

[Sheilbh]

As if Doctor Who has ever been anything but silly.

Yeah it is always silly - and fundamentally for kids. I thought it was good Exactly the sort of fun nonsense you want in the run up to Christmas.

It seemed very fun to me and very like you'd expect from Russell T Davies. And he is very much a "I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards" kind of a guy, I mean Queer as Folk, Years and Years, It's a Sin - plus earlier Doctor Who. Whether it's on "diversity" or plot points or emotion he is generally not subtle.

I actually thought Donna having a trans kid and rocket launched wheelchairs were pretty good.

[FunkMonk]

Found the trailer they should have used for Oppenheimer.

[Sheilbh]

Separately saw a poster on a bus for a new Disney kid's film for Christmas - and I'd never heard of it/had no idea it was coming out.

It reminds me of Blue Beetle - I'm not necessarily the market for the film but normally I'd expect to at least have half an awareness of a big upcoming Disney animation. Not sure if it's SAG or if streaming has kind of ruined the marketing of films too.

Given the timing it feels like a cinematic release now aimed at getting people watching with their family at home over Christmas - which seems odd...Maybe that's where the money is - desperate parents being hounded by kids into signing up for Disney Plus?

[The Brain]

Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed, S1. This is a really weird documentary. If you have any kind of experience with church/cult true crime documentaries, you know that the competition is fierce. Unless the church is really fucked up it doesn't really cut it in today's documentary marketplace. It was only partway through the third episode (of four), when an interviewee with a totally concerned look mentioned "the smoking, the drinking, the sex", that I realized that the makers of the documentary have to be Christians, and likely Pentecostals. Apart from the pedophilia of the boss's father and its coverup (which could have made a perfectly fine documentary in its own right), the "accusations" are inredibly tame: that the church is a business (gasp!), that they use naive volunteers for labor (no way!) and that some pastors have - wait for it - affairs with consenting adults! There was some hamfisted damage control regarding modern day sexual assault but no worse than many big organizations today. I waited 4 fucking hours for the documentary to start but it never took off. The makers should watch Tiger King; you have to constantly keep building the weird and shocking. When you reach the point where you can't build any more you wrap it up, you don't keep it going for hours. Jesus Christ.

[Josquius]

On russel t Davis and subtly... True.
I remember when sherlock first came out I was quite annoyed by a bit that was always done where characters would assume they're a couple.
The way it was done... Little old ladies and clearly working class guys all conmenting on it in such a kind way that just seemed really off.

Separately saw a poster on a bus for a new Disney kid's film for Christmas - and I'd never heard of it/had no idea it was coming out.

It reminds me of Blue Beetle - I'm not necessarily the market for the film but normally I'd expect to at least have half an awareness of a big upcoming Disney animation. Not sure if it's SAG or if streaming has kind of ruined the marketing of films too.

Given the timing it feels like a cinematic release now aimed at getting people watching with their family at home over Christmas - which seems odd...Maybe that's where the money is - desperate parents being hounded by kids into signing up for Disney Plus?

I think it's the changing media landscape that's doing it.
Until a decade or so ago a new Disney film would be promoted like crazy. The A lister doing a voice paraded around every talk show, mcdonald's advertising toys based on the film, advertising galore.
These days... You don't really get that.

[Sheilbh]

Russell T Davies doesn't have anything to do with Sherlock I don't think

Yeah you're probably right. It still seems weird - presumably those films are intended to be big earners for Disney.

[HVC]

Risk analysis. Are the marketing costs going to be recouped in theatre? No? Then why bother. Will the film make more in the theater, marketing, and streaming, or just lacklustre theatre and streaming. Marketing is damn expensive, even ignoring hollywood accountings inflated numbers.

Also, kids don't watch tv, and parents aren't the ones making kids go. Most of the ads are probably YouTube and instagram/tiktok driven. I doubt those algorithms affect the childless amongst us.

[Josquius]

Russell T Davies doesn't have anything to do with Sherlock I don't think

Yeah you're probably right. It still seems weird - presumably those films are intended to be big earners for Disney.

Mixed him up with Moffat. 

[HVC]

I give Moffatt some leeway because of coupling

[Darth Wagtaros]

Rewatched the Guardians of hte Galaxy Holiday special.  Love it.  The song about Santa and his flamethrower is still great.

Plus it had Gobots and Kevin Bacon.

[Admiral Yi]

So the Downton Abbey movie is just the old episode about the royal visit padded out to two hours.  Gyp.

[The Brain]

Swedish state television is airing a major documentary series on Swedish history: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29553855/ It's available here, though AFAIK there's no English subtitles: https://www.svtplay.se/historien-om-sverige It's impossible to make a series on the subject today without facing a whinefest from various quarters, but so far (I've seen three episodes) I haven't gone apoplectic. There's always nitpick opportunities, and when you have one hour to cover for instance the entire Viking Age there's always gonna be alternative priorities that would have made at least as much sense, but overall the show seems evidence-based.

[celedhring]

Separately saw a poster on a bus for a new Disney kid's film for Christmas - and I'd never heard of it/had no idea it was coming out.

It reminds me of Blue Beetle - I'm not necessarily the market for the film but normally I'd expect to at least have half an awareness of a big upcoming Disney animation. Not sure if it's SAG or if streaming has kind of ruined the marketing of films too.

Given the timing it feels like a cinematic release now aimed at getting people watching with their family at home over Christmas - which seems odd...Maybe that's where the money is - desperate parents being hounded by kids into signing up for Disney Plus?

I'm not in the target audience, but this one has an air of sameness that it feels like ChatGPT production. It has also  failed at the US box office.

I feel like Disney has become prey of movie Dutch disease. They tripled down on their franchises and formulas, and now people are starting to get tired of them and they have nothing else.