brm50diboll
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I haven't posted here in such a long time because I'd decided to wait until all of the things I'd mentioned in my last post had appeared so that I could comment on them in one post rather than spread out over multiple posts, as I have limited time for posts nowadays.
The third season of "The Orville" was quite enjoyable, and stronger in the science fiction and with less of the humor that had characterized the first two seasons, although it was still present, particularly in certain episodes, such as the season finale. It isn't clear at this point whether or not there will be a fourth season, but I would certainly watch it if it came.
The fourth season of "Westworld" was more confusing (to me, anyway) than the first three had been. The main theme of the fourth season was "the old switcheroo", in which the hosts used a virus carried by genetically engineered flies to control the behavior of the humans. The virus worked better on children than the adults, so after a generation, the hosts led by Charlotte had reduced humanity to slavery, but a rebellion by a few surviving humans who were resistant to the virus broke out, essentially reversing the events of the first season. The strongest point of the fourth season was the acting of Ed Harris, who played both the original human William, the Man in Black, and his host clone who worked for Charlotte. Every scene Ed Harris appeared in was wonderful. Unfortunately, (spoiler alert) both versions of the Man in Black get killed off. Also, the relationship between Evan Rachel Wood's new character of Christine and her old Dolores character, although clarified in the last two episodes, still seemed strained to me. And the Bernard and Maeve characters seemed peripheral to the primary storyline. The fourth season was certainly watchable, but when I heard HBO had cancelled the show rather than go forward with a planned final fifth season which all the primary actors had already signed contracts for, although I was disappointed, I'm not that surprised as the number of loose ends just seemed to keep expanding throughout the fourth season. Too bad. I would have enjoyed seeing what the creators had planned for the fifth season despite the unevenness of the fourth season.
To me, a similar situation has occurred with Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale", which had its fifth season. Since the show departed the events of the book in the first season and struck out on its own, there has (to me, anyway) been a lot of "padding" and slow plot progression in the subsequent seasons. It continued in this year's fifth season. The dithering of June over whether or not she would return to Gilead to rescue her daughter Hannah seemed forced and unnatural to me. I did like Serena's birth of her son Noah and her subsequent effective "captivity" by the Wheelers, essentially turning the tables on her and treating her as she had treated the handmaids in earlier seasons. The execution of Commander Putnam caught me by surprise and was certainly an interesting plot twist, especially as the man who ordered the execution, Commander Lawrence, then proceeded to make Putnam's widow his bride, demonstrating the twisted politics of the Gilead regime. But the pace seemed dreadfully slow to me. Anyway, it is apparent that Hulu had more faith in "The Handmaid's Tale" than HBO had in "Westworld" as Hulu had announced that despite falling ratings, there will be a sixth and final season of "The Handmaid's Tale" to wrap up all the plotlines and presumably show the final confrontation between June and the Gilead regime. I think Hulu made a better decision than HBO did. I will certainly watch the sixth season.
HBO is now showing the third and final season of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials". I have watched the first two episodes of the third season, which follows the events in the third of Pullman's novels "The Amber Spyglass". I find "His Dark Materials" quite enjoyable. I am glad to see James McAvoy back in his prominent role of Lord Asriel in the third season, as he basically had only one brief cameo appearance in the whole second season. Since I haven't read "The Amber Spyglass" (although I have read plot summaries of it), the conclusion of this saga won't seem as telegraphed to me as probably it will be to those who had read all the novels. I think the remaining episodes to come should be quite exciting. The decision to film these adaptations as a miniseries rather than as individual theatrical movies I think was a very good one. I don't see plot "padding" here. Instead, I think the time is actually needed to faithfully dramatize what is in the novels, and three movies would have required too much abridgement. Whole parallel dimensions are being described here and are well deserving of the extra time needed to flesh out what is going on.
Well, that is all from me for now. I don't especially have anything on the immediate horizon of science fiction that I am specifically waiting for at this time, which is unusual. Nevertheless, there are always ideas out there that come up and "catch my fancy", as I am always on the lookout for intriguing science fiction premises. If something does come up, I will certainly post about it. It may be a few months before I post anything new here again, though. |
Reply #456. Dec 08 22, 5:41 PM
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