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| The Convalescent (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Series based on comic books:
Marvel:
Daredevil- This was a really well-done series. Excellent female characters (Karen the secretary, Vanessa the love interest, Elena the determined old lady, Gao the crime lord), which flesh out the canonical comic-book males (Matt Murdock, Foggy, Wilson Fisk), who can be human while the canonical figures start out rather black-and-white. Matt Murdock is particularly well done because though he is the superhero protagonist, he is not superhuman. He is a good fighter but he can be beaten and when he is wounded the marks will still be there 3 episodes later, knife-wounds breaking open if he tries to do too much, bruises still visible on his face, moving stiffly and not up to as much in the next fight. He can interpret sounds and smells and so on better than others but he's still blind and it's not perfect. Emotional consequences are not shrugged off; if someone lies, three episodes later they still aren't trusted by those they lied to. Matt Murdock's insistence on going and beating people up, and getting beaten up, is clearly shown to be obsessive and irrational; these decisions are questionable and should be questioned. And very well acted and produced; dark and scary. I'm glad it's been renewed and I'm sorry I've finished off the first season already.
DC:
All of these are considerably more cartoonish than "Daredevil", meant for a younger (I'm guessing) audience. They've done an interesting thing and pitched the 4 shows to different age-groups, trying for a spread across the whole demographic. These are in order of target-age group as far as I can guess:Flash
- Teen romance, well played by the engaging lead, Grant Gustin, and the equally engaging lead villain, Harrison Wells. Painted in very broad strokes. Made a point of introducing not only a gay super villain but also a gay heroic ordinary human, Captain Singh, who has a good relationship with his male fiancé. I particularly liked that in a teen-targeted show.
Arrow
- Mid-twenties bromance with girls. Spectacular protagonist, and filmed in Vancouver; the Queen mansion was filmed on Vancouver Island (I was sure I'd recognized it!) Engaging enough that I bought the 3rd season on iTunes, but there is a terrible hole in the show, which is the female lead, played by Katie Cassidy, who is cardboard. I have spent 2 seasons wondering why they haven't killed her off when they have killed off so many much more interesting characters. I will probably finish watching the 3rd season but honestly, I can't stand watching that actor.
Gotham
- Same age group as "Constantine" but for different tastes - for an audience who likes black-and-white moral tales. Not as good as Daredevil (Gotham = NY which makes the comparison inevitable). But doing something very different. For one thing, it's a cartoon where Daredevil is an attempt to make it real. One clearly-marked bisexual female character; more hinted at. Lush production, well acted. I haven't got round to watching more than the first few episodes though.
Constantine
- Early thirties audience, people old enough to have some real regrets. Really good so far (3 episodes in). Matt Ryan is excellent as the disreputable, entertaining, chain-smoking (so we know he's not morally trustworthy) protagonist who lives in the gray zone. He isn't as obviously bisexual as John Constantine is in the comics, and they seem to be setting up a romance with a woman, which I disapprove of because too obvious. But the series is still worth watching.
Science Fiction/Fantasy:
Orphan Black- The series that convinced me that Joss Whedon is not the only TV writer to watch.* Orphan Black is a SPECTACULAR SHOW, carried entirely by the excellent writing and the amazing, really amazing, lead actress. I am only part-way through the first season. Everyone should go watch Orphan Black right now. You will not be disappointed.
Game of Thrones
- I avoided watching this for the longest time because I read Sady Doyle's article on Tigerbeatdown, which pointed out that there was a lot of misogyny, sexism, rape as tool to motivate positive character change in women, and also racism in Game of Thrones. And then I read her follow-up article on a reaction to that article; and then I read her follow-up a couple of months later on the spectacularly brutal and violent personal threats she had been receiving by the thousands since she wrote the first article. And at this point I thought, I don't want to be in any way associated with any of the people who have been attacking Sady Doyle because eww, these people are creeps, so if they like Game of Thrones I likely won't. But eventually I started watching it anyway and although I wish it weren't, it is awesome. I am enjoying it very much indeed. Mostly because of Peter Dinklage/Tyrion Lannister, who has not raped anyone so far and is not particularly misogynistic either, though he may be racist. But also I like Catelyn Stark, and Ned Stark, and every other Stark. I gather it would be very foolish of me to get too attached to any Stark however. (So far only one is dead, but I'm only halfway through season 3).
*In fact, after Age of Ultron and Agents of Shield (though I like Agents of Shield), I have regretfully recycled my "Joss Whedon is My Master Now" T-shirt. Not that he is not skilled and tells good stories, but he has been toiling in the Marvel mines for a long time now, and I would like to see him telling his own stories again. I am just not the target market for 4-hour fight scenes (though, for some reason, I loved them in Mad Max).
Next week: British crime series; and miscellaneous other series.
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