Superhero TV

[RottingCorpse]

Daredevil returns for season 2 trying to make The Punisher, who didn't well in two separate movie attempts, seem cool again.

Man, I hate Marvel.

[nacho]

Oh, good. Gotham is back.

Please...someone shoot me.

[nacho]

I stopped watching Gotham... But I can't escape the chattering about it in the geek-o-sphere. This whole season (the whole show, really) has been building to the Big Reveal of the Joker. Even though Bruce Wayne is still about 10 years away from becoming Batman.

I remain mystified by the idea that all the iconic Batman villains are all in their 30s and 40s while Bruce is 12. So when he finally becomes Batman he'll be fighting versions of the baddies who are all pushing 60? Or maybe they're going for the Watchmen thing and the villain roles will be inherited?

Anyway...this fucking show.

[nacho]

Sirharles and I are watching Legion.

As of episode two, it's quite good. It's different from any other superhero TV (um...thank fucking god) and it has a bgreat vibe about it. Created by the guy who also does Fargo, it stars several Fargo alum -- including Jean Smart who, despite her long and stunning career, will, for me, forever be the terrifying Floyd Gerhart in the last season of Fargo. She basically stole every scene she was in. She's clearly been told to stop doing that here.

Aubrey Plaza gets to play Aubrey Plaza, as usual.

So far, so good. My only complaint: His girlfriend (also from the second season of Fargo where she was extraordinary, as well as Jean Smart) changes places with you if you touch her. She takes precautions against this by wearing gloves -- but only if required by the script. So half the time she's walking around without gloves which becomes very distracting by the second episode (and, in hindsight, in the first episode). So she never accidentally touches anyone? I don't know, I'm just a city guy who rides the Metro so I don't know anything, but I'd be switching bodies about 12 times a day. 

I do like the implication that the entire X-Men universe is actually a figment of this guy's imagination. I would like them to try and hold onto that instead of outright "curing" him.

[RottingCorpse]

Despite my X-Men love, this hasn't grabbed me as something I should be watching. They've deviated wildly from the comic books. (Probably a good thing.)

[Sirharles]

I still need to check out the second episode.

[nacho]

The other anti-superhero show! Powerless. It's loads of fun. But...I think it's because Alan Tudyk, as Bruce Wayne's idiot cousin, is a comic genius.

Edit: Oh, fair warning: It's dumb in that cute way and ruthlessly rips off Better Off Ted. In fact, it basically is Better Off Ted.

[nacho]

Okay... I've figured out my problem with Legion: I don't care about David's journey. So far, this show has been about the psychological rehabilitation of a troubled young man using the storytelling techniques of Fargo while bound by superhero tropes.

And why do we care? They need to either embrace the idea that David is delusional and, by extension, the X-Men universe is a dream, or they need to get over themselves and tell some X-Men stories...

[RottingCorpse]

I still don't care about Legion yet. As an X-Men fan, I feel like I should watch it, but my superhero saturation point is somewhere between "Ugh" and "Blargh."

Especially after Logan which is such a testament to what the genre can aspire to.

[nacho]

I actually quit on the last episode. We're only a few episodes in and a third of the episode was recapping - and reshowing - stuff from the last couple episodes while the characters discussed the significance of what they had seen.

Personal cancelation for me. Mainly because of the saturation factor but also because Fargo, Better Call Saul, Doctor Who, and about thirteen dozen Best Shows In the History of TV premier in a few weeks.

[nacho]

I find it extraordinary, by the way, that we are so saturated by scifi TV that we can pick and choose. Man, for decades we lived and died by one or two short lived shows in a desert of bad TV.

[nacho]

I stopped watching Legion, but I hear from the geek-o-sphere that David finally woke up from the dream he started having FOUR EPISODES AGO!! Yay! Maybe the next three episodes will be about him eating breakfast. Then we can end the season with a big, huge shit for 50 agonizing minutes.

[RottingCorpse]

I always liked the concept of the Inhumans, super powered mutant types living as refugees on the moon, in the comics though it's a bit one note. The concept they're sort of not explaining well in the trailer is that Black Bolt (the King) can destroy cities with his voice. This is supposedly Marvel's workaround for being unable to use "mutants" since Fox has the X-Men rights.

[nacho]

 

[RottingCorpse]

SDCC is going on, so insane genre shit is popping everywhere.

Here's a trailer for Marvel's Defenders which combines Netflix's Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage so they can fight Sigourney Weaver.