The Weekly TV, Movie, & Games Discussion Post For Week Of September 3rd, 2023

We’re heading into the final months of 2023 and it’s a different world to be sure due to the actors and writers’ strikes as there won’t be a broadcast season for the most part, unless you’re interested in game and variety shows. The streaming side offers us a bit more material that was in the hopper already so we’re definitely good other.

We’re in a minor lull at the moment with three main shows we’re watching have ended. We’ve got Star Wars: Ahsoka now underway and this month gives us Lower Decks as we wrap up Foundation as well. We’re hoping to slip a few movies into the reviewing pattern as well.

First up, we got in a copy of The Flash to review, which was surprising. My love of the character of The Flash was something that would get me to see this eventually and I’m glad that I got to see it on a quality home video release without the limitations of streaming and bandwidth that I have to pay attention to. The film generally looks and sounds great and it’s about as flawless as you’d expect from a big studio release. It also helps that a lot of it is very bright and colorful and not the drabness of a lot of earlier DCEU works that defined the grim side of things. The film is going to be divisive for a lot of people for a lot of easy-to-understand reasons and I do expect a lot of people who will try it will wonder why it got so much hate. It’s complicated in a lot of ways and that just makes me sad because I wanted a great Flash film that I could enjoy for years to come. Those who love it will love this release, the rest of us will hope for something different in the future that we can enjoy as well.

Check out our full review.

Next up this week we’ve got our look at the third episode of Ahsoka. The show doesn’t expand in a big way here like some might want – myself included – as I want to see more of the cast and more of the bigger picture. I do think things are moving a bit too slowly and some of the structure isn’t going as it should and I continue to be frustrated by how Marvel and Lucasfilm do this thing of the 30-minute episodes after opening with two longer episodes. Episodes should be as long as they need to be but at the same time when you feel like you’re getting the short end of the stick here, it can stick in your craw. This combined with some of the mild pacing issues that come from the design of the show at times has me wishing that they’d look at their approach to these projects in a new light. Again, I’m not asking for another Andor, but each episode needs to feel significant in some way and can be even if it’s just all dialogue. There’s good stuff here but it needs more impact and a better screenwriter bringing it all together.

Check out our review of the episode.

We’re going to have some separate coverage of the new One Piece live-action show from those that are far more invested in the property than I am – which feels weird to saying having reviewed over a thousand episodes and multiple feature films. I enjoy the property overall but I struggle with the anime for a number of reasons. I’ve watched only the first two episodes of the live-action adaptation from Netflix and it’s basically One Piece Kai with some smart updates in adapting it to this medium – which was necessary. It reminds me of 90s syndicated genre programming in a lot of ways but with a budget and being serialized instead of episodic. The show gets us our core three characters together quickly but not exactly easily and it introduces enough tension without being overly dramatic. It does the big thing I think it needed to in order to go beyond the core audience while also pleasing the core audience by being fun. Early One Piece is supposed to be fun. It’s currently mired in hundreds of episodes of drama and angst for good reason in the anime, but here it’s the promise of the future. With good flashbacks to young Luffy, strong casting across the board for just about everyone, and a real sense of existing by doing so much of it with practical effects and real sets, the show is easily garnering a lot of earned praise and has me excited to go through it in a non-binge format so I can enjoy these hourlong episodes without it feeling like too much.

Next up, we’ve got a look at the eighth episode of Foundation with its second season. This series continues to be incredibly frustrating for so many reasons. I absolutely love the attention to detail and the grand scale of so much of it. It plays with such fun concepts and executes them so well and feels so unique. But at the same time, it feels like to me there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the characters and intent that in their attempt to smooth it out for transition to this medium that it’s altered far beyond what should be. And that just scratches at the inside of my brain with each new nudge of elements like that. Empire’s sequences continue to be the best and the special effects and designs are fantastic, but it’s hard for it to overcome the weaknesses and failures of the other stories.

Check out our full review.

Next up, we’ve got a look at the tenth and final episode of the new series My Adventures With Superman. There’s a lot going on in this episode and it’s frustrating because there’s a lot of good stuff going on. It’s just so much so fast and as much as I enjoy the Lois and Clark dynamic with these specific characters, I wish we had more time to establish it. And the same with all the other relationships that play out. We needed more time with the Kents, more time with Lois and her dad, and just more time being reporters and friends for the core trio. There’s so much good stuff here and it does work but it could have been so much. I’m hopeful the second season will ease on the gas a bit with what it does but it’s pretty unlikely. It’ll continue to be a fun show with some neat new interpretations of how it unfolds and the origin side of things and I love the anime elements. But the pacing is what’s frustrating it the most.

Check out our full review of the episode.

Movie reviews:

What did you watch this past week?

Chris Beveridge

http://www.fandompost.com

Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.

He likes to write a lot, as you can see.

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