watching television and Dr. Who
2020-Dec-30, Wednesday 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerI gave up Netflix because of their corporate parasitism. They don't pay taxes. I signed up for DC Universe online instead, and enjoyed it for a long while, but 2020 has seriously hampered their production. I haven't seen anything new in half a year, I think, so I'm looking for alternatives.
Then came Wonder Woman 1984. Hmmm. It's only $15 for a month of HBO Max, which is still cheaper than a movie, popcorn, and drink for 1 person. I signed up. I made some buttered popcorn, sat under my electric blanket, and watched the movie. I liked it well enough, but this blog post isn't about it. It's about what to do for the rest of the month with this one subscription?
I caught up on the Dr. Who series from England. I like this latest series where the Doctor is finally a woman, pictured at right with all of the other actors who have played the Doctor since 1963. I do have some quibbles, though. I accept the way they allowed the Doctor to have more lives, more than a cat, now in "his" 13th body (or thereabouts). I knew this change had to come eventually, else they would have written themselves into a dead series eventually as their lead actors cycled out over the years. That's fine.
No. Just... stop with the constant escalation. That's its own dead end. (Witness what Jar Jar has done to both Star Trek and Star Wars with absurdly out-of-canon changes.) If all you can do is increasingly outrageous escalation, then eventually the whole experience breaks the agreement between storyteller and audience to accept a few creative changes in reality on behalf of a good story.
In contrast, my very favorite episode of the series (both old and new) is Midnight. It relies on no technology whatsoever. It's just a few people, trapped together in a broken vehicle with an unseen menace outside. That's it. That's the whole hour-long story. And it's riveting.
Still, though, I do like the most recent incarnation of Dr Who. I hope it continues for a few more seasons with the current lead actor.
What to do about the HBO Max subscription, though? Continue the $15 subscription and cancel DC Online? I've tried websearching, but so far I can't determine if HBO is paying taxes like a responsible corporation. Does anyone know?
Then came Wonder Woman 1984. Hmmm. It's only $15 for a month of HBO Max, which is still cheaper than a movie, popcorn, and drink for 1 person. I signed up. I made some buttered popcorn, sat under my electric blanket, and watched the movie. I liked it well enough, but this blog post isn't about it. It's about what to do for the rest of the month with this one subscription?
I caught up on the Dr. Who series from England. I like this latest series where the Doctor is finally a woman, pictured at right with all of the other actors who have played the Doctor since 1963. I do have some quibbles, though. I accept the way they allowed the Doctor to have more lives, more than a cat, now in "his" 13th body (or thereabouts). I knew this change had to come eventually, else they would have written themselves into a dead series eventually as their lead actors cycled out over the years. That's fine.This season, though, relied entirely too much on the Doctor's deus ex machina. This Doctor knows everything about all tech. They long ago reached the point that the sonic screwdriver could do anything that they needed to help move along a plot point, but it's much worse this time. This was literally the conversation in one of the episodes in season 11.
somebody: "You can build an ionic shield from scratch?"
Doctor: "If I had crayons and half a can of spam, I could build you from scratch."
Doctor: "If I had crayons and half a can of spam, I could build you from scratch."
No. Just... stop with the constant escalation. That's its own dead end. (Witness what Jar Jar has done to both Star Trek and Star Wars with absurdly out-of-canon changes.) If all you can do is increasingly outrageous escalation, then eventually the whole experience breaks the agreement between storyteller and audience to accept a few creative changes in reality on behalf of a good story.
In contrast, my very favorite episode of the series (both old and new) is Midnight. It relies on no technology whatsoever. It's just a few people, trapped together in a broken vehicle with an unseen menace outside. That's it. That's the whole hour-long story. And it's riveting.
Still, though, I do like the most recent incarnation of Dr Who. I hope it continues for a few more seasons with the current lead actor.
What to do about the HBO Max subscription, though? Continue the $15 subscription and cancel DC Online? I've tried websearching, but so far I can't determine if HBO is paying taxes like a responsible corporation. Does anyone know?
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Date: 2021-Jan-05, Tuesday 01:58 am (UTC)