media announcements, TV bingewatching, life and busy

[tielan]

I'll admit, I burned out on the 'extended universes' of Star Wars back in the late 90s. Too many book series, some with excellent worldbuilding but a lot of them not about characters that I wanted to read about.

It's also...a lot? A lot of a lot? All from Disney? Bread and circuses? And I wonder how much of this is taking advantage of a sort of a 'relief/rush to normal' after the year of 2020.

I am pretty eager to see the Rogue Squadron movie - mostly because Patty Jenkins of Wonder Woman is directing it. I am hoping we get more non-males, non-whites, and non-human characters than were in the original Rogue Squadron. (But Mirax. Oh, I want a really snarky non-white Mirax Terrik whom Corran still 100% falls for and adores! Actually, I want the movie to be about Mirax. Just call it Rogue Squadron: The Smuggler's Daughter and I'm in!)

That said, really what I want (what I really really want) is a Wraith Squadron series. Wraith Squadron is the lighter, funnier, quirkier set of New Republic pilots. They're kind of the Rogue One to the Original Trilogy, if that makes sense. Oddballs, screw ups, mental health crises in waiting, but these people are still professionally competent, and they work together becoming a Found Family in the process. It is 100% a story for the disjointed situation that we find ourselves in at the start of the 2020s.

It would have to be a TV series, though, because you need the time to explore all the characters and develop the rapport between them. Also, to work through their psychoses and sort out what happened to them all, their backstories, their anxieties... Seriously. It could be SO GOOD - if done well. That's always the caveat, isn't it? "If Done Well..."

Frankly, don't talk to me about the Marvel TV universe. I'm still bitter about a lack of Maria Hill. My salt could supply an entire ranch's worth of cattle licks. We all know this.

Additionally, I have trouble watching TV shows anymore. Doesn't matter how good it is, or how well-recommended it comes, or even who's in it. The only way you're going to get me to watch a TV show these days is by sitting me down with someone else and some snacks and anchoring me to the seat to watch it.

I think my binge-watching days are done; I have not the patience or the time for it no more. I was discussing this with a friend in the car on the drive up to hockey on Thursday night (we didn't make it; there was a truck accident on the freeway and we would have arrived with all of 10 minutes to spare) and she said, "Well, you are doing a lot of things, T."

And I thought about it and...she's kind of right. I have a lot less brainspace given all the things I've been involved in the last dozen years. I think Season 3 of Merlin, and Season 3 of Sanctuary were the last times I watched anything through - no, wait, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D to the Season 2 midpoint, circa 2015. But I joined a writing social group (that turned into more of a social group than a writing one) in 2011, started doing more quilting around 2012, bought a house in 2014, joined a local church, started working on a permaculture garden...

That's a lot of things on the brain. And I've gotten into movies since then, but not TV series.

Comments

[rose_griffes]

Yeah, Rogue Squadron is the one thing I'm genuinely excited about, and that has way more to do with Patty Jenkins than anything else.

I'm just not going to pay for another platform (Disney+ in this case) anytime soon. Although none of these are soon... but still. Disney can do without my money.

I've been not watching TV as much lately; it's either binge or nothing. Work has been pretty time-consuming this school year, so not surprising.

[tielan]

Yeah, Patty Jenkins was the switch that flipped it for me. Rogue Squadron? Cool! PATTY JENKINS? YES PLEASE.

I haven't paid for Disney+, I'm not sure that I will - hopefully Rogue Squadron will come out in cinemas and not just on streaming...

[alphaflyer]

The only series I've gotten into recently was The Expanse, and I'm looking forward to Season 5 coming on stream next week. I did watch Picard while in isolated lockdown, but kind of out of a sense of obligation and did not make it all the way the end of Discovery 2, which is very sad for an old Trekker.

[tielan]

I've never managed to get into Trek - not even with the 2009 movie: I never even watched Into Darkness in the cinemas. And, as I said, TV shows are totally out right now.

So tired.

[beatrice_otter]

I have trouble even watching movies, these days; I much prefer to consume stories in written form than visual. I dunno why reading is such a more immersive form to me, but it is.

[tielan]

I've actually consumed very little media this year. I found one new author and read two of her series, but couldn't pick up the others. Even novels by my favourites are not drawing me in right now. Movies I can do if I'm motivated. But TV shows don't stand a chance.

[jenab]

That is quite a lot of shows coming out of Disney and it feels like they are glutting the market. I do wonder what the quality will be like.

I haven't been watching much new TV lately. It's mostly been cooking/baking shows where I don't need to think about anything.

[tielan]

Disney have the money to produce multiple streams of quality; the question is whether the various producers/directors are going to tell good stories consonant with the universe they're developing, with complex and interesting characters who aren't all white and primarily male, because I struggle to watch those sorts of shows now.

The only show I watch regularly is with my sisters, and it's an Australian 'News Quiz' show called "Have You Been Paying Attention" where Aussie comedians answer questions about what's been going on in the news during the week for points, and there's a lot of teasing, hilarity, and episode-long jokes. It's good fun and, yes, I don't need to think about anything! So nice...

[colls]

So much content! I was honestly surprised by some of it, others I had heard were in the works already.

I would watch a Maria Hill series.