common mystery trope that bugs me

[crane3]

Sometimes having the same plot or such does not matter; it is the writing. If the narrative is appealing, then it is a winner.

Streaming video is really a door opener for those who are ventursome or curious. Streaming is making "foreign" videos more accessible & variations of mystery plots. An 1850's Korean CSI series does make one wonder how it is/can be done. Vampire detective? Chinese & Japanese mysteries, yes, I do like costume mysteries/stories. Of course there are also the British type which tickles my mind regarding locations at either Oxford or Cambridge campus.

Then there is the Russian mystery series where an official got the OK to enlist or draft various academics to help solve things using each person's specialties.

I do watch TV for the local news, weather & traffic conditions. There is also Bloomberg which has a nice side panel that give me better news than what the local TV stations do.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by crane3

Sometimes having the same plot or such does not matter; it is the writing. If the narrative is appealing, then it is a winner.

Streaming video is really a door opener for those who are ventursome or curious. Streaming is making "foreign" videos more accessible & variations of mystery plots. An 1850's Korean CSI series does make one wonder how it is/can be done. Vampire detective? Chinese & Japanese mysteries, yes, I do like costume mysteries/stories. Of course there are also the British type which tickles my mind regarding locations at either Oxford or Cambridge campus.

Then there is the Russian mystery series where an official got the OK to enlist or draft various academics to help solve things using each person's specialties.

I do watch TV for the local news, weather & traffic conditions. There is also Bloomberg which has a nice side panel that give me better news than what the local TV stations do.

Netflix in particular is bringing in both originals and licensed content from all over: Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Turkey among others.
(Both versions of THE BRIDGE are engrossing.)

On my "someday" list is a Spain time travel show (MINISTRY OF TIME) and a weird (reincarnation?) show from Norway titled RAGNAROK, which seems to be about Thor and Loki as teenagers in a rural Norway town.
From the trailer, Mjolnir is a claw hammer. I'm afraid, very afraid.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Netflix in particular is bringing in both originals and licensed content from all over: Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Turkey among others.
(Both versions of THE BRIDGE are engrossing.).

Not on Netflix I think, but The Tunnel, which is exactly the same story as The Bridge only starting in the Channel Tunnel between the UK and France is also an excellent watch if you can find it.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Not on Netflix I think, but The Tunnel, which is exactly the same story as The Bridge only starting in the Channel Tunnel between the UK and France is also an excellent watch if you can find it.

I'd heard of it.
(PRIME has it.)
They really recycle that basic plot. Almost as much as UGLY BETTY.

(Let's not even get into the standard telenovela plot of poor girl/rich guy. Now the Turks are milking it.)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Netflix in particular is bringing in both originals and licensed content from all over: Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Turkey among others.
(Both versions of THE BRIDGE are engrossing.)

On my "someday" list is a Spain time travel show (MINISTRY OF TIME) and a weird (reincarnation?) show from Norway titled RAGNAROK, which seems to be about Thor and Loki as teenagers in a rural Norway town.
From the trailer, Mjolnir is a claw hammer. I'm afraid, very afraid.

FWIW, Ragnarok is mostly a lot of teenage angst, REALLY tired plot tropes and yes, the odd bit of myth. I won't crush your hopes about poor old Mjolnir.

Hitch

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Hitch

FWIW, Ragnarok is mostly a lot of teenage angst, REALLY tired plot tropes and yes, the odd bit of myth. I won't crush your hopes about poor old Mjolnir.

Hitch

Not hopes, fear. Mjolnir is supposed to be a war hammer; at least make it a sledge!
I'll be happy if it's just a random claw hammer.

Still looks like a weird thing for a show to try unless you're going all in on the cyclic nature of the Norse myth universe.

What made me curious is Straczinski had a great run on Thor reincarnating the norse gods on earth post-Ragnarok.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Just because Breaking Bad and GOT occurred doesn't mean that we are in a Golden Age. Like knowledge, the number of TV executives doubles every 5 years. And they are taking the fun out of many shows. Yet people are on board. But it's not the apex of television. Not until creative control is well managed and the music scores are not pruned into blandness. And the cinematography isn't aping dark movies.

Just because television doesn't meet your lofty ideals doesn't mean this is not a golden age of television.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Not hopes, fear. Mjolnir is supposed to be a war hammer; at least make it a sledge!
I'll be happy if it's just a random claw hammer.

Still looks like a weird thing for a show to try unless you're going all in on the cyclic nature of the Norse myth universe.

What made me curious is Straczinski had a great run on Thor reincarnating the norse gods on earth post-Ragnarok.

Hell, Mjolnir is meant to be more of a claw than a hammer--more of an axe than a cudgel. Marvel made it the Mjolnir that people think of today in pop culture. So, hell...they could make it a kitchen knife, at this point.

I had really high hopes for Ragnarok but was sadly disappointed on almost all fronts. It wasn't pop-culture Thor; it wasn't more traditional Myth Thor, either. Everything you think you're going to see/get, you don't; if you're into Nordic myths, you don't get that, either. (yes, a few terms, myths, here and there, but...). With regard to Loki...well, you'll need to watch b/c other wise, it'll get into spoiler-ville.

Thor is remarkably dimwitted, over and over. You know, the usual "the hero is thwarted in his desire to do X," is teeth-grindingly annoying, speaking of tropes. Anyone here who watches it will see what I mean.

Or, hell, who knows, enjoy it. As I said earlier, wildly different tastes for different folks.



Hitch

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

If BREAKING BAD and GOT are your idea of what today's video world is like you're probably not a cordcutter.

The poster children for today's video world are things like DOOM PATROL, CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA, THE MANDALORIAN, the upcoming MARVEL and DC streaming series, even the Apple TV shows nobody is watching. They have movie producers and stars and theatrical class budgets in the $10-20M per episode range. Essentially they are 4-8 hour movies. Some run 12-15.

PRIME is preparing a LORD OF THE RINGS prequel series: they paid a billion for the riggts and are budgetting another billion for three seasons or so. WARNERMEDIA is doing a DUNE SERIES. NETFLIX and PRIME are winning Oscars, Emmys, and Golden Globes for the movies and series they create for their streaming services.

The producers are experienced movie personnel, not network types working with CW budgets, with deep CGI funding (if required) and free of the video versions of page count tyranny. If tge story needs seven episodes, they do seven. If ten, ten. And they don't start publishing until the full season is done. If it takes 18 months, then 18 months it is.

The reason for the new paradigm is these new shows are meant to be available forever. Miss it this year? Just like ebooks, it'll be forever "in print" generating views and income indefinitely.

It is nothing like it was ten years ago and it isn't done changing.
Today's video streaming world is essentially ebooks circa 2011. Adoption is just getting mainstreamed and the old guard, cablecos and cable networks are starting to panic. Disney, for one, is cannibalizing their cable channels in favor of their fledgling stream service because people are dropping cable by the million each quarter. Even the NBA is hurting and admitting it.

https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...gk4-story.html



Disruption all over.

Doom Patrol and The Boys and the Mandalorian are the only shows I've watched and liked. Everything else didn't tempt me. The redlettermedia reviews of Picard are symbolic of the lack of understanding from the producers's and writer's behalf. I'd hate to come to the conclusion that this here is a golden age of TV. Oscars and Emmys or not.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Just because television doesn't meet your lofty ideals doesn't mean this is not a golden age of television.

I'm a very down to earth person, and believe me, I'm not a snob. But I know what a good story looks like. My fellow Goodreads acquaintances mostly agree that the Fantasy books that were reworked as series were seriously mismanaged. That is the case for most series. The Golden Age for TV will come, but not in this environment of fast paced greenlighting of everything, the bad music, the remakes, the flops. Better times will come believe me. And it will happen in your lifetime too, though it's not on the horizon.

[Quoth]

The 1960s to 1980s was the Golden Age of TV in the UK. It's not Netflix and streaming that's killing TV, its the mad rush to the bottom in quality of content fuelled by the Advent of Multichannel. The UK TV peaked at four channels. There simply isn't enough decent content.

I remember watching USA Cable TV in the mid 1980s and thinking this is the pathetic future when Multichannel takes off in UK and Ireland. Back before Satellite, the Irish Cable system was really only used to add the four UK channels. I don't remember when the fifth, Channel 5, was added. It never had great content.

There is too much so called Reality TV, daytime TV, soaps and dumbing down of drama and documentaries. Cinema is worse with remakes, reboots, franchises etc.

Time to read a book!

[Apache]

Warhammer's were developed to combat plate armor. They mostly resembled the picture. Differences tended to be stylistic and handle length. One side was designed to crush and the other to penetrate or and or hook. A large sledge hammer looks impressive in movies, but tends to not be practicable in a fast moving fight.
Apache

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Apache

Warhammer's were developed to combat plate armor. They mostly resembled the picture. Differences tended to be stylistic and handle length. One side was designed to crush and the other to penetrate or and or hook. A large sledge hammer looks impressive in movies, but tends to not be practicable in a fast moving fight.
Apache

Yup. That's the "why" of my comment about poor old Mjolnir. ;-) It's been portrayed as a double-headed sledgehammer for dog's years. Rather than the sleek killing weapon that it is. ;-)


Hitch

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Thor is remarkably dimwitted, over and over.
(snip)

Or, hell, who knows, enjoy it. As I said earlier, wildly different tastes for different folks.

Hitch

Thor in the myths is often Loki's doormat. Powerful but credulous.
(I always liked trickster Loki more than comics Loki.)

Anyway, I said I was intrigued but it looked weird.
Sounds like I should substitute bad and pass.
It's not as if my TBV list isn't a mile long.

Thanks for the warning.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Doom Patrol and The Boys and the Mandalorian are the only shows I've watched and liked. Everything else didn't tempt me. The redlettermedia reviews of Picard are symbolic of the lack of understanding from the producers's and writer's behalf. I'd hate to come to the conclusion that this here is a golden age of TV. Oscars and Emmys or not.

What makes it a golden age isn't that *everything* is uniformly great for everybody.
That is never going to happen.

What makes it a golden age is that there is something for everybody with a ton of niche shows that would never have been optioned in other times, much less produced with movie-grade budgets.

(The same as with ebooks and the eternal backlist. We no longer have to settle for whatever is featured on the paid-for front tables or something from the stacks in a 30,000 book storefront. We now have access to millions of books at a moment's notice, something for every taste, and multiple streaming services with tens of thousands of hours of video each. All on demand, not by appointment if at all.)

None of those three shows would've existed a decade ago: Doom Patrol for being too (purposefully) weird, The Boys too gory for even pay cable, and Mandalorian too expensive.

There's plenty of stuff out there I don't like but as long as there is enough of what I do like I'm golden.