I Saw This!! What I Have Been Watching: 2019 Edition: Pt A

I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Kent(!) or Toasty attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago and meant to write about but just never got around to doing so. But we can't not write cuz that would be bad, very bad.  Smells bad, bad.

What I Have Been (or Am) Watching is the admitted state of me spending too much time in front of the TV. And despite what I said above, I have been avoiding telling you about what I have been watching. But let's try with what's on right now, and stepping backwards in time until I get entirely lost. The bad smell should help me find my way back.

Let's start with not-yet-completed Carnival Row, likely by the time I get around to finishing this, I will have completed the 8 episode Amazon series of Faeries in a pseudo-Victorian England but let's lead the paragraphs with initial impressions and see where they end up.

And this is NOT the "new Game of the Thrones", more "the new Penny Dreadful".

Let's just say this up front -- I've been looking forward to this one for a good while now. The trailers really caught me; I actually put something on my horizon that I knew I would love. The trailers were tight and emotive, highlighting the world and the leads and and all the wyrd darkness the show would have. Fairyland is real, and has been beset with war. Refugees end up in The Burgue, an analog for London (edit: whoah, NYC actually), to be mixed up in a Victorian-style murder-mystery where star-crossed lovers reunite amidst chaos and xenophobia.

Aaaand done. After only eight episodes, a very very VERY big world is barely scratched. This is one of those times where the New Order of TV got mixed in with the Old Worlde. By that I mean, that this new streaming service style of high budget, great looking, challenging but short-seasoned TV got stymied by a writing style that was meant for 13-21 episode season style.

Carnival Row introduces a world where the Land of Fairy, or Tirnanoc, is real. Its across the ocean from The Republic of the Burgue. A pair of other humanocentric countries (the Pact) invade Tirnanoc to conquer and loot. The Burgue sends soldiers under the auspices to protect the Fae, but its more about keeping them out of the hands of the Pact. The war is a failure and ends with Burguish soldiers abandoning the land, but not before soldier Rycroft Philostrate or "Philo" (Orlando Bloom; Lord of the Rings) and Faerie Vignette Stonemoss (Cara Delavingne; Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets) meet & fall in love. When The Burgue abandons northern Anoun to the Pact, Philo has to abandon Vignette, for her own good.

Years later finds them both in The Burgue, the capital city. Philo is a cop who works Carnival Row, the bad side of town full of Fae, and Vignette is a refugee who naturally falls in with this wrong side of the city. Not that they can help it. Despite Burgue's intervention in the war, its not like anyone there likes Fae (or Pix, or Puck, or Critch; choose your slur). And I mean nobody. Oh, some tolerate and work along side, or hire Fae as servants, but there doesn't seem to be a single person who actually is not racist, besides Philo, which doesn't ingratiate him with his peers. And when a series of horrific murders put Philo on a dangerous path with personal connections to his past, his situation only gets worse.

There's a lot going on in this show. But its wrapped up in a classic TV formula, with a broad cast of characters and unexciting tropes. Not being based on anything prior, its all TV. Given a full traditional season, I think we could have said so much more about the world and its people. But while I really enjoyed watching this show, I didn't come away seeing anything astounding, besides the incredible design. Everything from the sets to the flying faerie effects to the look & feel of the city had me enraptured.

Meanwhile, the OTHER big Amazon show re-imagines a world of superheroes being utter shite and who has to deal with them.

The Boys was also a short season, but utter binge worthy, based on comics by Garth Ennis (The Preacher), starring Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, a brutish British man who takes "wee" Hughie under his wing after the love of his life is killed before his eyes. Not just killed, but horrifically destroyed by a coked up speedster superhero who runs right through her. Right. Through. Her. Hughie is left holding only her hands.

Billy's proposal is that the supes have to be spanked (punished). Someone has to hold them accountable. They are untouchable celebrities in this world, backed and protected not only by their powers, but by the most powerful corporation on the planet, that covers up their indiscretions and worse. On the outside, The Seven in that  world's Justice League of America. Behind the scenes they are debaucherous, hedonistic and amoral, at best. Psychopathic at worst. How does Billy intend on doing this? Via some backing from the government, who is afraid the supes will be sanctioned for war actions, and lots of illegal activities to gather info hoping to reveal to the public some of the things they get onto.

Entering into this point in the game is a right proper superhero, utterly sweet and innocent Starlight. She is not aware of the true nature of The Seven, but learns quickly. But she still wants to do Good, so she stays, hoping to weather the storm and find a place. She and Hughie connect in ways that can only be about sharing their mutual disillusionment, and cannot end well. Which is exactly how the bitter, manipulative Billy would have it.

This show is diabolical, to quote Billy. It doesn't really hold back and powers through the plot at a break-neck pace. It takes the comic telling format, and tweaks it enough to generate TV format, but keeps enough of the source material to make this actually fresh viewing. That is what was lacking from Carnival Row in that nothing felt fresh, while this show kept on surprising and often just plain SHOCKING. I don't expect every show to be as daisy fresh as Legion but I like the attempt at least. The Boys more than succeed.