I Saw This!! What I Have Been Watching: 2020 Edition: Pt B

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 every time I try not to write, bad things happen, very bad things. Somewhere. To someone.

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. Not that you care. But at least I am not telling you about my character

Pt A is here. 

The First Season; Binged

The Witcher, 2019, Netflix

Every so often, I enter a search into Reddit / Google for "generic fantasy novel". Usually that generates a debate between what is generic or not, and how most people are searching for things that go against the tropes. Not me; give me more heroic adventurer types, sword wielding grim warriors, elves & dwarves and monsters to be slain. One of those times, it led me to a Polish series about a professional monster killer, a man from of an ancient order, corrupted by magic potions and wandering the countryside, taking bounties on things that prey on the people. The stories were faery tale adjacent, as if someone was reinterpreting Grimm for their D&D game, and Mary Sue-ing the Hell out of the stories. I loved the books. Not long after reading, the games appeared, or I discovered the games -- not sure exactly of my timelines. The games never took hold of me. I am currently on my second attempt to get through The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, which should have all the hallmarks for a game I would love, but for some reason I cannot get into.

And then Netflix came along to adapt it for the English audiences. This is not the first time the books have been tackled for the small screen. In the early 2000s, there was The Hexer, a poorly received TV series based on the books. I watched a few episodes; it was terrible. Netflix chose to represent for fans of the books and/or the games. Hell, even Henry Cavill himself is a big fan of the games, which lends at least a familiarity with the source, if not a genuine love. Netflix even did the bathtub scene from the game.

Big surprise, but I was a fan. This is definitely another series intending to ride the coat tails of Game of Thrones and while it doesn't (not as cinematic; Netflix does not yet seem completely capable of epic), it still does a solid Generic Fantasy story for me.

It takes a while to get into, and to be honest, their playing with timeline presentation doesn't help. Sure, Westworld did it, but remember, Netflix doesn't do epic very well, so it ends up coming across as confusing and disjointed. By the time (pun intended) we catch on, its time to draw the story lines together. So, Geralt of Rivia, a grimdark monster killer for hire. Yennefer of Vengerberg, a not-young sorceress, bought from her family (as a twisted, deformed young woman) recreates herself in power and manipulation. Princess Ciri of Cintra, granddaughter of the Queen, and the last surviving member of the royal family after the country is invaded by Nilfgaard. These are the three storylines and timelines we chase. This is a world of elves, and dwarves (but I don't think we see any) and fantastical creatures, some monstrous, some benign. This is a world of great magic. And the first season is about introducing characters, and setting and world building. Unfortunately, its a little light on story, as the next season, when all is gathered together, is where the real story begins.

But it still works, for the most part. We get all the elements we want from The Witcher: swordplay, and nasty monsters, spell play and beautiful sorceresses (the milieu is very *cough* classic), we even get Dandelion the bard, but under the not-translated name of Jaskier. And while I am not sure we fans needed it, we got a really catch tune. So, go ahead, toss a coin to your witcher.

The Watchmen, 2019, HBO

Now, if you want epic, HBO does epic and it does it well. This was easily the best thing I saw on TV this year, in that it gave me what I wanted from a franchise related story, but also gave me something challenging and exciting and just so... fucking... well... done.

This is not a sequel to the movie, though you can see some inspiration taken from Zack Snyder's visuals. This is a straight up sequel to the comics, but thirty years later. This is the world that came after Adrian Veidt dropped a psychic alien squid on top of NYC, killing millions in the psionic blast. This is a world of costumed vigilantes, but not exactly superheroes. This is also the world that suffered and benefited from the fallout of Veidt's act. The cold war was ended, and there seems to have been a lasting peace between nations, as Ozymandias continued to worry people of alien incursions via regular "squid fall", basically rains of pollywog sized squid babies.

But of course, all is never quite right with the world. In a Thor's hammer sized hit-on-the-head reminder, we always believe things are great while marginalized folks still get the shaft. This show was so woke some people could not get past it's political agenda, but to be honest, it was that which kept me attached. This is often an uncomfortable watching, as it starts with a view into a part of history I didn't even know existed -- the Tulsa Race Riots (which in itself, is a white washing of a name for an event) where white Tulsans attacked a prosperous black neighbourhood, killing indiscriminately and burning down the neighbourhood. In the series, Tulsa is providing reparations to the descendents of the terror, while its police force deals with the reemergence of a white supremacist group called the Seventh Kavalry, and yes, the K is intentional.

This is pure Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers, Lost) with lots of plots and subplots and weirdness and amazing characters and incredible performances. Time and stories twist around, not quite Westworld style but confusing enough to cause big grins when you start cluing in. In a world where Dr. Manhattan no longer perceives time as a linear stream, but as all, at once, this kind of makes sense.

This is not a superhero TV show, despite some imagery of masked vigilantes, but it is a show about the legacy of allowing people to dress up and fight for justice, and the ramifications and fictions that would be built around them. Remember Hooded Justice from the comic? Turns out his hangman motif is not quite what it seemed, and was accepted as. Nor who and what he was.

As usual, I am trying to remember what stood out. I am such an in-the-moment kind of guy. But Jeremy Irons as the older Adrian Veidt, Regina King as a masked crusader working for the Tulsa police department, Jean Smart as the ex-superhero now FBI agent, and Tim Blake Nelson as "Mirror Guy". And of course, the Excalibur cannot be unseen.

Dracula, 2020, Netflix

In a world where the Universal Monsters Reboots have failed in numerous attempts, we are not going to get a proper Dracula in Modern Day movie. And then comes along an unexpected British produced, Netflix delivered version in the vein (pun intended) of Sherlock, in that it is done by Gatiss and Moffat. It both succeeds and utterly fails in an attempt to gives us something new in the recently post-vampire world.

So, British-style, in that we get only three longish episodes. The first episode is just, in my humble opinions, brilliant. They give us the familiar story of Jonathan Harker visiting Count Dracula to solidify a real estate deal. But we are getting the story via a requested narration, by a forthright nun to a very Renfieldish Harker. We get the familiar visitation story, with so many nods to previous versions, I got dizzy. We have the classic Hammer stories, we have Francis Ford Coppola's, we even have a little bit of the 1979 Frank Langella Drac. It was compelling and humorous, chilling and inventive.

The second episode places us on the Demeter, the ship that transports Dracula's coffin & soil. The retelling is almost a Murder on the Orient Express meets The Thing in that Dracula is picking off the other passengers one by one, while making the rest believe each is the murderer. All along Dracula is portraying more and more of the vampiric powers we are familiar with, while manipulating and altering them. For example, how does an ancient shut-in vampire expect to know about the world and age outside of Transylvania, late 1800s? By imbibing the knowledge he needs from the blood of his victims. With the knowledge taken, he slaughters everyone left on board.

And then he arrives on the coast of England and the helicopter is flying overhead.

*record scratch*

Yeah, the third episode was just ... weak. Modern day Dracula, played by 50ish Clays Bang (what a name!) is supposed to be seducing young, beautiful, irreverent Lucy while being foiled by the Harker Foundation led by Zoe Van Helsing, the descendant of the nun from the first two episodes. Yawn. They take a nice reworking attempt, and want to smoosh it into the sexy, seductive trope we have been dispensing with for a decade. Wasted.

Well, at least he didn't sparkle.

Raising Dion, 2019, Netflix

This was a thoroughly unexpected, enjoyable superhero origin story where the hero of the story is an eight year old boy coming into his powers. I have previously mentioned enjoying genre and crime TV from other countries, because it gives me a familiar experience but in a new light. In the age of Marvel, we are used to seeing how a youngish, usually male, usually white main character discovers he has powers, and how to handle them. But take an average, very grounded eight year old kid being raised by his mother, after his father, cameo-ed by Michael B Jordan, was killed saving a woman from drowning.

I imagine dad's insurance keeps them afloat, as he was a successful tech engineer, but it doesn't mean things aren't still tough. Mom is young, too young to be widowed, and while she gets support from dad's best friend (played by Jason Ritter) and her own sister, things are not helped when Dion discovers he can move things with his mind, go incorporeal and even more. Best Friend gets introduced soon enough; Dion and him bond over superhero names and how to train. But then a conspiracy involving aurora borealis over Iceland emerges and things get really interesting.

The core story is fun enough, with twists and turns, but the meat of this show was Dion and his mother. Dion is just a rambunctious little hellion, constantly pushing himself to the boundaries of what his mother can handle. She gets some help from Best Friend and from Dion's own best friend, Esperanza, a mouthy little girl confined ot a motorized wheelchair. But Dion is eight; lack of control is inherent. Mom dances the line from barely keeping it together with the drama these powers bring, while showing immense strength in front of all this.

I am very very glad Netflix is giving this one a second season. Please give all the monies intended for Dracula to this one please, and while you are at it, fund a TV show for Fast Color, which I briefly thought THIS was the TV adaptation of, as the use of colour and lights to depict their superpowers fooled me. Also, how many black centric superhero shows are out there, a sad comment on our supposed progression.