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

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. Pt B is here. And Pt C. And Pt. D. Aaaaand Pt. E.

Escapism !!

Star Trek: Picard, 2020, CBS

Where do I begin on this but to say, yeah I loved it. How could I not? It's Old School tNG as well as being fresh and new, and occasionally challenging. It has completed the season now, and to be honest, that was enough. We don't need anymore. We got our fill of nostalgia, we got to see what our beloved characters were up to, for better or for worse. We got to romp around the galaxy for a bit and hear Picard say "engage" again. What more could we ask for?

Well, let me tell you, I was hoping for more. That first episode, it gave me not-quite-new-Star Wars-fanfare chills. It felt crisp and fresh and bitingly expository. Picard no longer with Star Fleet, a bitter, resentful old man, with trauma weighing heavy on him. And with good reason! The dialogue in that first episode felt so perfect for what we need now. Alas, as episodes went on and on, we fell into more familiar patterns. Sure they tossed in some swear words here and there, and some rather startling violence, but it still felt like Trek of Olde. Oh sure, I enjoyed the Hell out of it, as I was a big fan of Trek in all its incarnations. But it felt like I lost something before I could even really savour it.

So that's fine, end it with one season. I got some and I am ready for Discovery.

But before I move on, some of the Bestest of Things: Annika the Bad Ass and her quest to protect and re-integrate the ex-Bs, Elnor the Space Elf and Captain Rios of the La Sirena and his menagerie of holograms.

The Letter for the King, 2020, Netflix

From the trailers I thought this was going to be a pseudo-historical story set in Not-England or Not-Europe during some Not-Medieval period, but it turned out to be a generic Fantasy series in an entirely Not-Medieval-Europe world. And despite being a teen centered drama, it was actually rather good, if rather sanitized for adult audiences.

Based on a book by a Dutch writer, the story focuses on the young man Tiuri (sounded like Jury to me; is that how the name is pronounced in Dutch?) from the Kingdom of Dagonaut. Dagonaut supports Unauwen which has been at war with Eviellan for a thousand years. That is, until Prince Viridian took it upon himself to destroy them and end the war. Tiuri was a casualty of that war but was taken north by a kind knight, as raised as the man's son.

On the night Tiuri is supposed to become a knight himself, he is interrupted by The Black Knight with the White Shield, who dies before he can deliver a letter he intercepted, a letter from Viridian to people he trusted, a letter that CANNOT reach his father the King. The dying knight charges Tiuri with delivery and off he goes on mounted on the real hero of the series, Ardweden the horse.

Tiuri has a destiny, or so everyone seems to think when they run into him. There is a prophecy that a darkness will rise and only a child of the light can stop it. Tiuri doesn't really care for the idea of destiny, and it doesn't help that his fellow novice knights are chasing him down. The real story picks up when he gets saddled, literally, with the daughter of a disreputable town mayor on her way to find HER life's goal.

Magic, sword fights, Destiny and black wearing bad guys -- this was the generic fantasy I needed right now. It wasn't as juvenile as it could have been, but not as edgy as it wanted to be -- it was no successor to Game of Thrones. But I don't think it should have tried to be. It did go as expected, except for one wonderful turn of events when Tiuri's destiny turns out a little different.

Zoey's Infinite Extraordinary Playlist, 2020, NBC

Sorry Nick & Norah.

Not yet done with the season, but almost there, is the sometimes uneven, sometimes a little lost, but altogether charming and entirely delightful ZEP, but I might be a bit biased, as Jane Levy's Zoey does make me more than a bit swoony.

In this series, that lends itself to the world that Glee left behind, Zoey sees and hears people's inner most thoughts through song and dance. Basically they break into musical routines right in front of her, but only she can see them. She, along with her Fabulous neighbour Mo, learns more about the roles of this "superpower" and uses it to help those around her, including her father, a man dying from a disease that has him mostly locked-in. Zoey is also the newest Programmer Manager in a very very San Fran software company, so she has many challenges to deal with besides hearing pop songs she really doesn't know and the emotional backgrounds behind them.

The pilot nailed the story & characters down, but then ages later, the following episodes softened them to focus on other elements of her life. But enough of the core plot exists in every episode to carry me on every week. And again *ahem* Jane Levy. She's quirky (her entire trendy decorated apartment is computer references) and amiable, awkward but confident and did I mention charming? Her coworkers and computer software company might not be at all realistic, but we can leave that to Silicon Valley -- this is just a backdrop for her weird coworkers and experiences. In the end, I pretty convinced she has a tumor, but who knows, it might just end up being Modern Magical.

See, 2019-2020, Apple+ TV

On the only recently released Apple company Online Only TV network (cuz everyone has one these days) there was only one pure scifi series -- Jason Momoa's post-apocalyptic series about a world where a plague spread *cough* leaving anyone who survived blind, as well as their ancestors. In this now tribal world, the few with sight are king. Or so the Queen believes, and therefore will stop at nothing to destroy. Momoa is a warrior and tribal leader who takes in a pregnant stranger and ends up raising her children as his own. And in doing so, pretty much destroys his village.

Set in the Pacific north west, like so many other scifi shows, its quite the (ironic, I know) beautiful looking po-ap world, all overgrown and green. Everything about the world is sound and touch. You wouldn't think they could have warriors or ride horses, but somehow, probably hundreds of years after the fall of civilization, they do. I didn't complete the series, as a number of other shiny things appeared, but I will. I am enjoying it, even if it doesn't bring light to my world.
His Dark Materials, 2019, HBO