A thread for shows we're unsure if they should get one for themselves.

Star Trek: Discovery.

A new Star Trek TV series is going to premier in 2017. It has an ugly ship for sure, but I assume that CGI will be better than that.

We don't have much more information, but to me the ship seems to be quite old and used. Maybe it's on a longer mission? Like in a middle of 30 years of exploration of a complete different galaxy? It would be similar to Voyager in a way, but at the same time completely different. How the crew that was together for 15 years, far away from the Federation and their loved ones, would function?

Legion.

Any connection to X-Men is rather non-existent in this trailer, but it doesn't matter since it presents itself as rather crazy, in a good way, series.

 

I have zero hope that this won't be shit. I really don't like the rhetoric of "Inspiring females" and "...continue to be progressive, continue to push boundaries"

I fear that this show will have overabundance of hamfisted "equality" messaging.

I mean sure the old series were always progressive, but to set out with this as a stated goal is almost a guarantee that it's going to turn shit.

I do hope they keep that out of the MCU. The idea is too interesting to be weighed down by the over-bloated mess the universe has turned into.



I'm looking forward to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I never really liked the BBC series they did. Perhaps they can infuse it with the feeling it was missing last time.

 

American Gods.

Based on Neil Gaiman's novel (apparently the series covers roughly the first third or so of the book). I'm really excited for this. It's got a hell of a cast, and it looks like they've got the atmosphere perfectly. The only issue I can think of is that the book can be a bit...oblique, I suppose. It'll be an interesting transition, but with the team they've got, I'm confident.

 

This is nitpicky.... but I really wish they had changed the MC's name. Shadow Moon sounds incredibly stupid when spoken aloud. Yes, I know, blasphemy against the books and all that, but I thought it was a pretty terrible name for a book MC too.

Oh well. I'm excited anyway. The Gaiman is in a firm third place in my favorite contemporary authors list.

 

I remember when I was first reading American Gods with almost no knowledge about it other than it was suppose to be really, really good. If not for that, I would probably stop reading because of the name that was straight from the top 10 of the names kids give to their main characters to sound cool. That and I maintain my opinion that almost all Gaiman's books have trouble engaging the reader in their initial chapters. More than once I needed to force myself to read dozen pages before the story finally clicked for me.

 

It's his name. He prefers it over his birth name and introduces himself with it consistently in the book. The reason given for it is appropriate too.

Also, I've never gotten the idea that you have to be hooked within the first few pages. I don't think I've ever picked up a book and then set it down before having read a hundred pages of it. By that point, if it's crap, I'll never pick it back up again, but sometimes a story starts slow. Hell, Brandon Sanderson's entire bibliography is slow as hell in the first hundred pages.

 

It's been a while since I read the book, but wasn't most of it internal monologue?



The Expanse Season 2 trailer also came out of Comic-Con.

Bit of off topic question: Should I go ahead and read the books if I loved the TV show? Or is this one of those GoT deals where I will just ruin the TV show for myself?

 

Regarding Star Trek I have high hopes that Discovery will do for the TV shows what TNG did. That said, the ship looks like it's been pulled off the scrapheap and put together with parts of a Klingon Warbird.

 

Slow is fine, but in my opinion a book should have at least your curiosity by the end of its first chapter. Just enough that if you don't have time for it for few days, you won't simply forget you were reading it.

 

It's ripped straight from a Ralph McQuarrie design.

 

See, I have this thing where I buy a new book and then don't put it down until I'm finished. If it's not spectacular I can take breaks, but for most books I just blitz through them. It takes a truly horrendous or boring book for me to put it down and walk away to never pick it up again.

 

Daniel Abraham and his cowriter buddy are good authors, but the TV show is infinitely more engaging than the books, and I think that's due to the books having somewhat sparse setting descriptions. The show is a visual orgasm.

 

Ah shame. The visual aesthetic is definitely a high point for the show. If it looses that some of the iffy plot points might turn into a bigger deal than they were in the show.

 

Roadies is a show I'm enjoying immensely. I'm sure it's not really accurately portraying what it's like to work on a concert tour... but it's whimsical, has some great music, and is just funny enough to not be a drama.

 

Did anyone read Oliver Twist and though it would be better if the main character was "a struggling 20-something female who finally finds a true sense of family in strange group of talented outcasts who use their unique skills to take down wealthy criminals"? If the answer is yes then you will be happy that NBC is making Oliver Twist into a "sexy contemporary procedural".

And no, I'm not kidding. Link.

 

The only way it could be better is if it was set in High School, complete with musical soundtrack.

 

Since you live rather close to me (same country and all) would it be possible for you to come over and KILL ME WITH A SLEDGEHAMMER?

Because, you know, I feel only that is the only option for now.

 

Give it a chance. There is like 0.000000001% probability that it will be watchable.

 

And with the cast of the audio adaptation though without Christopher Lee.

As for American Gods, apparently they just found their Jesus, something that makes me vary. While he was mentioned in the book (and I'm unsure if he would really have trouble hitch-hiking in Afghanistan since he's rather important in Islam too), having him actually be involved in the events could break the story in my opinion.