Good Omens I guess this is a 1990 Terry Pratchett book turned mini series. It's about a demon and an angel that work together to stop the Apocalypse. It gets two thumbs up from me.
Taco Chronicles on Netflix It was interesting to see real Mexican food as opposed to the Americanized Taco Bell garbage we eat here. That being said, I can see why authentic Mexican food has never caught on in the US. They eat a lot of organ meat, and the cooking methods are often really unsanitary.
The Boys I ended up binge watching the entire season of The Boys this weekend. It's a much better show than I expected. It's a dark satire of superhero comics/ movies showing a very dark and degenerate side of the superhero business. It is based on an actual comic series, but from what I've gathered it has deviated significantly in many ways but still in the same spirit and tone, making it enjoyable for new fans and still interesting and surprising to the fans of the source materials. I've seen comments suggesting they liked some of the changes in the series better than the original comic, which is quite unusual. One of the major influences was L.A. Confidential. A jaded crew disenchanted by misdeeds and collatoral damage from superhero activities band together to expose the dark side of superheroes. The casting is really superb. The gore and brutality of some of the violence was a pleasant surprise. They don't hold back much. I also loved the way they covered a lot of controversial topics in a way that wasn't woke social justice nonsense. They tend to poke fun of everything from overzealous environmental activism that continuously is tragically botched to hypocrisy of religious leaders. It was nice to see some superhero content that is dark enough to suit my tastes. They not only aren't subtle about who their superheros are based on, they want you to know: Homelander is very clearly a blend of mostly Superman superpowers with a patriotic Captain America image, and Queen Maeve is clearly a Wonder Woman clone complete with a tiara, bracelets, armor, and super strength.
Kidding on Showtime It's not a great show, but Jim Carrey is pretty good in it. He makes it watchable.
I started watching The Boys. It seems a little low budget but it looks good. I'll be finishing it for sure.
9/10 I watched the Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance series over the weekend. It is without question worthy of the original movie from Jim Henson. I was a bit skeptical of the director, who had somewhat of a spotty resume, but I don't think it could have turned out much better. Almost all the characters were terrific, particularly the 3 protagonists. They really went all out with the puppetry and even included the rather dated looking "puppet walk" over CGI now and then. It's just as dark as the original and full of strange critters from the Henson Creature Shop. There was a lot of concern and speculation about how much puppetry vs. CGI would be included, but an additional component to this discussion is the quality of the CGI, which was among the best I've ever seen in a series and better than many big budget films in its implementation. Thus, you have probably the best puppetry in ~4 decades, probably the best CGI I've ever seen in a series, and some of the best practical effects I've seen in recent years outside of Star Wars and Christopher Nolan movies all in one place. The voice acting is also impeccable, which is unsurprising if you read through the cast. I'm very hopeful they continue with another season. They allude to events that occur much later in the 1982 movie, but it is still left open enough that they could continue for multiple seasons between the time of the series and the movie if netflix is willing to fund them. Almost everything about the series was fantastic, but it had to be extremely expensive to get this much talent assembled and make it look this good. BTW, I watched this in Dolby Vision, which I recommend if its available to you.
The Dark Crystal on Netflix This show is a visual feast. The puppetry work is incredible and it has great CGI. It has a huge cast of A list actors voicing the puppets. I was checking it out to see if it’s something my son might enjoy at some point and I ended up watching the whole series. It’s a bit dark and complex and not really for small children. The villains are the kind of thing that would terrify a small child. Kids who are a little older will probably really like it though.
The original 1982 movie came out when I was 5. The opening scene with the Emperor was quite disturbing and stuck with me for quite some time. Jim Henson actually wanted to scare children, though. He said that he believed it is unhealthy to never be frightened of anything, to be coddled too much and not realize there are dangerous things in the world. One thing I forgot to mention in my previous comment is how well some of the voice actors were able to mimic the characters from the 1982 movie. I thought the Chamberlain and Aughra characters were particularly well done. I could have mistaken them for the original voice actors. There is a full length documentary you can find on netflix about the making of Dark Crystal: AoR that also demonstrates the amazing work of the crew and puppeteers. It shows how they had to build unique sets to accommodate spaces needed for the puppeteers and gave some insight into the creative process behind the series.
I watched the original film on VHS when I was very young. I remember finding the Skeksis really frightening. They were the main thing I remembered from the original. I went back and rewatched it after finishing the TV series. The movie still holds up well. High quality puppetry isn't something that ages poorly like CGI. I'd enjoy another season of the show. There's a huge gap in time between where the show left off and the movie picks up. The Gelfling and those sentient spidercrab things appear to have been mostly wiped out, so I would imagine it will get really dark.
The 4K remaster of Dark Crystal (movie) was also very good. Old movies with a great remaster can look substantially improved. And I agree old puppetry and I'd add some old practical effects can hold up pretty well over time.
https://www.thewrap.com/nielsen-amazon-prime-video-ratings-the-boys-viewers/ Apparently the Amazon Video series The Boys had 8 million viewers within the first 10 days, which sounds pretty solid to me. I was concerned that too few would have Amazon Prime and watch this show, but they had a lot of interest and already have filming of season 2 underway.
Giving 3 different shows a spin. The End of the F***ing World, The Dark Crystal, and Watchmen. The first was a bit too dark for my wife's liking. The Dark Crystal is confusing without knowing much about the movie. The Watchmen is also confusing but that's by design. Of the three, I'll continue watching the Watchmen.
Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Takes place before the movie. It's a prequel series. Nothing in the Dark Crystal movie occurs until long after the series.
There are wikis online that explain some of the stuff from Dark Crystal. I was a little confused at first too, but it's an amazing series that's worth watching all the way through. I hope it gets another season.
I might have to watch it myself. About 20 minutes in my wife gave up and started looking at her phone. She kept asking me what was going on and who everyone was and I had no idea. The bird guys looks like the evil bad guys but maybe they're the good guys.
My wife was also really unsure about it and was making fun of it at first. Then she decided it was “Game of Thrones with muppets” and was totally hooked and binge watched the whole thing with me.
See, I thought that the second season of The End of the F***ing World wasn't dark enough compared to the first one which was perfect. I think James moved too far away from his initial character and Alyssa got too annoying. For this reason I hope they don't make any more. I didn't like Dark Crystal, gave up after the first 2 episodes, think my wife watched it all but then she has always loved the movie.