So about a few shows that I've watched/finished watching recently. (Also my first post here
)
The big name out here is The Witcher and in all honesty.. it has continued to disappoint me. Think it was the third.. or fourth (can't even remember which one) episode by which I could barely tolerate it? The show seems to take a lot of liberties from the books which infrequently works out well (such as the first episode) but for the most part looks really odd or downright terrible (like with the character of certain Witchers). The first season felt like a slog already but the second seems to be only a slight improvement despite Henry Cavill's best efforts to make it look palatable.
Wheel of Time.. ugh. Another show that I thought would live up to the promise and has.. failed miserably. It took major liberties from the source material and almost every one of them ended up making the show worse. The increased focus on who the Dragon Reborn was rather than the actual journey of the characters was such an odd creative choice and to have almost zero pay-off for the one or even the mythos/world after it makes the entire exercise pointless. Hell, even the arcs that they set up to be initially promising all fail miserably in the end and the power scaling combined with logic seemed to be non-existent in the show. A complete waste of time and I'm disappointed that another fantasy series has been handled so miserably.
Hawkeye was a breath of fresh air compared to the usual high stakes games that Marvel indulges in. I loved Kate Bishop and pretty much everyone felt bang on point. The show handled itself really well and made me really appreciate Clint Barton a lot more (100% win record for a reason
). But like the rest of the Marvel shows though.. this also fails to stick the landing after such a promising setup and the penultimate episode being really good. It feels as though they chickened out of certain character choices and wanted to play it safe with the story to allow for more MCU freedom in the future. A bit of handing over a 'clean slate' so that the next blockbuster movie can do what it wants with these characters without restrictions to bring in the big money. To an extent I feel like every Marvel show suffers from the same problem wherein they cannot stray too far away from the template or raising the stakes due to them still not being considered 'essential viewing' in comparison to the movies. Loki seems to be the only series that has escaped this issue and apart from the whole morally questionable arc in there, the rest of the show is bang on.
Now onto my favourite.. The Expanse. It is an absolute shame that this is the final season and that it has been reduced to a mere six episodes (in comparison to the usual ten, which again was a reduction from the thirteen in the SyFy days). Although I suppose the sixth book (out of nine) is the least plot heavy which means it is doable in six episodes. All three episodes have been absolute high quality and this show has honestly spoiled every other sci-fi/space show in it's dedication to realism in nearly all aspects from politics, human nature to physics itself. If they do not adapt the last three books down the line, I feel this might become our generation's Babylon 5. Someone called it the GoT of Space and I feel even that doesn't do justice to how good this show is. Seriously, just power through the first four episodes that are a bit aimless and enjoy the rest of the ride.