The Glade 4.0

Anyone watching this? I just started watching on Netflix. Kinda weird, but I'm enjoying it. Harry Potter goes to Twin Peaks.

The Syfy series is good, and prompted me to start reading the books (which I'd been putting off despite their high recommendations from friends). About halfway through the trilogy, I realized I was rather underwhelmed by the books -- they're serviceable, but not as good as I'd assumed they'd be based on my friends' raving. I wouldn't consider them better than Dresden, the Kingkiller Chronicles, or the Stormlight Archives, for instance.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I've been watching The Magicians. I would say it's like Harry Potter meets Narnia (both obvious) as written by Clive Barker (it's pretty twisted and brutal in places). It also manages to include a good balance of humor without completely negating any sense of grit or peril.

I really enjoyed season 1 and the first part of season 2. They seem to have dipped a little the last few episodes, but it's still fun.

I have not read the books, and likely will not based on reviews and opinions I have read.

No idea it was based on books. From watching the series, I can't see how they would be good books.

Yeah, I'm at the fountain world part now and it's totally ripped off from the Magician's Nephew.

I watched the first few episodes and quit, because the scripting and acting were **** horrible.

This may have been a mistake. Lots of shows I ended up liking sucked this way for a season or two.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
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Yeah, it's hard to recommend. Acting is not great. Story is not great. Somehow entertaining.

It's just very different.

I don't expect Oscar caliber acting in a TV show, especially a science fiction / fantasy show. That's just not the world we live in.

I was entertained by the first season, despite the blatant Narnia rip-off. (I've always thought Narnia was extremely overrated. The blatant, ham-handed Jesus allegory in a genre otherwise dominated by pagan cosmology is the only reason why it's endured.) The Narnia material is heavily lampshaded, which I think does a lot to make it more palatable. It's incorporated as an easy point-of-reference for the audience to identify an alternate magical world.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

No one is asking for "Oscar caliber" acting/writing. But they frequently come close. Those are the shows that keep us watching. Also, it's not a binary question - there are plenty of gradients between "Oscar caliber" and "horrible." The Magicians makes the CW's "Arrow/Flash/Legends of Tomorrow/Supergirl" appear to be "Oscar caliber" in comparison, and they are by no means good themselves.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

HEY!!! Leave Flash alone!!!

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Raell Kromwell

I watch it. It's just never been very good.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Hmm, of those mentioned, I do watch Arrow (perhaps, now, due to Sunk Cost fallacy more than anything else). I would not say Arrow is better acted than Magicians. Neither seem award worthy, but are passable.

I will say that I'm pretty tired of a certain one-note character on Magicians and I don't know if it's the fault of the actor or the director(s). Maybe both.

But the 'limited range' thing seems spread throughout the cast of Arrow.

Oh well; it's just comic book/fantasy TV.

Ugh. I'd rather watch a bad episode of Magicians than a good episode of Flash... if such a thing existed. (or really.. anything CW)

Flash suffers from some truly awful plot pacing, criminal abuse of physics, and a complete lack of consistency in Flashes power set. Even if we throw out physics (which is necessary for pretty much any superhero genre story) it has to at least be internally consistent.

I can't watch one show without watching everything else within the same continuity.

So I slogged through Iron Fist because it's MCU.

At some point I have to figure out if any of the DC shows on CW are still worth watching, because if I'm going to keep watching Legends, I MUST watch Arrow/Flash/Supergirl. If I'm going to watch supergirl, I MUST watch Arrow/Flash/Legends. Etc. etc. etc.

(Actually, I still need to go back and watch the single season of NBC's Constantine, since Arrow integrated it into the same continuity.)

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █