Right! But a ‘classical comedy’ doesn’t mean ‘has comedic elements’ in a modern sense.
Aristotle defined it something like ‘a sympathetic protagonist struggles, but everything works out in the end’. That would include most adventures.
What is the source of that definition? I’ve read the Poetics, but I only recall his discussions of tragedy. Is it from there or somewhere else?
Fritz Leiber’s “Space-Time for Springers” is both hilariously funny (its protagonist is a kitten) and heartbreaking. It’s a lot like a Heinlein juvenile, but without the happy ending. Or, at least, the happy ending isn’t for Gummitch, except that he suffers his fate through doing the right thing.
It’s a summary of what wikipedia says about the Poetics. I’m out of my depth in this discussion (which I have perpetuated)!
BritBox mostly. Obviously there’s all of Classic Who which goes down quite nicely, but did you know it’s now also sporting Blakes 7, Space 1999, Quatermass, Avengers, Peter Cushing Doctor Who? It’s basically the perfect channel! And that’s before we even mention… Sapphire and Steel!!!
Take for example last night’s rewatch of Kinda, something I haven’t seen since The Early Eighties!!! And actually, it stands up really well. Quite a few hide behind the sofa moments, if I’m being honest! Scary stuff.
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What tempts me is the original Life on Mars. The discs are only available in the US for absurd amounts of money. And I really prefer to see the originals rather than the US remakes.
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Absolutely. Every part of the film deals with death, loss or war and it is one of only two films that reliably makes me cry. I urge everyone to watch it.
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Okay, to divert (at least temporarily) back towards things we are watching…
I am currently on Season 4, Episode 19 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
It’s hard to explain how I feel about this series. On the one hand, I keep watching it. On the other hand, I keep wondering when it will “get good”… a lot of the episodes I’ve watched were very weak from a story perspective, sometimes nonsensically so. And I’m really struggling with how inconsistent The Force is, which isn’t something the movies really seemed to struggle with often.
Obi-Wan and Anakin are chasing a baddie. Why don’t they just Force levitate the bad guy?
Why doesn’t Cad Bane get blaster-bolts deflected back at him? Why do soldiers with ranged weapons rush at enemies? Why don’t Clone Troopers ever take cover?! Where are the orbital bombardments against the armies? How does a fleet of 5-8 ships blockade an entire planet!?! And Clone armies seem to just have troops mysteriously appear and disappear almost at whim (don’t get me started on the monstrosity of the “Underwater War” on Mon Cala… did nobody stop to think about what a lightsaber would do when turned on underwater!?.. to say nothing about two entire armies of Republic soldiers just… disappearing… without any explanation)
Frustrating. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love me my space-wizards with laser swords. Love 'em! But I’m struggling with the inconsistency in quality of these episodes… and they tend to oscillate between really-bad-to-good, without any truly great episodes. And the bad ones are really awful (the whole “Anakin as the Chosen One” arc was just horrible).
But I’ve heard people who’s opinions I trust rave about the last season… so I’m going to keep plodding on, cringing through the awful episodes.
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C and I are up to the last episode of the first season of Sense8. We’re making our way through the first season of the original Maverick, and about to see the episode that introduced the second Maverick brother. And I’m privately making my way through the Netflix Marvel series, in which I’m currently in the middle of the first season of Iron Fist.
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So much Timmy Time, my old oldest loves cuckoo clocks and they use them as a segway.
Tell ya that Goat it’s a cupcake stealing jerk. Oh and Kung Fu Panda 1. I think my youngest is trying to learn Kung Fu from it. Actually thinking about it the scene where Po is climbing to get snacks is how he gets snacks.
In adult time!
Finished West World, I enjoyed it. A few times I had trouble following along in a "who is that, what exactly happened’ kinda way but that’s West Worlds bread n butter. It might have also been because I’m watching close to bed time, just tired.
Next up in the precious kid free tv time Lovecraft Country!
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I love Timmy Time. More than my kids when they were old enough to watch it
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I am working my way through Clone Wars as well, and I also have noted the wide range of quality. I think it helps in the later seasons when there are actual long arcs of episodes, rather than just one or two episode standalones. I am on episode 5(?) of season 5 right now, and it has been pretty good, but like you said, nothing great. Hoping the final seasons are as good as they are hyped up to be.
I want to get through it and move on to Rebels, just so I have familiarity with all SW series.
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I’ve watched both series at a distance (the boys devoured both). I remember some episodes of The Clone Wars being awful, but I love the art style and bad Star Wars is still Star Wars.
Rebels is cool.
I think the Lego series are the best Star Wars cartoons. Right up my alley humour wise
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Has anyone else picked up on Dark, on Netflix? German time travel SF horror. I’m just getting to the end of the first season (of three).
In some ways, it’s sort of… obvious. The music is incredibly manipulative, it clearly owes a lot to Twin Peaks (without the depth), and if it really rains that much in northern Germany, the entire country should have washed away by now. But the atmosphere works, the core mysteries are adequately twisty, and there are moments when you can be sitting there going “No, they’re not going to go there… Oh my god they just did…”
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Plot twist: the rain time travels and it’s just the same rain continuously all the time.
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I love the fact that rain always has to be heavy because light rain just doesn’t show up on camera
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I have been meaning to give it a try, but I am really limited on time I can watch anything not kids friendly. I do have slices of time but makes it harder to start something new when you can’t watch a whole episode.
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Just finished Gomorra which is a deeply dark Neapolitan organised crime series.
We have just watched season 2 of Babylon Berlin which is a wonderfully dark detective/politics show set in 1929 Berlin. Season 3 next.
We think we will return to Ozark for season 3.
Watched a few Melissa McCarthy movies:
Heat and Life of the Party. We like her.
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The Avengers, in honour of Diana Rigg (RIP). Chronologically I’m still working my way through the Cathy Gale episodes, but it’s a while since I watched some, and an out-of-order episode with Emma Peel was very much in order.
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Hexagonal Tile-Laying Game Fest (Suburbia, Keyflower) has just been put up on SU&SD’s YouTube channel. This is one of my favourite episodes from the vimeo days (along with the original Christmas Special, episode 7).
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