Last Show You Watched

it's fun, and beautiful. They definitely put some money into this one.

Oh boy, fellas. Get ready for this one.

I'm six episodes in to The Winter King and I've got some fuckin' thoughts. The Winter King is, as far as I'm aware, the third television production based on Bernard Cornwell's work. The first being the Sharpe series of TV movies, and the second being the Netflix The Last Kingdom series that recently concluded with the worst movie ever made (the show was pretty great, though).

My personal connection to this is mostly that I like King Arthur stuff, I like Bernard Cornwell, and I like medieval/post-Roman European history. I own and have read the three books this series is based on (The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur), but it was so long ago that I honestly could not review this show in terms of accuracy to source material.

I'll also caveat this by admitting my bias toward real history even in a show that's a mix of historical fiction and fantasy (there's some 'is it magic?' stuff going on in the show that makes it not really work as pure historical fiction). To be fair, the show is presenting itself as taking place during our real history with all that entails - including places and historical events and all that.

So here's my first complaint; why is everything so dark? Did the entire film and television industry lose every single person that understands how to light a show during and in post production? Because this isn't unique to Winter King. I would say the majority of 'drama' shows and movies these days are fucking horrible if you like to actually see what's going on.

Here's my second complaint; everything looks like shit. I'm a history guy, so maybe I don't get it. Do all of you who are not necessarily people that actively research and study history actually believe that all pre-modern humans just enjoyed living like fucking shit? Do you honestly believe that before like 1900 everyone was just covered in grime all the time, wearing clothes that barely fit, untreated furs wrapped all over them in bizarre patterns and fits, and just generally did not know how to dress themselves?

If you do feel that way, let me tell you something; pre-modern peoples knew how to dress and make clothes. They had artisans. Even the "Dark Ages" (bullshit term we need to stop using). They wanted to be clean and look nice. They LOVED color and looking stylish. It wasn't just all grim and dark and filthy and all the men covered themselves in fucking biker leather and furs. That didn't happen. Literally ever. And it looks fucking horrible and stupid.

Connected to that is just the complete lack of give a shit that anyone working on this project had toward history. This is SUPPOSED to be taking place in post-Roman Britain. Not a Mad Max Elseworld Earth. Actual Britain, on actual Earth, after the Roman occupation was over and the Germanic tribes were beginning to settle/invade. This is a real historical period that we have not insignificant information about.

You know what people didn't do? Wear baggy-legged/bootcut fucking trousers. Winangas, for instance, were very popular in the period (strips of various material wound tightly around the lower legs). And they were worn specifically to protect the pants from being loose around the ankle and getting tattered or damaged. Medieval/post-Roman people CARED ABOUT HOW THEY LOOKED. They cared about their possessions.

And why the fuck do all of these shows insist on like... black leather vests randomly covered in strips/pieces of metal? What the fuck is that supposed to even be? It's not a thing. I promise you this is not a thing that has ever existed in history because it's fucking stupid, hideous, and would serve zero actual purpose unless your intent is to look like an absolute fool that can't dress himself.

Just.. everything. Every piece of the material culture in this show is garbage that does nothing but basically insult our species by acting like the people that lived before us were barely more than cavemen. OWAIN WEARS ROPE. FUCKING ROPE. Like all over his body.

And everyone wears boots. Like big biker boots and shit. That also was not a thing in this period. In fact, most people wore various types of low shoes for the entirety of the medieval period in basically all of Western Europe. All of this stuff I said is just BASIC stuff. You can learn it all in an afternoon. And yeah yeah, I know - it's a TV show. But like, someone on this TV show has the specific job of designing costumes and shit. So maybe an afternoon of research shouldn't be asking too much. But it seems like it always is. It's always asking too much to just make one of these shows that looks decent.

Acting is okay. Story feels.. off, somehow. But to be fair, the books tell the entire story from the perspective of what, in the show, has become like a secondary main character. Losing that narrative perspective may be causing issues and forcing the adaptation to take a hard stance on things that the book didn't have to. Not sure. I'd be surprised if this show gets more seasons, and WAY surprised if it actually gets to a real conclusion like The Last Kingdom did. Because even though The Last Kingdom also fucking sucked in the material culture department, it was definitely a better show by a wide margin.

I'm still gonna watch the rest of the season because I hate myself, apparently.

Finished The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix last night. There may be a tiny bit of recency bias here, but this might be one of the best shows I've ever seen. Absolutely phenomenal in basically every way a show can be - from the acting, to the dialogue, to the concept, to the story itself, to the integration of Poe material throughout and clever use of the poems and story beats.... everything. It's an incredible show.

Yeah, I'm just floored by how they synergyzed Poe's entire library of work into the series.  It's a kind of talent we rarely get to see, much less succeed so well in execution.

After how he handled The Haunting of Hill House, I'm pretty firmly on the Flanagan train. I was never much of a fan of Poe's work, but I know I'll try Flanagan's House of Usher eventually.

I was firmly on the Flanagan train after Hill House. I slowly departed the train after Bly Manor and Midnight Mass. I found each show worse than the previous one. Haven't watched Midnight Club or House of Usher for that reason.

Posted by: @tsi

↑

I was firmly on the Flanagan train after Hill House. I slowly departed the train after Bly Manor and Midnight Mass. I found each show worse than the previous one. Haven't watched Midnight Club or House of Usher for that reason.

I see that. Bly Manor... I enjoyed but it wasn't even close to Hill House. But I'm also a huge Shirley Jackson fan, so I imagine my reaction to that was as close as I can get to how some of you are with Usher.

I still haven't seen Doctor Sleep and I can't explain why.

Midnight Club I watched mostly because my kids were really excited to try it, and... I would put it between Hill House and Bly Manor, but I definitely enjoyed it more than Bly Manor. it had some really great moments, and I guess it's like what Usher is to Poe, but with Christopher Pike. He weaved many stories throughout the show. If nothing else, you have to watch the... I think it was even the first episode, but Flanagan is kinda known for not relying on jump scares (so when he does one, it's actually fantastic), and in Midnight Club he broke the record for most jump scares in a minute. It's my favorite part of the show.

House of Usher might be better than Hill House, but only by a few degrees. It's almost too close to tell. I liked Bly Manor and haven't watched Midnight Club.

I'd say the reason not to watch Midnight Club is Netflix didn't renew it to conclude the plot. It's not reeeeeeeeeally a cliffhanger, but definitely not the end of the story. I still enjoyed it though, despite that, because there is plenty else going on aside from the main arc. And some of the characters are very interesting just on their own.

And once it was cancelled, Flanagan revealed what was going to happen in the second season, so you can easily find out the conclusion.

I somehow missed there was a sixth season of Black Mirror so i caught up with those eps over the past couple of days.  Good stuff all around, imho.

Whats House of usher about?

The residence of a mediocre singer.

Oh ok understood. I thought it was a movie about Ushers showing people to their seats. ill pass, seems boring.

@nightwolf It's an adaptation of ye olde Edgar Allen Poe tale, folding in nearly all of his other well-known tales and works.  It's a generational tale of a man and his sister creating a pharmaceutical empire on the backs of his children and having to reckon with his actions.  Miss it at your entertainment peril.

I finished the first season of Mindhunter, an excellent series where you can discover or rediscover famous cases and murderers.