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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 23, 2018 12:35:04 GMT -5
A little over played on the awkward/lonely angle but I'm interested to see more of Jaz
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 23, 2018 12:35:56 GMT -5
I'm a long time Who fan, stacks of fan mags fro9m the past and a couple newer ones but that focus partly on classic Who, have 80% of the ori8ginal series on DVD plus Chris Eccleston's run... they just got so much wrong with Rosa Parks and played out the getting her on that seat with that driver for that historic moment to the point of over doing it and then some, and all the racists were two-dimensional and boring as crap. If you care about the real history they did a disservice to it. It was a shoddy job by the writers. All the actors and set designers and props people who obviously put a lot into to it were cheated. Episode 3 was an embarrassment. I could not finish it. I did want to. It made me feel they thought the viewer was stupid. Now here's where the 'but it's a kids show' and 'if it gets them interested' comes in... fine, but what would it hurt to get the details of history accurate and the characters something other than cookie cutter saintly oppressed and evil incarnate haters to make speeches over. There is nothing illuminated dressing down such 2D racists in a sanctimonious speech, nothing to think about or reflect on...
Anyway, if you actually liked it fine but don't try to paint the people who thought it a bad job as ignorant or newbies when that is the opposite of the truth. It was a copy of these Timeless and other time travel U.S. show plots. And I have the old Hartnell Time Meddler on DVD, "the original you might say"... I was not wanting a 'romp', but compared to the recent U.S. shows that handled the Hindenburg and other events pretty faithfully this Rosa Parks guest starring MLK Jr. was junky, cartoonish and shallow with too much tiresome run-around to cover up (and that is a bad Who tradition, not a good one). I would dock the writers' pay big time on this one and that's because I care about the era and the real story this did a disservice to. It pretended to 'deal with issues' but mostly did not because of the uninspiring simply inherently saintly oppressed and sneering swaggering racist enemies.
Episode 1 very good, Episode 2 about the same, Episode 3 disappointing (because it could've been so much more).
'Nuff said.
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Post by comicsandwho on Oct 23, 2018 12:55:14 GMT -5
There is a bit too much of a'How dare people from the past not think in the 'enlightened' way we do' attitude that comes across in science fiction stories like this. And, you're right, the Scooby Doo chase scenes, and the 'long exchanges of posturing, bluffing, 'you don't scare me', 'Clint Eastwood, but without a gun' dialogue are already a cliche, and not just in 'Doctor Who'. At least there was no 'You have to climb a ladder,or we'll die, but I have faith in you' scene this week..but with a lot of spiders in the next one, I preduct there'll be a lot of ladders, too...
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 23, 2018 14:10:51 GMT -5
I'm a long time Who fan, stacks of fan mags fro9m the past and a couple newer ones but that focus partly on classic Who, have 80% of the ori8ginal series on DVD plus Chris Eccleston's run... they just got so much wrong with Rosa Parks and played out the getting her on that seat with that driver for that historic moment to the point of over doing it and then some, and all the racists were two-dimensional and boring as crap. If you care about the real history they did a disservice to it. It was a shoddy job by the writers. All the actors and set designers and props people who obviously put a lot into to it were cheated. Episode 3 was an embarrassment. I could not finish it. I did want to. It made me feel they thought the viewer was stupid. Now here's where the 'but it's a kids show' and 'if it gets them interested' comes in... fine, but what would it hurt to get the details of history accurate and the characters something other than cookie cutter saintly oppressed and evil incarnate haters to make speeches over. There is nothing illuminated dressing down such 2D racists in a sanctimonious speech, nothing to think about or reflect on... Anyway, if you actually liked it fine but don't try to paint the people who thought it a bad job as ignorant or newbies when that is the opposite of the truth. It was a copy of these Timeless and other time travel U.S. show plots. And I have the old Hartnell Time Meddler on DVD, "the original you might say"... I was not wanting a 'romp', but compared to the recent U.S. shows that handled the Hindenburg and other events pretty faithfully this Rosa Parks guest starring MLK Jr. was junky, cartoonish and shallow with too much tiresome run-around to cover up (and that is a bad Who tradition, not a good one). I would dock the writers' pay big time on this one and that's because I care about the era and the real story this did a disservice to. It pretended to 'deal with issues' but mostly did not because of the uninspiring simply inherently saintly oppressed and sneering swaggering racist enemies. Episode 1 very good, Episode 2 about the same, Episode 3 disappointing (because it could've been so much more). 'Nuff said. To be fair the bus driver, James Blake, was a two-dimensional oppressor....so that's spot on. He lived on for another 47 years after his encounter with Parks and was interviewed a number of times and his response never changed; he never said what he did was wrong, he never balked at the jim crow laws that made him need to act the way he did, and he never apologized...all he said was that it was his job and that he did it before Parks and numerous times after her as well even after her stand became a rallying cry. There's no back story for his actions, he didn't get forced out of a better job by a black man, or anything else that would give him a real sense of motivation...he was just casually racist and he stayed that way right til the end. And Blake wasn't alone in that respect, that two dimensional aspect is pretty common for people of that time; they weren't racist for any real reasons but rather because "That's just the way it is" and to portray it differently would have been very wrong. That lack of dynamism might leave some disappointed, but it seems like for most the quiet moments felt very strong and made for good watching. None of this is to dismiss the way you feel, I'm just saying that on the whole the reactions from the general audience were wildly positive and it's only among some long time watchers that you find the reactions are mixed. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 23, 2018 19:52:07 GMT -5
Sorry for my typos above. I'm sure I will like Episode 4 a lot more (probably because I hate spiders). They did do a great job on many aspects of Episode 3, it certainly looked great and was well cast.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 23, 2018 20:52:08 GMT -5
Sorry for my typos above. I'm sure I will like Episode 4 a lot more (probably because I hate spiders). They did do a great job on many aspects of Episode 3, it certainly looked great and was well cast. I often send off the most horrid typo ridden missives here myself, so I almost never even notice it when others do likewise. I'm hoping I like episode four a lot better myself, although I thought Rosa was a good episode and I generally liked the two before it there hasn't been one yet that really stopped me in my tracks the way say The Unquiet Dead did back in 2005. |
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Post by comicsandwho on Oct 31, 2018 16:22:11 GMT -5
As for the latest episode, 'Arachnids in the UK'....I'd kind of like the show to leave the USA alone for a bit, after watching Chris Noth's ridiculous caricature of a certain someone(either Alec Baldwin, or that other guy) in this episode. It didn't even provide a satisfying finish for that character, so the 'stunt casting' seemed a bit of a waste of character and story. I'd like to see fewer 'chase scenes', and more 'getting captured and escaping.
All that aside, the dynamics and camaraderie of 'Teeam TARDIS' make the current series more of a pleasure to watch.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 31, 2018 16:40:11 GMT -5
So far, I've been pleasantly surprised... I was concerned the focus of the series would be the fact that the Doctor is female, and they've avoided that. I also like the multiple companions... very old school.
As for 'Rosa', I appreciate what they were trying to do, but would it kill them to hire an American actor to play the Americans? It tossed me right out of the story with that horrible attempt at a southern accent.
They are laying it on a bit thick with the 'I'm the Doctor and I'm a hero!' stuff, but it's decent.
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 31, 2018 17:04:04 GMT -5
The spiders looked great! I really liked how the Doctor had empathy for them. The comedic hotel magnate guy firing people got a little tiresome but without overwhelming the story so it didn't ruin things for me. I recognized an actress from Coronation Street!  |
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Post by comicsandwho on Oct 31, 2018 17:37:53 GMT -5
So far, I've been pleasantly surprised... I was concerned the focus of the series would be the fact that the Doctor is female, and they've avoided that. I also like the multiple companions... very old school. As for 'Rosa', I appreciate what they were trying to do, but would it kill them to hire an American actor to play the Americans? It tossed me right out of the story with that horrible attempt at a southern accent. They are laying it on a bit thick with the 'I'm the Doctor and I'm a hero!' stuff, but it's decent. Well, they addressed the 'American actor playing an American' issue in the following episode. |
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Post by comicsandwho on Oct 31, 2018 17:48:19 GMT -5
The spiders looked great! I really liked how the Doctor had empathy for them. The comedic hotel magnate guy firing people got a little tiresome but without overwhelming the story so it didn't ruin things for me. I recognized an actress from Coronation Street! A good friend of mine in Yorkshire(Leeds, not Sheffield, so arachnid issues  ) told me that she also met that actress (at a 'meet and greet' that members of the cast appeared at, in support of a center for the disabled. My friend's brother(who stays at the center) is a big fan of the show, and has gotten to meeet many of the cast members at various public appearances, 'holiday pantos', etc. ) Anyway, the actress offered to sit at their table, and she and my friend did most of the listening as he talked about the show and all the characters.;-) Interesting how different it is there, where actors like that are more 'accessible' and 'mingling with the fans' is second nature. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 2, 2018 19:31:25 GMT -5
So far, I've been pleasantly surprised... I was concerned the focus of the series would be the fact that the Doctor is female, and they've avoided that. I also like the multiple companions... very old school. As for 'Rosa', I appreciate what they were trying to do, but would it kill them to hire an American actor to play the Americans? It tossed me right out of the story with that horrible attempt at a southern accent. They are laying it on a bit thick with the 'I'm the Doctor and I'm a hero!' stuff, but it's decent. Well, they addressed the 'American actor playing an American' issue in the following episode. Cool! I didn't watch the next one yet |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2018 14:24:55 GMT -5
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Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 3, 2018 16:16:18 GMT -5
It's a little sad but if they can't come up with a good story it's probably good not to force it. |
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Post by comicsandwho on Nov 3, 2018 17:42:46 GMT -5
Sounds like a New Years episode instead. No big loss if they skip Christmas.
The real problem will be if they take 2019 off. It's never a good look when a program skips a year. I thought 'Doctor Who' was over that after they got rid of Moffat, whose head was too far up his ass to work on two successful shows without shutting down each one to focus on the other, which only served to weaken both of them.
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) told me that she also met that actress (at a 'meet and greet' that members of the cast appeared at, in support of a center for the disabled. My friend's brother(who stays at the center) is a big fan of the show, and has gotten to meeet many of the cast members at various public appearances, 'holiday pantos', etc. ) Anyway, the actress offered to sit at their table, and she and my friend did most of the listening as he talked about the show and all the characters.;-) Interesting how different it is there, where actors like that are more 'accessible' and 'mingling with the fans' is second nature.