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It’s nice to see Brendan Fraser getting work. He plays Robot Man in the Doom Patrol show.
Also, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Warner Bros. should have put Paul Dini and Bruce Timm in charge of the DC cinematic universe.
They did the only good work with DC material on the small screen outside of the first three seasons of Smallville (qualified by saying: Exclude the episodes that were bad fan service).
This first season of Gotham was pretty great.
Also, I still have a soft spot for Lois and Clark.
And then, there’s the 1970s Wonder Woman show.
Season 1 of CW’s The Flash was great. But the show isn’t as good since they decided to go broody. Arrow was originally supposed to end after five seasons and so it should have. Supergirl has also been on the decline. Overall I think on the networks, DC has proven better than Marvel, but only just enough.
Really, superhero television and movies are overdone.
That clip was pretty good.
I still hate superheroes.
It really is a niche market that has presently sold well. I grew up with comic books and cartoons, and I enjoy them. But even as a kid I knew that was a pasttime for me and not for everyone. We had a small number of shows, but nothing like the glut today. MCU sparked something. I suspect in a few years it’ll burn out and fast.
The clip is really one of my favorite scenes so far. If the entire episode was that good, I’d enjoy it more. If the entire season was that good, I’d think the show has legs. Right now … meh.
Larry: “How do you like your steak? Unless you’re a vegan which would break my heart.”
An example of a great line, well acted, and the guy’s face is hidden. He shows more range in that little scene than a couple of the principles. Honestly, I do want to see more of Doom Patrol. Titans? Not sure. There’s room for improvement.
That is good. He should be working. I’d read that the reason we haven’t seen him for a while is because of a Harvey Weinstein blacklisting.
He’s made some poor choices for roles as well, sadly. But yes, it’s nice to see him back, even if we don’t actually see him.
I think you’re precisely right on the show. It’s a 3 out of 5. The Doom Patrol episode really failed to impress me; awkward and uninspired. Written by Geoff Johns even, who is someone I usually love (mostly in comic book form). Can’t fault the logic, given that Beast Boy really did first appear with them.
The Doom Patrol show will probably be pretty good, once it gets going. I think they’ve already replaced the actor who played Caulder, which is unfortunate.
There’s definitely a “We-Can-Swear-‘Cause-We’re-not-CW” vibe but they fail, in my opinion, to escape the tropes of said network. More-or-less, I’m fine with that. I just think if they want to remain competitive, there has to be something truly head turning here. Maybe they’ll connect Titans directly to the DCEU or something.
OK you got me to reconsider and you are right in two cases I am familiar with. The 70s Wonder Woman was not bad. First season and most of second season Lois and Clark was good. Gotham I have never seen.
I agree. He was excellent in the Mummy movies, especially the second one.
The first season is great because they tried to make it a gritty cop show that just happens to take place in the DC universe, and it had minimal fan service. They didn’t show very much of Bruce Wayne. There were no costumed supervillains. The characters taken from the comic books, like Oswald Cobblepot and Edward Nygma, were portrayed relatively realistically. The “big bads” were all mafia guys. Stuff like that.
Sadly, the ratings weren’t great so in subsequent seasons they ramped up the comic book silliness. By the third season the show was 100% fan service.
Yeah. I liked season 1 for that reason. I liked Jim Gordon’s story, and done right, Gotham could have been an interesting Cop story and why Jim’s Commissioner, but still not the man to save Gotham city — even with high ideals he becomes too compromised. It’s why the Batman becomes necessary.
Instead, yes, all the fan service and more. Worse, it means the Batman is beating up on old men when he finally comes on the scene. That sounds healthy. I totally agree that the show started well, but they lost direction fast.
His best work was in The Quiet American and Gods And Monsters.
Heck, even though it’s a pretty silly movie, the work he did in Encino Man was pretty decent. It’s actually pretty hard to play a convincing cave man. You have to convey a lot of information without using language. I’m not saying he’s the best cinematic caveman ever (the folk in Quest For Fire enjoy that distinction), but he’s a darn sight better than Darryl Hannah was in Clan Of The Cave Bear !
Weirdly, the man can’t yell, though.
It’s really the sort of show that should have been done on a cable network like HBO or Showtime. Then it could have been envisioned as a prequel to the Nolanverse. If you’re really going to show just how bad Gotham City is, to the point that its only hope is a high-functioning schizoid who dresses up like a bat, you can’t do it while sticking to broadcast standards & practices. Gotham City should be horrific.
e.g. You can’t do Selina Kyle’s origin story justice without including horrific sexual abuse. On Gotham, the street kids are more like the cast of Our Gang or Annie. “We live on the streets, but we’re spunky with a can-do attitude!”
I think what was most jarring about the Doom Patrol episode was that it was out of character for the series. Titans has been playing like the Netflix street hero shows — dark, a lot of brooding, and largely grounded even with super powers. “Doom Patrol” went off the rails and honestly, as it’s own show I can see going off the rails as a good thing. The antagonist for the series is Mr. Nobody, which means they’re drawing heavily from Grant Morrison’s material. (Incidentally, Alan Tudyk will be playing that character).
They did replace Caulder. In the Doom Patrol series, Jeremy Irons is creditted as Caulder/Chief. The voice actors for Larry Trainor and Cliff Steele are the same, although the body actor for the former has been replaced. There’s a lot of potential there, and I think the show will stand out if they let themselves cut loose and not in a “THOMPKINS MADE A SWEAR!” way.
By coincidence, I watched season one over the last few days. The most obvious example is when they go to the super exclusive, PG-13, bondage and domination sex club. Hot female employees all over the place, waitresses, hostesses, lotion wranglers, and not a bare anything in sight.