|
Zulily Zoetrope posted:There's one episode towards the end of hahaha what is this whiny nonsense.
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2019 18:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 9, 2024 20:11 |
|
|
Oyak posted:hahaha what is this whiny nonsense. It was at least a quick segment. The writers need a loving editor. They clearly don't have one.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2019 18:52
|
|
|
The Kins posted:(* Except South Park, which is done in loving Maya for some reason. Yes, the same Maya that's used for 3D modelling for films and videogames. Weird.) Not weird at all considering animating South Park is a lot more complicated than it looks and dabbles in 3D occasionally. It makes sense to just use one piece of software especially with their quick turnaround
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2019 19:36
|
|
|
Doctor Reynolds posted:I'd say The Princess Bride is more a fairy tale, not fantasy. Sicily is a real place! i've been and i don't believe you
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2019 19:43
|
|
|
OK but so I am finally watching the new Dark Crystal and Hamill is doing kind of a Cobra Commander thing so I looked up the voice actor for Cobra Commander and: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Collins It turns out he was the original voice for both Mr Burns and for Moe. The Moe lines were recast before airing and Mr Burns after the first season, apparently because Collins was a tremendous rear end in a top hat This is not the low point of the Simpsons, but it apparently was the low point of this guy's career
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 00:37
|
|
|
Wow. Too big an rear end in a top hat for Hollywood
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 00:42
|
|
|
That racist unicorn joke someone mentioned is a big sickness in humor today. There's been this habit of twee-rear end post-script in so much humor writing for years as part of people trying to copy Joss Whedon without actually being good at writing like Whedon is. The Simpsons is a huge offender, as was Futurama in the later episodes. Archer gets bad about it based on what season you're watching, too. I watched American Dad based on this thread and while yeah it's super good in places, even that show seems like it doesn't have confidence in just letting a quick, fun gag sit on its own.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 02:04
|
|
|
I'd be OK with Disenchantment if they got rid of Elfo. It's like if every episode of Futurama had Cubert tagging along, and everybody was friends with him instead of being fed up with how annoying he is.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 03:15
|
|
|
dracky posted:I'd be OK with Disenchantment if they got rid of Elfo. It's like if every episode of Futurama had Cubert tagging along, and everybody was friends with him instead of being fed up with how annoying he is. Elfo is good when he's being incredibly naive and positive and not understanding that something bad is happening. He's bad when he's trying to win over Bean. One thing I read is that the supporting cast of Disenchantment is really small, and it absolutely is. And very few of the supporting characters are memorable. An animated show like this needs to develop enough supporting characters to keep things fresh and it just hasn't.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 05:40
|
|
|
sweet geek swag posted:Elfo is good when he's being incredibly naive and positive and not understanding that something bad is happening. He's bad when he's trying to win over Bean. I think Bean’s handmaiden is a pretty funny character but they use her literally only once for this new season.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 05:45
|
|
|
Disenchantment has a ton of minor characters that they never properly utilise
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 08:16
|
|
|
Treehouse of Horror this week. These used to be good, but this one sucks. The first one is an Omen parody where Maggie is evil. At one point Ned says she bears the mark of the beast and shows she has a Mickey Mouse birthmark, which he then apologizes for. This one was only like 3 minutes long and ends with Maggie killing everyone into the opening credits. Not too bad. Next one is "Danger Things". Milhouse gets kidnapped, and Kirk plays the Winona Ryder role by going nuts about it. Frink puts Lisa in a sensory deprivation tank to send her to the "Over Under" (where she meets a Tracey Ullman era Lisa). Homer shows up and reveals that it's all Mr. Burns' fault. The family decides to move to the Over Under because housing is affordable. In the next one, Homer dies choking on a hot dog at a football game. He gets to heaven, which Google has purchased. They say he can go back as someone else who's supposed to die and live as them. He chooses the quarterback of the football team. Homer ruins the ripped young body in one night, gets back on heaven's app, and chooses another body: Superintendent Chalmers. He dies when he sees how little he's paid. He winds up in Moe. I think this is a parody of some 80s movie? Last one is a Shape of Water parody with Selma and Kang. Mr. Burns plans to dissect him so Selma and Homer break him out. Kang has the infinity gauntlet at one point. Patty hits it off with Kodos, who says it's OK she's gay because he has 32 sexual identities.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 13:35
|
|
|
Miss posted:Disenchantment has a ton of minor characters that they never properly utilise It’s so frustrating knowing this has the same opportunities that enabled good Simpsons and good Futurama. What’s happening in the 2019 pipeline that excuses their room of writers to call it a day on this lukewarm poo poo? The voice actors and animators/painters are the talent keeping this afloat, and the writers need to be insulted more for bringing down the quality of a huge operation
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 13:35
|
|
|
the treehouses seemed to be better than their constituent seasons for quite a while longer after the peak. Not amazing but not too terrible either. Wonder why that is? Anthology means you're not staying too bored with a lackluster episode too long before it switches to the next one?
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 13:39
|
|
|
PostNouveau posted:Last one is a Shape of Water parody with Selma and Kang. Mr. Burns plans to dissect him so Selma and Homer break him out. Kang has the infinity gauntlet at one point. Patty hits it off with Kodos, who says it's OK she's gay because he has 32 sexual identities. The simpsons did The One Joke, kill me now
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 13:40
|
|
|
PostNouveau posted:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_Can_Wait_(1978_film)? PostNouveau posted:Last one is a Shape of Water parody with Selma and Kang. Mr. Burns plans to dissect him so Selma and Homer break him out. Kang has the infinity gauntlet at one point. Patty hits it off with Kodos, who says it's OK she's gay because he has 32 sexual identities. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 14:31
|
|
|
Milo and POTUS posted:the treehouses seemed to be better than their constituent seasons for quite a while longer after the peak. Not amazing but not too terrible either. Wonder why that is? Anthology means you're not staying too bored with a lackluster episode too long before it switches to the next one? Probably a combination of multiple things. The anthology setting definitely helps. I think a big part of it too is that they're free to get more creative, so they can do weird poo poo and experiment in ways they normally can't. The treehouse episodes are also kind of big events, so it wouldn't surprise me if they put more effort into them than the regular episodes.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 15:02
|
|
|
PostNouveau posted:
Why do they keep bringing the Tracey Ullman versions back in these Halloween episodes? The last one they did with them was SO bad.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 15:07
|
|
|
4-segment ToH episodes are morally wrong
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 16:35
|
|
|
It's surprising to me that people think the THOH episodes have remained decent. To me they've been even worse than the normal episodes for basically as long as the show has been bad.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 16:49
|
|
|
Plan Z posted:That racist unicorn joke someone mentioned is a big sickness in humor today. There's been this habit of twee-rear end post-script in so much humor writing for years as part of people trying to copy Joss Whedon without actually being good at writing like Whedon is. i've only seen like one episode of any joss whedon show (buffy), can you describe this in more detail? quote:I watched American Dad based on this thread and while yeah it's super good in places, even that show seems like it doesn't have confidence in just letting a quick, fun gag sit on its own. example? i'm a huge fan of american dad, enough that i'm stoked about the idea of dissecting it
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 16:51
|
|
|
brugroffil posted:4-segment ToH episodes are morally wrong It fucks with all the timing, which is weird because I know the old framing devices took up as much time as the short, extra segment. But they're rushing through everything the rest of the episode. THOH are very cookie-cutter these days. It's some pop culture thing, they have enough time to establish which character are which, and then it ends in a lovely rushed fashion. Like with Stranger Things, they get out basically Milhouse = kidnapped kid Kurt = Winona Ryder Homer = drunk sheriff guy Lisa = Eleven Bart = other main character kid And then there are no remarkable jokes and it's over.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 17:01
|
|
|
Another issue I have with Disenchantment that I haven't seen mentioned is that there are a few episodes that try to be emotional or touching, but the general pacing of the episodes kind of ruins it. It's like when some big event happens that's tragic, the show moves at such a fast clip that none of the weight of what happens never gets enough time to sink in. I find the overall pacing of the show in general to be a little off putting.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 18:23
|
|
|
I started watching Bob's Burgers a while back, but by the end of the first season I was already completely turned off by Louise. They were setting her up to be this character that effortlessly dominates everyone else without any pushback, and I rarely like that. Think I dropped it after the episode where she turns some of her guileless classmates into sweatshop workers or something.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 18:27
|
|
|
Phlegmish posted:I started watching Bob's Burgers a while back, but by the end of the first season I was already completely turned off by Louise. They were setting her up to be this character that effortlessly dominates everyone else without any pushback, and I rarely like that. Think I dropped it after the episode where she turns some of her guileless classmates into sweatshop workers or something. That dynamic doesn't really change, although "Louise clashes with a person she can't effortlessly dominate" is a very common storyline later.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 18:30
|
|
|
Wicker Man posted:Another issue I have with Disenchantment that I haven't seen mentioned is that there are a few episodes that try to be emotional or touching, but the general pacing of the episodes kind of ruins it. It's like when some big event happens that's tragic, the show moves at such a fast clip that none of the weight of what happens never gets enough time to sink in. I find the overall pacing of the show in general to be a little off putting. yeah, i agree with all the stuff people have said about the writing being incredibly mediocre and the characters not being used well, but this is basically my major sticking point with the whole thing. the first episode of the new season starts off with trying to do this plot about bean literally getting gaslighted into thinking she's crazy. she stumbles on a secret room and passes out, and after she wakes up the secret room is all different from what she thought she saw! it's a super cliche plot at this point but you could work it into something manageable at least. what does disenchantment do? immediately, without even a single scene in between, has a character go "oh no, they changed the room when you weren't looking". the whole "bean might be crazy" misdirection is wrapped up in half an episode. the same thing happens with the introduction of the steampunk city. there's 10 minutes of stuff in dreamland, she ends up accidentally in this steampunk city never referenced before out of the blue and has to be brought up to speed with it in about 5 minutes time, and then the last 10 minutes of the episode get resolved back in dreamland. it's like they got the series order for 10 episodes, and in the writing room they said "Ok, we're going to have exactly 5 one-shot episodes, and exactly 5 long-form-plot episodes, AND NO MORE OR LESS FOR EITHER." so all the long form stuff is super compressed and all the one shot stuff is super slow and meandering.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 18:38
|
|
|
brugroffil posted:4-segment ToH episodes are morally wrong It isn't actually four segments, as such. Back in the olden days, they had a framing device that'd set up the episode and come back for like 30 seconds in-between episodes, like the Simpsons are at a Halloween party and telling scary stories, or the kids have nightmares and want to sleep in their parents' bed, which makes Homer have a nightmare. Then they cut that for a brief gag to introduce that it's a Halloween episode, like Marge telling people to tuck in their kids so they won't be spooked sleepless, or an announcer saying tonight's episode will be rated PG-13 before being stabbed to death by the rating sign. The intro gag at some point grew into a segment of its own and it's probably the best example of the Zombie Simpson writers not understanding their show at all. It's there because that's how they've always done it, and it's a vehicle for shoving in some more references, so who cares if it fucks up the pacing of the rest of the episode?
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 19:02
|
|
|
Zulily Zoetrope posted:It isn't actually four segments, as such. Back in the olden days, they had a framing device that'd set up the episode and come back for like 30 seconds in-between episodes, like the Simpsons are at a Halloween party and telling scary stories, or the kids have nightmares and want to sleep in their parents' bed, which makes Homer have a nightmare. Then they cut that for a brief gag to introduce that it's a Halloween episode, like Marge telling people to tuck in their kids so they won't be spooked sleepless, or an announcer saying tonight's episode will be rated PG-13 before being stabbed to death by the rating sign. Sorta. But also FOX forced them into a 3-commercial-break structure like 5 years ago, so every Simpsons since then has been 4 acts. Often this makes either the 4th act of any show an awkward, rushed conclusion OR sometimes they make the 4th act really short and it's just a scene they deleted from the episode.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 19:10
|
|
|
Phlegmish posted:I started watching Bob's Burgers a while back, but by the end of the first season I was already completely turned off by Louise. They were setting her up to be this character that effortlessly dominates everyone else without any pushback, and I rarely like that. Think I dropped it after the episode where she turns some of her guileless classmates into sweatshop workers or something. yeah this poo poo doesn't stop. And in later seasons it gets worse plus she just becomes a quip machine. She's not a terrible character on the whole and definitely gets more storylines rolling than any other but it's clear the writers are in love with her character a little too much
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 19:37
|
|
|
The Halloween episode this year for Bobs Burgers was fantastic. If you have Hulu go watch that poo poo right now
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 19:49
|
|
|
PostNouveau posted:Sorta. Normal episodes are still three acts. IIRC they've had 3 commercial breaks for a really long time, but they used to cut to commercial after the intro and couch gag. I'm guessing this was changed because people probably lost interest or tuned out when they just watched the minute long intro and extended couch gag and cut to commercial without seeing any actual episode. They've shifted it so they now roll directly into the first act. This leaves most episodes saving just the credits or a small skit, not really an "act", for after the third commercial break. So if I had to guess, the four-skit THOH episodes are because FOX mandated that they can't cut to the first commercial break until after X number of minutes. The problem is, this means four really rushed skits instead of three slightly more fleshed out ones, when they're already down to like 21 minute episodes.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 20:21
|
|
|
Bob's Burgers is a little off putting in the first season. They initially start off going a little too hard on gross out and shock humor and everyone yells, all the time. I'd say by the end of the second season they found their niche, which is clever and quirky dialogue, interesting adventure plot episodes, and songs. By the fourth or fifth season they significantly dialed back on the yelling. It's totally mind boggling to me that Bob's Burgers is already in season ten. The Simpsons was already deep into it's decline at this point.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 20:32
|
|
|
SweetMercifulCrap! posted:Normal episodes are still three acts. IIRC they've had 3 commercial breaks for a really long time, but they used to cut to commercial after the intro and couch gag. I'm guessing this was changed because people probably lost interest or tuned out when they just watched the minute long intro and extended couch gag and cut to commercial without seeing any actual episode. They've shifted it so they now roll directly into the first act. This leaves most episodes saving just the credits or a small skit, not really an "act", for after the third commercial break. Yeah, it's usually a cut scene that would have fit into the middle of the episode, but it's also sometimes (I don't know the literary term) like a post-epilogue. Like an extra denouement sometimes with side characters who were part of the plot but didn't make the finale. It's a weird thing. They bitch about it a TON on the commentary tracks for the newer seasons. They indirectly blame if for the decline in quality (not that they'd ever admit that the quality has gotten bad) because Fox took like 90 seconds of show from them through this change, and when you cut things, you can't cut plot, so you wind up cutting jokes. I don't buy this because they use the full intro all the time these days, so if you really want 60 more seconds ... PostNouveau fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Oct 22, 2019 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 20:37
|
|
|
PostNouveau posted:I don't buy this because they use the full intro all the time these days, so if you really want 60 more seconds ... Not that I think this excuse flies for modern Simpsons at all, but Matt said in either the early season DVDs or the Futurama commentaries that he would use the full intro of the show for syndication purposes. Basically, when they air years down the line and the episode needs to be shortened again, they can cut down the intro first before having to touch the plot or jokes.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 21:51
|
|
|
IUG posted:Not that I think this excuse flies for modern Simpsons at all, but Matt said in either the early season DVDs or the Futurama commentaries that he would use the full intro of the show for syndication purposes. Basically, when they air years down the line and the episode needs to be shortened again, they can cut down the intro first before having to touch the plot or jokes. Was this before or after he flew with Epstein
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2019 21:55
|
|
|
Zulily Zoetrope posted:It isn't actually four segments, as such. Back in the olden days, they had a framing device that'd set up the episode and come back for like 30 seconds in-between episodes, like the Simpsons are at a Halloween party and telling scary stories, or the kids have nightmares and want to sleep in their parents' bed, which makes Homer have a nightmare. Then they cut that for a brief gag to introduce that it's a Halloween episode, like Marge telling people to tuck in their kids so they won't be spooked sleepless, or an announcer saying tonight's episode will be rated PG-13 before being stabbed to death by the rating sign. They dropped detailed the wrap arounds because they ate up too much time for the already short plots and also  but you're right for years they had first the multi part links and then at least a short intro thing, e.g. the fox censor getting brutally murdered
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2019 03:21
|
|
|
YeahTubaMike posted:i've only seen like one episode of any joss whedon show (buffy), can you describe this in more detail? I'm sure not everyone agrees, but Whedon is a good writer. He's typically great at setting up plots and is able to tie themes into what he writes without making them immediately obvious. He's decent at writing comedic dialogue (he has problems "like same-voice syndrome," but I still will laugh at what he does). He'll write snappy comic dialogue that flows well, and he can pull off post-script banter well (again with problems in some areas) with characters that will acknowledge when a character said something funny or attempted to say something funny*. Bad writers try to ape this, and it typically comes off as the writer congratulating themself. It's not new, but it's more common these days, and is pretty obvious when you see it and can feel that they're a fan of Whedon's work. I'm kind of spitballing after working 36 hours so far this week, too. *He's even self-aware to the point that he made an episode of Buffy that was entirely silent in a way that acknowledged criticisms of some of his writing
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2019 03:44
|
|
|
A Zombie Simpsons-style example from Disenchantment, which is a new show:quote:[Prince Derek takes Elfo out to meet his octopus friend, who won't come out.] A quick edit: quote:DEREK: Do you like to use your imagination? It's not Ibsen, but it feels more like the characters. Elfo loving loves to imagine. This whole sequence is just an excuse for the octopus to freak out, but it feels unnecessarily empty. It stuck out even in the other slightly off stuff, and I like Disenchantment OK.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2019 17:51
|
|
|
Family Guy was really killing it the last three episodes, and most of last season (though this season opener was bad. If you ever liked the show, you'll probably mostly enjoy it again. It seems like they care about the writing again and you can tell there's some semblance of examining the scripts to make sure the jokes actually work, vs. modern Simpsons where it seems like they just use the first thing they thought of and never examine it again.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2019 18:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 9, 2024 20:11 |
|
|
Empty Sandwich posted:A Zombie Simpsons-style example from Disenchantment, which is a new show: You made me realize the only character they'll let drive comedy just by being themselves is Lucy. Everyone else is a slave to the plot. And the main plot is never funny
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2019 18:43
|
|