Maybe a TV series version?
I'm forcing myself to go through the entire Farscape series (streaming on Netflix).
When it was first out, my wife and I lost interest about two seasons in. Now I remember why.
This show is _massively_ uneven. Characterization wanders all over the place. But when it's good, it's amazing, you just have to sit through a lot of dren to get to it. (I'm up to season 4)
The thing is, it SCREAMS RPG turned into a series. It's also gloriously pulp. While it's not Sword and Planet, a lot of elements remind me of it (including the classic 'Earthman cast adrift, trying to get home')
Hey, don't knock the Farscape...set design is frickin' awesome, even if costuming is, well, uneven (lawdy, those puppets get out of hand).
But, yeah, those writers clearly have some RPG experience, you can practically see the skill sets of characters of the "party" on the ship.
Same creator is now in charge of Defiance for Syfy so that's probably worth a nosey as well(just the tv show though not the mmo coz its utter crap)....less muppets though since hensen studio's aren't involved.
I should give Defiance a try. The show, not the MMO, because yes it totally is.
I saw the first episode and was like 'meh.'
lol yeah the badguys were very ropey cg aliens, thankfully the rest of the show isn't like that so is worth giving a second chance.
As I mentioned over in the movie thread.
Archer: Fugitive from an Empire a failed TV pilot has a very D&D feel to it. Loved the Heart Bow the main character has. Fun movie with some nice effects, especially the mask work on the snakemen. And an actually likable and effective thief for once.
Came out the same year as BX D&D.
Constantine - Nice idea too much exposition. the one thing JC rarely does is exposition but I guess the comics rely heavily on his inner dialogue to explain the plot. Maybe if they had taken that approach. JC in an institution/police station explaing an event in flash back then they could have used the narative voice.
Anyway .... we will stick with it
Also caught up season 1 of Hannibal and now into Season 2. Increadibly well made TV. the acting dialogue effects etc are absolutlely superb. The one issue I have with it is how it makes other shows look by comparison. It does suffer from some believablity issues around the ease of walking into hospitals, secure facilities etc..
Mentioned this in the movie thread, but it fits here better.
Recent "reality" TV show called The Quest.
This one was really interesting as it dropped twelve people into a fantasy world called Everworld. The producers rented castle Burg Kreuzenstein and populated it. The contestants are referred to as Paladins and each given a piece of the Sunspear. Only one will get to assemble the spear and use it to defeat an evil force that is sweeping the realms. Good costume work and theres even some monsters. This was produced by some of the folk that worked on Lord of the Rings.
Each episode the story unfolds and the group has to solve some puzzle. Each puzzle leaves three of them in an elimination event at the end that only one can win. The remaining two face a vote of who stays and who goes. Nicely done too.
The very first event has the group split into teams of three and firing real scorpion ballistia at targets!
Fun series currently up on Hulu still I think.
Currently I am following Arrow, Supernatural and Sons of Anarchy. I just saw two seasons of House of Cards. That show is recommended. It's in the same league as Breaking Bad or the Wire. My friends watch The Walking Dead, but I don't see what so special about it. I also watch the Archer cartoon. It's very vulgar, so that's why I love it. :D
Of course I also watch Doctor Who and I am waiting for a new season of Continuum.
Really like Agents of SHIELD still (But I'm in the UK, so the rest of the world is ahead of us); they're still in spy-thriller mode, which is great.
Looking forward to the Top Gear christmas special, as well... and it'll actually be on at christmas! So that's something. I saw the Burma special again on the weekend, and while I've seen it before and know how it ends, it's always nervewracking watching Hammond cross the bridge.
Been watching "The Sandbaggers" on the youtube. Old school gritty spy show. Love it.
I've been binging on Justified. It's Elmore Leonard so the characters and dialogue are the main draw.
I'm still enjoying The Walking Dead... though the mid season ended on a note of pure stupid.
Been watching the first 2 series of Arrow. Enjoyed the first season a lot, but the second one is starting to lose me. It's basically becoming a soap opera with added pointy things. Shame.
Hoping to start watching that Marco Polo series on Netflix in the next few days, when I get a big enough block of time to watch the first few episodes.
I just caught up with the second season of Ray Donovan, which is brilliant source material for a contemporary, non-fantastical game. He's a fixer who works for a Hollywood law firm with a very exclusive clientele. The sort who pay a lot of money to make their problems go away, and stay out of the press (or jail).
I follow Agents of SHIELD and The Blacklist. I'll soon enjoy the Agent Carter mini-series that's taking AoS's timeslot for 7 weeks before AoS returns for its second-half, and I'm looking forward to the new Top Gear series airing on BBC America. (Disappointed with Doctor Who; love Capaldi, hated everything else.)
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;806900Hoping to start watching that Marco Polo series on Netflix in the next few days, when I get a big enough block of time to watch the first few episodes.
It's watchable, but not amazing...I wish they spent more time on historical accuracy and less on wu.
It's supposedly the most expensive series every made, but for all the budget, it's very clear that they spent roughly $0 on clothing for the females, at least the ones with no lines.
Quote from: Doom;807699It's watchable, but not amazing...I wish they spent more time on historical accuracy and less on wu.
It's supposedly the most expensive series every made, but for all the budget, it's very clear that they spent roughly $0 on clothing for the females, at least the ones with no lines.
For me the attraction is the wuxia. I am cool with them not sticking to history and just using it as a convenient backdrop for the story. Would you say the story itself is good? Also how is the action choreography and stunt work?
Still haven't had a chance to get to it, but hearing mixed things. I heard the first episode is a bit tedious but it gets better.
I binge-watched my way through BBC America's 'Intruders' series first (only?) season and liked it a good bit... particularly the way it dropped the audience into the situation with almost no information, then slowly revealed what's going on (I'm really glad I didn't read up on it and only found it because I'd finished Life On Mars and wanted more of Mr. Simm). That and some of the stuff with the little girl/old serial killer on the show should probably insure there's no U.S. remake without heavy alterations.
It's given me some new spins on an old idea for a Call of Cthulhu game.
I wasn't in the slightest bit interested in Agents of Shield, but this Agent Carter miniseries is quite good.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;807857For me the attraction is the wuxia. I am cool with them not sticking to history and just using it as a convenient backdrop for the story. Would you say the story itself is good? Also how is the action choreography and stunt work?
Still haven't had a chance to get to it, but hearing mixed things. I heard the first episode is a bit tedious but it gets better.
The action quality and stunt work is solid, professional stuff. I've certainly seen worse in A-movie titles.
The story is...ok. It's not insult-my-intelligence stupid, even if Marco gets awarded a vast amount of trust, very quickly, and nobody seems to have any language issues (that's one of things I really enjoyed about the TV version of Clavell's Shogun, is how the language barrier makes the cultural barrier even more confounding).
But just imagine if they'd gone hardcore on the realism, a la Deadwood, the series would have been pretty awesome...it's not like the Khanate story isn't amazing all by itself. The Khan was not a random murdering thug pointlessly doing stuff...but they never really focus on the things that would make me come back and watch the series again.
Instead, it's a decently made serial, a sliver better than a legion of other action serials that use reality as a backdrop for having vaguely interesting stuff happen.