Yes, it’s Weekly Wonder Woman – keeping you up to date on pretty much anything involving DC Comics’ premier superheroine, including Twitter spats with James Cameron
And we’re back in the room, Wondy fans, following an August absence. What’s been going on while I’ve been on Paradise Island*?
Lots. In fact, so much that you’ll have to join me after the jump before I’m even prepared to begin telling you. See you in a mo…
It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you each week what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently and your chance to recommend anything you’ve been watching. TMINE recommends has all the reviews of all the TV shows TMINE has ever recommended, but for a complete list of TMINE’s reviews of (good, bad and insipid) TV shows and movies, there’s the definitive TV Reviews A-Z and Film Reviews A-Z. But it’s what you have you been watching? So tell us! Ah go on. Go on, go on, go on
Here we are at the third of my post-August WHYBW catch-ups. If you recall, the first was to catch up with all the boxsets I’d been watching; the second was to catch up with all the movies; and this third one will deal with new shows and episodes of all the regular shows I’ve been watching over August.
However, as you may have noticed, as always things haven’t quite gone according to plan. Already, I’ve slipped in a review of the complete third season of Narcos. But on top of that, I’ve gone and watched some more movies, too. Whoops. You’ll see which ones in a tick.
I’ve also not seen as many new shows as I’d wanted to. My usual “if it starts in August, I ain’t watching it” rule means that 21 Thunder, Gone, Get Shorty and The Sinner, to name but a few, aren’t even getting a plot summary out of me – let that be a lesson to you, broadcasters! – but as well as a couple of Amazon boxset shows that need my attention – The Last Tycoon and Comrade Detective – I’ve still to watch some new shows that just about slipped in under the wire.
That means Get Krack!N (Australia: ABC) will probably be getting reviewed on Thursday, seeing as episode two goes out on Wednesday. I’m also in two minds as to whether to review The Deuce (US: HBO; UK: Sky Atlantic). On the plus side, it’s from David Simon (The Wire, Treme) and stars James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal; on the minus side, it’s about the rise of the porn industry in New York in the 1970s, so might be a bit too risqué for my blood. Still, it doesn’t officially premiere until 10 September, so I’ve still plenty of time to preview it.
All of that cunningly means that after the jump, I’ll be reviewing:
Movies: Just Friends (2005) and Doctor Strange (1978)
New (ish) shows: Odysseus (France: Arte; UK: TV5)
Regular shows: כפולים (False Flag), Game of Thrones, Shooter and Twin Peaks
Returning shows: Halt and Catch Fire and The Last Ship
Yep, I gave up on Will – as did TNT, to be fair. See you in a mo…
Although it’s tempting to think that superhero movies and TV shows are a new phenomenon, they actually go back a long way. Indeed, you can find the start of the craze as way back as the 1940s with Batman serials and movies at the cinemas.
While there were other series along the way, most notably the George Reeves Superman and the Adam West Batman in the 50s and 60s, it wasn’t really until the 70s that things really took off, particularly for Marvel Comics, who were somewhat late to the party.
Although it’s tempting to think of Marvel as always having been on top compared to DC, thanks to its current dominance with the MCU, most of its movies and TV shows of that period were misfires. The Incredible Hulk was a notably successful TV show in the 70s, but The Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Thor, Daredevil and others all got floated as potential series or movies, usually with nothing good happening as a result… or during.
Skip forward to the early 90s, when superheroes were starting to come back in vogue, thanks to Batman, Tim Burton and Michael Keaton.
Simultaneously, Marvel was trying to get a Fantastic Four movie off the ground. And to help, they brought in cinematic legend Roger Corman as a producer.
Starring Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, Alex Hyde-White and Michael Bailey Smith, Corman’s Fantastic Four is probably the most true to the original comics of all the various productions, right down to the costumes, with our heroes getting special powers after flying a spaceship too close to a comet, after which they have to team up to fight Victor Von Doom (Joseph Culp).
Of course, making a movie authentic to a comic book and making a good movie aren’t necessarily the same thing. In true Corman style, The Fantastic Four cost just US$1 million to make. It also never got released. That should tell you something.
All the same, it managed to escape into the wild and you can now watch it on YouTube. Enjoy! I hope…
It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you each week what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently and your chance to recommend anything you’ve been watching. TMINE recommends has all the reviews of all the TV shows TMINE has ever recommended, but for a complete list of TMINE’s reviews of (good, bad and insipid) TV shows and movies, there’s the definitive TV Reviews A-Z and Film Reviews A-Z. But it’s what you have you been watching? So tell us – if you want to live
This week, to cover all I’ve been watching while I was away on vacation in August, I’m breaking up WHYBW into manageable chunks. Yesterday, I dealt with all the boxsets I managed to make my way through and later in the week – probably on Tuesday, now I think about it… – I’ll be looking at the episodes of new and regular shows that I’ve watched, too.
But today, it’s movie time! So after the jump, I’ll be filling you in on what I thought about Ghost in the Shell (2017), Guardians of the Galaxy – Volume 2 (2017) and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016).
