Catching up on binge watching
I've finally watched second series (I feel weird calling it a season when it's all watchable at once) of Hemlock Grove and the first one of Marco Polo (it's been renewed so I can say that).
[Hemlock Grove Spoilers]
Hemlock Grove replaced one blonde with another but this one is not related to either of the guys so she could sleep with both of them. Including at the same time so they can get an as close as we'll probably ever see to consummating their bromance. And that's the cute part when they are almost family like with the sort-of evil baby upir. Except for evil head-exploding baby and the cult assassins who kill kids trying to get her and the aliens who triggered her turning into a monster. But still that's the good part of the show.
There is part of me that hates this show - the killings (especially high numbers of female characters and this time also children), rapes (I blame Letha completely on Olivia but that doesn't mean I forgot all the other stuff Roman did) and all the other body horror. I almost like Peter and adore his mother and cousin Destiny and of course Shelley is the nicest person there. But everyone else - ugh. They are all so abhorrent - Olivia, Price, Zheleznova-Burdukovskaya that Roman seems like a nice person by comparison (he even tried to become human so he could be just a normal rich spoiled asshole instead of a blood-drinking, people-killing one).
The fight for position between Price and Zheleznova-Burdukovskaya (love how they made all the actors say that full name) was just them trying at who is less awful. Price only a slightly better one because his love for Shelley seems genuine and kind of touching (even though he murdered an innocent girl to get Shelley a new body). Olivia's shot at redemption got screwed up when Norman finally found who she is and what she did. It was mostly murdering the ex-wife of the guy she mind controlled into sleeping with her for years until he thought he loved her that made him realise there was something wrong with her (good they forgot about the mind control this year so he was able to rebel and get killed). It ended as badly as one could expect - she murdered him, her daughter (at least her new body) and then went to steal her granddaughter (the one she created by mind controlling her son into raping his sister). And the people involved are so awful that I found myself cheering for her when she fought the doctor alien monster or whatever kind of flying dragon mantis he was.
This show has so many issues but I keep watching just like AHS for the whole WTF of it. Seriously, the flying dragon mantis alien was when I knew I need to see the next episode even though I hate most of the characters.
[Marco Polo spoilers]
There are things I like about Marco Polo. Like Joan Chan is wonderful as always and Kazahstan is really pretty. And it's nice to see an American TV show with almost completely non-white cast (and it even got renewed so enough people watched it despite bad reviews). They got a pretty international cast (even the Polo family is all played by Italians). However, the villain was a little too overboard. The political scheming was great but he also blackmailed his sister whore herself (show words) and crippled his niece (feet binding is along with genital mutilation is one of those things that makes me nauseous when I just think about it) and show kept piling on evil. It felt like they were making sure will hate him so much that the people invading his country would feel like good guys. Also our point of view character is kind of bland. Marco spends most of the time just sullenly staring at stuff (mostly his feet) which makes him look like a 14 years old (at most). He's so great at this Prince Jingim cannot compete with that pout even though he tries. And the main love story is two people exchanging few glances and couple of sentences. If it wasn't for the Chan and his wife and the whole historical setup and the much superior romance between Byamba and Khutulun I would've gave up. Also the fight scenes (especially anything with Hundred Eyes and Mei Lin) were beautiful.
[Hemlock Grove Spoilers]
Hemlock Grove replaced one blonde with another but this one is not related to either of the guys so she could sleep with both of them. Including at the same time so they can get an as close as we'll probably ever see to consummating their bromance. And that's the cute part when they are almost family like with the sort-of evil baby upir. Except for evil head-exploding baby and the cult assassins who kill kids trying to get her and the aliens who triggered her turning into a monster. But still that's the good part of the show.
There is part of me that hates this show - the killings (especially high numbers of female characters and this time also children), rapes (I blame Letha completely on Olivia but that doesn't mean I forgot all the other stuff Roman did) and all the other body horror. I almost like Peter and adore his mother and cousin Destiny and of course Shelley is the nicest person there. But everyone else - ugh. They are all so abhorrent - Olivia, Price, Zheleznova-Burdukovskaya that Roman seems like a nice person by comparison (he even tried to become human so he could be just a normal rich spoiled asshole instead of a blood-drinking, people-killing one).
The fight for position between Price and Zheleznova-Burdukovskaya (love how they made all the actors say that full name) was just them trying at who is less awful. Price only a slightly better one because his love for Shelley seems genuine and kind of touching (even though he murdered an innocent girl to get Shelley a new body). Olivia's shot at redemption got screwed up when Norman finally found who she is and what she did. It was mostly murdering the ex-wife of the guy she mind controlled into sleeping with her for years until he thought he loved her that made him realise there was something wrong with her (good they forgot about the mind control this year so he was able to rebel and get killed). It ended as badly as one could expect - she murdered him, her daughter (at least her new body) and then went to steal her granddaughter (the one she created by mind controlling her son into raping his sister). And the people involved are so awful that I found myself cheering for her when she fought the doctor alien monster or whatever kind of flying dragon mantis he was.
This show has so many issues but I keep watching just like AHS for the whole WTF of it. Seriously, the flying dragon mantis alien was when I knew I need to see the next episode even though I hate most of the characters.
[Marco Polo spoilers]
There are things I like about Marco Polo. Like Joan Chan is wonderful as always and Kazahstan is really pretty. And it's nice to see an American TV show with almost completely non-white cast (and it even got renewed so enough people watched it despite bad reviews). They got a pretty international cast (even the Polo family is all played by Italians). However, the villain was a little too overboard. The political scheming was great but he also blackmailed his sister whore herself (show words) and crippled his niece (feet binding is along with genital mutilation is one of those things that makes me nauseous when I just think about it) and show kept piling on evil. It felt like they were making sure will hate him so much that the people invading his country would feel like good guys. Also our point of view character is kind of bland. Marco spends most of the time just sullenly staring at stuff (mostly his feet) which makes him look like a 14 years old (at most). He's so great at this Prince Jingim cannot compete with that pout even though he tries. And the main love story is two people exchanging few glances and couple of sentences. If it wasn't for the Chan and his wife and the whole historical setup and the much superior romance between Byamba and Khutulun I would've gave up. Also the fight scenes (especially anything with Hundred Eyes and Mei Lin) were beautiful.