New Disney Streaming Service: Disney+

[Randall]

I still dig my D+ subscription, but man - it could be so much better!!!

[EricJ]

\When I think disney I think ghost hunters!

I'm brave (hyuk!)...but I'm careful.

My January NYR--which I'm doing well with at the moment--is to resolve the last three years' resolutions, finally clean off my Netflix queue and cancel the service, as I'm not interested in theatrical exiles, Korean TV, British cooking or Norwegian true-crime.
After which I can get to work cleaning off my long-neglected Disney queue, which was good to have during the Pandemic to catch the non-released D/P and Marvel, but now looks like I'll have seen all the 60s-80s they have any intention of releasing the service.

Oh, and waiting for Ant-Man Quantumania to show up for "free".

[Ben]

Over a lazy Christmas we’ve finally been hovering up D+ content: Blobba Fatt (crap), Obi Kenobi (mega crap), The Menu (predictable but fun), Amsterdam (tonally uneven crap), See How They Run (not as clever or witty as it thinks it is, but fun enough), the Light And Magic doc series (*excellent* for the first three, rushed in the last three), Imagineering Story (which we are just picking up on again now, and is pretty good, though not as indepth as I’d been hoping), and Thor: Love And Thunder last night, which confirms my decision to skip some Marvel content is a practical one as this was just ten tons of sh…!

When you actually start treating a comic as a comic (as in a comedian) and just throw any and all wads of humor and random quirkiness at the screen just because it’s "funny" then you lose any investment in the characters. I’ll stick with Ant-Man and Guardians 3, just to see them, but I’ll wait for D+, as with Avatar too.

Still to see: She-Hulk, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Ms Marvel, Moon Knight, Eternals, Hawkeye, What If, and from LucasFilm, Andor, which will probably be our next series. Or maybe Only Murders first, which I just cannot believe I haven’t properly started and finished already! And there's still French Dispatch to catch, though a few of the recent duds we have seen has dampened enthusiasm for that one at the moment.

There have been others, but it’s a blur…!

[Daniel]

Dropping today:

:
National Treasure: Edge of History – New Episode
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – New Episode (Season 2)
Willow: Behind the Magic
Bloody Tales of Europe
Dino Ranch
Hacking the System
Riding Britain's Railways
American Blackout
Challenger Disaster: Lost Tapes
T. Rex Autopsy

:
Criminal Minds: Evolution – New Episode
NCIS – New Episode
The Resident – New Episode (Season 6)
Bob's Burgers - New Episode
Big Sky - New Episode
Extraordinary
Darby and The Dead

:
Criminal Minds: Evolution – New Episode
The Simpsons – New Episode (Season 34)
Bob's Burgers - New Episode (Season 13)
Commander Fort

:
How I Met Your Father – New Episode (Season 2)
Alaska Daily – New Episode
Abbott Elementary - New Episode (Season 2)

[Daniel]

"The Mysterious Benedict Society" has been canceled. Darn. Really enjoyed the first season. Have yet to start the second but hear it ended on a cliffhanger...

[gaastra]

Hit monkey returning for second season. That came out of nowhere. Hulu here and disney plus everywhere else.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv ... 235315721/

[Ben]

Yeah, I saw this — strange set up! Marvel is continuing with Daredevil, but not Hit Monkey, because it’s animation!? But Marvel has plenty of animated content too! One can only surmise that Disney wants it and Feige doesn’t, or at least it doesn’t fit into his overall Marvel plan.

[Daniel]

Dropping today:

:
National Treasure: Edge of History – New Episode
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – New Episode (Season 2)
The Chorus: Success, Here I Go
Dead End Express
Miraculous Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir - Season 1-3
Clan of the Meerkats
Life Below Zero - Season 19
Water and Power: A California Heist
The Proud Family: Louder & Prouder – Season 2
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

:
Criminal Minds: Evolution – New Episode
NCIS – New Episode
The Resident – New Episode (Season 6)
Bob's Burgers - New Episode
Big Sky - New Episode

:
Criminal Minds: Evolution – New Episode
The Simpsons – New Episode (Season 34)
Bob's Burgers - New Episode (Season 13)
How I Met Your Father – New Episode (Season 2)
Soul of a Nation Presents: Mi Gente: Groundbreakers and Changemakers
Norman Lear: 100 Years Of Music and Laughter

:
How I Met Your Father – New Episode (Season 2)
Alaska Daily – New Episode
Abbott Elementary - New Episode (Season 2)
Miraculous Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir - Season 1-3
Killing County
This is Us - Season 6
Iron Man: Rise of Technovore
Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters & Marvels

[Ben]

Finally started Andor, or And/Or as we’ve stated calling it. Okay so far, three episodes in. I’m finally feeling like this is *more* SW again because of the British voices oh so lacking from Kenobi and every other show so far, and it’s tighter, better made than all those others, too, though the music still feels less than adequate than it should (still too synthy and not orchestral enough, which cheapens any SW project's quality threshold), but the series self is not too bad really so far. Kind of wanting it to kick into a story at this point, though. He’s just a grumpy, scruffy guy walking through the episodes so far…

[Daniel]

I've heard it picks up after episode 3. Still need to watch it myself!

[Randall]

It has three arcs to it, and the first is the initial three eps. It's a slow burn at that point, but definitely picks up.

[Ben]

Yeah, I’m def sticking with it, since it’s the best, closest thing to SW as has been achieved for live-action television. My only caveats at the moment are the cheap music score, and the unnecessary cursing.

SW was, is, and should be for kids. With a couple of "bastards" and one use of "sh!t" so far — which is not even a SW word and felt as alien as some of the creatures — this is not. Two of the main ingredients in the success of the first film, outside Lucas (or his collaborators) lightness of touch, was the music and VFX. Andor has the latter in check, but the music should be a powerful proponent of the storytelling, and it really isn’t. There’s not really even a recognisable theme for Cassian himself. I’m not saying every composer has to be John Williams or use his themes, but SW has a SW sound, and none of the series so far have nailed that, outside of using the familiar themes at push-button moments. I *am* enjoying Andor as much as I was hoping to after the good words, but so far it’s still falling short of making a *solid* case for live-action SW on the small screen.

[Randall]

Yes, ironic that it's maybe the best of the shows, but the least "Star Wars" in some respects, and not really for kids - because of the cursing and the focus on plot and politics (you'll see). As someone else has said (paraphrasing), "It's Star Wars for grown-ups who loved Star Wars as kids."

[gaastra]

Uh-oh.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -to-rivals

[Bill1978]

I really loved Andor, I loved the slow burn of the story. It works extremely well as a TV series, and it feels like Star Wars and if I ever did a Star Wars Marathon I would happily slip this into the viewing as I feel it explains a lot of what is going on with the Empire and the development of the Rebellion.

I am one of those people who enjoyed Obi-Wan The Series, but I do understand some of the complaints levelled at it. But for me I had a fun time watching it. My only complaint was I felt there was a little too much Leia in the series (even though the actress was great). But from a story point of view, for me I got the feeling they took the plot of the planned movie and stretched it out to be a TV series which resulted in a couple of episodes that did nothing from a plo t point of view and just spun wheels.

I would happily slot Obi-Wan into a SW Marathon as well, if I knew where to place it. Is it before or after Solo?