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Random TV Show Thoughts

Cadillacs And Dinosaurs (1993) -
I have a co-worker who is very passionate about dinosaurs. The topic of dinosaur cartoons came up as I had been seeing ads for the new Ark animated series. At some point I brought up Cadillacs And Dinosaurs, which he had never heard of. I only have a passing knowledge of it, I recall emulating the arcade game to play with my dad years ago and looking into it more then, but that's it. So I decided to read up on it more and check out the show, see if it's worth properly recommending to my co-worker.
I've now watched 3 episodes. This show is really fascinating, it has so much lore with an expansive world that we're just thrown right into. It starts out a little hard to follow, especially with the dialect, but I was quickly engaged. So far I don't think there's too much depth to the characters, but that's subject to change. Episode 3 introduces the Grith, a race of mystical lizard people, and I hope that they're further explored in future episodes, I want to know more about their relation with our protagonist. I also want to know more about how this world came to be, it really hasn't been touched upon yet, I only know a bit from wikipedia.
This show is like Mad Max with dinosaurs, but also super ambitious. The fact that it's only 13 episodes scares me, I'm sure some things will go unresolved. I'm curious how close the world matches the comic that it's based on, I kinda want to check out the comic too now.

Sorry about the loose, rambling structure of this post lol
 
I threw on some Batman Beyond earlier to have something in the background while I draw. Man the show starts out strong. Annoyingly, Return Of The Joker is no longer streaming anywhere, I've been meaning to revisit it for a while now (I had the VHS as a kid, I don't think I've seen it since). Zeta Project isn't streaming either, which sucks because if I were to commit to watching through BB I'd want to watch this alongside it for completion's sake. Oh well, it's almost flea market season so I'll keep an eye out, maybe I'll luck out.

I bought a Batman 80th anniversery (or whatever number) set with a bunch of random Batman animated films. I'm starting to wonder if Return Of The Joker was included, but I can't for the life of me remember where I put the set.
 
RotJoker has typically been sold separately, in a "Director's Cut" format not suitable for the other kiddie movies. It has some scenes which were a bit dark and cut out of the televised release the new Joker murder/transformation.

Zeta Project was pretty unloved and I don't know if it ever got a full release. It's annoying, the show was really going for something, and the executives at the time got cold feet and wanted to move away from cartoons that weren't just disposable toy-sellers for kids. The network went through an overhaul that ended the Golden Age of cartoons at the time that went through Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, X-Men, and so on. Secret Galaxy did a great video on the effort to save Zeta Project and on where the intended follow-up season would have gone...kills me, it sounds like it would've been great!
 
I did like Zeta Project, but it was never as good as Batman Beyond.

Although it was produced in two 13-episode seasons, it aired 10 episodes weekly(ish) from January-May 2001, then 1 episode in August and 1 in November. The last episode of the first "season" aired the following March, and was then immediately followed with 12 episodes of the second season airing weeklyish again, with a huge gap before the finale finally aired in November.

It never got any VHS releases, but a slightly different "Season 1" of the first 12 episodes that aired in 2001 was released on DVD in 2009. Then 8 years later they released "Season 2", which contains the last episode of the first production season along with all of the second production season, which makes up all of the episodes that aired in 2002.
 
^Sure, and Beyond wasn't as good as Superman, and that wasn't as good as BTAS, but I mean...I'm still going to enjoy the thing for as good as it was. I'd take any of them any day over typical kids cartoons or whatever cutesy stuff DC put out later like Teen Titans GO! (exclamation point not mine.)
 
Netflix added GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) and I had always meant to check out the anime after having a couple kids in Japan jokingly compare me to the titular GTO. I ended up quite liking the series and mainlined all 43 episodes in less than 2 weeks (a real testament, as I'm much more of a pleasure-delayer when it comes to series.)

The setup of the show is essentially that there's this guy who was always a ne'erdowell punk but somehow got into a low-rank school and is finishing up his college degree to be a teacher. The first episode is him doing a 2-week practical training as a substitute teacher in a junior high. Now, despite Onizuka's aspirations to be "the Greatest Teacher in Japan!", he had really been hoping to be in a high school because he's a huge pervert and somehow also a virgin and dreams of scoring with some high school girl who has a teacher fetish. And all of this is played for absurdity, as this is more than anything, a wacky comedy series.

That said, that Onizuka ends up with a bunch of 14-year-olds does not stop him from leering at them and occasionally even fetishizing the more developed ones. It's something that you'd say is "dated", except it's actually just super normal in Japan even now, where the legal age of individual consent is 13. Yeah, Japan has all sorts of sexual issues, but I won't get into that here. Suffice to say, the kids are drawn like and act like they're about 17, so I just turned that into my head canon to be able to set my cultural moralization aside and take the comedy as it was meant. (Onizuka never actually does anything with any of his students, he is actually quite protective when it comes down to it, so there's nothing truly triggering in the end).

That early creep factor aside, the thing that grabbed me in the first episode, and continues to be the reason to watch the series, is that deep down, Onizuka will do anything for his students. I mean, anything. He doesn't give two shits about societal conventions, being polite, keeping up appearances, or giving people time to come around. He just comes right out and says the quiet part out loud, walks into a room with a sledgehammer (sometimes literally) and smashes down whatever is holding people back from getting on with living their best lives. He's juvenile, reckless, ignorant, low-class, horny, and sometimes a jerk. But at the end of the day, he's going to blow apart the polite Japanese "mind your own business, watch your own ass" attitudes that keep parents, teachers, and especially school administrators from creating an environment that actually teaches kids and gives them the tools to handle their own lives. He's kind of the teacher Japanese kids all wished they had.

I did a little investigating after the series and found out that GTO is actually a sequel series! A lot of people don't know it, but self-identifying "yankee" Japanese gyaro and manga-ka Toru Fujisawa wrote Bad Company, wherein Eikichi Onizuka starts Junior High and ends up in a competition with Ryuiji Danma to see who's going to be the biggest class delinquent and run the school. (I get strong "Bad Dudes" game vibes from this.) Onizuka and Danma end up becoming best buddies and getting motorcycles together to start a gang. This is a prequel to Fujisawa's first series, where their gang at Shonan Junior High fights other gangs, and they try to become the boss of all bosozokus (biker punks). That later was made into a brief anime series of the same name (Shonan Junai Gumi), and so it sets the stage for absurd comedy when you know that THAT guy, the leader of all badass bikers, is now going to try to teach Junior High! I would recommend checking out the earlier series first, as I think it would give the proper framework.

GTO is in the top 10 money-making Japanese properties of all time, and the manga rank even higher in terms of volumes in print around the world. There are multiple sequel manga and spin-offs, and the author shows no sign of slowing down, although he is moving into other manga about young delinquents. I've seen some "rebel teacher" stories in English, and even "school principal sets students straight" movies, but nothing quite like GTO. He kind of one-by-one sorts out his students' lives and wins them over, with a fair bit of absurdity between. There are great characters and it's quite a romp; I very much recommend it.
 
Archer (14 seasons from 2009 - 2023)

Oh, where to begin with Archer? If you've somehow let this one slip under the radar, it's a simply yet sharply animated comedy parody series for adults. The initial premise is largely taking all the spy-action-adventure tropes and both exposing how ridiculous they are or also making them even more absurd, whichever is funnier. The titular character is Sterling Archer, who is essentially James Bond but completely unapologetic about how reckless, horny, addicted, and often misogynistic he is, while also being incredibly skillful. "M" here is the head of their small, independent spy agency, and his literal mother, Malorie Archer. Their 2nd top agent, nest to Sterling, is Lana Kane, the much more serious and also hyper-competent ex-lover of Sterling, and a clear stand-in for Lara Croft.

The show merges the action-adventure of espionage films with the mundanity of office work in a spy agency, where initially we hear the accountant, the secretary, the HR manager, the gadget guy, and other characters lamenting about how their jobs suck and Sterling's is cool. As the series goes, they become further embroiled in the adventures, and over 14 years, it's crazy how much their characters grow, while always maintaining the sense of what made them individuals. Cyril is the buttoned-up tax guy who is the opposite of Sterling Archer in many ways, which is why Lana is now dating him. That and he's apparently packing heat. Archer can never actually remember the secretary's name, which is just fine with her because she lusts after him so hard that she just changes it to whatever he calls her lately. She turns out to have a choking/death fetish and be an heiress. Brett is a random office stooge who keeps leaving out food in the office kitchen, which annoys Archer to no end "BECAUSE THAT'S HOW WE GET ANTS!!" and, not coincidentally, somehow always ends up getting shot. And so on.

It took me a bit to get into Archer, as the jokes in the first few seasons come so fast and frequent and are often so absurd that it just felt like it was trying too hard to be another edgy Adult Swim cartoon. Rampant swearing, sex jokes, and bloody deaths just added to that feeling. However, among all the low brow humor are episodes that are often really smart satire, and/or directly parody famous films and TV series. It doesn't hurt that the voice acting is fantastic, with the iconic voice of Jon Benjamin as Archer, the wonderful Aisha Tyler as Lana, and the classic Jessica Walter (RIP) as Malorie. The fast and witty repartie between the cast is authentic, and if you've ever seen them at a convention or in group interviews, it's almost like listening to their characters riff. The genuine connection they all have surely contributed to the series running for so long, even changing formats and networks and time slots.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and this final season was the first (and last) one to be made wholly without the dearly departed Jessica Walter. It's still a great season, and some would argue that it's something of a return to form. The series had a run of seasons in the middle where Archer had been shot and was floating face down in a swimming pool, Sunset Boulevard style. On that season cliffhanger, the following seasons appeared to take place all in his mind, perhaps all in that instant, and each one was a parody of a different genre. In one, they're in a '50s adventure serial. In another, it's film noir. Another is Sci-fi. My favorite season may actually have been before that though, where the whole agency reinvents itself in the wake of ISIS (also their name) becoming a global terror organization. So they instead work with the CIA to "pretend" they're now a drug-running front. Given license to be bad guys, hijinx ensue...until they find out that the CIA has double-crossed them. A lot here actually sets up the 3-part series finale that just aired a couple months ago, featuring voice talents like Christian Slater as...well, "Slater", their jerk CIA handler.

Archer died as it lived, kind of fast and messy, but with increasingly bigger action and oh so funny. There are so many immensely quotable lines, it kind of pre-dates and has outlived Anchorman in being one of those properties where fans just quote lines back and forth to each other.
"LANA!" - "What?!" - ".....Danger Zone."
"Phrasing!"
"All I’ve had today is like three gummy bears and some scotch."
"Karate? The Dane Cook of martial arts?"
"Sorry, I can't hear you over the deafening sound of my own Awesomeness!"
"Are we not doing 'phrasing' anymore?"
"If I quit drinking cold turkey, I'm pretty sure the cumulative hangover would literally kill me."
"Sploosh."
"RAMPAGE!"
"Wait....I had something for this...."
"You can't tourniquet the taint."

...I could go on. And on. The show is...well, I didn't even boop the tip of how raunchy it can get, from robot sleeper agents with vibrating vaginas to an uncomfortable amount of storylines merging male competitiveness with subconscious homoeroticism, everything is permitted, nothing is forbidden. The show is crass, fast, and probably high on grass. There was really nothing quite like it, and the 21-minute episodes went down like candy. With only a dozen or so per season, you could easily mainline the whole series and then go back for more. Speaking of which, it's been over 72 hours since I finished watching....
 
mnkykungfu said:
Archer (14 seasons from 2009 - 2023)

Oh, where to begin with Archer? If you've somehow let this one slip under the radar, it's a simply yet sharply animated comedy parody series for adults. The initial premise is largely taking all the spy-action-adventure tropes and both exposing how ridiculous they are or also making them even more absurd, whichever is funnier. The titular character is Sterling Archer, who is essentially James Bond but completely unapologetic about how reckless, horny, addicted, and often misogynistic he is, while also being incredibly skillful. "M" here is the head of their small, independent spy agency, and his literal mother, Malorie Archer. Their 2nd top agent, nest to Sterling, is Lana Kane, the much more serious and also hyper-competent ex-lover of Sterling, and a clear stand-in for Lara Croft.

The show merges the action-adventure of espionage films with the mundanity of office work in a spy agency, where initially we hear the accountant, the secretary, the HR manager, the gadget guy, and other characters lamenting about how their jobs suck and Sterling's is cool. As the series goes, they become further embroiled in the adventures, and over 14 years, it's crazy how much their characters grow, while always maintaining the sense of what made them individuals. Cyril is the buttoned-up tax guy who is the opposite of Sterling Archer in many ways, which is why Lana is now dating him. That and he's apparently packing heat. Archer can never actually remember the secretary's name, which is just fine with her because she lusts after him so hard that she just changes it to whatever he calls her lately. She turns out to have a choking/death fetish and be an heiress. Brett is a random office stooge who keeps leaving out food in the office kitchen, which annoys Archer to no end "BECAUSE THAT'S HOW WE GET ANTS!!" and, not coincidentally, somehow always ends up getting shot. And so on.

It took me a bit to get into Archer, as the jokes in the first few seasons come so fast and frequent and are often so absurd that it just felt like it was trying too hard to be another edgy Adult Swim cartoon. Rampant swearing, sex jokes, and bloody deaths just added to that feeling. However, among all the low brow humor are episodes that are often really smart satire, and/or directly parody famous films and TV series. It doesn't hurt that the voice acting is fantastic, with the iconic voice of Jon Benjamin as Archer, the wonderful Aisha Tyler as Lana, and the classic Jessica Walter (RIP) as Malorie. The fast and witty repartie between the cast is authentic, and if you've ever seen them at a convention or in group interviews, it's almost like listening to their characters riff. The genuine connection they all have surely contributed to the series running for so long, even changing formats and networks and time slots.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and this final season was the first (and last) one to be made wholly without the dearly departed Jessica Walter. It's still a great season, and some would argue that it's something of a return to form. The series had a run of seasons in the middle where Archer had been shot and was floating face down in a swimming pool, Sunset Boulevard style. On that season cliffhanger, the following seasons appeared to take place all in his mind, perhaps all in that instant, and each one was a parody of a different genre. In one, they're in a '50s adventure serial. In another, it's film noir. Another is Sci-fi. My favorite season may actually have been before that though, where the whole agency reinvents itself in the wake of ISIS (also their name) becoming a global terror organization. So they instead work with the CIA to "pretend" they're now a drug-running front. Given license to be bad guys, hijinx ensue...until they find out that the CIA has double-crossed them. A lot here actually sets up the 3-part series finale that just aired a couple months ago, featuring voice talents like Christian Slater as...well, "Slater", their jerk CIA handler.

Archer died as it lived, kind of fast and messy, but with increasingly bigger action and oh so funny. There are so many immensely quotable lines, it kind of pre-dates and has outlived Anchorman in being one of those properties where fans just quote lines back and forth to each other.
"LANA!" - "What?!" - ".....Danger Zone."
"Phrasing!"
"All I’ve had today is like three gummy bears and some scotch."
"Karate? The Dane Cook of martial arts?"
"Sorry, I can't hear you over the deafening sound of my own Awesomeness!"
"Are we not doing 'phrasing' anymore?"
"If I quit drinking cold turkey, I'm pretty sure the cumulative hangover would literally kill me."
"Sploosh."
"RAMPAGE!"
"Wait....I had something for this...."
"You can't tourniquet the taint."

...I could go on. And on. The show is...well, I didn't even boop the tip of how raunchy it can get, from robot sleeper agents with vibrating vaginas to an uncomfortable amount of storylines merging male competitiveness with subconscious homoeroticism, everything is permitted, nothing is forbidden. The show is crass, fast, and probably high on grass. There was really nothing quite like it, and the 21-minute episodes went down like candy. With only a dozen or so per season, you could easily mainline the whole series and then go back for more. Speaking of which, it's been over 72 hours since I finished watching....
Click to expand...
Been meaning to watch this for years, as a fan of Sealab and Frisky Dingo. I didn't realize it finally ended, maybe now I'll finally get around to checking it out. Or maybe not, there's so many things I need to watch.
 
Yes, creator Adam Reed also created those, and for the early seasons of Archer, he wrote every episode himself. Should be right up your alley then. Honestly most seasons of Archer have their own arc, so you can just watch a season (or even many episodes) without needing to see anything before or after.
 
My first time watching, a friend loaned me his DVD set of the first season. My DVD player refused to load the first disc for some reason, so I just ripped it on my PC and tried watching that. But Title 0 was a special feature where they replaced Archer in the pilot with a velociraptor, and otherwise the entire episode plays as usual. This was baffling.
3sRo.gif
 
^I've seen that, yeah! LOL It's so random as a first time viewer, but to go back years later after rewatching the pilot many times, it was actually so dumb it was hysterical.
 
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