Blue Eye Samurai, Doctor Who, and other TV notes

Science Fiction 5 Minutes

Comments on some shows I’ve watched, or tried to watch recently, including Pluto, Loki, For All Mankind, Doctor Who, and Blue Eye Samurai.

Pluto is a “reinterpretation” of the classic Astro Boy characters and setting. This is a world that now includes robots, with laws passed to ensure their equal rights. But someone is killing the strongest robots in the world, along with some of their human advocates. Among the advanced robots is Atom, the protagonist of the original series. Although the story starts off from the viewpoint of Gesicht, a robot detective. It’s an interesting story, and it succeeds in making you care about the characters.

But the anthropomorphizing of the robots at times seemed a little over the top. We see robots at family dinners, with one admonished to be sure to eat his veggies. And the idea of killing robots is an interesting one. The robots have memory chips, which can be shared after their death, but no one thinks to rebuild any of the destroyed robots around those memory chips or other backups. I can understand the story reasons for this, but not addressing it seems to weaken the overall premise.

I never read or watched the classic series, so for me this show didn’t have the emotional resonance it does for many. Still, it was entertaining, if a bit dark and ruminative at times.

I really enjoyed the first season of Loki. It was kind of unexpected since most of the Marvel TV shows were disappointing. But the unexpectedly Doctor Who like feel of the story really worked for me. On balance, I enjoyed the second season, but not as much. Some of the weaknesses with the premise loomed larger.

That premise is the TVA (Time Variance Authority) preserving the “sacred timeline” by stamping out alternate timelines as they arise. Loki escaping from the Avengers ends up in one of those alternate timelines (a variant) that is stamped out. But Loki is personally offered a reprieve if he helps capture another variant of himself, a woman named Sylvie. Hijinks ensue. Eventually the TVA turns out to be the creation of a villain: “He Who Remains”. But when he is killed, it starts a chain reaction that threatens all of reality.

And here’s where I struggled with this season. The story revolves around the TVA’s “temporal loom”, a big machine at the center of the TVA that all the timelines pass through. As the timelines start multiplying (from the killing of He Who Remains and the TVA no longer stamping out the variants), it threatens to become overloaded and destroy the TVA, and through some logic I missed, all of reality. Eventually the solution involves Loki finally finding his “glorious purpose”.

Emotionally the season worked. Intellectually it was confusing. I’m probably expecting too much of a Marvel show to avoid the second.

Speaking of Doctor Who, the new 60th Anniversary Special became available yesterday on Disney Plus (the new DW provider for anyone outside of the UK). I thought it was a pretty fun episode. Nothing particularly profound or groundbreaking. But entertaining enough to remind us why the Russell Davies years succeeded as well as they did. It was good to see David Tennant again as the Doctor, even if it’s only temporary.

Davies also demonstrates that it’s possible for a show to make progressive points without being obnoxious about it. So we see a UNIT supervisor in a wheelchair, who turns out to be a badass, and Donna Noble’s trans daughter, who turns out to be crucial for her survival. And it’s nice to see UNIT once again in a positive light.

Overall I’m looking forward to the other specials next month.

I’ve long been leery of the show For All Mankind. The premise, what would have happened if the Soviets beat America to the moon with a thriving space program, sounded interesting. But the vibes from the early marketing material made it sound more about domestic and political drama than space adventure. However, there’s a lot of praise out there for the recent seasons. So I decided to give it a try.

And I have to say I’m struggling. Sure enough, lots of drama. I’m at the point in the first season where there’s an embryonic moon base, but most of the show’s attention is on the psychological problems of one of the astronauts, and the family issues of the base commander, with maybe hints and portents of conflict with a nearby soviet moon base.

I’ll probably power through to at least the beginning of the second season, and assess from there. I guess my space story fetish has its limits.

Initially I thought Blue Eye Samurai was anime, but it’s actually an American and French adult animation show, historical fiction set early in Japan’s Edo period, when the country was closed to outsiders. Strictly speaking it’s not fantasy, except for superhuman Kill Bill levels of martial prowess.

Mizu is a member of a despised group, a half-European half-Japanese woman. She is marked by her blue eyes, and considered hideous and a monster by most of the society. Mizu herself has internalized this characterization. She considers herself a demon, a white devil, and has sworn to hunt down the four Europeans reputed to be hiding in Japan that might be her father and take revenge on them for her existence. In order to have mobility, she pretends to be male. Her fierce fighting abilities leave little reason for anyone to suspect differently, despite her slim frame.

Mizu is a loner and doesn’t want anyone becoming entangled in what she sees as her own cursed and hopeless fate. Yet despite this, Ringo, an optimistic but handless cook attaches himself to her and begs to be her apprentice, despite his disability. Taigen, an arrogant warrior whom Mizu ends up humiliating, sets out to kill her, but ends up being an ally. And Taigen’s lover, Princess Akemi, who yearns to be something other than her father’s pawn for house alliances, finds herself on the road to help Taigen.

The show succeeds in making us feel the searing pain of these characters. In some ways it reminds me of Arcane. It explores the stark limiting options each of the characters have in this setting. Akemi has to deal with the few paths available for women, even highborn women. Taigen is a lowborn but rising samurai, but in danger of losing everything after Mizu defeats him.

Mizu herself has no options. She has no place in this society. At one point, it appears like she actually might be able to find a small slice of limited happiness, but it’s in a flashback so we know it’s doomed. By the time one of the villains offers her money and position in an attempt to bribe her off, she dismisses it with disdain. She has no interest in money or power, and no room in her heart for anything but hate and vengeance.

It’s a seriously good show which I recommend checking out.

That’s what I’ve been watching. Have you seen any of these? If so, what did you think? Any other shows worth checking out?

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19 thoughts on “Blue Eye Samurai, Doctor Who, and other TV notes”

  1. @selfawarepatterns.com Loki: unless I am mistaken, the reason multiple timelines lead to the destruction of all reality is the war between variants of “he who remains” – aka Kang the Conqueror.

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    1. Thanks. That’s definitely part of it. But the other timelines are shown dissolving (or something), not being overrun by Kane variants. I guess maybe the dissolving could be a consequence of the Kane overrun? If so, I could have had the dots connected a little better.

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  2. @selfawarepatterns.com Blue Eye Samurai sounds worth checking out. I have roughly the same opinions about Loki, I mean everything worked prior to the invention of the loom so isn't that the status quo?Anyway, any thoughts on The Lazarus Project, the British time travel show?

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    1. Agreed on the loom. I didn’t understand why the TVA wasn’t just evacuated and the loom destroyed so the timelines could just evolve naturally, albeit with the problem of “He Who Remains” variants still popping up.

      I don’t think I’ve heard of The Lazarus Project. I’ll check it out. Thanks!

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  3. Zero for five on the watched count for me.
    Nothing has struck me as recently recommenable.
    And frankly, even if I did, all the streaming just blurs into a rain-smeared amalgam where nothing remains distinct.
    We’re struggling through Fargo where The Hobbit and BillyBob fight for screen time.
    Young Sheldon where the writers at least had a humorous take on life in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
    And trying to tie-up Suits which is plain exhausting.
    TV/Streaming is now the lesser evil tadpole from a tepid pool of mediocrity. Kiss:frog, kiss:frog, kiss:…

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    1. I haven’t watched any of those. (I did see the Fargo movie a long time ago, and have very vague memories of it, but not the TV show.)

      But I know what you mean about it all being a blur. If I wait too long after watching shows or movies, it becomes too hard to remember the details, and I have to rely on other stuff out there so much I might as well not bother with my own version. Used to be I could tweet a quick thought about them before they faded, but with four social networks (that I currently bother with), it’s just too much trouble now.

      Speaking of which, have you gotten to book 7 of Murderbot yet? (I think you were the one who had recently started reading them?) I ask because I’m finding it confusing, possibly because it picks up the story from book 5 and it’s been a while since I read 5. Just curious if someone who’s read them recently has the same experience.

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      1. On murderbot, if there’s another after the novel length installment I haven’t bothered. That long one devolved into repetitive nonsense. She should have stuck to the novellas.
        It should make a decent movie, at least.

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          2. Hadn’t heard of that one before. Sounds dark.

            I think a lot of Murderbot’s plausibility comes from it having an organic core. Given how well AI works in that universe, you have to wonder why the corporations bothered with cyborgs, but it does make SecUnits interesting characters.

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    1. I haven’t completely given up on it yet. The later seasons do sound interesting. But I might end up having to skip further into the series. Ronald Moore has a history of creating sci-fi shows, then preoccupying them with soap opera stuff.

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  5. The only thing I’ve seen was Doctor Who. I thought it was alright. David Tennant said the first special is pretty standard Doctor Who, but the next two specials are something wildly different, so I’m really looking forward to that.

    I’ve heard pretty mixed things about For All Mindkind, so I’ve steered clear of it thus far. I will continue to do so.

    I just finished a show called Arcane on Netflix. It’s based on a video game, apparently. A few reliable sources told me I’d probably like it, but I was still shocked by how much I liked it. The only downside is that it ends on a cliffhanger, and I’m not sure how long I’ll be waiting for the next season.

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    1. I like the sound of that for the Doctor Who specials. The show supposedly has a much bigger budget now. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with it.

      Yeah, watched a little bit further into For All Mankind. Now the base commander is alone on the moon. They could do something interesting with that (the Russians have a base nearby), but it looks like the show is going to focus on his kid’s medical crisis back home.

      Arcane is awesome! As I noted in the post, Blue Eye Samurai reminded me of it to an extent, with its compelling characters. It’s actually been a couple of years since Arcane’s first season. I wonder what’s going on with the second season.

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  6. Of these I’ve only seen Blue Eye, of which I’ve seen 2 episodes. (Finished the second just now.) I really like the production value and I’m looking forward to character and story development. I’m even willing to forgive what the producers (authors?) don’t understand about Japanese swordsmanship. The problem is not the pseudo-magic stuff, like cutting through whole trees. It’s things like the sound of metal on metal when they draw or sheath the sword. But the worst is when they block with the edge of the sword. That’s guaranteed to break the edge, making the sword useless. I know, that’s how it always is in all the western media versions of sword fighting, but it still gives me the willies.

    *
    [As credentials, I’m 4th Dan in Iaido, although I stopped practicing about 3 years ago. I do own a real sword, and I can use it.]

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    1. Yeah, everything about fighting in the show is fantasy. But from what I’ve read, very little fiction gets sword fighting right. (For that matter, very little fiction gets combat in general right.) And for all I know, most of the society portrayed might be fantasy. I took a Japanese history course in college, and they do get at least some of the broad strokes of the Edo period right, but they may have taken a lot of dramatic liberties with the details.

      Pretty cool on sword skills. If I ever have to write a sword fight scene, I might have to get with you for a reality check on the details.

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  7. (Hmm, twitter authentication is gone since last time I commented here)

    Finished Blue Eye Samurai yesterday, largely on your recommendation but I’ve heard good things about it elsewhere.

    Loved it. Very well written. The action was extremely well choreographed, albeit completely implausible. I guess you just need to suspend disbelief for this sort of thing, which was fine.

    I love how it didn’t pull any punches, in many respects. From the gore of the violence, to nudity, to the cruelty and single-minded obsession of the protagonist. It was completely committed to its vision and as far as I can tell didn’t compromise.

    I particularly enjoyed the soundtrack’s nod to Kill Bill in the opening episode. Showed some real confidence (almost Tarantino-level) to include that where up to then the soundtrack had been pretty much of the period.

    Some really nice notes in the directing. Like when she’s climing the tower to get to her target, and after an explosion she crashes down to the next level where there’s a terrified and bemused cook, and she just picks herself up and continues on her journey, and you see her in the background hopping over the hole and continuing on. Beautiful stuff. An effective and subtle way to communicate her determination.

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    1. (I rarely look at the site unauthenticated, so didn’t realize the authentication options had dwindled. Not surprised the Twitter one’s gone, but it seems like there used to be half a dozen options. Oh well, good to hear from you!)

      Glad you enjoyed it. You noticed a lot of stuff I didn’t consciously process. But the quality of the show is definitely excellent. I actually wondered if it had been done by the same people who did Arcane (another show with excellent animation and writing) but a cursory glance didn’t turn up any common names. Hope there’s a second season and we don’t have to wait too long for it. (It looks like Arcane is going to take three years to get their second out.)

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Your thoughts?