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ravens_quillBecause I am half-luddite, I still record TV shows on my VCR when there is more than one thing I want to watch and I am disinclined to flip between them.
So I have the 2-hr premiere of Inhumans and its week-2 episode.
I'm only about 20 minutes into the first episode, but I'm having thoughts. So this is a casual livetweet of those episodes, with possible spoilers contained there in.
Episode 1 and 2
I love that they not only filmed a lot of this in Hawai'i, but that they also set a lot of it in Hawai'i. And it looks like at least a few more episodes will be based there (and Attilan) because folks are still separated, and I assume they'll all come back together before shifting the setting. Although, honestly, I'd like it if this stayed the main Earth setting. I'd also love it if there were some regular local actors/characters. There are some currently, but it feels like these are people who will only be present for a few episodes, and it's people like generic white scientist lady and mysterious scientist/doctor dude who will be regulars for the season.
The stuff they do to make the cgi easier to include are super apparent. Medusa standing almost perfectly still while her hair fights the guards. Crystal interacting verbally with Lockjaw but somehow avoiding the irresistible urge to give him belly scritches? The physical effects are great either. The wig Medusa wears when it's not cgi is not great, and Gorgon's goat(?) legs don't look realistic. But there are little details I do love. The expression that crosses Medusa's face at certain times later in the episodes. Flora's delight at being surrounded by "so many plants" and Mordis and her interacting briefly--"Can't you make a path or something?" "Oh. Sure." "'Oh. Sure.'"--really good at showing their personalities in just a few lines of dialogue.
I'm not sure where future seasons of this show might go. This season seems focused on the royal family, the brother's coup, and presumably resolving this Attilan-Earth connection (whether Inhumans from Attilan will make it back to Attilan, will those on Attilan have the choice of going to live on Earth, Attilan and Earth/the U.S. communicating more directly instead of one watching the other and the other being basically unaware of the one).
Final decision: I'll keep watching for now. As I was telling my sister yesterday, I am a completist, and I like to watch all the TV shows and movies in a property to see where easter eggs are, and crossover plots and characters, or even just an acknowedgement that one show exists in the same universe as the other. I am frustrated beyond measure that none of the Avengers in the MCU seem to have figured out Phil Coulson is still alive, even though some of them were also members of SHIELD for years after his supposed death, and I can't imagine Tony Stark wouldn't read through the leaked SHIELD files as his light reading before bed, only to discover Project Tahiti and Coulson's continued role in SHIELD. The MCU and its TV/Netflix counterpart frustrate me in their insistence on keeping things separated and it's a bit like the cgi of Medusa's hair (which I promise not to keep harping on)--two things that should be moving simultaneously and seamlessly instead moving around one another without acknowledging each other's existence. I don't like it. But I am intrigued enough by what I've seen in three hours to watch a little further along.
So I have the 2-hr premiere of Inhumans and its week-2 episode.
I'm only about 20 minutes into the first episode, but I'm having thoughts. So this is a casual livetweet of those episodes, with possible spoilers contained there in.
Episode 1 and 2
- Why does Medusa need to speak out loud to convey what the king (Bolt? Ah, Black Bolt) hand signs? Presumably his closest advisors would have learned to understand the signs, and they could have included subtitles.
- Her hair continues to be terrible. I knew it from the promos, but still.
- For the record, in the first few minutes, the king's brother, Maximus, is called out by one of the "common people" that he should be in the mines too because he has no Inhuman ability, and it's only because his brother is king that he isn't. And he agrees and then says it's because they're in this finite place but on Earth they'd have more freedom. He just seems really skeevy.
- Hey! They actually showed a scene on Oahu that they admitted was Oahu! (Lots of movies and such film here, but it's always meant to be some fantasy island or represent some other part of the world.)
- Lockjaw is the best.
- She just stands there and lets her hair do the fighting (probably an issue of ease of animating), but would look much more interesting and dynamic if she fought in collaboration with her hair
- Diamond Head! Ha! The Downtown Longs!
- They have screens that show them what's going on on Earth (or shows them newsfeeds), but honestly, I need more information on how this isolated society on Attilan knows what cars and traffic sound like and what buses are, but don't know to get out of the middle of the road, and don't recognize cellphones.
- I don't like Crystal's hair. It may be true to the comics (I'm assuming), but it's looks like a sad dye job.
- "You are violent people" he said to the group of chill surfers that saved his butt and then shared a beer and a conversation with him.
- There's Aloha Tower! (I'm kinda hoping they maintain Oahu as a central Earth location, and include a lot of local characters #representationmatters)
- Yup. Had a feeling. Now confirmed. They are using some buildings (like the state capitol, I think it is) for Attilan buildings. At least the exteriors of them.
- Kualoa Sugar Mill. It's a bit of ruins basically, along Kam hwy.
- I would not trust this guy. He's so weasely. Even though his basic idea isn't bad, it feels like his reasons behind it are selfish and he hasn't thought the logistics through of what he's proposing.
- Seriously, some stuff they are totally comfortable with, despite not having something similar in Attilan, and sometimes they are totally confused by stuff. (And some things, like headphones, they had their own version of, which looks almost exactly like ours, so where'd they get the idea from?)
- ATMs are new-to-them
- Also, let's take a moment to acknowledge there are so many damn white people in the main cast. There's Gorgon (black dude) and Karnak (Asian dude who's having a terrible day), and that's about it. Smaller roles have POC--the surfers are local (at least one Hawaiian), and there are plenty local cops, oh and one scientists/supervisor dude, but that's up against the entire Attilan royal family, Maximus' main guard Auran, this young dude with visions, scientist woman, some other scientist/doctor dude, etc.
- Okay, Karnak is having a really terrible, no good, very bad day.
- Oy. She's walking around someone's home with her shoes on. Like, take what you need, but don't get red dirt on everything.
- The pacing of this show is weird. Stuff happens, but it feels slow, and I think it's because they have too many POV people and more stuff is happening to some people than others.
- That is a hugely awkward way to carry a person.
- Every one of the Attilan folks wears black or grey, pretty much. The only exceptions are Medusa with lavender dress and her sister Crystal with her yellow tunic. That's pretty much it.
- I can understand "Inhuman" being the name given to them by humans who are fearful jerks, and those who undergo terrigenesis taking that name on for themselves to take the hurt out of it. But seriously, how much contact have the Attilan Inhumans had with humans on Earth? Why would they call themselves that? Why is it a name Inhumans would create for themselves?
- "I'm keeping my eye on you" said the guy who then left the room, leaving them to their own devices.
- Okay, Blackbolt bewildered by the friendliness of these giant local dudes? Kind of adorable.
- That was an unnecessary scene to end the episode on. The one before the commercial break was stronger.
I love that they not only filmed a lot of this in Hawai'i, but that they also set a lot of it in Hawai'i. And it looks like at least a few more episodes will be based there (and Attilan) because folks are still separated, and I assume they'll all come back together before shifting the setting. Although, honestly, I'd like it if this stayed the main Earth setting. I'd also love it if there were some regular local actors/characters. There are some currently, but it feels like these are people who will only be present for a few episodes, and it's people like generic white scientist lady and mysterious scientist/doctor dude who will be regulars for the season.
The stuff they do to make the cgi easier to include are super apparent. Medusa standing almost perfectly still while her hair fights the guards. Crystal interacting verbally with Lockjaw but somehow avoiding the irresistible urge to give him belly scritches? The physical effects are great either. The wig Medusa wears when it's not cgi is not great, and Gorgon's goat(?) legs don't look realistic. But there are little details I do love. The expression that crosses Medusa's face at certain times later in the episodes. Flora's delight at being surrounded by "so many plants" and Mordis and her interacting briefly--"Can't you make a path or something?" "Oh. Sure." "'Oh. Sure.'"--really good at showing their personalities in just a few lines of dialogue.
I'm not sure where future seasons of this show might go. This season seems focused on the royal family, the brother's coup, and presumably resolving this Attilan-Earth connection (whether Inhumans from Attilan will make it back to Attilan, will those on Attilan have the choice of going to live on Earth, Attilan and Earth/the U.S. communicating more directly instead of one watching the other and the other being basically unaware of the one).
Final decision: I'll keep watching for now. As I was telling my sister yesterday, I am a completist, and I like to watch all the TV shows and movies in a property to see where easter eggs are, and crossover plots and characters, or even just an acknowedgement that one show exists in the same universe as the other. I am frustrated beyond measure that none of the Avengers in the MCU seem to have figured out Phil Coulson is still alive, even though some of them were also members of SHIELD for years after his supposed death, and I can't imagine Tony Stark wouldn't read through the leaked SHIELD files as his light reading before bed, only to discover Project Tahiti and Coulson's continued role in SHIELD. The MCU and its TV/Netflix counterpart frustrate me in their insistence on keeping things separated and it's a bit like the cgi of Medusa's hair (which I promise not to keep harping on)--two things that should be moving simultaneously and seamlessly instead moving around one another without acknowledging each other's existence. I don't like it. But I am intrigued enough by what I've seen in three hours to watch a little further along.