What’s wrong with my pants?

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 TV shows of 2024

#13 :  Arcane

When Netflix announced they were teaming up with Riot Games and Fortiche to make a spin-off series based on MMORPG League Of Legends, let’s just say that Arcane had our curiosity more than our attention. But then the first season arrived boasting extraordinary animation, rich world-building, complex social commentaries and storytelling, and one of the all-time great screen sister relationships in the shape of Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx’s (Ella Purnell) and, well, yeah, that got our attention. Then, almost as soon as it began, Arcane reached its breathtaking climax this year with a three-act second season every bit as narratively audacious and dizzyingly beautiful as the first. If there’s an argument to be made that Season 2 at times feels overstuffed, the rebuttal is that everything it does cram in — from the one-shot multiversal stunner that is ‘Pretend Like It’s The First Time’ to the Jacksonian grandeur of the climactic battle in ‘The Dirt Under Your Nails’ — is just spellbinding. For anyone who dismisses animation as a somehow lesser art — show ‘em this. TV of champions!

Skipping over #14 because I'm having some trouble getting myself into the right frame of mind to watch it, brings us to this. I didn't struggle to get myself into the right frame of mind here because I watched the first season and really enjoyed it - it was an ambitious storyline enhanced by some absolutely amazing animation. I didn't find time to watch the second season last year but I'm looking forward to getting round to it now.

Hmmm - well. It looks absolutely gorgeous and they've obviously spent an awful lot of money on it - all the shots look gorgeous and there's an interesting variety of animation styles in use. It also has a load of interesting characters which are well drawn and voice acted and they do an awful lot which comes to a satisfactory conclusion.

Probably. Maybe. Hey - who knows?!?

Because, despite having watched the first season, I have very little clue what actually happened in any of the nine episodes that I watched here (and I did watch them all). Season 1 felt pretty complicated but I didn't feel out of my depth, whereas here I just felt swamped from episode 1 - I'd love to say I was confident it would all come together and make sense, but I never really thought it would. And it didn't.

If you like animation for the beauty of the animation then this is certainly of interest but I'm afraid every other aspect of it just massively confused me - and that's pretty much all I have to say on the matter. It's on Netflix if you fancy it, but I can't say it's a recommendation from me and you're definitely going to want to start with season 1 if you're gonna go there...

#15 - I just didn't enjoy it
#12 - A very well done show

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm not wishing I was back in the USA, coz I come from Morecambe and the skies are grey

Image
Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 15/11/24 : Earth To Grace - Massive Wagons I will listen to the new entry at #1, but there's absolutely NO WAY I'm writing a whole entry on it - so instead we have this which I know absolutely nothing about. But it has to be better than the abomination at #1. Well, it's something you don't hear too much of these days - I guess "hard rock" is probably as good a description as any. It’s not going to win any awards for musical complexity but it’s quite catchy - I was r eminded of Gary Moore in his heavier days that teenage me used to like. It also certainly doesn't take itself too seriously - "Free And Easy" tells us "I don't shoot guns, it's not healthy - I drive a Ford C-Max I got off my dad and it's filthy" and "Rabbit Hole" offers up an amusingly sceptical take on conspiracy theories and then abruptly ends "Auf wiedersehen, adios - this song fucking ...
Read more

And she'll tease you, she'll unease you

Image
  A first for me! Cheap tickets often pop up to various All Points East events through work, but it often coincides with holiday time - and the one time I did make an effort to go a train strike prevented me from making out into the wilds of East London. Until now when, for no obvious reason, I went to a day when I had no great interest in the headlining act. It's based in Victoria Park in Hackney and it's a BIG site. The set-up is similar to Reading Festival with two main stages which alternate between acts, involving a lot of audience migration across the site. The distance between the stages might even be bigger than at Reading, but there's also a sizeable tented stage about halfway between so you can always stop off if you're feeling tired - and I did, on several occasions! Also, unlike both Reading and BST Hyde Park, there is a lot of shaded area on site which was also much used throughout the day whilst a LOT of music was being enjoyed, because I saw... Liana Flor...
Read more

Who are ya?!?

Image
A point each for the name, the song and the artist. 1. Her boyfriend’s a dick – he brings a gun to school 2. He took me to the future in the flux thing and I saw everything 3. He lives on the second floor 4. She told my baby we'd danced 'til three, then she looked at me 5. He tempted her with his treacle tart and his tasty wholemeal bread (2 names) 6. He’s stepping through the door 7. His girlfriend's pregnant too - he’s about to be a father 8. She’s gotta be strong to fight them, so she’s taken lots of vitamins 9. She came from Miami, F.L.A - hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A. 10. Her smile is like a breath of spring, her voice is soft like summer rain 11. He’s darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there 12. He was jamming good with Weird and Gilly 13. Two American kids doin' the best they can (2 names) 14. I just act like I don’t remember and she just acts like she don’t care 15. She got a double wide and she rode a plane 16. You could have heard a...
Read more