The author seems to conflate "dark" with "adult", so let me take the chance to point out this common mistake. Horror films, Warhammer 40K and 2000 AD comics are all famously dark, but they're for kids or teens. A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Importance of Being Earnest are light but grown-up. It's a weird deformation of the past generation to think that being depressing makes you deep.
Nicely put. I like Lauren Oyler's formulation of a related thought, in her review of a work by Otessa Moshfegh, when she refers to Moshfegh's "bored manipulation of the fallacy that the more unpleasant something is, the truer it must be."
Edit: and for the life of me I could never understand what anybody saw in that vile show "Euphoria." It seemed so obviously just to want to do nothing but luxuriate in its own vulgarity and graphicness and expected audiences to be very impressed by how big everybody's feelings are. Same for "The Power of the Dog," which was as unsubtle and uninteresting a melodramatic turd as I've ever seen.
> The author seems to conflate "dark" with "adult"
Oh, how I agree with your comment!
This is a bizarre trend I've also noticed. Also unfortunately helped with the "adult" monicker for anything showing sex, which is in reality generally more aimed at horny teenagers and so-called "young adults" rather than grownups.
Another similar conflation is Serious with Somber. Taking an issue seriously can be amusing as hell, it all depends on what mood allows you to best explore the problem space, if you are serious about knowing or solving an issue you won't necessarily lock into a particular mood in that exploration.
It has especially worked its way into popular literature. A books writing is at a 5th grade level, has almost zero depth, but then is full of sex and violence which makes it an "adult" novel. Authors like Sarah J Maas are almost comically bad writers but have achieved immense popular success using this setup.
Hard disagree with a lot said here. Watched both the film and this series (though haven't got around to finishing it yet) for the first time last year, and the series lacks a lot of what makes the film great.
The film has some interesting zen-like qualities like duality, and a more complex set of morals. The series just feels like most modern creations with a pretty bland right vs wrong.
The film is also almost entirely practical effects, which are incredible (the behind the scenes footage is amazing), while the series leans a bit too heavily on CGI in parts, which detracts from the action a bit (à la LoTR vs The Hobbit).
Given this piece I might go back to finish it now (and from another comment possibly upgrade my TV), but I still think I'll prefer the film.
If you have not seen "Princess Mononoke", I highly recommend it. I rewatched it recently and the people and creatures on both sides of the conflict are neither really good nor evil. Just two opposing forces with different goals.
It offers a level of subtlety I have not seen often in film, particularly since Star Wars.
Yeah, the whole point of the original is that the Mystics and Skeksis were both flawed societies (even if the Skeksis were closer to the normal meaning of "evil") and the ending unites them rather than having the Skeksis destroyed.
Given it was so obvious that the team had bottled lightening with this creation, it stands as a monument to the failure of bean counter driven programming. Surely any creative person looking at the quality of this work would have kept this team in the groove. It's not like they didnt have the money.
They could easily have made the cash back on some reality thing that cost nothing but made bank.
I mean they had to finance rebel moon, the idol and the electric state.
This is what I also hate about the gaming industry. If you have a team that works good - find something to do for them.
The guys behind Prince of Peria lost crown were brilliant in every aspect. And Ubisoft disbanded them instead of giving them time to get their footing. But we have a bloated AC:Shadows crap coming our way.
I'm gonna disagree with the comments here and vouch that Age of Resistance is a fantastic show. It's what got me into the world of Dark Crystal in general. I saw the show first and then the movie, and I feel like the show perfectly setup the events that lead up to the movie. Even if the show unfortunately was cancelled before it could explore Deet's storyline, the creation of the Garthim, and the discovery of the Wall of Destiny. Sure, the rejoining of the UrRu and Skeksis is interesting, but it's certainly not the "whole point" of the movie/show.
I'm struggling to get through the series. That ultra clunky opening narration is not a great sign and the world building and underlying plot feels shallow in the series.
I'd LOVE for more Dark Crystal content but I would like them to start over...
I do not agree w/ this in relation to the Dark Crystal series. But I see parallels in the Star Wars series Andor. Many will skip it because 'it's star wars', but it's a great series in star wars costume. The three people I've pressed into watching it came away with very favorable reviews.
There are some kinda deep cut star wars references that non-fans will miss. Mon Mothma the political head of the rebellion is seen only sparingly in the original trilogy and in rogue one (scenes were shot for her in the prequels setting her up as politically aligned with Padme and Bail, but they were cut) is a main character here. Other characters like Saw Gererra only appear in the clone wars series and Rogue One (a film for which this series is a prequel). However this didn't seem to effect my friends much only one of whom had even seen rogue one and the prequels, the other two only having seen the original series.
I'm so glad that it got a second season and am very excited to see it play out.
If you liked the original, you should absolutely watch Age of Resistance. It’s not a masterpiece but it was clearly made by people that care about the original, its legacy, and its lore.
I remember this was the first HDR program I watched on my new OLED TV back in 2019, and the experience felt like all my life I'd been watching TV with foggy sunglasses that had been suddenly removed.
How strange, the most positive review I heard from anyone I know was that "It ruined my childhood" and that it let's say "craped" on the source material. Mind you these are the nicest things people said.
I have not seen it nor the original film to be fair, but this is quite literally the first positive thing I have heard about it.
If you're a sci-fi and/or a fantasy fan I really recommend watching the original film and the prequel in that order and make your own mind up.
I was young when the original came out so I found it good but scary. I felt the prequel was excellent and it left me wanting more.
These days I feel a lot of my youthful nostalgia has been vandalised for a quick corporate buck. Probably the worst has been Willow on Disney+.
There are so few examples of good follow-ups to nostalgic media. The only other example I can think of is Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).
I don’t know if I’d go quite so far, but it is very good. The Chamberlain remains a piece of work, and Lena Headey sometimes feels like she’s still on the set of Game of Thrones.
I'm actually surprised to read the opinions of people who watched it and didn't like it. I thought the problem was always just that not enough people knew it existed, but if they watched it, they would have loved it. I guess I must just be in the camp of "who WOULDN'T want to watch high-budget puppetry for ten hours??"
This was a brilliant show, but it had the misfortune to come along at a time when Netflix was cancelling even moderate successes after one season and slashing the budget of hit shows for their second season before cancelling them too (e.g. Altered Carbon). Only very rarely does a show turn into the kind of pop culture sensation that seems to make the bean-counters want to go past two seasons (e.g. Stranger Things), unless it's some executive's idea of a tent-pole for their platform (e.g. Rings of Power).
Given how fragmentation and enshittification of streaming services is driving users back to piracy, one can't help but feel like the current model may not persist much longer. Heck, I wonder what the impact of the trade war is going to be! A lot of people in a lot of countries are cancelling Disney Plus, Netflix, Amazon Plus, Apple TV, etc. just because they're American.
Yeah I was upset at Altered Carbon being cancelled. It was very good. I've been hoping a video game studio picks up the rights and makes a good AA or AAA game. I sadly didn't find Altered Carbon: Resleeved as good as the main series.
> cancelling even moderate successes after one season and slashing the budget of hit shows for their second season before cancelling them too (e.g. Altered Carbon)
I seriously don't understand who's in charge of this idiocy. its not like they are relying on nielson boxes. they have good data on what is bringing people to the streaming platform. there's no reason for them to be cutting shows prematurely that people love.
I loved DC:AoR but I never expected it was anything more than a one-off. Keep following the struggle as much as you like, but you still know that in the end, the Gelflings lose. I mean yes they pull it off in the end and maybe the Ur-Skeks magic them all back, they discover a lost tribe, whatever, but in the meantime they pretty much get wiped out. Making a good story in the face of that dark inevitability is what the writing craft is about, and they pulled it off and left on a high note. Best thing they can do is leave it that way.
Can't get into it. But whatever about me, the wife straight up hated it. She's not a fan of LOTR and it felt way too LOTR, story wise. You're supposed to love the (beautiful or cutesy) entities, hate the (ugly, so obviously evil) entities, and care about wherever mysterious evil has gripped the land. You're supposed to want the protagonists to go on a quest that brings you on a rollercoaster of emotions etc. But I don't really care enough about anyone in this to finish the first episode.
My biggest gripe is that puppets have no facial expression, so this so-called "amazing voice acting" doesn't work for me. It feels like they're overacting to make up for lack of facial expression. Thing is, I've seen this work in shows like Yonderland where puppets make up less than 50% of the cast. If their human counterparts are good actors, the puppets interaction with humans work, especially if they have good lines and interesting characters (which, in the case of Yonderland, they do but with Dark Crystal they very much don't).
It's odd, but I also think that the CGI and lack of any physical actors is what kills this for me. I don't know anyone in the acting profession but one example I can relate is the amazing "Yes, Minister" political comedy series from the BBC on the early 80s. That was originally available as a radio show. Having watched and loved it, I decided to put the radio version on one day while cleaning. I had to turn it off. Even though it was the same cast of great actors, I think the fact that they were sitting around a bunch of microphones and not inter-acting completely stunted the dialog. I decided to put on the TV version and simply listen to it. Even though there were visual gags I couldn't see, it was far far better. Something about being the characters in costume, on a set, interacting with other actors, injected vitality and comic timing into the performance. You could listen between the lines and feel the gags you couldn't see.
I understand that a lot of time, effort, CGI went into this, but I just feel slapped in the face with beauty while not caring one jot about a single character. Or as the wife very uncharitably put it after 45 minutes "I hope all of these characters die in this".
Sometimes there are adult shows that also appeal to kids. Sometimes there are shows that appear to be aimed at kids but are really aimed at adults. But this wants to be the latter and fails as either.
> The problem with all this is the same thing great animation runs into. Because of the medium, many people choose to ignore the show or dismiss it as made for kids
This reminds me of Yonderland, an absolutely amazing TV show that has plot, characters and occasionally adult humour that will fly over the heads of children in the same way that a lot of great Simpsons gags did, in the good old days. Yonderland is made by the same people who did Ghosts (no, not the American rehash, the far superior original). Find it, watch it, it's brilliant.
It's a bad show, for obvious reasons. Poor writing (thinly veiled political themes), bad characterizations (stupid weak characters), convoluted cruel plot, trying to be whimsical, all in the name of Fan Service. As a youtuber quipped, it's like the Flintstones + 12 years a slave. It's not for anyone and the script is mostly to blame.
I think plans for a Dark Crystal sequel were stuck in development hell for decades and then Jim Henson died. It was actually announced in 2005 but never got made into a film. Think there was a comic series though.
Also, can't help pointing to this Robot Chicken gem: The Dark Cristal:
The writing in the series is unfortunately terrible. It sinks the otherwise beautiful show with sterile and laborious narration/dialogue, telltale signs of over workshopped writing room slop, from which no real living plot ever emerges. Such a disappointment.
This was my problem too. I really wanted to like the series and the visuals were nice, but the Netflix writers room strikes again. The whole thing felt like the middle season episodes from a Netflix Marvel series.
FWIW, it's unlikely that any other studio would have greenlighted AoR at anywhere close to the budget it got. It might have had more seasons elsewhere, but not at this level of quality. I'm glad we at least got one incredible season out of it.
Scavenger's Reign on Max got similarly cancelled after one season. There isn't much audience for weird shows like that, apparently. :(
This is the first I am even hearing about it. Interesting that Netflix has never recommended it to me as someone who watches a lot of fantasy, sci-fi, animation, etc. Although TBH if it weren't highly recommended I would be pretty hesitant to watch a show with muppets, despite my other interests. Even with this glowing recommendation I'm still a bit skeptical.
dash2|11 months ago
globnomulous|11 months ago
https://www.bookforum.com/print/2701/ottessa-moshfegh-s-affe...
Edit: and for the life of me I could never understand what anybody saw in that vile show "Euphoria." It seemed so obviously just to want to do nothing but luxuriate in its own vulgarity and graphicness and expected audiences to be very impressed by how big everybody's feelings are. Same for "The Power of the Dog," which was as unsubtle and uninteresting a melodramatic turd as I've ever seen.
the_af|11 months ago
Oh, how I agree with your comment!
This is a bizarre trend I've also noticed. Also unfortunately helped with the "adult" monicker for anything showing sex, which is in reality generally more aimed at horny teenagers and so-called "young adults" rather than grownups.
fellowniusmonk|11 months ago
ericmcer|11 months ago
It has especially worked its way into popular literature. A books writing is at a 5th grade level, has almost zero depth, but then is full of sex and violence which makes it an "adult" novel. Authors like Sarah J Maas are almost comically bad writers but have achieved immense popular success using this setup.
FrustratedMonky|11 months ago
Ultra-Violence is for all ages, great for kids.
One small shot of side boob -- OH NO, that is ADULT, porn.
chachacharge|11 months ago
OisinMoran|11 months ago
The film has some interesting zen-like qualities like duality, and a more complex set of morals. The series just feels like most modern creations with a pretty bland right vs wrong.
The film is also almost entirely practical effects, which are incredible (the behind the scenes footage is amazing), while the series leans a bit too heavily on CGI in parts, which detracts from the action a bit (à la LoTR vs The Hobbit).
Given this piece I might go back to finish it now (and from another comment possibly upgrade my TV), but I still think I'll prefer the film.
donatj|11 months ago
It offers a level of subtlety I have not seen often in film, particularly since Star Wars.
jhbadger|11 months ago
techterrier|11 months ago
They could easily have made the cash back on some reality thing that cost nothing but made bank.
ReptileMan|11 months ago
This is what I also hate about the gaming industry. If you have a team that works good - find something to do for them.
The guys behind Prince of Peria lost crown were brilliant in every aspect. And Ubisoft disbanded them instead of giving them time to get their footing. But we have a bloated AC:Shadows crap coming our way.
hoofedear|11 months ago
duxup|11 months ago
I'm struggling to get through the series. That ultra clunky opening narration is not a great sign and the world building and underlying plot feels shallow in the series.
I'd LOVE for more Dark Crystal content but I would like them to start over...
yownie|11 months ago
sleepybrett|11 months ago
There are some kinda deep cut star wars references that non-fans will miss. Mon Mothma the political head of the rebellion is seen only sparingly in the original trilogy and in rogue one (scenes were shot for her in the prequels setting her up as politically aligned with Padme and Bail, but they were cut) is a main character here. Other characters like Saw Gererra only appear in the clone wars series and Rogue One (a film for which this series is a prequel). However this didn't seem to effect my friends much only one of whom had even seen rogue one and the prequels, the other two only having seen the original series.
I'm so glad that it got a second season and am very excited to see it play out.
trentnix|11 months ago
pavlov|11 months ago
It's a really beautifully shot show.
donatj|11 months ago
donatj|11 months ago
I have not seen it nor the original film to be fair, but this is quite literally the first positive thing I have heard about it.
icu|11 months ago
I was young when the original came out so I found it good but scary. I felt the prequel was excellent and it left me wanting more.
These days I feel a lot of my youthful nostalgia has been vandalised for a quick corporate buck. Probably the worst has been Willow on Disney+.
There are so few examples of good follow-ups to nostalgic media. The only other example I can think of is Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).
stuckinhell|11 months ago
tempodox|11 months ago
https://archive.org/details/the-dark-crystal-a.-o.-r.-episod...
moomin|11 months ago
tunesmith|11 months ago
devenson|11 months ago
beloch|11 months ago
Given how fragmentation and enshittification of streaming services is driving users back to piracy, one can't help but feel like the current model may not persist much longer. Heck, I wonder what the impact of the trade war is going to be! A lot of people in a lot of countries are cancelling Disney Plus, Netflix, Amazon Plus, Apple TV, etc. just because they're American.
whywhywhywhy|11 months ago
Think you might be over-estimating the size of your algorithm bubble there. Normal people don't even make that connection.
icu|11 months ago
cultofmetatron|11 months ago
I seriously don't understand who's in charge of this idiocy. its not like they are relying on nielson boxes. they have good data on what is bringing people to the streaming platform. there's no reason for them to be cutting shows prematurely that people love.
kermit___|11 months ago
(Had a page crash and strange refreshes from ads.)
chuckadams|11 months ago
raffraffraff|11 months ago
My biggest gripe is that puppets have no facial expression, so this so-called "amazing voice acting" doesn't work for me. It feels like they're overacting to make up for lack of facial expression. Thing is, I've seen this work in shows like Yonderland where puppets make up less than 50% of the cast. If their human counterparts are good actors, the puppets interaction with humans work, especially if they have good lines and interesting characters (which, in the case of Yonderland, they do but with Dark Crystal they very much don't).
It's odd, but I also think that the CGI and lack of any physical actors is what kills this for me. I don't know anyone in the acting profession but one example I can relate is the amazing "Yes, Minister" political comedy series from the BBC on the early 80s. That was originally available as a radio show. Having watched and loved it, I decided to put the radio version on one day while cleaning. I had to turn it off. Even though it was the same cast of great actors, I think the fact that they were sitting around a bunch of microphones and not inter-acting completely stunted the dialog. I decided to put on the TV version and simply listen to it. Even though there were visual gags I couldn't see, it was far far better. Something about being the characters in costume, on a set, interacting with other actors, injected vitality and comic timing into the performance. You could listen between the lines and feel the gags you couldn't see.
I understand that a lot of time, effort, CGI went into this, but I just feel slapped in the face with beauty while not caring one jot about a single character. Or as the wife very uncharitably put it after 45 minutes "I hope all of these characters die in this".
Sometimes there are adult shows that also appeal to kids. Sometimes there are shows that appear to be aimed at kids but are really aimed at adults. But this wants to be the latter and fails as either.
raffraffraff|11 months ago
This reminds me of Yonderland, an absolutely amazing TV show that has plot, characters and occasionally adult humour that will fly over the heads of children in the same way that a lot of great Simpsons gags did, in the good old days. Yonderland is made by the same people who did Ghosts (no, not the American rehash, the far superior original). Find it, watch it, it's brilliant.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2938522/
socks|11 months ago
throaway1989|11 months ago
Supermancho|11 months ago
Sporktacular|11 months ago
staplung|11 months ago
Also, can't help pointing to this Robot Chicken gem: The Dark Cristal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RudzOqb-fRc
nottorp|11 months ago
entropicdrifter|11 months ago
mjamesaustin|11 months ago
pcmaffey|11 months ago
jandrese|11 months ago
unknown|11 months ago
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gglitch|11 months ago
eldgfipo|11 months ago
fowl338|11 months ago
Scavenger's Reign on Max got similarly cancelled after one season. There isn't much audience for weird shows like that, apparently. :(
freetime2|11 months ago
muddi900|11 months ago
Louis Leterrier is considered a journeyman Hollywood director, but his work here was insane.
And the puppetry.
tigerlily|11 months ago
Huh. Why not also compare Jackson's puppet/splatter films, Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, heck even Braindead?
EdwardDiego|11 months ago
"Ooh, aren't I lucky, I got a chunky bit!"
You could also have mentioned Heavenly Creatures and The Frighteners (filmed in my home town, was a blast seeing Michael J. Fox roaming around).
I suspect they mentioned LotR because you know, well known and, fantasy.
Not really comparable to Barry and the team vs. the evil aliens, or Harvey Weinstein personified in a walrus puppet.
But I'm rather glad you're aware of Jackson's earlier works.
whywhywhywhy|11 months ago