Links and Updates

I haven’t done one of these posts since June, so a lot of things under the cut have already been updated (or even released) while I was busy accumulating them over the intervening months.

The good news is that SPRING is here in the southern hemisphere, which means an end to the dark evenings and cold mornings (for the most part, anyway). I’m still super-busy and I’ll be working all the way through Christmas until I get some more annual leave in February, but hopefully I’ll be able to bump up the amount of posts for 2025, as so far it’s been at its lowest since I started this blog back in 2014.

Apparently, there’s another Downton Abbey movie, subtitled “It’s The Last One, For Real This Time, We Promise.” Okay, it’s actually subtitled The Grand Finale, which seems pretty definitive. And it’s already out!

I would say I had absolutely no inkling of this even existing until five minutes ago, except that Paul Giamatti has returned as Cora’s brother Harold Levinson, and that did sort of ring a bell for me. In any case, the franchise is ending, for really real this time, and I wish I felt a bit more bittersweet about it. But let’s be honest, this is going to be the lightest of fluff and not include (as I so dearly wished once upon a time) a murder in the household.

And it did make me laugh that Matthew Goode has well and truly thrown in the towel, necessitating a divorce for Lady Mary Crawley. I can’t say I’m that upset… and judging by the YouTube comments, nobody else is either. To be honest, it’s kind of a daring move for both the character and the story.

Finally, I find it a little bewildering that no one has yet greenlit a prequel that dramatizes the courtship of Robert and Cora. We already know that his intentions were initially mercenary, only for the two of them to legitimately fall in love once they were married and settled – that sounds like great material for a miniseries, especially if they can find the right actresses to play younger versions of Maggie Smith and Shirley MacLaine.  

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This particular post has been so long in gestation that we’ve gone from preliminary promo pictures for the upcoming Robin Hood show, to the teaser footage, to the full-blown trailer. I’ll spare you the first two and just post the last:

I don’t know about you, but that looks reasonably good to me? There are no huge narrative surprises here, whether it’s the execution of Robin’s father or the star-crossed nature of his romance with Marian, but the production values seem high, and there’s just enough cheesy stunts and speeches to promise some silly fun along with whatever political commentary they want to make. Returning to the Normans versus Saxons angle after so many decades of it being ignored throughout film and television adaptations is interesting, especially since they’re retaining the backdrop of the Third Crusade (will Ivanhoe guest star, I wonder?)

As for where Robin Hood lies on the political spectrum, he’s been claimed by both the right (for combating government overreach) and the left (that whole “robbing from the rich” thing) over the years, so I’ll be curious to see where he ends up this time around. I’ve already seen a few comments whining about the inclusion of Marcus Fraser as Little John (even though we’ve had similar casting what with Jamie Foxx in 2018, David Harewood in 2009, and Morgan Freeman in 1991) but hearing the titular character utter the phrase “those that tread on us,” is a little eye-opening. It might be ignorance on the writers’ behalf, but those words carry some pretty fraught connotations these days.

It would also appear that Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine is in a more adversarial role this time around (unless it’s misdirection) and their take on Tuck is as a much younger man, which intrigues me. There was also a brief glimpse of the Sheriff’s daughter Priscilla, though based on the scene in question, it would appear she’s being depicted as a direct foil to Marian as the more sexually voracious of the two. *sigh*

Still, I like that they’ve cast two unknowns for Robin and Marian. As long as they don’t have her brutally murdered at the hands of a man who claims to love her at the end of the second season, we should be fine. Because that would be really stupid.

And yes, I do plan to watch/recap this on a weekly basis.

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Our first image for the second Avatar: The Last Airbender spin-off has dropped, and it’s pretty cute. Young Avatar, check. Older mentor, check. Cute animal hybrid sidekick, check. As ever, the animation looks gorgeous, and I’m intrigued that they’ve decided to go for a younger protagonist, having aged the Avatar up in the sequel series. Now we’re back to someone who looks about Aang’s age.

The synopsis for this thing is a tad befuddling, as apparently it’s going to take place in a post-apocalyptic world and involve young Pavi searching for her long-lost twin. I hate Happy Ending Overrides, and this makes it feel like everything Aang, Zuko, Katara, Korra and the rest fought for over their lifetimes (specifically, Republic City and harmony with the spirit world) was just temporary. I’m avoiding the leaks, but it all seems a bit sus.

That said, I have to laugh at the production schedule: two seasons of thirteen episodes each. This is compared to Avatar’s three seasons of twenty (or twenty-one) episodes each, and Korra’s run of four seasons with twelve-to-fourteen episodes each. The width and breadth of storytelling keeps getting compressed.

At this stage, I’m at peace with the fact that nothing is ever going to top the original series. That’s just impossible. It’s a near-perfect piece of art. But I enjoy The Legend of Korra and dipping into the graphic novels based on both series (this is considered a heinous crime in some parts of fandom) so I’m looking forward to this continuation as well. Bryan Konietzko says the show will feel more “fantasy and otherworldly,” which hopefully means more spirit world shenanigans, which I’m totally down for. Could this be the show in which Koh the Face-Stealer’s promise to Aang that “we’ll meet again,” will finally be fulfilled?

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Brand new trailer for Welcome to Derry. If you have HBO Max, please watch it. I really want to see Pennywise terrorizing people in the Victorian Era, which is what’s set for season three.

I’m intrigued by the army base stuff, which indicates that the authorities knew there was something bad going on in Derry. Did you notice the Shawshank prison bus? And was that the meteorite that brings Pennywise to Earth in the first place?

Pixar’s latest film looks both charming and original (not a sequel or remake!) and as a kid I completely loved “secret lives of animals” type stories. What is it about beavers that are so inherently funny? I mean, there’s got to be a reason that they pop up so often and memorably in Disney. I’m thinking specifically of the one with the lisp in Lady and the Tramp, and the original character that they added to Winnie the Pooh.

Edit: okay, so apparently the beaver in Winnie the Pooh is actually a GOPHER, but in my defense they used the exact same character design as the beaver in Lady and the Tramp, so as far as I’m concerned they’re the same animal: a beaver.

I also love that the mad scientists are two older women. Like, I really, really love that.

Haven’t seen James Gunn’s Superman yet, and probably won’t until at least three of the films in the series have been released, but I’m already enjoying the vibe that Supergirl is bringing:

Yes, I am aware of the existence of K-Pop Demon Hunters, and yes, I will watch it in the near future. In fact, I was one of the very few people who knew about it prior to its release despite Netflix’s complete lack of promotion, and I had the trailer in my Tumblr queue… only to delete it when the whole thing exploded a few weeks later, a move I regret since it would have been proof that I was onboard before the bandwagon arrived. Ah well.

But K-Pop Demon Hunters reminds me of Knights of Guinevere (in that both are entirely original girl-centric projects), which just posted its first episode on YouTube. If we want original stuff, as everyone keeps claiming they do, then we have to show up for it when it drops!

Here’s the How It Should Have Ended crowd responding to the new Avengers line-up being announced via the medium of chairs, which cracked me up:

Finally, we’ve got a full-length trailer for the last season of Stranger Things, which feels rather bittersweet (and will probably herald a huge drop-off for Netflix subscriptions, which is presumably why they’re breaking it up into three release dates). Like most super-popular franchises, it’s a little divisive at this point, but I’ve enjoyed it since its inception way back in 2016.

But it’s definitely time for it to end, and hopefully the Duffer Brothers will stick the landing. I personally would love to see a return of Kali, though I’m not going to hold my breath…