Category Archives: Television
We Have Toph for Live Action Avatar Show!
Remember the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender show from earlier this year? It was a huge hit, and will be coming back for two more seasons. I can barely remember that show, and I’m pretty sure I was lukewarm about it. But they have now cast actor Miya Cech as Toph Beifong, the Earthbender!
Toph is a great character, obviously, so hopefully Cech can bring even a fraction of her charisma from the cartoon into the live action show. I don’t know Cech’s work, but good for her landing this role in this hit show! I look forward to watching the show going forward.
I’m not sure when it will return, but the live action Airbender (and Earthbenders!) will be back on Netflix one of these days!
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TV Trailer Tuesday: The Franchise
It’s another slow week for anything happening in the world that I actually want to post about. I’m not going to post anything about the presidential debate. That’s not what I’m doing with my life. So instead, how about this quickie trailer for a new HBO show called The Franchise.
Looks fun. I’ll probably watch it one of these days. Looks like a quality coterie of comedic actors putting on a show. That’s exactly what I want from a quality TV show. So hopes are high for The Franchise at HBO, which comes out on Oct. 6, so less than a month from now!
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More Arcane is Coming!
Sadly, we have since learned that the second and upcoming season of Arcane: League of Legends will be the end of it. Maybe it costs a lot of money to do all that amazing animation? It obviously takes time, considering season one came out in 2021. Whatever the case may be, we’re just gonna have to appreciate this second season all the more when it comes out in two months!
Looks great! Nothing too spoilery in that trailer. It just looks like some awesome action, some awesome character development and all that good stuff! I don’t know the first thing about League of Legends, so I don’t recognize any of the new characters in that trailer. But the first season ones look awesome. Can’t wait!
Arcane season two comes to Netflix sometime in November.
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Low-Key Great: The Hit-Monkey Cartoon
You know what’s low-key great? The Hit-Monkey cartoon on Hulu. I just finished up the second season and I’m here to tell you that the showrunners go all-out for season 2! Honestly, I’m sure they were all surprised to even get a second season, so they really gave it their all. This show gets my highest recommendation!
Hit-Monkey is actually a Marvel cartoon, based on a fairly recent but now also obscure Marvel Comics character. He’s a monkey who wears a suit and is an assassin. I never read any of the comics, but Hit-Monkey was named way back in 2019 as one several shows being considered by then Marvel Television to turn random characters into shows.
Of that group, we only ever got M.O.D.O.K. — which was great! — and Hit-Monkey. The first season came out all the way back in 2021. I have very little memory of the season, but I’m confident I enjoyed it. And it’s just plain shocking that anybody involved greenlit this show for a second season an entire three years later! Marvel Television is no more, it’s all subsumed into Marvel Studios. There’s no M.O.D.O.K. season 2, for example.
But I’m not about to look this gift horse in the mouth!
This is just going to be a brief review/recommendation to go watch Hit-Monkey. The first season was good, from what I can remember, and the second season is damn great! The writing is awesome, the jokes are fun, the story really goes to some crazy places, episode-after-episode. It’s an ongoing, serialized story across the entire season, but they do something new and different each episode. The characters are a lot of fun and the voice acting is no slouch. Jason Sudeikis does not phone it in as the show’s real protagonist, Bryce, and then the likes of Olivia Munn, Leslie Jones, Stephanie Beatriz and Keith David round out an excellent cast.
The animation is awesome, the action is excellent, and it’s an adult cartoon with swearing and real violence, and that’s always a plus.
The show isn’t steeped in Marvel lore, so you don’t need to know anything to enjoy the show. There are a few minor characters throughout, like Fat Cobra in season one, and Lady Bullseye in both seasons, but it’s mostly a stand alone show that just happens to be based on a Marvel Comics character. It’s actually kind of crazy that, in 2024, we got a show starring Hit-Monkey, with Lady Bullseye in an ongoing subplot role. Madness!
Hit-Monkey is currently available to watch on Hulu, which I think is part of Disney+ now anyway, so all the Marvel stuff is in one place. Take it from me, this show is a damn fun watch!
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More Vox Machina Cartoon, Anyone?
On the one hand, I’m a big fan of the Critical Roll cartoon. On the other hand, I think I was so tired that I slept through a couple of the final episodes in the second season. I don’t remember how that season ended. But hey, it’s coming back for a third season, so awesome!
Looks fun! The Critical Rollers are going to hell! That’s their name, right?
Not that I’ve listened to any of their actual Critical Roll shows, but I like the Mighty Nein better and am really looking forward to that series! There’s a huge wealth of Mighty Nein animatics on YouTube that really show off the fun of those characters. So we’ll see when that gets a cartoon!
The Legend of Vox Machina returns to Amazon Prime on Oct. 3!
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