• CriticalOtaku [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    It is a bit sad that postmodern irony poisoning has killed storytelling with any kind of nuance. I'm watching Pluto rn and it feels wonderful to have a show not handhold you and just present concepts and ideas for the viewer to think about, no matter how esoteric or high concept sci-fi they are.

    But also I have an inexplicable urge to scream "THE ROBOTS ARE AN ALLEGORY FOR THE WORKING CLASS!!!" at the top of my lungs

    • Alaskaball [comrade/them]A
      ·
      1 year ago

      I keep hearing about the pluto show and how great it is. I also know the story was concocted by the same guy that made Monster. I can already tell that you enjoy the show, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on it so far.

      • CriticalOtaku [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        It's basically playing with a lot of the same concepts that Bladerunner 2049 is (right down to the police procedural framing device), but because it has a longer runtime and a larger cast it's able to give it's ideas more time to breath, so the mystery is an actual mystery and the sci-fi gets to be kinda out-there in a good way. It's also not afraid to get political- I dunno if it'll stick the landing yet but yeah there's a very thinly veiled allegory about the Iraq war and Foucault's boomerang here (that's kinda True Detective Season 2-ish?), and the main character being a cop from an allegorical minority worked well enough in k-pain for exploring systemic issues and it works well enough here, although again I'm only halfway thru so I dunno if it'll stick the landing

      • CriticalOtaku [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Ok, finished the show and it didn't stick the landing but I still enjoyed it overall.

        • Alaskaball [comrade/them]A
          ·
          1 year ago

          Oh wow that was quick.

          It's something I always noticed with a lot of Japanese shows I've watched is that it seems like it's really hard to stick the landing regardless of how well they constructed the story over its runtime.

          • CriticalOtaku [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            It's only 8 episodes (albeit 1 hr eps) and I had the day off lol

            Without spoiling too much, the story does tie all the loose ends up but imo it kinda rushes the ending, and ends up with a kinda non-commital run-of-the-mill politics (especially compared to something like Bladerunner 2049).

            • Alaskaball [comrade/them]A
              ·
              1 year ago

              Yeah that sounds about right in terms of unsatisfactory wrap-ups. It's not particularly surprising since that's usually how it is with wrap-ups but still leaves a bit of an empty feeling in ya