Counting Down to 90 - Week 1571 - Animated Shows, All My Love, Mist

The Concept Explained

Counting Down to 90 - Week 1579

Why 1579

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

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What the hell is going on in the animation world? 

I started writing this piece earlier this week after I had just finished the 2nd episode of Creature Commandos and watched the separate fights between the Bride and Circe and Frankenstein. This DC Animation show, helmed by James Gunn fresh from his Marvel success (Guardians of the Galaxy), is just stunning.

X-Men '97 delivered similar moments of brilliance earlier this year. The 2D hand-drawn animation style was based on the original X-Men ‘97 show that ran from 1992-1997. Episodes 5 and 8 were so powerful and heart-rending that I watched them twice.

True awe when watching television is rare, and I am constantly looking for shows and episodes that are so engrossing you’re left asking yourself, “What just happened?” and then sometimes replay parts of those episodes saying, “Wow. Did that just happen?” and then just cherish those moments.

Given my limited viewing bandwidth of at best half hour on weekdays and a couple of hours over Saturday and Sunday, I have to be ruthlessly selective and my life is now littered with the debris of shows that I stopped watching after an episode or two because they were just forgettable noise.

Animated shows deliver these moments of awe more than live action. Take Arcane for example, the most expensive animation show ever produced with an unusual combination of 2D and 3D animation. I watched Season 1 on my son’s recommendation and was blown away by Season 2 that I finished watching earlier this month that just kicked it up another level.

Blue Samurai, Batman: The Caped Crusader, the first season of Harley Quinn, parts of Twilight of the Gods, Marvel’s What If…? are so good that I struggle to find something similar in live action. And then there’s Invincible, also so good that I refuse to watch the second half of season 2, keeping it for a time when there is a sudden famine of good shows and I can savor it better.

Last week had two standouts…Life of Pi at NMACC, perhaps the best English language play that has performed at NMACC since it started and Bryan Adams who hasn’t lost his touch.

I can’t wait for Coldplay in Jan, especially watching Chris Martin sing “All My Love” live. This song is slowly becoming an all-time favorite of mine...I've watched the two video versions more than once, and love the one with the 99-year old Dick Van Dyke. 

Sometimes, you come across words that just hit you square. Nikki Giovanni, a poet, died earlier this week. I hadn’t read her, but this is the last part of her poem, Biography.

Biography

There is a bat In Chile named Micronyteris giovanniae Dr. Robert Baker named it After me. He discovered it While studying bats And thought the big ears Were just like me Maybe if the bat wrote She would be A poet There is a plaque In Lincoln Heights Where I went To school And a Plaque In Knoxville…

The Poetry Foundation

With so much to watch, read, and listen to, the real treasure lies in the few works that leave you shaken, moved, or changed…be they animated shows, plays, rock concerts, or a poem that leaves you saying “Damn.”