About the Disney + series (and Mr Robot)

Due the generosity of my daughter, I now have access to Disney +, and have started watching The Mandalorian and Loki.

Unfortunately, my prior knowledge of the innovative soundstage they used to make these is partly interfering with my enjoyment of both.   

It's not exactly ruining them, but I keep looking at scenes and thinking I can tell where the studio floor ends and the massive screen begins.   It is not at all clear in some scenes, but seems to be in others.    

Oh wait - I am WRONG.   Loki didn't use "the Volume" at all - I was presuming something I shouldn't have.

In any case, I keep saying to my son (watching it with me) that I really do not care for the murky, sepia/brownish tint to all of cinematography in Loki.   It looks, I don't know, underlit, or filtered, or something; but for no clear aesthetic reason.    I mean, dramatic lighting works well in some shows - Mr Robot in particular is worth watching almost for its lighting decisions alone - but it seems out of place to me in Loki.

I am also somewhat bothered that the series' version of the Time Police should have such silly, short range weaponry - like magic wands you have to be close enough to touch someone with for them to work.   What sort of logic does that make?    

I will keep watching it, but I am not yet convinced it is all that good.

To be honest, I think it suffers badly in comparison to the second season of Umbrella Academy, which I thought was just great.  (And much better than its first season.)   As a "time police" themed series, I think UA did it much, much better.  And I loved its look.

As for The Mandalorian:  it's faster paced, looks better, and I am enjoying it enough.  I did point out to my son the derivative aspect of it from the gory Japanese Lone Wolf and Cub movies - which I would sometimes look at on SBS when they were shown there late on a Saturday in (what?) the 1980s.  When I showed him a Youtube compilation clip of gore from them, he was very surprised I had watched them at all, since I complain about movie violence quite a lot.   I explained that I could never stick it out with them, though, for that very reason.

Back to Mr Robot - after a lengthy break between seasons (which is not great - I had forgotten some of the backstory), my son and I are watching the last season now.    It is surprisingly good - so cinematic in feel, and some really dense dramatic writing.   It's kind of gut wrenching in the suspense a lot of the time, but gee, it was some achievement.

I am worried that the big secret of what White Rose is building is going to turn out to be silly, but who knows.   I am enjoying it a lot for now.   It seems to have attracted next to no attention in Australia (probably because you have to buy it on Google to watch it), but it is very good if you are into well made paranoia stories.