Fight the Future 08 - A Boy And His Dog

[SixFootTurkey]

Hah, I've had several conversations about the Hunger Games that have basically gone like:

Me: "So what did you think about the Hunger Games?"
Them: "It was a garbage movie, there were so many slow parts."
Me: "Slow parts? Like... [talks about the various non-fighty bits]"
Them: "When I go to see an action movie..."

It's so silly when people think something is bad just because it didn't meet their very narrow expectations. That's not to say everyone needs to like what I like (and only that)... just learn to distinguish 'I disliked' from 'I thought it was objectively bad.'

[7SecondsLeft]

It's so silly when people think something is bad just because it didn't meet their very narrow expectations. That's not to say everyone needs to like what I like (and only that)... just learn to distinguish 'I disliked' from 'I thought it was objectively bad.'

I agree, and do actually like Hunger Games - well book 1 at least... the other two got a bit too saggy and felt too much like Suzanne Collins was making it up as she was going along, instead of working towards a plan. Book 2 also fell into the "Return of the Jedi Death Star" trap of "Oh heck, we've already done the only good idea I had for a story, let's tweak it slightly and hope no one notices that I've just reused the exact same idea again"

And at the end of the day, while I know I'm too old / male / cynical to appreciate romance-oriented threads and love triangles, they obviously struck a chord with the book's intended target audience, otherwise they wouldn't have had the huge success they had.

I'd still pick BR first if I had to choose between them though

[SoSo_Tsundere]

Battle Royale, isn't that the Hunger Games clone?

lol, but it's better than its clone because it has none of the pointless story... Watching all your friends die horribly and bringing down the government? Easy. Deciding if you should fall in love with Pretty Boy Hunk #1 or Pretty Boy Hunk #2? Now that's real end of the world stuff to deal with!

FTFY
Battle Royale came out in 1996! My first though on hearing about Hunger Games was to dig out my old copy of the book to refresh my memory.

[SixFootTurkey]

Catching Fire didn't feel like the Death Star trap to me at all. Yes you were running along a very similar path, but that was it. Everything else was entirely different, and the same basic premise worked to accentuate the effect that the end of the first book had. I enjoy the series exactly because of how you get to see the political environment evolve as things change, and I thought it did a great job at that. The action may lag or feel stale at times, but that was never the 'point' of the story to me.

(I just realized that this is the thread for A Boy and His Dog... but there are enough WTF moments in that story that I feel like talking about another story can't make it any more weird.)

On BR, I've only ever seen the movie; how different is the book? It's been a while since I've seen it, but I don't recall it being particularly engaging.

[Daniel]

Not sure why we're talking about this here rather than on the poor neglected hunger games thread, but I think the series gets way better after the first book - the whole time I was like, this is just a game show. It's going to get interesting when she gets out of the arena and takes on the Capital. And it did! Actually I like the third book best, even though it's absolutely traumatizing - the second does a retread of the first for about half of it, though with some very fun twists.

Review-like opinions of mine such as we deliberately leave out of the podcast!

Looking forward to seeing the different feel of Battle Royale for myself!

[mutant_pie]

After spending way too much time thinking about it, it seems that A Boy and His Dog could be considered an attempt at making a hard SF version of Mr. Peabody & Sherman. You know, just without the time traveling, and in the distopian future.

[Daniel]

@mutant_pie That is amazing! I just watched Mr. Peabody and Sherman, so I can picture it. "Now pay attention Albert, you're about to meet one of the greatest minds in history." " Aw hell, Blood, I don't care about any Leonardo Da Vinci! Find me a woman!"

[SixFootTurkey]

Now that's actually a terrifying image... The last thing I want to picture is a story about Albert and Blood meeting various famous women throughout history.

[mutant_pie]

@mutant_pie That is amazing! I just watched Mr. Peabody and Sherman, so I can picture it. "Now pay attention Albert, you're about to meet one of the greatest minds in history." " Aw hell, Blood, I don't care about any Leonardo Da Vinci! Find me a woman!"

Thanks for the compliment! It's a fun thought experiment to take a premise, as shown in either of the two shows (a partnership of a dog and a young man in this case) and spin it out as an adjusted premise in a different setting. Or as I did, find enough similarity between the two and make a mash-up. SixFootTurkey quickly jumped into the spirit of the idea, choosing one major aspect as he considers permutations.

[SixFootTurkey]

Though, if you keep in character with a lot of the women in question, the image of Albert getting constantly beaten down has its upside...

[mutant_pie]

Though, if you keep in character with a lot of the women in question, the image of Albert getting constantly beaten down has its upside...

Well, if enough of that would happen I would see two possible outcomes;
1) Albert/Sherman gets continually smacked around by people (women and men) with superior circumstance who react to his violent nature by controlling him (physically or otherwise), he always comes out the loser, and becomes bitter and resigned.
2) After several circumstances like this, Boy/Peabody reminds Albert/Sherman that he's not a very nice person (even as he did in the film), and suggests that when possible, he might try cooperating with the few, vetted by Boy/Peabody, decent people. It would mean the erosion of his old personality and therefore character development.

However, this discussion is a bit moot as (has been noted) Harlan Ellison got so sick of fans requesting a sequel that he killed off these two characters.