HStorm wrote:In my opinion, the introduction is necessary, little more than an extension of a typical "team intro", and does little harm. I suspect that an equally sized group of people would have whined had there been no real nod to the passing of 20 years.
Ah, but nobody's objecting to there being a nod to the passing of twenty years. In fact, the opening wouldn't have been so bad had there been a little more focus on that - say, a little more explanation for what had happened in between times. What has Lord F been up to in all this time, for instance?
And thereby immediately alienate, right at the critical time period, the much bigger audience who either doesn't know or doesn't remember, but is somehow expected to care, who or what "a Lord Fear" is?
HStorm wrote:
But part of the problem is it only briefly mentioned the passing of twenty years. Instead, much of it was taken up with Verruca bellyaching in a deeply unfunny way about her job, as though we're expected to care about that when we only first laid eyes on her thirty seconds earlier.
As far as I can see, she only does this between 1:47 and 2:30. A mere 43 seconds. During which, she makes a couple of jokes and refers to an NPC that we meet later. Also during these 43 seconds, Daisy explains a great deal about the dungeon. She refers to magic, she states that the dungeon is full of "creatures of darkness" and she implies that she has a recent, working knowledge of the dungeon.
You might think that's wasted time, but consider that in a mere 43 seconds, she's explained who she is, why she's there, what she'll do, who Treguard is, and the nature of the dungeon. To someone who doesn't know what Knightmare is, or only vaguely remembers it, that's critical information that's been provided upfront and helps ensure that they continue to watch. Even to you, who knows most of that, she's given you her name and purpose.
HStorm wrote:
It's not entertaining, it's not relevant, and it's not needed. All it does is delay the start of what people actually want to see.
No. It delays the start of what you and I want to see. It is essential information to anyone who comes to this with significantly less knowledge.
HStorm wrote:
As I say, it would be a lot, lot better if they just didn't bother with assistants at all. Then they wouldn't have to waste time with an introduction scene for them, they wouldn't keep getting in Treguard's way, and they wouldn't keep reducing him to a parody of himself.
Well, that's simply a subjective "taste" thing, and I can't argue with that. It is by no means a unanimous view, and had there been no assistant then I'm sure another bunch of people would be clamouring for one. Either way, the production team appear to lose.
Of course, if it was Treguard on his own, it would be a little shorter. Though I imagine you'd still have similar references to the dungeon being "full of monsters" and the presence of "magic" in order to explain to the audience what's going on.
HStorm wrote:
I don't mean to give the impression that I didn't like the episode, or that I have an aggressive hatred for Verruca/Daisy. Neither is the case.
/quote]
No worried. For the record, you're not giving such an impression
HStorm wrote:
But I do think Knightmare should stop doing these over-developed 'comedy' intros, if only because they're never anywhere near as funny as they seem to imagine they are.
With respect, that's your subjective view, and shouldn't really be presented as a fact.
You don't find them as funny as they were intended. It doesn't mean that they
aren't as funny as was intended.
Looking at the youtube stats there are 7193 "likes" and 170 "dislikes" giving an approval rating of 97.7% from the target audience. On the whole, I'd have to say that the episode has therefore been a success and did its job.