Airwolf vs Blue Thunder
Jan. 27th, 2007 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swehI recently watched the Blue Thunder TV series and am watching season 2 of Airwolf (already watched season 1 DVDs). Really the concept started with Blue Thunder movie in 1983. Both series then followed in 1984. A super helicopter which could fly super fast, super quiet, film through walls, audio pickups...
The original Blue Thunder film was really good, IMHO. It was more of a story about people than technology, but with a technological background. How the technology would affect society (privacy? What if a helicopter could fly silent outside your window and record your conversation?) I liked it and the finish was really good. A nice solution to the conflicts that the lead character had.
Blue Thunder the TV series was a cop show with a helicoptor. It was... crap. It was so formulaic and so shallow that it made me cringe. The super helicopter was merely part of the background; just a vehicle. There was a couple of bows to the concepts brought up in the film (a judge approved audio recordings) but mostly it was just a cop show. No wonder it only lasted 11 episodes.
Airwolf was also pretty shallow and formulaic... but it was geek paradise. This was Knight Rider in the air. The super helicopter was super; it wasn't as much of a character as KITT, but it was still important. Everything, from the opening titles, to the finish relied on the superness of the machine.
I just single-stepped through the opening titles of Airwolf; the schematic shots _look_ like schematics. I've no idea if they're feasible; most of the words are unreadable. I can see "front view", "rear view" and I can recognise standard conventions (eg the shortening of a pipe). Each schematic was two frames long. That's a lot of attention!
Like I said, geek paradise.
No wonder Airwolf lasted a lot longer than Blue Thunder.
The original Blue Thunder film was really good, IMHO. It was more of a story about people than technology, but with a technological background. How the technology would affect society (privacy? What if a helicopter could fly silent outside your window and record your conversation?) I liked it and the finish was really good. A nice solution to the conflicts that the lead character had.
Blue Thunder the TV series was a cop show with a helicoptor. It was... crap. It was so formulaic and so shallow that it made me cringe. The super helicopter was merely part of the background; just a vehicle. There was a couple of bows to the concepts brought up in the film (a judge approved audio recordings) but mostly it was just a cop show. No wonder it only lasted 11 episodes.
Airwolf was also pretty shallow and formulaic... but it was geek paradise. This was Knight Rider in the air. The super helicopter was super; it wasn't as much of a character as KITT, but it was still important. Everything, from the opening titles, to the finish relied on the superness of the machine.
I just single-stepped through the opening titles of Airwolf; the schematic shots _look_ like schematics. I've no idea if they're feasible; most of the words are unreadable. I can see "front view", "rear view" and I can recognise standard conventions (eg the shortening of a pipe). Each schematic was two frames long. That's a lot of attention!
Like I said, geek paradise.
No wonder Airwolf lasted a lot longer than Blue Thunder.
