TV Show Discussion

[Mr. GOH!]

His Dark Materials is fine, just like the book. I am not a fan of Lin-Manuel as Scoresby, though. He just seems like Lin-Manuel goofing around.

 

But I can't believe nobody's in here talking about Watchmen, which is so very good.

[toxicitizen]

I'm 3 episodes into Netflix's The Witcher and it's alright. Not incredible by any means and I've never read the books, so for all I know it might be a terrible adaptation. But I'm enjoying it so far and it's kinda neat to see all these characters way before the games even started. It's actually making me want to finally get around to playing Witcher 3.

 

That being said, I know Geralt is a brooding, stoic kinda guy but I swear Henry Cavill has less personality than polygons lol. Geralt from the games had way more charisma than his portrayal here, at least so far.

[toxicitizen]

So no one else checked out The Witcher? I finished it last night and it's overall pretty solid. It's no Game of Thrones but once things get going at the end of the first episode it's pretty good until the end. I'm definitely looking forward to season 2.

 

I also really came around on Cavill by the end of it. I don't know if it's him getting more comfortable with the part or just not having much to work with in the early eps but about halfway through I pretty much had accepted him as Geralt. What really sold me on his Geralt was when he started interacting with Dandelion because holy fuck is Dandelion great in this lol. And I say this as someone that hated him in the games.

 

The one thing I feel could've been done better is making the timeline of events clearer because it can get a little confusing at times. There's enough for you to piece it together but it's kinda sneeze and you'll miss it. I've seen a lot of confusion online about this.

[TheMightyEthan]

We cancelled our Netflix sub recently, we were caught up with all our shows and are waiting for more stuff to build back up before we re-subscribe.

[TCP]

I liked The Witcher. Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri's portrayals were all fine with me. I agree with FLD, Dandelion was great, the show was at it's best when Dandelion and Geralt were together. I liked the different timelines and how they weaved together. The main thing I didn't like was the terrible cinematography. It's such a pity to spend so much effort in CGI, costumes, props, make up.... and make it all look cheap and crappy with a bunch of dutch tilts.

[MetalCaveman]

 

\m/ \m/

[deanb]

I've watched:

His Dark Materials - Unlike Hollywood BBC has the balls to kill a 10 year old boy in time for Christmas. I'm mainly surprised my younger sister isn't watching this, she's pretty into her YA adaptations. I quite enjoyed it, reminded me of some of the stuff used to watch as a kid about this time of year like Borrowers (the old TV show, not the John Goodman film).

Watchmen - Took me a few episodes to get into but then once I was in I was totally in and binged it all in like 2 days. Certainly one for the book readers, if you've just seen the films you might be a bit thrown (though if you've seen the film and know what was changed that might be enough).

Mandalorian - I see now why on Wookiepedia all the dates are measured as "Before Baby Yoda" and "After Baby Yoda". Also Gus Fring (who I'll be honest I don't know from Breaking Bad but other things such as *cough* Once Upon A Time)

Witcher - Really could have done with like a framing device maybe or something. I get it's based on short stories but you get whiplash from it jumping around so much chronologically, especially when your main characters are semi-ageless. Also Roache doesn't do enough squats so boo to that. Is making me itch to get into Witcher 3 again (and seemingly not the only one; news is its hit its highest concurrent play count on Steam in 4 years).

Crisis on Infinite Earths - Obviously not as big as something like Infinity War/Endgame but has been pretty fun to watch so far (there's two episodes left in the new year) and cool to see some of the old folks pop up. Lex Luthor writing on the Book of Destiny in sharpie pen was a pretty great move.

 

Got the new Expanse and Lost in Space to watch as well (you wait ages for TV shows to pop up then like twenty come at once).

 

[MetalCaveman]

Project Blue Book season 2:

 

Spoiler

Aliens are not real, it's just a government cover-up of secret programs, but aliens are totally real, they just don't have anything to do with the cover-up, but aliens aren't real, it was the soviets, but aliens are real... So on and so forth.  

 

Also, the doctor seems to be pushing his luck too much.

 

[Mal]

I'll be waiting for Dracula being given flesh by humans wishing to pay him tribute. 

 

Also that background is some Hellsing vibe. 

 

[Mal]

Should I watch or read the other Watchmen media before going head into the HBO series?

[deanb]

On 2/8/2020 at 4:04 AM, Mal said:

Should I watch or read the other Watchmen media before going head into the HBO series?

 

It ties a lot more in with the book than it does the film (especially the method of 'world peace'). The film I'd say is a bare minimum to watch ahead of time while understanding that the film, while a decent enough adaptation, is missing a lot of things from the comic and has a different ending which the HBO show doesn't follow from.

The comic is always worth a read anyway. There's a reason Alan Moore is considered one of the greats.

[Mal]

Well, I bought the comic (main series plus the prequel) since they're easy enough to find. Watching the first episode a few days ago was enough to tell me that I'm missing ton of context. The comic might be pretty dense considering its length but let's see if I can crush in a day or two. Then l'll get back to the TV series. 

[Mal]

I'm still digesting the Watchmen comics. It honestly was kind of shocking in what happened. From watching the first episode, I'd never would have guess something so major happened. Now I'm curious about everything for the TV show. Like what's the new order in the world actually came out to look like. 

 

Anyhow, I'll crush Castlevania Season 3 first since I need something that's pure fun in times like these... 

[deanb]

I've been watching Altered Carbon lately. It had been on my radar when it first cropped up. Bit of cyberpunk; what's not to like, but I never got around to it. Now with the new season having Captain Falcon in it I figured must be doing well to pull in big names. It's really quite enjoyable, and almost Doctor Who-esque in the "sleeves" (aka bodies) and "stacks" (the spinal column brain backup) thing meaning you can put characters into different actors. And there's some fun with it.

 

It does have some notably choppy editing, but given it continues it from S1 into S2 I'm guessing maybe a thematic choice. Like characters will go from planning to do something to having done it and you just have to fill in the gaps. It does the the usual heist trope of "if they show you planning the heist; it won't happen that way" and its done it both S1 end and near the start of S2.

 

Shame they've all been very singular location so far (Bay City, aka San Fran in the first season, and Harlans World, aka Eden Prime, in the second) when you have the "needlecasting" thing pretty much allowing near instant cross-world travel. Like there's mention of him travelling 80 planets in the 30 years from S1 to S2 but you don't get that in any of the actual episodes.

 

Otherwise all very near. Love Poe in it (notable that most gif searches for Altered Carbon either bring up him, or Captain Falcons mjolnir gun grab thing)

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

That's been on my list for forever, but I also haven't gotten around to it, good to see it's good.

[MetalCaveman]

Second season of Blue Book has been a thing, certainly leaning towards late X-Files.

 

Spoiler

Aliens don't exist, it's just the Air Force doing weird experiments. These experiments are done using alien technology, but aliens aren't real.

 

Also the men in black are real, but not really, they're just some dudes who think they know stuff. But they've been near/inside some kind of alien structure, but aliens aren't real.

 

There's been some really good episodes though.  

[deanb]

I'm currently on Sex Education. The guy from the first series of Altered Carbon shows up as the divorced dad. I guess Netflix has a roster of actors they like.

 

It's fun for the most part, some neat drama. Some bits where you're like "oh..I see where this is going to go" which gets quite tense for an otherwise funny show. The aesthetic is all over the place and it's insane how relatively wealthy that town must be given some of the properties shown (though kids are paying £50 a pop for sex advice so makes sense).

Jakob is the best. Also is the whole Ola/Maeve thing a bit like Team Edward Team Jacob was back in the Twilight days? (Ola and Maeve should just go elsewhere, at this point Otis is being a bit of a knob).

Not super keen on an arc that's kind of perpetuating the "they bully you cos they like you" thing.

 

[danielpholt]

This Country

 

The series came to an end this week and I'll be honest, we're really going to miss it. We first discovered the show 2-3 weeks after Mila was born. That was not a fun time to be in our household, but This Country really helped us through. We binged the first two seasons over the course of a weekend whilst Mila was being a newborn around us and everything we did felt like the wrong thing.

 

So it's with a heavy heart I say bye to the show that's given me and Danielle so many enjoyable moments over the last 2 years. Thankfully they went out on top, a class show right until the very end.

[Mal]

IT'S HAPPENING 

 

[deanb]

Bonding

 

So this is a show that popped up on Netflix recommendations. Had D'arcy Carden in it (Good Place Janet)  so added to my list. Started watching it the other day. Turns out the episodes are about 15 minutes each, so it's only a short show. (and D'arcy is only in like two episodes).

Basic premise is dominatrix gives her mate a job as her assistant, while he tries to learn the ropes (literally). Cue sitcom adventures. Except it's sort of just short of being funny. Like it's kinda neat to see something relatively fetish positive, but the short episodes mean not much happens and you do come away feeling like it's not as funny as it could be, and not quite as informative on the subject matter as it could be.

Be interesting to see if it gets picked up for a second season and gets to develop itself a lot more.

 

Locke & Key

Finally started on this. YA-type show if you're into your Stranger Things fix, based on a comic series. Premise is family moves in to old family house after their dad is killed. Family house has many hidden magical keys around that only work for kids (as they note "that's how magic just works"). It's not exactly a kiddy premise mind. The keys have very disturbing implications (one turns you into a ghost, one causes fires, one lets you enter peoples mind and physically change it; put stuff in/take stuff out, and one lets you puppeteer people etc). The mum is somewhat terrible at keeping track of her kids too, and will happily just let her youngest be babysat by an iPad (obviously it helps with plot if the mum isn't there to interfere with the kids messing with magical keys).

 

Also it's a show where people who didn't watch Smallville find out that Iceman/Quantum Break guy has a twin brother.

 

[deanb]

Quite a neat write-up of Quibi. With some choice parts on how really it should be a sure winner with the capital, people, and talent behind it but also with the small insights and highlights into how it's basically being made by dinosaurs for kids.
https://www.vulture.com/2020/07/is-anyone-watching-quibi.html

 

Specifically TV wise I'm doing a rewatch of Archer. I fell off after the shift to "Dreamland" and the what-if format but I figure I've plenty time now and it's fine for background viewing while emails slow down. And when I've more intense viewing time I've been rewatching The Expanse and I forgot how dense the story is. I'd got to end of S3 and there's so much that happens in just 3 seasons. Also it's in 4K HDR on Amazon Prime and I have a new 4K TV so figured I'd stretch its leg somewhat and it is quite pretty. Getting prettier as show goes on too (I'd presume cos originally it wasn't at 4K HDR for the earlier seasons).

[deanb]

 

[MetalCaveman]

 

This is going to be a thing.  

[deanb]

I'm interested to see where they take this. Got some high production values and clearly not following the book or just leaning purely on vulgarity and shock (yes, it still has that mind but so far no "Love Sausage")

[Mister Jack]

I got a month of Disney+ so I could watch Hamilton and figured as long as I have it I might as well watch The Mandalorian too. After finishing it I'm starting to feel like Disney should just give Star Wars movies to the Marvel people too because they do it so much better than the people who did the new trilogy.