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I watched one episode of this and seen how far and away it was from the books (two if I recall). The books were entertaining with one exception.
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What TV are you watching and how would you rate it? [Revive from FRDB]
- Thread starter Narapoia
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Sarpedon
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Ok, I have finished all 95 episodes of the Three Kingdoms, and it is spectacular right til the end. They wisely chose to end the series shortly after the death of Zhuge Liang, and glossing over most of the events of the rather anticlimactic historical record. The climax of the series comes in episode 93 with Zhuge Liang's last attempt to destroy Sima Yi. The following two episodes bring the series to a satisfactory resolution.
Others may disagree, but I think Sima Yi might in fact surpass Cao Cao as a villain. His endless schemes, hilarious acting, and using the threat of Zhuge Liang's invasions as ammunition in his political manuvers makes him the most memorable schemer in a series that is 80% scheming.
Sima Shi: Father, aren't you critically ill?
Sima Yi: I've been critically ill for 10 years!
I agree with the rating :12.5/10
Others may disagree, but I think Sima Yi might in fact surpass Cao Cao as a villain. His endless schemes, hilarious acting, and using the threat of Zhuge Liang's invasions as ammunition in his political manuvers makes him the most memorable schemer in a series that is 80% scheming.
Sima Shi: Father, aren't you critically ill?
Sima Yi: I've been critically ill for 10 years!
I agree with the rating :12.5/10
tantric
Member
re: wayward pines
in such shows, there's always an element of mystery - right now, it's what we don't know about the abis. my problem is how much room to give the show for the mystery. the abis make no sense whatsoever. i don't care how many fangs you have, if you DON'T USE TOOLS, Homo sap is going to kick your ass. also - there just can't be that many obligate carnivores/apex predators in such a small area - unless they have an off switch when they're not assaulting the fence. given, it could be a source/sink kind of thing, where they just immigrate from farther away to attack the town, but attacking the town doesn't actually get them food. also, they're all the same age - where are the kids? the only thing that works is that they are constructed biological war machines and there's a factory out there churning them out.
besides, the idea of maintaining 20th century lifestyles with no manufacturing, industry, source of energy, is absurd. cars?!? why, for the love of jared diamond, there's nowhere to GO. building the city as a walking town, you numbnuts, with fields surrounding it.
in such shows, there's always an element of mystery - right now, it's what we don't know about the abis. my problem is how much room to give the show for the mystery. the abis make no sense whatsoever. i don't care how many fangs you have, if you DON'T USE TOOLS, Homo sap is going to kick your ass. also - there just can't be that many obligate carnivores/apex predators in such a small area - unless they have an off switch when they're not assaulting the fence. given, it could be a source/sink kind of thing, where they just immigrate from farther away to attack the town, but attacking the town doesn't actually get them food. also, they're all the same age - where are the kids? the only thing that works is that they are constructed biological war machines and there's a factory out there churning them out.
besides, the idea of maintaining 20th century lifestyles with no manufacturing, industry, source of energy, is absurd. cars?!? why, for the love of jared diamond, there's nowhere to GO. building the city as a walking town, you numbnuts, with fields surrounding it.
C_Mucius_Scaevola
Veteran Member
Wow, that was quick. I'm only into the mid-40s in episodes, so just hetting into the Sima Yi part of the story. I see what you mean about the "hilarious acting" already, though. In his first appearance, when he's thrown in jail for snoring, I already half expected him to be hanhing upside down in chains calling another prisoner "jailer's pet, you lucky bastard". I look forward to him providing much comic relief over the next 50 or so episodes. But a bigger villain than Cao Cao? Hmm, we'll see. It would take a lot to out-villain that magnificent bastard.
What I don't get about the show is that they needed to keep the state of the world a secret because people wouldn't be able to handle it and therefore wouldn't breed and repopulate the Earth. Yet, at the same time, they have an entire frigging mountain base filled with people who can handle it just fine and could happily live their lives knowing the truth. Why not just use those people to repopulate the planet and spend the time rebuilding and shit instead of wasting their energy in all that fucking drama?
beero1000
Veteran Member
C_Mucius_Scaevola
Veteran Member
Yes. I mentioned in another post Sima Yi's nap at that speech, but in terms of Cao Mengde's character, that really was his Crowning Moment of Awesome, as far as I'm concerned. Where I am now (E54), he hasn't been around much since that scene, but I doubt he'll have another where he shows himself as such a great leader of men.
I could only feel sorry for Lu Su, as he has a more humane grasp on the situation than anybody else, but he's caught right in the middle of the Gongqin-Kongming rivalry as well as being subject to Sun Quan's near-powerlessness against Zho Yu's anger and hatred of Zhuge Liang. He's the epitome of a man doing his best in the worst circumstances and, despite his slowness in catching up with the schemes of the two plotters, I don't think he;s been rong yet in his prognostications.
I haven't got that far yet, but if we're quoting great passages, this has to be one of the best:
Liu Bei: "What is the use of a sword on a wedding night?"
Servant: "Master, you must use the sword to take the veil off your bride if you wish to consummate the marriage."
Liu Bei: "What if I can't take it off?"
Servant: "Then please leave and avoid further embarrassment."
Double entendre? It's barely a single entendre!
Colonel Sanders
Senior Member
The Awesomes
It's a new cartoon series on Hulu about a group of second rate superheroes. It stars Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, and Kenan Thompson, all who do a commendable job in the show's inaugural run. It has its weak moments but in every episode there have been some laugh out loud moments for me. So I'll keep watching it.
6.75/10
It's a new cartoon series on Hulu about a group of second rate superheroes. It stars Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, and Kenan Thompson, all who do a commendable job in the show's inaugural run. It has its weak moments but in every episode there have been some laugh out loud moments for me. So I'll keep watching it.
6.75/10
beero1000
Veteran Member
The Night Of
HBO crime drama miniseries about a college student accused of killing a girl in NYC. One episode released early so far (the rest sometime in July?), and I like it. The tension in the episode is palpable and the actors (Riz Ahmed, John Turturro,...) are doing a good job so far. I spent a good part of the second half going "No, no, no, don't do that, you idiot... Oh, you're screwed." Still unclear if he actually did it though, and we'll need to wait for the remaining episodes for a final judgement, but check it out...
8/10
HBO crime drama miniseries about a college student accused of killing a girl in NYC. One episode released early so far (the rest sometime in July?), and I like it. The tension in the episode is palpable and the actors (Riz Ahmed, John Turturro,...) are doing a good job so far. I spent a good part of the second half going "No, no, no, don't do that, you idiot... Oh, you're screwed." Still unclear if he actually did it though, and we'll need to wait for the remaining episodes for a final judgement, but check it out...
8/10
DBT
Contributor
May go to see the Independence day sequel on Friday night. It didn't get a good review by our local film critic, but he tends to be overly critical.
Humans - 9/10
This is a show about a world where there are a bunch of synthetic, human looking androids created to help out with various tasks. While making them, their creator also secretly made a few of them who have true AI consciousness and this is the story about a family who inadvertently got one of those who'd had her memory wiped instead of a regular android - and then hijinks ensue.
I was expecting a generic sci-fi show, but was surprised about how good the program actually was. They do a lot with the questions of what it means to be alive and deal with issues like "what if your sexbot is a really a person whom you're raping?". They bring up matters like how regular humans are impacted by these androids, from the uneducated workers who have already been replaced and become irrelevant and are raging against the machines to the teenager who was thinking of becoming a doctor but doesn't know why she should bother to spend seven years studying for it when the androids a few versions down the line would be able to learn all of those skills in seven seconds.
The deep and compelling stories are accompanied by well written characters and good plots. All in all, one of the best shows that's come along in a while.
This is a show about a world where there are a bunch of synthetic, human looking androids created to help out with various tasks. While making them, their creator also secretly made a few of them who have true AI consciousness and this is the story about a family who inadvertently got one of those who'd had her memory wiped instead of a regular android - and then hijinks ensue.
I was expecting a generic sci-fi show, but was surprised about how good the program actually was. They do a lot with the questions of what it means to be alive and deal with issues like "what if your sexbot is a really a person whom you're raping?". They bring up matters like how regular humans are impacted by these androids, from the uneducated workers who have already been replaced and become irrelevant and are raging against the machines to the teenager who was thinking of becoming a doctor but doesn't know why she should bother to spend seven years studying for it when the androids a few versions down the line would be able to learn all of those skills in seven seconds.
The deep and compelling stories are accompanied by well written characters and good plots. All in all, one of the best shows that's come along in a while.
Underseer
Contributor
DrZoidberg
Contributor
I recommend the Swedish original. It is kick-ass. And a lot weirder in a good way. Also, the smoking hot sex bots are... well... Swedish... in all their blonde well boobed glory.
Thomas II
Contributor
David Attenborough Documentaries 10/10
tantric
Member
the magicians 4/5
it's like harry potter but without the weird cultural filter. at least for me. learning magic at small time grad school. i relate to that part. the characters are not particularly likeable, but i went with it as realistic. apparently the books are something else - the characters are real dicks, but tv fixed that.
it's like harry potter but without the weird cultural filter. at least for me. learning magic at small time grad school. i relate to that part. the characters are not particularly likeable, but i went with it as realistic. apparently the books are something else - the characters are real dicks, but tv fixed that.
Underseer
Contributor
The Chronicles of Shannara 7/10
The source material is serviceable fantasy story. Honestly, the most interesting thing about it is the setting: it's set in a post-post apocalyptic Earth. The show has really high production values, which helps gloss over the mediocre source material.
The source material is serviceable fantasy story. Honestly, the most interesting thing about it is the setting: it's set in a post-post apocalyptic Earth. The show has really high production values, which helps gloss over the mediocre source material.
Ford
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I'm halfway through the first season, and I'm mostly disappointed.
The original novel only hinted at the fact that it was set in, as you say, a post-post-apocalyptic Earth. It was sword-and-sorcery foremost, and then if you read carefully you could piece together that the "Chaos Wars" were really a nuclear holocaust. This series hits you over the head with it from the get-go.
And while I understand MTV's reasoning for using the second novel as the basis for their show - the story of the kids of the people who saved the world appeals to their demo - it seems jarring to me. They picked up the story in the middle.
Finally, while we may disagree about the mediocrity of the source material, this show is less than mediocre. Oh, the production values are high, and the actors are all young and pretty, but overall it is pretty shallow.
Underseer
Contributor
Ajin 7/10
Kind of an anime version of the X-Men story. A small group of humans turn out to have superpowers, and are almost immediately persecuted by the rest of humanity. Hated and feared by the public, and subjected to horrible experiments by governments and corporations.
The animation is kind of jarring as it's the same style of cell-shaded CGI used in Knights of Sidonia (I think it's made by the same people). Sometimes it feels fluid and seamless and you can forget you're watching CGI, other times it seems very artificial and takes you out of the story. The storytelling is not exactly stellar (similar problem with Sidonia), but the ideas being thrown around by the source material are genuinely interesting.
The antagonists are genuinely motivated by an understandable desire to end their own suffering and the suffering of others, but they are willing to kill large numbers of people to do it, and really hate ordinary humans because of the cruelties they had to endure. They are even willing to inflict incredible cruelty upon the very people they are trying to save in the name of their crusade. Interestingly, the protagonist is a sociopath who only does good things when it is of benefit to himself, but ends up doing the right things for all the wrong reasons.
Kind of an anime version of the X-Men story. A small group of humans turn out to have superpowers, and are almost immediately persecuted by the rest of humanity. Hated and feared by the public, and subjected to horrible experiments by governments and corporations.
The animation is kind of jarring as it's the same style of cell-shaded CGI used in Knights of Sidonia (I think it's made by the same people). Sometimes it feels fluid and seamless and you can forget you're watching CGI, other times it seems very artificial and takes you out of the story. The storytelling is not exactly stellar (similar problem with Sidonia), but the ideas being thrown around by the source material are genuinely interesting.
The antagonists are genuinely motivated by an understandable desire to end their own suffering and the suffering of others, but they are willing to kill large numbers of people to do it, and really hate ordinary humans because of the cruelties they had to endure. They are even willing to inflict incredible cruelty upon the very people they are trying to save in the name of their crusade. Interestingly, the protagonist is a sociopath who only does good things when it is of benefit to himself, but ends up doing the right things for all the wrong reasons.
The 100 - 6/10
A century or so after a nuclear war made the planet uninhabitable, the (supposed) last survivors of humanity are living on a space station waiting for the radiation to clear so that they can go back down to the ground. They exile 100 of their most attractive and intelligent young people to Earth for minor crimes (because that's really the best way to ensure the continuity of the species) and they find that the place is actually inhabitable and discover that there are tribes of other people living down there. Then hijinks ensure.
The first season is pretty good but then the second season starts to take a much darker twist on things and is excellent. I'm in the third season now and they've tried to keep the dark twist thing going, but it seems more forced and isn't matching up to the second one. Still worth watching, though.
A century or so after a nuclear war made the planet uninhabitable, the (supposed) last survivors of humanity are living on a space station waiting for the radiation to clear so that they can go back down to the ground. They exile 100 of their most attractive and intelligent young people to Earth for minor crimes (because that's really the best way to ensure the continuity of the species) and they find that the place is actually inhabitable and discover that there are tribes of other people living down there. Then hijinks ensure.
The first season is pretty good but then the second season starts to take a much darker twist on things and is excellent. I'm in the third season now and they've tried to keep the dark twist thing going, but it seems more forced and isn't matching up to the second one. Still worth watching, though.