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What TV are you watching and how would you rate it? [Revive from FRDB]

Star Trek: Discovery
8/10

First episode out of the two-parter. And it seems adequate. Woohoo!

I was excited about a new Trek series but this has over the top military conflict as the main theme. Very dark Klingons. Can't help but think it's an all out metaphor and political commentary of current conflict with the Muslim word. The first episode was basically saying they can never be trusted and they need to be met with overwhelming preemptive force. Trump would probably love it. Very little in the way of role models unless you plan to enroll your daughter at a military academy. Science takes a back seat as the Science Officer is a rather obsequious member of a race that evolved as hunted prey on their home planet. High-budget sets for the insides of the ship were nice. Didn't much like the overuse of holographic communications because it over-complicates the plot. Not to mention this was supposed to be "Set roughly a decade before the events of the original Star Trek series".
 
Sure, it's not exactly following Roddenberry's vision with regards to the military aspect. But what seems very trekkish to me is that the cast has to grapple with ethical problems. Do they fire at one Klingon ship to stop a larger war? Would it have worked? Is Number One acting on logic, or out of her own hatred for Klingons? To me these morality plays are very much the core of Star Trek. The stupid dogfights in space and lense flare is just surface.

And I for one am glad that they buried the joke that Klingons had become in TNG and DSP. Anyway I think that the series may have the Klingons as a recurring theme, but that they'll boldly go solve other problems too.
 
Star Trek: Discovery
8/10

First episode out of the two-parter. And it seems adequate. Woohoo!

Confirm.

What I saw looked pretty good, but time will tell. What makes Star Trek good or bad is the themes and how the themes are presented. (For example putting Barbie Borg in the same show that featured a female captain kind of took the air out of whatever they were trying to say about women being in positions of authority.) So it won't be until several more episodes before anyone can say whether or not this is good Star Trek, but the decision to make the first officer our point of view character is genuinely interesting, and the first officer is genuinely interesting.
 
DVR? I thought it was a streaming program, or did they release this OTA to get people on board?

I read a light review on the show and it doesn't sound too promising, as they glorified how great it looked, and meandered a little about acting and plot.

Jessica Jones / Luke Cage / Daredevil (Season One) - Three episodes into the first two, maybe five for the third of these series as I try to get through the Defenders before the Defenders. I like Jessica Jones a bit, though am a bit hard sell on the main villain. Luke Cage is enticing, but I'm not certain how they'll continue to sell the black Superman angle without that getting old. Daredevil is getting pretty good, but a bit too nuanced in their main villain's plot.

3 of 4

Oh my gosh, the villain is the second best thing about Jessica Jones. He's easily one of the best villains in the Marvel universe.

This is one instance in which the Marvel-FOX squabble makes things better. If the X-Men were in the Marvel universe, this villain would have been a lot less terrifying. Any telepath could make short work of him, and most of the telepaths in the Marvel universe seem to live in the X-Mansion. So without the copyright pissing match between Marvel and FOX, we would have spent season one of Jessica Jones yelling at the screen "Why don't they just call the X-Men? This problem could be solved in an hour or two."

Because calling the X-Men is not an option here, and none of the non-mutant telepaths have been established yet in the Marvel cinematic universe, this villain was a heck of a lot more terrifying than he normally is.
 
Star Trek: Discovery
8/10

First episode out of the two-parter. And it seems adequate. Woohoo!

I thought it was very well done. Not enough to inspire me to subscribe to the streaming service, but maybe at some point when the season has run it's course I'll fork out the pittance needed to buy a month and binge watch the series.
 
Star Trek: Discovery
8/10

First episode out of the two-parter. And it seems adequate. Woohoo!

I thought it was very well done. Not enough to inspire me to subscribe to the streaming service, but maybe at some point when the season has run it's course I'll fork out the pittance needed to buy a month and binge watch the series.

That's kind of what I'm thinking. I can't see getting yet another subscription for just one show. I looked at what else is available on CBS All Access and the new Star Trek show is the only thing I would be interested in. I didn't get Amazon Prime for the same reason.
 
I thought it was very well done. Not enough to inspire me to subscribe to the streaming service, but maybe at some point when the season has run it's course I'll fork out the pittance needed to buy a month and binge watch the series.

That's kind of what I'm thinking. I can't see getting yet another subscription for just one show. I looked at what else is available on CBS All Access and the new Star Trek show is the only thing I would be interested in. I didn't get Amazon Prime for the same reason.

Well Amazon Prime is another thing altogether. If CBS offered free shipping on a wide variety of products and a streaming music service I might be convinced to sign up.
 
That's kind of what I'm thinking. I can't see getting yet another subscription for just one show. I looked at what else is available on CBS All Access and the new Star Trek show is the only thing I would be interested in. I didn't get Amazon Prime for the same reason.

Well Amazon Prime is another thing altogether. If CBS offered free shipping on a wide variety of products and a streaming music service I might be convinced to sign up.

True, but I try to do my online ordering elsewhere because of publicity about how Amazon treats workers, so I was mostly deciding based on what was available on their streaming service, and there was really only one or two things they had that I was interested in.
 
The Orville
8/10

Actually pretty good. It's not a pure Star Trek parody ala Galaxy Quest. It's ST with humour and jokes, and pretty much the only happy, optimistic drama on TV right now.
 
Star Trek: Discovery
8/10

First episode out of the two-parter. And it seems adequate. Woohoo!
So far it seems pretty good. They've left the lead character in a bit of a tough spot, it'll be interesting to see how she does. The only minor pet peeve I had with it: Was it really necessary to change the appearance of the Klingons? (Again!). There was some of speculation before the show aired that this was just a sect of Klingons who were bald... no, apparently it's all of them.

I saw the show for free. I considered paying for CBS All Access, but then I looked at their list of shows which seems pretty meager compared to Netflix and Hulu.
 
Star Trek: Discovery
8/10

First episode out of the two-parter. And it seems adequate. Woohoo!
So far it seems pretty good. They've left the lead character in a bit of a tough spot, it'll be interesting to see how she does. The only minor pet peeve I had with it: Was it really necessary to change the appearance of the Klingons? (Again!). There was some of speculation before the show aired that this was just a sect of Klingons who were bald... no, apparently it's all of them.
Was it necessary to change the uniforms?
Was it necessary to change what the ships look like?
Was it necessary to have a different special effect for the transporter?

I think those alterations, together with what Klingons might look like, aren't that important. The way Klingons looked was always dictated by budget, and having forehead prosthetics in this day and age would look cheesy, and maybe detract from rest of the show.
 
So far it seems pretty good. They've left the lead character in a bit of a tough spot, it'll be interesting to see how she does. The only minor pet peeve I had with it: Was it really necessary to change the appearance of the Klingons? (Again!). There was some of speculation before the show aired that this was just a sect of Klingons who were bald... no, apparently it's all of them.
Was it necessary to change the uniforms?
Was it necessary to change what the ships look like?
Was it necessary to have a different special effect for the transporter?
I think those alterations, together with what Klingons might look like, aren't that important. The way Klingons looked was always dictated by budget, and having forehead prosthetics in this day and age would look cheesy, and maybe detract from rest of the show.

Actually, I think it would have been pretty daring to have the same uniforms as the original series, e.g. Including some of the women in short skirts with beehive hairdos. :)
Hey they got away with it on DS9, in the episode where they traveled back in time. hqdefault.jpg ;)
 
Well Amazon Prime is another thing altogether. If CBS offered free shipping on a wide variety of products and a streaming music service I might be convinced to sign up.

True, but I try to do my online ordering elsewhere because of publicity about how Amazon treats workers, so I was mostly deciding based on what was available on their streaming service, and there was really only one or two things they had that I was interested in.

Have you tried Pirate Bay? Until media producera get their att together and start caring about ease if use, I won't feel shame about pirating.
 
The Handmaid's Tale - 9/10

An adaptation of the Margaret Atwood book of the same name. The basic story is that fertility rates have plummeted and all the women who can have children are kept as sex slaves for the elite so that they will be able to have babies and the entire process is wrapped up in religious ideologies of a theocratic dictatorship so that the elites won't feel bad about raping their sex slaves.

It's extremely well written and acted and they do a very good job of portraying of all the parties involved. The creepiest thing about it is how understandable the evil is. You get the motivations of slavers and see how it is that they justify what they're doing, even while understanding that they are the bad guys for doing it. I think that the best job of acting was done by the blonde woman who plays the main Commander's wife. She was an accomplished woman who was her husband's partner and equal when they were starting the revolution which led to the US falling into theocracy and now that theocracy forces her to be no more than a domestic housewife who needs to accept sitting there watching while her husband has sex with this other woman who's now living in her house. She's got this mask of piety and acceptance which sometimes just falls away into the rage she's constantly feeling.

I really like what they've done with this adaptation of the book.
 
Star Trek: Discovery
8/10

First episode out of the two-parter. And it seems adequate. Woohoo!
So far it seems pretty good. They've left the lead character in a bit of a tough spot, it'll be interesting to see how she does. The only minor pet peeve I had with it: Was it really necessary to change the appearance of the Klingons? (Again!). There was some of speculation before the show aired that this was just a sect of Klingons who were bald... no, apparently it's all of them.

The original show-runner, Brian Fuller, who quit fairly early on in the production, apparently had the Klingon shake up in the first pitch to CBS. This series is very focused on Klingons, and he wanted to depict them differently from the other shows. One executive producer said of Fuller's pitch that he wanted them “not be the thugs of the universe, that they be sexy and vital and different from what had come before.” That take seems to have stuck even after Fuller left due to creative differences with CBS. I'm not sure about the "sexy" part, but they certainly are different. There will also be 24 different Klingon houses depicted in the series, and each will be somewhat distinct in appearance. So far, they have only shown a couple of the houses in the series, and the changes are minor between them, but we may see more diversity in future episodes (I have only seen the first).

By the time this filtered down to the Klingon actors on set, they had apparently fleshed out Fuller's intent a bit more. Here is what one of the actors, Mary Chieffo had to say about her take on the Klingon redesign: "Obviously the hair was the biggest thing people noticed, or the lack thereof. And I will attest to the fact there is a reason my ridge goes back the way it does. There are sensors and pheromones … There is a whole reasoning behind it that is adhering to what has always been true in Klingon canon … So I deeply believe we are in line with what has come before but is also adding a new kind of nuance."

I saw the show for free. I considered paying for CBS All Access, but then I looked at their list of shows which seems pretty meager compared to Netflix and Hulu.

I am with you there. I haven't decided where I will eventually land, but I did enjoy the first episode, so I would like to see more. Unfortunately, CBS is treating their streaming like it is a regular TV show, putting out new episodes a week apart until November 5th, which will only include the first half of the season. The second half will begin airing in January. So, subscribing now means you will have to pay for 6 months or more of the service to watch the entire series. At the cheap end, where you get the privilege of both paying $5/month and watching commercials, that's at least $30. If you want to watch "reduced commercials", you have to pay an additional $3/month, so about $50 if you are signing up just to watch Star Trek. Simply put, fuck that. If they had a decent product to offer outside of Star Trek, they wouldn't have to resort to shenanigans like that, and would have more of a "come for the Star Trek, stay for our awesome streaming service" attitude, and dump the series all at once like every other decent streaming service does.

So, that leaves me with three options for watching the series. Option 1: wait until next spring, when all episodes are streaming, and then pay for a month and binge it all. I have a feeling, given what they are already doing, that they will figure out a way to keep me from doing that, likely by putting the streaming episodes in rotation, so only a handful are available to watch any given month. Option 2: wait who the fuck knows how long for the series to come out on Blu-Ray. This is likely to cost just as much as the streaming service, somewhere around $30 is what a single season of a series typically costs, but at least I will own a physical product, and I can watch it entirely without commercials. Finally, option 3: pirate the series. For the record, I am heavily leaning toward option 3, because fuck CBS, their money grab, and their shitty streaming service.
 
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So, that leaves me with three options for watching the series. Option 1: wait until next spring, when all episodes are streaming, and then pay for a month and binge it all. I have a feeling, given what they are already doing, that they will figure out a way to keep me from doing that, likely by putting the streaming episodes in rotation, so only a handful are available to watch any given month. Option 2: wait who the fuck knows how long for the series to come out on Blu-Ray. This is likely to cost just as much as the streaming service, somewhere around $30 is what a single season of a series typically costs, but at least I will own a physical product, and I can watch it entirely without commercials. Finally, option 3: pirate the series. For the record, I am heavily leaning toward option 3, because fuck CBS, their money grab, and their shitty streaming service.
Of course, if you looked around a little bit, there are places where you can download the show for free. I prefer not to do that, but if the only other option is to pay for a service I don't want or need...
Maybe CBS All Access will add more series to their line-up. I would even be satisfied if they added a lot more of their classic TV shows form the 1960's thru 1980's.
 
So, that leaves me with three options for watching the series. Option 1: wait until next spring, when all episodes are streaming, and then pay for a month and binge it all. I have a feeling, given what they are already doing, that they will figure out a way to keep me from doing that, likely by putting the streaming episodes in rotation, so only a handful are available to watch any given month. Option 2: wait who the fuck knows how long for the series to come out on Blu-Ray. This is likely to cost just as much as the streaming service, somewhere around $30 is what a single season of a series typically costs, but at least I will own a physical product, and I can watch it entirely without commercials. Finally, option 3: pirate the series. For the record, I am heavily leaning toward option 3, because fuck CBS, their money grab, and their shitty streaming service.

If you have Netflix, you also have option 3B: VPN outside US.
 
I just finished the first season of The OA on Netflix. Looks like there's not going to be a second season.

This was the stranger "Stranger Things." The disaffected youth drawn into the supernatural mystery weren't cute or into Dungeons & Dragons. The back story was dark in a way that the "upside down" from Stranger Things couldn't approach.

And there's something about Brit Marling. She's the creative force behind this and the indie film "Another Earth." She writes, directs, produces, and casts herself as the main character and yet it doesn't come off as pretentious. This project appears to have failed, but it appears to have done so in no small part because it was too ambitious. I love overly-ambitious sci-fi.
 
I heard OA was renewed. I liked it, but it has very strong negative reactions, so I am surprised it's still going. I can see why the hating though, it is very earnest, maybe too much so. It asks a lot of the viewer to buy into it, the potential for let down is high.

Yeah, ‘The OA’ Renewed For Season 2 On Netflix | Deadline
 
Inhumans

The critics seem to be hitting this hard, but I can’t see why. It’s seems to be as good as any Marvel show that’s not on Netflix. The only complaint I have is the CGI on the dog Lockjaw, and it still comes of as endearing.
 
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