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

Max Rockatansky said:
bilby said:
While I don't think Stephen King is such a great author, I'd still give him benefit of the doubt knowing that at least books have a beginning and an end, and the author isn't responsible for the tv adaption whose writers don't know where they are going from one week to the next.....
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While some people may go ga-ga over different authors, like my favorite authors Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke, none are writers of "the Great American Novel". Not exactly on par with the Iliad or Beowulf, but still a good read. Movie and TV adaptations of King's novels have been hit and miss, so you and I are agreed that the author isn't responsible for the adaptation.

In the case of "Under the Dome", I like the first season but then it faltered. Not unsual for many shows in their sophomore year. It would have been better as a mini-series adaptation of the novel.

As for shows my wife and I are watching: "American Woman" (pretty funny), "Dietland" (also funny but more satiric) and "unReal" (wildly satiric and very smart).
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I didn't write that. Jayjay did :)
 
bilby said:
Max Rockatansky said:
bilby said:
While I don't think Stephen King is such a great author, I'd still give him benefit of the doubt knowing that at least books have a beginning and an end, and the author isn't responsible for the tv adaption whose writers don't know where they are going from one week to the next.....
Click to expand...

While some people may go ga-ga over different authors, like my favorite authors Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke, none are writers of "the Great American Novel". Not exactly on par with the Iliad or Beowulf, but still a good read. Movie and TV adaptations of King's novels have been hit and miss, so you and I are agreed that the author isn't responsible for the adaptation.

In the case of "Under the Dome", I like the first season but then it faltered. Not unsual for many shows in their sophomore year. It would have been better as a mini-series adaptation of the novel.

As for shows my wife and I are watching: "American Woman" (pretty funny), "Dietland" (also funny but more satiric) and "unReal" (wildly satiric and very smart).
Click to expand...

I didn't write that. Jayjay did :)
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My deepest apologies for fucking up the edit. You are quite correct.
 
Just saw episode 7 of Cloak and Dagger ("Lotus Eater") and it was the best episode yet.

Most of the episode takes place inside the head of a catatonic man, everything is pretty surreal, but emotionally powerful, and there is real character development for both of the title characters. There were a couple of moments I came close to tears.
 
The Handmaid's Tale

The first season of this show was so good, it had one of the best of all time potential. The second season has been mediocre at best though. It's gotten so far up its own ass that it's going to be difficult to finish it, which is a shame because it's so relevant to the times. For example:


One of the handmaid's babies, who is now in the possession of its adoptive parents get sick--like deathly sick. The doctors don't know what's wrong. They even bring in a woman who was a great pediatrician before being enslaved but even Great Woman pediatrician says Baby is doomed. Thus, Baby is going to die. But wait! All it needs is some cuddle time with Natural Mommy, framed in shot dressed in white against a mostly white background, cuddling with and now Baby is saved.
Good god. Why even have this subplot if you're going to just rescue it by way of Magical Mommy Power?



Each episode has become a knock-the-viewer-over-the-head statement that happens to have some storytelling involved, rather than being good storytelling that makes a poignant statement, like the first season was. The latter is what made the first season so damn good. The former is eye rolling propaganda.

As viewers, we're aware of the issues contained within the series. Those issues are well established and we've bought in. So just tell a good, well written story because the message underlying the entire concept is already there. Hopefully it gets better.
 
I think they were trying to represent 'failure to thrive' which happens when an infant doesn't get love/comfort and human touch. Remember this is the "mother" that clearly found infants annoying and didn't really want it. So much that even Serena had commented.
Opoponax said:
The Handmaid's Tale

The first season of this show was so good, it had one of the best of all time potential. The second season has been mediocre at best though. It's gotten so far up its own ass that it's going to be difficult to finish it, which is a shame because it's so relevant to the times. For example:


One of the handmaid's babies, who is now in the possession of its adoptive parents get sick--like deathly sick. The doctors don't know what's wrong. They even bring in a woman who was a great pediatrician before being enslaved but even Great Woman pediatrician says Baby is doomed. Thus, Baby is going to die. But wait! All it needs is some cuddle time with Natural Mommy, framed in shot dressed in white against a mostly white background, cuddling with and now Baby is saved.
Good god. Why even have this subplot if you're going to just rescue it by way of Magical Mommy Power?



Each episode has become a knock-the-viewer-over-the-head statement that happens to have some storytelling involved, rather than being good storytelling that makes a poignant statement, like the first season was. The latter is what made the first season so damn good. The former is eye rolling propaganda.

As viewers, we're aware of the issues contained within the series. Those issues are well established and we've bought in. So just tell a good, well written story because the message underlying the entire concept is already there. Hopefully it gets better.
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- - - Updated - - -

The first season followed the book...straight to the end. The second is now script writers. They need to confer with Margaret Attwood more.
Opoponax said:
The Handmaid's Tale

The first season of this show was so good, it had one of the best of all time potential. The second season has been mediocre at best though. It's gotten so far up its own ass that it's going to be difficult to finish it, which is a shame because it's so relevant to the times. For example:


One of the handmaid's babies, who is now in the possession of its adoptive parents get sick--like deathly sick. The doctors don't know what's wrong. They even bring in a woman who was a great pediatrician before being enslaved but even Great Woman pediatrician says Baby is doomed. Thus, Baby is going to die. But wait! All it needs is some cuddle time with Natural Mommy, framed in shot dressed in white against a mostly white background, cuddling with and now Baby is saved.
Good god. Why even have this subplot if you're going to just rescue it by way of Magical Mommy Power?



Each episode has become a knock-the-viewer-over-the-head statement that happens to have some storytelling involved, rather than being good storytelling that makes a poignant statement, like the first season was. The latter is what made the first season so damn good. The former is eye rolling propaganda.

As viewers, we're aware of the issues contained within the series. Those issues are well established and we've bought in. So just tell a good, well written story because the message underlying the entire concept is already there. Hopefully it gets better.
Click to expand...
 
Sens8 - Four episodes into Season 1. Slow burner, but in a good way, for the first 3 episodes. Then they really start turning up the heat. Really getting into it.
 
Opoponax said:
The Handmaid's Tale

The first season of this show was so good, it had one of the best of all time potential. The second season has been mediocre at best though. It's gotten so far up its own ass that it's going to be difficult to finish it, which is a shame because it's so relevant to the times. For example:


One of the handmaid's babies, who is now in the possession of its adoptive parents get sick--like deathly sick. The doctors don't know what's wrong. They even bring in a woman who was a great pediatrician before being enslaved but even Great Woman pediatrician says Baby is doomed. Thus, Baby is going to die. But wait! All it needs is some cuddle time with Natural Mommy, framed in shot dressed in white against a mostly white background, cuddling with and now Baby is saved.
Good god. Why even have this subplot if you're going to just rescue it by way of Magical Mommy Power?



Each episode has become a knock-the-viewer-over-the-head statement that happens to have some storytelling involved, rather than being good storytelling that makes a poignant statement, like the first season was. The latter is what made the first season so damn good. The former is eye rolling propaganda.

As viewers, we're aware of the issues contained within the series. Those issues are well established and we've bought in. So just tell a good, well written story because the message underlying the entire concept is already there. Hopefully it gets better.
Click to expand...

I laugh at how Offred will be seething about something and have an almost demon looking face, and the general can't read what she is thinking....lol
 
Over the weekend I got a good chunk of the way through "Flash Gordon." Not the classic B&W serials or the awesomely campy 1980 movie, but the 2007 Sci-Fi Channel series. It is now on Amazon Prime.

It isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I mean I watched it when it came out, and liked it enough back then, but figured that like a lot of old content it wouldn't hold up. It kinda does. If you accept the fact that it was Sci-Fi budget filmed in the greater Vancouver area and wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel like Battlestar Galactica, it is enjoyable. The actors are really good looking, the tone is just campy enough, and it is obvious they weren't taking it all too seriously.

In a way, it was a precursor to the CW shows like The Flash (no relation), Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow. Budget hero action with attractive 20-somethings fighting off CGI villains. And on that level, it works. Just needs maybe a b it more Queen music.
 
Watched a first few episodes of

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
?/10

Anime, that doesn't look like an anime. The visual style is more reminiscent of Powerpuff Girls. In fact it is basically Powerpuff Girls for adults, with swearing and implied sex. The premise is that two fallen angels, Panty and Stocking, need to kill monsters or do good things to get back to heaven. Panty is a slut, and Stocking is an emo, and for some reason they don't seem to give a shit but do the work anyway when pestered by their priestly boss Garterbelt. Panty's panties turn into a gun, while Stocking's stockings transform to swords, so basically every time they fight they have to do a little bit of strip tease. It was pretty interesting and I'll be sure to check the rest, maybe there is a plot there somewhere.
 
Finally finished watching
Cloak and Dagger
8/10

My original observations stand.

Think of it as Blade-Runner Lite: good TV show, bad adaptation.

The original comic book was inspired by stories about homeless teenage runaways and was an important theme of the original stories. The TV show barely touches on homeless teenage runaways as an issue even though homeless teenagers and homeless teenage runaways are still very much a thing.

The "divine pairing" subplot as pretty damn hokey.

Directly talking about the monomyth/heroe's journey within the story was a bit too meta for my tastes.

Other than that, an excellent series as long as you can handle the relatively slow pace.

Trigger Warning
The show does occasionally raise issues facing African-Americans, which will trigger those prone to white fragility. If you are the sort to use phrases like "social justice warrior" or "political correctness," you should probably not watch this series.
 
My Hero Academia
7/10

Little Witch Academia seemed like an obvious attempt to cash in on the Harry Potter craze, but had just enough goofballs with outrageous personalities to overcome that. My Hero Academia seems like the same thing but shonen (for boys/young men) and cashing in on the superhero movie craze instead of Harry Potter.

Honestly, with the big goofball personalities and general silliness, I found it less annoying than the typical shonen anime. Let's just say that I still haven't watched season 2 of Attack on Titan.
 
Handmaid's Tale - Season 2 - 9 / 10

They really kicked the script up a notch in the second season of this show and it was an improvement over an already great series. There was a lot more about resisting the oppression and fighting back and it was very well written and compelling.
 
Jessica Jones (Season Two) - Really enjoyed this. The problem a show like this can have is Jones is a small time hero, so you need to keep the issues smaller and more compact. I thought they did a good job with that here. And the main character grew a bit, well all of them did I'd say. The only problem I had was with a portion of the resolution at the end.


Trisha got up to Rye pretty damn fast for someone suffering from mysterious medical complications.



But overall, while you kind of knew the end, you weren't quite certain how they were going to get there, and ultimately, it felt organic. The story didn't feel as big in the end as it did when it started or as it was in Season One, but overall, very enjoyable. Onto Luke Cage.

3 of 4
 
Fate extra: Last Encore
0/10

For reasons that are unfathomable to me, I feel compelled to watch each new Fate series that appears on Netflix even though each one is more awful than the last. I think I finally broke the curse. After five episodes, I managed to stop watching.

I'm free! Finally free!

In five episodes, people died in each episode, and I didn't care about anything of their deaths. I also have no idea what the protagonist's motives are, nor do I know why I should care if he succeeds.

He got killed in the first episode. I have no idea how her came back to life. He killed other people in every episode since. I don't care. I don't care about any of the characters, I don't understand or care about their motives.

Why was this made? Why do they keep making these stupid cartoons?

Bah.

What is wrong with me? Why do I watch things when I know I'm not going to like them.
 
War Machine 7/10

Decent war movie about general McCrystal's attempt to take over the US Afghanistan campaign. What makes it good IMHO is that it showes the soldiers as very human indeed. It also showes a lot of the politics involved in leadership. It's a satire.

It's billed as an anti-war movie. I didn't get that vibe at all. I thought it gave a very balanced view of it.

I liked it. It was a fresh take on the genre. But the laughs were pretty flat. It's pretty flat, and not enough things happen. So I wasn't swept away. But nice little film
 
How To Get Away With Murder - 6/10

Legal drama about a law professor who uses her students as unpaid interns and amateur thieves and hitmen. It has the standard case-of-the-week plot lines which are pretty good, but then season long stories which aren't done very well and have poorly edited flashbacks which are just randomly interspersed through the episodes. All of the supporting characters tend to be well written and interesting, but with the main character, they tried to make her someone who's very strong and confident in her career, but a mess in her personal life but they don't do a good job of that and the attempts to make her three dimensional and interesting just makes her inconsistent and confusing.

It's entertaining enough, but all the main characters are such immoral dipshits and just plain horrible human beings that it makes it difficult to get invested in them. When the outcome of an episode is "Hey, good work framing that innocent person for murder in order to cover up your own crimes, Ms Lawyer", the experience of watching the show is diminished.
 
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