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

[Underseer]

I liked th boardroom stuff and I wish there had been more of it. But I agree that Danny let his vows go a bit too easily, and Davos even more so. Like, if you're a monk who's made a vow of celibacy, are you really going to sleep with the first girl you meet in New York?

Show

If it's Jessica Henwick, quite probably. And who here hasn't lost their virginity to "the hand"?

I also liked the boardroom stuff because it allowed for social commentary on the wealth gap.

Yes, I agree that Danny was an asshole for abandoning his post. It sounds like Danny himself doesn't fully understand why her left his post.

I'm actually ok with that.

It makes Danny more of an asshole, and flaws are what makes Marvel heroes interesting.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I liked th boardroom stuff and I wish there had been more of it. But I agree that Danny let his vows go a bit too easily, and Davos even more so. Like, if you're a monk who's made a vow of celibacy, are you really going to sleep with the first girl you meet in New York?

Show

If it's Jessica Henwick, quite probably. And who here hasn't lost their virginity to "the hand"?

I also liked the boardroom stuff because it allowed for social commentary on the wealth gap.

It sort of half made that kind of social commentary, but then really didn't follow through with it and this part of the storyline didn't fit in much with the rest of the plot. It was a pointless aside. That would have worked well if it were a B plotline which was going on in the background to add colour, but there was too much of a focus on it which they didn't do anything with.

Yes, I agree that Danny was an asshole for abandoning his post. It sounds like Danny himself doesn't fully understand why her left his post.

I'm actually ok with that.

It makes Danny more of an asshole, and flaws are what makes Marvel heroes interesting.

There's a difference between a flawed hero and a confusing hero. When you have an overly enigmatic and mysterious villain with unclear goals and then combine that with an overly enigmatic and mysterious hero with unclear goals, all you're left with is a mess.

Jessica Jones was a good example of a flawed hero who's flaws fit well into the storyline and dealing with them and working to overcome them moved the plot forward. In this series, Colleen was kind of the same way and her storyline was one of the things which worked the best as a result. Danny's storyline was not a comparable example of writing a flawed hero.

 

[Shadowy Man]

They spin it up and live inside it with their feet to the outside? Why not just build a space station??

Because Ceres was already there and it's easier and cheaper to occupy a big-ass asteroid than buidl a space station of the same size?

But how much would it cost to spin it up like that? What volume of Ceres was actually occupied and how would that compare to a space station. It's probably described more in the books, but it wasn't clear from the TV show that the asteroid had been spun up so as to generate a 0.3G environment. How much energy would that even take?

 

[The Colourful Jester]

13 Reasons Why.

Bad as this will sound I found this entertaining. But I could not find it too meaningful until the final episode. The rest of the show was mostly a who(why)dunnit. It did go into some detail, but the entertainment that it provided outweighed (for me) any weight to any meaning. Still, well worth a look.

 

[Opoponax]

Fortitude

It appears to be horror series of sorts placed in an interesting location, which is a fictional island north of Iceland (named Fortitude). It opens in 1942 with a bizarre series of related events where an aurora borealis type of thing happens. Some sort of demon appears and then, well, shit starts happening. Then it cuts to present day and it all becomes very confusing. That's because there's about 8-10 different story/character lines from episode on, which only continues to expand in episode two. And that's as far as I've gotten.

Game of Thrones did this, with the 12+ storylines going, but it took its time getting there so that you became familiar with the characters. This one is like a shotgun blast. I need a pad of paper and pen to keep track of what the hell is going on.

That said, it's interesting so far. The cast is really eclectic and the cinematography is gorgeous, and it's pretty intriguing.

It's too early to give it a rating, but I'll keep watching until I don't.

?/10

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Firefly - 7/10

Just saw this again for the first time in about a decade. There are some aspects which don't hold up over time, but for the most part it's a really fun and interesting show. It sucks that it only got one season and they needed to wrap it up in a movie.

 

[blastula]

The Path
Season 1 - 7/10
Season 2 - 5/10

This show is about the people who belong to a Scientology-like religious group. The creator denies it's about Scientology but it's even more obvious here than in the movie the Master. The religion has a "ladder" they are climbing and you tell where you are on the ladder by denoting the rung as 2R or 3R, as opposed to the bridge and OT levels of Scientology. They even keep adding rungs like in CoS, even after the founder has died. Small spoiler that the founder dies, and there is infighting to be the successor. They have lots of acronym jargon and even have an e-meter type of device that they use in therapy like sessions, which include "unburdening sessions" where they confess wrongs, while being secretly recorded, and which may be used by the church against them. It's definitely based on Scientology, but not a carbon copy because the show uses ideas from other religions, and combines it all to invent a totally new religion with its own history, metaphysics, rituals, symbols and values. I liked how they did that, which is what made the first season compelling. However, the second season devolved into too much soap opera stories for my tastes, to where some of the church leaders are practically psychopaths - it could be the show is blaming that on religion, that it's easy for pyschos to end up in charge of these groups. The cast is very good and the production is decent enough for a Hulu show.

I'd recommend watching only the first season.

 

[Opoponax]

Veep

Another thing that Trump has ruined. Under any previous POTUS, or anyone other than Trump, this show would have still worked. Now it's just out of touch. I'd say it jumped the shark, but in this case, the shark jumped it

Sad/10

 

[DrZoidberg]

The Last Kingdom 7/10

It's an excellent dramatization of the Danish invasion of England in 833 AD. The story telling is good, and while a dramatization, aren't taking historical freedoms that are implausible. The people are real people, and they're portrayed well. Good acting. It's also a fun period because the Vikings were a rowdy free spoken lot. Lots of complex politics!

Here's what annoys me. It's a BBC production. A company that gave us the joys of Rome. A historical drama where they went out of their way to keep it historically accurate. So that's what I now expect. We live in the age of CGI. There's no good reason not to get it perfect. Getting it perfect shouldn't cost more than not doing so. A CGI stone castle is no more expensive to build than a wooden one. Especially when set in such a low tech environment. It should have been so simple to get it right. Here's another thing that I didn't understand. These castles still exist. Why were they not used? Why not film the actual real castle and spruce it up with CGI?

Costumes? At least they don't have horns on their helmets. But they got everything else wrong. This is fantasy, LOTR armour. I'm so disappointed. Military tactics? People back then knew how to form ranks, flank and use arrows. This was just lazy. The armies were fairly small, by Roman standards. So there's no reason to screw this up. Getting it right wouldn't have been more expensive.

If you're going to do a historical drama stuff like this matters. This is doubly true if your company has a history of nailing it. If you can't be bothered getting the period right why not just calling it Game of Thrones?

It is about a million times more accurate than the TV series Vikings, which just gets me angry due to the plethora of inaccuracies. Also, for pointless reasons. Lazy lazy lazy.

I think the real historical Vikings are actually interesting. I want to see historical dramas of my countries real history. If you're going to do fantasy, just be honest about it.

 

[Shadowy Man]

I've been rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because, uh, Joss is a genius, and I'm nearing the end of Season 5. Man, this was a dark season. 10/10

 

[another1]

Leftovers 7/10

Huge part of word population vanishes without a reason. First season is rough and hard to understand, when it comes to that. I'm caught up and get the picture a little better. Instead of falling into absolute chaos, the world becomes obsessed with an extreme, whimsical sense of spiritualism. The main cult in the show so far... totally weird. Weird enough to get me to season three, which is now playing.

Main characters are awesome. One can't die, no matter how many times he tries. This season is hinting that he is some kind of messiah, but there have been several supposed saviors in the show already. His girlfriend works for the agency that busts people for faking new disappearances. She lost three kids in the vanishing, so there is some grerat drama in her job.

The last episode was the most uneventful I've seen yet but it was the best because of the wonderful drama. Totally unpredictable stuff. Last season it was the demon azazel and this year it is a strange radiation. The world scrambles for an explanation and clings to new age faiths that seem to number in the thousands, from what it seems. Everyone in the show is insane but still present enough to bond with while you watch. I'm really into some of the characters.

I started with season two first. It didn't really matter because season one was almost a dud. The story is very big and it isn't something you can soak in until near the end of season two, even if you haven't seen the first season. Every season makes a drastic change, and the most recent season has jumped years ahead of the last season's finale. Still trying to figure out what happened in supposed interim. Cults run rampant and the most recent cult is incinerating people in a traveling lab, to "send loved ones back to their departed". It almost makes sense, the way the show puts it. Oh and there is a place in Texas where no one disappeared on departure day. Strange things happened there last season. Show is still based in that Texas town called "Miracle".

 

[bilby]

The Last Kingdom 7/10

It's an excellent dramatization of the Danish invasion of England in 833 AD. The story telling is good, and while a dramatization, aren't taking historical freedoms that are implausible. The people are real people, and they're portrayed well. Good acting. It's also a fun period because the Vikings were a rowdy free spoken lot. Lots of complex politics!

Here's what annoys me. It's a BBC production. A company that gave us the joys of Rome. A historical drama where they went out of their way to keep it historically accurate. So that's what I now expect. We live in the age of CGI. There's no good reason not to get it perfect. Getting it perfect shouldn't cost more than not doing so. A CGI stone castle is no more expensive to build than a wooden one. Especially when set in such a low tech environment. It should have been so simple to get it right. Here's another thing that I didn't understand. These castles still exist. Why were they not used? Why not film the actual real castle and spruce it up with CGI?

Costumes? At least they don't have horns on their helmets. But they got everything else wrong. This is fantasy, LOTR armour. I'm so disappointed. Military tactics? People back then knew how to form ranks, flank and use arrows. This was just lazy. The armies were fairly small, by Roman standards. So there's no reason to screw this up. Getting it right wouldn't have been more expensive.

If you're going to do a historical drama stuff like this matters. This is doubly true if your company has a history of nailing it. If you can't be bothered getting the period right why not just calling it Game of Thrones?

It is about a million times more accurate than the TV series Vikings, which just gets me angry due to the plethora of inaccuracies. Also, for pointless reasons. Lazy lazy lazy.

I think the real historical Vikings are actually interesting. I want to see historical dramas of my countries real history. If you're going to do fantasy, just be honest about it.

I am not aware of any stone castles in England as early as the ninth century - The Anglo Saxons built some town walls that incorporated stone as defence against the Vikings; And the Vikings repaired and rebuilt some town walls (often Roman structures that were in very poor condition, such as at York), but castles in that period were typically built of wood. It wasn't until the eleventh and twelfth centuries, after the Norman conquest, that stone castles appeared in England - many of them built on the site of earlier, timber built, castles.

The castles that still exist in England from the pre-Norman period generally look nothing like they would have in the ninth century; Most were radically altered by the Normans, then again at the time of the Wars of the Roses; and once more during the Tudor and Stuart period (particularly the during the Civil War). Castles and fortified houses that had not been significantly re-modeled to withstand cannon fire tended not to survive the Civil War period, either being destroyed; or abandoned as indefensible.

The city walls of York are built on Roman foundations, and roughly the same defensive earthworks and lines were used by the Vikings after they took over in 867; But the Roman walls themselves were in such poor repair that most of the towers were torn down at that time; And the walls that we see today are (above ground at least) almost entirely built between the 12th and 19th centuries; The city walls in 833 would have borne little resemblance to the current walls, and would certainly have incorporated far more timber and less masonry.

So perhaps the BBC portrayed wooden castles, not to save money, but to avoid historical inaccuracy?

There's something to be said for using current locations for 17th Century or even, at a stretch, 15th Century period dramas, with CGI to mask the modern stuff; But it would be pointless for pre-Norman historical dramas - only tiny fragments of any existing castles can be reliably dated to that period.

 

[credoconsolans]

Leftovers 7/10

Huge part of word population vanishes without a reason. First season is rough and hard to understand, when it comes to that. I'm caught up and get the picture a little better. Instead of falling into absolute chaos, the world becomes obsessed with an extreme, whimsical sense of spiritualism. The main cult in the show so far... totally weird. Weird enough to get me to season three, which is now playing.

Main characters are awesome. One can't die, no matter how many times he tries. This season is hinting that he is some kind of messiah, but there have been several supposed saviors in the show already. His girlfriend works for the agency that busts people for faking new disappearances. She lost three kids in the vanishing, so there is some grerat drama in her job.

The last episode was the most uneventful I've seen yet but it was the best because of the wonderful drama. Totally unpredictable stuff. Last season it was the demon azazel and this year it is a strange radiation. The world scrambles for an explanation and clings to new age faiths that seem to number in the thousands, from what it seems. Everyone in the show is insane but still present enough to bond with while you watch. I'm really into some of the characters.

I started with season two first. It didn't really matter because season one was almost a dud. The story is very big and it isn't something you can soak in until near the end of season two, even if you haven't seen the first season. Every season makes a drastic change, and the most recent season has jumped years ahead of the last season's finale. Still trying to figure out what happened in supposed interim. Cults run rampant and the most recent cult is incinerating people in a traveling lab, to "send loved ones back to their departed". It almost makes sense, the way the show puts it. Oh and there is a place in Texas where no one disappeared on departure day. Strange things happened there last season. Show is still based in that Texas town called "Miracle".

For a second there, this sounded interesting. Very sci-fi Outer Limits-y. Then I realized you are talking about that Christian series about the Rapture.

 

[another1]

Naw we can't be talking about the same show. This is on HBO, and it is deep. Way beyond anything you could call "Christian". It is more about how insane people can become when something truly paranormal finally happens, not if something paranormal may have, or may someday happen. The message isn't Christian at all, seriously. The theme is edgy and almost evil. The main cult operating in the plot isn't Christian. The Christians in the show are portrayed as silly, just like the rest of the panicking world. Tom Perrotta's book has long since been abandoned in the budding plot, apparently. I haven't read it, but if it is Christian, it isn't what the show is about at all. More like the opposite.

 

[James Brown]

There's something to be said for using current locations for 17th Century or even, at a stretch, 15th Century period dramas, with CGI to mask the modern stuff; But it would be pointless for pre-Norman historical dramas - only tiny fragments of any existing castles can be reliably dated to that period.

Indeed. In the novels the show is based on, one of the protagonist's many laments is that they can't build like the Romans did. They occupy some of the ruins that have held up, but they lost the know-how to expand or even duplicate the earlier efforts.

It's eye-opening for those who vaguely believe that mankind has followed a more-or-less linear progression from living in caves to erecting skyscrapers. It's very possible to step backward in technological progress.

Also, the author does not treat ninth-century Christianity very well.

 

[credoconsolans]

Naw we can't be talking about the same show. This is on HBO, and it is deep. Way beyond anything you could call "Christian". It is more about how insane people can become when something truly paranormal finally happens, not if something paranormal may have, or may someday happen. The message isn't Christian at all, seriously. The theme is edgy and almost evil. The main cult operating in the plot isn't Christian. The Christians in the show are portrayed as silly, just like the rest of the panicking world. Tom Perrotta's book has long since been abandoned in the budding plot, apparently. I haven't read it, but if it is Christian, it isn't what the show is about at all. More like the opposite.

OK

- - - Updated - - -

There's something to be said for using current locations for 17th Century or even, at a stretch, 15th Century period dramas, with CGI to mask the modern stuff; But it would be pointless for pre-Norman historical dramas - only tiny fragments of any existing castles can be reliably dated to that period.

Indeed. In the novels the show is based on, one of the protagonist's many laments is that they can't build like the Romans did. They occupy some of the ruins that have held up, but they lost the know-how to expand or even duplicate the earlier efforts.

It's eye-opening for those who vaguely believe that mankind has followed a more-or-less linear progression from living in caves to erecting skyscrapers. It's very possible to step backward in technological progress.

Also, the author does not treat ninth-century Christianity very well.

After what the Taliban did in Afghanistan and what the Ayatollah did in Iran, I can't believe there is anyone still thinking that modern life and technology can't go back to the 9th century almost overnight.

 

[James Brown]

Agreed. But this guy doesn't think so:

The nailguns are not going anywhere. We have figured out how to make them, and that knowledge will never be lost. This human invention has forever raised our productivity and can never be taken away.

 

[Sarpedon]

Actually, there were a number of technological advances in building during the middle ages. What was lacking from the Roman period was not know-how, it was resources. In fact, it was this very lack of resources that spurred innovation in building. We went from the Roman to Romanesque, and on to the Gothic modes of architecture. The Roman methods were very wasteful of materials: Roman buildings stood the test of time because they were overbuilt. The romanesque and later gothic styles were steps towards greater lightness and structural efficiency. The pointed arch, for example, was a more efficient at reducing the lateral thrust of the arches than the round roman arch. The romans didn't care about such things because they thought nothing of building massive walls and buttresses to contain them. Slavery and efficient transportation kept prices down. But with a small, expensive workforce and limited area to draw materials from, the medieval architects had to think a bit harder.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

The Walking Dead - 7/10

This show really goes up and down. I just binge watched up until the end of season six on Netflix and it starts out great, drops into a hole and then pops up again. Season six was OK, but this Negan guy and his group whom they introduced as the main baddies for season seven seem particularly lame and I could probably hold off another five years before bothering to pick this series up again. If they were going to have this character, they should have just kept the Governor alive and let him do it since the personality would have been a decent progression from his character as opposed to having not-Governor painfully over-act his way through shit I stopped caring about thirty seconds after he came onto the screen.

 

[Underseer]

I've been rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because, uh, Joss is a genius, and I'm nearing the end of Season 5. Man, this was a dark season. 10/10

I'm torn by Buffy.

On the one hand, I was older than the target audience when I first watched it, so it feels like kiddie stuff.

On the other hand, it's one of the best female empowerment fantasies ever.