Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)

[Gordon_4]

Cobra Kai: Season 1 (4/5)

So, I remember this being a big "thing" when it debuted, and I've only just got round to it. For reference, my experience with the Karate Kid movies is mostly confined to the original (saw it ages ago, it was okay, didn't stick in my memory much) and The New Karate Kid (garbage). So effectively, I kind of went into this blind. Overall, I'd say it's a good show, but I can't call it a great show.

THE GOOD

-Writing is pretty solid, mostly (I'll get to that in a bit), Laughed quite a bit, I love how it took the micky out of political correctness, and the characters range from likable, to likably dislikable (as in, dipshits that get what's coming to them).

-This is arguably a minor point, but the fight choreography is really good, especially since these are teenage actors. The tournament at the end for instance is great from an action standpoint.

-This is a 'kind of' point, but the show has a good 'feel' to it. As in, I think it does a good job of capturing the teenage experience, and what I assume is something true to California. I can't comment too much, but visited San Francisco once, so when I see stuff like the streets, and the style of clothing, and teenage mannerisms, it does seem true to real life.

However...

THE IFFY

-The writing relies far too much on misunderstandings to drive the plot forward. As in, wrong people in the wrong place, at the wrong time, interpreting things the wrong way. I get it, conflict is the essence of drama, but these characters seem to have the worst luck in the world at times.

-Minor point, but I'm supposed to believe that Miguel and Robby are able to make it to the finals after training in karate for less than a year each (in Robby's case, a month or so at best by my estimate), beating karate kids (heh) that have trained in dojos for years? Um, okay...Sure, you could point to the original as being guilty of this as well (Daniel trains for months, while Johnny's trained for years), but this is doubling the contrivance, so to speak.

-There's something weirdly antiquated about seeing teenagers get into karate so much, so quickly, so willingly. Maybe this is just me, I don't fully know what "kids these days" are into, but while I certainly had a 'ninja phase' as a kid, the kids of the 2010s/2020s have grown up in a world of Internet-access, and a hundred other distractions. This isn't just a plot point thing, it's the whole sense that the entire show is set in an 80s/90s mindset, not just Johnny himself. I mean, the show even acknowledges that attendance at the tournament has been steadily going down over the decades, but suddenly, everyone's into Karate now?

I dunno, guess smart-phones recording school fights is good for business.

So, yeah. Good. But not great.

I can forgive Miguel advancing because even though he's trained for a short time, look at how he is trained. Most of the other kids will be trained under modern, possibly sport orientated rules. Miguel however has been trained by Johnny who was himself trained in the bare knuckle era and in a school philosophically about being able to win fights, not tournaments.

Also you may want to grab Karate Kid part 2 and part 3 and give them a watch. As you go along further, certain plot points and characters will not resonate or even make sense without the context they provide.

 

[Hawki]

I can forgive Miguel advancing because even though he's trained for a short time, look at how he is trained. Most of the other kids will be trained under modern, possibly sport orientated rules. Miguel however has been trained by Johnny who was himself trained in the bare knuckle era and in a school philosophically about being able to win fights, not tournaments.

If anything, that's a point against Miguel though. Fighting for street brawls/self-defence is different from a tournament, where you have to abide by certain rules.

Like, I can 'forgive' both Miguel and Robby for advancing in that the plot kind of demands it, but it's eyebrow raising also. Say what you will about Xander being a "pussy," but he's clearly a skilled fighter.

Also you may want to grab Karate Kid part 2 and part 3 and give them a watch. As you go along further, certain plot points and characters will not resonate or even make sense without the context they provide.

Well, bollocks.

 

[Gordon_4]

Well, bollocks.

Karate Kid II is actually really, really good. The third one is not great, but its better than the Next Karate Kid or the one with Jackie Chan.

 

[gorfias]

Not sure this is a fair review as, I just couldn't straight up watch Midnight Mass on Netflix. There was just sooooo much speechifying in it. Painful.

Briefly, a small island town has a new priest that brings miracles, or supernatural nightmares with him.

I think I saw enough of the monologues to understand what was going on, fast forwarded to the action scenes. Not bad.
So, given that I was able to fast forward to the good stuff, I'll give it a 3/5.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Not sure this is a fair review as, I just couldn't straight up watch Midnight Mass on Netflix. There was just sooooo much speechifying in it. Painful.

Briefly, a small island town has a new priest that brings miracles, or supernatural nightmares with him.

I think I saw enough of the monologues to understand what was going on, fast forwarded to the action scenes. Not bad.
So, given that I was able to fast forward to the good stuff, I'll give it a 3/5.

Seems we've been on a similar wavelength of late; I was just popping in here to post about this same show! Anyway:

Midnight Mass: Alright / Great

Gorfias nailed, but I suffered through the whole thing, including the multitude of monologues. It does this weird thing where it sort of spins it tires about halfway through; really tries to ramp up the intensity without going anywhere. Once it's "revealed" what's going on, it just keeps doing more of it. It also kind fails to adhere to it's own logic; the priest was apparently infected by the "angel" long before returning to the island, yet his sensitivity to sunlight doesn't seem to affect him until [presumed] several days later, but when he in turn infected Riley, he was burnt to ash like the next day.

So, not the most offensive thing I've seen, but not that great either; watch it you want to.

Honestly, the most entertaining thing for me was watching it with my girlfriend who was raised Jehovah's Witness (doesn't practice anymore.) She kept asking me (a Catholic) if that's how we all behaved, like she was watching a documentary on Catholicism. I got tired of explaining to her that no, we're not a cult, so I just started saying "yes, that's Catholicism in a nutshell." Every time something crazy happened, she said "you're sleeping in the guest room; stay away from me!"

 

[gorfias]

My son's worst best friend (he loved the kid, but the kid was trouble) I think over-dosed on Oxycontin as did my neighbor's teenage son. This stuff was as scourge. How did it get so mainstreamed?

Miniseries on Hulu, "Dope Sick" starts slow in episode 1, really picked up in 2. 3 tonight. Shocking to see how this whole thing happened. For some reason, the guy behind it all is portrayed very positively so far.


Real life litigation continues. Appears you can still be prescribed this stuff.

Oxycodone - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[CriticalGaming]

I just binge watched Squid Game on Netflix yesterday. I watched all 9 episodes in a single day and I'd say it was pretty good.

This is the second Korean made thing I've watched after Train to Busan, and both things were awesome. I might need to hunt out and watch more Korean stuff because they are really fucking good.

 

[gorfias]

I just binge watched Squid Game on Netflix yesterday. I watched all 9 episodes in a single day and I'd say it was pretty good.

This is the second Korean made thing I've watched after Train to Busan, and both things were awesome. I might need to hunt out and watch more Korean stuff because they are really fucking good.

I think Parasite won best picture. My boy, who hates reading, loved this one with sub-titles anyway. He was watching on a plane and the plane landed 5-10 minutes before it was over so he paid to rent it he like it so much and wanted to finish it. Now I think it is on Hulu for free where I saw it. Really terrific and different movie that you're never quite sure where it is going.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I just binge watched Squid Game on Netflix yesterday. I watched all 9 episodes in a single day and I'd say it was pretty good.

This is the second Korean made thing I've watched after Train to Busan, and both things were awesome. I might need to hunt out and watch more Korean stuff because they are really fucking good.

Something that I've noticed in the few Korean films I've seen, and I'm not sure if this is unique to Korean films, but they tend to do that weird exposition thing, either voiced-over, internal conversations, or actors' lines sounding unnatural to the way people speak. I can't recall any exact lines from Squid Game, but there were a few times where the main character had some internal dialogue that felt really condescending, like, during a moment of tension we're handheld through his thought process with his voiceover as he comes to the inevitable "a-ha" moment. Example [I think,] when he figures out the Honeycomb game; I was able to make the "mental leap" that he could dissolve the treat with his saliva without his internal dialogue breaking it down for me.

 

[BrawlMan]

I just binge watched Squid Game on Netflix yesterday. I watched all 9 episodes in a single day and I'd say it was pretty good.

This is the second Korean made thing I've watched after Train to Busan, and both things were awesome. I might need to hunt out and watch more Korean stuff because they are really fucking good.

​

 

[CriticalGaming]

​

I have discovered a show called "my name" and it is also awesome.

 

[Dalisclock]

FInished Community with my wife. We both agreed the last season just dragged pretty badly and for the most part I kept wondering why I was still watching other then to stick it out to the end. The last episode was actually pretty good in it was dealing with everyone in the cast moving on(and Jeff having an Existential Crisis over all his friends moving on to other things), but for the very most part the final season just felt like it was there.

 

[Agema]

Locke And Key (season 2):

Ugh, young adult. This is about some family called the Lockes, who live in a house above an interdimenstion portal to a demon realm, who are able to craft magical keys that give them special powers. And because it's YA, there's a contrivance to get most of the adults out of the way. Children are annoying. Especially younger children. And so it is we watch a bunch of naive kids somehow manage to fight evil despite being useless. The problem is, even when the adults do step in and get involved, they are also profoundly useless. At various points, tragedy or failure would be averted if only these morons - facing incredible peril - did the most basic of sensible things and talked to each other instead of haring off on plans on their own. But that is another general problem with YA: stuff that doesn't make a great deal of sense but is skipped over because they assume the audience aren't sophisticated enough to care.

But in the end, it's slick and professional enough to salvage it from total disaster, and is reasonably entertaining.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Invasion (AppleTV?)
Surprisingly good quality, though only on 4th episode so far. It manages to do the near impossible for an alien invasion visual fiction: actually make you (or me at least) care more about the various human characters than the fact they still haven't properly shown any of the aliens yet - in stark polar contrast to that Chris Pratt film I already forgotten the name of.
It focuses on multiple, international character stories, including some pretty impressive child acting especially from a bus of British school kids. The weakest link so far is the soldier dude story, but not for lack of his acting, moreso the tropes of the writing along with him being kind of an unnecessary asshole and the brief action scene involving ppl with stormtrooper-level aiming skills. But it's easily forgiven by the quality of the rest. Quite glad to have gotten this service free with playstation, as this and Foundation are about the only shows managing to hold attention so far.

Squid Game was ok for bit, aside the many moments of plot you're supposed to just invent in your head to fill the holes I guess, until those bloody awful American voice actors wearing bioshock costumes got involved...holy shit that was a jarring drop in quality! It was more like badly localised japanese videogame VA than above average film or television standards!

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Lower Decks Season 2 (3/6)

Well I have previously watched the first season of lower decks and I'd have said it was a (2/6) feeling like it fell short in a number of ways.
Season 2 felt like a course correction season and oddly a self justification season where the show decided to spend some of it's time dealing with issues I'd have said were annoying in previous seasons.

Mariner is toned down from her position as ultimate hero who pretty much always saves the day and knows everything but has anger issues into more of an action character but no longer Wesely Crusher levels of saving the day with the series explicitly making jokes at it's own expense about the idea that Mariner was so good previously she'd only make sense as a Star Fleet black ops operative.

Boimler gets to be a hero and more than a comic relief character, sometimes being both the hero and comic relief at once in the same scene at the same time.
Rutherford gets a hint at an explanation for him being a cyborg.

The show still seems too scared to take big swings at the Kurtzman Trek very often but it did mock the idea of all action all the time shooting explosion Star Trek and have a "Don't you miss what Star Fleet used to be like" moment. Also mocking the idea of giant universe destroying threats being the constant concern and not smaller matters (a complaint I've seen already levelled at the next season of STD before it's even begun)

The show in a moment of self awareness mocked an apparent mistake in rank insignia from the previous season.
The show may have actually deliberately trolled the hell out of certain fans by doing a deliberately Bechdel breaking episode where they have a deliberate adventure set up where the two main characters go on a quest together but either deliberately cut end up bringing up male characters in almost every conversation they have like it was clearly deliberately planned not bad writing.

It made some fairly decent Star Trek jokes and jokes that worked in context based on the idea of them being Lower Deck crew who don't get all the information.

It did some episodes basically playing into conventions of Star Trek episode tropes.

It also did a season long story arc which played out mostly in the background where the basic plot was "An Alien species is planning to place a high yield explosive on Earth". Not some galaxy wide threat, not some end of all life as we know it, just Earth facing not even total destruction just a fairly large potential number of casualties from a possible bomb.

I personally really liked the one episode where they chose to look at other Lowe Deck crews members serving on other ships such as a Klingon Bird of Prey and a Vulcan science vessel.

In terms of evolving characters I'd say probably only Tendi didn't really get that much development which is fine cause Tendi felt like one of the better characters coming into this season anyway.

I'm giving it a 3/6 because I really don't want to be grading it on a curve as such considering what modern Star Trek has been becoming such that Lower Decks seems actually head and shoulders above it all but only because modern Star Trek has somewhat sunk so low comparatively. Lower Decks season 2 felt like what some describe as the uneasy first season many Star Trek shows tend to have before they really start to establish themselves, yes it's 1 season later on but it definitely feels like a course correction is taking place and Lower Decks is establishing itself an identity of it's own with it's crew becoming their own characters not merely broad comedy archetypes based on Star Trek tropes.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Just been watching a lot of videos on why Warhammer+ sucks so hard. The animations they've put out so far for their little streaming platform look awful, genuinely worse than the dozens of fan animations that we can't view anymore thanks to Games Workshop. The fact that they came from an actual company who approved this garbage for release astounds me.

Games Workshop is basically a guy who won the lotto and proceeded to completely fuck their life up because they had no idea how to handle that much money. There's something to be said for not turning all the properties they own into mega franchises ala Disney, but if GW isn't willing to put in the effort to make decent content, then they shouldn't restrict the fans from making their own.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

-There's something weirdly antiquated about seeing teenagers get into karate so much, so quickly, so willingly. Maybe this is just me, I don't fully know what "kids these days" are into, but while I certainly had a 'ninja phase' as a kid, the kids of the 2010s/2020s have grown up in a world of Internet-access, and a hundred other distractions. This isn't just a plot point thing, it's the whole sense that the entire show is set in an 80s/90s mindset, not just Johnny himself. I mean, the show even acknowledges that attendance at the tournament has been steadily going down over the decades, but suddenly, everyone's into Karate now?

Just get used to the show operating on Martial Arts movie rules, in other words, all major characters knowing martial arts, and fights breaking out whenever there's an excuse to have one. Believe me, if you don't get used to Karate being treated as Serious Business by basically everyone in that world, the finale of season 2 will break your suspension of disbelief.

 

[Bartholen]

The first 2 episodes of Midnight Mass on Netflix

I got into this due to having been on a horror kick recently, and this was touted as something special. It's a 7-hour miniseries which I'm all for, I'm awful at starting to watch shows to begin with.

The first 2 episodes didn't exactly set my world on fire. There's barely any horror elements at all, it's nearly all drama. Fairly engaging drama though, and there's some really impressive long takes with a ton of dialogue. It does feel like it relies a fair bit on the viewer being able to relate to an American cultural context and mindset, even more than usual. I wasn't expecting religion to take such a center stage, I was expecting it to be more of a framing device to base things on and around. And being both non-American and non-religious, I feel this series is maybe trying to evoke feelings in me that I'm simply unable to muster due to lacking the necessary cultural background. I wouldn't say it falls flat exactly, but I feel it must resonate on an entirely different level to American audiences.

It's still fairly well written, even if the show somewhat stretches believability with the range of ethnicities and age groups present in this dying, sub-200 population buttfuck nowhere town. So far it feels like anyone could have some hidden intentions or skeletons in the closet. The characters are actually quite multidimensional and human. It would be really easy to expect nothing but stock stereotypes from this setup, but the slow pace helps to add depth to the characterization. And the ending of the second episode definitely left me wanting more.

 

[Agema]

Not sure this is a fair review as, I just couldn't straight up watch Midnight Mass on Netflix. There was just sooooo much speechifying in it. Painful.

As a caveat, I have not finished Midnight Mass, still got two episodes left. But...

Maybe. I think perhaps people expecting a conventional horror might find Midnight Mass to not be what they are expecting. It is far more contemplative than that, it's really a reflection on religion, guilt, free will and alcoholism through the medium of the horror genre. Central to either are major aspects of talking: the role of sermons in a church service, and psychological treatment via maybe Alcoholics Anonymous (or one to one with a therapist). In that sense, "speechifying" is in my view appropriate to the show and what it's trying to do. I do however accept it causes pacing issues, switching from the slow to the intensity of some of the action of horror.

It also kind fails to adhere to it's own logic; the priest was apparently infected by the "angel" long before returning to the island, yet his sensitivity to sunlight doesn't seem to affect him until [presumed] several days later, but when he in turn infected Riley, he was burnt to ash like the next day.

No. The priest had not turned when he came back to the island. By drinking the vampire's blood, humans get some of the vampire's regenerative ability. However, to turn into actual vampires, they must die. The priest did not die until around episode 3 (when he collapses vomiting blood): that's when he is "reborn", and he develops a taste for blood and starts burning in sunlight. Riley dies when he is attacked

 

[Xprimentyl]

No. The priest had not turned when he came back to the island. By drinking the vampire's blood, humans get some of the vampire's regenerative ability. However, to turn into actual vampires, they must die. The priest did not die until around episode 3 (when he collapses vomiting blood): that's when he is "reborn", and he develops a taste for blood and starts burning in sunlight. Riley dies when he is attacked

So am I wrong in assuming the vampire killed him when he first found him in the cave? Like, who would be attacked by a supernatural creature and walk away with a spiritual awakening?