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

[Piscian]

Arcane

Animated series based on the League of Legends property. Now, I don't play ASSFA... MOBA's, so I had no previous familiarity with the series world, characters or backstory. Fortunately, I also never got the impression I was expected to. Arcane is the story of two twin cities, built practically on top of one another, the wealthy Piltover at the top, the impoverished Zaun at the bottom. The series main viewpoint characters are a pair of sisters who grew up as street urchins in Zaun and a pair of young scientists developing technology based on magic that would eventually bring about a technological revolution. There's a timeskip after the first three episodes, the sisters now separated, one having grown up as the protégé of a Zaunite crime lord, the other one working with Piltovers police uncovering a conspiracy of with that very same crime lord in its center.

So far's the premise. Now, I feel very conflicted about this show. On one hand I'm inclined to say that in terms of not only production value, but just general quality, from presentation to writing to worldbuilding to art direction, it's probably the most well made work of mainstream fantasy fiction in film and television I've seen probably since the Lord of the Rings trilogy. On the other hand, what it is kinda makes me uncomfortable. Straight up, Arcane is nerd porn at its most shameless. The show feels like a pastiche of everything popular with geeks for the past 30 years. Some high fantasy, some Star Wars, some Young Adult adventure, some steampunk, some anime, some superhero stuff and, obviously, some video game stuff. Arcane exists as some unholy algamation of multiple decades of greasy nerd fantasies, a geeky teenagers daydreams adapted to high quality animation in luxurious detail. The truth is, if I were about 10 - 15 years younger, this would be pure cocaine to me. However, being closer to 30 than to 20, and perhaps a bit jaded, it all feels a bit skeevy to me. The gorgeous characters, environments and the slick action (Owing a lot to the similarly visually striking "Into the Spiderverse") set to deliberately jarring pop music create a sort of pop art Neverland of juvenile Millennial obsessions.

The thing is, that doesn't make it bad, though. As much as I would have liked to dismiss Arcane as the same kind of messily hoarded pile of cultural detritus as Spielberg's unwatchable Ready Player One, there's just too much genuinely solid plotting and character development in there to do so. It's a very well executed, if hardly especially original, story about division and what seperates and connects siblings and friends, lovers and enemies. The voice actors all do a fantastic job bringing their characters to life, standouts here being Harry Lloyd who voices terminally ill young scientist Viktor (I adore his accent), Jason Spisak as sinister kingpin Silco (writing and acting elevating what could have been a stock villain to a surprisingly engaging character) and Ella Purnell as his unhinged surrogate daughter Jynx. Which is the thing about Arcane, it's pandering, but it's not the soulless J.J. Abrams kind of pandering. It's clear that this was made by talented people who cared about the story they were telling. Emotions land, characters are memorable, plot beats are well set up and executed.

Arcane presents an overdose of almost dangerously highly concentrated nerd catnip, less a work of fantasy fiction in the tradition of Tolkien and more of a pop art fever dream that's hard to look away from but even harder for me to fully embrace. I imagine there is an audience that's gonna go absolutely nuts for this. Again, as a teenager, this would have become my life. As an adult it presents a type of media I have trouble coming to terms with. It's an impressive, unquestionably well made effort and might very well set new standards for serialized western animation but it's "pastiche of everything you liked when you were 16" now ever so slightly makes me uncomfortable.

I agree pretty much a 100%. I like everything they're doing here, but something about it does scream as having a design aesthetic pandering explicitly to a twitch streamer GENZ generational identity that is a bit alien to me. It's interesting because I didnt feel that way at all regarding Into the Spider-verse. I would go as far as to say with Into the Spider-verse I'm emotionally attached to everything about it. I empathized with every character and the artwork made me swoon, thats because it was utterly personal and unique where as the art style of Arcane has a kind of sanitized, inoffensive commercialized aesthetic. I do not think personally even in my teenage years it would have appealed to me, but I'm 90s kid. My opinion shouldn't count for too much. That said, the plot in the first two episodes continues to string me along.

 

[Xprimentyl]

The Morning Show: S1:Ep1-3

A morning news show finds itself unsettled by a scandal involving its male anchor, and damage control threatens the job of the female co-host and the viability of the entire network. Then Drama.

Billy Crudup (Cory in this series) looks like an amalgamation of Christian Bale and Mark Dacascos. Oddly enough, Cory is also a strong reminder of Dacascos' character in John Wick 3.

​

 

[Hawki]

Halo: The Mona Lisa (4/5)

This is a motion comic adaptation of the Halo: Evolutions short story of the same name. Known about it for ages, but only now just getting round to it.

Anyway, I'd say it's good. What it does isn't new (derelict ship at Alpha Halo, marines board it, things go to shit, cue Aliens-esque storytelling), but what it does, it does well. Mostly. Some of the voice acting and dialogue is a bit wonky, but it's minor. What also works is that it really hammers home the horror element of the Flood. I mean, as a Spartan, we can take out these guys fairly easily, but marines? Not so much.

Anyway, nothing original, but it's a good sci-fi horror romp.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Tiger King S2

Feels like a cash grab. Less episodes, shorter runtime, all over the place in terms of developing a narrative. It's clearly made of 40% dumped material from S1 (covering ad nauseam the number of ways Don Lewis may or may not have been murdered) and the rest is the show contemplating its own success. It just feels so pointless. There's nothing new to add or say so everything feels especially gratuitous on top of all ready sleazy and tasteless. This smacks of the producers being blindsided by S1's success and ordering a quickie cash in ASAP.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I thought episode 3 of Hawkeye was a giant step up, mainly because HALFWAY THROUGH HIS TV SHOW, Hawkeye actually uses his fucking bow and arrow in some impressive and fun action sequences. I also appreciated the larger focus on his and other character's disabilities. The dynamic between Kate and Clint was the most enjoyable thing about the first two episodes, and it takes center stage in this one. Definitely more optimistic about the show now.

 

[Hawki]

Doctor Who: Series 13 (2/5)

This season is, appropriately enough for the presence of a bi-pedal canine, dogshit.

Okay, that's not entirely fair - the main culprit is the final episode, which is absolutely wretched, but the rest of the season isn't much better, save one exception. I think this is the worst season of Chibnall's run, and ergo, the worst season of NuWho. So, we have a combination of worst showrunner, with the worst season, starring the worst Doctor, and having the worst companion. Yay...

Anyway, so there's this thing called the Flux that will destroy the universe. Spoiler alert, it does destroy the universe (bar Earth) by the end of the series, and the universe remains destroyed. No idea as to how this affects the wider Whoniverse canon, but hey, why put thought into things the writers refuse to? The reason Earth is saved because of these dog aliens called lupari that are "species-bonded" to humanity. What this means, or how this works, is also never explained.

The Flux is released by these aliens called the Swarm, who are very bad people who do very bad things, for very bad reasons. Meanwhile, there's a sideplot of a character surviving the Flux that's pregnant, that goes nowhere. Yay.

Not to worry, the Doctor's new companion Dan, is here, who's got to be the most useless companion we've had yet. I actually think it was a good idea to cut the companion no. at the end of season 12 to just Yaz, since the characters were spread thin, but series 13 beefs up the no. of supporting characters so much that Yaz is left with even less to do. And as for Thirteen herself...well, Whittaker's probably at her best here, but sorry, the writing is so wretched that she can't save it.

So, Thirteen makes contact with her 'mother,' Tehteun, who reveals that the Timeless Child nonsense from series 12 is indeed true. I wouldn't mind so much, since the prospect of these two characters meeting does carry some emotional heft, but nup, mummy's killed off quickly, because we need to see a wave of anti-matter destroying the universe, that's stopped by having it collide with matter...even though it's been colliding with matter throughout the entire universe, and that didn't slow it down...

Also, the sontarans invade Earth in both the 19th and 21st century, and nothing changes. The sontarans are apparently quite happy to genocide all of the lupari, but humanity emerges scott free. Yay. I mean, it's not as alien occupation would involve casualties or anything like that...

Oh, and we have UNIT, and Kate Stewart, and apprently flashbacks to evil guy solves the UNIT dating controversy, or something, I...really don't care. The series is stretched enough as it is, I have no idea why we're taking this detour.

So, bad guys are defeated, Doctor meets Time himself (itself?), who gives vague, ominous words and fuck it, I don't care anymore. Just because there's universe-altering stakes doesn't mean I'm going to be invested. Y'know, watching this actually makes me appreciate Moffat more, because his run involved the universe being restarted (and that worked), and his overall plot was fairly convoluted, but it actually came together in the end. Chibnall...look, I hate picking on individual people, but Chibnall isn't Moffatt, let alone RTD.

The one good thing I can really give this series is its Weeping Angels episode, which is the best the Weeping Angels have been in a long time. Tense, exciting, and mostly self-contained. And all of it more interesting than this throw everything at the kitchen sink approach.

So, yeah. I didn't like this season. But then, I've only really been watching DW out of oblitgation for awhile now. Maybe RTD can save it, maybe not, but there's precious little to reccommend from Chibnall's run, and series 13 as a whole certainly isn't among it.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Doctor Who: Series 13 (2/5)

This season is, appropriately enough for the presence of a bi-pedal canine, dogshit.

Okay, that's not entirely fair - the main culprit is the final episode, which is absolutely wretched, but the rest of the season isn't much better, save one exception. I think this is the worst season of Chibnall's run, and ergo, the worst season of NuWho. So, we have a combination of worst showrunner, with the worst season, starring the worst Doctor, and having the worst companion. Yay...

Anyway, so there's this thing called the Flux that will destroy the universe. Spoiler alert, it does destroy the universe (bar Earth) by the end of the series, and the universe remains destroyed. No idea as to how this affects the wider Whoniverse canon, but hey, why put thought into things the writers refuse to? The reason Earth is saved because of these dog aliens called lupari that are "species-bonded" to humanity. What this means, or how this works, is also never explained.

The Flux is released by these aliens called the Swarm, who are very bad people who do very bad things, for very bad reasons. Meanwhile, there's a sideplot of a character surviving the Flux that's pregnant, that goes nowhere. Yay.

Not to worry, the Doctor's new companion Dan, is here, who's got to be the most useless companion we've had yet. I actually think it was a good idea to cut the companion no. at the end of season 12 to just Yaz, since the characters were spread thin, but series 13 beefs up the no. of supporting characters so much that Yaz is left with even less to do. And as for Thirteen herself...well, Whittaker's probably at her best here, but sorry, the writing is so wretched that she can't save it.

So, Thirteen makes contact with her 'mother,' Tehteun, who reveals that the Timeless Child nonsense from series 12 is indeed true. I wouldn't mind so much, since the prospect of these two characters meeting does carry some emotional heft, but nup, mummy's killed off quickly, because we need to see a wave of anti-matter destroying the universe, that's stopped by having it collide with matter...even though it's been colliding with matter throughout the entire universe, and that didn't slow it down...

Also, the sontarans invade Earth in both the 19th and 21st century, and nothing changes. The sontarans are apparently quite happy to genocide all of the lupari, but humanity emerges scott free. Yay. I mean, it's not as alien occupation would involve casualties or anything like that...

Oh, and we have UNIT, and Kate Stewart, and apprently flashbacks to evil guy solves the UNIT dating controversy, or something, I...really don't care. The series is stretched enough as it is, I have no idea why we're taking this detour.

So, bad guys are defeated, Doctor meets Time himself (itself?), who gives vague, ominous words and fuck it, I don't care anymore. Just because there's universe-altering stakes doesn't mean I'm going to be invested. Y'know, watching this actually makes me appreciate Moffat more, because his run involved the universe being restarted (and that worked), and his overall plot was fairly convoluted, but it actually came together in the end. Chibnall...look, I hate picking on individual people, but Chibnall isn't Moffatt, let alone RTD.

The one good thing I can really give this series is its Weeping Angels episode, which is the best the Weeping Angels have been in a long time. Tense, exciting, and mostly self-contained. And all of it more interesting than this throw everything at the kitchen sink approach.

So, yeah. I didn't like this season. But then, I've only really been watching DW out of oblitgation for awhile now. Maybe RTD can save it, maybe not, but there's precious little to reccommend from Chibnall's run, and series 13 as a whole certainly isn't among it.

Wait weren't the Sontarans a basically dead species in Nu Who now. Like there was 2-3 survivors or more galaxy wide? Oh wait why would I expect Chibnall to keep consistency with anything before he took over?

Glad I didn't watch it. All I've heard from it is they flushed the Timeless child down the Tardis Plumbing in the end or something.

Also seems Chibnall is doing what a lot of Star Trek Discovery fans seem to be complaining about, trying to push the stakes to be massive to try and get people to care without realising people can easily care about lower stakes stuff about what happens to just 1 person or 1 planet.

As far as you on about Moffat I liked his stuff because it was a change from RTD often big world in threat stuff which was still enjoyable but I liked the more subtle Moffat "The world is in threat due to this small thing happening only a small group of people know is going on. Then again RTD was writing most weeks while Moffat had a bigger writing team that sort of cycled round doing an episode or two each series.

Also sad to hear Yaz got screwed over again, I figured this series they'd do something with her having got rid of the others but apparently not meaning she's been a companion who has been fully wasted.

 

[Dalisclock]

Star Trek: The Lower Decks

My sister got me to watch this and so far I'm enjoying it. I honestly haven't watched Star Trek since the reboot movies and kinda stopped caring about the new series(the fact I gave up halfway through Enterprise tells you how tired I was getting of it) but this I'm enjoying. Particularly since there's a sense of humor about the whole thing and a bunch of references to other series.


I do find it a little concerning how much I appreciate the jokes and how much I emphasize with the main characters having spent a decade in the US Navy. I do have to wonder how a Lieutenant qualifies as a Senior officer(per the "moist vessel" episode), especially on a ship where everyone is an officer(apparently). It's been a long time since I've really looked into any Star Trek stuff, unless the entire point is literally for the captain to torture her daughter into leaving the ship.

 

[Hawki]

Wait weren't the Sontarans a basically dead species in Nu Who now. Like there was 2-3 survivors or more galaxy wide? Oh wait why would I expect Chibnall to keep consistency with anything before he took over?

I don't recall. I don't think that's too much of an issue though, since 'extinct' species have come back numerous times in the IP. And even then, if they're extinct in one time period, they're not necessarily extinct in the other.

Glad I didn't watch it. All I've heard from it is they flushed the Timeless child down the Tardis Plumbing in the end or something.

Sort of. The Doctor gets a fob watch containing her memories of her time in the Division before she/he was 'rebooted' into the First Doctor, telling the TARDIS to never let her know where it is unless she absolutely needs it.

I don't think this particular plot point is too bad - the Timeless Child is asinine enough, but we know with the fob watch that getting your old memories can change you (see the Master/Yana), so I can understand this one.

Also seems Chibnall is doing what a lot of Star Trek Discovery fans seem to be complaining about, trying to push the stakes to be massive to try and get people to care without realising people can easily care about lower stakes stuff about what happens to just 1 person or 1 planet.

Pretty much. Just because the fate of the universe is at stake doesn't mean I'm automatically invested.

Also sad to hear Yaz got screwed over again, I figured this series they'd do something with her having got rid of the others but apparently not meaning she's been a companion who has been fully wasted.

To be frank, Yaz being 'wasted' is a criticism I could also level at Graham or Brian. That said, I agree that Yaz probably got the least character development of Thirteen's original three, so yeah, it made sense to have her stick around.

However, she's still wasted here, in part because the series got rid of one group of companions, only to flood us with another group. Many of which are better than Yaz, except, paradoxically, the 'main' new companion, Dan, who I don't think actually does anything useful in the entire series.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Star Trek: The Lower Decks

My sister got me to watch this and so far I'm enjoying it. I honestly haven't watched Star Trek since the reboot movies and kinda stopped caring about the new series(the fact I gave up halfway through Enterprise tells you how tired I was getting of it) but this I'm enjoying. Particularly since there's a sense of humor about the whole thing and a bunch of references to other series.


I do find it a little concerning how much I appreciate the jokes and how much I emphasize with the main characters having spent a decade in the US Navy. I do have to wonder how a Lieutenant qualifies as a Senior officer(per the "moist vessel" episode), especially on a ship where everyone is an officer(apparently). It's been a long time since I've really looked into any Star Trek stuff, unless the entire point is literally for the captain to torture her daughter into leaving the ship.

I'll say this, I found season 1 of Lower Decks to be a bit of a struggle with a few high points (The Holo Deck interactive film near the end of the season being a high point) but mostly mediocre, but better than most modern Star Trek.

If you're enjoying Season 1 then Season 2 will be a treat for you, I won't say I was enthralled but I will say Season 2 felt like a Early Season of Next Generation where it was finding it's feed and showed some real promise, especially because it starts taking more jokes that are shots at modern Star Trek.

 

[Xprimentyl]

The Morning Show: S1:Ep1-3

A morning news show finds itself unsettled by a scandal involving its male anchor, and damage control threatens the job of the female co-host and the viability of the entire network. Then Drama.

Ok, I'm through season 2 and all caught up. I can't recommend this show enough. How it mixes fictional drama with real-world events like the election, COVID-19, cancel culture and the #MeToo movement, etc., it's just masterfully done. The acting is second to none. Each character gives you reason to love and hate them simultaneously, and the level of anxiety one feels while watching is palpable, which is high praise coming from someone like me because I typically don't like serial dramas like this. Well, I don't dislike them, but they're not something I seek out; my arm was twisted to start this one, and I'm glad it was. Best show I've seen in a long time.

 

[SilentPony]

Ive been watching the new Young Justice Season 4. And...eh...
I'm just not enjoying this Superboy is dead storyline. It feels very regressive that yet again, the arc is the boy dies and the girl is left crying and trying to move on. Not only does it feel like a retread, personally I don't think he's really dead and this whole drawing the reveal out feels like filler. And it's not a good story arc for Megan. There's no coming out of this a better character for her. If anything it ruins her previous arcs and just makes a lot of the struggles meaningless.
And it just felt, I dunno, cruel, on the part of the writers, if Connor really did die. He and Meg have this whole on/off relationship, they're central characters, ups, downs, break ups, make ups, etc, and oopp. He ded. Episode 4 of a 20 episode season and 2/5th of the main character story arcs stop dead in their tracks and fan good will plummets.
Reminds me a lot of Aloy in Until Dawn where the writers just stopped her character arc in the first act and just filled up the rest of the story with guff.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Stargirl Season 2 episode 2

Just oof. Just so oof in the feels



This is a DC CW show and I maintain this is a show that is designed to binge watch on streaming because the weekly episode format does not do the show justice because the season is so often deliberately paced with episodes that are build up and episodes that are pay off.

While Season 1 usually went with "Ok so we gotta have at least 1 action sequence / fight scene an episode even if it's mostly a plot building episode then we can have bigger fights later".

Season 2 episode 2 was basically a whole episode with 0 fights and man did they show just how good they are because it's a full episode with 0 fights that just basically put it's foot down and went "We don't need fight scenes to be good, we're just that damn well written and directed and acted"

Spoiler: Season 1 & 2 related spoilers

So the girl in the picture is Cindy Burman , in season 1 she was introduced as basically the mean girl / queen bee of the highschool and head cheerleader She was awful to people are screwed over others including her Step Mother in the show only for it to be revealed part way through that she's the daughter of one of the main season 1 villains and basically was his Science experiment possessing retractable blades in her arms and a very rapid healing factor eventually fighting with and nearly killing Stargirl. At the end of season 1 she was basically locked in a cell by her father while the main battle went on because she disobeyed his instructions.

In Season 2 she comes back and finds her Stepmother (Who BTW is a kidnapped victim of her father who couldn't leave for fear of death and was forced to raise Cindy after an accident with Cindy's real mother) is planning to leave and tells her stepmother she can't using a gem to zap the mother. The Gem being related to the demon Eclipso who starts to tempt Cindy's mothers into trying to kill Cindy to get her old life back as what seems to be a moderately successful popstar. Cindy comes back and her Step mother comes at her with a knife, Cindy very briefly fights and disarms her but tries to avoid actually harming. Her mother then goes for the knife again and as Cindy calls out no only for Eclipso to take control of Cindy and absorb the mother's very being. Cindy then regains control and yells at Eclipso for his actions and says how this isn't what she wanted to happen. One of her last human connections gone Cindy just stands there upset and shocked in her now empty house looking at the ashes that remain of her Step mother she's lost everything now even the Injustice Society that she saw as her future. She has no human connections left in this world now.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Stone Ocean is great and Weather Report fucks.

That is all.

 

[Thaluikhain]

First 2 eps of "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future", which I've not seen in ages.

And...way too puerile for adults, but still rather too mature for kids. Huh. Pass.

 

[evilneko]

First 2 eps of "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future", which I've not seen in ages.

And...way too puerile for adults, but still rather too mature for kids. Huh. Pass.

Wow. That's a blast from the past. Although I never really watched the show itself I played the ever-loving hell out of the er... fancy light-gun games. Eventually got all 3 "missions", and all 3 of the toys.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Succession S3

Season three overall felt like a lot of wheel-spinning. First six episodes were on a holding pattern as the hype from S2's smash cliffhanger fizzled out into the usual dance. The standout episode being the Adrien Brody one. Last three episodes pick up and bring the season back to its standards of greatness. I don't think the finale is as exciting as the previous one but at least it promises a definite point of no return, and unites the brothers for the better - even if for horrible reasons.

 

[Hawki]

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 3 (4/5)

This season is good. In fact, for its second half, it's really good. I'd say that of all the Star Trek stuff I've seen, this is the best season as a whole. Which isn't saying much perhaps, but it's certainly raised Enterprise up in the ranks of Star Trek shows for me.

Anyway, season 3 has the benefit of being serialized...mostly. There's a lot of stand-alone episodes as the ship searches the Delphic Expanse for the xindi weapon, but they do add to the overall plot arc, whether it be string continuity, or what might seem as an isolated plot point gets brought up later on. That said, I still prefer the second half, where there's far more episode-to-episode continuity, where things get darker, and more desparate. We're thankfully far removed from the "humans are special" nonsense that gripped the first two seasons, whereas here, we have people pushed to their limit, which has them do certain things that aren't always ethical.

The season doesn't have a good ending though, as we're teased for season 4 with...sigh, alien Nazis. God, I've never understood why Star Trek insists on so many time travel episodes. Yes, every so often you get a City on the Edge of Forever, but that's the exception to the rule. Still, everything up to that last five minutes is pretty good.

So, yeah. There's a general consensus that season 3 of Enterprise is where the show "gits gud," and having watched it now...yeah, pretty much. It's certainly a season I can reccommend to most Trekkies.

 

[gorfias]

I have not watched it yet, but FYI: On Netflix, Season 2 of The Witcher has dropped.

 

[Agema]

I have not watched it yet, but FYI: On Netflix, Season 2 of The Witcher has dropped.

Henry Cavill looks really good with a sword, like he's born to swing one. Hollywood fight choreography has its quirks so realism isn't necessarily the order of the day, but he moves incredibly well.