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

[Piscian]

I watched the final season of the Expanse. it's a bit of an anti-climax.

Although I didn't realise it was actually the final season because of all the new plot elements that got introduced and never went anywhere.

Very confusing. They introduced a plot with the kid that went no where and then that planet something something inaros..roll credits..wat?

Also the lead up with inaros was edited weird like there was no dramatic build up, no last moment with babynaros. Very strange like the season was supposed to be longer, but they just hacked together an ending.

 

[Breakdown]

Very confusing. They introduced a plot with the kid that went no where and then that planet something something inaros..roll credits..wat?

Also the lead up with inaros was edited weird like there was no dramatic build up, no last moment with babynaros. Very strange like the season was supposed to be longer, but they just hacked together an ending.

Yeah, like I guess the showrunner is trying to leave things open in case somebody else picks up the series, but there should have been a more conclusive ending to the show. They build up these mysterious entities in the ring space as an existential threat to all human life, but in the end they were just used as a kind of deus ex machina to kill off Inaros. It would have been easy enough for Holden to have some kind of brief face to face confrontation with the entities. He could then deliver a speech about how humans couldn't afford to fight each other any more as there is a bigger threat to face, and that could have been used to force through the stuff about the trade union with Drummer as president.

 

[gorfias]

Finished Arcane (final grade 8/10), .

Thought this a fun review. I hope there is a season 2 as I really enjoyed this as well.

 

[Gordon_4]

I assume this is an Ep 3 thing, which I have not yet watched so no spoilers please, because so far from what I've watched he's almost exclusively had action scenes without his helmet off.

Not exactly. Watch some of his fights during the Tusken Raider flashbacks, and you’ll see he gets this ‘face’ going that is terrifying as all shit. Jake the Muss is the role Morrison played in the film ‘Once We’re Warriors’. A movie that’s worth watching but don’t expect it to be an easy or pleasant watch.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Started Barry yesterday. High-concept fun (what if a depressed hitman started taking acting lessons?). Wonder if Bill Hader was at least partly inspired by S2 Sopranos' "Big Girls Don't Cry", where Chris Moltisanti starts taking acting lessons in a small theater (and then quits because it's getting way too real for him).

 

[Bartholen]

I'm on my second watch of Arcane, and I'm realizing I was sorely mistaken about this series. It's not great to be honest.

It's fucking awesome.

Never in my wildest imaginations could I have pictured an adaptation of a property I only knew from mocking memes and fanmade porn being one of the best animated things I've ever seen. It's so dense, so expertly paced, so well animated, so laden with themes, subtle worlbuilding and environmental storytelling it's a god damn miracle. No scene overstays its welcome, no story element is just a trope, no theme or character is depicted as black and white. The way it juxtaposes so many themes in just 9 episodes is just masterful: class divide vs. stable society, ambition vs. steady progress, loyalty for family vs. loyalty for yourself, idealism vs. selling out, holding on to a happier past vs. accepting a grim present.

Just one example of how efficient its storytelling is is when Caitlyn is out with the other guards they kind of mock her for being a rich girl, but instantly react seriously when she calls a fire alarm. Just those couple dozen seconds show how she's out of place in her job, but treated as an equal nevertheless. It doesn't go for tired tropes, like how one of the guards could go "Yeah yeah" or something. She isn't shoved out of her investigations because people don't believe in her, but because of bureaucracy and scheming malicious parties behind the scenes. She isn't seeking to prove herself to an authority figure, but merely doing what she deems right. She's just one example of how the show makes these already seen character tropes feel nuanced and engaging.

Episode 3 was genuinely hard to watch the second time.

I'm upping it to a 9/10, but I honestly have few reasons to believe it couldn't go to a 10/10. I'm still reeling from this realization.

 

[meiam]

Just one example of how efficient its storytelling is is when Caitlyn is out with the other guards they kind of mock her for being a rich girl, but instantly react seriously when she calls a fire alarm. Just those couple dozen seconds show how she's out of place in her job, but treated as an equal nevertheless. It doesn't go for tired tropes, like how one of the guards could go "Yeah yeah" or something. She isn't shoved out of her investigations because people don't believe in her, but because of bureaucracy and scheming malicious parties behind the scenes. She isn't seeking to prove herself to an authority figure, but merely doing what she deems right. She's just one example of how the show makes these already seen character tropes feel nuanced and engaging.

Meh, 2 seconds later there's an explosion that destroy everything in the neighborhood but she leave with just a few scratches. I don't think there's anything to think about, they just went with the very basic idea, if someone call an alarm everybody react to it and no further thought was put into it. Very little thought was put into anything really, just that scene Jinx magically know exactly where to find the new thingy and somehow know that its really important.

Later on she lose her job and just walk into a jail to see a criminal for no particular reason and is just let in (despite that criminal having literally just beat someone up). The show is pretty much just tropes stacked on top of one another with almost no attempt to justify them. I could go on about episode 4 since it was so bad I dropped the show there, but its pretty much just the most bog standard writing elevated by good visual and snappy direction.

 

[Gordon_4]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - 10/10

The 1974 mini series that stars Sir Alec Guinness as George Smiley and Sir Patrick Stewart as his nemesis Karla in this wonderfully low key, dialogue driven and very brilliant period piece. Allegedly written by laCarre as a sort of anti-James Bond tale, it’s full of very dumpy, very boring men looking at documents, listening to lurid stories in dingy pubs and clubs from people who are untrustworthy and pathetic in equal measure. People die in forests, in dirty prisons and there’s no glory.

And yet, highly compelling watching. If you can’t get the miniseries then the 2011 film starring Gary Oldman is equally enjoyable if a bit compressed.

 

[Bartholen]

Very little thought was put into anything really, just that scene Jinx magically know exactly where to find the new thingy and somehow know that its really important.

Later on she lose her job and just walk into a jail to see a criminal for no particular reason and is just let in (despite that criminal having literally just beat someone up).

I'll counter these by arguing that

1. If anyone in the entire show was going to know the magic thingy was important and where it was, it's Jinx. She's the one person in the entire setting that's worked with the crystals as long as Jayce and has likely seen several presentations of Hextech in the preceding Progress Days, hence having an reasoned assumption that a new presentation would be held and therefore the location of the crystals.
2. Your quibble with Caitlyn visiting the prison is fair enough, but for me there were multiple plausible in-world explanations how she could do that that it didn't bother me: she could have had Jayce sign some official warrant, she could have had her parents pull some strings, her removal from her position might not have been finalized yet, hence having the authority to visit the prison, or just plain old bribery, since at that point we've already seen that the city is corrupt.

 

[Piscian]

I think my enjoyment of arcane rides heavily on jinx. There's a lot to the series that I thought was weak or just dumb. Having not watched it in a month or so the one thing that really irked me with the fear of science and magic that, without context came off as contradictory and nonsensical. The only real word everyone buys into is from the old guy who just swears it's bad without any evidence. Idk that whole storyline was a bit haphazard in my viewing. It seems to only really serve as window dressing.

That said I found jinx deeply entrancing in her unbridled, but entirely compelling insanity. I like that the writers took great care to make her plight empathetic. It was also a fascinating choice to make the villain not only compelling, but humanized. I think any other show would have made him some snidely whiplash abuser and simply using jinx, but the dude actually cared and that adds incredible weight to the ending. It's crazy to imagine a cash-in adaptation like this would actually take time to make such complicated characters. It's a real triumph. Now if they just get rid of that atrocious ear splitting soundtrack..

 

[Dalisclock]

Got around to watching the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett.

It's okay. Half of the episode is showing how he escaped from the Sarlacc, lost his armor and got beaten up and enslaved by Tusken Raiders, and the other half is basically him trying to become "The Godfather" but with a sexy assassin partner. The Godfather stuff is a little interesting(though he kinda sucks at it) but I got kind bored with the flashback stuff with him getting beaten up over and over again.

Keep in mind I have no particularly feelings about Boba Fett other that until the Mandalorian showed him being kinda good at his job(as opposed to Empire and Jedi, where he mostly just stands around looking cool), I more or less found him a cool set of armor that had a weirdly large fanbase so I don't have much in the way of expectations here.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Got around to watching the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett.

My main complaint as of Episode 3 is that Boba is just too much of a good guy. Sure, he was never shown as a complete bastard (the guy doesn't even kill anyone in the whole original trilogy as far as I know), but he seems kind of childish with his approach to being a gangster.

 

[Bartholen]

The only real word everyone buys into is from the old guy who just swears it's bad without any evidence. Idk that whole storyline was a bit haphazard in my viewing. It seems to only really serve as window dressing.

I thought the reason for his reaction was established perfectly fine. The guy witnessed some great disaster caused by magic firsthand. His reaction may be biased, but it's understandable. It'd be like a Hiroshima survivor witnessing the invention of nuclear energy and having the authority to stop it from happening.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Fascinating, disheartening, depressing, concerning, dumbfounding. There is no political hope in the UK.

 

[Worgen]

Just finished Station Eleven. Holy shit that was good. I don't really want to say much more about it since its one of those that I went into blind and I think that is the best way to do it.

 

[Piscian]

Just finished Station Eleven. Holy shit that was good. I don't really want to say much more about it since its one of those that I went into blind and I think that is the best way to do it.

The funny thing is I was just randomly browsing hbo when I noticed it. When the subway scene happens I was "ok this is interesting" the plane thing happened and I was like "I guess this is my life now" and binged it until the last couple episodes which hadnt come out yet.

It wasnt until a couple episodes in that I realized Id bought the book and never read it like a couple years ago because it was all over the news. Admittedly I'm not liking the book as much. The show is much more streamlined. It reminds me of a coen bros movie like "O'Brother where art Thou" because its moves along as such a tight clip keeping you engaged. If I could think of an antithesis it would something like The Walking Dead where theres just so much filler. People arguing for silly reasons, idle chatter that bears little meaning for the characters or story. I hate sitting around waiting for something to happen.

While drastically different in content and quality "Black Summer" plays out similarly in that theres very little dialog and its almost always going somewhere, plowing a head. The second season is far more thoughtful and cohesive than the first and the story is complete. Its just two seasons.

I prefer shows like this both live action and anime. I cringe at the idea of watching shows and anime thats like 10 seasons and hundreds of episodes. I keep trying to talk myself into watching Madmen or Sapranos but when I think of the time investment I just cant do it.

 

[thebobmaster]

My main complaint as of Episode 3 is that Boba is just too much of a good guy. Sure, he was never shown as a complete bastard (the guy doesn't even kill anyone in the whole original trilogy as far as I know), but he seems kind of childish with his approach to being a gangster.

I can see where you're coming from, but as someone who's at the same point in the series, I feel like he's basically in a position of "OK, the last two people who had this role ruled by fear. It didn't go so well for them. Let's try a different approach." To avoid specific spoilers, I also feel like the end of the third episode indicates that he's going to be cracking down a fair bit harder on those who oppose him.

 

[Worgen]

The funny thing is I was just randomly browsing hbo when I noticed it. When the subway scene happens I was "ok this is interesting" the plane thing happened and I was like "I guess this is my life now" and binged it until the last couple episodes which hadnt come out yet.

It wasnt until a couple episodes in that I realized Id bought the book and never read it like a couple years ago because it was all over the news. Admittedly I'm not liking the book as much. The show is much more streamlined. It reminds me of a coen bros movie like "O'Brother where art Thou" because its moves along as such a tight clip keeping you engaged. If I could think of an antithesis it would something like The Walking Dead where theres just so much filler. People arguing for silly reasons, idle chatter that bears little meaning for the characters or story. I hate sitting around waiting for something to happen.

While drastically different in content and quality "Black Summer" plays out similarly in that theres very little dialog and its almost always going somewhere, plowing a head. The second season is far more thoughtful and cohesive than the first and the story is complete. Its just two seasons.

I prefer shows like this both live action and anime. I cringe at the idea of watching shows and anime thats like 10 seasons and hundreds of episodes. I keep trying to talk myself into watching Madmen or Sapranos but when I think of the time investment I just cant do it.

I tend to wait till all of a show is released... well, all of a season is released since watching one episode a week is annoying.

Yeah, long running huge series can be dauting to get into. I did manage to get into the new Dr Who, that was a lot of fun, but one of those things where there is so much its hard just to know where to start.

 

[Piscian]

My main complaint as of Episode 3 is that Boba is just too much of a good guy. Sure, he was never shown as a complete bastard (the guy doesn't even kill anyone in the whole original trilogy as far as I know), but he seems kind of childish with his approach to being a gangster.

As of this last episode I'm pretty unhappy with bobas depiction. I feel like he's an entirely different character from what was depicted in the books and movies. He's a straight up peace loving, animal rescue good guy. People are making all the excuses about him growing or that his character wasn't well defined but I find all that to be horseshit because regardless of screen time that's exactly how he was marketed. As a cold hearted ruthless killer. He even does this shit of threatening people by reminding them that he's boba Fett, to be feared.

That said my problem is less about changing the character and more about what I was sold going in. We already have good guy Mando. I was excited to see the antithesis of Mando. It's like if breaking bad was advertised as what it was, but turned out to be a sitcom. I was thoroughly bored by the tuskin dances with wolves avatar bullshit and this last episode was not much of an improvement. I have a feeling I won't quit the show so much as forget its on because I lost interest.

 

[Dalisclock]

My main complaint as of Episode 3 is that Boba is just too much of a good guy. Sure, he was never shown as a complete bastard (the guy doesn't even kill anyone in the whole original trilogy as far as I know), but he seems kind of childish with his approach to being a gangster.

That's something I kinda noticed. I can him wanting to be a Better Crime Lord then Jabba and Bib Fortuna, or at least looking better in comparison, but that's still the role of an anti-villian or villian protagonist, but it feels like Boba is basically just "good guy as crime boss". At least so far. I'll see where they take this.

I hope this is a prelude of him trying "Mr. Nice guy" before realizing Mr. Nice guy gets kicked in the ass on Tatooine so he ends up having go all Vlad the Impaler on his enemies.