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

[Dalisclock]

Finished Andor today.

Yeah, really really enjoyed this show so far. I know we're getting one more season but if that's as good as this one I'll be quite happy with it. If I have to complain about anything, it's that the Mon Mothma scenes tend to be rather slow and detached from everything else. Presumably she'll get more to do in season 2 since we already know she's no longer a senator later in the timeline and working openly with the rebellion.

The prison Break episode is quite well executed and watching the prisoners rush the guards is fucking cathartic as well, especially when Cassian learns nobody is getting out. Everyone who gets "released" is just moved to another area of the prison and anyone who raises a stink is killed. Everything we've seen about the prison design makes it all work very well IMHO, where overreliance on security measures means the guards are very, very heavily outnumbered by the prisoners and it's really bad for the guards when the prisoners realize that.

I wasn't sure if it was possible to top that but the finale I think works even better. It's kind of awesome that the funeral on ferrix is such a small event in the star wars universe but it works wonderfully for the purposes of the show, especially since most of the characters(sans Mon Mothma) are there for what happens. I do really appreciate the build in tension knowing SOMETHING Is gonna go down and when it does it goes down hard and in a way that feels believable.


Also Meero may have survived the mob but she's now presiding over a fucking fiasco and I can only imagine her boss will not be kind to her when he finds out what happened

Also, realized this just now: Tatooine isn't even fucking mentioned in the show, let alone visited. Apparently it is possible to make a Star War without visiting the most popular ass end of the galaxy at least once, but nobody knew it until now. It turns out you can use one of the many, many other planets in the SW galaxy for your story, not just keep coming back to the same backwater over and over.

 

[Piscian]

Watchmen tv series

I finally sat down and plowed through Watchmen on HBO MAX. I liked about 80% of it and enjoyed what they were mostly trying to do. I think the quirkiness, politics and story are all things Alan Moore would have appreciated if the circumstances were different.

That said I hate to say I feel like it really craters in the final act. I thought they completely misunderstood Dr. Manhattan and ended things pretty cliche and saccharine. Specifically they just decided Dr. Manhattan is a regular guy with powers, when the original story took great pains to emphasize that he was fundamentally beyond our understanding of reality. In this he laughs, jokes, uses colloquialisms and words like "gonna". Im hesitant to blame the actor. I think someone didnt do their homework on his dialog. Hes also sappy and emotional. Additionally they seems to just decide to make him look human randomly or they ran out of effects budget. Regardless it looks cheap and awful like cw level bad.

Lastly it ends on a nice happy "we did it!" ending which just made me want to gag. Its not the silly ending I take issue with, it's that really doesn't work in context.

My advice would be to skip it if youre a Watchmen fan, but its pretty solid if you only have a passing knowledge of watchmen. The first three acts really work, its a decent homage and work on its own. 7/10.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Snip

I fucking loved the prison break, though I do think the finale was not able to top it. The build up was great, but the lack of any catharsis as in the prison break kinda let me down. I didn't expect that Ferrix would somehow gain independence overnight, but I was hoping for some comeuppance for the Imperials.

Also regarding the prison... I still don't get how sending prisoners to different levels works. They said that they screwed up by sending a prisoner back from where he came from (I think?). But even if they don't send a person back to the same level, surely the person who was sent back would still tell everyone that he didn't actually get released back to society? I feel like I missed something.

 

[Gergar12]

Diego Luna is a great actor in Andor, and that is the only thing that is good about the tv show. I was so bored because I used ad block, I wished I didn't since the ads are more exciting than the show.

So boring.

 

[Gordon_4]

Diego Luna is a great actor in Andor, and that is the only thing that is good about the tv show. I was so bored because I used ad block, I wished I didn't since the ads are more exciting than the show.

So boring.

It’s a prestige item on Disney+. What fucking ads?

 

[Gergar12]

It’s a prestige item on Disney+. What fucking ads?

I got the Hulu bundle with Disney plus. It’s five dollars a month for both with ads which I have ublock origin for.

Edit: This last about a year.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

The White Lotus - Season 2 so far... 8/10

The show is kinda like just being a fly on the wall during several rich characters' vacations (the show jumps around to each group of characters) at a White Lotus resort for a week, the characters for the most part feel pretty organic and there's not too much forced drama, it comes off as pretty natural feeling. I loved season 1 and I'm enjoying season 2 about as much. Also, Aubrey Plaza is in season 2 and she's always great.

Honestly I'm watching it and should like it but something just isn't clicking yet for me, I've been struggling to finish episode 3 for a while. I don't know if my brain is just recognising the hand of the writers of West World and remembering how kind of crap season 2 went for that show and going "Don't get invested this time" of if there actually is something not clicking but I'm in the same box as you here. Everything feels like it should be making a great compelling show but it feels like a number of perfectly created pieces that on their own are perfect but put together they don't seem to all fit together right. They feels too perfect almost if that makes sense.

I kinda feel the same but I'm digging it enough to keep watching (I've seen through episode 5). I definitely feel I should be liking it more but I'm just not, though it may have to do with the show just divulging more plot info. The Peripheral is sorta like Severance to me to where how much I'll like Severance in the end is where the plot goes, though Severance is more interesting to watch because of the characters than Peripheral.

Battlestar Galactica - the reboot

Rating: 7/ 10 - but seriously that's only because it too so long to reach what I'd say is the best of the shows,

(available free in the UK on BBC Iplayer)

Premise: (Seriously does anyone even needs this) The 12 colonies of man created Cylons, they rebelled and a massive war was fought there has been a 40 year armistice since and an uneasy peace with humanity trying to have diplomatic relations with the cylons and them never showing up to the table to talk. Suddenly the cylons show up and they're no longer all metal machines but some look human and some even believe they are human still. The Cylons attack the 12 colonies of man in a devastating nuclear first strike getting past all the planetary defence systems thanks to having infiltrated the colonies and gained the codes after a cylon agent seduced the systems creator Gaius Baltar. The show follows the remnants of the 12 colonies who escaped on civilian ships and were helped to organise into a fleet with the space fighter transport and war ship the Battlestar Galactica that escaped destruction due to not being in the main colonial fleet dockyards at the time of the attack and was meant to be getting refitted / decommissioned at the time. The eventual plan, try to find the legendary lost 13th colony of man, a place called Earth.


Thoughts in a Tagline: It's not about what's in the Mystery box it's about the friends we made and saw horribly killed off along the way.


Thoughts: I once heard this show described as "The first post 9/11 sci-fi" and it's shockingly accurate because there's so much of the kind of "War on Terror" themes being raised here, the idea of paranoia as anyone could be a cylon in the show and attack people and turn when activated. The first two seasons are very military stuff to the extent that they'd make the deliberate parody military patriotism of Starship Troopers tell the show to lay it off a bit, including a full length episode about interrogation and torture of an enemy with the fairly uncomfortable message "Yeh no-one wants to admit that torture is sometimes necessary". The 2nd season does learn into the idea of military over reach a bit. Also holy crap was this a show I struggled to watch through because the action is good but it's so grim dark in places and so overbearingly militaristic.

Then season 4 happens and you'll reach a point and just wow, 3 and a half seasons and suddenly it's like some-one pulls the camera back and the series of disconnected lines and squiggles they've been drawing has formed a beautiful intricate picture by design. Suddenly it all feels planned, it all feels designed and it all had purpose even if the show doesn't really feel like actually explaining some of the more esoteric elements such as magic music and religious visions.

Also this is a show where one of the characters (Gaius Baltar) just really became a character I hated so much for most of the show's run because he's a special kind of skevy character with so few morals and by the end of it I wouldn't say I liked him but I'd say I had a new found respect for what he'd finally become when he finally decided to care about something more than his own survival and attempts to gain influence to access more easy pleasures.

Honestly other than some of the weirder stuff in season 4 I'd say after a certain point it really is a 10/10 show but it's the getting there that in my view drags the whole show down.

I will say I really did enjoy what the show did and there's a lot of pretty brave decisions in the show from explorations of suicide and the impact it can leave to the ways people handle trauma. This really isn't a happy show that with a happy message at the end where everything works out. It's a show about paranoia and the nature of war that can create monsters out of almost anyone and it's about being able to accept your own legacy and try to do better going forward.

Did you watch the seasons in reverse order because I totally felt the opposite about BSG. I absolutely loved the 1st 2 seasons and the last 2 seasons were just fine I guess. The overarching plot reveals didn't feel too planned out to me and just felt like they had to finish the stuff up before they wanted to. Starbucks character is supposed to be something and then is like the total opposite at the end. I haven't watched the series since it aired but I recall the ending being pretty happy/hopeful at the end, implying there'll be no more organic vs synthetic war anymore at least.

 

[Piscian]

Willow tv series or whatever episode 1

 

[Casual Shinji]

Willow tv series or whatever episode 1


View attachment 7487

*sigh* Yeah...

If the bland streaming-quality visuals hadn't sent me running for the hills, the attempts at humor and that end credits song they choose (for a freaking fantasy show) surely would've. Not that the original movie is some timeless work of art or whatever, but it had decent filmmaking, charm, and action scenes that weren't a shaky, sloppy pile of nothing. The only good thing in this episode is Ralph Ineson speaking words.

 

[Piscian]

*sigh* Yeah...

If the bland streaming-quality visuals hadn't sent me running for the hills, the attempts at humor and that end credits song they choose (for a freaking fantasy show) surely would've. Not that the original movie is some timeless work of art or whatever, but it had decent filmmaking, charm, and action scenes that weren't a shaky, sloppy pile of nothing. The only good thing in this episode is Ralph Ineson speaking words.

It reminded me of those YA live action fantasy movies on Netflix. The dialog seemed so disconnected with the context. The girl having her meltdown at the feast felt like she was in some highschool comedy. I was bored senseless until the action started, but it ended up being entirely forgettable. Willow is one of my favorite films of all time so while I generally see it through rose colored glasses, I'm confident it was not like a bland YA comedy. People die in it, lots of scary stuff happens pretty much out of the gates. Lot of jokes only parents would get. I don't know what this show is or who it's for, but I wanted to shut it off at the 20 minute mark. No I don't think that's it, that its not for me. It's actually fucking lazy. hard pass on this one. It ..is..rough.

Oh nvm .....*woof*

Willow (TV Series 2022–2023) ⭐ 5.7 | Action, Adventure, Drama

| TV-14

www.imdb.com

It's getting slammed.

 

[gorfias]

Wednesday: Netflix S1 E1-3 9/10.

Flavored like a Tim Burton show (He's a producer and director) it is "Sleepy Hollow" crossed with the "Harry Potter" series.

I was going to post the trailer but I think it reveals too much.

Wednesday goes to Harry Potter like boarding school. Murders are happening. Ancient mysteries need solving.

I was reading the reviews of "Willow" above and that looks to be more programming. A streamer needs content so they churn something out.

Things like Invincible, Peace Maker and this? They feel like they were made by people that really wanted to do make these. They have a story to tell and there is passion and care put into them.

EDIT: Of course the hand, "Thing" is in it. How could he not be. He is a magnificent addition to the show.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I haven't seen the Willow series, but:

It reminded me of those YA live action fantasy movies on Netflix.

 

[Piscian]

Wednesday: Netflix S1 E1-3 9/10.

Flavored like a Tim Burton show (He's a producer and director) it is "Sleepy Hollow" crossed with the "Harry Potter" series.

I was going to post the trailer but I think it reveals too much.

Wednesday goes to Harry Potter like boarding school. Murders are happening. Ancient mysteries need solving.

I was reading the reviews of "Willow" above and that looks to be more programming. A streamer needs content so they churn something out.

Things like Invincible, Peace Maker and this? They feel like they were made by people that really wanted to do make these. They have a story to tell and there is passion and care put into them.

EDIT: Of course the hand, "Thing" is in it. How could he not be. He is a magnificent addition to the show.

View attachment 7490

I'm only one episode in, but I have to concur there's a distinct difference in quality between the Dialog in Wednesday and Willow. Wednesday is treading this line of making the characters YA approachable, but still both writing them as people and delivering clever dialog. Somebody is storyboarding out each scene, characters and purpose and then some writers are punching up the dialog to make it funny/compelling. Willow just feels like its just being thrown at some writers with some beats that happen and saying "figure it out". Its painfully drab and unfunny.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Things like Invincible, Peace Maker and this? They feel like they were made by people that really wanted to do make these. They have a story to tell and there is passion and care put into them.

EDIT: Of course the hand, "Thing" is in it. How could he not be. He is a magnificent addition to the show.

I will say that the episodes not directed by Burton (so essentially everything you haven't watched yet) can be noticeably more generic, but I do agree that the series as a whole obviously has quite a lot of love put into it. Thing alone probably took more effort to bring to life with his special effects than what went into about 3/4 of the shows on Disney+.

Also, after finishing the show and really enjoying it, I was a little sad that since this is on Netflix, we can expect either a massive drop in quality for season 2 or just outright cancellation. But apparently the show is doing some Stranger Things level numbers, so maybe there is hope after all.

 

[Piscian]

Wednesday TV series

Wow 10/10. I was glued to this one start to finish. While Adams Family was a constant presence in my childhood I've never had any particular nostalgia for it. I've never seen any of the movies. I normally wouldn't bother, but I do have a softspot for gothic horror and I heard good buzz so I figured I'd give it a shot to pass an hour lunch. Ended up binging the whole thing this weekend. While the acting and writing were stellar I think what really sets this apart is that the story came first, second and third. This is kind of the antithesis of "Sabrina", that teenage witch show. I never felt any draw to check my phone becase two characters I don't care about are sitting around babbling about nothing pertinent to the plot.

Wednesday isn't really a show about Wednesday Adams. It's a murder mystery thriller in which Wednesday Adams essentially plays a stand in for Hercule Poirot. It's actually quite gruesome. Essentially a monster is on the loose at a school Wednesday is forced to attend populated with children of the classic movie monsters. So it's not a fish out of water story. Everybody at school is a witch, werewolf, vampire etc.

They made some really interesting choices both in writing a directing which are highly unusual for what is superficially YA comedy mystery faire. This season only runs 8 episodes and it's incredibly tightly packed. There's no downtime in the show, it moves at a near frenetic pace with Wednesday almost immediately becoming obsessed with solving the murdering in real time. While 'teen" things are happening in the show it's always in the background. There's no sidequests or halting character development.

To give an example her roommate, a painfully adorable werewolf, builds an equally adorable relationship with another character in the show, which reaches its comedic climax in the last episode without the two lovebirds ever sharing more than 20 minutes of total screen time in the whole season. This show does an excellent job of "showing" rather than "telling". Characters are always walking in and out of pivotal moments just after character development has happened or is about to happen so the viewer sees these characters develop without actually having to sit through cringe teenage dialog written by 40 year old staff writers. Everybody is excellent here. Much to my and Wednesdays chagrin everyone is friendly, likeable and engaging. What's more strange is that there is no antagonist here. Every character plays a role in the story while also being three dimensional people. For about 5 seconds they introduce a "mean girl", but barely an episode is finished before even she is given full character definition and quickly becomes both empathetic and plays a role in the finale. The writers clearly wrote with intent here. There's no "filler".

All told this felt more like a movie and than a show. I think you could probably fit it into a 3 hour movie if you shaved off all the character development, but I think it would hurt, both the development of the murder mystery and the climax when you ultimately discovers the mastermind. That said I can assure you there's no episodes here where nothing happens. Wednesday is compulsively spending every waking moment hunting the killer and rejects any attempt the supporting cast makes to do anything normal with her. Going back to the movie relevance it's also worth noting this does have an end. There's no "loose ends" or unfinished character plots introduced and left for a second season. Imagine something inbtween Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, and Knives Out. they left it open for a second season if Tim burton feels like doing one, but if this was it I'm 100% satisfied.

 

[Bartholen]

1899, first two episodes.

This is a new Netflix show that's... what actually is this? I guess it falls under horror thriller with heavy supernatural hints, but it's hard to say based on just 2 episodes because it's incredibly obtuse and mysterious. It's (so far) about a passenger ship crossing the Atlantic ocean in the titular year, when they come across a ship that mysteriously disappeared a few months back. It's from the makers of Dark, another massively obtuse and weird Netflix series, and from what I've seen of Dark they're very much in the same vein in style and tone. That is to say relentlessly bleak, ominous, obtuse, slow paced and weird with a labyrinthine plot. And based on the first two episodes I'm not too sure I really enjoy this type of stuff.

It's certainly unique I'll give it that. The ominous atmosphere with some not so subtle lovecraftian elements combined with the Victorian era setting give it almost a Bloodborne vibe, which I certainly fuck with. I also really appreciate how uncompromised it feels, both in its weirdness and the fact that it's a massively international cast where they all speak in their native languages: spanish, german, cantonese, french, polish etc. But it's so unrelentingly one-note and devoid of levity that it's at times genuinely exhausting to watch. That and the fact that it feels very dense: almost every scene feels like there's some cryptic hints about events to come, or some mysterious interaction that'll make sense 6 episodes from now. Like half the time in episode 2 I was just going "Okay, this seems like an important thing, I guess it'll come back later", but intrigue and purposeful weirdness can only maintain viewer interest for so long if it's all you have to offer. Almost every character seems to be harboring hidden motives and agendas makes me not really think of these people as characters, but as mere vessels for the story to happen.

Jury's still out, but I can't help but think of Lost and how that show was also heavy on the mystery, but it also had character banter and light moments to balance out the weirdness. This based on two episodes feels borderline impenetrable. I'm going to keep watching just out of curiosity, but so far I'm not too excited.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Guardian's Holiday Special. Eh, it was fine. Its brevity allows for a lot of tolerance.

Considering how essentially the only thing on offer is comedy, I thought it could have been edited to be more frenetic and chaotic. There was lots of downtime where what was on screen was neither funny nor visually appealing.

Drax is still Drax. I see why Bautista is getting tired of him. I don't hate him, but this version of the character was more shouty and fumbling funny than overly literal himbo funny.

Mantis... well it's cool that she had a starring role, and her connection to Star lord is fun (and something that had better play a role in GOTG 3), but man is she hard to understand. I did appreciate her more insect-like behavior.

All in all, eh sure if you have around 40 minutes to kill, why not. At least they didn't make me sit through 6 weeks worth of episodes to tell an ultimately irrelevant story.

 

[Dalisclock]

Guardian's Holiday Special. Eh, it was fine. Its brevity allows for a lot of tolerance.

Considering how essentially the only thing on offer is comedy, I thought it could have been edited to be more frenetic and chaotic. There was lots of downtime where what was on screen was neither funny nor visually appealing.

Drax is still Drax. I see why Bautista is getting tired of him. I don't hate him, but this version of the character was more shouty and fumbling funny than overly literal himbo funny.

Mantis... well it's cool that she had a starring role, and her connection to Star lord is fun (and something that had better play a role in GOTG 3), but man is she hard to understand. I did appreciate her more insect-like behavior.

All in all, eh sure if you have around 40 minutes to kill, why not. At least they didn't make me sit through 6 weeks worth of episodes to tell an ultimately irrelevant story.

I watched this because my kid wanted to see it and she really likes the GotG movies and yeah, it was fine. It was a silly christmas movie special.

Arguably the best part for me was Mantis/Drax realizing Kevin Bacon was an actor and not the hero Peter apparently made him out to be.

 

[gorfias]

Wednesday TV series

Wow 10/10. I was glued to this one start to finish.

I loved this Netflix show.
Couple of quibbles:

Spoiler

I wish there were more Lurch in it. I think Gomez was miscast and his entire story could have been cut out. Dunno why it was not OK for him to defend himself, but it was OK for Morticia to have done so, though I can rationalize it. Some character arcs happen too easy and quickly ie mean girl becomes sympathetic. I pretty much knew who the monster was very early (episode 1? Where her "boyfriend" doesn't follow her into the woods but the monster shows up and saves her?) on.

Still, a ton of fun to be had. And this, like, say, Peacemaker, is a passion project. Someone really wanted to do this. They really had a story to tell, as opposed to just making product (see ie Kenobi).

And nice to know Wednesday still has some great moves.

1899, first two episodes.

This is a new Netflix show ...

think of Lost and how that show was also heavy on the mystery, but it also had character banter and light moments to balance out the weirdness. This based on two episodes feels borderline impenetrable. I'm going to keep watching just out of curiosity, but so far I'm not too excited.

Very much a black box show. Most expensive German show ever made and it shows in the production values. I think it is worth following through. I found the finale fine enough. Some unanswered questions but a season 2 is not required by me. I hope to read your summation.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Crown, season 5

I haven't posted in this thread because I been watching this and I figure not a lot of interest here for it but in case anyone is curious about how this season compares, it is the weakest so far. To be fair, it's also the most challenging as it covers events many people actually lived through. It's in the 90's and spans the break-down of the Wales' marriage, which I remember as a kid.
Both actors playing Charles and Diana did a brilliant job and it's the acting and production that keeps my wife and I watching despite the fact that we generally prefer genre shows and are American socialists who despise and resent the very idea of an imperial European monarchy's continued existence.

The problems with the show are two-fold:
1- Pacing. It's 10 episodes and I can think of 2 that I don't know needed to happen. Consequently, they might have skimmed over a couple of Diana's affairs and some of the background politics that informed the public reaction to the monarchy. It's as if they replaced the latter with character merely complaining about it, committing the classic dramatic mistake of telling not showing.
2- Politically conservative. It's fine to have a point of view I disagree with, whatever. But some of it was so heavy handed we laughed a couple time, which was not the show's intention.

The good stuff:
1- It did a good job of showing Charles' and Camilla's relationship, you could see why they're a couple, no matter what else you think.
2- Music, visuals, all that stuff- really the main reason to watch this kind of show sometimes.

The White Lotus
I am absolutely loving this season. The whole dynamic between the two married couples is gripping to watch and the character of Daphne, the woman married to douchebro who is always subtlety telling Aubrey Plaza about the secrets of their marriage- is the runaway star of the show and the breakout performance of all of 2022 for me. But the whole cast is bringing it, with the hookers and the "nice guy" and that whole thing.
My least favorite plot line so far is with the "high-end gays," as Jennifer Coolidge's character hilariously called them, just because it's been the most predictable so far. This show is a boon for fans of awkward comedy.

With The Crown finished, tonight we'll start one of three shows, depending on which the wife is feeling for the most (we'll get to all 3, it's just a matter of order):
1899 because we were devoted viewers of Dark so we gotta check this out
Wednesday because everyone is loving it
The English because I like Westerns and she likes Emily Blunt