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

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
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Okay I’m being a bit of a naughty boy here but I love this show and I’ve never really been able to share it because it’s one of those prestige style limited run series that was made long before the streaming era and while it was popular wasn’t any kind of set the country on fire phenomenon. Consequently it doesn’t show up on any streaming services. Thankfully some mad lad it seems has put in YouTube and I use the platform to share it with you now.
 

Hawki

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The Little Mermaid: Season 3 (3/5)

Well this was a letdown.

I'll just say it, season 3 is the weakest of the three seasons. There's no objective reason as to why, no outright explicit shift in writing or production that I can identify, but the season just feels, well, dumber. Not that this was ever Shakespeare to begin with, but if season 2 felt like it had matured slightly compared to season 1, season 3 has the same incidental feeling, albeit with a decline in quality instead.

Now I could leave it at that, but quick thoughts on the episodes:

Scuttle: Ariel and Flounder meet Scuttle for the first time, defeat some pirates by...sigh, causing the boat to tilt so fast that they all fall off. To borrow a phrase, "there's suspension of disbelief, and then there's get the fuck out." This wouldn't be so bad if so much of the episode wasn't padding.

-King Crab: This episode is somewhat decent - Sebastian's been lying to his parents the whole time about being king of Atlantica, cue shannigans when they arrive. While this stretches credulity, the humour's okay enough that I can give this episode a pass.

-Island of Fear: This was the episode where I felt "okay, something's really off with this season." Basically, the show does Frankenstein, with Frankenstein being "Doctor Vile" (ugh) who's experimenting on crabs to make them mutants that taste better or something, so Sebastian is captured, but Ariel can't do much due to being confined to his fortress's underwater areas (it was also at this point that I found myself wondering about Ecco the Dolphin), and Sebastian has to escape by himself by talking to Daniel. Yes, "talking" to a human. Ugh. Y'know, that thing that was exclusive to Melody in Return to the Sea, and was integral to her sense of isolation? In fairness, the cartoon came first, so technically it's the film that's at fault, but even that aside, the episode is just dumb. This series has had no shortage of crazy stuff up to this point, but it was craziness that still felt congruent. This, however, feels like we've jumped the shark.

-Land of the Dinosaurs: After jumping the shark, we now shoot the shark. Ariel and her family go to the Arctic (not that it's called the Arctic, but trust me, it's the Arctic) and she finds dinosaurs encased in ice. She ends up freeing them using the trident and the dinosaurs rampage underwater before Triton uncovers the last land of...sigh, Prehistoria, where they can spend their lives in peace, or something. Y'know, I can buy frozen dinosaurs, I can buy the trident freeing them, but you have dinosaurs operating for hours on end in sub-zero waters and exclusively underwater for...reasons. Again, there's suspension of disbelief, and then there's get the fuck out.

-Heroes: This is probably the best episode of the season - helps that it's the only episode of the season I watched when it originally aired over...wow, about thirty years ago. Basically, a hero "Apollo" returns to Atlantica after his deeds in the Sargasso Wars, and is now on his way to find Valhalla (seriously, what is it with this series mixing Greek and Norse mythology? I'm not complaining, it's just weird how it's meshed together so often) and Ariel and Flounder tag along. It's eventually revealed that his great deed that won the war was a fluke, and he's been living in shame all this time, cue character development, cue theme of "being brave is facing fear, not the absence of it," etc. Nothing groundbreaking, and there's some leaps in logic, but the episode and moral behind it are decent.

-The Beast Within: Eh, it's fine. I actually saw of this episode back in the day, but unlike the above one, only remembered snippits of it. Anyway, Flounder gets bit by a howler fish (think a fish werehog thing), cue shannigans, cue Urchin and Sebastian being at odds over the former destroying his trophy, despite saving his life in the process. Anyway, it's fine, had a few chuckles.

-Ariel's Treasures: This episode really annoys me - not so much for what it does (though there's that), but also for what it doesn't. Basically, Gabriella from season 2 returns, but is totally wasted in this episode - you could replace Gabriella with almost anyone and little would change. In my season 2 review, I said "Wish Upon a Starfish" was great conceptually, and that extends to Gabriella herself, but damn it, the episode doesn't do anything with her. What it DOES do is have Ursula cast a spell on Ariel's human treasures to animate them and call damage (yes, an eggbeater CAN destroy entire city blocks, what, did you think it couldn't?) with the proviso of appearing as a saviour at the last minute. The episode ends with Ariel being forced to use the counter-spell/potion to destroy the objects, saving Atlantica, but losing her entire human object collection in the process.

There's a basis for a solid story here (a protagonist can save their home by destroying what's dearest to them), but the episode simply has Ariel say "yeah, i can start a new collection," because, y'know, emotional angst is for pussies or something. What's more, because the cartoon is a prequel to the film, like other appearances of Ursula, it ends up weakening the film by proxy. Because not only have Ariel and Ursula come face to face again with Ursula fully intent on dealing harm, but Ariel goes to Ursula's hideout in the episode to get the counter-potion. The transformed mer are nowhere to be seen, but that aside, it does make her journey to Ursula's place in the film less eventful. And then there's losing the treasures. By this point, less than a year passes (by my recknoing) between the end of the cartoon and the start of the film, so Ariel apparently refilled her grotto in record time. Plus, this means that Ariel has lost her human treasure collection twice by the time Triton destroys it, and while that doesn't necessarily detract from the scene itself, it arguably makes it less impactful in the wider context. And yes, unlike Island of Fear, this is the fault of the cartoon.

Am I reading too deep into things? Yeah, probably, but it's like the writers wrote this episode and didn't know or didn't understand what the full implications of it were. But if the cartoon ended now, with the premise of Ariel starting over with her collection, that could have at least had some kind of segway into the film, but alas, there's one more episode to go...

-A Little Evil: This episode is dumb, and the writers should be ashamed.

The Evil Manta not only has a son now (how, when he was imprisoned under the sea until recently? Did he always have a son? Did he bang another manta? If so, where is he? Do mantas reproduce asexually) and Jesus Christ, the wrtiing. Y'know, if a villain is called "the Evil Manta,' you'd be correct in not expecting much character complexity, but the Evil Manta made two appearances up to this, and in each case, had some menace and cunning to him. The first appearance was him turning the citizens of Atlantica against each other through emotional manipulation, the second was him getting a boot to threaten Triton (it makes sense in context), this is...ugh, he wants his son to be "evil," and doesn't want him to be "good," and being "evil" means, um, pulling fish tails, or something? I don't know, i don't care, the writing is dumber, the character is dumber, the character is shallower. I mentioned in season 1 that the Evil Manta felt similar to Discord to MLP, only while Discord had the benefits of an entire series worth of character development, this is...gah! I expected a children's cartoon when I signed up for this, I didn't ask for a baby's cartoon.

So. That's season 3. Season ranking is 2>1>3, I detest season 3, even if it isn't outright bad. Overall, it's given me good background material to draw from, but as a series as a whole? Well, it's okay, I guess.
 
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gorfias

Unrealistic but happy
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Rick and Morty S6E3: HBO Max
Somehow, I am still loving this show. This episode had me laughing out loud. And the missus ready to commit me.
A-

 

Dwarvenhobble

Is on the Gin
May 26, 2020
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Powers Season 2

(PSN store)

Score: 7/10

Tagline of thoughts: Adam West's The Boys

The Premise for those who don't know of the show Powers:

Think Amazon's The Boys but instead of a somewhat paramilitary slightly rouge task force in this show it's detectives from a special division to deal with super powered crimes trying to solve crimes relating to superheroes and bring in the villain or fallen hero responsible for the crimes. The show follows ex superhero Walker (formerly Black Diamond) and his partner Pilgrim as they deal with some of the cases that comes up. Walker being a former hero because another at the time hero turned villain called Wolf tried to eat him and Wolf's power was to be able to absorb permanently and basically eat the powers of other's with powers.


Thoughts:

After Season 1's pretty impressive arc season 2 felt like 2 stories shoved together which could have fit well but rather than run both for the full season (like they really should) there's a sort of mid season switch from one main story to another. It's worth noting the show ends but on a sort of impending cliff hanging which would have been carried on if season 3 were picked up.

It's pretty fun to see and a unique styling of it because while The Boys goes for the somewhat washed out colours more in line with say DC's recent films Powers just goes full Adam West Batman, not even CW show styling but full Adam West Batman of brightly coloured lycra outfits which makes it a bigger contrast when some-one is brutally killed creating a probably quite deliberate clash in tones between the happy bright image of heroes and the grim reality of real life that happens.

Season 2 picks up from where season 1 left off following many of the same characters now quite vastly changed due to the night of Wolf's rampage. Worse one of the world's leading powers has been brutally murdered but who could do it? is it the rising group of anti- powers activists? an old villain? a Hero gone bad? or something more sinister? And just why has the FBI taken a special interest in this case?
 

SilentPony

Previously known as an alleged "Feather-Rustler"
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So I finally finished Season 3 of Avatar the Last Airbender. Talk about ending the show on a whimper rather than a bang. Its weird this show had such a cultural impact and this final season was just...boring. Its fucking boring. And worse than regular boring, its regressive and is padding its episode count something fierce, ironically by rushing through important plot details.
So you know how in late series My Little Pony, season 5 or 6, it was really lazy to do another "Fluttershy is shy and must conquer her fears of something not frightening at all" episode and you're like...this is like the 9th or 10th time we've done this lesson, try something new.
So to with season 3 of Avatar. How many times are we going to do Aang is worried about winning, Sokka is paranoid/goofy, Toph is stubborn or Kitara is just the worst character in the show by a mile? Its like we get it, this is incredibly well-worn ground. Shouldn't we be covering new territory here? Throw in a twist where I dunno, Toph gets to see or Sokka gets bending powers. Something. It was just the same characters growing increasingly stale, having already completed their character arcs. Now its just a character circle.
Also the inclusion of that Zuko was foreseeable, and that's fine. But him teaching Aang fire bending was so fucking lazy and rushed. Does he? No, they go to the Matrix and have two dragons just upload fire bending perfectly. And...and that's it. Multiple episodes worrying about fire bending and Tank just uploads it.

And here's the thing. I get its a kids show. I do, I'm well aware I'm 20 years older than the target audience. So its unfair for me to criticize the final battle coming down to "the real Avatar state was the friends we made along the way". But here's the thing. Why is it still so popular among us millennials?! Have you watched it since it aired? Does it seem like it holds up?
Also in terms of dialogue, season 3 easily has the worst, most "say don't show" exposition. It feels like the writers were just done with it and wanted it over as quickly as possible.
Also also that play episode is easily the worse episode of the series. That was cringe times cringe to the power of cringe. Like you know how the character cringe at the play? I was cringing with them - not because the play is bad, but because its almost 100% accurate in how harshly it portrays these characters. Kitara says is best when she's like "That actress is making me seem like the worst character of the show! And I'm not!" and everyone was like...yeah...yeah you are. By a mile.

Overall the show is a sold C+/B-. Season 1 was fine, season 2 has Toph and is therefore the best, and season 3 is skippable.
 

Absent

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Rick and Morty S6E3: HBO Max
Somehow, I am still loving this show.
Yeah, i do like R&M a lot. i have the superpower of liking stuff independently from their author(s). Also, I find that both R&M fans and detractors take the series WAY too seriously, analysing continuity, psychology, character growth and arks. It's just tom&jerry. It's the adventure of some misanthropic scientist, doctor who meets basil fawlty, who's (like so many characters) very clever and very dumb, sometimes amusingly right and sometimes amusingly wrong, I don't know what people are expecting of it. People don't over-analyse Garfield or any Louis de Funes character like they do this.

(Also I like it but I don't consider it has to continue. Things shoud be allowed to end and I don't think that waah-what-about-the-unresolved-plotline is an argument against that, given how pointless and sedondary these overarching plotlines are.)
 
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gorfias

Unrealistic but happy
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Yeah, i do like R&M a lot. i have the superpower of liking stuff independently from their author(s). Also, I find that both R&M fans and detractors take the series WAY too seriously, analysing continuity, psychology, character growth and arks. It's just tom&jerry. It's the adventure of some misanthropic scientist, doctor who meets basil fawlty, who's (like so many characters) very clever and very dumb, sometimes amusingly right and sometimes amusingly wrong, I don't know what people are expecting of it. People don't over-analyse Garfield or any Louis de Funes character like they do this.

(Also I like it but I don't consider it has to continue. Things shoud be allowed to end and I don't think that waah-what-about-the-unresolved-plotline is an argument against that, given how pointless and sedondary these overarching plotlines are.)
Might be wrong but I think they've tried to tell people that the series does NOT have a continuity: just enjoy each episode independently of the net. Still: I think none of the characters are from the same miltiverse instance!!! MIND BLOWN!
 

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
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So I finally finished Season 3 of Avatar the Last Airbender. Talk about ending the show on a whimper rather than a bang. Its weird this show had such a cultural impact and this final season was just...boring. Its fucking boring. And worse than regular boring, its regressive and is padding its episode count something fierce, ironically by rushing through important plot details.
So you know how in late series My Little Pony, season 5 or 6, it was really lazy to do another "Fluttershy is shy and must conquer her fears of something not frightening at all" episode and you're like...this is like the 9th or 10th time we've done this lesson, try something new.
So to with season 3 of Avatar. How many times are we going to do Aang is worried about winning, Sokka is paranoid/goofy, Toph is stubborn or Kitara is just the worst character in the show by a mile? Its like we get it, this is incredibly well-worn ground. Shouldn't we be covering new territory here? Throw in a twist where I dunno, Toph gets to see or Sokka gets bending powers. Something. It was just the same characters growing increasingly stale, having already completed their character arcs. Now its just a character circle.
Also the inclusion of that Zuko was foreseeable, and that's fine. But him teaching Aang fire bending was so fucking lazy and rushed. Does he? No, they go to the Matrix and have two dragons just upload fire bending perfectly. And...and that's it. Multiple episodes worrying about fire bending and Tank just uploads it.

And here's the thing. I get its a kids show. I do, I'm well aware I'm 20 years older than the target audience. So its unfair for me to criticize the final battle coming down to "the real Avatar state was the friends we made along the way". But here's the thing. Why is it still so popular among us millennials?! Have you watched it since it aired? Does it seem like it holds up?
Also in terms of dialogue, season 3 easily has the worst, most "say don't show" exposition. It feels like the writers were just done with it and wanted it over as quickly as possible.
Also also that play episode is easily the worse episode of the series. That was cringe times cringe to the power of cringe. Like you know how the character cringe at the play? I was cringing with them - not because the play is bad, but because its almost 100% accurate in how harshly it portrays these characters. Kitara says is best when she's like "That actress is making me seem like the worst character of the show! And I'm not!" and everyone was like...yeah...yeah you are. By a mile.

Overall the show is a sold C+/B-. Season 1 was fine, season 2 has Toph and is therefore the best, and season 3 is skippable.
Hooo boy, you done just committed heresy :p
 

SilentPony

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Hooo boy, you done just committed heresy :p
It was so baffeling. I've been watching it with friends, all of whom have seen this show I dunno, 6 times each minimum. We got to the penultimate episode, the play episode. And they were howling with laughter. Beet red faces, tears, slapping thighs, curled up on themselves laughing. At this cringe of cringe extra cringe and double cringe episode, not only 20 years old, but with bad writing and already seen half a dozen times.
And I'm sitting there, stoic, like "Please tell me this ends soon. I'm embarrassed on behalf of the writers"
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Barry S4

I'm already a little annoyed at the ending of the show, even though there're two episodes left to go. That's maybe 50 minutes or so of runtime combined. And I can't envision the next 50 minutes of Barry somehow wrapping up everything in a satisfying way. We just wasted a full episode catching up to every character after an 8 year timeskip - how many twists and turns can you pack in such a short amount of time, after taking so long to catch up to everybody? The result is that every character feels like a dead man walking. Maybe that's the point. But it's hard to be very invested when the show isn't playing by its own rules anymore.
 

Dirty Hipsters

This is how we praise the sun!
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The Peripheral - Amazon Prime

Great Sci-Fi, go watch it. No I'm not going to tell you anything else.

Also, I really hope it gets a second season.
 

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
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Ted Lasso episode 10
The show is really going all in on that sentimentalism from character to character the last few episodes, with writing all over the wall that things are coming to a close. I like the added insight and the way it makes them feel more worthy of empathy for the things previously made them irritating.

Two to go, and I’m not exactly going out on a limb in guessing they’ll save Ted for last.
 

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
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Twin Peaks

Despite being kind of a cultural landmark in television, I've never watched it until now. And yeah, I get it. Also, tons of aha erlebnis recognizing stuff that got liberally cribbed by other media.
 
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Phoenixmgs

The Muse of Fate
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Ted Lasso episode 10
The show is really going all in on that sentimentalism from character to character the last few episodes, with writing all over the wall that things are coming to a close. I like the added insight and the way it makes them feel more worthy of empathy for the things previously made them irritating.

Two to go, and I’m not exactly going out on a limb in guessing they’ll save Ted for last.
Now, I'm still enjoying the show and all but... Is it just me or has the show just taken all of this season (and part of last season) to get back to status quo? The very 1st thing that happens at the start of the episode with Nate was like "WHAT!?!?" and actually fired up the last episode thinking I'd missed/forgotten something but I didn't. I get why Nate would've done that but it's not quite is his character to do that that quickly at least. It just seems like time and more scenes were needed for that.
 
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jojithepainter

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I binged Netlifx's Ancient Apocalypse over the weekend... Meh overall
I wouldn't rush to discredit G. Hancock right out of the gate as people often do - I understand that he is not a real scientist and there's no room for debate there, but then again, neither am I - though I wish he hadn't devoted so much screen time on ranting about the academic circles not taking his claims seriously... On that note, I think that if he really wanted to be accepted by his peers, he wouldn't have went to Netflix for a "serious" documentary. (we all know how they usually end up...)
 

Xprimentyl

Made you look...
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Now, I'm still enjoying the show and all but... Is it just me or has the show just taken all of this season (and part of last season) to get back to status quo? The very 1st thing that happens at the start of the episode with Nate was like "WHAT!?!?" and actually fired up the last episode thinking I'd missed/forgotten something but I didn't. I get why Nate would've done that but it's not quite is his character to do that that quickly at least. It just seems like time and more scenes were needed for that.
I agree. Nate's recent and substantial arc was really glossed over. They missed the opportunity to delve into his journey from unwitting antagonist to prodigal son (which is clearly where they were going, as pretty much anyone with at least one eye, one ear, and half a brain knew was coming.) I still love the show, but it's taken some really Hallmark-y strides for its swan song. Season 3 has been it's weakest imho, but even that is far better than a lot of of other shows' best.
 
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Piscian

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Rick and Morty S6E3: HBO Max
Somehow, I am still loving this show. This episode had me laughing out loud. And the missus ready to commit me.
A-

I just finished season 6 the other night and I can't help but feel like the show is only improving. Theres a running joke in the show about awareness of it being a show and the problems with gags losing their charm over time. Rather than it just being a harhar injoke it seems like the writers are vocalizing that they are keenly aware of the constraints they are under and work that into making the show more amusing and original. It's one thing to make a joke about repetition and then do that repetition, but here they almost use it as a compass in their writing to keep viewers on their toes.
 
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Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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Twin Peaks

Despite being kind of a cultural landmark in television, I've never watched it until now. And yeah, I get it. Also, tons of aha erlebnis recognizing stuff that got liberally cribbed by other media.
How far into it are you? Because Season 2 gets... trying for one's patience.

I often quote "There was a fish in the percolator" just to myself.