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

[Johnny Novgorod]

Still watching The Shrink Next Door. It's a very depressing watch, even with Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd giving it a comedy veneer. And it gets a bit repetitive too - every episode is about Dr. Ike seizing a chunk of Mark's life with little to no pushback from his victims. Here's how he conned him out of his job. And here's how he conned him out of his money. And here's how he conned him out of his house. And here's how he sabotaged his relationship with his sister. And here's how he conned him into chopping down the old family tree. Etc. Depressing stuff.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Little Bird

A Canadian miniseries about an indigenous woman who as a girl in the late 60s was taken away from her family, along with her siblings, as part of a real life government practice where child protective services would deem native children poor and give them to other adoptive families. This phenomenon is called the Sixties Scoop and you know when something has a name it's all too common. The character and family here is fictional but I think somewhat inspired by the writers' lives.
The character's adoptive mother is Jewish and is consequently raised in an upper middle class Jewish culture, until her impending wedding and childhood memories motivate her to go and find her biological family and what exactly happened to them.

So certainly this is some Serious stuff with brutal emotions and themes and it is unabashedly making a point to educate its viewers. I didn't know about the Sixties Scoop so it worked. Fortunately, it's also really well produced and paced and acted. My wife cried and inspired us to have intense conversations about some its topics (we are different cultural backgrounds). While intense I don't think it's like misery porn like some other Serious shows or movies so I would very highly recommend this to anyone looking for some for-real drama.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Watchmen - the HBO series

Own copy

Rating: 6/10


Synopsis:
30 years after the events of the Watchmen comic we see what the world has become and following Angela Abar a masked police detective in an alternative history Tulsa as she deal with the actions of the 7th kavalry members who all wear the Rorschach mask and are planning something big.


Thoughts in a Tagline: A most beautifully crafted brilliant looking painting of a man dying from having his throat slit.

Thoughts (Basically non spoiler version): So how do you carry on Watchmen? A somewhat deconstruction of comic book characters showing why in the real world they wouldn't be quite so heroic? Well you deconstruct Watchmen of course. It's beautifully done with surprisingly high quality special effects that would put a modern Disney Marvel film to shame (see what happens if you give VFX artists more time) and beautiful cinematography and shot composition. With what I've just said and looking back at the score you might be thinking something is off here and well the reason for the score I'm giving 5 just for the quality of VFX and cinematography and even costume work. I'm giving it a 1 for the story which in 9 episodes of basically asking "OK so which Watchmen character was your favourite?" then kicking you in the nuts after you answer. Oh and it does it with a real sense of anger and bitterness about it with one episode even opening with a note seemingly from the writer or writers saying "If you don't like the story write your own".

For all the cinematography the story seems to want to be about something but it really does feel like some-ones excuse to basically yell "But Watchmen didn't talk about the [current year] political issues I care about so I will now make it do so and I'll make your care". Oh and in case you're wondering what I mean and why there's another spoiler section marked political and social commentary below to give you an idea a villain unironically argues to the camera that reparations shouldn't happen repeating actual arguments that have been made against it............... no really.

Both sections below contain spoilers


Spoiler thoughts:

Spoiler: More in depth thoughts

This was a slog to get through because it's very clear the show wants you to love Angela and think she's the most amazing person ever, I mean she's pretty great and would be fine and liked on her own merits but the show seemingly has to make sure you know she's awesome and the best and any time the show suspects you might be starting to like another character more then bam it will make them worse. As an example one character who seems damn cool gets turned into a basically tin foil hat wearing paranoid survivalist. The show also wants you to think it's deep and meaningful, maybe it is if you've not seen any other media tackle this issue ever but in [current year] it seems so much media either is about it or people are yelling about said media not doing something about it that it doesn't feel like it's deep and meaningful when it's just a slightly edited repeat of the same dance.

Oh but you might think it's fine there will be some returning characters from Watchmen right? There are. They're all made to be characters that feel designed to be see and pretty awful no matter which side you may have thought right in Watchmen or liked.

Silk Spectre is now an FBI agent who hunts down other vigilantes because vigilantes are banned in this future world, and and her and Nite Owl aren't together anymore because he was arrested and thrown in jail. Oh and she still pines for Dr Manhattan.

Ozymandias is a psychopathic narcissist with no care for anyone else seeing everyone just as there to serve his whims

Dr Manhattan well the series basically chastises him for not using his powers to do more to fix the world.

Rorschach is dead and his journal mentions but the series has a character go "Yeh no-one care about that" and that sets the tone for it, no-one does care. The 7 kavalry who literally wear Rorschach masks don't seem to care they're basically a mix of the KKK and modern conspiracy nutters mixing Rorschach lines about watching away the film with racist comments about getting rid of black people.

Oh and the show really annoyingly starts off with a recurring saying / symbolism of people saying "Tik, Tok" only to have two characters say it part way through as an insane red herring because when you're creating a show based on a comic with recurring elements and details and symbols it's so lovely to throw stuff like that in as another fuck you to the audience isn't it?

Political and Social commentary

Spoiler: Don't say I didn't warn you this would get political

So to blow the whole load here up front Watchmen is about racism and taking down the totally not KKK who have been behind everything so many times using mind control tech or behind the scenes pulling of strings. The story is in part about Angela's Grand Father who was a survivor or the Tulsa race massacre and his anger and eventual personal mission to take down totally not the KKK organisation Cyclops.

The show seems to hate everyone who isn't black.

Smart Asian woman - yeh evil weird narcissist

Politicians - All two faced monsters.

Vigilantes - cowards hiding under masks because of their inability to let go of some personal trauma.

One of the earlier recurring elements of the show is meant to be an in show TV show alleged a biographical tale of Hooded Justice the first masked hero only for revelation in the show that while the in show TV show has Hooded Justice as a white guy he was actually Black and had to pretend to be white because racism.

Oh and the show even has a line about how hard it is being a white male in America today come from one of the villains.

The only thing the show seems to not hate is police, as long as they're pointed at the right targets which is anyone deemed racist and the way the show has them deemed racist? they show affinity for symbols of Americarna. No really.

Also if you have the show ending with Anegla potentially being given the powers of Dr Manhattan but it it ending of a cliff hanger as to if she got them or not then you've nearly got a full bingo card I'd imagine.

Oh I almost forgot the show seems to hate the comics industry too with the Minute Men in this being very clearly made out to be corporate shills basically except Hooded Justice and not caring about actual issues. This can be seen as a bit of a Meta commentary about the idea of comics not caring about actual issues, by which the show means race and only race because it's villains who care about nuclear disarmament or fixing the environment btw. The whole Cyclops as KKK stand it too is a shot at the comics industry and how it's not really taken many shots like that since the day of Superman vs the Legion of the burning cross...... no really that was a thing in the Super Hero world at one point in a radio play and it's seen by some that the comics industry coward back from that kind of issue based story since those times.

I'm sorry but do we need more shows that about or allegories for race issues now? Because to me this doesn't come off as big and important now it comes off and repetitive story telling themes with little imagination for new ones. Watchman (at least the Zack Snyder film) comes off with characters being far more morally grey and about ideological conflict, meanwhile the HBO series has far clearer villains and heroes with no moral grey area at all really.

 

[Eacaraxe]

Political and Social commentary

There's a reason I consider the Watchmen show Part II of the "SJW Writers Accidentally Making the Exact Opposite Point as Intended" trilogy (TLJ being Part I, and TLoU2 being Part III). Basically the only real thesis you can derive from that show, is "fascism is actually pretty cool if we're the ones in power".

My favorite part was when they shouted from the rooftops "Watchmen is about how vigilantism and fascism are interconnected!"...then proceeded to retcon Hooded Justice away from being an East German Nazi sympathizer, as if Hooded Justice and the ambiguity surrounding him wasn't the Rosetta stone for unlocking the entire metaphor. Then proceeded to not figure out the whole "anti-Communism is fascism by any other name" and "the US government is the greatest repository of fascism in the world" themes, by turning Laurie of all characters into Comedian 2.0 -- without a shade of self-awareness or irony.

Ain't even touching the completely inadvertent "Laurie's into BBC, lol!" shit.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I wish I could remember the details of HBO's Watchmen to argue with you guys lol. I remember liking it in large part because I am generally skeptical of non-canonical resurrections and continuations of things, and especially something that was already a meta-commentary and incredibly of its very specific time. And it didn't suck, so I liked it.

 

[BrawlMan]

Okay hasn't posted a new episode in 2 years.

​

 

[gorfias]

Peacemaker: Season 1 (3/5)

I really didn't like this series. If not for the last 25% being better than the preceeding 75%, there's a strong chance this would be in "bad" territory. But even if the ending is stronger than the beginning, I really don't have much to say here.

Anyway, yeah. Peacemaker is set in the DCEU (though season 2 will be in the DCU), leading on from The Suicide Squad (not Suicide Squad, because that's how we roll), dealing with the character of Pacemaker (sorry, Peacemaker) being recruited by a bunch of idiots to deal with an alien invasion of butterflies. Yes, that's the premise, and while I could certainly elaborate on more, I don't have much desire to. It's crass characters with crass dialogue, engaging in crass humour, where despite being idiots (sufficie to say, Amanda Waller didn't pick the best and brightest of Task Force X), they still succeed. Some of the insanity works (such as with Vigilante), but much of it just got tiring.

I could say more, for better or worse, but I really can't be bothered. The one thing I'll praise the show for unequivocably is its music - the opening dance number is bonkers (in a good way), but the use of music is well done throughout the series as a whole. This is especially seen with the "Beautiful Monster" sequence, and the ending theme/sequence. But as a whole? Not much to write home about.

Sorry you didn't love it. I give it a 8.5/10. I compare it to Obi-Wan Kenobi. One was product. Peacemaker? They wanted to make something fun. The opening alone shows the joy, artistry, the effort to give us something fun. And Vigilante? I collected his comics back in the day. He stole the show.

 

[Hawki]

Sorry you didn't love it. I give it a 8.5/10. I compare it to Obi-Wan Kenobi. One was product. Peacemaker? They wanted to make something fun. The opening alone shows the joy, artistry, the effort to give us something fun. And Vigilante? I collected his comics back in the day. He stole the show.

You might want to check my review of Obi-Wan, I didn't think much of it either. But while Peacemaker was definitely a passion project (Gunn wrought it in lockdown IIRC), that doesn't automatically make it good.

Vigilante was fun, I agree there though.

 

[meiam]

Okay hasn't posted a new episode in 2 years.

​

I did a double take on that one when it showed up in youtube feed. I'm gonna guess it was mostly finished a long time ago and just needed a bit of editing to finish.

Then again some old timer did sometime come back from nowhere like Zefrank making new video after multiple year.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Futurama (new season on Hulu): Fine / Great

It's fine; it's more Futurama, which isn't a bad thing. I'll given that show this: it is consistent. It knows exactly what it wants to be, and has stayed that course almost without fail, no matter how many times it gets cancelled and rebooted. It's also a bit charming that it won't stay dead, and that everyone involved has been willing to come back each time.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Jack Ryan Season 4

I feel like I'm being gaslit. Didn't season three *just* come out? Not that I'm complaining.

Season one was basically 24, then seasons two-three went Dan Brown level of batshit (with the third one being the fun one) and now season four brings the show full circle to what kinda reminds me of the Harrison Ford movies (especially the one where Joachim de Almeida plays the bad guy). It's fun so far. I think the show benefits from shorter seasons, and I like to see Abbie Cornish (back) and Michael Peña, though they're really bending over backwards to give Cathy Ryan something relevant to do.

 

[Casual Shinji]

1. The theme song is composed by Iggy Fucking Pop.

In one of the episodes they transform themselves into rockstars, and one of them looks like Iggy Pop and the other like Mick Jagger.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

I wish I could remember the details of HBO's Watchmen to argue with you guys lol. I remember liking it in large part because I am generally skeptical of non-canonical resurrections and continuations of things, and especially something that was already a meta-commentary and incredibly of its very specific time. And it didn't suck, so I liked it.

Same, I remember really liking it but can't remember enough to actually have a discussion.

 

[Worgen]

Good Omens season 2. The first season was awesome the second is... mixed. It starts off really strong and then drags in the middle with these weird asides to past events with Crowley and Aziraphale, which are good, but go on too long. Before spoilers, it feels like they had a pretty solid 3 episode series but wanted 6 episodes out of it.

Spoiler

Starts off very strong with the mystery about Gabriel appearing naked with no memory outside Aziraphale's shop. But in the middle episodes it keeps doing these scenes from the past starting with Job... Jobe... bible person that god let hell punish so he could win a bet by taking all his stuff and that he would keep his faith. It starts off really strong but then goes on way too long and even has Crowley actually just fool heaven and not kill Jobe's animals or children. There are 3 of these past vignettes and only the body stealing one is good the whole way through, but it still goes on a bit too long. The Jobe and nazi zombie ones would be better if they were 1/3rd the length or even just more of a family guy type aside. One of the big annoyances with them is they take away from the more interesting mystery.

There is also a lesbian record seller and barista that Crowley and Aziraphale decide to make fall in love since they are trying to use a love miracle to cover up a bigger miracle they did together to hide Gabriel, since heaven says they will send someone to check on it, but both heaven and hell are kinda stupid, they didn't need to bother. The two are kinda fun characters, even though the barista's current girlfriend is an overwhelming piece of crap we only see through text messages, it really feels like she only exists to make Crowley and Aziraphale's (mainly Aziraphale's) little hook up plan seem justified.

The final episode is half awesome and half... not. Like the first half is good enough that it almost redeems all the issues of the rest of the episodes. Then it drops the ball and we end up with an annoying kinda cliff hanger into a possible season 3 that I'm not sure I care about. In the first half we find out what happens with Gabrial's memory and find that he decided he wasn't down with an end of the world plan and peaced out before heaven could replace him with someone who was more interested in ending the world, because bureaucracy. It doesn't make much sense if you think about it, but we also find out that Beelzebub and Gabriel were... not dating but hanging out and kinda in hots with each other, which is fucken cute. The problem comes when after that is wrapped up, the episode keeps going, the lesbian's who have kinda hooked up but not really since the barista is on rebound, confront Crowley and make him realize he gay loves Aziraphale, but Aziraphale is offered Gabriel's old position. Crowley and Aziraphale have a very forced kiss, but Aziraphale want's to take the job and Crowley wants them to just fuck off together so they get angry and both go their separate ways. Now.... I did get there was a deep friendship between Crowley and Aziraphale, but gay... no, nothing between them felt romantic, it felt best friendish and I kinda feel it was originally written that way then changed to gay last minute.

In short, because of the missteps it feels like season 2 really didn't need to happen and I don't think I care if they do a season 3. But, season 1 is still really good.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Sherwood

BBC miniseries about a mining town that in the 80s had a conflict about striking and in the present a couple murders dredges up old conflicts. So it’s a community/political drama dressed up as a murder mystery.

solid british tv drama storytelling, nothing particularly standing out but if you’re into this kind of thing you won’t be disappointed

This Fool
Comedy about Mexican Americans in LA running a criminal rehab center. I really like these kinds of ethnic/cultural voiced comedies like Rammy and Reservation Dogs so this is up my alley. The humor is sillier than those.

 

[09philj]

There's a reason I consider the Watchmen show Part II of the "SJW Writers Accidentally Making the Exact Opposite Point as Intended" trilogy (TLJ being Part I, and TLoU2 being Part III). Basically the only real thesis you can derive from that show, is "fascism is actually pretty cool if we're the ones in power".

My favorite part was when they shouted from the rooftops "Watchmen is about how vigilantism and fascism are interconnected!"...then proceeded to retcon Hooded Justice away from being an East German Nazi sympathizer, as if Hooded Justice and the ambiguity surrounding him wasn't the Rosetta stone for unlocking the entire metaphor. Then proceeded to not figure out the whole "anti-Communism is fascism by any other name" and "the US government is the greatest repository of fascism in the world" themes, by turning Laurie of all characters into Comedian 2.0 -- without a shade of self-awareness or irony.

Ain't even touching the completely inadvertent "Laurie's into BBC, lol!" shit.

Everyone remembers Rorschach but for me Dan Dreiberg is the heart and soul of Watchmen because his conflict is the same one happening in the subtext - he knows that being a superhero is silly and dangerous in many ways but it's also inescapably cool on some level, and he wants to do it. He has power, in the form of his money and technology, and uses it to help people (Such as saving them from the fire), not just to assault wrongdoers. Plus he's one of the few characters, arguably the only character, who's ended up on a path of lesser harm by being a superhero; his engineering skills could have been put to far worse use in the cold war military industrial complex, but he instead used them to go out and apprehend minor criminals.

 

[SilentPony]

Okay so I've been keeping up with the My Adventures with Superman show, and yeah its pretty good. Lois found out Clark is Superman fairly early, their relationship is starting, Jimmy is cool with it, Clark is slowly building up his powers and...
And then there was this episode.

Mr Myxlplyx comes in, and you know what, he's a fun character. And then the Multiversal League of Lois Lanes comes in who are, you guessed it, slightly sinister and all controlling protectors of the Multiverse who travel the dimensions making sure events that are supposed to take place, kinda like canonical events, take place, and stopping interdimensional threats that may alter reality, like Mr. Myxlplyx. And of course My Adventures with Superman's dimension is a previously uncharted one, with a potentially deviant version of Clark, who may be the Prime Injustice version of Superman. And of course the leader is a dark and grizzled Lois who treats the show's Lois with barely contained contempt, and dismisses her fears over killing her Superman, and of course is seen as a deviant herself for not winning a Pulitzer Prize by the time she's 21. And they travel dimensions, see alternate cartoon versions of Lois and Clark, but one of the alternate Jimmy's has a little crush on the main Jimmy and helps the main team escape and my eyes just glaze over and I completely check out.
I get that Marvel is doing the multiverse thing, but this naked, blatant copying is just undignified. In the past 2 years we've gotten the TVA, the sinister guardians of the Prime universe, the Council of Kangs, the sinister conquerors of the Multiverse, the Spider Society, the sinister guardians of the multiverse, and Iluminati, the Sinister Guardians of the Multiverse, the Watchers, the Sinister watchers of the Multiverse, Super Ultron, the Sinister Conqueror of the Multiverse, and now the League of Lois Lane, the Sinter Guardians of the Multiverse.
Maybe this is my own version of Super Hero fatigue, but I'm getting a little tired of the guardians of the multiverse trope.
And this was episode 7! Of the first season!

Clark, Jimmy and Lois are still cute, huzzah they finally kissed, and it'll be interesting to see what Lois does now that she has a kryptonite bullet.

 

[Chimpzy]

Watched Twisted Metal. It's surprisingly not terrible. But I wouldn't call it good either. Not really. But it's kinda fun, just this big dumb loud & gory romp. And sometimes that's enough. Oh, and speaking of big dumb loud, Sweet Tooth's a hoot.

 

[gorfias]

Painkiller on Netflix E1 only so far:

Telling the Oxycontin story again just done on Hulu with the excellent "Dopesick".
This, in the age of Covid, is an extremely important story of how big $ interests, particularly in this case, big pharma, can harm us all to follow insane high profits while coopting big government to aid them.

So far, more than Dopesick, this is much more raw. Matthew Broderick's Richard Sackler comes across much sleazier than did Dopesick's version of this character. In Dopesick, he comes across as eccentric and really wants to ease people's pain and continues on well after he should have known they were causing social havoc and destroying more lives than could be justified. I got to see the deposition of Richard Sackler in real life. He was just scum and therefore, Painkiller appears to be on the closer track.

The family is funny in this telling too. In Dopesick, they come across as dignified socialites trying to cling to fame and fortune. In Painkiller, they come across as MAX show, "Righteous Gemstones" in full fight or flight mode, choosing fight. With each other.

One thing that could bite them

Spoiler

in Dopesick, a young woman is injured, and is prescribed Oxycontin. She could be anyone. She becomes addicted. In Painkiller, we see a car mechanic (Taylor Kitsch) damn near paralyzed, requiring back surgery, can barely walk and is in intense pain. The problem is that this guy could have become addicted to any kind of painkiller. He is a tragic mess. We'll see how it plays out but the concern is I could see it making out that those that became addicted were either drug abusers to begin with, or someone in that much pain they could be addicted to any pain killer. Again, in "Dopesick" one can be certain, it was the drug. The young woman never should have become hooked which makes the drug a much more central villain in the story.

So far, a B+

EDIT: Dopesick trailer

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Invincible: Atom Eve

(prime video)

Score: 6/10

Synopsis:
A prequel to the Invincible series giving the backstory for Atom Eve


Thoughts:
So I think Atom Eve is a cool character in the series and this prequel only made her seem cooler because the the Science nerd aspect but I feel like this episode didn't really work that well as we got some sort of greatest hits moments but it feels like we could have done with more. We have Eve tell about how the kids at her prestigious school are kind of snobby, this really does break the whole story idea of show don't tell. We also don't get much of the impact of her changing schools later on. In terms of fights we get basically her first real fight and what feels like a bigger ending fight but we don't get full power Eve until very near the end in a sort of non fight sequence.