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

[FakeSympathy]

Just finished watching Castlevania: Nocturne.

And you were right, @BrawlMan , that was a damn good thrill ride. I do think the characters weren't as interesting as the originals, but everything else was amazing. Having played multiple Castlevania games in the past, I was surprised to see HIM making a cameo in episode 5.

Oh and that reendition of Divine Bloodline? MY god....

And we just got confirmation on season 2! Hope to see Richter using "Hydro Storm!"

‘Castlevania: Nocturne’ Renewed for Season 2 at Netflix

"Castlevania: Nocturne" has been renewed for Season 2 at Netflix.

variety.com

 

[BrawlMan]

I do think the characters weren't as interesting as the originals, but everything else was amazing.

I disagree. I find the new characters just as interesting as old ones. What makes it work is none of the new characters are blatant clones in looks and personality. Richter became a more serious Joseph Joestar with an old timey Boston accent. Maria is her more serious self from SOTN, her fiery spunk from RoB, but a young adult with some innocence, and not a woman in her late 20s/early 30s. Annette they did an awesome job! She is the most serious character in the show, but she has her own agency and personality! Her origin episode is one my personal favorites. This is how you revamp a character and do something with her!

Oh and that reendition of Divine Bloodline? MY god....

YES!

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[FakeSympathy]

I disagree. I find the new characters just as interesting as old ones. What makes it work is none of the new characters are blatant clones in looks and personality. Richter became a more serious Joseph Joestar with an old timey Boston accent. Maria is her more serious self from SOTN, her fiery spunk from RoB, but a young adult with some innocence, and not a woman in her late 20s/early 30s. Annette they did an awesome job! She is the most serious character in the show, but she has her own agency and personality! Her origin episode is one my personal favorites. This is how you revamp a character and do something with her!


YES!

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hmm, maybe it was because I am currently stuck at my place and feeling sick. You're right, the characters are great, especially the villains. The build-up to Erzsebet báthory and how she actually delivered was amazing. And just like with the vampires in the original, both Drolta and Olrox had such interesting Character. I really liked Olrox in particular. The dude reminded me of Camilla, someone who's still a monster, but refuse to serve the powerful being. Maybe we'll see him teaming up with our heroes in season 2?

I did find it interesting how Maria doesn't summon the blue dragon yet, when her powers are supposed to be based on the four holy beasts in the Asian mythology

 

[Hawki]

Superman & Lois: Season 2 (3/5)

Well this was a letdown.

I quite liked season 1 because it managed to do a good job in the personal relationships side of things, as well as having the action side of things been done reasonably well, even if "evil kryptonian does evil thing" is a tired trope at this point. Season 2, however, does the same thing, but does it less well. In the personal stuff, it's there, but it has far less focus. The action stuff is absolutely bonkers to the point where I lost most of my interest in what was happening.

Anyway, could say more, just don't feel like it. Ratings are below:

Spoiler

34) The Flash: Season 7
33) Black Lightning: Season 2
32) Black Lightning: Season 1
31) Arrow: Season 8
30) Arrow: Season 3
29) Black Lightning: Season 4
28) Arrow: Season 7
27) The Flash: Season 8
26) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 6
25) The Flash: Season 5
24) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 3
23) Batwoman: Season 1
22) The Flash: Season 4
21) The Flash: Season 6
20) Stargirl: Season 2
19) The Flash: Season 3
18) Supergirl: Season 1
17) Arrow: Season 5
16) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1
15) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2
14) Arrow: Season 6
13) Supergirl: Season 2
12: Superman and Lois: Season 2
11) The Flash: Season 1
10) The Flash: Season 2
9) Supergirl: Season 3
8) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 5
7) Superman and Lois: Season 1
6) Black Lightning: Season 3
5) Arrow: Season 4
4) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 4
3) Stargirl: Season 1
2) Arrow: Season 2
1) Arrow: Season 1

 

[BrawlMan]

Two of these Castlevania analysis videos by OneTake. Check them out.

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[Gordon_4]

Foyle's War - Season 1: 10/10

Foyle's War details the work of Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, the first series taking place in 1940, on the British Home Front in the coastal town of Hastings. The show's primary purpose according to its creator was to show a much more probable version of England during the period. So Foyle spends his time, with Detective Sergeant Milner and driver WAC Samantha 'Sam' Stewart, solving murders, frauds, black market and racketeering during the early years of World War II.

The first season is a strong opener, with the middle two episodes 'The White Feather' and 'A Lesson in Murder', being the best two. The White Feather concerns the activities of Fifth Columnists while the Dunkirk Evacuation is being planned and executed. However 'A Lesson in Murder' is the episode that always stuck with me.

Spoiler

The major shot of the episode is Foyle more or less barking his way into a factory in persuit of a muder enquiry that claims to be under War Office jusrisdiction to produce munitions. A factory with no chimneys or evidence of a furnace and men with far too clean skin for machine work. Once inside it all becomes terrifyingly clear: the factory is under the auspices of the Ministry of Health. And its full of carpenters. Making coffins; stacked about ten or so high, and almost filling the warehouse. Just about five or six men, day in and day out, making coffins by hand.

But yeah, great show, went to some interesting places.

 

[Hawki]

Foyle's War - Season 1: 10/10

Foyle's War details the work of Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, the first series taking place in 1940, on the British Home Front in the coastal town of Hastings. The show's primary purpose according to its creator was to show a much more probable version of England during the period. So Foyle spends his time, with Detective Sergeant Milner and driver WAC Samantha 'Sam' Stewart, solving murders, frauds, black market and racketeering during the early years of World War II.

The first season is a strong opener, with the middle two episodes 'The White Feather' and 'A Lesson in Murder', being the best two. The White Feather concerns the activities of Fifth Columnists while the Dunkirk Evacuation is being planned and executed. However 'A Lesson in Murder' is the episode that always stuck with me.

Spoiler

The major shot of the episode is Foyle more or less barking his way into a factory in persuit of a muder enquiry that claims to be under War Office jusrisdiction to produce munitions. A factory with no chimneys or evidence of a furnace and men with far too clean skin for machine work. Once inside it all becomes terrifyingly clear: the factory is under the auspices of the Ministry of Health. And its full of carpenters. Making coffins; stacked about ten or so high, and almost filling the warehouse. Just about five or six men, day in and day out, making coffins by hand.

But yeah, great show, went to some interesting places.

As someone who's watched the entire series, I strongly recommend you stick with it, at least up until the end of WWII. There's a few seasons after it which are decent, but the WWII finale episode is a great send-off to the series.

 

[Gordon_4]

As someone who's watched the entire series, I strongly recommend you stick with it, at least up until the end of WWII. There's a few seasons after it which are decent, but the WWII finale episode is a great send-off to the series.

Oh I watched it with my family when the show was airing, we loved it. Plus you can play a great game of 'Spot the Future Famous Person'. Episode 1 had James MacAvoy and Rosamund Pike, Episode 3 had David Tennant.

Of course I had a bit of a crush on Honeysuckle Weeks, although Christ I can't imagine the grief that name caused her.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, great show. Possibly responsible for a number of period police drama imitators that came out afterwards, but none matched it.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Anyone watch Loki Season 2? I have heard very mixed things.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Anyone watch Loki Season 2? I have heard very mixed things.

Not yet but it's on "the list." I've become pickier with Marvel and its ilk but the main actor and the wackadoodle plots make this the kind of show I can enjoy even if it's dumb.

 

[Piscian]

Anyone watch Loki Season 2? I have heard very mixed things.

It's only one episode out, but it's... neat. The plot is that essentially Loki has become disintangled from any timeline and is bouncing back and forth between two or three. At the same time the multiverse is becoming so diverse that ..idk..bad things are happening? Maybe? Episode one suffers from the tbc streaming issues where it doesn't quite setup or complete anything so you're just supposed to be there for the ride. That said the dialog is strong and I look forward to the next one. Not strong enough that I won't potentially forget it's on though.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Yep- accurate to the source material

Is this really based off of something else?

Anyway, found out it's still releasing new episodes. I was really ready to rip the band aid off and be done with it, but apparently, we've just caught up and are awaiting the next episode. A part of me wants to just stop watching and wait until all episodes are out, but given I'm already lost in present time, I can't imagine it all being fresh in my mind weeks from now.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Is this really based off of something else?

Anyway, found out it's still releasing new episodes. I was really ready to rip the band aid off and be done with it, but apparently, we've just caught up and are awaiting the next episode. A part of me wants to just stop watching and wait until all episodes are out, but given I'm already lost in present time, I can't imagine it all being fresh in my mind weeks from now.

The Changeling (LaValle novel) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The author of the book is the one doing the narration that sometimes happens in the beginning or end of episodes.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

It's only one episode out, but it's... neat. The plot is that essentially Loki has become disintangled from any timeline and is bouncing back and forth between two or three. At the same time the multiverse is becoming so diverse that ..idk..bad things are happening? Maybe? Episode one suffers from the tbc streaming issues where it doesn't quite setup or complete anything so you're just supposed to be there for the ride. That said the dialog is strong and I look forward to the next one. Not strong enough that I won't potentially forget it's on though.

Did you like the last season?

 

[Gordon_4]

More of Foyle's War

Series 2 and 3 are solid, 8/10 each experiences. They covered topics such as the Lend Lease program with the United States, wartime profiteering, home grown Nazis, Funk Holes - hotels where the rich and influential or useless bunkered down - and the effects of PTSD and medical rehabilitation for badly wounded men: a burns unit featured prominently. There's also a rather heartbreaking episode about a homosexual fighter pilot that, well, ended as well as could be expected.

I'm onto series 4 now. Its 1941 and the US Army has arrived in Hastings. Now, this could have - and in a lesser series, would have - been an easy target for loads of gross stereotyping and pot shots. Luckily, Horowitz is a better calibre of showrunner. The younger American soldiers are at the time a jovial bunch of young Jack-the-Lads, but they're an Engineering regiment here to build an airbase, but their commanding officer Captain Keifer is a very decent, level headed man. There absolutely is tension: locals who are put off by their jovial attitudes, what they perceive as flaunting all their food and money. Not for nothing did the phrase "Overpaid, oversexed and over here" spring into existence. But its less out of a desire to tear down the Americans than it is to demonstrate the effect of rationing, the bombings, the sons and husbands and brothers dying over the past two years on the locals.

My only disappointment, although its probably a very good dramatic decision since it would have been very contrived, was that the previous series' established that Andrew Foyle (DCS Foyle's RAF Spitfire pilot son) and driver Sam Stewart were in a relationship but the first episode of this series undoes that. It not done unrealistically; Andrew is posted miles away, and he met someone else and told Sam by letter. I can imagine there's hundreds of stories just like that in real life during the war.


All in all still a great show. The main cast's chemistry is amazing.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

After seeing a variety of internet takes along the lines of "Ahsoka was a teenager in the Clone Wars, of course she's going to be more mature and less bubbly as an adult, etc etc".

Which, yes, but it made me go back and watch her appearances in Mandalorian and Boba Fett. She is not nearly as stoic and dour in those episodes than she is in her own show.

I guess the idea was to have her be such a downer in the first half of the season until her Gandalf the White moment, but the difference in her character felt relatively negligible.

 

[gorfias]

@SilentPony wrote something in another thread that reminded me about Season 1 E1 on Discovery+ of "Buying the Bayou". 3 boys that hunt gators for a living want to buy a house in the bayou together. They all sound like Boomhauer from "King of the Hill". In the end they buy a ramshackle fixer upper needing a ton of work for like $50K. It is surrounded by mud, gators and swamp and they couldn't be happier, whooping it up and hollering with joy running towards a home they know they will love and have a lot of fun partying in. I think it even had a gator skinning station. My feminist daughter rolled her eyes growling, "men".

 

[Piscian]

Loki Season 2E2

*sigh* I think Marvel has finally jumped the shark on the multiverse timeline stuff. There's a big emotional scene in Episode 2 regarding timelines being destroyed and it's like really important that the audience cares. They do the music and everything. The problem is that this scene was immediately preceded by another scene talking about how there's too many timelines and were all gonna die so freak out!

I sat there flabbergasted because I honestly couldn't remember if more timelines was supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing when this show started.

I actually had to go look it up to clarify for myself that the TVA pruning timelines was a bad thing and they killed the guy Kang who was keeping one (...or...some?) timelines, but then that guy warned if theres too many or too many bad one's his counterparts will invade the multiverse.

So I think I'm at least clear on that, but by episode 2 they are desperately trying to keep there from being too many timelines, which if nothing else, undercuts the weight of this episode.

I can't recall if the TVA people knew they were killing universes by pruning or not, I'll give the show credit and assume they didn't so maybe universes being destroyed is more sad now, but they had no problems when deleting individuals in season one so.....

The point I'm making here is that I'm just kinda deflated on the whole mess. As much as I like some of the dialog a lot of it doesn't work. Multiple times in this episode they decidedly change Loki's personality to fit either a gag or to add drama in scenes and at this point he's turned into a Chris Pratt. He's a nothing action guy with bland motivations. Is he a villain with a heart of gold? Is he's a reluctant villain? Is he's a straight up misunderstood good guy? Who knows, depends on what the scene needs.


That's enough for me. I'll check in to see what you folks think when it's over. I can't muster the interest in sticking with it.

 

[Cheetodust]

So Fall of the House of Usher was... pretty good I guess. I love Flanagan's work. Hill House is up there as my favourite mini series of all time and the guy's Stephen King adaptations are the best out there but I have to say, this is his weakest yet besides Midnight Club (which I never really gave a chance tbh).

There's a lot of great performances in it and the overall story is pretty good but, while Hill House and Bly Manor felt like good modern adaptations/retellings/whatever you would characterise them as of their original creators' works, Usher kinda felt bogged down by it. The other two felt looser and more free. A bunch of awkwardly shoe horned in quotes from Poe's poetry (the bust of Pallas is above the mantel, so why does Roderick say it's "above my chamber door"?) Hill House is my favourite novel and I enjoyed The Turn of The Screw and despite being more familiar with those works than I am with Poe I found the allusions to them less jarring. Like I was able to recognise the parts taken directly from Poe's work, not because I recognised them themselves, but because that was when the show started stumbling to fit in lines and quotes that felt out of place so I knew they had to be taken directly from Poe's writing.

Its politics, despite being largely in-line with my own, feel really forced in. I could have done without the Trump reference for instance. Which is another thing, it directly references real world things like Goop, Trump and Tik Tok in a way that just feels like they're really gonna date the show in about 10 years time. They maybe could have been a bit more broad when referencing the real, modern world. Talking about social media itself rather than specific apps. Fitness/health and lifestyle grifts/borderline cults are a huge problem and I think are enough of an issue of the modern day to be deserving of satire but I think focusing on Goop will make it less of a timeless critique of the early 21st century than a more general take on the monster diet culture has become would. Midnight Mass uses 9/11 to frame what it was like to be Muslim in 00's America and that works because 9/11 was a huge tragedy that probably will define that decade in the history books when our kids have kids. But Goop? Do we really think Goop is going to be a thing we're still talking about in 20 years time?

An example of this done well is how it tackles animal testing for medical equipment. One character leaves a bunch of dead chimps in her wake and while I was waiting for a throwaway reference to Neuralink it never came. Which was a relief because, fuck Elon Musk, but that problem is bigger than him.

It tries very hard to have a take on modern capitalism but I think by being too specific in its targets it runs the risk of being full of things future generations will maybe know nothing about. Rather than these references making the show a critique of the 2010's/2020's it's just going to leave it filled with dated references that detract from the point it's trying to make.

Every performance in it is stellar though. Nobody let's the show down there. It's got the signature Flanagan monologuing without feeling like a drag the way Midnight Mass did. Almost every character is a bastard but is still somewhat relatable or at least you understand why they are the way they are. They're not awful in a two-dimensional way. They are just very broken people. Everyone in this show deserves recognition for their performances. And a couple of the individual storylines are amazing. Episodes 2 and 5 really stood out to me. It's definitely worth a watch in that regard.