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

[Phoenixmgs]

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off - 5/10

I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't care for this show much. The show did start to feel like it was just all references akin to Ready Player One to where it felt like the writer is like "I like all this stuff and you guys probably do to so that makes it good, right?" to the point where they even reference the Cornetto Trilogy with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost eating Cornetto ice cream cones like I'm supposed to notice that and be impressed with how awesome that reference is on its own. Also, I didn't care for some of the general anime cliches (as I hate anime cliches) and the show even features an actual anime at one point that is just anime cliches but not in the funny way like Excel Saga. Also, overall the episodes are kinda all over the place in quality as some of the dialogue is just bad and doesn't flow well at all (I almost hated the 1st episode because it's just a retread of the movie but not nearly as good) and other times it does flow well enough and is genuinely funny and entertaining.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Hell yeah.

I really like what they've been doing with the producer character (who IRL co-write/create the actual show) these last couple episodes as well.

Were you already a fan of Nathan Fielder's previous stuff- Nathan For You and The Rehearsal? If not and you like this kind of "I wanna die but lol" humor and drama check it out.

The episode he went on the date was awesome in the same sense as the rest of the show.

I have not seen any of those. I'll put them on my list to check out, though I do have so many shows on that list already.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

The Curse - 1st 6 episodes - 10/10

I'm absolutely loving this show. The show is awkward and cringe to the nth degree. It's about a couple that is doing a reality show (the show isn't a reality show btw) about flipping houses and making them passive energy houses (that barely require any energy to cool/heat/etc). An example of how cringe basically every scene is, the husband of the couple bought a house at an auction and he goes over to the house to check it out and all, that seems perfectly normal and all that. However, we see from inside the house that 2 kids are living in the house and he knocks and they don't answer obviously, so then the husband starts drilling off deadbolt lock to get in as you see the kids panicking. The husband gets in eventually obviously and then starts trying to explain to the kids, the kids start running (makes sense for them), and he starts chasing them to tell them it's OK and all that. The kids run to a neighbor and the neighbor holds the husband there to wait for the cops because the husband comes off as super sketching. That's like every single scene in the show and I love it.

So, kinda like Curb but less comedy/more drama? Been curious about this one but want to get through Hijack first. Gotta be one of the most awkwardly paced/scripted/acted shows I’ve seen in a while. Like, I want to see what ultimately happens (on episode 6 so far) but the show is barely hanging on by a thread getting there. It’s structured in real time like 24, where each episode represents an hour, but even at less than a third of its length let alone nine seasons it’s really struggling to maintain a similar element of suspense and tension.

The main character has been in a similar situation before with Beast, but at least there he had (most of) a family to play off of. There was also The Mountain Between Us where he had a clearly defined goal to strive for. Here he’s basically delegated to being a middle man and literally seems to be breaking the fourth wall in waiting for this show to literally be over. The villains and staff appear equally clueless. Granted being hijacked falls under extenuating circumstances but I think the movie format has proven kinder to this subgenre. All things considered the suspense that could be felt on a plane ride holds up better when it doesn’t have to be stretched over half dozen or more episodes.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I watched the first episode of Blue Eye Samurai, and while it's pretty good there's something a little off about it. The fact that I'm watching a setting that I'm so used to being told from a Japanese perspective now told from a Western one has a lot to do with it. There's certain character tropes, particularly with the comic relief guy with no hands, that come across rather foreign (no pun intended) in this setting. There was also the princess character who I can assume was raised to be obedient and subservient, but then still has a scene where she's shown to be openly "disrespectful" to her father. And it came across as suddenly forgoing the culture of the setting this story takes place in to relay to the audience that this woman is rebelious and not happy with her current place in life.

The voice acting also feels kinda off in how modern it sounds. Now ofcourse, the voice acting being english is already off for a story set in Japan, but within that parameter you can still give it the proper inflection, which feels missing a lot of the time. The biggest immersion demolisher though was that montage that straight-up lifts the most ill-fitting track from Kill Bill. And it's not like the episode was trying to go for a similar vibe at all - it was very dedicated in being true to the period, music included. So this track choice was just fucking baffling.

It was still good though. Visually it was very pretty, and I liked how everyone, even the nice people and the main character, are locked into this racism toward foreigners. Here the show does stick to the culture like glue, and doesn't have any character (born into this culture) not be racist for the sake of making sure the audience knows they're the good guys and that racism is indeed bad. The main character talks about their mixed race as evil and cursed without any heavy handed overcorrecting from themselves or any of the other characters. Here the show trusts the audience to read in between the lines and understand what's going on.

Also, I enjoyed the rather frank nudity. This usually being a story I see in anime form, it was surprising to observe casual dong and bitties.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

So, kinda like Curb but less comedy/more drama?

No.. Curb, despite its emphasis on awkward situations and difficult people, is still a classic broad comedy. The Curse is a comedy by virtue in genre name but it's really its own thing.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Gilded Age season 2

As I wrapped the recent second season I realized I had been violating one of my sort of personal entertainment rules- hate-watching.

The show fucking sucks, honestly. And obviously I don't mean in terms of pure quality- production, acting, whatever- it's HBO, it's all very pretty to look at and well acted and blah blah blah. But this show, which is about the cultural and economic shift in New York from the "old" money colonial class to the robber-baron new-money class, from the perspective of two such families, is such a blow job to wealth that it pisses me off.

And the funny thing is, it pays lip service to the rest- there are black characters! Domestic workers! Even a labor movement represented this season!
But it's all perfunctory. It's there to not get canceled.

One of the central plot points this season is the opening of the Metropolitan Opera, which I did not know was seen as a challenge to the established Academy Hall of Music at the time. So the "opera wars" is a dramatic focus of the kind of parlor-room domestic politicking that attracted people to this show's spiritual predecessor Downton Abbey.
The other but related problem with this show is that there is actually no drama or conflict with stakes. They constantly present scenarios but then resolve them immediately. The result is to convey to me that the wealth and splendor of these people are ill-gained and should be destroyed. But that is not the show's intention- that is the artistic choice to present this world in all its glory but combined with the lack of weighty stories just amplifies my own political "eat the rich" sentiments.

There was a great scene in the last episode of The Curse where one character finally manages to demonstrate to another the value of drama and conflict and friction in a piece of entertainment. The Gilded Age could have listened to that lesson. At least DA, for all its equally pro-wealth-inequality tone, had some real dramatic stakes (I quit that show halfway through season 2).

The show was fun at first because of the visuals and cast and watching it with my wife, but I soured on it during season 2 and I doubt I'll be coming back for season 3. The season finale in particular did such drama-canceling deus ex machina plot resolution to keep the status quo that I felt insulted.

I'm kind of annoyed that there are these shows that are geared towards women but started smart enough to appeal to wider audiences with sophisticated setups but then give up on what made them interesting and just lean back into Jane Austin knock-off clichés: Outllander, Abbey, and now this. And yeah I'm aware GA and DA are run by the same guy so that's just his thing.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

So, kinda like Curb but less comedy/more drama? Been curious about this one but want to get through Hijack first. Gotta be one of the most awkwardly paced/scripted/acted shows I’ve seen in a while. Like, I want to see what ultimately happens (on episode 6 so far) but the show is barely hanging on by a thread getting there. It’s structured in real time like 24, where each episode represents an hour, but even at less than a third of its length let alone nine seasons it’s really struggling to maintain a similar element of suspense and tension.

The main character has been in a similar situation before with Beast, but at least there he had (most of) a family to play off of. There was also The Mountain Between Us where he had a clearly defined goal to strive for. Here he’s basically delegated to being a middle man and literally seems to be breaking the fourth wall in waiting for this show to literally be over. The villains and staff appear equally clueless. Granted being hijacked falls under extenuating circumstances but I think the movie format has proven kinder to this subgenre. All things considered the suspense that could be felt on a plane ride holds up better when it doesn’t have to be stretched over half dozen or more episodes.

No, it would be more like the UK Office (or even American Office to a lesser degree) than something like Curb. The weird thing is I wouldn't consider The Curse to be a comedy so the comparison is kinda hard to make. I'm guessing the main thing it's like is Nathan Fielder's other works that Old_Hunter mentioned that I haven't seen myself. I'd say from the 1st episode, you'll know if it's something for you or not pretty fast. At least for me, it clicked right away and I feel like if you don't like it, it will also click right away in that regard too.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Sweet Home - 1 episode - Shit/10

It's a South Korean horror TV show I guess. I watched the 1st episode of this show last night and it's complete shit and will not be watching more. Why do so many Asian media of all kinds have main characters that suck so much ass. It's like these characters are written as completely blank slates that the audience could project themselves upon like in video games when silent protagonists were the bee's knees. I want an interesting character to watch and follow and not some blank slate character that is boring as ass. The main character in this show is probably the most boring of them all. One of the 1st scenes is him standing on the edge of a tall building contemplating suicide and there's a chick practicing ballet and then changes his mind. The chick asks him if the gum she stepped in was his and a few other questions and he just answers "No" to every one of them instead of actually striking up a conversation. The rest of the characters are all rather off-putting as well. Some of the scenes don't even really make sense either. One scene, the main character is in his room playing a video game with a headset on, but then you mainly hear the sounds from this other lady's room (above him I believe) but why... Is that supposed to be showing us that the main character is annoyed by the noise, but he has headphones on so why would he be hearing it though.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

South Park: Not Suitable for Children - 10/10

This time South Park tackles social media and the commentary is as biting as usual. In one scene, influencers get auctioned off to the highest bidding company/organization like Mattel and then Voices for Ukraine joins the bidding and the auctioneer is like "don't let them outbid you Russia"

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Fisk - Episode 1 - 4/10

This is an Australian comedy show about a probate lawyer. It's very 90s sitcom-y/network-y. I was in the mood for something light and breezy, a nice new "comfort" show, but this is a bit of dinosaur or is this how network TV still is? It's been so long since I watched a network TV show really, though oddly a lot of my favorite comedies are network shows whether going back to Seinfeld or Arrested Development (there's only 3 seasons!!!) to stuff like The Good Place or Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I think explaining a single scene from Fisk will tell you everything you need to know. The main character, Helen Fisk, is wearing a very bland and brown pants suit at a job interview and the guy interviewing her mentions that her suit blends into the brown chair she's sitting in (a bit chuckle worthy), but then in like 5 seconds another employee walks into the office and proceeds to sit on her... (and I'm just like really...? this is the comedy you're going for...?). In a later scene, she's now in a very yellow pants suit and people say she looks like a banana... Though, overall the show does have a warm heart and all, but it feels like it's a show from at least 20 years ago.

 

[Gordon_4]

Fisk - Episode 1 - 4/10

This is an Australian comedy show about a probate lawyer. It's very 90s sitcom-y/network-y. I was in the mood for something light and breezy, a nice new "comfort" show, but this is a bit of dinosaur or is this how network TV still is? It's been so long since I watched a network TV show really, though oddly a lot of my favorite comedies are network shows whether going back to Seinfeld or Arrested Development (there's only 3 seasons!!!) to stuff like The Good Place or Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I think explaining a single scene from Fisk will tell you everything you need to know. The main character, Helen Fisk, is wearing a very bland and brown pants suit at a job interview and the guy interviewing her mentions that her suit blends into the brown chair she's sitting in (a bit chuckle worthy), but then in like 5 seconds another employee walks into the office and proceeds to sit on her... (and I'm just like really...? this is the comedy you're going for...?). In a later scene, she's now in a very yellow pants suit and people say she looks like a banana... Though, overall the show does have a warm heart and all, but it feels like it's a show from at least 20 years ago.

If you want a good Australian legal comedy, go and find the original version of Rake with Richard Roxburgh

 

[Cicada 5]

I recently finished Netflix's adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Pluto. It's a very fascinating story about war, trauma and the lines between A.I. and humanity. The slow pace works very well, allowing for for much needed development of the characters, with Brando, North No. 2 and Epsilon becoming my favorites. 9/10.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Reacher Season 2

Dad TV at its most unabashed. About as fun and ridiculous as the first season. I think I liked the season one sidekicks a little more. Partnering Reacher with his army buddies isn't as interesting since they're all more or less the same character. I liked Reacher as a maverick to a bunch of stuffy small town by-the-book cops better than him simply leading a gang of like-minded, equally skilled expendables.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Yu Yu Hakusho live action was surprisingly good. Well, at least the action scenes are. They're like a combination of the Rurouni Kenshin movies and Jackie Chan movies, which is a good thing in my opinion.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Percy Jackson was so boring, I decided to just go back to playing Hades.

 

[Gordon_4]

Percy Jackson was so boring, I decided to just go back to playing Hades.

I didn't mind it. My kids liked it well enough.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I didn't mind it. My kids liked it well enough.

Having already known the story, the constant and droning exposition in the first two eps really put me off. I assume it gets better, since the production values are great and even the actors are decent, but eh. Disney+ has a really, really bad habit of just releasing multiple (usually meh) episodes on premier instead of thinking about how to make one great premier episode that makes you want to continue watching.

 

[Bartholen]

I rewatched Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Still one of the most emotionally devastating endings ever, the use of "I really want to stay at your house" is an absolute gut-punch even when you've seen the show previously. Not that much new to say about it, it's a very straightforward show. Due to its breakneck pacing you're not really gonna pick on any new nuances on a rewatch, but it's still extremely good, and just flies by.

This time I watched it with the english dub, and alongside "Redline" this is an anime where I urge watching the dub instead of sub. Not only is the voice acting fantastic with a lot of minor characters from the game reprising their roles, but all the slang and names simply flow better in english (though Giancarlo Esposito as a slimy corporate hound just feels like "Default Font" casting, even if he's very good in the role). Though on a rewatch it can be jarring just how many scenes there are with really obvious, classic animation shortcuts, when this show was specifically praised for its animation. A lot of dialogue plays over static landscape shots, or with characters far from the camera, or with characters having their mouths covered. Though I suppose that helps with writing dialogue for characters like Adam Smasher, who don't even have mouths to move.

This show was praised for not having to know anything about the setting to understand it, and that's still true. But having played the game definitely added a ton of "Leo Dicaprio pointing at the screen" moments when you recognize elements from the game. It only further adds to the immersion and making the world feel like a place that lives and breathes outside of these stories.

So yeah, still one of the best things to come out of Netflix ever. Now if we could only get Arcane's season 2 released before the heat death of the universe.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Ok, watched all 7 seasons of Buffy, and was underwhelmed. Sometimes it has things to lift it out of trashy tv, but usually not. And really could have ended with one season. There is an awful lot of really bad stuff in there.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Ricky Gervais: Armageddon: What You'd Expect / Great

Ricky Gervais' latest stand-up comedy special on Netflix.

I'm not a fan of Ricky Gervais. I don't know what it is; I love comedy and am not nearly the prude that the temperature of society would lead some to believe we should be, but when your whole premise for an hour-long special is bucking the system, it gets stale pretty quickly, and that's the whole hat stand upon which Gervais hangs his hat. We get it; you're "edgy" and flipping the bird at any system that would expect you to do otherwise... now make some jokes that aren't about flipping the bird at any system that would expect you to do otherwise. His specials inevitably just come off as braggadocios, and while there is humor to be had, it's the arrogant delivery that kills the humor for me. That said...

Trevor Noah: Where Was I: Great / Great

Trevor Noah's latest stand-up special on Netflix.

I'm relatively new to Trevor Noah, but from what I've seen, he's one funny sumbitch. He's one of those rare comedians that intelligently blends comedy with current events and molds a lesson into a joke, and unlike Gervais, does so without flaunting his celebrity privilege. Recommended.