Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)
- Thread starter Hawki
- Start date
Ok good to hear. I also was kinda "meh" on that first season. Like it was intereesting enough for us to watch the whole thing but we didn't love it and yeah it didn't pay off. It was... ok. But if the second season is that much better it could be worth adding to our watch queue since, IIRC, it's on Netflix.
Constellation (first 4 episodes of 8)
AppleTV+ hard sci-fi thriller about an astronaut who survives an accident on the ISS and comes back to some traumatic mind-bendy quantum parallel universe shenanigans, while the dude what played Mike Ermentraut on Breaking Bad plays an orner (what else?) former astronaut turned quantum physicist trying to figure out wtf.
The thing that I can imagine either winning some folks over or turning them away is that much of the screen time feels like family drama. There is a husband and a kid and they had or have problems and there's some Scenes From a Marriage type of business. Personally I dig it- it's real adult stuff and I'm glad to see sci-fi tackle it.
These themes and tones, as well as the cross-cultural and language thing (protagonist is Swedish, there are peripheral characters from Russia, etc) means there is no room for jokes, quips, side stories. The show takes itself very seriously, and doesn't have any famous celebrities in it. The title theme song is not hooky or whimsical. There is no whimsy. Hence the lack of memes or crossover attention, at least from what I can tell. I think that alone makes it worthy of a sci-fi fan's attention.
But I don't mean to say it's like homework- in fact that first episode hooked us, as there is that kind of outer-space danger tension you get from movies like Gravity et al. But it's not a show I'm watching if I'm not completely awake.
After we're done with this show we're gonna check out 3 Body Problem. And with these coming on the heels of Raised By Wolves and Foundation, dare I say we're in a bit of a hard sci-fi golden age? I don't recall there being a density of this genre on TV before, at least not since we had two great TV shows about space stations on at the same time in the late 90s. And these shows aren't just sci-fi 'cause space, but actually dealing with some, you know, science stuff.
(Oh if you wanna lecture me about how "it has always been this way" because of Battlestar Galactica or Buck Rogers or some crap, please spare me, I am just talking about a vague cultural impression I'm getting not making some trial-proof argument on these forums).
It's on HBO/Max.
We're halfway through the second season and yes, it's a massive improvement. It's not quite Best Ever material but it's addressed just about all of my peeves from season one (pacing, focus, a staunch refusal to pay anything off) and it's become infinitely more watchable/entertaining. Probably the benefit of knowing you're making the closing half of your show from the get go instead of getting cancelled during post.
I'm still sore about Winning Time.
Winning Time was great but I'm pretty sure that was canceled, that's why they rushed the ending in the first and only season like that.
I'll try to give that one a rewatch, I think I saw it hanging out with friends quite a bit ago.
There was, but it took place later and at the end of Escape, they got to Earth. I also have to rewatch it. David Wenham is in it, which is funny.
But yeah, like it feels like Stan could take to the show with some jumper leads and remake it, double the episode length and count, and they'd have a real winner.
Spoiler warning for the Fallout show!
So I watched half of the show in 1 sitting, liking it a bunch so far.
The show has 3 main characters. First one is your typical vault dweller girl who hails from what must be the best-adjusted vault community to ever exist (if you overlook the cousin-fucking) who is thrust into the wasteland after violent mayhem erupts in her vault and is trying to find her kidnapped dad (fo3 much?).
Another is a ghoul cowboy who is basically like your player character from the fallout games, good deep down, but you gotta dig real deep, and you may not live long enough cause he's got VATS and he's not afraid to use it.
Final char is a brotherhood of steel rookie who gets an unearned promotion and an even less earned power armor and tumbles through events, clearly the weakest of the 3 main chars and wholly unlikable, but BoS was always full of assholes anyways so I had very low expectations, he has Finn from the starwars sequel vibes to give you an idea, only much more useless and less capable.
So far 4 episodes in everything in the visual and thematic department is spot on. The vaults are weird creepy authoritarian microcosms, the old ghouls are wise or have gone feral, the raiders are savage and dumb, and the enclave is doing weird scientific bs that is driving the plot, you can watch bullets fly in slow motion and heads and guts exploding in gory detail. Oh and there's a german shepard. It's fallout, it does a good job of introducing the setting quickly but also not too obviously (thought I saw the first twist in ep 1 from a mile away. coming in with lore knowledge). 10/10 if you like fallout, 9/10 otherwise.
So I watched half of the show in 1 sitting, liking it a bunch so far.
The show has 3 main characters. First one is your typical vault dweller girl who hails from what must be the best-adjusted vault community to ever exist (if you overlook the cousin-fucking) who is thrust into the wasteland after violent mayhem erupts in her vault and is trying to find her kidnapped dad (fo3 much?).
Another is a ghoul cowboy who is basically like your player character from the fallout games, good deep down, but you gotta dig real deep, and you may not live long enough cause he's got VATS and he's not afraid to use it.
Final char is a brotherhood of steel rookie who gets an unearned promotion and an even less earned power armor and tumbles through events, clearly the weakest of the 3 main chars and wholly unlikable, but BoS was always full of assholes anyways so I had very low expectations, he has Finn from the starwars sequel vibes to give you an idea, only much more useless and less capable.
So far 4 episodes in everything in the visual and thematic department is spot on. The vaults are weird creepy authoritarian microcosms, the old ghouls are wise or have gone feral, the raiders are savage and dumb, and the enclave is doing weird scientific bs that is driving the plot, you can watch bullets fly in slow motion and heads and guts exploding in gory detail. Oh and there's a german shepard. It's fallout, it does a good job of introducing the setting quickly but also not too obviously (thought I saw the first twist in ep 1 from a mile away. coming in with lore knowledge). 10/10 if you like fallout, 9/10 otherwise.
Parasyte: The Grey on Netflix. Never watched the anime as a kid, since it looked too gross and scary. Girlfriend made we watch this with her.
Between this and the Yu Yu Hakusho live action, I am just impressed by what Netflix has been putting out in terms of anime adaptations. Is the CGI perfect? No. Does it feel like prestige television all the time? No. But there is enough here to keep me watching, and even be excited for the next episode.
Between this and the Yu Yu Hakusho live action, I am just impressed by what Netflix has been putting out in terms of anime adaptations. Is the CGI perfect? No. Does it feel like prestige television all the time? No. But there is enough here to keep me watching, and even be excited for the next episode.
3 Body Problem: S1:Ep. 1-3 *sigh* / Great
Scientists around the planet find themselves in individual intellectual crises of faith (read THAT again,) oft leading to abandonment of career or suicide, as a supplanting of the fundamental laws of physics turn our entire scientific understanding on its head. Meanwhile, a VR "game" of mysterious origin (exceeds our modern state-of-the-art technologies by decades, if not centuries) offers hints at what might be going on...
Another one of those shows that gets off by mind fucking you, and leaving you so lost in the sauce, that you can't help but watch more. So far I both love AND hate it. I love the premise. I hate that I can't stop watching. I was supposed to log in for work at 8am this morning, and I did, but since starting watching at 7am, I've only functionally been at my computer for about 10 minutes. Thankfully, it's a slow day "at the office," but still, I wasn't expecting to get hooked like this. I'll probably binge the whole thing today, and Google is telling me season 2 isn't expected until 2026. Fuck my life.
This is where we're at, people; good television is as stressful as the work-a-day life we used to use it to escape from.
Scientists around the planet find themselves in individual intellectual crises of faith (read THAT again,) oft leading to abandonment of career or suicide, as a supplanting of the fundamental laws of physics turn our entire scientific understanding on its head. Meanwhile, a VR "game" of mysterious origin (exceeds our modern state-of-the-art technologies by decades, if not centuries) offers hints at what might be going on...
This is where we're at, people; good television is as stressful as the work-a-day life we used to use it to escape from.
Apples Never Fall on Peacock +
Watched 1-4 so far. Has me engrossed. Upper class family, mom and dad newly retired, kids at various points in their lives. Action starts out with Annette Benning apparently hit by a car and she is missing after that. The show goes back and forth between the present and the recent past in which Benning and Sam Neill allow a grifter stay with them after the grifter feigns being in distress and needing help. So, black box sorta thing: what happened to Benning and the grifter? Solid B.
Watched 1-4 so far. Has me engrossed. Upper class family, mom and dad newly retired, kids at various points in their lives. Action starts out with Annette Benning apparently hit by a car and she is missing after that. The show goes back and forth between the present and the recent past in which Benning and Sam Neill allow a grifter stay with them after the grifter feigns being in distress and needing help. So, black box sorta thing: what happened to Benning and the grifter? Solid B.
Parasyte: The Grey
Im a couple episodes in. Unfortunately for fans, yeah so far at least, it is what you think it is. Shallow action focused side story that tosses out all the weighty moral critique and discussion from the original story.
This one focuses on a girl who is sharing half her head with a parasyte so its a Jekyll & hide deal.
The logic is iffy because a part of the original story is that the parasytes at birth are not complex or smart enough to emulate a human physiology. They struggle to control the human body as though its marionette so the idea that this one could actively replace half a brain kinda annoys me, but its a bit nitpicky.
This takes place in Korea and the idea is that one of early parasytes there accidentally inhabited a raver at a edm festival. The drugs and alcohol caused the parasyte to accidently go lawnmower mode in a crowd killing a ton a of people so the Korean government finds out about them much quicker than everyone else and has a task force hunting. This led by one of those anime trope "wacky girl boss" types. Theres some defense as they use a captured parasyte to hunt others and this one used to her husband its insinuated that this why shes craaaazy, but really its just another annoying anime trope character.
The show largely follows the girl trying like in the original to avoid other parasytes. All action and chase scenes.
The parasytes unfortunately and unsurprisingly are inconsistent in their mannerisms I assume because the show runners aren't that interested in the source material. They aren't interesting or compelling they're just monsters. I got a little fed up in episode 2 because they have a parasyte town hall and the leader gets all riled soapboxing about war with humans and its just completely out of character.
Im already mixed about sticking with it. The CGI looks really good but its just not very thought provoking.
5/10 so far. Probably just gonna stop here and go watch Fallout.
Im a couple episodes in. Unfortunately for fans, yeah so far at least, it is what you think it is. Shallow action focused side story that tosses out all the weighty moral critique and discussion from the original story.
This one focuses on a girl who is sharing half her head with a parasyte so its a Jekyll & hide deal.
The logic is iffy because a part of the original story is that the parasytes at birth are not complex or smart enough to emulate a human physiology. They struggle to control the human body as though its marionette so the idea that this one could actively replace half a brain kinda annoys me, but its a bit nitpicky.
This takes place in Korea and the idea is that one of early parasytes there accidentally inhabited a raver at a edm festival. The drugs and alcohol caused the parasyte to accidently go lawnmower mode in a crowd killing a ton a of people so the Korean government finds out about them much quicker than everyone else and has a task force hunting. This led by one of those anime trope "wacky girl boss" types. Theres some defense as they use a captured parasyte to hunt others and this one used to her husband its insinuated that this why shes craaaazy, but really its just another annoying anime trope character.
The show largely follows the girl trying like in the original to avoid other parasytes. All action and chase scenes.
The parasytes unfortunately and unsurprisingly are inconsistent in their mannerisms I assume because the show runners aren't that interested in the source material. They aren't interesting or compelling they're just monsters. I got a little fed up in episode 2 because they have a parasyte town hall and the leader gets all riled soapboxing about war with humans and its just completely out of character.
Im already mixed about sticking with it. The CGI looks really good but its just not very thought provoking.
5/10 so far. Probably just gonna stop here and go watch Fallout.
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The original books and anime do have some gore, but it doesn't celebrate it. Its more to present the existential horror of how we treat animals. The original is a very serious exploration on what it means to be human and our role in the destruction of the environment. I would recommend anyone watch the original over the Netflix show if you actually want a meaty story, no pun intended. Its my favorite manga and anime.
Interesting. Yeah I thought the initial monologue hinting about how and why the parasites were created would be more relevant, but I'm about to finish the show and that has yet to come up again. The anime is on Netflix, so maybe I will check it out.
Watching the new Fallout show.
Sometimes I can't help but feel like there's a generation gap in writing with some of these prestige tv shows. It's like the writing style is to write story beats and then "fill time" which leads to anybody actually paying attention to ask questions. Idk, I feel like your audience should never be "asking questions". I know I'm just being nitpicky I guess. It's little stuff.
There's a scene early on where two people are talking and you hear fighting start. This goes on for maybe 3-4 minutes in real time, people engaged in one room, screams and fighting in another. Then that ends and you enter the big room where the fighting was supposedly happening, but the fighting starts as the person enters. This played for effect and there's even a person standing the middle of it in shock like "it just happened". So my eyes turned sideways for a second cause its like "shouldn't the fighting already be in progress or mostly over?". If I was the director I would filmed that scene as though the fighting has been going on for a while and is winding down.
But what you see here is the staff wanted two scenes. One of people in one room doing a thing and then film a another big "shocking" fight scene. There was no effort made to make these two scenes be occurring simultaneously, because they wanted the big fight scene. "Nobody will notice" and they aren't wrong...on the whole, but I noticed. it looked like shoddy storyboarding to me.
The problem is that hollywood, a lot of directors believe if you deliver the goods, the audience will overlook the rest. Like in The Last Jedi when Poe Dameron just flies around that Star Destroyer blowing up ION cannons and they just say something like "hes too close we just can't hitm", tell that to Porkins. It was more important to do the scene than to make sure all the logic is there.
Fallout isn't that bad as far as quirks go. I'm enjoying it, but it has "that" filming style. Where the delivery is more important than the small stuff. It does deliver. I like...most of the cast. The story works, but I'll just say. This is no Breaking Bad or The expanse. It's very much a bunch people cosplaying characters from Fallout in a fairly solid TV show. I'm two episodes in and I'm curious enough to see where it goes. I quite like the lead actress Ella Purnell. She's very well written as the Vault Dweller and seems to really get her character.
(I looked it up and this is written by two people - Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who wrote....Captain Marvel and a guy who was a writer on Porlandia and The Office(US). Talk about whiplash.)
Sometimes I can't help but feel like there's a generation gap in writing with some of these prestige tv shows. It's like the writing style is to write story beats and then "fill time" which leads to anybody actually paying attention to ask questions. Idk, I feel like your audience should never be "asking questions". I know I'm just being nitpicky I guess. It's little stuff.
There's a scene early on where two people are talking and you hear fighting start. This goes on for maybe 3-4 minutes in real time, people engaged in one room, screams and fighting in another. Then that ends and you enter the big room where the fighting was supposedly happening, but the fighting starts as the person enters. This played for effect and there's even a person standing the middle of it in shock like "it just happened". So my eyes turned sideways for a second cause its like "shouldn't the fighting already be in progress or mostly over?". If I was the director I would filmed that scene as though the fighting has been going on for a while and is winding down.
But what you see here is the staff wanted two scenes. One of people in one room doing a thing and then film a another big "shocking" fight scene. There was no effort made to make these two scenes be occurring simultaneously, because they wanted the big fight scene. "Nobody will notice" and they aren't wrong...on the whole, but I noticed. it looked like shoddy storyboarding to me.
The problem is that hollywood, a lot of directors believe if you deliver the goods, the audience will overlook the rest. Like in The Last Jedi when Poe Dameron just flies around that Star Destroyer blowing up ION cannons and they just say something like "hes too close we just can't hitm", tell that to Porkins. It was more important to do the scene than to make sure all the logic is there.
Fallout isn't that bad as far as quirks go. I'm enjoying it, but it has "that" filming style. Where the delivery is more important than the small stuff. It does deliver. I like...most of the cast. The story works, but I'll just say. This is no Breaking Bad or The expanse. It's very much a bunch people cosplaying characters from Fallout in a fairly solid TV show. I'm two episodes in and I'm curious enough to see where it goes. I quite like the lead actress Ella Purnell. She's very well written as the Vault Dweller and seems to really get her character.
(I looked it up and this is written by two people - Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who wrote....Captain Marvel and a guy who was a writer on Porlandia and The Office(US). Talk about whiplash.)
Pleased to be totally surprised by Fallout. I won't spoil anything but despite some minor quirks it was very engrossing I ended up bingeing the whole thing. At first it does that thing wheres like 5 subplots and its kinda concerning, like are they gonna drag this out? but no everything comes together in the last couple episodes in a very rewarding fashion that really feels like "Fallout" with a very violent and mean-spirited, cynical, but fun ending. It ends with a nice payoff where everything is wrapped up but left open for a sequel. Very reminiscent of the ending of Evil Dead 2. Imdb is right on this one 8.5/10
Finished the second (final?) season of Tokyo Vice. I'm glad I stuck by this show. After a slow and meandering first season this new one picks the hell up and it's more or less in endgame mode from the get-go. It connects everyone in a clever - if slightly improbable - way and delivers a satisfying pay off to everything. And it really finds a perfect balance between paying attention to a huge cast of characters and giving them just enough room to live and breathe while keeping them instrumental to the plot. By the end I was missing a few character interactions (season one rides a bromance that is largely ignored here) but other than that I'm perfectly satisfied with the finale and if this is it for the show, that works for me.
I'm up to ep 6 myself and yeah it's great, though I think The Ghoul steals the show, I especially love the pre-war bits so far. Maximus even gets better when he has to stop being a literal child cause he has to look after his little sister. She legit forces him to get his act together out of her sheer helplessness and ignorance of the ways of the wasteland.
Btw did you get the strong urge to revisit the games after watching this? I know I have that urge, but too many good stuff coming out right around now so I'll prolly do so later.
Yeah fun fact Bethesda apparently thought ahead. Fallout 4 is getting a free next gen update with dlc on the 25th. Ive never played it so Im holding off until then.
Right! I think I'll make a new char cause I must have put like 200ish hours in the game on my old save. It's the last good game Bethesda put out imo, so it's kinda like the end of an era. Here's hoping elder scrolls 6 somehow revitalizes them lol.
I dig what you're saying. It's like there is a formula for good-enough shows. Which works for streaming because if you're already a subscriber you get a good-enough show and that's... good-enough. I mean I'm totally gonna watch this at some point because I'm already paying for Prime.
I finished Constellation and I do hope it continues. It's for the real sci-fi heads and drama fans.