Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)
- Thread starter Hawki
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I saw an trailer-y type advert for the movie "Transformers One". I would merely note the extraordinarily patronising token, pink female Transformer. It's not like there wasn't one back in the 80s, but even still...
Now that movie I did see in theaters on the Epic screening. It Is the MJR equivalent of IMAX. I highly recommend the movie if you have not seen it yet. It is hands down the best Transformers movie ever made!
The irony of this is, you’re probably thinking of Arcee - and that’s fairly logical since she is the most famous one who gets in most shows - but the one you saw in the trailer was Elita 1, who yeah was indeed pink. Her one and only episode was…..well, for the 80s it wasn’t bad in that you could see the bones of a very solid idea in it but it’s still painfully dated to watch now.
Equally funny is that Arcee is IN the movie and does show up prominently once or twice.
And honestly, Elita is a lot of fun in the movie since she’s the token sensible one in addition to the token pink one
New Kane Pixel's Backroom found footage thingy. There's also another after this about investigating a light fitting, but I saw that first.
This one is long for his stuff, and fairly samey, but still creepy.
Watched that last week and it was decent. Liev Schreiber is having the most fun of the cast for sure. The murder mystery isn't the best or well written, they have some super obvious red herrings early on, so early on it's obvious they are red herrings. And after a certain scene that just played out it in a "romance novel" type way, I looked up the author of the book it's based off, and yeah, she wrote romance novels. Overall, it comes off as a poor man's White Lotus/Big Little Lies.
I watched the first episode of Uzumaki on HBO. I don't know much about Junji Ito other than, like Stephen King, he apparently keeps writing the one story. Junji writes about the small town where everyone is gleefully insane and obsessed with one thing in particular. In Uzumaki it's... uzumaki ("spirals"). People get really obsessed by spirals. They contort their bodies into spirals. They clip their fingertips and shave their heads, horrified by the whorls. Or develop spiral-shaped voids on their bodies which end up growing and sucking up themselves. Spirals, spirals, spirals.
Junji Ito is a guy who comes up with a creepy visual idea and then writes the most rudimentary story around it. Some of those creepy visual ideas are really cool, mind, but I feel like his stuff is best read just looking at the pictures and ignoring the text.
He's a very good story writer, but not the best narrative writer.
He also tends to let his stories go on for a smidge too long, hampering the true horrific climax, like in The Bully and The Enigma of Amigara Fault.
Supacell S1:Ep1-6: Really Good / Great
People in London learn they have mysteriously gained super powers. As they come to terms with this individually, they find how their fates are randomly somehow intertwined, and an ominous "something" is coming to collect them all.
Impressive. Once I got over the thick Jamaican diaspora-meets-British accents barrier and slang, it became an intriguing character drama with super powers layered on top. First season leaves you wanting, but a second season is promised as the REAL antagonist isn't revealed until the final episode. I really hope this goes somewhere, and isn't relegated to the pile of "we tried, but decided to move on to something else" shows of late.
People in London learn they have mysteriously gained super powers. As they come to terms with this individually, they find how their fates are randomly somehow intertwined, and an ominous "something" is coming to collect them all.
Impressive. Once I got over the thick Jamaican diaspora-meets-British accents barrier and slang, it became an intriguing character drama with super powers layered on top. First season leaves you wanting, but a second season is promised as the REAL antagonist isn't revealed until the final episode. I really hope this goes somewhere, and isn't relegated to the pile of "we tried, but decided to move on to something else" shows of late.
(My underlining)And honestly, Elita is a lot of fun in the movie since she’s the token sensible one in addition to the token pink one
I suspect that's actually even worse.
Under normal circumstances I'd agree because I can see where you're going with that. But given the complete bullshit Orion and D-16 do drag her into, she's morally in the right up until the second act reveal but they all get on the same page at that point because the stakes entirely change.
Look, I thought she was funny and not because "Haha, emotional female" but because her frustration came across as genuine and relate-able because Orion especially is frankly, a bit of a fuckwit writing cheques his chassis isn't cashing.
Yellowjackets
BUZZBUZZZ!!
Ehh…it’s at best ok after one season plus a few episodes into season 2. It bounces back and forth between a traumatic and prolonged event in nineties and current day, involving mostly the same characters. The problem is the sort of frustrating juxtaposition between the serious/dire circumstances and a poppy soundtrack that often spoils any weight they might’ve had, only occasion getting it right.
The intro is especially insufferable, and begs to be skipped. The characters are mostly unlikable, which can be tolerable in dark shows like this if they are at least interesting, but they barely manage that. There’s also a weirdly inserted supernatural element threaded through the main narrative because I guess that alone wasn’t interesting enough either, but so far it isn’t explained who or what’s behind it, so that’s the “hook” I guess.
Maybe it will get better, but so far the biggest revelation after nearly a season and a half is, “Oh…so that character is still alive. Huh.”
BUZZBUZZZ!!
Ehh…it’s at best ok after one season plus a few episodes into season 2. It bounces back and forth between a traumatic and prolonged event in nineties and current day, involving mostly the same characters. The problem is the sort of frustrating juxtaposition between the serious/dire circumstances and a poppy soundtrack that often spoils any weight they might’ve had, only occasion getting it right.
The intro is especially insufferable, and begs to be skipped. The characters are mostly unlikable, which can be tolerable in dark shows like this if they are at least interesting, but they barely manage that. There’s also a weirdly inserted supernatural element threaded through the main narrative because I guess that alone wasn’t interesting enough either, but so far it isn’t explained who or what’s behind it, so that’s the “hook” I guess.
Maybe it will get better, but so far the biggest revelation after nearly a season and a half is, “Oh…so that character is still alive. Huh.”
Mandalorian Season 3 - 10/10
I really liked this. Saw the old hands doing their thing, some interesting places were gone to - the planet where Mando and Bo-Katan investigate rogue droids is a particular highlight - and Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan is one of the coolest casting choices since Ewan McGreggor and Liam Neeson in Episode 1. And it was bittersweet to see Greef Carga again now that Carl Weathers has passed. Also Ahmed Best now has two Star Wars characters to his name and if they can bring his one from here back for a bit of fun, all the better to rub it in the eye of those who were cruel to him.
It ended well. Sure the adventures may (will?) continue but if they stop here, as far as I’m concerned, that’s just fine.
I really liked this. Saw the old hands doing their thing, some interesting places were gone to - the planet where Mando and Bo-Katan investigate rogue droids is a particular highlight - and Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan is one of the coolest casting choices since Ewan McGreggor and Liam Neeson in Episode 1. And it was bittersweet to see Greef Carga again now that Carl Weathers has passed. Also Ahmed Best now has two Star Wars characters to his name and if they can bring his one from here back for a bit of fun, all the better to rub it in the eye of those who were cruel to him.
It ended well. Sure the adventures may (will?) continue but if they stop here, as far as I’m concerned, that’s just fine.
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So much hype for this show. I'll likely watch it to see for myself.
ITMT: Penguin MAX S1E3
Holy moly. Better than E2 which was pretty good as well.
This need not have anything to do with the Batman universe. It is just great crime drama! A+. So far? I cannot recommend it enough. I hope they don't choke.
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Currently watching Warrior on Netflix.
It's a series about the Tong (Chinese gang) wars in San Francisco during the late 1800s right before the passing of the Chinese exclusion act. The series centers around the opium trade as well as the tensions between Irish and Chinese immigrant laborers.
Pretty good show overall. It's bloody and trashy enough to hold my attention. Good martial arts, and some pretty fun spaghetti western type gunplay and shootouts.
I'm almost done with season 2 of 3. As far as I know it didn't get renewed past that, but I still think it's worth watching (though that opinion may change once I finish the show if it ends on too much of a cliffhanger).
It's a series about the Tong (Chinese gang) wars in San Francisco during the late 1800s right before the passing of the Chinese exclusion act. The series centers around the opium trade as well as the tensions between Irish and Chinese immigrant laborers.
Pretty good show overall. It's bloody and trashy enough to hold my attention. Good martial arts, and some pretty fun spaghetti western type gunplay and shootouts.
I'm almost done with season 2 of 3. As far as I know it didn't get renewed past that, but I still think it's worth watching (though that opinion may change once I finish the show if it ends on too much of a cliffhanger).
I gotta get back into that. I watched the first two episodes with my older brother.
Batman often ends up being the least interesting character in the stories spun around him.
How To Die Alone, season 1, Hulu 7/10
Created by and starring Natasha Rothwell, who was in Insecure as the wilder/sassiest friend in the group and in White Lotus as the massage therapist.
This is one of those actor-comedian sitcom dramadies inspired by some alternate loser persona of the creator, like Aidie Bryant's Shrill or Rami. Shrill came to mind a lot while watching this because both are these sad sack fat loser women who are actually really wonderful and will find love and happiness if they just learn to love themselves and such. They're also really the only pop culture entertainment that even goes near the psychology of body image and obesity so I like to give them a chance.
Overall if you like this kind of show, there's plenty to enjoy here. The strongest part is the overall cast- of course Rothwell is great but everyone around is enjoyable to watch. Sometimes Rothwell's character gets annoying but I can't always tell if that's on purpose. My biggest issues with these shows about "losers" played by brilliant actors is that it's hard to believe any of it, so Rothwell's character has scenes where I actually feel sorry for people putting up with her sometimes, which makes it more palatable.
My favorite subplot was with her gay male best friend character, one of the most tired tropes. Well they actually have conflict about that relationship and I was really impressed with that.
When I was trying to put my finger on why the show didn't always hit for me though my wife pointed it out- it's when it's too much on her alone and the rest of the folks are away for too long it gets too indulgent. Her ex-bf, potential next love interest, brother, the new friends she makes- could be a great ensemble if it wasn't always about her so much, even though that's the point of the show.
Basically this is why they make these shows under 30 minutes- I nice short time with a usually but not always likable character, some solid jokes and gags, some melodrama nonsense, and some self-indulgent navel-gazing character stuff.
Created by and starring Natasha Rothwell, who was in Insecure as the wilder/sassiest friend in the group and in White Lotus as the massage therapist.
This is one of those actor-comedian sitcom dramadies inspired by some alternate loser persona of the creator, like Aidie Bryant's Shrill or Rami. Shrill came to mind a lot while watching this because both are these sad sack fat loser women who are actually really wonderful and will find love and happiness if they just learn to love themselves and such. They're also really the only pop culture entertainment that even goes near the psychology of body image and obesity so I like to give them a chance.
Overall if you like this kind of show, there's plenty to enjoy here. The strongest part is the overall cast- of course Rothwell is great but everyone around is enjoyable to watch. Sometimes Rothwell's character gets annoying but I can't always tell if that's on purpose. My biggest issues with these shows about "losers" played by brilliant actors is that it's hard to believe any of it, so Rothwell's character has scenes where I actually feel sorry for people putting up with her sometimes, which makes it more palatable.
My favorite subplot was with her gay male best friend character, one of the most tired tropes. Well they actually have conflict about that relationship and I was really impressed with that.
When I was trying to put my finger on why the show didn't always hit for me though my wife pointed it out- it's when it's too much on her alone and the rest of the folks are away for too long it gets too indulgent. Her ex-bf, potential next love interest, brother, the new friends she makes- could be a great ensemble if it wasn't always about her so much, even though that's the point of the show.
Basically this is why they make these shows under 30 minutes- I nice short time with a usually but not always likable character, some solid jokes and gags, some melodrama nonsense, and some self-indulgent navel-gazing character stuff.
Caught up in Yellowjackets
Season 2 finishes on a weird note, with at least more character development in the last few episodes than anything beforehand. Still leaves the carrot dangling as to just wtf is going on, so I guess we’ll see what season 3 brings next year. Not holding my breath or anything though, as this was kind of a filler show.
Season 2 finishes on a weird note, with at least more character development in the last few episodes than anything beforehand. Still leaves the carrot dangling as to just wtf is going on, so I guess we’ll see what season 3 brings next year. Not holding my breath or anything though, as this was kind of a filler show.