From what I've seen. Bosch is one of those shows that should be pretty standard, but is elevated by having a great choice of main actor.
Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)
- Thread starter Hawki
- Start date
Whole cast is great.
His partner is played by Jamie Hector who played Marlo Stanfield on the Wire (the sort of main antagonist in the latter season of the Wire).
Lance Riddick is a major character, playing the ultimate Lance Riddick. He generally gets the least interesting plot lines but he Lance Riddicks it up enough to make it decent.
Halfway through Cross. My two problems with it:
1) Dad thrillers should be silly and fun, not silly and gloomy. Cross feels (sometimes) a little too depressing and a little too morbid, considering the pervasive ridiculousness of its premise. Which takes me to
2) How inconsistently the show is written. You have these wildly, flamboyantly sketched characters that wouldn't look too out of place in the Hannibal show but you're also mixing in BLM and Defund the Police messaging, which reminds me of when CSI: SVU covers a trending topic.
I think Cross himself is also inconsistently written. One minute he's mopy about his dead wife, the next minute he's motorboating his high school squeeze, then it's back to moping around the house telling his kids to stop having fun. He's supposedly good at "getting inside people's heads", but the serial killer has done nothing but one-up him for five episodes. He's hacked his house's Bluetooth (yeah I dunno) and keeps trolling him through his own security cameras and playing mean audio clips on the karaoke machine. When Cross has finallyfigured out been told who the serial killer is, he goes to his birthday party to rile him up - apropos of nothing - and instead walks out a viral sensation for all the wrong reasons.
And by the way, I think the killer is written inconsistently too, in terms of just how meticulous or deranged he's supposed to be. The biggest point here is he kills one dude who finds one of his victims bound and gagged under the sink, but just smiles and waves back when a different person catches him in the act of violently shanking a bloodied woman who's clearly running for her life.
1) Dad thrillers should be silly and fun, not silly and gloomy. Cross feels (sometimes) a little too depressing and a little too morbid, considering the pervasive ridiculousness of its premise. Which takes me to
2) How inconsistently the show is written. You have these wildly, flamboyantly sketched characters that wouldn't look too out of place in the Hannibal show but you're also mixing in BLM and Defund the Police messaging, which reminds me of when CSI: SVU covers a trending topic.
I think Cross himself is also inconsistently written. One minute he's mopy about his dead wife, the next minute he's motorboating his high school squeeze, then it's back to moping around the house telling his kids to stop having fun. He's supposedly good at "getting inside people's heads", but the serial killer has done nothing but one-up him for five episodes. He's hacked his house's Bluetooth (yeah I dunno) and keeps trolling him through his own security cameras and playing mean audio clips on the karaoke machine. When Cross has finally
And by the way, I think the killer is written inconsistently too, in terms of just how meticulous or deranged he's supposed to be. The biggest point here is he kills one dude who finds one of his victims bound and gagged under the sink, but just smiles and waves back when a different person catches him in the act of violently shanking a bloodied woman who's clearly running for her life.
I think you mean Law and Order: SVU, but I can understand the confusion, those shows all blend together. As for Cross...man, how hard is it to adapt these books? It seems easy enough, but Hollywood just keeps screwing it up.
Man... I got about 10 minutes into Dune: Prophecy episode 2 and shut it off. I realized I don't like anybody in this show outside of Mark Strong and it just doesn't feel like its going anywhere.
Ostensibly the basic plot is that the emperor is having trouble quelling the freeman on arakis and betrothes his daughter to another house in exchange for warships.
I guess the benewhatever ladies orchestrated this as a part of their "grand plan" for whatever. This gets thrown into chaos as a crazy soldier returning from Arakis kills the other houses kid in secret claiming hes doing it for the emperor.
Its clear they're trying to do a Game of thrones deal, machinations, twists whatever complete with a sex scene per episode. The problem is there isn't a clear thread for the audience to follow nor is any character charismatic enough to follow.
Worse the writing is exceedingly dull.
That said it really boils down to that lack of interesting thread.
In Penguin, which was amazing you have a clear story with the characters having clear objectives. "I know why I am watching this and what the stakes are".
Dune: Prophecy expects its audience to enjoy this mystery box shit where everything is happening cause reasons and that we will just sit around waiting for some big revelation that ties the room together.
No. Hard pass. I like Dune, I like the lore, this just feels like more "Streaming content".
On a side note yeah I also finished Arcane and feel the same as everyone else. Amazing show, but too many plots that go in circles in the last act. Its that same Southpark ploting class I always bring up. You gotta have clear setups and resolutions, every time you add something without closing some out you wear your audiences attention down.
Ostensibly the basic plot is that the emperor is having trouble quelling the freeman on arakis and betrothes his daughter to another house in exchange for warships.
I guess the benewhatever ladies orchestrated this as a part of their "grand plan" for whatever. This gets thrown into chaos as a crazy soldier returning from Arakis kills the other houses kid in secret claiming hes doing it for the emperor.
Its clear they're trying to do a Game of thrones deal, machinations, twists whatever complete with a sex scene per episode. The problem is there isn't a clear thread for the audience to follow nor is any character charismatic enough to follow.
Worse the writing is exceedingly dull.
That said it really boils down to that lack of interesting thread.
In Penguin, which was amazing you have a clear story with the characters having clear objectives. "I know why I am watching this and what the stakes are".
Dune: Prophecy expects its audience to enjoy this mystery box shit where everything is happening cause reasons and that we will just sit around waiting for some big revelation that ties the room together.
No. Hard pass. I like Dune, I like the lore, this just feels like more "Streaming content".
On a side note yeah I also finished Arcane and feel the same as everyone else. Amazing show, but too many plots that go in circles in the last act. Its that same Southpark ploting class I always bring up. You gotta have clear setups and resolutions, every time you add something without closing some out you wear your audiences attention down.
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From, season 1
Pretty good! It really is today's version of Lost, using preposterous mystery box to move a good cast of characters around. With a 4th season just being announced I have absolutely zero faith that it will resolve in a satisfying way but I'm ok with just watching this until it gets annoying, and so far, it's not annoying, it's very good!
Int. Chinatown, episode 2
The first episode, with its meta-everything premise, had me intrigued but by the end of the second episode I was already getting weary of the premise. It feels like one of those things that once you get past the bit, what else ya got? And it's things I've seen before and addressed better- lack of good Asian representation in Western media; the comforting but corny tropes of procedurals; the relationship between normal people and their pop cultural icons; etc.
Will give it a couple more episodes to see if it goes somewhere interesting or not.
Pretty good! It really is today's version of Lost, using preposterous mystery box to move a good cast of characters around. With a 4th season just being announced I have absolutely zero faith that it will resolve in a satisfying way but I'm ok with just watching this until it gets annoying, and so far, it's not annoying, it's very good!
Int. Chinatown, episode 2
The first episode, with its meta-everything premise, had me intrigued but by the end of the second episode I was already getting weary of the premise. It feels like one of those things that once you get past the bit, what else ya got? And it's things I've seen before and addressed better- lack of good Asian representation in Western media; the comforting but corny tropes of procedurals; the relationship between normal people and their pop cultural icons; etc.
Will give it a couple more episodes to see if it goes somewhere interesting or not.
Full Circle
Why haven't I watched this already? Six episode miniseries, every episode directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon (who wrote the screenplay for everything from Men in Black to the 90s Super Mario movie and every Bill & Ted, too). Cast is stacked. Plot is Traffic-level labyrinthine and without the advantage of color-coding your storylines. But it's still focused and intense and even the smaller parts feel interesting and fleshed out.
Why haven't I watched this already? Six episode miniseries, every episode directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon (who wrote the screenplay for everything from Men in Black to the 90s Super Mario movie and every Bill & Ted, too). Cast is stacked. Plot is Traffic-level labyrinthine and without the advantage of color-coding your storylines. But it's still focused and intense and even the smaller parts feel interesting and fleshed out.
We didn't bother continuing with Int. Chinatown, just couldn't get past feeling like it was two jokes told over and over.
But we are into season 2 of From and digging. It's the first show in a while where we don't wanna break for other things and just want to see what happens next.
But we are into season 2 of From and digging. It's the first show in a while where we don't wanna break for other things and just want to see what happens next.
Hacks: S1-3: Really Good / Great
After fallout from a tasteless social media post finds comedy writer Ava Daniels unable to secure gainful employment, her agent throws her a hail Mary in a spot writing for Debra Vance, a comedian ostensibly past her prime and surviving on nostalgia and dated material. The pair initially butt heads as neither wants the other, but eventually the walls come down, and the pair form an unlikely partnership in what can only be called a toxic symbiotic professional relationship.
It's really good. Jane Smart (Debra Vance) is a presence on the screen as a commanding-yet-vulnerable and insecure Vegas diva. Hanna Einbinder (Ava Daniels) is fairly good as well as a "woke" know-it-all with all the answers, but struggles to keep her own life in order. The cliffhanger ending of this third season really spices things up and makes me eager for season 4.
After fallout from a tasteless social media post finds comedy writer Ava Daniels unable to secure gainful employment, her agent throws her a hail Mary in a spot writing for Debra Vance, a comedian ostensibly past her prime and surviving on nostalgia and dated material. The pair initially butt heads as neither wants the other, but eventually the walls come down, and the pair form an unlikely partnership in what can only be called a toxic symbiotic professional relationship.
It's really good. Jane Smart (Debra Vance) is a presence on the screen as a commanding-yet-vulnerable and insecure Vegas diva. Hanna Einbinder (Ava Daniels) is fairly good as well as a "woke" know-it-all with all the answers, but struggles to keep her own life in order. The cliffhanger ending of this third season really spices things up and makes me eager for season 4.
Heck yeah. What a show.
It's won awards and everybody I know likes it so it certainly is recognized and successful. But I still am so impressed by just how good it is and the way it's doing it.
It manages to both feel "old school"- you know how some annoying boomers complain that comedy is ruined because the internet yells at you if you make fun of Mexicans or whatever- well while they are mostly wrong, they're not totally wrong and something has been lost since the golden runs of stand-up and cinematic comedy. That old-school vibe that derives from Vaudeville/Catskills.
Well Debra Vance represents that and the show's writers brilliant give her that voice. I mean she is inspired by Joan Rivers. But the show is also modern- not just because of Ava's personality, but as a whole. It really is the only award-winning show I feel is kind of for "everybody."
Secret Level - 5/10
Remember Love Death + Robots, that anthology series of cg animated shorts? Yeah, same thing, but with game franchises. A mixed bag, some shorts are better than others, but overall, kinda mediocre. They look pretty good and some have pretty neat, but there's not a lot of variety in visual styles, and none of them really do anything really interesting with their respective franchises, except for maybe the Edgy Pac-Man one. My favorite one is the New Worlds one, featuring Schwarzenegger as a doofus king bent on conquering an island where everyone is immortal. It stands out from the rest by focusing on comedy, and Arnold's charisma still shines.
Remember Love Death + Robots, that anthology series of cg animated shorts? Yeah, same thing, but with game franchises. A mixed bag, some shorts are better than others, but overall, kinda mediocre. They look pretty good and some have pretty neat, but there's not a lot of variety in visual styles, and none of them really do anything really interesting with their respective franchises, except for maybe the Edgy Pac-Man one. My favorite one is the New Worlds one, featuring Schwarzenegger as a doofus king bent on conquering an island where everyone is immortal. It stands out from the rest by focusing on comedy, and Arnold's charisma still shines.
Outside of Sifu, they all have more or less the same glossy pre-rendered commercial look and photorealistic art style (that pars well with candlelight, for some reason). Which I think is an indictment on the show as much as it is on the marketing industry. Every commercial for every AAA game looks the same, and that's what most of these "shorts" feel like.
Ironically the best one was the New World one with Arnold. New World (checks Wiki) is some Amazon MMORPG crap that released a few months ago, yet what should've been essentially just a plug-in ended up being the one that felt the most like an actual story.
All the cg animation studios involved in this anthology do cg trailers, commercials and game cinematics for their day job, so the whole "extended game trailer" feel of these shorts should perhaps not come as a surprise.
Was kinda nice to know Games Workshop is letting the guy who did the Astartes fan animations do stuff. He was involved in the 40K short, which, aside from being a no brainer considering his pedigree, you imo can see in the way the Spehs Mehreens move.
I know nothing about 40K but apparently r/40K was ecstatic about the short, so I guess credit to them. To a peasant like me it just looked like a bunch of guns going off.
Yellowstone series finale
@Old_Hunter_77 Color me pleasantly satisfied with how it ended. Wasn’t expecting much going into the second half of this season as the first went off the rails a bit. I don’t know or care much about the whole behind the scenes drama between Kevin and Taylor, but one of the cast members said it was the easiest thing they filmed. Probably helped translate to the screen. I really don’t see how any spin-off’s could be seen as anything beyond cash grabs, and ironically going crossgrain with the main theme of the show. But then again, I guess another theme would be that *shit happens* (of course).
@Old_Hunter_77 Color me pleasantly satisfied with how it ended. Wasn’t expecting much going into the second half of this season as the first went off the rails a bit. I don’t know or care much about the whole behind the scenes drama between Kevin and Taylor, but one of the cast members said it was the easiest thing they filmed. Probably helped translate to the screen. I really don’t see how any spin-off’s could be seen as anything beyond cash grabs, and ironically going crossgrain with the main theme of the show. But then again, I guess another theme would be that *shit happens* (of course).
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Arcane series - 6/10
I really don't understand the praise this show has gotten (though it's probably more so because of season's 2 issues mainly and that dropped recently). Although I didn't love season 1 either, it was good and all but nothing amazing. I was able to tell that the director of the series (at least the 1st credited one on Wiki, Pascal Charrue) had never directed anything prior to the show in the their life (as I looked them up because the directing was very amateurish). It was a bunch of little from how action was directed to lines of dialog not making sense (because the scene was either edited too much or should've been cut completely). One example was a fight scene where they showed an enemy behind Cait when she was shooting but when they cut back like 2 seconds later and there wasn't an enemy there anymore. Also, there's never any wide shots during actions scenes and kinda hard to hard to see where everyone/thing is at times. Another time Jinx is in the officer suit/gear on like a train car and the guy across from her smacks his lips in a way to hit on her but she's in a full officer suit as I said so you can't tell if she's even a chick let alone if she's hot.
One of my biggest problems with the show is that Vi sucks as a character. From what happened at the end of the 3rd episode with her, Vander, and Powder; I was basically already done with her and she just constantly makes the wrong choice every single fucking time and then expects people to accept her. And she's also a very bland character, she's not entertaining at all. And the other major problem with the show is the plot in season 2 is pretty garbage, it's goes like all anime; characters not staying consistent just so certain things happen and the stakes get risen so high just to have said stakes because it makes no sense for Viktor to be wanting to do that. The episode where Ekko and Heimerdinger "go back", what Heimerdinger's does literally makes no sense for his character up until that point and he only does it because the plot needs him to do that.
I really don't understand the praise this show has gotten (though it's probably more so because of season's 2 issues mainly and that dropped recently). Although I didn't love season 1 either, it was good and all but nothing amazing. I was able to tell that the director of the series (at least the 1st credited one on Wiki, Pascal Charrue) had never directed anything prior to the show in the their life (as I looked them up because the directing was very amateurish). It was a bunch of little from how action was directed to lines of dialog not making sense (because the scene was either edited too much or should've been cut completely). One example was a fight scene where they showed an enemy behind Cait when she was shooting but when they cut back like 2 seconds later and there wasn't an enemy there anymore. Also, there's never any wide shots during actions scenes and kinda hard to hard to see where everyone/thing is at times. Another time Jinx is in the officer suit/gear on like a train car and the guy across from her smacks his lips in a way to hit on her but she's in a full officer suit as I said so you can't tell if she's even a chick let alone if she's hot.
One of my biggest problems with the show is that Vi sucks as a character. From what happened at the end of the 3rd episode with her, Vander, and Powder; I was basically already done with her and she just constantly makes the wrong choice every single fucking time and then expects people to accept her. And she's also a very bland character, she's not entertaining at all. And the other major problem with the show is the plot in season 2 is pretty garbage, it's goes like all anime; characters not staying consistent just so certain things happen and the stakes get risen so high just to have said stakes because it makes no sense for Viktor to be wanting to do that. The episode where Ekko and Heimerdinger "go back", what Heimerdinger's does literally makes no sense for his character up until that point and he only does it because the plot needs him to do that.
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No kidding.
All I see online is everyone crapping on the finale. And I just don't care enough to watch it- honestly I was just watching that last couple seasons out of momentum and boredom so when it stopped, I stopped.
As for the spinoffs, IMO 1883 was actually good. The only relation to Yellowstone is that the main guy is Costner's characters great-grandfather or something. But it feels like just a for-real western with a solid story and satisfying ending, and a good feel for history and setting.
1923 is pretty good too, made in a similar style. Yellowstone is “like fucking Dallas” according to Sam Elliot. Glad it’s finally over but still don’t see how much better people were expecting it to end. Selling the land back to Rainwater’s people seven generations later (as was foretold in 1883) at the same price per acre (there’s a little subplot about cheaper taxation) was the best compromise they could ask for given the circumstances.
Personally I didn't care for 1923- I think a lot of the affection was because it had two beloved actors (whom I also belove!) but it didn't really gel for me. Especially that absurd villain.
Which of the two awful siblings won in Yellowstone? (I remember the cliffhanger being that the adopted brother and crazy sister decided to kill each other)
From: S1-S2: God Help Us / Great
After navigating a mysteriously downed tree on a rural road, a family of four finds themselves stuck in a small town, every journey down the road leading them back to the same town. They finally learn that they're not alone in the cycle, and that the residents trapped in this town must hunker down each night as mysterious nightmare creatures hunt and brutally murder anyone outdoors when the sun goes down.
I watched this series when it first came out at the behest of my friend who insisted I "had" to watch it. I did, and I recall the exact unease and suspense it filled me with, but when season 3 came out, I'd forgotten so much of the previous 2 seasons' details, I was in no real hurry to try and pick up where season 2 left me. He encouraged me to re-watch the first two seasons, THEN watch seasons 3, and I've gotta say, I was immediately reminded how very little (if any) does better than this show at laying the groundworks of genuine intrigue, suspense, and terror, even on a refreshing re-watch when I knew who survives and how each moment of tension resolved. I'm starting season 3 tomorrow; thankfully it's over, and I don't have to deal with any cliffhangers until the final episode of this latest season.
Lost made me gun shy of shows like this that spend literally years jerking you off only to suddenly stop right before you "pop,", dust its hands off, and call you a cab. It's my sincerest hope that the writers learned from that, and actually thought this one through to a satisfactory ending, and don't simply react to unexpected interest with plot threads that lead nowhere and red herrings for red herrings' sake. But I feel good about this one, though getting jerked off always feels good, doesn't it? Highly recommended with tempered expectations, i.e.: enjoy the ride for what it is so far; it's worth it as long as we know there's more to go for now.
After navigating a mysteriously downed tree on a rural road, a family of four finds themselves stuck in a small town, every journey down the road leading them back to the same town. They finally learn that they're not alone in the cycle, and that the residents trapped in this town must hunker down each night as mysterious nightmare creatures hunt and brutally murder anyone outdoors when the sun goes down.
I watched this series when it first came out at the behest of my friend who insisted I "had" to watch it. I did, and I recall the exact unease and suspense it filled me with, but when season 3 came out, I'd forgotten so much of the previous 2 seasons' details, I was in no real hurry to try and pick up where season 2 left me. He encouraged me to re-watch the first two seasons, THEN watch seasons 3, and I've gotta say, I was immediately reminded how very little (if any) does better than this show at laying the groundworks of genuine intrigue, suspense, and terror, even on a refreshing re-watch when I knew who survives and how each moment of tension resolved. I'm starting season 3 tomorrow; thankfully it's over, and I don't have to deal with any cliffhangers until the final episode of this latest season.
Lost made me gun shy of shows like this that spend literally years jerking you off only to suddenly stop right before you "pop,", dust its hands off, and call you a cab. It's my sincerest hope that the writers learned from that, and actually thought this one through to a satisfactory ending, and don't simply react to unexpected interest with plot threads that lead nowhere and red herrings for red herrings' sake. But I feel good about this one, though getting jerked off always feels good, doesn't it? Highly recommended with tempered expectations, i.e.: enjoy the ride for what it is so far; it's worth it as long as we know there's more to go for now.
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