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

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The Boys 5.6

Funny how Paul Reiser just strolls right into Homelander’s good graces by deciding to be real with him. Nice as a one-off, but we all know what’s coming. Or silly me, that’s what Sage thought.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Now we have to wonder how he didn't hear "the boys" and the traitor Sister Sage in the woods only a few dozen yards away at the end.
Same way he didn't hear any of the massive all-out brawl/gunfight a couple of episodes ago in Fort Harmony. It just wouldn't be convenient for the plot.
 

Agema

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Same way he didn't hear any of the massive all-out brawl/gunfight a couple of episodes ago in Fort Harmony. It just wouldn't be convenient for the plot.
Undoubtedly.

But if we could make a reason, we might consider that cognitive processing is a big part, and potential limiting factor, of hearing. Someone with super-hearing is going to receive one hell of a lot of audio input, in which case the problem might be filtering important sounds from everything else. So perhaps what's happening is that he doesn't pick some of these sounds out from the background noise unless he specifically concentrates. This could make his super-hearing functionally more like an "active" power he has to turn on rather than a "passive" that's always there.
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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Widow's Bay, ep. 1-3

AppleTV's new comedy-horror is an outlet for one of TV's greatest actors- Matthew Rhys (the Americans, Perry Mason remake, Beat In Me)- take a break from his heavy drama and let loose amongst a cast of zany small-town weirdos. This is right up my wheelhouse. It has been compared fairly to Stephen King because it's in New England and has scary legends that turn out to have merit; and unfairly to Twin Peaks because there is "weirdness" but Twin Peaks' key factor that people forget is that it operated primarily using dream logic and feeling.
Widow's Bay is more comedic than I expected. Stephen Root is also there which contributed to that, as well as the quirky assistant women around Rhys' mayor character.

It's a good time. Recommending.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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The Boys 5.6

Funny how Paul Reiser just strolls right into Homelander’s good graces by deciding to be real with him. Nice as a one-off, but we all know what’s coming. Or silly me, that’s what Sage thought.
Reiser was delightful and the only thing I liked about the episode.
Learning about the upcoming prequel has soured me on this season. So much seems to be about setting that up now.

And either Sage turned out to be a dummy, outsmarting herself vis-a-vis Soldier Boy's motivations, or there is another twist or two coming that will focus around Soldier Boy, a character that is important to the prequel. Blech. I know I said the plot doesn't matter but that was because it was in service to character and comedy and now those suffer as well.

Anyway...
The Boys Showrunner Erik Kripke Reacts to the Donald Trump Golden Statue
 
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Reiser was delightful and the only thing I liked about the episode.
Learning about the upcoming prequel has soured me on this season. So much seems to be about setting that up now.

And either Sage turned out to be a dummy, outsmarting herself vis-a-vis Soldier Boy's motivations, or there is another twist or two coming that will focus around Soldier Boy, a character that is important to the prequel. Blech. I know I said the plot doesn't matter but that was because it was in service to character and comedy and now those suffer as well.

Anyway...
The Boys Showrunner Erik Kripke Reacts to the Donald Trump Golden Statue
This might trump (no pun) the Simpsons level of foreshadowing.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Babylon 5 rewatch complete. Status of"greatest sci-fi show of the late 20th century" reconfirmed. So so good.

But I never saw Stargate SG-1, and I always meant to, so I'm gonna.

I realized how much nostalgia I have for that very particular era and style of TV- episodic, long season, a mix of stand-alone and serialized stories, room for character development and relationships. Rewatching B5 reminded me that the best part of that show is the relationships. With short seasons, modern shows rarely have a chance to do that.
 

Gordon_4

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Babylon 5 rewatch complete. Status of"greatest sci-fi show of the late 20th century" reconfirmed. So so good.
"Now, for those of you archiving this ISN special documentary, the people responsible......"

What a piece of music to be shown the door to. Fucking perfect, no notes, please let that be the tune I'm lowered into the ground by.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Undoubtedly.

But if we could make a reason, we might consider that cognitive processing is a big part, and potential limiting factor, of hearing. Someone with super-hearing is going to receive one hell of a lot of audio input, in which case the problem might be filtering important sounds from everything else. So perhaps what's happening is that he doesn't pick some of these sounds out from the background noise unless he specifically concentrates. This could make his super-hearing functionally more like an "active" power he has to turn on rather than a "passive" that's always there.
That's the way I was leaning for the writers' sake, i.e.: yeah, he hears everything, but has to focus to hear anything specifically. Like the x-ray vision; it's not like he sees through everything at all times, but rather something he has to "engage" for any practical utility. I buy that. Hell, I buy that the dark and light sides of the Force were battling in a galaxy far, far away while we were still dragging our knuckles in caves here on Earth, so yeah, I'm okay with selective reasoning.

Anyway, I rewatched the scene with Reiser (still can't believe that's him) and Homelander in the Boys' hideout. It's probably my favorite scene from the series, those few minutes. Someone who looks Homelander in the eye without fear, tells him straight, even touches him flippantly, and accepts his fate... and Homelander appreciates it deeply enough to allow him to live. Mercy is the least of Homelander's virtues, and that he showed it then was a very powerful moment telling that behind the intense narcissism and presumed omnipotence is a soul that can be reached. Granted, even Homelander himself was very clear it was out of character with the "no words, just go" attitude, but it leads me to believe redemption might be possible. I don't know what act it would take to separate him from the atrocities of his past, but that they're showing his "humanity" this late into the game is intriguing.
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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I watched some of Witch Hat Atelier, and this is one looker of an anime. Sometimes it feels like even anime has lost its sauce, but then something like this comes along. And it's not even some big shounen action series, but a girl centric fantasy tale about drawing spells.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Anyway, speaking of From:

From: S4:Ep3 *sigh* / Great

Who's The Man In Yellow? Nobody knows, but the mere sight of his signature jacket caused Victor, the man who' been in this nightmare longer than anyone, to literally piss his pants. How much worse can this get??? This is one of few episodes that takes place entirely during the day, obviously establishing the intrigue for whatever is coming next, but it's a credit to the show that they can establish tension without overtly leaning on the antagonists. They are literally so scary, you don't even need to see them to fear them.
I'm not enjoying this show anymore. With the gap in between seasons, I forgot who everyone is and what happened. I don't know which parts are mysteries and which parts I'm supposed to know. In the last episode a character was like "this stays between us," I paused the ep, asked my wife "WHAT stays between them?" she shrugged, and I sullenly unpaused and started thinking about the next day's errands while the episode finished.
 
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Xprimentyl

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I'm not enjoying this show anymore. With the gap in between seasons, I forgot who everyone is and what happened. I don't know which parts are mysteries and which parts I'm supposed to know. In the last episode a character was like "this stays between us," I paused the ep, asked my wife "WHAT stays between them?" she shrugged, and I sullenly unpaused and started thinking about the next day's errands while the episode finished.
I'll spoiler it:

There's only a handful of people (the people in that room) that know about Tabitha's and Jade's revelation that they've been to this town in past lives as other people and have the purpose of saving the "anghkooey" children which is an ostensible way to free everyone from the nightmare. The idea of keeping it "between us" is to avoid the hope and pressure that might lead the others to false hope of a solution they themselves don't quite get and potentially anyone from doing something that would expose everyone to a greater danger.

I'd offer you should rewatch the show, but you could probably skate by just watching the recaps at the beginning of each episode leading up until now. It's still a great show, but yes, there's a lot to miss if you've not kept up.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Started watching Angels in America. It's a remarkable collection of talent - a "film" by Mike Nichols (in six episodes), adapting a play by Tony Kushner, starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Jeffrey Wright, Patrick Wilson, etc - with a magical realism vision of America in the 80s, the AIDS crisis and the apocalypse. It's like if Jacob's Ladder met A Christmas Carol. And, uh, everyone's dying from AIDS.

And since it's adapting a play you don't get the typically soggy TV scenes that have characters grouping to discuss what's just happened and what will they do about it. We just meet characters at the most important part of their day. Like in one episode a character calls his mom on the phone at 4 AM in a moment of panic to come out as gay; next episode we see a scene where the mom, having flown out from Utah to NYC, is now lost in the city and has a long conversation with a homeless person.

In the average idiot box programming we would also have a scene of the mom being talked into flying to NYC (nobody ever does anything on their own on TV!), another scene of her flying coach explaining to another passenger where she's going, another scene where she waits for her son at the airport for too long before she decides to brave the public transport system, yet another where she gets off at the wrong place either due to malice or misunderstanding before we get to the scene where she talks to the hobo, recounting everything that's already happened. Since it's adapting a smartly written play we get everything we need from a single scene that catches a character in the middle of action. No need to spread it or dillute it or drag it on.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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I don't even watch The Boys, but man, people really go crazy over Jensen Ackles huh? Even as an outside observer its quite clear to me how they're bending over backwards to accommodate his Soldier Boy. I mean I can see why, but they already have a prequel planned, surely he didn't need to be so prominent in the final season too.
 

Xprimentyl

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The Boys: S5: Ep7: Man Down / Great

The plot armor is THICK, but we're winding down, and there must be blood. I've been riding this long; no reason to stop enjoying the ride now.

I don't even watch The Boys, but man, people really go crazy over Jensen Ackles huh? Even as an outside observer its quite clear to me how they're bending over backwards to accommodate his Soldier Boy. I mean I can see why, but they already have a prequel planned, surely he didn't need to be so prominent in the final season too.
You can't really pass judgement without watching the show. Soldier Boy has actually been pivotal in these final hours. He's been one of very few actually likeable supes, and basically the ONLY supe to have anything over Homelander, the central focus of all efforts from every side. Soldier Boy is effectively the last ace in the deck, so he's kind of important.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Stargate SG-1

I feel like this is the only big pre-streaming TV sci-fi shows I skipped, so I decided to get into it, since I wanted some solo viewing to sink my teeth into, and rewatching Babylon 5 made me realize how much I missed classic episodic TV.
This was set after the events of the 1994 action sci-fi movie with Kurt Russell, James Spader and Egyptian alien conquerors. It is a very silly but fun movie.
So far I watched the double-pilot which establishes the situation/stakes- Russell and Spader's characters continue and recast, the former with MacGuyver. Christopher Judge (the voice of recent Kratos) is the alien who turns against his masters and joins our heroes.

I think the reason I'm interested in the show now is related to one of the reasons I didn't pay it no never mind when it was on- it's not as serious as Babylon 5 or Deep Space Nine or The X-Files. It's a boom boom hero adventure story. The bad guys are BAD GUYS. I'm sure over the course of these many episodes it will flesh out and get more interesting but the basic setup is more straightforward.

The cast is fine, the production is a bit disappointing because it was originally aired on Showtime and I would have hoped for better. But maybe my sense of 1997 is warped, I dunno.
Only complaint is the gender politics- there is a woman, you see, and she is in the military AND a brilliant physicist and the men are stupid for not taking her seriously and omg were they still doing this shit in 1997 and goddammit there gonnna will-they-won't-they her with the main dude, you KNOW they will. All the other women in this first double episode were exploited/enslaved/abused/treated as prizes. Hoping this improves over time, but starting off with only one lady who has a personality/goals/freewill is the biggest culture shock, especially coming off of B5 which, 4 years prior, already managed to avoid that problem.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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I don't even watch The Boys, but man, people really go crazy over Jensen Ackles huh? Even as an outside observer its quite clear to me how they're bending over backwards to accommodate his Soldier Boy. I mean I can see why, but they already have a prequel planned, surely he didn't need to be so prominent in the final season too.
Felt like he hijacked the show in season 3, feels like he's hijacking 5 as well. And in a show built around two sides killing each other - not that there's much killing, and then it's usually one side killing itself - he flips around too much for his own good.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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You can't really pass judgement without watching the show. Soldier Boy has actually been pivotal in these final hours. He's been one of very few actually likeable supes, and basically the ONLY supe to have anything over Homelander, the central focus of all efforts from every side. Soldier Boy is effectively the last ace in the deck, so he's kind of important.
I'm not saying he shouldn't be in it anymore, I think the show has gone far past that at this point. But I mean c'mon, the inclusion of the Bombsight character with such a pivotal role in this final season just because he's starring in the upcoming Soldier Boy prequel? That seems incredibly cynical.
Felt like he hijacked the show in season 3, feels like he's hijacking 5 as well. And in a show built around two sides killing each other - not that there's much killing, and then it's usually one side killing itself - he flips around too much for his own good.
Up until I saw the promos for this season, I assumed that Soldier Boy had already been killed by Homelander at the end of season 3. Just seemed like the logical conclusion for his character.
 

Xprimentyl

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I'm not saying he shouldn't be in it anymore, I think the show has gone far past that at this point. But I mean c'mon, the inclusion of the Bombsight character with such a pivotal role in this final season just because he's starring in the upcoming Soldier Boy prequel? That seems incredibly cynical.
Not sure if you've any intent to ever watch the show, but (hopefully without spoiling too much,) Homelander is the most powerful supe in the world, and Soldier Boy is the only being who might physically match him, but also has an "in" to his deeply troubled psyche. He's effectively Homelander's only weakness. He's important to the story as they've written it; I don't think he's been overused just to to sell the spinoff.

Up until I saw the promos for this season, I assumed that Soldier Boy had already been killed by Homelander at the end of season 3. Just seemed like the logical conclusion for his character.
Read my reply above. Soldier Boy is the "daddy" in Homelander's daddy issues. He's been fairly critical in the antagonist's story arc, again, as they've written it. Could it have been written otherwise? Of course, but we're here now because of Soldier Boy.
 

Bob_McMillan

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Not sure if you've any intent to ever watch the show, but (hopefully without spoiling too much,) Homelander is the most powerful supe in the world, and Soldier Boy is the only being who might physically match him, but also has an "in" to his deeply troubled psyche. He's effectively Homelander's only weakness. He's important to the story as they've written it; I don't think he's been overused just to to sell the spinoff.

Read my reply above. Soldier Boy is the "daddy" in Homelander's daddy issues. He's been fairly critical in the antagonist's story arc, again, as they've written it. Could it have been written otherwise? Of course, but we're here now because of Soldier Boy.
I initially intended to watch the show, then I read the entire comic run to prepare and just kind of came away tired of the whole thing. My girlfriend was so put off by Starlight's "rape" in the first episode (not sure if she actually did it in the show, but you know what I'm talking about), so my last incentive to watch was lost.

Anyway, fair enough. I guess we'll see if they manage to land the ending. The comic ending was quite ass, and I think the show has diverged way too much to end the same way. Although I do bet Soldier Boy is taking Noir's place as the guy who gets to take Homelander out.