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

[Johnny Novgorod]

Upload

Another Black Mirror-y concept stretched out to one full season and parceled out into 25 minute instalments. Man in this quarantine great for shows I would never watch in my life otherwise. These past 3 months I've seen more TV than I would've in 3 years. The premise: in 2033 digital "afterlives" are commonplace in the form of virtual realities where dying people can upload themselves, their consciences free to lounge around in fancy simulated resorts for eternity so long as a family member keeps paying the monthly premium and the servers don't go down. Although dressed in sci-fi, the show is basically a romcom between Nathan (freshly uploaded after a suspect car accident) and Nora, an "angel" (ie. tech rep) helping him acclimatize to eternity.

Their flirtation takes up most of the running time and it's supposed to be cute and endearing, but I was on Nathan's ACTUAL girlfriend's side the whole way. We're given a million reasons to dislike or suspect Ingrid (she's controlling to the point she may have uploaded him on purpose, just to keep him on the boyfriend payroll) but I dunno, even if she's an obsessive yandere she's also in love with him and ready to go out of her way and past the point of altruism to keep him happy. She's also A+ gorgeous and fashionable. Nora felt like a wet blanket next to her. So I'm rooting for the wrong romantic interest in this romcom, and while the sci-fi aspect is fun for a while (every episode introduces and shallowly explores some new aspect about the perks and foibles of being uploaded) it's also not at all believable.

Tired jokes about invasive pop-ups and petty microtransactions aside I just never believed the show's version of virtual existence. Feels like if we're at the point where the world has embraced the tech to the point where engaging it is as simple and commonplace as, I dunno, throwing your elderly to a retirement community, a lot of the wacky sitcom problems that come up throughout the show would've been ironed out by now. A lot of the virtual afterlife also seems contrived to the point of irritiating users with pointless choices and limitations. And there's a stab at "capitalism sucks" by limiting lower tier users to 2 GBs of data a month, but the analogy fails because this supposed exploitation doesn't serve the higher tier at all. It's just another pointless fuck you.

And if you get to choose, who the hell wants to look like an old geezer in the afterlife? Or look young but be colored like an old, faded out picture? And why the hell do the tech reps have to go around babysitting and keeping the uploads amused? Why don't uploads just socialize with each other? There's millions of them 24/7, but you want the attention of a couple of overworked, underpaid tech reps to fill in your social quota? And so on.

 

[Kyrian007]

I just finished season 1 of The Boys. Its good? I guess. Its really well done, but it just doesn't make me care at all. A: superhero deconstruction is becoming about as overdone as the superhero genre itself. Its not to the point of the early to mid 2010s where you couldn't throw a rock without it landing where someone was filming a zombie movie... but superhero deconstruction is getting there. And B: there isn't a likeable character in the bunch, and that CAN work. In It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia you can laugh at the awful things happening to the characters and its OK, because it is established that they are terrible people. But The Boys? It does not pull that off. They aren't just terrible people, but unlikeable and just bland caricatures. The business oriented single mom overachiever, the grimdark wiseass with a tragic inciting incident, the helpless dork driven to action by insane circumstances (the very overused self-insert fanfic protagonist.) Even the "supes" are just mentally unstable superman, jaded sellout wonderwoman, low self-esteem aquaman, and junkie flash. And that sounds like I'm trashing it... but it is really well put together. With better characters, and maybe a little more humor to offset the stench of overly grimdark it would be really great. As it is one thing it has going for it... they can go nuts with the character killings for big story moments... because I wouldn't miss any of them anyway.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Watched the pilot episode for two shows on Amazon.

First was The Tick. I vaguely remember the 90s animated show and kinda liking it but it's not a standard I would hold for anything. The series apparently refocuses the story on Arthur, who's given a tragic backstory that is simultaneously silly and dark. The guy playing him is so miserable and sickly that I felt sorry for him. The Tick himself is almost Totoro level of cheery friend who helps you cope by fulfilling your wishes of empowerment and may or may not be imaginary. I like Serafinowicz in the role but I overall couldn't muster the interest. Not many laughs to it either.

ZeroZeroZero is a miniseries with some top notch credits. It's created by Stephen Solima (Sicario 2), co-written and co-produced with Roberto Saviano (Italian writer famous for controversial non-fiction books on organized crime), co-directed with Pablo Trapero (a fellow countryman of mine whom I kinda like to the extent his wife doesn't Yoko Ono the production) and Mogwai of all people does the music. The series is about 3 factions involved in coke traffic: the Mexican cartel that produces it, the 'Ndragheta mafia that buys it, and the American company that ships it. It promises to be Sicario level of grim and vicious.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Hunters

A ragtag band of Jews goes hunting for Nazis in 1977 America. The series is caught between the kookie grindhouse style of Inglorious Basterds/New Colossus, complete with campy character intros and over-the-top sitcom, and the sobering god-awful mementos of concentration camps. A music band plays Hava Nagila and gets shot one at a time. A group of prisoners sings out of tune and gets shot one at a time. Another group is made play human chess and killed as pieces are "captured". Not to suggest the fucking Nazis were above contriving such tortures but they're presented in such cartoony fashion that they teeter between either being offensive or being so outlandish in their depiction that nobody could take them seriously (when they should). "Problematic" aside the series struggles to find a tone and balance it, which is not a problem I had with Tarantino or Wolfenstein, ridiculous as THOSE get (New Colossus especially).

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

People Just Do Nothing
Never liked The Office, Gervais annoys me along with the humour. But in the genre of mockumentary comes this. Following a small group of low-income failed pirate radio DJs in west London. While the characters in this are exaggerations, they all feel authentic to where i swear I've known variations of these people in meatlife adventures. At first it's all rather dumb, but layers emerge, and endearence grows. Not too bad so far, a bit of an intense anchor after a lot of high concept sci-fi tbh.

 

[Hawki]

Doctor Who: Series 11 (3/5)

Hoo boy, do I have a lot to talk about with this one.

I was late coming to this season. In part because of the Doctor's genderswap. In part because the first episode was as dull as dishwater. That said, borrowed the DVD, and figured I'd give it a chance. Let's give series 11 a chance to stand and fall on its own two feet. As to whether it does so, I can't say, because if anything, it just sits in a chair and doesn't stand OR fall.

I'm going to comment on the Thirteenth Doctor first. I was actually surprised as to how quickly I got used to her. It took me awhile to get invested in Eleven and Twelve (and I never really got used to Eleven), but it was within the first few episodes that Thirteen grew on me. Kind of like Missy. Now, I maintain making the Master Missy was silly, when there was no reason that Missy couldn't have been her own character (honestly, the whole gender 'thing' that DW went for towards the end of Moffat's run could fill a thread on its own), but Missy was at least lots of fun. I don't know if I'd call Thirteen "fun" in the same way, but Whittaker is capable as the Doctor. She manages to get the quirkiness right, along with the darker parts. That said, it's hard to really define Whittaker's Doctor. If I looked at previous ones, she reminds me the most of Ten, but she doesn't really have much identity of her own. But that aside, my issues with the season don't come from Whittaker. She's fine as the Doctor. My problems with the season however, are similar to the ones that I have with her, and that's a lack of identity.

Okay, again, maybe that's not entirely fair, but Chibnall is the third showrunner for NuWho, and I'm left to ask what his style is. I'd be hard pressed to describe the 'style' of Davies too, granted, but I'm inclined to agree with what others said, that his run was character-focused, and veered more to the sci-fi rather than the fantastical. Moffat, whose style I can more easily define, went the oppite direction. I recall that he wanted to treat the show like a modern fairytale, which resulted in a lot more fantastical episodes, Less sci-fi, more sci-fa. Now, my view on Moffat is that he can write excellent individual episodes, but has problems being a showrunner because of how convoluted things could get, but at least there was something distinct about Moffat's era from Davies's. Chibnall, however? If I'm taking this season as being indicative, it's a desire to go retro. Like, OldWho retro. I say that because of how there's no two-parters, there isn't much episode-to-episode continuity, and no real theme for the season (like, no Bad Wolf for instance). Furthermore, it goes back to the format of multiple companions, whereas much of NuWho has had one companion at a time, and never more than two, and always, the second companion was introduced after the first. Chibnall gives us three companions all in one go. Kind of like how the entire series started over fifty years ago. Again, this is a valid choice, but it feels like the series is looking back rather than forward. And a key difference is that instead of one "good/great" companion, we get three "decent" companions. And they are decent, don't get me wrong (even if Yaz doesn't have much to do), but still, there isn't much to write home about.

Speaking of writing, let's briefly look at the overall writing of the series. It's uneven, and the worst episodes are the ones that Chibnall has the most involvement in (with the exception of The Ghost Monument). Tellingly, this includes the first episode (dull), and the last episode (nonsensical). Tim Shaw is the closest thing the season has to a Bad Wolf or cracks motif, but the difference is that Tim Shaw is a TERRIBLE villain. FFS, his character is basically "I come from a warrior race, and do bad things because I'm evil." Yes, DW has had villains like that (see the daleks), but the daleks are at least fun. In the finale, when Tim Shaw makes his unwelcome return, it has the delusion of being meaningful. I honestly didn't care what was going on. On the flipside, keeping in with harkening back to OldWho (where the show was originally meant to focus on history more than sci-fi), the best episodes are Rosa and Demons of the Punjab. Both are very solid episodes, with lots to say and lots of humanity. When people accuse Series 11 of being "too political," these episodes will probably come up, but frankly, this is absurd. If you're going to explore stuff like segregation or the partition of India, by necessity, you're going to explore political topics.

So that's season 11. Did I enjoy it? In the end...at times, is the answer. Overall, the season feels like a regression in the wider scope of the Whoniverse. It lacks the lows of Moffat's run, but also the highs, and seeks to emulate the past rather than do its own thing. So on one hand, I think a lot of angst towards the season is misplaced. On the other, it's still got signficant problems.

 

[Drathnoxis]

After 3 series of Red Dwarf I'm calling it quits. People kept saying it gets better later but... it doesn't really. I don't really know what other people see in the show, it just seems like a kind of dumb sitcom to me.

On the other hand I'm still watching Shaman King. 23 episodes in and the show has grown on me somewhat. I don't understand why the person to unite with god is determined by a fighting tournament, Manta seems completely useless, and I still hate Anna, but the fights have some nice spectacle and the rest of the cast is alright.

 

[BrawlMan]

I don't understand why the person to unite with god is determined by a fighting tournament

Because of dumb shounen rules and tropes. It took me 2/3 of the show to realize that back when I was 14, but I was too invested by that point to barely care. If I remember, correctly, something about strength, intelligence, wisdom, and some other bullcrap I barely remember.

Manta seems completely useless

I will go out of my way to defend the little guy, because I always had soft spot for Manta. Believe it or not, but he's way more useful in the show, than he is in the original manga. Near the last couple of episodes, you will know why.

and I still hate Anna

 

[happyninja42]

Because of dumb shounen rules and tropes. It took me 2/3 of the show to realize that back when I was 14, but I was too invested by that point to barely care. If I remember, correctly, something about strength, intelligence, wisdom, and some other bullcrap I barely remember.

I suspect it's an artifact of the Japanese cultural concept of personal betterment on a mystical level. I think it's tied to shintoism or daoisim?, though I could be wrong there, but it's a common trait to present the "betterment" of a human through martial arts and all that stuff. I've seen it referred to as "refinement", as there are a lot of fantasy novels that are focused around the concept, and people often use the term refinement as a genre label. It's all about harnessing chi or essence or whatever, and using it to improve your body/mind/spirit. And by the fact of simply DOING that, you become a more enlightened, perfect being. And thus if you are perfect, you are the best candidate for something like fusing with god, because all negative human traits would have been purified out of you. And the best way to determine how purified/refined you've become, is to fight people. Because if they are more powerful than you, you aren't refined enough. At least that's always been my understanding of using it as a selective system for divinity or whatever.

 

[BrawlMan]

And thus if you are perfect, you are the best candidate for something like fusing with god, because all negative human traits would have been purified out of you. And the best way to determine how purified/refined you've become, is to fight people. Because if they are more powerful than you, you aren't refined enough. At least that's always been my understanding of using it as a selective system for divinity or whatever.

And really, all it is is a fancier holy or pious version of saying survival of the fittest. You might as well have this guy come out and say:


To be fair, this kind of becomes a theme in Shaman King late in the anime. Compared to the manga,that theme is actually explored better in the show than the original manga. I won't spoil anything, but @Drathnoxis will see what I mean.

 

[Gordon_4]

And really, all it is is a fancier holy or pious version of saying survival of the fittest. You might as well have this guy come out and say:


To be fair, this kind of becomes a theme in Shaman King late in the anime. Compared to the manga,that theme is actually explored better in the show than the original manga. I won't spoil anything, but @Drathnoxis will see what I mean.

I'm personally a big believer in the concept of betterment through martial arts training. Though not to the degree that I become God/God-like. Apart from the many conflicting spiritual ideals you find in the vast breadth of martial training, perfection is impossible and stupid.


Anywho, I've been watching the second season of Big Hero 6 on Disney+. I don't care what anyone says, this show is a ton of fun. Mind, if they ever decide to apply the sequel jumper leads to it, its gonna be awkward seeing them without all the sort of trials they've done in the show. Unless they acknowledge that, which would be cool. But I'd rather have a third season.

 

[BrawlMan]

Though not to the degree that I become God/God-like. Apart from the many conflicting spiritual ideals you find in the vast breadth of martial training, perfection is impossible and stupid.

Agreed.

Anywho, I've been watching the second season of Big Hero 6 on Disney+. I don't care what anyone says, this show is a ton of fun. Mind, if they ever decide to apply the sequel jumper leads to it, its gonna be awkward seeing them without all the sort of trials they've done in the show. Unless they acknowledge that, which would be cool. But I'd rather have a third season.

I planned on watching that, but my interests dropped. I liked the film well enough, not I just felt it was alright. Still like it though.

 

[Saint of M]

National Geographics Wild Russia. Need a pick me up, watch the bits on the seals

 

[Kyrian007]

Just finished the first "season" of Netflix's revival of Unsolved Mysteries. Interesting idea I suppose, if nothing else reuploads can add in "update" segments like the original version had. But I am disappointed. Each episode of the original featured several stories, unsolved crimes, strange tales... etc. In the Netflix version... it is a deeper dive into a single "mystery" every episode. In this instance I'm thinking quantity is preferable to quality. Plus, no narrator. I know we can't replace the late Robert Stack... But it made the original series work much better than the Netflix relaunch. Is Stephen McHattie still with us, yes he is. That is the exact kind of person and voice that's needed to host a revived unsolved mysteries. The episodes themselves... well done. Disappearances and murders mostly with a mass UFO sighting episode thrown in. One of the episodes featured a murder in a town in the state where I live. I remember coming across the story early in my journalism career. It was interesting to watch. Another happened across the state adjacent to where I live... I remember that story as well. I think they should continue to make episodes... but get a host. Oh, and bring back the badly acted and produced "reenactments," those were always good for a laugh in the original.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Most of the first ep of War of the Worlds. The Fox/French co-production from last year.

Ok, they put a lot of effort into it, but it was a cliched, by the numbers waste of time. Nothing remotely novel or interesting, so got bored and went to youtube to watch a guy talk about highland dirks and then another guy make a wooden shovel.

 

[Hawki]

Most of the first ep of War of the Worlds. The Fox/French co-production from last year.

Wait, the French are co-financing War of the Worlds?

Well of course that's going to be terrible. I mean, the British gave it their all at Richmond Hill and the Thunder Child in the Martian War, but what are the French going to do? Damn cheese eating surrender monkeys!

 

[Trunkage]

Wait, the French are co-financing War of the Worlds?

Well of course that's going to be terrible. I mean, the British gave it their all at Richmond Hill and the Thunder Child in the Martian War, but what are the French going to do? Damn cheese eating surrender monkeys!

This reminded me of the cassette War of the Worlds I stole off dad. Listening to Thunder Child and Forever Autumn was pretty haunting

 

[Hawki]

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (4/5)

So, finally got round to actually watching the season. The season that most people seem to agree is sub-standard at best, and the worst thing in the history of everything ever at worst. Having watched the season, all I can say is "sort of" to the first assertion, and "are you high?" at the latter assertion. Because I said it with season 7 and I'll say it here, Game of Thrones at its worst is still better than a lot of shows at their best. Heck, it's not even the worst season in the series. But it's still got flaws, and I'm going to deal with those first. And the biggest flaw of all is the third episode.

Episode 3 is a mess. It was billed as the largest battle in the series, but that doesn't count for much when you can barely see what's going on, and when the tactics used are nonsensical. I'm not bemoaning Arya being the one to kill the Night King, but I am bemoaning that the execution of the episode is just all-round lousy. I seriously have to question this "bigger is better" mentality, because the best battles in the series (Blackwater, Castle Black, Hardholme) didn't rely on spectacle to sell their stakes. And unfortunately, episode 3 isn't the only weak episode in the season, because we're also left with episode 6. Yes, 6, not 5, because Dany going all Hiroshoma on King's Landing isn't something I inherently have a problem with (from a storytelling standpoint). Rather, it's the last episode that gives me problems. This is a problem that had its roots in season 7, but here, it feels like two episodes welded together. Everything up to Jon killing Dany feels like one episode, and everything after feels like another. And it's telling because we go straight from ash-covered King's Landing to normal King's Landing, with nothing in-between. Certainly no sign of the people who've gone through hell, and get a new king for the umpteenth time. There's other problems I can name, but I doubt they won't be ones you haven't heard already. So that being said, let's get to why, at the end of the day, I like this season.

Season 8 is thematically rich. I say this because it manages to comment on the idea of cycles of violence, while offering both hope and cynicism that those cycles can, or can't, be overcome. The structure of the story alone ties in with this. In a conventional fantasy story, the battle against the Army of the Dead would be the conventional climax point. Instead, it isn't. What comes after is the carnage of King's Landing. But even that aside, season 8 is aware of the cycle of harm. It's not that this theme has been absent from previous seasons, but here, it comes to centre stage. To explain this, I'm going to point to the following:

-As soon as Varys finds out about Jon's parentage, he goes about writing letters. Varys is trapped in his own cycle. Always trying to find the next person to rule the realm. This backfires on him personally, and arguably contributes to Dany's actions at King's Landing.

-Cersei can't let go of power, not even for her own child. She's given an out, to escape with her life, and refuses to take it. She pays the price, as do the people of King's Landing. She orders Missandei be beheaded, which harms Dany and Grey Worm, both of whom indulge in cruelty as a result of Cersei's own cruelty.

-The season gives us the Cleganebowl. Before that, Sandor tells Arya "look at me" to show what a path of vengeance has cost him. Arya steps away. Sandor doesn't. He can't even best his own brother in a fight, because his brother is a walking, near-immortal monster. Sandor's quest for vengeance costs him his life, and what does he get out of it? Inglorious death.

-Euron duels Jaime when he crawls onto the beach. Why? He has nothing to gain from it. No power, little glory, he's likely as good as dead anyway. But he still does it. Jaime obliges. It's all these men (or at least Euron) have left at this point. Euron can't help himself, and pays the price for it.

-This idea of cycles really hits home more than anything in the fifth episode. From the start, we've been trained to see the Starks as de facto protagonists, and the Lannisters as de facto antagonists. In season 1, in King's Landing, good ol Ned Stark and his men-at-arms were there, while the Lannister men-at-arms used helmets that covered their faces. The Lannisters conducted the Red Wedding. But now, at the end of the story, the roles have reversed. The Northerners are an invading army, the Lannister army is trying to protect civilians, and people are dying in droves. The mere visuals alone in this sell the idea, that the cycle of harm will always damage people who perpetuate the violence, and innocent people will suffer.

It's why Dany's actions work for me, at least thematically. Dany's been abused for a good portion of her life. When that stopped, she left a trail of bodies in her wake. Bodies that we cheered when they hit the floor, as Tyrion points out, but bodies all the same. And when the bells ring, when she has victory...she doesn't stop. In that moment, she can't stop. Dany comes to break the wheel, but she's part of this same cycle of violence herself.

I'm going to shift a bit, and point out that Dany's arc in season 8 does reflect on the idea of the worth, arguably the need for love. It's an arc that arguably moves too quickly, but the framework is there. Over the course of season 8, Dany loses Jorah (a man who loved her), Missandei (a close friend), Varys (who betrays her because he's found someone better to rule the throne), Tyrion (a man who was devoted to her, before realizing how badly he misjudged her), and Jon, whose relationship is soured because the laws of succession dictate that he has a stronger claim to the throne, even if he doesn't want it. This is reflected in Cersei as well - on one hand, she loves her child. On the other, she can't let go of her crown. Season 8 shows the need, the worth of human connection, and how emotional harm can lead to physical harm. We see it in Dany, we see it in Cersei, we see it in Grey Worm. The series isn't even subtle about it, outright stating that love is the death of duty, and duty is the death of love. And yet despite all this, the season ends on a cynical note that this cycle can be changed. Bran is king, but is just as disinterested in Small Council meetings as Robert. The Small Council itself descends into bickering. The Seven Kingdoms may now be the Six Kingdoms, and choose kings through vote rather than secession, but it's still the nobles holding all the power, Sam's suggestion of democracy being laughed at by everyone, even Sansa. The series ends on the suggestion that despite everything that's occurred up to this point, all the people have achieved is making a world that's only slightly less terrible than the one before it. And tellingly, Jon, the most morally upstanding person left, can't claim any kind of reward for it. It's dubious whether him being sent to the Wall is a punishment or not, as to whether he's going to live with the Wildlings or remain a crow, but it's not exactly an uplifting ending. Though it is an ending that ends where the series began, physically. So there's that.

Season 8 isn't perfect. Like season 7, it's trying to cover too much over too small a time, leading plot points to be underbaked or rushed in areas. But the foundation and themes remain secure. And it's why I don't have compunction in stating that the season remains good television, but that Go|T remains one of my favourite TV series of all time.

 

[Thaluikhain]

This reminded me of the cassette War of the Worlds I stole off dad. Listening to Thunder Child and Forever Autumn was pretty haunting

Oh, yeah, heard that as a kid, and seconding the hauntingness.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm guessing this counts as a Non-movie. I watched Hamilton on Disney+ this weekend(having previously seen in touring a few years back) and quite enjoyed it. While there's nothing like seeing something on stage, it's also nice to be able to see the actors faces so you can see them emote(something that's difficulty when sitting in the "cheap" seats at the theater).

There's plenty of things to be said about the show so I'm gonna keep it simple. The show works very well for a musical, provided you're okay with the Rap and R+B style music for most of the numbers(otherwise it's unlikely you'll be able to make it all the way through). There are numerous flaws with the History, and the timeline of the wonky(it starts in 1776, jumps to 1780, but then refers to events that happened in 1778 as if they were happening now). There's also the fact Hamilton, being the POV character, is treated more sympathetically then a lot of people around him despite not really being much better IRL. A lot of can be chalked up to the restrictions of theater and the influence of it's "Everyman rises from nothing to power" theme but at times it still comes across as a bit of fudging.

There's one bit that is true but due to context feels totally different in the show that I noticed. In "Right Hand Man", there's two references to Hamilton stealing British cannon during the Battle of New York. Now, IRL Hamilton(and some others) captured British cannons and turned them into a rebel artillery unit, which was a notable part of his military career. However, the show makes it sound like he's pulling a particularly roguish prank on the british.

The back half also tends to drag at times, which is a problem with many musicals, before picking up for the climax at the Hamilton-Burr Duel.
Despite that, half the soundtrack is still stuck in my head all the time since watching it, so I guess that say something right there.

Also, fun fact: I totally didn't realize John Groff plays both King George in Hamilton and Christoph in Frozen/Frozen 2. Which seems wierd because I have a 3 year old(thus having heard the Frozen/2 soundtracks MANY,MANY times) and the King George numbers in Hamilton are some of my favorite. It has to be the British accent as the King that threw me off.