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

Kyrian007

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There is being a goody-two-shoes, and then there is calling Friends bad people. Sure there is a laugh track over events that would be serious if they happened to real people, but come on.
Chandler is a smarmy douchebag, Joey is an alpha-male bro meathead who "DOESN'T SHARE FOOD." Ross is a terrible dad, and all 3 male friends are so homophobic its bizarre that they don't get called out on it more. Rachel is a narcissist who doesn't believe the rules apply to her, Monica is a manipulative neurotic mess...
And Phoebe is terrifying. She refers to her past as "her mugging days" and they straight up said she tied up a boyfriend and left him to die. They are likeable, but are all terrible people. It is an impressive tightrope to walk and the writers deserve credit for doing that so well.
 

McElroy

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Chandler is a smarmy douchebag, Joey is an alpha-male bro meathead who "DOESN'T SHARE FOOD." Ross is a terrible dad, and all 3 male friends are so homophobic its bizarre that they don't get called out on it more. Rachel is a narcissist who doesn't believe the rules apply to her, Monica is a manipulative neurotic mess...
And Phoebe is terrifying. She refers to her past as "her mugging days" and they straight up said she tied up a boyfriend and left him to die. They are likeable, but are all terrible people. It is an impressive tightrope to walk and the writers deserve credit for doing that so well.
Once you put it that way I can maybe agree on Phoebe. But even then if we were to look at her character from a modern perspective she'd probably have a bunch of mental diagnoses. For the rest your standards go way over my head.
 

Kyrian007

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Once you put it that way I can maybe agree on Phoebe. But even then if we were to look at her character from a modern perspective she'd probably have a bunch of mental diagnoses. For the rest your standards go way over my head.
Cracked's After Hours says it better than I ever could.
 

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Cracked's After Hours says it better than I ever could.
Ah it was a joke. I feel a bit stupid now. Though Cracked's take on what's satirical and what isn't hasn't always been clear. Also I think Phoebe makes that comment about cuffing Mike in jest.
 

happyninja42

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Yeah, I really couldn't stand the show, I stopped after episode 3 IIRC where they're crying like the whole episode. I didn't care for the 1st couple episodes either, you could just tell the setup has no logical explanation other than like something weird like VR or dream or something.
The thing I found interesting, is that, at least up through episode 2, every character we see when The Event happens, is in an isolated location. So it had me wondering if they were somehow abducted and spliced their memories in at that point. The 3 guys are together in a bathroom stall, easily gassed and restrained once unconscious. And the woman was similarly isolated in a bathroom.

I just....can't find the drive to see if that's the consistent theme for when they noticed things changed.
 

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The thing I found interesting, is that, at least up through episode 2, every character we see when The Event happens, is in an isolated location. So it had me wondering if they were somehow abducted and spliced their memories in at that point. The 3 guys are together in a bathroom stall, easily gassed and restrained once unconscious. And the woman was similarly isolated in a bathroom.

I just....can't find the drive to see if that's the consistent theme for when they noticed things changed.
Even if they did that, where are they stashing like all of Tokyo while being able to use like all of Tokyo as some experiment or something? And how they can kill you literally anywhere? Battle Royale setup was super simple and just worked. At least like trapping them in a single building (even like some skyscrapper) would be somewhat believable and also believable in controlling said environment if you don't want to do the secluded island thing. I'm pretty sure from reading a bit about the show from a few months back that season 1 doesn't explain much plot-wise so you'd need to watch at least another season. I didn't care for like any of the characters and they were so 1-dimesional.
 

happyninja42

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Even if they did that, where are they stashing like all of Tokyo while being able to use like all of Tokyo as some experiment or something? And how they can kill you literally anywhere? Battle Royale setup was super simple and just worked. At least like trapping them in a single building (even like some skyscrapper) would be somewhat believable and also believable in controlling said environment if you don't want to do the secluded island thing. I'm pretty sure from reading a bit about the show from a few months back that season 1 doesn't explain much plot-wise so you'd need to watch at least another season. I didn't care for like any of the characters and they were so 1-dimesional.
My theory is that it's all some kind of virtual reality thing. That the reason why all of the characters were in isolated locations when the switch happened, was that's when some MIB's showed up (or the Japanese government equivalent), knocked them out in some way, and then took them away to some location. They plugged them into this VR system, for whatever reason, and basically just edited their memories to remove the blackout assault moment. So that from their perspective, there was just the sound of all power devices shutting off, and things going super silent. It's nothing to do with actually removing all the people, as it's all a simulation, on scale with the Matrix. Which is why freaking orbital lasers can appear from directly above anyone, at any location, at any time, and brain them.

If you've seen Vanilla Sky, it would be similar to that, where he doesn't know he put himself into a medical coma, and is living in a VR, because that moment got edited out in the prep phase.

I mean the other angle is this is some kind of mystical, heaven/hell/purgatory kind of thing, but if so, the fact that everything is tailored through technological mediums seems contrary to how such mythologies would play out for their culture.

*shrugs* Like I said, that was my working theory, as I noticed that similarity in location between the main characters, when they had the switch happen. Could be totally wrong, it could be like Lost and the creator has no clue why any of this happened. I didn't find myself compelled enough to watch anymore to find out though.
 

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My theory is that it's all some kind of virtual reality thing. That the reason why all of the characters were in isolated locations when the switch happened, was that's when some MIB's showed up (or the Japanese government equivalent), knocked them out in some way, and then took them away to some location. They plugged them into this VR system, for whatever reason, and basically just edited their memories to remove the blackout assault moment. So that from their perspective, there was just the sound of all power devices shutting off, and things going super silent. It's nothing to do with actually removing all the people, as it's all a simulation, on scale with the Matrix. Which is why freaking orbital lasers can appear from directly above anyone, at any location, at any time, and brain them.

If you've seen Vanilla Sky, it would be similar to that, where he doesn't know he put himself into a medical coma, and is living in a VR, because that moment got edited out in the prep phase.

I mean the other angle is this is some kind of mystical, heaven/hell/purgatory kind of thing, but if so, the fact that everything is tailored through technological mediums seems contrary to how such mythologies would play out for their culture.

*shrugs* Like I said, that was my working theory, as I noticed that similarity in location between the main characters, when they had the switch happen. Could be totally wrong, it could be like Lost and the creator has no clue why any of this happened. I didn't find myself compelled enough to watch anymore to find out though.
Yeah, that's why I said VR/dream a couple posts back. But I'd be guessing it's some super convoluted setup that won't make sense since it's Japanese/anime basically.

I actually guessed when the switch happened in Vanilla Sky because the colors changed.
 

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Call My Agent! (Netflix)

There really is a fantastic supply of top quality international TV available these days. So from France, we have recently had the superb Lupin (think of it as a little like the BBC's recent Sherlock rework, a classic from the 1900s updated to modern day: definitely check that one out). This is a slightly older show that recently concluded, a comedy-drama set in the world of celebrity agents, plus every show having at least one cameo from a famous French person. These cameos are quite funny for their willingness to make fools of themselves, with exaggerated versions of themselves (think perhaps Ricky Gervais's Extras as a comparison). At least, I assume they are exaggerated versions of themselves, it's not like I'm well enough up on French culture to recognise many of them. But the core cast the show is built around are characters that are engaging, sympathetic, and best of all, the show is well scripted and acted and properly funny, although obviously it has its serious moments as well. Four seasons, about six 50 min episodes per season, so not too massive a time sink either.
 

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Alright, I finished watching the season, 8 episodes in total, and I can firmly say it's pretty bad, and that's IF you can tolerate the Japanese tropes that fly all over the place. Without patience for those it's a shitty slog to go through. I only watched the final 4 episodes because Alice in Borderland was recommended to me and I want to definitively tell them they have bad taste. They do. What follows are SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON 1 OF ALICE IN BORDERLAND:

The game in the 3rd episode leaves Arisu alone without his pals and the sexy lady. They die even though the game would've easily been solved without casualties (it throws the solution to their faces but no such luck, RIP). Most Japanese moment: dying flashbacks and needless self-sacrifice.

Episode 4 is the one for Usagi's (sporty climbing woman) backstory and... giving Arisu a reason to go on. The game in episode 4 is another trick and people die again. Time and physics don't follow real world rules in this one. What a waste of time. Most Japanese moment: missing dad is the backstory.

Episode 5 changes things as Usagi and Arisu find a group that collectively try to win all the games. They are forced to join them at a hotel resort called Beach. As the beacon of hope, everyone parties hard in Beach and wears a swimsuit. Your place for Japanese women in swimsuits, oh baby. The leader, Hatmaker, keeps peaceful appearances but a militant wing (Aguni, the big guy seen in ep 2; Noragi, stereotypical anime psychopath with a pretty face; and a bald guy with a sword and tattoos) is at great odds with him and his posse. Most Japanese moment: Noragi, but all in all we're nearing an anime trope overload.

Ep 6: The Scheme Episode. Arisu and Usagi meet the blond mystery man from ep 2, Chishiya and his pretty pal Kuina. Chishiya is as smart if not smarter than Arisu but also bigger on schemes. Hatmaker dies on a game run and blondie tricks Arisu into breaking and entering and getting all sorts of fucked up. Most Japanese moment: other people telling Chishiya how smart and cool he is.

Ep 7 and 8: Beach is turned into a game arena and it's a Ten of Hearts, the most difficult and painful of all cards to achieve. Viewers guess the solution in a millisecond, but everyone at the Beach freak out thus lots and lots and LOTS of violence ensues. We also get quick flashbacks for most characters and believe it or not the fucking bald sword guy has the most sympathetic one!!! Noragi for example was bullied at school so now he's a psychopathic murderer. One of the flashbacks is The Most Japanese Thing Ever: a surprise transgender reveal! The game gets solved but Beach burns down. And now we finally get some secrets revealed: as hinted in episode 2, there is another level of the game. Organizers that set up the games, play in them as moles, and straight up kill lower competitors. Arisu and Usagi get the phone of the hotel's organizer and follow the clues to the Tokio subway where they find dead observers for games. Chishiya is also there, apparently forgiven. Next season gets its hook in. It's a damn good hook, I gotta say.
 
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Kyrian007

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I've watched the next couple of episodes of Debris that have come out since the premiere. It might be getting better, but the drama is still really contrived and they still haven't really done anything particularly cool with what should be an interesting premise. It probably hurts that I'm hoping for X-Files, and they're not even hitting Fringe levels. At this point I'm not sure I'd suggest anyone should bother starting this series, NBC should be fairly close to a decision on ending it.

I also stumbled across something I'd never heard of called Almost Paradise on Amazon Prime. A nice fun little action comedy set on a resort island in the Philippines. So far, its not bad. Simple, funny, and made by Dean Devlin so I'm guessing made for a couple hundred bucks an episode. I guess it aired originally on TV in the Philippines and on WGN. WGN has canceled it, but Devlin said he'd make more if it took off on Prime. My guess is he's fairly happy riding out the pandemic on a tropical island. Still, some funny moments and decent action, wouldn't mind seeing more.

The contrast in these shows is interesting. Debris is probably ridiculously expensive to make, and its winding up disappointing. I guarantee Almost Paradise is costing almost nothing to produce by contrast and is pleasantly surprising. Gee, I've never seen that happen elsewhere in TV, in movies, and video games... I wish people would do something constructive with all that wasted cash.
 

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The Simpsons: Season 17 (4/5)

So, here's a fun fact. This is only the second Simpsons season I've watched back to back since season 4. I mean, I've seen plenty of episodes from plenty of seasons, but never all in one go.

Anyway, 17 obviously takes place after what's called Classic Simpsons (generally regarded as Seasons 1-9 as far as I can tell), but still, had plenty of laughs, including LLOL (loud laughing out loud) moments. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't buy the idea that the show suddenly got bad post season 9. You can easily argue less good, or less culturally relevant, or anything like that, but bad? No. Not yet at least.

I won't go into each episode, but I will acknowledge that many of them do have a problem in that they raise plot points and never fully address them within the episode. For instance, one episode has Lisa learning Italian so she can go to Rome. She learns it from Millhouse. By the end of the episode, she's learnt it, but the Rome trip is forgotten about. Furthermore, the very next episode has the family go to Italy, but Lisa doesn't actually use her Italian in said episode. Another example is Louanne and Kirk possibly getting back together, but the episode shifts to Homer and Marge, and the Van Houtens are forgotten about. This isn't in every episode, but it happens enough that I there's a feeling of sloppiness.

Also, this season was made in/around 2004. It's kind of surreal in a way, to see the family use dumb phones instead of smart phones, and for the Iraq War to be casually referenced. I remember the period clearly, but it's nearly been two decades since then. Yikes. Or, alternatively, the episode Girls Just Wanna Have Sums, which parodied certain elements of feminism that now, are outright mainstream. Why yes, maths IS sexist, didn't you know that?

Still, season was fun. Not as good as some earlier ones, but even this far on, the show is firing on most, if distinctly not all cylinders.
 

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Alright, I finished watching the season, 8 episodes in total, and I can firmly say it's pretty bad, and that's IF you can tolerate the Japanese tropes that fly all over the place. Without patience for those it's a shitty slog to go through. I only watched the final 4 episodes because Alice in Borderland was recommended to me and I want to definitively tell them they have bad taste. They do. What follows are SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON 1 OF ALICE IN BORDERLAND:

The game in the 3rd episode leaves Arisu alone without his pals and the sexy lady. They die even though the game would've easily been solved without casualties (it throws the solution to their faces but no such luck, RIP). Most Japanese moment: dying flashbacks and needless self-sacrifice.

Episode 4 is the one for Usagi's (sporty climbing woman) backstory and... giving Arisu a reason to go on. The game in episode 4 is another trick and people die again. Time and physics don't follow real world rules in this one. What a waste of time. Most Japanese moment: missing dad is the backstory.

Episode 5 changes things as Usagi and Arisu find a group that collectively try to win all the games. They are forced to join them at a hotel resort called Beach. As the beacon of hope, everyone parties hard in Beach and wears a swimsuit. Your place for Japanese women in swimsuits, oh baby. The leader, Hatmaker, keeps peaceful appearances but a militant wing (Aguni, the big guy seen in ep 2; Noragi, stereotypical anime psychopath with a pretty face; and a bald guy with a sword and tattoos) is at great odds with him and his posse. Most Japanese moment: Noragi, but all in all we're nearing an anime trope overload.

Ep 6: The Scheme Episode. Arisu and Usagi meet the blond mystery man from ep 2, Chishiya and his pretty pal Kuina. Chishiya is as smart if not smarter than Arisu but also bigger on schemes. Hatmaker dies on a game run and blondie tricks Arisu into breaking and entering and getting all sorts of fucked up. Most Japanese moment: other people telling Chishiya how smart and cool he is.

Ep 7 and 8: Beach is turned into a game arena and it's a Ten of Hearts, the most difficult and painful of all cards to achieve. Viewers guess the solution in a millisecond, but everyone at the Beach freak out thus lots and lots and LOTS of violence ensues. We also get quick flashbacks for most characters and believe it or not the fucking bald sword guy has the most sympathetic one!!! Noragi for example was bullied at school so now he's a psychopathic murderer. One of the flashbacks is The Most Japanese Thing Ever: a surprise transgender reveal! The game gets solved but Beach burns down. And now we finally get some secrets revealed: as hinted in episode 2, there is another level of the game. Organizers that set up the games, play in them as moles, and straight up kill lower competitors. Arisu and Usagi get the phone of the hotel's organizer and follow the clues to the Tokio subway where they find dead observers for games. Chishiya is also there, apparently forgiven. Next season gets its hook in. It's a damn good hook, I gotta say.
I missed this post for whatever reason. This almost makes me interested in watching for pure train wreck purposes. I couldn't take the Japanese tropes basically immediately in the show and stopped at Episode 3.
 

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Unreal

Unreal is a satirical comedy drama about the production of a reality TV dating show (similar to "The Bachelor") called "Everlasting", at the start of the Unreal in its 14th season. We are introduced to our main protagonist, Rachel, who had a psychotic break at the end of the previous season but kept her job because completely demolishing the finale made good ratings. Then there is her boss, Quinn, a steel-hearted, bitter, de facto showrunner having an affair with her boss, Chet, a drug-snorting layabout who gives little indication of talent despite implicitly probably being good at his job back in the day. Plus a load of others. The show is obvious semi-satirical about how manufactured "reality" TV is, the orchestratation, the cynical manipulation of contestants and total disregard for their wellbeing (the show psychologist is used to find ways to control contestants, not protect them). Eventually, you realise that childless Quinn and abused childhood Rachel have created a twisted, self-destructive, surrogate mother-daugher relationship, and the show mostly revolves around that: Rachel is in her way like a teenager trying to fly the nest but held by ties that bind, and Quinn refuses to let her go under the idea she knows what's best. Between the two of these damaged individuals, they wreak ruin on everyone and everything around them.

Season 1 is okay. However, the show is always teetering on the edge of excess and hysterical melodrama (e.g. Desperate Housewives, How To Get Away With Murder) and in season 2 it completely collapses across the boundary and disappears firmly up its own fundament. There's apparently seasons 3 and 4, but I've already walked away.
 

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RWBY: Volume 1 (2/5)

I tried ma. Really. But I just can't get into RWBY.

Before ma gets too angry, I'm going to explain why. Going in, I thought I'd dislike RWBY for its reliance on spectacle over substance, and an over-reliance on fight scenes. Well, I was wrong. Instead, I now dislike RWBY for a different set of reasons. If anything, the fights are some of the better parts of this volume because they stand apart from how poor everything else is. So let's go through that:

First, the animation. It's lacklustre. I know, I know, good writing and characters can make up for poor animation, but that RWBY doesn't have either of these things aside the animation is still lacklustre. It clips, the lip sync is off, and a lot of background characters are literally blacked out. I...what? You can argue it's an artistic choice, but even then, it's lacking. And even compared to other RT shows, extremely lacking.

But okay, so the animation's off, what about the meat of things? I mean, this is a fantasy world, right? Surely there's an interesting setup here and-

NO.

The worldbuilding in this season is lacking. I won't rule out the possibility that later seasons may do a better job, but very little is conveyed, and what is conveyed is done poorly. For instance, many times, characters literally engage in exposition, even to the extent of telling other characters things they may already know. For instance, the White Fang. Here's an example:

-Blake: Do you know about the White Fang?

-Character: Of course. What Faunus doesn't.

-Blake: Well, here's the history of the White Fang.

This thing happens a lot, and even then, a lot of stuff is left vague. Like, there's these creatures called the Grimm. What are they? Monsters. What do they do? Why are they here? What's their history? Meh, I dunno. They're fun to kill I guess. I mean, it's not as if RT can't do good worldbuilding (see Nomad of Nowhere), but in RWBY, little is conveyed, and what is conveyed is conveyed terribly.

But even then, worldbuilding is just the cream on the cake. Surely the characters are good? Surely...no.

The characters and writing are lacklustre, and the poor writing leads to poor characterization and vice versa. Characters develop pretty much at the drop of a button. For instance, Ruby and Weiss start off on the wrong foot, and remain on the wrong foot until a professor tells Weiss she's an asshole, so then she stops being an asshole, gives Ruby cofee, and from then on, they're friends. Similarly, Weiss finds out Blake is a faunus in an episode, and pretty much goes "yeah, I'll stop being a bigot now" in the VERY SAME EPISODE (or at least the one after, it kind of blurs). In theory, this is sound character development, but it's super rushed, and considering that the average episode is 6-12 minutes long, even more rushed than your standard cartoon or anime where episodes are around 20 minutes in length.

This problem also extends to groups outside the main quartet. For instance, Jean. Jean has snuck into the academy. In an episode, we learn that Jean is being bullied by someone, who finds out he snuck in, and holds it against him. By the next episode, all of that's been resolved. In fact, Jean's indicative of another problem, and that's a lack of focus. You'd think that the writing would focus on Team RWBY, but no, a lot of time is given to Jean and his team. Which is fine, in theory, but when you're operating with a very limited runtime, you can't spread your attention out too wide.

And final problem, the writing. The dialogue isn't great, but that isn't the main issue. The main issue is that the season really has no cohesive plot. I mean, yes, events progress from one episode to the next to form an overall story, but the story just...stops, at the end. I guess an example I could use is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Season 1 is part of a larger story, but it has its own cohesive arc, with Aang learning waterbending by the end of it for instance. The RWBY equivalent would be if season 1 just randomly ended with, say, The Warriors of Kyoshi. That's it, the end, tune in next time for another batch of episodes. Because at the end of this, I kind of struggle to say what the overall story is. Stuff's arguably being set up, but there's no sense of throughput. The story just...ends.

So, no. I don't like RWBY. I don't like it because the worldbuilding is poor, the writing is poor, the characters are poor and outside the fight sequences, the animation is poor. And I don't get its popularity, especially in light of RT's other shows. But then, people really seem to love this show, so hey, what do I know?
 

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RWBY: Volume 1 (2/5)

I tried ma. Really. But I just can't get into RWBY.


So, no. I don't like RWBY. I don't like it because the worldbuilding is poor, the writing is poor, the characters are poor and outside the fight sequences, the animation is poor. And I don't get its popularity, especially in light of RT's other shows. But then, people really seem to love this show, so hey, what do I know?
I guarantee we aren't going to agree on RWBY. Not that it really matters, your opinion is just as valid as mine. But the reason I bring it up, I super enjoyed your review. Because, I've kept current on the show, I can in my head see exactly where and when in the series all of your concerns are addressed or attempted to be addressed. They exponentially expand on the worldbuilding, there are attempts to "improve" the writing, they expand greatly on many characters. And the animation. RWBY season 1 isn't far removed from a Rooster Teeth that used networked Xboxes to machinima together the first season of RvB. I know they've remastered some of the older seasons, but if you remember original Xbox era graphics on Halo... That's the level of tech they started with. RWBY has vastly improved visually since those days.

But why its funny to me. I thought it was better back in the early seasons. They built too much into worldbuilding, now a lot of the mystery is gone. Now we know why x did y and so on, it was more fun when we were speculating why. The characters, they developed (and like you pointed out, sometimes too quickly.) But satisfying arcs have gone on too long or were resolved too suddenly. The animation, yeah its way better now. It had character and charm in its simplicity. And it made the awesome action stand out. Now, it just looks like every anime and video game does now. Its visually great... and boring. And the writing, to improve the writing they make the same mistake so many others have. They equate improving the writing with simply making it "darker." There's a whole season the good guys spend losing, then the next season and a half they spend wallowing in their loss. It didn't make RWBY more well written, just more appealing to people who mistake grimdark for well written. People who need to qualify their enjoyment of animated media with "yeah, but they kill characters and its all dark and edgy and I'm super mature for liking it." In actuality, the level of writing hasn't risen or fallen much. If you didn't like it before, I wouldn't recommend it now... unless you were looking for more grimdark specifically.

Personally, I think I still am on board only if they make some more RWBY Chibi. Its the Omake Theater style shorts version of RWBY with cute chibi versions of the characters. There were a few of the overcorrected "dark" seasons of RWBY where I preferred the chibi version. At least it was fun.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

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Z: The Beginning of Everything

Amazon series about Zelda Fitzgerald, waifu of F. Scott. It's not based on a biography but on a novel, unread by me, which apparently only contributed the name (says IMDB). So the show has a shaky grasp on fact and seems primarily fueled on speculation.

I'm willing to believe that F. Scott was a feeble, insecure, depressive, manipulative drunk, if you can trust Hemingway's take (and that was his friend!). I'm less sure of the show's added take that any literary success he had was cribbed off Zelda Fitzgerald, the hysterical schizoid that he married.

The show chronicles their hectic relationship from their first date to around the time Scott is working on his second book. Still no Paris, no Gatsby, no Hemingway, which is a shame. Christina Ricci plays Zelda, some guy plays Scott. I think at their most vitriolic, both would draw from the same life experiences that they had - they did everything together and had kind of a suffocating social life - and then each would fight over who got to use what for their book. But the show's version of events is entirely one sided and makes Scott a talentless, pompous hack who can't get a page in without stealing from his wife's diary.

These are things that absolutely happen, by the way - "artistic" couples who through some horrible backward arrangement make the wife do the work while the talentless husband collects. Big Eyes was a great look into such a true story. The Wife too. But as far as I can tell "Z" is either making shit up or distorting the truth to the point it can no longer be recognized.
 

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And the animation. RWBY season 1 isn't far removed from a Rooster Teeth that used networked Xboxes to machinima together the first season of RvB. I know they've remastered some of the older seasons, but if you remember original Xbox era graphics on Halo... That's the level of tech they started with. RWBY has vastly improved visually since those days.
Subjective as it is, the animation of even early RvB has a charm to it that RWBY doesn't. But, also subjective I guess, is that RvB, at least then, didn't need to engage in worldbuilding the way that RWBY might be expected to, since it had Halo itself as a frame of reference, and was primarily a comedy/parody.

To go with RT's more recent shows, same reason Camp Camp doesn't have to worry about worldbuilding, but Nomad of Nowhere and gen:LOCK do (the latter of which also has a dearth of background).
 

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So, no. I don't like RWBY. I don't like it because the worldbuilding is poor, the writing is poor, the characters are poor and outside the fight sequences, the animation is poor. And I don't get its popularity, especially in light of RT's other shows. But then, people really seem to love this show, so hey, what do I know?
It's simple really: the later seasons improve the writing, fight scenes, animation, and characters. You got keep in mind that Monty Oum's Dead Fantasy fan project (with DOA and Final Fantasy gals duking it out) was what got his jump start to fame. I still remember the days they aired Dead Fantasy episodes back on the GameTrailers website back in 2008-2010. The facts that Oum is dead now has not helped matter, as you've got people who still support the show, because of him. From what I heard the new writers/directors are actually doing decent now, but stumbled for a while in season 4 and some of 5 when it came to action sequences and it shows.

I am not a big fan of RWBY either, but I will happily take this show over most crap anime that Japan puts out nowadays. The biggest RWBY thing related I like is a crossover fan fic with Doom (2016).
 

Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
Legacy
Mar 3, 2009
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Soulmates (2020)

This is an anthology science fiction series based on the idea that some company finds some sort of "soul" particle from which everyone can discover their soulmate: the one, true person they will perfectly love. The anthology then sets out to explore love, and what effect it has that people might now find their soulmate, and the difference between a sort of "normal" love against the soulmate, and even whether soulmates really are all that people might wish for.

Bluntly, it's not very good. I mean, it's not particularly bad, but I wouldn't recommend anyone went out of their way to watch it.

This might sound a bit picky, but honestly the whole soulmate thing is a McGuffin: it's just a lazy way to set up stories that don't really need it. It's really just stories about love and relationships. This McGuffin seems designed to cover stories that are all just cliches: you've seen them before. The revenge seduction; the choice between excitement versus security; overcoming loss; the poisoning of a relationship by insecurity/jealousy, etc. None of them take particularly interesting turns, or end in a way you will be surprised about. It all depends on how well they have been done, and to be fair, some are decent, but most are just very average.

I also wonder why so many of the lead actors are British TV stalwarts putting on American accents. I'm guessing probably just that bread and butter British TV actors are generally both pretty good and much cheaper than their US counterparts.