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

[Piscian]

UFC 260
Pretty disappointed overall.
1. I was rooting for Gillian Robertson to win based on her experience and expert jujitsu and not only did she lose, but it was by decision because Miranda Maverick lacked idk.. experience. I think they'll probably cut Gillian after this loss.
2. I'll admit I was rooting for Stipe, I was disappointed the fight was so short.
That said I can't complain only a couple fights went to decisions and there were several impressive finishes. Alzo Menifields win was straight out of ancient greece. Never seen that submission before, apparently its only happened a few times in history.
6/10

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The Office, season 6

The beginning of the end for The Office. Standout episodes aside (Niagara, Scott's Tots) it feels like a season that's simultaneously directionless and also very derivative.

Jim getting promoted at the beginning of the season only to get demoted halfway through (at no real loss, as per usual) leads nowhere. Dunder Mifflin being in the throes of bankruptcy is nothing new, and the Kathy Bates character just falls in line with a series of routine bogeymen that seem to last shorter and shorter as the series drudges on.

Michael's paper company is no more, Holly is no more. Character feels like spinning wheels. He dates a bunch of different women for a few episodes here and there, and that's about it. No real development to speak of like he had when butting heads with corporate, living with Jan or starting his own company. He's as friendly with his coworkers as he'll ever be too, so that comedy edge is gone. This is probably the point when Carell decided to jump ship.

Jim & Pam's will they won't they died in seaon 4 and the marriage only makes them even more uninteresting as a couple. The Dwight Angela Andy love triangle was never very believable, and the Dwight-Angela thing just doesn't have the heart after both have been so horrible to each other (and everybody else). Dwight's a cat murderer and Angela's a ***** and a heartless cheater. So who cares? As for Andy/Erin, it's cute for 5 minutes and then it backpedals so dramatically to angsty longing that it feels too transparently for what it is: yet another clumsy attempt at replicating the Jim-Pam dyad that gave a heart to The Office.

 

[Dalisclock]

The Expanse Season 2

So just finished the 2nd season and I'm definitely enjoying it and curious to see where they're going with this. The big War they've been hinting at since the beginning has yet to officially kick off but not for lack of trying on either side of the conflict(and now the OPA is probably gonna help that along by becoming a regional power). There's the whole Proto Molecule thing which just keeps getting weirder and feels both starkly opposed to the generally realistic/grounded tone of the show and yet is more effectively disturbing because of it. And now aside from Mars and Earth shooting at each other every couple episodes and somehow not started a full blown war, there's the implied fact that the Solar System is apparently gonna have a full on famine soon due to the collapse of ganymede though this particular impact hasn't quite been talked about much yet. In fact, neither Earth or Mars really seem to realize how bad things are/were down there as of the end of Season 2, so that's gonna be fun.

I suspected everyone were celebrating too soon when Eros smashed into Venus considering we already know That alien shit feeds off energy and it crashed into a planet that's...well, full of energy even if normally toxic and yea gad that looks like that's gonna get crazy soon enough. I felt it was obvious Bobbie was gonna defect due to how things were going there but did get thrown by Errinwright Not killing himself since the show was throwing apparent Death/Suicide flags all over the place, so nice fake out there.

I'm also waiting to see when/if they circle back around to the allegations that Naomi is OPA from the early first season and they seem to very obliquely confirming considering the season 2 ending scene. There's also the fact James was accused/mention to going to Phoebe several times in season 1, something he denied with apparent full sincerity and since we never found out exactly what was going on down there(other then very likely illegal and highly dangerous experiments) I have to wonder if that was setup for a TWIST or they just forgot about that entirely.

I knew this was gonna be a little awkward because of the number of spoilers I'd have to tag to talk about this show, but it's the nature of the beast, it seems.

 

[Piscian]

The Expanse Season 2

So just finished the 2nd season and I'm definitely enjoying it and curious to see where they're going with this. The big War they've been hinting at since the beginning has yet to officially kick off but not for lack of trying on either side of the conflict(and now the OPA is probably gonna help that along by becoming a regional power). There's the whole Proto Molecule thing which just keeps getting weirder and feels both starkly opposed to the generally realistic/grounded tone of the show and yet is more effectively disturbing because of it. And now aside from Mars and Earth shooting at each other every couple episodes and somehow not started a full blown war, there's the implied fact that the Solar System is apparently gonna have a full on famine soon due to the collapse of ganymede though this particular impact hasn't quite been talked about much yet. In fact, neither Earth or Mars really seem to realize how bad things are/were down there as of the end of Season 2, so that's gonna be fun.

I suspected everyone were celebrating too soon when Eros smashed into Venus considering we already know That alien shit feeds off energy and it crashed into a planet that's...well, full of energy even if normally toxic and yea gad that looks like that's gonna get crazy soon enough. I felt it was obvious Bobbie was gonna defect due to how things were going there but did get thrown by Errinwright Not killing himself since the show was throwing apparent Death/Suicide flags all over the place, so nice fake out there.

I'm also waiting to see when/if they circle back around to the allegations that Naomi is OPA from the early first season and they seem to very obliquely confirming considering the season 2 ending scene. There's also the fact James was accused/mention to going to Phoebe several times in season 1, something he denied with apparent full sincerity and since we never found out exactly what was going on down there(other then very likely illegal and highly dangerous experiments) I have to wonder if that was setup for a TWIST or they just forgot about that entirely.

I knew this was gonna be a little awkward because of the number of spoilers I'd have to tag to talk about this show, but it's the nature of the beast, it seems.

Boy are you in for a ride of highs and lows in terms of quality...

 

[Dalisclock]

Boy are you in for a ride of highs and lows in terms of quality...

Yeah, I've heard there's some bumpy bits after season 2.

 

[happyninja42]

The Mandalorian Season 1.

Binged it with the wifey yesterday. It's fine I guess. I really don't see what all the hype is about, how people declare it's single handedly saving star wars or whatever. The mandos as spiritual space spartans, I find incredibly stupid, and if I hear that fucking 'This is Way" one more time, to justify doing something without actually EXPLAINING IT, I think I might scream. I just, I find the hero worship, myth making BS they've made about the mandos to be ludicrous. It's about as bad as the actual mando novels by that one female author waay back in the day, that might as well have been spartan fan fiction it was so ridiculous.

I love that at this point in the history, like, NOBODY seems to know who the Jedi are, or the Force, despite that being a MUCH larger part of the galactic culture for thousands of years, and only stopped being a thing roughly 20 years ago (since this takes place right after RotJ), but everyone....EVERYONE, seems to have heard of the *gasp* mythical MANDOS! Tales of them stretch across the galaxy!!! .....really? REALLY?! Not the literally MAGICAL SPACE WIZARDS WITH LASER SWORDS?! THAT EXISTED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS?!?! AND WERE AN ESTABLISHED PART OF THE GALACTIC SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT?!? those guys are a fucking mystery to you, but some dudes with jetpacks and blasters, are told about for generations? Give me a break. I mean fucking slave children on Tattooine apparently had heard of the Jedi, and that they couldn't be killed, stories of them were that prolific.

The only episode that I actually ENJOYED, was Redemption, and I think it says a lot, that that was the episode directed by Taika. That opening bit with the 2 bike troopers just chatting was fantastic. But it suffered from a lot of "wait but..." things for me. "Here have a jetpack, but it won't listen to you and obey your commands until you practice and train" "Ok I understand" *is using it just fine before the episode is even over* We've built this pod thingy for The Child to replace the other one. *it's destroyed before the episode is over* We built this other thing, whose task is to protect The Child *it's destroyed before the episode is over* I mean come on, if you are creating plot points that don't even survive 1 hour, why should I feel invested ?

We'll likely watch a few episodes of season 2 tonight after work, but so far, I find it just...meh.

*EDIT* I also don't get why they got Bill Burr for the show. He's not an actor, he's just an asshole. He's granpa from The Simpsons, but just 15-20 years younger, but already in his Old Man Yells At Cloud state. He never seemed like he was anything other than Bill Burr in his episode.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

Period murder of the week piece set in and around Melbourne in 1929 based on a book series. Quite decent, though there can be big jumps in quality between and even inside eps. Originally it was topical, each ep dealing with a social issue of the 1920s of some relevance today, though they later dropped that.

 

[happyninja42]

Finished Season 2 of the Mandalorian.

More of the same. It's meh. It had a few moments of quality here and there, but mostly it just felt like mandalorian fanfiction.

The nearly orgasmic level of obsession EVERYONE has with beskar steel is laughable.

Also, this show REALLY hates eggs. I mean SO much egg related violence, it was kind of bizarre. Like, does someone on that creative team have an egg fetish or something? Because it sure felt like it by the end.

I really don't see how people watch this and claim it's saving the franchise or whatnot. It's decent. It has moments of quality here and there, but, for me at least, all the bits that had quality, had nothing to do with the actual franchise itself. It was the interpersonal stuff between some of the characters.

6/10 overall. Nothing really made me gasp and trigger my star wars child within. When it was going out of it's way to drop in fan service from the franchise, I was usually the most annoyed. When it was just doing it's own thing, it was passable.


Oh, and the entire mando lifestyle is ridiculous. Everytime they brought up their creed and their code and what not, all I could think was


HONNOOOOOOOOOOOOORRR!!!!

I could go into more details about the things that were annoying as hell, but it would be spoilers, and I just don't have the energy to bother with it.

 

[gorfias]

Long story short, I've been watching reality TV on Hulu: Hoarders, Survivors and Naked and Afraid. Hoarders has scared the heck out of me. I'm tossing all my DVD, Bluray and game disc cases and putting the actual discs in a 400 slot binder. I may need more. (Wife wants me to throw out CDs as we have Spotify and have just about any song we would want already from that service). Really though? I should throw out, for instance, my Bluray Star Wars discs as I have Disney Plus? Not gonna happen. But, have you seen Hoarders? I have to down size. ITMT: I just watched Season 7 episode 12 of Naked and Afraid and I am near tears. These people are so brave. What they are going through so challenging and they tough it out through a mandated 21 days. Crazy, the guy gets a chance to extend his survival experience (in the bloody Amazon!) and goes for it but makes sure his partner makes it to an extraction point on time. Such brave and amazing people. Make me feel ashamed for doing a victory dance after swapping out a light bulb.

I also don't get why they got Bill Burr for the show. He's not an actor, he's just an asshole. He's granpa from The Simpsons, but just 15-20 years younger, but already in his Old Man Yells At Cloud state. He never seemed like he was anything other than Bill Burr in his episode.

I hope you got a chance to listen to Bill Burr asking WTF as people complained about his accent. He asked how it is OK for people to understand Chewie growling but his accent is beyond the pale?

 

[Agema]

Hoarders has scared the heck out of me.

My wife used to enjoy watching the UK version. Part of that was because she was a psychologist. Every episode they'd check out the hoarder's property, and ask them to talk about themselves and when they started hoarding, and every single episode, they'd start off and my wife would wait for them bit where they eventually get to "...then my spouse / parent / sibling / etc. died and..."

Because hoarding is almost always a reaction to bereavement. Hoarders have failed to properly cope with the death of someone dear to them: they can't bear that someone they loved, wanted, needed is no longer there, so they expand that out to everything. What if one day they need that 5-year-old newspaper and it's not there, like their spouse isn't there? Thus there's something very tragic about hoarding: it's a window into someone's loss, loneliness and distress. It's a bit unpleasant if it's played too much for "Look at this weirdo", but the UK version was nice because they were treated quite kindly, as a way of helping people break out of the cycle they were stuck in.

 

[Gordon_4]

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

Period murder of the week piece set in and around Melbourne in 1929 based on a book series. Quite decent, though there can be big jumps in quality between and even inside eps. Originally it was topical, each ep dealing with a social issue of the 1920s of some relevance today, though they later dropped that.

I fuckin’ love that show. It’s probably because I love murder mysteries but there’s so few Australian ones set in as interesting a time as the 1920s. That and Essie Davis.......come to Butt-Head........

 

[Hawki]

Powerpuff Girls: Season 1 (3/5)

To clarify, this is season 1 of the original series, not the reboot. That aside...well, not sure what there is to say.

I know that the PPG series has a cultural footprint that might be larger than what one might expect. I watched some of it with a friend way back in the day, but was never a major fan. Watching it now (and by watching it, like many things, having it on in the background), I'm still not sure what the fuss is about. It's simple protagonists fighting simple antagonists over the course of simple plotlines. Not that the show is trying to be anything else, but if anything, it feels like a relic of the 90s, or at least, an era where cartoons were less ambitious with their storytelling and character development.

Now, I could leave it with that, but since I have an asshole, and therefore an opinion, I'm going to waste your time by pointing out stuff that everyone likely already agrees on. So on that note:

-Why does anyone live in Townsville? The narrator repeatedly stresses how nice a town it is, but it's constantly under attack by monsters and villains. It's to PPG what Angel Grove is to Power Rangers. For God's sake, why are you people still in the city? And, what, did monsters only start attacking after the girls were born, and if not, how did it defend itself then?

-Speaking of the girls, they're arguably the least interesting characters in the show itself. Bubbles and Buttercup are at least archtypes, but Blossom isn't even that.

-Am I the only one who thinks that Fuzzy Lumpkins is a terrible villain? Mojo and HIM are kind of hilarious, but if Fuzzy is meant to be the third part of a 'villain trinity,' then he falls way, way short.

-Why is Ms. Bellum's face hidden? Yes, it's a joke, I'm just not laughing. It doesn't actually add anything.

So, I could say more. There's episodes that do stand out, for better or worse, but it's not really worth getting into. In essence, the show is "fine." It fills its purpose, and maybe it was big back in the day, but these days, I can't really reccomend it. Not to adults, and even for children, they'd be entertained, but there's still better options out there.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I fuckin’ love that show. It’s probably because I love murder mysteries but there’s so few Australian ones set in as interesting a time as the 1920s. That and Essie Davis.......come to Butt-Head........

Did you see the spin-off on channel 7? I didn't, and...spin off on channel 7 of a show that was popular on the ABC, not a good sign.

 

[gorfias]

My wife used to enjoy watching the UK version. Part of that was because she was a psychologist. Every episode they'd check out the hoarder's property, and ask them to talk about themselves and when they started hoarding, and every single episode, they'd start off and my wife would wait for them bit where they eventually get to "...then my spouse / parent / sibling / etc. died and..."

Because hoarding is almost always a reaction to bereavement. Hoarders have failed to properly cope with the death of someone dear to them: they can't bear that someone they loved, wanted, needed is no longer there, so they expand that out to everything. What if one day they need that 5-year-old newspaper and it's not there, like their spouse isn't there? Thus there's something very tragic about hoarding: it's a window into someone's loss, loneliness and distress. It's a bit unpleasant if it's played too much for "Look at this weirdo", but the UK version was nice because they were treated quite kindly, as a way of helping people break out of the cycle they were stuck in.

Oddly, the hoarders in my own circle have not necessarily lost someone. Even so, they are not quite as bad, yet, as the hoarders on the shows I watch. My best bud has 4-500 watches. He sometimes accidentally buys a watch forgetting that he already has one of them already. He has a room full of bikes he has upgraded and they have now over flowed to a 2nd room. He has just lost a dad but he's been doing this for decades. I know I have my own issues. I have some 400 CDs I don't really need as we have Spotify. But I tell the missus, after throwing out the cases, they now fit in a single binder. I guess I'm just afraid to lose access to this stuff, especially if one day, we cannot afford a streaming service. Confession about loss though: 1 CD is the 1st I ever got, A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd. My wife gifted it to me back in the mid 1980s. I threw it out per her desire, then dumpster dived and got it back. That and I'm am not throwing out my comic book collection either!

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Three years ago, before my girlfriend and I were together, she recommended me B: The Beginning, an anime on Netflix. It was real pretty, but not particularly memorable. It was set in some fictional Spanish/French/Italian country. Weird Japanese shit trying to blend in to other cultures is always funny.

But anyway, two weeks ago they dropped a new season. Out of absolutely nowhere and apparently with no fanfare. My now girlfriend and I binged it, mostly out of nostalgia, but even then we were shocked at how bad it was. Animation was terrible, it was half as long as the first season, and the story never even really started and most definitely did not end. The weirdest part was how they assumed we remembered every fucking thing from the first season, when the first season was a whole three years ago. We were just constantly googling things while watching.

Why is Netflix so addicted to running good shit into the ground? I mean I suppose every studio does that eventually, but with Netflix its always so drastic. Of all the shows they were known for, I think only Stranger Things is still around and kicking.

Oh and I watched 10 seconds of Way of the Househusband, also on Netflix. This is genuinely most poorly "animated" anime, hell, just generally animated piece of entertainment I have ever seen. It is essentially a voiced powerpoint presentation. A damn shame, I thought the manga was very wholesome and fun.

If I was the one actually paying for a Netflix subscription, I definitely would be considering cancelling it by now.

 

[Agema]

Oddly, the hoarders in my own circle have not necessarily lost someone. Even so, they are not quite as bad, yet, as the hoarders on the shows I watch. My best bud has 4-500 watches. He sometimes accidentally buys a watch forgetting that he already has one of them already. He has a room full of bikes he has upgraded and they have now over flowed to a 2nd room. He has just lost a dad but he's been doing this for decades. I know I have my own issues. I have some 400 CDs I don't really need as we have Spotify. But I tell the missus, after throwing out the cases, they now fit in a single binder. I guess I'm just afraid to lose access to this stuff, especially if one day, we cannot afford a streaming service. Confession about loss though: 1 CD is the 1st I ever got, A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd. My wife gifted it to me back in the mid 1980s. I threw it out per her desire, then dumpster dived and got it back. That and I'm am not throwing out my comic book collection either!

I buy CDs of nearly all my music, too. I just don't like the idea of buying a licence to play music that I hold only on the continued financial well-being or whim of a corporation. I've sort of given up on games though (and besides, they are more transient - hardly anyone goes back to play a 20 year old game and even if they do need to rebuy it, it's chickenfeed price)

 

[happyninja42]

Watched Wandavison for the first time.

It's fine. I enjoyed it more than The Mandalorian, by far. I didn't really enjoy the whole sitcom aesthetic itself, like I have no love for dick van dyke or bewitched themselves, but I did appreciate the amount of homework they clearly did, to nail the tone and atmosphere of that era of tv. I also feel that Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany had a lot of enjoyment playing such varied skits and tones. Emulating the tv classics, but also maintaining their own character tone for it. I've always heard from actors that they really enjoy trying new stuff, to experiment with new acting themes/etc. So this feels like a chance for both of them (and the rest of the cast to some degree) to flex their acting muscles.

So on THAT front, I find the show really cool. The rest of it, was just kind of standard marvel fare for me at this point. The show got better once the MCU stuff started bleeding into Wandavision, and you started to see behind the curtain, but ultimately I was still only semi-invested. I won't go into details in case others haven't seen it, but I think I'm just really burned out on marvel in general. I find the films good quality usually, but they don't really stir my blood anymore. Well, most don't. A few still pull it off, or have shining moments where I become choked up and gleeful at the events. Usually it just feels like they're using the thing in front of me, to set up more stuff, and don't focus on their own story as much as they should.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Them

You’d be mistaken if your initial thought like mine was, “Oh cool, a new series from the Get Out and Us guy!”.

It begins as a rather blatantly twisted imitation of Peele’s work while perhaps too often forgoing the crucial element of subtlety and doesn’t really let up, for better and worse. It is legitimately creepy, sad, appalling, painful and outrageous to varying degrees, and when taken across its episodic format of 10 this acts as a bit of a blessing and a curse. It makes no reservations about riding certain themes to the point of incredulity, but at the same time the combined elements of psycho-suburban horror and its underlying speckles of retro mysticism work towards ultimately delivering a pretty satisfying finale.

 

[Hawki]

Doctor Who: The Macra Terror (4/5)

You know me, I've got a very mixed view on OldWho (not that NuWho hasn't had its share of issues in the Moffat and Chibnall eras), but this is definitely one of the better episodes. Which, as far as I can tell, isn't a common opinion.

Well, meh. The Doctor and his companions end up on a planetary colony in the future, where the people love to work, and sing, and assure you that there's no such thing as macra, even though no-one's asking. What follows is basically an exercise in mind control, paranoia, and aliens manipulating humans to their own ends.

Despite the title, it's actually the psychological stuff that's the best done in this episode. I mean, okay, the episode doesn't do anything new with its tropes (happy people that are made happy through gas, the only sane people being deemed insane, etc.), but it does it well.

 

[Thaluikhain]

The purist in me is a little annoyed at some of the changes to the visuals, and to an extent the story of the Macra Terror.

But, decent enough story. Wonder how they choose which lost stories to animate, would have thought they'd do all the dalek/cybermen/yeti ones first.