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

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
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Apparently he was dying of cancer while filming and knew it, but agreed to be in that rubbish film so his family would have money once he was gone.
The account I read was that his kids asked him to do it cos they loved Street Fighter, though I don’t imagine he drove a soft bargain to bring all that glory to the project so both can be true.
 

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
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I am aware of that and honestly, Guzman does look more like the OG comic Gomez. It's just hard for me to not love Julia's completely OOT Gomez from having seen the films as a kid.
Interesting to note, both Guzman and Ortega are Puerto Rican, so there’s also that kind of authenticity going for it. Throw in a beaut like Jones and it’s clear where she got her looks from though.
 
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Piscian

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Apr 28, 2020
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Umbrella academy s3 two episodes

Meh. Its a shame, I always liked the premise of this series and story. Its just not good writing. Just too much laziness for me. The season opens with them having changed the timeline so theres a sparrows academy. Theres a dance number I skipped through, then a fight thats kinda neat though the logic is kinda dumb and the choreography is rough. Then they just kinda hang out at a hotel and things happens "cause reasons" like one the girls had a kid so she rushes home, aghast that her kids not there, even though we just had an entire episode where they just discussed that the timeline changed. They establish they dont have any money, but in the next scene they order Chinese food.

Vanja comes out as transgender. I dont really care, but at the same time it irks me that there was no build up. I felt about the same her siblings "whatever". Then all the characters immediately split up to do side stories, vanja does an exposition dump about becoming trans and I shut it off. Oh a character destroys her own time machine because its not working so I assume that plays into the story later because thats how this show makes the plot happen.

I dont really understand the tolerance for this show. Its so rambling and incoherent, but not in a way thats clever. I just cant do it.
 
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Thaluikhain

Elite Member
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Jan 16, 2010
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Normally, the UK WW2 films and shorts weren't that great, (apparently all the best talent was more directly involved in the war effort), while the US got high quality Hollywood propaganda and training films.

This one, however, low budget (notice they don't seem to have any German weapons), few cast members and they just got it to work. Gets the info across and manages to make the story decent for a less than 7 min short films.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Dec 29, 2021
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Umbrella academy s3 two episodes

Meh. Its a shame, I always liked the premise of this series and story. Its just not good writing. Just too much laziness for me. The season opens with them having changed the timeline so theres a sparrows academy. Theres a dance number I skipped through, then a fight thats kinda neat though the logic is kinda dumb and the choreography is rough. Then they just kinda hang out at a hotel and things happens "cause reasons" like one the girls had a kid so she rushes home, aghast that her kids not there, even though we just had an entire episode where they just discussed that the timeline changed. They establish they dont have any money, but in the next scene they order Chinese food.

Vanja comes out as transgender. I dont really care, but at the same time it irks me that there was no build up. I felt about the same her siblings "whatever". Then all the characters immediately split up to do side stories, vanja does an exposition dump about becoming trans and I shut it off. Oh a character destroys her own time machine because its not working so I assume that plays into the story later because thats how this show makes the plot happen.

I dont really understand the tolerance for this show. Its so rambling and incoherent, but not in a way thats clever. I just cant do it.

The appeal of Umbrella Academy to me is just the vibe.
I will say the first season is by far its strongest and most coherent.
I just like the characters, they are that blend of superhero nonsense and goofy vulnerability I like.
Season 3 is the weakest though and it's time to wrap up.

Re: Vanja's transition that's clearly just a response to Elliott Page's IRL transition, hence the lack of build-up. On the one hand it's clunky, but on the other hand it's realistic- sometimes when people publicly transition they've been hiding that for a while and to others it's like a shock. So it's not totally crazy, but for sure they wouldn't have made that a plot point if Page himself wasn't going through that, and it's really the only logical and respectful way to handle it, at least that I can think of.

The character's development who disappointed me the most was Rumor- I like her superpower, I like the emotional issues she started off with, and I like the actress. I just thought that once they put here in the 1960's they devolved to stock PBS style civil-rights era as portrayed by white people lame tropes and she lost a lot of spirit.
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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Avatar: The Last Airbender
This came out when I was in my 20's so I was just not interested in cartoons. But it has become such a cultural touchpoint that I was curious and I've recently revived a bit of interest in animated non-comedy and it's on Netflix so what the heck.
Well, it's great! Simple themes told with classic pacing and delightful characters, no wonder it's so popular.

A bonus delight is that when my wife saw I was watching it, she told me she had seen it (I'm guessing when she used to live with family and their kids) and liked it (she is not into anime or whatever, even less than me). As Katara's character came to be defined, I could see why, as they are both over-achieving do-gooder hot nerd girls.
 
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gorfias

Unrealistic but happy
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The White Lotus HBO 6 episodes about an hour a piece. A number of diverse people go to "the most romantic hotel" in Hawaii and we get a look into their lives and those of the hotel staff as well.

Beautiful scenery, some great back ground music. The characters produce a ton, a metric ton, of cringe. I think that is supposed to be funny but no. It is not. You just cringe a lot.

Yet I got hooked into their experiences. B-.

Looking forward to seeing Season 2.

Fun to see Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite.

I'm also seeing a trope. When a show warns you that there will be nudity, they are mostly talking about male nudity. Lots and lots here. In one scene, they do a close up of a guy's junk and I'm looking away and my wife says, "If it was a woman's breasts you wouldn't be looking away." I took a line from Elaine on Seinfeld. A woman's body is a thing of beauty. Men are more utilitarian. Like a jeep. I don't need to be looking at it.

 
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hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
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Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons part 3. Really dove into the deep with Epstein and friends. Yeah, wake me up when the rich and powerful are held to the same standards as all us regular fucks and can't just buy immunity at everyone else's emotional, mental, and/or physical expense.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
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BoJack Horseman

Approaching the end of season 3. I'm getting a little tired of it. The dude's just an asshole. I get it. For a while TV was all about genius (?) assholes and everything revolved around their quirks. And the dialogue is too stilted and overwritten. Everybody talks in an irritatingly roundabout way.

Q: What time is it?

A: If by time you mean the irreversible succession of existence, it is the time of man - or humankind as is the parlance in the time that is now, now being 2:43 in the afternoon, if by time you instead meant the hour of the day - make that 2:44 - that is today. Time, time, time. And what a time to be alive [Mr. Peanutbutter trails off, wasting everybody's time].
 

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
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Last couple parts of Harry and Megan. There was a quote by Harry that stuck out to me which seemed to sum up the be they dealt with courtesy of the British Press:

”For four hours the press was willing to lie to protect William, but for three years they were never willing to tell the truth about us.”

My takeaway is basically that the amount of hate towards them that was triggered largely by the press is reprehensible, along with the lengths they’ll go to protect the institution of the crown.
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
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Happy memories of watching this movie on Christmas Eve trying to pass the time waiting for presents.
This movie always a weird one for me. I was okay with it as a kid, but I never had too much interest in. I've watched this movie about a total of three times and never touched it again. I actually still have a VHS copy sitting somewhere. I meant that I really only saw this movie for sinbad. I still love forcinator and all, but it was a weird one. I had seen Kindergarten Cop before this, but it's still weird seeing on a movie like this.
 

gorfias

Unrealistic but happy
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The White Lotus HBO-Max Season 2
An anthology series, you don't have to have seen Season 1 to watch Season 2. Virtually no cross over.
You have a high scale hotel chain called The White Lotus.
Season 1 takes place in Hawaii. 6 episodes. 7 episodes at the Sicily branch with almost all new characters and situation in season 2.
Much, much less cringe this season. This is more a curious season about sex and sexual politics including the transactional nature that sexual relationships have. And the nudity is typically male trope alive this season. By a lot.
Odd the most likable characters are female predators. 2 party girls for hire enjoy the sex-party life but do expect to be paid. A lot. Their bubbly personalities are infectious. F. Murray Abraham plays a terrific bad grandpa.
The season finale is fun but...
Why have the rich lady get schtuped? It made sense IF the idea was to honey pot her. Her hubby gets nothing due to pre-nup UNLESS! she fools around on him. That would explain the need to get her laid and get it on film as I assume the room had a camera in it. Instead it turns into the guys having to murder her. Not sure they would be willing to stoop that low and it undoes the apparent need to get her laid. Now Greg (Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite) get the money which is unjust. Still, the director says Season 3 may reveal more.

Season 2: B

 
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Trunkage

Nascent Orca
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I got Covid again, so lying down watching TV was my thing this week. Had a couple of things on backlog

Strange New Worlds Season 1

After hearing lots of hype about this show... it ended up being disappointing. It's not bad, in the slightest but it WAS compared favorable to Discovery and it's just different, not better. If that different is your jam, great.

Gorn episodes were fantastic. The first I ever got my oldest to sit through one episode of Star Trek. But... I had to look up what happened in the rest of episodes because they were very generic. Note that this was before Covid hit bad but I knew I had it before I got tested.

Anyway, I did enjoy how the spotlight is shared more fairly amongst the crew. One of the biggest flaws is how most epsiodes you could slot any character in, as they just stories first, and characters added later. SNW does not do that. Most of the stories are to enhance a character, as well as tell a story. They limited the overall season arc but still had something going on in the background

Discovery Season 4

I think they need to limit this show to 10 and bump SNW to 13. I think this season arc was okay but drives too much of the story. That being said, it does a way better job of creating factions like DS9 and shifting the political landscape around regularly... but it finishes with a unlikely but happy ending which is slightly unsatisfying.

Old conflicts from last season are back and still have significant ripples. This is the show where characters have the most growth. In fact, they have so much growth, they can even get a promotion. Before even spending seven years in the same position. People even... are promoted off the ship *shocked Pikachu face*

I was going to critise the bad guy in this season. Like, way to overdo it with the character being too obessesed trope.... but I watch Shazam with the kids yesterday and Billy Batson is more obsessed but just has less power. Otherwise it was fine. I like the punishment system for Booker

I liked the Arrival attempt but that should have been the focus, and more drawn out, with more details and less distractions like I can have something explode for 5 mins.... but seeing most people's reception to Arrival, I'm not suprised. They felt lovecraftian enough for a TV show

Which gets me to the point of why the shows are different. Discovery goes out of its way to try and get everyone working together. I swear to cow, I Burnham was in SNW, she would have found a way to reach an alliance with the Gorn. Which is ridiculous. SNW does not really give a shit about other cultures. It's just humans and maybe some Vulcan because Spock is popular... which is disappointing. Enterprise did more with the Aenar in one episode than SNW did in a season

Anway, both are enjoyable in their own way and not memorable and lackluster in others. I am giving them the same number but for very different reasons 8/10. (Yeah it's high. It's some of the best Star Trek has been for a while)
 
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bluegate

Elite Member
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What made Strange New Worlds great to me was its episode-contained story telling.

Especially compared to Discovery with its season long arcs that end like a wet fart.

Spend an entire season chasing the DMA, ends up being a mining device used by far away aliens, who end up saying; whoops, sorry, our bad.

That shit might fly if it's one 50 minute episode, but as a seasonal story? Screw that weak shit.
 

Trunkage

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What made Strange New Worlds great to me was its episode-contained story telling.

Especially compared to Discovery with its season long arcs that end like a wet fart.

Spend an entire season chasing the DMA, ends up being a mining device used by far away aliens, who end up saying; whoops, sorry, our bad.

That shit might fly if it's one 50 minute episode, but as a seasonal story? Screw that weak shit.
I didn't remember much about what happened in SNW... and I watched it days ago. So... many big whoops. I will tell people 'watch the Gorn episode everything else is superfluous' just as I did above

And most of it because it never actually mattered. SNW isn't as egregious as TNG which wipes the slate clean. But it generally doesnt have much in the way of consequences. Nor is it really interested in exploring its characters

I guess what I was hoping for was a DS9 and what I got was a Voyager. Something you watch while doing something else instead of it pulling you into it's world