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

[Ag3ma]

Jack Ryan Season 4 (Amazon) eps 1-2.

I have mentioned before that the Jack Ryan series is my favourite hate watch currently. I'd love to tell you something about S04E01, except it was so incredibly dull I can't really remember anything about it. Something about drugs gangs and CIA corruption. So, onto S04E02.

Jack Ryan is so incredibly stupid you can't help but constantly spend your time laughing at how stupid it is. At the most fundamental level, Jack Ryan is now really high up in the CIA, and still just running round like a field agent as if he didn't have all sorts of strategic and management shit to do. This is typical of this series' "have cake and eat it" attitude. It wants to tell us how awesome Ryan is thus how he's risen, but doesn't want him to do what a person of that rank would do. They appear to have an out for this brewing: there's something about Congress investigating the CIA, and Jack Ryan suggests to the president he be made patsy if they find something out because... er... no good internal logic. It's looks like just building a device so Jack Ryan can go pseudomaverick underdog with his small team of operatives to take down a massive organisation without the backing of his own major intelligence organisation.

So, the threat here is some sort of merger between a drugs gang and terrorists. But the aims of these organisations are completely different: a merger makes no sense whatsoever. Now granted, terrorist groups do run drugs operations for funds and mind find the resources of a drugs org useful for getting weapons and terrorists across borders, but gangsters aren't going to want to heat of drawing anti-terrorist activity on their heads and their customers getting murdered. This stinks of a lazy scriptwriter who decided that drugs gangs and terrorist groups were passe, and decided to up the ante by combining them irrespective of whether it makes any sense.

Oh, and I also must feel the need to point out the bit supposedly in some Asian foreign town which is incredibly obviously a studio lot, right down to the traffic sign in English. They can't even get the small stuff right, but it's the big stuff that hurts.

 

[Hawki]

Supergirl: Season 3 (4/5)

I'm torn about this ranking, because there's a lot of absolute nonsense in this season, even by the standards of the IP we're in. Said insanity includes, but is not limited to:

-Blue stars are lethal to anything with a Y chromosome, so no men can get near them. I don't know what's worse, that there's this radiation that only affects Y chromosomes, or that every male of every species has Y chromosomes. Or, I dunno, maybe blue stars like fighting "the Patriarchy" or somesuch.

-Argo City has a blue sky, despite Krypton previously having a red sky. Also, as soon as they arrive, Kara and Mon-El lose their powers, except this one instant where they use them...what?! I'm seriously left to ask why kryptonians just make a beeline for every yellow sun in the galaxy, because apparently life's pretty great that way.

-The DEO goes woke and decides to forgo lethal equipment, because again, the CW is terrible at political commentary.

-I really shouldn't even be asking at this point, but Saturn Girl is a Titanian who looks identical to a human...okay, how? Why? If life evolved on Titan, how the heck would it evolve identically to humans? Titan would kill a human in a microsecond as soon as they stepped on the surface without protection. FFS, even kryptonians make more sense than this.

So, yes, there's a lot of absolute nonsense here. That being said, taking the season as a whole, things are mostly decent. Without getting into any specific order, key strengths include:

-Character drama is good. I know there's a lot of people who detest this element in the Arrowverse shows (and I'm not always unsympathetic to that critique), but here, at least, it's done well, both in terms of shipping, but also friendly/familial relationships. Never comes off over the top or hackneyed, but rather feels down to earth, despite the proliferation of extraterrestrials.

-Reign as a villain isn't unique - in Supergirl 1-3, and Supes/Lois season 1, the de facto big bad is either a kryptonian, or a daxamite who may as well be a kryptonian in terms of "power levels," so to speak. That said, at least initially, Reign kind of works, even if I can't really say why. It probably helps that the initial fight scene is well done (to the extent that nothing else in the season tops it, even if it's clearly on a budget), but the overall sense of dread and menace. The whole witches thing is kinda nonsense, but take what you can, I guess.

So, yeah. Not a ringing endorsement, but the season does enough right that it gets pushed into "good" territory, just about. Regardless, usual rankings are below:

Spoiler

33) The Flash: Season 7

32) Black Lightning: Season 2

31) Black Lightning: Season 1

30) Arrow: Season 8

29) Arrow: Season 3

28) Black Lightning: Season 4

27) Arrow: Season 7

26) The Flash: Season 8

25) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 6

24) The Flash: Season 5

23) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 3

22) Batwoman: Season 1

21) The Flash: Season 4

20) The Flash: Season 6

19) Stargirl: Season 2

18) The Flash: Season 3

17) Supergirl: Season 1

16) Arrow: Season 5

15) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1

14) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2

13) Arrow: Season 6

12) Supergirl: Season 2

11) The Flash: Season 1

10) The Flash: Season 2

9) Supergirl: Season 3

8) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 5

7) Superman and Lois: Season 1

6) Black Lightning: Season 3

5) Arrow: Season 4

4) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 4

3) Stargirl: Season 1

2) Arrow: Season 2

1) Arrow: Season 1

 

[Thaluikhain]

-The DEO goes woke and decides to forgo lethal equipment, because again, the CW is terrible at political commentary.

I did like when they are trying to track down where the secret fancy guns are coming from, the guy tells them they are selling semi-auto only civilian models, because of course they would.

Though, the idea that you can just have magic non-lethal stuff which works fine is a really, really dangerous one, and leads to deaths.

 

[Absent]

*Sigh*

Black mirror season 2 episode 2.

This is sooo dumb.

 

[Absent]

Meh. Black Mirror S2E3.

Episode 1 was less good than "Her". Episode 2 was less good than, dunno, more or less anything. Quite a few ghosts stories that end up with the same twist yet make more sense because at least embracing magical dream logic. Episode 3 was less good than "Bob Roberts" or "Years and Years".

I keep starting new episodes with high expectations. Because of the series' reputation. It's said to dive in quality when netflix produces it, but I'm actually curious to check if I get the opposite impression.

Anyway, so far well made and well acted. But the scripts have this annoying mix of childishness and pretentious self-seriousness, the cinematography screaming "oh look I am so profound" and the story not delivering at all (a bit like Nolan movies, yes).

And yet I still keep expecting to stumble upon a gem somewhere. Who knows. Maybe ep 4 will surprise me. At least I'm driven by curiosity. I always enjoy the first scenes, when you're still guessing where the story goes. And have a feel of what the series could have been.

 

[Hawki]

The Office: Season 1 (3/5)

Fun fact, never seen anything of The Office before. Sure, knew about it from the memes, seen clips, its directing style is the same one in Parks & Rec (read and reviewed all seasons of that), but never seen anything of the show before. Having seen the first season, it's...fine, sort of. At best.

I know, first season, I'm assuming it gets better over time before nosediving (that's what I've heard at least), but in the context of season 1 by itself, it's average at best. Deals with a titular office in a business park (or similar) that sells paper. In season 1, there's a threat of downsizing that never really goes anywhere. A lot of the humour is cringe as well - I get the thing about Michael is that he's the kind of guy that thinks he's funny, but he's not, and everyone knows it, but that still leaves you with cringe, unfunny acting. Other characters are okay, but not much to write home about. And it doesn't help that the pilot episode is just outright lacklustre.

Still, there's some other elements that I like. It's fun to see the DIE complex skewered for instance. As someone who's worked in similar environs (though close to a decade ago at this point), it does feel true to the drudgery of a 9-5 office job. Also, and this may just be my interpretation of things, there's a kind of undercurrent of sadness through the whole thing. Examples of this include:

-I can't remember the full details, but there's reference to Jim having a yearly sale with a company, and him cracking out a bottle of champagne every time he does so. Seems like less of a celebration and more of a ritual, in the sense of "hey, this is my life I guess." I mean, it's not really an achievement if you do the same thing year after year, not to mention that the client is apparently a regular.

-The obvious mismatch between Pam and her fiance is, well, obvious, along with the whole Jim/Pam bond, so I won't go too much into that. Still, in the theme of sadness that I mentioned, it's pretty clear just how miserable Pam is with her job. Arguably symbolic that in her downtime she plays solitaire (obvious symbolism is obvious).

-I mentioned how cringe Michael can be, but he's also sympathetic in the sense that he's clearly trying to do right by his employees (well, sort of). For instance, throwing an early birthday party to try and cheer them up, trying to get them all a "surprise" by the shift's end, but failing...yeah. Doesn't stop the cringe, but these moments exist, so that's kind of nice.

So, yeah. Doubt I've written anything here that hasn't been said already, but at only six episodes, don't have much else to say.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Bloodhounds

On Netflix, Korean action drama about two boxers that become friends and get pulled into the world of crime. The key emotional drive is the friendship of these two charming guys and how they help each other balance morality with survival and justice.
Fight scenes are excellent and unique (I don't remember seeing Asian heroes kick ass without actual kicking before). 10 episodes, 1 hr each, has a clear ending so I don't care if there are more season or whatever. A good summer watch, highly recommended.

I'm a Virgo
Boots Riley- the rapper from The Coup who directed Sorry To Bother You- continues his lifelong passion of encapsulating his anti-capitalist anti-racist messaging in a TV show that leans HARD into the abstraction and irreverence of his feature debut. This time there is more of the fantastical which benefits from coming out when superhero stuff is the main pop culture and also serves to encourage the scripts to get goofier and goofier. This show is incredibly self-indulgent and silly and weird so if you're not fully invested in Riley's whole thing, you will hate this. I found it.... ok, and I even I, a huge fan of The Coup and someone who enjoyed his movie, struggled a bit with this one. So my recommendation is to listen to The Coup.

 

[SilentPony]

So I've been keeping up with Secret Invasion, and now at episode 5/6 I think I've realized why this show isn't working for me.
Okay so in the comics the Secret Invasion was an Avengers level big deal, because hundreds of characters were revealed to be skrulls and the skrulls used the powers of the Avengers against them. Wolverine couldn't smell them out, Professor X couldn't sense them, truly anyone could be a secret skrull.
However in the MCU, lets run down the list of people who couldn't be skrulls:
Captain America - we saw him in the 40s, decades before the skrulls arrived
Bucky - see above
Peggy Carter - see above
Tony Stark - we saw his father in the 40s, and he had a kid with Pepper
Pepper - Had a kid with Tony
Hawkeye - Had three children with Mocking Bird
Mocking Bird - Had three children with Hawkeye
Natasha - we learn in Winter Soldier she was born before the skrulls arrive, and I doubt anyone could perform surgery on her and not notice her blood is purple
Yelana - same as Natasha
Bruce Banner - with all the experiments done on him, someone would have noticed if his DNA wasn't human
She-Hulk - same as Bruce
Thor - Born centuries before the Skrulls fled their homeworld
The Asgardians - they're Asgardians
T'Challa - born and raised in Wakanda, didn't revert to Skrull form when he died
Suri - Born and raised in Wakanda, and accepted as a human/black panther by literal Gods
Namor - born centuries before the Skrulls arrived
AntMan - Has a daughter, born before the skrulls arrive
Wasp - daughter of og Antman and Wasp
OG Antman and Wasp - born decades before the skrulls arrive
Statue - daughter of Antman
Wanda - experimented on by Hydra, and had her DNA altered. someone would have noticed
Pietro - Same as Wanda
Vision - Android man
Dr. Strange - Born before the Skrulls arrive, and I doubt the Ancient One or Wong would fail to notice he's an alien shapeshifter.
Wong/Ancient One/Wizards - I don't have a good reason they can't be aliens other than I just don't think alien mystics would be a thing, let alone an established religion hundreds of years old
Peter Parker - canonically has human parents, and has had their DNA looked at and its human
Kamala Khan - same a Peter, human parents, is a mutant
Captain Marvel - born before the skrulls arrived, actually fought them during their arrival
Photon - Same as Captain Marvel
The Eternals - android creatures from before Civilization
Shang Chi - biological son of a 3,000 year old warlord, and the ten rings are not of skrull origin
Anyone from the Guardians - space people, all scanned during Guardians 1 to confirm their species

People who could be Skrulls: Falcon, Rhodey, Jane Foster, Darcey, and Luis.
Not exactly an Avengers level threat. Stakes so low a retired 70 year old man with one eye is gonna solve this on his own.
So what do they do instead? Come up with a bunch of brand new characters, who we don't care about, and go "GASP! Did you know Fox news host Tucker Carlson Chris Stern is a Skrull?! Really makes you think huh..."
No Marvel it doesn't. Its not a subversion of my expectations if in a show about shapeshifting aliens, a character that's never been introduced before turns out to be a shapeshifting alien.

 

[gorfias]

Love & Death on Max

The 3rd or 4th retelling of the 1980 killing of Betty Gore by 41 axe blows from Candy Montgomery after Candy had had an affair with Betty's husband. Only a year earlier Hulu did this story in "Candy". Makes me want to watch that one to compare/contrast.

43 year old spoiler

Spoiler

Candy is found not guilty: she was defending herself. Betty had emotional problems. The axe used belonged to the Gores, not Candy. Betty, we can believe, attacked Candy. Candy over-killed her as I'd think a person forced into fight/flight pure instinct over-drive might do when someone is trying to melee murder them. The Defense added that Betty says, "shhh" to Candy which triggered a child hood trauma in her caused by her mom doing shushing her when she was a little girl. Not sure I buy that part. Interesting thing: appears the prosecution did not file any charges for obstruction of justice. Candy does try, and fail, to cover the crime up. So, no jail time.

Elizabeth Olson's portrayal does come off as odd, that Candy was a little strange. Even so, I can buy the idea that things happened this way.
7.5/10

So I've been keeping up with Secret Invasion, and now at episode 5/6 I think I've realized why this show isn't working for me.
Not exactly an Avengers level threat. Stakes so low a retired 70 year old man with one eye is gonna solve this on his own.
So what do they do instead? Come up with a bunch of brand new characters, who we don't care about, and go "GASP! Did you know Fox news host Tucker Carlson Chris Stern is a Skrull?! Really makes you think huh..."
No Marvel it doesn't. Its not a subversion of my expectations if in a show about shapeshifting aliens, a character that's never been introduced before turns out to be a shapeshifting alien.

I stopped watching after episode 3, and Witcher S3E2. They're both crushing disappointments to me. I feel like if I stick with them, I'm rewarding very mediocre to bad work.

Spoiler

They did it again. Nick too is now an older character we adore turned into Jake Skywalker. They did it to Han (dead beat dad, divorced) too, as well as Ben Kenobi (bossed around by a 7 year old, scared of Darth when we'd seen this brave man beat him when he was healthy, along with General Grievous.) most recently in Indiana Jones. Why do they keep doing this to us?!!? Does this trope work for anyone?

 

[Xprimentyl]

The Office: Season 1 (3/5)

Fun fact, never seen anything of The Office before. Sure, knew about it from the memes, seen clips, its directing style is the same one in Parks & Rec (read and reviewed all seasons of that), but never seen anything of the show before. Having seen the first season, it's...fine, sort of. At best.

I know, first season, I'm assuming it gets better over time before nosediving (that's what I've heard at least), but in the context of season 1 by itself, it's average at best. Deals with a titular office in a business park (or similar) that sells paper. In season 1, there's a threat of downsizing that never really goes anywhere. A lot of the humour is cringe as well - I get the thing about Michael is that he's the kind of guy that thinks he's funny, but he's not, and everyone knows it, but that still leaves you with cringe, unfunny acting. Other characters are okay, but not much to write home about. And it doesn't help that the pilot episode is just outright lacklustre.

Still, there's some other elements that I like. It's fun to see the DIE complex skewered for instance. As someone who's worked in similar environs (though close to a decade ago at this point), it does feel true to the drudgery of a 9-5 office job. Also, and this may just be my interpretation of things, there's a kind of undercurrent of sadness through the whole thing. Examples of this include:

-I can't remember the full details, but there's reference to Jim having a yearly sale with a company, and him cracking out a bottle of champagne every time he does so. Seems like less of a celebration and more of a ritual, in the sense of "hey, this is my life I guess." I mean, it's not really an achievement if you do the same thing year after year, not to mention that the client is apparently a regular.

-The obvious mismatch between Pam and her fiance is, well, obvious, along with the whole Jim/Pam bond, so I won't go too much into that. Still, in the theme of sadness that I mentioned, it's pretty clear just how miserable Pam is with her job. Arguably symbolic that in her downtime she plays solitaire (obvious symbolism is obvious).

-I mentioned how cringe Michael can be, but he's also sympathetic in the sense that he's clearly trying to do right by his employees (well, sort of). For instance, throwing an early birthday party to try and cheer them up, trying to get them all a "surprise" by the shift's end, but failing...yeah. Doesn't stop the cringe, but these moments exist, so that's kind of nice.

So, yeah. Doubt I've written anything here that hasn't been said already, but at only six episodes, don't have much else to say.

I hope you stick with it. The Office leans heavily on the awkward; that's pretty much its intention. You're supposed to "good God" every few minutes; any moments spent face-palming is the the point. It does get better, and yes, it does decline (particularly when Steve Carell leaves the show,) but overall, it's a fun watch. It made me appreciate the more subtle humors, the gags that don't settle on a punchline, but expect you to recognize/relate to the absurdity in the mundane. It was clever how they managed to spin Michael Scott as the benevolent good guy while simultaneously making him out to be the unwitting villain, i.e.: the reason behind so much of the obvious failure, but you're cheering for a guy who's dead last who's convinced himself he is winning.

The Office is brilliant, one of my favorite series of al time, and if you give it a chance, it'll show you. People tend to connect with certain characters, and recognize behaviors in some that reflect people in their own lives, which makes it a highly relatable show (I was dubbed "Stanley" several years ago for my generally disaffected "let's get this day over with" mentality.) I don't think any one episode encapsulates the whole; you just have to watch, and enjoy those moments when you're Jim, acknowledging the absurdity around you and wondering "is anyone else seeing this?"

It's fun. HAVE fun.

 

[SilentPony]

Spoiler

They did it again. Nick too is now an older character we adore turned into Jake Skywalker. They did it to Han (dead beat dad, divorced) too, as well as Ben Kenobi (bossed around by a 7 year old, scared of Darth when we'd seen this brave man beat him when he was healthy, along with General Grievous.) most recently in Indiana Jones. Why do they keep doing this to us?!!? Does this trope work for anyone?

Its an artificial way of raising the stakes. This next big bad is even bigger and badder than Darth Vader. See, he killed Han Solo! Vader never managed that. Boy howdy what whirlwind stakes I've written for my totally amazing characters to overcome.
So too with Secret Invasion. Nick Fury is the great mastermind behind the Avengers and protected the world. So imagine the enemies he fears and doesn't want to risk the Avengers in fighting. Boy howdy what whirlwind stakes I've written for my totally amazing characters to overcome.

Also its weird, his last line in episode 5 when asked about calling in the Avengers is "None of them can protect the Earth like I do" and its like...what? Lets run down a list of your accomplishments Nick. You brought the Avengers together to save New York, failed to stop Hydra from infiltrating Shield and needed the Avengers to take down Hydra, sent the Avengers to get Loki's staff, failed to stop Tony from creating Ultron, sent the Avengers to deal with Ultron, failed to stop the Civil War or Sokovia Accords, failed to stop Thanos in Infinity War, and indeed was see waiting for Tony Stark to solve the problem, didn't participate in Endgame where the Avengers came together to create timetravel and bring back half the Universe, and then used Talos and his wife to force Peter Parker to solve the problems of the Elementals and Mysterio.
So like remind me what you did Nick, directly, to ever save the world in any way that didn't directly rely on getting Superheroes to do it for you?!

 

[Trunkage]

I was wondering if it was just me. I am so excited by this property and by Cavill being in it and yet asking myself why I am finding this to be such a slog. I note that IMDB scores for Season 2 episodes are in the 8s. Season 3? E1 is a 7.1. The other 4 so far? 5s and 6s.

I'd note that I've tried to read The Witcher and find it a slog. Sometimes Witcher 3 is a slog

I think its the franchise

 

[Piscian]

So I've been keeping up with Secret Invasion, and now at episode 5/6 I think I've realized why this show isn't working for me.
Okay so in the comics the Secret Invasion was an Avengers level big deal, because hundreds of characters were revealed to be skrulls and the skrulls used the powers of the Avengers against them. Wolverine couldn't smell them out, Professor X couldn't sense them, truly anyone could be a secret skrull.
However in the MCU, lets run down the list of people who couldn't be skrulls:
Captain America - we saw him in the 40s, decades before the skrulls arrived
Bucky - see above
Peggy Carter - see above
Tony Stark - we saw his father in the 40s, and he had a kid with Pepper
Pepper - Had a kid with Tony
Hawkeye - Had three children with Mocking Bird
Mocking Bird - Had three children with Hawkeye
Natasha - we learn in Winter Soldier she was born before the skrulls arrive, and I doubt anyone could perform surgery on her and not notice her blood is purple
Yelana - same as Natasha
Bruce Banner - with all the experiments done on him, someone would have noticed if his DNA wasn't human
She-Hulk - same as Bruce
Thor - Born centuries before the Skrulls fled their homeworld
The Asgardians - they're Asgardians
T'Challa - born and raised in Wakanda, didn't revert to Skrull form when he died
Suri - Born and raised in Wakanda, and accepted as a human/black panther by literal Gods
Namor - born centuries before the Skrulls arrived
AntMan - Has a daughter, born before the skrulls arrive
Wasp - daughter of og Antman and Wasp
OG Antman and Wasp - born decades before the skrulls arrive
Statue - daughter of Antman
Wanda - experimented on by Hydra, and had her DNA altered. someone would have noticed
Pietro - Same as Wanda
Vision - Android man
Dr. Strange - Born before the Skrulls arrive, and I doubt the Ancient One or Wong would fail to notice he's an alien shapeshifter.
Wong/Ancient One/Wizards - I don't have a good reason they can't be aliens other than I just don't think alien mystics would be a thing, let alone an established religion hundreds of years old
Peter Parker - canonically has human parents, and has had their DNA looked at and its human
Kamala Khan - same a Peter, human parents, is a mutant
Captain Marvel - born before the skrulls arrived, actually fought them during their arrival
Photon - Same as Captain Marvel
The Eternals - android creatures from before Civilization
Shang Chi - biological son of a 3,000 year old warlord, and the ten rings are not of skrull origin
Anyone from the Guardians - space people, all scanned during Guardians 1 to confirm their species

People who could be Skrulls: Falcon, Rhodey, Jane Foster, Darcey, and Luis.
Not exactly an Avengers level threat. Stakes so low a retired 70 year old man with one eye is gonna solve this on his own.
So what do they do instead? Come up with a bunch of brand new characters, who we don't care about, and go "GASP! Did you know Fox news host Tucker Carlson Chris Stern is a Skrull?! Really makes you think huh..."
No Marvel it doesn't. Its not a subversion of my expectations if in a show about shapeshifting aliens, a character that's never been introduced before turns out to be a shapeshifting alien.

I haven't gotten back to it since episode one. First Marvel show I quit. Not because it's "bad" or anything, but it's just kinda transparent that this one never really came together in the development phase so when covid hit they switched gears to just produce "content" anything to fill gaps.

I think theres an argument that maybe before Ms.Marvel there was a bit of energy behind the Marvel shows. It at least felt like someone was enthusiastic about getting Hawk-eye, The witch show, Loki etc made.

Just out of the gate Secret Invasion doesn't feel like premium content. This isn't Breaking Bad or Suicide Squad. This is the Blacklist with aliens. It's a network cable show.

I've discovered, at least in my life, I don't have time for shows that aren't going to respect my time. I haven't even watched Sapranos or Madmen yet! In my endless backlog do I really have time to watch a crappy Marvel show? No..I just don't.

Admittedly I was keeping my ear out. If somebody here or on reddit and said "no no no this is secretly great, surprise hit", then yeah maybe I'd try to make time, but all I've seen is the exact opposite. sooo thanks?

 

[gorfias]

I'd note that I've tried to read The Witcher and find it a slog. Sometimes Witcher 3 is a slog

I think its the franchise

I liked what I've played so far but I got stuck so badly in 2 I think I may have run into a glitch and it is broken. Or I stink at games now, regardless of how much I love them. 3 is superior in graphics and gameplay but I'm pretty stuck in it as well.
Conceptually, this is terrific. Reminds me of a great comic series started in 1983. Wonder if it inspired the character? Did someone else inspire him (Grimjack)?. I do hear that Witcher rips off an earlier character I haven't read, Elric. I don't know if Elric does stuff I've seen both Grimjack and Witcher do: drink potions to effect changes that advantage him in certain situations. For instance Grimjack drank one to temporarily turn himself into a werewolf as he needed heightened senses.


As for the show, it wasn't a slog in Seasons 1 & 2, though they weren't without problems. Season 3? I just stopped watching. Supposedly they're doing Season 4 anyway, replacing Superman with Thor's younger brother.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Love & Death on Max

The 3rd or 4th retelling of the 1980 killing of Betty Gore by 41 axe blows from Candy Montgomery after Candy had had an affair with Betty's husband. Only a year earlier Hulu did this story in "Candy". Makes me want to watch that one to compare/contrast.

43 year old spoiler

Spoiler

Candy is found not guilty: she was defending herself. Betty had emotional problems. The axe used belonged to the Gores, not Candy. Betty, we can believe, attacked Candy. Candy over-killed her as I'd think a person forced into fight/flight pure instinct over-drive might do when someone is trying to melee murder them. The Defense added that Betty says, "shhh" to Candy which triggered a child hood trauma in her caused by her mom doing shushing her when she was a little girl. Not sure I buy that part. Interesting thing: appears the prosecution did not file any charges for obstruction of justice. Candy does try, and fail, to cover the crime up. So, no jail time.

Elizabeth Olson's portrayal does come off as odd, that Candy was a little strange. Even so, I can buy the idea that things happened this way.
7.5/10

The defense of course wants the viewer to believe the shushing as a laughable excuse, but it’s really no different than any vulnerable person under immense stress finally snapping after any little thing that sends them over the edge. In Candy’s case it was repressed emotional trauma that surfaced once she herself was ripped out of her apple pie life back into a traumatic situation.

It’s also about unfortunate timing, because if Betty did that to her pre-confronation, no biggie. After swinging at and hitting her with an ax…as they say only someone who has been in that kind of situation could really understand the response it may trigger from anyone, let alone someone already damaged.

Also I watched Candy after Love & Death, but will wait until you do to comment.

 

[Absent]

I liked what I've played so far but I got stuck so badly in 2 I think I may have run into a glitch and it is broken. Or I stink at games now, regardless of how much I love them. 3 is superior in graphics and gameplay but I'm pretty stuck in it as well.
Conceptually, this is terrific. Reminds me of a great comic series started in 1983. Wonder if it inspired the character? Did someone else inspire him (Grimjack)?. I do hear that Witcher rips off an earlier character I haven't read, Elric. I don't know if Elric does stuff I've seen both Grimjack and Witcher do: drink potions to effect changes that advantage him in certain situations. For instance Grimjack drank one to temporarily turn himself into a werewolf as he needed heightened senses.
View attachment 9262
View attachment 9263
As for the show, it wasn't a slog in Seasons 1 & 2, though they weren't without problems. Season 3? I just stopped watching. Supposedly they're doing Season 4 anyway, replacing Superman with Thor's younger brother.

I've read a couple of Elric novels, but the parallels don't strike me beyond the white hair (Elric being an albinos). Elric is more of a Conan with an evil sentient sword. A bit as if the Ring hacked people in half and drunk their blood instead of turning you invisible, and if Frodo found it totally awesome. At least that's how my memories summarize it.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Its an artificial way of raising the stakes. This next big bad is even bigger and badder than Darth Vader. See, he killed Han Solo! Vader never managed that. Boy howdy what whirlwind stakes I've written for my totally amazing characters to overcome.
So too with Secret Invasion. Nick Fury is the great mastermind behind the Avengers and protected the world. So imagine the enemies he fears and doesn't want to risk the Avengers in fighting. Boy howdy what whirlwind stakes I've written for my totally amazing characters to overcome.

Also its weird, his last line in episode 5 when asked about calling in the Avengers is "None of them can protect the Earth like I do" and its like...what? Lets run down a list of your accomplishments Nick. You brought the Avengers together to save New York, failed to stop Hydra from infiltrating Shield and needed the Avengers to take down Hydra, sent the Avengers to get Loki's staff, failed to stop Tony from creating Ultron, sent the Avengers to deal with Ultron, failed to stop the Civil War or Sokovia Accords, failed to stop Thanos in Infinity War, and indeed was see waiting for Tony Stark to solve the problem, didn't participate in Endgame where the Avengers came together to create timetravel and bring back half the Universe, and then used Talos and his wife to force Peter Parker to solve the problems of the Elementals and Mysterio.
So like remind me what you did Nick, directly, to ever save the world in any way that didn't directly rely on getting Superheroes to do it for you?!

Well this is pretty much the argument against these never ending extended universes and franchises that go and on, and why endings are so important. They're either going to escalate beyond all reason, repeat themselves, or eat itself with distractions into irrelevance.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Afterparty episodes 1 & 2

To me two is a trend, and with Murders in the Building being a popular show (though I couldn't get into it), here is another comedic murder mystery show. The celebrity host of a high school reunion after party is killed and a detective interviews everyone to figure out who did it, so each episode is apparently going to be the evening's events from their perspective.
The show is extremely OK. It's appeal is watching some of today's best comedic actors chew some scenery and be goofy, with the occasional really good joke. It doesn't consistently hit and I wonder if it would if it were 30 minutes or under (first episode was like 46, second around 35).

It's on Apple+ and even though it's not one of their best, it's still pretty enjoyable and the fact that a lesser show is pretty good just means Apple continues to impress.

The cast includes:
Tiffany Hadish as the detective. Her presence as the framing device is minimal so she just cracks wise. The least interesting part of the show, but harmless.

Sam Richardson as the dorky guy who was trying to reconnect with his high school love. Sam Richardson is my favorite comedic actor and I will watch anything he is in. He stole the show in every scene he was in in Veep, a show that was overflowing with brilliant actors and dialogue, where he played Richard Splett, the only character with any innocence and morality. He made a show called The Detroiters with Tim Robinson, who know leads a cult classic Netflix sketch show in with Richardson appears regularly as well. RIchardson also appears in Ted Lasso as the jerk wealthy Nigerian business asshole who has enemied against the likeable African player. So I heartily recommend watching all those other things if you haven't.

Zoe Chao as Richardson's character's crush. I have only seen her in the recent Party Down reunion as an obsessive chef and she's pretty good.

Ike Barinholtz as Chao's characters estranged husband, there to act like an overbearing aggressive fool. He was in Mad TV, Eastbound and Down (a show that I should like but I don't really), and the Mindy Project. He usually plays off big goofy obnoxious but sometimes likeable white dudebro energy.

Ben Schwarz as the annoying but harmless AV installation guy who wants to be a pop music star. I know him from Parks & Recreation as a recurring character who played a similar character but way exaggerated and delightfully annoying.

Ilana Glazer as a messed up alky with some sort of grudge I don't know yet. She is one of the two mains on Broad City and I'm a fan but so far is the least interesting/fleshed out character.

Dave Franco as the host and victim, a Beiber-esque pop star. He is quite excellent because I really want to punch him.

 

[Xprimentyl]

The Afterparty episodes 1 & 2

To me two is a trend, and with Murders in the Building being a popular show (though I couldn't get into it), here is another comedic murder mystery show. The celebrity host of a high school reunion after party is killed and a detective interviews everyone to figure out who did it, so each episode is apparently going to be the evening's events from their perspective.
The show is extremely OK. It's appeal is watching some of today's best comedic actors chew some scenery and be goofy, with the occasional really good joke. It doesn't consistently hit and I wonder if it would if it were 30 minutes or under (first episode was like 46, second around 35).

It's on Apple+ and even though it's not one of their best, it's still pretty enjoyable and the fact that a lesser show is pretty good just means Apple continues to impress.

The cast includes:
Tiffany Hadish as the detective. Her presence as the framing device is minimal so she just cracks wise. The least interesting part of the show, but harmless.

Sam Richardson as the dorky guy who was trying to reconnect with his high school love. Sam Richardson is my favorite comedic actor and I will watch anything he is in. He stole the show in every scene he was in in Veep, a show that was overflowing with brilliant actors and dialogue, where he played Richard Splett, the only character with any innocence and morality. He made a show called The Detroiters with Tim Robinson, who know leads a cult classic Netflix sketch show in with Richardson appears regularly as well. RIchardson also appears in Ted Lasso as the jerk wealthy Nigerian business asshole who has enemied against the likeable African player. So I heartily recommend watching all those other things if you haven't.

Zoe Chao as Richardson's character's crush. I have only seen her in the recent Party Down reunion as an obsessive chef and she's pretty good.

Ike Barinholtz as Chao's characters estranged husband, there to act like an overbearing aggressive fool. He was in Mad TV, Eastbound and Down (a show that I should like but I don't really), and the Mindy Project. He usually plays off big goofy obnoxious but sometimes likeable white dudebro energy.

Ben Schwarz as the annoying but harmless AV installation guy who wants to be a pop music star. I know him from Parks & Recreation as a recurring character who played a similar character but way exaggerated and delightfully annoying.

Ilana Glazer as a messed up alky with some sort of grudge I don't know yet. She is one of the two mains on Broad City and I'm a fan but so far is the least interesting/fleshed out character.

Dave Franco as the host and victim, a Beiber-esque pop star. He is quite excellent because I really want to punch him.

Yeah, we watched the whole first season, and while it was quite milquetoast in most regards, it was entertaining enough that I didn't regret my time with it. A second season was recently announced, and we'll probably watch it (begrudgingly.)

My biggest complaint is that I really cannot stand Tiffany Haddish in most things she's done, and I find her very much not funny.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Yeah, we watched the whole first season, and while it was quite milquetoast in most regards, it was entertaining enough that I didn't regret my time with it. A second season was recently announced, and we'll probably watch it (begrudgingly.)

My biggest complaint is that I really cannot stand Tiffany Haddish in most things she's done, and I find her very much not funny.

I watched one of her stand-up specials and it was pretty good. Like not so great I remember any of it, but my wife and I enjoyed it. I am neutral on her as an actress or celebrity presence.
She is basically the female Kevin Hart.