Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)
- Thread starter Hawki
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I have fond memories of the series but I likely need to rewatch it to see how it holds up.
ITMT: This series is terrific. Season 2 comes to Amazon Prime 11/6.
Funny, gripping, fantasy inspiring, hugely entertaining:
EDIT: Now I'm watching this https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8303474/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
6.7 on IDMB
8 episodes. I'm nearly done with episode 3. HUGE twist in episode 3.
The show is the strangest, most violent, tone swinging, crazy radical show I've seen in some time. At times almost comic fantasy interlaced with insane violence and super darkness. I'm hating it on most levels, but another can't stop watching wondering what the heck is actually happening.
Basically: bunch of comic book nerds see a cult comic book as actually something of a cypher that could save the world, as a pandemic begins to break out.
One HUGE problem with a show like this... the hook is a question. Like "Lost" or "Wayward Pines", to have been worth watching, I need it to have a great answer to this question. Wayward Pines Season 1 did. That was terrific. "Lost"? Not so much. 1) I hope this is a one season show. Answer the dang question. I can't imagine slogging through a 2nd season of it. Super dark, depressing and violent. 2) When/if they answer the question of what the heck is really going on here, will I find it satisfying or not?
PS: If you decide to watch it, do NOT watch the trailers. They appear to have spoilers.
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The Boys, both seasons
Deconstructive superhero drama, based on a series of comic books, of course, and adapted for Amazon Prime. The Boys is a show that gets very close to greatness, but most of the time falls just slightly short of it. In this, seemingly slowly fading, era of of superhero fiction dominating popular culture, there've been a few attempts at self awareness and self criticism, ranging from Zack Snyder's sublime, bittersweet mid 10s epic Batman v Superman, to James Mangolds gritty but derivative X-Men epilogue Logan to Damon Lindelof's and HBO's well intentioned but toothless sequel to Watchmen. Eric Kripke's The Boys seems to be the most popular of these subversive superhero deconstructions and it's not hard to see why. The Boys is set in an alternate version of America where superheroes not only exist, but are managed by powerful megacorp Vought and treated as celebrities. While thy project a public image as powerful paragons of justice, most of these heroes, in the show mainly exemplified by "The Seven", a fairly literal parody of DCs Justice League, are at best washed up and corrupt and at worst violent and abusive. On the other side of the spectrum we got a ragtag group of semi-government hardasses calling themselves "The Boys", led by Karl Urban playing a over the top Cockney tough guy named Billie Butcher, trying to take down Vought and expose their wrongdoings to the public. Our viewpoint characters into these two goups are Jack Quaid as relatable everyman Hughie, whose girlfriend was accidentally killed by a member of The Seven, and Starlight, a bright eyed young super hero who gets to join The Seven.
In a lot of ways, The Boys is certainly on to something, foregoing the operatic "big picture" approach to superhero fiction as modern mythology that, for example, Snyder and Lindelof were focussing and instead going for the more down to earth, more realistic topics of corporate exploitation, corruption, celebrity culture and the abuse of power and authority by those who are granted them. At its best, The Boy's unrelenting cynicism towards its world and its characters provides some cutting satire of life and media under the thrall of capitalist realism and the institutionalized disregard of human life and human dignity that it brought. Vought is an occasionally excellent satire on corporate America, mainly Walt Disney, and its frightening amount of control over modern popular culture. It's on the more direct character level where I feel like The Boys waters itself down too much with cartoony exaggeration. While there are certainly standouts, mainly Erin Moriarty as idealistic rookie superhero Starlight and Anthony Starr, by all means the MVP of The Boys, as delightfully deranged Superman analogue Homelander, most characters feel like vastly less charismatic versions of the neurotic costumed crime fighters and adventurers from the tragically recently cancelled "Venture Brothers". The Boy's problem, when it comes down to it, is having an absolutely solid set up and mainly spot on social commentary, but neither having a strong enough narrative, nor strong enough characters to go anywhere with it. Watching it is entertaining, but frustrating. There are many great ideas and individual scenes in there that do a brilliant job of satirizing superhero media and the industry behind it, but it never ties them together into a plot that would turn them into more than the sum of their parts. The core conflict between the titular antiheroes and Vought is a lukewarm and meandering one that doesn't seem very interested in reaching any kind of culmination any time soon.The second season throws some new plot points into the mix, most notably Aya Cash playing villain of the week "Stormfront" a superhero with fascist views, and Homelander finding out he has a son, which was actually a pretty interesting place for the character to go. Also a satire of the Church of Scientology which I struggle to see any point in. But instead of tightening up the structure of the series, it further expanded to a point where it felt very little was actually accomplished in the already relatively short 8 episode season.
The Boys is a show close, but never quite in arms reach, to greatness. It dilutes effective satire with juvenile, Guy Ritchie-an grit and dissafected edge . Don't get me wrong: When a scene hits, it absolutely hits, as a matter of fact there are moments where it comes close to being the "final word" on the current superhero craze it would obviously very much like to be. Yet it never really manages to tie up these clever ideas and scenes into a neat package. Rather it keeps adding and adding to something that is definitely still good, probably much better than this review is making it sound, but also extremely messy and more than a little juvenile. It was by all means still a very good watch, I want this series to live up to its potential eventually, but at some point someone should think long and hard about where they actually want to go with this and how long they want to take till they get there.
Deconstructive superhero drama, based on a series of comic books, of course, and adapted for Amazon Prime. The Boys is a show that gets very close to greatness, but most of the time falls just slightly short of it. In this, seemingly slowly fading, era of of superhero fiction dominating popular culture, there've been a few attempts at self awareness and self criticism, ranging from Zack Snyder's sublime, bittersweet mid 10s epic Batman v Superman, to James Mangolds gritty but derivative X-Men epilogue Logan to Damon Lindelof's and HBO's well intentioned but toothless sequel to Watchmen. Eric Kripke's The Boys seems to be the most popular of these subversive superhero deconstructions and it's not hard to see why. The Boys is set in an alternate version of America where superheroes not only exist, but are managed by powerful megacorp Vought and treated as celebrities. While thy project a public image as powerful paragons of justice, most of these heroes, in the show mainly exemplified by "The Seven", a fairly literal parody of DCs Justice League, are at best washed up and corrupt and at worst violent and abusive. On the other side of the spectrum we got a ragtag group of semi-government hardasses calling themselves "The Boys", led by Karl Urban playing a over the top Cockney tough guy named Billie Butcher, trying to take down Vought and expose their wrongdoings to the public. Our viewpoint characters into these two goups are Jack Quaid as relatable everyman Hughie, whose girlfriend was accidentally killed by a member of The Seven, and Starlight, a bright eyed young super hero who gets to join The Seven.
In a lot of ways, The Boys is certainly on to something, foregoing the operatic "big picture" approach to superhero fiction as modern mythology that, for example, Snyder and Lindelof were focussing and instead going for the more down to earth, more realistic topics of corporate exploitation, corruption, celebrity culture and the abuse of power and authority by those who are granted them. At its best, The Boy's unrelenting cynicism towards its world and its characters provides some cutting satire of life and media under the thrall of capitalist realism and the institutionalized disregard of human life and human dignity that it brought. Vought is an occasionally excellent satire on corporate America, mainly Walt Disney, and its frightening amount of control over modern popular culture. It's on the more direct character level where I feel like The Boys waters itself down too much with cartoony exaggeration. While there are certainly standouts, mainly Erin Moriarty as idealistic rookie superhero Starlight and Anthony Starr, by all means the MVP of The Boys, as delightfully deranged Superman analogue Homelander, most characters feel like vastly less charismatic versions of the neurotic costumed crime fighters and adventurers from the tragically recently cancelled "Venture Brothers". The Boy's problem, when it comes down to it, is having an absolutely solid set up and mainly spot on social commentary, but neither having a strong enough narrative, nor strong enough characters to go anywhere with it. Watching it is entertaining, but frustrating. There are many great ideas and individual scenes in there that do a brilliant job of satirizing superhero media and the industry behind it, but it never ties them together into a plot that would turn them into more than the sum of their parts. The core conflict between the titular antiheroes and Vought is a lukewarm and meandering one that doesn't seem very interested in reaching any kind of culmination any time soon.The second season throws some new plot points into the mix, most notably Aya Cash playing villain of the week "Stormfront" a superhero with fascist views, and Homelander finding out he has a son, which was actually a pretty interesting place for the character to go. Also a satire of the Church of Scientology which I struggle to see any point in. But instead of tightening up the structure of the series, it further expanded to a point where it felt very little was actually accomplished in the already relatively short 8 episode season.
The Boys is a show close, but never quite in arms reach, to greatness. It dilutes effective satire with juvenile, Guy Ritchie-an grit and dissafected edge . Don't get me wrong: When a scene hits, it absolutely hits, as a matter of fact there are moments where it comes close to being the "final word" on the current superhero craze it would obviously very much like to be. Yet it never really manages to tie up these clever ideas and scenes into a neat package. Rather it keeps adding and adding to something that is definitely still good, probably much better than this review is making it sound, but also extremely messy and more than a little juvenile. It was by all means still a very good watch, I want this series to live up to its potential eventually, but at some point someone should think long and hard about where they actually want to go with this and how long they want to take till they get there.
I watched the South Park Pandemic Special.
Two plot threads, the first following Randy Marsh as he tries to cover up his role as the missing link in the transmission of COVID 19 to humans. Unfortunately it just feels pretty similar to the Tegrity Farms nonsense plots from the last season, and Randy is a character who's behaviour has been so extreme for so long that it's just tiresome now.
The second plot thread involves the children adapting to the pandemic and going back to school. It's far more engaging and funnier than Randy's storyline.
Overall, it was a reasonable episode.
Two plot threads, the first following Randy Marsh as he tries to cover up his role as the missing link in the transmission of COVID 19 to humans. Unfortunately it just feels pretty similar to the Tegrity Farms nonsense plots from the last season, and Randy is a character who's behaviour has been so extreme for so long that it's just tiresome now.
The second plot thread involves the children adapting to the pandemic and going back to school. It's far more engaging and funnier than Randy's storyline.
Overall, it was a reasonable episode.
Pretty much why I got tired of South Park. Almost anything that involves Randy, I either sigh or groan heavily. I honestly have no interests this season.
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I want to say it needs context, then I realize the context makes just as little sense.
I just recently started watching Rick and Morty a couple months ago, and season 4 just dropped on Hulu, so I'm all caught up. I must say, that last season went balls to the wall with cussing, absurdity and raunchiness.
Argh. So, thought Season 2 of this youtube show from someone associated with "Deadpool" was to drop on Amazon Prime today. Gosh Darn Brother Punchin Sand humping lady grabbing rust licking ice forking son of a hamster.... It's just Season 1 and there may never be a Season 2. So unfortunate. This show is spectacular.
The Mandalorian, season 2 episodes 1 and 2.
Episode one is solid fucking gold - I mean fuck its Mando and Star Wars Raylon Givens - so that was hardly ever going to fail. Episode two is a little shakier but it also seems to be a sort of part one of X arc so I'm not too fussed. I don't blame anyone for going "Meh" to it though.
Episode one is solid fucking gold - I mean fuck its Mando and Star Wars Raylon Givens - so that was hardly ever going to fail. Episode two is a little shakier but it also seems to be a sort of part one of X arc so I'm not too fussed. I don't blame anyone for going "Meh" to it though.
I think I watched the season after the TrumpGarrison and just got kinda tired of the whole thing. At one point there was some commentary about this being a type of "Post-Funny Satire" in the show and it felt so spot on.
Without the funny, the Satire just doesn't work or feels a bit too much and it felt like South Park fell victim to it's own hubris or something like that. I don't know. I just knew I was ready to be done with the show and haven't watched it since.
Finished South Park season 22 a few days ago. Have watched 22 seasons in eleven months. The show has changed so much. It doesn't make me laugh as much as it used to, but I still find it entertaining. Similarly, I don't need to find horror scary to like it.
I'm 12 of 96 episodes into Maison Ikkoku.
Educate me on the desu speech impediment. I don't get it. These women say it at the ends of sentences that sound nothing like it. Is it completely artificial or do many Japanese actually talk like this?
Educate me on the desu speech impediment. I don't get it. These women say it at the ends of sentences that sound nothing like it. Is it completely artificial or do many Japanese actually talk like this?
Because of my Sucessful introduction with Team4Star with the HellSing Ultimate Abridged, I bit the bullet and did their FF7Machiabridged. 4+ hours later, I've caught up. I honestly really enjoyed it, especially considering I haven't played FF7 in 20 years, so I kinda forgot certain parts(like the whole mass shooting at the Golden Saucer) were even in the game.
And despite how flanderized certain characters are(and Tifa takes a major level in Jerkass for the first 3rd of the series) they still had a fun dynamic going on. I did appreciate the whole awkwardness when Cloud started telling his (flawed) memories of what happened in Nibelheim and Tifa(who was there) just kinda awkwardly lets the unreliable narrator slide on several occasions. I don't remember how it was dealt with in the original game, but now I'm curious.
Just to note I haven't actually played any of the FF7 "expanded universe" games and I've only seen Advent Children which seems semi-canonical at best(Rufus didn't die when the tower he was in exploded, why would you think that?) so I'm not factoring any of that stuff into my enjoyment of the abridged version.
And despite how flanderized certain characters are(and Tifa takes a major level in Jerkass for the first 3rd of the series) they still had a fun dynamic going on. I did appreciate the whole awkwardness when Cloud started telling his (flawed) memories of what happened in Nibelheim and Tifa(who was there) just kinda awkwardly lets the unreliable narrator slide on several occasions. I don't remember how it was dealt with in the original game, but now I'm curious.
Just to note I haven't actually played any of the FF7 "expanded universe" games and I've only seen Advent Children which seems semi-canonical at best(Rufus didn't die when the tower he was in exploded, why would you think that?) so I'm not factoring any of that stuff into my enjoyment of the abridged version.
- Feb 7, 2011
- 7,916
- 2,280
- 118
- Country
- 'Merica
- Gender
- 3 children in a trench coat
Every once in a while there's an episode of the show that's good enough that it makes the entire season worth watching, even if the rest of it was weak.
Still, it's been a while since South Park, or really any comedy has made me let out a real sincere laugh rather than a slight chuckle. Most of the time I just find myself going "oh, that was clever" rather than actually reacting.
Not sure if it has something to do with aging and just feeling less surprised by life overall, depression, or shows in general just having less funny writing over time.
I think the fact it's been running for 23 seasons is part of the problem. After a while it's hard for anyone to show the same enthusiasm for things like that, including the creators.
I gave up on the Simpsons like a decade ago and have no urge to go back to it no matter how long it runs. Family guy took far less time. Dr. Who I quit at the end of the Clara run(and my dislike for her was part of the reason). I used to be thrilled at the idea of something running that long and now it just feels like an obligation to get that far.
- Feb 7, 2011
- 7,916
- 2,280
- 118
- Country
- 'Merica
- Gender
- 3 children in a trench coat
Honestly, I'm very suspicious of any show that runs past 5 seasons.
"Is it actually good, or is the fan-base just stupid?"
I think Doctor Who has the potential to be an outlier because it can reinvent itself regularly. I liked a lot of Tom Bakers run and that starts at season 7.
But its still potential that generally goes wasted
Edit: Just looked it up. Holy Shit. He starts at season 12
I started with the New Who but even then the fact it resets itself so much just makes it feel that investment seems pointless.
You know any gains made aren't gonna last, you know the Dr. is never gone for good. If it's not a hole in time, it's an alternate universe. If it's not an alternate universe, it's some long lost dalek survivor who managed to rebuild the entire race from scratch overnight(or in thousands of years but essentially overnight because time travel). And the Drs name is now a big deal, but Dr. is actually his name!
Mystery boxes galore except the inside of the box is either empty or there's nothing interesting inside. I mean, LOST jerked you around less then this.
And despite the inherent goofiness, there are episodes that are just plain dumb, even by the shows standards. "The british took a space shuttle to the moon which was actually a giant egg but it hatched and laid another egg that looked exactly the same and that's why the moon is still there." for example. I mean...there are so many dumb things about that I think it breached the point where Dr. Who writing ends and bad fan fiction begins.
