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

[Breakdown]

Jupiter's Legacy was a surprising choice for most comicbook fans as It's not a crazy popular comic and it's only like 5 issues. It's barely a seasons worth of story. Mark Millar is sort of well known for not particularly giving a shit about his characters or their development. His strong suit is his themes. Most of his characters are one-note and often shitty shallow people. One of his most Iconic, Ultimates envisions Captain America as, for all intents and purposes, a Alt-right nationalist, Hulk as a mass murderer, etc. Awful people, neat ideas.

For some reason the show runners want you to like these people or empathize, don't bother. Sky Foxes kid is the only one to bother rooting for imo, at least I like him anyway, both on page and screen.

I didn't "hate" the first season. Though it's one big prequel to the comic, taking place entirely in newly written content, thematically it's mostly a fair adaptation.

I really hated both Walking Dead and The Boys because they make up a bunch of drama shit that
A. Isn't in the books
B. Unnecessarily drags out episodes with "omg misunderstaaandingss" and
C. Tries to develop characters without considering their purpose in the books they're adapting (fucking GOT)

Jupiters legacy....so..far isn't pissing me off. The character story they're showing in Season One is at least referenced in the books and the characters are more or less true to the comic. It's....ok. I found myself enjoying it more as the season goes along. The second half is quite a bit more interesting than the first.

I don't really rate Mark Millar as a writer, although I haven't read Jupiter's Legacy. I didn't like the Boys series either, didn't feel authentic enough to the comic for me.

I've finished watching Jupiter's Legacy, still pretty hit and miss for me. The 1920s storyline is fairly solid, there's an interesting story arc, good character work, nice sets and locations. The present day storyline feels underdeveloped though. Some characters from the younger generation of superheroes are introduced but they're pretty bland. There's a mystery that's resolved in a pretty disappointing manner. There's a lot of talk about the Code. Not much plot or character development, and a bit short on action as well.

I did wonder if the series was originally meant to be longer and was cut short due to the pandemic.

 

[Xprimentyl]

The Voice: Blake Shelton Show / Reality

Admittedly, I dislike most popular music. From Pop to Modern "Rap" to Rock to Country, etc., most of it comes off to me as little more than uninspired, copy/paste, milquetoast fodder for the mindless masses to consume, so I wasn't watching the show for my pleasure; I was watching with my uninspired, copy/paste, milquetoast girlfriend who loves the show.

That said, as a very musical person, I can appreciate a good singing voice, and The Voice has no shortage of them. I've watched episode after episode, and I know who've been the strongest contestants, yet going through the elimination rounds the past few weeks, I've watched as America has consistently voted off the most talented people and voted in the contestants on the team of their favorite coach: Blake Shelton.

Last night was particularly jarring; of the five contestants vying for the spot in next week's finale, the one that was saved was, by far and away, the weakest performance... but he was also Blake Shelton's guy. It's already frustrating enough to have to sit there and suffer the show, but to see it then so inanely mishandled year after year only to go "Blake's Way" and waste a lot of people's time with "winners" who most in the right mind know should have been out of contention much earlier in the contest is too grinding. I told my gf that I'm not watching it with her anymore.

 

[happyninja42]

The Voice: Blake Shelton Show / Reality

Admittedly, I dislike most popular music. From Pop to Modern "Rap" to Rock to Country, etc., most of it comes off to me as little more than uninspired, copy/paste, milquetoast fodder for the mindless masses to consume, so I wasn't watching the show for my pleasure; I was watching with my uninspired, copy/paste, milquetoast girlfriend who loves the show.

That said, as a very musical person, I can appreciate a good singing voice, and The Voice has no shortage of them. I've watched episode after episode, and I know who've been the strongest contestants, yet going through the elimination rounds the past few weeks, I've watched as America has consistently voted off the most talented people and voted in the contestants on the team of their favorite coach: Blake Shelton.

Last night was particularly jarring; of the five contestants vying for the spot in next week's finale, the one that was saved was, by far and away, the weakest performance... but he was also Blake Shelton's guy. It's already frustrating enough to have to sit there and suffer the show, but to see it then so inanely mishandled year after year only to go "Blake's Way" and waste a lot of people's time with "winners" who most in the right mind know should have been out of contention much earlier in the contest is too grinding. I told my gf that I'm not watching it with her anymore.

Yeah I can't stand that show, and other singing competitions because I frankly don't find it amazing that someone can sing. I LOVE music, and singing, and think it's an integral part of the human species, but it's not special. Basically every culture on the planet, has had a singing tradition since the dawn of humanity, so it's not that surprising that you can randomly select any collection of people, and find people with singing talent. Yet the show, and others like it, make them out to be like these divine beings, with voices that defy logic and reason! And it's just BS. Most of us grow up with singing at every stage of our development, from our parents singing to us, to seeing it on tv and the radio, to religious choirs and bands we fall in love with as kids. It's in our DNA.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Yeah I can't stand that show, and other singing competitions because I frankly don't find it amazing that someone can sing. I LOVE music, and singing, and think it's an integral part of the human species, but it's not special. Basically every culture on the planet, has had a singing tradition since the dawn of humanity, so it's not that surprising that you can randomly select any collection of people, and find people with singing talent. Yet the show, and others like it, make them out to be like these divine beings, with voices that defy logic and reason! And it's just BS. Most of us grow up with singing at every stage of our development, from our parents singing to us, to seeing it on tv and the radio, to religious choirs and bands we fall in love with as kids. It's in our DNA.

I'm not a singer by any stretch, but I have a very keen ear and can tell you who can and cannot sing. It does take exceptional talent to hone one's craft and even more so to take and understand and apply criticism and improve. All the finalist this season showed those talents, however, when gauging who most improved and gave the best final performance, it's like all that aforementioned stuff went out the window in lieu of an "unrepresentative of the purpose of the show" popularity contest. Never seen the show, but imagine if at the final episode of "The Bachelor," the bachelor chose no one and came out as gay the whole time; why did people watch?

 

[happyninja42]

I'm not a singer by any stretch, but I have a very keen ear and can tell you who can and cannot sing.

So can I, my point is that finding people who can sing, isn't some magical thing, that they make it out to be. The audience often react like "holy shit!! THAT person can sing?!?!" And I'm like "well yeah, why the fuck wouldn't they?" Most people have some talent, and with training, can be made to sing better.

It does take exceptional talent to hone one's craft and even more so to take and understand and apply criticism and improve.

I disagree, it doesn't take talent to practice, which is what you basically said. It takes practice. With practice, most people can vastly improve their ability with singing. I recall a YT video of a singing coach, who was watching highlight reels of the various singing contestants on shows like AGT, and it was a collection of the "worst singers" , and he was getting really angry with how the judges shit all over them. He kept saying "This person can sing, they just don't know HOW. If they just had a couple lessons with an instructor, they would be fine." And he'd basically just point out that they weren't using their vocal chords and throat, and the various mechanics of it, properly, which is why they sounded bad.

That's my thoughts on the show in general. They simultaneously lionize something that is incredibly common in our species, while also mocking those who can't do it well. Maybe this is more an element of shows like AGT, and not The Voice, as I've never really watched that one, other than randomly seeing short clips of it, or walked through when the wife was binging it on YT or whatever. I just find the entire premise infuriating and pointless.

 

[Xprimentyl]

So can I, my point is that finding people who can sing, isn't some magical thing, that they make it out to be. The audience often react like "holy shit!! THAT person can sing?!?!" And I'm like "well yeah, why the fuck wouldn't they?" Most people have some talent, and with training, can be made to sing better.


I disagree, it doesn't take talent to practice, which is what you basically said. It takes practice. With practice, most people can vastly improve their ability with singing. I recall a YT video of a singing coach, who was watching highlight reels of the various singing contestants on shows like AGT, and it was a collection of the "worst singers" , and he was getting really angry with how the judges shit all over them. He kept saying "This person can sing, they just don't know HOW. If they just had a couple lessons with an instructor, they would be fine." And he'd basically just point out that they weren't using their vocal chords and throat, and the various mechanics of it, properly, which is why they sounded bad.

That's my thoughts on the show in general. They simultaneously lionize something that is incredibly common in our species, while also mocking those who can't do it well. Maybe this is more an element of shows like AGT, and not The Voice, as I've never really watched that one, other than randomly seeing short clips of it, or walked through when the wife was binging it on YT or whatever. I just find the entire premise infuriating and pointless.

Well, they're "reality" shows; despite how little they resemble reality, their intent is to entertain, not necessarily document any sort of real improvement of real people. Every contestant has some sort of sobby backstory to engage the audience at an emotional level for the purposes of reeling them in week after week. If every contest was just like "yeah, I'm Steve. Got a good paying job, happy and wholesome family life; I just wanted to come on here and get some coaching for my singing hobby," nobody'd watch.

I'm just saying for the few that they DO select for their dog and pony show, they should at least consistently go with the best performers and performances, not just the ones being coached by the most popular guy on set; that flies in the face of even the entertainment aspect of the show. There've been numerous claims that The Voice is biased towards Shelton behind the scenes despite "America's" votes...

 

[Baffle]

The Nevers. Started watching it yesterday, seems okay. It's very Joss Whedon, and Joss Whedon is still very much a prick.

 

[Piscian]

The Nevers. Started watching it yesterday, seems okay. It's very Joss Whedon, and Joss Whedon is still very much a prick.

I gave it an episode. Nothing really stuck out to me about Nevers other than Nick Frost being entertaining, I just didn't have a moment where I was like "Man I need to know what happens next!". I've never intentionally been a Joss wedon fan so I don't any feelings one way or the other about his recent controversies. Buffy and the offshoot series were things I only watched because an ex was into them and his Avengers movies are solid, but not my favorite marvel films. His writing isn't as witty to me as the fans make it out to be.

 

[Hawki]

Star Wars: Resistance - Season 2 (4/5)

Resistance is underrated.

I don't know if I said that when I reviewed season 1, but having watched season 2, that's definitely (still?) the case. That said, this is still a case of a show being good rather than great, but hey, who's asking?

So, anyway, season 2 is better than season 1 simply by the fact that the Colossus is making its way from planet to planet (or space station) while being pursued by the First Order. Basically, think The Last Jedi chase sequence, only spread through a season, and a kind of 'situation of the week' kind of thing. In this, the show works, and it's helped by the fact that the characters are improved. Kaz, for instance, is a better character by no longer bumbling around, but is forced to step up and lead. Tam, having joined the First Order at the end of season 1, is now realizing that maybe, just maybe, she made a mistake, only she remains conflicted, and has to fake her way through the organization. Added to which is the wider question of what's going on in the galaxy - is it better for the Colossus to run, or should they join the Resistance and make a stand? That last question in particular is integral to Kaz's character development.

So, yeah, the season doesn't really do much new with its plot threads or character development, but what it does do, it does well. I frankly really don't get the lack of interest in the show - maybe it's due to season 1 playing it safe, maybe it's due to 'guilt by association' (with the sequel trilogy), but if it's a case of the latter, that didn't stop The Clone Wars being popular, despite being tied to the two worst Star Wars movies ever released. I don't know why the series was cancelled (from what I can tell, simply low viewership) but the result is that the series ends with Tam reunited with the Colossus crew, said crew now part of the Resistance and...that's it. We have a series called "Star Wars Resistance" with the Resistance barely featuring. The ending of season 2 feels like a season conclusion, by no means does it feel like a series conclusion. Rebels, at last, had a flash forward to after the Battle of Endor, but Resistance can't even manage that. And I get it, couldn't spoil Rise of Skywalker, but even so...

Anyway, it's still a good watch, and like I said, underrated.

 

[Bartholen]

Invincible season 1. 8-9/10, undecided still

Fuck me this show was incredible. You could be forgiven for seeing it and just thinking it's an animated The Boys, but it's so not that.

Discussing the show in any depth at all is basically a spoiler, so I'll leave this to you who've seen it. For you others, you only need to watch the first episode to know if the show is going to hold your interest. Just make sure to watch the whole episode.

Spoiler: With that out of the way...

Jesus christ that subway train scene! Legitimately one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen in media. Right up there with the Red Wedding and maybe the plane scene from The Boys season 1. But it's not the gore that makes it, it's the context and understanding of the characters we have that enables it to have such a brutal impact. If we didn't have both of those the scene would feel just gratuitously lurid, possibly even comical. I'm almost at a loss for words to convey how deeply that scene shocked me.

Anyway, beyond the gripping mystery element (Why did Omni-man do it?), my favorite thing about this show was the worldbuilding. I love how from the very outset it establishes this to be a world on the scale of Marvel or DC, with alien civilizations, interdimensional travel, hell, demons and all the like, yet it still manages to stay engaging on a very personal and human level. The characters are all likeable with some weak links (Amber, Rex), but also some really great standouts (Mauler twins, Robot, Titan, that Justin Roiland cameo). While Omni-man obviously is the real star, he would feel like nothing if Mark wasn't there to counterbalance him. It also helps that he's used mostly sparingly until the final few episodes, allowing the other characters to breathe. Isn't it curious that the two best tv villains of the past 2 years have both come from Amazon adaptations of comic books that subvert and deconstruct the concept of superheroes, and the Superman stand-in is the central villain? And despite the massive similarities, they both feel completely distinct and different from one another.

Homelander is a vain, shallow, self-obsessed narcissist who only cares about himself. He has no plans and no ambitions beyond the people's continued idolization of himself. To him people might as well be gnats on his windshield. Omni-Man is a devoted, dedicated and determined puritanical fascist who will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. And what makes him so frightening is the humanity that brings out in him: he is a caring father, a loving husband, and an icon for all humanity. But the moment he knows that it's time for the other shoe to drop, he does it without hesitation in an instant. With Homelander you somewhat know what you're getting into. With Omni-man you wouldn't consider it for a second. Were these two characters to ever meet, they would flatten the planet in trying to kill each other within 5 minutes.

The show has some issues, but nothing major. Some plot and character beats feel like they're repeated a tad too much (Amber and Mark's relationship, Rex feeling pretty one-note), the animation's a bit janky in places, and the difference in gore levels between action scenes can feel jarring. But they focused on what really matters, and some moments in the finale reminded me of the finale of One Punch Man's first season, and that's a fucking high bar to pass. I can only imagine how mind-blowing it could be if we had that level of animation and the emotional investment as well.

Anyway, I need to go to sleep. Fucking awesome show, can't wait for season 2.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Undone

Hipster drama starring the ultimate Tumblr darling. Snarky, anxious, wears a hearing aid, has a dead dad, self-diagnosed schizophrenic, tried to kill herself, can bend the fabric of time and space after waking up from a coma. Now she's on a mission to avert her father's death as coached by ghost dad himself, which, hey, sounds suspiciously like a coping mechanism disguised as sci-fi. The hook is that all of this is done in rotoscope animation, which looks great and is used ingeniously to skip across time and space with psychedlic flow and without any jarring realism. I just don't like the character, nor these kinds of self-absorbed narratives. Like with Celeste, I have this knee-jerk reaction to grandiose depictions of the creator's own psyche. Stars discount Aubrey Plaza.

 

[gorfias]

Invincible season 1. 8-9/10, undecided still

Fuck me this show was incredible. You could be forgiven for seeing it and just thinking it's an animated The Boys, but it's so not that.

Discussing the show in any depth at all is basically a spoiler, so I'll leave this to you who've seen it. For you others, you only need to watch the first episode to know if the show is going to hold your interest. Just make sure to watch the whole episode.

Spoiler: With that out of the way...

Jesus christ that subway train scene! Legitimately one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen in media. Right up there with the Red Wedding and maybe the plane scene from The Boys season 1. But it's not the gore that makes it, it's the context and understanding of the characters we have that enables it to have such a brutal impact. If we didn't have both of those the scene would feel just gratuitously lurid, possibly even comical. I'm almost at a loss for words to convey how deeply that scene shocked me.

Anyway, beyond the gripping mystery element (Why did Omni-man do it?), my favorite thing about this show was the worldbuilding. I love how from the very outset it establishes this to be a world on the scale of Marvel or DC, with alien civilizations, interdimensional travel, hell, demons and all the like, yet it still manages to stay engaging on a very personal and human level. The characters are all likeable with some weak links (Amber, Rex), but also some really great standouts (Mauler twins, Robot, Titan, that Justin Roiland cameo). While Omni-man obviously is the real star, he would feel like nothing if Mark wasn't there to counterbalance him. It also helps that he's used mostly sparingly until the final few episodes, allowing the other characters to breathe. Isn't it curious that the two best tv villains of the past 2 years have both come from Amazon adaptations of comic books that subvert and deconstruct the concept of superheroes, and the Superman stand-in is the central villain? And despite the massive similarities, they both feel completely distinct and different from one another.

Homelander is a vain, shallow, self-obsessed narcissist who only cares about himself. He has no plans and no ambitions beyond the people's continued idolization of himself. To him people might as well be gnats on his windshield. Omni-Man is a devoted, dedicated and determined puritanical fascist who will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. And what makes him so frightening is the humanity that brings out in him: he is a caring father, a loving husband, and an icon for all humanity. But the moment he knows that it's time for the other shoe to drop, he does it without hesitation in an instant. With Homelander you somewhat know what you're getting into. With Omni-man you wouldn't consider it for a second. Were these two characters to ever meet, they would flatten the planet in trying to kill each other within 5 minutes.

The show has some issues, but nothing major. Some plot and character beats feel like they're repeated a tad too much (Amber and Mark's relationship, Rex feeling pretty one-note), the animation's a bit janky in places, and the difference in gore levels between action scenes can feel jarring. But they focused on what really matters, and some moments in the finale reminded me of the finale of One Punch Man's first season, and that's a fucking high bar to pass. I can only imagine how mind-blowing it could be if we had that level of animation and the emotional investment as well.

Anyway, I need to go to sleep. Fucking awesome show, can't wait for season 2.

I probably missed it but in watching youtube summations of the characters and stories, it was pointed out that the older a person of Omni-man's species gets, the stronger and more powerful the individual gets, explaining why

Spoiler

Omni-man is able to manhandle Invincible.

In other comics like Superman and Xmen is that at some point, they have their powers. At best, with age, they learn to use their powers better than someone that just acquired them. In the comics, they show

Spoiler

Omni-man having his butt handed to him by other older members of his race

Be crazy if they end up adapting the whole story. It is huge.

 

[Agema]

And, I hope to live some more, long enough to see a Season 3 of Love, Death and Robots. Season 1 was 18 episodes. 2 was but 8. It is an anthology with each episode being unrelated to the others. Different stories and art direction. Don't like 1 episode? Skip it and move on to the next. 9/10

Whatever the various merits of the animation and director, the best episodes in season 1 were the ones based on stories by the best authors (John Scalzi and Alastair Reynolds). I particularly liked Zima Blue - that's a lovely short story. Will crank up S2 in due course.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I'm not a singer by any stretch, but I have a very keen ear and can tell you who can and cannot sing. It does take exceptional talent to hone one's craft and even more so to take and understand and apply criticism and improve. All the finalist this season showed those talents, however, when gauging who most improved and gave the best final performance, it's like all that aforementioned stuff went out the window in lieu of an "unrepresentative of the purpose of the show" popularity contest. Never seen the show, but imagine if at the final episode of "The Bachelor," the bachelor chose no one and came out as gay the whole time; why did people watch?

Basically why I cannot stand cable TV anymore. The more “reality” based it’s billed as, the more bs-filled it actually is. It also generally has the worst production values on TV which makes it easier to ignore.

 

[BrawlMan]

@Samtemdo8, I'm warning you not to watch this. I know you dislike honest trailers, so I'm just giving you a heads up now. I don't like all their episodes either.​

 

[Chimpzy]

Jupiter's Legacy - meh/10

If you want a show that also has the "what if Superman was your dad?" hook, but better? Watch Invincible. If you want something that also has themes of an older generation of traditional superheroes coming into ideological conflict with a new more violent generation of young superheroes and a public that largely approves of those more lethal methods, but better? Read either Kingdom Come or What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?

 

[Piscian]

Jupiter's Legacy - meh/10

If you want a show that also has the "what if Superman was your dad?" hook, but better? Watch Invincible. If you want something that also has themes of an older generation of traditional superheroes coming into ideological conflict with a new more violent generation of young superheroes and a public that largely approves of those more lethal methods, but better? Read either Kingdom Come or What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?

I think it's there, but it gets pushed to the background due to how much time they spend trying to develop characters you don't need to care about. This is a huge fallacy that makes me cringe every time I see a comicbook get adapted to live action. There's so much "drama" in walking dead you might forget it even has zombies in it. In The Boys theres an entire agonizing subplot about frenchie falling in love with the asian girl thats completely unimportant the story and obviously not in the books...For a reason! I think it's a combination of studios wanting to pad out story to squeeze every dollar out of a property and writers getting paid to fill air time. No matter how much fans complain about it they do it anyway, sadly Invincible is the rare exception where they move some pieces around, but stay thematically faithful.

Kingdom Come is a little more nuanced in it's storytelling, giving you compelling reasons to agree with every side of the conflict, but is unfortunately very similar Juniper's Legacy. I wouldn't hold it against Mark Millar. In the books this initial conflict is very straightforward no beans about it. The Utopian is a cringey golden age tiresome libertarian the younger generation of heroes is tired of following so they resolved the situation. I think this is all told in like 1 maybe 2 issues and the actual story is about the fallout from that decision.

The problem with this show is that it's so mired in trying to drag out the character development you could almost forget why people hate the Utopian. It's too busy having entire episodes dedicated to the "mystery" of people plotting against him. IT DOESNT F**KING MATTER! Thats the problem, if youre going to adapt something you need to use the actual plot of the material as the guiding light in your storytelling. You cant just go off and do whatever you feel like and come back to what made the source material popular in the first place ...*continues ranting until everyone awkwardly drifts off*

 

[Samtemdo8]

@Samtemdo8, I'm warning you not to watch this. I know you dislike honest trailers, so I'm just giving you a heads up now. I like all their episodes either.​

OK?

I mean I hate more the Screen Junkies Crew in their talk shows more then Honest Trailers. They come off as shills.

 

[BrawlMan]

I mean I hate more the Screen Junkies Crew in their talk shows more then Honest Trailers. They come off as shills.

I rarely ever touch the Screen Junkies Crew commentaries. It's less shills, and more I do not find them interesting or engaging.

 

[gorfias]

OK, to be sociable, I've watched "This Is Us" since day one with the missus and my daughter. Lot of cringe in it. The show centers on three 40 somethings. There was supposed to be triplets but one died at birth. So these white people adopted a black baby that is the same age and much cringe follows.
I love almost all genres except most "chick flicks" and this one has all the makings of one. Super wealth people can just follow their dreams and somehow afford beautiful homes on an assistant teacher's salary. And this season's finale showed such a tin ear to reality.

Spoiler

Movie star, gorgeous, caring and rich, got his sister's best friend pregnant with twins so he's all in. They're about to get married when the friend asks if he really loves her, or just the concept of family. He cannot say he is in love with her, so she calls the wedding off. Is this realistic? Or just Hollywood values? People get married for all sorts of reasons, including happy, stable, arranged marriages. Marriage isn't about "Friday night" but "Monday Morning". My two ladies were nodding like bobble heads agreeing that if he isn't in love with her, she shouldn't marry him. Oy. He was ready to be a loving, dedicated husband and father to their twins. Will any of them be better off with this mid 30 year unmarried woman with twin trying to find the equivalent of a prom date? I honestly don't think so.

Anyway, as chick flicks go, this show has its moments. 6/10.