Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)
- Thread starter Hawki
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Wow really? Pretty sure I watched more than two seasons... Anyway, I'm not so shocked by the craziness of it all, more that it looks really bad. Granted, its been a while since I've watched. I'd always thought that the show did a great job with what they had, they used their limited time and budget wisely and never went too far. That scene just came off as funny to me, with the pointless awkward slo-mo.
I don't recall how many seasons I made it through either, but I saw the first episode of [insert correct season here] wherein Barry, who'd already been established as fast enough to travel through time, had to chase down a jet-propelled, flying robotic samurai, and I was out. The show just got dumb to me. I mean, I know the Flash's whole thing is speed, but how many exceptional predicaments could one hero find him/herself in wherein their particular and very specific ability is the solution? "Someone's been shot?!? Ok, Barry, run circles around them creating a vacuum that will pull the bullet out!" And the Speed Force? Are we 12-years-old? The show just became more and more contrived to the point where I couldn't respect it anymore. Shame, because it's really well acted; the source material just kept turning towards shit. Maybe it aligns with the comics; I dunno, and I'll never know; I saw enough to truly not care.
I'm on Episode IV of "The Vow", I have mixed feelings about it. Its pretty enthralling, but only in how bananas it is. The problem is the story is being produced and told through the perspective of what are essentially a bunch of obnoxious motivational speakers who have realized they're in a Cult, but aren't self-aware to understand that their own personalities are part of what got them there in the first place. " I can't believe this happened, we had so much synergy!"
Servant.
For some reason, PS5 ownership gifted half a year of Apple TV despite never having a single nat's pube of interest to bother looking at what IP they're hoarding within their newfound treehouse of blackjack and hookers. Having now looked, well, let's just say I'm glad it was free, especially till way past when the adaption of Isaac Asimov's Foundation comes out in... august? Apparently? Something to look forward to that isn't further liver damage?
Anyway, Servant is a thing in there. Psychological horror sort of. Only finished first episode so far, and am getting some real "women be crazy, amirite?" vibes from the cast of 3 by the end, as the mother is grieving for her dead baby by having some creepy AF fake baby that dies each night or something, the newly hired babysitter teen is doing her own creepy schtick too, while the dad dude appears mostly the sane character. Mostly.
Ron Weasley from Harry Potter shows up to repeatedly slam glasses of whiskey down on a table. Glad to see he's found paying work at last. Not sure what he was waffling about though.
Direction is precise, it is pleasing to observe. An underlying sense of unease at the barely held together masks the characters maintain is not foreshadowing, more like fiveshadowing, six, seven, tenshadowing! All the shadowings!
Might continue it. Depends on how often that annoying fake baby is gonna cry, as it plays really loud on my TV compared to the talking audio, which can't be a pleasant noise for others in my abode when they're sleeping or whatever it is that they do.
For some reason, PS5 ownership gifted half a year of Apple TV despite never having a single nat's pube of interest to bother looking at what IP they're hoarding within their newfound treehouse of blackjack and hookers. Having now looked, well, let's just say I'm glad it was free, especially till way past when the adaption of Isaac Asimov's Foundation comes out in... august? Apparently? Something to look forward to that isn't further liver damage?
Anyway, Servant is a thing in there. Psychological horror sort of. Only finished first episode so far, and am getting some real "women be crazy, amirite?" vibes from the cast of 3 by the end, as the mother is grieving for her dead baby by having some creepy AF fake baby that dies each night or something, the newly hired babysitter teen is doing her own creepy schtick too, while the dad dude appears mostly the sane character. Mostly.
Ron Weasley from Harry Potter shows up to repeatedly slam glasses of whiskey down on a table. Glad to see he's found paying work at last. Not sure what he was waffling about though.
Direction is precise, it is pleasing to observe. An underlying sense of unease at the barely held together masks the characters maintain is not foreshadowing, more like fiveshadowing, six, seven, tenshadowing! All the shadowings!
Might continue it. Depends on how often that annoying fake baby is gonna cry, as it plays really loud on my TV compared to the talking audio, which can't be a pleasant noise for others in my abode when they're sleeping or whatever it is that they do.
I enjoyed watching Loki. Didn't binge. Just waited and watched as episodes were released.
A friend who watched along with me does interesting things - she is planning to use the Loki episodes to write a paper for college, like this one which uses Mean Girls to talk about conflict theory in movies!
She's going to rewatch, and I'll watch along, but writing about it - now that's not my thing.
A friend who watched along with me does interesting things - she is planning to use the Loki episodes to write a paper for college, like this one which uses Mean Girls to talk about conflict theory in movies!
She's going to rewatch, and I'll watch along, but writing about it - now that's not my thing.
Ted Lasso
Got tired of the hype, and finally decided to try it out. 6 episodes into season 1 and... It's really good.
Ted Lasso is an ex-college football coach from Kansas who takes over coaching a premier league soccer team in England. He knows nothing about soccer, and is greeted by nigh everyone with the kind of cantankerous ire and doubt you'd expect from diehard soccer fans. Unbeknownst to him, the move was intentional by the team owner, a recently divorced woman named Rebecca who brought him in to sink her ex-husband's beloved team. BUT, his endearing positivity and absolute refusal to let anything get him down melts the ice all around him as the team starts to find some success and rebuild burnt bridges between them all.
I expected a sitcom, but no, it's played more as a light-hearted drama sprinkled with moments of humor. Lasso and his indelible positivity effectively play the role of the catalyst for change he wants to see in the drama unfolding around him. Ted Lasso is that stranger you meet on a bad day who, without knowing you at all, just says the right thing that turns your mood completely around, and he's that way for everyone he meets. He's annoying at first blush, but after a moment or two, you can't deny his pure kindness.
So far, the show's been a pleasant surprise, and I will keep watching.
Got tired of the hype, and finally decided to try it out. 6 episodes into season 1 and... It's really good.
Ted Lasso is an ex-college football coach from Kansas who takes over coaching a premier league soccer team in England. He knows nothing about soccer, and is greeted by nigh everyone with the kind of cantankerous ire and doubt you'd expect from diehard soccer fans. Unbeknownst to him, the move was intentional by the team owner, a recently divorced woman named Rebecca who brought him in to sink her ex-husband's beloved team. BUT, his endearing positivity and absolute refusal to let anything get him down melts the ice all around him as the team starts to find some success and rebuild burnt bridges between them all.
I expected a sitcom, but no, it's played more as a light-hearted drama sprinkled with moments of humor. Lasso and his indelible positivity effectively play the role of the catalyst for change he wants to see in the drama unfolding around him. Ted Lasso is that stranger you meet on a bad day who, without knowing you at all, just says the right thing that turns your mood completely around, and he's that way for everyone he meets. He's annoying at first blush, but after a moment or two, you can't deny his pure kindness.
So far, the show's been a pleasant surprise, and I will keep watching.
Just finished Netflix's Punisher, Season 1. Very good, and a big step up from The Defenders. Jon Bernthal is a great casting as Frank Castle, and the supporting cast more than held their own with him. In particular, Ebon Moss-Bachrach is fantastic as David "Micro" Lieberman, who essentially spends much of the series acting as Frank Castle's conscience/shoulder angel while providing technical support as a hacker, and the villain of the series, as played by Ben Barnes, is a great mirror to Frank Castle, while having plenty of charisma to carry the scenes on his own.
If I had to criticize the show for anything, it's the other villains of the piece. One of them is a dirty special agent named Rawlins, played by Paul Schulze. Don't get me wrong, he plays the role to the hilt...but his role is the hate sink, and that is something that if you succeed in too well, it just results in eyerolling and waiting for you to get off screen or die, which made him a bit annoying at times. The bigger issue was a secondary villain, Lewis Wilson as played by Daniel Webber. He...was basically pointless, and just seemed to exist as a way to show how PTSD can drive soldiers to criminal means without proper support. He did affect the plot a bit, but not for a very long time.
That said, I still give the show a solid 8/10, maybe even a 9/10, and would recommend any fans of MCU Netflix who somehow skipped this show check it out.
If I had to criticize the show for anything, it's the other villains of the piece. One of them is a dirty special agent named Rawlins, played by Paul Schulze. Don't get me wrong, he plays the role to the hilt...but his role is the hate sink, and that is something that if you succeed in too well, it just results in eyerolling and waiting for you to get off screen or die, which made him a bit annoying at times. The bigger issue was a secondary villain, Lewis Wilson as played by Daniel Webber. He...was basically pointless, and just seemed to exist as a way to show how PTSD can drive soldiers to criminal means without proper support. He did affect the plot a bit, but not for a very long time.
That said, I still give the show a solid 8/10, maybe even a 9/10, and would recommend any fans of MCU Netflix who somehow skipped this show check it out.
I find myself compelled to write about movies sometimes, but only when I think the stuff they are addressing is really interesting, or I think a lot of the criticisms I see miss an important point.
Or it's a film I just really enjoy on a personal level, and feel like gushing about the details of it, like the Assassin's Creed film. If you get me talking about Babylon 5, I could probably write a lot of stuff about the story structure, and the way it dealt with characters and stuff.
I just watched 'Playing with Sharks'. Its a documentary that sort of half and half covers both the life of Ron and Valerie Taylor, two Australian spear fishing hunters turned conservationists, and our broader scientific understanding of sharks.
And all it has done has ensured that should any political candidate propose shark fin hunting boats found in Australian territorial waters be sunk by our Navy, that they will get my vote so fucking fast it won't be funny.
And all it has done has ensured that should any political candidate propose shark fin hunting boats found in Australian territorial waters be sunk by our Navy, that they will get my vote so fucking fast it won't be funny.
So apparently Titan Season 3 premiered recently, with the first three episodes available. With seemingly no marketing, amazing. I thought S1 was terrible and S2 was okay except I stopped watching it halfway through.
I wouldn't have bothered with S3 if not for Red Hood. He's still one of my favorite characters, and I'll sit through any amount of edgy drama to see his first live adaptation. The look isn't bad for TV, although I miss the way Jason didn't use flashy gadgets but mostly street level gear. His motivations however are a problem for me, they differ very much from the original. Another complaint is that the show is Batman. For fuck's sake, the show is already basically all about the Batfamily and not the Titans, so why'd they go and cast an old man for Bruce? He's a solid Bruce Wayne, but not showing actual Batman is getting kinda stupid. Really takes you out of it.
I sat through 3 episodes because I was stuck in bed all day, not sure if I'll bother for the rest of the season.
I wouldn't have bothered with S3 if not for Red Hood. He's still one of my favorite characters, and I'll sit through any amount of edgy drama to see his first live adaptation. The look isn't bad for TV, although I miss the way Jason didn't use flashy gadgets but mostly street level gear. His motivations however are a problem for me, they differ very much from the original. Another complaint is that the show is Batman. For fuck's sake, the show is already basically all about the Batfamily and not the Titans, so why'd they go and cast an old man for Bruce? He's a solid Bruce Wayne, but not showing actual Batman is getting kinda stupid. Really takes you out of it.
I sat through 3 episodes because I was stuck in bed all day, not sure if I'll bother for the rest of the season.
Bo Burnham: Inside (Netflix)
This is a one-off that mostly consists of comedy songs interspersed with sort of stand-up by Bo Burnham all set in one room, which I think he did entirely by himself - no other cast or crew - during lockdown. I am usually a little wary of comedy songs, but this I thought was really good. It's the first time I've encountered Bo Burnham (unless you count not realising he wrote and directed Eighth Grade or that he played a main character in Promising Young Woman), and I was impressed. It's not only very funny, but it's been very well designed, set up and filmed to be much more effective and creative than you might think. I particularly liked the viciously sarcastic one-minute hagiography of Jeff Bezos, and the brutal takedown of Instagram influencers. Superb.
This is a one-off that mostly consists of comedy songs interspersed with sort of stand-up by Bo Burnham all set in one room, which I think he did entirely by himself - no other cast or crew - during lockdown. I am usually a little wary of comedy songs, but this I thought was really good. It's the first time I've encountered Bo Burnham (unless you count not realising he wrote and directed Eighth Grade or that he played a main character in Promising Young Woman), and I was impressed. It's not only very funny, but it's been very well designed, set up and filmed to be much more effective and creative than you might think. I particularly liked the viciously sarcastic one-minute hagiography of Jeff Bezos, and the brutal takedown of Instagram influencers. Superb.
Two things.
The Terror:
Nice horrifying atmosphere and setting that really did give an idea of dread and a nice setup. The issue with the show is the main monster / antagonist is a giant CGI polar bear which looks awful, like the His Dark Materials polar bears looked better over a year ago. It gets better when the production team suddenly seem to realise "Hey maybe we shouldn't show the monster like full on in plain view all the time" and it does seem like more of a legitimate threat.
Very much not a happy show but one somewhat about the strength of the human spirit and the darkness that can lurk and take over it with just enough of a push.
The Watch:
An adaptation of Terry Pratchett's City Watch series and by adaptation I mean well here's the trailer
So yeh some liberties were taken such as Cheerie no longer being a Dwarf and Agua being the shortest person on The Watch. It's very much an adaptation and it's fine enough but I really don't know who it was for as more hardcore Pratchett fans will not be too happy with the changes but also I don't think it's going to attract people who aren't at least vaguely interested in his work.
The Terror:
Nice horrifying atmosphere and setting that really did give an idea of dread and a nice setup. The issue with the show is the main monster / antagonist is a giant CGI polar bear which looks awful, like the His Dark Materials polar bears looked better over a year ago. It gets better when the production team suddenly seem to realise "Hey maybe we shouldn't show the monster like full on in plain view all the time" and it does seem like more of a legitimate threat.
Very much not a happy show but one somewhat about the strength of the human spirit and the darkness that can lurk and take over it with just enough of a push.
The Watch:
An adaptation of Terry Pratchett's City Watch series and by adaptation I mean well here's the trailer
So yeh some liberties were taken such as Cheerie no longer being a Dwarf and Agua being the shortest person on The Watch. It's very much an adaptation and it's fine enough but I really don't know who it was for as more hardcore Pratchett fans will not be too happy with the changes but also I don't think it's going to attract people who aren't at least vaguely interested in his work.
Nine Perfect Strangers: WTF / Great
Nine strangers, well one family of three, a married couple, and four other people who don't know each other attend what they think to be a wellness spa hosted by Nicole Kidman expecting a relaxing 10-day getaway which immediately turns out to be clear invasion of intimacy and a 10-day exercise in self-improvement through mental pain and suffering.
2 episodes in; it's interesting how they mask how little happens in each 45-minute episode with intrigue and promise of things to come (think Lost in it's infancy before it went all bat-shit off the rails.) It's not a bad thing; certainly keeps one watching. I'd say more, but there's really not much more to say. It's got a lot of familiar faces though their names escape me, so there's no shortage of recognizable talent. Will keep watching; it's a new show, so we'll see how it pans out, but if I don't start seeing some threads come together, I'm perfectly willing to back off...
Nine strangers, well one family of three, a married couple, and four other people who don't know each other attend what they think to be a wellness spa hosted by Nicole Kidman expecting a relaxing 10-day getaway which immediately turns out to be clear invasion of intimacy and a 10-day exercise in self-improvement through mental pain and suffering.
2 episodes in; it's interesting how they mask how little happens in each 45-minute episode with intrigue and promise of things to come (think Lost in it's infancy before it went all bat-shit off the rails.) It's not a bad thing; certainly keeps one watching. I'd say more, but there's really not much more to say. It's got a lot of familiar faces though their names escape me, so there's no shortage of recognizable talent. Will keep watching; it's a new show, so we'll see how it pans out, but if I don't start seeing some threads come together, I'm perfectly willing to back off...
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Luther: Seasons 4-5: 
/ Great
British cop John Luther (Idris Elba) is a cop that does a lot of wrong things for the right reasons; justice isn't always neat, tidy or pretty, and no one knows it more than he does. He's basically a borderline vigilante collecting a cop's salary. It's a really great series that I highly recommend to anyone who likes crime drama as it has no shortage of either of those descriptors. Well acted, disturbing at times, intense ALL the time. I stopped watching after season 3 a few years ago because I'd thought it'd ended. Didn't realize they dropped another two seasons until last week. Me and gf (whom I'd spent 5 years trying to convince to watch the show) binged the entire series in a week.
Seasons 4 and 5 ramped everything up to 11. Needless to say, Luther is a guy with a LOT of balls in the air: chasing criminals, juggling lies, deception, dodging bullets, taking punches, negotiating with criminals, often all at the same time; needless to say, he's the poster child for a "stressful life." It ended the only way it could have. I can't help but feel the entire show is almost a biblical allegory. All around must-watch.
/ GreatBritish cop John Luther (Idris Elba) is a cop that does a lot of wrong things for the right reasons; justice isn't always neat, tidy or pretty, and no one knows it more than he does. He's basically a borderline vigilante collecting a cop's salary. It's a really great series that I highly recommend to anyone who likes crime drama as it has no shortage of either of those descriptors. Well acted, disturbing at times, intense ALL the time. I stopped watching after season 3 a few years ago because I'd thought it'd ended. Didn't realize they dropped another two seasons until last week. Me and gf (whom I'd spent 5 years trying to convince to watch the show) binged the entire series in a week.
Seasons 4 and 5 ramped everything up to 11. Needless to say, Luther is a guy with a LOT of balls in the air: chasing criminals, juggling lies, deception, dodging bullets, taking punches, negotiating with criminals, often all at the same time; needless to say, he's the poster child for a "stressful life." It ended the only way it could have. I can't help but feel the entire show is almost a biblical allegory. All around must-watch.
Thank you. I don't care much for Black Nerd's content, but his views more or less match up with mine in this video.
Kid Icarus Anime (2/5)
This seems almost unfair to evaluate by itself, but I've evaluated the STH shorts by themselves, so why not this one? Well, there's three shorts. One of them has Pit dealing with Medusa (sort of), one deals with Palutena and Skyworld dealing with an army of sentient vegetables, and one has Pit dealing with a clown that's apparently Thanatos. As in, the god of death...who's a clown...
I only enjoyed one of these shorts. You can probably guess which one.
Mighty Max: Season 2 (3/5)
There's not really anything to say about this season that I didn't for season 1. It's more of the same, and...yeah. The only thing I can really comment on is the season finale, where both Norman and Virgil are killed (did I mention that this series really isn't a afraid of people dying? Like, not graphically, but it makes no qualms that the redshirts in episode intros are dead), Skull Master is about to win, only Max messes things up at the last moment, and we reset the clock to episode 1, season 1, with Max being aware of the now negated timeline, and Virgil apparently aware as well (or was always aware that this was going to happen). Um, okay...and? It's such a strange way to end the series, and if anything needlessly complicated. If the implication is that this time around, Max knows what will happen and can stop it, then show it, maybe? Or if not, just have him win conventionally at the end.
So, yeah. Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing this brought back and given the 21st century treatment of better writing, and fleshing out more characters (cough*Bea*cough*Felix) but as is, it's...meh. It's a cartoon lost to the 90s, and I can see why.
This seems almost unfair to evaluate by itself, but I've evaluated the STH shorts by themselves, so why not this one? Well, there's three shorts. One of them has Pit dealing with Medusa (sort of), one deals with Palutena and Skyworld dealing with an army of sentient vegetables, and one has Pit dealing with a clown that's apparently Thanatos. As in, the god of death...who's a clown...
I only enjoyed one of these shorts. You can probably guess which one.
Mighty Max: Season 2 (3/5)
There's not really anything to say about this season that I didn't for season 1. It's more of the same, and...yeah. The only thing I can really comment on is the season finale, where both Norman and Virgil are killed (did I mention that this series really isn't a afraid of people dying? Like, not graphically, but it makes no qualms that the redshirts in episode intros are dead), Skull Master is about to win, only Max messes things up at the last moment, and we reset the clock to episode 1, season 1, with Max being aware of the now negated timeline, and Virgil apparently aware as well (or was always aware that this was going to happen). Um, okay...and? It's such a strange way to end the series, and if anything needlessly complicated. If the implication is that this time around, Max knows what will happen and can stop it, then show it, maybe? Or if not, just have him win conventionally at the end.
So, yeah. Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing this brought back and given the 21st century treatment of better writing, and fleshing out more characters (cough*Bea*cough*Felix) but as is, it's...meh. It's a cartoon lost to the 90s, and I can see why.
Season 2 of Modern Love dropped on Amazon Prime. I greatly enjoyed Season 1, particularly the episode with Ann Hathaway. This season does not have a single episode that was as good as that and the IMDB scores went down this Season relative to last. Even so, on the whole, I put it on par with Season 1. Nice, breezy 8 episode anthology of different stories, my favorite of which was episode 6. The kid from Tron Legacy has grown up and I greatly enjoyed his performance.
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