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

[Johnny Novgorod]

16/Black Dog Serenade
The second Jet episode, good but not as good. Con Air But In Space should be a winning combo but the episode doesn't do much with that. It's nice enough that Jet gets more attention and gets to be a part of the action and all but it just doesn't have the emotional grip of Ganymede Elegy. First because it's super obvious what went down exactly that fateful night Jet lost his arm, so the twist doesn't do anything for me. Second and most importantly, Jet is robbed from making the character-defining decision the whole episode has been building towards. First when Fad shoots Udai, then when Fad tricks Jet into shooting him. This is all pretty anticlimactic. Imagine if Ganymede Elegy ended with his ex and her lover simply running into the police instead of letting Jet act out a crucial choice, even if it boils down to letting go. Nevertheless it goes to show once more that Jet is capable of closure, unlike Spike. And Spike's barely in the episode for once. This is probably the least Spike in all the series. He appears exactly in once scene, 13 minutes in and past the eyecatch.

17/Mushroom Samba
The trope namer. The Bebop crashlands in a wasteland (not sure where) and Ed and Ein go looking for food. The big conceit of the episode is that Ed goes bounty-hunting for once while everybody else stays behind tripping balls from hallucinogenic shrooms. It's a very funny episode and the only one to be outright comedic I think (Cowboy Funk, also very funny, works a bit more like the norm). Ed and Ein are a great comedy act.

Something I never quite understood about the ending. Domino gives Ed his bag of special shrooms (worth 100,000 each he says) but when a cop analyzes one of them he clears it as a regular shiitake mushroom. Meaning the Bebop are left eating shrooms for days. So was Domino doing his big escape with a bag full of regular mushrooms? Did he switch them with another bag when he gave them to Ed? And if the cop clears them, why does Ein have a reaction like he just ingested a 'special' mushroom again at the end (like he did earlier)?

18/Speak Like a Child
Faye-centric episode, although she doesn't do much in it. Actually nothing much happens in this one. The Bebop gets an old videocassette in the mail so Spike and Jet go spelunking for a video player deep in the ruins of Earth. The joke is they get a VHS machine instead of a Betamax player, so all that effort is for naught. The double irony is they get a Betamax player in the mail later, so they didn't even have to go to the trouble in the first place (that's the ironic intent anyway; they do get something useful out of the trip - an old CRTV where they can watch the tape).

Again, Faye herself isn't much involved in uncovering her past (maybe there's a point in that) and mostly stays away from the Bebop, afraid any debt-collectors might come knocking. In the end the tape is a home video she made as a time capsule for herself. It's a great sequence: everyone watches in silence. It's already emotional to receive a message from your kid self, probably remembering simpler and happier times while reflecting on who you are now. And maybe that's affecting Faye a little bit as she watches, but the main gut punch is she literally can't even recognize herself anymore because of the amnesia.

 

[laggyteabag]

I just watched the last episode of the Book of Boba Fett, and yeah, the show was a complete failure of its premise.

This is The Book of Boba Fett, ie, a show about Boba Fett, but he was only the main character for the first half of the season. Episodes 5 & 6 were effectively The Mandalorian Season 2.5, and even when the final episode returned to Boba, it didn't even feel like he was the main character.

Boba just got completely sidelined and shown-up in his own show.

And as @Bob_McMillan points out, the show takes a nosedive in terms of quality as soon as Boba Fett comes back in the last episode, despite the Mandalorian and Grogu also being there. Boba Fett isn't a bad character, and he isn't poorly portrayed (because I liked the episodes that featured Boba in The Mandalorian Season 2), but I think it is because I am just so uninterested in the story that this show has been trying to tell.

I just didn't really want this premise from this show. I loved the idea of Boba Fett going back to Tatooine to take Jabba's palace for himself, but I wanted him to be ruthless. I wanted him to be intimidating. I wanted him to stomp on some necks. I wanted him to only look out for himself, and the friends he respected.

What we got was this weird, spiritual, soul-searching experience with the Tuskens, and him trying to become a legitimately good leader for a random town full of people. And even when he was trying to be intimidating, he was running around with a bunch of teenagers on rainbow scooters, letting people talk down to him. It just made him look like a bit of an idiot/joke.

Honestly, Cad Bane had more of a presence in his 15 minutes of screentime, than Boba Fett had over the course of 5 episodes. Its a crying shame that they immediately killed him off. He definitely should have been there since the first episode, serving as the primary antagonist.

At the end of the day, I will definitely be revisiting the last 3 episodes (as an effective extension of The Mandalorian Season 2), but I see no reason to bother rewatching the first 4 episodes again.

 

[Dalisclock]

I finished episode 5 of The Book of Boba Fett and came out of it thinking "Man, that was a good Episode of the Mandalorian". Then I remembered I was watching Boba Fett's show and I think that's kind of a problem. Granted, the show has been getting better as it goes along but I enjoyed Mando for an episode a lot more then the last 4 episodes of Boba and Fennec and that's honestly a shame because I want to like this show. I really do but for whatever reason the Boba parts have yet to actually take off and the Mando episode is running smoothly on all cylinders.

It's ironic Boba is the crime lord here because Mando has already stolen the show from him in a quarter of the time. Maybe Boba was never that interesting a character(Hell, he barely was a character until pretty recently) whereas Mando has had about 2 seasons to develop and didn't have the weird cult following Boba always seemed to have despite his lack of....well, anything. And I don't mind Boba or Fennec, but it seemed like they work better as side characters in Mandos story rather then main characters in their own. I don't know if it's strictly a wrting problem, a directorial problem, both or the fact Boba has spend decades as "That guy with the cool armor" and now when it's time to explore that dude there's not really much there.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Its a crying shame that they immediately killed him off.

Yeah, like Boba Fett.

 

[gorfias]

Honestly, Cad Bane had more of a presence in his 15 minutes of screentime, than Boba Fett had over the course of 5 episodes.

Yeah, like Boba Fett.

Spoiler

And Timothy Oliphant's character Cobb Vanth.

Doomcock on youtube ask rhetorically how they can get people to think there are any stakes in any of this.
BTW: Cad Bane is voiced by the guy that did Hugo Strange in Batman Arkham City.
ITMT: Finished Season 1 of "The Righteous Gemstones" on HBOMAX.
A couple of really good laughs and a surprisingly touching episode.
Of course, in real life,

Spoiler

Brother Billy and his wife would be in a heck of a lot of trouble. If for nothing else, leaving the scene of a serious car accident. Then tampering with the scene and more. But the thing is a comedy. That appears to think men's penises are hilarious.

Still, some good laughs.

 

[Dalisclock]

Finished Boba Fett episode 6 and yeah, my thoughts on the show stands. It feels like the writers really don't know what to do with Boba so they're giving us stuff they know we like "Hey, we know you like Mando AND Luke and Ashoka! Here they are! LIKE OUR SHOW!"

I hate to use the word pandering but this feels like pandering. Which is sad because even Luke doing Jedi training with Baby Yoda was more interesting then most of Boba's shinganians and I'm not even into the jedi stuff. Ashoka felt like a cameo though, reminding us that she's got her own show coming up that will likely lead into the Thawn movies a lot of us suspect are coming. I have to wonder if Ashoka ever mentioned to Luke "So, Luke, did you know your dad trained me and I was one of the last people to see him before he killed a bunch of children? And then later he almost killed me but some timey whimey stuff happened so I'm alive now? Yep, kinda awkward"

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Alex Rider Season 2 episode 1

(IMDB Free)

Rating: Hard to tell so far but it's shot better but somehow doubling down on some of the stupid from season 1

Ok so this is Sony pictures doing an adaptation of the Alex Rider books for Amazon and because the first season was apparently a failure the series has been kicked off Amazon Prime and now being used as one of the new exclusive series to try and promote Amazon's other streaming service IMDB free which is a free streaming service.

How bad were the mis-steps of season 1? In an attempt to appear more diverse and progressive it ended up making a black woman Nazi character and having a racist henchwoman not defeated by a black male character but instead die in a gas explosion while switching the races of Alex's Nanny and highly competent Intelligence service handler such that the black character was now his nanny.

So what has season 2 brought?
Well they're apparently choosing to adapt Eagle Strike the 4th novel skipping over the 3rd novel for some reason (possibly due to the mention of the Chinese Triad in the novel) despite the fact Season 1 started on the 2nd novel because the 1st novel was already adapted into a film which didn't do that well. This already means they've had to change a few aspects to introduce secondary characters that appear in the 3rd novel into it now.

Jack (Alex's Nanny and legal Guardian) is now an intern at a lawyers office. The Lawyers agency is apparently all POC and they are focussing on racial equality cases with Jack working on right to remain cases (relating to the somewhat recent British Windrush issues of missing documents etc etc) because of course why would Jack now a black woman work at a laywers office which isn't entirely black or be taking on cases not linked rather heavily to race eh?

Oh and Sabina Pleasure who is Alex's love interest is a now an girl of Indian heritage, she also doesn't save his life like happens in the books. Probably not the best idea to decide that the flirtatious female character who in the novels is described as "shown to be very sexual for her age and extremely lustful....." in the novels should be a made into a POC because well the whole exotic beauty trope is a bit problematic or so I've been told but hey this is the show that previously thought it would be fine to have a black woman Nazi as a character so I'm not shocked at it falling into another problematic pitfall while trying to diversify characters.

 

[gorfias]

My Disney + lapsed just before the last Book of Boba Fett episode but I am not renewing it. I did see the Luke training Groku scene and it pointed out for me a flaw so serious they need to reboot the Star Wars Universe to ever get me interested again.

Yes, in the OG conception, Jedi trained a lot, like Samuri and medieval knights. And Harry Potter. And Luke trained to be somewhat dispassionate by Return of the Jedi. I wasn't a huge fan of that take. I'd want him to be more like, say, Gandalf. Serious, trained, powerful but human and very capable of mirth.

The training scene with Groku felt like I was watching Mr. Spock on heavy sedation. Not even Yoda himself acted that way, including after he stopped pretending to be a mad swamp creature Empire Strikes Back. Luke is not acting like the warrior philospher space cowboy he should be.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

The training scene with Groku felt like I was watching Mr. Spock on heavy sedation. Not even Yoda himself acted that way, including after he stopped pretending to be a mad swamp creature Empire Strikes Back. Luke is not acting like the warrior philospher space cowboy he should be.

Well, he is supposed to fuck up big time in about 20 years. But I think it was mostly due to how they did his voice, they used some technology that I assume only allows for monotone, deadpan voicelines.

OT: So I just learned that majority of The Book of Boba Fett was directed by the guy who created and directed the Spy Kids movies. Why. WHY??? So many directors would kill for the chance to contribute to this universe, but bar the Mando episodes, they gave it all to this dude and a few other nobodies.

 

[Dalisclock]

Well, he is supposed to fuck up big time in about 20 years. But I think it was mostly due to how they did his voice, they used some technology that I assume only allows for monotone, deadpan voicelines.

OT: So I just learned that majority of The Book of Boba Fett was directed by the guy who created and directed the Spy Kids movies. Why. WHY??? So many directors would kill for the chance to contribute to this universe, but bar the Mando episodes, they gave it all to this dude and a few other nobodies.

Honestly, they need to just recast young luke if they're gonna keep doing this. Mark Hamil is way too old to be playing himself 40 years younger at this point. Solo had a pretty good recast for young han(even if the movie itself wasn't great) so just get someone else to play luke so we don't have to do the deaging thing.

Also, I do question how Luke is really a Jedi Master. He trained with yoda for like a week? a couple months? A year? The prequels imply it takes decades to be considered a Knight or a Master but Luke pretty much got a little bit of training with Obi wan and yoda. But then he founds an academy to rebuild the Jedi order from scratch and....oh, wait, we know how this ends. Nevermind.

He just got daddy's special force genes which makes him powerful but with minimal training to use it or teach it.

 

[Gordon_4]

I started watching a Korean show called 'Taxi Driver' on Netflix. The premise is that the founder of a support group for victims of crime in Seoul is also running an (obviously) off the books revenge for hire service comprised of ex-special forces and intelligence services people who basically enact vigilante justice at the behest of victims who received no justice from the system, or had it curtailed - the opening episode shows the team kidnapping and executing a man who was found guilty of rape of a minor and manslaughter after he was released after ten years of a life sentence due to an appeal - and the episode plot proper involves them going into bat for an intellectually disabled young woman who was abused at her factory job after she aged out of her orphanage.

According to wikipedia, the sorts of abuses displayed in the show are ones that are distressingly common in South Korea but tend to go inadequately answered. Most interesting thing so far are some little cultural tidbits. For example, Maria (aforementioned intellectually disabled woman) finds out about the service because the Taxi guys put advertising stickers on the bottom rail of a bridge that you can basically only see if you climb over the guard to attempt suicide, and the guard itself seems to have phrases like 'You are needed' and 'You are loved' written on it at about eye height every couple of meters.


I don't think the show is going to be ground breaking so much, but its often said art is a reflection on the culture that produces it so if nothing else, I may gain a very small and skewered insight into the ground level cultural thinking of South Korea.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Honestly, they need to just recast young luke if they're gonna keep doing this. Mark Hamil is way too old to be playing himself 40 years younger at this point. Solo had a pretty good recast for young han(even if the movie itself wasn't great) so just get someone else to play luke so we don't have to do the deaging thing.

Also, I do question how Luke is really a Jedi Master. He trained with yoda for like a week? a couple months? A year? The prequels imply it takes decades to be considered a Knight or a Master but Luke pretty much got a little bit of training with Obi wan and yoda. But then he founds an academy to rebuild the Jedi order from scratch and....oh, wait, we know how this ends. Nevermind.

He just got daddy's special force genes which makes him powerful but with minimal training to use it or teach it.

When I got spoiled that Luke would be in the show, I was actually expecting him to be played by Sebastian Stan or something. You're right, it's entirely unsustainable to keep deepfaking him up.

Anyway, in the EU Luke spends a lot more time studying and researching the Jedi both before and after Return of the Jedi. Goes through a lot more trials and hardship too. I guess we're just supposed to assume he did the same thing, except The Last Jedi would have us believe that Luke sought out exactly three Jedi texts and never actually read them.

 

[Gordon_4]

When I got spoiled that Luke would be in the show, I was actually expecting him to be played by Sebastian Stan or something. You're right, it's entirely unsustainable to keep deepfaking him up.

Anyway, in the EU Luke spends a lot more time studying and researching the Jedi both before and after Return of the Jedi. Goes through a lot more trials and hardship too. I guess we're just supposed to assume he did the same thing, except The Last Jedi would have us believe that Luke sought out exactly three Jedi texts and never actually read them.

Remaking the Jedi Order at all was a mistake.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Remaking the Jedi Order at all was a mistake.

That's true. I was really hoping the LAST Jedi would mean Luke realizing that the Jedi were flawed, something shown in the prequels and a little in the original trilogy, and Rey would be the first of new Jedi, or whatever they could have been called. But nope, Rey is the last Jedi because Luke dies and nothing more.

Which doesn't even make sense, because there was Leia still around. Unless she's not a Jedi, because a Jedi is a way of life or some shit? But then Rey doesn't exactly practice that way of life does she? She's just someone who uses the Force and a lightsaber. I could go on and on, but TLDR fuck the sequels.

 

[thebobmaster]

Finished Book of Boba Fett. I didn't hate it, but it was a significant step below The Mandalorian. I liked the idea of Boba Fett trying to redeem himself, turn over a new leaf and all that after his near-death experience and time with the Tusken Raiders, but too much of the show felt like Fennec telling him "You need to do something" and him saying "I know". The ending was decent, but the main issue I had with that is that Boba Fett almost because a secondary character in his own show, what with Din Jardin, Black Krrsyntan (or however the fuck it's spelled), and the rancor all taking more of the spotlight from him, outside the stuff with Cad Bane, which I thought was pretty good on a character level, albeit disappointing in how it ended the tenure of Cad Bane.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

19/Wild Horses
I always rate this episode as one of Cowboy Bebop's lowest, even though every time I rewatch it I don't find anything I particularly dislike about it. It just feels like a coffee break episode (there's even a literal coffee break scene in it, hence the reflection). It's nice enough but nothing too interesting or too exciting happens in it. A lot of it plays out like Heavy Metal Queen: focus on a guest character, Spike and Faye aggravate Jet with gung-ho mode, bounty accidentally kills himself, third act becomes about surviving a situational disaster. Feels like a retread. Even the music is used repetitvely. I can't say I hate Doohan but he seems underused in an episode that appears to center on his relationship with Spike. It's the only backstory we get about him that doesn't involve the Red Dragon Syndicate, that he was mentored in all things spaceships by this guy, but they barely interact in the episode and we don't learn much about either of them for it. It's good enough I guess but nothing memorable about it.

20/Pierrot Le Fou
It's a great episode and I think a lot of people's favorite. It features some of the best action and animation in the show, great visuals, a fantastic and chilling music video-esque sequence, a memorable bounty, and the finest horror set-piece next to Toys in the Attic. The bulk of it is basically a prolongued duel between Spike and Mad Pierrot, with a side story involving Jet and Ed unearthing Pierrot's backstory with scenes alternating betwen funny and ominous. My one criticism is that none of this affects the main plot, so it exists purely for (we) the spectators' amusement - Spike himself never needs nor uses any of it. And even though this is basically just a fighty episode I like both the callbacks to Ballad as well as the foreshadowing of the series' finale. Both here and in Wild Horses Spike appears to be embracing his more self-destructive side (he basically gives up in Wild Horses with "Whatever happens, happens", and here he muses that "This might be what does [him] in"). And Pierrot is the first and I believe only opponent to ever best Spike in hand to hand combat, which is a hell of sight to see. Especially when Spike looks terrified of the guy.

 

[Agema]

Reacher (Amazon Prime)

I... reallly quite enjoyed this. Surely pretty much everyone has heard of Lee Child's megahit book series (plus maybe the so-so Tom Cruise movies adaptations). But on the chance you haven't, Jack Reacher is, like The A-Team, a virtually untraceable, ex-military, private investigator wandering the USA solving crimes and taking down evildoers. Unlike the A-Team, he is shockingly violent: a 6'5" hulk of destruction. Despite his awesomely thuggish brutality, Reacher is highly intelligent, knowledgeable and intuitive with a deep moral streak - perhaps a sort of "enlightened barbarian". In a sense, he is deeply implausible as a character, but maybe that's half the fun. It is of course rampantly absurd: there's simply no way Reacher could leave such a vast trail of bodies behind him without kicking off a massive investigation, even if they are criminals. But then, isn't that half the fun, too? This kicks the film adaptations into the ditch: although competent enough, I don't think Cruise was ever going to compromise his star power charisma into the slightly odd character of Reacher.

Reacher is played very effectively by Alan Ritchson - most of the time very blankly impassive, except where he needs not to be and the emotion spills through, and he certainly has the physique. I don't think he's the full, massive 6'5" of the book Jack Reacher - he doesn't seem to quite have that scale - but he is still properly BIG, and certainly I can't help but feel a lot of the hoodlums he encounters should be a lot more scared to mess with him than they seem. The supporting cast likewise do a fine job, as they merrily tear through a plot that is a little unrealistic, albeit well within TV/film unrealistic norms, at a good pace.

So, nice work, looking forward to season 2.

 

[gorfias]

Reacher (Amazon Prime)

Reacher is played very effectively by Alan Ritchson - most of the time very blankly impassive, except where he needs not to be and the emotion spills through, and he certainly has the physique. I don't think he's the full, massive 6'5" of the book Jack Reacher - he doesn't seem to quite have that scale - but he is still properly BIG

Doh! He's 6'2".

He has grown some since playing Aquaman in Smallville



Lot of fun. Has it's TV issues

Spoiler

the bad guys monologue in the opening of episode 8 spilling a ridiculous amount

but he still does a lot of smart things which is fun. Nice to have the guy do foot work that matters, take chances, figure other stuff out.

 

[Bartholen]

Binged the first 9 episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon with a couple of friends. Worth the 3-year wait (and the triple digits I backed the Kickstarter with). I can only give the perspective of a fan who's watched both campaigns 1 and 2 and is catching up on 3. I have no idea how this show comes across to people unfamiliar with the brand. As far as Kickstarter-originated procucts go, this sets the bar so insanely high that it's plain unfair.

For the uninitiated, this is an animated series based on the colossally popular DnD streaming show Critical Role's first campaign. They made a Kickstarter in 2019 aiming for $800k and a 20-minute animated special. After breaking just about every entertainment Kickstarter record ever, they were picked up by Amazon for a full series with multiple seasons.

Disappointingly generic title aside, this feels genuinely like an entirely uncompromised vision. And it damn well ought to be, considering it's without exaggeration unlike anything that's ever been produced. Not necessarily in the product itself, but in the way how it's been created and produced in full cooperation with the original creators. Edit: Not that that in itself means something is going to be good (looking ar you JK Rowling), but when the original creators are all industry professionals in multiple fields with over 50 years of combined work experience on their belts, I had little doubt that this was ever going to be anything but good. Everything feels exactly as it should be: the characters, the tone, the story, the action, the script, it's all 100% faithful and representative of the campaign it's based on. The changes they've made really help with the pacing and create some truly thrilling scenes. It also helps that they're adapting the #1 fan favorite part of the original campaign, which means it's more in the realm of fantasy horror. It feels closer to Berserk or the Netflix Castlevania than yet another LOTR wannabe. And it's fantastic.

I had some slight worries beforehand, but due to deliberately avoiding clips on Youtube those were quickly assuaged. The animation looks fucking great, even the teeeeeensy bit jarring CGI creatures, but nothing's perfect. I knew the show was going to be violent, but it genuinely surprised me how hard it really goes, sometimes bordering on Invincible levels. The one tiny complaint I may have is that the first couple of episodes can at times feel like they're pushing the "fantasy for grownups" angle a bit too hard. And I know, it's based on (and recreating) the typical fuckings around of your usual DnD group, but the tone settles way down in that department from episode 3 onwards, so I can understand how it could put some people off. But trust me, if you've been hoping for a good adult-aimed animated show to compliment Invincible and Arcane, this can stand right alongside them. 9/10 for now, can't wait for the final 3 episodes.

Reacher (Amazon Prime)

I haven't watched this but have heard good things elsewhere as well. The one thing I want to say is the trailers Twitch keeps bombarding me with are awful. I was genuinely astounded by them, because they make the series look like someone spent decades trying to scientifically distil and calculate the perfect essence of generic, and made that into a show. Maybe I'll give it a look... likely at least 3 months from now.

 

[BrawlMan]

I finished Wu Assassins. Good show; great action. 10 episodes was just the right amount. The sequel, Fistful of Vengeance, comes out next week on Thursday as a full movie. Obviously, the sequel is looking bigger and better. The one flaw with the show, is that it has some dodgy and obvious CGI, but I find it charming. Reminds me the days of martial arts shows in the 90s like WMAC Masters and Power Rangers. Good times.