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

[Casual Shinji]

Watching more of Our Flag Means Death and Taika Waititi must really have some pull in Hollywood, because this show has money on screen. You wouldn't think a comedy show about gay pirates has more visual oompf than the many Marvel and Star Wars shows from Disney, which look like washed-out newspaper by comparison.

 

[Agema]

Taika Waititi must really have some pull in Hollywood,

He's directed a genuine blockbuster (and managed to put some character in it, unlike most of the blandly slick MCU films), has another one in the works, and a couple of highly critically acclaimed films under his belt. His stock should be high.

I figure he's in the higher end of talent out there, so I would not at all be surprised if he made something a damn sight more interesting than the formulaic IP flogging projects of major studios.

 

[BrawlMan]

Honestly, I don't know why anyone bothers with Star Wars at this point. Aside from Visions, I still have no interest in the spinoff materials.

 

[Piscian]

Stranger Things Season 4 part 1

I wasn't in a rush to see this. I'm not sure I even cared going in. I had to watch the Season 3 recap because I honestly couldn't remember anything about it other than Steve works in the mall, something russians and the most annoying kid in the world filling up way too much screen time. I think my biggest concern is the Star Wars effect that stranger things has gone through where its become more than a show and more like a piece of merchandise than no one can seem to stfu about, to the point where I just didn't want to hear about it anymore. The fact that the Stranger things kid was in GhostBusters: Afterlife became a bigger deal than the movie itself.

All that said I buckled in and came out pleasantly surprised and excited to see the second half, and afaik, the ending of the series. This one sees yet another gate and more murders, which comes off initially as a bit tired, but as one witness states this time its something different. This time around the show is written in homage to Nightmare on Elm Street, even going as far as to have Robert Englund in a minor supporting role. They seemed to have learned their lesson this time around, because there's no slwo burn kid mystery crap. Every scene is impactful and leading up to something. There's no scenes strictly dedicated faffing about. This was a boon because, honestly, I do not like or care about any of these characters. Not even Eleven at this point.

In that context the show still makes some minor mistakes. The most glaring is a subplot about Steve and whatever her name is potentially getting back together with a near constant sexual tension between them whenever they share screen time. The final season is the worse time to rehash this. The kid with the overbite whos like the series annoying mascot with the failed prank TV show. He's front and center, he's now the courageous "get it done" guy and might as well be the main character. If the show spent any actual non-ensemble moments with him I dont think I could stand it. The show wants him to be Paul shore, I don't like Pauly shore. The annoying sassy tween black girl is still in the show. Thankfully she has less than 3 scenes of any dialog at all. The show doesn't seem ready to let her go despite being very informed about what audiences thought of her.

As far as the plot goes, this first half appears to be STs Empire Strikes Back. I've forgotten so much about this show that I'm not sure if it works, but they decided to tied everything together all the way back to the first episode so instead of this being a series of things that happened, its all one cohesive story. I dug it, but your mileage may vary. Overall..mm solid 7.5-8/10 if you liked the first couple seasons of stranger things. Still nothing to write home about, but miles above season 3. If you never liked the 80s teen comedy/scifi aspect of the series this seasons not going to change your mind. Derpy teenagers going through re-enactments of 70-80s movies we liked and this time it's gruesome and written as a horror.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Always the same in those sorts of thing, the regular authorities have to be useless or superheroes are a bit redundant or you need to put effort into your writing.

But there's useless and there's useless. Like in old Dr Who, where it has to be established in every story that the alien menace is more or less immune to modern weapons, cause otherwise it ends badly for the invaders, because obviously.

They did do a few in Doctor Who where the enemies weren't immune but they had to come up with other reasons Unit couldn't just go in and kill them all (or at least couldn't initially) except oddly the Cybermen who apparently were super vulnerable to gold tipped arrows.

 

[Thaluikhain]

They did do a few in Doctor Who where the enemies weren't immune but they had to come up with other reasons Unit couldn't just go in and kill them all (or at least couldn't initially) except oddly the Cybermen who apparently were super vulnerable to gold tipped arrows.

Only in The Silver Nemesis, by far the worst 7th Doctor story, though. Bleh.

And yeah, the odd UNIT story where they had some other reason why they couldn't just kill them all, but they'd always give a reason because you really have to. Mind you, the 3rd Dr (and others) kept letting the Master get away.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Only in The Silver Nemesis, by far the worst 7th Doctor story, though. Bleh.

And yeah, the odd UNIT story where they had some other reason why they couldn't just kill them all, but they'd always give a reason because you really have to. Mind you, the 3rd Dr (and others) kept letting the Master get away.

I mean they did pull it off with the Silurians where Unit couldn't kill them because they released a killer virus and so they had to keep them alive until it could be stopped as only they could provide the cure or so it was thought.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Made For Love S2

I didn't like it as much as the original. What I did like is still more or less intact (basically the Hazel, Byron, Herbert trifecta) but right off the bat I think it's a bad idea to sort out the main driving source of conflict in S1 within the first couple of minutes like it's an afterthought. I know it ends up giving way to more conflict but it still feels like an anticlimax on par with Smaug attacking Laketown. Basically what I'm saying is S1 should've ended with the S2 premiere.

As for the rest of the season it felt very scattershot. Way too many characters and subplots that don't end up having any impact on the story, some of which are dropped unresolved before the ending two-parter. Too many scenes with the two clowns in "the pasture". The nun with her dead-end sidequest. Byron's SPOILER and his other SPOILER. And of course the whole ridiculous subplot that has the show jumping the sha... uh, dolphin.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Watched:

Curfew

Rating: 7/10

Thoughts in a tagline: Edgy but not full on edgelord Wacky Races but made for adults with totally not Zombies™ honest which was doing well until it fluffs the landing.


Full Thoughts :

So basic premise, in an attempt to cure paralysis a UK clinical trial of a potential new treatment happens and goes wrong as while is cure the patient paralysis by restoring the nerves functions and muscles it also turns almost all the patents into violent vicious things that aren't really even human anymore and also lose their skin pigmentation somewhat and protection from sunlight ranging from being sensitive to light to implied full on burning in sunlight due to basically ending up super albino. Containment fails and one of the researchers who has been infected escapes and attacks others spreading the virus via bites and the infection evolves such that people infected fairly quickly transform into the deadly being too call mooks. As the virus began to sweep the country a number of place in the UK such as Manchester and London built walls round the city with checkpoints to try and limit the spread of the virus.

However as more and more measures fail to contain it a final measure is put in place. The curfew. Any-one not authorised by the new military force who is out at night risks arrest. The curfew comes into effect when the sun goes down until the sun comes up the next day with beacons placed round warning of when the next curfew will kick in. Also everyone seals themselves in their homes at night not wanting to venture far if they can help it. with iron grills and shutters to stop mooks attacking the windows and trying o break in.

Add in a wealthy pharmaceuticals with it's own basically private military organisation covering up the origin of the virus (it's not a spoiler they tell you within like 1 episode or less) and you have a future dystopian state UK. However the virus has spread globally by this point it's implied many other countries globally have similar curfews in place.

Cue a Billionaire with a private island free from he infection who plans to build a new world having already acquired some of the best and brightest he's now looking for more people to join his new island with now curfew. How does he select the people? A series of underground illegal long distance races with the winning team being whisked away to and island with freedom from the Mooks and the curfew.

We get a number of different teams each with their own reasons for racing.

(These are the basic nicknames)

The Family car - A family trying to escape the UK due to what their son has found out.

The Ambulance crew - A paramedic in a future world slightly militarised ambulance with her younger sister and her sisters boyfriend whose presently being hunted by the big pharma military guys for initially unexplained reasons.

The mechanic - A mechanic and factory owner who works on cars with her adopted daughter who wants to join her partner who was a well renowned engineer who was given a place on the Island when it was started out to help build the place up and it's infrostructure.

Team Awesome - New social media influencers consisting of an ex civil engineer and two ex psychiatrist who spend their time normally getting drunk & high and doing stupid stunts on social media.

The gangster team - A former military man with a short fuse and rather messed up psychology such that he takes the most benign things as slights and his pregnant girlfriend in their armoured sports car racing to get a better life for them and their child.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Curfew thoughts continued


Themes ideas and discussion:

People talk about the idea of subverting tropes quite often and normally when it's used in these modern times it's actually used to defend some crappy thing done for shock value rather than a clever idea well laid out and done actually properly woven in. So often it feels like it's laughing at the audience.


Or it doesn't get fully executed well enough such that the show feels the need to explain it to the audience (see the last episode of Game of Thrones). So when I saw Curfew subverts expectations for a zombie show I feel I need to be clear and say it subverts the ideas in a way that feels good and to talk more about this I feel I need to go into spoilers:

Spoiler: More general non specific potential spoilers

So the general trope in many Zombie shows and films is "Humans are the real danger and monsters and the zombies aren't the real threat". Curfew absolutely takes this idea and subverts it. The Mooks are shown as dangerous, very dangerous and yes there are human antagonists mostly in the form of the dystopian military but very often the main risk and threat are the mooks.

Another trope is often it's other groups who pose the bigger danger to the protagonists group with them being the ones to attack them or cause trouble. Curfew subverts this to as it's a road race and things go wrong so they're sometimes in the middle of no-where having to try and get help from strangers and the racers put these others at risk.

Spoiler: More specific thematic spoilers and ending spoiler

One of the core things of the show that works really well is it pushing the idea of working together with others. All the racers are competing but it's shown that often those joining forces and working together succeed especially when putting aside their differences and suspicions of their fellow competitors.

It's somewhat disappointing then in this regard that the ending kind of doesn't reflect this with their really only being 1 winning team and no real pay off to this theme / idea ultimately. It's also somewhat inconsistent as sometimes the plot seems to punish other people or even characters for helping others at random points just to shake it up a bit and not have it be predictable which undermines that part of the theme a bit.

I feel it's worth pointing out this is a 2019 series and as such was out before Covid hit and I honestly can't imagine a show like this would be allowed to be made now especially tackling some of the ideas it does about the idea of big pharma conspiracies and fascist government cracksdowns and people just wanting freedom or at least that it would be allowed to exist without massive backlash in this new covid world. I can only imagine if it had come out now we'd be hearing the normal talking heads yelling about how this was sympathising with and pushing "alt-right" talking points and was the reason Trump supporters have done all kinds of bad things. In reality it's not it's just a character study looking at the idea and reason people might join a race with a high mortality rate just at a shot at a bit more freedom and how the loss of some freedoms combined with other things happening can push people over the edge and into taking some more extreme measures.

One of the reasons, other than the ending, I'm giving it a 7 is they really did screw up Sean Bean's character in an annoying way as we get a really good story that really well explains why he's kind of the messed up person he is. Only then the series then later shows us he was already a screwed up person before this and this massive incident that happens wasn't what made him snap. It doesn't work or fit in because part of the character seems to be the idea of him being a sort of fallen legend, a good person gone slightly mad and definitely bad by life and turning to the more dark side criminal stuff but the show kind of undermines this whole thing by having a 2nd part of his backstory be he was already mad and bad but somehow suppressed it enough he was fine in polite fairly high society, it really doesn't fit and would have been better splitting the story among 2 characters instead of putting both backstories on one character.

Overall though it was a fun watch

 

[Casual Shinji]

He's directed a genuine blockbuster (and managed to put some character in it, unlike most of the blandly slick MCU films), has another one in the works, and a couple of highly critically acclaimed films under his belt. His stock should be high.

I figure he's in the higher end of talent out there, so I would not at all be surprised if he made something a damn sight more interesting than the formulaic IP flogging projects of major studios.

I know, but that's no guarantee. I think even Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have trouble getting original IPs off the ground in the current market.

 

[Piscian]

We Own This City

I don't usually watch Cop Dramas but the trailer looked good and its got Jon Bernthal so I figured what the heck....hoo boy. Well fuck. This isn't actually a cop drama. Its a dramatization of a true story and its pretty fucked up. Its about a joint FBI and DOJ investigation into massive and I mean massive corruption in the Baltimore PD. It centers mainly around Wayne Jenkins who was the leader of this task force in Baltimore called The Gun Trace Task Force charged with eliminating guns in Baltimore, but they were essentially given free reign to do whatever they wanted and ran the city like gangsters. Murder, stealing, drugs you name it. Its completely bonkers. If you havent read the whole back story on the downfall of the BPD I'll avoid spoilers but it is absolutely unbelievable if it werent already true. I honestly didnt know it was this bad. The show is amazing like edge of your seat good, but it is depressing as fuck and if you already arent happy with cops right now, its going to make you livid. Since its nonfictional it looks like its just going to be one season its 5 episodes right now and I expect it to close up shortly. I can only recommend it with the explicit warning that it is not going to brighten up your day.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Started watching Stranger Things season 4.

So far just 1 episode in and every time Will walks onscreen I can't stop laughing because he looks like Simple Jack.

 

[gorfias]

On Apple +, WeCrashed. Based upon the true story of a shared workspace idea that, from what I can tell, worked fine. This isn't like "The Dropout". The idea is fine. Maybe just over-valued.

And that is what it is about. A guy that has the idea to lease out shared workspaces that would only be needed by a renter for a limited period of time.

The guy is supposedly still worth $1.5 billion. Hardly a failure from what I can tell. But it is fun.

NOTE: He wins over Ann Hathaway through relentless pursuit. In reality, does that ever work? If a girls says back off, does haunting her ever win her over?

But, so far, 7.5/10

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Oof.


Feels like it came out of the bargain bin of an 80s rental store.

 

[Xprimentyl]

On Apple +, WeCrashed. Based upon the true story of a shared workspace idea that, from what I can tell, worked fine. This isn't like "The Dropout". The idea is fine. Maybe just over-valued.

And that is what it is about. A guy that has the idea to lease out shared workspaces that would only be needed by a renter for a limited period of time.

The guy is supposedly still worth $1.5 billion. Hardly a failure from what I can tell. But it is fun.

NOTE: He wins over Ann Hathaway through relentless pursuit. In reality, does that ever work? If a girls says back off, does haunting her ever win her over?

But, so far, 7.5/10

We finished this series a few weeks ago. Not sure how far down the rabbit hole you are right now, but It's a roller coaster. The size of the balls on Adam are impressive to behold; when he attempts to confidently shave them with a guillotine, you can't look away.

 

[Kyrian007]

Stranger Things Season (4 part 1)

Better. Better than season 3. This season's monster is more interesting than just increasingly large monsters of the past 3 seasons. I could do with the adult characters not being sidelined to the "b" storyline, but that's a remnant of Season 3 and hopefully we can wash our hands of that nonsense now that the plotline has wrapped up. And they "de-teen-angstified" the kids storyline... at least a little. The problem is they split the party, and ramped up the danger for one of the ones left in Hawkins. So A: they had a life to save to focus on, and B: they weren't all together and conflicting over the little things that made me want to strangle them in prior seasons. The problem is those things make it good right now, but the storylines have to merge at some point... and then it will all get angsty and teenage-ey and lose the focus that makes the first half of season 4 so much better.

And I won't go into too much spoiler territory... but

Spoiler

the plot armor has to come off. They have to kill off one of the main 4 kids. As it stands, I'm never concerned when one is "in danger" because they still WON'T kill any of the child characters. I think they have waited too long as it is, because they have to establish that before the series coming to an end to inject any expectation of threat into the eventual finale. I vote Dustin, he's become the kind of emotional heart of the show to the online fanbase and it would be devastating to them. I'm guessing because of something else they are hinting at that it will wind up being Will though.

 

[Piscian]

For All Mankind

As I continue to lay around being in pain between physical therapy sessions I started "For All Mankind". I wanna say I saw it mentioned here and hadnt heard of it so I decided to check it out. I'm about 5 episodes in and I have mixed feelings about it.

Imagine like "Man In The High Castle" or "Handmaid's Tale" except instead of being a epic sweeping "DC Elseworlds" it's slowburn historical fiction "Marvels What If". In this case the only minor change is that the Russians beat us to the moon. This doesn't cause a big sweeping change like it would in fiction, in this life just moves on organically. So no we dont skip ahead and Russians have takeover the world like in Freedom Fighters. In this the changes are small. NASA looks like a bunch of losers, the stench of Nazi Scientists is not covered up by glory, and the administration takes a much more direct role in NASA's development.

It gets pretty interesting and I'm enjoying it, however it's written as a drama, so we are not just getting the high notes. This is very day to day stuff so the show immediately asks you to have a vested interest in characters you would not normally give a fuck about. Like the Astronauts wives. In a Michael bay or Spielberg flick these characters would have two or three speaking lines. In this the supporting characters often become the center of attention. Don't get me wrong these all pay off, but there are moments when I'm genuinely "fucking bored".

On my Kodi app it shows me what each episodes IMDB rating is and this show has a surprisingly inconsistent rating it goes from 6 to 7 to 8 to 6. It kind of all over the place and I think thats a stigma of its setup and pay-off storytelling style. This is not Severance where every character is larger than life and you're biting your nails going "WTF is going to happen next?!". It's more like watching a nature show, contemplating changing channels and then a whale pops out of now where and eats a polar bear and you're like "well fuck I need to see where this goes".

I think what I'm saying is that I'm enjoying it. Most of the characters are interesting and it is fascinating when a moment comes and I need to pause and go check a wiki cause I'm like "Oh thats not how that happened in our time line", it is a slow burner.

This show is roasting marshmallows on an electric stove top. I fucking love s'mores though.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

The new (hopefully final) season of Stranger Things is actually getting pretty good. It’s a bit schlocky but not as annoying as last season. Also the darker tone suits it as the kids have grown up a bit since then. All of the episodes are around 75-90 minutes and there are seven episodes available with two more to follow in July I think. Kinda curious why they are releasing them that way, like they’re isolating the finale for some reason.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Started watching Stranger Things season 4.

So far just 1 episode in and every time Will walks onscreen I can't stop laughing because he looks like Simple Jack.

Yes, all the haircuts are like they said, “How can we make this look bad even by 80’s fashion standards?”