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

Dalisclock

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Peacemaker-Season 1(?)

So it took me a long ass time but I finally worked my through the 8 episode season. The length of time to finish it wasn't because I disliked it. On the contrary, I enjoyed it a lot but I also couldn't watch it while my kid was at home and/or awake and anyone who has seen the show can figure out why it's not appropriate for a 5 year old.

Anyway, Damn good show, a lot better then I thought it was going to be going into it. Basically a TV spinoff of The Suicide Squad, where a number of characters who survived the film are roped into a low budget(literally so, they drive around in an old van and operate out of an abandoned storefront) Black Op to stop alien body snatching "Butterflies". And while that's the main thrust, there's a lot of drama around the fact that Peacemaker is having a long emotional breakdown/existential crisis over being "The guy who kills for peace" and the fact his entire childhood was just horrible as shit because of his abusive, neo-nazi dad(Robert Patrick, clearly enjoying playing a complete shitbrick). There's also the fact the entire team is a group of misfits who don't really trust each other, which yeah, is a standard team trope, but having them doing this while in the middle a Black Op tends to raise the stakes a bit and leads to them arguing over which fictional characters/real people/celebrities to frame for Peacemakers crimes.

It's an interesting mix of black humor, big world threatening menace, Peacemaker being a heavily armed manchild(He's occasionally called a racist but he seems very equal opportunity in who he guns down....so yay for equality, I guess?) who is also aware that he's not the superhero he wants to be, the cast of weird characters playing off each other, bits of intense yet cartoonish violence at times, and also a weird 80's vibe to it. I don't know what it is about it but it pretty much all works. There's also the constant reminder that despite looking like our universe, it's in the DC universe and people bring up Superman and Wonder Woman as real people and not comic book characters(Also, Bat Mite apparently exists in their universe and yes I had to look up what the hell that was).

By the end of the show, I was convinced this was turning into Suicide Squad: The show due to how many people were apparently dead, but it looks like there's enough of a cast to keep it going. I am looking forward to season 2 if they do one. Also, watch the outtakes the end of the credits. They're worth it.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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Harley Quinn S03E01-03

Learned this aired today. I can be brief. Still a baseball bat to the cranium fun. Bane is best.
Jesus, it's out already? It's like DC doesn't even want this to succeed, with how little they market it.
 

gorfias

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Peacemaker-Season 1(?)

I am looking forward to season 2 if they do one. Also, watch the outtakes the end of the credits. They're worth it.
I'll have to check out those outtakes! Thanks for the tip, loved this season and they are having a 2nd in theory: https://www.ign.com/articles/peacemaker-season-2-confirmed

Season 3 Ep. 9 of The Orville on Hulu.

Holy moly. I think there is at least one more episode this season. How they top this over-the top CGI fest with consequences I do not know but lots to unpack here. A spectacle. B+.

 
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Resident Evil - Season 1 Eps. 1-4 (Netflix)


* What the fuck drug company calls its drug "Joy"? Has anyone actually looked at drug names, generic or branded?
Someone who has literally never read a dystopian novel before, or played We Happy Few.

I'm trying to imagine a company's Marketing Department approving "Joy" as a product name fully discounting either how creepy it comes across or how much that's just begging for it to become a recreational narcotic(and then getting your company any entirely different type of attention). I'm not saying such PR oopsies haven't happened before but that feels like a special level of carelessness right there.
 

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I'll have to check out those outtakes! Thanks for the tip, loved this season and they are having a 2nd in theory: https://www.ign.com/articles/peacemaker-season-2-confirmed
This is my favorite, an extended take where he's naming off people who could have been framed for his crimes.


Also the fact I'm torn if he's naming off literally every name he can think of or those are all real in the Peacemaker Universe? Because if Bat Mite is real, and Matter Eater Lad is Real, then maybe Riverdale is also real? I don't even know anymore.
 

gorfias

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This is my favorite, an extended take where he's naming off people who could have been framed for his crimes.


Also the fact I'm torn if he's naming off literally every name he can think of or those are all real in the Peacemaker Universe? Because if Bat Mite is real, and Matter Eater Lad is Real, then maybe Riverdale is also real? I don't even know anymore.
That was terrific!
Some of these names I'd have to think are fictional even in this continuity (Muppets, Super Mario) but so much good here. But then "James Gunn" isn't even a thing? LOL.
 

Thaluikhain

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Vienna Blood S1

A young psychoanalyising doctor helps an older Inspector solve murders, while dealing with family issues. Only this one is set in Vienna in 1906-7.

Quite well done.
 

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That was terrific!
Some of these names I'd have to think are fictional even in this continuity (Muppets, Super Mario) but so much good here. But then "James Gunn" isn't even a thing? LOL.
And Freddie Stroma, who plays Vigilante, is literally sitting right there, smiling.
 
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Agema

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Someone who has literally never read a dystopian novel before, or played We Happy Few.

I'm trying to imagine a company's Marketing Department approving "Joy" as a product name fully discounting either how creepy it comes across or how much that's just begging for it to become a recreational narcotic(and then getting your company any entirely different type of attention). I'm not saying such PR oopsies haven't happened before but that feels like a special level of carelessness right there.
As a generic, it should probably have a name like ramacloxetine (they do so love exes in drug names), with a branded name like Floxalat.

I'm taking as an assumption here that as the administration route is a pill, that implies a conventional small molecule drug. If it were a biological it would have a whole different naming convention, but biologicals aren't appropriate for oral delivery as they get destroyed in the gastrointestinal tract.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Severance

Three episodes in. I like the premise and how persuasive it is, even if the horrible implications seem obvious from the get go. Great actors, great design/atmosphere. I know they already renewed it for a second season but I hope the first one wraps up in a satisfying way instead of mystery boxing the audience.
 

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The Terminal List eps 1-2 (Amazon)

Solidly joyless, vigilante / revenge action fare. Chris Pratt plays an NCO leading a spec ops operation in Syria. It runs into an ambush where he suffers a concussion and his team is all but wiped out. Then he comes back to the USA, convinced they were betrayed, or is his memory faulty? And then people come for him and his family.

So, these episodes are hanging in there with that doubt about whether his memories are secure or not, and this is a delusion due to his head injury. This would make an interesting show. But the problem is, you as the viewer basically know that's not the case, just because hat's not the sort of show this is. All this unerliable narrator stuff is, is a hook to suck in the gullible until it reveals it's some evil conspiracy (think of it as a lightweight version of the man wakes up with amnesia cliche). The very fact that the US Secretary of Defence pitched up so quickly is proof enough there's a conspiracy, and she's in on it: because otherwise why else is such a high ranking politician having anything to do with the show? Chances are, the team was betrayed by someone already introduced to us in these two episodes. Given the choices, my money is on the Defence Secretary or Chris Pratt's chum, played by Taylor Kitsch, because everyone else is too much of a irrelevance or wouldn't have known about it.

My jaw just drops with Pratt's superior officer though. I hope the US military isn't like that in reality, because I'd like to think by now they've learnt a bit about trauma. A guy gets his team wiped out in an ambush and suffers a serious head would, his last surviving mission teammate commits suicide (or not!), and he basically just gets chewed out for not shaving properly. Then later after his wife and daughter are murdered, this officer basically dismisses him with an insult as if he's just some random PITA rather than someone who urgently needs care and therapy.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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Finished Emerald City


concept & synopsis.

An alternative take of the Wizard of Oz by way of Game of Thrones. Dorothy Gale grew up not knowing her real mother but has recently got a note saying that her mother is back and wants to talk with her. Eventually after her shift as a nurse Dorothy goes to see her mother as there's a Tornado approaching town only to find her trailer empty. Dorothy goes to a nearby storm cellar and finds the woman she believes to be her mother inside badly injured having clearly been attacked by some-one or something. Going back up when she heard a police siren she sees a deputy who demands she stand still. Problem is the Tornado comes up behind him sucking him up and forcing Dorothy to jump into his police car. After being sucked up in a Tornado the police car is launched along a snowy field and runs owner a woman. Dorothy not recognising where she is and seeing the car has hit some-one tries to seek help only to find she's not in Kansas anymore.

Cue Dorothy getting mixed up in the political machinations of the magic hating Wizard of Oz alongside the Witch of the West, who has banned all Witchcraft and the practice of Witchcraft and the plans of Gilda witch of the North all as The Wizard of Oz tries to prepare to once again fight the beast forever, an almost force of nature like entity that can take many forms but exists to try and bring ruin and chaos to Oz.


Thoughts:

A really amazing first chapter in a story that will never be told because the show was cancelled after season 1. It's really interesting to see this take on the classic tales and see how it sets so many things up and it's own different versions of them from the Scarecrow to the Tinman and even the Cowardly lion. I also quite like how screwed up it makes things. E.G. the Witch of the West runs a brother and relies on Opium to cope with what is essentially PTSD from when she and all the other Witches of Oz (not just the ones named after compass directions) tried and fail to stop the Beat forever previously only for the Wizard to do so and ascend to power on the back of his actions. Also for a 2017 series from NCB, wow do the effects (both CGI and practical) hold up remarkably well.
Reminds me of a Korean manga called Dorothy of Oz that also had a lot of interesting takes on Oz characters. Dorothy, after killing the Witch of the West, gets magic she can activate by turning into a magical girl witch, Scarecrow is a defective clone mass produced to create an army of psychic soldiers, Tinman is a cyborg, and Lion is a chimera. Unfortunately the series was discontinued but man it had potential.
 
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Kyrian007

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You know, I've skipped out on Doctor Strange and Thor. I've done this other phases and just waited to stream it

I personally enjoyed Ms Marvel far more than most Marvel shows. This story should have been split over two seasons because its half-baked. It's also the first time I've EVER watched a weekly show with my daughter because why the fuck would you wait a week for episode. (She 9.) I still haven't watched The Boys season 3 yet because I find weekly programming obnoxious. Anyway, it's the first thing outside the Avengers movie where she actually cared about the movie/show. (Also, she hates spiderman for some reason I can't fathom.)
I didn't hate Ms. Marvel as much as others here either. Overall I found it to be middle of the road Disney + Marvel fare. Better than Moon Knight (relax, I thought it was fine) and even Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Not quite as good as What If and WandaVision. And about on par with Hawkeye and Loki. The history and cultural stuff was fascinating, and Kamala as a character (and frankly, the whole teenage cast) were very much not nearly as annoying as I find teenage characters in general. Generally I hate them so much I avoid ANYTHING in a high school setting. This was fine, never bothered me. Hell, it was one of my problems with Moon Knight. Adult characters that were seemingly written as if they were still in high school. Also in Ms. Marvel, I could have done without the cutesy social media effects. But I didn't hate their inclusion. I've seen others bring up plot specific problems, pacing issues, villain issues... but I've forgiven a lot of those things (and worse) in series or movies I DID like. Hard for me to punish this show after acknowledging that. Other than Kingpin, Purpleman, and Cottonmouth; the entire Marvel output from Netflix had really pathetic villains. And there was a combined... what 12 or so seasons of shows there? 3 villains out of 12 seasons I mostly liked... well liked more than disliked anyway. Giving an interesting villain the short end of the stick and wrapping up with an inadequately built "final" villain... Yup, I direct your attention to Luke Cage Season 1. Really good, even if they aced the interesting villain and replaced him with another that was about an eighth as interesting and menacing.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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I didn't hate Ms. Marvel as much as others here either. Overall I found it to be middle of the road Disney + Marvel fare. Better than Moon Knight (relax, I thought it was fine) and even Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Not quite as good as What If and WandaVision. And about on par with Hawkeye and Loki. The history and cultural stuff was fascinating, and Kamala as a character (and frankly, the whole teenage cast) were very much not nearly as annoying as I find teenage characters in general. Generally I hate them so much I avoid ANYTHING in a high school setting. This was fine, never bothered me. Hell, it was one of my problems with Moon Knight. Adult characters that were seemingly written as if they were still in high school. Also in Ms. Marvel, I could have done without the cutesy social media effects. But I didn't hate their inclusion. I've seen others bring up plot specific problems, pacing issues, villain issues... but I've forgiven a lot of those things (and worse) in series or movies I DID like. Hard for me to punish this show after acknowledging that. Other than Kingpin, Purpleman, and Cottonmouth; the entire Marvel output from Netflix had really pathetic villains. And there was a combined... what 12 or so seasons of shows there? 3 villains out of 12 seasons I mostly liked... well liked more than disliked anyway. Giving an interesting villain the short end of the stick and wrapping up with an inadequately built "final" villain... Yup, I direct your attention to Luke Cage Season 1. Really good, even if they aced the interesting villain and replaced him with another that was about an eighth as interesting and menacing.
I think that might be kind of the problem though. Outright bad movies and shows at least gain interest even if they flop but ever since Endgame most of what they've put out for the "cinematic universe" has been mixed or middle of the road. Which in some ways is worse than just things going to hell because some people aren't yet aware of the downward slope everything is on. Just me speculating though.
 

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I think that might be kind of the problem though. Outright bad movies and shows at least gain interest even if they flop but ever since Endgame most of what they've put out for the "cinematic universe" has been mixed or middle of the road. Which in some ways is worse than just things going to hell because some people aren't yet aware of the downward slope everything is on. Just me speculating though.
Another thing was this is that it's a two-way street problem. You got so many Marvel and MCU nuts that are so used to having it good, that whenever something that is average or mediocre comes out, they flip out and think it's the worst thing ever. And then they're genuinely thrown in for loop on something is actually that bad. Granted, it ain't just an MCU fan thing, as this is being seen everywhere from movie, to TV shows, and of course, gaming.

Sometimes I prefer a a piece of media just to be average or good. Even when something is bad, it does not mean it's always entertaining. Of course you have your bad and boring bad. But even entertainingly bad can get dull or boring if it's the usual nonsense. I never liked that mindset to begin with so I'm probably the odd one out. There's only a few stuff I love that are entertainingly bad. Almost anything else that is bad, I outright hate or just fine incredibly boring and would rather be watching or playing something else.
 
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Dwarvenhobble

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Reminds me of a Korean manga called Dorothy of Oz that also had a lot of interesting takes on Oz characters. Dorothy, after killing the Witch of the West, gets magic she can activate by turning into a magical girl witch, Scarecrow is a defective clone mass produced to create an army of psychic soldiers, Tinman is a cyborg, and Lion is a chimera. Unfortunately the series was discontinued but man it had potential.
That sounds pretty cool actually.
 

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Did you like Tinman from a decade ago?
I have no idea how Tinman was so good. Zooey Deschanel took center stage as DG... and she was not good in Tinman. Her off-putting weirdly emotionless quirky... "thing" just did not work. And yet somehow, through a decently written script and getting rescued by a supporting cast far more talented than the lead, Tinman was really good. It fit in pretty well with that weird stretch of sci-fi channel miniseries that were actually really good. Steven Spielberg's Taken, (I wish I could find that streaming somewhere) The Triangle, even the attempts at Dune and Children of Dune weren't bad. BSG's mini was so good they launched the reboot as a full series. Given how that turned out, I'd rather they'd have ran with The Lost Room as opposed to BSG for extending into a full series. But Tinman is from that odd era before they changed their name to siffy (pronounced how it looks) and exchanged decent quality things like those miniseries and shows like Eureka for Sharknado vs The Meg or whatever.
 

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I have no idea how Tinman was so good. Zooey Deschanel took center stage as DG... and she was not good in Tinman. Her off-putting weirdly emotionless quirky... "thing" just did not work. And yet somehow, through a decently written script and getting rescued by a supporting cast far more talented than the lead, Tinman was really good. It fit in pretty well with that weird stretch of sci-fi channel miniseries that were actually really good. Steven Spielberg's Taken, (I wish I could find that streaming somewhere) The Triangle, even the attempts at Dune and Children of Dune weren't bad. BSG's mini was so good they launched the reboot as a full series. Given how that turned out, I'd rather they'd have ran with The Lost Room as opposed to BSG for extending into a full series. But Tinman is from that odd era before they changed their name to siffy (pronounced how it looks) and exchanged decent quality things like those miniseries and shows like Eureka for Sharknado vs The Meg or whatever.
I put it down to Neal McDonough, who I thought outshone even Alan Cummings
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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Stranger Things season 4

Finally caught up. Yeah it's one of those shows where it doesn't matter what happens, the cast and setting and vibe are just fun to be in. I will say I didn't see the point of the extended run times, there were chunks of these episodes that felt repetitive or unnecessary. I really do hope the next season is the last simply because the way they have to "reset" between each season of escalating apocalypses followed by ramp-up is getting silly. If next season starts again where nobody believes there is hell demons while our heroes are worried about their feelings for each other it'll be too much.

Ms Marvel episode 1
Pretty much what I expected, you know, it's fine. Much more enjoyable than the dull, self-serious Hawkeye and Falcon shows that were so generic I can't even remmeber anything that happened. At least this one tries to add some style and, yeah, diversity.
 
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