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

[gorfias]

I liked the thread about time travel and how it reveals a little something extra.

Let’s Talk About the End of Better Call Saul

As it turns out, the Breaking Bad prequel turned sequel is also TV’s best time-travel show.

www.vulture.com

Wow, better than Breaking Bad? Bold statement! Lot of interesting points in that column. I've written many times that I normally hate prequels. Done right, they have nowhere to go but take us to were the OG started. This? More time machine than prequel, moving before AND after BB.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Wow, better than Breaking Bad? Bold statement! Lot of interesting points in that column. I've written many times that I normally hate prequels. Done right, they have nowhere to go but take us to were the OG started. This? More time machine than prequel, moving before AND after BB.

I’d say it’s just different; a perfect counterpart to BB, which I agree with the article in that it broadens the scope and circumstances of these characters whereas BB was more relentlessly plot-driven.

 

[sXeth]

Netflix's The Sandman, first episode.

It was okay. It's been a long time since I've read the comics so I don't remember too much, but weirdly the first episode is both extremely faithful, yet somehow feels wrong for the comic. There's clearly big money behind it, but I feel that may have sacrificed some of its uniqueness and - being a real hipster douche here - gone for more mainstream appeal. It feels awfully Hollywood-ized with its booming score and lavish special effects. Granted, you do need the latter for the stranger sequences from the comics, but a bit more restraint would have gone a long way there. I think I'd have liked the episode way more if they'd cut out the opening montage where Dream essentially gives a tourist video introduction of himself, and also the scene where he interrupts the Corinthian. That would have given the episode a way more mysterious feel instead of just straight up explaining everything.

But I think the biggest disappointment here is how Dream looks. The comic version is one of the simplest yet most effective character designs ever. Even a decent cosplayer could easily replicate it extremely faithfully. But here he's just some pasty dude. There's nothing of the mysterious, eldritch, uncanny valley-esque presence of the comic version here. Least you could have gotten is some special contact lenses so he doesn't look like a 20-something goth at a convention.

Eh, bit of a middling start, but I'm still interested.

Paraphrasing what Gaiman himself said on twitter. Dream in the comics fits walking around because the art style of the comics works with it and makes him seem more integrated. Apparently they had a more accurate costume initially, but it was jarringly out of place when he was supposed to be mingling in the normal world so they dialed it back.

 

[BrawlMan]

​

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

High Score

A docuseries supposedly about the history of videogames. Its problems are the problems of every Netflix documentary series, like the one about the history of dictators or the one about the history of "bad" words: not only do they always assume you know nothing about the subject matter, they also assume you have no real interest in it and would be incredibly bored by a documentary. So all of these "documentaries" have a children's entertainer attitude about approaching the subject and addressing their audience in a simplistic, condescending manner that is desperately seeking attention through humor, often resorting to cheap cartoons to drive home a point.

Narrated by Charles Martinet like he's doing a cheeky museum audio guide ("Shhh viewers, we're in a library now"), every episode of High Score feels like an ADHD trip down Wikipedia. It also features some of the worst talking heads ever cobbled for a documentary series. Every interviewee is either a nobody stuck in the past (there's an interminable line of tournament winners fighting for air time even though they all tell the same story) or a has-been who moved on from the gaming industry as quickly as they could (see Nintendo's former VP of marketing, more interested in peddling her wine label). Meanwhile the heavy weights are either cut short (Nolan Bushnell recites Jabberwocky and then exits stage right) or conspicuously absent (they couldn't get Shigeru, which is a massive red flag for the Mario episode). The first episode sums up the crash of 83 in a couple of minutes but hangs on to the riveting story of some superfluous nobody who won a tournament of Space Invaders 40 years ago.

If this were a history of arcade "champions" then power to them, each of them can spend 40 minutes telling the exact same story about how they practiced a skip for a week and won 10k in a publicity stunt. As far as The History of Videogames goes, High Score doesn't know what the fuck it's talking about.

 

[Bartholen]

Sandman, episode 2

I liked this a lot more than the first. It was no longer than it needed to be, delved a bit more into the more esoteric and fantastical aspect of the series, and did a good bit of worldbuilding. One thing I was puzzled by was how much Gregory's "death" scene was played up, despite him just being a CGI creature we've seen for like 15 seconds up to that point. Methinks there may have been a lot more to his relationship with Cain and Abel that ended up being cut. The kind of lame look of Sandman is still a tad distracting, but I suppose I'll get used to it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Watched the first episode of She-Hulk and it's not very good. It feels more like a skit stretched out into an episode, with very little feeling like it's trying to set up a story or characters. The fourth wall-breaking sucks and would've been better as narration.

Enough has been said about the CGI, but it's fine and no more distracting than most of the CGI in Marvel movies already is. I will say that her hair as She-Hulk looks a little wonky, and her skin is way too smooth and pristine, especially in comparison to Banner Hulk. Banner's human wrinkles and face lines transfer over to his Hulk, but Jennifer Waters' don't. This probably stems from creatives probably overcompensating due to fearing she won't be seen as attractive enough, so she kinda looks like green Barbie as a result.

Remember when Disney/the MCU deciding to make their own live-action Marvel shows filled people with confidence? I wonder how much of that is left.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Watched the first episode of She-Hulk and it's not very good. It feels more like a skit stretched out into an episode, with very little feeling like it's trying to set up a story or characters. The fourth wall-breaking sucks and would've been better as narration.

I was expecting a dumpster fire, so I kinda came away from it pleasantly surprised. I agree though the 4th wall stuff was absolutely useless.

 

[Piscian]

She-Hulk

OK first thing, I literally forgot this was gonna be on. There's where I'm at with Disney. I just don't care that much. I think ultimately the combination of Obi-wan and Ms Marvel sorta killed my enthusiasm for the Disney shows. Obiwan was an absolute dumpster fire. Ms Marvel was like ...ok? As an avocado toast and reddit obsessed millennial, well and work-acholic, I'm compulsively checking my phone nonstop. I've noticed I can tell when I genuinely enjoying something because of how much I either ignore my phone or go put it away altogether. With Ms Marvel, it had its bright spots, but fuck I was bored. I did not enjoy dragging myself through the last couple episodes to at least see if it got any better. I think watched the ending literally while responding to emails.

So with that bar set, I did not especially feel the urge to do anything else while watching She-hulk. At the same time I don't feel like it quite stuck the landing. She's definitely affable as a character and at times funny, but I didn't leave the episode "excited" to see where it goes so much as "hmm I could watch more of this", in fact I did put it on my calendar. It had a much stronger start than White Batman or Ms. Marvel. I'm not too concerned about the CGI it looked fine, but its also not supposed to be the premise of this show and I think thats what failed Ms Marvel. It was just a very generic super hero original season. They take pains in the first episode to tell you she doesnt want to be a superhero and that this should is going to be a courtroom dramedy. Im praying they're being honest about that. I liked getting the origin stuff out of the way first episode like "ok this is who I am and this is what this is gonan be about", instead of the protracted mewling and whining we got from Eqyptian Batman and Ms. Marvel.

I also tend to be critical of shows storyboarding and process, like how just awful the fights in Obiwan looked. Like bad CW level. That really kills immersion for me. This doesn't rate a spoiler tag but in the fight scene towards the end where they zoom in on Jenn talking to her friend and you can see the villain in the background, but they are literally doing nothing, they are very obviously just standing there fucking around.

I don't know what the director was thinking because thats kind of a sight gag in Marvel films where youll see the main characters in foreground and you can see action going behind them. It adds a kind of immersion. Pick a marvel movie, you see it constantly. You can tell the villain is "supposed" to be throwing cops around but because of the angle they shot it, you can clearly tell they'll all just standing around. This isn't a blink and you miss it, moment. They settle on a shot of jenn talking for a good 30 seconds with the villain directly behind her kind of pretending to fight, but not actually doing anything. Super fuckin lazy. I hope somebody caught that and gives them hell about it. Like all they had to do was film a cop being throw off screen or something. This kind of lazy attitude really bugs me. I'm not the type of person to pause and try to catch things like that so I guaranteed a lot of people noticed.

Complaints aside, idk pretty solid start. I enjoyed it beginning to end and didn't hate of the writing or acting solid 7.5/10 for me. I want to see if they follow through with the court room comedy stuff. I'm here for Nightcourt meets The Good Wife with supervillains.

On a side comictropes did an episode this week that explains the She-hulks tropes and what we can "hopefully" expect from the series

 

[gorfias]

Watched the first episode of She-Hulk and it's not very good. It feels more like a skit stretched out into an episode, with very little feeling like it's trying to set up a story or characters. The fourth wall-breaking sucks and would've been better as narration.

Enough has been said about the CGI, but it's fine and no more distracting than most of the CGI in Marvel movies already is. I will say that her hair as She-Hulk looks a little wonky, and her skin is way too smooth and pristine, especially in comparison to Banner Hulk. Banner's human wrinkles and face lines transfer over to his Hulk, but Jennifer Waters' don't. This probably stems from creatives probably overcompensating due to fearing she won't be seen as attractive enough, so she kinda looks like green Barbie as a result.

Remember when Disney/the MCU deciding to make their own live-action Marvel shows filled people with confidence? I wonder how much of that is left.

This guy does some break down of how sitcoms work and why She-Hulk is one... and does what it needs to do to be a sitcom.

 

[Piscian]

This guy does some break down of how sitcoms work and why She-Hulk is one... and does what it needs to do to be a sitcom.

Interesting points, but I wish he didnt talk like hes covering a William Shatner album. Like nails on a chalkboard for me.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

This doesn't rate a spoiler tag but in the fight scene towards the end where they zoom in on Jenn talking to her friend and you can see the villain in the background, but they are literally doing nothing, they are very obviously just standing there fucking around.

That whole scene was very odd. The editing was so random and the camerawork didn't flow at all, to the point I asked my buddy to rewind because I genuinely thought someone fast forwarded it 10 seconds by accident.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Primal Season 2 Episode 6.

Really great (I mean, it's Primal; how could it not be), and finally some happy fucking news for our characters. Though this in turn makes me very scared as to how they might rip it away from us.

 

[BrawlMan]

​

 

[thebobmaster]

Watched episode 1 of She-Hulk. I quite liked it for the most part. The only part I had issue with was the fight scene at the end of the episode. Good lord, was the editing terrible there. It legitimately felt like there were seconds of the fight I missed, but I didn't miss anything. The editing just made it feel like I was missing stuff.

Other than that, and a bit of questionable humor (really didn't need the bar belching scene), very solid episode.

 

[gorfias]

HBO Max new series House of the Dragon, a prequal to Game of Thrones.

I hate prequals typically as, they need to end up where the OG series starts. This is 200 years before Game of Thrones so, it need not be so bound to the OG series. But so far, this one is. They are already talking about Winter coming.

Funny, the female lead, Emma D'Arcy, looks a lot like the actress that was passed over to play Daenerys. Don't recall her name. EDIT Tamzin Merchant







Big budget. I recall the first joust with the Mountain in it. They're sitting in bleachers. This? Looks like it is taken from the set of Dune.

It's hard to give this a chance in that I feel GOT crapped the bed. But, GOT had so many good things in it. If the show ended badly, does that ruin the Red Wedding? The romance between John and Ygritte?

So, I'm giving this a chance. And so far, it's pretty good. Matt Smith is a properly hissable villain. I look forward to seeing if he can out do Joffrey.

Episode 1: B+

 

[Bartholen]

House of the Dragon, episode 1

Turns out when you bring the actual creator of the world back to a project and are working with source material that's already finished, the end product is actually pretty good. It feels like a return to form for this world. While there are lavish special effects, sets and vistas (like seriously, the difference in production value between this and the first episode of GoT is staggering), they're used sparingly, and the core of the episode is still in the interplay between the characters. Which is also very well done and interesting based on this first episode. Paddy Considine is especially great as the beleaguered and troubled king Viserys. Daemon Targaryen seems maybe a bit too much like a smirking villain type, but still believable and multidimensional. It's maybe a bit disappointing visually since we're revisiting the same old locations we already had 8 seasons worth in Game of Thrones, but what are they supposed to do? One thing that definitely mars it are the blatant connections to Game of Thrones, but I don't know if that's a fault with the source material. I'm definitely interested to see where this is going.

 

[Agema]

Echoes - season one (Netflix)

Michelle Monaghan plays twin sisters, Gina and Leni. Gina is a writer in LA, Leni remained in her home town and married her childhood sweetheart. Then Leni goes missing, and Gina pops back to her hometown to investigate, ending up masquerading as Leni. But this is the start of the intrigue, as we find out these twins have a much more complex relationship with each other, their family and friends than anyone could possibly have imagined. A dark history is going to surface and may unravel their lives.

This is one of those preposterous but ultimately slightly boring thrillers as it drills into the backstory of the sisters and moves forwards with the current plot. It's got a good cast, it's reasonably paced and directed, it's just sort of silly and not really exciting and engaging enough.

It's set up for a season two. Honestly, I really wouldn't cry if it doesn't get it.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

The Sandman.
Wasn't gonna bother saying anything about this as everyone has already said enough. But then they released the bonus 11th episode about cats so now I feel qualified enough to say yup! You did alright.

 

[Piscian]

House of the Dragon, episode 1

Turns out when you bring the actual creator of the world back to a project and are working with source material that's already finished

I have no immediate intention of watching it. I've reached this point in my viewing life where I have to ask myself some hard questions before doing this shit again. One of the nice parts about Sandman, which was pretty great, is that it's an anthology. The comic book is just a collection of stories. So if the show wasnt that great, like "oh well". Where this Tyler Perrys Big Dragons' House is one of those deals where they NEEEEEEEED us to invest. IT MUST BE 6 SEAASONS or fuckin whatever. So you know even if this season is solid, you know its going to be full of cliffhangers and shit. You have to pray the same people who just cancelled half their network commit to finishing the story. I say no thank you. I'll catch up when its a few seasons in and has some kind of exit strategy.

According to showrunners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal and HBO Max chief of content Casey Bloys, the current storyline is planned to run for three or four seasons. But they note that the show could jump forward or back in time to show other events from House Targaryen’s history, meaning that the series could run for much longer than planned.

Miguel Sapochnik says: “The Targaryens span both directions. So as a spine to other possible stories and spinoffs … this is a great place to start.”

fuuuuuck that mystery box shiiiit. Not again, they fucked me hard on Raised By Wolves and my ass is still very sore.