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

gorfias

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I gotta get me to Italy sometime soon. A major place I haven't gone to.

Watched 3/4 of Bobby and Giada in Italy on Discovery+ and it is some fun vicarious living. There are gorgeous environments. The food looks great. Sandwiches that look to be on par with the baguettes I had in Paris (among the best thing I've ever eaten in Europe). Bobby is respectful of the other chefs, realizing he is in their house, not his. Doesn't stop him from doing some cooking himself though. And Giada is just a vision to behold. I have to wonder if she smiles this much in her daily life.

 

Bob_McMillan

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Finished Season 2 of Altered Carbon last night, deeply regret it. I love Anthony Mackie, but why they chose him to play an old and bitter Takeshi Kovacs is a mystery to me. He's too charismatic, and when they let that "fun" side of him out, it doesn't feel right. I don't remember much about the first season, but this season feels a lot less cyberpunk and a lot lower budget. The mystery and detective work in the first season as well was much more interesting than the completely obvious "mystery" in this one.

Now I kind of want to read the books and see how much better they are than this.
 

Sora383

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I’ve been watching invincible and I got to admit it’s been pretty fun to watch. The growing up as an adolescent superhero premise has been really interesting, plus I didn’t know this comic even existed so the fact that I know nothing about the characters makes it more exciting for me.

Plus it’s an all star cast ( J.K Simmons is amazing) I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys the dc animated movies (though the tone is very adult so be prepared for blood)
 
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Bob_McMillan

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The growing up as an adolescent superhero premise has been really interesting, plus I didn’t know this comic even existed so the fact that I know nothing about the characters makes it more exciting for me.
While I also don't know much about the comics, from what I hear, the show is on its way to being a better version of the original. Mark's mom having a bigger role is great, her scenes always have me on the edge of my seat.
 

Sora383

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While I also don't know much about the comics, from what I hear, the show is on its way to being a better version of the original. Mark's mom having a bigger role is great, her scenes always have me on the edge of my seat.
I agree with you Marks mom is amazing though I have to admit

I’m scared every episode that she’s going to end up being killed due to her habit of looking into Omni-man
 

Dalisclock

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I’ve been watching invincible and I got to admit it’s been pretty fun to watch. The growing up as an adolescent superhero premise has been really interesting, plus I didn’t know this comic even existed so the fact that I know nothing about the characters makes it more exciting for me.

Plus it’s an all star cast ( J.K Simmons is amazing) I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys the dc animated movies (though the tone is very adult so be prepared for blood)
JK Simmons could probably read the phone book and make it amazing(Do phone books even exist anymore?)

Anyway, I'd never heard of Invincible until it popped up on Amazon Prime and it didn't take long for me to be into it. Not quite caught up yet(about 3 episodes behind right now).
 
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Casual Shinji

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Saw the first episode of Shadow and Bone and it wasn't half bad. Some thick ass production values on this thing, and the lore so far seems pretty interesting.
 

Sora383

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JK Simmons could probably read the phone book and make it amazing(Do phone books even exist anymore?)

Anyway, I'd never heard of Invincible until it popped up on Amazon Prime and it didn't take long for me to be into it. Not quite caught up yet(about 3 episodes behind right now).
They may not exist anymore but I would find a phone book just to have J.K Simmons read it.

I fully agree that it grabs you right away. I know the last episode is out next week but I am hoping for a season 2 announcement in the end credits lol.
 

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Not much on the telly at the moment so I have been watching repeats of the third series of Robin of Sherwood, starring Jason Connery, son of Sean.
 

Phoenixmgs

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I’ve been watching invincible and I got to admit it’s been pretty fun to watch. The growing up as an adolescent superhero premise has been really interesting, plus I didn’t know this comic even existed so the fact that I know nothing about the characters makes it more exciting for me.

Plus it’s an all star cast ( J.K Simmons is amazing) I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys the dc animated movies (though the tone is very adult so be prepared for blood)
I'm really digging Invincible as well. I was gonna kinda write of the series as rather generic superhero stuff until like the last 5 minutes of the 1st episode.
 

Sora383

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I'm really digging Invincible as well. I was gonna kinda write of the series as rather generic superhero stuff until like the last 5 minutes of the 1st episode.
I’m bloody glad they released the first three episodes right away. If I had to wait another week after that last five minutes I would have lost my marbles.
 

Thaluikhain

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Not much on the telly at the moment so I have been watching repeats of the third series of Robin of Sherwood, starring Jason Connery, son of Sean.
Any good? The only thing I've seen with him in it was an old Dr Who story, and he didn't impress, though it was one of his first roles.
 

Agema

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American Gods (Season 3).

Yeah, American Gods. I just about remember this. Seems about five years since season 2, and maybe it even is. It is slow and complex, and fails to be very rewarding for it. It's interesting in a way, but it's hard to see the point of it all. Half of it seems to be about introducing random new gods for shits and giggles in throwaway fashions that feel like a waste of time. It feels like scenes roll by without adding very much. It's not bad. But it's just not good, either. No wonder it got cancelled.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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I'm really digging Invincible as well. I was gonna kinda write of the series as rather generic superhero stuff until like the last 5 minutes of the 1st episode.
I think that's supposed to be kind of the point.
 
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Dalisclock

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I think that's supposed to be kind of the point.
Yeah, at the end of episode 1 I was pretty much "I don't see why people are saying this is so bloody, it looks fine......oh.......yeah, that's a lot of blood there"

I'm also gonna throw out that Cecil is really on the ball and always has a backup plan, though considering supervillians pop up every other week, that shouldn't be particularly surprisingly.

"400 billion dollars, the world's most expensive nosebleed."
 

Breakdown

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Any good? The only thing I've seen with him in it was an old Dr Who story, and he didn't impress, though it was one of his first roles.
Jason Connery does sometimes come across as a bit wooden with dialogue, but I think he's better at the physical aspects of the role compared with Michael Praed. The characters they played are actually quite different. Michael Praed's Robin was like a spiritual figure, leading with wisdom and compassion and always knowing the right thing to say to put people at ease. Connery's Robin on the other hand is more of a military leader who doesn't talk that much and leads by example.
 

Hawki

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Powerpuff Girls (2018): Season 1 (3/5)

This series is kind of fascinating.

Not on its own terms, but rather, how it relates to its 1998 predecessor. Watching the two relatively close to one another (you can see my review of season 1, 1998 earlier in the thread), it's fascinating how this series improves on where the other series fell short, yet falls flat on everything the prior series did well. To this end, I'm kind of going to review this as a point of contrast to its predecessor.

So what does this series do right? Well, to be frank, it does a much better job with its titular trio. I mentioned before that with the other girls, Bubbles and Buttercup were archtypes at best, and Blossom wasn't even that. Here, each of the girls' character is much more defined. Buttercup is still "the tough one," but gets some added depth of sorts with her style of humour (dry comedy, cynicism, 'slackerism,' etc.) Blossom goes from simply being 'the leader' to being to this show what Twilight Sparkle is to MLP - the "adorkable" one. The one who wants to excel in everything, who's a nerd, who'se got her whole life planned ahead of her, and who can freak out if anything goes wrong. And Bubbles is...okay, Bubbles is still pretty much Bubbles, but even then, the show does a better job of diving into her psyche than before.

More than that, the show really delves into the family aspect of the trio and with the professor. There's some genuinely heartwarming stuff going on here. If I was to judge these two series (or at least the seasons) based solely on how well defined the personalities of the girls themselves are, this series wins. There's, like, absolutely no competition. That's not to say that the girls are that deep per se, but it's at least a bath tub compared to a sink.

Of course, there's a downside to this, and that's unlike the prior series, the majority of episodes here are slice of live. The intro song's first line is "Powerpuff Girls fighting crime," and this is a lie. There's much, MUCH less fighting when compared to the previous series, and less intense fighting at that. I don't see this as being bad or good in of itself, but it's easy to see why so many fans of the previous series dislike this one, in that it's a completely different take. The previous series was action-driven, whereas this is character-driven, and because episodes are 11 minutes long in both cases, it's hard to adequately address both.

There's also the humour, which is very hit or miss. Sometimes it got a chuckle, sometimes it's downright irritating. If we're judging the two series on humour, I guess it's fair to say that this series has higher highs, but lower lows. On one hand, we get stuff like memes, and twerking, and everything else. On the other, we get parodies of horror movis, 1970s TV, and various other things.

So, okay then. What does this series do worse than the previous one? Without a doubt, if I had to sum it up in one word, it would be "villains."

Yep, this series is the inverse of its predecessor here as well. While the villains of the prior series were the highlights (sort of), the villains here are TERRIBLE. Not just in terms of the villains themselves, but how they're introduced. Or rather, not introduced at all. The original series had little inter-episode continuity, but it at least had episodes that were expliitly introductory episodes to its villains. Where the villain would appear, the narrator would explain who the villain was, and you therefore had some context. PPG2016 doesn't do any of that. Most of the villains from the old series are in this weird zone of just being thrown in at random with the expetation that the viewer knows who they are, despite the fact that this is a reboot, and the target audience is unlikely to have watched the original series. And when it comes to new villains, the series doesn't give us much either. We have "the Fashionistas" (bleh), Man-Boy (a guy in the body of a boy with the strength of a man, who wants to get Townsville back to its "manly ways,"), and the one decent new one, Silico. And by decent, I mean he appears in two episodes, the first being a prelude to the second, and the mystery of him answered in the second episode rather than, I dunno, be developed.

So, yeah. This series does some things better than its predecessor, some things worse. As to which is better...well, both get a 3/5 (which translates as "average" by my scale), but if I absolutely had to choose, I'd actually go with the original. It has a consistency to it that this series lacks, and its main issue (lack of development for its main characters) is arguably made up for by everyone around them being more entertaining.
 

Hawki

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (3/5)

If I had to describe this series in one word, it would be "muddled."

I've left my thoughts on the series's respective thread, so I won't harp on things too much here. I'm basically going to divide this into what the series does well, okay, and bad.

THE GOOD

-The action. The intro sequence is easily worthy of a full-fledged film, and the end fight is pretty good as well. Even that aside, the action is a high point throughout the film.

-The characters of Sam, Bucky, and Zemo. All three are solid.

-The series has two main themes/ideas, and one of them is the question of race, or, "what does it mean for a black man to be Captain America?" (feel free to rephrase that if you want). On that, the show does a good job. In part through Sam, in a large part through Isiah, who's another solid character. Yes, he doesn't get much screentime, but he's an important role, and it's a role that's done well.

THE OKAY

-John Walker. Everything to do with John Walker. I...really don't know what they were going for with him. Walker is a weird mix of contradictory takes that might give the impression of him being a complex character, but it comes off as more the writers not knowing what to do with him and/or having so many different takes. Frankly, discussing Walker could take an entire post in of itself, but his character is muddled, his arc is muddled, and his conclusion is muddled. As for Lemar, he's fine, and it's a good counterpoint to Sam and Bucky, but let's be honest, Lemar is there to prop up Walker's character arc, rather than being a full fledged character himself. Which is fine, but since the show has already delved into the question of race, you'd be well within your boundaries to point out that the black guy dies to further the arc of the white guy.

-Sharon Carter. She's...fine?

THE BAD

-Karli Morgenthau and the Flagsmashers. They're stupid. Karli is stupid. The entire idea is stupid. The entire world is apparently stupid because Karli can walk freely on the streets without anyone noticing. Karli's a terrible villain, and Christ, the MCU has got some damn terrible villains, and Karli belongs in the same shame zone as they do.

-The worldbuilding and its counterpart theme. I mentioned above that the series has two key themes, and does one of them well. The other one is a weird pseudo-take on refugees and international borders, that doesn't bite hard enough to be analogy, and makes no sense in-universe. People displaced because of the Blip? Fine. Makes sense. Far From Home established that. However, how this translates into a refugee crisis and a shifting of borders doesn't make sense, and the show never takes the time to explain how it does. In fact, what we see on the show contradicts the notion of borders shifting because every map we see, whether it be of Europe, or the border of Libya/Tunisia, seems to be the same as in our world. Every flag we see for the GRC is a real-world flag, and if Madripor is a new nation that sprung up, that's never explained. I mean, I get why the show went this route (refugees are a real-world issue), but it doesn't work via analogy, and it doesn't work in-universe.

THE CONCLUSION

So, like I said, muddled. Maybe if this series had more episodes it could have fleshed out its world and characters more, but what we have is a mxied bag of mixed characters and mixed execution of themes and ideas.
 

Kyrian007

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I have continued to keep up with

Debris (3/10 so far)

And I'm almost done with it. It is an interesting premise, and someone could make something really good out of it. But this falls way short of good. This falls fairly short of decent. It has the look of something really expensive, that had its budget slashed at some point because it isn't cutting it ratings wise. Plus the very rushed story arc of some network exec breathing down the neck of the writers screaming "people aren't connecting with your characters! Make them more interesting and dynamic! Now!" And they've taken a show that would seriously benefit from a slower burn, mostly monster of the week procedural stuff until hooking an audience and then moving forward with heavier story arcs (that's how the X-Files did it,) and stomped the gas on the overarching story... and to my mind its hurting the show badly. Its desperate... like they KNOW there won't be a season 2 and are rushing to get all the story in before they get the hook. And it has the feel of something that is desperately making sweeping changes to "right the ship." It just feels like there's lots of interference from the network. I can't imagine I'll watch too much more of it.