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

Piscian

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That's something I kinda noticed. I can him wanting to be a Better Crime Lord then Jabba and Bib Fortuna, or at least looking better in comparison, but that's still the role of an anti-villian or villian protagonist, but it feels like Boba is basically just "good guy as crime boss". At least so far. I'll see where they take this.

I hope this is a prelude of him trying "Mr. Nice guy" before realizing Mr. Nice guy gets kicked in the ass on Tatooine so he ends up having go all Vlad the Impaler on his enemies.
That's what I'm holding out hope for, that transition from school marm to Heisenberg when he realizes he can't be crime boss Jesus. Maybe fennec betrays him.
I find this whole thing confusing because dave filoni's perspective on staying true to the spirit of characters has been on point up until now, but I don't know how involved he is in this project.
 
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Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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As of this last episode I'm pretty unhappy with bobas depiction.
I remain supremely disinterested in Boba Fett. He's some virtually characterless guy in grey-green armour and I never understood why anyone gave a shit.

But I suspect much of his mystique is that we don't really know anything about him. In which case I can't think of any better way to obliterate that than by making a series all about him. A series which will undoubtedly also have to contrive some way to make what we can assume about him from the films - a ruthless, amoral, badass bounty hunter - into some sort of responsible, softy, do-gooder. Or in other words, completely destroying the character.

In short, this series was the most fucking stupid thing to do in every way except that of soullessly bastardising IP just to wring every last dollar out of it.
 

Kyrian007

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Just watched the first season of the revived "Leverage: Redemption."

Interesting. It does catch the flavor of the original series. I'm not sure why they killed off the main character off-screen while writing in reasons why some other actors couldn't come back. I'm guessing they either couldn't afford Tim Hutton, or he got caught up in some kind of scandal that I don't care enough about him to look up. Who cares. It was an ensemble piece anyway and the new character is a decent substitution (Noah Wyle, recognize the name but not from what.. must not have watched whatever it is.) Occasionally while watching the original series, I knew the real life story that was the inspiration behind the villain of the week. At least for season 1 of the "Redemption" season I knew ALL of them. The main villain might have just as well been named "Sackler." The entire show really could be renamed "shitting on anyone that has headlined a segment of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."

But... that's a high mark. That's what makes it satisfying. Just the idea of someone sticking it to a Sackler or that asshole that made and sells Clearview AI, is just inherently satisfying. So all in all, a decent continuation of the series. It's not like I was expecting a lot out of Dean Devlin anyway. Worth a watch if you liked the originals or just hate the rich and powerful.
 

Gordon_4

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I remain supremely disinterested in Boba Fett. He's some virtually characterless guy in grey-green armour and I never understood why anyone gave a shit.

But I suspect much of his mystique is that we don't really know anything about him. In which case I can't think of any better way to obliterate that than by making a series all about him. A series which will undoubtedly also have to contrive some way to make what we can assume about him from the films - a ruthless, amoral, badass bounty hunter - into some sort of responsible, softy, do-gooder. Or in other words, completely destroying the character.

In short, this series was the most fucking stupid thing to do in every way except that of soullessly bastardising IP just to wring every last dollar out of it.
We do know things about Boba Fett. We knew his dad - whom he is an exact clone of - was the kind of guy who did whatever as long as he was paid. Be it assassinating a Senator, or donating his blood to a bunch of long necked weirdos so they could churn out clones by the million for the Republic. We know he saw Mace Windu kill his father in combat; that Boba swore vengeance and nearly got it by almost managing to kill Mace Windu aboard a republic ship. He went to jail - full on adult jail, that whacky Republic! - where he fell in with the likes of Aurra Sing and Bossk. Once released he found further contacts with the pirate Hondo Onada and one of his own father’s legendary contemporaries: Cad Bane. With such quality instruction Boba Fett became a well known bounty hunter.

“But!” I hear you say, “He captured Han Solo! Surely it takes a cunning rogue to catch a scoundrel like that!”. Uh no, Boba Fett did not capture Han Solo. Darth Vader did that with the 501st, though it is true Boba Fett assisted by telling them where Han would be, that frankly was a job that could and should have been performed an ISB operative but I guess Vader loves to outsource and high command get less pissy when he force chokes contractors rather than actual imperial naval personnel.

Now you’d need to rewrite basically the third act of Empire but that was the time to give Boba Fett his moment because that was the time to give him a reputation worth respecting.

Boba Fett’s mystique was mainly fanon and canon never fully measures up. See also, every single thing known and believed about the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker prior to 2005.
 

Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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We do know things about Boba Fett.
Boba Fett exists in eps 1-3 because some weird cult had already built up around him. For my part, I gently like to think to myself that eps 1-3, and generally most of everything that came after it, don't really exist except as a sort of bad dream, because it makes the world a better place that way. As for the "fanon" as you put it, and degenerate Star Wars tie-in lit, the less said the better.
 

Dirty Hipsters

This is how we praise the sun!
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Finished Hit Monkey last night. It's a really fun show, and probably the best animated show Marvel has made in the last 20 years.
 
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Trunkage

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Enterprise Season 3

What the hell happened to this show?

It goes from bland, pretentious standard episode you see from TNG to serialised excitement with little ldft to explore.

Pushing the boundaries for what it means to be Starfleet. Check Actual danger to characters because we need to reset next week. Check. Battle damage. Holy jeez, does Enterprise take a beating. Check. The crew screws up and it actually costs something. Even when its not physical. Mega check. The 3 maim characters aren't the same at the end of the season. Actual character development. Check. Of course, no one else changes but its Enterprise. Those are just extras

This has to be the biggest turnaround of a show I've seen in a long time
 

Old_Hunter_77

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I remain supremely disinterested in Boba Fett. He's some virtually characterless guy in grey-green armour and I never understood why anyone gave a shit.

But I suspect much of his mystique is that we don't really know anything about him. In which case I can't think of any better way to obliterate that than by making a series all about him. A series which will undoubtedly also have to contrive some way to make what we can assume about him from the films - a ruthless, amoral, badass bounty hunter - into some sort of responsible, softy, do-gooder. Or in other words, completely destroying the character.

In short, this series was the most fucking stupid thing to do in every way except that of soullessly bastardising IP just to wring every last dollar out of it.
My guess is that Boba Fett's popularity was originally based on his jet pack. Dude has a jet pack, it's one of those things that kids think they want in THE FUTURE. So it made for a cool action figure toy, and the toys and merchandise are more responsible for Star Wars' enduring popularity than anything about characters or story.
Decades later, you have a generation of dorks who are so up their own ass with nostalgia and confusing crass commercial exploitation of children with actual story-telling that Boba Fett became... a thing, like an actual thing, and here we are, where a literally facelss, character-less background character becomes a "cultural icon."
 

Chimpzy

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Peacemaker

What? The Captain America-but-as-bigoted-jingoist-meathead in a silly costume played by John Cena from the latest Suicide Squad flick? Out of all the character in that movie, they decided to make a tv show out of him, and not Bloodsport or Ratcatcher? Yup, they did, and I'm honestly having a good time with it.

I could go into the particulars, but I'll just leave it at saying it's written and directed by James Gunn. If you liked the character dynamics and tone of Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad, you'll probably like this too. Also, this is the intro, and there's a scene where John Cena is dancing in his tighty whities while singing along to a hair metal song using a purple dildo as a mic.

 

gorfias

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Peacemaker

What? The Captain America-but-as-bigoted-jingoist-meathead in a silly costume played by John Cena from the latest Suicide Squad flick? Out of all the character in that movie, they decided to make a tv show out of him, and not Bloodsport or Ratcatcher? Yup, they did, and I'm honestly having a good time with it.

I could go into the particulars, but I'll just leave it at saying it's written and directed by James Gunn. If you liked the character dynamics and tone of Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad, you'll probably like this too. Also, this is the intro, and there's a scene where John Cena is dancing in his tighty whities while singing along to a hair metal song using a purple dildo as a mic.
Hear hear. The show is a blast so far. And back in the day, I collected the 1st several issues of Vigilante. A hoot seeing him live in this show. And he makes that silly opening dance number look good.

ITMT: HBOMAX: The Righteous Gemstones S1E1.
My daughter heard it was very funny. I groaned. I thought it would only be a show about rubes and con artist bible belt Jimmy Swaggart cartoon types. There's a lot of that in there but it is funny and co-stars a comic that amuses me. (Adam Devine). And the opening episode is pretty strong, introducing us to a crime-suspense element. B.

 

Bob_McMillan

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Peacemaker

What? The Captain America-but-as-bigoted-jingoist-meathead in a silly costume played by John Cena from the latest Suicide Squad flick? Out of all the character in that movie, they decided to make a tv show out of him, and not Bloodsport or Ratcatcher? Yup, they did, and I'm honestly having a good time with it.

I could go into the particulars, but I'll just leave it at saying it's written and directed by James Gunn. If you liked the character dynamics and tone of Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad, you'll probably like this too. Also, this is the intro, and there's a scene where John Cena is dancing in his tighty whities while singing along to a hair metal song using a purple dildo as a mic.

Man that looks so fucking stupid, guess I'm watching it later.
 
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lostinreality

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I just finished watching season 2 of Witcher last night. I'm genuinely happy with the fact that they stayed true to a lot of the important parts of the source material. I also think that the pacing for the second season was amazing–even if Ciri did feel a little useless most of the season. I'm excited that it has been renewed for a third season and I expect things to get better from that point. Really love it–definitely a solid 9/10 for me for the most part.
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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My wife and I have been watching season 2 of The Morning Show, with two episodes left that we will wrap up tonight.

For those that don't know the premise, it's basically a fictional version of the Matt Lauer thing with a popular morning network anchor being Me-Too'd. Steve Carrell is the anchor, Jennifer Anniston is his co-anchor, and Reese Witherspoon is the plucky firy local TV reporter brought in to replace him.
First season was pretty good, with a pretty solid ending that I was even a little surprised they made more.

Season 2 is sort of a fascinating train-wreck. It never really comes together to be very coherent, but there are great individual moments and of course this cast is awesome (I am a genuine fan of all three leads). The show's biggest asset and drawback is its insistence on dealing with ISSUES with feminism, sexuality, power, racism, workplace drama, and now Covid and Trump and political correctness and all this shit.
Its politics are very typically TV-"liberal," like Aaron Sorkon shit, so... yeah, there's that. At times, it's pretty silly. I don't even care about the politics so much it's just that it often makes the plot not make a lot of sense or, more importantly, I finish an episode and I'm like "what was the point of that", you know, like story-wise.

But I still like it... I kind of enjoy the awkwardness and scatter-brained nature of the show, even if it's not on purpose.
 

Bob_McMillan

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Episodes 4 and 5 of Boba Fett. I'll say upfront that at the end of the day, I'd rather have a Boba Fett show rather than not. Especially since I really enjoy Temuera Morrison's performance.

That said, what the fuck are they doing? I enjoyed the episodes more or less, but they've made a lot of bizarre choices.
 

Xprimentyl

Made you look...
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Oz: S1:Ep1

A penitentiary has an experimental ward with relaxed rules and the goal of actual inmate rehabilitation, but leads only to the same manifestations of the prototypical human conditions: racism, sexism, classism, violence, drug abuse, deceit, etc. People turn into the kinds of people they never imagined they could be when survival is the #1 priority.

Piggy-backing off my post in the "Actors And Roles You Can't Separate Them From" thread, I asked my girlfriend to watch Oz with me. She hadn't seen it, and I haven't seen in nearly two decades, and by the end of the first episode, I realized it might be a bit too raw for me now. The first episode isn't too bad, but having flashbacks to the violence and prison rape that's prolific throughout the series, I'm not sure I can stomach it again. I still praise it as an excellent show, but once may be enough. I couldn't really gauge her reaction, but she seems intrigued. She might want to continue, but if not, I won't press the issue.
 

Bartholen

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I watched the first 3 episodes of the 3rd season of Jessica Jones, which I'd completely missed even existing. I hadn't watched the show since the second season, so a 3,5-year gap between events left me struggling a bit to remember what had happened and where everyone was, but it does a good job of catching you up to speed. I honestly would have watched even more, but I'm trying to avoid binging too much of a TV show at once these days, because you end up not really remembering it afterwards. But so far it's really engaging. Jones being a miserable grump could feel tired at this point, but they've mixed things up enough that it doesn't feel like a retread. And considering what happened at the end of season 2 I think she has a perfectly valid reason to be miserable. Also the element of depowering her goes a long way to make for interesting character conflict in addition to all the other stuff she's dealing with.

I also checked out the first 2 episodes of Parks and Rec since they happened to be on Netflix, and bugger me I've been sleeping on this. It's hilarious! It maybe hits home for me more than the average person because I've worked in the planning field in the public sector. I guess I kind of wrote it off as just another mainstream american comedy despite having plenty of evidence to the contrary. It feels way more like Community than, say, the Big Bang Theory with its slightly mean-spirited, massively awkward style. Definitely gonna keep watching.
 
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Trunkage

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I watched the first 3 episodes of the 3rd season of Jessica Jones, which I'd completely missed even existing. I hadn't watched the show since the second season, so a 3,5-year gap between events left me struggling a bit to remember what had happened and where everyone was, but it does a good job of catching you up to speed. I honestly would have watched even more, but I'm trying to avoid binging too much of a TV show at once these days, because you end up not really remembering it afterwards. But so far it's really engaging. Jones being a miserable grump could feel tired at this point, but they've mixed things up enough that it doesn't feel like a retread. And considering what happened at the end of season 2 I think she has a perfectly valid reason to be miserable. Also the element of depowering her goes a long way to make for interesting character conflict in addition to all the other stuff she's dealing with.

I also checked out the first 2 episodes of Parks and Rec since they happened to be on Netflix, and bugger me I've been sleeping on this. It's hilarious! It maybe hits home for me more than the average person because I've worked in the planning field in the public sector. I guess I kind of wrote it off as just another mainstream american comedy despite having plenty of evidence to the contrary. It feels way more like Community than, say, the Big Bang Theory with its slightly mean-spirited, massively awkward style. Definitely gonna keep watching.
The first (and possibly second) season of Parks and Rec are pretty bad. It gets way better
 

gorfias

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Someone recommended After Life on Netflix starring Ricky Gervais as a very depressed man whose wife has just died of breast cancer. His day job is a reporter for bull shit local interest stories like someone with a water stain on his wall that he claims looks like Sir Kenneth Branagh. He keeps wondering what it is all about and why go on and it has me seriously freaked out. Example of whigging me out: he decides to try smack because, well, why not?

Freaked out but interested. B+ so far (into season 1 episode 4)

 

Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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I also checked out the first 2 episodes of Parks and Rec since they happened to be on Netflix, and bugger me I've been sleeping on this. It's hilarious! It maybe hits home for me more than the average person because I've worked in the planning field in the public sector. I guess I kind of wrote it off as just another mainstream american comedy despite having plenty of evidence to the contrary. It feels way more like Community than, say, the Big Bang Theory with its slightly mean-spirited, massively awkward style. Definitely gonna keep watching.
It does inevitably dip in quality down the line (about season 5?), although it never suffers the sort of catastrophic collapse that Friends, How I Met Your Mother, or (eventually) The SImpsons did, limping on well after they should have been quietly taken round the back and put down.