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

Bob_McMillan

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Oh, I'm sure they will. I'm saying what's interesting is that Harrow himself seems to have drunk the Kool-Aid, as it were. I didn't say he was actually right, more that he is actually convinced he is right rather than justifying a wrong.
Yeah I get that, but I'm saying it's hard to not put Harrow on the same level as a dumbass flat earther. Villains who truly believe they are right are always interesting, but I still think their beliefs must be at least slightly relatable or logical. I'm sure they'll explain more about why Harrow is so committed to such a bad idea, but I think that'll require some very creative writing to not make him seem like an idiot.

EDIT: Sort of the same problem with Thanos. Why didn't he just snap for twice the amount of resources in the universe? If it was about changing societies to be less self destructive, why didn't he just snap for that? Etc, etc.
 

thebobmaster

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Yeah I get that, but I'm saying it's hard to not put Harrow on the same level as a dumbass flat earther. Villains who truly believe they are right are always interesting, but I still think their beliefs must be at least slightly relatable or logical. I'm sure they'll explain more about why Harrow is so committed to such a bad idea, but I think that'll require some very creative writing to not make him seem like an idiot.

EDIT: Sort of the same problem with Thanos. Why didn't he just snap for twice the amount of resources in the universe? If it was about changing societies to be less self destructive, why didn't he just snap for that? Etc, etc.
Thanos is a bit different in that while he *claimed* to be doing everything for the betterment of society, to make people stronger, to conserve resources...everything you said shows how shallow that mindset is. If he had ever been asked about it, it would have been interesting to hear how he responded. Probably something not too dissimilar to Arthur Harrow's speech about cutting off the infected limb, but in this case, the infection would be...people in general, rather than the evils of the world? I dunno. Ultimately, Endgame showed that Thanos was full of shit, anyways, and ultimately wanted to be revered as a savior, while Harrow is fully committed to Ammit, so I think that's one big difference between the two: Harrow probably feels like he is doing the will of Ammit completely, while Thanos was basically half-assing it.
 
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Piscian

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I find the more compelling aspect of Harrow is that he's clearly not lying about Konshu. Konshu is clearly "off" and likely drove harrow to madness. He also has no intention of releasing Marc from his duty.

I'd find it kind of amusing if Ammits justice is real and that it's a complex philosophical debate, like Maybe Ammits justice is an assumption that a persons future isn't changed.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

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Tokyo Vice on HBO

From Michael Mann, who produces and even directs the first episode. Wish he was helming all of them but so far the rest of the series feels decently his. It's moody and atmospheric with only a flash of action here and there. Ostensibly based on the memoir of a gaijin reporter working to expose the Yakuza in late 90s Tokyo. Ansel Elgort is fine but Ken Watanabe as his mentor cop is vastly more engaging. There's a side plot involving glorified hookers opening up a club of their own that feels largely unconnected to everything else but I'm sure one of them will drop dead and tie everything together sometime soon.
 

SilentPony

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Corner of No and Where
#Adulting, the new Bill Maher special.

Oh boy its bad. Bill Maher has been on a noticeable downturn for a number of years. But this was just peak Boomer "old man yells at cloud" bad. You know you're in for a boomer time when the first minute he calls people wearing masks pussies. Then he complains about mask mandates, and says Covid was never a big deal, and the vaccine is pointless and the damn kids. Like seriously, he complains that kids are getting tattoos.
And the titular joke, adulting. See Bill Maher self identifies as an expert on millennials and gen-z. See in his mind adulting was a term millennials seriously used to describe doing adult things, like making doctors appointments. And none of his writers told him adulting was a term used to mock boomers like him who thought making a doctor's appointment made them an adult. And no one told him millennials stopped used the term in 2016.
I mean its peak boomer. Catching onto millennial culture 7 years too later, no understanding it, then complaining about it. Oh and apparently the greatest threat is cancel culture and comedians being mocked on Twitter for a few days.

Also zero irony or self awareness when complaining about Marvel movies, yes super hero movies, being childish and people need to grow up. And he's a single stoner who frequents the playboy mansion. And its just wow, nothing?

But this is a guy who is so desperate to be the smartest man in the room he flew to Florida to tell jokes.

0/10. Skip it. It need not be watched.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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Better Call Saul season 6 premiere was two parts. Kinda long but there’s a lot of setup to be had and catching up to do after the prolonged break. There’s two main alternating threads to follow for the time being, with an appropriate weight and uncertainty to how they’ll tighten or unravel as things play out.

It’s interesting watching the delicate power dynamic between Gus and Mike. At this point he doesn’t really know the extent of Gus’s personality. We may see more of that soon.

 
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Xprimentyl

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Moon Knight: S1: Ep1: Okay / Great

As exhausted as I am with superhero movies, I don't know what possessed me to watch it, but it was okay. Don't know if I'm intrigued enough to keep watching. Doesn't help that they literally waited until the final seconds of the first episode to introduce the hero in full costume, and didn't show him doing anything save turning around in dramatic fashion, but I guess that was an attempt to garner intrigue and entice you to keep watching, but as burnt out on this kind of stuff as I am, that tactic might have worked against their interests.

To its credit, it felt like a slower burn Venom (a film I and maybe 4 other people loved,) so I might give it another episode or two for that reason, but as I've no familiarity with Moon Knight as a character, it'll have to meet some pretty lofty expectations to keep my attention.
 

Piscian

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Moon Knight: S1: Ep1: Okay / Great

As exhausted as I am with superhero movies, I don't know what possessed me to watch it, but it was okay. Don't know if I'm intrigued enough to keep watching. Doesn't help that they literally waited until the final seconds of the first episode to introduce the hero in full costume, and didn't show him doing anything save turning around in dramatic fashion, but I guess that was an attempt to garner intrigue and entice you to keep watching, but as burnt out on this kind of stuff as I am, that tactic might have worked against their interests.

To its credit, it felt like a slower burn Venom (a film I and maybe 4 other people loved,) so I might give it another episode or two for that reason, but as I've no familiarity with Moon Knight as a character, it'll have to meet some pretty lofty expectations to keep my attention.
The first episode definitely felt weak to me, It feels like the first half of a two parter. The second episode completes the setup much better. Admittedly I don't like his custome that much, they made him look too big and clumsy like the Predator.
 
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Xprimentyl

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The first episode definitely felt weak to me, It feels like the first half of a two parter. The second episode completes the setup much better. Admittedly I don't like his custome that much, they made him look too big and clumsy like the Predator.
I know nothing about Moon Knight save he exists in the Marvel Universe. I've obviously seen images of him in comics, but not enough to have any opinion about how they portray him in this show. I thought he looked pretty cool for the four seconds they showed him, but how it compares to the source material, I've no idea.
 

Hawki

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Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils (3/5)

It's debatable whether I should review this on its own, as it's obsensibly part of a series of 2022 DW specials, similar to those at the end of Tennant's run. However, therein lies the rub. I watched those specials on the edge of my seat. These specials, however, I watched out of obligation. Or at least this one. It's telling how far DW has fallen that it's come to this, and how both Davies and Chibnall have tried to end their series in the same way (the Doctor facing their apparent inevitable death) in the context of a warning ("he will knock four times" vs. "time is running out for you"), and yet nothing her works. At all.

Alright, maybe that's a bit harsh. If we treat this episode as its own thing, it's...fine, I guess? Maybe? It made Dan somewhat likable, so there's that. And there's some fun to be had with pirate hijincks, though I got the sense that the budget was tight here, given the lack of extras that even if the plot explains it, doesn't make it any less weird. Oh, and bizzarely enough, the scene with Yaz and Thirteen was kind of nice. I mean, sure, Yaz only displayed any feelings for the Doctor in Flux, but what's here is nice. But apart from that, it's just bog standard stuff.

Per the rating, the episode wasn't "bad," but honestly, I just barely cared. I still barely care. At least Flux made me feel something in regards to how terrible it was, but this is just...ugh. I don't take any pleasure in saying this, but at this point, Doctor Who is just a walking zombie of a show. The titular sea devils look like actors in rubber suits, and that what this is. A suit. Prancing around pretending it's the real deal, when the show stopped being "the real deal" ever since Chibnall took over. :(
 
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sXeth

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I know nothing about Moon Knight save he exists in the Marvel Universe. I've obviously seen images of him in comics, but not enough to have any opinion about how they portray him in this show. I thought he looked pretty cool for the four seconds they showed him, but how it compares to the source material, I've no idea.

Well, in the comics it... varies and is complicated. But most of the time he's just a dude using tech (with some level of magical "insight")

That said, the show does not have Steven as the millionaire with the tech, so they seem to have pulled some powers that don't totally align with the comics (even in the comics, when he's had powers, they're heavily based on moon phases)

Probably the best indication for the shows potential quality is that the writer pitched it to Marvel, and not as an MCU tie-in. So its more likely to tells its own self-contained thing rather then being a extended trailer elements of their crossover.
 

Gordon_4

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Queen: The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert - 10/10

This has been streamed constantly for the past day on Queen's YouTube channel. Regretably its not the ENTIRE concert, the opening acts with Metallica and Def Leppard are sadly absent. Whether this is because that section was lost - this looks like a broadcast copy - or just didn't have the rights to use is unclear. It kicks in with 'Tie Your Mother Down' and goes on from there. Beautiful show, great music.
 
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Phoenixmgs

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Severance - Season 1 - 7/10

It's a really good show with a really great concept... so far... The concept is that your work self and normal self are separated mentally so your work self only knows work life while you basically live your life without any knowledge of work. I'm only giving it a 7 and putting in the "so far..." because I feel like there's still a lot questions the plot brings up that need to be answered and depending on said answers could change how I feel about the show overall.

---

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel - Season 4 - 10/10

The dialogue is just so fast and snappy, I love it.

---

Devs. Damn that show is good, its got some real artistry to how shots are put together with music and sound to give the series a really haunting vibe. The characters are interesting and so is the mystery, I don't want to go more into the plot since its one of those that feels like its better to just go into blind.
Devs is so good. The show still has the best description of losing a loved one.

Nick Offerman's character describing when he lost his daughter:

The moment my daughter was taken from me...
it was as if I was instantly placed into two concurrent states.
In one... I had a full understanding... that Amaya was gone.
There was no doubt. No... hope.
No holding onto anything. No going back.
Just the certainty of her death.
In the other,
I had no comprehension of her death.
It was an impossible thing.
An implausible thing. Absurd.
Vast.
Meaningless.
Untrue.
It wasn't just that they were contradictory states.
They were absolute states.
Each was complete in itself, leaving no room for the other.
But...
I held them both.
And still do.
There was nothing anyone could say to me.
 
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gorfias

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The Flight Attendant Season 2 Episode 1 HBO-MAX
7/10
Kelly Cuko reprises her role as a flighty flight attendant who is 1 year sober. But sober, she is still an unreliable narrator. Thrown into a new intrigue as a CIA civilian asset, she thinks she sees someone that looks just like her... both in her narration, but in real life too. It's cute and worth a watch.
 

Xprimentyl

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Severance: S1: Ep1-3: Okay / Great

Employees of a company undergo a procedure that bifurcates their brains in such a way that their personal life and work life are entirely separate, i.e.: memories formed at work and at home are completely separate, so the work "you" has no idea what home "you" does and vice versa. Mark has undergone said procedure, but starts to question his choice when a new hire exposes the suspect ruthlessness of the company and begins to question what his work self actually does 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I was intrigued going in because I expected an allegory about corporate culture (something I've railed against for years,) and while it is largely that thus far, it's more gearing towards a thriller about the company itself and less about the general culture we all should have been questioning for decades. Not bad, but not great. Functional so far as entertainment, but the wake-up call for corporate shills and "yes man" ideals it is not. Like when Disney dropped Pocahontas, and instead of a movie about cultural appropriation, the injustices served by early settlers, and an improper relationship between an adult and a child, we got a love story and music. Watch if you want to. I'll probably finish the 9-episode series just to see what happens.
 

gorfias

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Severance: S1: Ep1-3: Okay / Great

Employees of a company undergo a procedure that bifurcates their brains in such a way that their personal life and work life are entirely separate, i.e.: memories formed at work and at home are completely separate, so the work "you" has no idea what home "you" does and vice versa. Mark has undergone said procedure, but starts to question his choice when a new hire exposes the suspect ruthlessness of the company and begins to question what his work self actually does 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I was intrigued going in because I expected an allegory about corporate culture (something I've railed against for years,) and while it is largely that thus far, it's more gearing towards a thriller about the company itself and less about the general culture we all should have been questioning for decades. Not bad, but not great. Functional so far as entertainment, but the wake-up call for corporate shills and "yes man" ideals it is not. Like when Disney dropped Pocahontas, and instead of a movie about cultural appropriation, the injustices served by early settlers, and an improper relationship between an adult and a child, we got a love story and music. Watch if you want to. I'll probably finish the 9-episode series just to see what happens.
Hoooo boy are you in for a surprise.
Oh, no no no no no no, this is not a series on Apple TV to just endure.
This show is sooo much fun, different, interesting, freaky, and subject to making connections to our real life lives.. this show is A plus. If you have Apple TV, this is must. If you do not have Apple TV? Get it to binge this.

 

Xprimentyl

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Hoooo boy are you in for a surprise.
Oh, no no no no no no, this is not a series on Apple TV to just endure.
This show is sooo much fun, different, interesting, freaky, and subject to making connections to our real life lives.. this show is A plus. If you have Apple TV, this is must. If you do not have Apple TV? Get it to binge this.

Yeah, we're gonna keep watching; it just hasn't tackled my interest completely yet. I DO wanna know what goes on in "the breakroom." I'm getting the same vibe I did from Lost; they keep piling on the intrigue for intrigue's sake, and I'm going along for the ride hoping the destination is worth it. Stay tuned...
 
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PsychedelicDiamond

Wild at Heart and weird on top
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Undone (2019)

Amazon Prime series from the mind of Raphael Waksberg and Kate Purdy, respectively showrunner and writer on Bojack Horseman, done in rotoscoped animation and starring Rosa Salazar of Alita: Battle Angel Fame. Part drama, part comedy, part supernatural mystery, all new age mumbo jumbo. Undone follows Salazar's Alma, a jaded young woman in her late 20's with a hearing disorder, a controlling mother, an overachieving younger sister and a dead scientist father. Following a car accident, Alma finds herself experiencing hallucinations that may either point towards her developing schizophrenia, or psychic powers and the show makes a point of leaving open which one it is or whether there is a difference between those at all. Most prominently, her father, played by the always delightful Bob Odenkirk, seems to be reaching out to her from the spirit world, offering to teach her to project back to time of his mysterious death and perhaps find a way to alter the timeline to prevent it. Which, you see, is where the mystery part of the story comes in.

This doesn't appear to be a very popular opinion, but I felt that there was a lot wrong with Undone. I liked Bojack Horseman a lot, as a show that found a succesful balance between mostly effective satire on the american film industry and, often times very earnest and grounded, interrogation of its many troubled personalities. On principal, I was on board with what is, effectively, a season long extension of the abstract, introspective bits that each season of Bojack usually did for its penultimate episode and Undone definitely has its moments of that. Alma and most of her supporting cast are very much in line with Bojack's surprisingly three dimensional cast, while being much less cartoonishly exaggerated. As a matter of fact, while it has a few moments of levity and witty dialogue, Undone isn't really a comedy at all. And it's definitely at its best when it's a character driven family drama. What I absolutely couldn't get on board with is what it's central hook was meant to be.
Bojack Horseman provided an impressively succesful depiction of characters suffering mental problems of varying type and and severity. Some of the same people trying to tell a story about a woman struggling with hereditary schizophrenia trying to hold on to her wits after an accident was an ambitious, but potentially very compelling premise. But then they decided to also make it supernatural.
I am, broadly speaking, still with them on their decision to immerse us into her perspective by keeping it ambiguous whether her visions are just products of her deteriorating mental state or actual, well, visions from a higher plane. The problem is, the show really seems to suggest that she might be psychic when some of these visions turn out to contain information she couldn't possibly have known. Now, if Undone is at least strongly implying that its supernatural elements are real, it's handling them more than poorly. In trying to elaborate on them by evoking both Alma's fathers research into quantum physics and shamanistic mysticism from her indigenous heritage on her mothers side it mixes two different flavors of woo into a concoction of highly potent super-woo that causes intense headaches on exposure. I wager you need to live in California and attend yoga classes to be able to even remotely take any of its more fantastical elements seriously. Straight up, it's some incense-scented, granola flavoured new age nonsense that make Sense8 look like hard sci-fi, and Undone expects us to at least entertain the idea that it might be legitimate. And boy, did it lose me there.
I feel like Undone is trying to do two absolutely irreconcilable things at once. If it were a drama about a mentally ill woman who thinks she is developing psychic powers after an accident, it'd be a potentially very interesting story. If it were about a woman with actual psychic powers it might still be a potentially solid premise. But Undone trips over its own ambiguity and especially when it starts to theorize that perhaps schizophrenia might just be an expression of psychic abilities in general I was out. Undone comes extremely close to romanticizing a crippling mental condition and no matter how coy it plays about the veracity of its supernatural plotpoints, bringing up the possibility that, maybe, schizophrenics are actually psychics and just leaving it hanging is an irresponsible thing to do. And frankly, the entire plot, which is, as of yet, open ended, hinges on that possibility.
I stand by what I said, there's a potentially compelling character driven drama in there, the acting, mainly from Salazar and Odenkirk, is really good, it has a unique artstyle that it occasionally uses to great effect, I just wish it would drop all the weird spiritual woo and tacked on mystery and would actually focus on the struggles of a woman with schizophrenia and how her family and friends cope with it. Legion has shown that you can effectively incorporate psychological elements into a supernatural mystery story, but Undone is just not like that.

And that's really the problem, Undone is a show that would rather do two things poorly than one thing well. It's not an effective character study dealing with someone losing their sense of reality because it refuses to outright discredit a supernatural explanation of the hallucinations Alma experiences, yet it's also not an effective supernatural thriller because all the elements of one are framed through a portrayal of semi realistic mental illness.
What's left is uncomfortably ambiguous and way too deeply invested in its own bogus pothead spirituality to engage me in any meaningful way. Undone preserves some of Bojack Horseman's sharp characterization, but fails to ground it with intelligent satire or relatable drama. There's another season coming out this week, maybe it'll manage to redeem itself, but the first one sure didn't do anything for me.
 
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gorfias

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Yeah, we're gonna keep watching; it just hasn't tackled my interest completely yet. I DO wanna know what goes on in "the breakroom." I'm getting the same vibe I did from Lost; they keep piling on the intrigue for intrigue's sake, and I'm going along for the ride hoping the destination is worth it. Stay tuned...
This is true of a lot of shows. I was thinking Black Box shows at first, like Lost. I loved that until I found the end so disappointing I can't even recommend it. Except the episode where Dexter becomes unstuck in time. That was special. But
the way it goes, I don't buy that the others were ever as murderous when by the end of the show, for no reason they seem to be less so, but all the time travel: if the end goal was to save the island, why was any of that ever necessary?
But things like Game of Thrones is one, long, complete story. While there are questions to be answered, it isn't a Black Box. But with its disappointing ending, another I can't really recommend. Or maybe I ca and just tell you to stop watching after Season 3 or 4?

Without spoiling anything, there's a lot of potential to anger people with unsatisfying answers to questions. But I found the end of the season itself to be great and satisfying fun. With a heck of a cliff hanger.
 
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Xprimentyl

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This is true of a lot of shows. I was thinking Black Box shows at first, like Lost. I loved that until I found the end so disappointing I can't even recommend it. Except the episode where Dexter becomes unstuck in time. That was special. But
the way it goes, I don't buy that the others were ever as murderous when by the end of the show, for no reason they seem to be less so, but all the time travel: if the end goal was to save the island, why was any of that ever necessary?
But things like Game of Thrones is one, long, complete story. While there are questions to be answered, it isn't a Black Box. But with its disappointing ending, another I can't really recommend. Or maybe I ca and just tell you to stop watching after Season 3 or 4?

Without spoiling anything, there's a lot of potential to anger people with unsatisfying answers to questions. But I found the end of the season itself to be great and satisfying fun. With a heck of a cliff hanger.
We're about to start episode 6, and there's definitely a "what the fuckery" tone keeping me glued to the screen. I was really intrigued to discover the work persona is basically subjugated to its "outie" when Helley attempted to quit and went so far as to kill herself; that was powerful. Then the whole O & D dynamic... what in every shit is going on?!?
 
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