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

[Hawki]

The Walking Dead: Season 7 (3/5)

At this point in time, the seasons of TWD can be pretty much divided in two. On one hand, you have the good/great seasons. On the other, you have the average seasons. That would be fine, if not for how the average seasons are seasons 5-7. Not a good sign for a TV series when it has a good period and then a...not so good period.

Still, of those average seasons, season 7 is probably the "best okay" one of the lot. Certainly it's a step up from seasons 5 and 6, though it's far from flawless. A lot of that has to do with Negan, who's an absolute blast to watch. He kind of reminds me of the Governor, in that they're both villains that can be described as "dynamic," but there's still differences between them. With the Governor, you got that there was some humanity in him, somewhere, and that it might re-emerge under the right circumstances. With Negan, not so much. He's an asshole, and unlike the Governor, revels in the terrible things he does.

Problem is, we don't actually see that much of Negan, and when we don't, a lot of the season feels meandering at best, or pretentious at worst. It also feels like a full circle that doesn't feel that full. Like, towards the start, Negan strips Alexandria of all its weapons. By the end of the season, Alexandria's recovered a new batch of weapons. Like, you can point to how by the seasons' end, Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom are all in alliance against the Saviours, but apart from that, you might as well just cut to Alexandria saying "fuck off" and pointing their guns over the wall, and you'd have a pretty similar season ending. Doesn't help that there's numerous opportunities for someone to just shoot Negan, excuses from the producers aside.

So the season is...okay. Not good, not bad, just okay. Whatever the case though, the show's been losing steam for awhile (least of what I've watched), and introducing a great villain can't solve that if he's underutilized, and your plot goes round in circles.

 

[Dalisclock]

The Dragon Prince Season 2. Some good stuff there but much of the season feels like it's hanging around in one place when they could be moving forward, though what they did with the downtime was good enough I didn't mind so much. As long as it doesn't pull a dark tower and have entire seasons where they make no forward progress at all for the sake of flashbacks or a little town in the middle of nowhere. At least they finally reached Xadia at the end of the season.

Archer Danger Island. A fun romp but not as well done as Dreamland. While this show has done a pretty good job of staving off Seasonal Rot by repeatedly changing things up, I'm kinda glad the next season is gonna be the last. And an Alien Parody at that, from the looks of the end scene. I don't know if I'm happy or sad that Barry shows up as a Luftwaffe pilot who acts as a good foil to archer, only to get killed in a single episode.

Keep trying to get back into Black Mirror and the bleakness of the show just makes it hard to sit through, let alone try to binge watch. It's good, it's really good, but damn if I don't just want to drink myself to death everytime I finish an episode.

Just started Love, Death and Robots. Watched and liked the first episode/film. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[Xprimentyl]

LegalEagle

Fun vids; to quote: ?an attorney destroys your favorite childhood movies by showing you how illegal everything is.? For example, here in The Dark Knight, since Bruce Wayne is masterfully trained in the martial arts, though they are intentionally nonlethal, his assaults could be considered assault with deadly force. Anyway, I knew the Joker would get the book thrown at him, but got DAMN, Batman?!?

Spoiler: ?If you don?t want to watch the video, but want to know their estimated sentences??

Joker gets 35 life sentences PLUS 12,000 years in jail. But Batman? 60 million years. MILLION. The 30,000,000 counts of computer trespassing and wire-tapping when he turned everyone in Gotham?s cell phone into a microphone really added up; no wonder Lucius was freaked out when he saw what Batman had done.

 

[Kyrian007]

Trailer Park Boys: Season 13 (6/10)

This was kind of difficult. I'm not sure they should have continued on after the death of John Dunsworth. And I really don't think the idea of bringing his character back, only to kill him on-screen, then having him stick around like some kind of booze force ghost... is a good one. But you can't deny that fits the particular Trailer Park Boys idiom. The idea to switch to an animated format works pretty well... but some of the fun of TPB previously was watching some of the cartoonish action happen in live action. In the end, I laughed. Its the same kind of guilty pleasure, dumb fun its always been... now its just animated.

Into the Badlands: Season 3 (7/10)

Maybe not quite as good as Season 2, but still a good show. Several of the resolved cliffhangers from season 2 didn't pan out as interesting as I was hoping... basically it didn't meet my admittedly unrealistic expectations after the stellar season 2. Still, seeing Nick Frost pulling off wire-fu using an octopus as nunchaku... worth the price of admission.

I'm also still trying to work through the backlog on my watchlist of anime. I've been stuck for a little while on.

A Certain Magical Index/Scientific Railgun (6/10)

Its enjoyable enough I suppose, and there aren't any characters I absolutely hate. But it has some fairly glaring flaws. Tropey enough to flip the switch in my head that doesn't like shounen. Just one example... bad guy now will have a (very short) redemption and will be a ally or antihero later. This happens 6 or seven times in the 70 or so episodes I've seen. That's balanced a little bit by at least making them more nuanced characters than average anime stock characters like our protagonists. Which is offset by the fact that I don't hate either of them. Schlubby slacker with a superpower which is generally useless but turns out to make him the most powerful character of all with a heart of gold for one series and Superpowerful girl that is more than a little clueless and a little tsundere but has an adorable love of cute childish things. Rings the cliche bell almost a dozen times in one sentence there, but its more of a comfortable familiar feeling than an annoyance. It also suffers harshly from "stakes creep" In Index's 3 seasons we've gone from "Lets protect the pride of our class/school" to "we're trying to save the world while fighting in what is actually being called World War 3." Things are ramping up JARRINGLY fast. And at first I thought Railgun was going to be the "lighter and more comical" version of the story because a: they seemed to be ignoring one of the darker aspects of things happening to the main character (who is a side character in Index) and b: halfway through season one they catapult right into a swimsuit episode after things got the first bit slightly dark. I was wrong. By season two they spring headfirst into that dark storyline involving the main character from Railgun... and contrast it pretty nicely by starting it with a "comedy" episode that ends with a cute new character getting her leg ripped off of her body and then being splattered under a dropped cargo container. Not nearly as a refreshingly abrupt a tonal shift as say Magica Madoka or as satisfying as Doki Doki Literature Club... but they tried and it wasn't terrible. And that kind of sums both series up I guess.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Le bizzarre avventure di GioGio: Vento Aureo (7/10)

Only watched the first 2 episodes, but I'm looking forward to more beautiful Italian boys in flamboyant outfits posing fabulously, and to find out how much the writer doesn't give a fuck anymore because everything must be so very dramatic and awesome.

 

[Hawki]

The Walking Dead: Season 8 (3/5)

At this point, I'm kind of past caring.

That isn't really an inditement on the season per se. Well, it kind of is, but I have to acknoweldge that my method of watching TV shows while working isn't really, well, working, because I'm constantly being distracted by other issues. As such, a lot of what I write here shouldn't be taken as being definitive. Still, that said, this season was kind of bleh. It didn't actively irritate me like, say, season 6, but there was no wow factor either. And looking at the ranking of the series by season, there's now a pretty clear divide between the first four and the last four.

So, yeah. That's kind of it. Sorry, don't have much else to say.

 

[BrawlMan]

Megalobox - A Rank. An old-school style boxing anime with the aesthetics to match. What I like about is that the anime is very straightforward with the story and characters and does not beat around the bush. When it's a 13 episode anime/mini series, it's best not to dick around. Unfortunately, that tends to happen with a lot of the 13 episode long anime, but not Megalobox. I highly recommend it to any anime fan looking for something different, not homogenized, or draws from the old-school while still be able to stand on its on.

 

[Hawki]

The Dragon Prince: Season 2 (4/5)

The easiest way I could describe this seasons is "more of the same." As in, if you liked season 1, you'll like season 2. If you didn't, season 2 isn't going to win you over. Luckilly, I did like season 1, and I do like season 2. Overall, I'd say that the season is slightly better, but "slightly" is the key word. Something of note is that in The Last Airbender, the second season felt distinct from the first, even if it's continuing the same storyline. Here, while it repeats the whole 'book naming' thing, this is very much a continuation of a single story.

Key area where it has improved is the animation, but it could be that I'm just used to it by now. Apart from that, all the strengths from the previous season are here. There's minor things I could get into, but overall, I'd be repeating myself. Basically, everything I said in my review of the first season can more or less be applied here. Now I just need to wait for season 3.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars

So I watched Farscape on Netflix about 3 years ago, but Netflix had made the critical oversight of not buying the series-concluding miniseries, so I never saw the end of the show. Amazon just started streaming it so I finally got to see the conclusion, after a rewatch of the preceding 4 seasons of course.

Overall, it was good but not great. A let down I must admit when the show was almost always amazing before the end. I know that Farscape was cancelled after season 4 and we are lucky to have a real conclusion at all, but the fact that PKW is a condensed version of the planned season 5 storyline shortened to a 3 hour movie really shows. Obviously not all the characters get much to do, Rygel and Chiana especially, and a lot seems to happen merely because it needs to happen to get us to the end. There's also an unfortunate issue in makeup and sound production, in that the miniseries used different contractors for those things and some characters ended up looking or sounding slightly off. It was quite distracting to hear Pilot talking in a bad imitation of his own voice.

Now, that's not to say it's bad. It's still extremely well-written as the rest of the show was, has a lot of good dialogue and character, and tons of excitement and action. The climax especially is a brilliant way to finish Crichton's arc, finally revealing what he's always been capable of and showing the galaxy how horrifying it would be if he let anyone else have wormhole technology. That's a powerful scene.

And I am a sucker for a happy ending when characters who've been basically tortured for 5 years finally win and get some peace and happiness. I'm also a sucker for dark and soul-crushing endings but I'm glad Aeryn and Crichton got a rainbow at the end. The one major character death I won't spoil for a casual reader in this thread was excellently done, managing to tear some heart strings while also making dramatic sense.

I'm glad to finally finish this show, it's one of the best and certainly most overlooked sci-fi shows ever. I don't know if we'll ever get another show with such and adroit combination of quality writing with dramatic depth and fully-formed characters, as well as true batshit insanity and farcical comedy. It's one of a kind.

 

[Hawki]

Oooh, PKW. Agree with most of what you said, but:

FObviously not all the characters get much to do, Rygel and Chiana especially,

Really?

If there's a pair of characters that get screwed over in PKW, I'd say it's Jool and Sikozu. The former gets an unceremonious death, the latter holds the idiot ball in regards to teaming up with the scarrens.

And I am a sucker for a happy ending when characters who've been basically tortured for 5 years finally win and get some peace and happiness. I'm also a sucker for dark and soul-crushing endings but I'm glad Aeryn and Crichton got a rainbow at the end. The one major character death I won't spoil for a casual reader in this thread was excellently done, managing to tear some heart strings while also making dramatic sense.

Yeah. Absolutely love the last few minutes of the movie. After all the shit John and Aeryn have gone through, it's definitely a case of "earn your happy ending."

I'm glad to finally finish this show, it's one of the best and certainly most overlooked sci-fi shows ever. I don't know if we'll ever get another show with such and adroit combination of quality writing with dramatic depth and fully-formed characters, as well as true batshit insanity and farcical comedy. It's one of a kind.

Yeah, pretty much. Guardians of the Galaxy kind of comes close for me, as at least in the second film, it manages to have both emotional oomph with space wackiness. Still, even if GotG did it first (through the comics at least), Farscape does it better. It's weird in that Farscape is arguably a bonkers setting, but as we learn more about the world and characters, we get emotional depth and character buildup. I will say that the later seasons are weaker though (for me, it's 2>1>3>4, though 3 does have some of the absolute best moments in the series).

But, yeah, I don't think we'll get a show like Farscape in a long time. I've noticed in space sci-fi, there's been a distinct shift towards realism. There's fewer, if any aliens, and things are generally more dour. If one makes the argument that sci-fi is meant to reflect our present, then it makes sense when we consider the issues facing us today, compared to the relative bliss of the 90s. But still, yeah. Miss Farscape. But at least it went out with a bang.

 

[Trunkage]

Remind me, in PKW, Rygel has the pregnancy transfer thing right? Otherwise, yeah, I don't remember anything about him in PKW

 

[Hawki]

The Gospel According to Paul (3/5)

This was a one man show based on the life and career of Paul Keating. TBH, not really my thing - certainly I know a bit about Keating, but his career was well before my time, so while I got the general gist of things, this is a case where background material would have been better. So, can't fault the show for that, but I wasn't the target audience. And given that I was (again) the youngest person in the theatre, that seems to be the case.

Remind me, in PKW, Rygel has the pregnancy transfer thing right? Otherwise, yeah, I don't remember anything about him in PKW

He doesn't do that much, but he comes out of it better than the above characters I mentioned.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

Remind me, in PKW, Rygel has the pregnancy transfer thing right? Otherwise, yeah, I don't remember anything about him in PKW

He doesn't do that much, but he comes out of it better than the above characters I mentioned.

That's pretty much what I meant. Rygel does one thing, which is resolved at the end of part 1, then just does background stuff and a bit of comedy for part 2. China I honestly can't remember doing anything really significant beyond reacting to stuff.

For sure Jool and Sikozu get screwed, the latter in particular is kind of character assassinated. I can't imagine any scenario that would convince her the scarrans would honor that deal. But they were both smaller characters on the show and almost non-factors in PKW, so I guess I was overlooking them to complain about people I like more.

 

[Hawki]

X-Ray and Vav: Season 1 (2/5)

This is a bad cartoon. Yes, I watched it for free. Yes, I'm arguably kicking the creators while they're down before saying that. Still, it's bad. The writing's bad. The humour's bad. The voice acting is bad. The animation is...okay, I guess, but nothing special. I watched four episodes, went to the fifth about a month later, then realized that there is no ep. 5, only season 2, episode 1. That's how uninvested I was in this show.

And again, I get it. These are released for free. But...okay, I've seen it stated that Camp Camp is XV's spiritual successor. I don't know if that's true (and there's nothing really linking the two), but if we look at this in the context of RT's other animation projects like Camp Camp and Nomad of Nowhere, XV just doesn't match up. It's not in their league. That's a pretty bold statement, but XV just doesn't reach their level at all. It feels...prototypical. And I don't think this is a case of "it's not my thing" (see RWBY), I think it's fair to say that the cartoon just isn't that good.

But that's just me.

For sure Jool and Sikozu get screwed, the latter in particular is kind of character assassinated. I can't imagine any scenario that would convince her the scarrans would honor that deal. But they were both smaller characters on the show and almost non-factors in PKW, so I guess I was overlooking them to complain about people I like more.

Maybe...

Jool, sure. Jool was hindered in season 3 because the season split its focus in two for a lot of it between the two Johns, so she was only around half the time. That, and I got the sense that the writers didn't really know what to do with her. Sikozu however becomes a full-fledged crew member, and arguably serves a narrative purpose in regards to giving us further insight into the scarrens. So when Jool is unceremoniously killed off, it's aggravating. When Sikozu holds the idiot ball, it's really aggravating. I understand that she got redeemed in the sequel comics, but it's still a blight on PKW, in a movie that's already forced to compress all the show's remaining plot points into a single installment.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Dunno if this counts but I watched this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBaWy8cmdoo

I don't know why Youtube recommended this. Other than the occasional weird movie, I have no real interest in Japan, japanese things or japanese people walking in Japan or anywhere else. But I clicked because I had other stuff to do and I figured this would be a nice background noise. And that turned out to be true, I'd look up every now and then and it's pretty relaxing, the smooth camera movement makes it feel videogamey sometimes. Also I'm assuming bike theft is not a problem in Japan.

If you need some random stuff in the background, this worked great for me. It's like that ASMR stuff but with people walking instead of a lady giving you a fake haircut whispering shit in your ear. I dunno. 7/10

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Hamilton. The Lin-Manuel Miranda musical about Alexander Hamilton. Live.

Sometimes, you want to do something justice, but you realize you don't have the depth of Soul required to do so. I've been in a very bad place for a while, and I still find myself humming the tunes from Hamilton. It was an experience that I will treasure.

 

[Dalisclock]

The Dragon Prince: Season 2 (4/5)

The easiest way I could describe this seasons is "more of the same." As in, if you liked season 1, you'll like season 2. If you didn't, season 2 isn't going to win you over. Luckilly, I did like season 1, and I do like season 2. Overall, I'd say that the season is slightly better, but "slightly" is the key word. Something of note is that in The Last Airbender, the second season felt distinct from the first, even if it's continuing the same storyline. Here, while it repeats the whole 'book naming' thing, this is very much a continuation of a single story.

Key area where it has improved is the animation, but it could be that I'm just used to it by now. Apart from that, all the strengths from the previous season are here. There's minor things I could get into, but overall, I'd be repeating myself. Basically, everything I said in my review of the first season can more or less be applied here. Now I just need to wait for season 3.

I'm kinda suprised nobody on the forums was talking about this at all. At least, no threads about it. I remember Korra getting discussions and sadly I didn't watch Avatar and Korra until both were finished and the discussions were pretty much over.

Now I'm actually watching one of these when it's fresh and nobody else seems to be talking about it.

Yeah, I liked season 2 a bit despite spending a little too much time not really moving forward(but they made up for it by getting to Xadia this season). They also seemed to have fixed the Janky framerates(I thought it was my broadband until I noticed other people complaining as well) and Rayla's accent has held a lot better(in season 1 there was the occasional accent slip in the early episodes).

 

[Dalisclock]

Hamilton. The Lin-Manuel Miranda musical about Alexander Hamilton. Live.

Sometimes, you want to do something justice, but you realize you don't have the depth of Soul required to do so. I've been in a very bad place for a while, and I still find myself humming the tunes from Hamilton. It was an experience that I will treasure.

I do hope it gets a film or at least taped release at some point. Yeah, it's not the same as live but it's still something. I saw it live, loved it and want to see it again.

 

[Hawki]

I'm kinda suprised nobody on the forums was talking about this at all. At least, no threads about it. I remember Korra getting discussions and sadly I didn't watch Avatar and Korra until both were finished and the discussions were pretty much over.

Now I'm actually watching one of these when it's fresh and nobody else seems to be talking about it.

Yeah, I liked season 2 a bit despite spending a little too much time not really moving forward(but they made up for it by getting to Xadia this season). They also seemed to have fixed the Janky framerates(I thought it was my broadband until I noticed other people complaining as well) and Rayla's accent has held a lot better(in season 1 there was the occasional accent slip in the early episodes).

I'm actually surprised they reached Xadia so quickly. Assuming there's going to be six seasons, and they reached their destination by the end of season 2...I'm actually wondering if there might be two halves to the season. Like, Zym gets back to his mother by the end of season 3, but they still have to deal with Aaravos by the series end (and if you don't think he's going to be the big bad, I have property on the moon I can sell to you).

But as for the lack of discussion...maybe it's because it's more niche? Avatar is fairly well known (least in geekdom), but it had the benefit of being free to air. Dragon Prince is meanwhile stuck on Netflix, and is kind of doomed to stay in Avatar's shadow. Like, I love Dragon Prince, but I'd still call Avatar the superior series.

And by Avatar I mean Last Airbender. Not Korra.

Bleh to Korra.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm actually surprised they reached Xadia so quickly. Assuming there's going to be six seasons, and they reached their destination by the end of season 2...I'm actually wondering if there might be two halves to the season. Like, Zym gets back to his mother by the end of season 3, but they still have to deal with Aaravos by the series end (and if you don't think he's going to be the big bad, I have property on the moon I can sell to you).

I have a feeling that we're gonna find out more about the Humans being expelled to the other side of the continent. Because so far the story is "Humans discovered Dark Magic.....Humans were expelled out of Xadia" with the implication the elves were just being dicks about it(from the Human POV). I can't help but think a lot more happened between those two events and we just aren't being told yet.

And I would not be suprised if Aaravos was neck deep in all of that.

But as for the lack of discussion...maybe it's because it's more niche? Avatar is fairly well known (least in geekdom), but it had the benefit of being free to air. Dragon Prince is meanwhile stuck on Netflix, and is kind of doomed to stay in Avatar's shadow. Like, I love Dragon Prince, but I'd still call Avatar the superior series.

And by Avatar I mean Last Airbender. Not Korra.

Bleh to Korra.

I didn't think about the netflix thing but that makes sense.

I liked Korra alright, but the series had a fair number of flaws, not including way too much time on the pro-bending and love triangle in season 1, among other things. Not to mention the Korra/Kasumi thing which just seems like it drops out of nowhere at the end(I don't mind that they're an item, but it felt like there wasn't much build up to that).

I kinda liked the "Game of Bending" feel to Korra but Avatar is the superior show by far.