Veltigar

I watched the final two episodes of Ted Lasso. I think it managed to stick the landing. The third season is not as good as the first (by quite some margin), but in general I'm pleased with the finale. It could have been better, but given the dreck we were served in some of the earlier seasons, it could have been much, much worse as well. I'm also still slowly progressing through The Great. It's not a show I find easy to binge but I do enjoy it a lot. I'm at episode 4 now and things are beginning to heat up. I'm curious to see what they will do with Forget IP law, just ask yourself these two simple questions: Would Vin Diesel's ego allow it? Would Tom Cruise's ego allow it? Deep in your heart, you know the answer.

Ah, I didn't consider that. Still, when I think about it, I don't think it sways my opinion. I would have wanted an extra slice of wish fulfillment from the show's final season. Also because it would have been a more definitive ending. Now they have scope to launch a Tedless season of Ted Lasso in which they win the league.

I thought it was a very good ending, although I'm sad that Richmond didn't Leicester it. This felt too much like a rethread of Rocky's message. For once I would have liked to see a bit more wish fulfillment, especially since there isn't a real message attached to them being second. In general though, I have to say they managed to stick the landing. If I ever rewatch Ted Lasso, I'm sure there are episodes in the middle of both season two and three (mostly three though) I will skip, but in general I do think it holds up reasonably well. I do still think they made some very odd choices with all the time they had available (Rebecca's storylines this season, but even more so Keeley's dreadful girl boss storyline). There is quite a few things I would have done differently (for example, Jamie getting together with the teacher who first hit on Roy would have been a nice ending to his arc or I would have liked to have seen Rupert not push his coach, but remember the boy he once was and end up supporting for AFC Richmond) but in general I think the good outweighs the bad. The central message that niceness, forgiveness and support can make a difference is one I wholeheartedly enjoy.

I watched Rain Man over the weekend. Don't think I ever did before, but a lot of scenes rang a bell since this film has been parodied time and time again. Anyways, I thought it was great. Every performance lands and even by the very high standards of 80s Tom Cruise, this was a fun movie. Also finished the last two episodes of Succession and the last two episodes of Barry. My hot take is that Barry is more deserving of accolades than Succession. Both are great in their way, but there is just something about Barry that is very hard to replicate.

Barry was brilliant. Definitely preferred it over Succession, so I will break a lance for its greatness if there ever is a need for partisans of either show to come forward. I'll second the love for Henry Winkler. The great thing about his character is that I'm always fooled by his earnest wish to change, before the inevitable flip flop. I didn't think he would turn his coat again, and then they threw Daniel Day Lewis at him My favourite intellectual presence of the season is The Raven though. I really think his final speech about letting go of the bullshit and embracing your true self encapsulated this show's message perfectly. I'm not sure whether I agree with it, but given the outcome for the characters it was very much gospel truth: Raven => Let go of the bullshit, reconciled himself with Barry and is now still at large. Presumably enjoying life Cousineau => Not capable of letting go of his bullshit, pretended to be a saint and therefore accidentally ended up looking like a criminal mastermind. Incarcerated for life. NoHo Hank => Couldn't admit to what he had wroth on Cristobal, he died needlessly. I do believe that he could have walked away scot free if he had just admitted to The Raven what he had done to Cristobal. Barry => Not capable to admit how horrid of a person he was (his religious evocations near the end of the episode were brilliant), when the realization finally downed on him, he was killed. Sally => Admitted to herself she was not happy and that guilt was wrecking her. Now she seems to have a nice, quiet life with her son. I do wonder what this means for John. The Mask Collector was hilarious, but philosophically speaking, I found it quite threatening. Will John choose the pretence over reality and thus also be consumed?

You know, I get it. I watched it during CoVID's worst excesses, so it was such a relief to see the optimism in this show. I can imagine people being turned off by it in more normal times. I'd still encourage you to try and power through it. It does get more complex as it goes along.

My take is there are two reasons why this season has been rather poor: Delusions of grandeur: As detailed in the article @Heartofice shared, I think the writers just started to believe their own hype and tried to turn the show in something that it just isn't. Churning out possibilities for ye old spin-off machine: I think you're quite on the money here. Alas, they suck at it. At this point I'm not even sure whether I'd follow a spin-off about the core football team (which is the only almost consistently part of the season imo)

I watched the latest episode of Ted Lasso, which was fortunately better than the string episode I had to revisit a couple of days ago. They did seem to make a rather drastic jump with the character of I wonder how they plan to wrap up everything in the two episodes they have left. So many plots that are still dangling in my opinion. EDIT: Oh, I also started watching the third season of The Great. So far of to a strong start, curious to see where it goes!

Watching this series is profoundly weird to me. It has some of the best dialogue I have ever seen, but everything else about it (regardless of quality) provokes such deep feelings of disgust. It boils my blood to see these characters go about their idiotic business. So it's kind of like a hate watch for me, but I understand that the acting, the dialogue, etc. are all top notch. I also have no idea how it is going to end. Part of me wishes them to loose the empire and their money, as that is what justice would demand. The realist in me however, understands that this is not going to happen. I think the most likely outcome for them is to lose their relevance, but remain rich. That would sting for the characters, but it is not the punishments these assholes deserve, so for me it would be unsatisfying as a viewer. EDIT: A third very unlikely possibility is a scenario where (one of) the Roy siblings somehow end up on top. Or that we jump forward 30 years and that it turns out that Logan Wambsgans is the true successor of the empire. It's really a testament of their skill that the show's writers can create these mixed emotions and that I feel so compelled to keep on watching despite of it.

If the reviews here are good, I might check it out. Chances are pretty big that I'll skip it though and even if I do feel like I'm missing out, I'll do my best to find a second-hand version of the novella.

The latest episode had me in stitches. Fuches transformation into The Raven is just so hilarious. I also like what they are doing with Sally's character. It's a statement that in a series full of murders, there are few things I found as shocking as her giving her son vodka to knock him out.

As an addition to my comment in the Watched thread, I would just like to say that worst offender on that front is the Keely storyline. At this point, I would have preferred her to be fridged in season 2 to motivate the male characters. You can imagine how dreadful her parts are if even something as lazy as fridging is preferable to it. I fucking hated that Jack defaced a priceless first edition of Sense & Sensibility to give Keely a present. I actually said to myself 'fuck this show' and had to pause the episode.

I had to backtrack to Ted Lasso when I discovered I had accidentally skipped the episode where they tie pieces of strings to each other's as a way to train themselves in a new football philosophy. This was probably the worst episode of the entire series. It's really sad how this show is mismanaged in its final season. The core workplace comedy parts about the football team still work exceedingly well, but all the ancillary stuff is terrible (and there is just so much of it ). I also caught up with "The Wizard" the latest episode of Barry (chef's kiss). This is such a brilliant show. Truly an underrated gem! I feel like even if it's just for the final two episodes, this series deserves a thread of its own. So I'm going to make one.

Hey everyone I am correcting one of the most egregious mistakes in the board's history. Barry really deserves a thread of its own. Even if it is just for the two final episodes, we got to do it!

Also hyped here I do seem to recall that there was another thread, but as long as the author of said thread doesn't go through the topics they created via their profile to retrieve it, I don't think we'll have much chance to revive it. I don't think it's that big of a deal for this show however. At the moment I think it's yet to become very popular. It's a lot like Derry Girls or Ted Lasso in the sense that the first season started out as a sleeper hit. If it can maintain the quality, this absolutely deserves to blow up to become a big show.

A new season of The Great? Damn, that's another thing to add to my watch list. I totally did not expect it to be released already. This show really has issues with promoting itself well.

Slowly catching up on Succession. Currently one episode behind. I'll never love this show, but the dialogue is truly a work of art, that cannot be denied. Spoilers from season 4, episode 7

As to the bolded, I assumed the acoustics of the hall were suboptimal, but you think it was the sound mixing? You'd think the BBC with all its experience would be capable of making sure that everything technical is top notch.

That's a bit harsh, but I get where you come from. I think the final two episodes where significantly weaker than what came before and I am somewhat worried about this show falling into the standard zombie show tropes, but for now I'm still willing to give it the benefit of the doubt Ah, I thought that was a rather nice detail. Good for them for having created that themselves. Thanks for the answer Ran!

One thing I am curious about in the finale is the visual motif of Joel kicking away the casings of his spent bullets when he tears through all the red shirts. I read that the show lifted a lot of scenes straight from the game, so I'm wondering whether any of the gamers here remember whether that was also a detail in those scenes in the game?

This was a tremendously weak year though. I hope we'll soon get another year like 2021. That year was insane. So many good tunes that in a normal year would probably have won. To some degree, I feel like you can say the same about Loreen. I though the live performance of her song was considerably weaker than the version you find on Spotify. She was still a deserved winner though. The rest of the field was really weak and Tattoo in its studio version is glorious.

Double post. Please ignore.

Have spent the weekend catching up on Ted Lasso. The latest episode was somewhat of a return to form, but the one before that was not very compelling. I hope they'll be able to trend upwards as they did near the end of season two, as so far I find it quite a weak season. All in all, I do have conflicting emotions about the show. For me, the first season was a perfect balancing act and its relentless optimism coming out during CoVID lockdown is one of the best example of serendipitous timing I can think off. It just never reached those highs again, but I hope it can limp over the finish line with a worthy conclusion at the very least. The first episode is rather good because it is pretty much a straight rip-off of the opening of 28 Days Later. In general, I would say that The Walking Dead has been one of the most instrumental shows in my development as a TV-junkie. Back in the day, I had a lot more time, so I had a habit of finishing pretty much every show I started and especially the so-called watercooler conversation shows. Even if I didn't like it, the reasoning was that I could at least follow in on the conversation. The Walking Dead is the show that broke that habit for me. The first season was mediocre, the second season on the farm was hellish and then I made it through the Governor and prison seasons which felt marginally better mostly due to the fact that they were positively Shakespearean in comparison to the farm season. I quit that show knowing it would probably go on for another couple of seasons (definitely did not expect them to last to 11 and have spin-off shows though) and it was one of the best decisions I ever made in terms of entertainment. After that I walked away from GoT, The Shanara Chronicles, Vikings and countless other pieces of trash that just weren't worth my time (or were not worth my time anymore. A small number of these series like Vikings started out great and lost their purpose along the way). So yeah, totally agree that - barring perhaps an apocalypse - nothing would ever really compel me to go back again and watch the remaining seasons of TWD. Notwithstanding the crappy execution (TWD cratered in quality as soon as they got rid of Frank Darabont), the misanthropic nature of The Walking Dead is probably the lamest things about the IP (and that's saying something, since there is so much competition). The grimdark/goth kid approach to storytelling is such a lazy approach to take. I hope The Last of Us doesn't slip into that type of storytelling. You will cave in and watch The Great No really, the show is bonkers and should be seen by more people. Treat yourself!

I am all caught up with Barry's fourth season. Ready for episode 6 to come out. This show is a true delight in my opinion. It's just incredibly impressive to see the cast switch seamlessly from farcical comedy into profound tragedy in the blink of an eye. The fact that both extremes can be present in the same characters and still make sense is a testament to just how good the acting and the writing are on this show. I also think it's a visually appealing show. The colour palette might be quite drab, but they have such interesting cinematography that helps to ground the out-there-nature of the characters. I'm sad it's the last season, but if they manage to stick the landing on this one it's one for the history books. As much as I like Pedro Pascal, chances are pretty good for Barry to be my favourite season of HBO television to air in 2023.

That first line tells me everything I need to know. For a minute I was thinking it might have Breaking Bad style improved over the seasons, turning it into something I should give another chance. If that's not the case, I'll steer clear. Not sure what triggered me about the