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Watch, Watched, Watching: The Shield lands on top


Veltigar

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4 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Narratively it's not particularly complicated, but in terms of sf ideas that the plot focuses on it leaps

Well, I was speaking narratively, but I don't think it leaps much either.  Maybe it's because of repeat viewings, but I think you can narrow it down to just blight and time dilation really.  Now, the exposition required for explaining that (especially the latter) is a huge issue, yeah.

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3 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

I tried a couple episodes of Shadow and Bone, but I couldn't get past the YA dialogue. Easy to see its appeal to many fans, though. I don't think I'll keep on with it. Knowing nothing about the source material, it definitely feels disjointed, and hearing they're combining two wholly different series makes sense. Similar to The Witcher, though in that property I at least had a cursory understanding of the main characters.

I thought each actor seemed to do fine with the script aimed at teens, and there are really, really good looking people all over. I liked the general visual vibe of the show, especially  If I take a second look at the series down the road, I'll probably do some wiki reading even if I notice a spoiler or two. Lots of conversations and scenes in the first two episodes that I'm sure resonated more with readers.

I really like Ben Barnes, mostly because we are the same age, and look alike with his scruff, if you up the slider on each characteristic a couple spots of course and recolor the greys.

Tonight I'm going to start The Nevers, which I think I'll enjoy more.

Well hello there...

I enjoyed Shadow and Bone more than the Witcher which I could not finish (haven't read either series). It certainly didn't blow me away but it improved towards the end of the season and I'll continue watching if it gets renewed.

The bumping of the last kingdom thread made me realise I never watched the last season that aired. I've also forgotten season one and two so I'm going to start a rewatch

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What is it with me and second seasons? Do really so many of them suck, after the first season was great or at least promising, or is it not them, it's me?!

In its second season, For All Mankind totally falls apart. The interpersonal stuff has some good drama, but mostly devolves into soap territory. The moon scenes are still impressive, but apart from that... (space) tech porn alone doesn't cut it for me.
I think part of the problem is the structure of the show:

Spoiler

In order to cover the highlights and milestones of space travel, they skip almost a decade in between seasons and then show only a limted time period. Then they stuff all the private drama in, even when it makes little sense in the timeframe, or there's just too much of it. (I'm looking at you, Baldwin family. And that's even before Karen's, er, special plot.)

Also, the plot holes/ suspension of disbelef keeps mounting. Not necessarily the big tech stuff (I can't really judge that, so I believe all of it... well, except for the fact they seem to have artificial gravity inside the moon base?), but things like... everyone knows an astronaut is drinking (AND hasn't been in training for many years), yet the person who knows he also had a serious psychotic episode on the moon sends him back. Apparently they can't kill ants or use earplugs on the base.  Two astronauts travel to the UdSSR alone, without CIA or anyone else. Oh, and of course they are not greeted with any pomp and press, because Russians bad and Russia drab.

Lastly, I had hoped for more/ better world building of this AU.

Oh well. I'll have to force myself to watch the final two episodes, where undoubtedly there'll be lots of drama and heroics, but I do want to finish it.

Now I kinda dread the next season of Gentleman Jack...

OK, rant over.

I think I might try either Years and Years or Mrs. Maisel next. 

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1 hour ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Well hello there...

I enjoyed Shadow and Bone more than the Witcher which I could not finish (haven't read either series). It certainly didn't blow me away but it improved towards the end of the season and I'll continue watching if it gets renewed.

The bumping of the last kingdom thread made me realise I never watched the last season that aired. I've also forgotten season one and two so I'm going to start a rewatch

:D Well until I figured out I should grow a beard and get a proper haircut in my 30s, I only ever got "Screech", so I'll definitely take "mediocre Ben Barnes or emaciated Eric Bana" as upgrades. 

I might give the show another try if I brace myself for the YA vibe of all the interactions. I'm not bagging on it at all, and I don't necessarily require some gritty or stuffy show. I had a hard time getting through the second episode due to disinterest and about 1.5 eyerolls per conversation. I absolutely would have quit the Witcher as well simply because it didn't make much sense had I not some familiarity with the games. 

Heh now I'm talking myself into trying to press on with Shadow and Bone before I start the Nevers.

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9 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

The only reason I finished it was because I was watching it with someone and I picked it. It's very boring and extremely depressing. 

I thought it was interesting and well made, but ultimately kinda empty. Not sure I got the vibe that true freedom means pissing in a bucket in a old broken-down van and working seasonally at an Amazon warehouse. 

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I've heard it makes Interstellar look simple. I like Nolan and will generally see anything he makes, but he needs to get over himself and stop trying to make films that prove he's the smartest person in the room.

I love Interstellar but it has a coherent narrative and plot, despite any flaws. The thing about time travel as a high concept is that Star Trek and numerous other scifi shows have covered anything Nolan might come up with and then some and done it at least somewhat coherently. 

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Because Last of the Mohicans (1992) has showed up on amazon prime this weekend (it hadn't been on any of my other streaming services), for @Veltigar, I gave it a second chance.

Seeing it again after at least two decades, it's even worse than I remembered it to be.  Fridging a wife and children that Cooper's Magua never had, instead having been whipped by Colonel Munro for being drunk, for the sake of plot --  I guess that made Magua's treachery all the more palatable and less ... well, racial?  Having Cora and Bumpo falling immediately passionately into a relationship that they never had in the novel, I guess gave the audience an opportunity to sit through murkily lit scenes of passionate breathing heads. But it's Uncas (whose name we hardly even hear, and him we hardly even see until the end of the film) and Cora who fall in love. 

But the point of the plot was that Cora -- not Alice -- and it's Alice Heyward wants to marry, not Cora --  had to die because she was just about the first tragic mulatta, a figure that became ubiquitous in American literature ever after.   But there's no mention in the film that Cora and Alice have different mothers.

Also in the novel Magua also wants Cora for his wife. The changes from the novel did not improve the story of movie, or lessen the racial subtext which wasn't in the least subtext in the mid-19th century novel, not with Bumpo forever banging on 'creatures must stay like-to-like". While story as such is very thin on the ground.

Mostly it's just chasing around, ambush battles, interspersed with very long, murky scenes of Fort Henry's siege (been there).  This is a movie that so harks back to 1950's cinemascope films, but not in a good way.  It takes more than perfectly detailed army uniforms to make a period film good, and this is one of the worst. Moreover, though this is the French and Indian War (as we call it over here), the rhetoric is all that of the Independence era. The only bit this time around I like at all, was General Montcalm, and he doesn't even name-checked in the film, iirc, or if so it went by so fast I missed it. :rofl: 

Glad you enjoyed watching, Veltigar.  But I, again, found it excruciating/bad for so many reasons.

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6 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Tenet is a decent (though not great) spectacle and an embarrassing mess of a story.

The thing with Nolan movies is that very few directors are out there doing the stuff he does - like when I go see his movies, I'm bound to see something I've never seen before ( It helps that WB basically write him a blank cheque) ; his movies are certainly quite flawed though, I agree with that, especially regarding the how poorly written a lot of the women in his movies are and *big* issues with characters & script.

I'm glad I got to see Tenet in the cinema, I think that really added to the experience. Him and Rian Johnson are directors whose movies I will probably always watch at the theater, even though I had big issues with Knives Out which have really soured my feelings on that movie.

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4 hours ago, briantw said:

It's an incredibly fun show.

Episode two felt like dramatic satire. Looks like I found my next show to binge.

4 hours ago, Aemon Stark said:

I thought it was interesting and well made, but ultimately kinda empty. Not sure I got the vibe that true freedom means pissing in a bucket in a old broken-down van and working seasonally at an Amazon warehouse. 

I think age affects how much you get out of the film.

 

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Rewatched The Big Lebowski, and it was good. Bridges and Goodman are so very good in this. Everyone else, too, but the Dude and Walter are just perfection.

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3 hours ago, Ran said:

Rewatched The Big Lebowski, and it was good. Bridges and Goodman are so very good in this. Everyone else, too, but the Dude and Walter are just perfection.

There are so many great moments and lines in this movie. And you notice new things every time you watch it. If you pay close attention you can hear George Bush Sr talk about "unchecked aggression" at the very start of the film while the dude is shopping for milk. Of course Walter goes off on a whole rant on the subject a little later. 

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Had the pleasure of watching El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie yesterday. Pretty weird experience. As a movie that stands completely on its own, it fails spectacularly. I can't imagine watching this without having seen Breaking Bad.

Normally, I'd see that as a massive flaw. It's okay if you watch a film and that having seen the previous IP gives you an added layer of meaning, but if you really need the backstory to make sense of the film you are currently watching, that is usually a bad sign. That being said, as a coda to Breaking Bad it worked brilliantly. Especially since for me everything is still so fresh. I can't imagine having to wait 5 years for this film.

I'm very glad they were able to make it and that I decided to see it. They really struck a delicate balance between the flashbacks and the actual story, which I was pleasantly surprised by. I think they captured the tone of Breaking Bad pretty well, with the exception that it was far more hopeful due to the fact that it was centered on Jessie. I read a review that very insight-fully contrasted

Spoiler

Walt's return at the end of Breaking Bad, where he was alone and without friends with Jessie emergence from captivity. He immediately had a whole network of support who were willing to aid his flight. That really shows you the difference between our two favorite meth cooks.

  I actually felt moved by the scenes between

Spoiler

Skinny Pete and Jessie. It's such good writing that they were able to build up Badger and Skinny Pete from basically Seth Rogen wannabes to these nuanced side characters.

In my head canon they will once meet again in Alaska, were I hope that Jessie is going to live a long and fruitful life.

 Another thing I really liked about the film were the action scenes. I was never particularly struck by that aspect of Breaking Bad, apart from perhaps some negative instances like

Spoiler

the horrendously bad VFX when Gus Fring died, but El Camino has a few good action sequences. In particular the shoot out between Jessie and the welders was incredibly tense. Much, much better than an automated military machine gun.

I could definitely see myself watching this again in the future. Especially for the MVP of the film, a Jesse Plemons who really let himself go and was a source of unintentional comedy for me XD

14 hours ago, RumHam said:

Yup. They started filming about a month ago. Thirteen episodes instead of the usual ten. 

Okay, well, we'll see whether I'll cave. I can't see myself watching this show week by week :)

14 hours ago, DMC said:

I was actually pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as Sorkin-y as I expected.  The end is - plus both incredibly cheesy and stupid.  And the complaints about Joseph Gordon Levitt's character are valid and typical stupid Sorkin.  But that's about it.  The complaints about Bobby Seale don't really seem valid to me - because if you want to be historically accurate he should have his own movie.

I'm still not keen on checking this out ;) 

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Does anyone else have a problem catching all the dialogue in The Nevers? ... between the cockney, and the things said under one's breath, it could use subtitles .. some of the lines that i do catch are pretty clever and/or funny. 

I'm enjoying it, for what it is, except the actor who plays Malady is abysmal...  

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1 hour ago, Martini Sigil said:

Does anyone else have a problem catching all the dialogue in The Nevers? ... between the cockney, and the things said under one's breath, it could use subtitles .. some of the lines that i do catch are pretty clever and/or funny. 

I definitely miss 5-10% of the dialogue, and I think that's making me struggle to understand what's going on beyond the surficial stuff. Interesting that they just don't have subtitles, I thought it was me that couldn't figure out how to enable them on my Roku lol

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On 5/3/2021 at 1:11 PM, Martini Sigil said:

Does anyone else have a problem catching all the dialogue in The Nevers? ... between the cockney, and the things said under one's breath, it could use subtitles

If you can turn them on, it's often helpful. I've seen many people cite the close captioning in the US, so it should be available.

I think there are definitely some occasions where the under-the-breath deliveries are quite intended.

Spoiler

Twice now, Amalia has said things in such a way as to make a key word uncertain, most recently in this episode where most would assume she said "where" and in fact she said "when", which gives a very different spin on what she was saying.

Can't agree on Amy Manson, but mileage varies on the "mad, manic pixie" thing. Reviewers who kept citing Drusilla made me think it'd be a retread, but Mason brings a wildly different energy to the performance. Drusilla was dreamy, like she was on a constant opium high. Maladie's much more energetic and wild.

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44 minutes ago, Ran said:

Can't agree on Amy Mason, but mileage varies on the "mad, manic pixie" thing. Reviewers who kept citing Drusilla made me think it'd be a retread, but Mason brings a wildly different energy to the performance. Drusilla was dreamy, like she was on a constant opium high. Maladie's much more energetic and wild.

Agreed with this.

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Finished Shadow and Bone and thought it was ok. On balance I think that melding the two book series was a good thing. I will be completely honest and say that even though I have read the first couple of each I did not really recall that much of either of them, although I thought the heist stuff was more engaging than the witchy romance stuff. The first ep or two does feel confusing because there's a lot of characters being introduced and it's really difficult to care about any of them. Once you get a better idea of who people are it's easier to follow and I don't think you need the book knowledge to do that, just a little bit of patience.

Lynx are not pack animals though. Not sure what on earth the point of that line was. Why not say 'wolves' instead? (unless it was intended to be incorrect because they wanted to catch out Arken? But what if he simply thought, 'hang on a second, lynx aren't pack animals, so maybe these guys are fucking with me lol bye'?) Please don't anyone say that maybe lynx ARE pack animals in the Grishaverse. :rolleyes:

ETA: watched the director's cut of The Wicker Man last night because it's that time of year and it remains one of my favourite films. Bits of it are still screamingly funny to me every time I watch it. Love it.

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1 hour ago, Ran said:

If you can turn them on, it's often helpful. I've seen many people cite the close captioning in the US, so it should be available.

I think there are definitely some occasions where the under-the-breath deliveries are quite intended.

  Reveal hidden contents

Twice now, Amalia has said things in such a way as to make a key word uncertain, most recently in this episode where most would assume she said "where" and in fact she said "when", which gives a very different spin on what she was saying.

Can't agree on Amy Mason, but mileage varies on the "mad, manic pixie" thing. Reviewers who kept citing Drusilla made me think it'd be a retread, but Mason brings a wildly different energy to the performance. Drusilla was dreamy, like she was on a constant opium high. Maladie's much more energetic and wild.

Yes, exactly. 
Drusilla also always looked glamorous, even when she was sick and weakly. I like that they made Maladie really look like s**t, yellow teeth and all. 

Drusilla was also always relying on men to do things for her, whenever she can. Or was following Darla's lead, when the men weren't around. Maladie is the leader.

(I haven't seen sepisode 4 yet, I'm about to watch it, so I'm not looking under the tags.)

The comparisons are just reviewers being lazy. If they're gonna say every mentally ill female villain is the same character, why not compare Alice from Batwoman to Drusilla, too? Oh right, because Whedon was not involved with that show. 

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