Watch Watched Watching: May The Fourth be with you!

[Cashless Society]

Got to watch Insomnia last night. Definitely the least Nolan-esque movie his catalogue. I thought it would be fun to see him do a straightforward story but nope, this story was done in such a painfully mechanical manner that I don't believe Nolan is capable of telling a decent story without fiddling with time concepts. Nolan just said screw let's dedicate the first 30 min to plot and then the next 20 to character and then back to plot and then the main character is going to spiral outta control and then, at this very moment, have him confide in this other character (even though it doesn't make sense) and then we'll wrap it up in the last 15 or so minutes. Only watch this movie if you wanna compare early 2000s Nolan with 2010s Nolan.

Also, I never realised how true the statement "IMAX made Nolan a better director" was. But I'd like to add, "but it also made him a weaker storyteller".

[Rippounet]

Watched 6 episodes of Invincible. Still like it, but I'm seeing some flaws now (it can be very predictable at times).

With two episodes left, I'm very curious about what the answer to the core mystery will be.

Is Omni-man crazy, or are Viltrumite fascist super-soldiers each assigned a planet to conquer/manage? 

[GallowKnight]

I watched Boogie Nights this weekend and it is still a fantastic movie, probably my favourite Paul Thomas Anderson movie (and Mark Wahlberg movie for that matter). This time I came out of it with the realization that the guy who shoots the robber in the donut shop also plays Captain Turner, George Hearst's main henchman in Deadwood season 3.

Then I watched Guns Akimbo and I really wish I hadn't.

[Argonath Diver]

Well I've finished the fifth season of The Expanse, and am now at roughly the same place in the book series and the show. Boy is that show superb. Miller was far and away my favorite character in the novels, and Thomas Jane aced it in my books.  

The fifth season was really compelling, though

Spoiler

Naomi's desperate struggle alone in that booby trapped ship was incredibly difficult for me to watch. I am not claustrophobic, but I'm not sure if there's anything harder for me to watch than near-suffocation scenes, no matter what the genre. Throw in her incredible emotional trauma, and I dreaded every scene going back to her. Dominque Tipper was superb.

I very much enjoyed Amos' arc that season as well. I've never found Holden very compelling at all, nor really vibed with Strait's performance, so it was great to see the crew out from under his wing. 

The show does such a great job making space beautiful and terrifying. It's refreshing to see more terrestrial action especially in later seasons, but the show aces ship-to-ship combat and tense-as-hell missions in the vacuum beyond the Rocinante et al.

The general theme of "Why the hell is humanity still fighting each other over this stupid shit?" continues to ring true in the real world, from America to Isreal and on and on.

[Mexal]

1 hour ago, GallowKnight said:

Then I watched Guns Akimbo and I really wish I hadn't.

This movie made me laugh. I was entertained.

[Werthead]

Watched the first season of Final Space and it was...okay, I guess. It kept doing these really weird tonal shifts where it had characters crying and people dying tragically, but it was all pretty unearned. They also kept doing an odd thing of establishing deep-abiding relationships in the space of like five minutes flat. And the main character is an absolute unsympathetic, unfunny prat. But a lot of the other characters are interesting, it has some really great animation and the voice work and music are great. I'll watch Season 2 (Season 3 not on Netflix yet), but not straight away.

I started watching Kim's Convenience and it is exceptionally good. Mr. Kim is a towering masterpiece of a comic creation and the cast and writing are fantastic throughout. I kept having weird flashbacks to 1970s UK sitcom Open All Hours, also about a local shopkeeper who is distrustful of the modern world but also keen to appear "with it," with a regular cast of oddball customers and a put-upon family member as an underling. They're completely different in almost every other respect, but some of the universality of two different cultural experiences was quite amusing.

Started off The Nevers. Pretty good so far, although it's a bit predictable if you've seen, well, anything Joss Whedon has ever been involved in before.

[Aemon Stark]

2 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

Well I've finished the fifth season of The Expanse, and am now at roughly the same place in the book series and the show. Boy is that show superb. Miller was far and away my favorite character in the novels, and Thomas Jane aced it in my books.  

The fifth season was really compelling, though

  Reveal hidden contents

Naomi's desperate struggle alone in that booby trapped ship was incredibly difficult for me to watch. I am not claustrophobic, but I'm not sure if there's anything harder for me to watch than near-suffocation scenes, no matter what the genre. Throw in her incredible emotional trauma, and I dreaded every scene going back to her. Dominque Tipper was superb.

I very much enjoyed Amos' arc that season as well. I've never found Holden very compelling at all, nor really vibed with Strait's performance, so it was great to see the crew out from under his wing. 

The show does such a great job making space beautiful and terrifying. It's refreshing to see more terrestrial action especially in later seasons, but the show aces ship-to-ship combat and tense-as-hell missions in the vacuum beyond the Rocinante et al.

The general theme of "Why the hell is humanity still fighting each other over this stupid shit?" continues to ring true in the real world, from America to Isreal and on and on.

I finally just finished the first season yesterday - took me quite a while to get into, possibly because the world-building is so dense it can be hard to figure out who's doing what and why. But it's great! I'd like to read the books too and have a copy of Leviathan Wakes - should I read first and then keep watching? Or does it matter?

[WarGalley]

7 minutes ago, Aemon Stark said:

I finally just finished the first season yesterday - took me quite a while to get into, possibly because the world-building is so dense it can be hard to figure out who's doing what and why. But it's great! I'd like to read the books too and have a copy of Leviathan Wakes - should I read first and then keep watching? Or does it matter?

Not sure it really matters or if there is a consensus opinion on which to consume first. The show keeps to the major plotlines pretty well and I actually think they pull off some of the characters or amalgamation of characters better than the books. 

[Mindwalker]

Tried and failed to get into The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (a couple of weeks ago) and Succession (yesterday). I think I might cave and try Mare of Easttown, even though I wanted to binge the whole season when it's out.

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Aemon Stark said:

I finally just finished the first season yesterday - took me quite a while to get into, possibly because the world-building is so dense it can be hard to figure out who's doing what and why. But it's great! I'd like to read the books too and have a copy of Leviathan Wakes - should I read first and then keep watching? Or does it matter?

At this point, I don't think it matters. The sixth season will be the final season, and it's unlikely that the final three books will be properly adapted, if at all. Maybe if they do a last minute decision to keep going.

[Argonath Diver]

1 hour ago, Aemon Stark said:

I finally just finished the first season yesterday - took me quite a while to get into, possibly because the world-building is so dense it can be hard to figure out who's doing what and why. But it's great! I'd like to read the books too and have a copy of Leviathan Wakes - should I read first and then keep watching? Or does it matter?

Hmm, I'm not a necessarily a reliable narrator regarding the books to series. I absolutely flew through the first few novels over the course of a few days, in a weed addled haze of the early Covid shutdown. I only stopped reading them when I enjoyed the televised first season so damn much, and then promptly ignored both for the past year. As we did with so many works, they eagerly sat on my "I need to watch/read that! Why am I not?" shelf for too long. So much of the second through fourth seasons I recalled only just enough to keep things somewhat sensical. 

I definitely think knowing the books helped for the first season, but beyond that, I think you'll have enough of a grasp of what's going on, and what things you know the show/books just aren't telling you yet - if that makes any sense. By the end of the first season/book, you can see that a ton of wild stuff is about to happen, and I think you'll enjoy the ride immensely, whichever media you decide. I can tell you that finishing the series has made re-reading the series up to the current a top priority on my To-Read list. 

 

[Kalbear]

2 hours ago, Aemon Stark said:

I finally just finished the first season yesterday - took me quite a while to get into, possibly because the world-building is so dense it can be hard to figure out who's doing what and why. But it's great! I'd like to read the books too and have a copy of Leviathan Wakes - should I read first and then keep watching? Or does it matter?

You should keep watching until a part of season 2 happens. Trust me, you'll know what I'm talking about. Then go back and read Leviathan Wakes.

[Rippounet]

Finished Invincible, and found it was a bit of a letdown after all.

After a strong beginning, it ended up relying on tropes and clichés... That's not a problem in itself, but the writing lacked depth in too many ways.

[Veltigar]

Finished the final season of Castlevania. It was a nice change of pace after Justified and it continued to entertain me throughout, but I do feel it lost a lot of steam over the various seasons. That first limited season was superb and then they got weaker quite fast. I'd get behind people who describe this as the first "good" video game adaptation, but it certainly is far from great. 

Pretty much all of that is down to a lackluster story. This show's drive really takes a nosedive after 

Spoiler

Dracula is killed. It's such a weird decision to kill your main villain after two seasons and dragging out the rest of the plot over two more seasons. Artistically I can respect that, as it's true to real life. Once you have defeated let's say the Nazi's, you have to deal with the fallout of refugees, the loss of law and order, remaining allies and erstwhile friends turning into foes but this show never managed to replace their Nazi Germany with an Imperial Japan or Soviet Russia.

And the show itself knew that very well, as pretty much all other villainous characters are somehow obsessed with bringing Dracula back to life, while simultaneously managing never to be as interesting as he was in either skills, character design or motives.

It also doesn't do itself any favors by going full on superhero film in the end

Spoiler

Bringing Death into play as a villain, even though he's been mentioned as an entity only once and then having him literally be killed by Belmont who supposedly sacrifices himself only to turn out completely fine, with a child on the way and Alucard happy with a sidepiece of his own? And then that post-script where Dracula and his consort are back alive and they decide to retire from public life? That's just such a tacked on saccharine happy ending it makes me sick.

That being said, the positives far outweigh the negatives all in all. Final season aside, I really liked the world-building aside from the main plot. It was great at bringing out that classic horror movie vibe and I'm genuinely intrigued by what this world could be (although I'm guessing it's a future earth). The animation was also great, I really liked the bonkers whip fights and grotesqueness of the night creatures. The voice actors were also fun, but then you can never go wrong with someone like Armitage. Even with shitty material like in The Hobbit, he's always nice.

[john]

5 hours ago, Rippounet said:

Finished Invincible, and found it was a bit of a letdown after all.

After a strong beginning, it ended up relying on tropes and clichés... That's not a problem in itself, but the writing lacked depth in too many ways.

I think part of that problem is that it is a very straight adaptation of a comic book from 20 years ago. TV writing has got more sophisticated in that time. Although I will say I think that relying on tropes is part of what it’s supposed to be doing. Mark really is a hero for heroism’s sake.

7 hours ago, Mindwalker said:

Tried and failed to get into The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (a couple of weeks ago) and Succession (yesterday). I think I might cave and try Mare of Easttown, even though I wanted to binge the whole season when it's out.

Try Succession again, the first episode, even the first few, is not reflective of how great it becomes.

[Derfel Cadarn]

59 minutes ago, john said:

I think part of that problem is that it is a very straight adaptation of a comic book from 20 years ago. TV writing has got more sophisticated in that time. Although I will say I think that relying on tropes is part of what it’s supposed to be doing. Mark really is a hero for heroism’s sake.

Try Succession again, the first episode, even the first few, is not reflective of how great it becomes.

Succession is great. Loved it when Roman bought his dad the wrong Scottish football team

[3CityApache]

10 hours ago, Aemon Stark said:

I finally just finished the first season yesterday - took me quite a while to get into, possibly because the world-building is so dense it can be hard to figure out who's doing what and why. But it's great! I'd like to read the books too and have a copy of Leviathan Wakes - should I read first and then keep watching? Or does it matter?

I binge watched all five seasons first, and then read all 8 books in about three weeks. Worked fine for me.

[Annara Snow]

On 5/16/2021 at 7:33 PM, SpaceChampion said:

Anyone watch Cruel Summer?  Is it any good?  Looks from the trailer like a 13 Reasons Why type sad teen show.

It's one of my favorite new shows this year. I've never seen 13 Reasons Why so, I don't know about the comparison. I don't know if I would call Cruel Summer "sad", but it is pretty dark and it definitely deals with some difficult subjects, including kidnapping/grooming/abuse/rape/trauma. It's a drama/mystery/thriller focued on two teenage girls and the mystery about which one is telling the truth about a certain hugely important thing - or maybe they both are saying what they think is true, or telling partial truths.. (there are several different fan theories).

The show regularly switches between 3 different timelines a year apart (1993,1994, 1995( to show you how the two protagonists' lives (and the lives of thei families, friends and community) changed (but they make it pretty easy to follow which one is which), and switches between their POVs (the first episode was from Jeanette's POV, the second one from Kate's POV and so on, though episode 5 was both of their POVs). If you watch the first two episodes. it should give you the idea about the tone and structure of the show.

[Heartofice]

Searching for a new show on Amazon Prime last night.

Thought we’d give Bosch a go, it has six seasons and I’ve seen it mentioned a few times. Had to stop it after 15 mins, it felt like every cop show cliche contained in a tiny space of time. That it wasn’t a parody was quite concerning. From everyone referring to him by his last name, him actually calling his chief ‘chief’ and just the bog standard nature of everything I immediately decided I would never be able to stomach 6 seasons of that.

Next choice was Sneaky Pete. This was much better. Grabbed me straight away, I’ve always loved Giovanni Ribisi ( can’t figure out where I first noticed him, was it Saving Private Ryan or Friends?) but he’s really watchable in this and the first episode was a ton of fun.

[SpaceChampion]

6 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

It's one of my favorite new shows this year. I've never seen 13 Reasons Why so, I don't know about the comparison. I don't know if I would call Cruel Summer "sad", but it is pretty dark and it definitely deals with some difficult subjects, including kidnapping/grooming/abuse/rape/trauma. It's a drama/mystery/thriller focued on two teenage girls and the mystery about which one is telling the truth about a certain hugely important thing - or maybe they both are saying what they think is true, or telling partial truths.. (there are several different fan theories).

The show regularly switches between 3 different timelines a year apart (1993,1994, 1995( to show you how the two protagonists' lives (and the lives of thei families, friends and community) changed (but they make it pretty easy to follow which one is which), and switches between their POVs (the first episode was from Jeanette's POV, the second one from Kate's POV and so on, though episode 5 was both of their POVs). If you watch the first two episodes. it should give you the idea about the tone and structure of the show.

Actuallly I binged the first 5 episodes last night.  I liked Olivia Holt from Cloak & Dagger so gave it a shot.  It's an interesting format.  Hopefully it doesn't end simply with nerd girl = psycho, abducted girl = liar.  Doesn't look good for either of them so far.

I was amused Kevin Smith's daughter is in it, and keeps saying "Hey, let's rent Clerks!"  Her character is sketchy though.