Watch, Watched, Watching: No Dragons Allowed

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

16 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I dunno, I’ve been slowly catching up on season 5 of Rick and Morty, and I say slowly because I find it a little painful at times. It’s been a long time since I really enjoyed an episode now, and I have to go and rewatch something good from the first 2 seasons to try and remember what I ever loved about the show. 
 

It’s like a parody of itself at times, the jokes rarely land and each character is just rolling out the most obvious lines. 
 

I hope the new season is a return to form, but to blame unless it’s up to the level it was when it started it’s always going to feel like a disappointment 

14 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

^^^^ I have to agree that season 5 was meh from what I saw. I watched like 5 episodes and kinda just forgot about it. It certainly seemed to lose a lot of its magic that made it great, or something

 

Yeah, I don't know what any of this means. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I've never seen this but Sansa is killing it.

 

[Heartofice]

7 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

 

Yeah, I don't know what any of this means. 

You haven’t noticed any dip in quality?

[Ran]

22 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

You haven’t noticed any dip in quality?

I enjoyed the meta-ness of that season, myself. It did reduce the humor somewhat, but episodes like "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort" and "Rickmurai Jack" were worth it.

[Heartofice]

20 minutes ago, Ran said:

I enjoyed the meta-ness of that season, myself. It did reduce the humor somewhat, but episodes like "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort" and "Rickmurai Jack" were worth it.

There were a couple of goodish episodes, but reduction in humour is a pretty big deal for me as it’s why I’m watching the show, for the funnies. 

[Veltigar]

Watched the fifth season of Cobra Kai over the last week. If I'm completely honest, I did not really feel this season. It took a great long while for me to get invested again, which is something I never had on this scale for this series before.

There was still plenty to love, as it keeps on finding ways to mine the original trilogy for content and enrich plots and characters which were really very thin to begin with. All the actors were good in it, particularly the guy playing Terry Silver who played a rather fun villain.

I think what didn't work for me was mainly two things. Firstly, how absurdly self-serious the series has become (I still cannot believe there haven't been more arrests yet). By always increasing the scale of the insanity it does feel like it lost its place a bit for me.

Secondly, I also don't really like the diminished role for William Zabka. His character and his relationship with others is really what grounds this show for me. In this season, his Johny made some real progress as a human being, which is nice in comparison to the rather labored process that went before. I do however feel like they made too many cuts to his screen time as a result. I'm personally not that invested in any of Ralph Maccio's relationships which this season especially seem to have taken precedence.

Spoiler

I hope the escape of Kreese means that next season is going to be more Johny centric again, like the better earlier seasons of Cobra Kai.

In this season, a big deal was made about Johny being Kreese's best student and how Silver just did not see it. The scenes where that was discussed in I felt quite connected to the story, so I hope we'll finally get to the bottom of that relationship once and for all now that Kreese seems to have somewhat found the will to right his prior errors (I'm still somewhat thinking he's actually Johny's biological father, but I feel like the show has moved on from that).

I'm also curious as to who will be the big bad of the final season (or at least I hope it will be the final season). Kreese is out of the running imo, but I do hope Korean lady is not the big bad. I don't think she has the presence to carry this show. I would be open to a plot where Miguel's father is the final bad guy they have to defeat, but I don't think this season did enough to lay the groundwork for it. 

Anyways, I'll definitely check out a sixth season. It has earned that devotion I think, but I hope it will find a way to gracefully wrap up the show.

 

15 hours ago, Zorral said:

But that's exactly what happens with war and politics.  Somebody's fee-fees, honor, house, lineage, greed, ancestors used to rule this, insanity, etc. decides to make one just because ME.  The Middle Ages show this over and over and over. And sheer loutishness.  Nor is there any real resolution or improvement.  Either exhaustion or somebody is removed from power by somebody just like them. Then comes the next power struggle. Thus Hotd is the most faithful to medieval politics and ruling classes ever.

Okay sure, but that further illustrates why I'm frustrated. The Greens in the universe of the show do not really have a leg to stand on, but I feel like the show is still quite sympathetic towards their cause at this point.

10 hours ago, dbunting said:

Spoiler

I watched the after episode director / writer thing and he mentions that he read a throw away line about she died in hunting accident... and he decided to expound on it.  I think that sucked because in the 2-3 min she was on screen I was already liking her, and like anything else in that world she was of course killed.

 

I'd put this in spoiler tags if I were you |dbunting. It might be very minor but it is still a spoiler for a quite recent episode.

As to your point, I feel like it was a good choice to intervene in the source material there. Kudos for the writers for finding an area of improvement and going for it.

Spoiler

The actress also had a pretty good presence, although I do think she was very effective in channeling a shrewish quality, so I'm not sure I would say I liked her  

 

17 hours ago, Ran said:

@Veltigar

Also, that Rick and Morty episode was hilarious. The "San Junipero" reference was so unexpected -- and came on the heels of Linda and I talking about the episode a couple of days ago ("Heaven is a Place on Earth" had come on the radio and Linda just waited for my inevitable reference to the episode, which turned me from someone who didn't think much of the song to someone who smiles because of the association with the episode) -- and some of the jokes were just perfection. 

I must admit that San Junipero reference flew completely past me, as I'm presumably one of the few people on here who hasn't seen Black Mirror yet. I saw the first episode many years ago when it first came out and I then completely missed the hype that would break out around later seasons.

It was a great episode of Rick and Morty however even if I didn't get all the references  

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

6 hours ago, Heartofice said:

You haven’t noticed any dip in quality?

There's usually one or two episodes per season that don't quite do it for me. The last two seasons were no different. 

 

[Heartofice]

6 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

There's usually one or two episodes per season that don't quite do it for me. The last two seasons were no different. 

 

I would have said the ratio of episodes that work to the ones that do has been going in the wrong direction for quite some time. Seasons 4 and 5 I think I only liked a handful of them, maybe 2 or 3 a season. Actually not sure how many of 5 I genuinely liked at all. It’s quite sad.

[RhaenysBee]

More Lost. I really enjoyed Hurley’s backstory about his body image and relationship to food and the time in psychiatric care. It was done with consciousness and courage, they approached the subject with firm loving care. Lovely stuff. The Lock storyline… it’s the kind of good writing, when you know things couldn’t happen any other way than they way the do, yet it’s painful to watch.  I have a lot of respect for Helen and sympathy for Locke. But I really want the captive plot line to wrap up, it’s just tedious at this point. I really don’t like this style of unreliable narration, it feels like a deliberate dragging of the story to fill time. 

[DMC]

1 hour ago, RhaenysBee said:

I really enjoyed Hurley’s backstory about his body image and relationship to food and the time in psychiatric care. It was done with consciousness and courage, they approached the subject with firm loving care.

What I love about that episode, "Dave," is how meta it was in addressing fan speculation this was all in someone's head - and whose better head but Hurley?!?  I'll refrain from commenting on the captive storyline out of fear for spoiling things for you.

[Jaxom 1974]

10 hours ago, Veltigar said:

 

It was a great episode of Rick and Morty however even if I didn't get all the references  

 

That's the thing about Rick and Morty...it's so layered, that there is something for everyone. 

 

[Ran]

10 hours ago, Veltigar said:

I must admit that San Junipero reference flew completely past me, as I'm presumably one of the few people on here who hasn't seen Black Mirror yet.

You should definitely get back and give Black Mirror another go. Or at least "San Junipero", but I'd recommend watching at least a couple of the earlier episodes just to make sure you understand the usual vibe of the show because it makes "San Junipero" that much more of a standout episode. It may be my favorite hour of television of all time.

[RumHam]

13 hours ago, Heartofice said:

You haven’t noticed any dip in quality?

Even Roliand has said it was a "weird" season because one of their main guys died.

https://www.ign.com/articles/rick-and-morty-co-creator-says-season-5-was-a-weird-one-promises-season-6-will-be-fcking-amazing

[Werthead]

Good news, although better when I can actually watch Season 2.

If they repeat what they did with Season 1, they'll dribble it out a week at a time a month or two after the season finale airs in the USA.

 

[Mark Antony]

 

[Werthead]

More intriguingly, Gilligan's next show is SF, set on near-contemporary Earth but with "a twist." That makes it intriguing.

[WarGalley]

I'm on the penultimate episode of Season 6 of Better Call Saul but wanted to comment about the episode Point and Shoot (S06E08) which was really good television. I imagine this to be the Ozymandias episode of BCS because I don't see them topping it with 2 episodes left.

Major Season 6 spoilers.

Spoiler

Goddamn, Howard's death and burial next to his murderer was stunning. Great way to create a pretty decent guy just for the writers to do him really dirty.

And Lalo Salamanca was a fucking fantastic villain. I'm a little surprised he died so early in the season but I loved every scene Tony Dalton was in. I also liked that Lalo, as the main antagonist, didn't have an army of henchmen (or use any henchman at all) and instead relied on his cunning, resourcefulness and skills to overcome his problems. Lalo's instruction for Saul to go kill Gus while Kim stays behind with him was brilliant. Great character. The smile in his death scene might be more memorable than Gus fixing his tie. At the end of the episode, I was really curious where the show would go in terms of conflict for the remainder of the season.

The one thing that left me underwhelmed was Odenkirk and Seehorn's acting in reaction to Howard's death and then in the final breakup. It wasn't emotional enough for me. My expectations may have been overset given all the (Reddit/internet) calls for both of them to win an Emmy but I didn't buy those scenes. As sociopathic as they've turned out to be, they should have been absolutely shivering with the suddenness of Howard's death, how long they've known him, and with the full proximity of death 5 feet away. I felt like I, as the audience, was more impacted by his death than they were. Then having to maintain the lie and continue to damn his legacy as a drug addict turned suicide victim... the character Kim should have broken down privately in a bathroom or something. Not just lay on a bed vacan

  

 

 

[Veltigar]

Something completely different now, but I just saw the series finale of Neighbors (yes, the Australian soap). There was a time during the pandemic that I indulged myself with it. I have also gone on record to say that all soaps are trash, but if you have to watch one of them, Neighbors is about as good as it gets.

I was thus more than a little shocked when they decided to ax this iconic series. It's command of the watercooler conversation might have disappeared completely (I hear this was like GoT in the eighties, everyone wanted to talk about it, although back then it was probably of a better quality than the latter seasons of GoT ), but I was still surprised that in the age of streaming and endless niche appeal they could not find any streaming service willing to take over this series.

I thus decided to watch at least the final episode, because I heard that many of the old favorites came back. In particular, I heard a lot of praise lavished on Guy Pearce for returning and actually committing to a storyline. Margot Robbie, Kylie Minogue, Natalia Imbruglia, etc. came back but didn't do more than a cameo, while Guy Pearce actually put a lot of effort in.

All things considered, the finale wasn't great. You felt the emotion, but a lot of the wistfully looking back and the barrage of cameos was a bit much. Guy Pearce's storyline was the highlight though. While everyone else was stuck in nostalgia land, his return actually impacted the stakes of the story. It was very sweet to see how willing he was to give back to soap that started it all for him. 

13 hours ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

That's the thing about Rick and Morty...it's so layered, that there is something for everyone. 

 

So you are saying that there is a lot more to Rick and Morty than people think. Rick and Morty are like onions. Onions have layers, Rick and Morty has layers.

13 hours ago, Ran said:

You should definitely get back and give Black Mirror another go. Or at least "San Junipero", but I'd recommend watching at least a couple of the earlier episodes just to make sure you understand the usual vibe of the show because it makes "San Junipero" that much more of a standout episode. It may be my favorite hour of television of all time.

It's been on my list for years, but the fact that most is dystopian and that it's an anthology has kept me from rolling with it. Perhaps I should indeed give it another go.

9 hours ago, WarGalley said:

I'm on the penultimate episode of Season 6 of Better Call Saul but wanted to comment about the episode Point and Shoot (S06E08) which was really good television. I imagine this to be the Ozymandias episode of BCS because I don't see them topping it with 2 episodes left.

Major Season 6 spoilers.

  Hide contents

Goddamn, Howard's death and burial next to his murderer was stunning. Great way to create a pretty decent guy just for the writers to do him really dirty.

And Lalo Salamanca was a fucking fantastic villain. I'm a little surprised he died so early in the season but I loved every scene Tony Dalton was in. I also liked that Lalo, as the main antagonist, didn't have an army of henchmen (or use any henchman at all) and instead relied on his cunning, resourcefulness and skills to overcome his problems. Lalo's instruction for Saul to go kill Gus while Kim stays behind with him was brilliant. Great character. The smile in his death scene might be more memorable than Gus fixing his tie. At the end of the episode, I was really curious where the show would go in terms of conflict for the remainder of the season.

The one thing that left me underwhelmed was Odenkirk and Seehorn's acting in reaction to Howard's death and then in the final breakup. It wasn't emotional enough for me. My expectations may have been overset given all the (Reddit/internet) calls for both of them to win an Emmy but I didn't buy those scenes. As sociopathic as they've turned out to be, they should have been absolutely shivering with the suddenness of Howard's death, how long they've known him, and with the full proximity of death 5 feet away. I felt like I, as the audience, was more impacted by his death than they were. Then having to maintain the lie and continue to damn his legacy as a drug addict turned suicide victim... the character Kim should have broken down privately in a bathroom or something. Not just lay on a bed vacan

  

 

 

I hate to break it to you, but there are actually 13 episodes in the sixth season of BCS, so you have some time left to play around with the characters  I do agree with you however, that the episode you just watched was the best one of that season

 

[DMC]

Gotta say, as much as I love Rhea Seehorn, I don't have too much faith in Vince Gilligan at this point and Apple TV is just ugh.  I'm being prejudiced, but someone is gonna have to convince me to watch that.

[hauberk]

13 hours ago, Werthead said:

Good news, although better when I can actually watch Season 2.

If they repeat what they did with Season 1, they'll dribble it out a week at a time a month or two after the season finale airs in the USA.

 

I was just coming here to comment on what a wonderful show this is.  I’m now caught up on season 2 to date.  I continue to find it charming and sincere.