Watch, Watched, Watching: No Dragons Allowed

[RhaenysBee]

22 minutes ago, Darryk said:

Damn I loved those shows as a kid, especially the music.

The Hercules episode with the minotaur was actually pretty damn good, not sure it will hold up now but I remember it being a standout episode at the time.

I was 13 when I was watching those series and I remember Lucy Lawless giving me special feelings.

Another really cheesy show that I loved as a kid was Sinbad, with a Canadian playing the supposed-to-be-Persian title character.

 

Right? They were the best.

I watched relatively few episodes of Hercules. But I remember dressing up as Xena for a carnival when I was 7-8ish, and winning the first prize chocolate cake for my costume. Which really should have gone to all the grandparents who contributed to making it  

My grandma cut out the skirt strips from felt and put like 50 paper fasteners in them for the metal details. And either my dad or his dad cut out the middle of a plastic toy shield for me to have Xena’s circle throw thingy. I think I had my roller skate pads jazzed up with tinfoil and nail varnish for the armor. It was a great costume, absolutely superior to both my Padme and Hermione costumes. The team effort to make it was definitely one of my fondest primary school memories. 

Well… that was a fall down the nostalgia rabbit hole, sorry about the off topic rambling  

[williamjm]

3 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

Never heard of that. My first association was Terra Nostra but that’s a soap my grandparents watched in the late 90s and there weren’t no dinosaurs in that  

It was quite short-lived just one season although it got quite a lot of hype before release because Steven Spielberg was involved and they were meant to have spent a lot of money on the dinosaur CGI. I think the plot was something about Earth in the future having run out of resources but they had built a time portal allowing travel back to the era of the dinosaurs and established a colony there, but because it was a post-Lost show there were also Mysterious Shenanigans happening which never really got resolved due to the cancellation.

[RhaenysBee]

Oh my, compared to Ana Lucia, Jack is the most enjoyable character in the world. The attitude of this woman…

Allow me to reiterate: she is a madwoman who needs to be locked up. 

Edited September 11, 2022 by RhaenysBee

[Veltigar]

Watched the penultimate episode of Harley Quinn's third season. My oh my what a show. I really hope it gets a fourth season. it is just too good at the moment. On top of the tense plot, good characters and regular humor the latest episode saw the pay-off of a joke they had been setting up all season and which I did not see coming 

Spoiler

Bane is MVP again of course, but him letting go of the pasta maker betrayal when Harley took the magic vomit that was about to hit him was brilliantly done.

 

[Dragon in the North]

7 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Watched the penultimate episode of Harley Quinn's third season. My oh my what a show. I really hope it gets a fourth season. it is just too good at the moment. On top of the tense plot, good characters and regular humor the latest episode saw the pay-off of a joke they had been setting up all season and which I did not see coming 

  Reveal hidden contents

Bane is MVP again of course, but him letting go of the pasta maker betrayal when Harley took the magic vomit that was about to hit him was brilliantly done.

 

It’s already been renewed 

[Veltigar]

Watched House of the Dragon yesterday. The series continues to impress me. I really hadn't thought this would be any good, but they keep finding ways to make it work. This week's episode had a lot of levity and even rather

Spoiler

tasteful nudity and sex scenes (at least in the way they were shot).

That's something GoT didn't even get close to ever. 

I am looking forward to seeing the next episode. It's really fun to share with friends.

Also watched the first episode of Cobra Kai's fifth season. I really like this show but I have to say I was not very impressed. It felt a bit by the numbers, so I hope things pick up rather soon.

15 hours ago, Dragon in the North said:

It’s already been renewed 

Ah, wonderful news, thanks a lot! 

[BigFatCoward]

Finally got around to starting Eastbound and Down. I like it, first episode had some genuine Laugh out Loud moments. And my wife hardly looked at her phone which is a good sign. 

[Heartofice]

5 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Finally got around to starting Eastbound and Down. I like it, first episode had some genuine Laugh out Loud moments. And my wife hardly looked at her phone which is a good sign. 

Such a great show 

[RumHam]

Nice, they are going ahead with a sequel to X. Set in '85.

https://deadline.com/2022/09/ti-west-mia-goth-pearl-maxxxine-trilogy-x-trilogy-toronto-film-festival-premiere-1235115680/

[dbunting]

14 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Watched House of the Dragon yesterday. The series continues to impress me. I really hadn't thought this would be any good, but they keep finding ways to make it work. This week's episode had a lot of levity and even rather

  Hide contents

tasteful nudity and sex scenes (at least in the way they were shot).

That's something GoT didn't even get close to ever. 

I am looking forward to seeing the next episode. It's really fun to share with friends.

 

Have to agree, House of the Dragon, so far, is better than I had hoped for. As to the scene you refer to

Spoiler

Not sure if you watch the interviews after the episode but this weeks was directed by a woman and she said she specifically tried to shoot the sex scenes from an equals point of view rather than from a mans POV. Might be why it came across differently than GOT?

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

You know what I think?

...I think It's Morbin' time.

Edited September 14, 2022 by Deadlines? What Deadlines?

[RumHam]

41 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

You know what I think?

...I think It's Morbin' time.

What kind of booze are you using? 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

2 hours ago, RumHam said:

What kind of booze are you using? 

Ya know, It isn't great. However...

Is it the worst thing I've seen? No. Is it the worst CBM I've seen? Still no. Is it the worst CBM I've seen recently? Um, still gonna have to say, "no". 

This feels like a film where they did a lot of tweaking and testing and tried to find it in the edit. This movie that has two prologues and the second one is a flashback. Not a good sign. 

On the plus side, some of the visuals were pretty good. Others, not so much. Plenty of good scenes as well. It just doesn't hang together. 

[TheLastWolf]

Technically a film right

[Veltigar]

Watched Rings of Power episode 3 yesterday. I feel very conflicted about this show. On the one hand, it is incredibly stupid (and it tries way too hard to remind me of Starz' Spartacus with all the cross-casting), but on the other hand I do get a lot of enjoyment out of it. 

Given the narrative around the series, I should be glad that I find some joy in it. I don't think most people were expecting that, but I'm surprised that - now that it turned out to be enjoyable - it isn't a surprise golden age of TV type of great show, but rather more like a superior version of MTV's Shannara Chronicles or a more expensive version of the better episodes of BBC's The Adventures of Merlin.

10 hours ago, dbunting said:

Have to agree, House of the Dragon, so far, is better than I had hoped for. As to the scene you refer to

  Hide contents

Not sure if you watch the interviews after the episode but this weeks was directed by a woman and she said she specifically tried to shoot the sex scenes from an equals point of view rather than from a mans POV. Might be why it came across differently than GOT?

 

That does make a whole lot of sense.

[Heartofice]

9 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

a more expensive version of the better episodes of BBC's The Adventures of Merlin.

Oh crap.. that is a pretty apt comparison. I was getting Hercules or Xena vibes off it at times, like they added an expensive filter to a very cheap show, but Merlin is also quite fitting. 

Edited September 14, 2022 by Heartofice

[Corvinus85]

5 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Watched Rings of Power episode 3 yesterday. I feel very conflicted about this show. On the one hand, it is incredibly stupid (and it tries way too hard to remind me of Starz' Spartacus with all the cross-casting), but on the other hand I do get a lot of enjoyment out of it. 

If they had cast Nick Tarabay in this show, the debate about who is Sauron would have ceased instantly. 

[Veltigar]

Another episode of Rick and Morty. I liked it. Not one of the all time greats but certainly enough gags to surprise, knowing that this is the sixth season of the series.

3 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

If they had cast Nick Tarabay in this show, the debate about who is Sauron would have ceased instantly. 

That guy really needs more work. I thought he was excellent as Ashur.

9 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Oh crap.. that is a pretty apt comparison. I was getting Hercules or Xena vibes off it at times, like they added an expensive filter to a very cheap show, but Merlin is also quite fitting. 

I don't remember Xena or Hercules that clearly, but I think Merlin is fitting because it could vary so significantly in quality on a week to week basis (or even in the same episodes). There were some great episodes that far exceeded expectations and then there were some terrible episodes that made me wonder why I continued.

There were also things like the incessant (and rather needless) stupidity of Merlin eating fucking tomatoes and potatoes in their faux version of medieval England even during the great episodes (that really drove me bonkers for some reason).

RoP see-saw's like that as well, but because it looks so glorious and most actors are a cut above the usual standard I find it pretty enjoyable. Now that I'm thinking about it, I feel like the entire thing feels more and more BBC the more I think about it. Like there was a scene of a certain character riding a horse in the last episode which really reminded me of the type of scenery porn the BBC did so well in Poldark. 

Perhaps that is also why I liked it so much. It's been a while since the BBC had a great historical Sunday night tv show. RoP kind of fills that gap at the moment.

[Ran]

Blazed through Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the Netflix anime from Studio Trigger which is directed by the studio's founder Hioryuki Imashi from a story created by the Cyberpunk 2077 writing team. It's extremely stylish, with a lot of visual fidelity to CDPR's amazing evocation of the setting. It also really captures the feel of Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk setting with its relentless reminder that everything has a price (and life is on the cheap side), and that Night City is a place that chews people up and spits them out. Some great musical choices, including the surprise of the repeated use of one of my favorite songs created for the game (Let's Eat Grandma's "I Really Want To Stay at Your House". )

That said, it's Studio Trigger, so it's extremely (and stylishly) violent and certainly perfectly happy to find reasons to present nudity, both male and female. But the female nudity is definitely a lot more about titillating the target audience, and did stretch my forbearance  two main female netrunners (read: hackers who dive into VR-like digital space to do their work) have decided to forego the ubiquitous netrunning suits of the game and setting, consistently preferring to go starkers when in the ice baths necessary to keep themselves from overheating).  

I do think those very familar with anime will find some of its beats pretty familiar and predictable, FWIW, but it's put together well and response from critics and anime fans seem to be pretty positive.

[BigFatCoward]

1 hour ago, Veltigar said:

 

That guy really needs more work. I thought he was excellent as Ashur.

 

Yep, he was really well cast. One of the best scenes was when he basically said 'look, I pretty much suck as a gladiator but I could kill all your men'.