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Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2018 3:33 pm
by Siao7
minchy wrote:I've heard a few people saying that the world they created in altered carbon was good, but that's where the positives stopped! A couple of people I know who've seen it said that the script writing and acting were awful. But I usually have similar taste in TV to mac_d, so I'll give it go based to the 2 recommendations above and see how it goes.
It may seem slow after the first few episodes, but stick with it and in the end it kind of ties everything together.
Bit of eye-candy as well!
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2018 4:54 pm
by minchy
Siao7 wrote:minchy wrote:I've heard a few people saying that the world they created in altered carbon was good, but that's where the positives stopped! A couple of people I know who've seen it said that the script writing and acting were awful. But I usually have similar taste in TV to mac_d, so I'll give it go based to the 2 recommendations above and see how it goes.
It may seem slow after the first few episodes, but stick with it and in the end it kind of ties everything together.
Bit of eye-candy as well!
That description kind of sounds like how I felt with the first season of Dirk Gently. Took me until ep 7 to actually get what the show is about! Having said that, I highly recommend Dirk Gently, really enjoyed it after I finally understood it and season 2 was really enjoyable for me.
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2018 5:34 pm
by Siao7
minchy wrote:Siao7 wrote:minchy wrote:I've heard a few people saying that the world they created in altered carbon was good, but that's where the positives stopped! A couple of people I know who've seen it said that the script writing and acting were awful. But I usually have similar taste in TV to mac_d, so I'll give it go based to the 2 recommendations above and see how it goes.
It may seem slow after the first few episodes, but stick with it and in the end it kind of ties everything together.
Bit of eye-candy as well!
That description kind of sounds like how I felt with the first season of Dirk Gently. Took me until ep 7 to actually get what the show is about! Having said that, I highly recommend Dirk Gently, really enjoyed it after I finally understood it and season 2 was really enjoyable for me.
Ok, thank you, I'll give it a go. Currently all the series I follow seem to have stopped for some reason!
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 3:26 am
by mac_d
Siao7 wrote:minchy wrote:I've heard a few people saying that the world they created in altered carbon was good, but that's where the positives stopped! A couple of people I know who've seen it said that the script writing and acting were awful. But I usually have similar taste in TV to mac_d, so I'll give it go based to the 2 recommendations above and see how it goes.
It may seem slow after the first few episodes, but stick with it and in the end it kind of ties everything together.
Bit of eye-candy as well!
Yes, Siao7 is spot on here, at least for how I felt starting out. I think I watched Ep 1,2 and maybe 3 over about 5-6 sessions but thereafter it was "can't wait for the next one" mode.
I liked the acting for the most part. I enjoyed the writing too generally. I thought most of the characters we were supposed to like were rather likeable, those we were supposed to dislike were dislikable. The plot was fairly good. The concept, I think, is really cool (Dollhouse is/was a favourite of mine and it had some similarities). A couple of the light bits of philosophy raised some interesting questions.
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 5:34 am
by mac_d
Prison Break S5.
As with all Prison Break apart from maybe the excellent first season, you have to be prepared for a bunch of whacky shenanigans, a plot that makes the entire SAW movies series seem un-convoluted, a character who is some utterly omniscient and about a bajillion pointless cliffhangers (less so with 5, but most of the first 4 have a cliffhanger for every advert break).
Anyway, on the whole I enjoyed it but it's 9 episodes when I think it should have been, say, 6. Kinda silly, usually fun. on the whole, if you only liked S1 or S2 of PB, skip it. If you watched all 4 seasons then you'll perhaps enjoy. If you never watched PB, don't start here. Its on UK Netflix.
Also since the last show discussed was Altered Carbon, I actually watched it again recently and enjoyed it probably a little more - I guess a combination of already having an understanding of the show universe and knowing the plot meant you notice some smaller things that crop back up.
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 1:35 pm
by mac_d
Daredevil S3 on Netflix.
Definitely mark this one up in the "hit" column of the very hit and miss Marvel Netflix shows. Good plot, good casting on the new people and the existing cast is spectacular. Some excellent fight scenes. Some bad donkey long shots though still not as cool as the hallway scene from DD S1 early on but that's one of my favourite ever scenes. Good length and didn't feel like it was padded out. I really like the fact that Matt's injuries actually seem consistent. It bothered me in Punisher that Frank could get shot in the head, set on fire and blown up by a bazooka and would stick a bandage on it and be pretty much fine by the next episode. Daredevil actually has always done a better job at managing it. I thought this was a great season. The biggest compliment I can give the show is that I don't know which season I would place as my favourite.
Some plot specific or otherwise spoiler-y thoughts
Spoiler (click to show)
I totally fell for the assumption that Bullseye would kill Karen because it happened in the comics. Should really have seen the subversion coming.
Loved the Karen cradling Matt after the church fight done to look like the Matt holding dead Karen from comics. I think, I'm not a Marvel comics guy.
The prison escape fight scene was brilliant. The Kingpin/DD/Bullseye triple header at the end was also great.
The way Bullseye's backstory was told through Fisk reading the files, transitioning into the black and white scenes of young Bullseye being watched by present day Fisk was really cool. Sure it's been done before but I thought it was really cool.
They showed Matt's parents meeting. I'm not sure how old his mother is, but she looks about 14 in the flashback while Matt's dad looks north of 30. Makes it kinda creepy. Probably not intended. I'm pretty bad at age estimation so might just be me.
My Marvel Netflix Opinions
Hits: DD S1/2/3, JJ S1, Punisher S1.
Neutral: Defenders.
Misses: Luke Cage S1, Iron Fist S1
Probably Misses but I got bored and stopped watching: Luke Cage 2, Jessica Jones 2.
Biggest disappointment was Jessica Jones S2. It confirmed, for me, my thought that David Tennant carried the show in S1. Not solely him, but the writing for his character too. But without him, not very exciting.
Derren Brown's Sacrifice
I love Derren Brown, but I thought this was junk. Boring, seemed silly and unlike his other specials I felt it was obvious how it would end.
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2018 4:12 pm
by mac_d
House of Cards S6. Or, at least the first 2 episodes of it.
Well, to begin with I must say that House of Cards was pretty much in nosedive. I think S1 and S2 were brilliant, with a coherent and reasonable plot that was exciting and believeable. By S5, they had pretty much gone off into a fantasy. S6 doesn't pull it back up. The show does not work without Kevin Spacey, though given the allegations against him and including 8 from people on the set, I can fully understand why he wasn't brought back. While Robin Wright is fantastic, she isn't a solid core and the writing and plot has fallen off too. House of Cards seems like one of these things that ran it's course over 2 seasons but popularity brought it back and ran it into the ground.
Perhaps it picks up and gets interesting but I was not enjoying it at all.
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 2:37 pm
by minchy
Stranger Things 3 didn't disappoint, it had a little of the customary Netflix preachyness, but to be fair, women's rights in the 80's were shocking and it was fairly accurate to how women were treated in the workplace and should be a bit of an eye opener to see for anyone who didn't live through that time.
But the series as a whole was great with a really good final episode and cliff hanger.
#neverendingstory
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 10:30 am
by Siao7
minchy wrote:Stranger Things 3 didn't disappoint, it had a little of the customary Netflix preachyness, but to be fair, women's rights in the 80's were shocking and it was fairly accurate to how women were treated in the workplace and should be a bit of an eye opener to see for anyone who didn't live through that time.
But the series as a whole was great with a really good final episode and cliff hanger.
#neverendingstory
Yeah, fully agreed.
Anyone watched Chernobyl yet? It is supposed to be amazing
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 12:11 pm
by JN23
Siao7 wrote:minchy wrote:Stranger Things 3 didn't disappoint, it had a little of the customary Netflix preachyness, but to be fair, women's rights in the 80's were shocking and it was fairly accurate to how women were treated in the workplace and should be a bit of an eye opener to see for anyone who didn't live through that time.
But the series as a whole was great with a really good final episode and cliff hanger.
#neverendingstory
Yeah, fully agreed.
Anyone watched Chernobyl yet? It is supposed to be amazing
I've watched Chernobyl. Really really good but a tough watch in some points. Was good some of the stories they focused on throughout.
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 4:25 pm
by Siao7
JN23 wrote:Siao7 wrote:minchy wrote:Stranger Things 3 didn't disappoint, it had a little of the customary Netflix preachyness, but to be fair, women's rights in the 80's were shocking and it was fairly accurate to how women were treated in the workplace and should be a bit of an eye opener to see for anyone who didn't live through that time.
But the series as a whole was great with a really good final episode and cliff hanger.
#neverendingstory
Yeah, fully agreed.
Anyone watched Chernobyl yet? It is supposed to be amazing
I've watched Chernobyl. Really really good but a tough watch in some points. Was good some of the stories they focused on throughout.
Thanks, sounds like a good one. I remember it so vividly as well. Ok, I think it will be next on the list!
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 7:20 pm
by JN23
Siao7 wrote:JN23 wrote:Siao7 wrote:minchy wrote:Stranger Things 3 didn't disappoint, it had a little of the customary Netflix preachyness, but to be fair, women's rights in the 80's were shocking and it was fairly accurate to how women were treated in the workplace and should be a bit of an eye opener to see for anyone who didn't live through that time.
But the series as a whole was great with a really good final episode and cliff hanger.
#neverendingstory
Yeah, fully agreed.
Anyone watched Chernobyl yet? It is supposed to be amazing
I've watched Chernobyl. Really really good but a tough watch in some points. Was good some of the stories they focused on throughout.
Thanks, sounds like a good one. I remember it so vividly as well. Ok, I think it will be next on the list!
It is definitely worth your time.
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 9:40 am
by Siao7
JN23 wrote:Siao7 wrote:JN23 wrote:Siao7 wrote:minchy wrote:Stranger Things 3 didn't disappoint, it had a little of the customary Netflix preachyness, but to be fair, women's rights in the 80's were shocking and it was fairly accurate to how women were treated in the workplace and should be a bit of an eye opener to see for anyone who didn't live through that time.
But the series as a whole was great with a really good final episode and cliff hanger.
#neverendingstory
Yeah, fully agreed.
Anyone watched Chernobyl yet? It is supposed to be amazing
I've watched Chernobyl. Really really good but a tough watch in some points. Was good some of the stories they focused on throughout.
Thanks, sounds like a good one. I remember it so vividly as well. Ok, I think it will be next on the list!
It is definitely worth your time.
Thank you. I started it yesterday, the first episode is really good. So very dark, definitely catches the feeling!
Re: The TV Thread
Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 2:14 am
by mac_d
Altered Carbon Season 2.
It's not so great. I really enjoyed S1. I thought it was a world that made sense within it's own rules. Obviously, and sci-fi or fantasy you have to take with a pinch of acceptance for whatever the premise is. I've not read the books so I don't know how much was written like it was versus liberties the show has taken. It might be faithful to the books, or it might not, but I didn't much care for it. I do not think I'd watch S2 again but I'll watch S1 again for sure at some point. However, I'm only through 6 of 8 episodes but it's been a slog. S1 I felt was a slow start, it took an episode or two to really establish the world but got really good.
I'll spoiler my more specific points as beyond this.
Spoiler (click to show)
Anthony Mackie. He's decent but I just see him as Falcon from the Marvel movies and find him hard to take all that seriously when he's angry. Whereas Kinnaman I thought was brilliant at playing a borderline sociopath murderer type with the good heart. I will say this, both guys did a tremendous job getting super ripped for the show. And for JK's part, I had seen him quite a bit from his House of Cards role so he still had to overcome that thing in my head where I can't see an actor as a new role very easily.
The character list. It feels like a re-tread. I was quite liking the idea that Kovacs will stay but almost everyone else would be new. Again, without reading the books so I don't know this for sure, it feels like Poe was brought back because he was a brilliant character in S1. Then we get a fair few appearances by Lizzie, Reileen and a couple by Ortega and Vern. It's just felt like a "f*ck it, let's just bring back all the popular stuff from first season" and then the new Colonel bad-dude is actually Jaeger. Not a fan. Again, this could be the books dictated this but I didn't care for it. This shrinks the universe.
It's less dark somehow, in tone I mean. I liked the idea that prostitution and sexual violence and drugs are utterly prevalent in a world where human bodies are of less value. There is a lot less of it.
I feel like 75% through S1 we had seen it go from Tak to Tak, Poe, Reileen, Ortega, Vern Eliott (and possibly his wife by that point), Lizzie and both Bancrofts who had interesting plots each. S2 is far more centric on Quell and Tak.
The score. I'm not normally big on TV/movie music compared to videogame music, but S1 had a pretty bad donkey score and choice of songs and S2 hasn't so much.
Harlan's World, Angelfire and Songspire Trees. Not really explained sufficiently well. I'm guessing that this could well come up in the last 2 episodes though. But it's just rather unclear.
Honestly though, my biggest gripe is the magnetic hands that pull guns to them thing. I don't care if it's book or not, it just feels stupid and out of place. It seems to magical whereas a body with advanced reactions and whatnot fits a lot neater. This one little factor really bugs me.
If the finale changes my opinion significantly I will update.
The Witcher.
I just recently played Witcher 2 (Xbox 360) and Witcher 3 (Xbox One). I've not read the book but I was on a Witcher kick so thought it was a good time.
It's a fun enough series. I like Cavill as Geralt, and felt most of the cast was pretty good. A few odd choices. Triss in the show does not look like Triss from the games. Admittedly, her appearance isn't vital to anything plot but to me, it wasn't Triss feeling. Plus, as a fan of busty redheads...
Plot... Well, they tried something with it. I think it was a poor choice to some degree as I think it could put people off as it's slightly more complex than just watching the thing as it goes on and everything is what it seems. More under the spoiler tags.
Battle scenes. Right, a review I read said that the big fights were of the same quality as something like Game of Thrones (Ya know, the good battles - not S8). The fights are decent, but that reviewer is not one I see many agreeing with. Even the climactic battle wasn't worthy of comparison to something like the Battle of the Bastards (although that is one of the all-time battles in any form of visual media so an unfair comparison).
World - I think they did an AWFUL job setting up the world. You don't get told where anything is. Aerdin, Cintra, Nilfgaard etc are not explained at all where they are relative to each other or how strong they really are. If not for just playing the games, I think this might actually have broken me away from the show. They don't explain Geralt or Witchers very much. They don't explain the signs etc. I just feel like this was written by someone who knew and loved the book and should have considered more that The Witcher isn't Harry Potter where 90% of folk know the broad strokes of the world.
Specific comments, with a minor spoiler of the Witcher 3 game
Spoiler (click to show)
The plot regarding timelines for each main character. You can see, come the last episode why they felt the need to have it build to that point. And when you know they want to get to that point where Gerald and Ciri meet but have 10 episodes to fill with things happening to them, you can't have it all run concurrently. I found it simple enough to follow, though I was slightly muddled in that Ep2/3 Yen is even before Ep1 Geralt. Though as independent plots at that point, it doesn't matter so much. Otherwise, I got the flow of the whole thing but can understand why it might put people off.
Geralt, Yen and the Djinn. This is the plot point that is finished in the Witcher 3 game. I just felt it didn't make sense for Geralt to wish for what he does. He's known Yen for a limited time at that point. To me, it's something that will be important later and they just had to ram it in somewhere. Maybe I missed foreshadowing or the logic but it felt rushed.
Queen Calanthe. The Hollywood types that try and force the "women are strong too" thing - like Avengers Endgame and that god awful Xmen movie***) need to take some notes. Between the actress and the writing, I absolutely bought that she'd be a strong leader who could draw a sword and fight and everything about her character. Only one bit was really about her being a woman. I really felt I could have done with more Calanthe in my show.
I'm still a little confuddled about the Bard. I thought he was Dandelion, but he isn't I don't think but then on the Witcher Wiki, they share a page... Guy has a beautiful voice though.
*** I have no problem with the strong women thing, I have a problem with the ramming it down our necks in the ways it was done in such a ludicrously one sided, simple and condescending way. Give me Calanthe, or a Buffy or a Brienne of Tarth or an Ellen Ripley over the other crap anyday.
The Witcher now sits in that odd place of shows I like but would only recommend with trepidation due to what I perceive as it's flaws and shortcomings. I haven't checked what the general consensus has been about it though, so maybe my idea of the flaws isn't shared widely. All in all, I did enjoy it.
And Toss a Coin to Your Witcher is a bad donkey song.