TV and Streaming: The Thread

[Maedhros]

I don't really agree with people saying Jaskier is perfect (which I see all over the place). In the books he has a more insightful, serious side, and is a good verbal sparring partner for Geralt. In the show he's rather simple, and is usually just reduced to comic relief.

Edited December 26, 2019 by Maedhros

[Zoraptor]

Dandelion and show Jaskier are both more 'comic relief' type characters for a similar reason- you need to have some sort of comic relief as, well, relief from all the grimdark and at least to an extent you need a departure from the super competent protagonist or near protagonists characters like Geralt/ Yennefer, plus Triss/ Ciri in the games.

If anything the game tends to take the 'incompetent' side of Dandelion a lot further- both TW2 and 3 have rescuing Dandelion as major plot points, after all- than the show takes the 'incompetent' side of Jaskier (with the significant proviso that I haven't seen all the show yet) except for the odd exception like in one of the bad endings of Blood & Wine. Most people will be more familiar with the game character than the book one, and he fits the game character well.

[Maedhros]

I understand the need for comic relief, I just don't agree that you need to dumb down characters to do it. The humor in the books work fine. It's the same with the Lotr adaption, where PJ felt the need to reduce characters like Merry, Pippin and Gimli for cheap laughs.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Maedhros

[BruceVC]

8 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Dandelion and show Jaskier are both more 'comic relief' type characters for a similar reason- you need to have some sort of comic relief as, well, relief from all the grimdark and at least to an extent you need a departure from the super competent protagonist or near protagonists characters like Geralt/ Yennefer, plus Triss/ Ciri in the games.

If anything the game tends to take the 'incompetent' side of Dandelion a lot further- both TW2 and 3 have rescuing Dandelion as major plot points, after all- than the show takes the 'incompetent' side of Jaskier (with the significant proviso that I haven't seen all the show yet) except for the odd exception like in one of the bad endings of Blood & Wine. Most people will be more familiar with the game character than the book one, and he fits the game character well.

 

16 minutes ago, Maedhros said:

I understand the need for comic relief, I just don't agree that you need to dumb down characters to do it. The humor in the books work fine. It's the same with the Lotr adaption, where PJ felt the need to reduce characters like Merry, Pippin and Gimli for cheap laughs.

I think you guys may be over analyzing Dandelion in a unnecessarily critical way  

He is a bard and would naturally be adverse to combat or try to avoid it,  he also plays a pivotal role in changing the negative perception people have of Geralt through his songs and ballads...he creates or is a major contributor towards " The White Wolf " legend. I dont see him as comic relief at all considering how relevant perceptions are of people in this era ....he basically does exactly what I would expect of a bard 

[Lexx]

Yeah, I think it's a pretty nice transition from The Butcher of Blaviken to The White Wolf, though I feel like this is also one of these areas where the show feels rushed.

I started to rewatch the show and notice so many details now which feel quickly brushed over. Really, really should have been at least 10 episodes, to give everything a little more room, imo.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Lexx

[Guard Dog]

50 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Yeah, I think it's a pretty nice transition from The Butcher of Blaviken to The White Wolf, though I feel like this is also one of these areas where the show feels rushed.

I started to rewatch the show and notice so many details now which feel quickly brushed over. Really, really should have been at least 10 episodes, to give everything a little more room, imo.

Agreed. Although from what I'm reading it's been a big success so maybe Season 2 gets a bigger budget. They start filming in April. 

[Azdeus]

On 12/26/2019 at 10:59 AM, Maedhros said:

I don't really agree with people saying Jaskier is perfect (which I see all over the place). In the books he has a more insightful, serious side, and is a good verbal sparring partner for Geralt. In the show he's rather simple, and is usually just reduced to comic relief.

The actor does a great job with what he is given, that he has been badly written is a different thing.

[the_dog_days]

On 12/25/2019 at 3:18 PM, Raithe said:

The Wheel of Time tv series - Round up of all the current information

 

I love TWoT but I think the show is going to be terrible. GoT was low magic and had a huge budget. The Witcher was middling magic and had a smaller budget (and it showed). TWoT is super high magic and I don't see them getting the budget to do it justice. I think best case scenario is we get a very watered down TWoT.

[the_dog_days]

The Witcher: there are three story lines in season 1, they are Yeniffer's (which starts 70 years in the past--I'm using the book timelines 'cause I'm not sure how altered the tv timelines are), Geralt's (which starts 20-40 years in the past), and Ciri's which is current. It makes sense you consider the season is an adaptation of the short stories and we aren't to the book series proper yet. Geralt's story are the short stories, that's why they are very monster-of-the-day, because in each story the main plot hook was different and solved within that story. Ciri's exits to tie the season's beginning and ending together and as a segue into season two where the plot will be more traditionally structured. And Yen's story is . . . to add lore that didn't exist in the books (regarding magic)?

Also, assuming the show is a faithful adaptation, Ciri is the ongoing main character and not Geralt.

[Lexx]

2 hours ago, the_dog_days said:

Ciri is the ongoing main character and not Geralt.

Actually this is exactly what I hated in the books. I wanted to read about Geralt and every Ciri-piece bored me to death. I've re-read the short stories a dozen times, but I just can't force me to get through the later books again.

I just don't like her / her story and I hated these elements in Witcher 3 as well.

Edited December 28, 2019 by Lexx

[BruceVC]

2 hours ago, Lexx said:

Actually this is exactly what I hated in the books. I wanted to read about Geralt and every Ciri-piece bored me to death. I've re-read the short stories a dozen times, but I just can't force me to get through the later books again.

I just don't like her / her story and I hated these elements in Witcher 3 as well.

I also prefer more focus on Geralt, I dont mind the Ciri story arc but I dont want that to be the primary aspect of the broader narrative 

In fact I am going to play the " its sexism and discrimination against men " card to focus on  Ciri in a saga where the protagonist is a male 

 

[kanisatha]

I seem to recall in an interview the producer of the show saying that even though she personally would like to highlight the Yen and Ciri characters she understands that the show by its very title needs to have Geralt front and center, and so Geralt will be the main focus.

[Zoraptor]

Finished TVWItcher, and my expectations for a second season took a bit of a dive after the last two episodes. They were far too disjointed and both the dialogue and cinematography felt really weird at times, plus some of the plotting made zero sense. Most of those were minor issues in the first 6 episodes, but were far more pronounced in 7 & 8- and both episodes were short too, especially 7. I kind of presume that a limited budget caught up to them with certain things like the flaky CGI and having the same 20 Nilfgaardian soldiers in every scene but that doesn't explain everything. The fundamental reason I have reservations is that S2 will be more directly serialised plot than S1, but the serialised plot of S1 was its weakest part overall.

Why don't the mages just portal to Sodden? If they had to bring in an army, sure, an obvious limitation would apply but they only need to bring in about 20 people. Why does Fringilla not kill Tissaia after showering her in dimeritium, especially after it's made clear she dgaf about killing her own mages? Why doesn't Cahir make sure Vilgefortz (who comes across as a complete putz) is dead? Why bother having Foltest turn up for 5 seconds? Heaps of stuff feels really contrived to get what has to happen to happen, like Triss getting burned or Geralt getting into an utterly pointless fight with a bunch of ghouls that he'd just warned the trader about 5 minutes before. Yeah, fate/ destiny, but you can do that sort of thing with far more subtlety than just kind of waving your hands and deus ex machina'ing the plot to happen. Gaunter O'Dimm would certainly find a better way to make sure destiny was fulfilled.

[Lexx]

Started watching that Lost in Space show and.... my god, it's cringy as heck. So much stuff happens just for the sake of it. I like the idea of that show, but so far it just feels cheesy and ugh.

Oh, I was wondering how they'd do the CGI budget for the alien / robot but then the thing morphed into a guy in a suit. Made me lol a bit.

Edited December 28, 2019 by Lexx

[Volourn]

Watched Twitcher tv show. Had low expectations which it surpassed.  Super Twitcher was solid. Yen, and a few others were mostly good as well. It is clear to me that the show runners/writers are pure garbage. Everything wrong with the show is because of their sexism, racism, and pure moronicy. The special effects especially the monsters/make ups are garbage. The elves, and dryads are laughable. The dwarves are basically short humans not dwarves in any meaningful way.

 

This show gets me because I'm a sucker for fantasy adventure even if it is rather sucky, I'm a fan of Super Twitcher, and Yen **** are a win.

 

P.S. Why the love for Jaskier? He's got to be the worst sidekick character ever. Give me Joxer any day. LMAO

Edited December 31, 2019 by Volourn

[BruceVC]

4 hours ago, Volourn said:

Watched Twitcher tv show. Had low expectations which it surpassed.  Super Twitcher was solid. Yen, and a few others were mostly good as well. It is clear to me that the show runners/writers are pure garbage. Everything wrong with the show is because of their sexism, racism, and pure moronicy. The special effects especially the monsters/make ups are garbage. The elves, and dryads are laughable. The dwarves are basically short humans not dwarves in any meaningful way.

 

This show gets me because I'm a sucker for fantasy adventure even if it is rather sucky, I'm a fan of Super Twitcher, and Yen **** are a win.

 

P.S. Why the love for Jaskier? He's got to be the worst sidekick character ever. Give me Joxer any day. LMAO

Volo are you sure we talking about the same Witcher HBO TV series we talking about ? What version did you watch, I think you referring to  the pirated Canadian\French version....its not the same as the proper one 

What language were the characters speaking......if its not English than its not the correct one ?

[Lexx]

It's Volourn. Just smile and wave.

 

Kept watching Lost in Space season 1. It's so badly written, it makes me angry at times. I just want to slap some sense into some of these people. Especially the kids.

Edited December 31, 2019 by Lexx

[ShadySands]

11 hours ago, Lexx said:

 

Kept watching Lost in Space season 1. It's so badly written, it makes me angry at times. I just want to slap some sense into some of these people. Especially the kids.

For us, we want to slap everyone but usually the mom the most. My wife thinks it's funny how predictable the show is but I find it frustrating because I always know what's going to happen next. We're only 5 or so episodes in but I still have the same complaint as season one, has a lot of potential but doesn't really seem to want to do anything with it.

Edited December 31, 2019 by ShadySands

[Volourn]

The spam I just read aside, everything I wrote was factual. But, people can't handle facts so they cry.

[Blarghagh]

Well, I never read the games or played the books and I enjoyed it. Next time I have some time on my hands I might just toss a coin to my Witcher. 

[Lexx]

15 hours ago, ShadySands said:

For us, we want to slap everyone but usually the mom the most. My wife thinks it's funny how predictable the show is but I find it frustrating because I always know what's going to happen next. We're only 5 or so episodes in but I still have the same complaint as season one, has a lot of potential but doesn't really seem to want to do anything with it.

I'm honestly not sure if I want to keep watching it. The writing is just so bad... it's like they make stuff up us as they go because the writers themselves don't know what to do. I mean, they obviously had some guidelines of primary events that have to happen per episode... but then they crowbar retarded stuff into it all to make it happen.

Lost in Space is a tv show that thinks its viewers are brain dead. Not sure how this got a 70% user score. Hell, I'd say even the "professional critics" are giving it way too much credit this time. If it would be me, I'd put it somewhere in the range of 50%, but only because the visuals aren't that bad.

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by Lexx

[Hurlshort]

I gave up on Lost in Space because I didn't understand how a space travelling family could make so many stupid choices. They also seemed super dysfunctional. I watched 1 episode and that was my verdict.

[Gfted1]

6 Underground on Netflix.

Meh, it was alright. For some reason I really noticed the body physics while watching this. Like a car chase scene where the mooks car hits another object, peels open like a ruptured pop can, then disgorges the occupants onto the street. With xxxtreme realism.

[Sarex]

6 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

6 Underground on Netflix.

Meh, it was alright. For some reason I really noticed the body physics while watching this. Like a car chase scene where the mooks car hits another object, peels open like a ruptured pop can, then disgorges the occupants onto the street. With xxxtreme realism.

I couldn't watch past 10 minutes of it. The chase scene was so cringy, particularly the car being damaged/pristine from scene to scene.

[Gfted1]

Yeah, I lolled hard when they hit a pedestrian, who flew into the hood, windshield and roof, without damaging anything.