The TV and Streaming thread Series 3

[Amentep]

For all your TV our streaming show needs.

Old thread:

 

[Hurlshort]

The Vow has been a fascinating look at cults, but I am worried the final episode is not going to answer all the questions I still have.

[Amentep]

^They're doing a second series, afaik.

[Hurlshort]

12 hours ago, Amentep said:

^They're doing a second series, afaik.

Yeah, they had a teaser at the end of the run. I think I like my documentaries to wrap up a bit more timely than this thing. But it is still a pretty good watch.

[Amentep]

Well the case still hasn't been settled yet.  There are some pleas, but no sentencing.  So I'm not surprised there'd be a 2nd part.

[Amentep]

Willow sequel series green lit for Disney+

 

[LadyCrimson]

13 minutes ago, Amentep said:

Willow sequel series green lit for Disney+

That's interesting. I liked that movie back then (not sure how I'd feel about it now) but isn't it rather critically panned? I'm surprised they'd make a series for it so many years later. 

[Amentep]

It didn't do super-well at the box-office, but has a fan following.  Ron Howard had been talking about wanting to do something else with it with Disney for a while now.  He's producing it.  Warwick Davis confirmed to return.

[Raithe]

1 hour ago, LadyCrimson said:

That's interesting. I liked that movie back then (not sure how I'd feel about it now) but isn't it rather critically panned? I'm surprised they'd make a series for it so many years later. 

Its turned into one of those enduringly popular 80's films.

Lucas actually got together with Chris Claremont to write a trilogy of books following up the Willow storyline.

Also, for a weird trivia note: John Cusack has said he considers it one of his biggest disappointments that he lost the role of Madmartigan to Val Kilmer when testing for it.

[HoonDing]

I never got to reading those follow up books where the little baby becomes a badass and kills dragons.

Edited October 21, 2020 by HoonDing

[Raithe]

3 hours ago, HoonDing said:

I never got to reading those follow up books where the little baby becomes a badass and kills dragons.

Spoiler: 16 years later as "The Chosen One" and she's a spoilt brat, and Willow wasn't involved in raising her.

You also get the way they slip in the "Willow Ufgood, that's a name I haven't heard in a very long time." by a mysterious, "wise" short person in a cloak.

[Amentep]

 

[Hurlshort]

29 minutes ago, Amentep said:

 

No thanks, I like being able to sleep at night.

[Amentep]

 

[LadyCrimson]

On 10/20/2020 at 1:36 PM, Raithe said:

Its turned into one of those enduringly popular 80's films.

Lucas actually got together with Chris Claremont to write a trilogy of books following up the Willow storyline.

Also, for a weird trivia note: John Cusack has said he considers it one of his biggest disappointments that he lost the role of Madmartigan to Val Kilmer when testing for it.

I think Val Kilmer was the main reason I liked Willow.  That and the "pigs! you're all pigs!" scene. Jean Marsh had a blast in that one.    Anyway ... I suppose as an 80's nostalgia movie I can kind of get it. Still, not sure it has enough nostalgia for a whole series. But as long as it gets people to sub to Disney for that month, right?

[Hurlshort]

Quibi shut down after 6 months. Pretty crazy after they raised a billion+, you would think you would have a bit more runway. Some of the shows looked alright, so hopefully we will see them elsewhere.

[LadyCrimson]

^ Never heard of Quibi, had to search it.

Sounds like they spent a billion the first year to get programming (eg, a billion doesn't go very far if the profits don't match/come quickly), had some lawsuit stuff going on (always expensive, win or lose) and had a pretty low percentage of paying subs. Plus covid might've delayed too much production which wouldn't help interest? It is too bad tho, sounds like an interesting platform/concept.

[ShadySands]

I really, really hope the rumors of Avery Brooks coming back to play the Sisko aren't true. Maybe, and that's a real big maybe, if they bring back some of the DS9 writers and do something like they pitched in the documentary it could work but I don't want these new Trek "writers" anywhere near my Sisko. 

Yes, I personally own DS9 and all things related. Or at least I own this one box set. Same difference really.

Edited October 23, 2020 by ShadySands

[HoonDing]

But didn't Sisko like... become one of those wormhole spirits at the end?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I think Avery Brooks is retired, so I hope he enjoys himself doing old man **** instead of acting. It'd be kind of weird to see him come back for a cameo or something like that, let alone on a show that everyone seems to enjoy disliking.

[213374U]

2 hours ago, HoonDing said:

But didn't Sisko like... become one of those wormhole spirits at the end?

Well, yes, but...

Spoiler

 

 

As KP said, Brooks is retired, from TV at least. Has been for like 20 years. Not sure if he does theater anymore. His Rutgers profile still lists him as a professor, but that's likely out of date. I don't see him going back to a role that he saw as well closed at the time. Fingers crossed, they can bastardize other characters like Fleet Grand Marshal Wesley or whatever.

[ShadySands]

Sisko went with the Prophets but he can return at any time. Tomorrow or yesterday.

[Gromnir]

2 hours ago, ShadySands said:

Sisko went with the Prophets but he can return at any time. Tomorrow or yesterday.

am recalling an interview with gene hackman contemporaneous with the release o' superman. hackman were asked why an actor who had won an academy award and had such an incredible reputation for serious roles would play the part o' lex luthor, and particular richard donner's kinda campy lex luthor.

hackman responded without a pause and complete deadpan that the decision were easy 'cause the producers drove up to his home with a dump truck full of money. 

general relativity  and the vagaries o' time travel is inconsequential as any writer with a bit o' imagination will be able to come up with an excuse plausible enough to satisfy audiences. ever see the movie interstellar? some o' the biggest brains on the planet were technical advisors for the film and the director s'posed prioritized scientific accuracy, but at the end o' the day, we had what amounts to a quantum leap scenario and the only real explanation for the time travel and general weirdness o' interstellar's ending is physics in a black hole is ineffable and therefore anything is possible. 

the wormhole aliens is at least as ineffable as is black holes. anything is possible. imagination.

the much more practical concern is the size o' the vehicle star trek producers were willing to fill with money when they arrived at mr. brook's residence. am not knowing the financial situation o' mr. brooks, so am not even gonna hazard a guess what it took to coax him out of retirement. even if mr. brooks needed no money to live well, am sure the sisko has enough imagination to recognize the good he could do charities and worthy causes with a dump truck full of money. 

then again, maybe avery brooks has been diligent practicing his karaoke since 1999 and they offered him another chance to sing with james darren?

HA! Good Fun! 

 

[majestic]

Discovery S03E02.

Well that was... hum. The entire episode was so forgettable I have nothing much to say about the plot, but there are some points that drove me nuts - again. I am however willing to concede that I can no longer be objective about this and that no matter what this show would do I'd start nitpicking and not liking it. So take the griping with a grain of salt. Also, unmarked spoilers ahead. Not that it makes much of a difference. 

Some parts of the alpha quadrant have apparently devolved into a wild west style setting with extremely inefficient energy weapons (Georgiou takes multiple phaser blasts and can still literally kick ass afterwards). More talk about how dilithium is necessary for warp drives and that there's no warp without dilithium.

I mean it's pointless to point out that dilithium in 'Trek is used as the matter/antimatter reaction equivalent of nuclear reaction control rods, not directly for the warp drive, because who cares at this point.

They also keep talking about warp drives even though Courier Book blabbed something about the quantum slipstream drive in the first episode. But whatever, really.

Oh, and a thousand years into the future nature has provided the 'Trek universe with an entirely new periodic table because Tilly scans for metals necessary to complete repairs and find many that she doesn't even know.

It's also pointless to point out that 'Trek had at least in part a tradition of sticking with accepted real life scientific principles beyond what was necessary to make the setting work (i.e. FTL, artificial gravity and polarity Treknobabble). Who cares at this point that the only way you'd get really new and astonishing stable elements on the periodic table is to entirely rearrange the laws of physics. Well maybe that's what happened to the dilithium. Bet the hippies didn't expect the Age of Aquarius to look like that, ey?

Honestly how hard is it to say that you've found compound materials or alloys you had no clue existed? Your high school physics so bad that the only thing you remember is the periodic table?

Had a fun reaction to seeing the Discovery bridge crew as well. "Oh, yeah... huh, who's that? Oh, right. Oh, look, it's Lt. Barclay's really terrible replacement. Cyborg lady with the artificial brain. Who the hell is that guy, was he here before? Oh right and there's the weirdo engineer lady from the crashed ship from last time. Whatever her name is."

In contrast I've been rewatching DS9 lately and I just saw Crossfire, which is an episode that's largely about Odo and Kira and Odo's feelings for her and how he gets friendzoned really bad. Nothing much happens in the epsiode (other than an attempt at the First Minister of Bajor's life) but it was still better than every episode of Picard and Discovery combined. It's 99% character interaction and 1% action, not the other way around.

"For a minute there, I thought you were talking to me as a friend."

The lost art of character development in action. A single scene in a regular episode that is somewhat unspectacular otherwise with heartfelt delivery between two actors that are mimically limited by their make up is so much better than anything nu Trek has come up with so far.

Since this is a wild west episode it had to end with a traditional standoff when the bad guy shows up and tries to shake down the poor miners because they were trying to help the Discovery crew. They kill one of the miners with their super weird inefficient laser guns and want to rob Discovery's dilithium supply.

Zareh is clearly attempting to impress Tilly with his aged Billy the Kid spiel.

Saru immediately cows to Zareh (great name by the way), the assigned courier to this trade route and negotiates for... well their repaired communications thingie and maybe a hostage release. But there's no plan, no idea how to stop them, nothing. He's just really negotiating in earnest with a character he should by all means know will never stick to their deal.

Then Georgiou shows up and kicks everyone's ass (after getting shot repeatedly with the really bad weapons). They then proceed to execute Zareh by exposure to the elements. I mean Saru doesn't kill him immediately like Georgiou wants to but then they kind of agree to let him leave during night time on foot on a planet where the ice comes alive at night and destroys everything on the surface. Sure, why not. They're even nice enogh to give him some supplies.

Finally when the Discovery repairs kind of fail and the living ice threatens to crush everyone on board Michael shows up and tells them she's been waiting for them for a year. Uh, okay. Also the cyborg navigator keeps hearing telepathic interference after she's hit her head. Oh, right, you only know it is supposed to be telepathic interference when you  turn on the closed captions, because they really say [Telepathic interference] in front of the subdued Audio the cyborg navigator (oh right, they got names last season, hers is Detmer) hears.

Oh, right, lest I forget, there's this wonderful scene where Doctor Culbert makes wakes up Stamets and puts him in a regeneration thingy. Then Stamets leaves to help with repairs. He and weird crash engineering lady with spinal disc herniation sit next to a Jeffries tube. Engineering lady tells Stamets how to repair a broken whatever in the tube. Stamets argues that she should crawl in the tube and she says nah, back's damaged she can't move.

They then talk about getting some help from someone else and Stamets flies into a testosterone filled stupidity where he can't have asking for help in front of a woman (or whatever) and crawls up the tube himself.

What the hell guys. This is a repair job that's crucial to Discovery escaping the parasitic living ice that wants to cover everything at night (except for the mining outposts apparently), both people there are in no physical condition to do it and yet they don't call for help that is clearly available and able? This isn't Spock fixing the warp drive of the Enterprise and sacrificing himself to save the ship and the people on it. This is just unbelievable stupid.

Unbelievably stupid like the entire show. Gah.

[LadyCrimson]

  ... too funny, internet. But yeah, I'll probably check out it out.

Edited October 24, 2020 by LadyCrimson