The TV and Streaming thread Series 3

[InsaneCommander]

So the burn in STD was caused by

Spoiler

a guy shouting.

Really?

[ShadySands]

That's beyond dumb. I had to look it up and it somehow the full explanation sounds even worse.

 

 

[Zoraptor]

So that wasn't the season finale of Discovery last week? Fricking Netflix making me look stupid.

Looking forward to finding out what caused the burn, if only to see how dumb the explanation is.

[majestic]

For once and just because it's Christmas I didn't immediately watch Discovery and I missed the most stupid on the season? Man... well got something to look forward to tomorrow then.

[kirottu]

7 hours ago, ShadySands said:

That's beyond dumb. I had to look it up and it somehow the full explanation sounds even worse.

It's amazing how this show can disappoint me even after I have stopped watching it. 

[InsaneCommander]

12 hours ago, majestic said:

For once and just because it's Christmas I didn't immediately watch Discovery and I missed the most stupid on the season? Man... well got something to look forward to tomorrow then.

This time they surpassed themselves. If it was any other show I would assume it is a red herring and wait for the proper explanation. But it's STD.

[LadyCrimson]

Watched three episodes of "Your Honor."  That first episode so far is the best one.  2nd and 3rd were slower and pretty predictable in terms of crisis and management.  There's nothing all that innovate re: plot and such.  Mostly you'll have fun watching Cranston be Cranston, or not.  The chr. of Cranston's son may get on some people's nerves re: stupidity and passive deer aspects.  Could get better later ofc.

[Zoraptor]

5 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

This time they surpassed themselves. If it was any other show I would assume it is a red herring and wait for the proper explanation. But it's STD.

It could be a red herring, though Discovery is certainly not much of a 'red herring' type show. They've occasionally done a good job of obfuscating things but once revealed they've been almost painfully linear.

Spoiler

All the people dealing with the Kelpian in the simulation have had their species changed, so it may not be a Kelpian who caused it. ST does after all have a tradition of god like beings, and we saw one the episode previous, so it being a dilithium lifeform or similar is possible. Especially if they want to keep the status quo with Discovery being special and there not being much dilithium. Though, of course, Discovery being special didn't stop whatsherface from catching up with them inside a few hours...

 

[ShadySands]

Death to 2020 on Netflix. It was funnier than I expected.

Regarding STD, I'm pretty sure there are 13 episodes this season even though I haven't bothered with a single one. 

Edited December 27, 2020 by ShadySands

[InsaneCommander]

Promo for today's episode of The Expanse. It's just a few moments, but watch at your own risk.

https://twitter.com/ExpanseOnPrime/status/1343934800567136262

[majestic]

On 12/26/2020 at 9:31 PM, Zoraptor said:

It could be a red herring, though Discovery is certainly not much of a 'red herring' type show. They've occasionally done a good job of obfuscating things but once revealed they've been almost painfully linear.

  Hide contents

All the people dealing with the Kelpian in the simulation have had their species changed, so it may not be a Kelpian who caused it. ST does after all have a tradition of god like beings, and we saw one the episode previous, so it being a dilithium lifeform or similar is possible. Especially if they want to keep the status quo with Discovery being special and there not being much dilithium. Though, of course, Discovery being special didn't stop whatsherface from catching up with them inside a few hours...

 

I guess the "child" looks like the monster in real life and that's the reason the holographic programs won't turn off until he faces it, gazes upon his own countenance without horror as it were.

Maybe that's how the ancient Kelpians looked like and falling into a dilithium planet caused another Threshold type of "evolutionary" progression. Maybe Saru and Michael could have some little kelp covered ancient Kelpian babies, like Janeway and Paris. 

[InsaneCommander]

The Expanse. Spoilers for episode 5x05
 

Spoiler

 

I think they haven't explained some things well compared to the books:

1) The code they were talking about was based on a fault Naomi discovered. Marco used it to blow up ships without anyone noticing it was a terrorist attack.

2) Naomi didn't abandon her son, he was hidden when Marco realised that she would not help him use the code to blow up ships. He was so abusive that she had no choice but to leave, even if it meant never seeing her son again.

 

 

[Zoraptor]

7 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

The Expanse. Spoilers for episode 5x05
 

  Hide contents

1) The code they were talking about was based on a fault Naomi discovered. Marco used it to blow up ships without anyone noticing it was a terrorist attack.

 

Spoiler

 

In the general sense, I thought it was pretty obvious something had been done to the Roci given that the traitor Tech had been specifically shown working on it back in ep 1(?), and arguably Holden should have thought of that too. Naomi obviously- in retrospect- picked up on it when Filip said that he'd saved her life by bringing her along instead of letting her go (back to the Roci). Guess it's a matter of it being a lot more difficult showing that sort of specific character knowledge effectively in TV, since in book form you can just write down thought processes etc.

Wonder if that's Alex written out now. It would certainly be a relatively elegant way of doing it. And while I'm not a book reader I believe it'd be fairly close to how Fred Johnson died in the books? Then budget Jeffrey Dean Morgan can replace him.

Otherwise, still a few pacing type issues. Naomi on the Pella is a bit too melodramatic for my tastes and actually reminds me of Discovery's problems with 'emotional' scenes. The escape from prison was technically fine, and it was nice to see Amos channel his inner Brock Lesnar, but it took up a lot of the episode just to get to the surface and still has no connection to the rest of the plot. Presumably he's going to be the direct eyes on the devastation, but it's taken a lot of time to get there. Also, naming the female prison guard 'Rona' ended up being a bit on the nose given current events.

Won't be watching any more episodes any time soon though, since my (borrowed) Prime sub is running out before next week.

 

 

[InsaneCommander]

2 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

In the general sense, I thought it was pretty obvious something had been done to the Roci given that the traitor Tech had been specifically shown working on it back in ep 1(?), and arguably Holden should have thought of that too. Naomi obviously- in retrospect- picked up on it when Filip said that he'd saved her life by bringing her along instead of letting her go (back to the Roci). Guess it's a matter of it being a lot more difficult showing that sort of specific character knowledge effectively in TV, since in book form you can just write down thought processes etc.

Wonder if that's Alex written out now. It would certainly be a relatively elegant way of doing it. And while I'm not a book reader I believe it'd be fairly close to how Fred Johnson died in the books? Then budget Jeffrey Dean Morgan can replace him.

Otherwise, still a few pacing type issues. Naomi on the Pella is a bit too melodramatic for my tastes and actually reminds me of Discovery's problems with 'emotional' scenes. The escape from prison was technically fine, and it was nice to see Amos channel his inner Brock Lesnar, but it took up a lot of the episode just to get to the surface and still has no connection to the rest of the plot. Presumably he's going to be the direct eyes on the devastation, but it's taken a lot of time to get there. Also, naming the female prison guard 'Rona' ended up being a bit on the nose given current events.

Won't be watching any more episodes any time soon though, since my (borrowed) Prime sub is running out before next week.

 

 

Spoiler

 

Well, as I said, she was in a very abusive relationship with him. It was the worst part of her life. Now she is his prisoner, is worried about Holden and is finding out what her son has become. It must be a very traumatic experience. She is also a decent person and is worried about all the innocent lives lost. Not to mention that it was implied the only way she is leaving that ship is when she is dead. So I can understand why she would be so emotional.

Btw, I once said there was a huge hidden spoiler in the S5 trailer. It was a very brief scene with belters on a martian ship.

Edit: *his prisoner

Spoilers for The Expanse S5E05 above. I can't add it in the beginning.

Edited December 30, 2020 by InsaneCommander

[Zoraptor]

Expanse S5E5

Spoiler

As someone who hasn't read the books I would have presumed it was a manipulative cult survival type situation, since they've clearly gone with Inaros being (or trying to appear to be) a messianic figure. And yes, that does explain Naomi's reaction fine.

I suspect I'd be a lot more generously inclined towards the Naomi subplot if the season was a bulk rather than weekly release, much as I'd likely be less critical of the initial pacing. It certainly feels a lot less contrived now there's an explanation for Filip bringing Naomi along in the first place. In the end that's why I won't stump up the princely $10 to watch the end of the series as it releases- I'm pretty convinced at this point that I will like it way, way more when I can watch at my own pace in a couple of months. Many of the criticisms I have this season I had in the previous ones too to some extent, but had less time to dwell on them. And in the end I liked all the previous seasons with most of the criticisms working themselves out fine.

I remember you saying there was a huge hidden spoiler, because I thought it was asteroid related. I'd presume the 'rebel' Martians get protomolecule in payment, otherwise it's like Al Qaeda buying a couple of US destroyers off an admiral for a billion dollars in cash or something.

[majestic]

I'm two episodes into Chibi-Usa showing up during Sailor Moon R. I'm not sure if it's me getting older or having seen the show already, but I don't hate her nearly as much as I did during the original run. On the other hand it's been only two episodes. Plenty of episodes with her left.

Anyway, there's a reason I picked Sailor Moon R 15 (Episode 61, overall) to post now. It's the one where Mamoru breaks up with Usagi to prevent her death in the future (or his vision of it, anyway). It... yeah. As ridiculous as that might sound given the subject matter and the abject silliness of much the anime, even knowing how it will all turn out - which, realistically, you'd know even on a first time viewing unless you're so dense you'd sink in lead - I found myself feeling terrible for her in that scene where she enters the phone booth, sits down and cries.

The setup and execution of this scene is simply flawless. Down to the incredibly in character and somewhat weird - I mean weird here when looking at it from the outside, it's really perfectly in character for Usagi - thing she says to herself in the phone booth: "Sorry mom, I can't bring him home any more" - referring to an earlier scene where her parents met him where her mother asked her to bring Mamoru home when Dad's away so they can talk.

See Discovery writing team, emotional scenes work much better when you care about the characters. Even if they're usually silly and do ridiculous things like dressing up in sailor outfits to fight evil in the name of love and justice. Heh.

Ah, anyway, a heartfelt thank you to @Bartimaeus for making me watch the anime again.

I'm planning on watching Sailor Moon Crystal afterwards, I wonder if that will be like watching Full Metal Alchemist and later Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I finished Alice in Borderland. There's some silliness and some of the action is corny looking, but over all it's an enjoyable show that I'd recommend. And unlike some show called Discovery which I've never watched, you do actually end up caring about the characters enough where emotional moments work.

2 hours ago, majestic said:

I'm planning on watching Sailor Moon Crystal afterwards, I wonder if that will be like watching Full Metal Alchemist and later Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

It will make you dislike the first series? I only remember bits of FMA but after watching Brotherhood I couldn't keep interested.

[Bartimaeus]

5 hours ago, majestic said:

I'm two episodes into Chibi-Usa showing up during Sailor Moon R. I'm not sure if it's me getting older or having seen the show already, but I don't hate her nearly as much as I did during the original run. On the other hand it's been only two episodes. Plenty of episodes with her left.

Anyway, there's a reason I picked Sailor Moon R 15 (Episode 61, overall) to post now. It's the one where Mamoru breaks up with Usagi to prevent her death in the future (or his vision of it, anyway). It... yeah. As ridiculous as that might sound given the subject matter and the abject silliness of much the anime, even knowing how it will all turn out - which, realistically, you'd know even on a first time viewing unless you're so dense you'd sink in lead - I found myself feeling terrible for her in that scene where she enters the phone booth, sits down and cries.

The setup and execution of this scene is simply flawless. Down to the incredibly in character and somewhat weird - I mean weird here when looking at it from the outside, it's really perfectly in character for Usagi - thing she says to herself in the phone booth: "Sorry mom, I can't bring him home any more" - referring to an earlier scene where her parents met him where her mother asked her to bring Mamoru home when Dad's away so they can talk.

See Discovery writing team, emotional scenes work much better when you care about the characters. Even if they're usually silly and do ridiculous things like dressing up in sailor outfits to fight evil in the name of love and justice. Heh.

Ah, anyway, a heartfelt thank you to @Bartimaeus for making me watch the anime again.

I'm planning on watching Sailor Moon Crystal afterwards, I wonder if that will be like watching Full Metal Alchemist and later Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Chibi-Usa: I didn't mind her at first, but I'm starting to get a little more annoyed with her because of how much screen-time as well as the narrative itself she's been dominating since she entered the show. The show is called Sailor Moon, not Sailor...Mini Moon! However, my understanding is that the focus eventually switches back to more on Usagi, so I'm remaining patient with her.

Mamoru: That entire sequence was brutal. Logically, of course I know this is going to resolve itself just fine eventually and it's completely silly to spend even a moment thinking about it or feeling bad for Usagi, but just like when the Sailors each met their respective fates at the end of season 1, the execution is brutal and heartfelt enough that my brain stops paying attention to the fact that it's a show where nothing bad is ever going to last (...well, besides poor Naru's dark heaven king guy getting smoked in season 1 - I kind of liked him, and he's still dead, R.I.P.). The absolute despair she was in had me convinced she might legitimately start having like suicidal tendencies for a bit there, but of course, her being herself, she was able to quickly redirect herself in aims of resolving things (and that made perfect sense for both her character as well as the show as a whole, since her being in a depression for an extended period would've been too much to bear). I've probably laughed the most at this show that I've ever laughed at anything (particularly if we look at in the lens of being, you know, an absolutely ludicrous ~40 episodes a season, and it also being a completely wholesome, silly type of entertainment), and the fact that it can elicit other types of emotional responses is...well, great. It's just a great show, it really is - it's right up there with my two other favorite cartoons of all time, which are Steven Universe and Avatar: The Last Airbender (and, of course, my list of favorite shows overall is dominated by cartoons in general, so that's saying a lot from me!).

Funnily, I only just barely decided to write about in here at all on the off-chance anybody else had ever seen the show (and also, as a formerly life-long anti-anime zealot, I was kind of embarrassed to admit that I liked and even loved it), so I'm also glad that I did, .

Edited December 31, 2020 by Bartimaeus

[Lexx]

It's save to say that I loath the weekly release of the new Expanse season. Every episode feels so short to me, even though the playtime is the same as before. Also I had to unsubscribe from every Expanse thing that I was following, because it is impossible to avoid spoilers. And I agree that the flaws become more noticeable now that you can't just binge the season... really annoying.

Probably going to rewatch the whole season again once it is finished in february. Though I hope it will work out motivation-wise, becaues I think some of the scenes so far are a bit long and... boring? Like pointed out a bit further above

 

all of Amos story in this episode was about climbing up a ladder ... like ... really? And then they don't even pan out and show a widescreen shot of the whole destruction?

Without crapping on it in general, because I'm still a big fan, but that's kinda underwhelming and feels like a waste of important playtime. I mean, we are already at the half of season 5 and so far nothing really happened except for the thing we already knew would happen?

Edited December 31, 2020 by Lexx

[majestic]

  

4 hours ago, KaineParker said:

It will make you dislike the first series? I only remember bits of FMA but after watching Brotherhood I couldn't keep interested.

There are bits and sections of both that I liked more than the other. Both shows had pacing problems, FMA's beginning dragged a little whereas the political maneuvering in the middle section of Brotherhood was way too long for what little payoff it offered. The character development in FMA was a tad better for secondary characters, but that's probably because it had more time to kill as filler, at least until the point where the manga's author told the team to finish the story on their own.

I didn't like the endings of either to be honest. FMA's ending was incredibly unsatisfying in the same way Lost's ending was, philosophically okay but really bad at tying up loose ends and Brotherhood's ending was just simply batsh*it insane in the way only Japanese manga/anime storylines can be.

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Funnily, I only just barely decided to write about in here at all on the off-chance anybody else had ever seen the show (and also, as a formerly life-long anti-anime zealot, I was kind of embarrassed to admit that I liked and even loved it), so I'm also glad that I did, .

I grew up with anime, although at the time with a lot of the shows we had no idea that they were from Japan in the first place. We just watched cartoons on TV - a lot of the shows were animes. Sure some were clearly set in Japan (like Captain Tsuabasa or Attack No. 1) but others, like Dog of Flanders?

In hindsight watching Dog of Flanders as a kid was perhaps not the best of ideas, but everything that was animated and fit for TV was simply rated for kids back then. It sometimes still is. I have a newer blu ray of Grave of the Fireflies, and it still reads FSK (our version of CARA) 6. Really? 6?

 

[Bartimaeus]

yeah man, burnt corpses, moms whose faces were literally melted off, starvation and depression...and diseased and dying siblings, totally what I'd have six year-olds watching,

[LadyCrimson]

12 hours ago, majestic said:

I have a newer blu ray of Grave of the Fireflies, and it still reads FSK (our version of CARA) 6. Really? 6?

Well, I'm not a parent, but I suppose one could look at it as an opportunity for discussion, like teaching/preparing re: death and terrible circumstances.    That film is depressing, sad/traumatic, etc. but it's not a rah-rah violence as entertainment, at least. Or something. 

As to animation in general - hey, it's a "cartoon," must be ok for kids, right? I saw some of the weirdest animation stuff on PBS as a kid, with my parents watching.

Books can be similar. My mother loved that I loved to read, that she hardly paid attention to *what* I was reading.  So here you are, 8-9 years old, reading every horror/fantasy/samurai action anthology and novel, full of sex, descriptive violence, vengeance - my mom never looked at/checked my books - but I could only watch Little House on the Prairie and Popeye was "bad" for the casual violence.

[Sarex]

I still haven't watched Grave of the Fireflies. I am not prepared for the feels...or for the post movie depression.

[uuuhhii]

the watch s01e01

some of the scenes didn't hit as hard as creator obviously wanted it to

might be some edit problem

feel a little rushed

[BruceVC]

On 12/31/2020 at 10:38 AM, Lexx said:

It's save to say that I loath the weekly release of the new Expanse season. Every episode feels so short to me, even though the playtime is the same as before. Also I had to unsubscribe from every Expanse thing that I was following, because it is impossible to avoid spoilers. And I agree that the flaws become more noticeable now that you can't just binge the season... really annoying.

Probably going to rewatch the whole season again once it is finished in february. Though I hope it will work out motivation-wise, becaues I think some of the scenes so far are a bit long and... boring? Like pointed out a bit further above

  Reveal hidden contents

all of Amos story in this episode was about climbing up a ladder ... like ... really? And then they don't even pan out and show a widescreen shot of the whole destruction?

Without crapping on it in general, because I'm still a big fan, but that's kinda underwhelming and feels like a waste of important playtime. I mean, we are already at the half of season 5 and so far nothing really happened except for the thing we already knew would happen?

Lexx, season 3 of Cobra Kai is on Netflix

I am going to start watching it tonight