The TV and Streaming Thread: Series 5

[InsaneCommander]

Yes, I don't think it will have the appeal of GoT.

I rewatched the trailer and here are some thoughts:

Tar Valon looks gorgeous, although not as good as the books imply. Things like "buildings that look like frozen waves" and the like would probably be too expensive to make.

The Ajah colors are too obvious. Maybe it is the way the chose to show in a visual medium, but iirc only the Reds were like that. Maybe the Blues too? The scene in the Hall makes sense because of its formality, but outside I'd expect more variety.

Spoiler

Logain's shield looked weird. Not necessarily bad, but strange. And all the weaves look white. Alanna's weaves stopping arrows could be Air, which I don't remember if it is white or yellow, but Moirane's thunder should also have Water, which is blue. I hope they use different colors.

Anyway, nothing too bad. Based on what they revealed so far I'm excited.

[Zoraptor]

Yeah, that's a pretty good trailer.

You'd be forgiven for thinking the series was Moiraine centric from it, but apart from Rosamund Pike being a selling point you also can't do 'thought exposition' in a TV series effectively, so you need to do a lot more showing of the world building.

The ajah colours are too obvious, but meh. You could have them wearing shawls as identifiers instead (and to be constantly adjusting when not tugging braids/ sniffing/ smoothing skirts/ crossing arms) but if you're going to do that then might as well just dress them in the colours. Same as having Moiraine more dominant, you can't rely on character thoughts to remind people of ajahs and the like so you need more visual cues.

Liked the myrdraal, in that case a certain amount of uncanny valley is a veritable asset, notable lack of detail  on the brief/ action shots of the trollocs though (unless the Leshen looking thing was a trolloc, and that looked more like Herne the Hunter from the old Robin Hood TV series than I imagined a trolloc to look).

The only real criticism I'd have is a stylistic one in that it looks perhaps a bit too derivative of LOTR. I know that that's a 'problem' with the source material with EotW being explicitly Tolikienesque, but Tar Valon ends up looking like Minas Tirith with a river and the environmental shots... that shot of them in the limestone croppings could have been straight out of FotR. Still, if you're going to be derivative of something being derivative of FotR is a pretty good pick.

[Sarex]

@KP the meanie zucchini Reservation Dogs renewed for season 2.

Edit: Reservation not reservoir, I keep mixing up the two...

 

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by Sarex

[Raithe]

22 hours ago, Amentep said:

Probably the real strength was the cast, who I thought managed to shake off the rough start and gel as an ensemble but YMMV.  They also had a fun re-occurring villain in David Dastmalchian's Murdoc that got lost as the show itself lost its focus in some poorly realized dramatic stories, rather than sticking to their strength with lighter stories.  I'm sure the actors appreciated the chance to stretch their acting muscles, but IMO a lot of the drama stuff (like the stuff with new-Mac's dad) was poorly conceptualized and therefore stood out as flat area in the episodes.

It's one of those shows that can be on in the background while you're eating dinner rather than one you put on specifically to watch.

But yes, Dastmalchian's Murdoc was interesting, his first appearance was a bit too "Joker", but since then it's settled into a rather well done sneering on the edge of sanity.  What I quite liked was they did get Michael Des Barres (the original Murdoc) to do an appearance as Murdoc's mentor.

[Amentep]

Yes, I thought that was fun too. I think Des Barres got a better use than Bruce McGill (original Jack Dalton).

[Raithe]

16 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

Yes, I don't think it will have the appeal of GoT.

I don't know. One million views in just over 11 hours, could suggest a good initial fanbase to keep the show going...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

900000 of those views was from Jeff Bezos alone.

[Hurlshort]

59 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

900000 of those views was from Jeff Bezos alone.

Malcador made the signature line, nice. 

[Malcador]

39 minutes ago, Hurlsnot said:

Malcador made the signature line, nice. 

What ?

[Sarex]

4 minutes ago, Malcador said:

What ?

KP's signature.

[Malcador]

Very strange, not seeing a signature for his posts, I see Raithe's and InsaneCommander's. 

[Gfted1]

Maybe you have it hidden (drop down arrow next to signature)? I know thats what I do with the overly verbose ones.

[Malcador]

Newp, no option to do so.  Funny I can't ignore your signature alone, option is to ignore all whereas with others I can ignore them individually  

e.g.

 

and

Ah ok, finally saw using Edge browser. yeesh

Edited September 4, 2021 by Malcador

[Lexx]

I have all signatures disabled, because you people were causing too much screen noise for me with all your appendixes.

[the_dog_days]

2 hours ago, Lexx said:

I have all signatures disabled, because you people were causing too much screen noise for me with all your appendixes.

So do I. The animated ones I find particularly distracting.

[melkathi]

I finished both seasons of Kingdom (the Korean zombie show) and watched the movie Kingdom - Ashin of the North, which I guess does the character background for Ashin so the audience is prepared for season 3.

[Amentep]

Birthright Pt 2(TNG) 

Now that the setup is over with, Wolf and the Romulan-Klingon peace community was pretty good. Worf acted smart, the conflict was reasonable and - not having to share time with a B plot - had room to breathe as a story.

[Gfted1]

Cruella

I logged on to Disney+ to see if Jungle Cruise was free yet (its not, $29.99!) and then I noticed Cruella was. I really liked it! A bit overlong at 2 hours but theres plenty of laughs and Emma Stone kills it. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Star Trek TOS 

The episode where they land on a planet that imitates gangster movies. It was... not the best.

[Lexx]

I just watched the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot and while it has some meh parts, it all in all was actually really nice. Very nostalgic and feels more like a family reunion or something like that.

[LadyCrimson]

9 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Star Trek TOS 

The episode where they land on a planet that imitates gangster movies. It was... not the best.

A Piece of the Action.  It had some amusing Spock/Kirk interactions and Vic Tayback was fun.  Not one of the best TOS tho, yeah.  I mean, as much as I love TOS, most episodes weren't "the best of TOS", so to speak, lets be honest.  The main trio plus a few others, and some guest work is what I became attached to and it kept you watching/smiling.

[Hurlshort]

9 hours ago, Lexx said:

I just watched the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot and while it has some meh parts, it all in all was actually really nice. Very nostalgic and feels more like a family reunion or something like that.

I enjoyed it too, but I typically enjoy Kevin Smith having fun.

[Keyrock]

I don't usually write anything about rasslin', since I'm likely the only one here that watches it regularly, but last night was AEW All Out 2021 and it was special. That was the best show I have seen... ... ... /scratches head ... Ever? I haven't felt this excited and happy as a rasslin' fan in at least 20 years. This is almost certainly going to be this young company's highest selling PPV ever and they were already doing the best non-WWE numbers since probably 1998, when WCW wasn't yet fully into their downward spiral, really the last time WWE had any real competition. With this many eyeballs on them it was imperative that they deliver a great show, and boy did they ever. This was like watching a baseball team hit 10 straight home runs, it was insanity. Also, hats off to the crowd, a hot crowd makes a big difference, and this was 10000 people in Chicago collectively losing their minds (and voices) for 4 straight hours. This was a landmark show that I will remember forever. I am so ****ing happy right now! 

[Amentep]

I can't really watch AEW, but I've heard when they're good they're really good and when they're bad they're embarrassingly bad.

But wrestling needs competition, so hopefully it means a better competition for whoever still exists (Ring of Honor and WWE?).

[Keyrock]

4 minutes ago, Amentep said:

I can't really watch AEW, but I've heard when they're good they're really good and when they're bad they're embarrassingly bad.

But wrestling needs competition, so hopefully it means a better competition for whoever still exists (Ring of Honor and WWE?).

AEW has their bad moments, nobody bats 1.000, but their good moments far outnumber their bad moments. More importantly, it's a company that's genuinely trying to make their fans happy, and you can't fake that. Speaking of embarrassingly bad, WWE is really rough right now. Smackdown at least has Roman Reigns, who is killing it since hooking up with Paul Heyman, Raw is just a dumpster fire, borderline unwatchable. I mean, WWE has been declining in terms of the quality of the product for well over a decade now, but they really fell off a few years ago, rivaling the really rough years of 1995 and 1996, when WWE (WWF at the time) was just garbage. The optimist in me is hoping that AEW's rise will be the wake up call WWE needs and they get their **** together and put on great, exciting shows again, much like WCW kicking their ass for 83 straight weeks forced WWF to adapt and brought about the Attitude Era, which had a ton of garbage that people forget about via rose tinted glasses, but also had so much greatness. The difference is that in 96 WWF was legitimately in danger of going out of business, these days they are making ludicrous amounts of money no matter how trash the product is, plus Vince McMahon is like 75 or 76; even brilliant promoters eventually fall out of touch.

Ring of Honor still exists, not as great as they were in the mid 2000s, but still a solid product. TNA still exists, somehow, rebranded as Impact Wrestling. It's a a fairly good product, but it's hard to get rid of the TNA stink. New Japan Pro Wrestling was super hot for several years, but the pandemic really hurt them. The pandemic hit at the absolute worst time for AEW, it could have absolutely killed the company just as they were getting off the ground, yet they arguably got through it the best of all the companies. I mean the pandemic isn't over, but we do have live crowds again. AEW is the only American company even remotely on WWE's level in terms of production value and ability to fill 6000, 7000, 10000 seat arenas.