The TV and Streaming Thread: Now up for syndication...

[Zoraptor]

3 hours ago, Raithe said:

A couple of the potential issues they have with WoT...

Having all "main" character share fairly equal time on screen and on character development so the audience can grow to like any of them - as opposed to making it the Rand show perspective and only having the others come to the forefront 3 years down the road...

Having an actor play a five minute role in one episode, and have them return as a much more significant player 4 seasons later. Not really workable, so characters and their storylines will need to be shifted around if they do want to introduce them in the story.

 

I think this is falling into one of those "inspired by" rather than a literal following. I'm trying to keep in mind it's a tv show, not my books, and that the showrunner has really been engaging with the fan community at large for the last two years to manage expectations and explain why and how changes are being made. Not just slapping you with a wet sock in the face and leaving it at that.

 

Yeah, the biggest specific issues stem from divergence from the books. Which is inevitable, the series is fundamentally unfilmable as is even if they got the extra 2 episodes per season. Trying to shoehorn literally chapters of world building with internal monologue and observation into a visual medium is difficult, but has too often been unnecessary or overly blatant. Don't even know if it could have been done better, but that's largely irrelevant to whether you enjoy the end product. Which I largely am, but it's certainly got a lot of rough edges and it's easy to understand people who aren't enjoying it.

OTOH I'd say that their biggest general problem is budget, and how cheap it looks- or at least how inconsistent it looks. The CGI is mostly fine, the locations are uniformly good and I at least don't have (many) issues with the costuming- even the tinkers were closer to what they 'should' have been in ep4. But each episode there's been at least one thing where it looks like they ran out of money, and the end effect of that is like buying a silk shirt and finding that one sleeve is polyester. Doesn't matter how good the rest is, you really notice the cheap part even if you wouldn't mind wearing a straight polyester shirt. So specifically for ep4 (really mild spoilers, but for safety)

Spoiler

They spent as lot of money on the castle CGI for the Ghealdan flashback and it looked really good. But it also established Logain's army as being significant enough to siege a decent sized city and then they had like two redshirt extras and a king who looked 90% cheap redshirt himself. The initial CGI overpromised what the live action delivered. So too the later battle had far too few extras for the expectation built up by the siege, and gave the rather unflattering impression of one of those Hercules/ Xena 'battles' where they shot the same group of gurning kiwi extras waving rubber swords from three different angles and looped between the shots because it was a cheap way to make it look like there were more of them. Which was, to be honest, part of the charm of Hercules/ Xena, but those series were made on a shoestring and busing in/ costuming/ etc extras is expensive. WoT isn't made on a shoestring though, and expectations are a lot higher.

 

[majestic]

Based on the glowing recommendations I've watched the first episode of Midnight Mass. I don't really have an opinion on it yet, what with the pacing and all, but a few stray observations:

First of all, it's very recognizably Mike Flanagan in the same way a Nolan film looks and feels like Nolan. Or French movies are really, like, French. I also went and checked if this is based on a Stephen King story, and it apparently isn't, but just from the setup, it might as well be. It features all of the classic Stephen King pieces and character types (and dead cats, ugh, horrible flashback to Sleepwalkers), although what does that really say after like half a thousand books.

I enjoyed the episode, but I'm already tentatively disliking the religious nutjob setup, and I hate Bev and all the tropes she stands for. But hey, apparently this goes places (I avoided all the spoilers, which is a first for me), maybe the character will take a different turn. If she does though, then why set her up like that in the first place?

The best part of the episode was Riley and Erin talking. I'd watch an entire series with just that. I'm also up for watching Annabeth Gish on screen at any time. It feels like she's always just Annabeth Gish in a role, but that's fine. Monica Reyes was the only decent part of the latter X-Files seasons (of the original run, not the two new ones). That just might be nostalgia though.

[Bartimaeus]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

 

If you enjoy the quality and quantity of dialogue, that should be enough to at least enjoy the rest of the show...I think. The general reception seems to either be "I would have loved EVEN MORE dialogue" or "I'm falling asleep because there's too much dialogue". I was, obviously, in the former camp.

Not really spoilers, more thoughts on you vs. me approaching the show:

Spoiler

I think, based on what I know of you, though, you in particular may not find the series as so wondrously effective as I did, given that I have some very personal reasons for it working so perfectly, though, and that there are apparently a great many deal of other people who share similar reasons to myself...at least based on what I read online for feedback on the show and the type of people who love it.

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

52 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

If you enjoy the quality and quantity of dialogue, that should be enough to at least enjoy the rest of the show...I think. The general reception seems to either be "I would have loved EVEN MORE dialogue" or "I'm falling asleep because there's too much dialogue". I was, obviously, in the former camp.

I could see myself faling asleep if Pastor Hill and Bev ever have an extensive talk, but I don't think that's what the "where my aaaakshuun at?" camp means by that.

55 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Not really spoilers, more thoughts on you vs. me approaching the show:

  Hide contents

I think, based on what I know of you, though, you in particular may not find the series as so wondrously effective as I did, given that I have some very personal reasons for it working so perfectly, though, and that there are apparently a great many deal of other people who share similar reasons to myself...at least based on what I read online for feedback on the show and the type of people who love it.

We'll see soon enough.

Spoiler

If you're referring to the religious setup, then that should be no problem, but it could lessen the effectiveness. I don't like it when my sci-fi suddenly goes actual divine intervention, which I have complained about endlessly before, but this isn't sci-fi, or at least I hope it doesn't turn into sci-fi later (unless it's an alien monster killing all the cats, that would be fine).

Mike Flanagan is more than capable of setting up a scary environment without relying on concepts that I find inherently to be not scary or even ridiculous, like demonic possession. I'm very much in the "The Exorcist isn't scary" camp, although not like most others because the film is more funny than scary, but because I just can't suspend my disbelief, and from there everything about the film falls flat.

Part of the reason why I enjoyed The Conjuring more than other horror films of its kind (not counting the jump scares) is because it creates a tight and opressive enough atmosphere to still work, and Midnight Mass so far does a good enough job of it.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

I'd watch an entire series with just that.

Be careful what you wish for.

[ShadySands]

Red Notice and A Castle for Christmas. Red Notice was stupid fun with emphasis on the stupid. I guessed the twist at the very beginning and I'm no Herlock Sholmes. I'm a Cary Elwes fan but watching him Scottish for an hour and a half wasn't the best. I'm a sucker for sappy holiday movies that are a hair above Hallmark movies so this hit that mark.

Edited November 27, 2021 by ShadySands

[majestic]

12 hours ago, majestic said:

I enjoyed the episode, but I'm already tentatively disliking the religious nutjob setup, and I hate Bev and all the tropes she stands for. But hey, apparently this goes places (I avoided all the spoilers, which is a first for me), maybe the character will take a different turn.

Yeah, so after episode two, it sure seems Bev is everything I expected her to be, and...

Spoiler

Looks like there really is an alien monster killing the cats, lol, and the local drug dealer - or it's Father Hill's personal evil witch familiar (or whatever it is he keeps in his trunk) collecting life energy to work his miracles. Here's to hoping Bev gets eaten really by it soon, or wasted from behind by Joe the Drunk causing another hunting accident. I had a feeling Leeza would start walking again after Riley's mother suddenly no longer needed glasses, just not it happening this quickly.

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by majestic

[ShadySands]

I really dug the first episode of Hawkeye. I wasn't going to watch it but then I saw some reviews complain about the slower pace and lower stakes and thought that sounded great.

[Lexx]

Depends on how slow it is. Is it as slow as Punisher, which makes you fall asleep? Or is it just more "down to earth" slow?

[uuuhhii]

just remember how stupid the whole hating mage thing was in so many fantasy setting while watching wheel of time

one of the reason stop watching the genre for a while

[LadyCrimson]

FINALLY.  I still have to wait almost a month tho. 
Please don't suck, please don't suck ... at minimum, at least be watchable.

 

[Amentep]

TNG Interface

The Enterprise sees 100s of unique, one-of-a-kind events over the course of 7 seasons - and yet not enough for any of Geordi's friends to believe he saw anything, much less his mother*. 'There's no proof', they say. Except when Geordi disobeys orders and Data matches the anomalous sensor data they denied existing to new data as Geordi talks to his 'mom'. What?

Why did the alien masquerade as his mom in the first place? Why is Troi yet again shown to be incompetent as a counselor, not listening to her patient and only offering pop-psy platitudes? Why do Geordi's pals refuse to listen to him or look at the data and at least entertain there may be something more than Geordi refusing to believe his mom passed?? The command crew get such latitude except when the story needs them to be stick-in-the-muds.

And who greenlit hiring Ben Vereen to play Geordi's dad and then relegating him to a video screen rather than letting him be there in person? What a waste of a great actor.

This episode is pretty rubbish.

*This is literally LOST IN SPACE level plotting, where whatever weird thing Wil or Penny saw is dismissed by the adults despite the fact that they'd encountered things just as preposterous the previous weeks of the show, and also typically first seen by Wil or Penny.

[majestic]

Midnight Mass, episode three.

Couple of quick points, before I get too far into it.

Spoiler

Seems like Father Hill really does use life energy or some concept like it to perform his miracles. He also coughed while Riley's father stopped coughing. Not sure yet if Monsignor Pruitt is dead already considering Riley saw him in the rain, and he does have a habit of seeing the woman he killed during his DUI.

Bev meanwhile seems to seize the moment to expand her influence over the wee little flock on Crockett Island. Everything according to plan, so far at least. Not sure if Father Hill is there to prepare the islanders to fight whatever the creature is or if that creature is a dark counterweight to his miracles. The latter seems a bit less likely now that it appears to be taking quite a toll to perform the healing miracles, on the other hand, the creature probably is some form of vampire - what with the batlike wings and the cats being all drained of blood.

The question sort of is what the father keeps in his trunk. If that was Monsignor Pruitt in some fashion then he could be the creature at night. If the creature is in there then... yeah, well, time to continue instead of rambling on.

edit 3:

Ewww, did he just put the blood of Mr. Drug Dealer into the wine? Could be he's just really drinking and all, but since I'm semi-suspecting him to be a blood sucking alien from Deneb this is kind of what I'll go with. Heh. Or he's Pazuzu for real, or a younger Pruitt who underwent some transformation, although that would be really whacky.

edit 4:

Man, please, let the creature kill Bev. Ugh.

edit 5:

There goes my theory. Or all of them. Ey, you can't just up and die on me here, you're supposed to be an evil wizard witch thing.

edit 6:

Should wait before I post, I guess. We're back folks!

edit:

Crockett Island also looks an awful loot like Canada with added water. Was that shot in Vancouver?

edit 2:

Also, absolutely fantastic sound track, loving the music in this.

Edited November 29, 2021 by majestic

[LadyCrimson]

Geordi is the guy who is always friend-zoned, had a holodeck creation - that he wanted the computer to make "more human acting" - help him troubleshoot instead of utilizing his actual human team, and generally treated by the writers as a sometimes engine-tech genius but an interpersonal relationship dufus (not including Data). It's not surprising that most of his episodes were not very good.

[Gromnir]

am gonna concede how after booby trap and galaxy's child, taking geordi serious became a bit more difficult. possibly redeemed self by season seven, but seeing as is going on 30 years since those embarrassing episodes and we still recall 'em first when we think o' geordi, is not a good sign.

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

[majestic]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Midnight Mass, episode three.

Quoting myself here, again, I guess...

Spoiler

Anyway, I was a bit wrong there, it's not that the vampire is Father Hill's evil witch familiar, it's that Father Hill, who really turned out to be Pruitt after some ancient telomere extension treatment, who is the familiar of the unearthed PAZUZU trying to expand his sphere of influence.

I was surprised to get such a clear view of the creature and the reveal of what really happened to Pruitt this early. I think that was a narrative mistake, but I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong.

There was also some special effects failure with the water in episode three. I rewatched it several times to make sure that it wasn't an just a streaming issue, but unless it meant something else it looks like the water on the shore is a digital effect that didn't entirely cover the greenscreen for a frame or two there. No islands in Vancouver, after all.

Edited November 29, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Quoting myself here, again, I guess...

  Reveal hidden contents

Anyway, I was a bit wrong there, it's not that the vampire is Father Hill's evil witch familiar, it's that Father Hill, who really turned out to be Pruitt after some ancient telomere extension treatment, who is the familiar of the unearthed PAZUZU trying to expand his sphere of influence.

I was surprised to get such a clear view of the creature and the reveal of what really happened to Pruitt this early. I think that was a narrative mistake, but I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong.

There was also some special effects failure with the water in episode three. I rewatched it several times to make sure that it wasn't an just a streaming issue, but unless it meant something else it looks like the water on the shore is a digital effect that didn't entirely cover the greenscreen for a frame or two there. No islands in Vancouver, after all.

Out of curiosity....

Spoiler

Was your reaction to the reveal of Hill!Pruitt seeing the vampire something along the lines of "You saw that and thought of an Angel?"?

When talking to @Bartimaeus, I said I think that Midnight Mass occurs in an alternative universe where vampire fiction doesn't exist because (very tiny spoiler)

Spoiler

The creature is never referred to as a vampire. Not once in a single episode, despite the whole sunlight combustion and blood drinking.

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

Father Hill

 

Spoiler

The way he was introduced in the very first episode unfortunately clued me into this right away. The way they framed it (Bev being surprised by his appearance, then the altar boys already having their jobs done for them, and then most importantly the way they wouldn't show his face when he started walking up to the pulpit when there's no reason to hide him from the audience as we'd never seen him yet either way) alerted me to him being Pruitt. Combine that with all the not-old people playing old people's parts (and then Riley's mom suddenly not needing glasses), everything about that came a little too strongly through for me.

That I can immediately figure out - how everything is going to go down with Eriol in CCS, on the other hand, I can't, . Also, I wasn't expecting a vampire, but a demon, and actually that thought persisted for so long that it wasn't until @KP Cross Split Attack pointed it out after episode 4 that I realized that it obviously had all the signs of a vampiric being, and not simply your generic old demon.

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Lexx]

Finished the Netflix Cowboy Bebop show. Thought it was kinda nice, all in all. Weird how much I had forgotten about the original show.

[ShadySands]

20 hours ago, Lexx said:

Depends on how slow it is. Is it as slow as Punisher, which makes you fall asleep? Or is it just more "down to earth" slow?

I thought it was pretty good. It moved along but didn't feel like it was just rushing through to get to the next action scene.

Haven't watched the second episode yet so I dunno if that changes

Edited November 29, 2021 by ShadySands

[LadyCrimson]

Picked up watching the kdrama Black again. Now on episode 10.
It's still somewhat entertaining but for the past three or four episodes it started to suffer from being a little too ... over the top? Ridiculous? ..even for a kdrama. Not in a slapstick way, but too many rapid coincidences and evil happenings one after another + cartoony villians. My eyes start to roll now and then. Also, the female lead becomes more annoying all the time, in that "constantly makes annoying idiotic decisions" way. The theme of death/fate and whether one should always try to change it simply because you emotionally think no one should have to ever ever die or something, not an uncommon theme, has been done far better in other fantasy kdramas. 

But at least the male lead looks great in a casual black suit.  

Edited November 29, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[majestic]

22 hours ago, KP Cross Split Attack said:

Out of curiosity....

  Hide contents

Was your reaction to the reveal of Hill!Pruitt seeing the vampire something along the lines of "You saw that and thought of an Angel?"?

When talking to @Bartimaeus, I said I think that Midnight Mass occurs in an alternative universe where vampire fiction doesn't exist because (very tiny spoiler)

  Hide contents

The creature is never referred to as a vampire. Not once in a single episode, despite the whole sunlight combustion and blood drinking.

Midnight Mass talk, beware of spoilers.
 

Spoiler

It sure looks like it. I mean, I didn't see an angel, of course, and I figured it was about a vampire when something big flew around and the cats were drained of blood, but that nobody reacts to it seems strange in this day and age. Vampire stories are as old as time.

Ultimately doesn't really matter, I guess, although as a man of faith it sort of makes sense. He was a bit addled and saw an angel where there was none and then later just doesn't accept what the creature is, or what he's turning into. Could have at least made the association with a demon, compared to angel depictions. @Bartimaeus has the right of it, angels are pretty weird. Part of the reason why people like von Däniken use them as "proof" for alien visitations, what with Enoch describing being abducted by a UFO and all that.

 

20 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

 

  Hide contents

The way he was introduced in the very first episode unfortunately clued me into this right away. The way they framed it (Bev being surprised by his appearance, then the altar boys already having their jobs done for them, and then most importantly the way they wouldn't show his face when he started walking up to the pulpit when there's no reason to hide him from the audience as we'd never seen him yet either way) alerted me to him being Pruitt. Combine that with all the not-old people playing old people's parts (and then Riley's mom suddenly not needing glasses), everything about that came a little too strongly through for me.

That I can immediately figure out - how everything is going to go down with Eriol in CCS, on the other hand, I can't, . Also, I wasn't expecting a vampire, but a demon, and actually that thought persisted for so long that it wasn't until @KP Cross Split Attack pointed it out after episode 4 that I realized that it obviously had all the signs of a vampiric being, and not simply your generic old demon.

 

Spoiler

A demon would have made more sense in context of the show, although vampires aren't completely free of Christian associations. Vampirism is a curse (by God) after all, forever severing the vampire from the Grace of God. That it doesn't come up at all is a little strange given the modern setting. That the people of faith don't really see it, blinded as they are, well, that's... not too much of a surprise, but some of the people on the island at least, yeah...

Father Hill being a de-aged Father Pruitt was on my list of things that could be too, but I dismissed the idea until it came back a few minutes into the third episode. Father Hill seemingly knowing all the people was a pretty big clue. However, since Riley saw him on the beach running around, I thought the actual Pruitt was dead, and Father Hill and the creature maybe weren't separate entities. I got the idea stuck in my head that Riley can see certain dead people, since he keeps seeing the woman he killed in the accident.

The actors in the roles were part of the reason why I figured Leeza would walk again. It's clear as day that she isn't an actual wheelchair bound girl simply because she has two healthy legs, and we have 2021 - if you cast someone in a wheelchair, it's usually someone who is really incapabale of walking, unless there's a point that prevents it. Some people looking a tinge too young for their supposed age, like the Doctor's mother just enhanced that feeling.

 

 

Edited November 30, 2021 by majestic
Wrote father instead of mother, oh dear. What a freudian slip.

[Gromnir]

17 hours ago, ShadySands said:

I thought it was pretty good. It moved along but didn't feel like it was just rushing through to get to the next action scene.

Haven't watched the second episode yet so I dunno if that changes

am actual surprised by how much we enjoyed the first two episodes. the main character, in spite o' being sooper skilled and smarter than everybody is hapless and entitled to a degree we would typical find off-putting-- is good reasons why we shouldn't like her, but we do. hawkeye is doing an almost comical mumbly-grumbly weary warrior bit. he wants to get home for christmas? *groan* we like him too. sue us. admitted, we got no problem with smaller scope than save the universe, and pacing feels fine as there is a fair amount of action and when plot isn't being advanced, characters is being humorous and generally likeable. so far the guy being set up as the Big Bad is meh, but we liked him in better call saul, so am gonna give it some time, and perhaps he ain't the big bad at all. am not familiar enough with the kate bishop and hawkeye comics to recognize what might be spoiler fare. regardless, hawkeye ain't taking itself sooper serious and am ok with that, but eventual the plot elements is gonna need build to something more than increasing complex efforts to be fixing kate's predictable blunders.

so far is the marvel show we has most enjoyed since daredevil and jessica jones and such an observation is in spite o' the absence o' a vincent denofrio or david tennant villain to aid in the story development, though admitted those two didn't show themselves in the first couple episodes (killgrave at the very end o' episode 2 for jessica jones) and we were already invested in both titles. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

[InsaneCommander]

Dune

Fantastic movie. But I knew almost everything that would happen, so it was not as interesting as it could be.

[Lexx]

Watched till end of last episode of Wheel of Time and I still don't know what to think of it. Guess it's not really my thing.