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

[InsaneCommander]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Who is the intended audience of this show anyway? ...Actual aliens, perhaps?

4 minutes ago, majestic said:

 Although that's pretty much me whenver I watch an episode of this absolute fustercluck of a show.

If only there was a way to wish for it to disappear...

Spoiler

 

[majestic]

I think I'm really not Kyubey's type, but the idea isn't bad.

Just realized that there  was a paragraph I anted to add but forgot. Yes, indeed, I originally wanted that post to be even longer.

This one is mostly for @Bartimaeus, but everyone if of course welcome to read, but it'll probably only make sense to a handful of people. *shrug*

The worst thing is that one can see these elements handled so much better in kid's shows, and yes, I'm by far and large talking about Sailor Moon here, but also about Steven Universe - Steven Universe, while being a bit newer, has Steven's lovable patchwork family (and three moms) and the marriage scene that almost got the show cancelled (would be odd to not mention it, given how much Rebecca Sugar was influenced by Sailor Moon).

Next year, Sailor Moon will be thirty years old (hard to stress that enough), and it has:

• An all female superhero cast without drawing stupid attention to that fact or putting them in situations where they're ridiculed by males (Hello Captain Marvel!), except once by Jadeite, and he gets an airplance in the face as a reply, so that's fair.
• A really wide range of lovable characters with actual strenghts and real weaknesses, and even one that tells you that one can be traditionally girly and still kick ass (huh, try to find a Makoto in today's shows, really).
• Openly lesbian characters, one of which is androgynous enough to be mistaken for a pretty boy.
• Gay characters in the villain squad that are more than just "sterotype" bad gays.
• No gender difference whatsoever in the type of jobs the side characters hold. Female scientists, male waiters, doesn't matter.
• A transgender boy band in its final season.
• Spoiler

  A pedophile horse we should all pretend wasn't there, but every show has its bad seasons and episodes, right?

   

Eh, and it has Profesor Tomoe as villain.

It does all that without ever feeling like virtue signalling. It doesn't comment on it, it just shows everything as it should be. Normal. Can't wrap my head around the fact that this is really, really old by now, and does everything Star Trek: Discovery seems to set out to do so much better. Is there really nothing that anyone would be able to take away from an old show like that, which is continously talked about by women, homosexuals (of both genders) and others (like myself) - who grew up with it or caught a rerun sometime - as being supremely helpful and representative. Never mind being hilariously funny, heartwarming and wholesome. Yeah, well, the seasonal story arcs are probably not that much better than Discovery's, but that's neither here nor there.

Sure, it was originally intended to be for girls, but hey, not everything ends up being like it was intended.

Can't see Star Trek: Discovery being talked about like that in thirty years. Maybe that distance will let everyone view it as the trash it is, perhaps, but even if it doesn't, is there really going to be someone who's going to say "I went to a psychiatrist because Dr. Culber convinced me to?"

Yeah, sure, nah. If anything, that show will convince you to stay the hell away. Ugh.

[Zoraptor]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

There's Ensing, later Lieutenant, Tilly who is a body positivity token hire, which is really sad because if given decent material, the actress can make things work that really shouldn't. Instead she's running half-marathons on the Discovery and wins. To send a message, I suppose, but who knows. Her work in the mirror universe was actually fantastic. I know I was happy that she got written out in this episode

 

Wow, I missed that Tilly was being written out first time. Everything really does just blur into one. Shame, she had some potential and I liked her as a concept, even if it was utterly wasted in execution.

Quote

The worst part about this is that Will Cruz's been a consistently decent actor on the show. He just doesn't get anything worthwhile to do.

Yep, he and Tilly's actor- plus Saru and Captain Malfoy, of course, and Michelle Yeoh at least looked like she was enjoying herself- were completely fine as actors, and made the most of the very limited amount they were offered. Their main trouble is the writing, and I'd certainly add the directing too, which meant they were either given uninteresting and inconsistent rubbish, or told to be ludicrously melodramatic. For that matter even Stamets was far better as Mirror Universe Stamets, but my overwhelming memory of him was his tendency to smile as if he'd never done it himself but read how to do it in a manual. Actual real person managing uncanny valley or Pod People simulation, and there was a lot of it even from people I know are capable of acting from other things (hence the directing being an issue). End of the day though as Picard shows you can have a literal RSC legend delivering the lines, and actually trying, but if they're garbage lines then they're garbage and the gravitas counts for nothing.

On the tokenism, and because it came up earlier in the week...

Frankly, I'd say that Omar Little the Baltimore stick up boy murderer and drug dealer from 2003 (?) does more for gay perception than Stamets the engineer and Culber the doctor. But that's because Omar (and Rawls, if you want to count him) are well written characters first and foremost whose sexuality is secondary. And you don't have to be premium drama to do it that way either. End of the day if your stated goal is to normalise those who are marginalised then you have to, well, normalise them. And that means not writing them as if that one marginalised trait is the only thing about them that matters most of the time.

Edited December 10, 2021 by Zoraptor

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

54 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

If only there was a way to wish for it to disappear...

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I don't think DIO's taste is that bad.

21 minutes ago, majestic said:

I think I'm really not Kyubey's type, but the idea isn't bad.

Just realized that there  was a paragraph I anted to add but forgot. Yes, indeed, I originally wanted that post to be even longer.

This one is mostly for @Bartimaeus, but everyone if of course welcome to read, but it'll probably only make sense to a handful of people. *shrug*

The worst thing is that one can see these elements handled so much better in kid's shows, and yes, I'm by far and large talking about Sailor Moon here, but also about Steven Universe - Steven Universe, while being a bit newer, has Steven's lovable patchwork family (and three moms) and the marriage scene that almost got the show cancelled (would be odd to not mention it, given how much Rebecca Sugar was influenced by Sailor Moon).

Next year, Sailor Moon will be thirty years old (hard to stress that enough), and it has:

• An all female superhero cast without drawing stupid attention to that fact or putting them in situations where they're ridiculed by males (Hello Captain Marvel!), except once by Jadeite, and he gets an airplance in the face as a reply, so that's fair.
• A really wide range of lovable characters with actual strenghts and real weaknesses, and even one that tells you that one can be traditionally girly and still kick ass (huh, try to find a Makoto in today's shows, really).
• Openly lesbian characters, one of which is androgynous enough to be mistaken for a pretty boy.
• Gay characters in the villain squad that are more than just "sterotype" bad gays.
• No gender difference whatsoever in the type of jobs the side characters hold. Female scientists, male waiters, doesn't matter.
• A transgender boy band in its final season.
•   Reveal hidden contents

  A pedophile horse we should all pretend wasn't there, but every show has its bad seasons and episodes, right?

   

Eh, and it has Profesor Tomoe as villain.

It does all that without ever feeling like virtue signalling. It doesn't comment on it, it just shows everything as it should be. Normal. Can't wrap my head around the fact that this is really, really old by now, and does everything Star Trek: Discovery seems to set out to do so much better. Is there really nothing that anyone would be able to take away from an old show like that, which is continously talked about by women, homosexuals (of both genders) and others (like myself) - who grew up with it or caught a rerun sometime - as being supremely helpful and representative. Never mind being hilariously funny, heartwarming and wholesome. Yeah, well, the seasonal story arcs are probably not that much better than Discovery's, but that's neither here nor there.

Sure, it was originally intended to be for girls, but hey, not everything ends up being like it was intended.

Can't see Star Trek: Discovery being talked about like that in thirty years. Maybe that distance will let everyone view it as the trash it is, perhaps, but even if it doesn't, is there really going to be someone who's going to say "I went to a psychiatrist because Dr. Culber convinced me to?"

Yeah, sure, nah. If anything, that show will convince you to stay the hell away. Ugh.

If this was a real show I'd agree, Sailor Moon does indeed do representation of gender and sexuality surprisingly well for a 90's kids show. I'm not sure if it's to SM's credit or modern shows' failings that a pg 90's cartoon does so much better than most modern shows, probably both.

Really the problems with this made up show all stem from bad writing. It just isn't engaging enough to make people care about characters enough to overlook the bad parts like they could with the real Treks.

[majestic]

46 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

Yep, he and Tilly's actor- plus Saru and Captain Malfoy, of course, and Michelle Yeoh at least looked like she was enjoying herself- were completely fine as actors, and made the most of the very limited amount they were offered. Their main trouble is the writing, and I'd certainly add the directing too, which meant they were either given uninteresting and inconsistent rubbish, or told to be ludicrously melodramatic.

I noticed this week's episode was directed by someone else, but that didn't improve the episode - or make it worse. Maybe I'll check who directed which episodes at a later date and see if there's some pattern.

46 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

For that matter even Stamets was far better as Mirror Universe Stamets, but my overwhelming memory of him was his tendency to smile as if he'd never done it himself but read how to do it in a manual. Actual real person managing uncanny valley or Pod People simulation, and there was a lot of it even from people I know are capable of acting from other things (hence the directing being an issue). End of the day though as Picard shows you can have a literal RSC legend delivering the lines, and actually trying, but if they're garbage lines then they're garbage and the gravitas counts for nothing.

I've wondered on and off if there's some CGI going on in Stamets' face, or if he wears contact lenses for some shots. He often looks bug-eyed in addition to uncanny, but that seems to evaporate whenever there's an actual closeup. Something I haven't mentioned is that he's been developing a "friendship" with Book in the past two episodes that's gone from "hey we really don't like each other" to "I want to solve the mystery of this anomaly for Book!" in the span of an episode or two.

46 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

Frankly, I'd say that Omar Little the Baltimore stick up boy murderer and drug dealer from 2003 (?) does more for gay perception than Stamets the engineer and Culber the doctor. But that's because Omar (and Rawls, if you want to count him) are well written characters first and foremost whose sexuality is secondary. And you don't have to be premium drama to do it that way either. End of the day if your stated goal is to normalise those who are marginalised then you have to, well, normalise them. And that means not writing them as if that one marginalised trait is the only thing about them that matters most of the time.

Yeah, absolutely. Heh. I remember like not quite twenty years ago, I was sitting in the very same spot I'm sitting in right now and talking with the good people of the Interplay forum about Ensing Mayweather being the worst token black guy in the history of Star Trek because he got like one line to say, if anything at all, per episode on Star Trek: Enterprise. To think that got worse and worse instead of better. It's baffling.

edit: Bears repeating maybe, pretty much my point in the post above about Sailor Moon. Plus it did female super hero better than Marvel, for all they tried. 's a bit ridiculous, really, 30 years and still shown up by a kid's cartoon from Japan, which was arguably worse in the 90ies than the US was with regards to representation and normalization of marginalized groups.

Edited December 10, 2021 by majestic

[Raithe]

Variety - Cowboy Bepop cancelled after one season

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

GAH. Really, just... GAH.

Okay, actually, I think I've identified my issue: when you're simply describing how terrible the/a show is, I'm basically the yellow glasses guy meme the entire time. However, when you're describing what actually happened in the show, my face goes as blank as...oh, oh - pretty much exactly like Jay's face when Mike tries to describe an episode of Star Trek to him, .

I guess I'm much more about how shows make you feel instead of what actually happened in them, probably because I'm going to forget what happened in them literally two seconds after I read what you wrote unless it's a show I've already seen or at least am interested in - meanwhile, the angry rants about how gosh-awful a show is stick with me a lot longer, . There's also the simple fact that trying to describe what characters are like or what they're doing is basically impossible to keep track of unless I am already familiar with said characters to some degree and have a concept of them in my head...and sometimes not even then, as Zoraptor just pointed out.

Sailor Moon: I don't need to tell you, but it also must be at least a little bit because objectives have totally changed between now and then. Back then, if you were going to include a...different kind of character, you would typically want to do it as quietly and making it as least big of a deal as possible*. Treat them like any other character, thereby normalizing them, thereby not drawing attention to them. Simple, pretty easy, pretty realistic and normal. Today, you want to scream how PC your characters are to the heavens and all that will hear it because if you don't, people on the internet will brew up a massive crapstorm about you and your show. I'm unsure how much these crapstorms actually affect the bottom line of a show, but I guess it must be significant to some degree because it just keeps happening...endlessly.

*Either that, or make a horrible punching bag joke out of them...which ethically is worse than what we have today, but I'm beginning to question which is worse/less enjoyable from my own viewer's perspective. Sailor Moon, obviously, did things right there (well, except for Michiru and Haruka eventually being turned into the big dumb for forced conflict reasons, but that's a totally independent issue to this, ).

Edited December 10, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

23 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Today, you want to scream how PC your characters are to the heavens and all that will hear it because if you don't, people on the internet will brew up a massive crapstorm about you and your show. I'm unsure how much these crapstorms actually affect the bottom line of a show, but I guess it must be significant to some degree because it just keeps happening...endlessly.

I really need to go to bed so this'll be a quick reply (no, I mean it this time) but I always wonder what and whom those manurestorms are for. It's certainly not for the people that are meant to be represented, or at least none that I know of and interact with. I know this is just anectodal, but, hey, does anyone know someone who feels as if their cause is being propery championed by the Twatteria when they unload on something or someone?

Although, need to be careful here, lest I summone of those those storms myself. It's kind of sad, really. Now I'll sound like Bruce (oh dear, what this thread does to me, oh woe) but as white cis-male I'm not really supposed to have an opinion on this (even though I would argue that my personal history makes me uniquely suited to talk about marginalization - at the very least more than any of those buttholes on Twatter that complain endlessly when something's not PC enough, or someone makes a jest in bad taste), or at least shut up about it. 

I'd rather see myself represented as a regular character without virtue signalling or overly woke PC-ish focus, and I'm sure I'm not alone with that. Oh boy. Good night guys. This really was more fun than the Nanoha movie, I watched some 20 minutes and yikes, 5 minutes of those were transformation sequences and 15 minutes of boring action. Man...

23 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sailor Moon, obviously, did things right there (well, except for Michiru and Haruka eventually being turned into the big dumb for forced conflict reasons, but that's a totally independent issue to this, ).

Haruka-papa (snicker) just doesn't like popular men!

edit: In some ways, Sailor Moon is still a product of its time. It could be better in some ways, sure, but for a early 90ies offering, combined with the fact that today's offerings kind of are consistently much, much worse than that, it's easy to gloss over a mistake or two. Haruka's and Seiya's sort of shouneny conflict in Sailor Stars is one of these things, by far and large.

Edited December 10, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

9 minutes ago, majestic said:

I really need to go to bed so this'll be a quick reply (no, I mean it this time)

No you don't.

But I think one of the big issues with "diversity initiatives" (I hate even writing that lmao) is that it doesn't seem to penetrate much behind the camera. So even with stuff that has a diverse cast you still end up with the straight white cis-males from wealthier backgrounds writing, directing, editing, and producing for the most part. I think this really shows in the product, and I am convinced like over half of these guys have no idea how the identities they're trying to write actually act when they're not dealing with someone who could make or break their careers. So it ends up falling kind of flat, but they still get brownie points because the inclusion of a marginalized character really does piss off the worst people on the internet. Hell, I want to spite those people while at the same time thinking the movie or show they're mad about sucks.

Edited December 10, 2021 by KP on top of ZA WARUDO

[Zoraptor]

WoT Episode 6

TLDR: "we were this close to greatness, this close"

Spoiler

OK, not actual greatness, but at least being properly good. But gee willikins, this episode really could have used some of that half an hour spent on Stepin last week to fill things out a bit better. The first half was good, possibly even very good but the last twenty minutes felt disjointed and as if bits were missing- which they probably were. I'll give them some allowance for the very clunky way Mat was written out since that was (probably) outside their control, but still...

Siuan's place in Tear was distinctly weird since one impression you didn't get in the books was that Tear was full of precipitous valleys- and she went downriver, not up when leaving, so away from Tar Valon- but it was OK as an intro, we got an actual dragon's fang, and was fairly brief. The Aes Sedai politics was broadly speaking good, and I doubt they could have balanced lore/ foreshadowing and immediately relevant stuff any better, with the first hints of Seanchan and the like and some set up for there being dissatisfaction with Siuan. There was a bit of book <--> tv adaptation oddity there as the politics we got in Fal Dara in the books felt somewhat forced without pov backgrounding being available, but nothing too glaring. The Oath Rod's later intro felt a touch weird, but then that was actually its original intended use so... ok, fair enough, and in that case I'd suspect my feeling is objectively unfair. Mat getting healed of the dagger (presumably permanently) was done very well overall.

The main issue is with pacing though, and too much had to happen in the 2nd half of the episode. Moiraine's and Siuan's 'chat' was absolutely fine to a point- not sure if a TV only person would be that surprised or not, I'd suspect they would- but the way the reason for going to the Eye of the World came up felt pretty contrived and really needed something else to give it actual weight. To be fair, it felt contrived in the books too because as we later found out it was explicitly contrived, as a trap, but the implication here is that old fire eyes is invading Siuan's dreams to plant the info. Which opens a can of worms for later on considering he isn't even considered to be that good in TAR compared to others. The Emond Fielders being kept separate felt fine and in character for Moiraine, but meh, she really really shouldn't want them in TV given that Liandrin rumbling her hiding them was one thing that felt absolutely believable, and there really wasn't any purpose to keeping them apart. They also kind of imply that the Red's are uniformly misterogynists misandrists, given that Liandrin visiting a man would be seen as scandalous enough to get her to shut up. I would have thought threatening her with exposing the illicit severing back in Ep1 would have worked better in both respects.

The Mat stuff was unfortunately pretty clunky though at the end, and to an extent earlier ("he's not here, he's off drinking"). It really did look like they'd ended up cobbling stuff together from whatever footage they had and it was definitely not seamless, at all. Shame the actor's gone, as he was the best fit of the lot so far, albeit he's been given more to work with.

 

[Lexx]

5 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Today, you want to scream how PC your characters are to the heavens and all that will hear it

Same issue I criticized about recent Life is Strange games. It's total garbage writing that will not help their cause, but instead rile up people who otherwise wouldn't really care.

[Zoraptor]

Expanse S601

TLDR; already feels a lot better than S5 did.
 

Spoiler

Standard disclaimer: not read the books, so anything I say is pure speculation, though I am aware that

Spoiler

there's a ~20 year time skip between books 6-7, so presumably most but not all of the dangling plots are tidied up.

Episode wise there isn't really too much to say since it's mostly set up. I was somewhat surprised by the six month time skip, but that isn't a problem, just a bit of a surprise. Bit of a shame Dawes died off screen (assuming he is dead and Inaros ain't lying, but there's no reason to think that) but I guess getting Jared Harris for maybe an episode was always going to be difficult- and since he's in Foundation he may not even be contractually allowed back, I guess. Would have been nice to maybe see some of the old Ceres crowd from S1 now they're back there, but they don't fit with an Inaros regime apart from Dawes and probably got killed off screen too. Inaros getting bored- and being completely incapable of actually running anything constructively- is not exactly surprising, neither is Filip being utterly disillusioned by it. I'm kind of expecting to see Prax (? the exobiologist who was Amos' bud and who had his daughter kidnapped for the protomolecule experiments if I've misremembered the name) at some point since he got name dropped specifically by Inaros last season (which I finished watching a couple of weeks ago) and there was mention of needing food for both Earth and the belt this ep.

One thing which is kind of odd is the Rocinante not having a specialist pilot. Not sure if it was out and out stated, but needing a good pilot for combat was definitely very strongly implied by all those simulator runs Alex did back in S2 for fighting the gunship(s?) at that covert research station. Even just common sense wise you'd think that was the one specialist position that would be mandatory, since everything else relies on it.

Only six episodes is going to be interesting. You can certainly see why it's only six episodes given how much CGI there is and the sets must be pretty expensive- and you got the impression that Naomi got a lot of focus last season partly because her plotline was CGI light and mostly used two non generic sets- but while the pacing this episode was good they seem to be setting up a lot of potential plot lines to resolve in maybe 4 hours of running time.

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by Zoraptor

[BruceVC]

I am watching some excellent series at the moment, they include

• American Rust : Set in the Rust Belt in Pennsylvania where a chief of police, Jeff Daniels,  takes on an investigation when the son of the woman he loves is accused of murder. Much deeper than that synopsis with all the interesting characters
• Blue Bloods: A realistic cop show on season 11 where the police are not all racist and make a difference in lives of NY citizens. It also incorporates the unfair generalizations  and public sentiment   that many police face in the US at the moment 
• Time : A UK show about an alcoholic  teacher who is involved in a DUI and kills an innocent person and is sent to a UK jail.So its an illuminating view of life in  UK jails and a persons journey to find absolution and a semblance of forgiveness ....if possible 
• SWAT : A good action cop show
• Dexter, New Blood: The new Dexter is excellent and I am enjoying it more than the previous series 

[Sarex]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/cowboy-bebop-canceled-netflix-1235060256/

[Raithe]

Gizmodo - Mike Flanagans Edgar Allan Poe netflix show adds Mark Hamill and More

And today Flanagan announced the first members of his cast: Frank Langella, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, Carl Lumbly, and Mark Hamill.

[Malcador]

4 hours ago, Sarex said:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/cowboy-bebop-canceled-netflix-1235060256/

Surprised

[Lexx]

To be honest, I was looking a bit forward to a s2.

[InsaneCommander]

23 hours ago, KP on top of ZA WARUDO said:

I don't think DIO's taste is that bad.

I was thinking more along the lines of only crazy people being interested in watching it. No offense, @majestic, you sacrifice is appreciated. Who knows, I could be watching it if it was available in my country since episode 1, but now I don't feel like doing it.

 

20 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

WoT Episode 6

TLDR: "we were this close to greatness, this close"

  Hide contents

OK, not actual greatness, but at least being properly good. But gee willikins, this episode really could have used some of that half an hour spent on Stepin last week to fill things out a bit better. The first half was good, possibly even very good but the last twenty minutes felt disjointed and as if bits were missing- which they probably were. I'll give them some allowance for the very clunky way Mat was written out since that was (probably) outside their control, but still...

Siuan's place in Tear was distinctly weird since one impression you didn't get in the books was that Tear was full of precipitous valleys- and she went downriver, not up when leaving, so away from Tar Valon- but it was OK as an intro, we got an actual dragon's fang, and was fairly brief. The Aes Sedai politics was broadly speaking good, and I doubt they could have balanced lore/ foreshadowing and immediately relevant stuff any better, with the first hints of Seanchan and the like and some set up for there being dissatisfaction with Siuan. There was a bit of book <--> tv adaptation oddity there as the politics we got in Fal Dara in the books felt somewhat forced without pov backgrounding being available, but nothing too glaring. The Oath Rod's later intro felt a touch weird, but then that was actually its original intended use so... ok, fair enough, and in that case I'd suspect my feeling is objectively unfair. Mat getting healed of the dagger (presumably permanently) was done very well overall.

The main issue is with pacing though, and too much had to happen in the 2nd half of the episode. Moiraine's and Siuan's 'chat' was absolutely fine to a point- not sure if a TV only person would be that surprised or not, I'd suspect they would- but the way the reason for going to the Eye of the World came up felt pretty contrived and really needed something else to give it actual weight. To be fair, it felt contrived in the books too because as we later found out it was explicitly contrived, as a trap, but the implication here is that old fire eyes is invading Siuan's dreams to plant the info. Which opens a can of worms for later on considering he isn't even considered to be that good in TAR compared to others. The Emond Fielders being kept separate felt fine and in character for Moiraine, but meh, she really really shouldn't want them in TV given that Liandrin rumbling her hiding them was one thing that felt absolutely believable, and there really wasn't any purpose to keeping them apart. They also kind of imply that the Red's are uniformly misterogynists misandrists, given that Liandrin visiting a man would be seen as scandalous enough to get her to shut up. I would have thought threatening her with exposing the illicit severing back in Ep1 would have worked better in both respects.

The Mat stuff was unfortunately pretty clunky though at the end, and to an extent earlier ("he's not here, he's off drinking"). It really did look like they'd ended up cobbling stuff together from whatever footage they had and it was definitely not seamless, at all. Shame the actor's gone, as he was the best fit of the lot so far, albeit he's been given more to work with.

 

I hope the number of episodes and the pacing were affected by the pandemic and these problems don't persist in future seasons. We really needed some scenes

Spoiler

with Rand practicing the sword with Lan, at least if he is to become a blademaster in the tv show.

I liked that the Amirlyn is smart enough to notice Logain’s intentions, instead of simply being offended like most of the others whose reactions were shown.

I hope Mat is still sick so we can get the “I’m no Aes Sedai’s meat!” line during healing.

Edit: book spoilers

Spoiler

good luck to that blue sitter who wants to investigate the missing ships. I'm sure she will be welcomed by the ones responsible, if you know what I mean.

 

15 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Expanse S601

TLDR; already feels a lot better than S5 did.
 

  Hide contents

Standard disclaimer: not read the books, so anything I say is pure speculation, though I am aware that

  Hide contents

there's a ~20 year time skip between books 6-7, so presumably most but not all of the dangling plots are tidied up.

Episode wise there isn't really too much to say since it's mostly set up. I was somewhat surprised by the six month time skip, but that isn't a problem, just a bit of a surprise. Bit of a shame Dawes died off screen (assuming he is dead and Inaros ain't lying, but there's no reason to think that) but I guess getting Jared Harris for maybe an episode was always going to be difficult- and since he's in Foundation he may not even be contractually allowed back, I guess. Would have been nice to maybe see some of the old Ceres crowd from S1 now they're back there, but they don't fit with an Inaros regime apart from Dawes and probably got killed off screen too. Inaros getting bored- and being completely incapable of actually running anything constructively- is not exactly surprising, neither is Filip being utterly disillusioned by it. I'm kind of expecting to see Prax (? the exobiologist who was Amos' bud and who had his daughter kidnapped for the protomolecule experiments if I've misremembered the name) at some point since he got name dropped specifically by Inaros last season (which I finished watching a couple of weeks ago) and there was mention of needing food for both Earth and the belt this ep.

One thing which is kind of odd is the Rocinante not having a specialist pilot. Not sure if it was out and out stated, but needing a good pilot for combat was definitely very strongly implied by all those simulator runs Alex did back in S2 for fighting the gunship(s?) at that covert research station. Even just common sense wise you'd think that was the one specialist position that would be mandatory, since everything else relies on it.

Only six episodes is going to be interesting. You can certainly see why it's only six episodes given how much CGI there is and the sets must be pretty expensive- and you got the impression that Naomi got a lot of focus last season partly because her plotline was CGI light and mostly used two non generic sets- but while the pacing this episode was good they seem to be setting up a lot of potential plot lines to resolve in maybe 4 hours of running time.

 

 

This will sound terrible, but
 

Spoiler

I'm really happy that more rocks hit Earth and things are getting serious there. This was not clear last season and I think it is important to show how big Inaros' attack was.

They should definitely have added another pilot since they were already a skeleton crew and now someone has to pilot in addition to whatever they used to do. Clarissa Peaches will help fix things faster, but that won't compensate for the lack of a pilot, much less an experienced and talented one.

 

Edited December 11, 2021 by InsaneCommander

[Zoraptor]

Expanse S6 (though only really spoilers for S5)

Spoiler

The quick visual summary of Earth and Bobbie/ Avasarala being there was was definitely needed last season to do some reinforcing of things. The trouble with using Amos and Clarissa for that purpose in S5 was that it implied too local an effect, especially since one of the asteroids hit fairly close to their location and they were in an area that would realistically get snowfall naturally (though maybe not after global warming).

WoT Ep6 and book spoilers

22 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

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with Rand practicing the sword with Lan, at least if he is to become a blademaster in the tv show.

I liked that the Amirlyn is smart enough to notice Logain’s intentions, instead of simply being offended like most of the others whose reactions were shown.

I hope Mat is still sick so we can get the “I’m no Aes Sedai’s meat!” line during healing.

Edit: book spoilers

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good luck to that blue sitter who wants to investigate the missing ships. I'm sure she will be welcomed by the ones responsible, if you know what I mean.

 

 

Spoiler

Rand's development has definitely been a casualty of them going with "who is the Dragon?" and more of an immediately ensemble approach. I'm not inherently opposed to the ensemble- it was probably a good idea to be honest- but I'd be a lot happier with that approach if they'd done the group development effectively, instead of wasting a lot of valuable time on narrative luxuries. I'm sure having to work around covid has had a major effect, especially since Czechia has been one of the worst effected places in Europe.

And yeah, it would be a surprise if Maigan doesn't replace the yellow sister Ryma as being captured by the Corenne. Presumably in the show Moiraine's presence in Falme (or Tear, if it's the target instead though I really hope it isn't) will be overt rather than only being known about after the fact as in the books, and she will recognise Maigan after her capture.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

48 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

I was thinking more along the lines of only crazy people being interested in watching it.

Are you questioning the sanity of a vampire who spent 100 years alone trapped in the bottom of the ocean?

[InsaneCommander]

7 minutes ago, KP on top of ZA WARUDO said:

Are you questioning the sanity of a vampire who spent 100 years alone trapped in the bottom of the ocean?

I’m not questioning his sanity. I’m denying its existence.

[Lexx]

10 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Expanse S6 (though only really spoilers for S5)

  Hide contents

The quick visual summary of Earth and Bobbie/ Avasarala being there was was definitely needed last season to do some reinforcing of things. The trouble with using Amos and Clarissa for that purpose in S5 was that it implied too local an effect, especially since one of the asteroids hit fairly close to their location and they were in an area that would realistically get snowfall naturally (though maybe not after global warming).

The problem for me with s5 was that you *never* really saw any wideshots of destruction. Even once they climbed out of the underground facility and looked around at the surface, the show did *not* show the wide area. It's implied that a lot is destroyed, but it is never shown. Guess they had no money left for that part or something...

Lack of money might also explain why there were so many Naomi scenes, which mostly took place in small rooms and didn't require any CGI. And it likely also explains why s6 will only have 6 episodes.. this is going to be CGI-heavy.

/Edit: Also, don't forget to watch the 5 mins bonus episode.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Lexx

[InsaneCommander]

New leaks of The Wheel of Time confirmed that a certain scene I'm looking forward to will be in the next episode:

Spoiler

The Blood Snow.

 

[Lexx]

Damn, I had already forgotten this show was a thing. : >

Edited December 14, 2021 by Lexx

[majestic]

It be Thor's day, and therefore... time to get hit by lightning, and not in the good way. On the bright side, I recently developed a new superpower, and that's helpfully turning playback speed to 2x where I can still get what's going on, but the torture is lessened so much. It's not like there's any artistic vision behind this. If @AlexKurtzman is offended when he reads my post (lmao), hey, you offend me each week, so shoo off.

Star Dreck: Whatever, episode something, season one too many.
 

Spoiler

Episode begins with me pausing to write that the USS Janeway is approaching the "DMA", which is what they've been calling the Eye of Horus, I mean, the dark matter anomaly that gobbles up planets when it feels like it.

I'm five light years across. I'm big. REALLY BIG. For humans. Compared to galactic scales I'm positively tiny, but yet I'm the biggest threat since the burn!

The DMA is approached by a Vulcan vessel too, the T'Pau (enough with the name references guys). The TARDIS at the core of the DMA goes woosh, woosh, woosh and the Doctor teleports it away. It's just gone. If it's not a TARDIS, then some other means of instantly moving from one place to the other. Oh, oooooh is this exciting. Maybe it's another Discovery type ship, let's say Skynet is back in action and meaner than ever and took over some alternate timeline Discovery.

Well, maybe not. Stamets' idea that the DMA is a primordial wormhole got debunked a while back, and this... could potentially bring it back, wormholes in Star Trek are usually not stable. Poor Ferengi found out the hard way. It might also be a vessel of some kind.

Whatever it ends up being, it'll most likely be dumb. Because what else would it be.

Unfriendly engineering lady from... a while back suddenly shows up again and tells Stamets' that nothing in space just disappears. I realize now that I actually forgot her name. Wow. Technically true, but then they're been flying on a starship that can instantly appear anywhere in the universe, so that statement is a little weird. I mean, they can pretty much disappear whenever they want to, right?

Sitchroom dialogue says that the anomaly just violated every known law of physics by going 1000 light years in an instant. Yeah, except for the helpful bit that Discovery can do that whenever its crew  god damn wants it to. Hello guys, after four seasons of traveling through the mycelial network of the universe, you're weirded out by that? Really?

They finall figure out that the DMA isn't natural, because it can't be. DUNN DUNN DUNN DUNN.

Of course not, did you not listen to president Rillak saying this is the greatest threat since the burn? She knew that it wasn't just an anomaly all along. Perhaps she's in on it, hm? Go ask her, shoo.

Admiral Levi Shur identifies several suspects capable of creating an anomaly like that. Or at least Federation security did.

Here's the full list:

• The Metrons
• The Nacene
• The Iconian Empire
• The Q

Yeah, so the Metrons, assuming we're talking about the species that were really happy that Kirk did not want the Gorn to be destroyed aren't exactly the prime suspects. The Nacene... i.e. the species of the Caretaker from Voyager, well, whatever, The Iconian Empire is supposed to be extinct for over 100,000 years, and uhm, the Q really have no need to build something like this. Funny, no mention of the Borg (who would also not create something like this) or Species 8472, or... never mind.

Levi assigns some new scientist to the Discovery, and Stamets really doesn't want the guy on board. He can figure this out on his own. Uhm, okay.

So, DMA is now approaching some planet or another, and they'll go evacuate them in less than four hours. Must me a small planet, huh. No, it's just a colony of 1200 people. Okay.

Stamets unloads on Will Cruz that new scientist guy was always too busy to talk to him, so he feels offended by that. Yeah, actually, credit where it was due, that would annoy me too. Culber tells him to keep it professional, lives are at stake. Burnham is off to personally retrieve the "Examples" (episode title drop), prisoners of the colony who would otherwise not be evactuated. Man Discovery, are you going Star Trek on me here? Burnham says she'll get them out, no matter what, because this is a Federation mission. The Colony's leader suggested otherwise.

Scientist guy calls the Discovery an antique, which is true, and also offends Stamets some more. I feel like we've done that before. I can't quite put my finger on it though. Huh. Where... where... hmmm. Never mind, I'm sure that's an entirely original idea, and I'm just having an unexplained déjà vu here. Scientist Guy insults Stamets work and Mr. Saru, then walks off, having no people skills at all. Yeah, this doesn't at all look like McKay from Stargate-SG1. If he ends up having a lemon allergy MGM should file charges.

Burnham, Bridge crew member whathisface and book reach the prison and pass an energy barrier that prevents teleportation and communication. Burnham tells discovery that they'll be out of comms RANGE now.

Range?

How is entering a jamming field moving out of range? Inside the jamming field are mobile land mines. Guess Raynor was here and dropped off some Vultures.

McKay has a brilliant idea, this isn't a weapon or something, it's actually really a wormhole, just an artificial one. It's a giant Stargate. Well, why not. This could end like season two with the Federation fighting of a billion ship invasion force.

Book is shooting at the Vulture mines while Burnham is techno babbling something. How riveting. How high are the chances that anything is going to blow up either of these two character dumpster fires?

Look, how very surprising, everyone is in for a life sentence for crimes like taking a joyride, stealing food to not starve or... counting cards at a casino. Yeah. Woo. This really is attempting to do a Star Trek episode. Woody Munch is talking to Culber about Culber's feelings, because he's actually getting some characterization here. It takes the form of a massive exposition dump by Woody Munch, but... it's not bad per se. Just something that in a better show would have been shown gradually, not go from zero to "we need to add three season's worth of character development in five minutes, have at it!" and now Culber has survivor's guilt from being brought back to life, and that's his reason for being the ever helpful shrink in this season: Survivor's Guilt.

Yeah, makes sense. Would have been much nicer with a slower buildup. God knows they had enough time for that. More than enough.

Saru and McKay get into a shouting match in a painful dialogue that I can only describe as Tony Stark provokes Bruce Banner in Avengers. Finally, we're back to being terrible. Phew. Oh, and the prisoners are saying they'd rather take their chances on the colony than being brought back to prison after the evacuation is complete. Yeah, what a helpful analogy for people risking death to escape their homeland.

One prisoner stays behind, being all like "I die as penance for my crime!" and gets swallowed. Book is annoyed, Burnham decides to accept his choice. Guys, pacing. Pacing. You've done nothing worthwhile with the four preceeding episodes, and in this one you're packing in too much. Either of the three concurrent storylines (evacuation, refugee/prisoner treatment, science stuff with Stamets and McKay) could have served as an A plot for a decent episode. Now it's just a rush-job that goes through everything without the time to breathe.

It's certainly better than before, but still not good.

Sphere data "Zora" talks to Burnham, she's developed emotions. Uh, okay. Burnham FINALLY has an inward sad, and is bringing back a knicknack from the now dead prisoner that he wanted the daughter of the guy he's killed to have. Maybe we'll be able to up the crying counter now. Nope, it stays an inward sad.

Booker and McKay have a heart to hart, and they drink real whiskey. They're both angry, and Book's planning to MURDERDEATHKILL everyone involved with the DMA. Sensible, really.

Burnham crying counter now 1:4. Not sure if it was watching at twice the speed, but this one wasn't nearly as terrible as the others in the season. Now, add some proper pacing and a bit more of show, don't tell and you'll actually end up with a watchable episode. Also, come up with something else than a new character that's essentially a McKay expy.

This wasn't a great episode by any means, but at least it didn't make me want to pull my hair out. Each season so far had one or two of these, so that continues a trend of a sort.