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

[Zoraptor]

WoT Ep8

TLDR; hmm.

You may substitute your username for Marion. Be warned, watch this episode unprepared and you may end up as the SS equivalent of that gif, I know I did.
 

Spoiler

No honestly, I am dictating this post and will be all future posts having clawed my eyes out in the knowledge that I might possible, accidentally, rewatch that abomination again if I retained the gift curse of vision, and I now know how Muradin felt going through the Rhuidean columns.

OK, big ticket items: basically every single named character in Fal Dara except Min dies- Aglemar, Amalisa, Uno, fake Ingtar- and if Loial isn't dead... let's be frank, if he isn't pining for the stedding/ an ex Ogier etc it would be just ludicrous. Also two fake deaths and yes, Moiraine gets severed by Ishamael (OK, she could be book Liandrined instead, but why would Ishy bother). There may well be something odd happening since four of the deaths are meant to be recurring in S2, but all that would be is bump the fake death count to a staggering 6 from a merely embarrassing 2. Oh yeah, and the Ever Victorious Army sends an Every Increasing Tsunami at their most implacable of foes, a single 6 year old girl playing on a beach in front of a cliff. It was like a scene you'd expect from a spoof series. Oh yeah oh yeah, and Rand buggers off to places unknown, presumably to hang with Kane and the Ultimate Warrior or something since the writing is WWE level. Egwene resurrects Nynaeve after their 3 squib+N+E circle obliterates 10000+ trollocs and poor old Amalisa overacts herself into a cinder. Mat is in it for literally 5 seconds. You have to manually turn subtitles on for the LTT/ Latra Posae cold open, otherwise they're speaking Klingon.

I'd like to say that this is one of those guess which one is true because the rest are false situations, but it isn't. It could scarcely have been more stupid if Michael Flatley had got all the Trollocs to Riverdance themselves back to the blight

It's not even just the changes from the book, it's that the changes make the denouement of EotW- almost certainly the worst, definitely the most confusing ending to a WoT book- retroactively seem like a masterpiece. Surely the law of probability would have it that something would turn out better, but no, it doesn't. Were they worried about being cancelled? Because it felt like one of those disposable SyFy series that throws anything and everything at the finale in the desperate hope that something will stick enough to get a renewal. But it was already renewed, and if rumour is true, for three fricking seasons.

They change stuff, and then just kind of pretend that it hasn't been changed. Moiraine always has a plan? Sure, if you read EotW, and maybe if you were Rand from the book. If you were TV series Rand al'Thor how would you know that? You've spent like 4 days(?) with her. What was the point of Perrin? There wasn't one. Did nothing the whole season. Their idea of foreshadowing isn't so much Chekov's gun as someone yelling "oh my god, I hope they don't have a gun" twenty seconds before that person has a gun. Moiraine holds a knife to Rand's throat, and we're meant to believe that Ishamael couldn't atomise her before she did anything?

The problems are multitudinous, and I'm not going to majestic this thing in any more detail because I value my desk too much and don't want to smash a big hole through it with my forehead.

Even worse, I don't see how anyone who hasn't read the books could like it either, except in a GoT S8 park your brain entirely kind of way, and to be frank the scale and sfx simply aren't in GoT's ballpark, let alone its gravitas. There's nowhere near enough background information given to understand what's happening.

Rating: 0/0.

Because it's impossible to define how bad it was.

Edited December 24, 2021 by Zoraptor

[BruceVC]

10 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

WoT Ep8

TLDR; hmm.

You may substitute your username for Marion. Be warned, watch this episode unprepared and you may end up as the SS equivalent of that gif, I know I did.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

No honestly, I am dictating this post and will be all future posts having clawed my eyes out in the knowledge that I might possible, accidentally, rewatch that abomination again if I retained the gift curse of vision, and I now know how Muradin felt going through the Rhuidean columns.

OK, big ticket items: basically every single named character in Fal Dara except Min dies- Aglemar, Amalisa, Uno, fake Ingtar- and if Loial isn't dead... let's be frank, if he isn't pining for the stedding/ an ex Ogier etc it would be just ludicrous. Also two fake deaths and yes, Moiraine gets severed by Ishamael (OK, she could be book Liandrined instead, but why would Ishy bother). There may well be something odd happening since four of the deaths are meant to be recurring in S2, but all that would be is bump the fake death count to a staggering 6 from a merely embarrassing 2. Oh yeah, and the Ever Victorious Army sends an Every Increasing Tsunami at their most implacable of foes, a single 6 year old girl playing on a beach in front of a cliff. It was like a scene you'd expect from a spoof series. Oh yeah oh yeah, and Rand buggers off to places unknown, presumably to hang with Kane and the Ultimate Warrior or something since the writing is WWE level. Egwene resurrects Nynaeve after their 3 squib+N+E circle obliterates 10000+ trollocs and poor old Amalisa overacts herself into a cinder. Mat is in it for literally 5 seconds. You have to manually turn subtitles on for the LTT/ Latra Posae cold open, otherwise they're speaking Klingon.

I'd like to say that this is one of those guess which one is true because the rest are false situations, but it isn't. It could scarcely have been more stupid if Michael Flatley had got all the Trollocs to Riverdance themselves back to the blight

It's not even just the changes from the book, it's that the changes make the denouement of EotW- almost certainly the worst, definitely the most confusing ending to a WoT book- retroactively seem like a masterpiece. Surely the law of probability would have it that something would turn out better, but no, it doesn't. Were they worried about being cancelled? Because it felt like one of those disposable SyFy series that throws anything and everything at the finale in the desperate hope that something will stick enough to get a renewal. But it was already renewed, and if rumour is true, for three fricking seasons.

They change stuff, and then just kind of pretend that it hasn't been changed. Moiraine always has a plan? Sure, if you read EotW, and maybe if you were Rand from the book. If you were TV series Rand al'Thor how would you know that? You've spent like 4 days(?) with her. What was the point of Perrin? There wasn't one. Did nothing the whole season. Their idea of foreshadowing isn't so much Chekov's gun as someone yelling "oh my god, I hope they don't have a gun" twenty seconds before that person has a gun. Moiraine holds a knife to Rand's throat, and we're meant to believe that Ishamael couldn't atomise her before she did anything?

The problems are multitudinous, and I'm not going to majestic this thing in any more detail because I value my desk too much and don't want to smash a big hole through it with my forehead.

Even worse, I don't see how anyone who hasn't read the books could like it either, except in a GoT S8 park your brain entirely kind of way, and to be frank the scale and sfx simply aren't in GoT's ballpark, let alone its gravitas. There's nowhere near enough background information given to understand what's happening.

Rating: 0/0.

Because it's impossible to define how bad it was.

Im unsure about what you suggesting, are you saying E8 is not good ?

[Azdeus]

19 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

WoT Ep8

TLDR; hmm.

You may substitute your username for Marion. Be warned, watch this episode unprepared and you may end up as the SS equivalent of that gif, I know I did.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

No honestly, I am dictating this post and will be all future posts having clawed my eyes out in the knowledge that I might possible, accidentally, rewatch that abomination again if I retained the gift curse of vision, and I now know how Muradin felt going through the Rhuidean columns.

OK, big ticket items: basically every single named character in Fal Dara except Min dies- Aglemar, Amalisa, Uno, fake Ingtar- and if Loial isn't dead... let's be frank, if he isn't pining for the stedding/ an ex Ogier etc it would be just ludicrous. Also two fake deaths and yes, Moiraine gets severed by Ishamael (OK, she could be book Liandrined instead, but why would Ishy bother). There may well be something odd happening since four of the deaths are meant to be recurring in S2, but all that would be is bump the fake death count to a staggering 6 from a merely embarrassing 2. Oh yeah, and the Ever Victorious Army sends an Every Increasing Tsunami at their most implacable of foes, a single 6 year old girl playing on a beach in front of a cliff. It was like a scene you'd expect from a spoof series. Oh yeah oh yeah, and Rand buggers off to places unknown, presumably to hang with Kane and the Ultimate Warrior or something since the writing is WWE level. Egwene resurrects Nynaeve after their 3 squib+N+E circle obliterates 10000+ trollocs and poor old Amalisa overacts herself into a cinder. Mat is in it for literally 5 seconds. You have to manually turn subtitles on for the LTT/ Latra Posae cold open, otherwise they're speaking Klingon.

I'd like to say that this is one of those guess which one is true because the rest are false situations, but it isn't. It could scarcely have been more stupid if Michael Flatley had got all the Trollocs to Riverdance themselves back to the blight

It's not even just the changes from the book, it's that the changes make the denouement of EotW- almost certainly the worst, definitely the most confusing ending to a WoT book- retroactively seem like a masterpiece. Surely the law of probability would have it that something would turn out better, but no, it doesn't. Were they worried about being cancelled? Because it felt like one of those disposable SyFy series that throws anything and everything at the finale in the desperate hope that something will stick enough to get a renewal. But it was already renewed, and if rumour is true, for three fricking seasons.

They change stuff, and then just kind of pretend that it hasn't been changed. Moiraine always has a plan? Sure, if you read EotW, and maybe if you were Rand from the book. If you were TV series Rand al'Thor how would you know that? You've spent like 4 days(?) with her. What was the point of Perrin? There wasn't one. Did nothing the whole season. Their idea of foreshadowing isn't so much Chekov's gun as someone yelling "oh my god, I hope they don't have a gun" twenty seconds before that person has a gun. Moiraine holds a knife to Rand's throat, and we're meant to believe that Ishamael couldn't atomise her before she did anything?

The problems are multitudinous, and I'm not going to majestic this thing in any more detail because I value my desk too much and don't want to smash a big hole through it with my forehead.

Even worse, I don't see how anyone who hasn't read the books could like it either, except in a GoT S8 park your brain entirely kind of way, and to be frank the scale and sfx simply aren't in GoT's ballpark, let alone its gravitas. There's nowhere near enough background information given to understand what's happening.

Rating: 0/0.

Because it's impossible to define how bad it was.

 

 

[Zoraptor]

34 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Im unsure about what you suggesting, are you saying E8 is not good ?

No Bruce, I was being sarcastic, it is excellent and you should most definitely watch it. It rates a 110/100 on the globally respected "Do I want to drive Bruce absolutely bonkers via eldritch horror, why yes I do" rating scale.

It's entirely possible I have hit the christmas sherry a bit early in a desperate attempt to expunge some recent bad memories.

[Azdeus]

12 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

No Bruce, I was being sarcastic, it is excellent and you should most definitely watch it. It rates a 110/100 on the globally respected "Do I want to drive Bruce absolutely bonkers via eldritch horror, why yes I do" rating scale.

It's entirely possible I have hit the christmas sherry a bit early in a desperate attempt to expunge some recent bad memories.

It's fine, it's after 9am here so it's perfectly acceptable. Atleast that's what I'm telling myself.

[Sarex]

I can't wait to see what Brandon S. will say.

[Raithe]

13 minutes ago, Sarex said:

I can't wait to see what Brandon S. will say.

He did a live reaction watch party with the guy from the Dusty Wheel as they both saw it.

 

[Sarex]

Explains some things.

 

Wonder how the show is doing number wise, are the numbers good enough for Amazon.

 

Also Brandon is sticking to his guns, guess that is the case when you work on something and are involved.

Edited December 24, 2021 by Sarex

[Bartimaeus]

I'm not sure who has it worse - majestic with a truly despicably bad show...but one that he has utterly no reason to care about or be invested in, or Zoraptor with a show that he should love that he...decidedly does not.

[the_dog_days]

With Brandon Sanderson you have to read between the lines. He's only ever gone after one person and that was due to the individual's mistreatment of fans. He's really unhappy with this adaptation but is too nice to say it.

[Sarex]

26 minutes ago, the_dog_days said:

With Brandon Sanderson you have to read between the lines. He's only ever gone after one person and that was due to the individual's mistreatment of fans. He's really unhappy with this adaptation but is too nice to say it.

I really hope that is the case, but somehow I don't think it is.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

15 hours ago, majestic said:

Time for the weekly Discovery post.

This episode is, for some reason, 15 minutes shorter than the others. Halleluja, thanks for an early Christmas gift there, CBS. Helfpul reminder: Burnham crying counter is currently 1:4. I'm thinking about dropping it, because where's the fun in keeping track of a meme that no longer happens.

  Reveal hidden contents

Anyway, the episode helpfully opens with a "Last time on..." segment and I managed to catch a shot of Stamets and Rodney McKay where Stamets looks like he's an actual bug eyed alien. People think our politicians are reptiloids, but it's really the actors, and they're not shape-shifting, they're hiding in plain sight.

Oh, I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien! Just not an Englishman in New York. Well, actually... he is, considering who the song is about, but... never mind!

Burnham is creating a family tree like the one from the knicknack of last episode. Book wants to jump and explore outside of Federation space for clues while Michael wants to investigate the subspace rift left behind by the DMA jump. Once again the writers show their complete lack of understanding the sheer size of the galaxy. Book, where would you start looking and how quickly should that go?

Michael doesn't really listen to him, but she doesn't tell him how stupid the idea is either, but what would you expect from someone who said "a millennia" last season. Burnham is probably happy she got through the academy based purely on being Sarek's adopted child, like the worst nepotism hire ever. Michael meets Saru and at 2x the regular playback speed, the swaying motions of Abe Sapien's elongated extremities look hilarious. Saru is talking about encounters with similar anomalies before. One by the Enterprise, although he doesn't specify which one, and one by Voyager.

We're 930 years after around the time of TOS, and people are still referencing Voyager's discoveries and all that? Really? I mean, Saru must have gotten that from some database or another, because Voyager was launched to investigate the Badlands a hundred years after Discovery disappeared into the future. Yeah, so the writers are still name dropping things because why spend half a thought on anything.

Owosekun and Detmer are in the gym. Yeah, I lied when I said I don't remember their names, but that was for effect, so forgive me.

The computer called, let's head to the bridge!

Do you guys have a duty roster or something? Are you in the gym while you have bridge duty and now head back because something came up? What? Never mind, it doesn't matter.

The montage continues, all crew report to station, the computer says, and everyone stops doing recreational activities. Is nobody on the bridge right now? Sure, the computer can probably handle everything better than the crew anyway, but still, what the hell is this, and why did it make the cut? Adira is playing some board game with Gray and runs off, being totally excited. Saru said the crew is in high spirits. They're all probably high on some sort of spirit right now. Burnham, your crew has a drug problem.

Everyone's back on the brigde, and it still looks like a Wing Commander set from '93, except in HD.

Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning. Captain? Oh, no, I mean, into the negative space wedgie, engage!

Here, just in case you think I'm lying.

Good old times indeed.

Heh. They head into the anomaly rift thing and it's empty. A complete void with nothing in it, Adira thinks that's scientifically impossible because there's always something. Everyone conveniently forgot that the Voyager logs are still around, apparently. Saru quoted them earlier in the episode, now he's like "There's no metion of something like this in the records" but if the Voyager logs survived all the time, there should be.

Voyager encountered an enclosed subspace anomaly they helpfully dubbed "The Void" because there was nothing in there, and they later travelled through a 2500 light years wide area of space they called "The Void" too where... there was nothing. Makes you wonder. Writers, hello? Hello? Have you actually watched Voyager? Voyager wasn't good by any means much of its runtime, but it was still a damned sight better than this trash.

They launch one of their EVA drones from WALL-E, and it gets dissolved by space. Adira thinks subspace turned TOXIC, we go to RED ALERT and cue the intro!

Warning, video not for the faint of heart.

Disintegration field thing is moving towards the Discovery and Burnham orders a jump out after they realize that they can't navigate without any visible point of reference. At this point in time Janeway and her crew had a lot of this figured out already, but instead Gray is playing a game with Zora, the sentient computer entity on Discovery. They're talking about suddenly missing external sensor inputs because Discovery is now in sensory deprivation mode and it's bothering the computer.

Whee. Book will be the one jumping so Stamets can record data. 30 minutes left on the episode says this isn't going to work the way they want. Contact with the disintegration field is helpfully estimated to come about in 33 minutes. Eh, maybe they don't get out and this is the final episode. Wouldn't that be something? And oooooof course the jump drive doesn't work, why would it.

Book is finally losing it after an energy surge from the jump drive, and he starts to hallucinate, seeing his late father who dresses him down for not being "out there" and "hunting" whoever killed their planet. Yeah Book, off you go. Find some clues in the vastness of space. Discovery's hull integrity is compromised and an Ensign Redshirt or something is sucked out and since nobody thinks of their personal transporters, he's now pretty dead. Gray is crying. Well, maybe we'll start a Gray crying counter.

Gray does some technobabble and everyone now thinks they can get a signal out of the void and follow it as some sort of navigatonal beacon. Okay. Book is still hallucinating, and Stamets explains why they can't jump, but nothing of that makes sense, and watching at 2x playback speed sure doesn't help. Heh.

Oh. Uhm. They figure out that the DMA came from outside the galaxy because it passed the galactic barrier from TOS. They're all happy to have realized that the DMA is from outside the galaxy as if that helps them any. Guys, you do realize that this puts the point of origin to somewhere in the universe, right? Good luck finding a needle in a galaxy sized haystack. They tell the computer to create... eh. They're telling Discovery to use SONAR to... SONAR... so... so... I...

Guys, you do know you can't create an audible ping in space, right? Guys? Hello?

Now that I think about it, there's a scene like that too in the Wing Commander movie, where Paladin tells everyone to be quiet while a Kilrathi destroyer pings the area around an asteroid with their space sonar.

Wing Commander also very helpfully has gravity in space, so that's something else.

Push that wreckage off the deck! *plump*

Uhm. So they ping themselves a way out of the void, but it'll be too late, the shields won't hold and Discovery will heat up, so everyone is moving into the transporter buffer to survive being heated up. That's not such a bad idea, to be honest. Worked for Scotty too. Except I'm not really sure life support is more of an energy drain than keeping the transporter system active, but hey, that's a minor quibble. Full power to the shields. Michael puts on an EVA suit.

Wait a moment, they could turn off the transporter AND life support if everyone would put on an EVA suit. Do they only have like one or so lying around?

Super badass music underscores Michael walking down an empty hallway like a boss. Like A BOSS, really. This is so awesome.

My name's Ass. Bad Ass!

This is so intense. Discovery turns off the lights and plays the pinging sound of their SPACE SONAR while these really terrible looking sparks fall from each room's ceiling. Edge of your seat stuff here, really. Edge of your seat. Look, the computer is AFRAID and cannot focus.

That's probably Stamets' actual form.

Discovery's computer starts singing Stormy Weather, and its so bad Michael finally passes out and we fade to black. Fade in, Discovery is back in spacedock undergoing repairs and everyone is alive, except the redshirt from earlier. Too bad he didn't think of his personal transporter to save him. Really, these personal transporters were the dumbest idea they've had. All of this is a sea of bad ideas and terrible execution, but those things? Top contenders, really.

Book and Saru are having a heart-to-heart about wanting to MURDERDEATHKILL whoever made the DMA and the Ba'ul respectively, but it's about letting go of your anger before it turns you into DARTH BOOKER, or me, watching this...

Anyway, the episode ends with Burnham finishing her weird family tree, and the computer making one of her own. With images of all the crew. Awwww. It's over. Phew.

Burnham crying counter unchanged.

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I'm not sure who has it worse - majestic with a truly despicably bad show...but one that he has utterly no reason to care about or be invested in, or Zoraptor with a show that he should love that he...decidedly does not.

Probably majestic, because Zoraptor is going to call it quits.

31 minutes ago, Sarex said:

I really hope that is the case, but somehow I don't think it is.

If he's working on the show he is probably happy that he's getting paid.

[Sarex]

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

If he's working on the show he is probably happy that he's getting paid.

I don't think it's even that, I think it's the fact that this is his foot through the door for making TV/Movies for some of his own stuff. Plus he stated that the showrunner listened to most of the suggestions he had, so it would not look good to badmouth the show after that.

Also let's not exclude the option that he really does like the show.

Edited December 24, 2021 by Sarex

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

10 minutes ago, Sarex said:

I don't think it's even that, I think it's the fact that this is his foot through the door for making TV/Movies for some of his own stuff. Plus he stated that the showrunner listened to most of the suggestions he had, so it would look good to badmouth the show after that.

Also let's not exclude the option that he really does like the show.

Oh yeah, all of that is also likely. I think that in most cases what people say is what they really believe.

Anyways, I've never read WoT and the show seemed like a bad CW thing so I guess I got off easy with not being attached. Yall have my sympathies.

[Sarex]

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

Oh yeah, all of that is also likely. I think that in most cases what people say is what they really believe.

Anyways, I've never read WoT and the show seemed like a bad CW thing so I guess I got off easy with not being attached. Yall have my sympathies.

I mentally prepared my self for it to be crap, so I wasn't really disappointed and luckily I quit after ep.3.

[InsaneCommander]

Wheel of Time Episode 8

Omg, where should I start? Maybe with a gif, like @Zoraptor? Consider yourself, the viewer, as Hol Horse, the guy with the hat:

I said before that I expected many changes and I didn't mind or at least understood some of them. But this episode went too far. It basically killed my interest in season 2. Rafe's answer in @Sarex's post above doesn't help.

Compared to the end of the first book, this was GARBAGE. Too many unnecessary changes and nothing epic happened.

Spoiler

Right in the opening, we learn that the Aes Sedai knew that Lews' plan would taint Saidin and the women would have to deal with the consequences. Then why did he go along with it? He is not stupid. Why did they let him do it if it would “throw us back thousands of years”? Not a single woman went with Lews, only 99 companions, what about the other men, did they also just let this happen? Or weren’t they informed of this? It’s like hearing someone proposing to use the entire nuclear arsenal in the world to destroy something, knowing it would irradiate the whole planet and then just saying: “ok then, go on, I will deal with the radiation later.”

The battle of Tarwin’s Gap was a massive disappointment. Rand destroying an army in one of the first times he channeled may have been a bit forced in the first book, but with the sa’angreal he got in the tv show, this would be easy to explain. Why not include that?

Instead, we get a circle of unexperienced, mostly really weak channelers (if weakest the Aes Sedai was there, she would have the authority to command the circle) defeat the 10.000 Trollocks and then burn out. If it was this easy (even considering how strong Nynaeve is), then a few Aes Sedai stationed there would nullify any previous threat from the Blight. And did Egwene heal Nynaeve of her wounds and of being burned out? That was confusing.

No Aginor and Balthamel? I understand it would be confusing to have two Forsaken appear and die after a few minutes, but imo they were far more interesting than the confrontation with Ishamael we saw in the tv show. All we got was a guy who tempts Rand in a dream and cuts Moirane from Saidar.

The broken seal to the Dark One’s prison is shown as a shapeless rock. They could have done like in the book and show a split seal, revealing that this is just the beginning of the Dark One’s escape. Instead, Moirane mentions something that doesn’t make any sense to anyone who hasn’t read the books.

Moiraine was stilled? Then why can’t she sense the source? Nynaeve just accepts that Rand is lost, despite knowing how to track Moiraine? Rand receives a sa’angreal and Moirane let him go, knowing he will go mad and that now he can increase his channeling a 100 times?

The Seanchan arrive and throw a Tsunami at a little girl in the beach, where there is a mountain to reflect it? Are they coming to conquer or to kill everyone, including themselves?

 

Note: I wrote this before reading Zoraptor’s post. Yes, they may be preparing another GoT S8.

Edited December 24, 2021 by InsaneCommander

[Zoraptor]

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

Probably majestic, because Zoraptor is going to call it quits.

It's easy for me since I don't habitually get Prime, I just won't resub after The Expanse finishes.

I have to admit though that I have a fair bit of morbid curiousity about just how bad it can get. If it were free I'd probably watch it casually for a laugh.

And speaking of The Expanse, and since it's 30 degrees and 85% humidity and I don't want to finish mowing the lawns:

Expanse S6e3
 

Spoiler

Yep, another good episode.

All the standard observations still apply though: it looks like the plot's going to be absolutely linear, Holden is far too good a pilot and the piloting was obviously written for Alex etc etc. Nice to see Anna and Prax, though they both smack of being amputated plotlines, especially Prax. The linearity is going to be the big problem, as it makes everything seem kind of obvious. Inaros makes exactly the mistakes and decisions you expect and reacts to them exactly as expected, everyone makes exactly the decisions you expect. OK, that's keeping characters consistent, but the SyFy seasons did a lot better job of obfuscating things than the Amazon seasons have. The only thing which doesn't seem to be obvious is the Laconia stuff, and that seems more like a hook for a spinoff or similar. OK, so the whatever resurrected the bird wotsit as predicted, presumably next step is it resurrecting the girl's brother. Or more likely, 'resurrecting' the girl's brother.

The battle was interesting, but it does kind of beg the question as to why they don't use the rail gun in sub optimal conditions more often. It's a kinetic weapon, so presumably there's only a targeting limitation, not an effect one. Fire some missiles and take a pot shot with the rail gun from 'out of range', why not, there's nothing to lose. And what is it with people randomly deciding to spare Inaros. Sure, Naomi would be upset. But now Holden is responsible for every single person Inaros kills from this point on. You don't even have Drummer's excuse of not knowing what he was really like. It's not inconsistent with Holden's characterisation though, to be fair.

 

[LadyCrimson]

First two episodes (out of eight) of The Silent Sea/Netflix. Beyond my fangirlness of Gong Yoo, a lot of other stellar S. Korean cast as well. I remember the female lead from the series Stranger (and some movies), she can be very good. I'm watching with Korean audio/eng. subtitles but there is English dubbing. I tried it for a few minutes - it's not the worst but I think the other audio aspects changes quality subtly with the dub (not as good), plus I couldn't handle the American English voice coming from Gong Yoo's face haha. But if you're not used to actors voices already it might be all right.

Anyway ... it's sci-fi but in seemingly the more drama/mystery/conspiracy vein, and more chr. oriented vs. action. The visuals are mostly nice and because it's space/space station, it's a good showcase for the blacks/contrast of the OLED.    The pacing and dialogue is on the slower more sedate side, where I wish the camera would linger a tad less long on some bits, although a creeping sense of dread is done pretty well. So far, it doesn't suck, but it's not particularly compelling either.

One ... plot-has-to-happen trope? ... aspect I didn't like right off the bat was that scenario of ppl only caring about whether air is breathable and not whether they should care about biological air contaminants so they're quickly running around without any masks/suits on etc. when they could have left them on. I bet that's going to bite them in the butt at some point, or I'll eat my dirty socks.  Edit: started ep. 3 and yup, lol.

Edited December 25, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[Raithe]

‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 1 Ending Explained: Showrunner Rafe Judkins Breaks Down All the Big Changes from Robert Jordan’s Books | Decider

Amazon Confirms ‘The Wheel Of Time’ Season 2 Has A Bigger Budget (forbes.com)

[Lexx]

Finished The Witcher s2. Had some mhm moments for me, but all in all I think it's good. Just this time... I could not remember a single scene from the books. Then again, I can't even remember much from the books either. Always loved the short stories, because they were about Geralt, while the big books were all about politics and whatever, and I just didn't really care. In fact, now I remember that I had to force myself a lot through most of it, so maybe that's why I barely remember anything about it outside of the Falka-stuff.

Edited December 25, 2021 by Lexx

[BruceVC]

10 hours ago, Lexx said:

Finished The Witcher s2. Had some mhm moments for me, but all in all I think it's good. Just this time... I could not remember a single scene from the books. Then again, I can't even remember much from the books either. Always loved the short stories, because they were about Geralt, while the big books were all about politics and whatever, and I just didn't really care. In fact, now I remember that I had to force myself a lot through most of it, so maybe that's why I barely remember anything about it outside of the Falka-stuff.

Witcher s2 was great, I have never read the books but I am very happy with how the series is developing

 In fact I am more than comfortable to give it a solid 70/100 on the globally endorsed  and followed " BruceVC TV series " rating system. And for those numerous  members on this forum who avidly follow the " BruceVC game rating system " you will be happy to know my TV series rating  system is equally as popular and accurate as that ...so in other words any score >50 is golden and you can have peace of mind that the series is good and worth watching. No need be concerned with other reviews 

One thing I found interesting and Im not sure its part of the books ?

Spoiler

Is Ciris father the Emperor of Nilfgaard ...I dont remember if that was ever highlighted in the game?

 

[BruceVC]

21 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

First two episodes (out of eight) of The Silent Sea/Netflix. Beyond my fangirlness of Gong Yoo, a lot of other stellar S. Korean cast as well. I remember the female lead from the series Stranger (and some movies), she can be very good. I'm watching with Korean audio/eng. subtitles but there is English dubbing. I tried it for a few minutes - it's not the worst but I think the other audio aspects changes quality subtly with the dub (not as good), plus I couldn't handle the American English voice coming from Gong Yoo's face haha. But if you're not used to actors voices already it might be all right.

Anyway ... it's sci-fi but in seemingly the more drama/mystery/conspiracy vein, and more chr. oriented vs. action. The visuals are mostly nice and because it's space/space station, it's a good showcase for the blacks/contrast of the OLED.    The pacing and dialogue is on the slower more sedate side, where I wish the camera would linger a tad less long on some bits, although a creeping sense of dread is done pretty well. So far, it doesn't suck, but it's not particularly compelling either.

One ... plot-has-to-happen trope? ... aspect I didn't like right off the bat was that scenario of ppl only caring about whether air is breathable and not whether they should care about biological air contaminants so they're quickly running around without any masks/suits on etc. when they could have left them on. I bet that's going to bite them in the butt at some point, or I'll eat my dirty socks.  Edit: started ep. 3 and yup, lol.

I saw Silent Sea available on Netflix and I have watched numerous non-English series before and I enjoyed them. But funny you mention it but the dubbing into American\UK english accents I sometimes find disconcerting and can detract from the overall entertainment. So I am going to do what you suggested and watch it with the English subtitles 

[Guard Dog]

WoT Ep 8: Whelp... I has pretty happy with Ep 1-7. Yes they are majorly condensing the story and took a few liberties but that's adaption for you. They were still doing a pretty good job hitting all the beats. Then Ep 8 happened and they really went their own way. And it wasn't good. In fact it was s--t.  Hey I get that there will be changes in a TV adaptation. And I also get there will be changes in the story and characters to suit modern tastes and expectations. But if you abandon the plot beats altogether this turns into a dumpster fire. It's not totally broken yet but it's getting really close to it. That is happened in the first bloody season does NOT bode well.

 

[InsaneCommander]

5 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

WoT Ep 8: Whelp... I has pretty happy with Ep 1-7. Yes they are majorly condensing the story and took a few liberties but that's adaption for you. They were still doing a pretty good job hitting all the beats. Then Ep 8 happened and they really went their own way. And it wasn't good. In fact it was s--t.  Hey I get that there will be changes in a TV adaptation. And I also get there will be changes in the story and characters to suit modern tastes and expectations. But if you abandon the plot beats altogether this turns into a dumpster fire. It's not totally broken yet but it's getting really close to it. That is happened in the first bloody season does NOT bode well.

 

This is not gonna end well. There is a significant number of people criticizing this episode, including some popular youtubers (at least in the WoT community), but the show is the number 1 in streaming so I don't think Amazon will see any problems with it. And even if they did, season 2 is already filming so whatever damage was done, it is too late to fix it.

[the_dog_days]

I know a lot of people who (inexplicably) loved it right up unit the season finale. Now especially non-book readers are saying they're done because nothing was explained in the climax. I saw one guy who 1) was under the impression that the Dragon regardless of sex was safe from insanity and later 2) the Horn Valere was to allow him to use the one power safely. I get they probably really needed 12 episodes and that the ending of the Eye of the World in the books is already confusing, but even cutting their show-added extra plots would've given them time for basic exposition so non-book readers can understand what's going on.