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

[Zoraptor]

I've seen a lot of people saying they needed more episodes, but in these circumstances I cannot really agree. They probably did in the absolute sense, but I wouldn't be confident that we'd get better out of an extra 2 hours rather than just more of what we got.

It really did look like a badly managed project where the wheels fell off completely at the end, and they tend to expand their crappiness to fill all available time. OK, there was covid, but end of the day if a builder builds a house and it falls down in a week you don't care that he was going through a divorce or whatever; you care that the house fell down. And maybe that your neighbours builder, also going through a divorce, managed to build a decent house despite that. End of the day they decided that Stepin and the warder bond which becomes important in probably 2 seasons time was worth half an episode instead of more immediately relevant world building, or giving the main characters five minutes each of character development or whatever. There's nothing to say that we would not simply have got 2 more hours of such writing genius. And they did so little effective world building with the time they had...

The main issue they have is how much better Witcher did in similar covid circumstances and, supposedly, with less budget. There have been some issues with it so far (I've not seen ep8 yet) but it's night and day on apparent quality, use of time and world building, and a significant step up still on script and storyline.

[ShadySands]

1 hour ago, Zoraptor said:

I've seen a lot of people saying they needed more episodes, but in these circumstances I cannot really agree. They probably did in the absolute sense, but I wouldn't be confident that we'd get better out of an extra 2 hours rather than just more of what we got.

That's how I feel about nuTrek. I used to think that more episodes would allow them to open things up more and explore the setting, characters, and some of the ideas they keep throwing out then glossing over but then I came around to the same conclusion. It'd probably just be more of the same.

[Raithe]

On other random news elements of it: https://www.wotseries.com/2021/12/26/season-two-cast-melissa-james-jessica-boone-more/

 

[BruceVC]

@Zoraptor  and others 

Please use spoilers if you going to talk about WoT and other series, especially if you discussing the specifics of the narrative 

[Gromnir]

19 hours ago, ShadySands said:

That's how I feel about nuTrek. 

have literal watched nothing new in trek verse since we saw 1.3 episodes of discovery. couldn't help but feel like the showrunners musta' been subversive fight club fans.

yeah, am aware the current trek creative folks is not genuine trying to destroy decades worth o' good will and a legacy o' tv quality (even the bad trek shows had great episodes) but it nevertheless feels like the current people directing the trek universe dislike trek and hate trek fans.

HA! Good Fun!

[the_dog_days]

5 hours ago, BruceVC said:

@Zoraptor  and others 

Please use spoilers if you going to talk about WoT and other series, especially if you discussing the specifics of the narrative 

What narrative? 

[Amentep]

10 hours ago, Gromnir said:

have literal watched nothing new in trek verse since we saw 1.3 episodes of discovery. couldn't help but feel like the showrunners musta' been subversive fight club fans.

yeah, am aware the current trek creative folks is not genuine trying to destroy decades worth o' good will and a legacy o' tv quality (even the bad trek shows had great episodes) but it nevertheless feels like the current people directing the trek universe dislike trek and hate trek fans.

HA! Good Fun!

Most of the people working on new Star Trek in interviews talk of their love of Star Wars. 

I think Chabon is the exception.

I've recently started watching the 1st season of DISCOVERY.

[Zoraptor]

That is, at least, the best season of Discovery.

Anyway, I've finally finished Witcher S2. It was... good. Far more along the expected lines of an adaptation than WoT, albeit I'd read Blood of Elves ages ago and can't really remember much (see below), and played the games. And absolutely night and day in terms of apparent quality, scripting, CGI, sets, choreography, consistency and indeed pretty much everything else.
 

Spoiler

Just about literally the only thing I can remember from Blood of Elves was Triss having the runs and throwing herself at Geralt, probably because it was so wtf? I'm wasn't even sure I'd read the right book for the season until fairly late on.

Probably should have saved themselves the unnecessary stress and used one of the disposable OC Witchers instead of Eskel for getting Leshened. Especially since most of them got merked at the end anyway. You kind of hope they aren't going to need an extra named Witcher later on.

I bet a lot of Yennefer stans hated her 'betraying' Ciri. It's absolutely 100% in character for her based on Witcher 3 to care nothing about random people though, and to her Ciri was a random person. I guess technically we could have done without early season Yennefer's arc which made not a great deal of sense (her escaping with Cahir was literal lol, no way that could happen unless everyone there was in on it) but unlike WoT it was a relatively isolated occurrence. The longer term effect should be that Ciri (and Geralt) don't trust her at least for a time, if they suddenly forget about it that would be a problem- but they haven't yet, and they've probably earnt enough goodwill that I don't think they will.

The 'hug it out' ending for the utterly disposable main (and I think even without background knowledge, obviously transitory) villain was something I should have hated, but actually didn't. Does rather beg the question of 'why not just ask to go home?' Also Ciri's dream had amusingly short term foreshadowing with 'Duny' not dissolving into mist as all the genuinely dead people did, and we then saw Emhyr literally five minutes later. I do wonder how the reveal of Emhyr went with people who didn't know he was Ciri's father, similar for Phillipa being revealed too.

Probably the best thing about it was Henry Cavill, who was born to play Geralt and obviously cares, a lot.

Did think of one thing that was obvious dumb and (I presume) an addition and not from the book- the party at Kair Morhen with the whores. Unnecessary, and poorly thought out too.

End of the day, while I'm not familiar enough with the source material to say that it's a good adaptation it's good or better on the more objective fronts, as well as the subjective one of actually being entertaining- and it hasn't introduced any glaring internal inconsistencies that look like they'll come back to bite them either.

Edited December 28, 2021 by Zoraptor

[Hiro Protagonist]

The Silent Sea. Everything was going so well for the first seven episodes up until the final episode (ep. 8). I guess they wrote themselves in a corner as they threw the science out the window. Overall I still liked it.

[majestic]

7 hours ago, Amentep said:

I've recently started watching the 1st season of DISCOVERY.

My condolences. Have fun watching the KLINGORKS battle the FEDERATION, and always keep in mind, this is the best the series gets in overall quality. Which doens't say much, because it's a steaming, fresh turd, but then the show gets a particularily bad case of dysentery in the second season, only to contract cholera in the third.

Not sure yet what that is in the fourth season. Probably the stench of death coming from something that died of dehydration.

[Guard Dog]

For me Star Trek ended when Voyager got home. And that series was definitely running on creative fumes when it ended. DS9 was the high water mark for Star Trek IMO. Although Sisko's story ending left a sour taste in my mouth. But few TV series stick the landing on their final episode. So few they are remarkable when they do.

This was just a masterpiece of an ending!

[Guard Dog]

I watched 30 for 30 Of Miracles and Men last night. It was excellent. @Hurlshot add that one to you "to do" list if you haven't seen it already. 

[Raithe]

1 hour ago, Guard Dog said:

For me Star Trek ended when Voyager got home. And that series was definitely running on creative fumes when it ended. DS9 was the high water mark for Star Trek IMO. Although Sisko's story ending left a sour taste in my mouth. But few TV series stick the landing on their final episode. So few they are remarkable when they do.

This was just a masterpiece of an ending!

B5 had one that I always view as a classic. But then they usually managed to tie in music that hit the right tones for the majority of the scenes.

 

[LadyCrimson]

Got through another episode and a half of The Silent Sea. So that would be ... halfway through episode 4.

I've read the series is based on some short film or something, and I wonder if the story itself was not enough to fill even an eight episode series, because I feel like nothing much has happened. Oh sure, some events have occurred, don't get me wrong. But it feels stretched thin.  Plus while the sense of dread is often good, it feels a little too similar to some common sci-fi tropes/films, hence a bit too generic.  And the two main chrs., great actors they are, are so far almost too sedate or stone-faced to be interesting. 

Anyway, it's not that it's bad ... it just feels like there's not enough to fill up the time space in an interesting fashion. Should've been six episodes maybe. Makes your attention wander a little too often. I'll probably finish it, but I'm not in a rush. I feel like S. Korea is trying to do "big" sci-fi recently, and this is one of the learning experiences. They're getting closer, but not quite there yet.

Edited December 28, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[InsaneCommander]

Don't Look Up. In the past this movie would look silly, an exaggeration. Today is a different matter.

I'm still trying to understand why

Spoiler

the general charged for free snacks.

 

[Hurlshort]

Don't Look Up was too cynical for my tastes. It had some good moments. The Elon Musk guy was hilarious. I get that people are comparing the pandemic response to what happens in the movie, but in reality we have responded amazingly well scientifically and medically to the global challenge. Sure, there are morons and politicians that play on those people, but we do tend to move in the right direction when needed. So the movie is silly but it has some fun zingers.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, Hurlsnot said:

Don't Look Up was too cynical for my tastes. It had some good moments. The Elon Musk guy was hilarious. I get that people are comparing the pandemic response to what happens in the movie, but in reality we have responded amazingly well scientifically and medically to the global challenge. Sure, there are morons and politicians that play on those people, but we do tend to move in the right direction when needed. So the movie is silly but it has some fun zingers.

I haven't seen it...and I probably won't because I just saw that it stars two of my least favorite current big-time actors (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence - although it does have Mark Rylance whom I rather like)...but I was under the impression that the film was more for how little we're accomplishing in the realm of climate change and the imminent crises that are likely to occur as a result over the next handful of decades. And Wikipedia says it was written and filmed in 2019, before Covid-19 existed, before being delayed because of it...

Edited December 30, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

Having "Leo" and "J-Law" in the same film makes this really more unappealing than it would otherwise be, but I'll probably check it out. If Hurlshot calls it too cynical then it's probably just spot on (sorry man, I just don't share your optimism ).

That reminds me, @Hurlshot, like, post-Trump presidency, do you still think Iron Sky was too heavy-handed? The film is dangerously close to not being funny any more.

 

[Sarex]

I really disliked Don't Look Up, it just wasn't funny or interesting. I guess it was more for the US audience.

[Maedhros]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I haven't seen it...and I probably won't because I just saw that it stars two of my least favorite current big-time actors (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence - although it does have Mark Rylance whom I rather like)...but I was under the impression that the film was more for how little we're accomplishing in the realm of climate change and the imminent crises that are likely to occur as a result over the next handful of decades. And Wikipedia says it was written and filmed in 2019, before Covid-19 existed, before being delayed because of it...

Mark Rylance is brilliant. Wolf Hall is the best show no one saw.

[Bartimaeus]

27 minutes ago, Maedhros said:

Mark Rylance is brilliant. Wolf Hall is the best show no one saw.

That's what I saw him in first (as well as Claire Foy, whose performance as Anne Boleyn was despicable and yet somehow still elicited an awful amount of sympathy on my part - she was great in the first season of The Crown as well), and I saw a couple of other things he was in afterwards as well. Yeah, great show, supposedly they're making a second part to the miniseries at some point, but there's not been much news as of the last couple of years...have to wonder if Covid silently lead to its cancellation...

38 minutes ago, Sarex said:

I really disliked Don't Look Up, it just wasn't funny or interesting. I guess it was more for the US audience.

It does sound like a very American kind of film.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[LadyCrimson]

^ It's in my Watchlist but DiCaprio isn't one of my fave actors (he's talented, just not my style or in movies I like most of the time I guess?). I do like cynical/biting/snarky humor if it's not too slapsticky in presentation, and I like Jonah Hill at times. So I'll try it eventually.

---Finished The Silent Sea. Eps 6-8 you get all the explanations and "stuff" finally coming together/happening. Which doesn't make it move much faster, but there are more things going on. There were two supporting characters (maybe three) that I liked more than the two leads (I love you Gong Yoo but ....). The ending is complete yet a bit ambiguous. I think this would've been better as a 2.5-3 hour movie. I still loved all the stark black contrast shots in the show when they come up, tho. Haha.

---Started watching a K-drama called "Navillera" - caught my eye because one of the supporting leads is an actor I recalled from something else I saw long ago. Old man wants to finally try learning ballet after a lifetime of denying what he wants in favor of responsibility etc. Ends up at a studio where a young man is being trained to maybe be a star. Old/youth buddy-drama and a little family-drama starts. It's funny because while I complained of "slow pacing" in The Silent Sea, a slow/calm pace fits a drama like Navillera just fine. Script, subject/plot, and genre expectations I suppose. I don't even like ballet but I'm enjoying the series so far (seen 8 eps).

[Hurlshort]

5 hours ago, majestic said:

Having "Leo" and "J-Law" in the same film makes this really more unappealing than it would otherwise be, but I'll probably check it out. If Hurlshot calls it too cynical then it's probably just spot on (sorry man, I just don't share your optimism ).

That reminds me, @Hurlshot, like, post-Trump presidency, do you still think Iron Sky was too heavy-handed? The film is dangerously close to not being funny any more.

 

Hah, I enjoyed Iron Sky but it was absurd enough to be a fun parody of the US. Much like idiocracy, there are some jokes that hit close to home, but they are still jokes. Don't Look Up lacks that absurd charm.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

5 hours ago, Sarex said:

I really disliked Don't Look Up, it just wasn't funny or interesting. I guess it was more for the US audience.

I think it's just a bad movie.

[Raithe]

Netflix Cancelled A Series With A Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score (giantfreakinrobot.com)