The TV and Streaming Thread: Pilot Week

[Zoraptor]

'From' will be on Netflix outside the US.

[Lexx]

Ok, but when.

[Guard Dog]

Finished Picard Season 2 last night. It was pretty good. Some things annoyed me. 2024 was a bit more advanced than it will be. 2024 Guinan showed no reaction to the mention of the Borg which was off. But I thought the actress who played her. besides being smoking hot, did a great job capturing the character.  Plus all the other annoyances of time travel plots. Don't get me started. And didn't Picard have a brother? Where the hell was he during all the childhood flashbacks? And WTF happened to Picard's dog? Never saw him again.

You know what? I don't think I liked it at all! 

[Lexx]

Just binge watched the Loki show. Was better than I expected.

[Hurlshort]

I started watching The Kids in the Hall documentary, which is different than their new season of sketch comedy. Scott Thompson is such an interesting pioneer. Without him, the show is still a hilarious sketch comedy show, but he added an insight into gay culture that I just don't think had any exposure before then.

On another note, they had a sketch about a sentient glory hole that killed me. It was strangely gross and heartwarming at the same time.

[Amentep]

1 hour ago, Guard Dog said:

 And didn't Picard have a brother? Where the hell was he during all the childhood flashbacks? 

You know what? I don't think I liked it at all! 

From what I've heard Robert was established as being away at boarding school during the childhood flashbacks in Picard.  Which could make sense, as I seem to recall per TNG he was like 8 years older than Picard, if memory serves me.

[LadyCrimson]

4 hours ago, Lexx said:

Ok, but when.

There seems to be no info on that yet, so I'd guess the average 6 months to a year from original release.    At least Epix renewed it so there will be a 2nd season.

I watched a few more episodes of it. A couple side characters I could really do without, most of the rest are ok to decent. Acting quality outside of the male lead varies a bit - from ok to pretty good. Overall cast is pretty large by now, meaning many individual chrs. often don't get much screen time, they just pop in for a hot minute to say something/have a conflict, then disappear again, repeat. While I personally have a few characters that I'm interested in/like, the initial impression - that Harold Perrineau (so far) is really carrying the show - remains. Without him it wouldn't be nearly as watchable/good, to the point where sometimes you're just waiting for him to come back to charge the screen with his presence again. Show is good at building up the moody/creepy/mysterious vibe tho.

[ShadySands]

5 hours ago, Amentep said:

From what I've heard Robert was established as being away at boarding school during the childhood flashbacks in Picard.  Which could make sense, as I seem to recall per TNG he was like 8 years older than Picard, if memory serves me.

I've heard similar things as well but not sure if it was written in the show, because I haven't watched it, or just fans trying to make it make sense.

[Amentep]

10 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

I've heard similar things as well but not sure if it was written in the show, because I haven't watched it, or just fans trying to make it make sense.

Yeah, I dunno as I haven't seen it either. 

[Zoraptor]

My Brother in Law liked Picard, as I found out at a family dinner. So there is at least one person apart from Wil Wheaton who does.

8 hours ago, Lexx said:

Ok, but when.

Not in the June schedule, so sometime after that.

[majestic]

40 minutes ago, Amentep said:

Yeah, I dunno as I haven't seen it either. 

I don't remember it mentioned at all in the second season, so that's either fans making excuses for a dumb show being dumb, or the dumb producers and writers are making dumb excuses for their dumbness. I'm fine with both explanations, really.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, episode 4.

The entire episode was an exercise in rehashing old plot points.

Spoiler

The Defiant Enterprise enters a gas giant to escape the Jem'Hadar Gorn. Spock and Lady Khan do a mind meld where they figure out they both had a similar traumatic event in their past, and, uhm, so how do the Gorn fit into this timeframe and why are they more like  hybrid Hirogen/Magog things than the Gorn?

Anyway, show continues to be okay enough for me to not hate it. It's the best it can do anyway, so... guess job well done so far.

Edited May 26, 2022 by majestic
Edited in the quote, got ninja'd by Zoraptor

[Amentep]

Again I can't vouch for it, what I read was Picard's mom talks about going to Paris while his dad roots in the dirt and his brother was away in school.

[majestic]

27 minutes ago, Amentep said:

Again I can't vouch for it, what I read was Picard's mom talks about going to Paris while his dad roots in the dirt and his brother was away in school.

Maybe, I barely paid attention to little Picard's little family drama scene. In that case I'll take the comments back and apply them to something else that was pretty stupid in the show, there's plenty of it.

[Zoraptor]

SNW Ep4

Spoiler

Very derivative, of a bunch of things. Personally, I saw a lot more Wrath of Khan in it than DS9, but then I haven't seen DS9 in ages. And is there literally any point having dramatic tension on whether Uhura survives?

Having said that, derivative was about the worst thing I could think of about it and it was derivative of a load of things I like- and that's a lot better than anything else nuTrek. I think I'm now inured to the overly casual chit chat on the bridge, too. The only really gaping plot hole was the Gorn communicating ship to ship en clair and just accepting a message at face value, and that didn't overly effect the plot.

I'm going to outright say it: SNW is not great, but I think it actually has the best first 4 episodes out of at least TNG/ DS9/ Enterprise. Probably Voyager too, though I remember liking the first two episodes of that a lot- but then being epicly disappointed when all the promise in the premise evaporated almost immediately. Not sure how many episodes that took though.

Then again considering the decidedly rocky starts most of the Treks had that isn't exactly singing its praises.

[Lexx]

Looks like the new Stranger Things is out now. Well... first half of it at least... Going to binge watch it this weekend, I guess.

[kirottu]

Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 1

Other than really embarrassing chase sequence it was a solid episode. I even felt bit nostalgic about the prequels during the opening.   

[Lexx]

2 episodes in on the new Stranger Things and I have 2 things so far:

1. It feels looooooong. There are so many characters now and everyone gets their 2 minutes and it just feels like you never get to the storyline that you actually want to see.

2. Man, it sure gets spooky at times.

[the_dog_days]

Been watching the Umbrella Academy. Finished season one. I usually find child actors insufferable but the kid who plays #5 is really good.

[Bartimaeus]

https://twitter.com/JayBauman1/status/1530239905032437762

Somehow, it's worse than I expected. It's like...so clearly artificial camera shake. Just a technical flaw that some people probably won't even notice, but it feels appropriate considering the legacy of the prequels and the cheap/lazy way George Lucas filmed them.

[kirottu]

22 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

https://twitter.com/JayBauman1/status/1530239905032437762

Somehow, it's worse than I expected. It's like...so clearly artificial camera shake. Just a technical flaw that some people probably won't even notice, but it feels appropriate considering the legacy of the prequels and the cheap/lazy way George Lucas filmed them.

I fully admit not noticing it. 

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, kirottu said:

I fully admit not noticing it. 

It's a better way to live anyways.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

https://twitter.com/JayBauman1/status/1530239905032437762

Somehow, it's worse than I expected. It's like...so clearly artificial camera shake. Just a technical flaw that some people probably won't even notice, but it feels appropriate considering the legacy of the prequels and the cheap/lazy way George Lucas filmed them.

I think it would be better if it was a real camera shake, but this stinks of being an after effect done in post production.

[Bartimaeus]

17 minutes ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

I think it would be better if it was a real camera shake, but this stinks of being an after effect done in post production.

If it was real camera shake, it'd probably be fine. Maybe unnecessary, but not worthy of the comment. But it's so obviously looks like the worst After Effects or equivalent artificial shake that they could use - I feel like I've seen the same exact camera shake profile used by a number of amateur VFX for creating "realistic" composite shots, except here it's not even used for the purpose of trying to make a composite shot look more natural...it was just added because camera go shake = more tense scene, apparently. It's such a...tiny little thing to be bothered by, and yet I can't help but understand the point of view of being "welp I'm out" because of it, .

Edited May 28, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

A pity I'm going to watch this eventually anyway. *sigh*

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

26 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

If it was real camera shake, it'd probably be fine. Maybe unnecessary, but not worthy of the comment. But it's so obviously looks like the worst After Effects or equivalent artificial shake that they could use - I feel like I've seen the same exact camera shake profile used by a number of amateur VFX for creating "realistic" composite shots, except here it's not even used for the purpose of trying to make a composite shot look more natural...it was just added because camera go shake = more tense scene, apparently. It's such a...tiny little thing to be bothered by, and yet I can't help but understand the point of view of being "welp I'm out" because of it, .

Having watched it a few times I can that it only gets worse. It doesn't add anything but distraction to what should be a harrowing scene.