The TV and Streaming Thread: Summer Reruns

[majestic]

Writings of Bogdan the Fat. Erm, The Book of Boba Fett.

I guess it's a good thing that there is such a thing as a breastplate stretcher in the Star Wars universe, because Temuera Morrison sure doesn't look like he's in prime shape any more. Not that it really matters so much.

Warning, language and all that. For the .538 people on the planet, who have never watched Game of Thrones, which I know congregate here on the forum in great number. Just to explain the breastplate stretcher joke.

Anyway, in what continues to be a bit mistifying, this series, just like the second season of The Boys got a bit of a bad reputation. Not just here, mind, but generally. None of my friends liked it either, and while I have to admit the colorful Vespa like speeder bikes and the fanservice were a bit much, the rest of the series was far better than any of the other Disney Star Wars stuff - and yes, I'm counting both seasons of The Mandalorian, even if the second season got entertaining at times. With the caveat that I have not watched Kenobi yet.

Kinda unmarked spoilers from here on out. I'll keep them brief and general though.

Admittedly, Luke's inverted training session and Grogu being Luke and running off saving his friends left me groaning hard, but that's the sort of Star Wars fanservice that probably will never go away, and certainly not as long as Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau create these series. The best part of the series was Boba Fett living with the Tusken raiders, which luckily makes up most of the first half of the series. Wonderfully atmospheric, very slow and with almost no real dialogue, it just shows off that acting works better without a helmet on. Granted, that's a bit rich coming from just Boba amongst the perpetually covered Tuskens, but Boba is the main character, after all.

Anyway, the one pointless thing was the Mandalorian focus episode where he was visiting his old clan. He learned by now that this most certainly is "not" the way, but he accepts exile or whatever for removing his helmet and is told redemption can only be sought underneath the now destroyed mines of Mandalore. What a load of crock, coming from a fringe nutjub sect. But hey, we have to set up another uneeded season of the Mandalorian somehow, right?

Dunno, I enjoyed watching it enough to binge it. Certainly beats anything in terms of live action Star Wars that came out after 1983. Yeah, Boba Fett isn't much of a crime lord in the series, but that wasn't really the intention, was it? His experience with the Tuskens changed him.

Yeah, too bad about the series killing off Cad Bane. He was great.

[Hurlshort]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

Writings of Bogdan the Fat. Erm, The Book of Boba Fett.

I guess it's a good thing that there is such a thing as a breastplate stretcher in the Star Wars universe, because Temuera Morrison sure doesn't look like he's in prime shape any more. Not that it really matters so much.

Ouch, the guy is in his 60's. I'd say he is in phenomenal shape for his age.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Sandman 1-4. It's a good show and I think it works as an adaptation of the comic. So far the only things I've disliked are the pacing of the first episode and Lucifer. The first episode seemed to be very stretched, I can see why they did it but that doesn't make it very compelling. Lucifer....I think Christie is a good actress but just wasn't given enough to do here. Would like to see more of her doing more.

Also, sometimes the aspect looks weird. I think it was intentional but nonetheless it is disorienting at times.

[majestic]

23 minutes ago, Hurlsnot said:

Ouch, the guy is in his 60's. I'd say he is in phenomenal shape for his age.

 It was supposed to be a joke. Guess that did not work. 
 

 

 

[Raithe]

Sandman, episode 5:  24/7.

I know a lot of critics seem to be raving over it, and it's one of those ones where..  the acting is good, Thewliss being Thewliss, it all ties into the story they're working for John Dee...   But at the same time it's very compressed and feels more like 3 hours rather than 24 and they lose a lot of the disturbing, creepy, horror of the story.

The fan made film of that story a few years back pretty much hit the ball out of the park for that mind-bending insanity horror, and maybe that's the comparison that keeps lingering in my head.

 

But I do think that episode 6: The Sound of Her Wings is probably my favorite one out of the batch.

They have the chemistry of Death and Dream down pat, and the White Horse Pub every century for the meetings with Hob Gadling are pretty pitch perfect and carry all the emotions.

[Sarex]

2 hours ago, Raithe said:

But I do think that episode 6: The Sound of Her Wings is probably my favorite one out of the batch.

They have the chemistry of Death and Dream down pat, and the White Horse Pub every century for the meetings with Hob Gadling are pretty pitch perfect and carry all the emotions.

I agree. Those were probably the best 1 to 1 scenes when comparing to the comic. But I think that for the medium it's in they did a very a good job.

[Zoraptor]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

It was supposed to be a joke. Guess that did not work.

One does not joke about Temuera Morrison's physique, certainly not using culturally inappropriate references to popular media. It's an imprisonable offence with a 6 month minimum sentence here.

One does it using culturally appropriate references to homegrown media, like "Too much KFC; not not enough gym work"

(instead of "Too much weights; not enough speedwork". Actually one of the tamer scenes in Once Were Warriors, but there's a naughty word and a beatdown so no hotlink)

[LadyCrimson]

13 hours ago, Raithe said:

But I do think that episode 6: The Sound of Her Wings is probably my favorite one out of the batch.

I was going to come here and say that. I liked that episode a lot, especially the 2nd half re: Gadling.  I don't find much of the scheming and conflict aspects all that interesting and I wish there was more of that eps 6 type of thing. Oh well.

One thing I didn't realize was that the TV series was going to feel so segmented - that is, chrs. who appear then disappear, never to be seen again. Nothing wrong with that, technically/artistically - and maybe some will actually come back in later seasons, no clue - but since I'm personally not finding the main lead all that compelling, it's occasionally a disappointment.

Edited August 8, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[InsaneCommander]

The Sandman 1-4

I'm enjoying the show, the cast is pretty good. I didn't read the comics so I have no idea what was changed.

[LadyCrimson]

I think I got to Episode 8 of The Sandman, and I'm still (mostly) entertained enough by it.

But this week I was more in the mood for something more dramedy (less broody or apocalyptic) and thus went back to my K-drama's. I'm falling behind again and my Viki list is going to soon be longer than my Netflix (lists contain favorites as well as not-watched titles). They churn out so many of them, with so many of my fave actors/actresses, and I rarely keep up with the new/upcoming kdrama "news", so I lose track.

Currently making my way through Kkondae Intern, a comedy-drama re: surviving/working in the fast food industry. No romance. So far pretty good and I love the dynamic between the main characters (older/younger, generation gap).

[Lexx]

I started watching Twenty-Five Twenty-One and ... it's cute. : x

There's so many garbage k-tv shows, where I can't even get through the first episode, but then suddenly it hits you again with something that you just have to keep watching. For me, this is one of those shows.

That said, inside of me I'm very torn on those shows. Like.. I see it and it's cute and I like the people and man, do they (sometimes) look good. But then I have to think about the kind of entertainment industry that s.k has and how most of those people are probably from some entertainment factory where they are training their whole life already and aren't doing anything else... It's kinda dystopian to me.

What's also funny is that when looking up "real" photos of those actors, I almost never recognize them. They seem to look completely different in the tv shows. In the shows they feel like humans to me, on those pictures on the internet they are like fake puppets with fake hair and all that makeup and photoshop.

[LadyCrimson]

19 hours ago, Lexx said:

There's so many garbage k-tv shows,

Mmm, can't disagree, especially if one is mainly using Netflix for an exposure metric - I appreciate Netflix keeps getting more, but they mostly focus on certain newer ones that they think will "appeal" to non-S. Korean audiences, and don't have most of the best ones, imo. It wasn't that long ago that it was a struggle (sometimes a not so savory site struggle...) to get to see almost any of them in the US, at least. And to be fair, one could say that most shows made in any country are garbage. >.>  A lot of it is just culture differences (and sometimes bad subtitles), in terms of what is expected/desired or good/not good tropes or humor. For a long time most K series/TV was largely aimed at women, as well, hence such a huge focus on romance/family/melodrama and "makjang" (birth secrets!), a lot of the time.

I don't think film/TV actors (that aren't shoved over from kpop industry) have mega "factories" ala the pop music industry, but they do have powerful controlling agency groups which are much more contractually strict re: what they can and can't do re: public image. Although even that is very slowly changing I think. On the flip side, because of that they are somewhat better at protecting/keeping private lives separate.

I think the main thing I like about the kdramas (the ones I like, anyway, ofc) is I feel like they're much better at the emotional side or building up of characters - especially in recent years where I feel like that's missing from a lot of US stuff. The serious chr. attachment where you may overlook a lot of show/plot flaws and ridiculousness because you simply like the characters so much. Although, the more S. Korea seems to try to emulate (a little) US series styles here and there, the more that is being lost, a little bit.

[Lexx]

Half the time when I'm looking up those actors, it turns out they were in "bands" before (usually just large groups of people who dance in sync... not my cup of tea, tbh).

I like the kind of drama and cuteness of some of those shows, but the story twists are often hilariously bad. Like in Twenty-Five Twenty-One where they already establish in the first two episodes that apparently every single character with more than two lines of dialog is in some way connected to each other. I dunno if this is because koreans like stuff related to faith, but to me it's just unbelievable and lol.

[Maedhros]

Seems like early reviews of the new Game of Thrones show are pretty positive. Even GRRM's assistant/helper who was very vocal in his criticism of Game of Thrones enjoyed it.

Also liking the look of Rings of Power, despite being very annoyed that Bezos couldn't add a couple hundred million more to get the rights to all of Tolkien's works. Gonna be a bit weird to have a second age show based solely on what's mentioned in Lotr and its appendices, when there's so much good stuff in Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, etc.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Maedhros

[LadyCrimson]

2 hours ago, Lexx said:

apparently every single character with more than two lines of dialog is in some way connected to each other.

I think that one is in my watchlist but I haven't gotten around to it yet. And yeah, a lot of the more youth oriented/highschool-college k-drama's have most of the cast as best friends or friends of relatives or they knew each other growing up but haven't seen each other/remembered in years etc. I think it's one of those watered down leftover makjong aspects, to create rapid emotional stakes/conflict/scenarios.

More "youthful" kdramas these days are going to have a fair number of pop stars (or were wanna-be pop stars). Most of the kdrama actors I've been following for 8+ years were never in music but ....with so many youth-dramas and now web-series intermediate stuff, they do crossover more and more.

At least that truck-o-doom trope has almost disappeared. Almost. Noble idiocy will still abound. And I wouldn't mind if they would all stop acting like the smallest cut on a finger/scrape on the forehead is a reason to pull out the giant first aid kit/go to the hospital.

[Lexx]

19 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

And I wouldn't mind if they would all stop acting like the smallest cut on a finger/scrape on the forehead is a reason to pull out the giant first aid kit/go to the hospital.

Funny, in the episode I just saw, the male main lead is driving the female main lead to the hospital, because she twisted her ankle.

/Edit: It's still a good show so far, but it makes me furious when characters are ice cold into each others faces and then behind the back they actually think something completely different, but they have to act like that because... I have no idea, some weird morale? Does korea also have "face" (honor) like japan / china?

Edited August 13, 2022 by Lexx

[LadyCrimson]

25 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Does korea also have "face" (honor) like japan / china?

Yes, although I think in modern times it translates more into social status stigma and what is seen as shameful, like education/quality of education (vast vast pressure in that regard), employment, marriage issues (divorce is still seen as a bit of a social-shame), single parenthood. Obviously the younger generations aren't quite as strict/deeply into it but traditions/attitudes remain.

They are really big on hierarchy of respect vs. age and social status. Like the turning of the head in particular direction if taking a drink in front of an elder/higher status, and their language has all kinds of "proper" honorific, formal/informal address, based on older or younger than you, friend or stranger, social situation, stuff like that.

Edited August 13, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[Lexx]

Man, if I'll ever visit that place, I'd be the rudest and most "don't give a ****"-person in all of s. korea probably. How do they handle us brute westerners?

Edited August 13, 2022 by Lexx

[Sarex]

Dota book 3. More of the same with the epic nob turned to 11. It got pretty convoluted, but I liked it overall.

[Lexx]

Damn. I thought The Orville s3 has an 11th episode. Now I found out it ended last week with the 10th and that it originally was supposed to have 11 episodes, but due to pandemic, one had to be scrapped. Sadness.

However, I checked the wiki page again and saw the box with the season ratings and thought it was hilarious. ... Season 1, critics: 30% .... season 2 and 3, critics: both 100%. Real funny stuff how back then all those "professional critics" were praising NuTrek and crapping on the Orville, but user reviews were the exact reverse. And now here we are.

Seems they are trying to get a season 4 done with Disney. Not sure how to feel about it, but we'll see I guess. Would be sad if it stops now. I'm simply not going back to NuTrek, that ship has sailed for me.

[Zoraptor]

Dunno why anyone uses Rotten Tomatoes for reviews anyway, loads of shows end up with 100% ratings because all the reviews are 'positive'. I still haven't seen the last episode of Orville S3 (depressingly difficult to find 75 minutes time to sit down and watch something) but I suppose I should do some comments for ep9 which I have seen
 

Spoiler

It was 95% fine to good, 5% what were the hell were they thinking putting this rubbish in. I won't deal too much with the good except to say that they were clearly going for a Star Warsesque feeling and pretty much achieved it- with major props going to the CGI/ SFX teams which could not reasonably have been better, and could very easily have been far worse.

OTOH, it had stuff that drove me bonkers, most of which they obviously included for being 'cool' but which made no sense- which I hated about Discovery too. Shoot Admiral Danson's shuttle to prevent the notFed knowing about the Krill/ Moclan alliance, and the debris tells them anyway... surely they could have just stopped the shuttle leaving or done pretty much anything else. Mostly though it was the premise of the climactic battle that was the problem. Why not deploy the base turrets immediately, except for the Maximum Dramatic Effect of deploying them late? Why was the base apparently defended by hundreds of ships, but only dozens- if that- of men? Seriously, a facility large enough to be seen from orbit and were there more than 12 guards there? The last is particularly odd when the Krill leader is present. It's like... having a couple of US fleets defending Hawai'i, but only a squad of marines guarding Pearl Harbour- and bonus, Joe Biden is there.

I also laughed at the memorial service, for one crew member. Poor old red shirts, no memorial for you! And perhaps more cynically wondered if she'd only been killed off because her actor and Seth had broken up... Still, mawkish as it may have been it very easily passed the bar of being better than Discovery's secondary crew member death and memorial service (and if there's one thing I'd really like to know it would be if they deliberately parodied that).

 

[Raithe]

On 8/13/2022 at 9:58 AM, LadyCrimson said:

Mmm, can't disagree, especially if one is mainly using Netflix for an exposure metric - I appreciate Netflix keeps getting more, but they mostly focus on certain newer ones that they think will "appeal" to non-S. Korean audiences, and don't have most of the best ones, imo. It wasn't that long ago that it was a struggle (sometimes a not so savory site struggle...) to get to see almost any of them in the US, at least. And to be fair, one could say that most shows made in any country are garbage. >.> 

One of the things that I've found weirdly interesting / amusing with Netflix showing a lot of those sorts of shows is realising and seeing Japan / Taiwan / Korea / Chinese mainland,  all doing their versions of the same show.

Having watched Hana Yori Dango years ago, seeing it done as Meteor Garden in China, or Boys Over Flowers in S.Korea and how they fit their cultural adaptions is quirky.

Can be just as amusing as seeing the American / British flips on the same shows.

 

[Lexx]

4 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Dunno why anyone uses Rotten Tomatoes for reviews anyway, loads of shows end up with 100% ratings because all the reviews are 'positive'. I still haven't seen the last episode of Orville S3 (depressingly difficult to find 75 minutes time to sit down and watch something) but I suppose I should do some comments for ep9 which I have seen
 

  Hide contents

It was 95% fine to good, 5% what were the hell were they thinking putting this rubbish in. I won't deal too much with the good except to say that they were clearly going for a Star Warsesque feeling and pretty much achieved it- with major props going to the CGI/ SFX teams which could not reasonably have been better, and could very easily have been far worse.

OTOH, it had stuff that drove me bonkers, most of which they obviously included for being 'cool' but which made no sense- which I hated about Discovery too. Shoot Admiral Danson's shuttle to prevent the notFed knowing about the Krill/ Moclan alliance, and the debris tells them anyway... surely they could have just stopped the shuttle leaving or done pretty much anything else. Mostly though it was the premise of the climactic battle that was the problem. Why not deploy the base turrets immediately, except for the Maximum Dramatic Effect of deploying them late? Why was the base apparently defended by hundreds of ships, but only dozens- if that- of men? Seriously, a facility large enough to be seen from orbit and were there more than 12 guards there? The last is particularly odd when the Krill leader is present. It's like... having a couple of US fleets defending Hawai'i, but only a squad of marines guarding Pearl Harbour- and bonus, Joe Biden is there.

I also laughed at the memorial service, for one crew member. Poor old red shirts, no memorial for you! And perhaps more cynically wondered if she'd only been killed off because her actor and Seth had broken up... Still, mawkish as it may have been it very easily passed the bar of being better than Discovery's secondary crew member death and memorial service (and if there's one thing I'd really like to know it would be if they deliberately parodied that).

 

Spoiler

Yeah, the ceremony was cringe. Didn't know she was dating Macfarlane. To be honest, her character felt a bit out of place to me for most of the time, but at least they introduced her early enough to make the death at least have some value. But yeah, I was also wondering why nobody cares about the other crew members (or maybe nobody else from the ship died, and who cares about the other ships?)

Edited August 14, 2022 by Lexx

[Bartimaeus]

7 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Dunno why anyone uses Rotten Tomatoes for reviews anyway, loads of shows end up with 100% ratings because all the reviews are 'positive'. I still haven't seen the last episode of Orville S3 (depressingly difficult to find 75 minutes time to sit down and watch something) but I suppose I should do some comments for ep9 which I have seen
 

  Reveal hidden contents

It was 95% fine to good, 5% what were the hell were they thinking putting this rubbish in. I won't deal too much with the good except to say that they were clearly going for a Star Warsesque feeling and pretty much achieved it- with major props going to the CGI/ SFX teams which could not reasonably have been better, and could very easily have been far worse.

OTOH, it had stuff that drove me bonkers, most of which they obviously included for being 'cool' but which made no sense- which I hated about Discovery too. Shoot Admiral Danson's shuttle to prevent the notFed knowing about the Krill/ Moclan alliance, and the debris tells them anyway... surely they could have just stopped the shuttle leaving or done pretty much anything else. Mostly though it was the premise of the climactic battle that was the problem. Why not deploy the base turrets immediately, except for the Maximum Dramatic Effect of deploying them late? Why was the base apparently defended by hundreds of ships, but only dozens- if that- of men? Seriously, a facility large enough to be seen from orbit and were there more than 12 guards there? The last is particularly odd when the Krill leader is present. It's like... having a couple of US fleets defending Hawai'i, but only a squad of marines guarding Pearl Harbour- and bonus, Joe Biden is there.

I also laughed at the memorial service, for one crew member. Poor old red shirts, no memorial for you! And perhaps more cynically wondered if she'd only been killed off because her actor and Seth had broken up... Still, mawkish as it may have been it very easily passed the bar of being better than Discovery's secondary crew member death and memorial service (and if there's one thing I'd really like to know it would be if they deliberately parodied that).

 

General audience appeal can be a pretty useful (though not perfect) measure if you're just trying to find something that is watchable/enjoyable. Now if you're like me and clearly not part of the general audience, seeing the user score distribution (i.e. what percentage of people gave it 10/10s, 9/10s, ..., 1/10s) can be way more useful than seeing that it's 100% positive. It's a better use of my time to watch a film that one third of people thought was a 10/10 but another third thought was a 1/10 with the rest falling somewhere in between than a film that is 75% ~7-8s. Sure, the latter is probably "fine", but I'd rather try something weird and niche with the chance of adoring it than something relatively mediocre that everyone "liked".

Edited August 14, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Lexx]

Usually those 100% scores only happen because of a very limited amount of reviews, so generally it's pretty useless, imo. I've seen enough 90+% movies that made me fall asleep in the middle. What I find more interesting about The Orville is that critics slammed it at first, and later did a 180 on it.