The TV and Streaming Thread: Summer Reruns

[ShadySands]

Watched some stupid Rom-com on Netflix starring the big ape man from Umbrella Academy. I had no idea he was British but he started speaking and my wife and I looked at each other and wondered why he was doing that ridiculous accent. Turns out that's how he really talks. Don't remember the name of the movie but it was pretty bad though it started approaching okay towards the end.

Edited September 3, 2022 by ShadySands

[Elerond]

20 hours ago, majestic said:

Rings of Boredom: Going through the motions

I expected to hate this, based on the critique linked earlier, but it is arguably worse. It is boring. Pretty, sort of, but boring. Plus, it looks much closer to The Hobbit in style (particularily the characters) than Lord of the Rings, which is a pretty negative in my book. The dwarves look comical, the elves aren't at all glorious, aloof or any of the other things they're supposed to be (even Liv Tyler was a better elf than the cast of elves here), the humans are just simply there and the Hobbits... why are there even Hobbits in this, other than BECAUSE IT IS A LORD OF THE RINGS SHOW. So far this is what this show is, it is showing us quite clearly, and quite loudly and very often(ly ), that is it has something to do with Lord of the Rings.

Galadriel: Ninjas Die Twice

Well, that one made me facepalm, but it then quickly gave way to the ennui that accompanied the rest of the two episodes. Galadriel is a ninja elf capable of singlehandedly killing a troll where her entire troupe of warriors - presumably at least semi-competent - fail. Following the fight, she faces desertion of a sort. None of them want to keep following her. She's also capable of swimming across half an ocean. Or almost. Certainly is preciously little reason and reasoning in jumping off a ship in the middle of the sea, but this Galadriel is more brawn than brains anyway.

The Dwarves: A tradition

So, well, with Gimli being a mostly comic relief for Lord of the Rings, there's preciously little option than to make them comic relief here too. For a noble dwarv, Durin sure has no table manners and lacks any diplomatic tact, but at least he's a jolly good fellow, which nobody can... I mean, which the series somehow needed. Still, eh, there's only so much of Durin and Elrond doing a stone breaking contest over a perceived slight I can take.

Motions

So, eh, yeah. This tries really hard to check off all the boxes. There's a troll, dwarves are loud and silly and have beards (or not), men are racist against elves, elves are racist against men, there's a romance, it's all... very, very Lord of the Rings, with a touch of The Hobbit insofar as that the characters look like they're straight out of The Hobbit, rather than Lord of the Rings. Which is a detriment, I would say.

To think that I once complained that Liv Tyler isn't very elven.

In closing

Well, I'm not going to talk about the casting choices when it comes to casting minorities. There's a black elf, a black dwarf and a black hobbit so far. The characters at least don't feel entirely like token minorities (unlike Gay and Gay Too, the gay couple from Discovery, whose only defining trait is being a gay couple). We could debate about how there are no black elves in Lord of the Rings, because Tolkien's mythology has a light vs. dark / good vs. evil theme that very literally expresses itself in looks, and that a black elf would quite frankly be spoiled by evil, but that's been co-opted by weirdo white supremacists and whatnot, so nope, not interested.

Other than that, it's fairly meh. Nothing much of interest happens, except something falling from the sky, in a rather literal manner. Oh, and yes, the first two episodes are full of Star Trek: Picard season 2 flowery talk, except it is much more fitting for elves to speak that way than for Q and Picard.

Could have been worse, I guess. Still, not sure why this is a thing, other than Jeff Bezos wanting his own Game of Thrones. Turn it on if you feel like watching two hours of mostly nothing set in Middle Earth. It'll be 50 hours at some point anyway.

Galadriel is at least 500 years older than any of the soldiers with her and she already fought hundreds of years in four wars against Sauron's forces in first age. And typically for Tolkien she is also supreme special person, who is taller, stronger, more athlete and fairer than other elves, who are supreme species compared to normal humans (those without elven ancestry). As she is also highly skilled with magic even without one of the eleven rings of power. I would say they nerffed her from what she is in Tolkien's mythology.

There tensions between men and elves was between descendants of men who fought in Morgoth's side and elves who fought against ancestors of those men. It is dynamic that has potential for some good drama, but most of it will be new fiction as there is quite little in Tolkien's stories about how that dynamic worked.

Tolkien described Harfoots as brown skinned. So them being black is according to source material, but in Tolkien's stories Hobbits didn't come up until third age. Harfoots were first Hobbits that moved to west Middle Earth in third age. Harfoots also took their fairer skinned kin, Fallohides, as leaders because Fallohides were generally more bolder breed.

Tolkien newer really specified skin color of dwarves , but as Tolkien was writing Silmarillion, Lotr, and Hobbit like they were English myth, it is lead to typically portray dwarves as white and with stereotypical Scottish behavior. 

Arondir belongs in Silvan Elves, which again are race that Tolkien didn't detail that much.

Quote

 

"These are not wicked folk. If they have a fault it is distrust of strangers. Though their magic was strong, even in those days they were wary. They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise. For most of them (together with their scattered relations in the hills and mountains) were descended from the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West."

—The Hobbit, "Flies and Spiders"

 

Which gives more creative freedom when creating new characters 

I personally can accept most of the creative choices the series so far has taken, but not Elrond's hair cut, that just personally offends me.

[HoonDing]

Galadriel literally did nothing in the first age except chilling in Doriath. Not to mention, Sauron played second fiddle to Morgoth.

 

[Elerond]

23 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

Galadriel literally did nothing in the first age except chilling in Doriath. Not to mention, Sauron played second fiddle to Morgoth.

 

It depends on do you count in unfinished tales or not.

[Gromnir]

2 hours ago, ShadySands said:

Watched some stupid Rom-com on Netflix starring the big ape man from Umbrella Academy. I had no idea he was British but he started speaking and my wife and I looked at each other and wondered why he was doing that ridiculous accent. Turns out that's how he really talks. Don't remember the name of the movie but it was pretty bad though it started approaching okay towards the end.

kinda amusing 'cause am recalling we thought his american accent were pretty good when we first saw him on umbrella academy after having seen him play billy bones on black sails.  first impressions and all that, eh?

HA! Good Fun!

[Hurlshort]

Ring of Power Episode 2 was even better for me. I enjoyed the dwarves quite a bit. Although I might be a bit biased because I swam in the ocean all morning, and then watched Galadriel swim in the ocean all episode long, and so I was sympathetic to her situation. 

No massive sea serpents for me though, just curious seals and grumpy pelicans.

[Lexx]

Finally watched the last season of Better Call Saul.

Not sure what to think of it. Generally I feel the show had weird pacing and was a bit boring half the time. It's always been like the writers didn't really know what to do and just went into whatever direction. Now the last season is pretty much just random short scenes from various time periods and it's just jumping back and forth all the time. I think if you haven't seen Breaking Bad, you'd be completely lost with what's going on at all times. The only reason why I've remembered odd bits is because coincidentally I rewatched Breaking Bad a year ago.

They did a good job with showing Jimmy as the person he really is. He was always the same character, always the scammer, always trying to make money this way... even though he was very much capable of becoming successful without doing shady stuff. It's underlined when they talk about regrets in various moments of the show and the stuff Jimmy regrets is ... never related to who he is or what he has done to others. He just doesn't see it that way.

It's kinda hard to watch, since he is charismatic and you want to root for him and get him out of jail, but on the other hand he caused tremendous harm to many people and he very much deserves to never getting out of jail ever again.

[Keyrock]

I'm rewatching the original run of Twin Peaks from Mark Frost and delightful weirdo David Lynch. I haven't watched this since it initially ran on TV 3 decades ago. I'm happy to report that it 100% holds up to my memories. If anything, I actually undersold the show in my own mind, it's even better than I remember. It's like a baguette with brie cheese.

[Amentep]

I watched the redone set (original series, fire walk with me, the revival) a few years ago. It really holds up.

'Thart gum you like is coming back in style'

[Keyrock]

11 minutes ago, Amentep said:

I watched the redone set (original series, fire walk with me, the revival) a few years ago. It really holds up.

'Thart gum you like is coming back in style'

I'm borrowing a DVD set from my sister that just has the original 2 seasons. One way or another I'll watch Fire Walk With Me and the 3rd season, but I have a lot of episodes to get through before I get there. When I get to roughly the halfway point of season 2 I'll start searching around streaming services to figure out how I'll watch them. If it comes down to it, I'll buy a blu-ray or DVD, but I'm still a ways from having to cross that bridge.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

I'm borrowing a DVD set from my sister that just has the original 2 seasons. One way or another I'll watch Fire Walk With Me and the 3rd season, but I have a lot of episodes to get through before I get there. When I get to roughly the halfway point of season 2 I'll start searching around streaming services to figure out how I'll watch them. If it comes down to it, I'll buy a blu-ray or DVD, but I'm still a ways from having to cross that bridge.

I think all 3 seasons and FWWM are on Showtime. The Return is really beautiful, perhaps some of the best television ever made. But, much to the chargin of some, I am an unabashed Lynch fan and do love some surreal ****, so take whatever I say with salt.

[Keyrock]

There are people out there that don't like the works of David Lynch?

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

45 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

There are people out there that don't like the works of David Lynch?

 

Worse, there are people here who don't like the works of David Lynch.

[Hurlshort]

46 minutes ago, KP From Another World said:

Worse, there are people here who don't like the works of David Lynch.

Who?

[ShadySands]

I like Dune and Twin Peaks but the rest of it I can mostly do without 

[Keyrock]

8 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

I like Dune and Twin Peaks but the rest of it I can mostly do without 

Even Blue Velvet? 

[Amentep]

11 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

I like Dune and Twin Peaks but the rest of it I can mostly do without 

[ShadySands]

20 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

Even Blue Velvet? 

Never actually seen it. I think after watching The Elephant Man and Eraserhead I gave up and just stuck to what I knew though I may have seen some other stuff of his that I just don't remember or don't know is his. I'm not against David Lynch or anything just not a huge fan. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Hurlshort said:

Who?

A few people, shockingly some posters on here I like.

51 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Never actually seen it. I think after watching The Elephant Man and Eraserhead I gave up and just stuck to what I knew though I may have seen some other stuff of his that I just don't remember or don't know is his. I'm not against David Lynch or anything just not a huge fan. 

You should watch it, it's a masterpiece.

[Keyrock]

Blue Velvet is peak David Lynch, I put it above everything else he's done.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

Blue Velvet is peak David Lynch, I put it above everything else he's done.

Personally I rate Lost Highway above Blue Velvet, but that could be my nostalgia as it was my first David Lynch film.

[Keyrock]

I do love me some Lost Highway.

[LadyCrimson]

--If You Wish Upon Me (drama)
--Good Job (comedy/rom/drama)
--Alchemy of Souls (sci-fi/fantasy period drama)
--Kkondae Intern (dramedy)

^  ... when there are several series where the first couple episodes make you want to watch more, but you can't decide which one to focus on first so you end up not really watching any of them.

[majestic]

On 9/4/2022 at 9:54 PM, Hurlshort said:

Who?

Yeah, who could that possibly be?

I may have expressed a certain dislike for Lynchian pseudo-intellectual masturbation in film and TV while watching Revolutionary Girl Utena, a series directed by someone who long held a desire to collaborate with David Lynch, and it really shows in the, uhm, show.

Edit: This is true for all art forms, not just film. Take something like White on White, for instance.

Edited September 5, 2022 by majestic

[majestic]

House of the Dragon, episode three

There are two sides to this prequel show. One side is on screen when whatever is happening is mostly character interactions with a splash of soap opera drama added to the mix. This side is happening mostly in front of actual sets, looks good and is quite interesting, in spite of everything being forgone conclusions, helped by mostly delightful acting. Even Rhaenyra was fine in this episode, which opened with a three year time skip.

Then there's the other side of the show, when there is a lot of CGI on the screen to make things look grand, but in doing so makes everything just look uncanny. Much to @Hurlshort's delight, there were  three CGI animals in this episode (not counting the dragons as animals, for the record), and they all looked bad. There's also Daemon's dragon which just looks awkward and is animated in such a ludicrously bad manner that I cannot but wonder if anyone got paid for how it looks, or worse, if anyone actually wanted it to look this way and it was not just sheer incompetence at work.

This other side also has terrible action sequences and warfare on a scale of stupid that it possibly out-stupids the Battle of Winterfell in Game of Thrones. The final ten minutes of this episode very much ruined all the good will the rest of the episode built up. Needless to say that this battle necessitated a departure from the source material, but that is not even the biggest issue. Time economy and resources dictate that certain events must be changed in an adaptation, however, a little more sense applied to it would be nice.

Spoiler

Daemon and Corlys are losing the war, and Daemon goes all-in when Viserys sends word that he'll send support, single-handedly luring the otherwise well hidden army of the Crabfeeder out in the open and into an ambush. This is bad on so many levels that I wonder if they invited D&D to write the battle. There's this terrain where the ambush cannot happen because it is impossible for the approaching troops to not be noticed, there is the fact that they are losing the war against the Crabfeeder's army holed up in a small series of caves that could easily be besieged and blockaded, and the fact that they have two dragons at their disposal.

The Crabfeeder's archers are not hitting Daemon for five minutes while shooting at him ceaselessly, even when he stops to kill enemies on his way. They only hit him once he reached a sheltered area, because drama dictated it to happen such. With everyone out in the open, because of course a shrewd commander who has been so far capable of holding his own against the Sea Snake and Daemon's forces plus dragons would be silly enough to commit his entire force to what is so obviously a trap, all hell breaks loose. Grand, really.

Now, of course, in the source material Daemon all but conquered the Stepstones with Corlys before a counter attack by the Triarchy turned the tide of the war, but the Crabfeeder was long dead at this point.

Early Game of Thrones did not have the budget to depict battles, and I think the show was better for it. This one would be too. They definitely had too much money to burn, and it shows. Overall this would have been a great episode, if not for the battle at the end.

Edited September 5, 2022 by majestic