The TV and Streaming Thread: Summer Re-reruns (it's always summer somewhere)

[Zoraptor]

Might need to specify that La'an smooched Kirk, James T. since Kirk, Samuel T*. is crew on the Enterprise with her. I more or less liked episode 3 as well. It really ought to have been awful and doesn't sound great on paper, but worked pretty well practically.

Also saw SNW ep4. I can scarcely recall anything about it except that I did watch it. For some reason I have the odd feeling that that's like having 10,000 spoons when all I need is a knife or something...

Spoiler

oh apparently, it was about a planet that makes people forget who they are and some abandoned Starfleet guy running things; with shenanigans ensuing. OK.

Classic 3.6/5 not great not terrible episode, though I really have forgotten just about everything about it apart from the basic premise so not one that is going to stick in the mind for long.

*heymentiionedhismiddlenameintheepisodebutiforgotit. Slightly disappointed it wasn't Commodus or Elagobalus or Nero or something nice and classic and easy to remember like Tiberius.

[ShadySands]

Also wondering if the show is actually getting better or if my taste is getting worse. Wife and I have been enjoying this season more than the last though she liked season one a lot more than I did. Kirk's brother's middle name is Sam unless they changed his name from George Samuel Kirk which I believe it was in TOS.

Son has been watching Transformers Prime on Netflix and I hate it. 

[Zoraptor]

Hmm. Having checked* it's definitely Sam Kirk at least informally for SNW- but presumably it is still George Samuel Kirk formally. Pretty sure it's actually specified in ep3 in some sort of detail, but I didn't like it enough to bother watching it again to check.

*via Kirk's favourite search engine, duckduckgo. Makes a change from MS paying people to shoehorn Bing references into programs, I guess.

[BruceVC]

Im watching s3 of the Witcher, its not that bad and seems to be getting lots of negative views?

But   I will  miss Henry Cavill as Geralt, he was an excellent  choice 

 

[Zoraptor]

Strange New Worlds S2e5... now I kind of wonder if the writer has seen Blackadder, because the dinner/ ceremony scene reminded me uncannily of Edmund having the Whiteadders over for dinner for some reason*. Sadly no Spock singing a song about Goblins and no Devil's Dumplings though. Probably just someone with a bad experience with the in-laws...

Otherwise a decent enough "transporter accident, shenanigans ensue" episode whose biggest bit of originality was that this time it wasn't actually a transporter accident used for the framing. Like most of the episodes this season you're not likely to be fondly remembering this in a few months, time, but it was absolutely fine while watching.

*

Spoiler

Mrs T'Pring --> Lady Whiteadder (basically an unpleasant puritan for anyone who hasn't seen the Blackadder episode 'Beer'; thinks chairs are the height of decadence etc), Mr T'Pring --> Lord Whiteadder (pretty decent bloke married to unpleasant puritan), Pike --> Percy (incompetent noble) right down to suggesting inappropriate party games and offering food whose main purpose is comic relief. And if you squint really hard Spock being human and trying to impersonate a vulcan --> Blackadder's competing party/ Great Boo's Up.

On a more serious note, I imagine formalising Spock/ Chappell is going to be... polarising for some.

Well ok, I may remember the dinner scene a bit longer.

Edited July 18, 2023 by Zoraptor

[Raithe]

https://www.tor.com/2023/07/18/babylon-5-the-complete-series-is-coming-to-blu-ray-for-the-first-time/

[Gfted1]

 

[Hurlshort]

Bleh. Maybe I'll watch it. I finished the first season. I'm still pretty low on it though.

[HoonDing]

Wait is Moiraine lesbian now

[Zoraptor]

That at least is semi canonical- 'pillow friends' was the Jordan euphemism for Lesbian Until Graduation at the White Tower and there was a decent amount of evidence for Moiraine/ Siuan being a legit read in that regard. Of course in the books they then went to great effort to avoid seeing each other after said graduation, and didn't have apparently pretty regular clandestine nookie in a sex dimension like in the series. Plus both ended up married to blokes, so were technically bi.

Obviously not a show I have much hope for, but it does seem to have a couple of the more memorable book scenes included- the Darkfriend social and Nynaeve's accepted test. I probably will end up watching it when I next have a Prime sub, with expectations set low.

[InsaneCommander]

8 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

 

I'm staying far away from this. In fact, I'd rather watch a trash isekai like Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon or Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World.

[HoonDing]

I read New Spring in which Siuan and Moiraine went on a trip together and didn't pick up anything as far as I remember.

[Zoraptor]

That was more than enough for Xena/ Gabrielle...

(Moiraine/ Siuan book is entirely read-between-the-lines, as is the case with much of Jordan's stuff. Oddly enough Sanderson was a lot more direct despite being a Mormon. Partly that's due to the limited perspectives employed, ie Rand is a pretty conservative country bumpkin type who assumes two women he disturbs are plotting something when it's pretty obvious they were euphemistically 'plotting' 'something' and doesn't question why an important noble has never got married. You had a lot of aes sedai commenting about how close M/S were as novices/ accepted though, and inferences that a sexual relationship was believed, by them, to have been part of it. They were common enough that the rebel aes sedai ordered, um, Meidani? to resume her relationship with Elaida to spy on her despite it not having been active for, presumably, decades at that point.

Not exactly conclusive, but at least a plausible read which is better than most of the wot s1 alterations were. The relationship continuing into the present though, pure garbage. The book versions would never take such a stupid risk for no advantage)

[Sarex]

@Zoraptor When you spell it out yeah it seems to be obvious, especially considering that most Aes Sedai only considered each other to be equal to one degree or another and the rest of the world were at best children to them. But man I read the books a number of times and never picked up on that, not even for Eladia and that one is in your face. I'm not much for subtlety...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

https://collider.com/twin-peaks-season-2-bad-bob-iger/

I am now 10000% on board with the writers and actors burning down Hollywood.

21 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Bleh. Maybe I'll watch it. I finished the first season. I'm still pretty low on it though.

This is probably the first thing I've heard you be vocally negative about, which I assumes means it is very bad and/or tramples over nostalgic memories of a beloved series. I haven't read the books or watched the show so I wouldn't know.

16 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

I'm staying far away from this. In fact, I'd rather watch a trash isekai like Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon or Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World.

Let's not get carried away here, Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World may not be on the same tier as The Beast Tamer Who Was Exiled from His Party Meets a Cat Girl From the Strongest Race or I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss....but it's not as bad as the Wheel of Time show. Which I only know of based on how much everyone here hated it.

[ShadySands]

My wife and son like home renovation shows so we've been watching Hack My Home on Netflix. It's like the other shows of its type but the gimmick is "hacks" which you get tired of hearing really quick, and by which they refer to almost everything as. They do a lot of cool and neat projects where it's usually about optimizing space so they do a lot of hidden and transforming things. I do wonder about what the family is going to do if some of that tech breaks but since the show pays for literally everything, unlike almost all HGTV shows, I can give that a pass.

Edited July 20, 2023 by ShadySands

[Hurlshort]

5 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

 

This is probably the first thing I've heard you be vocally negative about, which I assumes means it is very bad and/or tramples over nostalgic memories of a beloved series. I haven't read the books or watched the show so I wouldn't know.

I was vocally negative about it from episode 1. I actually got the whole family to watch it and was excited, as the books were a big part of my teenage years. They were all smart and wandered off after the first episode. I kept watching, mostly because I was re-reading the books and it was somewhat interesting to compare them. They basically gave it the CW treatment. 

 

But yeah, I'm usually not vocally negative about stuff because I rarely watch stuff I don't like long enough to bother speaking on it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

I was vocally negative about it from episode 1. I actually got the whole family to watch it and was excited, as the books were a big part of my teenage years. They were all smart and wandered off after the first episode. I kept watching, mostly because I was re-reading the books and it was somewhat interesting to compare them. They basically gave it the CW treatment. 

 

But yeah, I'm usually not vocally negative about stuff because I rarely watch stuff I don't like long enough to bother speaking on it.

I remember that and being almost shocked tbh. Sorry about that, giving anything the CW treatment is bad.

Hate watching doesn't appeal to me, but I'll let @majestic do it for everyone and give him support through posting JoJo memes or whatever.

And you know what great show just came back? What We Do In The Shadows. Matt Berry is a delight as always.

[kanisatha]

Hey @BruceVC, have you ever been to Mossel Bay? Shark Week, going on right now, is my absolute favorite time of the year for TV-watching, and I especially love the leaping great whites of Mossel Bay, the thing I'd love to travel to SA for some day. Seeing Colossus come 15 feet out of the water with a squirming seal in its jaws is f---ing awesome! That's 18 feet and 4,000 lbs of fantastic seal-ripping fury!!

[BruceVC]

8 hours ago, kanisatha said:

Hey @BruceVC, have you ever been to Mossel Bay? Shark Week, going on right now, is my absolute favorite time of the year for TV-watching, and I especially love the leaping great whites of Mossel Bay, the thing I'd love to travel to SA for some day. Seeing Colossus come 15 feet out of the water with a squirming seal in its jaws is f---ing awesome! That's 18 feet and 4,000 lbs of fantastic seal-ripping fury!!

Yes, its a beautiful coastal  town and famous for surfing . Since I moved to Cpt its actually closer to me and I driven through it several times 

[LadyCrimson]

I have been watching a kdrama called "Numbers." It's on Kowaca (which you can get thru Prime now) or Viki-Plus. It's all about the cutthroat, drama-filled and exciting world of accounting! The power of spreedsheet and reports is fire!

...the usual "powerful ppl do the little people a wrong and main chr. is bent on righting those and future wrongs by fighting from within".
...I had no idea accountants had to deal with dangerous car chases while trying to deliver papers.
...there are relationship tangents but not a romance drama - the focus is on how thrilling and/or soulbreaking being an accountant can be!
...The older supporting leads are great, the younger main cast is "ok"/eh. But it's all so absurd in an over-serious way that I am quite entertained. Although, to be honest, I enjoy the amusing recap write-ups of the show on dramabeans website even more.

 

[bugarup]

Witcher, season 3. I somewhat liked it overall and even have ideas for its future -- i.e. the most natural way to swap Cavill with a Hemsworth would be replace all actors but Ciri and tell the audience she just shifted to another dimension which is totally book canon. 

Speaking of books. Seems like the show left itself a way to split the party like the books did, where CIri goes off with the Rats and then solo, Yen goes politicking and Geralt makes a new party (he has the bard and the ranger so far, the fallen Blackguard is definitely coming, not so sure about the rogue and Very OP Outsider. They might not want cast bloat, but on the other hand, they just did some culling). Might be interesting, might be crap. Hard to say with these showrunners. 

Liked the fighting in this season, esp. Vilgefortz getting his double saber Sith freak on, mage fight was fun to watch too (go, Tissaia! ). Shame about Cavill's departure. And just when I finally feel a little invested in further development. 

 

[uuuhhii]

that new tomboy lois lane character design are amazing

[Zoraptor]

I haven't quite finished Witcher S3, had to stop half way through the last episode. On Friday, and it's now Tuesday so I'm not exactly running to the tv to watch.

That desert episode was stultifying. I know it's more or less book canon, but then so is 84 pages of Paris Sewer History in Les Misérables and no one has adapted that. And that was 1/3 of the new episodes. Previous episode was a lot better though not quite what I imagined, but you could see why they split the season considering how much cgi it required.

Edited July 31, 2023 by Zoraptor

[LadyCrimson]

Since it's now on "free" Prime, watched Knock at the Cabin.

...it starts off ok, but the late middle-ending felt unsatisfying. A little too otp at times and too predictable with nothing that shifted it away from that, even momentarily. Still, wasn't the worst from M. Night.

...I did like the films take on the concept of

The Four Horsemen, however. That they are not powerful beings of some otherworldly sort, just humans forced to make their own choices. It's not stated that's what they represent explicitly but it's pretty obvious early on if one is familiar with such films/genres.