The TV and Streaming Thread: US Writers/Actors Strike Edition

[Sarex]

New season of Loki started, for those who are interested.

[Hurlshort]

I finished season 4 of Jack Ryan, which I believe concludes the series. It was pretty well done overall. Good performances and great looking scenes. It did feel more Michael Bay than Tom Clancy in a lot of spots, but I got over that in season 2. Season 1 and 3 are still the highlights, but it ended on a high note. Mike November and Greer are the real stars of the show. Ryan is still a bit too much of a James Bond.

[InsaneCommander]

6 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

I finished season 4 of Jack Ryan

I completely forgot about this. How many episodes this season, six?

[Hurlshort]

23 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

I completely forgot about this. How many episodes this season, six?

Yep. Most were over an hour, so it still took me awhile to get through it.

[majestic]

On 10/6/2023 at 5:40 AM, Hurlshort said:

Finished up Mandalorian Season 3. It was pretty great and I'm enjoying the focus on Mandalore. There were also a few really good standalone episodes in this one. There is an entire episode on Coruscant that really focus on two characters, and it was phenomenal. There was also a fun one with Jack Black, Lizzo, and Christopher Lloyd.

  Reveal hidden contents

I enjoyed most of the characters, but Moff Gideon is a bit silly. He kind of reminds me of Dark Helmet in Spaceballs. Quite the departure from his villain performance in Breaking Bad. His spy is probably my favorite character though. She played her role perfectly. 

 

 

Just pretend I killed your buzz with a real post, it's quicker that way.

[Hurlshort]

6 hours ago, majestic said:

 

Just pretend I killed your buzz with a real post, it's quicker that way.

I think we've established that we have different tastes.

[InsaneCommander]

On 10/7/2023 at 10:29 AM, Hurlshort said:

Mike November and Greer are the real stars of the show. Ryan is still a bit too much of a James Bond.

This was another good season. And I agree with what you said above.

[LadyCrimson]

Since Paramount put up the first episode on YT for free viewing, I watched the new Fraiser premiere.

It was cool to see Kelsey Grammer in the role again, and he slid into it like a comfy old glove. But I laughed not once, although I probably smiled several times. The new chrs - well, let's say they didn't engage me. I'd have serious doubts whether it'll stick around for more than one season but who knows. The best thing about the first episode was the dedication to John Mahoney.

[Azdeus]

On 9/14/2023 at 10:59 PM, Raithe said:

Hm. I will ponder on this.

Shohreh Aghdashloo will reportedly play Elaida in The Wheel of Time (winteriscoming.net)

I heard from my friend that the second season was alot better than the first, but considering how fuuuuuuuuucking bad the first one was, that is such a low bar that I can't decide if it'd be worth the price of electricity to verify it.

[Zoraptor]

I'll probably watch it at some point when Amazon gives me a month free Primevideo or something. Consensus does seem to be that it was somewhat better, while repeating a lot of the same mistakes (and with an equally nonsensical final episode, which would be quite an achievement).

[Raithe]

14 hours ago, Azdeus said:

I heard from my friend that the second season was alot better than the first, but considering how fuuuuuuuuucking bad the first one was, that is such a low bar that I can't decide if it'd be worth the price of electricity to verify it.

I would say it is much better in terms of look and setup. The stories getting a little more mashed up to change mediums from the book to something that can be filmed for tv without a 14year contract.

It's done some things I like, some things I don't like.  If you approach it from a "it's not the books directly, it's another version of the story several turns of the wheel different" it works quite nicely.

[Azdeus]

4 hours ago, Raithe said:

I would say it is much better in terms of look and setup. The stories getting a little more mashed up to change mediums from the book to something that can be filmed for tv without a 14year contract.

It's done some things I like, some things I don't like.  If you approach it from a "it's not the books directly, it's another version of the story several turns of the wheel different" it works quite nicely.

There are so many things that they do different that are outright stupid though, that drives me nuts, which is the biggest problem for me. Sure I jested about how they came to Tar Valon from the wrong direction and stuff, but that was mostly because I was making fun of myself. Sceneries and such things I really liked, I honestly loved the skyscraper mountains and details like that. And then they made Perrin the most unlikeable character in the cast with that wife of his.

It's not so much that they've changed some things as that the changes they did make made absolutely no sense to me and felt pointless. The episode 8(Iirc, trolloc army stuff), the fu? You can't burn out in a circle... Also, Egwene has no talent in healing. Why change that, isn't it enough with all the amazing other things she does?

And while I can take changes/merging characters and such things, I simply can't stand them changing laws of the universe. It's not so much several turns of the wheel different then, but you break the world that was built. As a gamemaster it grinds my gears when a storyteller does things like that. Hacks.

[Zoraptor]

From that, you may not want to watch S2. Based on spoilers/ memes rather than watching, but I'd be pretty confident even just from them.

[Lexx]

Watched Andor yesterday. It was suprisingly good. Probably the best Star Wars since the first season of the Mandalorian.

[uuuhhii]

10 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Watched Andor yesterday. It was suprisingly good. Probably the best Star Wars since the first season of the Mandalorian.

andor is so good even for audience know very little about star wars

didn't bother more than a few episode with other star war show

[Lexx]

Yeah, it feels much more grounded and mature, with less stupidity thrown into it. Though I kinda find it funny how that main town almost looks like just a reskin of that town from Mandalorian.

[InsaneCommander]

20 hours ago, Azdeus said:

And while I can take changes/merging characters and such things, I simply can't stand them changing laws of the universe. It's not so much several turns of the wheel different then, but you break the world that was built. As a gamemaster it grinds my gears when a storyteller does things like that. Hacks.

I was gonna say that. It can't be a different turn of the Wheel if they change how the Source works. I also dislike how they changed the characters, like Nynaeve now being a professional assassin, for example. Perhaps the showrunner is a fun of Pathfinder and likes to play as a Cleric/Assassin multiclass. Well, at least Trollocks don't have poison immunity, so this is more viable than in WotR.

[Zoraptor]

I think I have to watch and report back about S2 now, should be tremendous outrage bait at least.

[Zoraptor]

Hmm. Watched WoT S2E1 and it was OK. Non spoiler tldr: too many threads as people are in too many places but mostly made sense and introduced a bunch of actually recognisable book characters pretty well. Note: for the spoilers I'll be ignoring any prior knowledge I have of S2, but not prior book knowledge

Also: good news! Nynaeve is no longer an assassin/ cleric multiclass.
 

Spoiler

She's taken a level in Blademaster too. Yes, seriously, not a wind up, they had her practicing the blade with Alanna's warders. Which, I believe, gives her infinitely more time practicing the blade than Rand. Did you know Alanna and her warders are polyamorous too? You might have got that impression in S1 but it's only mentioned/ shown three times in the episode to remind you. It's all a bit silly, but if the worst thing this season was a bit of silliness it'd be OK.

Rand wasn't in the episode. Not actually a bad thing, as there were 6 (?) separate threads plus an opening vignette (~Darkfriend Social, though lite) so the pacing was... uneven. Having said that they did a decent job of setting things up, mostly, and had some actually good call backs to the books plus a bunch of fairly minor characters included. They even set up Ingtar properly, will be great to see his big moment later on even if it ends up being Nynaeve dueling Turok instead of Rand. One or two derivative bits too, and I thought Liandrin was going to crack out the Tragedy of Elan Morin Tedronai* the Wise at one point. She also has Mat locked up, we see him for thirty seconds maybe.

Now for the big problem: Moiraine. She isn't a main character in The Great Hunt yet due to Pike being the Big Name Actor she has to be front and centre in this. Lan is his usual chatty and emotional self- he actually makes a joke about how stoic and quiet he is: not on this tv series you aren't sunshine, here you give yourself purple nurples at warder's funerals and publicly worry about Moiraine. That focus ain't so much a problem here, but I'd wager it will be a problem soon (this is not something I actually know from spoilers). As it stands this episode they have a variation of the Draghkar attack  at Vandene/ Adeleas' house from the book (Myrdraal instead) where shielded/ severed Moiraine... solos a myrdraal with a knife while Lan gets bodied by another. Which, to be fair, also bodies Moiraine before Verin and Tomas (? could be Vandene's warder whose name escapes me, Verin and her are sisters here with no Adeleas) show up. Perhaps the first myrdraal died of embarrassment, not the stab?

*Ishmael's original name, for anyone who has forgotten. He's in the opening vignette and is suitably menacing.

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Zoraptor

[Sarex]

[InsaneCommander]

17 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Also: good news! Nynaeve is no longer an assassin/ cleric multiclass.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

She's taken a level in Blademaster too. Yes, seriously, not a wind up, they had her practicing the blade with Alanna's warders. Which, I believe, gives her infinitely more time practicing the blade than Rand. Did you know Alanna and her warders are polyamorous too? You might have got that impression in S1 but it's only mentioned/ shown three times in the episode to remind you. It's all a bit silly, but if the worst thing this season was a bit of silliness it'd be OK.

Rand wasn't in the episode. Not actually a bad thing, as there were 6 (?) separate threads plus an opening vignette (~Darkfriend Social, though lite) so the pacing was... uneven. Having said that they did a decent job of setting things up, mostly, and had some actually good call backs to the books plus a bunch of fairly minor characters included. They even set up Ingtar properly, will be great to see his big moment later on even if it ends up being Nynaeve dueling Turok instead of Rand. One or two derivative bits too, and I thought Liandrin was going to crack out the Tragedy of Elan Morin Tedronai* the Wise at one point. She also has Mat locked up, we see him for thirty seconds maybe.

Now for the big problem: Moiraine. She isn't a main character in The Great Hunt yet due to Pike being the Big Name Actor she has to be front and centre in this. Lan is his usual chatty and emotional self- he actually makes a joke about how stoic and quiet he is: not on this tv series you aren't sunshine, here you give yourself purple nurples at warder's funerals and publicly worry about Moiraine. That focus ain't so much a problem here, but I'd wager it will be a problem soon (this is not something I actually know from spoilers). As it stands this episode they have a variation of the Draghkar attack  at Vandene/ Adeleas' house from the book (Myrdraal instead) where shielded/ severed Moiraine... solos a myrdraal with a knife while Lan gets bodied by another. Which, to be fair, also bodies Moiraine before Verin and Tomas (? could be Vandene's warder whose name escapes me, Verin and her are sisters here with no Adeleas) show up. Perhaps the first myrdraal died of embarrassment, not the stab?

*Ishmael's original name, for anyone who has forgotten. He's in the opening vignette and is suitably menacing.

 

So she is going after that BG3 achievement for having every single class in the game?

[Zoraptor]

WoT S2 E2/3

Well, Nynaeve has chosen her Mythic Path now as well. I bet no one would have gone for Lich...

TLDR/ non spoilers: not bad. I'd be struggling to say it's good, but at the same time if the whole thing was this quality there would be a lot fewer complaints. Not much outright praise, but a lot fewer complaints. The main issue is with them generating conflicts 'artificially' to get emotive scenes. And aspects of the visual design.

Spoiler

First a slight correction, it's Adeleas who is in and Vandene who is out- I always forget about xray existing. Also, fight at the end of E1 was apparently against 3 myrdraal, not 2, though there I'd blame the Battle of Winterfellesque jump cuts and lighting.

Anyway, Liandrin has a son who is sick and old. Uh, OK. I presume it's some sort of 'reason' for her being black, but who knows. Was at least set up as her secret last season when Moiraine blackmails her.

Ep2 is replete with Moiraine/ Lan angst which is far and away the worst part of either episode. Moiraine isn't in Ep3, thank the Maker, and Lan only as a vision version. But we do get a lot of Rand, who is boffing Selene, who is presumably still Lanfear. Also Logain, who thinks he's still the Dragon despite being severed. It's all fine, not particularly book accurate but it works well enough. Rand burns an invitation and sets Selene's house on fire (or does he?).

Ishamael uses Palpatine's "we shall watch your career with great interest" line nearly verbatim, on Perrin. Who has been captured by the Seanchan. If you can forgive the ludicrously small scale of them (Suroth turns up with like 50 men, maybe, including Ishamael out in public, and 2 damane; not in circumstances like her book meeting with Liandrin either where small scale made sense) the Seanchan are... OK, if you can ignore the visual design. Which is Witcher S1 scrotum armour level bad- their soldiers look almost exactly like those derided Goombas from SMB1993, the damane are as bad as the previews showed and Suroth's portable Ziggurat looks like a Xena set. At least there are no utter plot stupidities like tsunami-ing a 5 year old for the lolz, they have the Seanchan affectations and accent etc. Uno says 'feck' and dies refusing to swear their oaths, which presumably is meant to show they are Serious Business, but looks a bit School Play instead. Perrin gets rescued by Elyas and wolves later.

Probably the most meat is in the tower plotline. Egwene meets Elayne, Mat meets Min in 'prison'. Nynaeve can't channel but gets to do her accepted test. The three Aes Sedai present are Liandrin, Sheriam and Leane. So 2/3 Blacks, if assignations are kept. She gets stuck and is presumed RW dead after having a Inceptionesque fake return and missing the arch. Then everyone dies in her 'vision', she gets mad, channels, and the arch reappears so she's back from the dead. It's better than described and the individual bits work well minus the cheap emotions, eg Nynaeve has to hear Egwene dissing her to Elayne beforehand, Egwene has to channel fire at Liandrin (lol, just imagine what attacking a sister in the books would get you) and El and Eg have to camp out by the arches overnight etc etc. Mat and Min 'escape', Min is actually working for Liandrin.

 

[Bartimaeus]

3 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

their soldiers look almost exactly like those derided Goombas from SMB1993

visual reference in case anyone has forgotten

don't forget, or I'll have to post these again

3 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Egwene meets [unspeakable horror]

hopefully egwene immediately falcon punched her right outta the show

Edited October 20, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[uuuhhii]

another chance to say the old way of multiclass is awful and easily lead to min max powergaming nonsense

pathfinder 2e do multiclass archetype much better

[Zoraptor]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

visual reference in case anyone has forgotten

Yep.

Resemblance is uncanny.

Quote

Egwene meets [unspeakable horror]

These are words I never though I'd write: Elayne in the tv series is an active improvement on the books, so far, and pretty endearing. Really.