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

[Hurlshort]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

 

 

I don't really remember most of the stuff they listed from Rogue One. I'm sure they were in there at some point, it's just not what I came away with. C3PO and R2D2 were in it? I think Vader was at the end? 

The memorable parts were Mads Mikkelsen and Ben Mendelsohn going back and forth. Forest Whitaker playing a terrorist. Alan Tudyk as an assassin droid (HK-47 fan service?) Donnie Yen and Wen Jiang were also a treat. 

So yeah, it feels like this RLM video is a better fit for all the SW other stuff, but I get that they need to keep the lights on. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Star Trek: Discovery s1

It doesn't have the episodic highs of individual TOS or TNG and didn't stick with things long enough to compete with DS9, all things considered it's like any number of CW shows with a premium channel level of freedom to curse and show....weird lizard people Klingon nips. Not particularly impressive and feels both too short and too long.

[CopingMarlinsFan]

8 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

feels both too short and too long.

I noticed this tends to be an issue in many a show nowadays.

[majestic]

The Boys Season 4: Satire Is Over

So, the first three episodes are out, and one thing I took away from this is that, in the five years the season ran so far, the world has gone to hell in a handbasket in such a way that The Boys stopped being satire and is now just a pale reflection of actual events, just with superheroes. Still pretty entertaining, but then... I was one of the two people on the planet who thought season two was better than season three, so take my opinion with an unhealthy dose of sodium chloride.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

The Boys Season 4: Satire Is Over

So, the first three episodes are out, and one thing I took away from this is that, in the five years the season ran so far, the world has gone to hell in a handbasket in such a way that The Boys stopped being satire and is now just a pale reflection of actual events, just with superheroes. Still pretty entertaining, but then... I was one of the two people on the planet who thought season two was better than season three, so take my opinion with an unhealthy dose of sodium chloride.

Unfortunately you're not wrong, The Boys very much stopped being satire and just being depiction (with superheroes) a while ago. Perhaps the most unrealistic thing is that the feds are trying to put a stop to supe nonsense...though that can largely be explained as business interests from the existing military industrial complex (as it was in the comics).

But it is a good show and so far is holding up. I think it is how adaptations should be done, in the sense that the material is adapted both for the format and to update references, because hot damn does the Vought Cinematic Universe as the big superhero thing made by Vought hit closer to home than Vought comic books would.

[majestic]

Discovery Season 5, Episode 2: Under The Twin Moons

No huge post this time around, the episode was surprisingly undumb (if somewhat uninspired), or maybe the season opener lobotomized me. Well, there was one dumb thing:

Spoiler

Captain Goblinface from last episode being asked to retire over his mistake in that episode. Feels a little strange to end the distinguished carreer of a highly decorated officer like that, but that's what you get for giving the Federation president some lip. They're also making a highly stupid TOS vs. TNG allusion, or at least I think they did, where Captain Goblinface is Kirk and Michael is Picard. The times, they are a-changing.

To make it somewhat dumber, he then accepts a second chance by Michael and joins the Discovery crew as first officer.

 

[rjshae]

First three seasons of The Boys is on Freevee now, for those who don't have Prime. It is a pretty twisted series.

[CopingMarlinsFan]

9 hours ago, rjshae said:

It is a pretty twisted series.

It's Garth Ennis who did Preacher and has expressed contempt for superheroes so... yes. He also lived during The Troubles so I can grasp why he is the way he is although I don't like his views.

[Raithe]

I think the most amusing thing about The Boys at the moment is that they are apparently getting review bombed where a chunk of the fan demographic have suddenly realised it was satire pointing at them. Supposedly it took them this long to grok that it was satire, and that Homelander wasn't the hero...

The show's creator in a recent interview made a comment :  “Some people think Homelander is the hero. What do you say to that? The show’s many things. Subtle isn’t one of them.” “If that’s the message you’re getting, I just throw up my hands.”

[Lexx]

Isn't this exactly the same they said with the last season? Feels like I'm having a deja vu.

[uuuhhii]

or the season 2

some viewer was supporting stormfront

[Zoraptor]

While there are no doubt a few people who think Homelander is the good guy I suspect Amazon Marketing regularly embiggens their number and effect. They know Homelander is a massive draw for the show, and that sort of controversy will get people wanting to see what he's done now to garner such a reaction.

[majestic]

The Boys, season four, episode four: We're On A Road To Nowhere (and going pretty hard!)

The episode certainly was a banger, but not in the good way. The plot of the episode was a disjointed mess that looks like they let the creative team of Star Trek: Into Darkness write four episodes, film them without second takes and then edit them into one episode's worth of runtime. Things happen with no prior setup, a lot of things just happen off-screen that would have been much better if actually shown and characters make decisions because the plot demands it, not because they make sense, the worst of which was Butcher getting Frenchie to do something instead of doing it himself, which he had ample of time and opportunity to do while standing right next to the objective (before going back to Frenchie) because one of the plot points of the episode needs Frenchie to be hurt by a supe.

Spoiler

Frenchie is the victim of this a lot in this season, there is also the utterly unnecessary tension between him and Kimiko over secrets they both keep. Guys, it's two seasons too late for that.

So, uhm, yeah. There's also this wholly unnecessary attempt at giving Homelander a tragic backstory to explain why he's so messed up.

It was still fun to watch if only for the performance of the cast, but it sure is beginning to drift into the territory where my suspension of disbelief is begining to come apart at the seams, not just having a few frayed edges (like, well, the ultimate problem the series had ever since the end of season one, i.e. why doesn't Homelander just kill everyone; for which there actually is an explanation attempt in this episode).

Edited 10 hours ago by majestic

[Zoraptor]

Is the tragic Homelander backstory different from the one they gave him in S1? That really was all the explanation needed for him.

On 6/20/2024 at 9:02 AM, majestic said:

Discovery Season 5, Episode 2: Under The Twin Moons

No huge post this time around, the episode was surprisingly undumb (if somewhat uninspired), or maybe the season opener lobotomized me.

It's probably rate as a decent TNG S1 episode, which isn't a bad rating for Discovery. You're certainly not going to be thinking about it for years to come but it was OK. Ironically, the TNG episode they're using for the framing is one you kind of did think about for years, because it was one of those episodes that should have had major consequences but didn't like warp drives degrading subspace or whatever it was. My main gripe with the Discovery ep was the mandatory shoehorned action sequence; drone technology has gone backwards massively since today if that's the best they could do and the whole scenario was over contrived to get them into that situation. At least that is a major issue in all Treks though.

I kind of presume they aren't going for a Kirk/ Picard comparison with their new command pairing but something a lot closer, ie giving Burnham a taste of what commanding her was like to her superiors...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

8 hours ago, majestic said:

The Boys, season four, episode four: We're On A Road To Nowhere (and going pretty hard!)

The episode certainly was a banger, but not in the good way. The plot of the episode was a disjointed mess that looks like they let the creative team of Star Trek: Into Darkness write four episodes, film them without second takes and then edit them into one episode's worth of runtime. Things happen with no prior setup, a lot of things just happen off-screen that would have been much better if actually shown and characters make decisions because the plot demands it, not because they make sense, the worst of which was Butcher getting Frenchie to do something instead of doing it himself, which he had ample of time and opportunity to do while standing right next to the objective (before going back to Frenchie) because one of the plot points of the episode needs Frenchie to be hurt by a supe.

  Reveal hidden contents

Frenchie is the victim of this a lot in this season, there is also the utterly unnecessary tension between him and Kimiko over secrets they both keep. Guys, it's two seasons too late for that.

So, uhm, yeah. There's also this wholly unnecessary attempt at giving Homelander a tragic backstory to explain why he's so messed up.

It was still fun to watch if only for the performance of the cast, but it sure is beginning to drift into the territory where my suspension of disbelief is begining to come apart at the seams, not just having a few frayed edges (like, well, the ultimate problem the series had ever since the end of season one, i.e. why doesn't Homelander just kill everyone; for which there actually is an explanation attempt in this episode).

Definitely one of the sloppier episodes.

The big one for me is Annie beating the **** out of Firecracker in front of a live audience for revealing she had an off-screen abortion. It's just very forced, comically so. For the life of me I can not see that this is what would send Annie over the edge, it's just plot induced stupidity.

I will say Firecracker being a pedophile is another one of those things that is just real life. Despite calling anyone who doesn't want to kill the gays groomers, a frightening number of Christian conservatives and other kinds of reactionaries have charges or accusations of sexual abuse of minors. Many such cases.

It was dumb that Butcher sent Frenchie in, no doubt. Butcher clearly has no problem doing B&E on his own and it seems like they just wanted Frenchie to get hurt so he could have drama with his bf....whose family he murdered. I dunno, I think maybe Frenchie should be killed off at this point because he just doesn't do anything but look very sad.

Homelander going home was better because Anthony Starr can chew that scenery. But there's only so long we can see him have a slow descent into madness without him actually hitting rock bottom. Should have lifted powering up the boys from the comics tbh