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

[kanisatha]

13 hours ago, Amentep said:

I enjoyed the first season of SNW.  Of the new ST shows I've seen (Discovery season 1 & 2, Picard season 1, Lower Decks Seasons 1-3), I'd say its the most classic Trek feeling of the shows.  If you get caught up in continuity minutiae or why the bridge looks fancier ~10 years before TOS, it might not be for you though.

I did read online essentially the same thing, that among all the current crop of ST shows this one's the best. But unfortunately, since my previous post, I've learned this was just a one-time airing of only the first two episodes, as a way to entice people to subscribe to their service as part of the newly-created "Star Trek Day" bash.

[LadyCrimson]

I got to about the middle of episode 7 of Three Body, where they are gearing up to play some VR video game or something. But I was sleepy so I stopped it before they got into any exposition on that.

....I still find it interesting to watch, and the two main leads (I think they are) are starting to form a nice working pair,  but I'm hoping they'll get to more actual ... er ... story? ... points now. I think they spent enough time on Wang Miao freaking out about his countdown and whether physics actually exists.

[majestic]

Ahsoka is, so far, one part boring and one part plot hinging on the protagonist(s) being supremely stupid (as was noted by @ShadySands and @Gromnir), which makes for a decidely unimpressive combination.

Even when there is something happening that should be interesting, it just falls flat. Flatness is something that permeates this series: the unimpressive camerawork, the editing, the pacing, the dreadful action sequences and the monotone, emotionless line delivery by virtually every actor on the show. Memoria looks like a fount of suspense next to this. Edit: reading through my thoughts on Memoria it becomes clear that I consistently spelled Colombia wrong. I am disappointed that none of you pointed that out. I know at least three of you read that, due to the reactions.

Edited September 14, 2023 by majestic
Added a link to my complaining about Memoria

[Zoraptor]

Watched the first episode of the other new Walking Dead spin off. Pretty decent, apart from the extraordinarily naff name. Plus, actual factual France. And if you're in France you might as well prove it by having your title character walk across a jolly big roman aqueduct the Pont du Gard.

[Keyrock]

So the general consensus about One Piece seems to be positive and I'm kinda tempted to watch it. I've not watched a single episode of the anime ever, all I know is that it's about pirates. Anyone here watch it yet?

[Lexx]

It's great. I just finished a rewatch of it and am still liking it.

Edited September 14, 2023 by Lexx

[Raithe]

Hm. I will ponder on this.

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

[Bartimaeus]

12 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

....I still find it interesting to watch, and the two main leads (I think they are) are starting to form a nice working pair,  but I'm hoping they'll get to more actual ... er ... story? ... points now. I think they spent enough time on Wang Miao freaking out about his countdown and whether physics actually exists.

Who's the other lead in the TV show, the crass military dude? Anyways, I got real tired of the countdown nonsense, so to then segue to the video game stuff...and then right back to the countdown again, is what caused me to drop the book.

11 hours ago, majestic said:

Even when there is something happening that should be interesting, it just falls flat. Flatness is something that permeates this series: the unimpressive camerawork, the editing, the pacing, the dreadful action sequences and the monotone, emotionless line delivery by virtually every actor on the show. Memoria looks like a fount of suspense next to this. Edit: reading through my thoughts on Memoria it becomes clear that I consistently spelled Colombia wrong. I am disappointed that none of you pointed that out. I know at least three of you read that, due to the reactions.

In my defense, I prefer Columbia.

[Raithe]

They managed to slip it in smoothly enough...

Still, for images that will stick with you rent free...

 

[LadyCrimson]

53 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Who's the other lead in the TV show, the crass military dude?

Yeah, him. Both of them are sort of weird in the show, where I kind of like them, but kind of find them annoying at the same time. Yet when together I rather like them as a pair. So it goes back to countdown in the book? I hope it's not too extended next round if they do that in the series. The concept of it is fine, but after a while in the series it feels like over indulgent wallowing.

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

Yeah, him. Both of them are sort of weird in the show, where I kind of like them, but kind of find them annoying at the same time. Yet when together I rather like them as a pair. So it goes back to countdown in the book? I hope it's not too extended next round if they do that in the series. The concept of it is fine, but after a while in the series it feels like over indulgent wallowing.

I think I agree, actually: their scenes worked the best when they were bouncing off of each other. Listening to Wang Miao neurotically repeating his own thoughts himself ad nauseum, not so much. I suppose you're probably not being subjected as much to that, watching the TV show instead of reading the book and all.

Countdown: Yes...though from what I see, it and the video game stuff will be resolved and the book (or, well, show) will finally get on its way to where it wants to go after that.

Edited September 15, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[ShadySands]

Started watching One Piece but wife was out after the first episode so I probably am too.

[ShadySands]

I thought that with the strikes I would be able to catch up on my backlog and also probably check out some stuff on my maybe list but that hasn't happened at all. I found that I'd rather watch a re-run or nothing at all over something I was iffy about before. I also discovered that if I don't find something to watch in under 5 minutes I'm probably just going to turn off the TV and do something else. My wife likes having the TV on in the background but I do not, I either watch it with a purpose or want it off.

I also canceled some of the streaming services that I don't use that often.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

39 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

I thought that with the strikes I would be able to catch up on my backlog and also probably check out some stuff on my maybe list but that hasn't happened at all. I found that I'd rather watch a re-run or nothing at all over something I was iffy about before. I also discovered that if I don't find something to watch in under 5 minutes I'm probably just going to turn off the TV and do something else. My wife likes having the TV on in the background but I do not, I either watch it with a purpose or want it off.

I also canceled some of the streaming services that I don't use that often.

I am further behind on stuff than before the strike started. 

Too many of the shows on streaming get canceled before they can really find an audience, especially Netflix. I have a hard time committing to watching a show that's probably going to end on an unresolved cliffhanger. It's easier and more satisfying for me to watch a (half of a) movie instead of most series these days.

[Gromnir]

6 hours ago, ShadySands said:

I also canceled some of the streaming services that I don't use that often.

am having three subscriptions... four if you count amazon prime. it is an admitted waste o' money to keep the subscriptions given the fact we ain't watched a complete show since...

andor? better call saul and andor were the last two shows we watched to the final episodes. am having watched one-to-three episodes o' a whole bunch o' series post andor, but nothing has held our attention for almost a full year. 

is not a curmudgeon thing neither. we don't sit at home staring at our blank tv screen lamenting the good old days o' tv. it ain't as if we believe tv has gotten worse. it's just been kinda a personal tv dry spell for us and we got enough movies and other entertainment (pc games and the like) to keep us distracted when we ain't doing something more constructive.

HA! Good Fun! 

[Bartimaeus]

Like Steam with video games, I do not find streaming services at this time to be performing an adequate job of helping me discover movies/TV I am genuinely interested in watching (as opposed to just "eh...maybe, kind of?" at best), so quite often, I am spending time on a particular website that I use which does a much better job of helping me identify things that I actually do want to try. But I am also not the "let's just turn something, anything on" type: I can only watch things with explicit attention and purpose, and I'd rather spend time exploring and researching to find something I earnest want to put my time and attention towards than mindlessly turning on something I'm just not really feeling. Streaming services seem to be invariably funnelling everyone towards their latest crap anyways, and I am simply not very interested - it doesn't help that Netflix seems to have an ever-shrinking library of older, foreign, and other third party content (which I feel is its true death knell, as that is what I am primarily interested in these days) with these streaming services essentially turning into TV channels by another name that you need to subscribe to in order to get 'their' content. Speaking of Netflix, it's hilarious that it's getting more expensive as the service has increasingly less to offer. That is not a winning value proposition, I am afraid, and I do have other options that I can and will use.

Edited September 26, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

The only streaming service I will endorse is Criterion Channel. It's got a lot of the stuff that appeals to the @Bartimaeus in these days and generally does a pretty good job rotating the library. There aren't any series or original content on it, but for the most part that has been disappointing on most of the other streamers these days anyways.

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Speaking of Netflix, it's hilarious that it's getting more expensive as the service has increasingly less to offer. That is not a winning value proposition, I am afraid, and I do have other options that I can and will use.

I think that Netflix is going to be the next on my chopping block. El Conde was fantastic but it was also a complete surprise because Netflix has sort of trained me to expect their movies to be bad and their series to get cancelled after one season. I logged in the other day and for the life of me couldn't find anything I was interested in watching.

[ShadySands]

Netflix and Disney are the ones up for cancellation next. Netflix has been especially disappointing for me lately, it's so hard to find things that interest me and they keep raising prices. 

I just canceled Paramount Plus and HBO so I'm left with Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and Disney. I get live TV with Hulu so it's probably the hardest one to drop.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, ShadySands said:

Netflix and Disney are the ones up for cancellation next. Netflix has been especially disappointing for me lately, it's so hard to find things that interest me and they keep raising prices. 

I just canceled Paramount Plus and HBO so I'm left with Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and Disney. I get live TV with Hulu so it's probably the hardest one to drop.

I think Hulu is bundled or getting bundled with Disney (along with a price increase) so you might as well. I don't watch live TV but Hulu is also last because FX somehow puts out consistently good shows and they've got a decent library. Amazon probably pays for itself with the free shipping, but I don't watch many, if any, of their movies or series.

[Hurlshort]

Yeah, I get disney+ and espn+ bundled with my Hulu live TV. It's still less than what I was paying for cable back in the day.

[kanisatha]

Hey, any of you see the new NBC drama 'The Irrational'? I watched the pilot episode yesterday and it looked pretty decent (for now). As a behavioral scientist myself, I found a lot of what they were talking about re. our memory often being our own worst enemy very interesting. Wondering if anyone else watched the show and/or has any thoughts on it.

[Sarex]

The Wes Anderson short on Netflix are pretty good. There are two more coming tomorrow and the day after.

[Raithe]

Looks like it'll make an interesting adaption for the October mood...

 

[uuuhhii]

 

so monsterverse are not dead yet

[Hurlshort]

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.

Spoiler

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.