TV you've just watched

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BrianC
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by BrianC »

Mischief Maker wrote: Myself, I threw my back out this last week and spent an inordinate amount of time on the couch watching random shit, and I made the mistake of watching the pilot to the original 80s Voltron. I was obsessed with that show as a kid, and I think the art still holds up, but wow. I was getting flashbacks to watching Speed Racer on Mtv "ironically" given all the useless filler dialog to fill in the unedited talking animations from the Japanese raw footage, read by actors with distinct voices but no idea the emotional tone the scene was supposed to be going for. You can't go home.
It's funny how much darker the original Go Lion is. The characters aren't some legendary heroes like they were in Voltron and end up imprisoned by cannibalistic aliens at the beginning of the show. Go Lion isn't "loved by good, feared by evil", it was imprisoned for getting full of itself and defying the goddess. Also, no "I form the head" here. Instead, a rocking theme song.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: TV you've just watched

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Started watching The Larry Sanders show on HBO Max.

I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying this show, considering that I completely bounced off 30 Rock. Where 30 Rock went for balls-out absurdity, The Larry Sanders show revels in the toxic entertainment industry politics where characters switch from acting like best friends to stabbing each other in the back for a career boost in the blink of an eye.

And I think I prefer the subtle oddness to all the characters in Larry Sanders over "Tracy Morgan be crazy!" in 30 Rock.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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GaijinPunch
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by GaijinPunch »

Mischief Maker wrote: And I think I prefer the subtle oddness to all the characters in Larry Sanders over "Tracy Morgan be crazy!" in 30 Rock.
I thought 30 Rock was great but Tracy Morgan was, to me, the weakest link (albeit entertaining at times). Specifically, D'Fwan was my favorite.
RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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vol.2
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by vol.2 »

Larry Sanders was great. It was on a totally different level from 30 Rock. Way, way more intelligent writing, etc.

I started watching 30 Rock like over the winter, and I thought it was funny, but I kind of also feel like it suffers from the binge-watching format. I can imagine it being really great to see in small portions and having to wait to see what happens. Sitting down and watching episodes back to back it got kind of boring to me because it's so formulaic.
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GaijinPunch
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Re: TV you've just watched

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We Own This City

David Simon's latest. Very Wire-esque.
RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: TV you've just watched

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GaijinPunch wrote:We Own This City

David Simon's latest. Very Wire-esque.
I'm three episodes in so far.

Loving all the old Wire cast members playing very different parts. I'm rooting for Marlo Stanfield now? And Duquan did good in the end!

In a lot of ways feels like the love letter to Wire fans that people expected The Many Saints of Newark to be for Sopranos fans.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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GaijinPunch
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by GaijinPunch »

Mischief Maker wrote: Loving all the old Wire cast members playing very different parts. I'm rooting for Marlo Stanfield now?
Holy shit - I didn't even put that together. The glasses... why has he not been in more? Why is the same age as me but looks 20 years younger?
In a lot of ways feels like the love letter to Wire fans that people expected The Many Saints of Newark to be for Sopranos fans.
I'll give you that. Was definitely it's own thing but in the same vein. I'm glad they didn't try to just reboot the wire w/ the already laid out story. One thing is for certain though - I'm never going to visit Baltimore!
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BIL
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Re: TV you've just watched

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A glance over House of the Dragon reminds me of the exceptionally good novellas they're drawing from. GRRM was always stronger in this format, writing arrestingly stark medieval tragedies couched in warmth and jet-black humour, sans the ever-thornier geopolitical distractions of his wider world. This particular epoch has the added perk of being nothing less than Metal As Fuck - memories of a certain Panzer Dragoon-calibre supersonic double KO scintillate just typing this. Moreover, it reminds of just how good GOT's first four seasons were, prior to GRRM disappearing and DnD deciding half a job was quite enough tyvm.

"Jaime. My name's Jaime..."

Some excellent people in the cast too - Paddy Considine leaps off the page - but then as latter-day GOT proved with its own stellar lineup, no amount of talent can reverse the damage of a committedly lazy production team with one foot out the door. I'd not seen a thriving production die of sheer laziness before GOT's second half. S5 and S6 didn't appall as much as the dispiriting S7 and execrable S8, at the time, but in hindsight, the rot was there in day-glo. 99% of the time when something I love dies, it was for lack of funding. Here the bean-counters were practically throwing bags of cash at the shitbirds, with GRRM's blessing.

I'm guessing sometime in the 2040s we'll see a cracking adaptation of ASOIAF, assuming that fat old bastard doesn't cark it before getting off the pot. (DnD would be just about reaching the beginning of the latest book by now, had they not turned a once-landmark adaptation into a fly-by-night scam)

So in a roundabout way, if GRRM's as interested as he claims to be, and those absolute shitheels DnD and anyone associated with them are kept well the fuck away, I'm unexpectedly willing to give this a go. Image
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rapoon
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Re: TV you've just watched

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Image

Hardboiled drama based off a book of the same name tells the story of Jake Adelstein, expat and first foreign reporter for Meicho Shimbun (Yomiuri Shimbun in RL) who desires to expose the machinations in the late-90's Tokyo yakuza underbelly, at huge personal risk.
Show has already come under fire for being (partially) full of shit: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235135828/
Regardless, highly entertaining! 9/10

First episode is directed by Michael Mann. even comes with this early 90s banger
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BIL
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by BIL »

Oh damn, that sounds like a good time :shock: Just gave Heat a lazy background noise rewatch the other night (randomly appeared on Youtube in full), Mann's got a gift for embellishing his b-criminal thrillers to mirror sheen. Like a great big fuckoff bacon cheeseburger with some unpronounceable French pate on top. :cool:
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rapoon
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Re: TV you've just watched

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yeah! when I saw Mann directed the first episode, I felt a little twitch in my groin. unfortunately, it's the only episode he's behind.
I needed some hardboiled crime drama in my veins, and this show delivered with an engrossing story and kick ass time period.
If you check out the show, I recommend diving into the authors past (if that's your thing) after watching, otherwise it may taint your impression.
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vol.2
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Re: TV you've just watched

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Started watching The Owl House on Disney Plus. It's a good cartoon (definitely for kids though), but they completely ripped off the main character from Ryoko in the Tenchi Muyo universe. I am finding it super distracting to the point where I'm having trouble watching it. Like I just see Ryoko.
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BrianC
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by BrianC »

vol.2 wrote:Started watching The Owl House on Disney Plus. It's a good cartoon (definitely for kids though), but they completely ripped off the main character from Ryoko in the Tenchi Muyo universe. I am finding it super distracting to the point where I'm having trouble watching it. Like I just see Ryoko.
I only saw two episodes, but I definitely got the Ryoko vibe from Eda Clawthorne, though some aspects of her also remind me of Washu.
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vol.2
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Re: TV you've just watched

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BrianC wrote: I only saw two episodes, but I definitely got the Ryoko vibe from Eda Clawthorne, though some aspects of her also remind me of Washu.
That's true though; it's kind of an amalgam of female TM characters, but damn if the character design and personality isn't just super obviously lifted. I guess the Washu vibe is more prominent in some ways because Eda is more of a mother figure than a love interest, and acts more mature than Ryoko in general. But she still has some of those Ryokoesque child-like qualities as well. Also the character design is just so obviously TM, with the hair and the ears sticking out to the sides like that. Even the voice actress they picked is reminiscent of TM.
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GaijinPunch
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by GaijinPunch »

rapoon wrote:yeah! when I saw Mann directed the first episode, I felt a little twitch in my groin. unfortunately, it's the only episode he's behind.
I needed some hardboiled crime drama in my veins, and this show delivered with an engrossing story and kick ass time period.
If you check out the show, I recommend diving into the authors past (if that's your thing) after watching, otherwise it may taint your impression.
They did a good (but not perfect) job of hiding modern day signage to recreate Tokyo of the late 90s. Not an easy feat in such a city. The Japanese spoken by the westerners is actually quite good for the most part. The blonde hostess chicks is the most forced but livable.
RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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GaijinPunch
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by GaijinPunch »

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Pretty sure this will go down as having been just fine to have never been made. If this takes years roughly 10-15 years before A New Hope, I really want to see the regimen of partying Obi-wan did to turn into Alec Guinness in such a short period of time.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by Mischief Maker »

GaijinPunch wrote:I really want to see the regimen of partying Obi-wan did to turn into Alec Guinness in such a short period of time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSCm8yA ... Jjxe4N3pZo
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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BIL
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by BIL »

Retronauts saving the franchise from itself, as always. Image
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Mischief Maker
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by Mischief Maker »

BIL wrote:Retronauts saving the franchise from itself, as always. Image
Episode 1 of Larry just dropped.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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BIL
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Re: TV you've just watched

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Image

Impeccable timing, let's hit that alternate reality anesthesia :shock:

EDIT: "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE" :cool:
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GaijinPunch
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by GaijinPunch »

Stranger Things Season 4

Every single episode was entirely too long, especially the final episode. Lord of the Rings barely pulled off a 45 minute epilogue. The hubris that Stranger Things needed that for (surprise! Not even the final fucking season) is pretty ridiculous. They clearly planned for this to be the final season and then nope'd out before it was too late to redo the script. Credit where credit is due though: Eddie was a great addition. The 80's was full of "cool rockers" and not all of them were assholes like the faux-antagonist of season 3. The Master of Puppets thrash session was fantastic, and I don't even do metal. And to boot, the actor is English. Mind blown.

The other one worth mentioning is that track selection has always been the best thing of the show, and that holds true for Moby's When it's Cold I'd Like to Die. Equally as powerful as the oft-chosen My Weakness and God Moving over the Face of Water. Decidedly 90's though, but I guess they let that slide.

Yet still, when watching it I feel like Larry David when he said, "I've got some friends I can't stand. When I'm in it, I'm in it 'til the end!".
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vol.2
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Re: TV you've just watched

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GaijinPunch wrote:Stranger Things Season 4

Every single episode was entirely too long, especially the final episode.
Rather than the length, I think it was the release format that was the issue. If they had released the episodes one at a time, the length would have been fine. It's only with the binging thing that it becomes tiring. I think they realized that towards the end because Disney + is having good results with spreading out the episodes, and that's why they delayed the last two. IMO this should be the way going forward (one or two per week or something).
They clearly planned for this to be the final season and then nope'd out before it was too late to redo the script.


I think it was more of a "hoping they get a next season but not sure" kind of situation. But yeah, the feeling of "this could have been a neatly wrapped-up show with a bow on it" is palpable. tbh, I think it's admirable that they were thinking that far ahead so as not to piss off fans with a rushed ending.


I finished the last episode myself last night, and I thought the last two episodes were the strongest of the bunch. The ending was certainly stretched out, but it was what it needed to be, seeing as we won't get anymore for quite some time.

My biggest complaint is that the early episodes had some really bad stuff in them. The whole way they treated eleven's bullying situation in the new HS was simply asinine; it was as though absolutely all of the character development she had undergone in the first three seasons just didn't happen. Especially the second season where she becomes strong enough to go out into the world by herself and manage new friendships with strangers in new places. It's like none of that ever happened and she's been reduced back to the helpless wandering amnesiac of early first season. The lack of understanding and social grace that she shows makes no sense.

Thankfully, 11 doesn't need to interact with anyone other than the main crew again for the rest of the season (after the first couple episodes) and it doesn't effect the story at all; they just focus on her origin and resolution of it. Honestly, from that point onward, I think it just got better and better, and I really enjoyed all the classic horror homages like the obvious nod to the Nightmare on Elm Street series (Freddie himself making an appearance as the bad guy's dad). I felt very strong Dream Warriors vibes in the whole proceedings, in a good way.

Hopefully they do a better job with 11's socialization in the final season, if that even comes up.
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by neorichieb1971 »

Tokyo Vice city -

I like it but I don't love it. I'm surprised the dead people don't have cigerettes in their mouths because everyone else does.

I might be wrong but I find it hard to believe the honour/respect the Yakuza give cops/customers and victims. The relationships between good and bad are quite neighbourly.


Stranger things S3

Since the hysteria of S4 was out there I carried on from where I last watched is S2 last episode. Went through all of S3 in the past week.

S3 is so unrealistically bad. Its mission impossible based in a Russian underground bunker underneath a shopping mall in Hawkins Indiana USA. Do the writers not care if the audience has a brain?

Stranger things S4

Much better but only on ep3. The amount of bullying on Jane/11 just makes me want to buy an AR15 and shoot at my TV.
This industry has become 2 dimensional as it transcended into a 3D world.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: TV you've just watched

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The new Resident Evil show grew the beard really hard about halfway through. The first half has a lot of padding and it's pretty slow, but it goes totally off the rails in classic RE style about episode 4 or 5. I'm rarely a fan of the simultaneous past/future storytelling gimmick, but they sort of made it work. By the end it gets as absolutely batshit insane as Code Veronica, and while I've seen a bunch of complaints that the action scenes are "too unrealistic," this just makes me think none of these people ever played an RE game before, like, 7; or whenever the modern ones stopped being so fucking goofy.

Seriously, I was legit about to give up on it after the third episode, but I'm glad I didn't, because
Spoiler
once they dropped the "master of unlocking" line and brought out the sackhead chainsaw guy from RE4 it suddenly kicked into HIGH FUCKING GEAR. Even then, the entire present day/"in the past" storyline was leaving me pretty cold until suddenly MULTIPLE WESKER CLONES and I was totally on board. I swear that bit where future evil sister was walking through the herd of zombies with the machine gun drones shooting a path around her was a cut scene straight out of the 4-6 era of RE games.
Personally I ended up enjoyed it more than any other RE media since RE0, but then I never got on well with the changes RE4 brought to the franchise, and absolutely ADORE the cheesiness of classic RE. If that sounds like you, you might like it too! Just be warned, the first few episodes are pretty boring.

ETA: I'm a bit young for 80s nostalgia so Stranger Things doesn't do much for me, but I think it would be dope if they did a time jump to the 90s or 00s for the last season and cashed in on the more current nostalgia vibes.
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Re: TV you've just watched

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Stranger things S4 - Watched up ep 8.

I'm surprised this has so much fanfare. Everything in this show apart from the atmosphere and effects is so subpar. Predictable and stretched over so many episodes I quite often find myself looking at my phone.

I know ET did the thing with the kids taking an alien to the spaceship kinda thing. But taking that idea where the kids run rings around the government, police and army is taking things a bit far. In the last episode kids were buying guns, knives and other weapons like candy. I had to shake my head. I reckon in S5 they will have kids be launching nuclear weapons into the upside down world.
This industry has become 2 dimensional as it transcended into a 3D world.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: TV you've just watched

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neorichieb1971 wrote:I reckon in S5 they will have kids be launching nuclear weapons into the upside down world.
That is basically the plot of WarGames, so...
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Re: TV you've just watched

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neorichieb1971 wrote: In the last episode kids were buying guns, knives and other weapons like candy.
Um, it's set in America.
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vol.2
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Re: TV you've just watched

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As long as one of them was 18, this is the Midwest in what was apparently ~1985; you could buy a vast array of weapons without much fanfare, especially shotguns and rifles.
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by jojoz »

Halfway through the D.B Cooper doc on Netflix - quite interesting.
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by XoPachi »

I watched Hereditary recently. Really good. So many details that I'm surprised they didn't make so in your face. It reminds me of Get Out for some reason.
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