TV you've just watched

[RGC]

Quite liked the first season of comic book adaptation Invincible. It sagged a bit but came together fairly nicely at the end with a kind of Return of the Jedi style climax. Season two opens with quite an interesting premise so I'll likely keep going.

[NYN]

Ep 7 of Girls got me hard: Like, one girl, the chicky of the group name of Shosh, on a big party gets offered what she thinks is pot while waiting in line for the can. Her cousin informs her, no, it was a huff of crack. To calm the young'un down, her suave cousin uses these words of universal wisdom:

Spoiler

Not much later the title of CSG is transferred from suave cousin to a dude name of Ray, who runs after the panicked Shosha. It's all very Road Runner and Coyote. Including genital violence as the punchline.

Spoiler

I know I'm far too late to this, but dang!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Finally checked out Episode 6 of Alien Earth with some interesting developments, plot-wise, leading to a serious showdown with Boy Cavalier and Ms. Yutani. Shit's about to literally "hit the fan" with the way things are going at Prodigy Corporation HQ. Only two more episodes before AE wraps up and doesn't look too good from here on out.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Randorama]

PCEFX!:

I think that the show has improved from Episode 5 onwards. I suspect that Hawley might actually be responsible only for the final four episodes, with the first four being the result of the Disney higher-ups interfering with production. Five and six play like very standard, by the book, 1980s cyberpunk narratives. I say "good", as there aren't many tv series or movies that have used that kind of setting. The elevator dialogue between Morrow and Kirsch and the legal meeting between madame Yutani and Cavalier were satisfyingly genre standards, I believe.

General:

Hell on Wheels: Dirty, ugly, violent, bloody Western tv series about how the US got its own transcontinental railways. Not too historically accurate I guess, but it has stellar writing, lots of violence and death, and many actors delivering career-defining interpretations. Ansom Mount and Colm Meaney however stand out as respectively Cullen Bonhanam and Thomas Durant, an ex-confederate soldier on a revenge mission but seeking work on the rails and a corrupt rail baron of historical fame. Snappy writing, epic range, and a Leone-sque tendency towards tragic events and morally (dark) grey characters (and lots of deaths). All actors play with their own local accents to sound "local", with some hilarious effects. Spot the Aussie, Irish and Canadian cast members playing Irish/Minnesotan/Newyorkese characters! Jokes aside, great visceral stuff, but it you need to keep in mind that it is fiction - there are many liberties with historical facts, and I could spot them as a non-U.S. citizen.

Daredevil: Born Again: Fourth season of the one superhero TV series I can actually appreciate. It actually mostly adapts the "Mayor Kingpin" arc, with Wilson Fisk apparently becoming a respectable citizen and become the mayor of New York. Fast pace with no filler acts, stellar acting from the key cast (Vincent D'Onofrio *is* Kingpin, simply put), and smart writing for the most part. Episode one has a short dialogue between Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk that doubles as a heartfelt duet between Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio, for instance. Part two should be released next March, I believe.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Third Season: the new nostalgia-laden Trek series looks gorgeous and also has a great cast with a lot of chemistry, and an older Ansom Mount being just perfect as a younger captain Pike. Episode nine actually feels like a classic ST episode, even though it is a re-visitation of Enemy Mine's core themes. Maybe this series is beginning to have too much comedy, for my tastes, but the "murder mystery" episode directed by Jonathan Frakes is brilliant if heavy on meta-fictional themes.

The Sandman, Season 2: the second season wraps up the adaptation by entirely skipping some arcs that were "side stories" in the comic (e.g. "the wake", "interludes"), and by incorporating material from the prequel series Overture. The ending is a bit abrupt, as a result, but the end result is overall good. I liked a minor detail in how Destiny is represented: Destiny is not blind but reads the "book of fate" all the time, as in the comics. However, the lines in the book of fate appear as events unfold: "Fate" reduces to the choices that people make and Destiny is simply the witness of these choices, or some of that jazz. I genuinely hope that Netflix might consider adapting some stories as cartoons (e.g. the "interludes" ones, also because they would cost a fortune in CGI+human actors). August and Ramadan could turn into veritable masterpieces. Just have Anime makers Madhouse to work on them ^_^;

[neorichieb1971]

Finally checked out Episode 6 of Alien Earth with some interesting developments, plot-wise, leading to a serious showdown with Boy Cavalier and Ms. Yutani. Shit's about to literally "hit the fan" with the way things are going at Prodigy Corporation HQ. Only two more episodes before AE wraps up and doesn't look too good from here on out.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I watched Ep5/6 last night. I found them quite frustrating, these 2 episodes were a lot of shooting of the foot. I find it hard to watch when the camera shows you what its not showing the characters and things go wrong, wrong and more wrong. Where is the comms/monitoring/alarms/security? With 2 stories unfolding I kind of forgot how ep4 ended since ep5 went into fleshing out other bits. Kirsh seems to be a complicated character to unravel. I've managed to get back to the script with ep4 ending since my light bulb came on again. The synth story seems to hold the upper tier for me over its alien counterpart story with Marcie's arc being the most interesting.

I'm none the wiser to what the endgame actually is with the show and that's important because everyone is expendable and money means nothing. I also think it was a bad move by the team behind it to show the full size alien full frontal as I cannot 'not' see a man in a suit. Am I the only one that feels the 2 rival companies (Prodigy and Weyland Yutani) have some history they are not telling us?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Finally checked out Episode 6 of Alien Earth with some interesting developments, plot-wise, leading to a serious showdown with Boy Cavalier and Ms. Yutani. Shit's about to literally "hit the fan" with the way things are going at Prodigy Corporation HQ. Only two more episodes before AE wraps up and doesn't look too good from here on out.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I watched Ep5/6 last night. I found them quite frustrating, these 2 episodes were a lot of shooting of the foot. I find it hard to watch when the camera shows you what its not showing the characters and things go wrong, wrong and more wrong. Where is the comms/monitoring/alarms/security? With 2 stories unfolding I kind of forgot how ep4 ended since ep5 went into fleshing out other bits. Kirsh seems to be a complicated character to unravel. I've managed to get back to the script with ep4 ending since my light bulb came on again. The synth story seems to hold the upper tier for me over its alien counterpart story with Marcie's arc being the most interesting.

I'm none the wiser to what the endgame actually is with the show and that's important because everyone is expendable and money means nothing. I also think it was a bad move by the team behind it to show the full size alien full frontal as I cannot 'not' see a man in a suit. Am I the only one that feels the 2 rival companies (Prodigy and Weyland Yutani) have some history they are not telling us?

For neorichieb1971,

Alien Earth episode 5 is a companion piece that compliments episode 1 (akin to how Star Wars Rogue One is a companion piece to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope type of analogy). Yes, it does seem that both mega companies of Prodigy Corporation and Weyland-Yutani have had past skirmishes/incidents with each other leading to rivalries between each other which is seems to be hinted at but never delves into greater details/reasons as to why that is (hence Prodigy's covert entanglement with We-Yu onboard the ship in episode 5). A span of 65 years & billions of dollars spent in trying to procure those alien creatures, We-Yu has "pulled out all stops" to see that it gets it's proper dividends return on it's "initial investment" into it (not to mention the loss of a much bigger ship crew in trying catch those aliens in the first place).

----------

For Randorama,

Your thoughts about the Disney higher-ups interfering with the first four AE episodes is "spot on" considering that they're the ones spending some serious money to get it made in the first place. Makes me wonder if the second season of Alien Earth will be "green-lit/approved or not." Yes, your opinions on those two "key" scenes of the Prodigy & Weyland-Yutani court mandated arbitration/legal proceedings scene along with the elevator witty banter between Kirsch & Morrow are, indeed, highlights worth watching alone -- they're very well done for "maximum effect/punch" towards the audience (the court proceedings scene is something that has never been mentioned nor shown within the Alien movie franchise/mythos but is considered "back history" in regards to Prodigy Corporation & Weyland-Yutani themselves).

We shall see how the very last two remaining episodes of AE unfold, making for a rather epic showdown between Prodigy and Weyland-Yutani for sure.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[emphatic]

The new spinoff series from NCIS, "Tony & Ziva" took me by surprise. Great fan service if you're a fan of NCIS.

[RGC]

Sorry to say The Bear S04 is losing me. All the characters have now fullly morphed into the same character (with the exception of Donna Berzatto, the extreme outlier). There's nowhere near enough conflict now the restaurant is up and running, and I find all the constant tripping over oneself not to offend, while offering or receiving free counseling advice, to be quite boring. Maybe I'm just heartless but even the wedding episode, which other reviewers purportedly welled-up over, left me totally cold and actually mildly annoyed (especially the ad hoc group therapy session under the table). I get that it's a psychological drama, but with so little tension it's none too dramatic.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Checked out episode 7 of Alien Earth with some cool action scenes between the Weyland-Yutani forces and Prodigy Corp forces. The Alien creature that talks with Marcy/Wendy is quite a formidable "killing machine" indeed. The Arthur character seems to have a longer gestational period (than that shown in the Alien Romulus movie). Clocking at a modest 45 minutes long, episode 7 is the shortest episode "time-wise" (but still delivers the goods, plot-wise). The weaponry shown in episode 7 seems to borrow heavily from the Aliens movie (which occurs 59 years later chronologically, especially with the classic iconic pulse rifles being associated with the Marines but no "Smart Guns"). The creature with eight legs is referred to as the "Octo Midge" according to the filming crew of AE.

Just one more remaining episode awaits us until the eventual conclusion to "wrap everything up" -- however that unfolds is anyone's best guess.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~