TV Series Thread

[Mr.Obvious]

Finished episode 6, masks.
Surprised to find many people found it so great.
2nd half is better than the first half. I'll grant it that. And i suppose it has certain parts in that second half that might seem better if you haven't seen the original.
But i love the storm, the blue spirit and the storyline of the facestealer. They are the pinnacle of original series season 1.
And i just sit here, feeling like don corleone: 'look how they massacred my boy!'

Fight scenes were bad-ass. The 41st being zuko's crew is a great idea. Be it poorly executed.
But by god, the structure and pace this episode is just so bad.
And aside from butchering roku, they butchered zhao's dictator speech. ... really, he just should have yelled 'tonight we party like it is 1999!', for all the energy it held.

I don't mind the new interpretation of ozai. To be fair, though.


Sigh... i don't think this would have caught enough hype, for netflix, maybe. But they should have made a completely different story in the same universe.
The bending can look amazing. The shirshu did too. The costumes and such i can get down with. The production over all is amazing.
But trying to stay true to the much better format and story of the original, is hurting this show so bad.

I dunno, maybe a story about the original flying opera company, mentioned in the kyoshi books. A robin-hood-esque interpretation of that.

[Mr.Obvious]

Sorry for hogging the thread.
But also just finished twisted metal.
And i am very much looking forward to a second season.

It's dumb and outrageous and corny in all the right ways.
And by god, season 2 promises.
I hope it delivers

[the_antithesis]

So I watched the second season of Arcane and it was somewhat disappointing. It felt rushed. Like the various storylines didn't have room to breathe. Probably the worst thing was near the end where Mel sends Ambessa to the Order of the Black Rose and then immediately rescues her from the Order of the Rose. Why did she do that and then immediately undo it? Some of these threads needed to be left dangling for the next season, I think. Or they needed more episodes. I don't know. It's still pretty good, but not as good as the first season, I guess.

[Hydra009]

Oof, an episode that hits waaay too close to home.  That clock is the most realistic thing ever, aside from the trash dumpster emotional breakdown.  Caine is getting better at making these scenarios!

[Blackleaf]

This episode is the most tame so far, but I still found it interesting. Zooble actually goes on the adventure this time (unwillingly, of course).  We get to see another side to Jax, after the job breaks his spirit. I like the look of surprise on Pomni's face when he asks how she's doing. She's like, "Wait. You actually care?" Of course, it could be that he was just bored and looking to kill time. I did notice a distinct lack of nastiness from him this episode. Even when he breaks Gangle's comedy mask (again), it seems to be a genuine accident this time.

[Hydra009]

The group dynamics appear to have shifted with Pomni in and Kaufmo out.  Jax previously was at the top of the food chain and able to pick on anyone with impunity.  Now, they're standing up to him and supporting each other, severely reducing his ability to bully them.

In the pilot, he can shove people around and threaten to put centipedes in their rooms.  In episode 2, he was able to blackmail Gangle and sneakily caused devastation on the NPCs.  In episode 3, he's bound and gagged by Ragatha offscreen.  In episode 4, Ragatha is on his back over what might be a genuine accident, he retailiates later but Gangle of all people threatens him with punishment for bad behavior and later makes good on it, knocking the wind out of his sails.

Ragatha supports Pomni, Zooble supports Gangle, and Pomni supports everyone.  Jax is out of the loop and must either accept being an outsider or assimilate and abide by the group's social mores.

[Hydra009]

I have a theory...an Amazing Digital Circus theory!

None of the characters are dead, and they're not really in hell (even though it feels like that)

Instead, each of the characters entered the digital world through VR headsets, which we already know.  The twist is that their consciousness wasn't transferred there, it was copied.  Probably with the real McCoy none-the-wiser.  This is why Caine can't provide an exit - it is physically impossible and telling the gang the truth would probably break them even worse than they already are.

[Blackleaf]

I have a theory...an Amazing Digital Circus theory!

None of the characters are dead, and they're not really in hell (even though it feels like that)

Instead, each of the characters entered the digital world through VR headsets, which we already know.  The twist is that their consciousness wasn't transferred there, it was copied.  Probably with the real McCoy none-the-wiser.  This is why Caine can't provide an exit - it is physically impossible and telling the gang the truth would probably break them even worse than they already are.

Yeah, I've been pretty much taking that explanation for granted. Anything beyond that, who created the game, why it works this way, whether or not the people in the game are employees at the company that made the game, and what the point of all of this is? That's still pretty much in the air. If the real humans had their minds copied, what even happened from their perspective? Did they see nothing and assume it was broken?

[Hydra009]

No idea about the root cause.  But every now and then, we get a hint.  Kinger is an IT guy.  That's unlikely to be a coincidence.  He most likely had some sort of role in the creation/maintenance of the simulation.  Pomni worked in some sort of office with the VR headset and is the latest one to join the simulation.  Those are two puzzle pieces.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Secret Level", anybody?

[Shiranu]

"Secret Level", anybody?

40k short had some beautiful, badass, and mind numbingly weird scenes as well as was interesting to see some familiar faces; makes me wonder about some of the other marines.

Need to watch the Armored Core one still.

[Hydra009]

It makes sense that I.M.P. would get a lot of unethical jobs...given their clientele.  *cut to that sinner from Ohio who has it out for that "yappy jogger" who saw him hiding the body*

Lots of sinners would have it out for other loathsome people, but just as many would have it out for fairly decent people.  I imagine they refuse business in the case of extremely unethical requests, but they apparently have no real problem with the morally gray or even slightly evil jobs.  I suppose it helps that humans are full of "secret nasties" as Millie puts it, so even decent-seeming people might be asking for it.

Though another possibility is that they don't look at the moral dimensions of the job and simply take the money and kill who they're paid to kill.  Moxxie has been the only one who has displayed any hesitation so far, though they try to avoid collateral damage.

[Hydra009]

Just finished Stranger Things season 4

I wasn't a fan of season 3, and I've gotta say, it improved significantly.  Juggling a huge cast isn't easy, and the writers did a decent job of giving everyone something important to do.  Quite a few of them had major character moments, which was very nice.  I just wish they'd stop interrupting romantic moments and just let them happen.

There were a couple bone-headed moments, but for the most part, everyone acted in sensible ways for their characters.  Granted, these are kids, so what's sensible for a kid isn't always what's sensible for an adult.  Actually, I think that the adults had a much more nonsensical and irrational journey this time around.  A lot of things were contrived for maximum drama:

Many of the scenes went down like this:



Everything there is possible, but the sheer synchronicity beggars belief.

Also, I'm not sure I really like raising the stakes all the way to the end of the world or so many scenes where characters are near death.  There's only so much sitting on the edge of my seat I can take before the chair snaps.  Plus, it's bad for my back.  I prefer the threat to be less overt and well...strange...and significant to the characters without necessarily being earth-shattering.  Low boil instead of nuked at 11, you know?

Also, I'm now 1000% sure that the Upside Down is warpspace from Warhammer 40k.  I know, I know, every scifi show can conceivably take place sometime in the 40k timeline.  But this series fits it far too well.  Psychic powers somehow linked to an alternate dimension?  Check.  The alternate dimension warped by human desires/emotions, essentially altered by psychic will?  Check.  Those two things are VERY reminiscent of 40k.  Monsters in the warp?  Well, now it's not even like 40k, it functionally is 40k.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Okay, question. Is the destination worth the journey for the entire series? To date, of course.

[Hydra009]

Okay, question. Is the destination worth the journey for the entire series? To date, of course.

I'm not entirely sure because it's not quite wrapped up yet - still one last season to go.  But the first season was an absolute banger when it came out.  The appeal is hard to describe exactly - 80s nostalgia, mystery and thrills at an age when the wider world is new and exciting.  Basically, this show is part The Goonies and part The Mist with a heavy Dungeons and Dragons vibe throughout.  Good characters, decent plot, fantastic effects and setwork that actually does look like the 80s.

My biggest complaints: teen drama and shipping can get tiresome, the season's plot can get kinda repetitive, especially season 1 and season 2 (same kid in trouble), somewhat also season 2 and season 3 (same big bad), and the Upside Down is criminally underutilized and underexplored (I don't wanna go all midichlorian on it, but I do want to learn why it is how it is, and it feels like only half my questions are answered at the end of season 4).  All I know is that if I had some mysterious alternate dimension in my stories, I would do a hell of a lot more with it than use it to send out a Monster of the Week.  And that place is so barren that there's really only like 4 different types of monsters in there and only one terrain.  If it were me, I'd write out a whole damn monster manual with at least 5 different regions, and not all of them filled with horror, or at least not the same type of horror.  A little variety would make for a helluva lot more stories!

But overall, I'd give it a A-minus.  Fantastic story idea, implemented pretty well but definitely has some rough edges.