TV Series Thread

[Hydra009]

Just checked out Squid Game



Green light!  .......redlight.

[Shiranu]

Just checked out Squid Game



Green light!  .......redlight.

I've heard nothing but good things about this series, I will have to start it soon. Started Sasha Baron Cohen's, "The Spy" instead and really enjoying it, but feel like I'm missing out.

As for "The Spy"; really enjoying it, though I will be honest... I've fast-fowarded through a few episodes. Sasha's story is absolutely enthralling (based on a true story, an Israeli spy goes undercover in Syria in the 50s and rubs shoulders with many powerful men [and doesn't have a happy ending, I don't think, leading up to the 6-Day War) and he performs amazingly in a serious role, but some of the side-plot felt skippable to me.

I do appreciate that neither side really seems to be the "good" guy; both think they are doing the right thing while committing atrocities against one another, and the "bad guys" have legitimate depth and character to them that makes it hard to view them as an enemy instead of a human.

[Hydra009]

If you watch the first episode all the way through, you'll know for sure if this series is right for you.  *coughInvinciblecough*  Please film your reaction.  I am 100% serious about that.

Personally, I found the first few scenes very tedious and contemplated turning it off.  I'm glad I didn't.

[Blackleaf]

What If...? Season 1

So this show turned out to be very different than I expected. At first, it seems like a compilation of interesting story ideas, where you tweak the timeline in some way and explore the consequences. Up until a certain point, that's what it was. You could pick any episode at random, and there was no interconnected plot threads connecting them. But then the final two episodes happen, and the context of the entire show changes. Without getting into spoilers, I did enjoy this first season. My favorite episodes are the really dark ones, especially the one starring Doctor Strange. BTW, they didn't bring all of the actors from the movies in for this show, but Benedict Cumberbatch was brought in for this, and he did a fantastic job.

Some of the episodes end rather abruptly, and often on cliff hangers. That makes the stories seem like they're not as fleshed out as they could have been. I think there will be a  season two, but whether or not they return to these timelines to put a bow on them, it will create problems. If they do return to those timelines to flesh them out, that episode is another original timeline and story we could have gotten, being sacrificed to retread old ground. If they don't, then those unfinished stories never feel fully resolved. It feels to me like they put artificial restraints on themselves that hurt the quality of the series. This is a show released on their own streaming service. Do they all have to be the same length? Could they not fit in another few episodes to include a part 2 for some of these stories? I don't get it.

[Spoiler=Now for spoilers...]Really, I should have seen the twist coming. They're not going to tell us that The Watcher swore an oath never to interfere unless they were planning to have him break that rules. It's how like in Star Trek, they'd only bring up the fact that they're not supposed to interact with alien societies who hadn't discovered space travel yet when they were about to break that rule. When Doctor Strange heard The Watcher monologuing, that should have been another clue, but I thought that was going to be a one-time thing. Turned out, Ultron could do the same thing, due to the power of the stones. It didn't ruin the show for me, but it really did change the feel of the show. Now, going into season 2, I just expect a similar multiversal threat to force The Watcher to break his oath again.

What timeline was Gamora picked up from? The Watcher gathers all of these characters from timelines introduced in previous episodes, but Gamora's timeline was not established. The Watcher just grabs her from a random timeline. From what I've heard, her timeline was SUPPOSED to get an episode, but they delayed it for some reason for season two. If that's true then...why? Why couldn't they just release this season when it was ready? Are we going to be introduced to this character properly in season 2? This just feels messy.

What are the rules for the Infinity Stones? Why was Ultron hunting down and killing people by hand when he could just snap them out of existence? If there's an in-universe explanation for this, they should have told us. Also, I know they changed the rules before when they had Thanos use the stones to destroy themselves, which is impossible in the comics, but that could be written off as differences between timelines. However, it was my understanding that the stones are only useful in the universe that they came from. So as soon as Ultron stepped out of his timeline, the stones should have become powerless, right? It's strange. I simultaneously felt like the stones were too weak and too strong at the same time.[/spoiler]

[Hydra009]

Some of the episodes end rather abruptly, and often on cliff hangers. That makes the stories seem like they're not as fleshed out as they could have been.

IIRC, that's true of the What If comics as well.  Also, the comics were not as fleshed out as they could have been, so there's that.

[Hydra009]

[Spoiler=Now for spoilers...]What are the rules for the Infinity Stones? Why was Ultron hunting down and killing people by hand when he could just snap them out of existence? If there's an in-universe explanation for this, they should have told us. Also, I know they changed the rules before when they had Thanos use the stones to destroy themselves, which is impossible in the comics, but that could be written off as differences between timelines. However, it was my understanding that the stones are only useful in the universe that they came from. So as soon as Ultron stepped out of his timeline, the stones should have become powerless, right? It's strange. I simultaneously felt like the stones were too weak and too strong at the same time.[/spoiler]

The rules for Infinity Stones aren't very clear, but essentially, the stones can be used in other realities but they have weaker effects (they're not as strong as the native stones).

In areas outside of time and space, they're completely useless.  This is because they manipulate the basic nature of the universe.  If you're not in a universe, there's nothing for them to manipulate.  It's like having a tv remote without the tv.

IIRC, the stones cannot be destroyed permanently, though they can be atomized and may take a while to reform.

Not sure exactly what loophole Thanos found to destroy them entirely, but I'd bet he used the power stone to channel so much power through the other stones and itself that it perpetually overloaded them all, permanently destabilizing them in an endless loop of unstable energies.  Just thinking about that scenario weirds me out.  It's like dividing by zero with nukes and the pillars of reality.  It's amazing that he was able to do that and walk away intact.  Surviving that with a permanent limp is the most fortunate outcome.

[drunkenshoe]

I'm watching Inside Job. LOLOL

[Hydra009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy5lIs1dyVc

I love this show.  And despite it being mostly slapstick, vampire lore gags, and just regular gags, there's some character growth.  It's surprisingly wholesome sometimes.

[Shiranu]

Trying to get into "Squid Game", but there is something just a little to real to it that makes it more uncomfortable than anything else.

A friend of mine is in a mmo-guild (apparently one of the top WoW and FFXIV ones), and one of his mates is the son of a Russian oligarch; lives in a Versailles-looking aristocrat's estate, cars, guns, women, all that shit (he streams as well, so know it's actually him). He has told him several times that he has looked into doing something very similar; a few years ago he really wanted to rent out an island to get a bunch of poor people and have a battle royale to the death for the fuck of it and record it all.

It isn't some far-fetched fantasy of how these people view those "bellow them", it's reality... and my guess it has actually happened and we just don't know about it yet.


Edit: Yeah, just finished the first episode and it's not for me. I can 100% see the appeal of it, but knowing people like that makes it too uncomfortable to watch. If it is a good introduction to the commoner that people like that exists, great... but I also fear it might make it seem more "cartoonish" villain than real-life psychopaths.

[Hydra009]

Trying to get into "Squid Game", but there is something just a little to real to it that makes it more uncomfortable than anything else.

Because it's a thinly-veiled criticism of capitalism.

[Shiranu]

Because it's a thinly-veiled criticism of capitalism.

Like I said, it's more than that... it's that I know of people who have the resources to do something far too similar to this and legitimately want to. They would watch it and take notes.

That discomfort doesn't have anything to do with capitalism (the show 100% is), it's knowing about psychopaths who would make the artistic criticism into a literal, hellish reality. Their families presumably became rich during the Soviet Union.

[Shiranu]

A Republican watches Squid Games

https://twitter.com/LeftWingTikTok/status/1453436702274564100

[Blackleaf]

Surprised nobody posted this yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zyGQquL8VM

Finale? Already? D'aw... But okay. It's part 1. Still got at least one more left this season.

[Shiranu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyMHkkB5gXg

[Mr.Obvious]

Watching dexter: new blood, currently.

Yes. Just yes.
Dexter had been getting a bit more stale in the later seasons. And his ability to balancr work and home and his hobby was really superhuman... but i really liked the show and the character. Though i never watched the last few episodes. Know what happened though.

But this... it made me realize just how much i missed this character. This is swell. Super swell