TV Series Thread

[Hydra009]

I just finished season 2 of The Walking Dead: Dead City (the one with Negan and Maggie)

The first half of the season: excellent.  Solid 8/10 or even 9/10.  I was on the edge of my seat at times.  The second half largely felt empty and purposeless, with characters having multiple conversations about leaving, and I wasn't always sure that was acting.  4/10 or 5/10 stuff.  So disappointing.

I saw reviews of this stuff and some people HATE this season and are on a 2/10 warpath, while I'm more inclined to be charitable and give it a 6/10 or 7/10.

There are scenes that absolutely worked while others fell flat, some damn good character moments for Negan and Maggie while other character moments had bizarre logic or didn't work at all, and there were some interesting twists while other twists were random or didn't work.  So bizarrely, the show succeed and failed at the same things instead of consistently handling them well or consistently not handling them well.  That's a very strange thing, and I have no idea why that's the case.

The finale itself was a microcosm of the struggles of this show.  On one hand, it actually had some thrilling action and some sort of character arc for its protagonist pair.  On the other, what if I told you that the MacGuffin literally doesn't matter in the slightest and none of the protagonists seem to care about who gets it.  Or that a major villain basically just leaves the story without issue or that a seemingly corrupted character just isn't anymore because reasons.  Lots of stuff gets teased, very little gets paid off.  Also, I'm pretty sure there's a literal checkov's gun on the mantle gathering dust.  But the protagonists gave a nice little letter to Celestia at the end, which seemed more profound than it actually was, and that was nice.  It would've been a lot better if there were events to give it more weight, but still, it was nice.

And you know the sad thing?  This is actually one of the best spinoffs.  The Ones Who Live is also good with some noticeably flaws, but that one's a masterpiece compared to this.  Dead City looked like it was slapped together and some of it was great and some of it was hot garbage and for the life of me, I have no idea why no one caught this stuff before it was broadcast and looked it at with an eye for consistency and quality and hell, just made sure that meaningful events happening every episode.

Two of its best scenes:

Pretty good, right?  Well break out your finest drill, because it gets boring AF from there.  I can't even properly describe it without spoiling stuff, but it's bad.  Not Game of Thrones bad, so not catastrophically bad, but just not living up to the hype bad.

Here's one: a bear randomly attacks the gang.  Were they outside or near food?  No and no.  It stalks Maggie but ultimately dies.  Was it intense?  For about 10 seconds, yes.  Did it make sense?  No.  Did it do anything to advance the plot?  Also no.  You can literally skip that scene and nothing changes.  And there were lots of scenes like this.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"So who mows those lawns?" (Every time "TWD" is mentioned.)

[Hydra009]

"So who mows those lawns?" (Every time "TWD" is mentioned.)

Another big one is who takes care of makeup and grooming.  Shane had the right idea to shave his head, because man, everyone's hair would be disgusting before long.  Dental care would be a pain in the butt, too.  I hope no one has braces.

And there's no way anyone would be able to keep scavenging after the first year, probably not even that.  Most of the good stuff would probably be gone before the dead even arrive (people who live in hurricane areas know what i"m talking about).

And cars would be undriveable after a couple of years because the fuel would go bad.  They could potentially be useful as places to spend the night, but that's about it.

Almost no one's going to be using guns after a few years, if that.  Besides ammo and maintenance being a problem, they're super loud, which makes them not worth it except in truly dire situations.  Knives are good in theory, but they'd get damaged or stuck pretty quick.  Bows would be nice, but bowstrings snap and arrows break and good luck bumping into someone who can make bows and arrows from scratch.  I'm a big fan of the humble blunt weapons - hammer/crowbar when they get very close.  Those are great because they're easy to use, don't break easily, and they're useful when not in combat - which will be most of the time.  Having a crowbar on hand is the difference between getting indoors in a pinch or getting eaten outside.  No brainer.

Almost all the survivors' camps would be close to freshwater sources - mainly rivers and lakes.  So the odds that you'd run into other camps are a lot higher than most people think.  The good news is that animals would bounce back - especially herbivores like deer and rabbits (ocean life, too!  Without overfishing, fish stocks would be incredible after a few decades!)  The bad news is that game is a lot harder to dress and cook than most people think.  Hope y'all love gardening and foraging for fruits and nuts and berries, because that's your main course.  Maybe chicken of the woods if you get lucky.  Almost never meat.

Theoretically, humanity could absolutely wipe out the zombies within a decade or so.  Let's say the zombie apocalypse kills 90% of people, so only 10% are survivors.  The survivors only have to kill an average of 9 each and you're back in the black.  While there'd be big hordes of zombies, especially in the first few weeks, they wouldn't be endless hordes - zombie sightings would be fewer and fewer over time.  If you can survive the first year or two, chances are good that you'll outlive the dead.

[Nobody]

Just be careful not to shoot Bill Murray! 😱

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The mechanisms for ambulation are mindboggling but the source for enough cogitation to actually stalk prey is going to make a rotting brain less that 100% effective.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

And if they were actually hunting zombies then the other side of the boob tube would be a good place to start. Seriously, who are the audience rooting for?

[Paleophyte]

Some of the characters are so unlikeable that it's tempting to cheer on the zombies. "Shuffle faster! The skinhead has a twisted ankle!"

[Nobody]

I don't know if it's a TV show, since I watch it on YouTube, but I've seen several episodes of The Goes Wrong Show, and tonight there's one I haven't seen before, about The Nativity! As always on this show, everything that can possibly go wrong goes horribly wrong! 🤣
It's on a channel called Lionsgate TV, season 2, episode 1.
British silliness at its best! 🤗

[Hydra009]

Hazbin Hotel Season 2!  Man, us indie animation fans have been eating good the past couple of years!  And the gravy train is still chugging along!

TRUST.  US.

[Hydra009]

I forget that sometimes megacorps put out some episodes for free, so have at it:

[Hydra009]

This is mostly a rant about the Hazbin fandom, but it happens in the fandoms for Invincible and various animes.

A character loses a fight and there's all sorts of allegations that they're a "fraud" or a joke or a bad character or whatever.  Yes, I'm talking about powerscalers, the fans who compulsively rank the characters by "power level".

Look, a key difference between real life and fiction is that who wins or loses in fiction is completely up to the writer.  And the writer usually goes for drama - whoever's on top usually takes a tumble (otherwise, there wouldn't be much of a conflict) and the underdog eventually wins (everyone loves an underdog story, especially writers)

Also, sometimes certain characters MUST fail in order for certain necessary plot points to happen.  Trust the method.  TRUST.  US.

[Blackleaf]

I'm really trying to figure out what 4D Chess move Alastor is playing here. Maybe trying to destroy them from the inside or something, by sowing division. Not sure how that helps him get out of his other deal, though.

[Hydra009]

I'm really trying to figure out what 4D Chess move Alastor is playing here. Maybe trying to destroy them from the inside or something, by sowing division. Not sure how that helps him get out of his other deal, though.

I don't know either, but I guess he needs a power vacuum (the Vees to break up) combined with his deal with Charlie and possibly some other deal we don't know about yet in order to weasel out of his deal and possibly claim even more power than he originally had.  When he does become unfettered, he's going to institute a reign of terror the likes of which we haven't seen yet and match vaggie's portrayal of him in the pilot.

Such a shame, because he was getting perilously close to redemption in season 1.

[Hydra009]

I just finished the finale of Hazbin Hotel Season 2.  What a performance! True passion!  Yes sir, this is the start of some real changes down here!

[Hydra009]

Heaven has pangolins!  :)
Heaven has pangolins.  :(

discotheques (that tracks, since disco is dead) and Christmas rom-coms all year round in heaven VS all-around nastiness (like Detroit) and purges (also Detroit) in hell
Hmmm...that's a tough one!