We're on season 4 now, so, got a ways to go.
I have seen "Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster", which was incredible.
TV Series On The Television
Re: TV Series On The Television
Y'know, we do have an X-Files thread...
Re: TV Series On The Television
Also: Do give Darin Morgan's two episodes of Millennium a look.
One of them brings back Jose Chung.
One of them brings back Jose Chung.
Re: TV Series On The Television
Huh. A thread in which I myself posted not 6 years ago about watching various eps... really don't remember much of these. This must've been when I was living with one of my roommate that was a programmer for a living and just marathoned shows constantly, so I'd catch random episodes.
Anyways, what I'm getting from my re-read of the thread is that I should pick up Year Zero, and not expect anything from the mythology - they're just making it up as they go.
Anyways, what I'm getting from my re-read of the thread is that I should pick up Year Zero, and not expect anything from the mythology - they're just making it up as they go.
Re: TV Series On The Television
Also of course, read Monster of the Week after each ep.
Re: TV Series On The Television
Watched the Gatiss/Moffat Dracula. I liked the first two episodes. The last one had a couple good scenes but was kind of a mess.
Part of that is a Gatiss/Moffat problem -- they've always been better at setting shit up than resolving it -- but part of it's a Dracula problem. Dracula adaptations have been struggling to figure out what to do with the London portion of the book since 1922. And with good reason! The back half of the book is too repetitive, has a bunch of unnecessary and redundant characters, repeats itself, involves a bunch of bookkeeping stuff that's heavily rooted in the epistolary format of the novel, and a bunch of stuff happens that's very similar to stuff that already happened earlier.
But there's still a lot to like. If you're down for Sherlock-style 90-minute episodes, watch the first two. Then maybe the beginning of the third one. You can stop once they start demolishing the house he's in; it doesn't get any less silly from there.
Part of that is a Gatiss/Moffat problem -- they've always been better at setting shit up than resolving it -- but part of it's a Dracula problem. Dracula adaptations have been struggling to figure out what to do with the London portion of the book since 1922. And with good reason! The back half of the book is too repetitive, has a bunch of unnecessary and redundant characters, repeats itself, involves a bunch of bookkeeping stuff that's heavily rooted in the epistolary format of the novel, and a bunch of stuff happens that's very similar to stuff that already happened earlier.
But there's still a lot to like. If you're down for Sherlock-style 90-minute episodes, watch the first two. Then maybe the beginning of the third one. You can stop once they start demolishing the house he's in; it doesn't get any less silly from there.
Re: TV Series On The Television
Well, it can't possibly be any worse than Spaceballs: TAS.
Re: TV Series On The Television
The Chucky TV series so far has some of the most tonally discordant, whiplashy, heightened-reality-no-one-would-ever-talk-like-this-or-act-like-this-EVER stuff ever committed to film in its first two episodes.
It fucking rules.
It fucking rules.
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beatbandito
- Posts: 4307
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Re: TV Series On The Television
Squid Game was a pretty good experience. If you've read or watched any kind of Battle Royale-like (or, you know, it) or similar survival manga it's pretty cliched and the twists are all very obvious. Except the ones that were bad enough I couldn't imagine that was what was happening. Light, meta-spoiler: I thought the ending really sucked, and it's mostly because of course they want a season 2 and you can't just have a new, similar story.
tl;dr: it's better than most TV. Too bad most TV is complete garbage.
More specific spoilers, mostly complaints not even getting into the scenes at the airport which are pure sequel bait:
Starting with the ending since it's still fresh. The stuff with Sae-Byeok's brother and Sang-Woo's mom was like, as stupid as the ending of Face/Off when Travolta replaces his dead son with the kid whose parents he just killed. Giving them both the money was what should have been expected when the games ended, but like, waiting a year? Sang-Woo's mom still being alive? And just kind of forcing them into the same household and giving them the money all in cash is p. dumb.
The Oh Il-Nam "twist" was probably the second dumbest thing in the show. First scene that he's player 001 "okay, cool, so he's either in charge or know what's going on." Then they start to develop on him having dementia and going back in time the more games they play and I was really ready for it to be done better. But no, too bad, the camera cuts past him when he's supposed to die, so of course he comes back. They even immediately do the same "twist" with Mi-Nyeo, literally scenes apart from the last shot of the 6th episode to the first shot of the 7th. And the last game Il-Nam played in the final episode was a mess. Like, okay, the point is that there is some good in the world. But based on everything we've seen, and how the characters developed? Gi-Hun should have gone and helped the guy himself, because there is good in the world when you work to make it. But then we couldn't have Il-Nam die at exactly midnight, very cinematically.
Also like, how did that one guy know not to actually shoot him if Il-Nam was also in the tug-of-rope where he actually could have died? Was he actually trying to be at risk or not? It's working from the end story writing.
Last and biggest complaint is basically: everything with mr. policeman. If any of this matters, it's for season 2 only. Involving the police at all is an absolute mess. Just have them not do anything, I'll assume they're paid off, easy. Instead beat cops don't believe it, and an investigator doesn't know about it despite years of investigation (we'll get back to that) and the chief or whoever mr. policeman calls doesn't seem to hint one way or the other if he's helping cover anything up.
Now this I'm convinced I must have gotten wrong somehow, despite going back to both episodes and checking wikipedia, because it is so unbelievably stupid. So his brother goes missing, his much older brother, that lived a terribly poor lifestyle. His mother is worried that he just disappeared, and he has been gone from his room for 1-2 weeks, so mr. policeman will check "places he's holed up before". But his brother is running the games. And has been involved with them for 6 years. But lives a trash lifestyle? And doesn't have any kind of cover story for when he does the games? And leaves valuable clues that are identical to ones that players get in his apartment? And all that so that... we get the reveal that it's the cop's brother (who I was sure was the kid with the similar haircut who got a lot of face time before dying in episode 1) which means... nothing? Because mr. policeman is immediately taken out of the season, maybe to show up in season 2? So then that story is just... over. It can't actually have been that dumb. Especially since all it adds to the story is a bunch of obvious plot holes where the game and workers are suddenly acting differently than every other game because he would be caught in an instant otherwise.
What I expected when I still expected a decent ending:
Gi-Hun makes it to the final round with Sang-Woo. But I expected Sang-Woo to get the upper hand before trying to kill himself as he comes to understand the monster he's become. Gi-Hun either tries to throw or end the game, but before he can get himself killed the game is announced over because Sang-Woo has already died. Gi-Hun, as the last player, declares that he wants to end the game, and the money should be split up and given to the families of the fallen players. We see Sang-Woo's mom and Sae-Byeok's brother (separately) being approached by people and given paperwork or an envelop or w/e to show they have the money. Also maybe show some other random families of nameless players getting the same in a montage. Gi-Hun is dropped off unceremoniously, as he has ruined the spirit of the game instead of becoming one of the people in charge, like mr. policeman's brother (payoff for that entire plotline!), but learns that he also got the 100 million won since the prize pool was filled before the game ended or something. Gi-Hun immediately goes to see his mother, and finds her already dead. Either stop right there and it's an impactful tragedy, reinforcing the themes of people without financial power being used like animals, and needing to fall into the role of one, or be ruined. But still there's hope of people willing to break the chain, and true altruism, though that alone isn't enough to give our hero a happy ending. If you really need to do sequel bait, it's a year later and Gi-Hun is completely homeless and a mess. We see among his dirty possessions a card from his daughter about how awesome her life is and happy she is. Dwell for a minute or two on how shitty his life is, maybe he's starting to lose his mind like Il-Nam. And we see legs with nice shoes and suit pants, and the bottom of a briefcase, with Gi-Hun looking up from the ground where he's sitting. The person asks if he'd like to play a game, and his eyes slowly widen before he silently nods. The End.
tl;dr: it's better than most TV. Too bad most TV is complete garbage.
More specific spoilers, mostly complaints not even getting into the scenes at the airport which are pure sequel bait:
Starting with the ending since it's still fresh. The stuff with Sae-Byeok's brother and Sang-Woo's mom was like, as stupid as the ending of Face/Off when Travolta replaces his dead son with the kid whose parents he just killed. Giving them both the money was what should have been expected when the games ended, but like, waiting a year? Sang-Woo's mom still being alive? And just kind of forcing them into the same household and giving them the money all in cash is p. dumb.
The Oh Il-Nam "twist" was probably the second dumbest thing in the show. First scene that he's player 001 "okay, cool, so he's either in charge or know what's going on." Then they start to develop on him having dementia and going back in time the more games they play and I was really ready for it to be done better. But no, too bad, the camera cuts past him when he's supposed to die, so of course he comes back. They even immediately do the same "twist" with Mi-Nyeo, literally scenes apart from the last shot of the 6th episode to the first shot of the 7th. And the last game Il-Nam played in the final episode was a mess. Like, okay, the point is that there is some good in the world. But based on everything we've seen, and how the characters developed? Gi-Hun should have gone and helped the guy himself, because there is good in the world when you work to make it. But then we couldn't have Il-Nam die at exactly midnight, very cinematically.
Also like, how did that one guy know not to actually shoot him if Il-Nam was also in the tug-of-rope where he actually could have died? Was he actually trying to be at risk or not? It's working from the end story writing.
Last and biggest complaint is basically: everything with mr. policeman. If any of this matters, it's for season 2 only. Involving the police at all is an absolute mess. Just have them not do anything, I'll assume they're paid off, easy. Instead beat cops don't believe it, and an investigator doesn't know about it despite years of investigation (we'll get back to that) and the chief or whoever mr. policeman calls doesn't seem to hint one way or the other if he's helping cover anything up.
Now this I'm convinced I must have gotten wrong somehow, despite going back to both episodes and checking wikipedia, because it is so unbelievably stupid. So his brother goes missing, his much older brother, that lived a terribly poor lifestyle. His mother is worried that he just disappeared, and he has been gone from his room for 1-2 weeks, so mr. policeman will check "places he's holed up before". But his brother is running the games. And has been involved with them for 6 years. But lives a trash lifestyle? And doesn't have any kind of cover story for when he does the games? And leaves valuable clues that are identical to ones that players get in his apartment? And all that so that... we get the reveal that it's the cop's brother (who I was sure was the kid with the similar haircut who got a lot of face time before dying in episode 1) which means... nothing? Because mr. policeman is immediately taken out of the season, maybe to show up in season 2? So then that story is just... over. It can't actually have been that dumb. Especially since all it adds to the story is a bunch of obvious plot holes where the game and workers are suddenly acting differently than every other game because he would be caught in an instant otherwise.
What I expected when I still expected a decent ending:
Gi-Hun makes it to the final round with Sang-Woo. But I expected Sang-Woo to get the upper hand before trying to kill himself as he comes to understand the monster he's become. Gi-Hun either tries to throw or end the game, but before he can get himself killed the game is announced over because Sang-Woo has already died. Gi-Hun, as the last player, declares that he wants to end the game, and the money should be split up and given to the families of the fallen players. We see Sang-Woo's mom and Sae-Byeok's brother (separately) being approached by people and given paperwork or an envelop or w/e to show they have the money. Also maybe show some other random families of nameless players getting the same in a montage. Gi-Hun is dropped off unceremoniously, as he has ruined the spirit of the game instead of becoming one of the people in charge, like mr. policeman's brother (payoff for that entire plotline!), but learns that he also got the 100 million won since the prize pool was filled before the game ended or something. Gi-Hun immediately goes to see his mother, and finds her already dead. Either stop right there and it's an impactful tragedy, reinforcing the themes of people without financial power being used like animals, and needing to fall into the role of one, or be ruined. But still there's hope of people willing to break the chain, and true altruism, though that alone isn't enough to give our hero a happy ending. If you really need to do sequel bait, it's a year later and Gi-Hun is completely homeless and a mess. We see among his dirty possessions a card from his daughter about how awesome her life is and happy she is. Dwell for a minute or two on how shitty his life is, maybe he's starting to lose his mind like Il-Nam. And we see legs with nice shoes and suit pants, and the bottom of a briefcase, with Gi-Hun looking up from the ground where he's sitting. The person asks if he'd like to play a game, and his eyes slowly widen before he silently nods. The End.
Re: TV Series On The Television
beatbandito wrote:Also like, how did that one guy know not to actually shoot him if Il-Nam was also in the tug-of-rope where he actually could have died? Was he actually trying to be at risk or not? It's working from the end story writing.
His manacles weren't actually locked. He could've pulled out of them if they were actually losing.
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beatbandito
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Re: TV Series On The Television
Grath wrote:beatbandito wrote:Also like, how did that one guy know not to actually shoot him if Il-Nam was also in the tug-of-rope where he actually could have died? Was he actually trying to be at risk or not? It's working from the end story writing.
His manacles weren't actually locked. He could've pulled out of them if they were actually losing.
that is a silly. I liked the idea at first, then I actually watched the shots again. It's like a top-down dungeon in an RPG hiding a chest under an awning. Having him have no lock on (as opposed to one that isn't actually locked, w/e) would be much more obvious to the people there than the audience, even though it's obviously for the audience's benefit to spot the secret. I do like that it confirms Il-Nam is just vacationing among poor people without the same risks they face. Just too bad they couldn't have either tied that in to the exposition, or give the audience more credit and leave the truth of his actions out of the narrative in favor of hints.
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beatbandito
- Posts: 4307
- Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:04 am
Re: TV Series On The Television
I don't know if I missed anyone mentioning I Think You Should Leave on the boards, but it is some good stuff. I waited a while on it since it was getting mentioned everywhere and I assumed it was mainstream schlock, but it is up there with whitest kids u know and kids in the halls for best sketch comedy (that puts it above Mr. Show, don't @ me). I watched it for the first time a month ago, and have rewatched the entire series twice since then.
Anyway I constantly think about this skit because it is a perfect expression of what it feels like to socialize:
Anyway I constantly think about this skit because it is a perfect expression of what it feels like to socialize:
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beatbandito
- Posts: 4307
- Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:04 am
Re: TV Series On The Television
New Cowboy Bebop is just The Last Airbender. They are keeping some visuals and sets, and the general layout of the existing story, but gutting everything that matters about the characters and motivations. Anyway I made some comments while watching the first episode (I will not be going any further).
Re: TV Series On The Television
Ah, damnit. Well, no great surprise there. These remakes are the shitty straight-to-VHS sequels of the internet age.
oh come on what the fuck
the button that closes off just the section of wall that happened to be shot
oh come on what the fuck
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