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Hollismason posted:Penny is waaay different and more interesting in the show than in the books. Also, him being a rear end in a top hat makes perfect sense when you realize he's probably went through life hearing peoples inner thoughts. Using the high-pitched tinnitus sound in all the Penny scenes was clever. He's being exactly the same hostile dick to the other students that he always was, but for the first time we see his behaviour sympathetically, in context. I'm realising that by far the most interesting part of this show for me is the choices the showrunners have made in adapting the books, but a full discussion of that would probably all have to be spoiler tagged. Is there enough traffic to support a spoiler thread?
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Mar 29, 2016 22:59
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shadok posted:Using the high-pitched tinnitus sound in all the Penny scenes was clever. He's being exactly the same hostile dick to the other students that he always was, but for the first time we see his behaviour sympathetically, in context. Probably not. I was thinking of making a Google Doc for the discussion of differences. I am quite interested in talking about the differences. I don't hate the show, and in many ways, I like their changes better. The books are by no means flawless. There's just many elements left out at the expense of stupid poo poo additions that I get a little annoyed. Penny is by far better on the show. Though I wish he understood how shirt buttons work. Elliott is perfection. I love how Margot and Quentin were talking about healing him in the magic stream. They really captured that "something is fundamentally broken in Elliott" aspect.
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Mar 30, 2016 00:46
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I know all the book readers keep saying I'm not supposed to like Quentin but I do find it funny that right when I was starting to like him the show made sure to cut that poo poo off at the pass.
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Mar 30, 2016 01:04
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I haven't seen the latest episode yet, but the show has definitely been growing on me. It's just that the first half-dozen episodes or so seemed hell-bent on making changes for the sake of having changes, and a lot of what they decided to do was just inexplicable. Cancer puppy? Completely reworking the niffin storyline? The last few episodes have been a lot stronger, though.
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Mar 30, 2016 01:05
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I kinda liked Cancer Puppy. It was a cute/funny/sad idea and it very quickly addressed a limit that the show was going to have to deal with sooner or later, "does magic cure disease?" Cancer Puppy basically introduced the idea that its theoretically possible but no one has figured out how to do it with killing themselves or the patient. And of course that now leads directly into the Free Traders seeking a higher power to help them get there. Like, when I think of "inexplicable" my first thought was that weird game that came out of nowhere, accomplished nothing, and then went away.
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Mar 30, 2016 01:19
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STAC Goat posted:I kinda liked Cancer Puppy. It was a cute/funny/sad idea and it very quickly addressed a limit that the show was going to have to deal with sooner or later, "does magic cure disease?" Cancer Puppy basically introduced the idea that its theoretically possible but no one has figured out how to do it with killing themselves or the patient. And of course that now leads directly into the Free Traders seeking a higher power to help them get there. This was kind of taken care of by, well, the entirety of the book series though. Like, the gangs graduates and then they're all 'ok so what now'? And just devolve in ennui. Although I suppose showing it explicitly isn't necessarily a bad thing. quote:Like, when I think of "inexplicable" my first thought was that weird game that came out of nowhere, accomplished nothing, and then went away. The game was actually in the books, although just as useless.  But, for example, how early on the Beast showed up, along with the whole 'chosen one' Fillory plotline, Josh not existing, Jane being killed... They've been turning the show around but so much kind of has to be different now. (early Fillory spoiler)I really wanted to see that running battle between a bunch of dark elves, cthulhu monsters, and anthropomorphic rabbits/weasels where Josh casts that souped-up black whole spell that swallows a fire giant, but I don't see how the show can get there from where it's at anymore
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Mar 30, 2016 01:31
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WarLocke posted:This was kind of taken care of by, well, the entirety of the book series though. Like, the gangs graduates and then they're all 'ok so what now'? And just devolve in ennui. Although I suppose showing it explicitly isn't necessarily a bad thing. And establishing it early with Cancer Puppy and Q's dad plays directly into the whole Free Trader/Julia storyline, since the whole premise is that they're trying to break the rules Brakesbill set. Which from the sounds of it is either radically different from the books or at least heavily sped up. To that end Cancer Puppy isn't an "inexplicable" change from the book. If the book establishes these rules and boundaries over a longer period of time before they introduce Julia's story (which is the impression I've gotten) then as soon as they choose to speed up Julia's story to make her part of the show they also have to find a way to establish the boundaries they're trying to break. And in that is born Cancer Puppy. quote:The game was actually in the books, although just as useless.
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Mar 30, 2016 01:46
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Well the Fox Sex Interlude was one thing I wouldn't have minded being cut. And I'm dreading how the Reynard stuff is going to be handled (if they have the balls/bad taste to show it on television).
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Mar 30, 2016 01:51
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That was weird but I kind of gave it a pass because it theoretically served a purpose to get Alice and Quentin past their issues and have them hook up because they gave in to their "animal nature" or something. But of course 3 episodes later Quentin gets drunk and cheats on her in a threesome so I dunno. Show's just unnecessarily sexually kinky. But its on the network that has a show that's basically someone having the super power of sex so I guess I'm not super surprised.
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Mar 30, 2016 02:13
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STAC Goat posted:That was weird but I kind of gave it a pass because it theoretically served a purpose to get Alice and Quentin past their issues and have them hook up because they gave in to their "animal nature" or something.
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Mar 30, 2016 02:15
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Yeah. I've only seen a few episodes but basically what I've gathered is she's a succubus so she gets super powers from sex and can seduce anyone and is kind of rapey. And for some reason she's the chosen one of pixies or something. I'm really not sure. I just know the basic show drive is sex.
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Mar 30, 2016 02:20
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STAC Goat posted:Yeah. I've only seen a few episodes but basically what I've gathered is she's a succubus so she gets super powers from sex and can seduce anyone and is kind of rapey. And for some reason she's the chosen one of pixies or something. I'm really not sure. I just know the basic show drive is sex. poo poo, is that show still going? Only good thing about it was the sidekick, Kinsey or whatever
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Mar 30, 2016 02:23
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That's a Canadian show though. It just happens to air on SyFy in the US.
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Mar 30, 2016 02:23
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I mean if you want an example of a really oversexed show there's always Lexx
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Mar 30, 2016 02:29
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I'm just saying Lost Girl is kind of uncomfortably casually rapey and I think it may have desensitized me.
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Mar 30, 2016 02:30
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STAC Goat posted:And establishing it early with Cancer Puppy and Q's dad plays directly into the whole Free Trader/Julia storyline, since the whole premise is that they're trying to break the rules Brakesbill set. Which from the sounds of it is either radically different from the books or at least heavily sped up. You are going to have an interesting time if they take this to the same conclusion as in the book: (potential big book-based spoiler)the Free Traders finally manage to summon a god (Reynard the Fox, a trickster diety IIRC) who immediately begins killing the gently caress out of all of them and doesn't stop until Julia agrees to sacrifice herself so that the thing will stop tearing people apart. So Reynard bends her over a table and rapes her, ripping her 'soul' from her and filling her with god-power-spunk which is how she ends up being so magically powerful later on. Julia and Asmodeus are the only ones to not die horribly. The mother goddess stuff comes later; since Julia no longer has a soul she begins acting less and less human, and in the end when it becomes obvious to her that she's going to become 'something else' no matter what, she calls out to the goddess and is remade as a dryad instead of becoming another rapey fox spirit or whatever.
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Mar 30, 2016 02:42
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WarLocke posted:You are going to have an interesting time if they take this to the same conclusion as in the book: (potential big book-based spoiler)the Free Traders finally manage to summon a god (Reynard the Fox, a trickster diety IIRC) who immediately begins killing the gently caress out of all of them and doesn't stop until Julia agrees to sacrifice herself so that the thing will stop tearing people apart. So Reynard bends her over a table and rapes her, ripping her 'soul' from her and filling her with god-power-spunk which is how she ends up being so magically powerful later on. Julia and Asmodeus are the only ones to not die horribly. What's even worse: That just as they were starting the ritual to summon the mother, Julia realized she has found what she has been looking for all this time: friends. It was that quick moment of happiness that made the Reynard stuff all the more horrible.
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Mar 30, 2016 02:58
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geeves posted:What's even worse: That just as they were starting the ritual to summon the mother, Julia realized she has found what she has been looking for all this time: friends. It was that quick moment of happiness that made the Reynard stuff all the more horrible. I think we'll see Reynard, but the rape part will be dropped for obvious reasons. They're already setting Julia up to have some sort of connection to gods already - they'll still summon Reynard (or insert other malevolent spirit) but he'll just kill them, leaving only Julia/Asmodeus alive. If that scene shows up even remotely similarly in the series it'll be a pretty dramatic departure from what I'd expect in a SyFy show, generally speaking.
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Mar 30, 2016 04:29
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The show has definitely improved in the last few episodes. I find that the closer it sticks to the books the better it is, apart from Penny I can't think of any change that hasn't made the show worse than the books. Julia's story has especially been bad and has just skipped everything that made it interesting. It is too bad that they are nearing the end of the first book, I don't think the two others are really on the same level. I am also afraid of what they are going to do with Fillory, the show seems to be running on a shoestring budget, not exactly ideal for where the story is going.
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Mar 30, 2016 04:45
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Oasx posted:The show has definitely improved in the last few episodes. I find that the closer it sticks to the books the better it is, apart from Penny I can't think of any change that hasn't made the show worse than the books. I enjoyed the third book quite a bit - and I think it could translate well to being on TV. The second book will be more difficult, especially given the budget constraints the show appears to suffer from.
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Mar 30, 2016 05:11
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shadok posted:Using the high-pitched tinnitus sound in all the Penny scenes was clever. He's being exactly the same hostile dick to the other students that he always was, but for the first time we see his behaviour sympathetically, in context.  I'm really glad that they finally came back around to the whole :sadbrain: thing, even if it's with Penny rather than Quentin because, let's be honest here... Nobody wants to watch a mediocre young actor play an anxiety-riddled obsessive-compulsive who has super powers and a ridiculously hot girlfriend, while not ever having to deal with any realistic problems. The dude playing Penny is really knocking it out of the park in almost every scene, and I'm unsure if they wrote more content for him or if it was begun that way because he's so damned, "here, and a dickhead, and then gone," in the novels. Mouse Dresser posted:Probably not. I was thinking of making a Google Doc for the discussion of differences. I am quite interested in talking about the differences. STAC Goat posted:I know all the book readers keep saying I'm not supposed to like Quentin but I do find it funny that right when I was starting to like him the show made sure to cut that poo poo off at the pass. Possibly you're mixing "protagonist" with "empathetic character"? coyo7e fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Mar 30, 2016 |
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Mar 30, 2016 06:03
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Penny is such a dick that he warps all the way around to being likable as poo poo.
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Mar 30, 2016 06:10
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STAC Goat posted:Yeah, see I didn't read the books so I have no idea if its dealt better with in them or something but for the show I think it made sense to establish some basic boundaries and defined rules for the magic, especially answering pretty obvious questions. "So, magic is real, huh? Can I make myself rich? Can I live forever? Can I bring about world peace? What's the deal?" STAC Goat posted:Yeah. I've only seen a few episodes [of Lost Girl] but basically what I've gathered is she's a succubus so she gets super powers from sex and can seduce anyone and is kind of rapey. And for some reason she's the chosen one of pixies or something. I'm really not sure. I just know the basic show drive is sex. The first season was OK, if you like that kind of thing, but it got worse and worse as it went on, to the point where the final season has characters appearing and disappearing for no reason and story arcs just cutting off without warning.
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Mar 30, 2016 06:29
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Oh poo poo, I just realized.. Was the skeezy bar-vampire Julia and Asmodeus visited.. Colin Cunningham?! I didn't recognize him at first until I was rewinding to see another detail but goddamn, even though he was so thin in that scene that he was nearly almost unrecognizable - I'd remember that voice anywhere  
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Mar 30, 2016 07:02
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coyo7e posted:Naw, you're really not supposed to like anybody in the books. Apart from Josh, he is the best.
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Mar 30, 2016 08:18
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I like that while everyone else has this enormous emotional breakdown Elliott just looks kind of hungover and badly needs a drink and a smoke
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Mar 30, 2016 09:29
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QuarkJets posted:I like that while everyone else has this enormous emotional breakdown Elliott just looks kind of hungover and badly needs a drink and a smoke PTSD's a bitch like that. Brakebills faculty is just as incompetent at counselling their students after a tragedy as they are at, well, everything else.
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Mar 30, 2016 10:14
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coyo7e posted:Oh poo poo, I just realized.. Oh poo poo, that WAS Pope, wasn't it? Son of a bitch.
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Mar 30, 2016 10:22
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People that like this show look down on Lost Girl and Lexx?
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Mar 30, 2016 12:48
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FRINGE posted:People that like this show look down on Lost Girl and Lexx? This show isn't good, but it's not nearly as bad as Lost Girl. Lexx is genuinely fantastic though and doesn't deserve to be compared to either.
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Mar 30, 2016 15:50
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coyo7e posted:Naw, you're really not supposed to like anybody in the books. I think you're supposed to like Josh and by the end of the book Eliot as well. "If they have ruined my hairline I will bring them back to life and kill them again!" I also love Janet because she brought a goddamn pistol to Fillory and everyone freaks out about it
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Mar 30, 2016 17:49
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I liked the books because they showed that the hero isn't always noble and selfless and prepared. Sometimes they stumble into something, succeed, but are still selfish shits.
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Mar 30, 2016 19:28
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FRINGE posted:People that like this show look down on Lost Girl and Lexx? I think I was the only person to mention Lexx, and I unironically love how loving weird and gross and crazy it gets. It's just that you can't deny that it's oversexed as gently caress. e: To be clear, I'm not saying being oversexed is a bad thing (it's part of the show's  charm), I was just stating it as a fact. Lexx is probably the most oversexed show I've ever seen and it is amazing.
WarLocke fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Mar 30, 2016 |
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Mar 30, 2016 23:17
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WarLocke posted:I think I was the only person to mention Lexx, and I unironically love how loving weird and gross and crazy it gets. It's just that you can't deny that it's oversexed as gently caress. Agreed.
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Mar 31, 2016 02:17
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WarLocke posted:I think I was the only person to mention Lexx, and I unironically love how loving weird and gross and crazy it gets. It's just that you can't deny that it's oversexed as gently caress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we0ztNZ45dI
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Mar 31, 2016 02:19
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Leospeare posted:PTSD's a bitch like that. Brakebills faculty is just as incompetent at counselling their students after a tragedy as they are at, well, everything else. Which is why I didn't blink when they (early book 3 spoilers) hired Quentin.
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Apr 3, 2016 21:58
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mastajake posted:Which is why I didn't blink when they (early book 3 spoilers) hired Quentin.  I should not have read that. 
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Apr 4, 2016 04:38
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Well the big difference is that in the books Quentin is actually a really good magician, instead of the middling one on the show.
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Apr 4, 2016 12:45
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muscles like this? posted:Well the big difference is that in the books Quentin is actually a really good magician, instead of the middling one on the show. So Alice and Penny and Elliot arent all better than him? He definitely seems like a second-stringer at best.
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Apr 4, 2016 12:50
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FRINGE posted:So Alice and Penny and Elliot arent all better than him? He definitely seems like a second-stringer at best. Alice > Eliot > Quentin > Penny. In the books, Penny is good - he aces the entrance exam easily where Quentin struggles. But after the first semester, Alice, Quentin and Penny are given an opportunity to complete First Year early and join the Second Year class. Alice and Quentin pass, Penny does not (this is the source of Penny's resentment of Quentin in the books; show-Penny is just kind of a dick, although the "hearing voices constantly" stuff offsets it a bit). Alice is a strong natural talent who is also a compulsively hard worker. Eliot is just as he is on the show, a brilliantly quick study who affects a public persona of never really making a lot of effort. shadok fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Apr 4, 2016 |
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Apr 4, 2016 13:25
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