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Tace Vim posted:watching season 1 of Fringe. it's pretty good so far for an episodic show. I didn't realize John Noble, the actor who plays Walter Bishop was born in South Australia. he looks really familiar It does get a lot less episodic through the first few seasons (I've been binging it too, up to s5e4 now) but it never loses it completely and does some kind of fun things with it. Overall I like the show a lot but mainly because of the characters rather than the actual plot/storytelling. Like toward the end of s3 Olivia figures out that Peter had been searching out and murdering shapeshifters and then covering it up and lying about it. But a split second later Belly takes over her consciousness and that particular subplot is completely dropped. The writers went out of their way to humanize some of the shifters so we might give a poo poo about Peter killing them, then they just never ever mention his little bloodthirsty streak ever again (so far). But I still love all the characters. Peter and Olivia are cool, but Walter and Astrid are still the best. I'm a little disappointed season 5 is what it is so far. It took my least favorite episode of the first 4 seasons and then made the show all about that. But again, the characters are still fun and it's not like I'm hating the show all the sudden, it's just not what I was hoping for. Seems like the consensus is that the show sticks the landing pretty well so I'm excited to see what they do the rest of this season. The show isn't perfect, very few are, but for me it hovers around the good to very good mark. Inspector 34 fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Apr 28, 2021 |
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Apr 28, 2021 05:47
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Inspector 34 posted:It does get a lot less episodic through the first few seasons (I've been binging it too, up to s5e4 now) but it never loses it completely and does some kind of fun things with it. Overall I like the show a lot but mainly because of the characters rather than the actual plot/storytelling. Like toward the end of s3 Olivia figures out that Peter had been searching out and murdering shapeshifters and then covering it up and lying about it. But a split second later Belly takes over her consciousness and that particular subplot is completely dropped. The writers went out of their way to humanize some of the shifters so we might give a poo poo about Peter killing them, then they just never ever mention his little bloodthirsty streak ever again (so far). But I still love all the characters. Peter and Olivia are cool, but Walter and Astrid are still the best. This is all cool and good but how can you mention Walter and Astrid as the best without including Gene, the cow. Also, S2E18 White Tulip is such a great episode
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Apr 28, 2021 06:29
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Well Gene just didn't get enough lines to really flesh them out. I agree, White Tulip is fantastic. Probably the best episode of the show that I've seen. I probably couldn't guess any single episode based on the title alone but that one was so good.
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Apr 28, 2021 06:42
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I think season three of Vikings is a disaster. So many odd pacing choices, character deaths with no emotional payoff or anything, and unbelievable characters that had amazing plot development in the first two seasons, it seems like the show is literally just spinning the wheels and advancing a 'plot' that is becoming too broad and less focused. It's trying and failing hard at being Game of Thrones. I am almost Dexter-level hate watching the show now. What a loving stupid finale too. I loved the first two seasons, and I'm pretty much ready to stop watching.
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Apr 28, 2021 10:19
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Hizawk posted:I loved the first two seasons, and I'm pretty much ready to stop watching. Absolutely do, it only goes downhill from there. Even the battles stop being good. e: There's some fantastic Ragnar/Ecbert scenes in Season 4 but probably not worth slogging through the season for Wafflecopper fucked around with this message at 11:29 on Apr 28, 2021 |
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Apr 28, 2021 11:21
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Vikings keeps getting worse which is kind of impressive. To continue your Game of Thrones comparison, imagine a villain kind of like Ramsay Bolton except he remains the bad guy for the whole rest of the series.
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Apr 28, 2021 11:22
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Hizawk posted:I think season three of Vikings is a disaster. So many odd pacing choices, character deaths with no emotional payoff or anything, and unbelievable characters that had amazing plot development in the first two seasons, it seems like the show is literally just spinning the wheels and advancing a 'plot' that is becoming too broad and less focused. I have always thought Vikings moved too fast story wise. The season 1 storyline was amazing and I feel like they could have stretched it another season or 2. The smaller tribe/village politics was always more interesting than all the other stuff. I dropped off I think sometime in 3 (or early 4) when I realized I was hate watching it. Still I have fond memories of the Sacrifice episode in season 1. Man that was a great episode of TV. Also how many times did Vikings draw from the well of my brother might betray me?
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Apr 28, 2021 12:58
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I dropped half way through season 3 But yeah, season 1 and 2 were good, and could have been like 4 seasons or so
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Apr 28, 2021 13:03
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Tace Vim posted:watching season 1 of Fringe. it's pretty good so far for an episodic show. I didn't realize John Noble, the actor who plays Walter Bishop was born in South Australia. he looks really familiar You may be remembering him from his role as Denethor in The Return of the King - that was about as big a showcase role as an actor like John Noble could possibly get, and it definitely revived his career - I doubt we'd have had him as Walter Bishop if he hadn't been in LotR first, and John Noble simply is Walter, I couldn't possibly imagine anyone else in that role after half a season of watching him.
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Apr 28, 2021 16:26
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ketchup vs catsup posted:I finished all 11 seasons of Frasier after doing all 11 seasons of Cheers before it. The Ski Lodge I think is the highest rated episode on IMDB. IMDB also loves all the "they think he's gay" ones. Yea, theres 8 episodes or so the last few seasons where Frasier is super annoying. But it's not all the time. I recently binged Perfect Strangers which was not easy to finish. But it has some hilarious moments but ends up getting really annoying often. But there are many many plotlines that Frasier seemed to copy (PS came before Frasier). Perhaps these are sitcom tropes that were common before PS but you definitely get the sense that some Frasier writers watched some PS. But Frasier does them better. CarlosTheDwarf fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Apr 29, 2021 |
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Apr 29, 2021 13:44
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S05E01 of Fringe ends in a wordless scene just starring John Noble. It's one of the finest pieces of acting I have seen on TV. It's the opposite of every "GREAT ACTING!" video you've seen. Quiet, understated, subtle yet very clear what it is portraying without words.
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Apr 29, 2021 14:57
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Just finished all 3 seasons of Formula 1: Drive to Survive on Netflix. Other than vroom vroom car go fast, I knew next to nothing about F1 racing and throughly enjoyed this show. It’s super interesting to me just how much of a team sport it is from the designers and engineers of the cars all the way up to the driver. It’s also entertaining how cut-throat those drivers can be even while being on the same team! It’s a good watch. I recommend it!
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Apr 29, 2021 20:01
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The only logical solution now, is to go all in. There's a thread - https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3963322&pagenumber=1
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Apr 29, 2021 20:29
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Wrapping up season 1 of For All Mankind and very much enjoying it. It helps I’m a sucker for space drama / alt histories but this is a good one. Finished Man in the high castle last week and, while it had its moments , felt very underwhelmed by it in comparison.
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May 2, 2021 01:53
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Solaris 2.0 posted:Finished Man in the high castle last week and, while it had its moments , felt very underwhelmed by it in comparison. Season 4? Yeah, that was such a let down after how good the prior two seasons were. High Castle is actually a big reason why I had so much difficulty liking the back half of For All Mankind season 2. A lot of it is good, but it's so so similar to High Castle's second season finale that it can't help but come across as inferior.
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May 2, 2021 02:19
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Khablam posted:The only logical solution now, is to go all in. There's a thread - https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3963322&pagenumber=1 Wtf that's not the air fryer thread
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May 2, 2021 07:59
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Finished Shadow and Bone. Mildly engaging but largely forgettable so I don't see it having much shelf life.
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May 2, 2021 09:39
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Solaris 2.0 posted:Wrapping up season 1 of For All Mankind and very much enjoying it. It helps I’m a sucker for space drama / alt histories but this is a good one. We really enjoyed season 1 but season 2 is even better. It’s a slow build but...dang.
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May 2, 2021 10:56
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Pablo Bluth posted:Finished Shadow and Bone. Mildly engaging but largely forgettable so I don't see it having much shelf life. Agreed on all counts. In other news we’re watching Invincible now and it’s quite good.
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May 2, 2021 10:57
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Trig Discipline posted:Agreed on all counts.
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May 2, 2021 13:06
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Is it the general thread opinion that The Magicians is good? My little sister is pushing me to watch it and I wanna know whether I should really watch it or just put it on in the background while I'm working so I can pretend.
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May 6, 2021 01:24
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Trig Discipline posted:Is it the general thread opinion that The Magicians is good? My little sister is pushing me to watch it and I wanna know whether I should really watch it or just put it on in the background while I'm working so I can pretend. It's really good. The first season can be kind of rough, but the show tends to get better and better as it goes along, and by the end it was one of my favorites.
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May 6, 2021 01:32
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Good to hear, thanks!
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May 6, 2021 01:54
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Trig Discipline posted:Good to hear, thanks! Yeah, click on my ? and see my reaction. I recently went through that journey. I started out feeling iffy, went to a hate watch, and now I think it may be one of my favorite shows ever? This is my life.
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May 6, 2021 03:19
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The Magicians season 1 is aggressively mediocre. From season 2 on, it's a special blend of perfect that no other show has really done before. It's a super unique, fun, and clever show that rewards you for paying attention.
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May 6, 2021 05:27
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I wouldn't call it perfect or one of my favorites but I would say that its first season or two is clunky but mostly entertaining trash but gradually it kind of finds itself and was capable of moments of greatness and something special.
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May 6, 2021 05:32
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I hated the show on season 1 but by the middle of season 2 I'd warmed up to it. At some point towards the S2 finale I realized it was probably my favorite show on the air at the time.
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May 6, 2021 08:05
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Huh, I may just have to give it a second try. I bailed on the very first episode cause I just ended up loathing the protagonist on instinct somehow. 
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May 6, 2021 10:01
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Quentin is terrible at first. He has that "I am the chosen one" syndrome for a while but it passes and there's a really fantastic moment of character in season 4 that becomes crucial to the finale.
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May 6, 2021 10:14
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Recent watches: Travelers I finished S2 last night. I love how this show continues to surprise. The season finale really blew up my expectations of how the show was going to go. Really enjoying the ride. And from Acorn/Amazon land. Brokenwood Mysteries. For some reason this is one of our favorite shows. It's a generally light in tone crime procedural set in a small New Zealand town. The 90 minute episodes give a lot more time to get into each story. Season 7 just dropped and as far as IMDB is telling me there is no S8 in production. There's a new cast member who works out pretty well. I'm not sure I'll give the writers full marks this season if only because some of the humor was just too on the nose, like there's been a running gag one of the cops is bad at making coffee and in past seasons you'll just see one of the characters pick up a coffee mug and sniff it and set it down, but this season they'd hit you over the head with the joke a little more obviously. Otherwise, still a great ride and I hope they keep the show going. Trapped. Nordic noire set in a small town in Iceland. Season 1 was awesome. Much better than "The Cliff" which we just watched, although they are very different shows. Really good 10 episode journey weaving together multiple crimes. We're in the middle of S2 now. Keeping Faith. Irish drama. The show starts out with a lawyer who's husband disappears, and she has to keep her life together while being a suspect in the disappearance and also learning of the double life her husband was leading. S1 was excellent if you like "plucky person surviving as the screws tighten" show, but we got a little tired of it in S2 and we've set it aside part way though s3, at least for now.
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May 6, 2021 17:27
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BetterLekNextTime posted:
We watched the first 6 seasons last year, so thanks for the heads-up. The balance of light humor w/o it being the focus (like say, Death in Paradise) is what we like. I do like that former episode suspects (pharmacist, Frodo) pop up as recurring supporting cast - more realistic in small town. Other day at lunch we were trying to decide what the most dangerous TV small town must be, wrt population vs number of homicides.
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May 6, 2021 18:29
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pumped up for school posted:I do like that former episode suspects (pharmacist, Frodo) pop up as recurring supporting cast - more realistic in small town. There's a lot of this in S7! quote:Other day at lunch we were trying to decide what the most dangerous TV small town must be, wrt population vs number of homicides. I'd go with the Murder She Wrote town. But maybe enough of those were in other cities.
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May 6, 2021 18:51
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Perestroika posted:Huh, I may just have to give it a second try. I bailed on the very first episode cause I just ended up loathing the protagonist on instinct somehow. We watched episode 1 last night and it was just the clumsiest possible infodump of "here are the bits we stole from Harry Potter, over here are the bits we stole from Narnia, and if you'll look over here you'll see Fifty Shades of Grey". Like I've heard enough good opinions of it that we're going to give it a full chance but that first episode was decidedly not promising.
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May 6, 2021 22:23
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Keeping Faith. Irish drama. WELSH GOONS RISE UP
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May 7, 2021 00:33
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Started going through Travelers, I’m enjoying it so far. Some of the body horror/possession bits are pretty great, especially the one where the team leader realizes after shooting his team that he himself is about to be possessed, so he attempts to turn his gun on himself before that happens.
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May 7, 2021 02:44
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Open Source Idiom posted:WELSH GOONS RISE UP
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May 7, 2021 03:33
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devmd01 posted:Started going through Travelers, I’m enjoying it so far. Some of the body horror/possession bits are pretty great, especially the one where the team leader realizes after shooting his team that he himself is about to be possessed, so he attempts to turn his gun on himself before that happens. I loved this aspect of the show, and when the show goes there it's great. There's an episode in the show's second season which plays this out to the n-th degree, and it's genuinely excellent. It's a little too in love with its cast, which can make the show a little disturbing at times. It's also too worried about its audience liking its characters which, ironically, leads them to not pushing as far with the show's concepts as it really should have. The result is frustrating; for all that the show is blatantly an attempt by the Netflix algorithm to recapture the success of Continuum, it's nowhere near as brave as that series managed to be. So it's a comfortable show to turn your brain off to, for the most part, but the reminders that the main characters have a psychotic disregard for human life remains. A scrupulously justified disregard, but it's still there.
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May 7, 2021 03:37
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holy poo poo continuum owned lmao. I literally just finished it, very good
Google Butt fucked around with this message at 07:46 on May 7, 2021 |
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May 7, 2021 07:44
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needed 4 more seasons
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May 7, 2021 07:45
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Google Butt posted:holy poo poo continuum owned lmao. I literally just finished it, very good gently caress yeah. I just finished watching it again the other day. It's really emotional, but it never buys into its character's bullshit. And the endings to most of the cast are so so good. Carlos was the real hero IMO. Also: something no one ever talks about : the fights are pretty good.
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May 7, 2021 08:15
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