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sebmojo posted:I love penn and teller being incomprehensibly unfunny but everyone cracking up It's a great comment on at least some kinds of humor needing cultural context/zeitgeist. Delenn's reaction to their whispered joke in Minbari even more so. Plus it's funny in its own right in a meta sort of way.
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# ? Feb 1, 2022 13:50 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 16:31 |
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Powered Descent posted:Taking a brief B5 break since my watching partner is out of town again, but I decided to go back and look up one of my guesses: Pretty much everyone on B5 has theater experience, and it heavily informs the show.
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# ? Feb 1, 2022 14:46 |
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Day of the Dead spoilers: Neil Gaiman wrote this episode. I don’t think he requested Penn and Teller, but he appears to like them and they were fans of the show. Given that JMS clearly establishes them as “comedy duo that YOU don’t think is funny but everyone else seems to love,” it strikes me as excellent casting. And Gaiman mostly maintains that conceit, just with a different character as the “I don’t get it,” by having their best comedy bit be Minbari comedy and thus be incomprehensible to us.
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# ? Feb 1, 2022 16:34 |
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The entire show in general is almost more of a stage play than it is a TV show.
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# ? Feb 1, 2022 16:46 |
CainFortea posted:The entire show in general is almost more of a stage play than it is a TV show. Yes, and it's one of my favorite things about the show. Most of the bombastic stage actors are alien (literal or in the sense of "just plain weird"), and it helps make them feel alien. Some of that is necessity: G'Kar's face is under ten pounds of makeup, so he has to over-emote just to emote at all. Some of it helps them feel like they're from another culture entirely. Plus it gives us great scenes like almost any time G'Kar is in an elevator. What I'm saying is G'Kar rules.
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# ? Feb 1, 2022 17:20 |
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mllaneza posted:Stuff Hey you want to put some spoiler tags on that in this thread? discoukulele posted:s05e08 – Day of the Dead Former lover, according to Gaiman. Polaron fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Feb 3, 2022 |
# ? Feb 3, 2022 03:57 |
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Polaron posted:Former lover, according to Gaiman. Huh, for some reason I always thought it was explicit she was her younger sister.
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# ? Feb 3, 2022 04:04 |
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Polaron posted:Hey you want to put some spoiler tags on that in this thread? On reflection, I do !
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# ? Feb 3, 2022 04:33 |
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Grand Fromage posted:Huh, for some reason I always thought it was explicit she was her younger sister.
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# ? Feb 3, 2022 05:57 |
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Sic Transit Vir: This show murders subtext with a rusty spoon.
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# ? Feb 5, 2022 20:38 |
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ultrafilter posted:Pretty much everyone on B5 has theater experience, and it heavily informs the show. Michael O'Hare played Colonel Jessup in the Broadway production of A Few Good Men (I believe he replaced Stephen Lang, who wanted to do more movie work). I wish I could have seen that. He could bring ridiculous levels of intensity and gravitas to his roles, not just in B5 but even in smaller guest spots on shows like Law & Order and LA Law. I shudder to think of him staring down Lieutenant Kaffee and putting him in his place.
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# ? Feb 6, 2022 05:27 |
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Timby posted:Michael O'Hare played Colonel Jessup in the Broadway production of A Few Good Men (I believe he replaced Stephen Lang, who wanted to do more movie work).
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# ? Feb 6, 2022 09:28 |
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Mr. Apollo posted:I really liked O'Hare as Sinclair and wished we could have seen more of him. I don't think there are many actors who could have made And the Sky Full of Stars work as well as he did. It could have easily gone over the top and been campy but he made it work. unlike sheridan it's also possible to imagine him as having hosed at some point in his life
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# ? Feb 6, 2022 12:12 |
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sebmojo posted:unlike sheridan it's also possible to imagine him as having hosed at some point in his life Not if he sleeps on Carnellian bedsheets, he won't.
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# ? Feb 6, 2022 12:56 |
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O'Hare is brilliant, but every time he monologues I feel like he's just barely holding back from accidentally slipping into a Frank Drebbin monologue instead.
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# ? Feb 6, 2022 13:01 |
sebmojo posted:unlike sheridan it's also possible to imagine him as having hosed at some point in his life Sheridan *definitely* is Mr vanilla, but doesn’t strike me as the celibate type even before B5 canonically shows him doing the deed. Just…extremely middle of the road and normal. Somebody fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Feb 7, 2022 |
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# ? Feb 6, 2022 13:41 |
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Guys, can we please remember which thread we're in?
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# ? Feb 6, 2022 17:21 |
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Jedit posted:Guys, can we please remember which thread we're in? Spoiler: Sheridan gets laid.
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# ? Feb 6, 2022 19:37 |
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s05e10 – A Tragedy of Telepaths
s05e11 – Phoenix Rising
s05e12 – The Ragged Edge
s05e13 – The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father
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# ? Feb 7, 2022 07:17 |
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I just watched Lost Tales: The anthology idea of “untold stories” is interesting but it really suffered from a low production budget. The bit about Stephen and G’Kar “traveling beyond the rim” was a nice touch. Setting it 10 years after the founding of the ISA was a good idea since everyone had aged 10 years. It would have been nice to see more episodes but JMS was right about not ruining B5’s legacy with sub-par production.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 01:23 |
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As I start heading toward the end of Season 5, I'm thinking about doing JMS' preferred viewing order going forward - Season 5 up to through the penultimate episode, then River of Souls, Legend of the Rangers, Call to Order, Crusade, Lost Tales, and then the Season 5 finale. Would that be the best way to do it?
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 05:19 |
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If you're going to watch all that stuff it's probably the best way, but there's nothing essential in any of those.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 05:21 |
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ultrafilter posted:If you're going to watch all that stuff it's probably the best way, but there's nothing essential in any of those. Yeah, I want to watch all of the movies for sure. I'm a little eh on Crusade, but I don't really know anything about it. 13 episodes isn't that big of a commitment, though.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 05:36 |
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discoukulele posted:As I start heading toward the end of Season 5, I'm thinking about doing JMS' preferred viewing order going forward - Season 5 up to through the penultimate episode, then River of Souls, Legend of the Rangers, Call to Order, Crusade, Lost Tales, and then the Season 5 finale. Would that be the best way to do it? I would suggest the final B5 episode after either River of Souls or Call to Arms. It really has no reference to the other work and works much better as the bookend to B5 itself than as the bookend to all the spin-off episodes.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 05:48 |
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s05e14 – Meditations on the Abyss
s05e15- Darkness Ascending
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 06:43 |
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discoukulele posted:As I start heading toward the end of Season 5, I'm thinking about doing JMS' preferred viewing order going forward - Season 5 up to through the penultimate episode, then River of Souls, Legend of the Rangers, Call to Order, Crusade, Lost Tales, and then the Season 5 finale. Would that be the best way to do it?
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 07:41 |
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Mr. Apollo posted:What about Thirdspace? It's a standalone movie but there is a one line reference/joke about it in S05E18. Thirdspace was released after S05E17. I watched Thirdspace and In The Beginning in between seasons 4 and 5. I really liked both of them!
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 08:11 |
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discoukulele posted:As I start heading toward the end of Season 5, I'm thinking about doing JMS' preferred viewing order going forward - Season 5 up to through the penultimate episode, then River of Souls, Legend of the Rangers, Call to Order, Crusade, Lost Tales, and then the Season 5 finale. Would that be the best way to do it? River of souls yes, call to arms, eh can go either way, hard no on lost tales/legend/the half season of Crusade we got. Sure watch them all but watching them before the finale is just trying your patience for no good reason because the only reason to do so is that the finale is very much an epilogue set well after the events of all of those shows.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 10:18 |
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Chevy Slyme posted:River of souls yes, call to arms, eh can go either way, hard no on lost tales/legend/the half season of Crusade we got. I agree and personally would only watch River of Souls (if even that) before the series finale.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 10:54 |
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It should also be noted that discoukelele is the first blind Watcher to reach the end of the series, and everyone from the regular thread wants to see their response. We're a little bit impatient.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 11:12 |
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sebmojo posted:unlike sheridan it's also possible to imagine him as having hosed at some point in his life I have a pretty deep dislike of Bruce Boxleitner in the first place; mostly, he just feels and sounds like a poor man's Michael Douglas (just as Jerry Doyle is the dollar store version of Bruce Willis).
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 11:28 |
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Timby posted:I have a pretty deep dislike of Bruce Boxleitner in the first place; mostly, he just feels and sounds like a poor man's Michael Douglas (just as Jerry Doyle is the dollar store version of Bruce Willis). yep, he gives competent dramatic hero, but I weep a little for what might have been.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 11:59 |
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Bruce is an interesting casting call, but when you think about the character of Sheridan, who he is when he's introduced, it's pretty spot on. A fresh faced empty suit with some military cred, expected to tow the company line while smiling and glad handing his way through it. They needed a "leading man" type person, all face no personality, so Earthforce hired Sheridan/JMS cast Bruce. Maybe that's a bit harsh on Bruce's acting chops, but the writing really complements who he is, like yeah he is that guy. And here's what that guy can do when push comes to shove. He can have all these heroic qualities, he isn't just someone we hired because he's got pretty hair and can run a press conference.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 17:37 |
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Jedit posted:It should also be noted that discoukelele is the first blind Watcher to reach the end of the series, and everyone from the regular thread wants to see their response. We're a little bit impatient. I think I'm going to go ahead and skip Crusade for now, so I think there's a good chance that I'll be finishing up by next weekend!
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 17:41 |
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discoukulele posted:
Don't feel pressured. The most important thing is that you enjoy it.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 18:24 |
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Oh no, I'm not feeling any pressure at all. I feel like Season 5 is really starting to take off, so I'm anxious to see where things go!
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 18:57 |
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discoukulele posted:Oh no, I'm not feeling any pressure at all. I feel like Season 5 is really starting to take off, so I'm anxious to see where things go! Once Byron goes you've hit the inflection point where it switches from the stuff he had to scramble and come up with at the last minute when they got picked up and the stuff that was already planned to be in season 5. It improves immensely.
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# ? Feb 8, 2022 21:13 |
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s05e16 – And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder
s05e17 – Movements of Fire and Shadow
s05e18 –The Fall of Centauri Prime
Anyways, drat. What a spectacular run of episodes. It really did get so much better after Byron blew up. I'm really curious to see what's in store for the last few episodes, especially because Londo ascending to Emperor and his eventual strangulation are the only things that I've been expecting.
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# ? Feb 10, 2022 01:32 |
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s05e19 -The Wheel of Fire
s05e20 – Objects in Motion
s05e21 – Objects at Rest
I'm honestly pretty sad that this journey is almost over. I've really enjoyed this series a lot; it ticks a lot of boxes for me, and I love an intricate narrative where things were clearly planned from the beginning. This weekend and into next week I'm planning to do a few double features to wrap up the series. Here's what I'm thinking - River of Souls Legend of the Rangers Call to Arms Lost Tales Sleeping in Light The Destruction of Falling Stars (rewatch) I may end up circling back around to Crusade at some point. After all of this, I'm planning to start watching DS9 for the first time. It's been on my list for awhile and I've been itching to get it going. I have a feeling B5 is ultimately going to be the better one by far, but I'm really curious about it.
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# ? Feb 11, 2022 06:23 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 16:31 |
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DS9 is also very good, just different. If you were forcing me to rank 90s SF shows I'd put it second after B5. Also it has Garak.
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# ? Feb 11, 2022 06:30 |