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Pick posted:A huge number of early Simpsons episodes are reaaaaaally uncomfortably racist. Early Simpsons wasn't faultless, and they had lots of casual trans jokes such as Otto thinking Patty used to be a man, but for the late 80s/early 90s they were progressive. Matt Groening would add notes to avoid having karaoke bars be racist: https://mobile.twitter.com/bobservo/status/758442670427557889?lang=en We've been going through King of the Hill and overall one of my all time favorites, but there are some rough patches. In "Junkie Business" a drug addict is hired at Strickland Propane and Hank is unable to have him fired because of the Americans With Disabilities Act. The episode has funny moments, but it is painful to see the show treating the ADA as a terrible burden for a small business because of a strawman addict. Especially when all the Strickland employees begin faking ailments to not work.
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Jul 30, 2017 23:57
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Gyro Zeppeli posted:A LOT of late King of the Hill has aged really poorly, because that's when Mike Judge started inserting his neocon crank politics front and center into it. Oh man, I really hope Mike Judge isn't a far right neo-con. If he turns out to be the new Scott Adams I'm gonna be bummed for a month. From what I have heard in interviews Mike Judge is conservative and libertarian, but level headed and doesn't use his work as an attack on perceived enemies. I don't think he is a neo-con, off the top of my head: -On KOTH, the Army is frequently shown as incompetent, such as when Bill is easily able to steal a tank or how haircuts were costing them $800. -George W. Bush is shown to have a limp handshake, and it is left ambigious whether Hank voted for him. -Former Democrat Texas governor Ann Richards makes an appearance and comes across well. Jimmy Carter's appearance goofs on him but he comes across as a good person. I do agree that the show does take some shots at liberal ideas, like the ADA in Junkie Business and those can be rough spots. Not that liberal ideas are right all the time, but KOTH can fall into strawmen. In Phish and Wildlife hippies invade a park and ruin the gang's vacation. The hippies are portrayed as lazy stereotypes, and Hank foils them by arranging to have park services turned off and telling them to get a job. But neither episode was written by Judge. On that same note, one of the hippies later shows up working at an organic co-op grocery store. The hippies at the store are disorganized, but Hank learns their food is much better than what he buys at Megalomart. The show is also consistent fair about immigrants, Mexico, smoking being bad. So overall I think Judge is conservative but level headed and not a spiteful man. Although to be fair to your point I haven't seen all of the later seasons so maybe it did get really bad.
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Jul 31, 2017 17:25
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Precambrian posted:When you're binging Friends and all of a sudden everyone's wearing NYFD gear and you realize: you've just crossed into the post-9-11 episodes. SNL getting Rudy Giuliani to give them the okay to make jokes is... awkward now because we know how much of a piece of poo poo Giuliani is, but he was gold after 9-11. It was a weird time. Any other shows where you can tell it was made right after a national tragedy? The crew of the Enterprise began fighting the Suliban. The sitcom Spin City took place in the NYC's mayor's office, I think they just hugged a lot.
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Aug 1, 2017 18:31
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I think they ultimately retconned that into being a Doombot and not actual Dr. Doom because they were like "yeah, there's no way the supervillain cries about that". Or something equally second-level dumb. You can see the Juggernaut in that scene from the 9/11 comic, being upset about the World Trade Center. The same World Trade Center he destroyed in 1991: http://m-v-b.tumblr.com/post/83532479282/that-time-the-juggernaut-destroyed-the-world-trade
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Aug 1, 2017 22:25
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Can we mention episodes that have aged incredibly well? On DS9 they had the two part episodes Homefront and Paradise Lost. The Earth of the Federation is a post-scarcity utopia where people can pretty much do whatever they want, which in the fiction leads to mostly constructive activity advancing civilization, and not locking themselves in holodecks. This is threatened after a conference on Earth is bombed by the mysterious shape shifting Founders. The Founders are a threat that can impersonate and infiltrate anywhere, and this places the Federation in a perilous state as everyone is suspect. The Federation begins implementing martial law on Earth and their opportunistic military uses the crisis to take power from the civilian government. There is fear that the Founders could be anywhere, and they have no known home world or bases upon which to retaliate. This climaxes with Starfleet ships firing on each other out of fear. As the Earth frantically tries to enact countermeasures to stop the shapeshifters, their ideas include low-level phaser fields (ineffective against intelligent foes) and blood tests (easy to fool). These extra security steps erode freedoms, and soldiers with phaser rifles become a common sight on Earth. The Founders are able to have a spectacular success at undermining the bedrock ideals of the Federation in exchange by sowing fear, despite (as we learn) they had almost no actual presence on Earth aside from a handful of infiltrators. The message is the real damage was done by a willingness of Earth to exchange liberty for security theater and cede power to the military. These aired in 1996, and were depressingly prescient.
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Aug 3, 2017 00:00
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Hahahha terrible Walker moments, so many. I remember an episode where a killer used knives made out of ice and this was nearly unstoppable, because where's your proof? In another one I don't remember what the problem was, but Walker made a high school start wearing uniforms and that fixed everything. We've been going through Stargate SG1 and overall is a good time. We're up to season 6 and I think it the best series of episodes yet. I like how the show respects their own canon. Great show, except when they don't leave Earth and become NCIS: Stargate. The SG1 team of an Air Force officer, an Air Force scientist, a civilian anthropologist, and an alien warrior, would be sent around the United States to investigate government conspiracy and hack computers. These episodes are the weakest of the series as they rarely have science fiction elements, and at worst resemble cop shows, right down to SG1 chasing perps down alleys or interrogating suspects. This also led to the unfortunate squandering of a precious Star Trek actor guest appearance. Armin Shimmerman and René Auberjonois had appeared in early seasons and were used well (with Auberjonois' episode being the best episode of the series), but unfortunately John de Lancie was cast as a leader of a shadowy group of conspriators who sit around desks and threaten people in suits, waiting for Richard Dean Anderson to show up and shoot everyone with a stun gun. Fortunately mid-6th season they seem to have figured out Earth is boring and moved on from these types of episodes (and de Lancie's fate was kickass).
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Aug 3, 2017 23:23
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eating only apples posted:Everything involving Maybourne is excellent and I will hear nothing against it Haha we just finished that episode about 10 minutes ago. It was excellent, good mystery, Carter doing her best to save Jack, and a satisfying explanation of what happened to the aliens. I wasn't onboard for early Maybourne episodes, but after he went fugitive he got a lot better. Instant Sunrise posted:These episodes are actually why Michael Shanks left the show for season 6 before coming crawling back. Whoa really? I was wondering about him leaving, as he has already popped up for a cameo so I assumed he was on good terms with the show. Although I think Jonas is an upgrade. His upbeat attitude and enthusiasm help the energy. Jackson was alright but could be flat, and his weird mysticism episodes were not great. Strudel Man posted:That one bugged me, because they were perfectly willing to offer sanctuary to Apophis, an alien creature responsible for countless atrocities, but Son of Hitler gets intentionally splatted against the iris after begging for his life. You're right, but drat, what a crowd pleasing way to end an episode. That would be my go to for trying to get someone into the show.
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Aug 4, 2017 05:29
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Marmaduke! posted:My wife watches and rewatches all of the new Doctor Who stuff regularly (why no, she doesn't have a job, how did you know?), I'll have to ask her how the episode where the doctor is on Big Brother, and another character is on The Weakest Link, seems these days. I finished season 1 of Doctor Who, and I can confirm the Big Brother and Weakest Link references don't hold up particularly well. They don't derail the show, but come across as tepid satire in a not-great episode. I like the sci-fi and horror episodes (Father's Day and Empty Child were excellent), but the British culture plots are tedious. Aliens disguised as fat people, and they fart a lot? Somehow that was a two parter? I'm still not decided on the series as a whole. We are three episodes into season 2, and I hope David Tennant gets a lot better fast. Christopher Eccleston was great but Tennant seems underprepared, though I liked him on Jessica Jones.
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Aug 5, 2017 20:06
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I thought Doug was fine? The original airings were on Nickelodeon when I was six and it was a fun show. Some memories: -Doug wins a video game system and gets addicted, endangering his report on silt. I liked how the game had a space funeral each time he failed. -Doug needs one comic book to complete his collection. He buys it from a shady guy, then learns it was stolen from a lovable comic store owner. Doug gives it back. -Doug's dad wants more money so he opens his own photography store, and offers free photos and nearly goes bankrupt. He goes back to his old job and buys Doug a football for his birthday, and in the final show the park is full of dads throwing footballs to their sons. Overall it was a fine kids show, I didn't like the ABC version when all the voices changed.
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Aug 6, 2017 15:51
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Dr Christmas posted:The Rick and Morty episode "Raising Gazorpazorp" had half of the plot be about how a civilization of women would HAVE FEELINGS and BE SHOPPING. Real fresh take there. I was wondering about that episode, the forums seem to love Rick & Morty so I watched a few episodes including "Raising Gazprpazorp" and was baffled about why the show was considered genius. As someone else pointed out, this was below average Futurama laziness. Good to know that was an outlier, I'll need to go back and watch a few more.
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Aug 8, 2017 17:47
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Seven Days was a time travel sci-fi show on UPN. The NSA had alien technology from Roswell and could send a sphere back in time seven days to fix disasters. This gave the show an excuse to blow up monuments each week then hit the reset button. The first season was alright (by my 14 year old standards), but there were some wonky moments in the series. Keep in mind this was a late 1990s show that finished in May 2001: -In the pilot, bad guys fly a light aircraft into the White House and wipe out the Executive Branch and the visiting Russian president, combined with a huge chemical attack on Washington D.C.. Despite this national catastophe, television networks continue regular programming and the NBA doesn't postpone games (for a minor gambling subplot). -For a show that only lasted three seasons we got psychics, three evil dopplegangers, a gremlin, aliens, pyrokensis, freaky Friday with the Pope, gorillas with nuclear launch codes, etc. Although the Groundhog Day episode is delightful. -There were at least four occasions where the world would have ended without the use of time travel, raising the question of how they had survived until then. -The hero is the only person who can pilot the time machine, as PTSD is a superpower that lets him tolerate the pain of the journey. Although he only should need to pick up a telephone to deploy the resources of the US government against problems, he is routinely sent to get into shootouts with bank robbers or inflitrate royal weddings, despite being irreplaceable. The show must have been a joy to write individual episodes as you could destroy whatever you wanted and kill off main characters, but this hampered character development and story arcs. Whatever a character besides the time traveller did in the first half hour would be erased in the final five minutes, so no development or learning. And because the show's premise was a seven day time span, nearly every antagonist was a one shot that couldn't have a long term plan.
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Aug 8, 2017 20:32
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EmmyOk posted:This is how I felt about community and why I was really hesitant to try Rick and Morty for a long time Yeah, I thought seasons one and two, and most of three, of Community were good, but then the show abandoned any grounding and became a bizarre meta mess. It was interesting when Shirley needed to balance school and a family, and Abed had to respect his traditional culture while loving pop culture, but not when nothing matters and Abed is a snowman now. Without decent stories and writing, Danny Pudi and Ken Jeong are Big Bang Theory caliber actors. It was weird hearing friends saying it made sense if you listened to Harmon playing voicemails from Chevy Chase, his feuds with NBC, and how the fourth season shouldn't count, etc. For a show meant to be progressive and modern, their lazy gay jokes wouldn't have been out of place on Three's Company. I dropped out around the video game episode when any sense of reality was being tossed out the door. I did watch the GI Joe episode from the 5th season, that was garbage. I don't think they knew Adult Swim had scraped the 80s animation barrel.
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Aug 8, 2017 22:18
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MisterBibs posted:I haven't watched it in ages, but I remember loving that show, especially if/when his attempts to low-key use his time travel for personal gain to backfire. Haha yeah the romantic subplot was nothing. I wish the show had respected the audience more, I don't think there were any episodes where they didn't use the sphere or fail to stop the threat (even when the danger wasn't world threatening). This would have been fun: -Same initial episodes, big dangers averted by using the sphere. -We start getting a few plots where the sphere isn't deployed to fix an obvious humanitarian problem, or is used for morally gray reasons. -The hero refuses to go on a dubious mission so his superiors create a disaster to force him to go. Upon his return he goes AWOL. -Hero flees to join dissidents, but whenever they think they are succeeding their ingenious plots are foiled as the bad guys still have the sphere and can stop them, Edge of Tomorrow style. The hero must set a trap to bait the sphere into deploying, then steal it and use all remaining fuel to go back so far in time he can stop the bad guys. Thank you for reading my pitch to fix a mediocre show that went off the air two decades ago.
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Aug 9, 2017 04:28
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RareAcumen posted:I'm extremely easy to please and enjoyed Community throughout its seasons without many problems so can we go back to Walker Texas Ranger and why that sucked? From what I saw, it's just Chuck Norris kicking people who have the hand-to-hand skills of a pinata. Let's enjoy highlights from Walker's TV Tropes page: -"The Avenger" is a particularly notable episode, because Walker is forced into a series of Vietnam-themed death matches by a fellow 'Nam war veteran, Caleb Hooks, out of vengeance for killing his brother, Randall, in a standoff. These fights are much more creative and intense than the usual fare of beat 'em ups (fighting in total darkness, over Punji stakes with katanas, and inside an electric cage with mechanical torches) and they eventually lead up to a dramatic knifefight with Hooks himself. -The big finale has Walker personally taking down the leader in a one-on-one showdown, kicking the guy through the control room window. Better yet is it's all caught on live TV so the onlookers at C.D.'s grill cheer him on. And Walker tops it all off by doing a speech on how America is built on all races and trying to push anyone down is totally un-American, getting a standing ovation from the grill onlookers.
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Aug 9, 2017 14:25
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Detective No. 27 posted:She still had to fight tooth and nail to get him on the show. So much so that that's why they started their own studio, if I'm remembering right. I'm not sure if it was for that reason, but they did start Desilu Productions, which took a chance on producing Star Trek which was cool and good.
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Aug 11, 2017 04:58
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sassassin posted:I watched the show. Bobby is a selfish weasel who loves attention. Joseph could have jarring characterization shifts too. One episode he'll be the elite QB carrying the Arlen team, the next episode he's being a socially isolated weirdo with Bobby.
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Aug 11, 2017 14:25
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Inescapable Duck posted:I did like that Bobby isn't necessarily right all the time, even when he does have a point. That's an all time great episode. I liked how the show had an understanding of Christian youth culture, especially the teen bibles, Bobby not wanting to watch the video of the vegetables learning a lesson, and the Moses game where he outruns the wall of water and starts dancing. Inescapable Duck posted:There's a few episodes showing Buck is a greedy idiot who takes advantage of Hank's loyalty and skill. I think there's an outright episode where the fable of 'the goose that laid the golden egg' finally gets to him when he's pushing Hank too hard. Buck made a serious effort to frame Hank for murdering Debbie, including planting a shotgun shell in his truck and wearing a wire then giving a seemingly incriminating tape to the police. Buck isn't dumb, he knows Hank won't leave and he can keep him underpaid and reap the benefits. Buck could promote him whenever he wants (and did, in the Xmas episode), but why spend money if he doesn't have to?
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Aug 11, 2017 16:11
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yo rear end is grass posted:People before pennies. General stores are "Ma and Pa." If you're not there, people are gonna make assumptions, like "Did Pa kill Ma?" They aren't gonna want to buy batteries from me if they think you're back in the freezer hanging from a meat hook.
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Aug 11, 2017 19:22
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I've been enjoying early 1990s Batman and Superman, and overall both series hold up fantastically well regarding animation, voice acting, and stories. One recurring plot element does stand out: skyscrapers going down in explosions. In Beware the Gray Ghost a mad bomber is targeting buildings, and a tower crumples in flames. The episode is full of car bombs going off in downtown Gotham without consequence, and it reminded me of the intro to Children of Men. In World's Finest, a rampaging Joker fires missiles from a giant glider at downtown Metropolis in the middle of the day and multiple tall buildings go down in seconds. We don't even get a cursory "thank goodness it was the abandoned warehouse district", these episodes gotta have four figure body counts.
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Aug 16, 2017 16:37
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WebDog posted:The early X-Files had some bad moments. The X-Files season 1 episode "Darkness Falls" has 30 loggers missing in a forest in Washington State, with ecoterrorists suspected. The only response is the deployment of two FBI agents and one local park ranger. As a Seattle-area resident, this struck me as bizarre that 30 missing people would merit such a tiny response. Even the disappearance of one hiker is a significant news event, and having environments suspected of slaughtering dozens of men would be a huge event, and everyone's primary concern wouldn't be getting the lumber moving again.
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Aug 18, 2017 14:14
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Inescapable Duck posted:I recall something about how Spielberg talked to army officers about the original Martians and basically concluded that a modern military would completely decimate the original WotW Martians. I liked the action scenes in that movie, but as a story it was dull as dishwater. One thing most people know about the book is that germs take down the martians... and that happens without any twist. I wish they had used the Alan Moore idea, where germs kill the martians, but they are biological warfare adapted from anthrax and smallpox (or something) and also wipe out lots of humans in the war zone. But that might have hurt the go go USA theme.
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Aug 19, 2017 16:32
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Choco1980 posted:I always liked the episode all about vampires that had Luke Wilson as the Aw Shucks small town sheriff that Mulder makes fun of Scully for liking. That's Bad Blood, yeah that was one of the best episodes they ever did. Fantastic ending and humor. For something not aging well, Stargate SG1 season 7 episode, "Fragile Balance." In this episode team leader Jack reverts to being 15 years old. By the end of the episode, it turns out the 15 year old Jack is a clone, and the real version was in alien stasis. The 15 year old Jack has all of the memories and experience of his older self, and by the end of the episode he is still alive and healthy, and 50 year old Jack is also back. That's when it gets weird. At this point in the show, Jack is the most experienced team leader the Air Force has in confronting existential alien threats. He's travelled further from Earth than any other human, is an Air Force Colonel with the highest clearances, and has friendships with advanced civilizations critical to saving humanity. Additionally, he has experienced major tramua including the accidental death of his son that was his fault, divorce, killing dozens of enemies, and being tortured. So the Stargate program has the rare opportunity to make use of a "back-up" Jack whose only disadvantage would be his physical immaturity, which would cease to be an issue in a few years, and would become a plus as he would be able to stay with the program for an extra half century. So is Jack 2 put in charge of his own team? Sent to be an ambassador to the Asgard or Tok'ra? Nah, he is shipped off to be a high school sophomore. Which might make sense if Jack 2 had really been 15 and needed a chance to live his life, but this character had the mental state of a 50 year old man and was completely willing to continue battling dire threats to Earth. Sending him off to high school makes no sense, he'd be bored out of his mind to no purpose. Additionally, as he was plucked out of nowhere he has no family, house, or social structure (other than a vague "the Air Force will provide.") Worst of all, when Jack 2 was dropped off at high school and asked if he would be ok, he checks out some female students and confirms he will be alright. He's a 50 year old man who's been in the body of a 15 year old for a week, he really really shouldn't be attracted to children. drat, season 6 was fantastic. I dunno about 7 so far, hope it gets better.
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Aug 21, 2017 19:40
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No way will I defend anything Moore has done in the last two decades, but "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" and "For the Man Who Has Everything" are still amazing and possible top ever Superman comics. Kinda like Frank Miller's "Dark Knight Returns" being phenomenal but I don't want to dwell on post 9/11 sending Miller to a weird place.
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Aug 25, 2017 04:50
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IShallRiseAgain posted:Anytime a audibook narrator tries to do a voice for a character the opposite sex of them is almost always hillariously bad, especially if the character has some sort of accent or speech quirk. I think you're right for lesser skilled narrators, but for the Game of Thrones audiobooks narrator Roy Dotrice does an excellent job voicing Arya and other female characters. Although to be fair he isn't trying to use a falsetto. But yeah, when an audiobook narrator makes a poor decision for a major character it can sink the whole project. I listened to The Library at Mount Char, which has Carolyn as the main character, which paired with a female narrator should be no problem, right? Except she gave Carolyn, who is supposed to a brilliant tactician who can speak any language, an irritating valley girl voice that either made her sound condescending or clueless. And let's not get into Wil Wheaton narrating all of Ready Player One. The man cannot do even one voice, let alone a whole book.
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Oct 6, 2017 15:16
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The Bloop posted:Seek help immediately if pronunciation variability makes you suicidal. James Bond made more sense after learning he was calling Judi Dench “ma’am”, not “mum”
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Oct 6, 2017 15:38
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Watching Dr Who relaunch for first time. Overall enjoying it (near end of series 3), but holy hell the Daleks are the worst recurring villain. Worst than TNG Ferengi, as at least those guys didn’t keep having two parters. Screechy, dull, and with idiotic storylines. Although I do like the Cybermen, and the one Weeping Angel episode was fantastic. For a show that aged well, Superman the Animated Series. I hadn’t watched seen it aired, it’s got excellent animation, fun stories, and I forgot the voice acting was so stacked. Brad Garrett, Clancy Brown, Ernie Hudson, Lisa Edelstein... great stuff.
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Oct 22, 2017 18:49
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John Murdoch posted:STAS is why I'm always confused when people complain about how boring and bad Superman is "because he's invincible" or whatever. Yeah it’s my favorite version of the character. I like how from episode one he’s in the costume, in Metropolis, and all the core characters are there. No teenage years, the military isn’t trying to arrest him, just great stories. A few duds here and there (Lobo is Mr. Early 90s edginess) but snagging Malcolm McDowell as Metallo and Michael Ironside as Darkside more than make up for it. BioEnchanted posted:I liked the episode where the Daleks and Cybermen are initially working together but inevitably betray each other: Haha yeah that’s their one good episode. When the Daleks were trying to weld metal to the top of the Empire State Building with a pig army was garbage. Stop threatening to murder Great Depression workers to get them to toil faster, just pay them more. Although that episode did have young Andrew Garfield.
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Oct 22, 2017 23:55
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Squidster posted:BSG, for those who missed this theatre of the absurd. Hahahahaha that is perfect
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Oct 23, 2017 17:48
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(Parks & Rec opens with Leslie meeting Joe Biden, Tom referencing R Kelly lyrics, episode written by Harris Wittels) Huh.
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Nov 3, 2019 16:48
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Going through Stargate Atlantis for first time, overall lots of fun. Bit of an issue season 3 ep 3, “Irresistible,” where Richard Kind is a guy on a planet where everyone in his village loves him and does whatever he says because he has a special potion. Fine when he’s trying to get a spaceship or medical supplies, super problematic when discussion gets into his six wives. It’s a lighthearted episode but very similar to season one of Jessica Jones, although Kind isn’t maliciously hurting people, but wish they’d cut the stuff about women not being able to say no and just had him trying to steal artifacts.
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Mar 15, 2021 00:54
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