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exquisite tea posted:I finished The Queen's Gambit. While I liked watching it, I think it could have been a lot better. I felt like I never really knew Beth Harmon as a character or what we were supposed to think of her. I kept waiting for the story to present some kind of unifying theme that would make her motivations and personality relateable, but instead the script just kind of generated cliched melodramatic situations instead of drawing a direct throughline between character, dialogue, and actions. She's an orphan, okay. She's addicted to drugs and booze, yup. She wants to beat the best chess player in Russia, fine. What about all this makes her tick, though? How does this goal help her to resolve the inner pain she's held onto all her life? I felt like the script kind of assumed that if it just kept echoing the refrain of Beth Harmon's lovely childhood, that it alone would do the work of good character writing for the rest of the story. That would be my critique of The Queen's Gambit as a whole; it seems like it wanted to trade in a lot of dramatic imagery around women's rights, civil unrest, and the Cold War in the 1960s, but never really brought it all together into a cohesive thesis. Anya-Taylor Joy is of course a great actress, but I don't think she was given enough to do here. The supporting cast outside of Jolene all felt pretty weak. I just watched the last episode last night and I feel broadly the same I think. It was well made, but it just had nothing to say, like not even really as any character development for Beth at all. They almost get there at times, but then everyone forgives her with no effort or growth required of her. It wasn't really about gender issues, mental illness, the cold war, substance abuse, etc either because while that's all there, it doesn't serve to do anything but drive the plot along to the next grand dramatic moment. Beth just never learns or has to change. They even halfway call that out, but Kansas reporter guy shows up out of nowhere, and then Benny spends 6.3 million dollars calling Moscow all night (with every chess dork in the us in his kitchen) to help her anyway after "you told me to gently caress off and you'd rather go be a drunk than be with me. Maybe the book was better? I still enjoyed it, but it was hollow.
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Jan 2, 2021 17:36
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Is Lin Manuel Miranda still being a charisma black hole in the second season? He was awful in S1. They could have at least asked him to do a cowboy accent over the phone as an audition, that's all it would've taken.
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Jan 4, 2021 15:15
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The strangest thing about Hamilton is that a lot of people thought it's something other than a cornball hiphop musical theater show loosely based on an old rich white guy. It's very good at being that, but it's definitely still that, at least until Disney has Aaron Burr and Hamilton reenact the dual of the fates fight in Hamilton 2.
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Jan 6, 2021 19:20
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I feel like a partly charred set could be written into that show.
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Jan 7, 2021 14:57
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Rhyno posted:Okay then. I just hadn't seen an update. I hadn't either. I don't think i ever saw season 2 of that show, was it any good?
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Jan 7, 2021 23:41
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They should bring back Prison Break. Again. It's 2021, space prison doesn't even sound that far fetched.
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Jan 14, 2021 18:51
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Linc and that talking dolphin would be a great team.
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Jan 14, 2021 18:58
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muscles like this! posted:IIRC there's some other stuff going on about why they're not going to do it but also Wentworth Miller said last year that he's done playing straight characters. I didn't know that was a thing, but that's not a problem. Let's be real here, nobody would miss Sarah that much anyway. Sucre is also still alive, just saying.
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Jan 14, 2021 19:11
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Azhais posted:I only watched the first season, was Sarah the prison doctor? She was. She stuck around as the love interest.
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Jan 14, 2021 19:17
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Mu Zeta posted:I haven't seen it but isn't Zach some kind of Orange County wealthy conservative now. Sounds perfect and they get it. Yes. Or the most limousine liberal, I don't think his politics were ever explaind beyond being only self-interested and vain, which doesn't really narrow it down! But I think they were going for the same kind of thing as with Slater being the loser, Zach's amoral selfishness led him to become gov basically because of one of his schemes and everyone is miserable because he's in over his head - he's a poo poo husband, father, and governor basically. They do try to make him do the right thing in the end though, because it's still saved by the bell. But this is a pretty small part of the show as Zach is barely in it - it's mostly his spoiled, scheming, seemingly incapable of empathy (but trying to change) son that idolizes Zach. It's weird. Like, Zach and Kelly are just awful parents, it's perfect. A lot of that show is pretty out there, but it works for the most part.
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Jan 15, 2021 13:54
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Escobarbarian posted:I watched the recap for Disenchantment part 2 and I truly did not remember a single god drat second of it so maybe I should drop it I had to think about it for a minute, but it came to me. Disenchantment isn't great. Still, I didn't know there was a new season out, so thanks.
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Jan 15, 2021 21:24
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Simone Magus posted:I assure you they exist. More Futurama cult than Groening specifically I guess Groening started sucking after he sold out to Fox man, I only read Life in Hell with those excellently drawn one-eared rabbits.
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Jan 15, 2021 21:26
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Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:"Quick! Rebrand everything! Get me a show with a baby! Do we own Dinosaurs??? SOMEBODY REBOOT SOMETHING!!!" Star Trek: Young Sheldon Honestly it wouldn't be worse than Picard or Discovery.
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Jan 19, 2021 18:22
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muscles like this! posted:I recently finished watching the latest season of Disenchantment and while I'm enjoying the moment to moment comedy bits at times it feels like someone wrote out an outline of what the plot of the entire series was going to be and they decided to speed run it. Nothing in the plot feels like it has time to breathe because they need to be on to the next thing. I'm enjoying this season more than the previous 2, but this is a show that needed the old ~22 episode seasons, because you aren't wrong, and a lack of focus was a problem before this season hit the gas on the plot. Also, Tress MacNeill is a national treasure. Not this nation either, a good one.
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Jan 25, 2021 18:07
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Aardvark! posted:WarnerMedia reportedly planning Harry Potter TV series for HBO Max Well that would be a great way to retcon in some things Rowling forgot, like most of the planet existing - strange omission for a brit. HBO certainly has the money to do it right, as long as they keep the GOT people and JK Rowling far far away. Far away.
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Jan 25, 2021 18:55
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but it feels like something that's definitely happening sooner or later. it's the last thing they haven't really done to monetize the franchise
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Open Source Idiom posted:wtf Some time in the 2000s TLC really ran with their slate of gross surgery shows and turned into the voyeur sideshow channel with poo poo like this, "my 700 lb life," dwarves, and families that had way too many children. Some of it is really ghoulish. Not the pimple show, that's just gross, the shows where the entire premise is "hey look at this person! they're different! lol!" E: that being said, I hope they got paid well for being in the tlc circus, except the Duggars, gently caress them.
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Jan 25, 2021 21:00
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bull3964 posted:Uh, this wasn't on my bingo card for 2021. I'm save someone else some time: no, they didn't. quote:Despite the majority of the show being shot on film, it remains hamstrung by its low budget and low-res effects sequences.
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Jan 26, 2021 18:13
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bull3964 posted:I actually found it very hard to watch at the time because it seemed way too relevant. It may go down a bit easier now. Yes I can think of no time plots against America were less relevant.
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Jan 27, 2021 03:32
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EL BROMANCE posted:The 4K print of Clockwork Orange due this year will have the scene of where the dude is forced to watch all the insane poo poo will be replaced with the Snyder Cut. I hope they digitally add a glorious mustache to the dick sculpture he gets killed with.
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Jan 29, 2021 17:54
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muscles like this! posted:Interesting thing about this image is how they portrayed Jughead's hat. He's supposed to be wearing a "whoopee cap" which is made from an old fedora with the brim cut and turned up, usually adorned with decorative pins/badges. They used to be part of the stereotypical attire of a mechanic and the character Goober Pyle wore one on The Andy Griffith Show. I always thought it looked like a Burger King crown. Those cardboard ones they had in the 80s. I only knew it wasn't because I assumed Archie comics were so old and outdated that they predate Burger King. I actually had to verify that just now, and sure enough, they are.
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Feb 4, 2021 18:23
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He started talking about cable and broadcast in the thread so it seems that way.
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Feb 4, 2021 19:24
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DrVenkman posted:Yeah I get the general grossness of dissecting cats to begin with, but it's not like production killed them first. No one got forced, everyone got paid. Seems like a non story to me. They did it for no good reason. Whether or not I think actual school children learn anything from dissection either is another matter, there's at least a reason. It'd be senseless if it was frogs or whatever too. But i guess some ghoul has to make that "no animals were harmed in the filming of this" disclaimer necessary.
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Feb 10, 2021 14:59
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Simone Magus posted:We had to dissect a babby shark They made us do frogs in middle school. When the teacher squeezed one's legs together it squirted like it was peeing. That's about all I remember, a very valuable educational experience indeed. Anyway, I just watched the trailer for Resident Alien because someone said Alan Tudyk, and that guy could make Dollhouse watchable. This looks like the good parts of Invader Zim but with Tudyk just going total ham and I know what I'm doing today.
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Feb 10, 2021 15:26
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The 4400 started out really strong but fell to pieces pretty quickly for me. I'd say the same about The 100 though, so maybe this'll be good for a season or 2.
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Feb 10, 2021 16:01
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Arist posted:Still worth noting that they're possibly casting colorblind, though I didn't know there was a Last of Us show in the works nor did I ever think about this before, but man, now I really want Lennie James as Joel. He might be too old for all that endless crouch-walking though.
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Feb 11, 2021 03:27
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I can think of a few scenes they definitely won't include now!
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Feb 11, 2021 15:38
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Are normal people generally ready to get back on board with asoiaf again already? I remember the backlash to the poo poo finale being pretty huge. I kind of loved it in retrospect, it killed whatever tiny part of me still cared if the books ever got written.
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Feb 11, 2021 19:43
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Huh, I didn't know he was mostly doing VO for the Mandalorian. While they totally hosed up Dorne over all, he did great with what he had, I thought.
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Feb 12, 2021 00:34
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Lid posted:GRRM realised he hosed up badly killing him off and tried to catch lightning in a bottle twice with Dark Star Dayne who never got adapted thank gently caress. I had forgotten about the dork star, he was the one with the stupid anime hair right? What a mess those books turned into.
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Feb 12, 2021 01:14
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Open Source Idiom posted:It's hard to dismiss its historical significance, at the very least. I don't know if this is you too, but that's what I say when I don't want to fluster people who love that show. I slogged through a few seasons before giving up years ago, but present-day setting mobster stuff just does nothing for me. I'm not going to say it's bad or anything, I've changed my opinions on a few shows since then that are way more outside my usual tastes. I don't really want to try again with it either though.
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Feb 12, 2021 17:52
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Alhazred posted:I was really disappointed by the History of Swearwords. It's 0,1% historians saying "this is when the swearword was first used" and the rest is comedians talking about how much they enjoy using the swearword. That's what I figured it would be, that's been the majority of anything with a documentary-ish theme made by traditional TV for a long time now really. I think YouTubers are legitimately getting good enough to fill that niche, or are already there.
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Feb 14, 2021 14:46
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Final Space is getting close to overcoming my assumption that it was a Rick and Morty knockoff. I don't even dislike that show, just didn't want the Kirkland signature brand Rick or whatever. So it's definitely not that?
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Feb 17, 2021 14:27
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Rhyno posted:Final Space is okay, Rick and Morty is still tolerable. I got burned by Discovery and then even worse by Picard. I keep hearing that Lower Decks got ok, but... they made Picard. I was going to say what they did to the character there, but I think just "they made Picard." works as it really had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I wish The Orville would come back already.
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Feb 17, 2021 17:11
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LMM trying to play Lee Scorsby is some astonishingly bad casting, and I like him.
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Feb 17, 2021 19:55
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muscles like this! posted:I was thinking today about how I get annoyed when a show I've been liking gets retooled halfway through its first season/between first and second. So I was wondering, has there been a show where being retooled actually made it better? The examples I can think of are all worse. Parks and Rec is the obvious one.
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Feb 18, 2021 17:24
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SG1 didn't get retooled, the closest you could call that would be the cast changes years in. Also it was perfect from the jump, so I'm confused. Atlantis you could say that about since they changed one of the leads. Universe would be the best Stargate show to fit in here. Wait, are you counting the original movie? I don't think i would, but I guess that could be a retooling.
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Feb 18, 2021 18:56
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pentyne posted:Atlantis pre-Jason Momoa is practically a different show. Yeah, I guess I forgot Ford entirely. Which was kind of the problem with the character.
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Feb 19, 2021 01:58
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feedmyleg posted:The best Running Man adaptation is Super Smash TV, and will remain so no matter how good Edgar Wright's movie might be. They couldn't keep up with how stupid and lovely reality has gotten. How is Cartman supposed to be offensive when the literal president is actually all of the most offensive traits they gave him?
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Feb 20, 2021 03:15
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Mu Zeta posted:Are they in the medical field or over 65? Where is this? My parents are elderly and they just got their first shot. gently caress the people skipping the line. I'm shocked you haven't heard directly from people getting it who have no business skipping the line. It seems extremely common, but I guess it also depends how stupid your state is being.
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Feb 20, 2021 19:15
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Ugly In The Morning posted:The fact people go for the gloomiest possible version of that instead of the “cancelling the apocalypse” thing is annoying. Well, we aren't currently in danger of the golden horde burning our villages, so the current state of things is just marvelous and couldn't possibly be improved!
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Feb 20, 2021 19:59
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