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muscles like this! posted:I thought the first two episodes of Foundation were good but wasn't super into the third episode. Not sure of the decision to just kind of skip the fallout of the end of episode 2. I hated that they did this. And the stuff they did follow it up with was definitely *less* interesting than what they made everybody want to see. Terrible pacing imo. I like the show enough to keep going. I just got a 4K tv for the first time so all the effects look super insanely amazing. A lot of the stuff in the first episode was stuff they'd put on screensavers in a TV store to make you go ooh, ahh, TV so pretty, wow. I wonder if the stuff on the desert exile planet is done by an entirely different team than the stuff on the Empire Capital planet, feels like two different shows almost. Only bigger dissonance I can remember on a show was Sense8. Binged Squid Game and liked it. Binged Alice in Borderland as it was recommended as similar to Squid Game and liked it as well. They are different enough that there's not a lot of overlap, but also similar enough that I figure anyone who liked one will like the other. I'm gonna give Sharp Objects a try as I loved Gone Girl. I'll see if it can convince me to like Amy Adams.
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Oct 12, 2021 21:11
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| # ¿ Sep 8, 2024 07:17 |
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I binged Sharp Objects over a few days. Took me a while to get into it because a lot of the characters are crappy people. Ended up liking it by the last few episodes though. I think my favourite part was how memories/thoughts/flashbacks were edited in. Mostly quick and unobtrusive, spliced into 'present day' scenes, and from my own perspective much more naturalistic. I've only seen memories shown like that in a few other things but it should be the standard approach. I don't usually like Amy Adams and while I wasn't blown away by anything she did pretty good. Her character on the surface is SUPER EDGY but she made her feel pretty normal and nuanced. prob. gonna watch You next.
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Oct 17, 2021 00:31
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Hughmoris posted:Just to check... You stuck around thru the final episode's credits right? Cause there is a doozy in there. Sharp Objects spoiler: Yup though I had to read about it elsewhere and go back to see it lol. I hope there is a youtube video of all the hints about the ending because I don't want to actually rewatch the show to see them. Generally I watch mysteries not to try to solve it but just enjoy the ride but I kinda was with this one. I knew there would be some kinda twist at the end but it took me quite a while to figure out, main thing that tipped me off was just that the show was still going even though the supposed killer was caught and the pool of potential remaining suspects was basically one. Thanks for the reminded though I wouldn't have wanted to miss that scene just because it explains a crucial detail. How the 'a girl couldn't pull somebody's teeth so it totally had to be a dude' thing is explained is that her rollerblading friends were in on it too which I would not have expected at all.
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Oct 17, 2021 04:19
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I watched 3 episodes of Y: The Last Man and dropped it because most of the main characters were crappy people. And it looked like they were about to introduce another one as another antagonist out to try to ruin a world that was already ruined. I didn't feel like watching that happen. It's weird watching these huge budget shows fizzle out when all the people who really cared about it and would have made it work have left the project before it even gets going. It's like if there's enough momentum they'll just keep making it even if nobody is impressed by how good it is turning out. I kinda wonder if Foundation will turn out the same way, For a show based on novels that span centuries/millennia sometimes within one or two chapters, they sure are taking their sweet time. But aside from the obvious SFX budget and being based on popular-ish IP I feel like the show hasn't been doing a lot to grab people. Mysteries are set up only for the answer to be exactly what you'd think. Or for the answer to seem so far off that it doesn't matter. They opened the most recent episode with a super long flashback telling us stuff we mostly already know. They set up a big dramatic twist at the end of ep 2 only to cut away from the aftermath, making it feel like there wasn't much payoff/fallout for those dramatic events. It could get better (and it's not currently *bad*) over time, but will the high budget allow that time? It feels kinda like they're taking the approach to blockbuster movies of "people will go see it if it's a big dumb high budget movie based on popular IP' but while that might get people's asses in theater seats for a few hours are they gonna subscribe to Apple for it? They could probably produce several shows that are still high-budget for the same price. I watched S3 of You, it was pretty fun. Different enough from previous seasons when I was worried it would retread the same ground too much.
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Oct 18, 2021 18:22
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zoux posted:It's been decades since I read any of them, but aren't the books a series of vignettes with different characters separated by hundreds of years in some cases? Yup, at least the first book is. I actually would have liked that format for the show. A few characters/actors would have various methods of sticking around (cloning, being robots/AI, cryogenically frozen, recorded messages, etc.) but most arcs would be 1-3 episodes long with a lot of cool guest stars. I get why they're not doing that, and their version could work fine too. But it just doesn't seem to have come together yet. It's only 5 eps in though.
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Oct 18, 2021 19:12
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Happy Noodle Boy posted:Do many shows actually ever pull this off? Maybe Fargo and True Detective? I read/hear about so many shows trying the format of just having rotating casts between season (I think Heroes aimed to do this) but then once the first season becomes a hit you obviously can’t change the formula so it gets scrapped. Not really many popular ones that I'm aware of. Some shows like crime shows or procedural dramas like House can have a lot of focus on the single-episode guest star though. Though that's usually just a couple actors guest starring with all the main characters and supporting cast still playing very big roles. A lot of people stick with shows because they like the chemistry the cast has and the actors having figured out their roles well, often that's very hard to get right so when you do you don't wanna mess with it. So while I think a rotating major cast for the show would be rad and fit the show well and make it more unique, it was always a no-go from that perspective.
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Oct 18, 2021 20:15
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duck monster posted:I'm a bit torn on this one. The Cinematography , direction, writing, and acting are all top notch. Everything on paper says this is a great show. Wonder if that's an Apple+ thing, your first two paragraphs sound a lot like Foundation. It's awesome in basically every way except it's boring. Which I would say is the writing not being awesome though. I don't know how they managed to make Foundation, a book series that goes almost blisteringly fast as far as 'sci fi mostly about people sitting around talking about what they should do' can be, and cram it full of boring subplots and dedicate so much screen time to the most bland characters and minutiae. There's tons of great actors that barely get to do anything. The interesting plot hooks and cliffhangers that they take ages to get back to make watching the rest of the show in between feel like sitting through a commercial.
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Oct 23, 2021 14:43
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Mu Zeta posted:Foundation is also tedious. They've done a really annoying thing twice now where an episode ends on something interesting and then the next episode completely ignores it. This entire season feels like it's stretched out bullshit. Yeah it kinda sucks so far. All the ingredients are amazing but the recipe isn't. Budget, cast, production quality, design choices, etc. are all top notch. Story pacing is abysmal. They talk about having "a plan if the show goes for ten seasons" but it sure doesn't feel like they have a plan for the show going 1-2 seasons because they're taking their sweetass time.
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Oct 25, 2021 01:16
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Hughmoris posted:Trailer for new season of The Witcher is out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJFVV2L8GKs I thought the structure of season 1 was completely terrible. Not just the unclear timelines but it all led up to a boring non-climax.
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Oct 29, 2021 16:22
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at least half the cast of the wire has a badass voice saying cryptic things the wire isn't one of those shows where every cop is a corrupt alcoholic and everything is grimdark. it's cool because it's a crime show that spends a lot of time not on the cops. don't watch it if you don't wanna feel emotions though by seasons 3-4 things can hit pretty hard. and there is a good amount of watching people self-sabotage and you're like ugh don't
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Oct 31, 2021 05:35
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AceOfFlames posted:Ironically Bryan Cranston wasn’t told that until that season’s finale, meaning he played Walt’s excuse speech when Jesse confronted him as completely sincere. Which is kind of brilliant since it further underscores just how masterful a liar Walt is, even to himself. I love that scene. (BreakBad spoilers) Walt's "THINK about it... it's BRILLIANT!" line describing what he wants Jesse to believe is Gus' evil machinations when it can be read as him patting himself on the back for how diabolical he is and lying to Jesse's face about it when he has a gun to his head, knowing Jesse discovered the truth and convincing him it's a lie. It was so good. I didn't know they didn't tell the Cran Man about it being a lie beforehand, that's great.
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Oct 31, 2021 19:14
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I enjoyed the first season of Broadchurch which was a fairly standard murder mystery. Now season 2 feels more like a crime drama since nobody new has been killed. They're bringing in the past case that haunted the detective in the first season but it won't feel as murder mystery-ey when there's really only one suspect and it's unlikely for new evidence to emerge. gonna keep watching though i might burn out since i'm a lot more in the mood for murder mystery stuff than just "child murder tears families apart" type drama.
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Nov 1, 2021 22:38
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Zero One posted:Season 3 was much better than 2. Thanks. I've gotten deep into s2 now, it's not terrible though not what I want out of the show, but I'm sick today so I'm just gonna power through it. Glad season 3 is a new mystery and not murder sounds okay with me. I'm glad at least that the show isn't just doing the most obvious thing all the time (new murder every season with flimsy reasons for the main characters to be involved.) DaveKap posted:Just to clear some air about the new Dexter season: It's being run by the guy who did the first 4 seasons (the good ones... and 3) and, as far as I have read, is supposed to be a "redo" for "the end of the series." As in, this is the final season. I had no idea they changed showrunners after s4, that explains so much. I agree that the good seasons are 1, 2, and 4, with 4 being my fave. 4 felt like it could have been a very good ending to the series overall. Buuuut the show got so bad I'm wary of picking it up again, even with a major effort to return to form, the standards for what they were making slipped so much. And if they go back to making a show that felt fresh and above average 15 years ago that probably won't cut it by today's standards.
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Nov 3, 2021 02:18
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Mu Zeta posted:Foundation reminds me of syndicated 90s scifi shows except with a huge budget. I didn't watch whatever Star Trek it is probably most similar to. But the whole Terminus plotline feels like I'm watching Hercules or Xena in Space. It's so annoying to get an adaptation of a series only to find it's not really an adaptation of the series. They steered away from all the stuff that was cool about Foundation. I watched all of Broadchurch, it was pretty cool. Good performances and writing much of the time. I like that it didn't just stick to 'each season is a new murder' and did some fresh stuff you wouldn't normally see in a detective story. Season 1 follows the murder of a child. Season 2 explores the follow of season 1 where all the cool dramatic TV show cop stuff they do in the first season bites them in the rear end, some evidence gets thrown out, and the killer is let free. There's also another murder plotline of the case that haunts the main guy in s1. Season 3 is a new case investigating a sexual assault. So we get a detective show where the victim is still alive. I didn't love the resolution to this one but it was overall interesting. It had a very weird sub-thread though of people in 2015 being shocked, SHOCKED, that a teenage boy would have porn on his phone. Like it's a whole b-plot running several episodes of how the hell he acquired pornography. What sick impulses would drive him to do such a thing. His mother compares him to a pedophile murderer and she's supposed to be a sympathetic character?. Also the answer isn't that he googled 'big boob' but someone gave it to him. And that person got it from someone else--who must be a HUGE PERVERT who watches porn. Someone finds a stash of a porn DVD and magazine and is mortified. They also had a plotline of illicit underage photos being shared taken from a girl without her knowledge. That is something properly appalling. I wonder if they were supposed to be one storyline but they decided it was too dark and split them up. Also like a small handful of people I've been watching Inferno and not enjoying it. I'm a huge sucker for stuff like that but it's just weaksauce. Between this and Foundation it feels like a bunch of people who wrote scripts 20 years ago finally had their big break. I'm in the mood for more mystery stuff (pref. serial, would take really good episodic) or Indiana-Jones-esque stuff that scratches the itch Dan Brown's Inferno doesn't. Mythological/historical stuff, assembling clues, looking for artifacts, pyramids with traps, stuff like that. I'm gonna check out Da Vinci's Demons. I'll take any other recommendations especially stuff that came out in the past few years.
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Nov 6, 2021 23:12
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| # ¿ Sep 8, 2024 07:17 |
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Foundation keeps getting worse imo. It supposedly has cool special effects going for it but in the last episode there was a 'ship going through a teleportation jump thing' scene and the effects were super basic and uninspired and looked bad. Also the plot has become more simple and dumb and everything always devolves into people pointing guns at each other.
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Nov 12, 2021 16:45
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