What Are You Watching? New Season!

Topic

Time for a new ‘watching’ thread!

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[Eduardo]

Finished it, I see what you mean by characterization taking a back seat.

Some random thoughts:
– Megatron’s lips.
– This Optimus feels SAD.
– A lot of call backs to the Cybertron episodes of G1.
– This version of Soundblaster…

Edit, two more:
– Shockwave’s voice, this is the one I really have issues with it.
– The whole bit about the “don’t have time for that now, tell me later” with Wheeljack.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Eduardo.

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lorcan_nagle

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Transformers: War For Cybertron: Siege

OK, I bingewatched this over the morning, but in my defence I woke up early, have a few days off work, and it’s only 6 episodes.  And against all odds… it’s actually good?

I’ll admit I had basically zero hopes for the show, the showrunner and two of the three writers worked on the Prime Wars cartoons, and they’re fucking terrible. And while Polygon were doing the animation it doesn’t matter how pretty or how close to the toy designs the characters are if the writing’s shit. So good thing they actually did a good job this time.

The plot is really a grab-bag of bits from various other Transformers incarnations – the war has been raging for some time, the Decepticons are slowly winning, and the Autobots are scavenging for Energon to keep going when Megatron gets the idea to find the Allspark and use it to forcibly reformat all non-Decepticons into Decepticons in order to bring the war to a swift, decisive end. Optimus Prime gets wind of the plan and begins to react, intending to find the Allspark first and try and get it off-world before it’s too late. The plot moves organically from this, adding in a few sidelines that feed back in, and move in a direction that I certainly didn’t expect from how the trailer made me think it was going to go. It kinda ends up being like the backplot to Cyberverse (have I ever talked about Cyberverse? It’s really good! People should check it out!), but with a darker and grittier veneer, but does some good, interesting bits along the way.

All that said, characterisation takes a bit of a backseat to plot, where a few people get development or a change of state as the story progresses, but everyone else just sorts of hangs around and grimaces.  And in a lot of cases it’s taking a character from point A to point B like they have in the past – just not always in the same way.  For example Jetfire starts the story as a Decepticon, commanding the Seekers.  But instead of a naive scientist or an idealist, here he’s a committed soldier, but one who’s sense of honour buts up against Megatron and other Decepticons’ increasingly brutal and cruel tactics and strategies until he breaks ranks. It works pretty well for the characters who get that attention lavished on them – of course, at six half-hour episodes there’s only a limited amount of time to delve into motivations and ideals.

The big thing that drags the show down in my estimation is the voice acting, which is limited in its emotional range.  I have heard that the production went non-union on the cast to keep costs down, and between various actors doing their best to do impressions of the G1 cast, heavy digital filtering to make them sound robotic, and a less experienced cast, it means that some moments where they characters are trying to emote fall flat, especially any time Optimus Prime get agitated.

Overall, this is a recommend.  Fans of Transformers will get a lot of enjoyment out of the deep continuity cuts and nods (it’s a nice touch that Wheeljack and Bumblebee are first characters seen in the show, while scavenging for energon only to run afoul of a group of Seekers, just like the first episode of the original cartoon), but there’s a lot here for casual fans of the franchise or people who are looking for some animated SF action.

So I watched the series.

Keep in mind, I haven’t watched any TF series with regularity since the original series from the 1980s and I was watching it as it aired back then. (I saw some episodes of Machine Wars which was terrible.)

This series really was not good. The pacing was slow as hell. It dragged across all six episodes. I never felt the tension of the story. The action and fights were pretty weak and poorly choreographed.

But my biggest problem was that for a series called Transformers, you barely saw any actual transformations! Some were obscured or happened literally just out of frame. Most of the characters didn’t transform at all. Someone seriously dropped the ball here.

While the original series was very far from perfect, it was still far more dynamic and full of personalities than this. I still remember Prime losing his shit in Part 3 of the original miniseries when the Decepticons take off in their starship. That scene always stood out to me. That Optimus Prime has far more passion than this one did. The characters, even if they were on screen for a few seconds, each displayed individual personalities that distinguished them. In this one, the big difference between them was they sounded different.

The new series really did need more transforming.

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lorcan_nagle

Watched Man of Steel with the kid, who hadn’t seen it yet, yesterday.

It was alright. There wasn’t really a lot to keep the attention on a rewatch. The Krypton part holds up, but after that… Thing is that the dialogues are pretty bland, and half of the movie seems to be destruction of property.

The attendant focus group’s (my kid and my girlfriend’s) reaction to the neck snap, neither being very Superman knowledgeable, was simply “Well why didn’t he do that earlier?”. So there you go.

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DavidM, Todd, Dave, lorcan_nagle

Snap necks first, ask questions later.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Todd wrote:

But my biggest problem was that for a series called Transformers, you barely saw any actual transformations! Some were obscured or happened literally just out of frame. Most of the characters didn’t transform at all. Someone seriously dropped the ball here.

That shit’s expensive, man.  And Hasbro is cheap. Interestingly, many of the big epic Transformers comics have little to no transformation in them.

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Todd

Dave wrote:

Snap necks first, ask questions later.

To be fair though, there weren’t a lot of questions to be asked. First thing Zod did upon meeting Kal was explain his evil genocide plans.

Oh, one thing I was as impressed with the second time around as the first was Russel Crowe’s performance. He really elevated the bist of the movie that he was in.

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lorcan_nagle

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Todd wrote:

But my biggest problem was that for a series called Transformers, you barely saw any actual transformations! Some were obscured or happened literally just out of frame. Most of the characters didn’t transform at all. Someone seriously dropped the ball here.

That shit’s expensive, man.  And Hasbro is cheap. Interestingly, many of the big epic Transformers comics have little to no transformation in them.

I liked how in Roberts run, the transformation was an integral part of being a transformer, with a lot of talk about how the alt mode and transformation cogs effects work, how bots can be afflicted by them when there are complications and so on, while at the same time there were only transformations when ‘necessary’ plot wise.

I love that run so much.

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lorcan_nagle, Todd

Christian wrote:

Dave wrote:

Snap necks first, ask questions later.

To be fair though, there weren’t a lot of questions to be asked. First thing Zod did upon meeting Kal was explain his evil genocide plans.

Oh, one thing I was as impressed with the second time around as the first was Russel Crowe’s performance. He really elevated the bist of the movie that he was in.

Yeah, and krypton is cool as fucking hell.

No Man Of Steel discussion is complete without space dildos but the forum won’t let me post them because of the filename and I only have minutes left on my break.

Help?

Space dil dos

There, I said it

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Todd wrote:

But my biggest problem was that for a series called Transformers, you barely saw any actual transformations! Some were obscured or happened literally just out of frame. Most of the characters didn’t transform at all. Someone seriously dropped the ball here.

That shit’s expensive, man.  And Hasbro is cheap. Interestingly, many of the big epic Transformers comics have little to no transformation in them.

I’ll cut the comics a lot of slack as transformation can take up valuable storytelling real estate on a page.

But in an animated series? Sorry, that’s just an epic fail.

Something I wanted to comment on was the music. It really was quite dull and uninspiring. It didn’t help build tension and emotion. While the original series recycled its score, it did help scenes and emphasize the action.

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lorcan_nagle

Anonymous wrote:

Space dil dos

There, I said it

Can’t we just call them “sex wands”?

EDIT: I guess we can!

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Todd wrote:

But in an animated series? Sorry, that’s just an epic fail.

But they at least made the jssshzz jsszhh zzzztt noise when they transformed right?

Todd wrote:

Can’t we just call them “sex wands”?

EDIT: I guess we can!

Sex Wands for everyone!

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Todd

Anonymous wrote:

But they at least made the jssshzz jsszhh zzzztt noise when they transformed right?

Yes, they did!

Ok few

Todd wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But they at least made the jssshzz jsszhh zzzztt noise when they transformed right?

Yes, they did!

Are yous still talking about “wands” ??

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Dave, Todd

[lorcan_nagle]

Todd wrote:

I’ll cut the comics a lot of slack as transformation can take up valuable storytelling real estate on a page.

But in an animated series? Sorry, that’s just an epic fail.

I’m not defending the show on this front or anything, it was a major complaint about Prime Wars as well – like most of the combiners weren’t even shown in their individual modes in that series. There was even a Siege Bingo card done up that included “characters don’t transform to save budget”

Todd wrote:

Something I wanted to comment on was the music. It really was quite dull and uninspiring. It didn’t help build tension and emotion. While the original series recycled its score, it did help scenes and emphasize the action.

I really liked the closing theme, but I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about the incidental music, it just faded into the background for me.

Have you given Cyberverse a shot?  It might be more in your wheelhouse.  The art style takes a lot of getting used to, but it’s more fun, has a lot of transforming, and when the plot kicks in properly it flows really well.  It’s up on the official Transformers YouTube channel for free and the episodes are only 15 minutes long so it’s easy to get and not a huge time investment.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by lorcan_nagle.

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Todd

Rampage

Initially, I had this pegged as a standard Dwayne Johnson action movie.  Only about midway through did I work what it really was…. A movie version of the Rampage video game and it’s a very cleverly done one.

The only clue you get is that the gorilla is called George, that’s the nearest you get to an overt link to the game.

But what really makes it work is that the film is very anti-cynicism in its plot.  Where many films would opt for a more “realistic” take of the villains getting away with it.  Here? The fates are utterly delicious.  The main villain gets fed to George, while wearing a red dress no less, and her dumb brother gets splatted by falling debris.  It’s wonderfully satisfying. Add in Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a cowboy agent and Naomi Harris as Johnson’s sidekick, it’s a pretty fun way to spend 1hr 50mins.

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Rocket

Well, turns out that Knives Out is just as great the second time around (I watched it tonight as it just came on Amazon Prime).

Picked out loads of little touches and clues that I didn’t catch the first time around, and I still love the way the plot unwinds and twists back on itself.

You never know with second viewings of this kind of thing – sometimes they fall apart – but this was just as good. Such a brillant cast, great writing and direction too. A real treat.

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paul f, Todd, Will_C

Now Knives Out is on Prime, I’ll likely give it a look.

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Will_C

I’m not defending the show on this front or anything, it was a major complaint about Prime Wars as well – like most of the combiners weren’t even shown in their individual modes in that series. There was even a Siege Bingo card done up that included “characters don’t transform to save budget”

Heh, if you make a drinking game each time you see, for example, a generic Reflector decepticon in the crowds, you will easily get wasted fast.

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Todd

Eduardo wrote:

Heh, if you make a drinking game each time you see, for example, a generic Reflector decepticon in the crowds, you will easily get wasted fast.

I’m pretty sure I clocked like 20 or more in a couple of scenes. Maybe one drink if you see one or more reflectors, another if you see a Barricade, another if you see a Seeker (or Cog, Mirage and Sideswipe for the Autobots), but like three if you see any two of them, and five if you see all three?  You’ll still get wasted but it’ll involve pattern recognition.

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Todd

Speaking Transformers, I loved the original ’80’s stuff up to the Movie.

Then it was Beast Wars. Hesitant, but ended up really liking it.
As in I’ve had multiple watches, so yeah, really enjoyed.
(Unknown if that’s heresy to some, feel free to tell me)

I was there day one for what followed, Beast Machines.
I tried, I really tried. But that’s where it lost me.
(again, feel free to tell me, but don’t try to get me to go back)

Honestly, nothing since.
If I was to search up stuff to watch, what’s good after that?

And Netflix Canada has Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy.
Siege is the first part of this trilogy? I’m on the right thing?

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lorcan_nagle, Todd

Sean Robinson wrote:

Honestly, nothing since. If I was to search up stuff to watch, what’s good after that?

The two ones that get recommended a lot are:

Transformers Animated, which aired between 2007 and 2009.  This is highly stylised, with a look and feel similar to Teen Titans.  I never got into it, but most of the people I know who did love it.  There’s a lot of fan service like continuity nods and getting G1 actors back to play new versions of their characters and the like. Apparently takes a while to get going but is very good once it does.

After that, Transformers Prime ran between 2010 and 2013, and this one is my jam.  It’s kinda “what if we had a bit of the movie aesthetic but not too much and there’s an actual story and not just hours of nihilism, horrible people and explosions?” it’s the first entirely CGI Transformers production, Brings Peter Cullen back as Optimus Prime and Frank Welker as Megatron, and has an outstanding cast outside of that – Jeffrey Combs as Ratchet, Gina Torres as Airachnid, Adam Baldwin as Breakdown, Michael Ironside as Ultra Magnus, Tony Todd as Dreadwing, Clancy Brown as recurring human antagonist Silas, Ernie Hudson as Agent Fowler, there’s great one-episode appearances by George Takei and Dwayne Johnson. Both the second and third series have an extended arc where the team splits up to search for relics simultaneously, with each episode showing what’s happening in different places at roughly the same time – which is a lot cooler the first time you see it and a bit “this again” when they pull the trick the second time, but I really enjoyed it.

 

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Sean Robinson, Todd, JRCarter

[JRCarter]

What I liked about Animated’s Megatron is that he didn’t put up with Starscream’s crap. Starscream only had to betray him once before he put him down.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by JRCarter.

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Sean Robinson, lorcan_nagle

lorcan_nagle wrote:

it’s the first entirely CGI Transformers production,

It’s Beast Wars?

I’m three episodes into Siege and, it’s ok, I guess. The story’s a bit slow and flat. The dialogue’s pretty limp and the voice direction is dire… with almost… every single line… of dialogue… being dragged out in… some kind of attempt… at gravitas. It’s especially irksome for the guy playing Prime who is clearly trying to emulate Peter Cullen, but going for his modern take (of extreme gravitas) rather that the original core of the character which is warmth and empathy. So you get every single line being uttered as though it’s of great portent.

Visually, the show’s pretty good, but the huge lips, especially on Megatron, are really distracting. And it’s a bit weird to see the show so openly use the toyline, to the point that some character models have got toy kibble and pegs and plastic saving measures and whatnot. It’s like they’ve animated the CAD models.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Martin Smith wrote:

It’s Beast Wars?

I have no idea how my brain did that in a post about what to watch after Beast Wars.  I was fixated on the semi-CG of Energon and Cybertron, I guess.

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Martin Smith

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Martin Smith wrote:

It’s Beast Wars?

I have no idea how my brain did that in a post about what to watch after Beast Wars.  I was fixated on the semi-CG of Energon and Cybertron, I guess.

I was worried there was something about Beast Wars I’d completely missed for decades!

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lorcan_nagle

Martin Smith wrote:

I was worried there was something about Beast Wars I’d completely missed for decades!

Well Rattrap was played by a real rat.

I am planning on bingeing the new season of Umbrella Academy tonight. Putting beer into the fridge right now!

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lorcan_nagle

I am very displeased with the sound of Megatrons fusion cannon. It sounds more like some iPhone sound effect “chwoooip” than a proper “CHOOOM”.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Christian wrote:

I am planning on bingeing the new season of Umbrella Academy tonight. Putting beer into the fridge right now!

I just finished watching it, I enjoyed it more than series 1

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Christian

Despite my considering him to be a perpetual disaster for Star Wars, I enjoyed Knives Out.

Just as Logan Lucky was a far better showcase for Driver, so is Knives Out for Johnson.

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Dave

Ben wrote:

Despite my considering him to be a perpetual disaster for Star Wars, I enjoyed Knives Out.

Just as Logan Lucky was a far better showcase for Driver, so is Knives Out for Johnson.

I still think Rian Johnsons best movie is Brick. If you haven’t seen it, do.

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Dave

Does either Netflix or Prime have it?

It’s only on netflix in Australia and NZ by the looks of it (a quick google). Amazon has it on Prime Video, but I don’t know if that’s the same thing as Amazon Prime.

Yeah, it is. Will take a look.

Report back if you see it! Would love to hear your thoughts on it!

Sadly, it ain’t on the co.uk strand of Amazon prime video at all.

Ah fuck.

Jojo Rabbit debuts on HBO tonight. You’ve been warned!!

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Todd

njerry wrote:

Jojo Rabbit

I absolutely loved that movie. It put me in a good mood right off the start.
That music is perfect. Honestly didn’t know (that band) also recorded (that song) in (that language).

I mean, I’m purely beaming with those images in the background.
Taika Waititi knows what he’s doing. A ton of respect.

Lots to laugh and smile about all the way through, except when it’s not like that.

If you’ve not seen it, do it now

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njerry

Ben wrote:

Just as Logan Lucky was a far better showcase for Driver, so is Knives Out for Johnson.

I somehow still haven’t seen Logan Lucky, but Driver has had an amazing carreer in a very short amount of time. Marriage Story, Logan Lucky, working with the Coen Brothers, Scorcese, Spike Lee, Terry Gilliam and Jim Jarmush… and, well, he’s been a lead in the Star Wars movies, whatever we think of those particular movies. Carreer-wise, that guy has already completed his bucket list.

Sean Robinson wrote:

If you’ve not seen it, do it now

Watched it and loved it!! Wonderful supporting performances from Scarlett Johansson, Alfie Allen, and one of the greatest actors of this millenium, Sam Rockwell.

Sean Robinson wrote:

That music is perfect. Honestly didn’t know (that band) also recorded (that song) in (that language).

Not sure if you’re referring to the song during the opening credits (which I have from one of that band’s collections), or the one during the closing credits which took me by surprise.

Christian wrote:

Ben wrote:

Just as Logan Lucky was a far better showcase for Driver, so is Knives Out for Johnson.

I somehow still haven’t seen Logan Lucky, but Driver has had an amazing carreer in a very short amount of time. Marriage Story, Logan Lucky, working with the Coen Brothers, Scorcese, Spike Lee, Terry Gilliam and Jim Jarmush… and, well, he’s been a lead in the Star Wars movies, whatever we think of those particular movies. Carreer-wise, that guy has already completed his bucket list.

Christel and I tried watch Logan Lucky a few months ago. We switched to something else as the pacing was slow as hell and it wasn’t that funny. We just couldn’t get engaged with the movie.

Umbrella Academy S1

Aka a bunch of arseholes fuck up the world.

The first ep was pretty good, but after that the usual Netflix bloat and wheel-spinning took its toll.  Also some really dumb character decisions for the sake of the plot which I couldn’t buy like what happens with Hazel and Cha-Cha.

It did have some great music sequences though.

I’ve been trying to watch Transformers: Siege since it dropped, but I bailed on ep 5 tonight. It’s just so DULL.

The animation is technically fine, but does little that’s interesting, let alone as well directed as Beast Wars. There’s a conspicuous absence of alt-modes and transformations (which leads to lots of awkwardly slow running down roads), like they couldn’t afford to do that. The characters look far too much like they’ve used the toy CAD models, which leads to some weird kibble and bits on screen.

The story is slow and does nothing that is novel and original beyond just arbitrarily change characters (hey, it’s Red Alert as a medic, for some reason, something that’s never been part of his character). I mean I don’t need the characters to be exactly as they were in the 80s (though making an overtly G1 themed show would lend itself to that) but at least make changes that make sense and add something. “Hey, I wonder if the one Seeker who has a different character model from all the others might turn out to be a turncoat?”

And the voice acting! It’s so bad. Everyone is so desperate to strive for gravitas, especially the guy playing Prime, that it ends up flat… and excessively… drawn… out. The limp, characterless dialogue doesn’t do anyone any favours, but I can see why pros like Garry Chalk have felt compelled to publicly diss this (given it’s non-union and eating into their livelihood, let alone bad).

This was a total waste of potential.

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Todd

[Christian]

(Another) outdoors cinema night yesterday; watched Jumanji: The Next Level. It was okay, bit of diminishing returns. Including the Dannys DeVito and Glover as grumpy old men was a fun idea, but it felt like in result, too much revolved on “These guys are so old!” kind of jokes, whereas the first one had more fun exploring the setting and the characters (and an antagonist that at least had some kind of presence). It all still worked well enough for a fun movie night, mind you.

Apparently, this one didn’t quite get the prequel’s box office results, but still did very well. I assume there’ll be another sequel.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Christian.

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Uncle Retrospective, Dave

I liked the second (third) (fourth if you count Zathura) Jumanji movie, but I agree it wasn’t quite as good as Welcome To The Jungle.

Still, I enjoyed the new twists around the avatar mechanic with the swapping of characters, thought the Dannys were a great addition to the cast, and in general I’m happy to see one of the few decent family franchises continuing to do well.

This movie seems to hint at a sequel that’s more like the first movie, with weird stuff from the game finding its way into the real world. That could be interesting.

Yeah, right. And you could have the characters from the game crossing over into the real world and do the whole Last Action Hero thing with them.

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Dave

Yeah, exactly. Anything that gives the game cast the chance to do their thing, really. It’s a great ensemble.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

the term “bullscrap” is used as an obvious substitution for “bullshit”

“We can’t say bullshit in this movie. Use a milder term, otherwise we’re gonna upset the kids.”

lorcan_nagle wrote:

A couple of characters get holes blasted right through them. One character has a limb pulled off

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Todd

Come to think of it, Umbrella Academy was all downhill after this scene – really clever and fun:

Saw Birds of Prey yesterday. It didn’t quite work. I saw what they were going for, but for some reason the movie just doesn’t get there. None of the elements really chime. A lot of it is kind of choppy and wooden, too, with the editing pretty bad sometimes and some of the acting so-so (the kid is pretty bad). And honestly, the plot is at the same time overly complicated and daft, and the dialogues are not great, either. Which probably all wouldn’t matter so much if they movie could find its rhythm, but it never quite does. McGregor is doing his best chewing the scenery, but it’s like he’s in a vaccuum, with the antagonist side also not working out, also due to Zsasz being the wrong kind of creepy. And a lot of the movie also looked weirdly cheap, like a TV show.

I mean, it’s watchable, but this is not a good movie.

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Uncle Retrospective

I’m watching the second season of the OA on Netflix, this is essentially an act of self torture because it’s a cancelled show with a plan for 5 seasons that will never happen.

It’s so very good though. It’s very much ‘mystery box’ storytelling which we’re supposed to not like nowadays but I still love. Even if it ended with a mystic plughole of nonsense I don’t regret a second of watching Lost which I loved.

Great acting, great cliffhangers and the mysteries are a lot more focused than Lost was in that aspect so a much greater chance of it making sense in the end, which I know will never come to pass.

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Sean Robinson, Todd

Up to ep 5 of Perry Mason. This is some great TV. Proper 20’s gumshoe stuff, hitting all the marks you’d expect but with such style. Great acting, amazing direction, this is brilliant stuff.

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njerry

Uncle Retrospective wrote:

Up to ep 5 of Perry Mason.

I decided not to watch this when it debuted on a Sunday night, but began watching it On Demand and I’m really enjoying it. Got as far as episode 4, and will probably get to ep 5 tonight.

The other series I’ve begun following after initially blowing it off is the second season of The Alienist. After a bleak and lifeless first episode, the show has picked up steam and I’m really excited about it now.

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Todd

njerry wrote:

Uncle Retrospective wrote:

Up to ep 5 of Perry Mason.

I decided not to watch this when it debuted on a Sunday night, but began watching it On Demand and I’m really enjoying it. Got as far as episode 4, and will probably get to ep 5 tonight.

The other series I’ve begun following after initially blowing it off is the second season of The Alienist. After a bleak and lifeless first episode, the show has picked up steam and I’m really excited about it now.

Both are very good but as I said upthread, enough with dead babies.

Christel and I watched the Netflix docuseries The Business of Drugs. Very good and quite informative. It’s six episodes and each one focuses on a different drug. Well worth the watch.

We also watched Fear City: New York vs The Mafia. It’s three episodes and good but not great. It has some interesting bits.

We finished I’ll Be Gone in the Dark on HBO. Overall, it’s good but a bit uneven.

We watched the first episode of Immigration Nation on Netflix. This may take a while to watch all six episodes as the first one is rage-inducing and absolutely heartbreaking. If the rest are like that, we’ll need a palate cleanser to watch after each episode.

Todd wrote:

Both are very good but as I said upthread, enough with dead babies.

Yeah, I hope that’s not going to be a trend — dead babies with “modified” eyes.

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Todd

garjones wrote:

I’m watching the second season of the OA on Netflix, this is essentially an act of self torture because it’s a cancelled show with a plan for 5 seasons that will never happen.

It’s so very good though. It’s very much ‘mystery box’ storytelling which we’re supposed to not like nowadays but I still love. Even if it ended with a mystic plughole of nonsense I don’t regret a second of watching Lost which I loved.

Great acting, great cliffhangers and the mysteries are a lot more focused than Lost was in that aspect so a much greater chance of it making sense in the end, which I know will never come to pass.

Yeah, I’m still gutted that it’s over. You still get to watch season 2 for the first time.

Brit Marling has a way with words. (No worries. No OA spoilers if anyone has yet to watch). You all should read this:

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Todd, garjones

So, the other day I watched 2 russian sci-fi/action movies, Attraction 1 & 2, and I gotta say, daaaamn they’re pretty much on par with a Hollywood level of production. There’s some impressive visuals there. The story ain’t all that, so I guess it’s also on par with american blockbusters, but yeah… gotta give ’em credit though, when they go for the whole “city wide destruction” kind of thing, Russians don’t fuck around… xD

Anyways, I hope Russia keeps stepping up their game, I always enjoy their big budget sci-fi flicks, but unfortunately there don’t seem to be many, and some of them are just horrible, like that botched attempt at a Russian Avengers movie… =/

[Tobias Radesäter]

I have watched season 2 of The Umbrella Academy and enjoyed it more than season 1. However, there is one thing that confuse me.

In just about every tv-series nowadays there is a swedish actor. (Usually named Skarsgård.)

In season 2 of the Umbrella Academy there is a group of three hitmen, called the Swedes. They don’t say much, but the things they do say are in swedish.

Yet, none of the actors are from Sweden.

Should I be upset about this?

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Tobias Radesäter.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Tobias Radesäter.

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Sean Robinson, Christian, Todd, lorcan_nagle

Tobias Radesäter wrote:

Should I be upset about this?

Swedish lives matter!

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Tobias Radesäter, lorcan_nagle, Todd

Anonymous wrote:

Swedish lives matter!

citation needed

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Todd, Uncle Retrospective

lorcan_nagle wrote:

citation needed

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Todd, Dave, lorcan_nagle

This might be my favourite pun ever.

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lorcan_nagle

Watched the first part of Red Dwarf: The First Three Million Years on Dave, a new three-part documentary about the show’s genesis and enduring appeal.

When you’re a big fan of something it’s unlikely that these kinds of things are going to offer a huge amount that’s new, but nevertheless this was a nice start to a documentary that feels like it has been made with care. Some good interviews and a decent amount of rare/behind the scenes footage too.

Tobias Radesäter wrote:

In season 2 of the Umbrella Academy there is a group of three hitmen, called the Swedes. They don’t say much, but the things they do say are in swedish.

Yet, none of the actors are from Sweden.

Should I be upset about this?

Depends. How is their Swedish?

Christian wrote:

Tobias Radesäter wrote:

In season 2 of the Umbrella Academy there is a group of three hitmen, called the Swedes. They don’t say much, but the things they do say are in swedish.

Yet, none of the actors are from Sweden.

Should I be upset about this?

Depends. How is their Swedish?

Good enough to understand. Not good enough to make me think they really are swedish.

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Uncle Retrospective

When I rejoined Netflix a few weeks ago, I made a point of looking through the hidden categories for a wider variety of shows than the app will suggest. Among those, I went for the Korean TV selection, because I’d heard that it’s got some interesting shows. Some of the high concepts on the shows do sound great, so I added about half a dozen to try, starting with…

Extraordinary You

which I’m three episodes into. The show is about high school girl Dan-o who really has it made: she’s smart, popular, academic, is engaged(!) to one of the most idolised boys in school (even if he’s not happy about it) and sure, she has a serious heart condition, but that’s all under control now. Life is good. Until Dan-o starts realising that she’s missing time. Huge chunks of her day, her week even, disappear in the blink of an eye. And she’s started hallucinating a bit – the sound of flipping pages mainly. And she finds herself saying and doing things she doesn’t want to, especially around her fiance Yeung (who she realises she really doesn’t like).

Because it turns out, Dan-o is a character in a comic book. The missing time is the gap between scenes, the involuntary actions are the things written for her, the flipping pages are… well, that’s not really made clear. Although freaked out, once she accepts it as true, Dan-o learns to embrace it. Worse things in the world to be than that star of a romance comic, after all.

Which is when she finds out she’s not the star. She’s a minor supporting character and, given genre conventions, one with a ticking clock over her, given the heart condition.

That’s all in episode 1, which is jam packed full of high concept set-up and, to be fair, does feel it. It’s an hour or so long, but felt much longer to watch. But not in a bad way. As I said, I’m only three episodes in, so I’ve no idea how well the show can keep the premise going for 13 hour-long episodes, but so far it’s really entertaining.

And it’s a great premise, like Animal Man by way of some of the more interesting bits of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books. There’s some really interesting explorations of the idea of everyone being/assuming they’re the protagonist in their own story. Dan-o has gained awareness because she’s developed an “ego”, but that itself immediately destroys her ego in another sense by finding out she’s a fringe character. Dan-o, with the help of “dried squid elf” (a guy who works in the school canteen who is the only other person aware of their fictional nature), works out how to live in the margins of the comic. While she has no free will in what the show calls “stages” (scenes) that centre on her, and her actions to disrupt stages she’s only in the background of are undone and reset, she’s able to live freely in the “shadow”, the bits between stages. The show doesn’t really explain how those exist when reality is also jumping forward by scene changes, but whatevs, the show wouldn’t really work without them. Dan-o decides to try and change her fate and spends her free time working that out and railing against the hacky writing of the comic.

All of this works largely because of the actress playing Dan-o. I don’t know her name, because the credits are in Korean (and I don’t want to look it up online in case of spoilers) but she’s great, able to convincingly do both the timid drip that the comic forces her to be and the gregarious, smart-mouth that she really is and switch between them at the drop of a hat. It’s a joy to watch.

The other curious thing about the show is the obvious missing cultural trappings. When Dan-o becomes fully self-aware, she notes that she should have realised she wasn’t the star initially because the actual stars of the comic are called Oh Nam-do and Yeo Ju-da, which mean male protagonist and female protagonist, apparently. I – not knowing any Korean – didn’t pick up on that at all, nor that the other characters have similarly simplistic names. I assume native viewers would have noticed it all immediately. Similarly, while I’m sure it’s at least a little stylised and amplified, I’ve no idea how authentic a view of Korean high school this is. Everyone is wearing school uniforms, but not matching uniforms? Three of the most popular (ie richest) boys in the school are treated like a boy-band, with the other students actively fawning over them at every possible moment, which I would like to assume isn’t realistic, but I’ve seen K-Pop stans, so…

The presentation of this on Netflix also rather removes any notions of target audience. I’m thoroughly enjoying the show, but I have no idea who it was intended for. I assume maybe tweens, given the teen romance element, but the moderately complex metatextual elements suggest maybe a show for (young) adults. Who knows? Who cares?

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DavidM, Dave, njerry

Tobias Radesäter wrote:

Christian wrote:

Tobias Radesäter wrote:

In season 2 of the Umbrella Academy there is a group of three hitmen, called the Swedes. They don’t say much, but the things they do say are in swedish.

Yet, none of the actors are from Sweden.

Should I be upset about this?

Depends. How is their Swedish?

Good enough to understand. Not good enough to make me think they really are swedish.

You should be incredibly angry and mob rage on the creators.

This is what is expected.

Martin Smith wrote:

the actress playing Dan-o. I don’t know her name,

She’s Kim Hye-Yoon. Thanks for the review; sounds really intriguing.

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Martin Smith, Dave

Yeah thanks for that Martin, sounds really interesting but had completely passed me by.

Tobias Radesäter wrote:

Good enough to understand. Not good enough to make me think they really are swedish.

Well, I will say that it always irritates me when they have actors playing Germans but the German is really badly pronounced. I mean, come on, how hard can it be to find an actor who at least knows enough German to pronounce the words right?

Christian wrote:

Tobias Radesäter wrote:

Good enough to understand. Not good enough to make me think they really are swedish.

Well, I will say that it always irritates me when they have actors playing Germans but the German is really badly pronounced. I mean, come on, how hard can it be to find an actor who at least knows enough German to pronounce the words right?

Heh… happens with spanish all the frickin’ time… and it’s not like there’s a lack of spanish speakers in the US. If they can’t even get that much right, don’t even hope for other languages.

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Christian

Oh also, I watched another russian movie, and in fact with the same lead as the two others… Coma (or Koma)… daaaaamn… another big hit. In fact, I’d recomend you guys check this one out, it’s basically a mix of Matrix, Inception and Doctor Strange…  specially, the first half of the movie, that’s where it’s at. The story is nothing too new or exciting, but goddamn it’s pretty to watch, some really cool shit going on in terms of visuals and concept. Maaan, these recent russian flicks have been kicking some serious ass… I hope there’s more coming up, I can’t get enough xD

Martin Smith wrote:

Extraordinary You

which I’m three episodes into. The show is about high school girl Dan-o who really has it made: she’s smart, popular, academic, is engaged(!) to one of the most idolised boys in school (even if he’s not happy about it) and sure, she has a serious heart condition, but that’s all under control now. Life is good. Until Dan-o starts realising that she’s missing time. Huge chunks of her day, her week even, disappear in the blink of an eye. And she’s started hallucinating a bit – the sound of flipping pages mainly. And she finds herself saying and doing things she doesn’t want to, especially around her fiance Yeung (who she realises she really doesn’t like).

Because it turns out, Dan-o is a character in a comic book. The missing time is the gap between scenes, the involuntary actions are the things written for her, the flipping pages are… well, that’s not really made clear. Although freaked out, once she accepts it as true, Dan-o learns to embrace it. Worse things in the world to be than that star of a romance comic, after all.

Which is when she finds out she’s not the star. She’s a minor supporting character and, given genre conventions, one with a ticking clock over her, given the heart condition.

This is making me think of Redshirts by John Scalzi.

Christian wrote:

Well, I will say that it always irritates me when they have actors playing Germans but the German is really badly pronounced. I mean, come on, how hard can it be to find an actor who at least knows enough German to pronounce the words right?

It happens with languages and accents all the time. My harshness judging it depends a little on the budget of the show. If it’s filmed on a shoestring in New Zealand then it’s understandable they may not be able to get native speaking German, Swedish or Spanish actors for minor roles. If it’s a $200m movie then fuck them, they should have tried harder.

Most of the elvish in LOTR were read by human actors, and some of it sounded dodgy af.

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Todd

Anonymous wrote:

Most of the elvish in LOTR were read by human actors, and some of it sounded dodgy af.

Elvish had left the building.

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Ben, garjones, Todd

Anonymous wrote:

Most of the elvish in LOTR were read by human actors, and some of it sounded dodgy af.

Elvish is mainly based on Welsh (some words are literally exactly the same) with a bit of Finnish so I am actually qualified to criticise the pronunciation.

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Dave

Just finished the first season of The Boys. This was pretty great and I’m glad season two isn’t far away.

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Rocket, Sean Robinson, Todd, Christian, lorcan_nagle, Ben

Finished Umbrella Academy S2.

It was OK.  The best sections remain anything with music.   The rest of the time it’s all right.

The Handler got boring fast, as well as being an over indulged villain.

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lorcan_nagle

Finally watching the Joss Whedon version of Much Ado About Nothing.

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Dave, lorcan_nagle

Ben wrote:

It was OK.  The best sections remain anything with music.

Loved the chimp section with Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom”.

JRCarter wrote:

Finally watching the Joss Whedon version of Much Ado About Nothing.

Always wanted to see that, but haven’t yet. Was it fun?

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Ben, lorcan_nagle

JRCarter wrote:

Finally watching the Joss Whedon version of Much Ado About Nothing.

Oh, I liked that version. Good cast and some fun line readings.

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Christian

It’s brilliant. Funny, tragic, vicious, screwball, 1940s esque romcom bawdy banter to and fro. It’s as timeless a tale of toxic masculinity as WWDITS. You’ll find yourself saying phrasing A LOT.

I watched Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971). It’s not good and has aged horribly.

A married male teacher sleeping with his high school students. The very same teacher encourages a female teacher and a male student to sleep together. Sexism is rampant in this movie.

I don’t see this movie getting remade.

Todd wrote:

I watched Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971). It’s not good and has aged horribly.

A married male teacher sleeping with his high school students. The very same teacher encourages a female teacher and a male student to sleep together. Sexism is rampant in this movie.

I don’t see this movie getting remade.

That was Gene Roddenberry’s big attempt to become a hotshot producer.  Suffice it to say, it was not successful.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Todd wrote:

I watched Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971). It’s not good and has aged horribly.

A married male teacher sleeping with his high school students. The very same teacher encourages a female teacher and a male student to sleep together. Sexism is rampant in this movie.

I don’t see this movie getting remade.

That was Gene Roddenberry’s big attempt to become a hotshot producer.  Suffice it to say, it was not successful.

He also wrote the screenplay.

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lorcan_nagle

Christian wrote:

JRCarter wrote:

Finally watching the Joss Whedon version of Much Ado About Nothing.

Always wanted to see that, but haven’t yet. Was it fun?

It was enjoyable enough. I was kinda spoiled on the Kenneth Branagh version.

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Dave

Todd wrote:

I watched Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971). It’s not good and has aged horribly.
I don’t see this movie getting remade.

Even with Prince Andrew in the starring role?

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Todd

JRCarter wrote:

Christian wrote:

JRCarter wrote:

Finally watching the Joss Whedon version of Much Ado About Nothing.

Always wanted to see that, but haven’t yet. Was it fun?

It was enjoyable enough. I was kinda spoiled on the Kenneth Branagh version.

It is hard to beat the Branagh version. I remember seeing that at the cinema when it first came out and it is just beautiful.

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JRCarter

Caught the final episode of season one of the HBO series PERRY MASON. Very satisfying all around — story, setting, direction, and particularly the acting and the realistic characterizations. Strongly recommended.

Christian wrote:

Always wanted to see that, but haven’t yet. Was it fun?

IMO, You have to enjoy the whedonverse to enjoy that version. I think my favorite part was matching shakespeare role actor to Whedonverse role actor. i.e. “oh, thats the guy from Dollhouse or Buffy or Angel”

Todd wrote:

I watched Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971). It’s not good and has aged horribly.

A married male teacher sleeping with his high school students. The very same teacher encourages a female teacher and a male student to sleep together. Sexism is rampant in this movie.

I don’t see this movie getting remade.

 

Huh, Quentin Tarantino apparently named it as one of the ten best movies of all time. Not that he doesn’t sometimes like utter crap.

Skimming the wikipedia page it sounds like the teacher is revealed as a serial killer. Does the movie treat the teacher-student relationships as wrong or are they there to titillate?

* * *

I watched Repo Man last night. Great fun. Harry Dean Stanton is, as always, brilliant, and so many of the other supporting actors, most of whom I’ve never seen anywhere else. Writer-director Alex Cox creates a whole LA underworld of suburban punk stick-up kids, UFO nuts, and grizzled repo men. I love stories that create their own subcultures that you can imagine existing just beyond the scope of your own experience. Repo Man and Blue Velvet would make a great double-feature.

Funniest line?

(paraphrasing)

“C’mon, let’s go do some crimes.”

“Yeah… let’s order sushi and not pay!”

* * *

Relic, an Australian horror movie from this year, is the first movie to really scare me in quite some time. I haven’t seen a haunted house movie quite like it before. It has a very original take on the genre. Without giving anything away, I’ll say it’s a bit like a Neil Gaiman story but drained of any whimsy.

The basic plot is that an old woman (Robyn Nevin) goes missing from her home in the countryside so her daughter (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter (Bella Heathcote) leave the city and temporarily move into her house so they can help look for her. The grandmother returns a few days later, but she doesn’t remember where she’s been, or won’t say, and she has a strange mold growing on parts of her body. She doesn’t act like herself anymore, adding to the unsettling events that have been occurring in the house since her daughter and granddaughter moved in.

Don’t expect many explanations for the weirdness (although I think a rationale can be pieced together from the bits of information we’re given) but if you’re like me that ambiguity will only add to the horror. And there’s an added layer of social consciousness about how Western society tends to discard its elders that is quite powerful emotionally by the end.

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lorcan_nagle, Todd, Dave

Will_C wrote:

Does the movie treat the teacher-student relationships as wrong or are they there to titillate?

Definitely titillation. There is one moment where a male teacher is encouraging a female teacher to sleep with a male student to help him with his “sexual frustrations”. She questions it but the male teacher quickly dismisses her concerns and she then goes along with it. Outside of that, teachers sleeping with students seems acceptable. A lot of the “acceptance” seems to stem from the fact the 1971 movie is based on a 1968 novel and this is post-Summer of Love “youth empowerment”. It implies that the students now have agency as they are coming into their own power and taking on the Establishment. They are almost treated as equals to the teachers in regards to sex even though the teacher clearly wields control and is definitely manipulating them.

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lorcan_nagle, Will_C

[Will_C]

That sounds a lot like The Man Who Fell to Earth, which I watched recently. It’s another 70s movie that portrays teacher-student relationships, this time between a college professor (Rip Torn) and his freshman students. He defends himself as being “younger” than the teenage girls he sleeps with because he’s a free-thinker and their minds have already been corrupted by conformism. It’s very cringe and the movie seems to take his side. I love Nicolas Roeg, and David Bowie’s great as the alien, but it’s a mess of a movie and the Rip Torn character is only one of its problems.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Will_C.

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lorcan_nagle, Todd

I’m watching old Miami Vice episodes. That stuff is still great. Surprising to find some rather controversial political stuff in there (US involvement in Nicaragua)

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Todd

Todd wrote:

There is one moment where a male teacher is encouraging a female teacher to sleep with a male student to help him with his “sexual frustrations”. She questions it but the male teacher quickly dismisses her concerns and she then goes along with it.

I too remember grade school.

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Todd

I finished Extraordinary You today. It mostly lives up to the promise of the earlier episodes. Unfortunately, a lot of the comedy gives way to strong romantic melodrama, which at least answers the question of what genre it’s in.

The metatextual elements persist though and were enough to keep me interested, even though the series could stand to lose 4 episodes (there are 16 hour-long episodes – weirdly broken into 32 half hours in its native South Korea to circumvent a law preventing ad breaks, weirdly) and does a fair bit of circling in the third quarter. It has some really great moments in it, as well as ideas and characters.