Now Watching

[Julius Seeker]

I suppose also on the Science Fiction spectrum, but I am also watching Futurama alongside TNG. I watched a lot of Futurama when I was younger, and I think I have seen all of the episodes multiple times (at least in the ~20 or so I have watched so far), but it has been nearly 10 years since I watched it, so it feels fresh.

[Blotus]

Homeland!

I was worried it was going to be a 'rah rah 'Murica CIA get them terrists' network show, but when I saw it was Showtime, I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did! Claire Danes is the shit.

[Shrinweck]

The premise going into season three of Homeland is weak but two decent seasons so far. I'm not sure if this show would be worth watching at all without Damian Lewis and Danes though.

[Julius Seeker]

Watching TNG,

The episode, The Inner Light, reminds me of why I love science fiction.

This episode, and an earlier episode called The Offspring from season 3, are probably my two favourite episodes of the entire franchise of Star Trek. They both have things in common, they follow the life of a character. In the Offspring, Data's daughter Lal, and in The Inner Light Picard lives half the the life of a man on a dying planet 1000 years ago.

Season 5 started out my least favourite of the TNG seasons, but it has ended off with some very great episodes, the last handful have been among the best of the series.

[SineSwiper]

The episode, The Inner Light, reminds me of why I love science fiction.

Yeah, Inner Light is one of my favs, too. The Offspring is kinda dated for my tastes now.

They have these showing on BBC America (of all places). Most of these I remember already. Some haven't aged well. One that caught me off guard was Parallels. I didn't remember much of that episode, but it was pretty enjoyable, even if the time science was kind of a stretch.

Most LaForge-centric episodes end up being pretty good.

[Shrinweck]

Yeah I went through TNG last year for the first time and wasn't crazy about Offspring.. but I remember enjoying Inner Light a lot once I realized that the entire episode was going to be like that. The first fifteen minutes I was admittedly going "WTF!" which ended up making me enjoy the episode more.

Darmok is still my favorite episode. That's the kind of thing I think sci-fi should be.

[SineSwiper]

Still have to pick The Nth Degree as my favorite, because Barkley was awesome in that one. Also, I forgot about Phantasms. Actually, most of the last season had some good stuff in it. (And a few bad episodes, but at least they were branching out.)

[Julius Seeker]

Holy crap! Worf's adoptive brother is Pauly Cicero! He's in the mafia family =P

[Julius Seeker]

Well, apparently I am done TNG now. I didn't even realize that I just watched the series finale until I saw there were no episodes after. I suppose in retrospect it makes sense ending it like that, but I felt a little dissatisfied, I suppose I unreasonably expected something cool with the Borg =P

Also, Warp 13? According to Star Trek's warp factor model where 10 is occupying all points in spacetime, that's like saying infinite and a half kmph.


I can't say what my overall favourite season is, but I am thinking maybe 3/4 with The Inner Light being my overall favourite episode. Early season 7 was very good too, but the episodes later on got a little... Artistic... Like Masks. Sub Rosa seemed less like a Star Trek episode and more like a Raimi/Tapert flick - All it needed was Bruce Campbell playing the ghost =P

I think Phantasms, Parallels, and Gambit were my favourite episodes of the season.

[Shrinweck]

I found Sub Rosa to be probably one of the worst TNG episodes

[Julius Seeker]

It was probably the worst =P
But it also had its cheesy charm. I liked seeing the characters explore their sexuality a little, that's something TNG is incredibly dry about.

Now, what to next, Star Trek DS9 or Enterprise? I am leaning more toward Enterprise because I like the idea of more of a throwback into the exploration of the unknown.

[Shrinweck]

DS9 is probably objectively better all around but Enterprise gets real good (for the most part) in its third and fourth seasons and is definitely easier to sit through. If it had gotten one last season Jeffrey Combs would have been a crew member of Enterprise and probably could have carried the show alone. But, yeah, once Enterprise becomes less about "Hey.. this is where THIS came from, CRAZY huh?" and more about an actual story it gets real entertaining.

[SineSwiper]

I found Sub Rosa to be probably one of the worst TNG episodes

No. The worst.

The 1st and 2nd season had its moments, but that can be excused for a show trying to find its stride. This was Season SEVEN!

[Shrinweck]

Lol I actually only had "the worst" written and decided to put "one of" since I figured there would be someone with more experience than me with Star Trek who would have one even worse. So, yeah, I agree with you guys :P

[Julius Seeker]

I quite enjoyed season 1 and 2 of TNG, but I am a fan of camp.

[Julius Seeker]

I just started watching season 1 of SG-1 for the second time. This series is surprisingly rewatchable. I think I might invest in this on Bluray if it ever becomes available. I'll probably do Enterprise next, but I want to get ahold of the box set first.

[Shrinweck]

Blah blah Mad Men is amazing blah blah

Watched the first episode of Vikings and it was quite good. Nice to watch a show that has to have decent writing since it's on the History channel and can't have extremely gratuitous violence and nudity.

Speaking of which Game of Thrones is decent even though it's been noticeably light on the gratuitous violence and nudity.

[SineSwiper]

Yeah, my dad has been really harping on this series (Vikings). I told him that we would start watching it if he would watch the first few episodes of Game of Thrones I gave him.

[Shrinweck]

Haha. I caught up to the latest episode and I'm still quite impressed. Gabriel Byrne is basically my favorite actor and he doesn't disappoint.

People like talking about how historically accurate it is - that stuff is going over my head for the most part but I'm still enjoying it.

[Julius Seeker]

Speaking of Gabriel Byrne:



Long live the king!

[Shrinweck]

I'm four episodes into Hemlock Grove and it's quite good. I was worried it would be Netflix's version of True Blood (97% soap opera 3% lore/story) or Vampire Diaries or some such but it's actually quite good. Basically none of the focus is on romantic entanglements or the high school that the younger cast members go to (there won't be an episode about needing to get better grades or a stolen mascot) - there's a complete focus on the lore and developing the story. Pretty good shit. If House of Cards was a 10/10 this is a solid 7.5/10 so far.

[Flip]

I also just started watching Hemlock Grove and am about in the same spot. I like it, but am wondering what the heck is going on. I guess its that question that keeps me watching, though. I agree that the lack of teenage drama love triangles is a good thing, but i get the feeling that this will be a little True Blood'ish in that i'm pretty sure everyone in town is something... Whether that be mind reader, werewolf, witch, angel, or frankenstein... no one is normal. Also, what the heck do people have against gypsies in the US? This isnt taking place in Europe, Americans have zero reason to be racist against 'dirty trash gyspsies' or even know how to spot one for that matter.

[Shrinweck]

There are gypsies in the states that get pigeonholed into the stereotype of running con jobs and shit.. they're just a bazillion times more rare than in Europe and Northern Africa. AFAIK most of them came here escaping Europe during the Holocaust.

[SineSwiper]

Bah, True Blood is still a cool series, but they have definitely jumped the shark this last season.

[Shrinweck]

I finished Hemlock Grove a few days ago and it had quite the unexpected ending. I thought the first season was quite good despite the book having such a middling reception from Amazon. I guess it works better on camera or they made some changes. I'm in for the eventual season two, although I'm probably looking forward to the second season of House of Cards more. I'd have bought the second book if it was out but apparently the author has been dragging his heels with it.

[Julius Seeker]

Speaking of The Vikings, I didn't realize that it was a Michael Hirst series. I really enjoyed the Tudors, so this is one I am definitely going to check out. The plus is that the Viking theme is awesome.

[Shrinweck]

Last week was the finale of Vikings and it was quite good even though nothing... finale-ish happened. Great set up for season two, though.

[Julius Seeker]

I finished Freaks and Geeks a little while ago, and loved it. I am VERY surprised this one got canned. It was more interesting than That 70's Show, and didn't seem so formulaic. Plus it doesn't rely so heavily on the gimmick of taking place in the 80's as That 70's Show did with its 70's era gimmick... In addition, the culture was actually reminiscent of the 80's where That 70's Show seemed more like families from the 1950's transported to the 70's.

I attempted Undeclared, the show seemed to show promise at first, but then it turned into something that reminded me of a bad spinoff of Roadtrip. I quit somewhere around episode 8/9. I am actually not surprised this one got canned.

[Shrinweck]

New Arrested Development is good.. They preserve the feel of the series even though a lot of it has changed. I don't think it's as laugh out loud funny but still a very good show.

[Julius Seeker]

I have yet to watch Arrested Development, maybe now is a good time to start.

[Anarky]

New Arrested Development is good.. They preserve the feel of the series even though a lot of it has changed. I don't think it's as laugh out loud funny but still a very good show.

Binged on it this weekend. Need to rewatch the first few episodes again since they make more sense and would be funnier in context.

[Shrinweck]

I'm on the rewatch now since I wasn't paying enough attention to catch everything and I'm finding it much more funny. The forum I use for torrents had some people complaining that they were using too many jokes from the past as a crutch... but that's the fucking show lol. Did they not like it in the first place? There's always been a certain amount of jokes called back while further establishing new jokes that they're going to call back. I did find the short clips back to the first few seasons disorienting at first but they knock off using the ones that are longer than 1-2 seconds almost immediately.

Spoiler: show

Gob collapsing from syphilis made me laugh uncontrollably for a good 15 seconds the second time around

I'm still kind of sad that there's a lack of Maeby and Buster in the new season though and they both only got like one episode dedicated to them. My first time through I had trouble following some of the time jumps they make at times and making total sense out of the story. It isn't perfect but the show never was.

[Julius Seeker]

Re-watching season 1-3 of River Monsters. These are like some of the most entertaining nature shows that you'll ever see. It's like the grit of Steve Irwin, the educational value of David Attenborough, and all framed as a real life Sherlock Holmes investigation.

The second episode about the Alligator Gar really sets the tone. He is investigating whether or not the giant freshwater fish deserves the nasty name it has, or if the efforts to attempt to exterminate this ancient North American fish are justified. Of course, this comes after the series premier where the host Jeremy Wade gets in a swimming pool filled with over 100 starving piranhas to prove a point about their feeding and attack habits; he even adds blood into the mix to prove that doesn't set them off either.

While the show does fall into the category of extreme nature reality documentaries, it's tone is very different from the Crocodile Hunter. Its focus is far more mature and informative rather than on the colourful type entertainment factor; although, I do find the mystery hook of River Monsters manages create a much more interesting show than the Crocodile Hunter.

Little bit of trivia, Jeremy Wase speaks English, Brazilian Portuguese, and French fluently, along with 9 other languages semi-fluently.

[Blotus]

It's like the grit of Steve Irwin, the educational value of David Attenborough, and all framed as a real life Sherlock Holmes investigation.

I came here to say I'm re-watching BBC's Sherlock and man is it dope.

[Julius Seeker]

The latest episode I watched of River Monsters had him on a lake in Ethiopia surrounded by crocodiles and hippos. The company he was staying with was a gang of Ethiopian outlaws who had stories of battle with opposing gangs and survival from attacks by the local crocodiles and hippos; there was even a jaws scar-bragging scene, except this guy's scars put everyone in jaws to complete and utter shame.

All this so Jeremy Wade could fish some Nile perch which are known to grow up to 440 pounds in size.

Oh, and he also caught this a couple episodes earlier:


A Goliath Tigerfish, also known as the Demon Fish.

[Shrinweck]

Mad Men finale was tonight and that show remains so fucking good. Not a bad episode all season. I like the set up for what is possibly to be the last season. They've managed to take it in a direction I hadn't been considering for a bunch of the characters.

Wilfred premiered last week and I still really love that show. Still unsure why Elijah Wood is in a comedy on a basic cable network but I'm not going to complain. One of the only overseas US remakes that's everyone basically agrees is better than the original. The remake is a comedy that revolves around a plot about mental illness, theirs is a show that ends up being about how it's just funny to have a guy playing a dog in a costume.

I caught the trailer for the new Netflix Original show (Orange is the New Black) that gets uploaded in mid-July and it looks worth a watch. They haven't really stumbled other than Lilyhammer. Although Bad Samaritans and Shotgun Wedding are both things I haven't bothered checking out since I'm not sure if they interest me at all. And AFAIK they didn't bother marketing them.

[SineSwiper]

Old news, but I just found out that BBC cancelled The Fades after just the first season. Wins awards, rave reviews, but BBC just didn't have enough budget.

I mean, it was like watching Bleach in live action. (Well, minus the swords and over-the-top anime stuff, but still.)

[Shrinweck]

Watching Defiance now since I bought the game during the Steam sale. It's been pretty meh up until about the middle where I am now. Just finished episode six (involving Nolan's army friend and the evil weapons scientist) and it was a solid eight out of ten episode, so I guess I'm in until the end.

Maron just finished airing and it was a pretty good show for something that's been jokingly called "Not Louie." There are definite similarities (How could there not be?) but Maron makes it his own. I just wish that a lot of the content wasn't basically ruined by listening to the podcast and thus knowing where he was going with 90% of the content.

I blasted through seasons one and two of Continuum last week and it's a solid sci-fi show that was a fun watch.

Dexter's opening episodes (haven't seen last Sunday's yet) were surprisingly strong. Looking forward to the rest of the season. Also hoping it actually ends. TBH the only series that I'm watching that's hit season 9 and I want to keep going is Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Even Seinfeld needed to end.

[Julius Seeker]

Nothing really, sitting in limbo, watching a movie from time to time.

The last movie I caught was Superman a few weeks back.

I thought the cast was excellent, the story seemed to have potential, but after the first battle between Superman and the female villain, it just became a tired action flick with long drawn out action sequences that began to put me to sleep. There's a lot of discontinuity, especially in the latter half of the film.

[Shrinweck]

Watched the Oblivion movie and it was decent but it was better the first time they made it. Moon is better in basically every respect.

[Flip]

Watched the Oblivion movie and it was decent but it was better the first time they made it. Moon is better in basically every respect.

I dont have any desire to see Oblivion, but M83 did all the music and they are currently one of my favorite bands, so hopefully that was well done. I casually listened to the soundtrack while at work one dau and it seemed pretty generic movie music, unfortunately. But, it deserves a more focused listen one of these days.

[SineSwiper]

Watched the Oblivion movie and it was decent but it was better the first time they made it. Moon is better in basically every respect.

Small Moon spoiler:

Spoiler: show

I found many parallels with Moon and The Swapper, actually. In fact, I thought at first The Swapper was just Moon set to a game. (Though, later I figured out that The Swapper really stands out in its own right.)

[Shrinweck]

I would say there were only two points where I had a "Oh, the music is doing well here" moment. And I typically like M83.

[Flip]

I would say there were only two points where I had a "Oh, the music is doing well here" moment. And I typically like M83.

Yeah, Pitchfork got it right with their review.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/180 ... ivion-ost/

[SineSwiper]

Yeah, Pitchfork got it right with their review.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/180 ... ivion-ost/

Though I agree that the soundtrack seemed muted and has much less of M83's flavor, I disagree with their assessment of Daft Punk's TRON soundtrack. The latter was an example of what Daft Punk can do if they applied themselves (instead of stealing funk riffs all the time) with an orchestra behind them. The whole OST is awesome, and the remixed one is pretty good, too.

[Julius Seeker]

I watched the first three seasons of SMC's Walking Dead... Now I am someone who was tired of the zombie thing years ago, but THIS... Now this is something excellent.

Spoiler: show

1st season has tributes to Romero and other Zombie media (like 28 days later). It's a little cliche feeling at times, but entertaining
2nd season is fairly awesome in that it explores the characters a lot further than than the first season. It's less well received by others, but it's been my favourite so far... I just wish they would have actually tried to fortify the farm!
3rd season was way more comical with these outrageous characters like the Governor and the ninja chick.


Some major issues, that don't really ruin the series, but are there:
1. Why won't they make up their mind? Is everyone already infected or do bites cause the infection? In season 1, it was established the disease is quickly lethal, but that doesn't seem to be the case by the end of season 2.
2. How did so many damn zombies spawn? These things are pitiful fighters, they're slow, and fairly easily killed. Average humans with a bat could handle these things. How did these walkers or biters overrun everything? This is something no zombie movie ever explains.
3. Why is it in zombie flicks no one has ever heard of a zombie before?

[Shrinweck]

I awkwardly pretended not to notice the actor that plays Tyreese in The Walking Dead at the gym again yesterday. The guy had like one of the best supporting roles in The Wire. SOMEONE else should be recognizing him. I don't see anyone even double taking. Uncultured louts!

[Julius Seeker]

Nothing really, sitting in limbo, watching a movie from time to time.

The last movie I caught was Superman a few weeks back.

I thought the cast was excellent, the story seemed to have potential, but after the first battle between Superman and the female villain, it just became a tired action flick with long drawn out action sequences that began to put me to sleep. There's a lot of discontinuity, especially in the latter half of the film.

Ah, now I realize my problem with the movie, Zack Snyder, terrible director. I've seen three other films directed by him; all were mediocre, low brow films. It's not a wonder that a talent like Christian Bale won't touch a role in a film directed by him; but Ben Affleck was willing to sell-out. Then again, I can imagine Affleck would have always wanted to play a role like Batman, considering he is a fan and all - I am not sure Bale was before his casting in the Nolan version of Batman.

[SineSwiper]

Ah, now I realize my problem with the movie, Zack Snyder, terrible director. I've seen three other films directed by him; all were mediocre, low brow films. It's not a wonder that a talent like Christian Bale won't touch a role in a film directed by him; but Ben Affleck was willing to sell-out. Then again, I can imagine Affleck would have always wanted to play a role like Batman, considering he is a fan and all - I am not sure Bale was before his casting in the Nolan version of Batman.

Even if you don't like 300, he did an excellent job with Watchmen.

[Julius Seeker]

I've heard Watchmen was great, and even directors I don't like will occasionally have films I really like. I still haven't seen that one.