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[Julius Seeker]

Haha, I like the light heart sitcoms too, even the ones the critics hate like Full House and Fuller House. Friends is actually one I haven't watched a great deal of after season 5, up until the season where Monica and Chandler flirted around in secret after Ross almost got successfully married. I have seen bits and pieces, but not much. Although I watched the crap out of the first 2-3 seasons back when I was in junior high and high school, so that's where the majority of my familiarity of the series is from.


On Black Mirror, I began with season 3, and it's been where I have recommended people to start because Nosedive is an infinitely better series debut episode than National Anthem. In addition, season 3 is a much better arranged season than the first two, in that the revelation of concepts allows for maximum enjoyment. Also, the differences in tone of each episode are by far the most pronounced in season 3; and yet they work so well in how they're arranged. In the first three episodes: Nosedive is a bit of a black comedy, Playtest leans more in the suspense thriller category, and Shut Up and Dance is more of a mystery thriller. I won't comment on the rest, because the 4th episode, San Junipero, is very interesting after watching those first three, and in my opinion, one of the best episodes of current day television.

I think the best episode to finish off the current 13 episode batch is the standalone "White Christmas" which currently gets packaged into season 2, but actually debuted between season 2 and 3 as a separate special. It's the longest episode, and its use of social integration of technology exploration into technology goes the deepest. Based on the style and way technology is used, I'd guess White Christmas was written while season 3 was being written; or after it had been mostly concepted. The main reason I recommend it as the final episode to watch is because it covers such a wide variety of tech, that it might end up spoiling some of season 3 by revealing the depths of which technology can be integrated into society; but the reverse isn't necessarily true.

I would watch in this order:
Season 3
Season 1
Season 2
White Christmas

SPOILER, Probably only if you have watched all 13 available episodes.

Spoiler: show

White Christmas explores a lot of technology used in all 3 seasons. It has several plot points which open up the possibility that certain distant future seeming episodes might actually occur in virtual worlds. Easter eggs which imply that the events of the episode 15 Million Merits may have occurred before hand, and that the people involved were all just copies of real people; and their purpose is to create media for the real world to enjoy, while the population of the 15 Million Merits world is an entertainment production program. Of course, I don't expect that, if this is the case, that the idea was fully baked until White Christmas or season 3 was being officially concepted.

[Julius Seeker]

Back on Bojack, some reflections on the great storytelling this series has.

What I enjoy the most about the show are the use of flashbacks for dramatic effect. The animated show most famous for flashbacks is Family Guy, which uses a random scene as a comedic gag; a tactic used on the Simpsons, but not to nearly the extent. With Bojack, the flashback bits are all in context of what has occurred, and they usually tell an earlier part of the story after the viewer already knows the outcome of what is to happen. I think the best example of these, so far, is one in the second season. It occurs after the story of how Bojack and Kazzaz's friendship broke down (around 1990) after Bojack betrayed him, and then they were not on speaking terms for most of the remainder of his life (which ended in 2015); this flashback scene occurs after Kazzaz's death:



I also love the cultural references! And the story between Bojack and Kazzaz has plenty.
The story of the Kazzaz and Bojack is actually split up across the first season and top of the second for the most part. So it's weaved into other storylines, and it actually doesn't amount to a huge amount of screentime, despite doing a tremendous amount to develop Bojack's character and background. The story is also not presented in chronological order, but rather little memory flashbacks into the 80s and 90s, as well as scenes from present day.

For the timeline and cultural references:

Early 80s - Bojack is a struggling comedian alongside his friend Herb Kazzaz; this is how a lot of the big Sitcom stars of the 80s and 90s began, including Bob Saget, Jerry Seinfeld, and Larry David.

Mid 80s to 87 - The scene above is from this time, the two comedians get a TV deal for a show called Horsin Around. Which would debut in 1987 and would go on to become an iconic 90s Sitcom that critics hated, but fans adored. The critical standing would haunt Bojack to present day. This is a very clear and obvious nod to Full House.

Early 90s - Kazzaz was outed as gay and fired from the Network. He asked Bojack to support him, but network executives convinced him he had a bright future ahead if he played ball with them instead. Bojack, ashamed of helping to screw his best friend out of a job, avoided him. The two grew distant, and while Bojack assumed the feud between the two was due to the role he played in the screwjob, Kazzaz later revealed that the job/money wasn't a problem for him, it was the fact that his best friend turned his back on him and ignored him in a time when no one else wanted to be his friend. I don't think this has any person in particular, but rather the homophobia of the time, but Ellen Degeneres had been fired for being homosexual.

They have a conversation later where Bojack is described as the new show runner, Kazzaz says everyone knows the classic episodes are when he was at the helm, while Bojack says some of the post-Kazzaz episodes are classics too. This is a clear nod to Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. Larry David who left his position after the 7th season, and Jerry took over for 8 and 9.

2014/15 - Herb Kazzaz is dying of cancer. Bojack had inherited all the credit for the show, even though it was Herb Kazzaz's baby. The two are feuding. This looks like a clear reference to Sam Simon and Matt Groening of the Simpsons. That is, Matt Groening created the drawings that would be the Simpsons characters, while Sam Simon created the personalities of the characters, and the world of Springfield that they reside in. Groening's contribution happened to be the shallow surface of the show, while the core and beating heart of it was Simon. Groening got all the credit, and the episode of the Simpsons called Flaming Moe's, considered one of the greatest of all time, is based on this situation. Sam Simon was at odds with Brooks (Head exec) a lot of the time, and eventually exited unhappily. So there are some vague equivalencies with Kazzaz, but where it was very similar is that Kazzaz and Simon both got big settlements, and made a lot of money after they parted with the company. In addition, Sam Simon had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2012. In early 2015, Sam Simon died, and in the Bojack season which followed that fall, Herb Kazzaz also died.

It should be noted that Sam Simon willed the bulk of his wealth (over 100 million) to environmental conservationist and child welfare charities he had actively worked with in his lifetime. While Kazzaz didn't have that same sort of elaboration, it was implied that he was a good and charitable person.

[Julius Seeker]

I just finished Blackadder. Highly recommended for anyone who hasn't seen it.

For those who aren't familiar:
It's an anthology series from the 80s starring Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean), with co-stars including Tony Robinson as Baldrick, Hugh Laurie as George, and Tim McInnerny as Percy.

Each season of the show is six episodes and takes place in a different time period:

Season 1 - War of the Roses.
Season 2 - Court of Queen Elizabeth I
Season 3 - The Regency/Romantic era.
Season 4 - WWI

The characters, while named the same, are different generations. And so personalities are different across each season except the 3rd and 4th, where the characters are relatively the same, although different generations.

In season 1, Baldrick is more intelligent than Blackadder. And Edmund Blackadder is a Duke and Prince pretender to the English throne. It is a little Monty-Pythonish in tone, and most people recommend not starting with this season. Personally I liked it quite a bit, especially Brian Blessed's King George IV.

Season 2, Blackadder is more intelligent, and Baldrick stupider. Blackadder is now a Lord of the Queen's court. This is probably the most accessible season, and so most recommended by people to start. Hugh Laurie guest stars as a couple of characters in the season, but most notably as the German Ludwig, fan speculation is that he is an ancestor to George.

Season 3, the Regency, takes place during the Napoleonic era, although they pull in events that occurred decades earlier. Blackadder is the Butler to Royal Prince George. This season is often the favourite. Blackadder takes on a much more cynical and intelligent role. Baldrick is a total idiot.

Season 4, WW1, Blackadder is now just a military Captain, George is Lieutenant, and Baldrick is a private. Stephen Fry plays the General, and Tim McInnerny plays their commanding officer. This one has the most robust cast, and is usually considered the funniest, and second best overall. Blackadder, Baldrick, and George are just about the same sort of characters as they were in then3rd season. Stephen Fry's character is much like Brian Blessed's from season 1.

24 episodes and 4 stories in total, it's definitely worth a watch.

[kali o.]

Season 3 is easily the best. They also reunited in 1999 for a standalone episode/capper "Blackadder Back & Forth". It's not the best but certainly a must-have if you are binge watching the series.

And of course, if you are revisiting oldies of this type, you have to follow it up with Fawlty Towers and Red Dwarf (and if you haven't seen these all yet, you really have to).

[Julius Seeker]

On Miyazaki films, I watched his first original film, the 1984 Nausicaa and the Valley of the Winds. I really enjoyed it, and this film looks like it influenced Zelda and Final Fantasy heavily.

Miyazaki films are something I have seen spread out over a very long period of time. The first one I ever saw was an early dub of Kiki's Delivery Service back when I was still a kid; Princess Mononoke about 10 years later, and then another 10 years later Spirited Away. More recently, I watched My Neighbour Totoro, and didn't like it, the only one so far I didn't like of all the films I have seen from him. Nausicaa and the Valley of the Winds was fantastic though, I loved it.

The next one I want to see is The Wind Rises.

Right now, as it stands, Kiki's Delivery Service is still my favourite because of nostalgia factor, but Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind is probably my #2.

Looking up Miyazaki, he's an old man! 76, he was already getting on toward his mid-40s when Nausicaa was done, I wonder how much longer he's going to be making films? Also, any Miyazaki recommendations are welcome.

[Don]

I'm not a fan of Miyazaki's communist/environmentalism slant even though his works are indeed high quality. Out of the older stuff I liked Porco Russo (I think that's what it's called, the one about the pig) and the short video On Your Mark!

You can find On Your Mark on the Chinese sites like this one: http://www.bilibili.com/video/av3590494/. Click on the chat bubble to not see the spam across the screen. On Your Mark has literally no dialogue in the entire video, which is probably why I liked it even though it's got the pretty standard 'nature is good' theme.

[Julius Seeker]

You don't like the environment? Or the communities that he has created?

I thought it was rather beautiful.


Anyway, I am now watching a Netflix original series, Marco Polo; which critics seem not to like,
- although, judging by the reviews, it seems like they mostly watched just the opening episode, and then nothing more. I am finding it quite enjoyable. I just got through the first season. The best character, in my opinion, was the main antagonist Jia Sidao, Chancellor of the Song Dynasty. I also like 100 Eyes, Biyamba, and Khutulun, but those characters were made to be fan favourites.

It doesn't follow history precisely. Most particularly, a lot of wars are brushed over. Kublai's rise was an incredibly epic and bloody one, with many many battles over years. He was the most powerful Emperor who ever lived, controlling the largest Empire the world has ever known. But he reigned over the end of the hegemony as well. There were 4 Khanates in the Empire: The Chagatai, which controlled Central Asia, all of the "-istan" countries; the Golden Horde, which is best equated to the USSR, minus North Eastern Russia; the Ilkhanate which ruled over most of the former Arabic Caliphate that it destroyed; and last the largest and most powerful, the Imperial Khanate, which became the Yuan Dynasty. But during Kublai's reign, these Khanates would become mostly independent, and even war against one and other. Separate from one and other, before the death of Kublai, the independent Khanates grew a little further before the Egyptians and European forces reclaimed some of their lands.

I feel, that if there's any flaw in this story, it's that the hundreds of millions poured into the series didn't do justice to the epic scale of the Mongol Empire and its conquests. I think the world may seem too small, they discuss the distance between Karakoram and Southern China as though it's from London to Winchester. Otherwise, the series is stunning. It's style is interesting too, changing between fighting genres.

[Don]

Miyazaki's works spends way too much talking about environmentalism and communist stuff that it feels like a high school English class where you read some book and you talk about how everything is a symbolism of something. This might be more of a community thing though he obviously intended for the symbolism stuff to be pretty blatant in his works. It's not that his concepts are totally offensive but the way it hammers them is annoying.

[Shrinweck]

I got Amazon Prime a few months ago when they added the value of Twitch Prime to it and I've been making my way through their catalog.

Fleabag is one of the most laugh-out-loud-funny comedies I've seen in the past several years... if you can get over how depressing it is. This is one of the best things I've ever seen from a streaming service in general and is definitely my favorite Amazon original so far.

Goliath on the other hand was good enough that I watched through to the end but was constantly asking myself "Is this good?" throughout. Conclusion after the last episode: no it isn't.

The Man in the High Castle features some really good writing and acting but I just can't connect with it.

Red Oaks is generally a very good show although I'm not really sure why it's billed as a comedy. I think it made me laugh like... 1.5 times in two seasons?

I would say my three biggest complaints about the service at this point are:

1) Quality options. Up until this month you could only specify between low quality (like 400mb/hour) and high quality (like 7gb/hour) with no middle ground. It would also default to the highest quality every time the player closed. Now they've added a middle ground quality (1.4gb/hour) but it still defaults to the highest quality. I don't have a data cap but it still drives me up the wall. Maybe the change this month lets me set my own default finally, I haven't checked.

2) History of what you've watched/just watched. Amazon has some issues with keeping up with what you have watched in a series so if you can't remember which episode you just watched whether it was 2 minutes ago or 2 weeks ago, prepare to spend an annoying amount of time reading through summaries of episodes or thumbing through episodes to see if you remember what happened lol. I'm told this is less of an issue on their app but I'm watching from my PC so RIP. It seems to do just fine if you stop in the middle of an episode, though. But god forbid you finish one haha

3) Their trailers are annoying as fuck. I got a trailer in between a 'tear jerker' episode and its follow up. It just ruins the atmosphere. This is made worse by how god awful the trailers are in general. I suppose examples are unnecessary - they're about what you would expect from a 10-15 second trailer to get your attention. Some of them are fine, I suppose. And it feels like one plays every other episode? Maybe they're designed to play once an hour? For a service that I already pay for this is kind of shit. They're already getting my money. Why do they feel the need to push specifically their own programming onto me when they literally already have my money. On the other hand there is Netflix. Once in a while when I'm done watching a series they'll have a "TRAILER FOR _____ AUTOPLAYING IN X SECONDS" when I've finished a series or movie that's tangentially related to what they're trying to push. This has happened maybe.... three times? I think I've seen a trailer (not counting autoplay) that I didn't specifically ask for twice. Meanwhile there's Amazon, where it feels like it's constant and it always happens at the beginning of the episode.

[ManaMan]

I just finished watching the "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" season 1 on Netflix streaming. Really enjoyed this. It was produced by Barry Sonnenfeld and feels a lot like his series "Pushing Daisies". It's dark in a whimsical sort of way. Neil Patrick Harris plays Count Olaf and Patrick Warburton (Puddy from Seinfeld) plays Lemony Snicket (the narrator).

[Julius Seeker]

Now watching Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Season 1 was great, season 2 stepped it up big time (just finished episode 3).

It's like Curb your enthusiasm meets South Park and How I Met Your Mother. There lots of uncomfortable humour like Curb and it plays out as though written by Larry David; some of the jokes are similar to South Park: and like both shows there's often abrupt endings with an implied "things got worse" sort of deal. The gang is a little reminiscent of the sort of cast of How I Met Your Mother.

[SineSwiper]

Typical of me, I blasted through all 7 seasons of True Blood now that its done (i hate the wait between eps/seasons). It was a decent series. A little silly and a general lack of focus...but otherwise enjoyable...until season 7.

Bwhahaha... I stopped right at the season 6 finale. I knew I already saw the shark jumping moment.

Birdman I knew nothing about going into it, only that Michael Keaton was in it, so there were a lot of surprises there. It is one VERY unique film. I don't want to spoil it. Don't even watch a trailer.

Birdman is awesome. Not sure why you called this a "superhero" movie. The "Birdman" was only a role he played. Also, a really good explanation of how it's shot.

I know I'm two years late to the party on this, but I finally caught Star Trek: Into Darkness last night on Flix.

I don't understand the gushing about this movie. Maybe Benedict played the role decently, but the writing was terrible. It was a mockery of the original version. The ending was especially horrible.

On the Dominion, they're boring and poorly developed. I see them as more of a branch of the Cardassian side of the story, a bit of fire that they played with in order to try and bring back their former glory, but Damar seems to already realize it has come at a cost - because the Empire is not Cardassian, but Dominion. But aside from that, you could make the Dominion anything - Androids, extra-dimensional beings, or even some fallen ancient empire brought back to life, and there'd be no change in the story. Although Weyoun is entertaining to an extent?

I have to point out how badass Gul Dukat was in that series, though. Good video illustrating my point.

DS9 is still my favorite Star Trek series, even though I like Babylon 5 just a bit more.

[SineSwiper]

Sooo, Legion. This series is pretty great. Watch episode 1 and prepare for a mindfuck.

I thought the season finale was a little rushed, but for some reason, it ended on episode 8, so maybe they had a short season?

[ManaMan]

Watching more Netflix streaming shows: Death In Paradise (season 5) & Mystery Science Theater 3000 (reboot/new season)

[Julius Seeker]

DS9 is still my favorite Star Trek series, even though I like Babylon 5 just a bit more.

I liked Babylon 5 more as well. I was particularly impressed with how much they did with so few resources. 90 million for 5 seasons.

[Julius Seeker]

Fargo season 3 Episode 3 might be the best filler episode of a story-arc focused TV series I have ever seen. No one ever said filler couldn't be delicious.

[Julius Seeker]

Bojack Horseman is back,

I planned to binge it all over the last two days but couldn't actually get through. Not because it's bad, it's great, but gets very dark as the season moves on.

Spoiler: show

The episode begins in the future, a descendant of Princess Carolyn is telling a story to her class about her and her ancestors. There was an episode where Princess Carolyn was going through some really depressing shit, a fifth miscarriage, turning to alcohol to dull her pain, a breakup, firing her trusted assistant because she discovered he had hid a business offer in the past, discovering that some old piece of jewelry she had thought was precious was nothing more than a fake. Her relationships break down. The teacher of the descendant tries to cut her off, because the story is getting way too dark, but the descendant tells her that things get better. In short, they don't; the story reverses the realities, and the future girl isn't real, but Princess Carolyn's fantasy to make her feel better; How I Met Your Mother did something similar, but the way it was applied in this episode of Bojack was far better.

And that's where I had to stop, that was way too depressing. So we watched an episode of the Simpsons instead to flush that one out.

Sad episode, but probably my favourite of the series, so far. Definitely up there with last season's episode "Fish Out of Water" - my previous #1 episode.


The season has strong parallels to the themes of the world today, without retreading the exact same topics -- like South Park did last season in disastrous fashion (speaking specifically in how they tried to follow what happened at the end of last year. I love South Park, but last season was a bit of a failure, not a car crash, but definitely a bumpy ride). It tackles institutionalized sexism and feminism in a totally different and far more elegant and informed manner; not framing as the stereotypical moronic form you find in youtube comment sections. It tackles current democracy, how an unqualified idiot can find a lot of support in a political election, and how good politicians lower themselves to join in the farce of a reality TV Show style popularity contest in order to have a chance. The core story of the season is clearly depression; there's a huge mystery of why Bojack hates his mother so much. How his family is almost cursed with genetics of negativity/depression. Past seasons have touched on his young life, but it's a huge mystery. Bojack has a daughter, and he is watching his story repeat in her, and doesn't know how to steer things correctly.

The character interactions have been different overall, the 5 mains are largely running separate lives, not connecting a whole lot. Diane is the only one who seems to have much interaction with the other characters. It sounds like a really bad idea on paper, but it worked incredibly well for this season. The separate storylines are a testament to how strong the characters are on their own, and it gives the season a diversity that, perhaps, the previous seasons lacked.

I look forward to finishing this off today. If South Park doesn't pull out something phenomenal this season, then Bojack has it clearly beat as the best animated show currently running; and last year wasn't just a fluke.

This is, so far, my favourite season of the series, and I still have a few episodes left. I think that even if the remaining episodes are total duds, my opinion likely won't change at this point.

[Shrinweck]

Season three had some great stuff in it but it dragged a bit. It was definitely in general my least favorite season. I do agree that season four was probably the best so far. I think my favorite episode was also this season but I'm going to say it was the episode that was basically about his

Spoiler: show

mother's dementia

[Julius Seeker]

I agree with your spoiler, I hadn't got to that episode yet. All I can say is WOW! What a strong ending. As the kids say, "I got the feels."

[Julius Seeker]

Watching two Canadian based shows right now. One contemporary, the other historical.

TRAILER PARK BOYS - this Mockumentary has been popular in my corner of the world for a very long time. The guys that run the show are fairly active around the maritimes running restaurants and generally just hanging out at bars; and have done so for years. It's a hyperbolic version of a stereotypical Eastern Canadian Trailerpark: you have the low class accent, the rampant alcoholism, and black markets - all of which are big focuses in the series. You also have your stereotypical trailer park people: the drug dealers, the asshole who owns a gun, the kids that throw bottles at cars, the white guys that think they're black (and no one seems to ever question it), the prostitutes, the insurance frauders, the fat guys that refuse to wear shirts... the only stereotype they seem to have missed is the VLT guy... Essentially, when you're in that 10-12 range, you tend to be industrious - raking lawns, washing windows at stores, anything to scrape by a bit of money that your parents don't know about - and there is one type of guy competing with you - and that's the welfare VLT guy who is also trying to scrape up a lot of money that his own authorities don't know about so he can head down to the convenience store (although that was banned, now gambling machines are only legal in bars) and gamble it away.

Anyway, great show. I am not actually sure how popular it is outside of the maritimes - but they ran for several seasons and then went off the air because of a dispute with the company they were licensing out to, and only released a few movies in between - they also came up with Swear New, a mock-TV channel which behaved like a typical Canadian cable network with weird journalistic series, the news, the weather, etc... Except they would play all the characters and fill it full of profanity. At the end of the licensing contract, they recovered it, and went right back into making more Trailer Park Boys seasons.

The show is stupid, but definitely entertaining, especially if you're from around here.




FRONTIER - a Netflix original by Jason Momoa has a show that takes place in the VAST wilderness of North Eastern Canada. It is about the Hudson's Bay Company back when they were an aggressive and murderous Fur Trading Empire that made gigantic profits on exploiting the Canadian wilderness - instead of a department store chain - actually HBC is a lot bigger than a chain of department stores, but most Canadians will identify it as that.

It's definitely a show about the characters, because I got a claustrophobic feeling about the whole show. As though it were shot in very limited space... It seems all they ever show of Montreal is a big room in a Mansion, and almost all shots of the fictional Fort James, is in the Tavern, or the Governor's Manor. There are a few outside shots, but they look like they could be in the woods of my cottage backyard. Sometimes the characters can feel a little inconsistent - but this happens often in the early episodes of TV shows; and currently there's only 6 of them clocking in at about 40-45 minutes each; the show got renewed for 2 additional seasons.

Jason Momoa is an interesting lead (he plays a sort of a gritty Robin Hood type - kind of like Robin Hood meets Hanzee from Fargo season 2), his first big role was Ronon from Stargate Atlantis - essentially the big enforcer guy to fill in the Teal'c role. His first major film role was Conan - which I thought he did alright in considering the movie was a huge pile of crap for a number of other reasons - mostly, that Conan is cartoony, and works a lot better in your imagination than it does on the big screen... or making a vague representation of the source material, as was done in the FAR better 1982 film. If there's a series I can compare it to, it's Marco Polo, where Jason Momoa's character "Declan" is kind of the Kublai Khan, but the series is told through the eyes of a foreigner (in the case of Frontier, a lower class Irish guy fleeing London).

Aside from Jason Momoa, some other recognizable faces include Roger Mckay (Played Roger Penrose in Theory of Everything), Evan Jonigkeit (Toad, from the X-Men film series), Zahn McClarnon (Hanzee, Season 2 of Fargo), and Alun Armstrong (Mornay, Braveheart).

If you liked shows like Last Kingdom or Marco Polo, then this will be right up your alley. Also, if you like this show and haven't seen Marco Polo or Last Kingdom, check them out too. The first season is only 6 episodes, each less than an hour, so you can probably get through it within a week; or a binge-watch.

[Julius Seeker]

Well, shit...

RIP Mr. Lahey.

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/arts/t ... #c-image-0

[ManaMan]

Just started the new Twin Peaks. I added the Showtime add-on to Hulu to watch it streaming. I'm really enjoying it so far. Definitely not fast paced. This is Lynch unfiltered unlike the original broadcast series.

Just finished The Handmaids Tale. Good show, very dark dystopian future. If you like Black Mirror you'll like this. Apparently they're making a season 2 which is odd because the show was based on a Margaret Atwood novel & she never wrote a sequel.

iZombie. This is a fun show. Woman turned into a zombie who works at the police morgue. As long as she keeps eating brains she doesn't turn "full zombie". Also, when she eats the brains she gets some of their memories & solves their murders. Meanwhile there's a back story of spreading zombieism, how it started, & search for a cure.

[Julius Seeker]

I just rewatched Fargo season 1 and 2 which went up on Netflix. I forgot how much I liked the story of season 1, and then I forgot how much I absolutely loved season 2 - especially the last 5 episodes. The big event in season 2 was the Sioux Falls Massacre, which is brought up in season 1. The show does an interesting thing in the 3 episodes leading up to it by showing the timeline in a non-linear fashion; although the story appears remarkably linear; each episode shows the same day from a different perspective and set of locations.

Unfortunately, season 4 is still a long way off, filming is not scheduled for another year which means the actual release could be significantly later. Noah Hawley has been busy working on Legion.

Oh, and I was looking up Stargate clips as I was thinking of getting back into that one. Found this little gem from Macgiver:

[Julius Seeker]

Haha, I’ve been watching old Friends re-runs too. It’s an easy multi-tasking show.

I saw the film I, Tonya. Lots of fun, has a lot of narration reminding me a little of a Scorsese pic. A darker comedy with some drama. Strong supporting cast. Good performances almost all around.

[Julius Seeker]

Watching the new Netflix series, Altered Carbon.

The opening sequence is a total ripoff of Caprica.
The main actor is like a wooden Jon Hamm.
It takes a lot of visual cues from the original Blade Runner.
For lack of a better term, Episode 1 felt VERY choppy.

Immediately after watching the first episode I put on Battlestar Galaxtica miniseries (being reminded of it due to the Caprica-esque opening - also, I just finished a rewatch of season 2 Of Fargo, And Tigh Saul plays a character, Otto Gerhardt, in that)... and it was a far easier introduction to watch; if I watch BSG again, it’ll be season 1-2, some select episodes later, then the finale. Strongly considering it.

Altered Carbon, so far, has its flaws, but it has undeniable potential.
James Purefoy is in it too, playing a role that’s reminiscent of his Marc Antony in HBO’s Rome.

[kali o.]

I watched the shannara chronicles...I cant say its great, but I am a sucker for fantasy. I'd put it on the level of say, the legend of the seeker.

Caught up on Season 2 (which was actually really good); now I find out it was cancelled. That's annoying...at least Legend of the Seeker got some closure when it was cancelled...hope someone picks up Shannara Chronicles for a Season 3.

[Julius Seeker]

Rewatching Friends, in the third season. I’m mid season 3 (and haven’t seen many episodes past season 5 or 6).

Rachel
Easily the most likeable character in the series. She’s introduced as a spoiled daddy’s girl, although this doesn’t really materialize into much. In practice, she’s more of the girl who’s on her own for the first time, and doesn’t quite know what to do. She starts off fairly weak beside the two crazy Geller characters who push her around a lot in their way (Monica more directly, and Ross in gradually more direct attempts at manipulating her to be with him). Ross’s manipulation worked to an extent, somehow she likes Ross; although, it comes off as more of a relationship of convenience rather than of real passion - except for that ultra-cliche Breakfast at Tiffany’s kiss scene after Ross broke up with Julie. The break-up stuff was far more passionate, IMO - and I found Jennifer Aniston really stepped it up in the acting department. So her story from a more innocent character to a more taking no-shit one was my favourite. Also, she never wears a bra.

Ross
One thing I noticed was about how forgiving they appear to be toward Ross’s self-centred tendencies, his insecurity. He’s on the level of Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm and no one seems to notice except the audience. He’s also manipulative, but not sociopathically graceful about it, and yet only Rachel seemed to notice - which eventually led tot heir break up. I think there was a bit of a missed opportunity there for some really great uncomfortable style humour in the group, they only toyed with the idea a bit. He had a nice story with Carol as well - who I wish played a larger role in the series. Ross was cunty, but I think it would have been funnier/more satisfying if his cuntiness had more frequent and severe consequence similar to Larry David in Curb and David Brent on the Office; I also think his character would have been more likeable.

Monica
The other Geller, the female bully who actually had some really great storylines. Her relationship with Richard is IMO the second best storyline of the series so far. Two people getting together, they want something similar, but they also see some insurmountable obsctacles because of the different areas of their lives their in: She’s 28 and wants a family, he’s 50 and has had one and doesn’t want to go through that again. One of my older friends went through something similar, and explained that his issue is that kids took the passion out of his relationship with his ex-wife; I watched his marriage break down - and then the years of complications that followed. Then I also have most of my younger friends who are excited about starting a family. They didn’t dig too much into the life of Richard, and I think that’s a bit of a missed opportunity - as this story completely flew over my head the first time I watched the series. Another missed opportunity with her was diving deeper into her issue with Ross being the child who could do no wrong, and her being the target of all blame - they opened that one up, but didn’t go anywhere with it very often.

Phoebe
A mixed bag for me. Most of her stories seem to be filler to occupy the other characters when they aren’t involved in the bigger Ross/Rachel epic, and don’t have anything else going on.

Joey/Chandler
Began as separate entities but gradually merged through season 3. Chandler was clearly the mid-20s guy who still had the mentality of an ultra-insecure high school guy. Joey didn’t really do much except try to act and have humourous relationship attempts.


Favourite Episode? I’d have to say

1. Season 3E15/16 - The One When they’re on a Break and the Morning After
This is the big break up with Ross and Rachel. He cheats on her, and expects everything to be alright because of a technicality in semantics. It’s the episode where Ross finally sees the consequence that had been missing since early season 2. There’s a lot of reflection here. Main thing, Rachel gets over her big obstacle with her toxic relationship with Ross... kind of. She stands up and says “enough shit.” The following episodes would be here too - but I think they got too tied up in other sub-plots, it would have been great to see more around the discomfort of the other 4, and them siding against Ross. Also, I wanted to see something bigger here with Carol - they just opened that up and went nowhere with it. Also, this is the best acting by Jennifer Aniston in the series so far.

2. The episode arc with Monica and Richard at the end of season 2 and start of season 3. I already talked about it above; but basically the passion for what they want together but the huge discrepancies in what they want in life. The last dance scene was excellent.

3. S1E14 - The One with the Candy Hearts - This episode, but only because of this scene:


4. S1E13 - The One with the Boobies
I thought the first season was great overall, probably my favourite for jokes. This one had a great story about Joey thinking he’s doing the right thing in letting his mother know his father is cheating - but he didn’t understand the arrangement was actually the best thing for everyone in practice; and anyone watching would think the same as Joey. I like the philosophy behind it - what appears to obviously the best is actually far from it.

5. S1E09 - The one where the Underdog got away


Enough said.

6. S1E11 - The One with Mrs Bing
Chandler’s mom arrives, she’s an erotic novelist, and there are a lot of really interesting uncomfortable moments. She kisses Ross.

[Shrinweck]

I watched Friends again several years ago because I was curious and I'd never watched the last season and enjoyed it in a sitcom-y sort of way. I don't remember a lot of specifics at this point but I do remember Joey having a joke that made me laugh for like two minutes in that way that it ends up hurting. It was a joke about a fridge, I think? Sometimes I think about re-watching just to see the joke again in context

[Julius Seeker]

Was it the one where he broke his fridge and tried to get everyone to pay a part of it when he broke it?

I think my favourite joke so far is this one where Phoebe trolls Ross hard on evolution:

[Julius Seeker]

Watching Supergirl, now.

I’m through the first two episodes. Being someone who generally does not enjoy comic book stuff, this is quite good! It’s more along the lines of a high production value Hercules/Xena type show than your comic-book-film-attempting-to-be-ultra-serious type show. Kara, the hero, is very much reminiscent of a typical female office co-worker. Calista Flockhart plays her hot-bitchy boss. Then there’s black James Bond, conveniently named James, whose head is as smooth as his attitude as her love interest.

Episode 1 and 2 don’t pussyfoot around, they jump right into the action. I look forward to seeing how things develop.

[Anarky]

Currently watching American Horror Story: Apocalypse

So far the four episodes that have come out are fantastic.

[Julius Seeker]

Rewatching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. If you haven't watched it, it's a sitcom that ignores all the PC TV rules and has somehow gotten away with it for the last 15 years. Inspired by Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld, and (although they haven't said it before) probably South Park. Four sociopathic generation Xers who kind of failed at life run a bar - a bit later, Danny Devitto joins the cast as Frank, originally he was supposed to go on for a story arc in 2006, but has been on the show ever since.

Best sitcom of... maybe ever.
The early seasons have some real gems among the scenes (on season 2 right now)

Dee and Dennis get their divorced mother and father together for a family meeting:


Dee and Dennis want to get on Welfare but need some kind of reason as to why they need welfare money. They decide to go with a drug issue.


An Israeli businessman buys their bar and sends them an eviction notice. After he puts up a fence around the bar, they decide to make a tape to scare him off.


This is from a bit later, but related to a storyline from season 1. Their grandfather is sick in the hospital and they are making the decision as to whether or not they're going to pull the plug.

[Julius Seeker]

Rewatching



The reason why Michael O’Hare (Sinclair) left the show was revealed a few years ago. At the time there was no comments about it. It led to some wild speculation that lasted years. About a year after Michael O’Hare’s death, it was revealed that he had been suffering from paranoid hallucinations due to schizophrenia.

Babylon 5s cast has been unlucky. The show ended about 20 years ago, and 6 of the 14 of the main cast actors have passed away at a relatively young age.

As a note. It’s interesting that Talya’s telekinetic powers were developed by moving a coin, much like Magneto in the X-Men films.

[kali o.]

I watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Midsommar.

I didn't "get" either to be honest - and I don't think it is because I'm dumb.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Obviously, this seems to be some sort of Alt-universe telling of some peripheral (fake?) characters around the Manson murders but I still found it neither entertaining nor logical. I can forgive the latter, but for a Tarentino movie, I thought it was boring and poorly paced. And the ending certainly didn't have any impact (plus, the dude just killed someone, why is he off to Tates, even if he is desperate for the connections?)...

Midsommar
I looked forward to this one (because of Hereditary) but the movie is an odd one. Its not just the ending that feels off (I guess it was about her finally breaking free of her relationships...but geeze), it's the whole movie that doesn't make much sense. I guess you could make the argument they were drugged up for so much of the movie but still.

Both these movies feel like the directors were terribly self indulgent; entertaining the audience seemed secondary.

[Julius Seeker]

Midsommar is just a satirical take on the 1980s/90s style teen break up episodes/films. No profound meaning to it. They mashed that story into a horror plot. Although, calling it a horror film is misleading, as it doesn't have all the elements of a horror film (most notably, there's no main super-natural villain, and the film doesn't do much to scare you or even creep you out - but it does its best to disturb the audience). It's really more of a dark comedy.

It follows all the beats of those Sitcom/drama episodes which deal with teen break up, and it follows all the beats of a 90s slasher-horror (or pre-Grudge style horror) where mostly everyone dies except the main character, who has a not so happy ending. He took a lot of exaggerated details from Swedish society, stuff that might have happened a few times, or in a story, even that Logan's run stuff where the elderly throw themselves off a cliff to their deaths after a certain age. Then, all the pagan sacrificial stuff, a lot of that is in Crusader Kings (maybe Ari Aster played it?). I don't know about the mocking of the pain-emotions of others; I have no idea where he got that.

Anyway,

I am getting close to the end of Babylon 5 Season 4. This is one of those rare shows that only gets better on the re-watch. I think it's because, as a viewer, you expect the production short-comings and so they don't bother you, and the focus is on the other brilliant elements. B5 is like Deep Space 9 done correctly - while DS9 had some fantastic episodes and fantastic characters, it had weaknesses in the plot arcs, especially in the later seasons. While many people seem to love the "In the Pale Moonlight" episode where Sisko tricks the Romulans into joining the fight: another emotionally cold late-season contrived/forced plots of DS9 which I didn't find satisfying (I'm not saying others shouldn't enjoy it or share even agree with my criticisms, only that it wasn't my cup of tea). The late-season episode that sticks out to me the most is Sacrifice of Angels, but my favourites are Duet (season 1) and The Visitor (season 4) – and most of the Ferengi centred episodes.

Babylon 5 was a low budget production for scifi with low pay for the actors; he even wrote plots in a way to deal with actors who might quit. It looked and sounded like an 80s production, though it was from the 90s. There is a lot of subtle humour in B5, and some of the audio direction that MIGHT appear a dubbing flaw, I think, was an internal joke. For example, Ivanova always had an echoey voice; it sounds like they raised the mic when she spoke.

[Julius Seeker]

I got so hyped up by The Mandalorian, people saying that it fixed all the problems of Star Wars, but it really didn't. The real problem with The Last Jedi is that after The Force Awakens, there was an explosion of really cringeworthy fan theories and describing how the film was "supposed" to go - and people getting all hyped up to see that. Then it didn't happen.

The Last Jedi is divisive because non-Star Wars fans don't care about Star Wars youtubers, and therefore saw a film that was better in a lot of ways than The Force Awakens - better more organic dialogue, fewer contrivances, fresh flashy characters, more entertaining battle sequences; but then youtubers seem to hate the film because of a series of nitpicks, falsehoods, and a bunch of bizarre "agenda" assumptions of stuff that went on with the films producers - these people making these videos are idiots, without any real arguments that a normal person outside of the Star Wars cult would find persuasive. They very often put the thumbnail of their idiotic videos with this woman:


As though it some how effectively sums up the problems with the film. Even though their arguments never really touch on why this character is even problematic. It's more about how she looks like an evil feminazi or something, and that's the agenda ruining Star Wars. To be a a bit crass: some of these people just really need some tits in their hands."

Anyway, I sound a bit like a contrarian because I'm generally negative about Star Wars outside of Rogue One and the original film. But I'll return to my point: I don't think the Mandalorian is very good at all, I found the first couple of episodes to be hollow, have really on-the-nose dialogue that added nothing to the scene except mindless chatter - I actually looked up the defense of this "They're showing not telling," - but that's not what they're doing at all, they're just bad at dialogue. The dialogue was exceptionally bad, even for Star Wars; granted, it didn't have some of the sickening lines of the prequels, but to the credit of the terrible dialogue about sand, hatred, and mitticloriods (or whatever), they at least revealed some depth to the characters - even if it was that Anakin was a chickenwuss. But the Mandalorian's dialogue is like "I'm getting shot at!" after about 70+ laser blasts destroying most of the cover... it's terrible.

But I think what really bothered me about the show the most is that it just isn't very interesting. Of course, that's just me, I have a number of friends who disagree and think this is like the second coming of the Empire Strikes Back. I think Star Wars fans have a tendency to latch onto mediocrity until someone starts a bandwagon talking about how it's mediocre. And I think, mostly, 90% of what the fans will eventually complain about will be irrelevant points or differences in expectation because it doesn't match up to some fan video's plot theories... Then again, I don't know if that can happen, the entire first episode had the plot complexity of a 2 minute scene.



On another note, The Boys, this is an Amazon Prime show, it's excellent. I highly recommend it. I hate Super Hero films for the most part (with exceptions like the Blade trilogy, First Class, Wolverine, Logan, Deadpool 1 and 2... and holy shit, I just realized Ryan Reynolds is in most of those), but The Boys gives the genre depth that the MCU and all that stuff mostly lacks. It's a difficult one to market, because it's not really about Super Heroes even though it features them heavily. It's a HIGHLY Verhoevian style show (Think Robocop, Star Ship Troopers, Total Recall, etc...). It provides a more realistic approach to how the world might incorporate super humans into society. Would super heroes really give a shit if they killed mortals by accident? It's also FILLED with dark comedy (as is the case with Paul Verhoeven's films). Here are the first two scenes to give a taste:


Also, Karl Urban - one of the main characters - is a total badass. And there's a lot of X music, if you're into that.

[Julius Seeker]

I'm currently watching Netflix's 2020 Dracula miniseries. It's a different story than Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1992, but I'm having trouble figuring out where the homage ends and the plagiarism begins.

The story has a much larger focus on the Van Helsing family and Harker, at least so far. But so far I feel like I'm watching a lower quality imitation of the 92 film. While some of the performances are interesting, I can't help but feel it's negated by the fact that great to outstanding performances came out of Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Cary Elwes, and the one who plays Lucy in 92.
Either way, I'll probably watch this newer series through, just because I'm a sucker for new takes on the Dracula story.