The Official, Long Awaited, TV Shows Thread

Yep. Especially after she realised that she's not affected by his powers. Come on, it would have taken her a flick of her finger to snap his neck. But that's the same as any other superhero story really.
The Flash in some stories is faster than light (sometimes many, many times faster - not in the show, mind you) which is more than fast enough to just stop everyone he's ever met before they even think about doing something bad, yet he ends up running around and at times struggle against guys with cool guns. Just one of many examples. It's all in the name of a 'good story', and logic doesn't always hold up.
 
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Yep. Especially after she realised that she's not affected by his powers. Come on, it would have taken her a flick of her finger to snap his neck. But that's the same as any other superhero story really.
The Flash in some stories is faster than light (sometimes many, many times faster - not in the show, mind you) which is more than fast enough to just stop everyone he's ever met before they even think about doing something bad, yet he ends up running around and at times struggle against guys with cool guns. Just one of many examples. It's all in the name of a 'good story', and logic doesn't always hold up.

I don't know about the comic book, but the show is incredibly stupid. It's still somewhat entertaining, but virtually nothing makes sense. For some reason they feel the need to justify everything "scientifically" instead of just stating that things are as they are, and it's invariably a random combination of sciency or made-up words.

And the cold gun, my god, the cold gun. It's a gun that shoots cold, or ice, or really cold ice, we don't really know. How this is significantly better than bullets is unclear, but somehow it makes Captain Cold almost unstoppable. The police, at least, are entirely helpless against him.
 
Well the comic book is logically even worse, as he's much, much faster on there which by any standard would make him a god. But no, he still gets into problems with mere mortals who, to him, must be almost standing still half the time.

Anyway, back to Jessica Jones, I did feel like they pretty much stretched a 8-10 episode season into 13 episodes, with obvious results. Still probably the best show I've seen this year. No, last year.
 
Well the comic book is logically even worse, as he's much, much faster on there which by any standard would make him a god. But no, he still gets into problems with mere mortals who, to him, must be almost standing still half the time.

Anyway, back to Jessica Jones, I did feel like they pretty much stretched a 8-10 episode season into 13 episodes, with obvious results. Still probably the best show I've seen this year. No, last year.

Flash:
In the show, at some points he's so fast that he breaks through the fabric of the space-time continuum itself and goes back in time. At some points, he struggles to go much faster than Mach 1/2, or something like that. He can also outrun electric discharges without even having a running start.

Jessica Jones:
I guess we could assume that Kilgrave always has fail-safes in place, e.g. a bunch of people ordered to kill themselves if they don't hear from him within X hours. I still have a few episodes to go through however, so I don't have all the information.
 
Speaking of comicy book stuff, anyone here watching Supergirl? It's clearly aimed at mature for their age 10 year olds, but damn if the execution isn't good.
 
I'm loving Supergirl. Switch brain off and enjoy the ride. And Melissa Benoist absolutely saves it, she's brilliantly funny/dorky/sweet. And so beautiful it just makes everything better. She really is a thing of beauty.

As for Flash, in the show he travelled through time at Mach 5 which is so far from the reality of the comics (where he only time travels at light speed, obviously) it was a bit off-putting. Not that someone running at light speed and travelling through time is realistic anyway, but at least it makes more sense than doing so at Mach 5!

Jessica Jones: the finale DOES make up for all the diluting, it had to be one of the best finales I've seen in a long time.
 
Yeah, it's conceivable that weird things might happen if you run at light speed, or especially faster than that. But at Mach 5 it's just ridiculous.
 
Yes, agreed. I don't think it is stupid by the way. I don't agree with everything but the script is quite consistent. Give me an example of what you think is stupid?

Edit: meaning Jessica Jones, haven't watched The Flash.
 
I've quite enjoyed watching The Flash (though I've not seen the last few episodes, I think), but I am rather bemused how often he gets a good beating from the bad guys (other speedsters aside). As has been noted, he's theoretically so fast that there is no way most of the bad guys would be able to lay a finger on him, yet he's always bruised and bleeding. I suppose that Barry is a bit of a dimwit in the show, however. Runs first, thinks later.
 
I'm happy with that in the context of him being a novice, he's a very young Barry Allen who just got his powers and can't get past Mach 5. That's fine!!

My problems are related to how the show's runners use pseudoscience which is very far removed from the comic pseudoscience. The guy is adorable and perfect for the part, certainly one of the things that keep the interest up - a bit like the main characters in JJ and Supergirl just to name two. It just feels that the universe created for them isn't quite right and somethings are therefore a bit off.

It's probably nitpicking as I still love all these shows. Especially The a Flash. But it would be nice if they tightened up the details that are important to the real geeks out there.

I mean, what would have been the difference for them to say 'reach light speed if you want to time travel' instead of stupid Mach 5? The special effect would be the same: big blur, lightning etc. It's literally one line to change in the finale.

And also! He was running after a particle in an accelerator in order to break through time (which by the way he's already done twice again, once before that finale and once after in the current season, without the silly particle needed) These particles are pushed to almost the speed of Light in the accelerators, certainly not Mach bloody 5!

Sorry I can't get over the Mach 5 thing. And all the science nitpickings. I'm a big Flash fan as he's the most intriguing hero in DC for me, for many years and the show so far has been brilliantly cast and written, but the science stuff takes some liberties it doesn't even need to. It's all in the comics!

Wow I need to get a life. Right. Now.
 
Let's face it, whenever a character needs to travel in time on multiple occasions to fix a problem, you can tell the writers are reaching for coherent storylines...
 
Let's face it, whenever a character needs to travel in time on multiple occasions to fix a problem, you can tell the writers are reaching for coherent storylines...

Likewise, whenever a character needs to Ascend to fix a problem, the writers have issues. Yes, I'm looking at Stargate SG1.
 
Teen Titans Go sums up the concept of The Flash in an episode. Robin gets Raven to give him lots of powers, basically Superman/Flash. He flies out the window and returns a few seconds later advising the Titans that he's defeated all villains ever, solved world hunger, ended all wars etc. It bums out the Titans because they no longer have a job and he's depressed the rest of his life in a corporate cubicle job and dies of old age unhappy.
 
Well, if you haven't looked into The Expanse yet, now would be a very good time. Next week is the season finale and a double episode at that, which will quite likely deliver, based on the series so far. So you can watch all the lead-up and then spend just a few days being excited :)

The B3D book club thread might have mentioned the source novels before (too lazy to check), so here's a short summary.
The setting is the near future (about 100-120 years beyond) where humanity has colonized most of the solar system. I don't recall the source of the quite but the tripod is supposed to be the most unstable political system - so obviously we have an overpopulated Earth under UN rule; Mars as an advanced militaristic power terraforming the planet; and the somewhat terroristic Outer Planet Allience growing among the the population of the asteroid belt, Jovian moons and minor planet Ceres and such. Also, tensions are of course at their highest. There's also a sub plot about space Mormons.
It's mostly a hard SF setting; there are fusion drives in the starships, but no artifical gravity and direct energy weapons or FTL communications. The first book - and thus the first season of the series - is an interesting and compelling mix of film noir detective story, political machinations, and sort of space opera (still grounded in the tech). There are quite a few interesting and compelling themes under all the running and shooting and exploration, too.
Opinions vary a bit about the novels' writing, but they're definitely page turners. Also, one of the writers works as an editor (?) for good old GRR Martin of Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones fame. We're up to five novels and some complementary material; book 6 is due this summer and the plan is to go for 9 altogether. The writers are much better at delivering than Martin, too :)

The series are, IMHO, a pretty good adaptation. The authors are quite involved and they weren't afraid of rewriting and restructuring stuff for the show, and a lot of their choices are actually quite good. So pretty muc everything that made the novels good is present - they've even included a character only present from the second novel on, to add more perspective to the story and the themes. Most of the actors are at least OK, and they also have Thomas Jane as Detective Miller, with a silly hairdo and hat which still work. Production values are amazing for a TV show IMHO, lots of nice sets and wardrobe and really good CG; although I don't agree with a few design choices about a specific element. There's also a single issue that I can't complain about - the novels depict people born and raised in zero or low gravity as sort of really tall mutants with elongated thin limbs and large heads. Obviously this isn't feasible in a TV show and would be pretty damn hard even in a high budget movie.

I've seen the show called the best thing since the new Battlestar Galactica; but seeing the strong direction and execution in the later novels, I'd say it has the potential to become even better (the series are already renewed for a second season and I can't wait to see what they do with the next novels). So even if we'd already had a LOT of cool SF TV shows on air, I'd still say that this is really a must see :)
 
I finished binge watching Gotham. I loved it. Really enjoy Gordon's badassery here. I want a Batman movie similarly unafraid to pull its punches now, but with the movie business being the movie business, with its stifling rating system and all, that's just not gonna happen I'm afraid.
 
I've tried three or four times to get into The Expanse, but for some reason I just cannot get through the first episode. In fact I cannot get through the first half an hour. There's something about the way it's put together that I find deeply irritating.

Like the producers are trying to pitch me into a busy world, with lots going on, loads of characters I don't know who they are or what they're doing, and I'm supposed to think "ooh... there's lots going on, I wonder what it is? who is he? what's he doing? who is she? what's that about? I'm intrigued, I'm going to watch this and figure it out because this is so intriguing". In my face, with added cheezy dialogue.

In reality I end up thinking "I have no idea who these people are, what they're doing, what this is all about ... and I can't be bothered to figure it out. This all feels like someone is trying to press my buttons. What's next?".
 
I've enjoyed the Expanse books which I've read so I'll perhaps try to catch the show if it is ever shown here in the UK!
 
Oh thank god! I didn't want to be the first one to look like I'm not worthy of the kinda-big-geek title and admit that The Expanse didn't even touch the sides. I really had zero idea and therefore zero interest in what was going on, who these people are, what they heck they were doing.

Not my cup of tea.
 
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