The Official, Long Awaited, TV Shows Thread
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Just watched the third and I LOVED it. Going into a totally different direction than I thought and it’s really refreshing. Maybe because it’s a lot less ‘star trek’ than I expected.
Hm, well I watched the fourth today, I thought it was pretty decent. Not sure I buy into this spore stuff and everything that comes with it (doesn't really jive with established lore, but they've already said they're pretty much gonna ignore the lore and 'pursue their unique vision' (which is shit I don't like to hear about long-established franchises, but that's a different discussion.)
So far though I'm just like, nodding along with whatever new stuff they're introducing. This show doesn't really feel like Star Trek, so oddly the new stuff doesn't really bother me. ST: Discovery could just as well be called something completely different. The klingons aren't klingons, and starfleet isn't starfleet, and the technology doesn't follow all of the same rules either. "Astral Journey: Discovery".
Re-name Klingons to Kreeng, Starfleet to Star Command, and some tech gobbledygook (warp drive -> slipstream drive, phasers -> disintegrators, etc) and...DONE. All-new franchise. I've pretty much already done this in my head.
Seen from this perspective, the show isn't bad. As a Star Trek show though, I dunno, because it just isn't Star Trek. Nothing gives me a ST vibe about it. The only connection is some names and places, and that's not much.
So far though I'm just like, nodding along with whatever new stuff they're introducing. This show doesn't really feel like Star Trek, so oddly the new stuff doesn't really bother me. ST: Discovery could just as well be called something completely different. The klingons aren't klingons, and starfleet isn't starfleet, and the technology doesn't follow all of the same rules either. "Astral Journey: Discovery".
Re-name Klingons to Kreeng, Starfleet to Star Command, and some tech gobbledygook (warp drive -> slipstream drive, phasers -> disintegrators, etc) and...DONE. All-new franchise. I've pretty much already done this in my head.Seen from this perspective, the show isn't bad. As a Star Trek show though, I dunno, because it just isn't Star Trek. Nothing gives me a ST vibe about it. The only connection is some names and places, and that's not much.
But, but, but, MAGIC SPACE FUNGUS, is the major plot point of the whole series so far. That's a bit silly in my view!
Agree that it doesn't really seem like Star Trek (though that isn't always necessarily a bad thing), but after an intriguing first couple of episodes, it's all beginning to unravel a bit for me. I'll watch the rest of it, no doubt, but I've a feeling it will be as much rolling my eyes at what is occurring on screen as compared to being involved in the show.
Agree that it doesn't really seem like Star Trek (though that isn't always necessarily a bad thing), but after an intriguing first couple of episodes, it's all beginning to unravel a bit for me. I'll watch the rest of it, no doubt, but I've a feeling it will be as much rolling my eyes at what is occurring on screen as compared to being involved in the show.
I quite like the not-Star-Trek vibe. Then again I'm not a massive Trek-person, I've often found Trek to be a bit too superficial and saccharine coated.
That's not to say I'm massively taken with the new series, it does seem a little eyebrow-raising at times. I managed to watch the third episode last night without falling asleep, but didn't feel the burning desire to watch the fourth in quick succession.
That's not to say I'm massively taken with the new series, it does seem a little eyebrow-raising at times. I managed to watch the third episode last night without falling asleep, but didn't feel the burning desire to watch the fourth in quick succession.
Mind Hunter
This really is a gem. Produced by Charlize Theron(!) and David Fincher, who also directed the first two and last two episodes AFAIK. As it has been mentioned the story is about the formation and rise of the FBI Behavioral Science department, basically the group responsible for criminal profiling. Most of the first season covers their initial steps - interviewing convicted serial killers (a term they actually came up with).
There are some good things that we kinda expected - it is amazing looking, the costumes, cars, settings, camera work and all are exceptional and really serve to help establish a certain mood.
Oh and someone called the Nerdwriter has also given us this really cool video:
Another really good thing is how the casting relies on relatively unknown actors (although look for a familiar face from Fight Club!), so the viewer has practically no associations about them and they can simply disappear into their characters. The guy playing Ed Kemper, the co-ed killer, is particularly outstanding - he not only looks the part, but his speech patterns are almost indistinguishable from the real person (although I suggest not googling him before watching the show).
But the most impressive is how a TV series about serial killers and profiling manages to be so completely fresh, interesting and incredibly intense. Oh, and without showing but just a few photos of the actual crime scenes and bodies and such. Most of the show is literally about 2 or 3 people sitting in a room or car or airplane, having a conversation - and yet there's a lot of tension, excitement, and a gripping sense of horror, so you can't help but binge watch it.
There are a few things that did bother us though; some of the secondary plots and conversations are not as well written, and - as the second season was ordered well before the premiere - the story just stops seemingly half the way. But it's definitely something really outstanding.
The Good Place
This is something unusual as well
So it's a sitcom (with Ted Danson and Kristen Bell), at least on the surface. The premise starts simple: Bell's character Eleanor has died and wakes up in the afterlife, in what is called "The Good Place", because she was an exceptionally good individual on Earth. The place is actually a subset of that, a "neighborhood" for about 300 people, with a supreme being called Michael (Danson) as their host, complete with nice homes tailored to their tastes, endless supplies of frozen yogurt, flying lessons, and even each person's soul mate.
The only problem is that there's apparently been a "mistake" and Eleanor is a different person, who was actually very nasty in her life - like a real selfish bitch who should have gone to the Bad Place. And because she keeps acting like one even in the afterlife, things start to get a bit messy.
So, what follows is actually quite a lot more than a regular sitcom, with some nice elements of satire and philosophy (thankfully not that much though ); then some quite clever plot twists - and at the first season's finale, an even more clever reveal. Which you should definitely not know about if you plan to watch the show
6 episodes into the second season, it keeps being clever and entertaining, so we're definitely going to keep watching it.
But this weekend, it's Stranger Things 2!!!! Yaaaaay
This really is a gem. Produced by Charlize Theron(!) and David Fincher, who also directed the first two and last two episodes AFAIK. As it has been mentioned the story is about the formation and rise of the FBI Behavioral Science department, basically the group responsible for criminal profiling. Most of the first season covers their initial steps - interviewing convicted serial killers (a term they actually came up with).
There are some good things that we kinda expected - it is amazing looking, the costumes, cars, settings, camera work and all are exceptional and really serve to help establish a certain mood.
Oh and someone called the Nerdwriter has also given us this really cool video:
Another really good thing is how the casting relies on relatively unknown actors (although look for a familiar face from Fight Club!), so the viewer has practically no associations about them and they can simply disappear into their characters. The guy playing Ed Kemper, the co-ed killer, is particularly outstanding - he not only looks the part, but his speech patterns are almost indistinguishable from the real person (although I suggest not googling him before watching the show).
But the most impressive is how a TV series about serial killers and profiling manages to be so completely fresh, interesting and incredibly intense. Oh, and without showing but just a few photos of the actual crime scenes and bodies and such. Most of the show is literally about 2 or 3 people sitting in a room or car or airplane, having a conversation - and yet there's a lot of tension, excitement, and a gripping sense of horror, so you can't help but binge watch it.
There are a few things that did bother us though; some of the secondary plots and conversations are not as well written, and - as the second season was ordered well before the premiere - the story just stops seemingly half the way. But it's definitely something really outstanding.
The Good Place
This is something unusual as well
So it's a sitcom (with Ted Danson and Kristen Bell), at least on the surface. The premise starts simple: Bell's character Eleanor has died and wakes up in the afterlife, in what is called "The Good Place", because she was an exceptionally good individual on Earth. The place is actually a subset of that, a "neighborhood" for about 300 people, with a supreme being called Michael (Danson) as their host, complete with nice homes tailored to their tastes, endless supplies of frozen yogurt, flying lessons, and even each person's soul mate.
The only problem is that there's apparently been a "mistake" and Eleanor is a different person, who was actually very nasty in her life - like a real selfish bitch who should have gone to the Bad Place. And because she keeps acting like one even in the afterlife, things start to get a bit messy.
So, what follows is actually quite a lot more than a regular sitcom, with some nice elements of satire and philosophy (thankfully not that much though
); then some quite clever plot twists - and at the first season's finale, an even more clever reveal. Which you should definitely not know about if you plan to watch the show 6 episodes into the second season, it keeps being clever and entertaining, so we're definitely going to keep watching it.
But this weekend, it's Stranger Things 2!!!! Yaaaaay
Watched episode 6 of ST: Discovery. This series, which I thought was quite watchable right from the start (5th ep overall a little weaker than the previous), is growing on me. The ending of both 5th and 6th episodes quite mirror each other in a way.
I still don't feel as if this is Star Trek. I treat it as its own, unique thing. But it's good, and if the rest continues this creepy, freaky way it could get to be a very interesting experience. Lorca is a really, really creepy guy. Totally unlike almost all the other Starfleet bigwigs ever seen in Star Trek - excepting only a few notable guest stars like say, Eric Pressman for example. Try and not Memory Alpha this guy, people! As a main character, to be this sinister and paranoid, he's quite unique. I rather enjoy it to be quite honest, even though it's so non-Trek. I've a hard time believing he wouldn't have been screened out for psych reasons, but hey... It makes for some interesting storytelling!
Oh, and Janeway would have slapped Saru's ass in jail in five microseconds for endangering the tardigrade creature for their own safety and convenience. There were many times where Janeway could have put herself and her crew above others to get home faster, but did not. Also another moment that makes the series not feel like Star Trek to me.
Ok, so it's an earlier version of Star Trek, but at this point starfleet has been around for many years. They should *know better. So I just roll with it. This is Astral Journey to me.
*edit
I still don't feel as if this is Star Trek. I treat it as its own, unique thing. But it's good, and if the rest continues this creepy, freaky way it could get to be a very interesting experience. Lorca is a really, really creepy guy. Totally unlike almost all the other Starfleet bigwigs ever seen in Star Trek - excepting only a few notable guest stars like say, Eric Pressman for example. Try and not Memory Alpha this guy, people!
As a main character, to be this sinister and paranoid, he's quite unique. I rather enjoy it to be quite honest, even though it's so non-Trek. I've a hard time believing he wouldn't have been screened out for psych reasons, but hey... It makes for some interesting storytelling!Oh, and Janeway would have slapped Saru's ass in jail in five microseconds for endangering the tardigrade creature for their own safety and convenience. There were many times where Janeway could have put herself and her crew above others to get home faster, but did not. Also another moment that makes the series not feel like Star Trek to me.
Ok, so it's an earlier version of Star Trek, but at this point starfleet has been around for many years. They should *know better. So I just roll with it. This is Astral Journey to me.
*edit
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D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
I still don't feel as if this is Star Trek. I treat it as its own, unique thing. But it's good, and if the rest continues this creepy, freaky way it could get to be a very interesting experience. Lorca is a really, really creepy guy. Totally unlike almost all the other Starfleet bigwigs ever seen in Star Trek - excepting only a few notable guest stars like say, Eric Pressman for example. Try and not Memory Alpha this guy, people!
This show not feeling like Star Trek is the only reason I'm still watching it. Don't get me wrong, I loved the original Star Trek which I used to watch in the UK on BBC at 6pm if my parents let me. I loved TNG, I really liked DS9. Voyager was pretty good and I also liked Enterprise. Every crew, season of every season, plot line of every episode was flawed, but it was good fun. It was also incredibly formulaic.
Discovery feels different. It doesn't feel like Trek and has different types of plot holes, but it is different and entertaining. I look forward to seeing what Crazy Cpt. Lorca is going to do next. Is he really nuts or is he just Space Martin Riggs?
I had low expectations going in and recored the first four episodes before I could muster the will to dive in but then I felt compelled to watch all four episodes back-to-back til 1am. They need to fix the really unbelievable stuff though. Gingers in Space? No way!
Hey, great parallel... Yeah, that's the thing, here. And can they keep the character edgy in a TV series with continuity like they're making here, or will he be forcibly mellowed over time like Riggs, for 'character development' reasons?
That's going to be a big challenge for them, IMO.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
This is my fear and is generally my biggest criticism with almost all TV series. A good story is written that works for one season based on a premise that cannot sustain a longer narrative but is then stretched beyond credibility. 24 is a particularly egregious example, in season one you connect with this middle-aged grounded, increasingly broken man (Jack Bauer), plumbing the depts of despair over his kidnapped daughter (spoilerz, lulz) and become more and more desperate then a few seasons in he's blowing up the moon and sawing people's heads off defying all bounds of credibility.
For some reason TV writers can't leave good character's alone, they have to push them this way or that way, destroying the carefully balanced and conflicted character they fleshed out so well in season 1. It would be difficult to leave Lorca a permanent lose cannon. Even with Starfleet desperate to stay ahead of the Klingons, you can't have a maniac captain your most powerful ship, it just isn't in the regulations. I really liked episode 6 with Admiral Cornwell
and Lorca's clear "indecision" about rescue, knowing that doing nothing might get her killed which would solve his short term problem
I also have to say I like that there aren't too many crew and none are annoying (Rom, Wesley, Archer's bloody dog). If you want something killed in space, take cats!
Helmsman, fire a yield 10 cat torpedo at the Klingon Bird of Prey.
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Lul, yeah. I torrented the first few seasons of 24 since they broadcast the series on a commercial channel here in Sweden, and I detest commercials more than almost anything else. Then a decade or so later I was gifted the collector's box with all the seasons and the movie. I started re-watching the show, and fuck, it was soooooooo bad. Seriously, epically bad. I facepalmed every 5 seconds, kicking myself and wondering how the hell I could have ever liked that shit in the first place. Was it really me liking it, or were those memories implanted in me by sinister government forces...?
So, yeah - the only thing worse than mellowing Lorca would be exaggerating him like Bauer, until he's this ridiculous and utterly unbelievable caricature of himself. We can only hope the producers know WTF they're doing here - nuBSG for example started out really well, but since the creators had no overall vision (like Mike Straczynski had with Babylon 5), and instead flew the show by the seat of their pants season by season it all turned to shit as the years went by. One can only hope Discovery doesn't make the same mistake.
Ugh, stop it with the cat hate, okay?
(No, I don't own any cats...)
Babel-17
Veteran
http://www.troynovant.com/Franson/Smith-C/Game-Rat-Dragon.htmlLul, yeah. I torrented the first few seasons of 24 since they broadcast the series on a commercial channel here in Sweden, and I detest commercials more than almost anything else. Then a decade or so later I was gifted the collector's box with all the seasons and the movie. I started re-watching the show, and fuck, it was soooooooo bad. Seriously, epically bad. I facepalmed every 5 seconds, kicking myself and wondering how the hell I could have ever liked that shit in the first place. Was it really me liking it, or were those memories implanted in me by sinister government forces...?
So, yeah - the only thing worse than mellowing Lorca would be exaggerating him like Bauer, until he's this ridiculous and utterly unbelievable caricature of himself. We can only hope the producers know WTF they're doing here - nuBSG for example started out really well, but since the creators had no overall vision (like Mike Straczynski had with Babylon 5), and instead flew the show by the seat of their pants season by season it all turned to shit as the years went by. One can only hope Discovery doesn't make the same mistake.
Ugh, stop it with the cat hate, okay?
(No, I don't own any cats...)
It's in the public domain, and due to its fantastical premise, manages to still hold up, imo, sixty years after being published.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29614?msg=welcome_stranger
P.S. https://archive.org/details/galaxymagazine
Also in the public domain. The feeling I get reading a story I read decades ago as a kid is hard to describe. Here's a favorite, it can make you sweat in winter!
https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1956-01/Galaxy_1956_01#page/n7/mode/2up
Huh, I'd forgotten it was by Alan E. Nourse! His name came up at slashdot very recently as there was some discussion about how the producers of Blade Runner paid for use of that name from him. His SF novel of that name was a gritty tale involving bootleg medical supplies. William Burroughs was hired to write a screenplay of that novel, but the movie never got made. Excellent writer, his novel Star Surgeon has a young adult Star Trek vibe. Even has a Tribble like symbiont. My oh my, also in the public domain. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18492
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_E._Nourse
What makes Star Trek Discovery so different is that it clearly has an over arching storyline that is not even just an afterthought or loose thread to tie together a bunch of individual episodes, but instead the main driver. It’s far less predictable and less formulaic too (though mostly if you compare it to other Star Trek, it is closer to most modern shows). It is also not very predictable, at least for me, which I like.
Also finished Ozark’s first season. Don’t know if I’d watch a second, because I prefer the pretty side of humanity to the ugly, and while ugly can provide good contrast, there’s too much of it now, and if a second season is going to peak into just more there’s no point for me.
Also finished Ozark’s first season. Don’t know if I’d watch a second, because I prefer the pretty side of humanity to the ugly, and while ugly can provide good contrast, there’s too much of it now, and if a second season is going to peak into just more there’s no point for me.
digitalwanderer
Legend
I got chills when they casually mentioned how they could get transferred to a constellation class starship like the Enterprise....
Did they actually create the whole thing around the captain's eyes, the explosion of his last ship, not wanting to get corrective surgery, just so they can justify having everything JJ Abrams dark like the movies? I literally cracked up laughing when the Admiral turned up the lights to "normal" then the captain complained.
New Stranger Things in HDR. I DIE.
digitalwanderer
Legend
But is it any good?
So far so good, only 2 ep in
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