Now Watching

[kali o.]

Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed it, I hadn't heard of it, and it looked like a typical Netflix crappy horror film, so I didnt have any expectations. I was pleasantly surprised, but I didn't like the ending.

Finally watched it -- I actually didn't mind the ending, but I thought the rape justification/revenge was kind of a stupid plot device.

It was still a pretty average flick though...doubt I will ever watch it again.

[Julius Seeker]

I'm now watching the Mission Impossible films, although I skipped part 2 as it's one of the earliest examples of the current trend of garbage action films that especially pollutes the super hero genre; and I dislike those sorts of films.

Each successive film is better and better received by critics, with part 4 and 5 earning 93% approval. The first one, despite only receiving a 62, is still regarded by many as a classic. MI3 earned a 70, and this is the one I found to be underrated of the series - it's dark, it's emotional, it's suspenseful, but it still keeps the fun involved -- Simon Pegg comes onboard, joining Cruise and Rhames, as a permanent fixture in the franchise here. This movie came a little after the height of all that anti Tom Cruise BS, but still won over moviegoers.

Going to see the latest in the series tomorrow or during the week. I'm looking forward to it. MI6 is also in the works.

[Shrinweck]

The first Mission Impossible was amazing in almost every way. I remember when my parents rented it back in the days of VHS rentals, I managed to watch it four times the weekend we had it. Objectively it may have had some pacing issues and that main woman's accent was a little questionable, but I definitely find it better than the ones they've done since. Haven't seen the latest yet.

[Shellie]

Mr. Robot
Humans
Ascension

Mr Robot, must see this if you havent.

Humans, it's ok, Sine doesnt like it as much as I do. But it is something enjoyable to watch, could have been amazing though.

Ascension, it's interesting, I want to see where this is going. Twist after twist, you need to stick with it a few episodes at least before it grabs you.

[Shrinweck]

Yea Mr Robot is the shit.

[John]

I'm watching the original Star Trek TV series on Netflix. I've watched every episode of the contemporary shows but i never saw the original cast on the TV series. Only the films. I'll tell you it's amazing if you haven't seen the original series. All the tropes and themes that make up many of the episodes of the spin offs are present in the original series and it's kind of cool to look at it all from the start.

[Shrinweck]

Yeah I tried watching TOS a few years back but just couldn't get into it enough to finish the job. As amazing as it was to watch it being the first to do so much and the acting is brilliant... I couldn't get into the actual storytelling at all. I don't know if that's the right word... Ahh, the pacing? The editing? On one hand it isn't my generations pathetic lack of attention span and on the other - it really, really is. I enjoyed a bunch of the episodes that I saw on the sci-fi channel back when I was a teenager - maybe I just have to get out of the first dozen or two episodes.

[Shrinweck]

I got around to watching Person of Interest. I stopped around 10 episodes into season one as it was airing and I think this show lends itself to marathons more than episode-to-episode waits. In either case, it definitely got better once it started going somewhere more than "Person we save of the week".

The new Colbert show is good and he's obviously amazing, but it's still a talk show. Conan is probably still the funniest and even though many people claimed Colbert was going to revolutionize the talk show, Conan is the only host who actually plays with the medium.. Even if you could count the amount of episodes a year that he does on one, maybe two hands. Colbert's Jeb Bush interview was hard to watch especially since he kept throwing in something along the lines of "And I may vote for you"... said the man who literally weeped on air when Obama got elected live. It's hard to get into and now that he's kind of hung up the Colbert Report conservative character, he's moved onto a bit of a moderate "lets not piss off middle America" character. I watched every episode of Conan on TBS for years but I don't think that's going to happen with Colbert. Talk shows are just where comedy legends get established and then settle into mediocrity.

Basically any remote/skit he's going to end up doing is probably going to be gold though. Here's hoping he finds a way to do something more than monologues and throwaway bits.

[Julius Seeker]

I've been watching the Simpsons through.

After the classic seasons (8 and earlier) things really began to slip in quality. Then When Stewart Burns came on as a writer with Moe Baby Blues to close out the 14th season, things seem to have been generally improving, at least up to the 18th season, which I am currently watching.

[Shrinweck]

I really like what I've watched of the current/latest season of the Simpsons

[Shrinweck]

So this show iZombie isn't terrible. It's actually quite good. It's by the guy (Rob Thomas) who did Party Down and Veronica Mars. HORRIBLE title, but the show is decent. Like Veronica Mars kind of melded high school/college drama and noir crime, iZombie looks to meld supernatural drama with police procedural and a small dash of comic book storytelling.

[Julius Seeker]

I'm mostly watching cheap B-horror and monster movies until Halloween, Netflix has a few hundred. I'm really digging the terrible stuff produced by The Asylum, like their Mega Shark series, and Blood Lake - which was ridiculous, but had a Jeremy Wade cameo... Luckily none of these movies exceed 90 minutes, but I wish they were only an hour.

The bad ones I can multitask through. I'd like to watch some good ones too; Insidious, for example, actually turned out to be very good for a B-movie.

[Don]

Watching "New Swordsman" on Chinese TV which later got renamed to "Flying Swords on Dragon's Gate" which is a reinterpretation of Jin Yong's "The Proud, Smiling Wanderer" and neither title has anything to do with the original. In Chinese literature having a 'new' version of Jin Yong's work is like saying "New Lord of the Rings" or "New Harry Potter". Despite the usually hilarious sacrilegious interpretation of Jin Yong's work, and that I consider "The Proud, Smiling Wanderer" to be pretty bad out of Jin Yong's work, this adaptation is surprisingly good. The story is the typical Jin Yong stuff that follows the story of Linghu Chong, an average joe who becomes the strongest swordsman in China roughly less than a quarter through the book and his quest to expand his harem while totally facerolling anyone he runs into. The first notable change is that Dong Fang Bu Bai, which Wikipedia describe as 'a minor antagonist' even though his name means 'The Undefeated' and is the leader of the Moon and the Sun Sect that is simultaneously at war with every martial arts school that exists (Shaolin, Wudang, etc) and easily winning, actually appears as soon as the story begins as opposed to the last quarter of the book and gets instantly killed because he was way too powerful. They also drop the whole 'The Caitlyn Jenner before Caitlyn Jenner' bit since Dong Fang Bu Bai is a guy who castrated himself and thought of himself as a woman and spends his time learning how to be a good housewife, which is the novel's explanation of why The Moon and the Sun Sect has not yet completely annihilated every martial arts school when Dong Fang Bu Bai by himself can take on the entire martial arts world. They also drop the whole bit about the castration and just made him a woman, which actually makes a lot of sense. Hopefully the balance of power makes more sense since even in the novel there was a lot of "I trained hard and now can totally take on Aizen deal', like after the climatic battle where Dong Fang Bu Bai is defeated they started talking like anybody could've beat him and that he 'really didn't have much strength' even though Dong Fang Bu Bai deflecting Linghu Chong's sword with a sewing needle is seriously one of the craziest thing I've ever read in fiction.

Hopefully this new interpretation actually gets the point across that the people of this universe lives in abject fear of The Moon and the Sun Sect. I mean, it flat out says if The Moon and the Sun just takes everyone ranked lower than an elder they could've easily sacked Wudang Mountain and Shaolin Temple while fighting the combined forces of every martial arts school put together. That's not including elders (2 of them can probably take on a leader of a major martial arts school and there are at least dozens of these guys, and stronger elders can give a good fight even to major leaders), the 2 Heralds of the Light (each about as strong as leader of Wudang Clan), or the actual leader (roughly equal to the leader of the Shaolin Temple historically, Dong Fang Bu Bai is especially strong amongst the sect's history). In the battle of Mount Heng, the Wudang Clan leader introduced us to his Al Qaeda connections with enough explosives to blow up an entire mountain to defend against the impending siege from The Sun and the Moon Sect, and by then Dong Fang Bu Bai has already died! Indeed throughout the story there's always this question of 'why can't someone from The Moon and the Sun be friends with someone in another martial arts school', and it always sounded like one of those 'people just don't understand each other blah blah blah' even though the only reason there was even peace was because Dong Fang Bu Bai went crazy and spent all his time learning to a housewife instead of launching an all out attack that would've easily wiped out the opposing factions.

Some other notable changes is that one of the early Elder that got killed has been promoted to Herald of the Light in the TV (the second one was never shown in the novel) and he was limited to 50% of his power, which is a pretty good indicator of how powerful the Heralds are.

[Don]

Finished watching New Swordsman. It seems like literally everyone have the same idea of making Dongfang Bubai a female in the various TV versions of this series, which isn't a terrible idea since otherwise the female characters in the original story is either slut or a ditz, or both. Linghu Chong is relatively nerfed as he's no longer beating guys like the leader of the Wutang clan in one hit though for being the main guy he's still pretty overpowered. Dongfang got mega nerfed to something like less than 10% of his (err, her) original power. In fact most of the story works out as Linghu Chong gets randomly killed by tripping over a rock and, as typical in the wuxia genre, you can get guys who are about to die if you're willing to sacrifice a large % of your power by basically transferring your energy. Unlike the usual wuxia where using up 150% of your maximum power to bring a guy back from the brink of death incurs no adverse effect (at worse you just take some pills) this keeps Dongfang at some ridiculously low power level throughout the whole story so that she's not instant killing everyone. Now I understand they have to mess around with the power level to make this work but they probably should err, rename Dongfang, because Bubai means 'the undefeated' and that's a title given because Dongfang Bubai has never been defeated in combat.

Another thing that I noticed common in the TV adaptations is that Dongfang Bubai's sewing needle somehow become like a weapon of choice for his particular style and generally involving people throwing a lot of sewing needles. The point was that Dongfang Bubai uses a sewing needle because he was sewing when the main characters confronted him in the original. It's pointed out they're pretty lucky that Dongfang Bubai didn't have say, a cooking knife or whatever, and that the attackers were able to survive taking a hit from Dongfang Bubai because he only had a sewing needle. One of the guy basically got a sewing needle rammed through his chest but since it's a sewing needle it just left like a tiny hole. Of course in New Swordsman and almost every TV adaptation of the original it looks more like people buy a lot of sewing needles because everyone knows sewing needles are wanted for their unparalleled destructive power.

In a nod to the 'black technology', e.g. ancient stuff that clearly is way out of the theme, we have Shaolin Temple with artillery (though it's probably a good idea to have them given how badly outmatched the good guys are), Wutang's dynamites, and just for good measure some guy performed a heart transplant. Speaking of outmatched odds, in the opening the ex leader of the Holy Sun and Moon sect said he was going to crush the martial arts school with a force of 30000 people, and that's actually fairly consistent with the forces available according to the book, and we know that the martial arts school range from say a couple hundred on the big schools like Shaolin to 20-30 guys for a smaller school, including Linghu Chong's Mount Hua school that has something like 15 guys. And remember, bad guys are generally stronger on a qualitative basis too despite outnumbering the good guys 10 to 1. Honestly the TV adaptations does a better job at showing how the good arts live in mortal fear of being utterly annihilated compared to the book where you never got the idea any of the good guys are that worried about fighting guys that outnumber them 10 to 1 despite each of those guys can fight 1 versus 10 good guys. I mean, just from the background stuff we have the 10 Elders of the Holy Sun and Moon sacked Mount Hua and killed every guy that was actually powerful in the 5 Mountain alliance before they were lured into a trap that probably involved dynamites, and Elders are only the third highest tier in the Holy Sun and Moon (Herald of Light + Leader are higher). Linghu Chong appropriately asked the question 'how did any of our schools even survived in this war?' when we found out this tidbit of history.

I think this adaptation might be more inline if it was supposed to be about what Dongfang Bubai before he become Dongfang Bubai. The book actually had a lot of random tidbits about what he did when he was just a grunt and before he went insane and started learning how to sew, though I think it might end up being like a Star Wars "Anakin becomes Darth Vader" deal. I mean, you know this guy was never defeated by anyone and eventually went insane. That really doesn't leave much room for anything interesting.

[Shrinweck]

The Bob Ross marathon on Twitch is amazing. The chat is ridiculous and even if you typically don't like Twitch chat it's kind of amazing. They basically are acting as if everything Bob Ross does is a SUPER CLUTCH move in an important tournament. The calls of "RUINED" when he starts something new on the painting that starts like an ugly blob of paint are great. And when he perfects the blob into an amazing tree the calls for "nerfs" to Bob Ross or a "VAC ban" are hilarious. In either case, it's kind of just a joy to watch him do his thing so happily.

http://www.twitch.tv/bobross

[Julius Seeker]

Season 23 of the Simpsons is probably my favourite since season 8, so far. They have done a very good job with it. I'm only about halfway through it, but so far it has been a very strong season.

I also saw The Martian, which is very good for Ridley Scott, one of his best films. I really liked the cast, Matt Damen, Jessica Chastain, Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, and Don Glover. Yeah, NASA was run by comedians.

[Julius Seeker]

Watching Hannibal the series. So far it seems to be a reimagined prequel to Red Dragon. The guy playing Hannibal is Le Chifre from Casino Royale, with Lawrence Fishburn picking up the role of Jack Crawford, but the guy playing Will Graham (played by Edward Norton in Red Dragon) is someone new.

I am really enjoying the series so far, it's 3 seasons long and I am done the first. It was canceled, so I am uncertain if it finished the intended story.


On a side note, I always seem to end up eating supper during gory scenes, I did lose my appetite once even though I don't eat meat.

[Shrinweck]

I didn't finish the last season but I liked Hannibal the series a lot. It's very fun and the style is out of this world and done in a somewhat tongue in cheek way which keeps it from being cringe-y violence porn. I would have skipped this series but Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal) is one of my favorite actors and he's amazing in it. I'm glad I gave it a chance since in general it's quite good.

Edit: Oh right I watched Jessica Jones. I liked it more than Daredevil for the most part. Obviously a blind guy fighting with martial arts and batons is going to have cooler fight scenes then someone whose only power is strength. Very dark and interesting. David Tennant is great as the villain. Considering Jessica Jones is basically a side character to a side character (Luke Cage), I think that it came out wonderfully. I would watch the shit out of more seasons of this.

[Julius Seeker]

Heh, I have noticed there are a lot of comedic actors onboard for (or at least who were), including Eddie Izzard and Scott Thompson. Thompson, who played one of the investigators is best known in Canada for his writing and performance on Kids in the Hall, and is easily one of the funniest sketch comics from up here; probably the funniest.

[Blotus]

FARGO FARGO FARGO season 2 of Fargo! You don't even have to have seen the first season, as the second precedes it chronologically anyway.

[Julius Seeker]

Such a fantastic series, I loved season 1.

I am going to binge season 2 when it finishes. I watched episode 1 and 2 so far up to the "ground beef and chopped carrots" scene.

[Julius Seeker]

Hannibal spoilers season 2

Spoiler: show

Now I'm a bit disappointed. They killed off Chilton, a character who isn't supposed to die according to the book and film canon, and his TV persona was really entertaining. One of the funniest guys on the show.

[Julius Seeker]

Watched Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs back to back.

Red Dragon has some strong performances. Ralph Fiennes, in this film, actually manages to outdo Anthony Hopkins. He plays a shy psychopathic with a demon in his head - without spoiling much, it's a homage to Norman Bates in Psycho. The film is standout in the genre, but Silence of the Lambs is a true work of art from top to bottom; and despite its accolades and high regards, is still underrated when compared to other films. If I were to rank early 90s films, I would put Silence in the master tier, along with Goodfellas; above Schindler's List, Shawshank, and Pulp Fiction.

[Julius Seeker]

First 2-4 episodes of season 3 of Hannibal weren't very good, they had no plot structure, it was just a mix of events and exposition; lots of which being flashbacking. It takes place about 8 months after season 2. Then it begins to get better very quickly, and then it ends off with what might be the best episodes of the series.

MAJOR SPOILERS

Spoiler: show

The last 5 or 6 episodes are a re-telling of Red Dragon, Dolerhyde is played by Richard Armitage (Thorin). His role is much more focused on the Dragon side of things; he played a very menacing character - whereas Fiennes did a very great job at acting the role of a character who was really torn in half and fighting a war with himself. What Armitage did, he did well - a monstrous and powerful villain; even if he didn't have the same torn aspect of Fiennes's interpretation. The story detail is changed up a little, although it's the same plot with a lot of the same lines - there are differences like Freddy Lounds isn't the one in the chair, etc...

All in all, I really enjoyed the final episodes. It probably wouldn't stand as well on its own as Red Dragon, but it works very well capping off a series with characters you have 2.5 seasons worth of familiarity with.

[Shrinweck]

Lol seriously? I stopped like, literally four episodes into the third season. I suppose I'll check out the rest this week. It was boring as fuck to watch it as it aired.

[ManaMan]

Just finished watching The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (Ken Burns) on Netflix streaming. I'd recommend it if you're interested in US history and/or politics. Both TR & FDR are mythic figures in US history. You really find out a lot about them in this series. TR was perpetually running from grief and depression after his mother and wife died on the same day. After leaving office he couldn't stand not being president and broke with his own party for an independent run. FDR was a wealthy momma's boy never accepted by his wealthy peers at Harvard and elsewhere. He was obsessed with TR (a distant cousin) and wanted to follow in his footsteps. Eleanor Roosevelt was TR's niece and FDR met her at a family reunion (what a place to hook up!). FDR and ER were never happy together as FDR wanted someone like his mother and ER wanted an equal. Both had a series of lovers (in ER's case, potentially both male & female) and lived largely separate lives.

Interesting stuff. Also: the Great Depression, The New Deal, Rough Riders, World Wars, & Polio. Recommended.

[Julius Seeker]

I've been watching very little in the last bit, nothing since I finished Fargo season 2 aside from Star Wars and a few YouTube video. Better Call Saul and The 100 are probably all I'll watch in the near future unless something else to my tastes pops up.

I've not given up the TV, I've just been playing Xenoblade Chronicles X instead of just plain old watching stuff. I'm also back into Asimov, reading more Robot shorts, and considering diving into Wheel of Time for a re-read of the 6 books that were out when I still read fantasy, and then the rest of the series.

I also got this book by Stephen Eriksson a couple years back that I may give another go, I tried it once and it just didn't capture my interest - all I wanted to do was go and re-read the Silmarillion for the 38th time instead.

[Julius Seeker]

The Revenent. Stunningly beautiful film, fantastic acting, shit plot.

The plot relied too much on artsy flashbacks in an attempt to try to make you care about any of the characters. After the initial bit, there was zero escalation of the conflict between the protagonist and antagonist, so I stopped caring about their conflict about an hour and half ago by the time the climax came about.

Spoiler: show

Dicaprio's character being continuously injured the whole film was frustrating.

[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.

[Julius Seeker]

I watched Hail, Caesar!

Really not what I was expecting. I was expecting sort of a Wes Anderson style film based on the trailer before Revenant. It is much more of a Mel Brooks meets Coen Brothers style film. It's a series of scenes and shorts linked together by a main plot.

It's about a Hollywood studio circa 1958-1960. They are making several films and there are issues with each and their actors. Although the most serious one is their flagship film "Hail, Caesar!" Which is the Coen Brothers universe equivalent of Ben Hur.

It also has that Coen Brothers technicolor-like filter, which they also did in Fargo season 2.

George Clooney plays an actor who looks very similar to Laurence Olivier as Crassus.

There are TONS of actors in it. Including guys from some of my favourite shows from 15 years ago: Robert Trebor (Salmoneus in HercuXenaverse), and Robert Picardo (Voyager Doctor) included.

[Julius Seeker]

The Simpsons; the show I probably think entirely too much about. Of the entire series, season 4, 5, and 7 are my favourites. On most lists I have read, season 7 is ranked 5th or 6th overall; but with no weak episodes and some of the all-time strongest: A Fish Called Selma, Lisa the Vegetarian, King Sized Homer, Radioactive Man, and 22 Short Films about Springfield, I consider it undeniably in the top 3. There's also Mother Simpson, Homer the Smithers, Marge Be Not Proud, Homerpalooza, Much Apu About Nothing, Flying Hellfish, Bart on the Road, among others.

Interesting enough, Homer's Mysterious Journey and You Only Move Twice, which are season 8's strongest, were originally produced for season 7. If they were actually released with 7, then 7 would be widely considered the best.

[Shrinweck]

I'm a few episodes into the new season of House of Cards. I was unsure if I cared enough about the series to continue watching it but the show is just so god damned enthralling once you sit down and watch it lol

[Julius Seeker]

Better Call Saul - my prediction,

The guy who left the "Don't" note was Gus Fring, he's obviously involved with the Salmanca cartel, and Mike is working for him at the beginning of Breaking Bad.

The reason Jimmy begins going by Saul is because he doesn't want to associate himself with Chuck in the future. Or Chuck somehow ruins the family name. I wouldn't be surprised if Jimmy took down HHM.

Season 2 had a lot less criminal activity by Jimmy than season 1, the crime drama aspect has largely been Mike's story.

[ManaMan]

Watching season 2 of Kimmy Schmidt. It's pretty enjoyable. They're trying new things. I've actually laughed out loud several times.

[Julius Seeker]

The season premiere was a little weak on laughs, but established the season arc. The latest episode of Archaer entitled "Deadly Prep" proves that Archer can and will still hit it out of the park. It gives some interesting and humorous back story and vengeance scenes, the Silence of the Lambs scene had me choking on laughter. This one lands in my top 5 Archer episodes ever, with ease.

[Shrinweck]

Watching season 2 of Kimmy Schmidt. It's pretty enjoyable. They're trying new things. I've actually laughed out loud several times.

I liked the second season more in just about every way. Tina Fey's new role is amazing.

[Julius Seeker]

Picked up the final season of Deep Space 9, now I have the full collection of that and Voyager. Honestly, it was more of an on-a-whim purchase, considering physical media are obsolete. But I wanted to complete the collection for show if anything.

He great distinction between the two shows is that Voyager has a greater focus on sci-fi stories, whereas DS9 seems to have drifted away from science fiction to become more about politics, baseball, and supernatural events. The closest thing to a science fiction story I have seen was an episode about a woman who had the same genetic modification operation done as Bashir, and was turned into a vegetable; it was mostly a story about how she was going to cope in regular society, along with a one way love story - it was in the same vein as the TNG episode The Offspring and the Voyager episode Unforgettable; but much lighter on the science fiction elements than the other two stories, and much less emotionally engaging. My memory of TNG isn't as fresh, but if I recall correctly: it developed a political framework, but was much more of a science fiction show, and only used the political aspects to set up science fiction stories.

So far, I really like the Cardassian side of the story, and that has been the case since the early seasons. I am not nearly as fond of the stories where the experts are always wrong, but luckily Sisko is best at everything and therefore can always win. They weakly rationalized it in the beginning of the season as being because he has a connection with the prophets; but that hasn't made me enjoy the story any greater. Even when Sisko briefly lost the connection there was no real tension. It's just more poorly integrated stuff they stole from Babylon 5.

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 probably sound much more negative toward the show than my actual opinion. I do enjoy it, but in early season 7 the series looks like they've run out of ideas and are just coasting along as best they can. At this point, the most interesting moments are when Damar or Dukat show up.

[kali o.]

You are too nice to DS9 -- it was a complete drag (and made the Bajoran an unlikeable race). Avery Brooks was a poor choice as well, though I understand why they went that way. And finally, unlike the rest of the franchise, DS9 was stationary and not about exploration, which really anchored the show to the mundane.

Don't get me wrong, it's in my collection and I will re-watch it now and then; but it ranks last (though its a toss up for last place between DS9 and Enterprise). Probably the only thing I really liked from DS9, solely because it was so silly, is the mirror universe arc...and Rom/Quark/Moogie. The Defiant was a badass ship as well.

[ManaMan]

Watching through 30 Rock right now. Never watched this when it was on TV. Great show. A friend recommended it when I told her how much I liked Kimmy Schmidt. She said "30 Rock is practically the same show, you'll love it!"

[Julius Seeker]

OF COURSE they put it on Netflix just a month or so after I dropped $50 on it =P

Either way, the whole war with the Dominion blew until the end of season 7 - not quite through it yet.

The first half of the season seems like stories that got cut from earlier seasons for being garbage, and they made the shitty stories slightly better by mixing in the development of Ezri Dax; which just merely suck.

But when it hit about the midway point things picked up. The last few episodes I've seen are, so far, the first few episodes of the main arc that haven't seemed inorganic, beyond believability, and forced.

There was an episode in season 6 called "In the Pale Moonlight" that was supposed to be one of the best episodes of Star Trek ever; I think it might be the most overrated. There was a Romulan episode in season 7 that was, in my opinion, far more fun.

My only problem is the whole Gul Dukat story in these episodes seems tacked on, and a big waste of his character. Damar is my favourite Cardassian now. Garak isn't interesting this season either, probably not since Ziyal died; that story was like reverse Chasing Amy.

[Julius Seeker]

Watching the original series.
The version on Netflix is the remastered series, everything looks a lot cleaner, and special effects look nicer. The planetary orbit scenes look really nice.

It's interesting how the ereaders of TOS are actually much closer to why we use today than TNGs were. The ones on TOS are grey screens with e-ink. Although, I wonder if that was part of the remaster.

In a way, it's a little disappointing, it gives a false vision of the constraints they worked under. On the bright side, it's prettier.

[ManaMan]

I know everybody's watching Stranger Things on Netflix streaming, right? Awesome show.

Love the intro:

[Don]

Since Nirvana in Fire was on TV for like the third time or something I ended up actually finishing it. Youtube has it with English subtitles. This is supposed to be one of the big drama series coming out of China. The origin of this is basically fanfiction and it shows but the actors they got is pretty good. The premise is Lin Shu, junior commander of the Crimson Flame Army in a fictional Chinese dynasty, was framed for treason but miraculously survived and returned to seek revenge on those who wronged him, which is pretty much like everyone else that wasn't part of the Crimson Flame Army. It's your standard 'main character totally owns everything and kills people by talking to them', kind of like how Naruto says some random things and then people believe him, though in his case it's more like Liu Shu says something to two guys that are trying to kill them and they start killing each other because that's how smart he is, or something. At least he's not accidentally tripping over girls that want to join his harem, so I'll grant that this is probably good by fanfiction standards. The cast they picked is really great and so is the music, and is quite good when Lin Shu isn't doing his Mr. Know-it-all routine. Despite being terminally ill with maybe three weeks to live since episode 1 and never doing anything that'd take care of his body while being terminally ill, Lin Shu of course doesn't actually die from being terminally ill and generally has healthy habits like standing in the middle of a blizzard naked for three days. Despite an incredibly annoying main character, the rest of the cast does make up for it pretty well. There's also this long running gag where Prince Jing, who is like Lin Shu's best friend, is the only person who can't figure out Lin Shu (who is disguised under another identity) when everyone and their brother knows what his real identity is.

The one thing I thought that was really dumb is how they ended by staging a coup d'état because the Emperor who executed the Crimson Flame Army was not someone who would admit for being wrong, except if they wanted to do a coup d'état that could've happened roughly halfway around the story when Prince Jing took over the imperial guards. I know they're trying to say this is going to be a fair trial to clear up Lin Shu's name except they pretty much pointed a sword behind every witness, including the Emperor, when going over the trial, and while Lin Shu was indeed framed, if you're going to run a trial like that you wouldn't need any evidence in the first place.

As a strategy game fan, I also really don't like the battle where Lin Shu commanded 3000 Imperial Guards against an army of 5K in basically open terrain and he's still doing his 'yeah my strategy can totally fight 50K guys with superior training and weaponry'. It's pretty much your typical medieval 'I heard pikeman are invinicible' deal where a few hundred guys with pike managed to defeat a cavalry of several thousand strong, and then there's the Chinese 'we got dynamites' trap strategy (every Chinese historical fictional war involves dynamites long before they're actually invented), and then finish with the climatic 'fight on open terrain but don't worry all the bad guys always walk in one at a time and get killed' deal.

[Julius Seeker]

After watching season 1 of Star Trek TOS, it's become apparent that this series had a massive influence on science fiction: From BSG, to Farscape, to Babylon 5, and more. This series is more imitated than TNG.

Stargate has even remade at least one episode almost in full. The one sticks out primarily because it was one of my favourite early SG-1 episodes. It features the Goa'uld and humans fighting on a planet, and they come across a race known as the Nox who seem primitive and completely pacifist. No matter how threatening the Goa'uld seem, the humans can't convince the Nox that their peaceful way of life is in danger. In the end, when it looks like all hope is lost, the Nox reveal that they are significantly more advanced than humans or Goa'uld, and that neither are any threat at all. This episode is a virtual remake of one of ST:TOS's episodes where the Klingon Empire and Federation go to war, and they are in combat over a planet of key strategic importance.

Another interesting fact is that the Klingon commander, Kor, was a character in DS9 as well, with the actor reprising his role. Of course, by this point he was well over 150 years of age and quite senile, but maintained the respect of certain Klingons because of his legacy; although younger Klingons would ridicule him.

Overall, Star Trek TOS is a far more interesting series than I originally thought it would be. Strikingly ahead of its time.

[Julius Seeker]

Saw Dr. strange. It started out good, and then they did the superhero shit, and the last act stank.

Mads Mikkelsen was wasted on this film.

[Julius Seeker]

So right now, Westworld (on HBO Go), Black Mirror (Netflix), and Stranger Things (Netflix).

All are REALLY great shows.


Westworld
The show has a lot going on, and I don't want to discuss it too much before people have watched it, but it is very high production values. It's a science fiction that is reminiscent of Caprica in some ways. And...

Spoiler: show

BSG in how robots are masquerading as people. And potentially invasion of the Bodysnatchers in the way that they could possibly infiltrate all sorts of different institutions and agencies.

Black Mirror
It's definitely for fans of the Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The fourth episode of the Netflix series (series 3), San Junipero, in my opinion, was so good that it was wasted on a TV episode; it should have been a movie - it is visually stunning at scenes making it unsurprisingly the most popular episode. I don't want to give away too much about any of the episodes, half the fun is figuring out just what the hell is going on in each episode. There is no set genre for the series, which REALLY gets the viewer wondering just what's going to happen for at least the first portion of each episode. Don't skip ahead, the episodes, while completely independent, are very strategically placed based on theme.

Stranger Things
The show somehow reminds me a lot of Children of the Corn and Akira (the anime). Without giving away too much, it begins with a very narrow number of characters that are likeable, and the rest are frustrating. But as it goes on, more and more characters wise up, and so the series rewards the viewer increasingly that way. It is most certainly a binge-only show.

[Julius Seeker]

Add Bojack Horseman to the list. This one is a bit surprising, in kind of the Archer surprising way. Bojack is a little deeper and more artistic, probably more story-arc in formula as well.

Without spooling much: it's an M-rated animated show which deals with a character who was once an 80s/90s family sitcom star. He shares similarities with John Stamos, Dave Coulier, and Bob Saget, but is not directly based off of anyone in particular.

It takes a few episodes to get into, the first couple feel a bit Family Guyish, but the show REALLY grows after that.

[Shrinweck]

I really found myself liking Bojack Horseman a lot. Seasons one and two were soooo good. Season three was good too but didn't really hit me like the other two.

Black Mirror is a really great show, too. The Christmas special is probably my favorite episode.

[Julius Seeker]

I'm watching through season 1 and 2 of Black Mirror which are now up on Netflix. Season 1 is 3 episodes, season 2 has 4. So 13 altogether. So far all of them are very good to fantastic!

[ManaMan]

I'm watching through season 1 and 2 of Black Mirror which are now up on Netflix. Season 1 is 3 episodes, season 2 has 4. So 13 altogether. So far all of them are very good to fantastic!

They're great although like the name implies: very dark. I watched the first season before the election but since then I've looked for lighter fare and I'm watching old Cheers and Friends reruns.