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Predator Goose
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Location: Oversensitive Pedantic Ninny
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 Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 4:20 am |
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I've made it through about 3-4 seasons of Star Trek TNG. I never realized how bleak and dystopian the Star Trek universe is. There's genocidal god-beasts around every corner and humanity just keeps on poking them with sticks.
Edit: Oh man, I almost forgot. The show has some great character archetypes going on. My favorite is Worf: terrible, negligent father.
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:cryface:
banned
Joined: 15 Mar 2012
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| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:28 am |
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| new girl is good |
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evnvnv
hapax legomenon
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: the los angeles
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| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:41 am |
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Just realized House of Cards is a remake of a British series and was written largely by the guy who did Ides of March. I guess it makes a little more sense now but it's still such a weird thing. No one else is watching this?
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elvis.shrugged
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
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| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 3:38 pm |
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I've been watching it! I finished episode seven last night. I like it so far.
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tacotaskforce
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: Logical, Practical
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| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:45 pm |
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So apparently this has been up for 2 years, but the Global Frequency pilot is on Youtube. (It's not great)
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Dark Age Iron Savior
king of finders
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Location: Spacecraft, Juanelia Country
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| Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 12:40 pm |
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| tacotaskforce wrote: |
| So apparently this has been up for 2 years, but the Global Frequency pilot is on Youtube. (It's not great) |
hey, I just realized, I've been thinking of proper X-files successors, and there are some definite X-files overtones to the original comics. Looking at something like Touch (whether it will survive this season or not) and such, it seems like there might be room for "modern" (non-sci-fi/fantasy/etc) speculative fiction with a more dynamic cast that doesn't interact directly with each other....or at least, it's something people might be more open to now than a few years ago. That said, the pilot is pretty poor and I think you would have to do a lot of work to extract even one proper season (or miniseries!) out of the comics or the concept.
hey, can anyone think of any TV relationships involving two bisexual males and a (presumably heterosexual) female, all theoretically coming into some kind of romantic equilibrium with each other?
Because, uh, that kinda just happened on The Following. Granted, it's with three criminally insane maniacs, but.....
speaking of the unexpected, boss-rush-of-bad-ideas Zero Hour's thing seems to be some kind of reincloneation. Huh. Oh well, it will probably be cancelled soon. I wonder what boxes are checked or unchecked in my head that self-evidently stupid shit like Do No Harm turns me away while I hunger for more of self-evidently stupid shit like ZH. The themes, I guess...
man, nearly all the models by which the success and potential future of media are judged are fucked, huh. |
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jdoe
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 5:20 pm |
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| evnvnv wrote: |
| Just realized House of Cards is a remake of a British series and was written largely by the guy who did Ides of March. I guess it makes a little more sense now but it's still such a weird thing. No one else is watching this? |
I burned through House of Cards over the past few days for whatever reason. This is solidly a lower-middle tier TV drama. It reminds me a lot of Dexter: The leading character is the most compelling thing about it, mainly because the actor is having all of the fun and chewing scenery left and right. Everyone else orbits around the lead and never really amounts to anything particularly interesting.
What's most disappointing is the show never commits to what it wants to be. It's deadly serious and "realistic", but has absolutely nothing to say about politics or how Washington DC runs. While the show makes a point of taking place in our reality, there is little to nothing about topical party politics (you'd think the main character, a democratic US congressman, would face the issues of republican obstructionism). Things happen purely by force of will by Kevin Spacey - his obstacles are simply individual people being too cowardly or prideful. The education and environmental bills that serve as multi-episode plot arcs aren't actually about the politics - the reform they propose is irrelevant and never delved into. They only exist as a battleground for characters to yell and scream about. The entire political aspect of the show is lazy. The creators don't seem to care about the bills and electoral races that all of the intrigue circles around. The Wire ended 5 or 6 years ago, you'd think other televsion series (especially the new flagship Netflix series, which must have had carte blanche to do whatever it wanted) would try to emulate the depth of that show a little more.
So what's left, if the politics are just dressing? I suppose the show cares more about the intrigue and the larger than life characters. But even that falls short. Spacey is fun and the setup ("I'm going to do everything I can to manipulate and crush the people who betrayed me") is enjoyable in a Breaking Bad sort of way, but they never follow through on it. You get halfway through the season and realize he hasn't actually done much to crush his enemies. And when you finally find out the culmination of his plan, it doesn't have much to do with the big "revenge" setup of the first episode. But still, the character is fun to watch. I like the mugging to the camera and the schlocky asides to the audience.
Everyone besides Spacey, though, is terribly written and poorly plotted. They all go down these cliche subplots (high powered wife has a brief affair with a bohemian, young politician is a hopeless addict, don't get me even started on the newspaper storyline). There are several secondary characters that I still can't figure out why they exist (a young pregnant woman who works at the wife's charity is given pretty significant screentime for very little purpose). They backpedal a lot on the wife, who initially appears to be playing Lady Macbeth but turns out to just be his somewhat naive cheerleader. Maybe they'll do something more interesting next season, dunno if I'll keep watching. |
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Winona Ghost Ryder
lives in a monochromatic world
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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MattCD42
Joined: 13 Sep 2011
Location: Under the rock
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 6:42 pm |
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Tried watching House of Cards last night, the pilot had such a terrible script and some off the wall directorial choices. It just felt like B-reel political schlock. I kind of shocked something like this is getting buzz that it is.
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evnvnv
hapax legomenon
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: the los angeles
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 8:46 pm |
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| jdoe wrote: |
| evnvnv wrote: |
| Just realized House of Cards is a remake of a British series and was written largely by the guy who did Ides of March. I guess it makes a little more sense now but it's still such a weird thing. No one else is watching this? |
I burned through House of Cards over the past few days for whatever reason. This is solidly a lower-middle tier TV drama. It reminds me a lot of Dexter: The leading character is the most compelling thing about it, mainly because the actor is having all of the fun and chewing scenery left and right. Everyone else orbits around the lead and never really amounts to anything particularly interesting.
What's most disappointing is the show never commits to what it wants to be. It's deadly serious and "realistic", but has absolutely nothing to say about politics or how Washington DC runs. While the show makes a point of taking place in our reality, there is little to nothing about topical party politics (you'd think the main character, a democratic US congressman, would face the issues of republican obstructionism). Things happen purely by force of will by Kevin Spacey - his obstacles are simply individual people being too cowardly or prideful. The education and environmental bills that serve as multi-episode plot arcs aren't actually about the politics - the reform they propose is irrelevant and never delved into. They only exist as a battleground for characters to yell and scream about. The entire political aspect of the show is lazy. The creators don't seem to care about the bills and electoral races that all of the intrigue circles around. The Wire ended 5 or 6 years ago, you'd think other televsion series (especially the new flagship Netflix series, which must have had carte blanche to do whatever it wanted) would try to emulate the depth of that show a little more.
So what's left, if the politics are just dressing? I suppose the show cares more about the intrigue and the larger than life characters. But even that falls short. Spacey is fun and the setup ("I'm going to do everything I can to manipulate and crush the people who betrayed me") is enjoyable in a Breaking Bad sort of way, but they never follow through on it. You get halfway through the season and realize he hasn't actually done much to crush his enemies. And when you finally find out the culmination of his plan, it doesn't have much to do with the big "revenge" setup of the first episode. But still, the character is fun to watch. I like the mugging to the camera and the schlocky asides to the audience.
Everyone besides Spacey, though, is terribly written and poorly plotted. They all go down these cliche subplots (high powered wife has a brief affair with a bohemian, young politician is a hopeless addict, don't get me even started on the newspaper storyline). There are several secondary characters that I still can't figure out why they exist (a young pregnant woman who works at the wife's charity is given pretty significant screentime for very little purpose). They backpedal a lot on the wife, who initially appears to be playing Lady Macbeth but turns out to just be his somewhat naive cheerleader. Maybe they'll do something more interesting next season, dunno if I'll keep watching. |
I basically agree with all of this, especially the sort of disappointing development of Robin Wright's character, who was initially the most interesting thing about the show for me. I still think she is really nailing this character, but the character itself is not quite as great as I thought it could be based on the first couple of episodes.
I think I've realized that what I think is so weird about this show is exactly what you talk about above, that it doesn't actually seem concerned with any particular details of actual American politics. We're sort of conditioned to expect political dramas to reveal something of the inner workings of the 'real' DC, but this isn't really about insider politics as much as it is an attempt to express some kind of Shakespearean discussion of the perils of ambition using the costumes and vernacular of American politics. I think you could say the same thing about the Ides of March (obviously dude has some kind of thing for Shakespeare).
I haven't seen either breaking bad or dexter, but both of those shows have always seemed very repellent and appalling to me, so the fact that I am kind of enjoying this show makes me feel kind of strange. I have kind of come to accept the fact that both of those other shows are probably more complex than their marketing would imply, but I still feel like house of cards is doing something a little bit different with its kind of dastardly protagonist. Those shows have always seemed to be about coercing the audience into sympathizing with people who do very bad things by way of illuminating their inner goodness, while house of cards seems more interested in giving you a portrait of a person who is essentially a huge asshole, but who somehow manages to continue to do things that make people like him and want to entrust him with power. It's kind of the opposite? Like, after awhile you start to feel like the "fake" Underwood--the wise but tough pious elder statesman--is actually more important to his character than the "real" version of himself, who is just a cynical, power hungry jerk. It's a show about a sociopath who has completely perfected the art of looking compassionate, to the point that it might as well be who he 'actually' is, unless you happen to cross him.
| MattCD42 wrote: |
| Tried watching House of Cards last night, the pilot had such a terrible script and some off the wall directorial choices. It just felt like B-reel political schlock. I kind of shocked something like this is getting buzz that it is. |
I feel like i sort of understand how someone could hate this show, yet I don't really get where you're coming from with any of these critiques. What off the wall directorial choices? What was terrible about the script? What is another example of "b-reel political schlock." I think you're mixing two completely different connotations of the letter B when it comes to film. "B movies" are second-tier productions intended to profit by means of their mass appeal and low budget; "B reel" is the footage from field recordings, etc., that plays in a documentary during voice overs from interviewees.
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Mikey
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Location: endless backlog
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 8:24 pm |
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| Mystery Science Theater 3000 isn't really as good as I remember it being. |
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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 11:04 pm |
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Which ones are you watching? Quality varies widely over seasons.
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Mikey
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Location: endless backlog
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| Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 5:05 am |
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| I'm streaming them off of Amazon so I have no idea which seasons the episodes I've watched have been from but so far the ones I've seen have been mostly lackluster. If you can recommend any good ones I'm all ears! |
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Isfet
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: A New York
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| Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 2:53 pm |
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i'm going to agree with Mikey, here. i have never actually laughed as heartily at MST3K as an adult as when i was a youngin'. ah well.
but it's still a better way to watch a lot of those kinds of movies. |
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Predator Goose
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Location: Oversensitive Pedantic Ninny
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| Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 3:24 pm |
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With few exceptions it's really hard to sit down and watch an MST3k episode. Much more enjoyable if you put it on in the background while you do something else, that way the good bits usually jump out at you. For suggestions I'm throwing out Cave Dwellers (the best, most watchable episode), The Final Sacrifice, and Soul Takers. You can watch Sacrifice straight if you really want to, if only because it's so much fun to say 'Rowsdower'. Don't watch soul takers straight though.
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analogos
bravely default crying fairy
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:47 pm |
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| evnvnv wrote: |
| Those shows have always seemed to be about coercing the audience into sympathizing with people who do very bad things by way of illuminating their inner goodness |
breaking bad is definitely not this. |
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Tulpa
Joined: 31 Jul 2008
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:23 pm |
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yeah that's a prretty good description of Dexter but Breaking Bad is definitely the origin story of a batman villain (and not a sympathetic one like Mr. Freeze)
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remote
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:59 am |
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| analogos wrote: |
| evnvnv wrote: |
| Those shows have always seemed to be about coercing the audience into sympathizing with people who do very bad things by way of illuminating their inner goodness |
breaking bad is definitely not this. |
what about jesse? breaking bad is arguably all about this, with jesse as the real heroic criminal while walter slides further into the irredeemable villain role.
at the very least, the shift in the dynamic between those two characters and the way the audience perceives them is right at the heart of what makes it a good show, i think.
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Winona Ghost Ryder
lives in a monochromatic world
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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Winona Ghost Ryder
lives in a monochromatic world
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 5:28 am |
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| It can be hit and miss, but the Kroll Show is brilliant at parodying reality tv tropes down to editing, sound effects and music cues. Also, Jon Daly and John Mulaney are brilliant in their character roles. I'm particularly fond of the "Oh, Hello" segments because sadly that will be my end game. |
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Winona Ghost Ryder
lives in a monochromatic world
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:55 am |
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Mulaney in a Dashiki
Kroll in a Keith Haring sweatshirt
The most inspired and character perfect visual gag of the year. |
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Gorblax
Ganbare Gorbly!
Joined: 07 Nov 2011
Location: Violence Island
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| Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 2:29 pm |
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Is it still too early to say that all our worst fears about post-Harmon Community have been realized?
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8128
Joined: 06 Jun 2008
Location: a very very very fine house
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| Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 4:25 pm |
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no. ugh
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Tulpa
Joined: 31 Jul 2008
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| Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:30 pm |
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I haven't kept up with it? Is there any post-Harmon Community worth actually watching?
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Gorblax
Ganbare Gorbly!
Joined: 07 Nov 2011
Location: Violence Island
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| Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:36 pm |
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| tacotaskforce wrote: |
| My vision of gorblax is of an automaton built to function seamlessly in a society which no longer, or perhaps never, existed, but which is similar to our own. |
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Flylighter
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Location: On sabbaddical
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| Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 7:13 pm |
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| Gorblax wrote: |
| Is it still too early to say that all our worst fears about post-Harmon Community have been realized? |
It wasn't too early after the first episode. Horrendous, and downhill from there. Is anyone else catching the corporate-mandated-and-approved hashtag to talk about plot points? At the end of the first episode it's #CHANGNESIA OMG, and like the instant it panned up to Gilbert's face in the second episode the screen practically blares "#GILBERTRETURNS GUYS LET'S TAKE THIS SHIT VIRAL". I mean, there were hashtags in the first few seasons but they were obviously written as a joke, or part of one.
In other news, I would probably watch this show
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Gorblax
Ganbare Gorbly!
Joined: 07 Nov 2011
Location: Violence Island
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| Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:19 pm |
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Fuck it, I'm riding this show out like Sleazy on the back of The Office.
Teaser image for an upcoming episode:
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| tacotaskforce wrote: |
| My vision of gorblax is of an automaton built to function seamlessly in a society which no longer, or perhaps never, existed, but which is similar to our own. |
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Gorblax
Ganbare Gorbly!
Joined: 07 Nov 2011
Location: Violence Island
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| Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:25 pm |
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#watchcommunitylive
ugh
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| tacotaskforce wrote: |
| My vision of gorblax is of an automaton built to function seamlessly in a society which no longer, or perhaps never, existed, but which is similar to our own. |
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Take It Sleazy
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:01 pm |
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i don't think nu-community is some kind of nightmare come true i guess
feels to me more like when larry david left seinfeld
as in a different more pointlessly wacky show that doesn't know the characters as well but still good for some laffs
none of that is to disagree with the general idea that last week's episode is probably the worst of the show |
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Ronk
saucy Scott Pilgrim fanfic
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:37 pm |
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last episode of community was pretty terrible :( most of the season has been, at most "not that bad", but i'm gorby, i'll finish it out.
| Winona Ghost Ryder wrote: |
| It can be hit and miss, but the Kroll Show is brilliant at parodying reality tv tropes down to editing, sound effects and music cues. Also, Jon Daly and John Mulaney are brilliant in their character roles. I'm particularly fond of the "Oh, Hello" segments because sadly that will be my end game. |
i watched the first episode and it seemed like the editing and title cards carried the bulk of the show. maybe i should watch a few more but i really couldn't get into it as much, and i'm a pretty big Earwolf nerd. (i also haven't seen his stuff with Mulaney and i liked those characters on Kroll's stand-up special.)
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Gorblax
Ganbare Gorbly!
Joined: 07 Nov 2011
Location: Violence Island
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| Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:23 pm |
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I once watched the first few minutes of a stand-up special Nick Kroll did as one of his characters (it was called "Thank You Very Cool") and switched it off because I was not enjoying it at all. I did really like him on that one episode of Community.
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| tacotaskforce wrote: |
| My vision of gorblax is of an automaton built to function seamlessly in a society which no longer, or perhaps never, existed, but which is similar to our own. |
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Ronk
saucy Scott Pilgrim fanfic
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2013 12:22 am |
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yeah his stand-up is pretty hit or miss (mostly miss) but he's good in pretty much most things he's in. (see also aziz ansari, donald glover)
i mostly just wanted to watch the Kroll show because of his appearances on the Comedy Bang Bang podcast
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Winona Ghost Ryder
lives in a monochromatic world
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 2:14 pm |
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| Great, I missed The Delocated finale and can't find any torrents anywhere. |
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Take It Sleazy
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 5:40 am |
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| Winona Ghost Ryder wrote: |
| Great, I missed The Delocated finale and can't find any torrents anywhere. |
It's around now as s03e11 and it is amazing although it probably would be better to watch the whole season in a row also don't read any more of this post if you didn't watch it run away
kind of disappointed that they ignored the new delocated show altogether but i guess that's kind of how plot points fly in and out of the show, especially this season
also goddamn david's death (almost felt compulsory at this point), the eastern promises fight, the fbi dude being in a relationship with the network head (basically explaining how this show could even exist), the ending shot man oh man
another interesting thing is how they played with the idea that this is the only episode of the show that is not actually an episode of the in-show delocated and let them experiment with that a little bit while at the same time basically keeping the trappings of delocated including the cruelest bumper
pffr always the fuckin darkest dankest comedy on american tv
it was a fun ride |
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Isfet
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: A New York
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Winona Ghost Ryder
lives in a monochromatic world
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 11:53 pm |
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| If I lived in New York I'd go there in a heartbeat. |
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Ronk
saucy Scott Pilgrim fanfic
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:37 am |
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| Winona Ghost Ryder wrote: |
| If I lived in New York I'd go there in a heartbeat. |
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Take It Sleazy
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:19 am |
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Veronica Mars will be a movie which is neat and it made 2 million dollars in a day. although a Kickstarter for a Warner Bros Motion Picture is probably the start of a terrible miserable gross great wonderful trend like
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Dark Age Iron Savior
king of finders
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Location: Spacecraft, Juanelia Country
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Tulpa
Joined: 31 Jul 2008
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| Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:35 am |
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You pay them 10000 dollars to play a waiter with a single line in a single scene.
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allensmithee
polyglamorous
Joined: 21 Apr 2011
Location: wherever it is, im dying to get out
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| Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:01 pm |
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| Tulpa wrote: |
| You pay them 10000 dollars to play a waiter with a single line in a single scene. |
my partner and i had a really good laugh at this. now we can all see the movie and think 'what kind of doofus shelled out megaton bones for that??'
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