[Tulpa]

The editing, directing and use of music were top notch throughout the episode but I kind of hated all the 'sympathetic' characters, largely because of the first talking scene. Not a good way to start a TV show, main characters talking about how much women suck. The scene didn't add anything either, so I have no idea why it was there.
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[Dracko]

If it's true to form, eventually the women will be responsible for every awful thing that happens despite the fact that they express they'd rather the men be in charge.

Yeah, it's that kind of work.

The fake-outs and rip-offs of far better material in this episode were embarrassing as Hell. So were the make-up and CGI.
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[Tulpa]

A lot of the camerawork was legitimately wonderful stuff that I don't think has been done in ages. One shot in particular stood out (though I don't remember where in the episode it was), where the most minor of dolly zooms was done to increase the tension without changing the composition in a noticeable way.
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[Mr. Apol]

[Dracko]

The comic or the TV show? Because the comic is that horrible and regressive, and so far, I'm not seeing Darabont saving it.

Probably because there is fuck all to save.
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[elvis.shrugged]

[Mr. Apol]

i still don't understand why the conversation is a problem. shane is a meathead cop from tennessee. he's supposed to think and say things like that. the viewer isn't meant to sympathize. do you guys feel dirty for hearing such base dialogue or something?
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[Dracko]

my favorite part of the walking dead was when rick was trapped under a tank and zombies were crawling after him and he put his gun to his head to shoot himself and immediately sat up into the open hatch on the bottom of the tank meaning that he actually pondered suicide while a gaping open hatch was literally right in front of his face fuck that show fuck it forever.

i can't wait until michonne shows up and everyone talks about how a socially retarded psychopathic black woman is the new feminist hero role model on tv and then she gets brutally raped but they will rationalize it as still being a strong feminist statement of a woman in control of her sexuality because she tortures and dismembers one of the men who raped her just like they do with stieg larsson's fucking awful masturbation fantasy "mystery" novels
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[Tulpa]

[rabite gets whacked!]

Finally got around to watching the Walking Dead ep 1. I'm not so much bothered by the gender BS (characters are pretty obviously flawed), but the strict adherence to comic book storytelling/writing quality is pretty inexcusable.

Did the horse couple write their bloody message to god before or after killing themselves?

Why does everything with zombies pretend to have never heard of zombies before and call them something else? Ooh, walkers. Is the word zombie secretly trademarked or something, and you have to pay a ton of money to license it, like the happy birthday song?
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[Dracko]

There's flawed characters and misogyny shining obliviously through your hack work.

You should stop reading bad comics, by the way.
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[rabite gets whacked!]

[internisus]

[Take It Sleazy]

Human Target is almost ruined with this dumb retool. They tried to shovel away the plot of the first season as fast as possible while not actually solving it. The sweeping orchestral score was the soul of the show and now we get a generic nothing score and pop music like it's just any other TV show.

It still has great action and the core of the existing characters is still there, but damn all the new elements are just dumb.

[internisus]

[Take It Sleazy]

The first season is more James Bond than actual James bond is these days and pretty wonderful so you should still watch it. It's just that it went from amazing to above average.

[internisus]

But you're also saying that they have now brushed it aside and failed to give it an adequate conclusion, yes?

[Take It Sleazy]

The show is more episodic than serialized so while it's a lame move, the thing they kind of half solved super fast doesn't totally destroy the fabric of the show. Necessarily. Yet. Also you should just watch season 1 anyway. It's gourmet popcorn tv and Jackie Earl Haley's character one of the best on TV.

[internisus]

Okay then, I won't let this turn me off. Still, I hope they go back to doing whatever it is that you thought was excellent before. Thanks for the insight.

Not related: It just occurred to me to say something by way of reminder. The hour-long season finale for The Venture Bros. is this Sunday. I figured people might forget since it took about a month off. Still no word on another season, as far as I know.

[Dracko]

Read the Peter Milligan comic instead.
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[elvis.shrugged]

I FINALLY finished watching Babylon 5, after watching it intermittently for almost a year. I'd wait months between seasons (generally due to being busy) and then see a season or two at a clip. Season 5 was a little more scatter-shot than what came before (maybe that's the wrong phrase; clustered might be better) but it ended on just the right note. That part in "Objects at Rest," for example, when Lochley and Sheridan salute with the next generation of the crew standing alongside her? That was classy. Also, the tragic ending of Londo's arc and (especially) Lyta's transformation into a vengeful Vorlon-made telepath nuke bomb caught me off-guard and were equally fantastic. "Sleeping in Light" was basically perfect.
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last.fm
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[Renfrew]

Sleeping in Light was made before the rest of season 5. It was originally going to be the end of season 4 when they thought the show was going to be canceled. See, JMS had a 5 year plan, and everybody knew it, but the network was saying they were going to cancel it at the end of the 4th season. They went ahead and crammed most of the original plans for 4 and 5 into season 4, then the network went, "By the way, you can have your 5th season." The fifth season ended up being so scattershot because they kind of had to scramble to fill it out.

Thanks for reminding me of this though. I need to get back to my rewatching. I'm only half way through the second season.
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[Take It Sleazy]

I do hope The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret gets picked up. The first few episodes are kind of rough but it really turns into...something. If I'm being honest with myself, I don't even really find the show as funny as it thinks it is, but it just gets more and more interesting as the show goes on. David Cross plays the worst person in the world. He is maybe the most purely selfish character in the history of television comedy. Zero redeeming values. On Seinfeld or Always Sunny the characters still have the basest level of charisma or regard for any one else. I mean the dude is more narcissistic than David Brent or pretend Larry David or anybody. He is a living Id and the only thing he ever does is lie to get what he wants. For the entire show. That's it. But the universe hates him and constantly punishes him swiftly in the most ridiculous contrivances ever. Cross has a vision of a comedy that is like Lost in the way you have to pay attention to little details, and that is interesting, but it hasn't quite gotten to that level yet, but they do end the show on the most impossible cliffhanger in the world for the character and I want to see how it continues considering one of the other conceits is that every single day of the character's life is shown in order. They also threw in a really interesting twist.

I dunno. I just like the fact that the plot machinations are the most aggressively ridiculous thing ever. It is amazing to watch this character's life snowballing into the worst thing possible.

[internisus]

I was just about to say what Renfrew posted pretty much word-for-word. Mad love for B5.

Make sure you see the movie titled In the Beginning! It's super good! But also don't nobody watch it until like at least season 4 because it spoils the past, man!

[elvis.shrugged]

I've seen In The Beginning, it was fantastic! I still have to see the rest of the movies, though. And I knew about Sleeping in Light being filmed during season four; that was one of the best decisions of the series, since it was able to keep Ivanova in the story. Mad love for this show, indeed.
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[internisus]

I miss Ivanova. I love most of the main characters, but I feel especially sentimental about her.

[internisus]

Have you guys been watching Fringe? It's been so so so very good. This week was just superb. But its ratings have been hovering at 4.80... 4.82... 4.85. This is a low point for a show that started out around 10 million. And FOX just sent it to 9/8c Friday nights in January, which as we all know is the timeslot where shows go to die.

I really need a fucking hug about this.

[Renfrew]

Being a kid when Babylon 5 came out was a wonderful time because there were actually a few sci-fi conventions in my area and cast members would actually come to them. Since I was a kid, meeting cast members at cons wasn't such an awkward nerd thing, but actually a really cool "kid meeting his idols" kind of thing. Off the top of my head, I remember meeting Bester (Walter Koenig yeah!), Lyta, Kosh, Marcus, Galen, and the Centauri Emperor. I feel like there was someone else, but that's all that's coming to mind right now. I'll have to find my autograph book. The Emperor was actually the coolest, nicest person ever. Somehow and for some reason, even though I was a bit of a heavyset kid, I got Marcus and I think Kosh and the Emperor to pick me up.
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[CubaLibre]

That security chick did a Playboy pictorial. I didn't go to sci-fi conventions as a kid but I did lift my dad's Playboys from his bathroom.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[rabite gets whacked!]

[Rud31]

[internisus]

[Renfrew]

[Dracko]

Woah, Peter Chung is doing 3D animation for Cartoon Network?


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[internisus]

The final five minutes or so of Caprica was a preview of things to come apparently during what would have been the very next season, and my god it was exhilarating. It's ironic that it took the show's death to get me interested. This was produced before the word came down about the show's cancellation, so it's interesting to see that they were planning to skip forward a few years.

Ultimately, while I would have loved to see this play out, the sequence provides a satisfying conclusion. It works similarly to one of those movies where, right before the credits, all the characters get together and they do freeze shots with text overlays to tell you what happened over the rest of their lives. That seems just fine if you take Caprica as just another story within the BSG universe, which is how I choose to see it, especially since they announced development of a pilot for Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, which will take place during the (first) war with the cylons.

[Ebrey]

Man, I have so little interest in Blood & Chrome. If you can't finish Caprica just let BSG die :(.

[internisus]

I basically agree I guess but I do like the universe. All I really want is for someone to fix the BSG ending.

[Dracko]

http://exiledonline.com/walking-dead-a-character-study/

[sawtooth]

I don't know where Eileen Jones came from (a lot of people suspect she's John Dolan in drag) but all of her reviews at Exiled are nail-on-the-head good at best, fun reading at the worst.
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(  (  

[rabite gets whacked!]

Oh hey, she seems nearly as obsessively vitriolic as Dracko!

But agreed, it really is crap, which is too bad cause we've probably blown our shot at a zombie TV series for the next 20 years or so.


Boardwalk Empire also remains unimpressive. About the only thing it's got going for it is Jimmy's PTSD (his disorder, mind you, not Jimmy himself), which is generally better and more concisely covered in HBO's recent War Torn anyway.
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[Dracko]

rabite we could make lovely music together
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