TV Series Thread

[Mr.Obvious]

Episode 4 of the live action.

Jumping into original season 2 territory.
I respect that much, in and by itself. Always said, I don´t want a shot for shot retelling.
And yet...

There was a lot to like here. Most of which, the relationship between iroh and zuko and the fight scenes.
Especially liked the ´new´ zuko and iroh scenes.

But there were some misses too.
If you are not going to have kataang, you don´t really need the cave of two lovers. I like the hippies and all, but their inclusion wasn´t worth a basically timewaste. And while the badgermole looked cool and all, making it ´see´ emotions, didn't really click for me.
They see through earthbending, and yeah that is kind of a fundamental aspect. Especially for toph´s whole deal.

I saw two friends yesterday. They already watched the entire season. They too are big fans of the original. I asked them what they found of the new show and they asked me what I found so far.

We come to the term ´serviceable´.
And I stick by that for now.
Not as good as I had hoped.
Much, much better than I had feared.
Different enough to keep me watching.
But so different that while I am glad it might pull some people who would never watch the original otherwhise into the fray  I also find it sad to think this will be some people´s first introduction to the world of avatar.

And I find myself truly not minding so much that the story is different.
But I do notice I need to actively remind myself that the characters are different too. And that I can´t expect them to be characters I love so much.

[Hydra009]

In a complete lapse of judgment, I decided to watch The Walking Dead spinoff with Andrew Lincoln as Rick "Stuff 'N Thaangs" Grimes.

Not half bad.  Well shot, well paced, I dunno if the worldbuilding internal logic holds up (I'll get to that later), but decent action scenes, nice character motivations and character arcs (man I miss those).

Brass tacks: it looks good, interesting stuff happens, and people act like people.  Worth a watch.

What I don't like is that apparently vast parts of the US went virtually untouched by the Z-apocalypse and the reason is that the US military had a stupid scorched earth policy to fight the zombies (aka Operation Cobalt) that didn't work (hence the show) and the reason this part of the US is relatively unscathed is that a few people intentionally stopped that plan and spared the city.  Evidently the plan wasn't necessary (scorched earth is usually a desperation tactic, so the fact that it was unnecessary is a damning revelation with all sorts of implications) and the US military didn't make a second go at it before the government collapsed.  That's more than a little suspiciously fortuitous, imho.

Also, while I get the writer needing to create a sort of Expansion Zone - something new to show the viewers who had gotten used to the rustic life on the farm, it clashes with the plot and themes of the show.  For starters, it takes us away from most of the characters we've grown attached to.  Second, Rick is the main hero and his heroic task of rebuilding civilization and it kinda takes the wind out of his sails when there's already one ready to go (Alexandria was a bit like this as well, but it's small potatoes compared to this)  Third, it's pretty clear that the zombie apocalypse was so severe that almost all communities near the East Coast collapsed with only a scattering of people left.  Atlanta is a pretty big city and we haven't seen all that many Atlanta survivors, most of which we met in season 1.  We see less and less survivors in general as well.  Presumably, most of the surviving communities collapse within a few years.

So it's very, very odd for hundreds of thousands of people - spread all over the Midwest to Pacific Northwest - to miraculously have been spared that struggle.  What did they do differently?  Cause there's a lot more to it than just avoiding a scorched earth policy.  The sheer amount of food they go through alone...  The only way I can see this working is through a big barrier, preferably a natural barrier.  And while they do have some walls and a portion is protected by water, not all their territory is completely enclosed.  It's too large a territory to ever be completely enclosed.  And also far too spread out for the three cities to reliably come to each other's aid or even stay in touch, so the reason for the alliance in the first place is baffling.  There's just way too much going on that requires too much luck and logistics and industrial production for it to be plausible.  And while every Savior having an AK with unlimited rounds was equally implausible, even that wasn't as insane as this.

I guess they got me, because I find this stuff very compelling for some strange reason.

*Edit - I liked the second episode even more, though it was kinda a breather episode.

[Hydra009]

I'm watching Angry Joe's review of the X-Men series and they have Alex, the harsh critic of the bunch, talk about some of the "controversy" surrounding Morph.  Apparently, some people got their Depends in a twist about Morph changing into women and men, which is about the most petty thing to get offended about.

Alex had a really good comeback:  "If you're looking for a reason to get upset, Morph is a perfect opportunity to feel like a victim today and cool, you did it, you got mad at something on the internet.  But I would recommend you grow the fuck up." 🤣

[Blackleaf]

Yeah, this pretty much validates all the skepticism I had towards the show ever since the original creators bailed. They leave no room for character growth, because they can't stand to let the good guys have any flaws.

Can't wait until season 2, when we learn that Toph taught the badger moles how to earth bend, invented metal bending when she was a baby, has no insecurities or family issues, and also isn't blind.

[Hydra009]

Telling instead of showing and exposition dump are sadly two very common flaws in adaptations.  And they both have the same solution - make the characterization and plot flow organically instead of stopping the narrative to tell the audience.

[Cassia]

It has been decades since I have seen an episode of what was my favorite series..Northern Exposure.

[Cassia]

Never really watched "The Nanny" before. Boy, that Fran Drescher can act; very funny. Accent just like my mother, who was also from Queens.

[Unbeliever]

I think Northern Exposure is the best thing that's ever been on TV! 👍

[Hydra009]

I just finished The Ones Who Live.  It's really good - solid 9/10, so all 100 remaining Walking Dead fans are in for a treat.

Surpringly hopeful ending given the norm for The Walking Dead shows.

My only regret that it's too much of a neat and tidy ending.  I like it when things are left more open-ended so that you can add onto it later.

[Hydra009]

Fallout!

[Unbeliever]

Well, that was very...informative... 😱

[Hydra009]

That video gives you about as good an understanding as the Fallout characters get.  :P

Those old timey songs casually referencing nuclear war are scarier than any horror story I've ever read.

[Unbeliever]

Well, that's a...catchy tune...😱

[Hydra009]

I just finished rewatching the first episode and man, it's so true to the source material that it's unreal.  Almost everything is spot on what you would see in the games - the vault suits, the pipboys, the stimpaks, etc.  Even metal is suitably rusty and some clothing suitably worn and tattered.  The wardrobe and setwork is excellent - 12/10 chef's kiss, no notes.

I was pleasantly surprised to see some Brotherhood of Steel doing Brotherhood of Steel things.  Everything was very much in character for them.

I won't lie to you guys - if I was in this setting I would be 100% on board with the Brotherhood.  I don't know if I'd be as opposed to outsiders, but on the other hand, I wouldn't want to get the Brotherhood entangled in tribal squabbles.  I'd try to focus on acquiring knowledge and retrieving high tech in the hopes that its removal stops tribals from unleashing another high-tech war and allows the Brotherhood to pool humanity's greatest technology into the seed of a new civilization so advanced that they'd be able to both cleanse the wasteland and enforce their will as worldwide hegemon.  An end to war and an end to the environmental devastation of the great war.

[Hydra009]

I just finished binging the Fallout Series. 10/10 best game adaption ever - even better than The Last of Us, which sounds crazy but it's true.  The most Falloutiest Fallout thing I've seen in over a decade.  Two big ol' Vault Boy thumbs up.

I'm not entirely happy with their decision to release the whole season in one day - I'd prefer a little puff of Jet every week than to be forcibly dunked into a bathtub full of Jet, Psycho, and Turbo - but there are worse ways of doing things *cue montage of Wandavision's infamous "Please Stand By" abrupt episode endings*

Great scifi action, good social commentary without being too terribly blunt, good characters (all three main characters embody different strengths and weaknesses and may even mirror the three different approaches players take in the games), and an okay plot that mirrors the games maybe a little too closely.  The dark humor is great and I laughed out loud more times than I care to admit.

The show successfully borrowed from all the games quite well and did their own thing on occasion.  It was somewhat unpredictable and people's actions made sense with their beliefs.

That said, there were a couple moments that struck me as overly cartoony - a character walks through the wasteland for days and is experiencing foot pain so he takes his sock off and his foot is halfway gone.  Obviously, not super realistic.

Or that stupid action movie trope where a character gets shot in the arm/shoulder and they say it's just a fleshwound and walk it off only for anther character to dramatically find out that their clothing is soaked in blood.  Like The Shining elevator scene amount of blood.  Stupid.

Oh, and they did this thing were two characters are whispering about other people who are like 10 feet away and in movies, 10 feet is some sort of soundproof barrier.  Even worse, halfway through the hidden conversation, one character loudly says that they're NOT THINKING ABOUT LEAVING, which you'd think would immediately throw suspicion on them, but apparently, everyone around them is deaf so it's no problem.  Hollywood and its stupid tropes.  Feo forte y formal.  You just know some dumb, tone-deaf executive came up with that one.

Also, like everything good released in the past 5 years, there are stupid internet commentators declaring that the show is "woke" which is a frustratingly vague accusation.  Apparently, this is just a bigot's buzzword to claim that a show is a bad because it has a couple non-white characters.  The horror.  Patrolling the comments section almost makes you wish for nuclear winter.