Topic: The TV Show Thread

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika They should just cancel the show outright. It’ll inevitably be terrible and fuel morons wanting him back despite him being a vile nonce. Better to kill it dead, and with that all influence he has on the industry.

He also resigned from Squanch games.

Show definitively won’t be the same without him, but there’s no coming back.
I watched a video of him doing the lines for drunk Rick while getting blasted & always thought that something was very off with him.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika
After 6 seasons and 60 episodes I don't see anybody actually acclimating to not just one but both main characters suddenly having different voices. Morty you could probably write off as having hit puberty but with Rick there is just no way.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika Still not sure how Dan Harmon got away with admitting to sexual harassment and facing literally 0 consequences. Bet he’ll be laughing all the way to the bank now he’s the sole showrunner.

@Jimmer-jammer If you enjoyed The Sopranos, I'd be fairly confident you'll love The Wire.

The Wire is genuinely my favorite show of all time, and still remains a joy to re-watch! Even the weaker seasons (#2 and #5, IMO) are much stronger than most things on TV today. Seasons #3 and #4 , especially #4 (!), are just immaculate.

What's also cool about the Wire is that there are so many actors who are today deemed 'mega-stars'.... and these guys are basically starting their careers in The Wire! Idris Elba, Dominic West, Lance Reddick (of Horizon fame lol!) and a very young Michael B Jordan (Creed). Aidan Gillen (Irish actor, played LittleFinger in GoT) and Michael K Williams RIP also!

I ranked my top #5 of all time and list looks like this....
#1 The Wire
#2 Dark
#3 Succession
#4 The Leftovers
#5 The Shield

I'd also recommend 'The Leftovers' which is genuinely one of my most surprising experiences, and this stayed with me long after I'd concluded the final season.

(honorably mentions include GoT, Breaking Bad, Justified, Lost, The Sopranos, Chernobyl, Watchmen, Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men)

@Jimmer-jammer
There's alot of HBO shows I would recommend. Just some examples:
•Barry
•Boardwalk Empire
•Perry Mason
•The Wire
•The Leftovers
•The Deuce
•Deadwood
•Carnivale
•Band of Brothers
•The Pacific

Have fun.

@LN78 Thanks man! I'm currently watching 'The Bear' on Disney+, which is shaping up very nicely and a tremendous show (also very different to other things I've seen). How would you rank your own top 5?

@LN78
Some of the characters in the Deuce didn't have very happy endings admittedly but there was still a great message at the end about the future and how it's possible to completely change your life for the better.

i would suggest andor even if you dont like star wars. good story, good actors.

Watched both episodes of The Last of Us and… I’m a little disappointed. It’s good, mind you, but it’s not great. I promise I’m not trying to be a troll, but it’s not living up the hype yet for me. But I’ll definitely stick with it.

@LN78 It’s a difficult one to put my finger on. There’s definitely some good performances (and some mediocre ones) and there’s a reasonable amount of care taken to its production, in that HBO kind of way, but some of the mojo is missing from the show. I think most of the issues are the age-old challenges with transferring a story from one medium to the next. We haven’t really seen a lot of video game to TV / movie adaptations that are very good when they try to recreate the same storyline. In fact, I’d go so far as to support the notion that this is probably the best attempt (judging from only two episodes) that I’ve seen, although I’ve not come close to seeing all of them — not even close. But the best straight adaptations I’ve seen are probably the latest Vikander Tomb Raider and maybe Uncharted was passable for a low level of empty enjoyment. From a TV perspective, I really liked Arcane. It was one of the best animated shows I’ve seen in a while, but apparently its connection League of Legends is in name only and shares almost nothing narratively with the game. I still haven’t watched The Witcher yet, but it’s on my to-do list this year.

So to say The Last of Us is the best show adapted from a video game is a low bar, indeed.

Watching the TLoU show feels a little bit like what I experienced last year playing Marvel’s Avengers. You certainly feel like you’re getting a knock-off version of the characters, only with TLoU it’s in reverse with the game coming first and the live-action version coming later. Nothing against Pascal and Ramsey, but it feels like cosplay with them doing their versions of Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, in an ironic way like Baker was doing his weird version of Bruce Banner in Marvel’s Avengers when my brain is programmed to hear and see Mark Ruffalo.

But the actor swap aside, I’m not as impressed with the visuals and effects in the TV show as I was led to expect. The clickers also just feel a tad ‘cosplay-ish’. Good costuming is hard to do in the 4K era where detail can be seen so easily, and there’s something slightly off about the infected which is borderline ‘B-movie’ looking. The clicker actors clearly have headpieces on that come across plastic-y. The clicker sounds are spot-on though, and the dilapidated world is pretty well done, (although on this week’s episode some of the close up shots also were a giveaway and looked like a set designer just threw some plants and roots on top of an old car and called it good)

I’ll be curious what you think because I know you hold the game in high esteem. If there were games that should be compatible with live-action TV retelling, it should be the Naughty Dog games. They don’t come more cinematic than those. So this doesn’t fare well for some of the other adaptations coming.

@LN78 I’m glad to hear that I’m not alone; I was starting to question myself because of the universal glowing praise. I did notice that a lot of the critical reviewers admitted to having no experience with the game, and so lack of any expectations going in makes for a better viewing experience I think. It was similar with that Uncharted movie. I didn’t think much of it, but if you would have called it “Treasure Hunt” or some other unrelated property, then I probably would have enjoyed it more, rather than thinking “Why is Nathan Drake so short? And why is Sully so young?” the whole time. Because yeah, “dollar store” version would be a good descriptor. I’ve also heard these characters called the “Aldi versions” which is a grocery store here known for its cheaper price off-brand versions of products.

And you’re right about the plot being mostly done before and being slight. I think that has led to these first two episodes feeling quite slow, because to me, the real impactful narrative point is the game’s ending. And of course it only lands because of hours of gradual bonding with Ellie through multiple challenges of combat and exploration. So I fear we’re going to get 10 episodes of slow moving storyline until the real treat at the end.

I liked both episodes well enough but I do agree that it seems a little overhyped by the reviews

@Voltan What did you think of the clickers and of the visual effects overall? Did their heads look a little fake and manufactured to you?

@LN78 Didn’t even think about the ‘discourse’ starting again. God, that was tiring. I didn’t even really like The Last of Us but the ones banging on about Neil Druckmann were almost as irritating as Gamergate.

@Jimmer-jammer Perfectly fair counterpoints, and I’m in agreement with you all around, the only deviation being the visuals and graphics. I’ll be interested to see the bloaters and get more time with the clickers and the general aesthetic, but I do feel slightly disappointed with the overall look. And “too clean” is a sound descriptor, as the clickers heads in the game were always random and natural appearing, like a sprouting fungus with some unrefined variance and it seemed like the TV costumes were fairly symmetrical and had a synthetic or non-organic feel to them.

As for the acting performances, I think it’s a decent balance between imitation and doing a fresh take. Both Ramsey and Pascal have been performing well and I think the balance is good. The actress that plays Tess is the most differing take so far, such that to me she hardly feels like the same character as the game. I have no issue with the performances, only that there’s an uncanniness about them due to conflicting with my own memory. I do think they are playing up the moral grayness of Joel and Tess which I don’t remember feeling in the game (probably in anticipation of part 2). Joel’s loneliness, bitterness, and unresolved grief has yet to be showcased and he seems more selfish and seedy… to me at least. But I’m certainly analyzing it way too deeply! 😅 Especially for only two episodes.

It’s a good point about the music too. I appreciate the commitment to keeping with the game’s score which is great in its own right, but it feels like there’s a lot of silence without background music and maybe that leads to the sterile feeling of the scenes.

@Th3solution A little bit… like maybe too bright and clean. I didn’t think they were bad though.

watching the last episode of Season 1 of Switched at Birth on Hulu. then i need to finish off Season 4 of Stranger Things.

just wish the episodes of Stranger Things season 4 werent so damn long

@XandertheWise
With that season of Stranger Things I had to break my cardinal rule of always finishing episodes of a show in one sitting no matter how long. That season finale has to hold some kind of Guinness record for longest episode of a show ever.

Finished watching season 2 of Yellowstone last night. Another great season! Although the finale was kinda underwhelming.

Contemplating now whether to continue with season 3 or start up a new show on SkyShowtime since I only have one week left of my subscription. Even though I've really enjoyed Yellowstone so far, it's starting to lose its grip on me. So I think I might need to watch something different and get back to it at a later point.