Topic: The TV Show Thread

After waiting on the last ep airing, the missus and I just powered through The Penguin and thought it as good (if not better) than all the praise we’ve been hearing these past 2 months. An incredible delve into the mind of a psychopath as the show’s protagonist… and with some performance from Farrell, doing a note-perfect mix between Tony Soprano and Robert DeNiro. You can’t help but empathise with the anti-villain lead, even though it becomes more and more apparent that he’s a proper wrong-un as the show progresses. Milioti is also very good as the show’s antagonist… another interesting spin on traditional storytelling actually. She is quite clearly an anti-hero type, who I found myself rooting against even though she’s the closest the show has to a moral compass.

@colonelkilgore Completely agree and you put your finger on why I loved the show so much re.: Sofia. I also thought it really stuck the landing; not much wrong with this one, to be sure. Excellent stuff!

Was a little let down by how House of the Dragon just ended without a real crescendo or pay off to the actual series in season 2. Cliffhangers are good, but that was an 'episode cliffhanger' that it ended the series on, not a 'series Cliffhanger'

So ended up deciding to watch GoT from the beginning for the first time in 4K. Makes it feel like a totally new show, tbh 😅 Perfect winter fare, and as we know, Winter is Coming.

My life is just centered around the next batch of arcane episodes now. Just a walking void.

@zupertramp Its pretty great right? I've such a respect for VA work, and think Ella Purnell kills it as Jinx.

The animation is terrific. S2 is a bit lacking for me vs S1 (which was lightning in a bottle) but S2 is still solid enough IMO

@CJD87 yeah S2 has maybe been rushed in a few places and things have, idk, broadened out from what felt really narrow and intimate. And things have definitely gotten weirder lol but I've been loving it nonetheless.

I'd really just like to binge it straight through. I don't know if the narrative feels slightly disjointed because it's been split into acts or if it's because I'm not watching them all pretty much back to back like I did the first season.

@zupertramp I still haven't gotten around to watching any of the S2 episodes yet, and I think I actually will try to wait until the final batch is out and then binge them all over a weekend or something

@zupertramp I'm not familiar at all with LoL, so I am wondering if some of the more magical/mystical elements & lore are perhaps a bit lost on me... I guess S1 felt a bit more 'grounded in reality'?

For me it plays like a weird mix though of Game of Thrones / Frozen / Final Fantasy 7... sometimes seems to land really well and other times seems rushed?

I miss the Silco/Jinx dynamic this season....

@FuriousMachine that's probably the best way to go about it. However my capacity for delayed gratification is sometimes found lacking. And I was a little worried about spoilers.

@CJD87 also happily know nothing about league of legends and I suppose some background might enrich my viewing experience but from what I gather the game is awful so in my mind the risks outweigh the potential gains.

Trying to keep things vague but will say it sounds like we're definitely in agreement on S2.

@zupertramp I'm actually very much inclined to agree that "how we view" Arcane can quite significantly enrich/detract from the experience. I binged S1 a couple of months ago, as a newcomer who only became aware of Arcane recently, and found the whole experience was much stronger.

I wonder if S2 (on a rewatch perhaps?) would benefit from bingeing potential. There is a ton I still adore about S2 though, even if S1>S2 (IMO). The animation, scale, budget and VA work are all just...phenomenal. And Vi surely has to be one of the best characters in any show, animated or not. Probably a great example of how to flesh out a female protagonist in a 3D fashion. I also like how Vi's sexuality is just a facet of her personality, as opposed to the characteristic that fully defines her (looking at you Dragon Age lol!) . Such a badass as well, her scenes in S2 Act2 are briliannt

@CJD87 lol y'know it wasn't until reading your post (and thinking about Vi and her sexuality) that I'm fully realizing just how female the show is overall. Maybe I've been too riveted or enamoured by other aspects of the show that I didn't notice but, being that I'm usually fairly sensitive to agendas, I gotta give them credit for it not feeling forced (imo), because that wasn't something I picked up on till just now.

@zupertramp Yeh I know right? I honestly think it is a huge step forward for writing when it comes to solid representation in TV/media.

@LN78 Yeah, still waiting for a proper adaptation of that book, which is one of my favourites of "classic" King. Granted, I haven't bothered with the new adaptation, but from what I hear, that was a good decision. Hooper's version is fine, and I even like his Count Orlok rip-off vampire design. Should watch it again, actually, been a while now

@LN78 James Mason is awesome! I remember first seeing him in "Ivanhoe" (which also introduced me to Sam Neill and John Rhys-Davies) when I was a kid, a movie I watched every year on Swedish State TV, who showed it every Christmas, for some reason (we had three TV channels growing up: The Norwegian State TV, The Swedish State TV and the second Swedish State TV channel... the Swedes showed all the cool stuff, so having two of their channels was good)

@LN78
It gets better and better with each episode

@LN78 IMO it starts incredibly strong, with a slight lull around the middle, but then really sticks the landing with a perfect ending.

Like many shows, I think Penguin could have been even better by shaving a couple of episodes... maybe dropping the count from 8 -> 6.

But I'm nitpicking here, this is a genuinely great example of how 'Superhero IP' can still prosper.... great vision, respectful of source material and driven by 2 powerhouse lead performances.

We started The Dynasty on Apple+ last night and got through the first 3 episodes. Really enjoying it fair play.

Finished off The Dynasty yesterday and it was brilliant fair play. As someone who doesn’t follow American sports, I was vaguely aware of Tom Brady being considered the NFL GoaT, of Bill Belichik being the NFL equivalent of Sir Alex Ferguson… and the Alex Hernandez case but what an incredible 20 year period at the New England Patriots this covers… in both terms of success and intrigue.

The only thing I could compare it to would be The Last Dance, which the missus and I also loved. And while I was thinking that The Last Dance was probably a bit better for much of The Dynasty’s 10 episode run… by the end I’m not so sure. The only thing I’m a bit disappointed about is how little time was devoted to Brady’s last Superbowl while at Tampa Bay… but I get it as the series was focused on New England. Amazing!

@LN78 I'm just thankful I'm not the only one unimpressed. I quit after the first episode. Probably could have given it more of a chance but while the first episode wasn't bad, I didn't really care about anyone.

Also now that the finale has come out it's been confirmed this all picks up in the Batman sequel and I'm just not that interested in that either.

Well I've finished Arcane. I need to rewatch it start to finish but for the time being I'm not overly impressed with the conclusion. Didn't hate it, so that's good. But felt a little ambivalent by the end. Hmm. Could be it's just one of those journey over destination works.