Interesting budgetary facts about Stranger Things up there. I just watched the first chunk of Season 5 and as much as I hate to be negative, I was a little underwhelmed. Some of the effects in the first episode looked a little dodgy (although perhaps they were saving some budget for the fourth episode, which does indeed get a bit spectacular) and it felt a lot less period-specific. In addition, all of the characters are coming across a little... I dunno, glum? In a way which they weren't before, even when times were tough. Out of such a huge ensemble, Joyce, Will and Robin get all the best material, and feel the most consistent. Along with the genius casting for Dr. Kay, they're carrying the season for me so far.
But all that said, yeah, that fourth episode suddenly got very, very good halfway through, and that last forty minutes or so restored all my hype for what's coming next.
"If I let not knowing anything stop me from doing something, I'd never do everything!"
The missus and I were really struggling to engage with anything this weekend. We are on a our obligatory break between seasons of our Stranger Things rewatch (as otherwise we’d run out of eps well before the final eps are available) and was just struck bored by the various things we were giving a shot.
First we tried Gen V season 2. We’ve always liked The Boys and also really enjoyed the first season of this spin-off… but even after giving season 2 a proper go (I think we watched 5 eps) we were just left flat!
Next we tried Talamasca. We ended up really quite enjoying the first season of Interview with a Vampire recently and we both really like William Fichtner, so we were relatively excited to give this latest AMC show based on the Anne Rice universe. Turned out to be really shoddy though! Budget, acting, writing… it just all felt like nobody involved had any idea what they were doing. We tapped out after 2 eps.
The missus handed me the doofer and said find us something worth watching! I once more turned to the tried and tested Taylor Sheridan with season one of Landman. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, the guy just does not miss! We watched maybe three or four episodes by the time it was time to hit the sack… and we were totally engrossed. It’s somewhere between Tulsa King and Yellowstone in terms of tone and is a perfect example of quality writing and performances superseding subject-matter. I’ve never really found the oil industry to be particularly interesting… but I do now, it’s presented here in a manner which is the furthest thing from Dallas and without any element of glamour. Here it’s dirty, dangerous and hard… and the shows characters are products of surviving it. Brilliant show!
I caught up with the final season of Squid Games over the last couple of nights. It's certainly a bleak watch. Not that I expected much different after the first season. It's intriguing enough to keep me watching but couldn't say I enjoyed it or would watch again. The voting aspect was an interesting idea for season 2/3 but it's not something I found too believable. As much I can have a low opinion of the human race at times I don't think greed would override a person's intrinsic need to survive that easily.
I also noticed there was a 'Witcher' movie staring Dolph Lundgren I didn't know they had done. I have a slight bit of curiosity but not sure I want to put myself through it.
Rewatching Stranger Things and will hopefully be done by the time season five is all on there. Just finished the second series, which I didn't care for as much as the first, especially the sojourn with the Chicago weirdos. I saw the stage show for my 40th birthday, so there's that little bit of (slightly retconned) history for some of the characters to tie into it. It was quite a spectacle.
fiished Season 1 of School Spirits last night. cant wait to watch season 2 this week.
renewed my subscription for Peacock to get back into watching old 1993 and 1994 episodes of Saturday Night Live and to watch more of old WCW Nitro and binge watch the classic SyFy channel show Defiance.
Watched the first two episodes of the new Doctor Who UNIT spin-off, The War Between the Land and the Sea. It's pretty good for what it is, but also strongly reminiscent of Russell T. Davis' other recent work, Years and Years, to the point where I'm starting to wonder whether he's become a bit of a one-trick pony. And it's not just because both shows share half the same cast, either. There's a definite theme / vibe he's picked up on, one which also ran through Ncuti Gatwa's tenure in the TARDIS.
This is not a criticism of said theme, by the way. It's just a thing I noticed (whenever Jemma Redgrave wasn't stealing every scene she happened to be in, of course). Anyway, I'll be interested to see where it's all headed, although I'm not sure if I'll keep current or wait to binge the rest.
"If I let not knowing anything stop me from doing something, I'd never do everything!"
Okay, so I resubbed to Netflix recently for Stranger Things after being without it for several months. Straight away I noticed they had changed the UI but that's fairly standard and didn't think anymore about it. Having started browsing more recently to see what else is on there, I've really noticed that the way they categorise a lot of rows has become stupid in my opinion. Gone are useful descriptions like comedies, action films, thrillers etc. Instead it has 'Wanna Feel Young at Heart?', 'Your next watch', 'Everyone's Famous Here' and 'Boredom Busters'. This just seems ridiculous to me, absolutely anything can bust boredom or have a famous person in and by pure definition if I randomly click on anything at random it will become 'my next watch'!
I feel like they change daily as well, I've forgotten what I noticed previous days but recall them being equally ambiguous nonsense.
I was just curious if anyone else had find these changes unhelpful and odd? Random rant over.
I just finished Attack on Titan… and it was pretty much everything I hoped it’d be fair play. Obviously I don’t mean hoped for in narrative specifics (I don’t think anyone would foresee how it pans out) but in terms of tone, scale and development… it was class.
I just checked back on the thread to see when I started it… it was 21 October, so two months all in. After blitzing the first season and a half, I definitely slowed down from there on in (due to having a lot on my plate rather than a want to do so) but it’s not a bad total time for all 98 episodes.
Really glad that I dipped back into this but have no idea where I’ll go in regards to anime next… I just don’t think anything will beat this tbh.
@BearsEatBeets To be honest, I kinda hate Netflix. They do have some good content that keeps me subbing, but I think their platform/service, their values and their strategies are quite bad for pretty much everyone who isn't an investor/shareholder. Still, there are things on there I can't see elsewhere so I will probably keep feeding the monster for the foreseeable future. I am part of the problem and I know it.
@FuriousMachine I'm dropping Netflix again as soon as Stranger Things is done. There are a few other things I'm going to try and get watched but there is nowhere near enough to keep me paying every month.
@BearsEatBeets I've been subbing mainly because they have Star Trek and I've been watching the entirety of TNG, DS9, Voyager and have just recently moved on to Enterprise, but I got a notification that the latter (and I assume all Star Trek) will only be available until January 8th, so from then on I'll probably sub and binge on occasion instead of staying subbed continually (this was always the plan once I finished ST anyway, Netflix just made it happen sooner).
@FuriousMachine It seems they are losing quite a few things soon, the ones you mentioned and Friends. I wonder if stuff like this has prompted the move for WB.
@BearsEatBeets Variety had a very interesting article on the whole buyout and what prompted it and it basically went something like this: Zaslav, CEO of WB Discovery, wanted to split up the company and made some noise about this, which caught the attention of David Ellison (SkyDance/Paramount), who primarily wanted the Discovery side of things (CNN, etc.) but figured that if he could get the full package with the WB and HBO libraries, their streaming service would take a huge leap towards the top of the market share, so he made overtures to Zaslav and WB Discovery. Netflix could simply not afford to let SkyDance/Paramount make that market grab unchallenged, which prompted their bid.
Seeing as Star Trek is Paramount property, Ellison has probably revoked the license Netflix had a long time ago and it is now expiring (along with any other Paramount and SkyDance owned properties they're currently licensing). There is also word that Star Trek licensing fees have been dramatically increased, with one company that had licensed the property to make art prints and such reporting that the licensing cost increased with no less than 2000% (no, that is not a typo... two thousand percent). They had to give it up, naturally. I'll see if I can find the Variety article and link to it when I get home (and to check that I'm not misremembering anything I'm claiming here).
Watched the first episode of Welcome to Derry and… well those first five or ten minutes went there didn’t they? Overall pretty good, though it didn’t quite hit how I was hoping… interested to see where it goes though for sure.
@graymamba The opening was bats**t insane! But, I agree, it hasn't really grabbed me either. I've seen three episodes and find I keep "forcing" myself to continue watching. Will give it another one or two episodes and if it hasn't engaged me by then it probably never will.
@FuriousMachine good to know I’m not the only one, as all I’d heard previously was how amazing it is. And hey, I still have hope that it will be but I’ve certainly had to reset my expectations… which is never a bad thing tbh.
@FuriousMachine so we’ve watched the first 5 eps now and I’m feeling it. Very similar to the actual IT tbh… albeit without the kids involved growing up and returning after 27 years to take care of business. They are also delving into the history of Pennywise much more, which is probably the parts that I’m appreciating most.
Glad that I stuck with it, hopefully it’ll be a similar situation for yourself 🤞
rest of this month during christmas weekend and next week im going to be busy binging the rest of season 2 of School spirits and watching the last 2 or 3 episodes of WCW Nitro
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