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Nahsil
Clerical Sturmgeschütz

Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:06 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 1:45 am 
 

I guess it could be cool if you want a Michael Bay scifi action adventure show, but that's not what I want from Trek.
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darkeningday
xXdArKenIngDayXx

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:20 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 3:35 am 
 

Nahsil wrote:
I guess it could be cool if you want a Michael Bay scifi action adventure show, but that's not what I want from Trek.

That sounds horrendous, glad that's not that's what the finale actually was.
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Nahsil
Clerical Sturmgeschütz

Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:06 pm
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 9:01 pm 
 

I just don't care. The AI baddie is whatever, there's still hardly any character development for most of the characters (and even the ones who do "get developed" aren't done very well for my money, compared to the best of Trek), the plot is action-adventure scifi that feels hackneyed to me, the finale's endless space battling was meh.

That review actually agrees with me in a lot of ways btw:

"Look, I don’t really want to get bogged down by the weeds of plot here. The point isn’t that it’s impossible to have all of this make sense; the point is more that the episode, and the show as a whole, is still far too dependent on wowing us with shiny things than it is about the requirements of basic storytelling structure. Still, this is perfectly serviceable as a season finale—it more or less closes off all the major arcs while setting up an interesting course for the future. It’s also very neat to look at. And who knows, maybe having to work in a setting where it can’t offer up callbacks or fail to live up to previous shows will do Discovery good. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed. The first season or two is often a rough ride for Trek shows. There’s still hope for this one to find its way."

Right, shiny things, wowing us, neglects basic storytelling. Agree to disagree on it being "serviceable"--I mean, that depends on your expectations I guess. Serviceable doesn't sound like high praise to me. I'm aware some people really enjoy the show, and that's fine, I've enjoyed it at points, but I can't pretend it's good Trek overall.

The Magicians this season has done far far far better in terms of characterization and plot, and even adventure.
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droneriot
cisgender

Joined: Sat Aug 28, 2004 1:17 pm
Posts: 10812
Location: Spahn Ranch
PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 9:38 pm 
 

Don't pay attention to darkeningday, everyone who pretends to like Star Trek Discovery is a retarded troll who just discovered trolling yesterday and is a generally worthless person, I'm trying to explain it in my video "The pathology of Star Trek Discovery fans", but I was a little drunk when I recorded it so it takes a bit of patience to follow, but you'll get the idea. Star Trek Discovery doesn't have fans. Nobody likes that retarded garbage. It's just a bunch of worthless idiots who just discovered trolling yesterday and think "I'll be contrarian and pretend to like something that is complete crap, I'm such a player, woo-hoo."



And yeah, there's nothing redeemable about that show. It's the worst television show in history, Tommy Wiseau is jealous of how crappy it is, Battlefield Earth is a masterpiece compared to it. It's not just a terrible Star Trek show, it's literally the worst garbage ever put on television, and if retarded trolls want to get a rise out of you pretending to like it you just because they discovered trolling yesterday during diaper changing sessions, just point and laugh.
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Morrigan
Crone of War

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 7:27 am
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 3:37 pm 
 

Hey look, drone being a ridiculously over-the-top asshole again. I never saw this coming.

Enjoy your vacation.
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Razakel
Nekroprince

Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:36 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:27 pm 
 

The irony of droneriot calling people "a retarded troll who just discovered trolling yesterday" :lol:

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darkeningday
xXdArKenIngDayXx

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:20 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 6:42 am 
 

Nahsil wrote:
I just don't care. The AI baddie is whatever, there's still hardly any character development for most of the characters (and even the ones who do "get developed" aren't done very well for my money, compared to the best of Trek), the plot is action-adventure scifi that feels hackneyed to me, the finale's endless space battling was meh.

That review actually agrees with me in a lot of ways btw:

"Look, I don’t really want to get bogged down by the weeds of plot here. The point isn’t that it’s impossible to have all of this make sense; the point is more that the episode, and the show as a whole, is still far too dependent on wowing us with shiny things than it is about the requirements of basic storytelling structure. Still, this is perfectly serviceable as a season finale—it more or less closes off all the major arcs while setting up an interesting course for the future. It’s also very neat to look at. And who knows, maybe having to work in a setting where it can’t offer up callbacks or fail to live up to previous shows will do Discovery good. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed. The first season or two is often a rough ride for Trek shows. There’s still hope for this one to find its way."

Right, shiny things, wowing us, neglects basic storytelling. Agree to disagree on it being "serviceable"--I mean, that depends on your expectations I guess. Serviceable doesn't sound like high praise to me. I'm aware some people really enjoy the show, and that's fine, I've enjoyed it at points, but I can't pretend it's good Trek overall.

The Magicians this season has done far far far better in terms of characterization and plot, and even adventure.

Yeah, that's fair. Myself and my smallish cadre of Star Trek fans do really like the show (although I consider episode 13 to be one of the worst Star Trek episodes in the entire franchise, although even that was ameliorated by the solid season finale). I haven't really paid that much attention to reviewers (aside from Zack Handlen, whose reviews/essays of every TOS, TNG and DS9 are imo the best writing I've read regarding Star Trek) and none at all of its fans outside of Trekcore and Trek Today (the amount of jizz on Reddit made my almost physically ill). I'm re-watching TOS right now and I just don't see how Discovery doesn't "feel" like it, it's so similar in so many ways that I actually think its hamstrung by it. But yes, Discovery feels nothing like the Berman/Braga Trek, which iirc are your favorites. I also wish they would've just ignored the fans and kept doing what they were doing in the first season, rather than trying to please Trek fans which is literally impossible to do since no one hates Star Trek more than Trekkies.

I haven't watched much of The Magicians, but I'm a huge fan of the books and was..... not pleased by the first season of it. I guess I should try it again.
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Resident_Hazard
Possessed by Starscream's Ghost

Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:33 pm
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 2:46 pm 
 

Nahsil wrote:

Spoiler: show
That review actually agrees with me in a lot of ways btw:

"Look, I don’t really want to get bogged down by the weeds of plot here. The point isn’t that it’s impossible to have all of this make sense; the point is more that the episode, and the show as a whole, is still far too dependent on wowing us with shiny things than it is about the requirements of basic storytelling structure. Still, this is perfectly serviceable as a season finale—it more or less closes off all the major arcs while setting up an interesting course for the future. It’s also very neat to look at. And who knows, maybe having to work in a setting where it can’t offer up callbacks or fail to live up to previous shows will do Discovery good. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed. The first season or two is often a rough ride for Trek shows. There’s still hope for this one to find its way."


Right, shiny things, wowing us, neglects basic storytelling. Agree to disagree on it being "serviceable"--I mean, that depends on your expectations I guess. Serviceable doesn't sound like high praise to me. I'm aware some people really enjoy the show, and that's fine, I've enjoyed it at points, but I can't pretend it's good Trek overall.



This is why I still haven't finished the current season. The show does not draw me in and I have no burning desire to see what's happening next. At least two or three major elements of the series have obsoleted a large bulk of the franchise already, making future stories already absurd or pointless. Magic mushroom space drive makes warp engines pointless. If things go bad, just switch universes. A concept Rick & Morty recognized as a joke that would become tired is a potential future plot point played straight here. Why are we rooting for this ship in this universe when they made it clear early on that it doesn't matter?

The ship itself is wildly anachronistic to the franchise, even factoring in changes in real-world and special effects technology. Constant efforts to be "just more Star Wars or Battlestar or Independence Day or whatever" undermine the storytelling. The hopeful, Utopian future as originally laid out in the franchise is absent. Finally, the worst offender is that most characters are just uninteresting or unlikable.

Hopefully this just needs to get over Trek's typical first-seasons-growing-pains and get into a groove that makes sense and actually benefits the series. I don't think it's quite as bad as the worst Trek has offered (the Abram's movies being the utter bottom), but it's not great.

I've been rewatching TNG as background filler as I don't have much time for seriously watching a show right now, and I'm constantly reminded how much better great characters and thoughtful writing are, especially for this franchise. For instance, I just watched the TNG episode "Attached," which saw Picard and Crusher mentally linked, which wasn't just great Star Trek, but a great science fiction story. It used an SF technobabble background to explore an emotional storyline which took us deeper into two characters. That shit is fucking nowhere to be found in Discovery.

They need that screen time to do more space explosions.
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darkeningday
xXdArKenIngDayXx

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 9:17 pm 
 

If you want to understand where Discovery is coming from story-wise, you need to focus on TOS far more than any other series. I just watched an episode where women took a "Venus drug" to make them look gorgeous but it wears off quickly, however if they just "believe in themselves" they become beautiful anyway. Theme, character interactions and visuals outstrip any amount of science or exploration; Isaac Asimov it ain't :P . Remember that Discovery is a revival, not a continuation and it's aiming to be so much the polar opposite of the Berman/Braga era that ran the franchise into the ground that it course corrects way too far in the other direction. It's still a good show though.

Also, everyone now seems fine with the three Klingon redesigns (not even counting JJ Trek), multiple Romulan redesigns, the Borg redesign, the fact each Trek series had different conceptual art styles and better special effects from each season prior, so what's so offensive about Discovery's few redesigns? These complaints aren't usually presented in good faith, in my experience, and seem to often just be nitpicks for people who've already decided to dislike the show for other reasons.
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Resident_Hazard
Possessed by Starscream's Ghost

Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:33 pm
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PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2019 10:32 am 
 

darkeningday wrote:

Also, everyone now seems fine with the three Klingon redesigns (not even counting JJ Trek), multiple Romulan redesigns, the Borg redesign, the fact each Trek series had different conceptual art styles and better special effects from each season prior, so what's so offensive about Discovery's few redesigns? These complaints aren't usually presented in good faith, in my experience, and seem to often just be nitpicks for people who've already decided to dislike the show for other reasons.


I'll put this out there as a general criticism of science fiction in general: Transparent and giant holographic screens and computer displays are fucking stupid for every possible reason. Discovery has taken this to the nth degree. That was about when I tuned out of CSI: Miami, when suddenly they were using futuristic Stark Industry style transparent computer monitors (that, and that show turned into just another action-centered cop drama fast).

Look at this stupid shit:

Image

Not only is that borderline unusable, but it offers zero privacy, blatantly destroys clarity, and just plain looks fucking stupid. One would think you'd want your sciencey, detailed analyses on evidence to be studied with better visualization, not worse. How this became practically the most common trope of modern fiction and science fiction is beyond me. It's unbelievably stupid. There is literally no benefit to a screen like this, except for bosses who want to monitor literally everything you do.

On Discovery, this is basically every single screen and monitor. Maybe the reason they don't use it in the 24th century is because they realized how fucking stupid and useless it was and put their fucking monitors back to normal by then. Beyond that, all these holographic and transparent monitors just clutter the screen with an overload of CG bells and whistles nonsense. If Michael Bay was interested in computers and holograms instead of explosions, this is exactly what he'd make.

That you don't agree with a criticism does not mean it's not made in good faith. A "bad faith" criticism of Discovery would be to call it "leftist SJW propaganda" in between sending threatening tweets to any women involved in it. I'm all good on that front, I've never really complained about that in Trek or anywhere else, although focusing the series on a practically random non-Captain character is baffling. Still, the show is a visually chaotic mess, and a reboot was the wrong idea, as reboots tend to be unless there was something seriously wrong with the original shit.

Not disagreeing that Berman/Braga ran the franchise into the ground before. Voyager was a different kind of hot mess for nearly all of it's run--a fucking boring hot mess. Enterprise shot out of the gate from a losing position, and was canned when it was getting really good. But just because these guys are trying to avoid the Berman/Braga foibles doesn't mean they're going a great job here. Which I think you understand.

I would really just like to see some thoughtful storytelling and characters again, and I'm not getting that in between action-heavy scenes of rampant space explosions and flashy holo-computer monitors all over the fucking place. What the fuck is the message of this show?
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rexxz
Where's your band?

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PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2019 11:40 am 
 

Holographic displays in sci-fi are far superior to shitty 21st century looking monitors and screens. I can't believe that's even an issue with people given how absurdly better in every single aspect the former is over the latter.
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Resident_Hazard
Possessed by Starscream's Ghost

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PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2019 4:01 pm 
 

rexxz wrote:
Holographic displays in sci-fi are far superior to shitty 21st century looking monitors and screens. I can't believe that's even an issue with people given how absurdly better in every single aspect the former is over the latter.


Strong disagree. Those things will make disasters of my spreadsheets. That shit is already hard to read.
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darkeningday
xXdArKenIngDayXx

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PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2019 9:03 pm 
 

Saying you don't like the new look for the Klingons or the holographic displays is obviously fine, it's just that complaining that the Klingons look different from "canon" and the computers don't look as low-tech as TOS is imo in bad faith because this constant stream of retconning to adapt to new styles and technology is integral to Star Trek and has been since The Motion Picture. It's worth pointing out that the most egregious canon violations in Discovery have been explained (some at great length) in the show, most notably the holographic displays and the Spore Drive, with even a few of the minor ones such as why the Klingons suddenly grew hair or why the uniforms look different.
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Morrigan
Crone of War

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PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2019 1:03 am 
 

Resident_Hazard wrote:
Look at this stupid shit:

Image

Pic doesn't work btw
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Resident_Hazard
Possessed by Starscream's Ghost

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PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2019 9:03 am 
 

Morrigan wrote:
Resident_Hazard wrote:
Look at this stupid shit:

Image

Pic doesn't work btw


JUST LIKE TRANSPARENT COMPUTER MONITORS

Here's a clip, for reference.

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darkeningday
xXdArKenIngDayXx

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PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2019 11:39 pm 
 

Blame Minority Report :P .
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Resident_Hazard
Possessed by Starscream's Ghost

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PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 8:43 am 
 

darkeningday wrote:
Blame Minority Report :P .


You're probably right. Funny, I could only "Kinect" the dots so far to that movie.
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 11:28 pm 
 

Finally started up Discovery Season 2...man...I don't think I've ever spent so much time checking my phone during a season premier. My favorite part was when I couldn't figure out if the party that boarded from the Enterprise included Spock or not, because there was a woman, a guy who was obviously Pike, and another guy who very well could've been an edgy, modern, horribly miscast Spock.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 12:42 am 
 

Ethan Peck's Spock is easily the best Spock since the genuine article. I thought the primere was really good, and the spirit of comradery that was all but missing from the first season was back in full swing. There are some spotty patches throughout the season, but overall it's pretty good especially if you look at it as more a continuation of TOS's ethos (and a bit of late-Enterprise) and as almost completely divorced from Berman/Braga Trek (TNG/VOY).

Was also quite a treat to see Kristen Beyer join the writing team, as her Star Trek novels were definitely some of the best, even if that's not really saying a lot.

All that said, the penultimate episode may actually join Threshold, Spock's Brain and Sub Rosa as one of the most hilariously embarrassing episodes in Star Trek history :lol:.

Make sure you're eminently familiar with The Cage and The Menagerie first, as the season is based not just on references to those but rather on intimate knowledge of them.
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 12:45 am 
 

Definitely the most TOS part of the episode was when they were hurtling through the asteroid field in like a race with four escape pods which are badass racing ship thingies and there are shining lights and see-through hologram computers and shit flying all over the screen all the time. Definite heavy TOS vibes.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 12:56 am 
 

Yeah, how dare they go all-out for the opener, Star Trek has always been a low-budget show (late DS9/VOY/ENT all cost in excess of $3.5 million per episode before inflation, unprecedented for their time), and it's way more in Roddenberry's spirit to have genetically engineered aliens blowing up Starfleet in massive space battles at the behest of shapeshifters bent on control of the galaxy rather than trying to discover strange new worlds with your fellow astronauts in a largely positive view to the future.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Thu May 09, 2019 3:32 am 
 

Exhausted most "good" sci-fi TV, now about to start catching up on the stragglers. Andromeda, Earth: Final Conflict, Total Recall 2070 and Fartscape are all cued up, and I may finally try to stumble my way through Babylon 5 too. I don't think I'll have the stomach for Terrra Nova or Falling Skies, but I may at least try. Is Colony or Travelers any good?
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MikeyC
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PostPosted: Thu May 09, 2019 7:14 am 
 

darkeningday wrote:
Is...Travelers any good?

Don't know much about the others on the list, but Travelers is alright. It's not the best show out there and gets bogged down by some unneeded side stories, and I haven't even seen the new season, but it's worth giving a go.
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Azmodes
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PostPosted: Thu May 09, 2019 12:16 pm 
 

Yeah, Travelers is pretty solid. Positive surprise for me, although I still have to watch the new season.

Falling Skies is bleh. I wouldn't waste my time with it.

darkeningday wrote:
Fartscape

ur a fart

(okay, that show kinda dropped the ball in later seasons...)


In other news, how fucking awesome is Maniac? I don't think I've ever seen a show do dreamy surrealism so perfectly.
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Thu May 09, 2019 12:27 pm 
 

I loved Farscape. Due for a rewatch, really.

Travelers....ehhhh. It wasn't awful but I didn't care enough to go beyond season 1.
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Empyreal
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PostPosted: Thu May 09, 2019 12:32 pm 
 

I wasn't that impressed with Maniac. Super intriguing concept and visuals, and the actors are good, but after a few eps it basically loses any substance and spends the back half of the show just re-treading the same premise of these two characters in fantasy scenarios over and over again. Nicely made I guess but it just didn't leave me with much of a lasting impression.

Been watching Barry lately. Good show. Funny and light-hearted in the comedic moments, but it's got more darkness and depth than it initially seems.
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Azmodes
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PostPosted: Thu May 09, 2019 1:02 pm 
 

I'm at episode 8 and I get a very clear progression, not really re-treading stuff. I love the style of understated bizarreness, the "Cassette Futurism" setting that seems whimsical at first but is actually pretty serious and with lots of potential, the million little details and hints and ways things connect and reference earlier details, the carefully maintained balance of humour and drama. Hill and Stone are shining in this, but the two doctors are great too. Probably my favourite new series this year. (EDIT: my bad, it's from 2018, but still)
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Morrigan
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PostPosted: Thu May 09, 2019 1:03 pm 
 

Anyone else seen Lucifer S4 on Netflix yet? My thoughts on the first 3 episodes so far:

Spoiler: show
Been enjoying Vatican subplot with the Saint of Killers Father Kinley, and though he was arrested I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him.
Chloe having doubts about Lucifer and believing the priest felt odd at first, but when she told him at the end that she was just terrified because he's the literal Devil, and Father Kinley's propaganda about him being deceitful, master of lies etc. probably resonated and were successful at temporarily gaslighting and manipulating her, so I found it believable enough. Though I'm glad they didn't keep this charade for too long (because then it would have felt contrived) and mostly resolved the "misunderstandings" within 3 episodes, which is fine. Good pacing, there.

Not sure how I feel about the pregnancy subplot with Amenadiel and Linda though. Seems like Amenadiel is overplaying the awkward trying-to-human angle here and it feels goofy but I suppose it's mildly entertaining at least.


Anyway, old red-eyed, fucking-up-people Luci is back and I love it. So much better than the disaster that was season 3. I think the Netflix 10 episode structure has been (as many, myself included, predicted) highly beneficial to the pacing, and I couldn't be happier.
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PostPosted: Thu May 09, 2019 3:53 pm 
 

Azmodes wrote:
I'm at episode 8 and I get a very clear progression, not really re-treading stuff. I love the style of understated bizarreness, the "Cassette Futurism" setting that seems whimsical at first but is actually pretty serious and with lots of potential, the million little details and hints and ways things connect and reference earlier details, the carefully maintained balance of humour and drama. Hill and Stone are shining in this, but the two doctors are great too. Probably my favourite new series this year.


Maybe another viewing would open it up some for me. I don't remember there being a level of character development I'd hoped for given the first few episodes.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Thu May 09, 2019 5:55 pm 
 

Azmodes wrote:
darkeningday wrote:
Fartscape

ur a fart

(okay, that show kinda dropped the ball in later seasons...)

I actually remember season 3 being kinda amazing, but most everything else had a far higher ratio of lame-to-good. Production values were universally excellent but virtually everything else... :ugh:
Fart jokes, terrible dialog and a cartoon villain named "Scorpius" doesn't exactly endear me to the show.
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MikeyC
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PostPosted: Fri May 10, 2019 12:19 am 
 

Empyreal wrote:
I wasn't that impressed with Maniac. Super intriguing concept and visuals, and the actors are good, but after a few eps it basically loses any substance and spends the back half of the show just re-treading the same premise of these two characters in fantasy scenarios over and over again. Nicely made I guess but it just didn't leave me with much of a lasting impression.

I felt the same about Maniac. I liked the concept and thought the two leads worked nicely together, but the story did retread and was a bit all over the place. Too bad, really.
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acid_bukkake
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PostPosted: Fri May 10, 2019 12:19 pm 
 

darkeningday wrote:
Is Colony...any good?

I was part of a test audience for the show during a trip to Orlando back in January 2015. My exact review from another board...

Quote:
I was part of a test screening audience for a new show called Colony starring some douche from Lost and the woman who played Lori on Walking Dead. It was 90 minutes I wish I could have gotten back, so expect it to be a hit.

It's generic primetime drivel with every interesting plot point separated by 30-40 minutes of character/world building which would have been better served actually telling the fucking story. I've no issue with developing the world of a show, but it took the pilot 90 minutes to do what schlocky 80s/90s sci-fi did in 5.
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Azmodes
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PostPosted: Fri May 10, 2019 12:36 pm 
 

darkeningday wrote:
cartoon villain named "Scorpius"

:nono:
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Thu May 16, 2019 1:34 am 
 

The first episode of Farscape was really bad and the motivations going into the first season are wax paper thin; Crichton is being hunted by a military commander because the dude's brother grazed Crichton's ship and backed into an asteroid (was this originally a comedy?), Aeryn becomes a traitor to everything she's ever believed in and fought for her entire life in about 5 seconds because she said hello to a human (no, really) and despite everyone in the cast proclaiming that they hate everyone else, they all start getting along soon for no reason other than well, reasons.

Every episode after has been an improvement, with some even being downright great, but when the driving force for the whole show is at best threadbare and at worst insultingly stupid, it makes it difficult to be invested in any of the greater plot beats. And dimestore Worf and farting Yoda are every bit as terrible as I remember them.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2019 5:12 pm 
 

Star Trek: Discovery is the most popular streaming show in the world. It's also the second most viewed sci-fi series available. Nice to see Star Trek is once again on top of the ratings.

Even if (perhaps even especially if) you're not a Trekkie, I'd suggest giving it a look. It's on Netflix almost everywhere not in the US and the season 2 opener is free on YouTube everywhere.
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 12:00 am 
 

What the fuck is The 100? I think the fact that goddamn Star Trek of all things is getting beaten by some show I've never even heard of is pretty telling.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 12:51 am 
 

Teeniebopper swill that's been nonetheless renewed for a seventh season already and is posting record profits for The CW. "Goddamn Star Trek" hasn't been even remotely close to the top (of TV and any rate) since TNG ended, and that was during a relative dearth of sci-fi TV. Discovery managed to soar to the top with a mere two seasons during a our present golden era of sci-fi, even if The Expanse deserved that spot more. It's an impressive feat by any stretch, and one that's well deserved.
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Resident_Hazard
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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 9:17 am 
 

darkeningday wrote:
Teeniebopper swill that's been nonetheless renewed for a seventh season already and is posting record profits for The CW. "Goddamn Star Trek" hasn't been even remotely close to the top (of TV and any rate) since TNG ended, and that was during a relative dearth of sci-fi TV. Discovery managed to soar to the top with a mere two seasons during a our present golden era of sci-fi, even if The Expanse deserved that spot more. It's an impressive feat by any stretch, and one that's well deserved.


To be fair, that's mostly like the first season of The 100. It grows quite a bit beyond that, but there's still some silliness to it at times. I've watched most of it, and I think it's biggest downfall is that it takes itself a bit too seriously in later seasons. I think seasons 2-4 are decent.

Fun fact: One of the actors was April O'Neil in the TMNT 3 movie.

The first season is a bit of a slog to get through, but it does pick up. I was less engaged over the last season.
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Nahsil
Clerical Sturmgeschütz

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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 6:05 pm 
 

Yes, early The 100 was AWFUL, the most stereotypical, stock, teen drama characters in the world. It starts to get pretty damn good after that for my money...it's still B grade, with some cheesy shit, and they really start relying on a kind of vulgar moral conflict for the show's drama, utilitarianism vs Kantian type moral conflicts that almost get run into the ground, but it's done pretty well for a B grade show, and it consistently manages to develop in new directions that inspire a cool sense of mystery and interesting scifi tropes. The latest season has been fun and fresh, with unfolding mysteries in a quasi-Lost sense.

Scifi Lost with young adult characters, and a handful of older characters to spice it up/add some gravity.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2019 7:09 pm 
 

Damn, I need to check out The 100 again I guess! Will watch it after I finish Farscape, which ranges from "worse than so-bad-it's-good" to at times being the best of late-90's sci-fi (including even DS9). In short, Farscape is TV show of contrasts.
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