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The TV Thread (for shows not called "Lost")


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The TV Thread (for shows not called "Lost")
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-01-14, 17:12

As was often the case in my 70's/80's childhood, I actually read the Mad magazine parody of various movies before ever seeing the real thing. Alien was one of those.

As was The Exorcist, Dog Day Afternoon, The China syndrome, Raging Bull, All The President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, Marathon Man, Saturday Night Fever, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The French Connection, Apocalypse Now and, yes, The Godfather.

Not sure if that helped or hurt, but it is what it is. I kinda knew the movies/plot, going in, albeit in a bit of a skewed way. But I think it helped me like/understand all the above movies, which were way beyond my age level. But it's the reason why, at 8-11, I knew actors like Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Richard Dreyfuss, Diane Keaton, Donald Sutherland, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Jack Lemmon, etc. in a way my buddies/peers didn't. I think it played a direct, lifelong role in the kinds of movies/actors I like, and continue going back to.

So I was always appreciative of that. My dad would sometimes give me grief for buying/reading Mad, but I've maintained for years that I learned more from it - and things I still use/know today (politics, history, famous figures, pop culture, etc. - than anything I really ever learned in K-12. I've yet to have to know/figure out any real-life math stuff involving letters. Everything I knew about Watergate, etc., I learned, initially, from Mad.
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Dr. Bobsky
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: UK's most densely packed city. It's not London...
 
2021-01-15, 09:33

Quote:
Originally Posted by kscherer View Post
How far are you along on Cobra Kai?
Still first season... It's not as easily binged as Staged (which is 15-20 min per episode and a largely light affair)...
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2021-01-15, 12:18

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Bobsky View Post
Still first season... It's not as easily binged as Staged (which is 15-20 min per episode and a largely light affair)...
It gets super crazy and off-the-rails fun as it progresses. Lots of characters (in their original cast) show up from both The Karate Kid and The Karate Kid 2. And yes, the episodes are longer than normal binge-worthy shows (40 minutes or so).

And I love the way Johnny progresses through the series. I'll not give anything away, but holy cow he leaves me in stitches!

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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2021-01-15, 12:36

Alien was the first movie I got caught sneaking into as a kid. I mean, I was only 12 and hadn't quite mastered the stilts-and-trench-coat disguise, so I was snatched out of my seat before the opening credits had even finished.

So it goes.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-01-15, 14:06

I saw it on HBO(?) and the buddy I watched it with went to the bathroom and puked at the chest-burster scene. I knew it was coming, via Mad, and he didn't. For that time, and our ages/sheltered purity, such a scene was quite a thing. Somehow it never bothered me - and neither did The Exorcist - because I'd experienced it all couched in comedy/satire, which seemed to have taken the edge off it a bit?

But it's a great movie, firmly in my top 10, in fact. Genuinely scary, even when nothing was actually happening, in a way so many modern horror movies (Jump-Scares R Us and brainless characters making one stupid decision after another) simply aren't. Alien, The Shining and The Silence of the Lambs unnerve/unsettle me more in their stillness and moments of silence than any "slasher", hockey mask or "ooga-booga!" horseshit ever has, or could.

And while I love The Exorcist, I've never, and still don't, seen it as a horror movie. I know I should, but I just don't. It's a religious drama about faith, the supernatural, belief/doubt, medicine and psychiatry, guilt, despair, hope, friendship and sacrifice. The little twerp spinning her head and swearing is simply freaky window-dressing. *shrugs* And it doesn't hold a candle to the book...not even close. If you ever want to get rattled and question things, just read Blatty's novel. You'll lose sleep, but in the most satisfying way imaginable.

Call me crazy.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-01-25, 13:14

New Peanuts/Snoopy show coming to Apple+ on February 5.

I always enjoyed those cartoons as a kid (except the one where Snoopy got lost and I cried for about four days and it absolutely wrecked me; I haven't watched it since and couldn't bear to still).

There's just a simple sweetness to them that I always liked, even when I grew up to be a not-so-simple-and-sweet adult.

I just think it's cool someone is still making these, and people are still getting to watch new ones.

For those of you who've "cut the cable" and are no longer paying your local cable outfit for regular programming, what are you racking up in streaming service fees? Is it far less? How many, typically, do you have? They're all so fragmented, there's no master "one service that has everything" option? You can't get Disney+ fare anywhere else, etc. I imagine Netflix and Hulu and the two biggies? But then there's Amazone Prime(?), and, of course, Disney+ and Apple+. What are others? Do all of them pretty much shake out to around $7 or so a month? If so, that's a lot of options if you chose 4-5 of them and were paying under $40/month (well, plus whatever your Internet was). Some of my friends have cable bills that would choke a dinosaur...I can't wrap my head around some of those costs, but I guess you have to pay for a box/service to every TV in the joint? And if you're doing any of those premium channels (HBO, Starz, Playboy Titties-R-Us, etc.) that adds up quickly.

Honestly, if I just had access to YouTube and Disney+, I think 99.7% of my entertainment/education needs would be met. I watch YouTube these days more than any regular TV programing (tiny house channels/videos, woodworking/DIY, guitar stuff, music videos and performances, paranormal/ghost nonsense , carpentry/building channels, funny videos, people doing stupid stuff/karma visiting deserving sorts, a handful of "reaction" channels). I've never run out of stuff to watch there.
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Kickaha
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2021-01-25, 19:30

Disney+: $6
HBO Max: $15
Netflix: $14
Hulu: $9
Apple TV+ (as part of the mega bundle, we basically get it 'for free' on top of our essentials)

Total: $44, $49 if you add in full price for AppleTV+.

Basic cable in our area is $80/mon, and most of it isn't a channel set I'd bother watching.

Yeah, it's likely overkill. I could bundle the Disney+ and Hulu and pick up ESPN+ for just a couple of bucks, but I'm not a sports watcher other than the random NHL game, so... meh?
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2021-01-26, 12:17

We have Disney+, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, and CBS All Access.

We have Apple TV+ until our freebie runs out, and then it's getting kicked down the road unless something really compelling comes along.

- AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :)
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mat 5:9)
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2021-01-26, 16:38

Pretty much samesies with y'all. Netflix, Hulu and Prime are in the 'always' group (well, Kanopy too I guess). AppleTV is a freebie for the year. Disney+ I'll do every so often, but now that the new Marvel shows are starting to roll in I can see it becoming a bit more like bi-monthly. I throw AMC+ in the mix once in a while too, since there's always a good binge of something interesting in that bundle (AMC, Shudder, Sundance, IFC, BBC America).

All said it's probably $110, average, with the monthly cost of the necessary cable/internet box. I've stripped the cable service down to bare-bones, but it's still 70 bucks a month.

So it goes.
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tomoe
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
 
2021-01-26, 23:48

Also pretty much the same. Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Prime, and HBO. We also have had AppleTV for almost a year, but haven't ever watched anything on it. Opened the app to browse the offerings and it was all kind of "meh". Also for a _very_ brief moment (one month), did CBS All access to watch Picard, but we weren't really feeling that show so cancelled the subscription. Kind of funny (or not), since my wife LOVES The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine--she's watched both of those series all the way through multiple times.

We recently started re-watching The X-Files. Two things have stood out to me thus far. 1) I think Fringe is the closest show we've had to a modern X-Files-esque show. I wish there were more. 2) Almost all of the scenes where Mulder sees the "unexplainable" would be moot in the contemporary era with smartphones. Also obligatory 3) Scully!

As far as shows (aside from those above), I really liked "It's Bruno" on Netflix. Has very little plot other than a guy and his dog (Bruno) doing mundane shit in Queens. The other show I recently watched was "Kim's Convenience" about a Korean family who owns a corner store in Toronto. Both are pretty lighthearted. We also watched PEN15 on Hulu. Initially because one of our friend's worked on the show. It's also pretty funny, but definitely has some more serious moments. The premise might sound kind of stupid--basically a coming-of-age type show about two girls in middle school mid-late 90s during the advent of AOL and all that jazz. My wife loved it--it's in many ways "her era" and reminds her of growing up.

Also random note: couple months ago bought a gaming PC and I'm typing this from Windows 10. Never thought that would happen, but here I am.

Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch
He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stick
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2021-01-27, 00:09

All I bother with is Netflix and Amazon.

I tried Disney+ and didn't find the content library was worth it for me. I could see picking it up now and then as they build out their exclusives.

So $14/mo to Netflix, plus whatever the current annual fee is for Amazon Prime. $140 I think? But honestly I'd have that anyways for the other Prime benefits.

My Xfinity bill is $70 for gigabit service. No cable TV subscription attached.
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tomoe
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
 
2021-01-27, 00:39

Damn. You get Xfinity gigabit for $70 a month? We're at ~$100/month for 200Mbs with Xfinity.
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2021-01-27, 00:54

Quote:
Originally Posted by tomoe View Post
Damn. You get Xfinity gigabit for $70 a month? We're at ~$100/month for 200Mbs with Xfinity.
My town has two gigabit providers: CenturyLink at $65 (and it's symmetrical gigabit!) and Xfinity at $70. Unfortunately my address is only serviced by Xfinity, but I think the pricing is uniform across the town so even if my exact address doesn't have any competition, I still benefit from the two of them duking it out here.
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tomoe
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
 
2021-01-27, 01:05

That's awesome. The only other open we have with speed close to Comcast is a service called Monkeybrains. It's symmetric and cheap (~$30-40/month), but since it relies on roof mounted hardware it can be fickle with inclement weather from what I've heard.

Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch
He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stick
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2021-01-27, 23:32

I've been watching WandaVision the last few Fridays. Its arrival came as a surprise to me a couple weeks ago, and it has temporarily subbed into the slot of my routine that The Mandalorian used to hold.

It's… okay.

Upon first viewing, I really enjoyed the first episode because it struck a neat nostalgia chord with it looking like a spitting-image alternate-universe episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Then I really got my hopes up when weird stuff started to emerge by the end. Yet, the second and third episodes that followed (which riffed on Bewitched and The Brady Bunch) seemed to just kind of drag on with a lot of nostalgia-mimicking fluff and only the tiniest nuggets of weirdness and "plot" (which is a rough term to use once you realize how these episodes are kind of disconnected from each other) to hook you for another episode.

I do hope the pace picks up a bit more as the remaining episodes progress. Right now it's just kind of 95% boring and 5% "wait wtf was that". I also wonder how much of the gags and references in these early episodes are completely lost on the younger generation that didn't grow up with the old black and white, wholesome "Americana" TV shows.

I have since re-watched the first and second episodes with my wife (it was her first viewing), and I could tell that she was also kind of interested in the "wtf" moments and where they were leading, but she was otherwise zoning out in the rest of the fluff. I also felt myself kind of rolling my eyes, hoping I could use my own psychic abilities to urge the episodes to go on a bit faster at times. No dice. So far the "rewatch value" of WandaVision is a big zero for me. I think I'll hold until the series has completed before I set my wife up to binge the rest, and I'll probably help to scrub through the less interesting parts, assuming she still has any interest in the show by then. Maybe by the end I'll also feel different about rewatching it because maybe we'll discover that there were more hidden messages and clues throughout that don't become apparent until the end. Here's hoping.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-01-28, 03:28

That whole premise is weird to me. I’ve read articles and reviews and none of them made me curious or interested. And I just thought it was weird they’d base a show around the two least interesting/engaging Avengers/MCU characters.

To me, that story has been told. I got less into those things as time went on, and those final few were a slog to get through.

Endgame, to me, was exactly that: the end. After 11 years of team-building, crossovers, time-jumping, wisecracks, CGI overload, destruction orgies and three-point superhero landings, I was done.

I’ve got absolutely zero interest in watching my anything with any of those people/characters at this point. As I said, that story, to me, has been told. And I have no plans to see any of the phase 4 stuff because...who cares? We got a decade of Marvel’s best and biggest. Got no interest in the B-squad after that. It’s like having season tickets to the Yankees or Dodgers for a decade, and suddenly those two teams going away and you now have to get your baseball fix via local little league games. It’s a bit of a step down. No thanks.

And I bet I’m not alone on that. I don’t know how COVID has affected those plans/filming schedules/release dates, but assuming things do return to “normal” at some point and the multiplexes fire back up, these upcoming ones will never pull those kinds of 2008-2019 numbers/attendance. But they might be all destined for Disney+ release at this point, so maybe the stakes aren’t so high for Marvel? If The Mandalorian is anything to go by, it costs far less to do stuff for that platform, an entire series even, than the numbers given for one-off big-screen releases.

PS - I need to re-watch The X Files as well. It’s been years. And even though the quality/watchability dropped in those final seasons, those first, earlier ones were amazing. I have my absolute favorite 8-10 episodes and I’d love to sit through that show again with 50+ eyes/perspective, ~20 years on. And, yes...Scully. Along with Andy Sipowicz, one of the best-written, well-acted TV characters ever. Smoking babe-ness aside, she’s still great to watch. The show would’ve been half as enjoyable without her there challenging Mulder and keeping him grounded/honest. Mulder himself even said as much in one of those latter installments. He owed everything to her.

Great show.

It, too, only exists in that time, for me. That most recent revival a few years ago was unwatchable, sadly. It just did not work. We all know how the sausage is made, as they say, and stuff that flew in 1996 just doesn’t in 2016 (or whenever it was). And it didn’t help that neither actor looked like they wanted to be there. You sometimes have to leave the past alone, where it is...untouched and just what it is: the past. When you try to re-capture lightning in a bottle, you’re pretty much guaranteed to fail. It just never seems to work. And Hollywood routinely blows millions proving this on an ongoing, steady basis.

Move on, guys. Write new shit, create new, original stuff.
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_Ω_
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Send a message via AIM to _Ω_  
2021-01-28, 05:38

And yet the reviews I have seen for WandaV has painted it as being a revelation...

Unless the reviewers have seen upcoming episodes and they are groundbreaking I think we can safely say that so far WV has been a big pile of dog turd.

Angels bleed from the tainted touch of my caress
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-01-28, 10:14

I stopped listening to “reviewers” ages ago.

It’s obvious so many of them are bought-and-paid-for shills, in the tank for this or that studio/network/property.

Or, far worse, they view - and review - everything through political or cultural filters, and review a show based on things far outside the writing, acting, technical merits, etc.

Are the appropriate boxes checked in terms of casting, overall tone and storylines, etc.? Are all the right words/terms being used, and are all the wrong ones missing/absent? Is everyone in the cast, in real life, on the correct side on the various issues of the day? Have any of the cast or crew Tweeted anything objectionable, off-color or "problematic" in the past 7-12 years (and, if so, can we dig it up and proceed to publicly beat them over the head with it for a week or two, possibly - hopefully? - costing them their reputation and/or gig)?

I’ve seen this sort of stuff many, many times from Entertainment Weekly and other outlets, especially Rolling Stone (who've gotten so precious and handwringing about everything so much it hurts).

I guess I’m a caveman, but I truly don’t give two on-fire shits about a show’s Woke™ pedigree/bonafides. And, frankly, neither did anyone else until just a few years ago, when apparently the memo went out, industry-wide, instructing otherwise.

So this is all a somewhat recent development/approach.

There are a lot of shows - award-winning shows we’d all call "classics" and "great TV" - that wouldn’t even be greenlit, let alone aired (and win awards), by 2021 standards.

And a lot of - most - Oscar-winning movies wouldn’t even have been nominated under the Academy’s new guidelines/requirements. Movies like Schindler’s List, The Departed, No Country for Old Men, etc.

I’m sorry, but that’s not “progress”. It’s the complete opposite.

PS - Don't get me wrong. If you're making a movie (or TV show) about a gay couple of color, then of course that's going to be part of it. How could it not? That's a natural, unavoidable aspect of the story and no reasonable person should have a gripe with that. That's not what I'm talking about. But shoehorning such considerations into every movie - regardless of plot, setting, time period, historical accuracy concerns, etc. - simply in order to qualify for an Academy Award*? That's insane, and wrong. And that's no slam against anything or anyone. But that's just recent bandwagon-jumping efforts to appease vocal bellyachers and hopped-up activists, and to appear "enlightened" (by an industry that's put out, with a straight face, about 11 of those Fast & Furious movies, FFS).


*To be clear, filmmakers can certainly continue making whatever they want. But their movies won't qualify for Oscar consideration if they don't meet those guidelines/requirements recently put out by the Academy re: cast and crew, storylines, etc.. Plenty of directors/writers/producers/actors won't care. But for those who do, they've got a whole new set of Oscar-bait tactics to consider/make room for.

"Okay, listen up...we got Oscar nominations on the line, people! We need the caterers to be Haitian, at the very least, and it would be great if the horse wrangler could be an Eskimo. And make sure those gaffers are gay as hell!"

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2021-01-28 at 11:20.
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Bryson
Rocket Surgeon
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: The Canadark
 
2021-01-28, 10:47

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad View Post
I've been watching WandaVision the last few Fridays. Its arrival came as a surprise to me a couple weeks ago, and it has temporarily subbed into the slot of my routine that The Mandalorian used to hold.

It's… okay.

Upon first viewing, I really enjoyed the first episode because it struck a neat nostalgia chord with it looking like a spitting-image alternate-universe episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Then I really got my hopes up when weird stuff started to emerge by the end. Yet, the second and third episodes that followed (which riffed on Bewitched and The Brady Bunch) seemed to just kind of drag on with a lot of nostalgia-mimicking fluff and only the tiniest nuggets of weirdness and "plot" (which is a rough term to use once you realize how these episodes are kind of disconnected from each other) to hook you for another episode.

I do hope the pace picks up a bit more as the remaining episodes progress. Right now it's just kind of 95% boring and 5% "wait wtf was that". I also wonder how much of the gags and references in these early episodes are completely lost on the younger generation that didn't grow up with the old black and white, wholesome "Americana" TV shows.

I have since re-watched the first and second episodes with my wife (it was her first viewing), and I could tell that she was also kind of interested in the "wtf" moments and where they were leading, but she was otherwise zoning out in the rest of the fluff. I also felt myself kind of rolling my eyes, hoping I could use my own psychic abilities to urge the episodes to go on a bit faster at times. No dice. So far the "rewatch value" of WandaVision is a big zero for me. I think I'll hold until the series has completed before I set my wife up to binge the rest, and I'll probably help to scrub through the less interesting parts, assuming she still has any interest in the show by then. Maybe by the end I'll also feel different about rewatching it because maybe we'll discover that there were more hidden messages and clues throughout that don't become apparent until the end. Here's hoping.

This is exactly my thought. I was kind of hoping they would ratchet up the ratio of plot vs pastiche as the episodes progressed, by they seem to be holding firm at 5% vs 95%. Maybe they will do a clever thing where seemingly inconsequential things in the "fantasy" world correspond to actual things that matter, but I suspect the parts that do have been firmly telegraphed already. (The hedge cutter through the wall, the beekeeper, etc.)
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2021-01-28, 11:19

Neil Gaiman just announced that Netflix picked up Sandman.

https://twitter.com/neilhimself/stat...98889027694594

He announced the main casting decisions on his Twitter feed. It's all actors I've never heard of, which is probably a good sign.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-01-28, 11:33

Sometimes that's the good approach. No "baggage", in terms of everyone associating them with a previous role, etc.

I actually prefer that approach, vs. seeing the same 15-20 people in everything, over and over. I'm sorry, but Clooney, Hanks, Damon, Pitt, DiCaprio, etc. can't be in everything. They're great, I enjoy them. But they're not always the right, best choice. They're often (always?) hired for butts-in-seats reasons vs. "is he truly the best actor to play that character?" ones. Many, many times the answer has turned out to be "no, absolutely not" (and the movie kinda tanked or underperformed anyway).

I understand, when $150M+ is on the line. But still...give some others a chance, and you might wind up creating a whole new cluster of go-to A-listers for future stuff? Everyone has to start somewhere.

So, yeah...I don't recognize any of those people either, except Gwendoline Christie. Who, frankly, deserves a nice prominent, upfront role after the screw-job she was given in the Star Wars sequels. She was simply the latest in a long line - Darth Maul, Jango Fett and General Grievous - of hyped-up, should've-been-bigger-than-they-were villains who barely made an impact and whose marketing presence* far, far exceeded their on-screen one. She, and Captain Phasma, were so wasted across two movies. And you wouldn't have been blamed, in the lead-up to December 2015, for believing that her chrome-suited character was going to play a huge, important role in things. Phasma was everywhere that autumn, in all the marketing/merchandising blitz preceding The Force Awakens.

Glad to see she's on another job. I know she was in Game of Thrones as well, but I never saw it.

But all those other actors, I have no idea who they are. But it might make it easier to buy into their characters if they're not top-draw, high-profile A-lister types.



Off-topic (click to toggle):
*Darth Maul was the very first thing from The Phantom Menace I ever saw. This would've had to have been late 1998 or so (or maybe early 1999)? His face was on the cover of some magazine at Waldenbooks(!) and it scared the shit of me. I thought "ohmigosh, this is the new bad guy in the upcoming Star Wars stuff? Awesome...he looks the part, and about as Evil™ as it gets. I can't wait!"

Fast-forward a few months later...

"Wait, that's it? He just stood there, said one sentence in the whole thing, had a six-second scuffle with Liam Neeson in the desert, ignited a cool lightsaber about an hour later and then got cut in half four minutes afterwards? WTF was that all about? Why is he on every bit of merchandising in existence?! Padme's bodyguard had a bigger part in the movie than he did, and she ain't on anything!"

Rinse, repeat with Jango, Grievous and Phasma. For two solid decades, Star Wars loved to tease cool stuff - particularly on the villain/bad guy front - that never actually panned out or mattered in the end.

1999...that's when I knew something was up - something sinister was afoot - with my beloved Star Wars. And it took 20 years, and a TV show, of all things, to reverse/undo it all and restore my faith and love for the property.

Hey, better late than never.

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2021-01-28 at 12:03.
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Kickaha
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2021-01-28, 20:15

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryson View Post
This is exactly my thought. I was kind of hoping they would ratchet up the ratio of plot vs pastiche as the episodes progressed, by they seem to be holding firm at 5% vs 95%. Maybe they will do a clever thing where seemingly inconsequential things in the "fantasy" world correspond to actual things that matter, but I suspect the parts that do have been firmly telegraphed already. (The hedge cutter through the wall, the beekeeper, etc.)
I dunno, it seems to me that the fabric of the decades is an underlying plot element of its own. The characters are simultaneously going through stages of growth of awareness that mimic the development of plot complexity in the sitcoms.

50s: Very shallow, separate beds, detached from reality, everything is happy and bright, problems are trivial.
60s: Things start to get a little more realistic, marriages are not 1D, neighbors can be the villain, problems develop but are patched over by end of episode.
70s: Pregnancy. Would not have been shown prior, there are darker elements in the neighborhood, secrets and scandals under the surface are alluded to, while there are happy endings, they aren't always clean.

Their world is becoming increasingly 'real', which is incompatible with the decades they're leaving behind. If this is a fiction of Wanda's devising out of grief, she really wanted the 50s fantasy, but then the other things she wanted (children, etc) required breaking out of that mold and 'growing'.

If I'm right, then the fact that the sitcom tropes are being adhered to faithfully isn't just a nostalgia hook, but an integral part of the story, and a good example of "Show, don't tell."
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Kickaha
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2021-01-31, 00:38

So, y'all happy NOW? XD
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Frank777
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Toronto
 
2021-01-31, 06:09

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0 View Post
Off-topic (click to toggle):
*Darth Maul was the very first thing from The Phantom Menace I ever saw. This would've had to have been late 1998 or so (or maybe early 1999)? His face was on the cover of some magazine at Waldenbooks(!) and it scared the shit of me. I thought "ohmigosh, this is the new bad guy in the upcoming Star Wars stuff? Awesome...he looks the part, and about as Evil™ as it gets. I can't wait!"

Fast-forward a few months later...

"Wait, that's it? He just stood there, said one sentence in the whole thing, had a six-second scuffle with Liam Neeson in the desert, ignited a cool lightsaber about an hour later and then got cut in half four minutes afterwards? WTF was that all about? Why is he on every bit of merchandising in existence?! Padme's bodyguard had a bigger part in the movie than he did, and she ain't on anything!"

Rinse, repeat with Jango, Grievous and Phasma. For two solid decades, Star Wars loved to tease cool stuff - particularly on the villain/bad guy front - that never actually panned out or mattered in the end.
This shouldn't be hidden, since it's one of the best SW posts around. And you forgot the absolute worst of all, Snoke.
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Dr. Bobsky
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: UK's most densely packed city. It's not London...
 
2021-01-31, 18:10

Villains always lose in the SW universe. There's no emotional peril. Villains are people who kill for the benefit of a central authority. The good guys are the folks who kill for themselves or other folks they just met. Even the rebel alliance in government form is a sort of banal force, rule enforcers with no authority -- the worst kind of villainy if you ask me, especially when they kill for it.

It's a monochromatic universe, and we see the spoils from this trickling down in the utterly unengaging plots and characters.

Honestly ask yourself: do you actually care what happens to the 'skywalkers' after ep 9? Do you care what happened to Rey five minutes after the film ended?
  quote
psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-01-31, 18:59

I didn't care what happened to Rey five minutes after The Force Awakens began.

That's the whole point/problem...some people forgot to write engaging, likable characters. That's kinda important in these types of flicks, as it turns out.

And I didn't care what happened to the Skywalkers after 1983, being completely honest (but I know I'm in the minority on that).

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2021-01-31 at 21:03.
  quote
drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2021-01-31, 23:26

Does anybody know of a good TV show that deals with topics like milksteak?



...
  quote
Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2021-02-01, 01:16

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
So, y'all happy NOW? XD


I gotta admit, the pendulum swung hard in the opposite direction back to "normal", supplanting mysteries with answers, and I already miss the cheeky awkward nostalgia throwbacks. Damned if you do, damned if you don't! I do wonder if we'll get an 80s sitcom this week.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
  quote
drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2021-02-01, 02:14

Hey don't skip the 1970s because the ladies didn't always wear bras!

Wait, I guess they DID do the 70s.

Nevermind.

...
  quote
chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: near Bremen, Germany
Send a message via ICQ to chucker Send a message via AIM to chucker Send a message via MSN to chucker Send a message via Yahoo to chucker Send a message via Skype™ to chucker 
2021-02-01, 03:23

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0 View Post
I didn't care what happened to Rey five minutes after The Force Awakens began.

That's the whole point/problem...some people forgot to write engaging, likable characters. That's kinda important in these types of flicks, as it turns out.
Yup.

True for the Star Wars prequels (why am I supposed to care about any of these people?). Also, say, ST: Discovery, which is full of weird sob scenes that would work a lot better if we actually knew who half the crew is and how they think.
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