[Abyss]

Briar King, on 03 January 2017 - 05:33 AM, said:

Hey come on now....atleast it's not the sausage fest aka The Bachelorette. I'm down to watch 25 women bring out the claws!

My bad it's 30! Claws claws claws!

Dammit people, we're losing him.
WHERE ARE MY C-130 AND THE GIANT PENGUIN CAVALRY???

[polishgenius]

Did you ever watch that show Unreal? Basically about a fictional Bachelor. I only watched the first four eps earlier in the year but I do plan to find time to watch more, coz I enjoyed it enough and it's supposed to get much better as it goes on, particularly s2. One of the most darkly cynical shows I've ever seen.

[Siergiej]

Several people recommended The OA to me recently (read some positive opinions here as well) so I spent the last 2 days on it and holy fuck am I disappointed. The first two episodes were promising - it had a slight Stranger Things vibe to it, with a taste of Prisoners and an overall aura of mystery. Interesting combination and everything looked like it's going into the right direction...

... until you realize it's actually a show about troubled high school kids who need to master a contemporary dance move to open an interdimensional portal for a girl they never met before. And that's not even sarcasm. Finally,

Spoiler

it's revealed that it's all made up and it's The OA's way of dealing with trauma but somehow it doesn't stop them from performing their magic dance.

Plus, the final scene is ridiculously out of place. It's like they asked someone to write the final 5 minutes of the season but didn't let them read the rest of the script. I haven't seen such random bullshit since the finale of Hemlock Grove's second season.

This post has been edited by Siergiej: 08 January 2017 - 11:27 AM

[paran falcon]

Has anyone tried the new show Beyond on Freeform (formerly ABC Familty)? We had seen previews for it over the last month that looked interesting. Happened to catch the 1st episode yesterday morning and then watched the 2nd On Demand. Really rather interesting so far and I plan to keep going. The premise is a 14 year old (or so) boy goes into a coma (under circumstances the viewer sees that might lead one to think alien abduction) and wakes up 12 years later suffering none of the ill effects you would expect from that long a coma. No muscle atrophy, no fogginess of the mind, etc. He soon discovers he has supernatural powers, there are people after him because of them and a mysterious girl who says she knew him during the 12 years he was comatose.

This could certainly go off the rails in a hurry but 2 eps in I definitely want to see more.

[Tiste Simeon]

Sherlock season 4 is so flipping ace.

[acesn8s]

Siergiej, on 08 January 2017 - 11:26 AM, said:

Several people recommended The OA to me recently (read some positive opinions here as well) so I spent the last 2 days on it and holy fuck am I disappointed. The first two episodes were promising - it had a slight Stranger Things vibe to it, with a taste of Prisoners and an overall aura of mystery. Interesting combination and everything looked like it's going into the right direction...

... until you realize it's actually a show about troubled high school kids who need to master a contemporary dance move to open an interdimensional portal for a girl they never met before. And that's not even sarcasm. Finally,

Spoiler

it's revealed that it's all made up and it's The OA's way of dealing with trauma but somehow it doesn't stop them from performing their magic dance.

Plus, the final scene is ridiculously out of place. It's like they asked someone to write the final 5 minutes of the season but didn't let them read the rest of the script. I haven't seen such random bullshit since the finale of Hemlock Grove's second season.

My wife and I burned out on The OA about 5 or 6 episodes in. I'm not a big fan of prisoner/captive shows. I think for her it just got a little too out there.

[QuickTidal]

Siergiej, on 08 January 2017 - 11:26 AM, said:

Several people recommended The OA to me recently (read some positive opinions here as well) so I spent the last 2 days on it and holy fuck am I disappointed. The first two episodes were promising - it had a slight Stranger Things vibe to it, with a taste of Prisoners and an overall aura of mystery. Interesting combination and everything looked like it's going into the right direction...

... until you realize it's actually a show about troubled high school kids who need to master a contemporary dance move to open an interdimensional portal for a girl they never met before. And that's not even sarcasm. Finally,

Spoiler

it's revealed that it's all made up and it's The OA's way of dealing with trauma but somehow it doesn't stop them from performing their magic dance.

Plus, the final scene is ridiculously out of place. It's like they asked someone to write the final 5 minutes of the season but didn't let them read the rest of the script. I haven't seen such random bullshit since the finale of Hemlock Grove's second season.

Spoiler

Actually the point of the ending is I think that it's ambiguous. It's not meant to show that The OA made everything up for sure. It was meant to show us that her team seems to think she may have made it up based on the things that they found in her place in the box.

But the season is peppered with evidence that she didn't make it up too...

Remember that she was totally blind (and missing for 7 years, showing up with sight again), and adopted out of the orphanage of a Russian woman claiming to be her aunt by marriage. Unless her American parents are liars (which I think we can surmise they aren't).

When Prarie (OA) returns home the first thing she does is demand WiFi and finally Youtube's a video of Homer Roberts, a football player who has a near death experience (And note that this discounts the idea that the name Homer came from the copy of the Illiad that is in the box French finds). And secondary to that, since she was blind before her disappearance, how would she know enough English (written) to be able to read complex books like the Illiad or a compendium the Russian Oligarchy...when all she has known since she was a small girl was braille?

The books are in an Amazon box, showing she would have ordered them BUT She only got Wifi the night before she started telling her story to the others...no way in hell she read all those volumes in one night, especially with very little understanding of the English written word.

There is also footage that French and Steve find online of Prarie performing her music in the NY Subway, just as she said she did when Hap found her.

Then there is the fact that Elias (the FBI investigator...to whom Prarie has shared her more intimate thoughts) is at the Johnson home for some inexplicable reason the night of the final part of the tale...the idea (I THINK) is that he was planting the box of books for someone to find and discredit Prarie's story...indicating a POSSIBLE alliance and gov't connection with Hap's work and someone listening to her in the abandoned house somehow? Think about how Elias shows up. The FBI has been trying to get something out of her for a while, and she refuses. Then she goes to them where they've asked her to come see someone...and it's this innocuous building that no other FBI employees seem toy be in. They are often (if not all the time) completely by themselves in huge rooms meant for many.

And here are some clues spelled out in an online article that could lead you either way:

Prairie does not reach out to Homer’s family when she returns home.
When Prairie returns home, she obsesses over getting internet access. When she obtains it, she searches YouTube for the archival footage of Homer (Emory Cohen). She knows enough about Homer to find a clip of him, amid the myriad of video clips on YouTube. She clearly knows his name, and yet she makes no attempt to contact his family. Find out about his child, or report him missing.

The books that supposedly inspired Prairie’s story are massive in length and appear to have never been read.
The books Alfonso finds in Prairie’s bedroom show no signs of being read. They are all in pristine shape. They are also thick books, books that would have taken a long time to read.

When did Prairie find the time to read all of them and construct her elaborate story? Especially when she would have only been able to begin reading them after her vision had returned.

Prairie never asks “the five” to verify her story.
Prairie/The OA never asks “the five” to test or verify her story. She never directs them to the YouTube clip of Homer, so they can at least affirm his existence.

When “the five” search the internet for the people Prairie claims have been abducted, no one can find any proof of their existence. Let alone their abductions. Even searches for Homer, someone with a supposed public profile, apparently turn up nothing, which is peculiar. Unless the video is a figment of Prairie’s imagination.

Alfonso runs into Elias at Prairie’s house.
It is one of the odder moments of The OA‘s Season 1 ending. While Alfonso/French (Brandon Perea) is looking through Prairie’s house, he discovers Elias (Riz Ahmed) aka “the Listener” roaming around the Johnson residence as well. The timing is also interesting. It is conveniently around the time Alfonso discovers the incriminating stash of books in Prairie’s bedroom.

Prairie might tell her parents a different story about her captivity than she tells “the five.”
Viewers of The OA never explicitly hear the story Prairie tells her parents about her captivity. From what can be gathered from how she begins, it does not sound like she will make any mention of swallowing birds or traveling to different dimensions. Did she tell her parents the same story as she shared with “the five,” the true story, or one she thought her parents could handle?

Prairie could not have personally inflicted the marks on her back.
It is highly unlikely that Prairie could have carved the messages into her own back, and therefore created her scars. It is next to impossible. Had she been successful, it would not have looked like anything recognizable enough to warrant the effort.

When “the five” complete the dance that thwarts the school shooting, none of them go to another dimension.
When “the five” have finished executing all of the movements with perfect feeling in The OA finale, none of them have traveled to a different dimension. The whole idea that Prairie had been promulgating was that when the “five movements” were completed, she and her fellow captors were going to be freed from their prison. If it did not happen for “the new five,” how could it have worked for her fellow prisoners?

If the OA’s story was indeed bunk (or, hell, even if it wasn’t), why did the show follow Hap to Cuba or to NYC—especially that abandoned-hospital fiasco, which didn’t even share the Cuban adventure’s narrative function of bringing in a fifth captive?

I think there is FAR more to this story, and I hope we get a chance to see it. This was one of the better shows I watched last years simply because of how much it challenged me as a viewer.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 09 January 2017 - 03:03 PM

[QuickTidal]

Cheesewiz, on 09 January 2017 - 05:53 PM, said:

I gotta say though I was really cringing for the 1st and only time on OA when

Spoiler

the dance off at school went down. The way it was shot with shooters head zipping at each of them. I wonder how many takes it took to get this sequ done? I would have been loln

. We better get a season 2.

Did you start Versailles?

Spoiler

I liked the movements in full effect at the end. I'm not sure why. It made me emotional. Again, not sure why. LOL.

Sadly, I have no access to Versailles. It's not on CDN Netflix.

[worry]

I watched the first two episodes of Emerald City, Tarsem Singh's Wizard of Oz restyling on NBC, and it kinda sucks. This is, officially, a Gritty Reboot™ of the highest (meaning lowest) order. Someone gets their head bashed in with a metal pitcher at one point, for instance. I have no issue with that on its face, necessarily, but I think you know what it means in terms of fantasy storytelling on TV: it's learned all the wrong lessons from Game of Thrones. Also it has that sheen of self-serious genre TV that afflicts so much of -- say -- the Sci Fi Channel's worst offenders (and I don't mean the goofy monster movies). It's hard to put into words, but you know that feeling. The writing is bad but SO. GRIM. AND. SERIOUS.

[Tiste Simeon]

So, because he has now released the review I can now say that I have seen the first episode of A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS - my brother is a reviewer and gets early access to a few episodes, and I saw the first one over Christmas with him but he was on embargo and I couldn't say anything.

It's well good! Patrick Warburton is brilliant as Lemony Snicket, NPH is suitably mad as Count Olaf and the the kids are excellent too.

It's very similar in style and tone to Pushing Daisies. Highly recommended!

[Aptorian]

Tiste Simeon, on 09 January 2017 - 06:03 AM, said:

Sherlock season 4 is so flipping ace.

How would you compare it to the prior seasons? I did not like Season 3 very much. Generally I feel like they've strayed from the Sherlock of the first season who was more of a psychopath/supercomputer that was mostly unflappable. Now they're making him flawed, limited, he makes mistakes, etc. I don't like it at all.

It's my impression from the trailer that they're continuing down the path of personal stories which I find lame, but does it work for you? Is it as stupidly dramatic as the trailer makes it out to be or do we still get "Sherlock on Holmes on the case" type of stories or is it more like the season finales?

[worry]

That's disturbing. Isn't that like a sword-making show?

[Primateus]

What's worry's nono word?

[Aptorian]

White male pride?

[worry]

No, Apt, there I feel vicarious embarrassment.

PENETRATION is the word. Which is why hearing it on a show about swords is double squeamy.

[Malankazooie]

"moist" is probably a close second, I bet.

[worry]

To answer that you'll have to read all of my posts in chronological order starting from the very beginning.

[Primateus]

Cheesewiz, on 12 January 2017 - 02:04 AM, said:

They used penatrate on the next Forged in Fire as they stabbed metal lids. Idk if it has to have the tion on it to make your eye twitch or not.
I think you'd really enjoy seeing the true art some of these people wind up making in the allotted timeframe they have. I'm frequently blown away by some weapons. Just have to turn volume down when judges talk after test.

I'm watching ep 1 of U.K. Being Human. Idk what I think about it yet. The Ghost arc is hyper sped up compared to US so it feels really off to me atm. Idk if I ll stick with this version. The quick glimpse of the Werewolf was really good though.

What type of PENETRATION was it? Was it a thorough PENETRATION, or just a light, lover's-lie, PENETRATION?

[Abyss]

INCORPORATED - Just marathoned up to this week's ep. This is far far better than i was expecting. As an sf show there is nothing remotely original going on here - we've seen it all before in Gattica, Total Recall, Market Forces, etc etc... yet the characters are well done and the actual story is well constructed and paced. I can't say the cast is brilliant but they're trying hard and Dennis Haybert is always fun to watch... the man chews scenery SO subtly. Every ep moves, nothing feels like filler, the future doesn't look like Vancouver all the time. I was neutral on the Damon/Affleck element, but if this is the sort of thing they produce i'm all for them doing more tv.

THE FALL S3 - i really enjoyed Ss 1 and 2, but three eps in and thus far this is boring as fuck. I see what the plan was here, dealing with the repercussions of S2 and constructing a prosecution, but it's failing to hold my interest. Shifting the focus away from 'catch the killer' to all the surrounding plotlines from S2 (the political stuff, who is fucking who, the teen obsession thing, the killer's family) isn't working for me.

LONGMIRE S3 - Four eps in... I am never going to call this show brilliant, but it holds my attention. The setting and characters make a by-the-numbers police procedural into something way more interesting and this looks like the strongest season yet with the ongoing plot re Walt's wife, Henry, etc taking as much time as the crime-of-the-week.. way more interesting than the election.

ARROW/FLASH/LEGENDS/SUPERGIRL - all caught up to the crossover and about to start. Watched the SUPERGIRL ep which basically reinforced my reasons for not watching that show otherwise. ARROW has been fun so far, i like the new cast and the action has upped a notch. FLASH has been ok - the waaah everything is Barry's time travelling fault thing is getting old. LEGENDS is pure tv candy fun - I want Mick to punch out historical figures at least twice an ep.

AGENTS OF SHIELD - I'm out. I tried, i really tried, i know people loved the Ghost Rider arc, but despite a homicidal flaming spirit of vengeance i found it predictable (the big bad was obvious, his master plan was one mustache twirl short of silly), uninteresting (really, we have to do the nobody trusts anybody thing again again AGAIN?), repetitous (ok Daisy we get it, shut up now please just shut up, you used to be interesting and now you're a one note character), and loaded with filler. The new LMD arc is going nowhere i feel like sticking around for... in striking contrast to INCORPORATED there is nothing new here and they aren't making it interesting enough to stick around for.

[Malankazooie]

Abyss, on 13 January 2017 - 03:27 PM, said:

AGENTS OF SHIELD - I'm out. I tried, i really tried, i know people loved the Ghost Rider arc, but despite a homicidal flaming spirit of vengeance i found it predictable (the big bad was obvious, his master plan was one mustache twirl short of silly), uninteresting (really, we have to do the nobody trusts anybody thing again again AGAIN?), repetitous (ok Daisy we get it, shut up now please just shut up, you used to be interesting and now you're a one note character), and loaded with filler. The new LMD arc is going nowhere i feel like sticking around for... in striking contrast to INCORPORATED there is nothing new here and they aren't making it interesting enough to stick around for.

This.

I tried too. I wanted it to get better or have something that sunk its hooks into me to keep me engaged. The Ghost Rider garbage was the final straw. I bailed before the mid-season break.