[polishgenius]

Marathoned.


Gonna copy-paste my thoughts from elsewhere coz I can't be bothered to write it all out again, lol:



To begin with, the writing is very sharp on a dialogue level. The series is balancing a lot of different tones and that could easily be a mess but the writing and delivery of the lines is just really good.

The acting too - I don't know if the role was written for Knightley but it might as well have been, it fits her like a glove, and everyone else slots in around her nicely.

But I think really stood out to me and had me hooked is, going back to that balancing of tones: a trope that I like when I see it is when you see one character essentially operating on the rules of a different genre or story type to the rest of the story (often the villain, but also people like Omar in the Wire). Usually it's one or two characters, but here it's almost like every faction is from a different type of spy or crime show. Again, that could be a mess, and it certainly gets daft, but the writing is strong so it works.



I don't watch as much spy tv as a lot of people - coz I really don't watch all that much tv at all - so it might be a bit more familiar to others, but I think it stands out reasonably well, without being massively innovative. Which it isn't really aiming for anyway.




tl:dr - it balances a lot of different tones and plot ideas via some really well-written good old British snark.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 06 December 2024 - 05:15 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 05 December 2024 - 09:36 PM, said:

Started Netflix's new spy thing, Black Doves today.


About to finish Netflix's new spy thing, Black Doves.

sux / DNF or rivetted / marathon'd?

polishgenius, on 06 December 2024 - 08:54 PM, said:

Marathoned.
...tl:dr - it balances a lot of different tones and plot ideas via some really well-written good old British snark.

Watched ep1 last night, very enjoyed, in for the run, tnx!

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 10 December 2024 - 05:13 PM, said:

Abyss, on 06 December 2024 - 05:15 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 05 December 2024 - 09:36 PM, said:

Started Netflix's new spy thing, Black Doves today.


About to finish Netflix's new spy thing, Black Doves.

sux / DNF or rivetted / marathon'd?

polishgenius, on 06 December 2024 - 08:54 PM, said:

Marathoned.
...tl:dr - it balances a lot of different tones and plot ideas via some really well-written good old British snark.

Watched ep1 last night, very enjoyed, in for the run, tnx!

Don't know what you all are talking about...

....Googles....

Keira Knightley? As a spy? Okay, you have my interest....

Ben Wishaw, Sarah Lancashire, Andrew Koji

Oh now you have my attention!

Going to binge...wish me luck.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

My fiancee and I just binged it. Great fun! Sam is bad at his job though.

[Abyss]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 10 December 2024 - 06:24 PM, said:

My fiancee and I just binged it. Great fun! Sam is bad at his job though.

He's very good at the snark tho'.

[QuickTidal]

SECRET LEVEL on Prime.


It's good, but it's not great...most of the episodes are SO dark it's as if the GOT crew shot them...Animation that's this dark normally doesn't impress me...

The best of the lot is EASILY the Warhammer 40k Episode "AND THEY SHALL KNOW FEAR"....it's fucking exquisite...but I mean it's super insider baseball for 40k fans rather than casuals...

like

Spoiler

Is a casual viewer going to get how super typical it is that a small group Primaris Space Marines would totally drag a big metal box across their whole ass mission, just to pop it open in from of the enemy and let their blind psyker/Astropath out to run interference for them? Or how the Sorcerer of Tzeentch gets into their minds and infects many of them with Chaos? Like yeah they would get the gist, but it feels that much more compelling to a 40k nerd.


Also, can we talk about how well they translated the rather large and beefy space marines moving super fast? Like I don't think that's a thing that gets translated often...that these can be like tanks, but when they want to they can MOVE.

Give me a whole ass 40k show about Titus and Co.

The rest of the eps were fine to middling...but this holds absolutely no candles to LOVE, DEATH, & ROBOTS...which as far as animated anthologies go, is the tippy top.


YMMV but aide from the 40k ep, the other two I liked were the ARMORED CORE ep and the SIFU one.

[Primateus]

Honestly, QT, I'm surprised you didn't go for the Unreal Tournament: Xan episode. It would seem to me that it's something right up your alley.

I'd also highlight the Pac-Man episode as a fresh, very fresh, and new take on Pac-Man.

I have yet to see the new half of episodes, so at the moment I would agree that And They Shall Know No Fear is the best episode of the lot.

Crossfire could have been good, but it just seemed a bit too on the nose. Armored Core was fine and Sifu was good, but not really my style. The D&D episode was also good, but I felt that it went from serious stakes to world-ending serious stakes in the blink of an eye.

[QuickTidal]

Primateus, on 18 December 2024 - 02:16 PM, said:

Honestly, QT, I'm surprised you didn't go for the Unreal Tournament: Xan episode. It would seem to me that it's something right up your alley.

I'd also highlight the Pac-Man episode as a fresh, very fresh, and new take on Pac-Man.

I have yet to see the new half of episodes, so at the moment I would agree that And They Shall Know No Fear is the best episode of the lot.

Crossfire could have been good, but it just seemed a bit too on the nose. Armored Core was fine and Sifu was good, but not really my style. The D&D episode was also good, but I felt that it went from serious stakes to world-ending serious stakes in the blink of an eye.

I agree the Pacman episode was pretty good, I loved making him into this cloaked nomad...that worked well....but again too damned dark. Same for the D&D ep.

Also I didn't realize the new eps dropped for the back half. Will have to check them out.

[Macros]

Tried House.

Did about 13/14 episodes
Egh, don't get the hype, if I want a snarky doc I'll watch Dr Cox on scrubs.

House episode writing
Open on random, they collapse
Into hospital, mis diagnosis
They go into a seizure
Further mis diagnosis
This person is going to die
Revelation of seemingly irrelevant information.
House diagnoses, cures.

Repeat

[Mezla PigDog]

Lego Masters Australia. Best thing on tv. We're watching the grand masters series and haven't finished so no spoilers. Trying to time the finale for that in between Christmas and New Year downtime. We're big Scotty and Owen fans but they are all so good.

Does any other Lego Masters country version hit the heights of the Aussie one?

[Tsundoku]

Mezla PigDog, on 23 December 2024 - 04:03 AM, said:

Lego Masters Australia. Best thing on tv. We're watching the grand masters series and haven't finished so no spoilers. Trying to time the finale for that in between Christmas and New Year downtime. We're big Scotty and Owen fans but they are all so good.

Does any other Lego Masters country version hit the heights of the Aussie one?

Glad you agree, it's about the only reality/game show we watch as well (aside maybe from Hard Quiz, but that's a different story ). It's just so much more ... wholesome? People who get along having fun together and supporting each other even though they are competing. As opposed to the thoroughly nasty garbage in pretty much every other reality/game show - especially the ones supposedly about finding a partner!
I heard some stories about the USA version and flicked through bits of a couple of episodes, but couldn't get any further because they were less friendly and more competitive. Can't say I've seen any other versions.
Having Hamish Blake as the host was a good choice as he's just funny and doesn't get too much in the way of the players being the focus. Enhance instead of outshine I guess.
Ryan "Brickman" McNaught as the Lego professional was good as well because you can see the guy just loves it and wants everyone to just have fun and do their best. It's obvious he actually hates having to cut teams from the show.

Here's a Reddit thread echoing your thoughts. I haven't read it all but so far I didn't find any spoilers.

https://www.reddit.c...ters/?rdt=43468

They had slid in the ratings a fair bit over the last few seasons and I had thought it was quietly cancelled but it looks like there may be a seventh season.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 23 December 2024 - 05:59 AM

[Mezla PigDog]

It's very wholesome. The editing is really kind. Not that there is anything unkind to edit around but each episode is always about fun and camaraderie, even when you can tell a team had a really hard time. The first episode we ever saw was one where they had to build something that looked great when a bowling ball smashed into it. We've been hooked ever since.

[Macros]

What platform?

[Mezla PigDog]

You can get it on the Channel 4 on demand app.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Macros, on 20 December 2024 - 10:41 AM, said:

Tried House.

Did about 13/14 episodes
Egh, don't get the hype, if I want a snarky doc I'll watch Dr Cox on scrubs.

That's how I felt about House too. Not sure if it works better if you don't have the Dr Cox comparison, but I did and made it constantly for the few episodes I watched.

We finished the second series of Wolf Hall this weekend (The Mirror and the Light). I watched the original series and now Mr NAB wants to go back and try it (he wasn't interested but a couple of episodes into the new one got hooked). Everyone continues to bring their A game and it was a complete joy.

Also watched a little one series Netflix thing called Kotoro Lives Alone. I've never known anything manage to be so wholesome and so sad all at once, and flip between the two so quickly. I'd definitely recommend it though.

While we've got Netflix back (largely so we could watch all the Aardman stuff over the Christmas period), we've started re-watching Atypical. Loved it the first time, will be interesting to watch it post the "oh I think I'm probably autistic" lightbulb moment.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 23 December 2024 - 12:37 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

So Mrs Tiste and I have recently started watching Farscape. It's a bit bonkers haha and it wasn't that surprising when I found out that the Henson company is involved somehow. Quite good fun though.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 18 December 2024 - 03:26 PM, said:

Primateus, on 18 December 2024 - 02:16 PM, said:

Honestly, QT, I'm surprised you didn't go for the Unreal Tournament: Xan episode. It would seem to me that it's something right up your alley.

I'd also highlight the Pac-Man episode as a fresh, very fresh, and new take on Pac-Man.

I have yet to see the new half of episodes, so at the moment I would agree that And They Shall Know No Fear is the best episode of the lot.

Crossfire could have been good, but it just seemed a bit too on the nose. Armored Core was fine and Sifu was good, but not really my style. The D&D episode was also good, but I felt that it went from serious stakes to world-ending serious stakes in the blink of an eye.

I agree the Pacman episode was pretty good, I loved making him into this cloaked nomad...that worked well....but again too damned dark. Same for the D&D ep.

Also I didn't realize the new eps dropped for the back half. Will have to check them out.

I've watched the DnD, Unreal, Sifu eps so far.
DnD was... ok. The characters' faces were under-animated in contrast w their armour, weapons, etc which detracted from the action for me. The story was fine enough but - likely for the same reason - i didn't really buy the motives... the paladin wanting to save the kid, the kid wanting to save everyone he just stabbed/met, the suspicious halfling mage... and the druid and whatever the dwarf was supposed to be were utterly background.

Unreal... i couldn't quite get over the massive gaping extinction event asteroid sized plot holes, but the actual action was a lot of fun and well animated.

Sifu... k i liked the hook, and the style was fine and the fights - what we saw - were good enough but everything felt liked they stopped short of going all in. Just a hint of the 'they killed my father', near zero explanation of the ressurrections, and we're done, cue dumplings. It doesn't leave me wanting to play the game or see more of the cartoon.


Love/Sex/Robots eats this anthology for lunch, but i will watch the rest if only for the pretty piccies

[Abyss]

YELLOWSTONE, S5(.

I have to give them credit... despite the Kevin Costner mess and the borderline humour of how they got around it, and a few subplots that were obviously cut short or dropped, they stuck the landing nicely to wrap this up for viewers. I don't think the show will ever truly overcome 'the lead guy bailed for the last six episodes', but that could have wrecked an otherwise entertaining series and instead they pulled it together. The it's sometimes easy to see when a cast is just phoning it in ahead of the mercy kill, and this was the opposite for that, if anything they upped their collective games to nail it.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 06 January 2025 - 03:11 PM, said:

Love/Sex/Robots eats this anthology for lunch, but i will watch the rest if only for the pretty piccies

The is what I kept coming back to and I think that's mostly to do with the fact that most of the SECRET LEVEL shorts are not based on stories by existing SFF authors (I think only Peter Watts, SL Huang, and Tamsyn Muir are in there for that), and are original entries...so there something lost in someone just making short films about these games and coming up with their own stories...


LD&R for the most part is backed by a multitude of famous or not so famous authors who's bread and butter is this stuff.


I watched the back half of the season too now and aside from Honor of Kings : "The Way of All Things" which may have had the most gorgeous animation in the whole series, barring the WH40k ep, and the Outer Worlds ep (which I found the most emotionally engaging of the back half)...there was simply not enough here for me.

[QuickTidal]

Re-watching THE PERIPHERAL with my wife who has never seen it, and I continue to be annoyed that the Pandemic, writers strike and a poor decision by Amazon (I assume because they were focused monetarily on RoP and WOT) lead to its cancellation after one season...it's an incredibly well made show....and funnily enough my wife's film-connected artist aunt was the other day telling us about her friend who she sees a lot to have tea and chats with whose son is a film writer and director...I asked who he was as I thought I MIGHT know him....she said His name is Vincenzo Natali"....WAIT WHAT? I'm fucking one degree of separation from the director of CUBE and SPLICE? Nutters. Anyways he was a director and exec producer for THE PERIPHERAL.

To me this is the first time anyone has gotten William Gibson RIGHT in live action. JOHNNY MNEMONIC is really bad despite featuring some solid talent of the age (including the always exquisite Takeshi Kitano), and the less said about NEW ROSE HOTEL the better. I'm still pissy that we never got that film version of BURNING CHROME that Kathryn Bigelow was going to direct (I am convinced that part of why STRANGE DAYS has such a cyberpunk vibe is her involvement in attempting to get BURNING CHROME made)...

And I'm hoping beyond hope that the AppleTV NEUROMANCER series is as good as the rest of AppleTV's content....It's got a decent cast thus far (Callum Turner as Case, Briana Middleton as Molly, and Joseph Lee as Hideo)...as I'm hoping for more Gibson content to reach more people.