Currently watching..... on the TV

[Captain]

[youtube]fNwwt25mheo[/youtube]

[Don Carlos]

Watched episode 1 of Squid Game - interesting. Will continue to watch.

[Pext]

Midnight Mass - 8.5 / 10

The genre could be described as "Adaption of a Stephen King novel" without actually being based on one. And it's quite good.

Plot-wise it's in the horror genre but at its core it's a lot about characters having conversations about deep topics.

Some great performances!

I also liked that the show changes its concept midway: The first half feels like an 80s horror movie but the second half is something else.

Highly recommended. (It is slow paced and not intended to be a thrill ride.)

It's on netflix.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Making my way through Hell on Wheels. Decent show, would recommend.

[Pext]

Arcane - 10/10

Loved it.

[Eraser]

Watched the first three episodes of The Wheel of Time (it's all that's currently available. A new episode is released each Friday).

It clearly aspires to ride the LotR and GoT wave, but doesn't seem to be able to deliver a cohesive hook that pulls you in. At least, not in the first three episodes, which should be more than enough time to ramp things up for a 10 episode season.

The show suffers from a few problems. First of all, there's no compelling reason to root for the protagonists of the show. They set off on this quest, but there's no weight to their potential failure. If they fail, that supposedly is a bad thing, but I just don't care enough about the world they inhabit to really fear for its demise.

And that brings us to the next point. The world this takes place in seems like a loose set of cobbled together locations that have no relation to each other whatsoever. Game of Thrones was very strong in this. Westeros as a whole was a cohesive thing. Sure, Winterfell and Kings Landing, for example, were very distinct places, but they clearly were part of the same world. In Wheel, it's completely unclear how bits and pieces of the world tie together. I think part of what's causing this is that every location, set piece and other characters often suddenly just turn up out of the blue. There's nothing and then, bam, there's the next station on this trainride through the episodes.

One thing I don't like about the production is that everything looks too clean. The clothes of the protagonists, for example, look like something they grabbed off of an H&M clothes rack ten minutes ago. It's not just that it's not dirty, it looks machine made, like modern day fast fashion. And it may be odd to say this, but Josha Stradowski (who plays one of the protagonists) his hair pisses me off to no end for some reason. The cut just looks so 2021, it's really weird and out of place in some kind of nagging way. I guess that's just me, but it's something that's been a thing.

Speaking of production, everything seems to have a weird filter on it, which kind of sucks the warmth out of the picture. I don't know exactly how to say it, but everything looks too hard, too modern. I'm having difficulty truly committing to the idea that this is a medieval fantasy epic and not some dudes cosplaying as their favorite Wheel of Time characters. The sometimes tacky dialogue doesn't help either.

So that's a lot of negativity, I guess. The series isn't particularly bad, it is entertaining to watch. But a new Game of Thrones, it certainly is not. Or Lord of the Rings, for that matter. But I guess with HBO and Amazon doing new GoT and LotR series, that appetite might just be stilled next year.

[[xeno]Julios]

Just finished first season of Hellbound. Fantastic stuff. Be sure to watch subtitled.

[Pext]

The Wheel of Time

Fully agreed.

The show is mostly concerned with hitting the story beats from the book and thus fails to bring its own rythm.

Instead of telling a story it turns some of the book into moving pictures and exposition.

Also the cinematography is not speaking its own language but just burrows tools without tying them to the narrative. (Example from episode 2: The third male character finds a mysterious knife and we hear some LOTR-Ring style whispers to tell the viewer that it's mysterious and tempting. For the LOTR this makes sense since the one ring influences the minds of creatures around it. But in the show there's no context given for the knife. The persons who did the cinematography just blindly rely on LOTR having already established what this whisper means. It's a re-use of a technique without being grounded in the show itself.)

Overall it's not bad but also nothing special.

Go watch arcane. It's the better (fantasy) show in every aspect.

[[xeno]Julios]

Arcane - 10/10

Loved it.

If I know nothing about league of legends, will this be worth watching?

[Pext]

Arcane - 10/10

Loved it.

If I know nothing about league of legends, will this be worth watching?

Yes definitely. I did not know anything before watching.

You can easily forget that it's based on a video game.

I expected a mediocre villain-of-the-week show filled with fan service.
But it's nothing like this at all.

This is a genuinely good piece of media.
And I think it's among the best scifi/fantasy has to offer.

(It's also got 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
And here's some internet dude raving about it.)

[youtube]l0TL5DwP6Mo[/youtube]

[[xeno]Julios]

cheers

Yea I remember being blown away by Castlevania too. Will check Arcane out

[Eraser]

I watched the first two episodes of Arcane based solely on Pext's recommendation and I must say, so far it's been worth it. Oh and I never played League of Legends.

edit: ok, episode 7 done and I can already say: you must watch this. It's incredible.

Edit2: aight, that's all of season 1 done. Can't wait for season 2, which has been announced by Netflix

[Mat Linnett]

I too enjoyed Arcane, great story-telling, and I was sucked in despite never having played League of Legends.

Mind you, a lot of the visual style, particularly character design, owes a huge amount to Arkane and Dishonored. The various villains and henchmen in particular look like they're extras shipped in from the streets of Dunwall.
It verges on plagiarism; but I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[Eraser]

Ah yeah, that's what I instantly thought of as well. Having said that, I absolutely love the Dishonored art style and I say they made it work very well in Arcane, so eh, I'm not complaining.

[[xeno]Julios]

Few min into third episode. This looks like it could be spectacular. Thanks for recommendation!

[raw]

The Expanse season 6 starts TOMORROW!!!! :alert: :alert: :alert: :alert: :alert:

[Mat Linnett]

Yup, can't wait

Started watching the new season of Titans last night, but it hasn't really grabbed me yet.

Finished off Money Heist, which is probably a good thing, as it was becoming very ridiculous and predictable.

Quite enjoyed season 3 of Hanna on Prime, but I think the first season's still the best.

The Lost in Space send-off was pretty cool, and nice to look at, but maybe felt a little rushed. Maybe they'd meant to explore the concepts over more seasons before being told this was the last one?

With The Expanse being only 6 episodes, that means I'll definitely be finished before season 2 of The Witcher rolls out. SQUEEEEEEE!

Edit: Oh, have also been enjoying Hawkeye, am lukewarm on the new season of Discovery, and am undecided on whether I like Wheel of Time or not.
More Rosamund Pike is never a bad thing, but I think even she struggles to carry this. Doesn't help that the rest of the cast are eminently forgettable so far, apart from that bloke from Vikings who doesn't stick around for long.

[Eraser]

Wheel of Time just rings a bit hollow so far. I don't care about any of those people on the screen. Especially not that one Warder who [spoiler]offs himself and everyone starts crying[/spoiler]

[Mat Linnett]

Ironically, that's the guy from Vikings I was talking about. He's a good actor, and I was hoping to see more of him, but obviously the show-runners had other ideas. Seems a bit odd to bring in such an actor for such a short stint.

[Mat Linnett]

Also, There's something about it that feels very forced when it comes to representation and inclusivity. Like they've cast people from different ethnic minorities more to deflect potential criticism rather than in service of the story.

Foundation did this a lot better and a lot more believably. None of the characters there felt out of place or like "tokens".

[Eraser]

I hadn't really thought of it like that yet, but subconsciously it did irk me, indeed.

For some reason, there's a few moments when there's talk of specific physical traits that can be used to determine where someone is from, but yet every place the series shows has such a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds that it's a bit weird. And this isn't just true for ethnicity of the actors, it's also about visual style. Clothing, weapon style, architecture, etc.

In Game of Thrones, for example, it's immediately clear if someone is from Winterfell or part of the Free Folk beyond the wall or if someone is living in the Red Keep or if it's a Dothraki or if it's a Targaryen (well, except for Aemon, for obvious reasons).
With Lord of the Rings, the Hobbits (themselves and where they live) as well as the Elves or the Humans are instantly identifiable. Put a picture of Rivendell and Helms Deep next to each other and it's immediately clear which is which.

Wheel of Time doesn't appear to have this. Everything is just generic fantasy drab.

[Mat Linnett]

Yup, exactly.
And again, it looks like someone really thought about the ethnic make-up of a galactic humanity in Foundation, with different planets featuring very distinct cultures and ethicities.
For example, it's very easy to spot someone from Gaal Dornick's home planet of Synnax, and similarly, someone from Phara Keaen's home planet of Anacreon.

Whereas in WoT, where these potential "Dragon Reborn" characters all come from the same rural farming village, they're remarkably diverse and clean, with completely different clothing styles and no unifying cultural "feel".

[Pext]

out of place

It could be argued that since WoT takes place in the far future/past on earth that this diversity is grounded in the world. It's not supposed to be medieval fantasy.

[Pext]

Wheel of Time just rings a bit hollow so far.

Yup. I'm in episode 3 so far. Started the episode three times but always turned it off after ten minutes.

First complaint: So much boring and irrelevant stuff happening on the screen.
Example: The episode starts with a fight between the shaman girl and one of the orcs. But to what end? How does this add anything to the show other than filling 5 minutes?

Second compaint: They fail hard at "Show, don't tell". Sometimes even with a mismatch.
Example: Female character says something along the lines of "It almost seems like these wolves were guiding us here." after a sequence whose tension relied on it being filmed as a chase scene.

I think the actors are fine.
It's mostly the uninspired and shoehorned writing and the boring cinematography.

I'm really trying to like it but so far this has been a big miss for me.

[Mat Linnett]

It could be argued that since WoT takes place in the far future/past on earth that this diversity is grounded in the world. It's not supposed to be medieval fantasy.

Point, but even then, surely people from the same village whose families have lived there for years would have a less diverse ethnic make-up?
I'd appreciate it more if everyone from said village was more noticeably mixed race. It would be more believable than there being so many distinct ethnicities.