Quake3World

Finished off season 3 of The Handmaid's Tale today.
Incredible program, with outstanding cinematography.
Should serve as a dire warning for our times; I could easily see the US going this way if the fascist crackpots and religious zealots push a little harder.

Regarding Castlevania, I loved season three too, but I'm kinda trepidatious about where it's going to go, given that the writer, Warren Ellis, has been let go over sexual predation accusations.

Apparently, season four may not suffer too much, as he'd already finished writing it by the time the accusations became public.

A shame, as I think the western style story-telling combined with the Japanese animation is what gives it its unique flavour. It manages to successfully avoid many of the tropes which I find annoying in more traditional manga.

Oh man, why can't all these successful people stop thinking with their dicks?

Eraser wrote:Finished season 3 of Castlevania on Netflix. Best season so far. Can't wait for season 4!

Oh shit totally forgot about that

Despite the great set-piece in episode 3, so far I've been underwhelmed by season 2 of The Boys. It's lost a lot of the humour, and spends too much time being mopey.
The comics were notorious for going right to the limit of what you thought was acceptable, then pushing further.
Season 1 captured some of that lightning-in-a-bottle. Season 2 on the other hand feels like it's had its teeth pulled in comparison to the source material.

I hope it picks up; at the end of season 1, I appreciated the focus that Seth Rogan had brought to the story. If I have one criticism of the comics, it's that each collected trade paperback is like a standalone vignette, with the connective tissue between books being quite loose and chaotic.
Unfortunately, I think season 2 is proving that to work, The Boys needs a bit of chaos, and it currently doesn't have it.
There's a scene in the latest episode that would have been perfect if they hadn't lost their bottle at the last second.


Oh, and I watched Away, which overall was pretty damn tepid, despite a good effects budget. Rote and predictable storyline focussing on a new disaster every episode, while also focusing on a specific crew member for that episode.
I've watched so much good telly recently, and some bad stuff that's so bad it's good, that this came across as being offensively mediocre.


As for recommendations that you may not have watched, I can highly, highly recommend Tales from the Loop on Amazon Prime.
Probably my favourite thing I've watched all year, even eking out The Handmaid's Tale.

I was considering giving Away a shot but from what I've been reading (including your little review) I think I'll give it a pass.

Give it a go as filler TV, something to watch on a weekly basis while waiting for episodes of something you really like. It might work that way.

I also loved Doom Patrol season 2, but it felt like it ended too soon, with too many plot points unresolved.
It's not usually a bad thing for a TV show for the viewers to be left wanting more, but it could have done with one or two more episodes while still providing a cliffhanger ending to the season.

Mat Linnett wrote:Give it a go as filler TV

Yeah, I'm not exactly in need of "filler TV" right now :clownboat:
Still have to continue watching The Crown, The Good Place, Homeland, Black Mirror, The Expanse, Mr Robot, Better Call Saul (watching S05 now) and have to give Star Trek Picard and Dark a go as well.

Long way up on Apple TV.

15000 miles on two electric bikes. It’s fascinating.

Long way down and Long way round were great, really absorbing. Hopefully catch this new one when it comes out on dvd or w/e

Eraser wrote:Yeah, I'm not exactly in need of "filler TV" right now :clownboat:
Still have to continue watching The Crown, The Good Place, Homeland, Black Mirror, The Expanse, Mr Robot, Better Call Saul (watching S05 now) and have to give Star Trek Picard and Dark a go as well.

Eraser.... Did you finish that Better Call Saul series? Is it as good as say Breaking Bad, Mr Robot and the like and worth watching?

Been watching Better Call Saul with the missus and she's uh.... causing a bit of a hiatus in watching it. We're at episode 3 of season 5 (which is the most recent season).

It's really a must-see as far as I'm concerned. There are episodes that even out-do Breaking Bad. Put it on your watch list

100% agree with that, Jerry. Absolutely outstanding television.

Oh, having said that, I recently signed up for an Amazon Prime Video account, after learning it's only €2,99 a month here. I already binged through The Expanse season 4 and have watched most of Star Trek Picard.

That last one is an odd duck, by the way. It definitely feels more Trekkie than the abomination that is Star Trek Discovery, but every so often it suffers from terrible script writing and forced fan service. It's cool that a number of old Star Trek characters make an appearance, but their presence feels wholly unnecessary most of the time. Especially 7 of 9 who, like a textbook Deus Ex Machina example, jumps into the story out of nowhere, not once but twice is just jarring.
I like how Romulans play a big role in this series, and are true to how they were in TNG and DS9, although the super secret agent just has to be a young woman dressed in mostly leather with a presence like that of a second rate prostitute, which, again is a bit too trope-y for my tastes.

I could go on about a few other annoying characters (Picard's sword wielding ninja buddy is dumb as a brick and does inexplicable shit, the daughter of two familiar characters is too smartass for her own good, the pilot of Picard's space ship is a typical space cowboy who smokes and drinks booze, the scientist who tags along is this insecure "oh I'm so clumsy and have no idea what I'm doing giggle giggle" type, reminiscent of Discovery's Tilly) but what mostly needs to be said is that Patrick Stewart can't hide the fact he's 70+ years of age and really just a tad too old to be running around in space and jumping through hoops everywhere.

All in all, I found it an interesting experience to watch it, and it did tickle some of my nostalgic star trek lobes, but they need to up their game if they want season 2 to be a bit. This series can't survive on nostalgia alone.

Is anyone else watching the new season of Fargo? It has been excellent so far.

Lieutenant Dan wrote:Is anyone else watching the new season of Fargo? It has been excellent so far.

Sorry I haven't viewed any Fargo Lieutenant Dan but someone here must have, surely.

Thanks to all for giving the thumbs up to the Better Call Saul series. I've located and just started to view the first of the 50 episodes and looking forward to it

Didn't realise there was a season 4 of Fargo, thanks Lieutenant Dan!

Whiskey, Fargo is excellent. I never understood what all the fuss about Billy Bob Thornton was until I watched the first season.

You don't need to have seen the movie to watch the show, but I'd say it helps set the scene and certainly adds more flavour.

Season 2's probably the weakest of the first three seasons, but Fargo on a bad day is still better than 90% of other stuff out there.

Watched La Révolution on Netflix, pretty awesome.

Eraser wrote:Been watching Better Call Saul with the missus and she's uh.... causing a bit of a hiatus in watching it. We're at episode 3 of season 5 (which is the most recent season).

It's really a must-see as far as I'm concerned. There are episodes that even out-do Breaking Bad. Put it on your watch list

Its the reason I keep going back to Netflix.

Mat Linnett wrote:Didn't realise there was a season 4 of Fargo, thanks Lieutenant Dan!

Whiskey, Fargo is excellent. I never understood what all the fuss about Billy Bob Thornton was until I watched the first season.

You don't need to have seen the movie to watch the show, but I'd say it helps set the scene and certainly adds more flavour.

Season 2's probably the weakest of the first three seasons, but Fargo on a bad day is still better than 90% of other stuff out there.

I love how the different seasons are connected, even though it may take a few episodes to work out how they're connected. Also, the sometimes subtle, sometimes wtf supernatural bits that don't seem to be connected to anything, they add a lot.

Finishing up season 11 with X-Files and getting ready to watch season 2 for The Mandalorian.

raw wrote:Finishing up season 11 with X-Files and getting ready to watch season 2 for The Mandalorian.

Ooh, the wife and I have been dipping our toes into the X-Files for the first time, almost done with season 1. Can't believe we haven't dug into this before, it's really really good.

The Better Call Saul series... Only halfway in ep3 and it is really good.

Really good. Season 3 just done and amazing how the two, Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad blend

Still really good in S04E08

Started watching The Queen's Gambit on Netflix, and it's really good.
It's the fictional tale of a girl-genius chess player in the Sixties. It doesn't sound exactly thrilling when you read that, but it's more about the personalities and lifestyle surrounding chess in that time period.
It's not a true story, but it's incredibly well researched, and is heavily influenced by the likes of Bobby Fischer and his rock star approach to chess.
And as it's the Sixties, there's also a cold war undercurrent.

Recommended

I added that to my watch list yesterday

Has anyone dipped into BARBAREN on Netflix yet? It looks pretty awesome in the trailers