TV/Movies Megathread

[celedhring]

It took me 3 viewings to accept that Phantom Menace was a piece of shit. The emotional impact of "New Star Wars!" was too much for me at that age. I'm much crankier now. Then I went to a fourth screening because I promised my mother I would take her to it, and then a fifth because there was sex involved.

Clones and Revenge of the Sith I've only watched twice. Clones is bad and boring, but ROTS is actively ridiculous.

Incidentally mom wanted me to take her to The Last Jedi and I refused  I told her that she would genuinely hate it.

[Malthus]

Finished Chernobyl. It was excellent. Well worth watching.

Some notes:

- The makers did on occasion veer into excess, not that this mattered much: for example, at one point claiming that the possible steam explosion could have been 'megatons', which isn't possible. This was mildly annoying (it would have been so easy not to do this and it wasn't necessary for the plot), but I thought it was a minor issue.

- Likewise, the characters are occasionally threatened with being shot, which is more a 1930s Soviet thing than a 1980s Soviet thing. Again, more or a minor issue.

- They don't try to disguise the fact that everyone in the Soviet Union speaks English, with an English accent. Willing suspension of disbelief work on that ...

- Hilariously, the Russians are apparently planning to produce their own Chernobyl mini-series. In this one, the accident isn't caused by a mixture of Soviet managerial incompetence and arrogance, and Soviet design flaws in the reactor, but rather by a sinister CIA plot. This fits perfectly with the message of Chernobyl (the current series), which is, in essence, that people will prefer to believe a bunch of comforting lies than the uncomfortable truth until reality kicks them in the face ... it would be a treat to watch both series back to back.

[The Brain]

Finished Chernobyl. It was excellent. Well worth watching.

Some notes:

- They don't try to disguise the fact that everyone in the Soviet Union speaks English, with an English accent. Willing suspension of disbelief work on that ...

I don't fully understand this kind of comment. Why would it require any significant suspension of disbelief (if that is what you are implying, I may be wrong)? In Amadeus English took the place of German (even if generally not English accents), and in Chernobyl English takes the place of Russian (even if it generally doesn't include writing). I recently read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I never felt like "whoa all these Chinese guys speak English!".

[Berkut]

Yeah I don't get that complaint. What was the alternative?

[Malthus]

Finished Chernobyl. It was excellent. Well worth watching.

Some notes:

- They don't try to disguise the fact that everyone in the Soviet Union speaks English, with an English accent. Willing suspension of disbelief work on that ...

I don't fully understand this kind of comment. Why would it require any significant suspension of disbelief (if that is what you are implying, I may be wrong)? In Amadeus English took the place of German (even if generally not English accents), and in Chernobyl English takes the place of Russian (even if it generally doesn't include writing). I recently read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I never felt like "whoa all these Chinese guys speak English!".

I didn't think it was a problem - is exactly what I was saying.

Apparently some (Russian?) viewers complained about it. I don't think it requires significant suspension of disbelief.

[Malthus]

Yeah I don't get that complaint. What was the alternative?

It's not a complaint. It shouldn't be read as such. Hence "Willing suspension of disbelief work on that ... ". 

[Eddie Teach]

Yeah I don't get that complaint. What was the alternative?

It's not a complaint. It shouldn't be read as such. Hence "Willing suspension of disbelief work on that ... ".

That jumble is rather difficult to parse with confidence.

[The Brain]

Finished Chernobyl. It was excellent. Well worth watching.

Some notes:

- They don't try to disguise the fact that everyone in the Soviet Union speaks English, with an English accent. Willing suspension of disbelief work on that ...

I don't fully understand this kind of comment. Why would it require any significant suspension of disbelief (if that is what you are implying, I may be wrong)? In Amadeus English took the place of German (even if generally not English accents), and in Chernobyl English takes the place of Russian (even if it generally doesn't include writing). I recently read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I never felt like "whoa all these Chinese guys speak English!".

I didn't think it was a problem - is exactly what I was saying.

Apparently some (Russian?) viewers complained about it. I don't think it requires significant suspension of disbelief.

Gotcha (as Eddie says it wasn't extremely obvious what you meant).

Yeah. I've also seen a number of YouTube comments from Anglo-Saxons who would have preferred English with Russian movie accents.

[Malthus]

Yeah I don't get that complaint. What was the alternative?

It's not a complaint. It shouldn't be read as such. Hence "Willing suspension of disbelief work on that ... ".

That jumble is rather difficult to parse with confidence.

Typical Languish - focus on trivia, cling on like grim death. 

[Malthus]

Finished Chernobyl. It was excellent. Well worth watching.

Some notes:

- They don't try to disguise the fact that everyone in the Soviet Union speaks English, with an English accent. Willing suspension of disbelief work on that ...

I don't fully understand this kind of comment. Why would it require any significant suspension of disbelief (if that is what you are implying, I may be wrong)? In Amadeus English took the place of German (even if generally not English accents), and in Chernobyl English takes the place of Russian (even if it generally doesn't include writing). I recently read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I never felt like "whoa all these Chinese guys speak English!".

I didn't think it was a problem - is exactly what I was saying.

Apparently some (Russian?) viewers complained about it. I don't think it requires significant suspension of disbelief.

Gotcha (as Eddie says it wasn't extremely obvious what you meant).

Yeah. I've also seen a number of YouTube comments from Anglo-Saxons who would have preferred English with Russian movie accents.

Personally, I think all actors portraying Russians should sound like either Boris Badenov or Natasha Falale from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, but I don't go around telling people that in public. 

[Tamas]

the demand that Chernobyl actors should have spoken English in fake Russian accent is just ludicrous.

That would have required exponentially more suspension of disbelief as it would have implied that those Russian people actually conversed in English with each other.

But I don't think that was ever a serious complaint, just the usual modern symptom of every little baseless complaint or perceived offense taken out of all proportions.

[Valmy]

The Last Jedi is the only Star Wars film I have watched only once*. I understand what they were going for (breaking the saga's cliches), but the result was extremely joyless with some really stupid parts.

*Yes, that means I've watched the prequels more than once. I apologize for that.

The prequels were bad but I can just sort of tolerate them. The Last Jedi I actually loath. Very nihilistic and disheartening film. If I want that I will watch something that depressing I would prefer something like Requiem for a Dream, which has the benefit of at least being a good film.

[Malthus]

the demand that Chernobyl actors should have spoken English in fake Russian accent is just ludicrous.

That would have required exponentially more suspension of disbelief as it would have implied that those Russian people actually conversed in English with each other.

But I don't think that was ever a serious complaint, just the usual modern symptom of every little baseless complaint or perceived offense taken out of all proportions.

Agreed - though there were more significant issues with the series, mostly dealing with making the situation (admittedly horrible) out to be worse than it actually was, for dramatic purposes.

Again, I don't think that detracts from the series as drama. It is worth noting in passing though.

[crazy canuck]

Personally, I think all actors portraying Russians should sound like either Boris Badenov or Natasha Falale from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, but I don't go around telling people that in public. 

You just did 

- The makers did on occasion veer into excess, not that this mattered much: for example, at one point claiming that the possible steam explosion could have been 'megatons', which isn't possible. This was mildly annoying (it would have been so easy not to do this and it wasn't necessary for the plot), but I thought it was a minor issue.

At least one person who has researched what happened disagrees with your assessment.

"If that happened it would have triggered a second steam explosion that would have done unimaginable damage and destroyed the entire power station, including the three other reactors," author Andrew Leatherbarrow wrote in an email to Tech Insider. Leatherbarrow recently published a book, called "1:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster," that recounts the catastrophe's history on its 30th anniversary. By most estimates, such a blast may have wiped out half of Europe, leaving it riskier to live in for 500,000 years.

https://www.businessinsider.com/chernobyl-volunteers-divers-nuclear-mission-2016-4


There is another piece in the business insider quoting some expert who thinks it was overdone but he doesn't rule it out.

Haverkamp said there were too many hypotheticals considered in this scenario.

"They're not saving the world," he said. "That situation might play out if all of the melting corium hit groundwater," he added, but when corium starts melting, it melts "in a very uneven way."

The claim that a second explosion would carry a force of up to 4 megatons, he said, was "an exaggeration."

https://www.businessinsider.com/chernobyl-hbo-whats-true-myths-2019-5#myth-a-steam-explosion-following-the-disaster-could-have-left-much-of-europe-uninhabitable-5

Not sure why you found it mildly annoying.  Sounds like one needs to know about the details of nuclear power on a Brain level of expertise to have the general knowledge necessary to make a judgment about whether it was over done or not while watching the show.

[Berkut]

I remember thinking that either that was grossly exaggerated, or we should stop using nuclear power altogether if there was any possible set of circumstances that could result in an accident that could wipe out an entire continent.

I assumed they were grossly exaggerating for effect.