TV/Movies Megathread

[Sophie Scholl]

Westworld - it started well but once again they get undone by their obsession with twists and plot pyrotechnics. Stopped caring.

Only the first season exists

The Indian Chief episode from season 2 is one of my favorites. Other than that, agreed.

The whole Native American plotline was great in season 2 if memory serves. Everything else was horrible. Season 3 started out pretty solidly and then devolved into shit. To paraphrase Ian Malcom, "Your writers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should".

[Razgovory]

Finally got around to watching that Witcher show on Netflix.  It's okay, but some of the dialogue annoys me like the Princess character who keeps saying "Gross!"  I also can't escape the feeling I'm watching someone's D&D campaign.

[Liep]

Middleditch and Schwartz on Netflix. It's improv but it's actually really fun.

[The Brain]

Middleditch and Schwartz on Netflix. It's improv but it's actually really fun.

And.

[MadImmortalMan]

Finally got around to watching that Witcher show on Netflix.  It's okay, but some of the dialogue annoys me like the Princess character who keeps saying "Gross!"  I also can't escape the feeling I'm watching someone's D&D campaign.

I got the same feeling watching a Chinese TV show about the Qin dynasty and some concubine who acts all modern demands someone do a "pinky swear". 325 BC

Also, I've noticed a significant uptick in nationalism in Chinese shows. I'm a bit of a hopeless sinophile, so I watch what I can get easily. There's a few historical dramas on Netflix now. Usually the PRC shows are all WW2 war shows about communist supermen fighting evil Japanese gargoyles. Makes you wonder why the war lasted so long, really. So I mostly watch the ones about ancient history.  Couldn't help but notice in the same Qin show, there was an almost ubiquitous obsession with "loyalty to your state" which seems anachronistic by a couple thousand years at least. And also out of place in the Warring States period, when many of the most high profile figures changed sides many times.

The word "state" may be repeatedly mistranslated by the subtitlers however. I can't discern that.

[celedhring]

Chinese films have been quite nationalistic for a while now. The Chinese government didn't care for tv/movies much until the 2010s, but they have been quite good at exploiting it since then. Besides WWII and period dramas, they are having a fever of 1980s-style jingoistic actioners.

As you say, "loyalty to the ruler" is a theme they introduce quite often in period films, misrepresenting the past to justify the present as "the Chinese way". I love how if there's some corrupt ruler somewhere it's because the benevolent Emperor doesn't know.

[The Larch]

I love how if there's some corrupt ruler somewhere it's because the benevolent Emperor doesn't know.

Seems like a twist on the ages old "Good king, bad adviser" trope.

[crazy canuck]

Westworld - it started well but once again they get undone by their obsession with twists and plot pyrotechnics. Stopped caring.

yup. It's too hard to follow, not worth the time.

My son and I have really enjoyed season three.  Great theme and story telling.  Then we got around to watching the last episode.  What just happened?  Everything we conjectured this season was about and that made it enjoyable isn't.

[Barrister]

I didn't foresee the ending when I was halfway through - [spoiler] I initially thought the Good Place was a training exercise, not simply a Bad Place. However, my guess may still have some validity ... [/Spoiler]

[Spoiler]Yeah, that might wind up being where the show ultimately goes - there's been an awful lot of learning for people stuck in "the Bad Place".  And the way the soul mates, who aren't really soul mates, but have managed to make meaningful connections with their soul mates, suggests there may be something there as well...[/spoiler]

[KRonn]

Westworld - it started well but once again they get undone by their obsession with twists and plot pyrotechnics. Stopped caring.

yup. It's too hard to follow, not worth the time.

My son and I have really enjoyed season three.  Great theme and story telling.  Then we got around to watching the last episode.  What just happened?  Everything we conjectured this season was about and that made it enjoyable isn't.

Yeah, that was a surprising episode. I want to see where the story goes in the next episode and what characters are part of it.

[Syt]

Frasier S11E03 - The Doctor is Out.

Still one of the best episodes, co-starring Patrick Stewart as gay opera director who has a crush on Frasier. 

[The Larch]

Just watched the 3rd What we do in the shadows episode for the 2nd season. The Superb Owl party. 

[Josephus]

Westworld - it started well but once again they get undone by their obsession with twists and plot pyrotechnics. Stopped caring.

yup. It's too hard to follow, not worth the time.

My son and I have really enjoyed season three.  Great theme and story telling.  Then we got around to watching the last episode.  What just happened?  Everything we conjectured this season was about and that made it enjoyable isn't.

Yeah, that was a surprising episode. I want to see where the story goes in the next episode and what characters are part of it.

Now you've intriguied me enough to make me want to get back to it.

[Sheilbh]

Normal People.

I haven't read the book (yet) - but know it's had a huge impact. But the BBC/Hulu (and I assume RTE) adaptation is incredible. The best and most painfully evocative show about first love I've ever seen. The two leads are astonishing, it's beautifully shot and just raw at certain points.

Can't recommend it enough. And I need to read the book.

[viper37]

Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2.

Quebec movie, available in english, highly recommended, but I've no idea how some of it will sound.  Stars Colm Feore as a now RCMP agent and Patrick Huard as a Quebec provincial police undercover investigator.

It is hilarious.  Sort of like Bad Boys with less explosions (&less bullets), but even less serious.  The first one dealt mostly with the stuck-up, by-the-book stereotype approach of English Canada vs the unruly ways of Quebec.  The second one still has a bit of that, with a few good jokes about provincial-federal relationships thrown in for good measure

This time they investigate a series of car theft by Montreal mafia's #2, apparently linked to something bigger, in the US.  Totally silly plot, but it's a lot of fun, especially when Huard's character gets arrested in a small US town and has to deal with the local sheriff.

Plays heavily into stereotype, but I really like that kind of jokes.



Cardinal, season 4
Canadian series, with Billy Campbell (Helix) as detective John Cardinal and Karine Vanasse (Revenge) as detective Lise Delorme.  The setting is northern Ontario and that's really beautiful, instead of the generic forests of BC (seriously, they got to use the same place over&over&over for all shows filmed in Canada involving a forest) or some generic city, this feels likes it could have been shot in my backyard.  The last season is in winter, and the way the murders are done, combined with the setting... it's chilly, pun intended.

I highly recommend you binge watch the 4 seasons, but I have no idea if it's available on streaming somewhere.

Simultanous releases in French&English.  I'm not sure if Vanasse dubs herself.