TV/Movies Megathread

[mongers]

Next week the bbc starts a new drama series based on Bernard Cornwell's 'The Last Kingdom':

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0344rr3

[Admiral Yi]

Next week the bbc starts a new drama series based on Bernard Cornwell's 'The Last Kingdom':

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0344rr3

Starting in You Kay later than in other countries?  Squeeze and I have already watched the first episode.

[mongers]

Next week the bbc starts a new drama series based on Bernard Cornwell's 'The Last Kingdom':

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0344rr3

Starting in You Kay later than in other countries?  Squeeze and I have already watched the first episode.

Interesting, was it any good?

[Admiral Yi]

Interesting, was it any good?

I gave up during a very silly fight scene and probably won't make an effort to catch it again, but you should judge for yourself.

[mongers]

Interesting, was it any good?

I gave up during a very silly fight scene and probably won't make an effort to catch it again, but you should judge for yourself.

OK, thanks for that Yi.

I guess I'll probably watch as a fair bit of it is based around these parts.

[Habbaku]

Fargo Season 2 has chubbier, hotter Kirsten Dunst, Saul Tight, a hapless Kieran Culkin, Tod from Breaking Bad, Ted Danson, and apparently Bruce Campbell is playing Reagan (at least judging by the campaign posters in the background).  What's not to like?

Also, it's every bit as depressing and awesome as the first season so far.

[jimmy olsen]

The film is wildly uneven; it goes from a light rom-com to a action packed extravaganza in the blink of an eye. 

Sounds like a typical Korean film

[jimmy olsen]

First episode of the last kingdom - I feared the worst. They have rather killed it. The battles arent just small,they're nonsensical. Some comments are historically wrong (eg we used to rule from tweed to tyne! Err... thats modern Northumberland; not old bernicia, Cornwall is England,  etc...). Also everyone is posh. Such a shame.  I was at least hope for a Sharpesque cheap and cheerful piece

That's too bad. The books are very good, for genre fiction.

Every bit of a fiction can be defined by a genre, there is no mythically pristine literary fiction that sits on a pedestal above as Minskyesque snobs would have us believe.

[jimmy olsen]

Reviews of the Last Kingdom seem decent to goodish, the NYTimes says it takes until the 3rd episode to really catch on though.

[Habbaku]

I thought the first episode was above-average in quality, which means I'm willing to give it a few episodes.  Tyr, as usual, would find an excuse to bitch about winning the lottery.

[Malthus]

First episode of the last kingdom - I feared the worst. They have rather killed it. The battles arent just small,they're nonsensical. Some comments are historically wrong (eg we used to rule from tweed to tyne! Err... thats modern Northumberland; not old bernicia, Cornwall is England,  etc...). Also everyone is posh. Such a shame.  I was at least hope for a Sharpesque cheap and cheerful piece

That's too bad. The books are very good, for genre fiction.

Every bit of a fiction can be defined by a genre, there is no mythically pristine literary fiction that sits on a pedestal above as Minskyesque snobs would have us believe.

Meh. Cornwell's books tend to be written to a formula. He himself does not disguise it - he says when he started writing, he just copied the plot elements of the Hornblower books, with a different setting. 

They are well-written and entertaining, but they aren't really the same quality as works that defy genre characterizations.

[KRonn]

Season opener for walking dead was excellent.  Well paced and a good introduction to what the rest of the season will have in store.  5 walkers out of 5.

Agreed, I really liked it. Going to be a very interesting season with the new town plus a likely new human threat.

[KRonn]

Gotta say, I may be starved for good tv series, but Flash, Gotham and American Horror Story have been amazing so far this season.

I like The Flash but haven't seen much of Gotham or AHS so far.

[Josquius]

Walking Dead was very WTF at first. I thought I had somehow missed a few episodes down the line and I paused it to go and quickly read summaries of the last series.
It came together though, it was indeed a very good episode, one of the first times for a long while I've been eager to see what happens next in a show.

I thought the first episode was above-average in quality, which means I'm willing to give it a few episodes. 

It was so-so. I'm a fan of the books though so its inevitable anything less than GoT level quality would dissapoint. It's also kind of close to my heart with the main character being Bernician so missing a chance there rankles.
I certainly will watch how it goes on but my excitement for the series has dimmed.

Tyr, as usual, would find an excuse to bitch about winning the lottery.

Sorry but I just have a positive and analytical mindset. The default setting is good, deviations from that must therefore be examined so they can be fixed.

Meh. Cornwell's books tend to be written to a formula. He himself does not disguise it - he says when he started writing, he just copied the plot elements of the Hornblower books, with a different setting. 

They are well-written and entertaining, but they aren't really the same quality as works that defy genre characterizations.

Definitely.
Its why I stopped reading Sharpe after a while actually, still got a bunch of Sharpe books I never read. The same formula time after time got boring.

The Saxon stories books somewhat avoid this though in that the time scales involved are so much bigger, covering a guy's entire life and a series of wars rather than just the peninsula campaign (and one or two extras). Also it being a free guy going around and doing his thing rather than a soldier following orders helps lead to more adventure.
Definitely agreed they're not literary classics, but they are fun light reads nonetheless.

[crazy canuck]

Walking Dead was very WTF at first.

I had exactly the same reaction.  Wait!  What!  Did we miss the season opener!