TV/Movies Megathread

[Neil]

"Waltz" is a tremendous episode, and I could've lived with that being the end of Dukat.

I'm just not sure I like the wraiths stuff period.  It's this weird magical superhero story in the midst of a somewhat more-grounded science fantasy, and I'm not entirely certain I could ever really embrace it.  And putting Kai Winn in the midst of the climactic Harry Potter duel is not necessarily an improvement, either... although at the least it gives her character more than being Dukat's helpmeet.  (When her big problem was that some black guy from Earth got to be the Emissary, it's kind of a double-bummer that it was likewise the Space Nazi who oversaw her planet's Space Holocaust got to be the Bajoran Devil.  Seriously, I'm not convinced the wormhole aliens actually like the Bajoran people one bit.*)

*Even though I'm fond of the fan theory that the wormhole aliens are, indeed, Bajorans from the future, who will at some point evolve to exist outside of linear time.

That would make sense.  After all, it's pretty common for people to hate their ancestors and hold them in contempt. 

While I feel that a lot of the Prophets episodes were generally weaker episodes (although I always enjoyed seeing how the aliens and their Emissary was dealt with by Kira), but at the same time they were sort of central to who Sisko was and how he changed over the course of the series.

But, regarding Season 7 more broadly, there's still a lot to like.  I like Ezri Dax a lot, considering her a major improvement over Jadzia (whom I also liked, but had a tendency to be written as the most annoying possible version of herself).  Likewise, Chrysalis is one of my all-time favorite bottle episodes--in case we've forgotten, it's the one where Dr. Bashir pulls a Flowers for Algernon on one of the genetically-engineered mutants from Statistical Improbabilities, mainly so that he can sexually exploit her.  It's one of the weirdest, brittlest, and most psychologically on-point things I've ever seen risked in a Trek episode (even if it was probably half-accidental)--and the thing even has a bitchin' musical number.  Then again, I also enjoy Take Me Out to the Holosuite.

In Seven they it seemed like they just wanted to have fun.  Obviously, new Dax was incredibly fun, and brought a different energy to the show that I appreciated.  But episodes like Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges, Treachery, Faith and the Great River or Field of Fire are fun episodes.  I would say that the pacing sometimes seemed a little odd, as the show would go from some pretty grim war episodes like AR558 to holodeck romps like Paper Moon or Badda Bing.  And they gave Bashir some interesting things to do, and Garak something to do other than lie to Bashir.

[Razgovory]

Occupied, a squarehead drama about a Russian occupation of Norway, is the best drama I've seen in a while.  It's brilliant.

To you, almost everything is brilliant.

[Queequeg]

Occupied, a squarehead drama about a Russian occupation of Norway, is the best drama I've seen in a while.  It's brilliant. 

Sounded cool so I read a synopsis. ..... the EU is the one who got Russia to invade Norway?
Err.....sounds like europhobic silliness

Not really.  The EU provide a bit of a stamp but it's clear that Russia is up to something more complicated.

Also having been in Greece for two months I have to say that I would not put a whole lot of weak-willed greedy shit past Brussels. 

[Norgy]

"Occupied" is quite possibly the worst shit made for TV to come out of Norway.
What you see as "brilliant" is hard to fathom.

The story is utter crap based on the notion of a green party gaining power in Norway. That ends the suspension of disbelief for most.

The EU reacts by sending, wait for it, Russians to Norway? That's worth a few lolz.

Then there's the Norwegian resistance. Army guys. At some farm. Satellites apparently do not take photos of farms in Norway.

The dialogue is wooden at best, the premise moronic and while it probably is subtitled, it's still shit.
It's a turd polished with turds. It's basically Norway's "Red Dawn".

[Eddie Teach]

Red Dawn was cool though.

[Queequeg]

The story is utter crap based on the notion of a green party gaining power in Norway. That ends the suspension of disbelief for most.

The flooding is a big part of the background plot, though, TBH, I found that a bit odd because I thought most of Norway was far enough above sea level to not be hit that hard by hurricanes and the like.

The EU reacts by sending, wait for it, Russians to Norway? That's worth a few lolz.

It's a bit more complicated than that?  Arab oil and gas output has effectively died, and I get the impression that the Russians were plotting something like this fairly early on, before the EU even felt the crisis.  My main objection is probably the US leaving NATO.  We're not doing that.  Russian troops in Norway equals nuclear exchange. 

The dialogue is wooden at best, the premise moronic and while it probably is subtitled, it's still shit.

I understand the Russian far better than the Norwegian and the Russian is generally pretty good, though I'm obviously not expecting Pushkin.

[Queequeg]

Okay the last episode is getting really silly. 

[Norgy]

Okay the last episode is getting really silly.

It was rather awful, right?

I'm not aiming at your tastes here, man, but there's just too much supposed suspension of disbelief in that series. I bet the Russian was quite good, as it was the most expensive piece of teleplay ever made here. And based on an idea from Jo Nesbø, even.

Your point about flooding is not entirely without merit, but most of coastal Norway's population is around sea level. Bergen would be a goner, and Oslo too. Inland Norway where I and noone else lives would be okay.

If you want some Norwegian series that actually does rock, try and look for "Mammon" series one. Pretty dark, but very good.
I'd say "Occupied" works best when seen as comedy for the most part.

Thorium reactors, you say? At costs affordable to mankind?

[Queequeg]

TBH I think it depends on how far out the series it is .

If it's in like 2026, and Bernie Sanders has just finished his second term as president and resigned from NATO and cut our defense budget by 2/3rds, I mean, well, maybe?  Maybe maybe?  Americans like Norwegians.  Especially among our policy crowd there's a lot of respect for the WW2 resistance.  I thought it was really crazy that we weren't at least, you know, flooding Norway with tank-busters and the like. The Russian military has become far more impressive since the Georgian war, and this show takes place in a future where the Russian economy has not completely imploded in the next ten years (which it probably will), but....this does seem to overstate Russia's plausible military capacity in the next 10 years. 

I think it really works best as a kind of parable, to look at the Ukraine situation and put it in a context that Westerners better understand and appreciate. 

[Norgy]

Norway left NATO, remember?
Which is another thing that does not compute at all.

[Queequeg]

No, in the show they make it pretty clear that the US left NATO.  I think.

[The Brain]

I wouldn't put it past the Norwegians to do something stupid like getting occupied by Russia in a ridiculously implausible scenario.

[Ideologue]

I wouldn't put it past the Norwegians to do something stupid like getting occupied by Russia in a ridiculously implausible scenario.

If they were smart, they'd sell them iron ore and offer their military units transit across their borders.

[Ideologue]

In Seven they it seemed like they just wanted to have fun.  Obviously, new Dax was incredibly fun, and brought a different energy to the show that I appreciated.  But episodes like Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges, Treachery, Faith and the Great River or Field of Fire are fun episodes.  I would say that the pacing sometimes seemed a little odd, as the show would go from some pretty grim war episodes like AR558 to holodeck romps like Paper Moon or Badda Bing.  And they gave Bashir some interesting things to do, and Garak something to do other than lie to Bashir.

You know, I'd forgotten about Inter Arma, which is great.

I dunno about Garak coming up in Seven, since they always seemed to be able to give Garak stuff to do, from a pretty early date--though it probably helped that he was also one of the series' more functional characters, like a narrative Swiss Army knife.  (My threshold for when DS9 finally became great isn't S2's finale, Jem'hadar, where everything is still mainly potential, but the Improbable Cause/Die is Cast two-parter, which really started paying dividends on that potential.)  Sometimes, I think he may've been the writers' favorite character, which wouldn't be out of bounds since while he might not be that many people's absolute favorite, he's probably everybody's number three or four.

It's kind of amazing how different Bashir is, and how much better Alexander Siddig is, in later DS9 versus early, though.

[Duque de Bragança]

"Occupied" is quite possibly the worst shit made for TV to come out of Norway.
The dialogue is wooden at best, the premise moronic and while it probably is subtitled, it's still shit.
It's a turd polished with turds. It's basically Norway's "Red Dawn".

SOLD!

Yes, the EU outsourcing the invasion and occupation of Norway to Russia is hilarious.
Occupied was screened some time ago on ARTE but I missed it.