TV/Movies Megathread

[Josquius]

Anything worth a viewing on Amazon Prime?

So far I've only  encountered 'The Night Sky' which one episode in seems OK.

The Boys.
The Expanse.
To a lesser extent Outlander.

[mongers]

Anything worth a viewing on Amazon Prime?

Too Old to Die Young. 

If you like your David Lynch mainlined straight into Travis Bickle with a neon noir syringe with all the dopesick that comes with it, that's the 11 hours for you.

Thanks money I'll give it a go.

[The Larch]

Trailer for "Wednesday", a Netflix show based on The Addams Family, but centered on the character of Wednesday getting sent to a Hogwarts-like boarding school and getting involved in misteries. Tim Burton is in both as producer and director for some of the episodes, bringing Danny Elfman along for the ride and a quite stellar cast (Catherine Zeta Jones as Morticia, Luís Guzmán as Gómez, Gwendoline Christie as the school's principal, and apparently Christina Ricci will also feature in an undisclosed role). Colour me intrigued.

[The Brain]

They're not CGI-ing back Raul Julia?

[The Larch]

They're not CGI-ing back Raul Julia?

You can't replicate perfection with computers.

[crazy canuck]

I finished Sandman, on the whole it was pretty good.

But for all the budget they spent on effects, there were some badly written/edited bits.  The best example is

when the Vortex finds the house where her brother was living, and the police are taking out the bodies, she tells the cop her brother had been in the house.  The cop just responds with, "there was no boy here".  And then the cop ignores her.  The cop was not worried at all that the killer has likely taken the boy.

I also thought the resolution at the end was lazy. 

[Crazy_Ivan80]

What was the one season show about war with aliens, maybe 20 years ago? At season's end they had an alien general captured I think, but of course no second season was made. Random memory: I think there was a squadron of Fighting Finns mentioned.

That sounds a lot like Space: Above and Beyond. I really liked the show, though its premise owes a lot to Haldeman's Forever War - human colonists being attacked by an alien race, leading to all out war between humans and "chigs". Itw as a bit weird that the unit were both ace fighter pilots AND ground troops, but I can overlook that. It had some interesting premises/backstory - humans created AI "silicates" (androids) as workers and soldiers. Of course the Silicates rose up in a global war ... so the humans started creating cloned soldiers.  That war was over, but the clones are struggling to fit into society, while being resented by "normal" humans. The show had some pretty good space combat for mid-90s TV, and while I enjoyed it, some of the plots/dialogue were lifted straight lifted from various (anti-)war movies and books, and it was big on pathos. I still love the opening theme, though.

Yeah, that's the one. Cool.

sadly enough killed off far too soon.

[Josquius]

The better call saul finale dissapoints. But then it couldn't not. Karma needs to have its way with him as fun as it is to see him get away with it.
What's with all the "current day" stuff being black and white anyway?

[Tonitrus]

The better call saul finale dissapoints. But then it couldn't not. Karma needs to have its way with him as fun as it is to see him get away with it.
What's with all the "current day" stuff being black and white anyway?

Originally, it was probably an artsy way of differentiating the timelines (a flash "forward" if you will), as the show was mainly a prequel.

I feel like it should have merged them into color at someone point in the finale...but meh.

[Syt]

A bonus episode of Sandman has come out, adapting two single issue stories:
- Dream of a Thousand Cats (about 15 minutes; it's done in animation, which - given the subject matter - makes a lot of sense)
- Calliope (about 45 minutes, in which a struggling writer finds his muse)

As often in Sandman (like Dollhouse), Morpheus is often a secondary character in these stories, and they have more of an anthology feel (though set in the same universe, and with recurring characters).

However, Calliope fills in a bit more backstory for Morpheus himself.

[Syt]

I liked the Better Call Saul finale. It made a lot of sense to me that Jimmy goes out not with a bang, but with a whimper. Good flashbacks, I thought, on the topic of regret, but in the end it's Kim's presence that makes him do the right thing after all. And I called it that he'll be fine in jail (well, fine as can be under the circumstances).

It reminded me a bit of the ending of BoJack Horseman, with the main character finally owning up to all they did and facing the consequences. It even ended with a similar scene of the two main characters that echoed back to the first season, but now they have grown apart and with little left to say between them, ending the chapter of their lives that they had shared.

[Tamas]

I don't know, I found it a bit out of character / unconvincing, but it was the right way to close the series I guess.

[Syt]

I thought it made sense. In the courtroom he first confesses to working actively with Walter White. He looks back to Kim who seems unimpressed. He then goes on to talk about Howard. Looks at Kim again, still no motion. Finally, he speaks about his brother and how he failed him, which gets a small reaction out of Kim (Rhea Seehorn's acting, often using very understated facial expressions and body language has been amazing throughout the show).

In the end, it turns out that the only approval that he *really* wanted was from Kim; he wanted her to see him do the right thing - first, maybe, as performance (and only after proving to himself that he can weasel his way out of anything), but then progressively going to where it really hurts and what he's done.

When she left him after Howard's death, he disappeared into his Saul Goodman persona. When they talked on the phone and she said he should turn himself in and gave him the cold shoulder, he escalated his new hustle to the point of carelessness.

Only after being caught he finally realizes that only one thing has a chance to get him in good graces with her again.

[grumbler]

So... T-3 hours for The House of the Dragon.  Who else is going to see this in its first broadcast?

[crazy canuck]

So... T-3 hours for The House of the Dragon.  Who else is going to see this in its first broadcast?

I am planning my day around it.

Btw, great interview with Martin in the NYT.