TV/Movies Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

That Seymour growing old sequence was the saddest thing I've seen on TV.

[HVC]

The brother episode was a tearjerker too

[Barrister]

That Seymour growing old sequence was the saddest thing I've seen on TV.

Oh it's totally emotionally manipulative.  I've cried to it.

What surprised me was how my boys reacted strongly to the few very brief scenes of Seymour actually getting a happy ending.  They love their pets (we have 1 dog 2 cats) and would hate for them to feel alone like that.

[Barrister]

The brother episode was a tearjerker too

Agreed, but a tearjerker in a different way.

By the way, also referenced in "Bender's Big Score".

[Syt]

Generally enjoying Mythic Quest. It's not on the level of It's Always Sunny, but occasionally the same wit shows through.

What I did NOT expect was ep. 5, Dark Quiet Death (SPOILERS TO FOLLOW).

It starts with a flashback to a games store in 1993 (the flashbacks have a number of errors, like wrong tech for the year shown or whatever, but that's besides the point).

Guy (Doc) and morbid goth girl (Beans) meet in the store; she has a vision for a bleak, artsy game and they decide to develop it together: Dark Quiet Death. The episode then goes on to chronicle their story for the next 13 years. They find a publisher owned by a company in Montreal (it's likely the same as the one owning the studio of the main cast; at least they're both in the same town).

The game does well, so a sequel is planned. The couple is married by now. The staff increases, marketing guys start testing focus groups, and a number of the core ideas of the game (not being able to win, darkness, quiet, and just keeping off inevitable death) are gutted bit by bit - weapons are added, the environs become brighter, it's basically becoming another shooter ... and to top it all off, Disney wants to make a movie.

Beans quits over it, saying it's like the frog being slowly boiled - a bit here a bit there, till nothing of the original vision is left.

In 2000 the movie comes out. Where the original game was about avoiding terror in the dark as long as you can, the movie is set in bright daylight, with a hot chick shooting zombie creatures. And a cuddly comic relief CGI character "Roscoe" is added that rates well with the younger crowd and gets marketed/merchandised to heck. The movie is a huge success, and Doc dates the main actress.

When a sequel/spin off game for Roscoe is requested by the parent company/marketing, Doc is fed up, saying Beans was right, and he does feel like the frog being boiled. To which his marketing guy replies that, no - he's not the frog, he's the chef. All the staff have only been doing what he was telling them to do. Doc also quits.

In 2006 he goes back to the old games store which is rife with Roscoe merch. He and Beans run into each other. She picks up a totally-not-Donkey-Kong game for her kids. They chat a bit an he apologizes to her. He wants to keep talking, but they part ways again. In a bargain bin he finds their original game and recommends it to a younger lady.

[SPOILER END]

This was ... unexpected. The story is not revolutionary. Creative couple finds success together, but split over whether to keep the original vision or try to make it more commercial, with both ending up disillusioned by the commercialization and market pressures of it all. However the games context (I'm sure we can all think of franchises that have been on such a trajectory ... ) is not often seen for this, and the execution was absolutely excellent. More of a serious and bitter-sweet short movie than an episode of a workplace sitcom (with none of the main cast showing up).

[celedhring]

Yeah, every season they have one of those sort-of-unrelated flashback episodes that often end up being among the best of the season. Season 2 has a similar one set during the golden age of science fiction literature that's also a delight.

[Sheilbh]

RIP Robbie Coltrane

I'm a massive Jimmy McGovern fan - so love Cracker where I think Coltrane gives his best performance. I've looked every few years to try and buy it as a boxset and am always surprised it's not available because it is so good. Though in retrospect I was a child and my parents shouldn't have let me watch that and Taggart in the 90s

[Darth Wagtaros]

Yes, the flashback episodes of Mithter Kwest are the best.  The rest are a slightly above average workplace comedy.

[Darth Wagtaros]

The finale of She-Hulk was pretty lame. 

[The Brain]

The Neon Demon. Young model tries to make it in Los Angeles. A very bad movie. Extremely slow and empty, and artsy in all the wrong ways. For most of the movie I read a book while watching, and still didn't miss anything.

[Syt]

Yeah, every season they have one of those sort-of-unrelated flashback episodes that often end up being among the best of the season. Season 2 has a similar one set during the golden age of science fiction literature that's also a delight.

Just watched that one and it was really good. And makes it a bit sad & depressing every time CW pulls out his Nebula Award.

S2 overall seems notably better than S1, adding more serious moments (typical for comedies, I guess, once their characters have been established).

[Syt]

Ok, I watched the following episode, Peter. Great two episode arc, and it's wonderful to see F. Murray Abraham and William Hurt (RIP - hadn't known he died earlier this year ) playing off each other.

If I had one complaint it's that I felt like watching a remake of season 1 episode The Telescope from BoJack Horseman (BJ visiting his dying friend with whom he'd been estranged - CW = BoJack, Peter = Herb, Magda = Nurse, Rachel = Diane). It even has the drive out into the countryside. Basically, only Todd is missing. Telescope even had the flashback to their younger days/career start.

That said, there's a main difference - in BoJack Horseman, Herb pointedly denies closure to BJ when he apologizes, where in MQ they reconcile and find that closure.

I feel it would be really interesting to do a deeper analysis of these three episodes (2 on MQ and 1 on BJH) and how they tackle these very similar themes.

[celedhring]

Yeah those two + the videogame flashback in S1 are by far my favorite Mythic Quest episodes. And since they are the most "different" episodes compared to the rest of the show, I wonder if I actually like the show that much 

I enjoyed the LARP special a lot, fwiw. Fireball!!!! - but again, that also was an outlier episode.

[Syt]

Yeah, Quarantine and Everlight were also great. I'm not sure they quite know what the show is meant to be between goofy workplace comedy + drama sometimes dealing with "issues" or more of an anthology show with a wider range ... they're renewed for two more seasons at least, so I guess we'll see? The highs are really high, but some of it is aggressively mediocre. I don't feel bad for watching it, but it's possibly more uneven than early TNG which oscillated between episodes like Code of Honor and Measure of a Man - tbf none of MQ isn't anywhere near as bad as Code of Honor ... 

[Sheilbh]

Decision to Leave, new film by Park Chan-wook.

I don't know if this is a thing but I'd describe it as a romantic thriller about a detective investigating the death of an older Korean immigration officer who's found at the bottom of a mountain he'd been climbing. The detective then falls for the guy's beautiful Chinese wife.

It's incredibly stylish and reminded me a fair bit of Vertigo. Tang Wei as the Chinese wife is particularly good. The film just wouldn't work without her and the chemistry she has with Park Hae-il who's also excellent.

Well worth a watch.