TV/Movies Megathread

[Josquius]

Man Sliders. Prime example of the criminality of US TV in cancelling shows without giving them an actual ending.

I mean a really liked Sliders at first.

The problem was it never had any kind of over-arching storyline.  It was literally just "universe of the week".  I guess it was perfect for network television back in the day for just that reason - you could watch it completely out of order - but makes it rather unsuited for more modern Peak TV sensibilities.

I mean what would the ending be?  "Oh.  We just slid home.  Yay!"

IIRC they had slid home (or had they) but the evil cro-mags (...yeah....) had taken over and they were now on a quest to find the actual home universe of the main guy who had technology to kick them out.
Lots of ways they could have ended it. I suspect many fanfics were written on the early internet. A definite conclusion to end the whole cro-mag inter-universal empire problem would have been needed somehow along with the characters either getting back home or finding a new home that worked for them.

[Barrister]

Man Sliders. Prime example of the criminality of US TV in cancelling shows without giving them an actual ending.

I mean a really liked Sliders at first.

The problem was it never had any kind of over-arching storyline.  It was literally just "universe of the week".  I guess it was perfect for network television back in the day for just that reason - you could watch it completely out of order - but makes it rather unsuited for more modern Peak TV sensibilities.

I mean what would the ending be?  "Oh.  We just slid home.  Yay!"

IIRC they had slid home (or had they) but the evil cro-mags (...yeah....) had taken over and they were now on a quest to find the actual home universe of the main guy who had technology to kick them out.
Lots of ways they could have ended it. I suspect many fanfics were written on the early internet. A definite conclusion to end the whole cro-mag inter-universal empire problem would have been needed somehow along with the characters either getting back home or finding a new home that worked for them.

*does some googling*

Apparently I stopped watching the show before the Kromags were introduced.  OK - so that did give the show an over-arching storyline.  It also sounds terrible.

https://sliders.fandom.com/wiki/Kromagg

[grumbler]

Apparently I stopped watching the show before the Kromags were introduced.  OK - so that did give the show an over-arching storyline.  It also sounds terrible.

https://sliders.fandom.com/wiki/Kromagg

That story line was pretty clearly ad-hic, created when other shows had started overarching arcs and Sliders didn't want to fall behind.  "Kromag" is clearly a writer's blunder which assumed that Neanderthals were Cro-Magnon.

The show had some good writing, but also some terrible writing.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Love me some Zathras.

I like Zathras better though

[Darth Wagtaros]

The Flash.

Not as bad as I thought. I didn't want to see it for several reasons, but it was my friend's birthday so I was obligated.

The lead is a raging sack of shit, but turned in a decent performance.

Still felt irrelevant/nostalgia porn. 

[celedhring]

I'm going to see The Flash just because Keaton is in it, and I already feel bad about falling for such gross nostalgia bait 

[grumbler]

Love me some Zathras.

I like Zathras better though

I wasn't aware that Tim Choate, who played Zathras in the show, was also a victim of the B5 curse.  His character survived, so the actor did not.

I'm not sure how Claudia Christian escaped the curse.  She's the only actor whose  main character (excluding those added season 5) survived to the end and is herself still alive.  Kinda creepy to realize that she's the only one who got on that elevator at the end that is still alive.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Love me some Zathras.

I like Zathras better though

I wasn't aware that Tim Choate, who played Zathras in the show, was also a victim of the B5 curse.  His character survived, so the actor did not.

I'm not sure how Claudia Christian escaped the curse.  She's the only actor whose  main character (excluding those added season 5) survived to the end and is herself still alive.  Kinda creepy to realize that she's the only one who got on that elevator at the end that is still alive.

The amount of castmembers lost of the B5 crew is a staggering thing since they're all quite young. Thinking of it is always a bit of a downer as B5 is one of the few series I always think of fondly.
Mainly because it was such a revelation when it first aired over here in belgium, where SF didn't generally reach the tv-screen. So when Babylon 5 came on... well, that was something different. An actual story, visuals of a new era and that music!

[Barrister]

Love me some Zathras.

I like Zathras better though

I didn't specify singular or plural.

[mongers]

Yi, got to agree with Gups and you here, just started watching it (have seen BB) and it's very, very good.

Need to ration myself on viewing too much of it, maybe a couple of episodes a week?

In the interest of full disclosure I want to reiterate my position.  Season Six is amazing TV.  1 through 5 on the other hand I found ranged from bad to OK to good.  I didn't start giving a damn about the main characters until the end and there were stretches when I found them dull.  The other characters I always found interesting.

I can see you point of view, overall I enjoyed it a great deal.

I found the other character interesting as you say, so have started watching Breaking Bad, to see what happens to them.
That assumes they're given some prominence, but I have a small problem with it, BB seems to be a straight up situation comedy based on the first couple of episodes, is this correct?

[viper37]

Saw a part of Battleship on tv.

I don't know if it's so bad that it's good.  I think I lean into that side for now.

Sometimes, on Youtube, you get military veterans, officers, or specialists, commenting on the realism of Hollywood movies.

I'd love to see a retired admiral comment on that anchor manoeuver.   

[Josquius]

New Black Mirror. First episode Joan is Awful. Honestly one of the best of all time Black Mirror eps. Hilarious
Though they missed a trick with doing some awesome Bandersnatch stuff and incorporating your Netflix user name.

[celedhring]

Asteroid City. I'm not Wes Anderson's biggest fan, but this is one of his weakest films, imho. The camerawork and attention to detail is brilliant as usual, but the story is a hodge-podge of the usual wesandersonisms (precocious kids! estranged parents! stylish suitcases!) without much of a through-line, it feels more like a accumulation of quirky scenes. And the whole meta thing is dialed up to 11, you have the meta element of wesandersonifying sci-fi tropes (the most entertaining part of the film, I must say), and then yet another meta layer where everything is supposed to be a play and the film frequently cuts away to the behind the scenes story of the actors and the author, wondering about the point of the story (here's my answer: it doesn't have any).

[Darth Wagtaros]

Dammit. Was looking forward to it, but yours isn't the only review that ssums it up thusly.

[Syt]

Red Dwarf - Back to Earth (aka Series 9).

For some reason I hadn't watched this one yet (I did watch S10 previously, though).

At any rate, I enjoyed the very meta take, and the very subtle Blade Runner references (you really have to look for them).

Though the resolution ... yeah, kinda what I was expecting (what with a squid being involved ...).

I didn't recognize the comic book shop guy until he started talking ... and then immediately knew who he was.



Last time I saw him he looked more like this: