General TV & Streaming thread

[electric indigo]

Just finished the second season of "Homecoming" on Prime yesterday and I cannot recommend it high enough. If you are a fan of extremely sophisticated storytelling & cinematography, Kubrick, Hitchcock, and 70s corporate architecture – this show is for you.

 

[no3Ljm]

Nice! The Division movie coming on Netflix. 

[sqidd]

Clicked off two episodes of Jupiter's Legacy on NF last night. Too soon for a review. But I like where it's going as a story. A little more thought provoking from a moral standpoint than most super stuff (IMO).

What really shocked me is that it is decidedly not towing the PC Police/Cancel Culture/Woke direction that is in just about everything to one extent or another these days. In fact, it rails against it. I was shocked when the main protagonist (in theory the good guy) called Antifa Nazi's (it is implied he was talking about Antifa) and the newspaper people useless Marxists that do nothing for society. And 25% of the cast isn't gay or trans. And racism hasn't been mentioned once. A quick Google search shows that it's not getting great reviews. Shocker.

Not the glaring score spread like Chappelle's latest NF special but on Rotten Tomatoes Jupiter's Legacy has a 40% critic and 64% audience score (audience scores tend to go up as time wears on too). I've found that when things aren't "woke enough" the critics score is quite a bit lower than the audience score.

I can't help but wonder if this is a test balloon for NF. Social engineering is interesting to watch.

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by sqidd

[Keith]

21 hours ago, sqidd said:

Clicked off two episodes of Jupiter's Legacy on NF last night. Too soon for a review. But I like where it's going as a story. A little more thought provoking from a moral standpoint than most super stuff (IMO).

What really shocked me is that it is decidedly not towing the PC Police/Cancel Culture/Woke direction that is in just about everything to one extent or another these days. In fact, it rails against it. I was shocked when the main protagonist (in theory the good guy) called Antifa Nazi's (it is implied he was talking about Antifa) and the newspaper people useless Marxists that do nothing for society. And 25% of the cast isn't gay or trans. And racism hasn't been mentioned once. A quick Google search shows that it's not getting great reviews. Shocker.

Not the glaring score spread like Chappelle's latest NF special but on Rotten Tomatoes Jupiter's Legacy has a 40% critic and 64% audience score (audience scores tend to go up as time wears on too). I've found that when things aren't "woke enough" the critics score is quite a bit lower than the audience score.

I can't help but wonder if this is a test balloon for NF. Social engineering is interesting to watch.

 

Given that there is already 60+ years of "anti-woke" TV out there, I don't believe that should be any kind of review focal point. Is it good? Does it suck? That kinda thing seems more productive. I'm getting "good ole boy" vibes from your review that just paints it as super unappealing.

[derex3592]

@sqidd - thanks! It appeals the sh*t out of me to hear that! I'll check it out! 

[tekering]

On 5/7/2021 at 5:57 PM, electric indigo said:

If you are a fan of extremely sophisticated storytelling & cinematography, Kubrick, Hitchcock, and 70s corporate architecture – this show is for you.

I know nothing of Homecoming, but your description immediately suggested Sam Esmail's Mr. Robot... and I see he directed Homecoming's first season, so it was an apt description indeed.  

Thanks for the recommendation!

[technoblue]

So Mark Millar has an extensive back catalog, including Superman: Red Son for DC and Old Man Logan for Marvel. There’s also his own stuff, of course, like Kick-Ass and this series. I would say sqidd’s review is…unique…but it doesn’t tell me anything aside from his political views. Ok. Whatever.

Most of the other reviews I’ve read aren’t politically charged but are about how Netflix mucked with Millar’s source material, which is a shame. Anyway, I would love to see impressions from someone here who has also read the comic series and can go into detail about what Netflix has changed. This is the kind of informed commentary that I do find useful. 

Anyway, just throwing out my two pence.

[Mog]

5 minutes ago, tekering said:

I know nothing of Homecoming, but your description immediately suggested Sam Esmail's Mr. Robot... and I see he directed Homecoming's first season, so it was an apt description indeed.  

Thanks for the recommendation!

Yeah, Mr. Robot was a good series too.  Esmail was definitely copying some folks with his framing and the story beats.  But it was done so freakin’ well.

First season was one of the best things I had ever watched.  Second season went to the same well one too many times.  Third season got things back on track.  And the fourth and final one finished strong.

Knowing all the big reveals, I started to rewatch the whole series to see if there were nuggets hidden there the whole time.

[sqidd]

4 hours ago, Keith said:

Given that there is already 60+ years of "anti-woke" TV out there, I don't believe that should be any kind of review focal point. 

But in the last 4-5yrs the entertainment industry has gone hard woke. 

4 hours ago, Keith said:

 That kinda thing seems more productive. 

Maybe to you. There are a LOT of people that are sick to their back teeth of getting messaging (no matter what it is and if they agree with it or not) shoved down their throats while they're trying to watch entertainment though.

4 hours ago, Keith said:

 I'm getting "good ole boy" vibes from your review that just paints it as super unappealing.

You need to expand your perceptions of other people past your own narrow views and categories. People are more complex than a few labels or talking points. You just took a huge leap, stuck me in a category based off of very little information, and you're completely wrong. I could go on forever about why I'm almost certainly more socially liberal than you are and most woke people in general. But I'll sum it up with this. One of my three best fiends is trans. I'm in her award winning documentary that you can watch on NF right now. Sounds exactly like a "Good ole boy" would do huh?

BTW my trans friend thinks woke messaging has gotten way out of hand too and actually thinks it's hurting her community more than helping. But who is she to have a qualified opinion? It's not like she gets big bucks for speaking engagements and just got two huge advances on book deals.

Expand your mind.

Edited May 9, 2021 by sqidd

[Tking22]

I slogged through all of Jupiter's Legacy and, yeah, it's getting bad reviews because it's bad, not some silly agenda. It's boring, derivative, and uninteresting. The show also looks like crap, the wigs, makeup, costumes and special effects are all awful, the show looks CW cheap most of the time.

The pacing is awful, the origin of how the original six Union members get their powers is terrible, it's stretched out over every single episode, that crap could've and should've been condensed to one episode. The current timeline story suffers because of this, it's a drag, at the end of the first episode it seems to set up a conflict between old and new, father and son, but that story doesn't pan out until the last fifteen minutes of the last episode, the friggin son just straight disappears for episodes at a time. The show has nothing interesting to say, gives you nothing interesting to think about, it's paper thin, been there done that, and from what my one friend that read the source material has told me, Utopians idiotic code isn't a thing, it's a dumb new addition for the show. More time should've been spent in the current timeline, the flashback origin story is a slog, it takes up so much time in each episode, it's terribly stupid.

I'll be truly baffled is this gets another season, it's boring, ugly, and really forgettable. If you want a superhero fix, watch The Boys or Invincible on Amazon Prime, skip this turd. 

edit: Also, the real villains identity is crystal clear from the first episode, the show tries and fails to make you believe it's one character, but once again, this show isn't well written so the real big bad is terribly obvious.

Edited May 9, 2021 by Tking22

[technoblue]

Thank you, @Tking22.  I was afraid of that. I'll wait on cuing up Jupiter's Legacy for now. My own writing work is going full tilt, and I have a backlog of other shows that are vying for my down time. 

[sqidd]

1 hour ago, Tking22 said:

I slogged through all of Jupiter's Legacy and, yeah, it's getting bad reviews because it's bad, not some silly agenda. It's boring, derivative, and uninteresting. The show also looks like crap, the wigs, makeup, costumes and special effects are all awful, the show looks CW cheap most of the time.

The pacing is awful, the origin of how the original six Union members get their powers is terrible, it's stretched out over every single episode, that crap could've and should've been condensed to one episode. The current timeline story suffers because of this, it's a drag, at the end of the first episode it seems to set up a conflict between old and new, father and son, but that story doesn't pan out until the last fifteen minutes of the last episode, the friggin son just straight disappears for episodes at a time. The show has nothing interesting to say, gives you nothing interesting to think about, it's paper thin, been there done that, and from what my one friend that read the source material has told me, Utopians idiotic code isn't a thing, it's a dumb new addition for the show. More time should've been spent in the current timeline, the flashback origin story is a slog, it takes up so much time in each episode, it's terribly stupid.

I'll be truly baffled is this gets another season, it's boring, ugly, and really forgettable. If you want a superhero fix, watch The Boys or Invincible on Amazon Prime, skip this turd. 

edit: Also, the real villains identity is crystal clear from the first episode, the show tries and fails to make you believe it's one character, but once again, this show isn't well written so the real big bad is terribly obvious.

Yikes. Sounds like a good one to snooze though on a lazy rainy Sunday. I'd only gotten through the first two episodes and was hoping that it would get better. From the sound of it I got the best part.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Keith]

5 hours ago, sqidd said:

But in the last 4-5yrs the entertainment industry has gone hard woke. 

Maybe to you. There are a LOT of people that are sick to their back teeth of getting messaging (no matter what it is and if they agree with it or not) shoved down their throats while they're trying to watch entertainment though.

You need to expand your perceptions of other people past your own narrow views and categories. People are more complex than a few labels or talking points. You just took a huge leap, stuck me in a category based off of very little information, and you're completely wrong. I could go on forever about why I'm almost certainly more socially liberal than you are and most woke people in general. But I'll sum it up with this. One of my three best fiends is trans. I'm in her award winning documentary that you can watch on NF right now. Sounds exactly like a "Good ole boy" would do huh?

BTW my trans friend thinks woke messaging has gotten way out of hand too and actually thinks it's hurting her community more than helping. But who is she to have a qualified opinion? It's not like she gets big bucks for speaking engagements and just got two huge advances on book deals.

Expand your mind.

You can't throw labels (woke) then accuse others of throwing labels. Also negative points for using the "my (insert marginalized group in a 3rd party context of something they said to me) friends) trope to back peddle.

For the record, I never called "you" anything, just pointed out that your review painted ""Jupiter's Legacy" as promoting that "vibe." If that's something you're sensitive about then perhaps you should think twice about running up to post on forums dedicated to q 40 year old cartoon that's centered around acceptance & inclusiveness with "Hey, I just watched this show that bucks the inclusiveness trend with some age old ignorance that's apparently getting terrible reviews for content & production, but maybe it'll make ignorance cool again!'

But hey, if you think 4-5 years of spreading hate not being popular is hard to stomach, imagine Decades of things like "all people are white" or "this white actor is painted brown, that makes him a convincing Indian" or "Just hire an Asian for an Asian part, doesn't matter where from." What you're calling "woke" is actually a much broader self awareness in entertainment media that is far overdue. 

[Thom]

Watched the first two episodes today. Because of earlier comments I was expecting some hard right fanatic stuff, but really I didn't see that at all. It was actually pretty good. Yes, the special effects aren't as polished, but I regularly watch CW shows, and they are above that bar. Didn't mind the flashbacks either as they were interesting and added to the story. Don't understand why the son was being criticized for for killing that bad guy. They were losing, had already lost three of their team and he was threatening to blow all the rest up. I'm all for criminals standing trial for Justice, but sometimes you gotta make the hard call.

I'll be in for watching some more.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Thom

[Dobber]

13 hours ago, Thom said:

Watched the first two episodes today. Because of earlier comments I was expecting some hard right fanatic stuff, but really I didn't see that at all. It was actually pretty good. Yes, the special effects aren't as polished, but I regularly watch CW shows, and they are above that bar. Didn't mind the flashbacks either as they were interesting and added to the story. Don't understand why the son was being criticized for for killing that bad guy. They were losing, had already lost two of their team and he was threatening to blow all the rest up. I'm all for criminals standing trial for Justice, but sometimes you gotta make the hard call.

I'll be in for watching some more.

Just want to say that just because someone doesn’t want woke messaging in their entertainment  constantly doesn’t mean they want or would make them “Hard Right”. Unfortunately, that’s just what people keep getting told it means or take it as though. 
 

Chris

[Thom]

40 minutes ago, Dobber said:

Just want to say that just because someone doesn’t want woke messaging in their entertainment  constantly doesn’t mean they want or would make them “Hard Right”. Unfortunately, that’s just what people keep getting told it means or take it as though. 
 

Chris

I'm just taking what was said at face value. Like the 'Antifa Nazi' stuff. I didn't get that at all when the character referenced Nazis in the first episode, and that phrase is pretty hard right.

[Dynaman]

This one has stinker written all over it.

 

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/ultraman-new-netflix-movie-revealed-with-ILM-animation

 

This line alone made me go WTF...

'the nefarious “schemes of the Kaiju Defense Force.”'

[kajnrig]

After blitzing through the first 2.5 episodes for myself, I gotta say, @sqidd, you gave what has to be the most inaccurate hot take I've ever seen on this forum. It is frankly bizarre how much you got wrong, what you got wrong, and the degree to which what you got wrong was wrong.

There's missing the mark, and there's constructing an entirely separate mark altogether, setting it at 180 degrees to the original and a quarter of the distance away, and then lobbing your shot into the nearby pond instead.

To clarify/contextualize some points for everyone else, because it can't be overstated how far from reality sqidd's misrepresentation of the show is:

Spoiler

- The closest I can tell that the show gets to "railing against PC police/cancel culture/<insert cultural bogeyman here>" is making the main character, Utopian, an old-fashioned, conservative (in the traditional sense, not the modern political sense) man who spends much of the first two episodes (and probably the rest of the season) struggling to fit his world view to the broader world and vice versa. And the show isn't exactly shy about painting at least some of his world views as self-deluded and/or naive, so...

- The scene in which the Utopian supposedly equates Antifa with Nazis has him discussing with his brother his aforementioned struggle to adjust to the modern world. They talk about fighting Nazis in WWII, and he laments the fact that they - Nazis - continue to exist in modern times. His brother says something like, "They're not called Nazis anymore." to which he responds, "They might not be called Nazis, but they ARE Nazis." He's talking about Nazis. There are no cuts to news footage or anything while he's talking. No audio cue that harkens back to a previous scene involving Antifa, no convenient placement of "Antifa paraphernalia" in the shot... Nothing. Whatever implication sqidd got didn't come from anything in the show.

- The scene in which the Utopian calls newspaper writers "Marxists" and "useless socialists" comes after the suicide of his father, a steel baron, at the beginning of the 1929 stock market crash. An earlier scene had established that his father, he, and the workers all had seemingly close-knit relationships, and he believed wholeheartedly that he and his father had the workers' best interests at heart, and that they were all working together to build this... well, utopic future together. After his father's death, however, he reads an article alleging that his father stole from the workers' pension fund to invest in the stock market. He confronts the author in a rage, goes on a tirade about how his father built the city and this and that and calls her and her ilk - newspeople - Marxists and socialists... and then later finds out from his brother that the story is accurate, and that furthermore the workers will all have to be laid off.

- "25% of the cast isn't gay or trans" and "racism hasn't been mentioned once" are both attacking the same nebulous strawman that gave rise to the "railing against political correctness" point above. The first point is presumably true, though 1) I haven't confirmed the sexuality and/or gender of all of the characters in the first two episodes, and 2) it's rendered a moot point one episode later anyway by an overtly lesbian couple. The second point is also true, I suppose. The show hasn't (yet) addressed race either as a direct subject matter or as subtext. Frankly, I don't think it should try.

My impression of the show after two episodes is pretty in line with what @Tking22 has to say. It's bland, derivative, and fairly predictable as far as superhero media go. The action and effects I can take or leave to a certain extent, but the writing and acting are too inconsistent; other superhero media have dealt with similar subject matter better. It's a shame, because I always like me some good meditation on the ethics of superhero-ing. And the show DOES have some legitimately good moments. They're just surrounded by too much bland and derivative and predictable.

I disagree, veeery slightly, with the idea that The Code should have been tossed to the wayside. As Tking22 puts it, it was never a part of the original story, and I believe it. Whenever Utopian brings up The Code, I don't get the impression that it's a rule set self-imposed by him because of some deeply-held moral and ethical values. Instead, it sounds like a code of conduct forced onto him by an outside entity, and he's being forced to abide by it. I noticed that he never explains the reasoning behind the precepts of The Code, just demands that he and everyone else abide by them.

But it's precisely the alien-ness of The Code that draws my interest. Without it, the show would just be about an old man with old man worldviews struggling to apply them to the modern world - which is all well and good as far as premises go, but again, other superhero media have done it better already. With it, the show unintentionally transforms into... almost a horror mystery? Like there's some unspeakable cosmic horror lurking above all of the superpowered goings-on. After all, what could possibly spook Superman so much that he does its bidding?

I suspect the answer to that question will be decidedly underwhelming (if it exists at all), and it'll turn out to be nothing more than bad writing from a bad show that badly adapted a comic book.

Edited May 15, 2021 by kajnrig

[sqidd]

8 hours ago, kajnrig said:

After blitzing through the first 2.5 episodes for myself, I gotta say, @sqidd, you gave what has to be the most inaccurate hot take I've ever seen on this forum. It is frankly bizarre how much you got wrong, what you got wrong, and the degree to which what you got wrong was wrong.

There's missing the mark, and there's constructing an entirely separate mark altogether, setting it at 180 degrees to the original and a quarter of the distance away, and then lobbing your shot into the nearby pond instead.

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by sqidd

[kajnrig]

3 hours ago, sqidd said:

Anyway, I'm now 6/8 episodes through, and it doesn't get much better. Oftentimes it seems like you'd have to be a fan who's already read the comics to remotely appreciate what's going on, because the show glosses over so many details about the characters, the world, the Code, the Union, the history of superheroes, etc. It expects you to be sad when character A dies, but scarcely has any time to show us anything about the character besides their costume and superpower, so I'm left just... staring blankly at a screen.

Two more episodes to slog through, and then time to forget it ever existed.

Edited May 15, 2021 by kajnrig

[no3Ljm]

 

[sqidd]

4 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

 

Patton Oswalt......and I'm out. He has got to be one of the most insufferable people on the planet. IMO of course. Your mileage may vary.

[Dynaman]

Anyone else here watch Svengoolie?  (someone has to).  Last Saturday's episode was "King Kong Escapes" and boy was it a stinker.  Then again the stinkers are half the reason Svengoolie exists - the other half being the classics and the final half being the forgotten gems.

[no3Ljm]

Amazon Original Movie THE TOMORROW WAR. Streaming on July 2nd.

 

Sorry if this is also posted in the General Movie Thread. Not sure where to put it initially since this is also somehow 'streaming' content and not released in theaters(?). 

 

Edited May 26, 2021 by no3Ljm

[TangledThorns]

Wife and I are watching Catastrophe on PRIME. It's a crazy good British comedy starring the guy with the mustache (Peter) from Deadpool 2

 

 

[sqidd]

3 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

Wife and I are watching Catastrophe on PRIME. It's a crazy good British comedy starring the guy with the mustache (Peter) from Deadpool 2

 

 

Great show!

[sqidd]

On 3/31/2021 at 11:37 PM, 505thAirborne said:

Resident Alien is cleared for a Season 2, this makes me very happy! 

Watched this on the recommendation of this thread. The wife and I REALLY enjoyed it!

"You can't listen to you're balls.....they're nuts!"

[sqidd]

Started this last night. Basically the Ink Master format with Lego. The wife and I love it!

 

[M'Kyuun]

On 5/24/2021 at 5:23 PM, Dynaman said:

Anyone else here watch Svengoolie?  (someone has to).  Last Saturday's episode was "King Kong Escapes" and boy was it a stinker.  Then again the stinkers are half the reason Svengoolie exists - the other half being the classics and the final half being the forgotten gems.

Don't forget his wry commentary, intentionally bad puns, and his songs that poke fun at the movie in question, himself, and the genre in general. It's basically a toned down MSTK3000, with a lot of actual facts and history about the actors and the film itself during breaks.  It makes for an entertaining watch, and Svengoolie himself is often more entertaining than the film he's showing.

[TangledThorns]

2 hours ago, sqidd said:

Started this last night. Basically the Ink Master format with Lego. The wife and I love it!

 

Where you watching it? Streaming?

[sqidd]

36 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

Where you watching it? Streaming?

Streaming through Amazon (bought it).

[Tking22]

1 hour ago, TangledThorns said:

Where you watching it? Streaming?

 

37 minutes ago, sqidd said:

Streaming through Amazon (bought it).

It's also available on Hulu. In fact, season 2 starts tonight, and the new episode will be up on Hulu tomorrow, Hulu gets all Fox and FX stuff next day after it's on TV. 

[sqidd]

1 hour ago, Tking22 said:

 

It's also available on Hulu. In fact, season 2 starts tonight, and the new episode will be up on Hulu tomorrow, Hulu gets all Fox and FX stuff next day after it's on TV. 

I'm lazy. With some stuff for me it's easier to just buy it. In this case it was $20 for 10 episodes.....that I split with the wife. So, $1/ episode to me. Click, click, worth it.

The majority of the time I'll wait for an entire season of something (or multiple somethings) to be available on let's say Showtime and then get Showtime for 30 days at I think it's $12.99. Watch 2-3 shows all the way through and then cancel Showtime within 30 days until next year (or whatever). I end up paying something like $.15-$.30/ episode that way.

[TangledThorns]

2 hours ago, Tking22 said:

 

It's also available on Hulu. In fact, season 2 starts tonight, and the new episode will be up on Hulu tomorrow, Hulu gets all Fox and FX stuff next day after it's on TV. 

Cool! I don't have Hulu but will subscribe to it soon to watch this and Attack on Titan season 4.

[M'Kyuun]

Watched the first ep of LEGO Masters S2 last night, and like the first season, it seemed like there were already a few teams that kinda stood out above the rest.  The theme was LEGO on Parade, and the teams had to build floats that told a bit about themselves, and incorporated motion. The winner, as in first season, would win the coveted Golden Brick, which can be played at any time to save the holder from being eliminated.

Spoiler

The winners of the Golden Brick were brothers Zach and Wayne, and rightly so for their incredible dual Chinese dragons with amazing motion control that gave each dragon not only undulation down the length of its body, but also a teeter-totter effect so that the dragons appeared to 'fly' up and down. It was by far the most technical model, and IMHO the most riveting model, on display, followed closely by brothers Mark and Steven, who channeled their Viking ancestry into a beautiful Viking longboat being chased by a huge World Serpent. The motion control on this build wasn't as strong as the sculpt work, which was top notch, but they did make the boat move about slightly upon the wave it rode, the serpent's mouth opened and closed, and another smaller wave in the foreground also moved back and forth, creating a lovely presentation.  These pairs of brothers were the top teams for that challenge, but Zach and Wayne most deservedly took the Golden Brick. Looking forward to seeing what else both of these teams do as the show moves forward.