TV Series / Shows

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Originally Posted by Montmorency

But when does the intro play?

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With the exception of the first episode, I believe its the opener, so no infixed intros.

Saw the recent Catch-22 miniseries. While I enjoyed it overall and the production is great (and should placate the certain demographic who complain about insufficient white faces on their screens), many could criticize that the adaptation diverges quite heavily from the book in everything from themes, characters, and plot events.

It's kind of 'what if Catch-22, but 1984?'

And of course it comes with a dollop of the contemporary media fashion of hard-injecting humor.

Did anyone watch Age of Samurai on Netflix? Seems right up our alley considering the Total War theme.

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Originally Posted by Montmorency

Saw the recent Catch-22 miniseries. While I enjoyed it overall and the production is great (and should placate the certain demographic who complain about insufficient white faces on their screens), many could criticize that the adaptation diverges quite heavily from the book in everything from themes, characters, and plot events.

It's kind of 'what if Catch-22, but 1984?'

And of course it comes with a dollop of the contemporary media fashion of hard-injecting humor.

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I just started watching this and it just doesn't feel like Catch-22. I've read the book multiple times, have the audiobook too, love the old movie but this series just isn't sticking with me somehow. I don't know but it just seems to not really embrace the absurdity quite as well.

Know this isn't the book thread but any recommendations for authors on the level of Heller and Vonnegut?

Also, CGI just can't capture the same effect as the small fleet of aircraft from the movie, petrol-heads like me just love that engine noise!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLMDIlxUa58

Been watching the new Around the World in Eighty Days, it is enjoyable but doesn't capture the feel of any authenticity to the period. They certainly manufacture enough 'excitement' and 'drama' to pad it out for a series instead of a movie. Just wish they didn't have to make Fogg such a bumbling fool.
All in all though it is a fun show, just so long as you don't try and think about how a hot air balloon goes from Paris right over the alps into Italy and a few other silly things.

Anyone watched Rings of Power yet?

It looks good but I'm hearing it's also very 'woke' compared to Peter Jackson's LOTR. I'll probably watch it no matter what though, love the world of Tolkien's.

I tried to watch it but I couldnt get into it, as I didnt find the story very compelling. It being "woke" wasnt the issue for me.

On a side note, House of the Dragon so far has been fantastic.

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Originally Posted by Hooahguy

I tried to watch it but I couldnt get into it, as I didnt find the story very compelling. It being "woke" wasnt the issue for me.

On a side note, House of the Dragon so far has been fantastic.

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Having just watched the two episodes available I have to agree, there's nothing in the story that grabs at all, slow pace, lots of disjointed stories etc...

Few other observations of mine below, warning spoilers:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As everyone has been saying, the show is beautiful, wonderful scenery, excellent use of CGI, nice costumes and sets. The musical score is on point too, works well.

The story overall so far is very 'meh' the main character Galadriel is unlikeble so far. Her character arc seems like it'll be straight forward as the first scene of the series is it: she knows what's best and if people just listened and stopped getting in her way they could stop the evil. I'm sure that Sauron will be in a position for Galadriel to end him at some point and Sauron will be saved by one of Galadriel's naysayers.
Gotta say, her jumping off the boat and swimming half way across the world back to middle earth is just stupid.

Elrond is unimpressive so far, just a weak willed 'politician' who toes the line for his bosses. Hope they have a good story for him down the road because so far it's not looking good. His offending Durin by not going to his wedding or seeing the birth of his two kids seems extremely uncharacteristic for a dwarf prince. It seems like they just wanted an excuse to have a dwarvish highland games event. I like how Khazad Dum looked but so far the representation of Dwarves seems childish.

The Arondir story so far seems dumb too. He's part of the elvish constabulary ruling over the humans that fought for morgoth. High command declares peace so everyone is pulled out but of course he knows better and stays behind. The human woman he's fallen in love with seems the only person in the village not covered in dirt and for some reason she leaves her kid behind to join Arondir on a recon of the next town. When she gets back home no one believes her that the town was destroyed but luckily she and her kid manage to behead the orc that happened to get into her home of course letting her plop the orc's head in the pub to quash any naysayers about there not being any danger from the next door village being wiped out. The whole village of sauron sympathizers/ collaborators will be interesting to watch but so far hasn't added any value and looks like they'll only be useful as the 'bad guys' that aren't cool with the human/elf love affair that will happen.

The harfoots are just irritating, a community of irish/caribbean back to nature hippies. I didn't like any of their scenes and am worried about much screen time they'll get. I imagine they're there for kid viewers, comic scenes, and merchandising. What meteor man turns out to be will be interesting but I'll be a bit irritated if he ends up being one of the wizards as this doesn't at all seem the way in which I or anyone else envisioned them going to middle earth.

As for the 'wokeness' yeah, like Hooahguy wrote it's not really much of an issue. That so far the only 'strong' leads seem to be woman is a bit irritating but was expected. The rainbow of ethnicities for casting isn't an issue though it doesn't really add value (Tolkien had people of color in middle earth they just weren't in "the West" but were the Southrons or Easterlings), it does help Amazon though as those of us that don't like it for other reasons can be called racists for not embracing it. I'm honestly more irritated by the dwarf women not having beards and the elvish men having short hair.

These first two episodes being so overall weak in a show that was always going to get heaps of criticism for veering even farther off course from Tolkien's work than the LOTR movies or the terrible Hobbit trilogy. I just can't believe they edited these two episodes this way, a much longer backdrop to the previous major events would have been useful such as the kin slaying, more about the war with morgoth, the sinking of beleriand, the creation of numeanor with it's first king being Elrond's brother who choose to be human rather than elf for example.

I'll keep watching it for now but it's not at all like the LOTR from twenty years ago. Two one hour episodes were almost a chore to watch instead of being drawn in and engaged in the story as right now we don't know what the story even is beyond that Orcs and Sauron are still out there and could have been defeated if other people didn't keep naysaying.

I'll do an update on my observations in a few weeks after I hope the story has become a bit more clear. Having writers try to fill in the gaps of an entire age of Tolkien's world is a monumental task that so far they are unsurprisingly doing poorly. I think the wrong lessons of the Hobbit trilogy were learned but hopefully I'm wrong and this show turns out well.

Glad to hear House of Dragons is good, I was extremely disappointed at how GOT seasons 7 and 8 went so I'll let this seasons run its course before I give it a go, just don't want to be let down again.

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Originally Posted by spmetla

Glad to hear House of Dragons is good, I was extremely disappointed at how GOT seasons 7 and 8 went so I'll let this seasons run its course before I give it a go, just don't want to be let down again.

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Honestly, I wouldnt wait. Its a legitimately good show that reminds me a lot of GOT seasons 1-4. To ease your concerns, HotD has a few things going for it that the last few seasons of GOT didnt:
1) The showrunners from GOT who ruined it are not involved whatsoever.
2) The source material for the show is complete, not still in progress like with GOT.
3) GRRM is far more involved in this compared to the final few seasons of GOT, where he was effectively sidelined.

Rings of Power

My final review is that it's pretty crap overall for this first season. Not lore accurate, cardboard acting, and a plot that relies on mystery boxes that are poorly executed.

Biggest gripes in the spoilers below:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The show is call "Rings of Power" and it screwed up the forging of the rings, if there's one bit of lore to stay loyal to that should have been it. Instead of Sauron helping the elves craft the rings for Men and Dwarves it's the opposite where he suggests the creation of the Elvish rings, is found out and then escapes.

Mithril being the 'cure' to a made-up problem that might cause the end of the elves is really irritating. Why create a backstory for an ore for no reason, cameo a Balrog that doesn't do anything this season, and create a false dilemma for the elves to solve so they can stay in middle earth? It's just really annoying how they write all this in, they create problems to solve for no reason.

The whole Numeanor chapter was terrible, modern-day politics (the elves are taking our jobs) thrown into there is silly. Numeanor should at this time have colonies across middle earth and be especially the mightiest power in the land, instead they aren't and just seem silly. Galadriel training Soldiers by showing off wasn't too clever and seemed to just play to girl-power-isms of writing.

Harbrand/Sauron being made king of the southlands was apparently stupid. If there hadn't been a King there in a 1000 years why would the Southlanders or Arondir as part of the constabulary for the last 79 years not be aware of that and just accept Harbrand as King? It just seems such a BS ploy to let him be set up as this Aragorn type guy but without any play up or work toward it.

The Harfoots and the Stranger (Gandalf for sure) could have been cut from the show entirely. They have added zero value, not moved any story line and just been annoying. It seems they were added in purely so they could setup up female Frodo and female Sam going on an adventure with Gandalf next season while literally doing absolutely nothing but take up screen time this season.

Unless Season 2 changes substantially and gets good reviews I will not be watching this.

Other reviews that I think are accurate though of course they are negative:
Now it's over, let's come out and say it: The Rings of Power was a stinker
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...-was-a-stinker

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Well, now that the first season is finally over, there is one clear answer. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power isn't very good. It quite often isn't anywhere near good. There are moments in almost every episode where I have found myself sniggering into my sleeve at how inept it is. And all these misgivings were massively underlined by the finale.

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The Rings Of Power Season 1 Finale Recap And Review: A Dreadful Mess
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...h=940ed175aef2

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I've never seen an adaptation of a major work so badly abused, so fundamentally altered or so disrespectfully handled as the creators of The Rings Of Power have treated The Lord Of The Rings. Tolkien's creation barely shines through the dreck.

I gave this show a chance. I went in with low expectations and for a moment was charmed by what I saw, but quickly the cracks began to show in the story and its heroes. Of Mithril, this show is most certainly not crafted.

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Been enjoying the Netflix show "Human Playground" which is a docu-series on various human 'play' activities and the various reasons people engage in such play. As pulled out some unique sports I'd never heard of and really done a nice job of showing many unique cultural ways people play in traditional and modern forms.

https://www.netflix.com/title/81122619

I watched Physical 100 on Netflix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSZib2k2H6A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soPt0kh1q_c?t=473

A bit off tangent, but The Last Kingdom TV show is also now a full fledged movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqCYw_o5lng&pp=ygUQdGhlIGxhc3Qga2luZ2RvbQ%3D%3D

last time i saw the money heist series on Netflix all season

Band of Brothers is now on Netflix, if anyone wants to see it (again), or like me, for the first time. On my list to see this autumn.

I'm feeling nostalgic for the 80s and the opening credits of their tv series.

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Originally Posted by Shaka_Khan

I'm feeling nostalgic for the 80s and the opening credits of their tv series.

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Hehe, speaking of that, FRIENDS just celebrated 30 years since it first aired.

I know it's the 90's, but it's an iconic show and iconic opening scene.