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Rat Boy wrote:

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Season 2, Episode 1:

Not as terrible as the trailers indicated so far, though I was right that...

Spoiler:

...there was a bit of an homage to the ambush scene from Clear And Present Danger.

I had a horrible bout of insomnia last night so I burned through the entire season. It's on par Season 1: good, not great.

Spoiler:

Ryan's renegade boy scout behavior got a little too predictable (and tiresome) throughout the season and there was some pretty gratuitous scenes towards the end of Americans just racking up the body count.

I enjoyed Michael Kelly's performance as Mike November, the CIA station chief for Venezuela, and the setting of Venezuela, but the Nicolás Reyes character dipped into "let's play Tropico where I'm a heartless and murderous el Presidente" territory.

Eight hours is one sh*tty bout of insomnia.

Spoiler:

And right up to the end the whole season felt like as I said before a loose adaptation of Clear And Present Danger, with a jaunt to London thrown in.

Finally finished the last three episodes of The Americans. Pretty good ending, amazing acting at the end. Loved the whole series immensely.

Yeah, The Americans is pretty fantastic. I thought it had one of the best series finales: bittersweet, but totally in character.

I watched Overlord last night and it was pretty good. Much less gore then the trailers made it seem like.

I watched it a couple of days ago and enjoyed it as well, but I thought it was going to be less war movie and more "the other thing," but it turned out it wasn't the case. Still, I had a good time.

I also finished Jack Ryan season 2. Generally, I liked it, but I think the writers room is making dumb stuff happen in the show in the sake of expediency.

Spoiler:

For example, they take a Blackhawk from the prison camp out in the middle of the jungle, redirect it into the capital to assault the palace to get Greer. No thought about the fact that there likely would be fuel concerns, not to mention I have a hard time believing the pilots would go rogue with them that easily without some kind of orders up their chain of command. And I don't think the CIA station chief would have that kind of authority in their chain. Just kind of sloppy writing, and that's just an example of basic logistics stuff that was lazily done.

I like the show in general, and will definitely watch a season 3 if it happens. But just wish they'd clean up some of the logic. Clancy was generally pretty well thought through and researched in his writing, the show should be too.

Yes, agreed with all of the above. That last episode was pretty far fetched.

Yup, I was sick and laid on the couch most of the day Tuesday and binged Jack Ryan S2. Probably one of the dumbest shows I actually sat all the way through. I think I was just too feverish to turn it off. Dumb.

Is there any reason why the second season of Jack Ryan is quite so much dumber than the first season? It feels so much all over the place with lots of characters and side plots that go no-where. When this sort of thing happens usually a writer or producer has left, but it appears to be the same creative team?

It's quite disappointing since I really liked the first season.

DoveBrown wrote:

Is there any reason why the second season of Jack Ryan is quite so much dumber than the first season? It feels so much all over the place with lots of characters and side plots that go no-where. When this sort of thing happens usually a writer or producer has left, but it appears to be the same creative team?

It's quite disappointing since I really liked the first season.

Haven't seen the second season, but the first was constantly teetering on the brink of this. Like the whole thing with the drone pilot that kind of looked like it was going somewhere, then kind of looked it was going nowhere, then just ended up in kind of a strange place?

The Man in the High Castle Season 4:

That ending...

Spoiler:

... seems to answer a question implied in the following song:

I mean, how else can you explain the mass of dead people from alternate Earths suddenly pouring through the portal?

Was the show good over all?

I liked the man in high castle but the last few minutes made no sense.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

I liked the man in high castle but the last few minutes made no sense.

Watched season 1, never got around to watching season 2 when it came out. Not sure I want to invest the time at this point.

The problem with Man in the High Castle is that the main characters a bit bland and dull. The most interesting parts were family time with the Nazi officer, then it would go back to dull guy and girl doing things that didn't make much sense.

Rat Boy wrote:

The Man in the High Castle Season 4:

Was S4 the last season?

Hobbes2099 wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

The Man in the High Castle Season 4:

Was S4 the last season?

yep

Mario_Alba wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

The Natalie Portman one is on Amazon. Lake Mungo is on my watchlist along with We Need to Talk About Kevin, Hereditary, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

I loved Hereditary. The Killing of a Sacred Deer... not so much.

kuddles wrote:

Oh, and put me as believing The Killing of a Sacred Deer is the best film of 2017.

I watched 'The Killing of a sacred Deer' and thought it was brilliant. Quite audacious in how it's done with off kilter personalities, etc but very engrossing.

I started watching The Boys yesterday. Three episodes in and I am completely hooked. This is soooooo good.

Higgledy wrote:

I watched 'The Killing of a sacred Deer' and thought it was brilliant. Quite audacious in how it's done with off kilter personalities, etc but very engrossing.

His next film "The Favourite" is pretty good/weird as well (only available on HBO streaming right now I believe). I like the director, he's the closest we have to the next Kubrick.

Oh thanks. I'll keep an eye out for it landing somewhere I can watch it.

My favorite is chocolate chip cookie dough but I can't have it anymore because I got the diabetes. The movie doesn't have chocolate chip cookie dough so I'm not sure why they call it the favorite. Should be called the pooping and puking. Oh it has music so I guess that could be a favorite. Probably shouldn't read to much about the movie or you will get spoiled.

kuddles wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

I watched 'The Killing of a sacred Deer' and thought it was brilliant. Quite audacious in how it's done with off kilter personalities, etc but very engrossing.

His next film "The Favourite" is pretty good/weird as well (only available on HBO streaming right now I believe). I like the director, he's the closest we have to the next Kubrick.

I think The Favourite is maybe more approachable because Yorgos didn't write it, so the dialogue lacks some of the slightly stilted nature of his other films.
I think the fancy costumes really lend themselves to his style, and comparatively I found The Favourite more to my liking than Barry Lyndon, but that deserves a rewatch from me.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

I liked the man in high castle but the last few minutes made no sense.

Truth!

Spoiler:

Somehow, they managed to make the whole multiverse thing completely irrelevant, then made the final moments about it. The Nazis are interested in the portal. They do a bunch of research, and sound like they're going to mount an assault on the other worlds. Then they forget about all that, apparently because...Smith discovers a version of his son is there? So instead focuses on taking over the former Japanese territory?

The film guy and Juiliana use the other worlds as a recruitment thing, but would they have been any less successful if they just had a better PR campaign and no alternate reality? Smith went to the other world, but then turns out oops definitely still a Nazi. His wife turns on him mostly because holy sh*t, dude is a Nazi and engineering a second Holocaust. Like, none of the major plot points depended on the other worlds at all. Then we get to the finale and it's just a ton of people coming into Nazi land? And Smith's right hand guy pulls off his Nazi necklace, and apparently the whole American Reich is done because...Smith was the only one holding it together? The finale was very much the writers having set up a ton of plot threads that they didn't have the budget or ability to resolve.

Chaz wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

I liked the man in high castle but the last few minutes made no sense.

Truth!

Spoiler:

Somehow, they managed to make the whole multiverse thing completely irrelevant, then made the final moments about it. The Nazis are interested in the portal. They do a bunch of research, and sound like they're going to mount an assault on the other worlds. Then they forget about all that, apparently because...Smith discovers a version of his son is there? So instead focuses on taking over the former Japanese territory?

The film guy and Juiliana use the other worlds as a recruitment thing, but would they have been any less successful if they just had a better PR campaign and no alternate reality? Smith went to the other world, but then turns out oops definitely still a Nazi. His wife turns on him mostly because holy sh*t, dude is a Nazi and engineering a second Holocaust. Like, none of the major plot points depended on the other worlds at all. Then we get to the finale and it's just a ton of people coming into Nazi land? And Smith's right hand guy pulls off his Nazi necklace, and apparently the whole American Reich is done because...Smith was the only one holding it together? The finale was very much the writers having set up a ton of plot threads that they didn't have the budget or ability to resolve.

Spoiler:

You dont get the feeling they suddenly ran out of time either. Its not sloppily wrapped up, its just wtf'd at the end. In the end basically everything in San Francisco after Juliana left was filler, could have been handled with some news reels or something. Everything with Kido (Kempetai boss) was pointless (but I like watching him struggle with morality). The 'black uprising' was fun to watch too but in the end it essentially contributed nothing.

My thought is that they needed to continue to show the 'America worth fighting for' and for whatever reason chose to do that more through California than the neutral states. I'm betting they were in love with Robert Childon (or had a tough contract and couldnt write him outside of SF for more than a few episodes)

In the end the spectacle of the whole thing made it a fun watch. I don't really regret it, but I wouldn't recommend it. Also I REALLY hope they didn't f*ck up the little girl who went 'full heil hitler'. You never go full heil. Oh and I hope they put whoever buys all the nazi paraphernalia they created on a watch list.

I believe I saw something that said they destroy all of the Nazi imagery after they are finished with it. Shredding clothes, papers, etc.

LeapingGnome wrote:

I believe I saw something that said they destroy all of the Nazi imagery after they are finished with it. Shredding clothes, papers, etc.

And the Reichmas tree decorations, I hope.

Oh man I haven't finished the first. Watching with a friend so it's been intermittent.