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Fredrik_S wrote:

I really like The Consultant. Christopher Waltz is terrific as the main bad guy. I haven't finished yet but I have a feeling that they wont give us all the answers to the questions brought up so if you need to have every little bit explained I would probably skip it. I found it intriguing and really good skewing of modern corporate work life.

I thought the acting was great, Waltz's Patoff was very good in particular. And the mystery of it was an interesting one. As a whole though it was disappointing due to bad writing. Apparently trying to record your boss who frequently asks you to commit crimes and break laws isn't something that ever occurred to anyone in the show.

Spoiler:

I mean, he's a demon, if not the Devil himself, so I'm sure going to the cops wouldn't have actually resulted in him getting caught or anything, but the speed with which they basically accepted his power over them was very disheartening.
Also, the relationship between Craig & Patti did not seem like a healthy one at all, so Patoff destroying it didn't come off as nefarious or evil like it was meant to, if anything he was doing them both a favor.

I'm on episode 3 of Swarm and love it so far. The show isn't as weird as Atlanta but it has a strong Atlanta vibe. Glover directed at least one the episode and I think he produced the show. I didn't know anything about the show before starting it. I just seen a bunch of people doing reviews on it so thought it must be awesome or a train wreck. Turned out to be awesome.

From the promo pictures I thought it might be about vampires swarming the country. Was I right? No, yes, maybe. I don't know maybe a little maybe a lot maybe not at all. I will say if you are not up to date on Beyonce you will not understand the many many allusions to her and situations around her.

The show is like this. Michael Jackson's daughter is in this. The show makes reference to something that happen to her in real life but most people probably will have no idea that is MJ's daughter so they will only get half the joke. The entire show is like that and Atlanta is sort of like that. Some stuff they beat you over the head with and other stuff is going go over head unless you watch some review videos.

I am 4 episodes in on Swarm and loving it. Completely in the bag for this one.

Season 3 of Picard is very much ‘why are they bothering with this?’ Territory.

Season 3 of Picard is the best Star Trek outside of Orville S3.

fangblackbone wrote:

Season 3 of Picard is the best Star Trek outside of Orville S3.

It's...... really, really not. There's not an original idea anywhere in it's make up, and occasionally feels more plastic than Gates McFadden's face. It's final pay check for anyone of them not Patrick Stewart (who really is getting on a bit) or Johnathan Frakes. It's the only reason it seems to exist.

Shows don't need to be original to be good.

kazar wrote:

Shows don't need to be original to be good.

Maybe not, but

Spoiler:

bringing back the Changlings

just stinks of complacency.

It's soooooo good this season.

Stengah wrote:
Fredrik_S wrote:

I really like The Consultant. Christopher Waltz is terrific as the main bad guy. I haven't finished yet but I have a feeling that they wont give us all the answers to the questions brought up so if you need to have every little bit explained I would probably skip it. I found it intriguing and really good skewing of modern corporate work life.

I thought the acting was great, Waltz's Patoff was very good in particular. And the mystery of it was an interesting one. As a whole though it was disappointing due to bad writing. Apparently trying to record your boss who frequently asks you to commit crimes and break laws isn't something that ever occurred to anyone in the show.

Spoiler:

I mean, he's a demon, if not the Devil himself, so I'm sure going to the cops wouldn't have actually resulted in him getting caught or anything, but the speed with which they basically accepted his power over them was very disheartening.
Also, the relationship between Craig & Patti did not seem like a healthy one at all, so Patoff destroying it didn't come off as nefarious or evil like it was meant to, if anything he was doing them both a favor.

Yeah. I think Waltz and the actress who plays Elaine are doing a good job, but I find it hard to tell in some scenes if people behaving in hard to believe ways is because it's intentionally exaggerated for the purpose of satire, if the implication is Patoff is forcing/influencing those behavior, or if it's just "I guess it's a more interesting camera shot or because the plot wants them to".

And it's not a subtle show. Every time the camera zooms in on a plot device I laugh out loud. RECORDS ROOM. Or

Spoiler:

REG US PAT OFF

. That ends up mentioned enough times you can tell they were terrified the audience wouldn't get it, but it'd have played better if they just took that risk.

It does have good moments, so I'm still on the fence. I'm finding Elaine's descent in corporate corruption much more interesting than anything to do with Craig.

The show implies Craig and Elaine having an attraction/history, so you don't end up particularly invested in Craig/Patti's relationship. But even so how easily Patti is manipulated by Patoff didn't come across as believable or intriguing to me. I actually fell off the show because of that.

I'd still recommend folks give it a try, though.

Yes it was an interesting series that thankfully didn't run for 8 to 10 hours. I do find 30 minute episodes so much more powerful but not sure where they can take that.

Finished The Night Agent, 10 hours but could have been just as good in 4 or 5 hours. Similar issues with acting in that one and again I enjoyed the story.

Apparently there's a chunk of the audience that think he's some sort of AI that built itself a body, and another that think he's just a normal, if highly persuasive, human. As for whether or not he influenced people to act out of character, I don't think he ever did to Elaine or Craig, who were his main targets for corruption. He was merely a corrupting influence on Elaine, basically giving her permission but leaving the choice up to her. He attempted to do the same with Craig, but after their night out together decided he would be more interesting and entertaining to destroy than corrupt. The manipulation of Patti was one of the more blatant things that i think paints Patoff as a supernatural entity.

Spoiler:

I just can't see a non-supernatural explanation for her agreeing to stay locked in the records room for hours and hours just to type up everything she knows about Craig for his file. Plus she acted like she was snapping back to reality when they got her out, so it didnt seem like something she was simply talked into doing.

I'm not sure if it's even seeking a second season, but I think having one would be a big mistake. Not giving concrete answers is the best thing for the story it tells.

Stengah wrote:

Apparently there's a chunk of the audience that think he's some sort of AI that built itself a body, and another that think he's just a normal, if highly persuasive, human.

WTF. They literally tell you who he is in episode one. They aren't playing hide the ball here.

Fun Trailer for French Action Comedy Film 'Medellín' feat. Mike Tyson

Medellin - Official Trailer | Prime Video

Watched Nanny which I liked but might be terrible. So this isn't a horror movie but is marketed as one. This is more of a basic movie about a Nanny saving up money to bring her son to America. There are some weird stuff. The Little Mermaid shows up and maybe a old god is F ing with the nanny. Or maybe it was all dream and I use to read hip hop magazine.

The main actress holds the movie together. She is a good actress and looks stunning. The little kid is a good actor also. Water does some heavy acting also.

There is a rap song where the main line is "B better have my money". They should made that the theme song for this movie.

The ending is rushed. I was like that's the end? Okay.

Great looking movie. I enjoyed it but it isn't good. I give it 5 woke little mermaids out of 10. Also stop being racist over a cartoon character that doesn't exist.

Started The Citadel. To say it employs some standard spy movie cliches would be generous. I spent much of the first episode keeping track of what had been ripped off, but gave up at the Buffy scene. That being said, it was actually pretty fun and I’ll stick around for more episodes.

Clumber wrote:

Started The Citadel. To say it employs some standard spy movie cliches would be generous. I spent much of the first episode keeping track of what had been ripped off, but gave up at the Buffy scene. That being said, it was actually pretty fun and I’ll stick around for more episodes.

CQB gunfights seem to have all been affected by John Wick now.

MannishBoy wrote:
Clumber wrote:

Started The Citadel. To say it employs some standard spy movie cliches would be generous. I spent much of the first episode keeping track of what had been ripped off, but gave up at the Buffy scene. That being said, it was actually pretty fun and I’ll stick around for more episodes.

CQB gunfights seem to have all been affected by John Wick now.

One of the best fight scenes I've seen recently was the bathroom melee brawl in Cocaine Bear. Highly legible, tense, and almost completely different from most current movie fight scenes.

Citadel can be summed up in one sentence, uttered in the third episode.

‘Activate Ski-Boots!’

Yes. Really.

I'd been negligent in keeping up this season, but my partner made me sit down to watch last week's new episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

As the show is wrapping up, this season has featured flash-forwards beyond 1960-1961 showing Midge & Susie's blossoming success over the following decades, up to last week's episode, which centers around the 1991 Friar's Club Roast of Susie Myerson, interspersed w/ comics from the roast hanging out afterwards and trading stories that fill in some of the blanks from the last 30 years.

Great episode, cried a lot. Alex Borstein in top form. Don't know why I always sleep on this show when I know how much I enjoy it when I finally settle down to watch it.

Yeah, we're enjoying the final season too.

Didn't know new ones were out. My wife loves it and I've enjoyed what I've seen. Have to tell her

Agreed, I really like how they approached this final season both moving the current storylines and showing us what happened to the main characters in the future.

Just finished the end of S1 The Power. It sticks relatively close to the book, but i'm curious how they plan to do S2 because all that's left from the book is super dark. Plus with the WGA strike will it even get made?

ranalin wrote:

Just finished the end of S1 The Power. It sticks relatively close to the book, but i'm curious how they plan to do S2 because all that's left from the book is super dark. Plus with the WGA strike will it even get made?

I haven't read the books, but I am enjoying the show. I believe the season finale, episode 10, airs next Friday.

I finally got round to 'The Peripheral' this weekend. It was fine... though perhaps a little too familiar. Bits of 'The Matrix' here. Some 'Surrogates' there. A sprinkle of 'Strange Days' somewhere else. And - of course - 'Enders Game' and 'Ready Player One' looked a little large over it.

I did wonder how much of Gibson's novel didn't make it to screen. What I was felt very short of new, interesting or thought-provoking ideas... unlike, say, 'Altered Carbon' which felt like it had something to say. it was pretty much a straightforward actions sci-fi. I'm not sure that I can be arsed to buy the book and find out.

The final two episodes felt a touch hurried to me. In particular, the way that Flynne...

Spoiler:

created the new 2032 'stub.

It appear to consist of little more than pressing a button on a computer, and then destroying a pocket watch.
What? No massive lasers? No glowing, rippling holes in the fabric of space-time? Just press a button?

Also, this incredible piece of technology - the stub-creation facility - is in a poorly-guarded basement in a graveyard somewhere?

I understand that Season 2 has been commissioned, but I can't see myself returning. There don't appear to be any clear rules or limits to the whole

Spoiler:

multiverse time travel

thing which potentially means that anything and everything is possible all the time. I don't need another 'Lost' in my life.

detroit20 wrote:

I finally got round to 'The Peripheral' this weekend.

The show actually added stuff that wasn't in the book. Lot of the backstory stuff shown on screen was just passing dialogue and not a focus at all. The plot has also drastically shifted focus and the ending is a modified version that includes ideas from the 2nd book that comes after the Peripheral.

Gibson's books always have something to say but they're more grounded in the near future unlike a book like Altered Carbon which covers some of the same themes.

The idea that this is primarily about multiverse time travel is reductive and not what the book or the show is about. Even with the modified and shifted plot the focus is still about specific characters.

The main thing I missed from it was the factions in the future using their world like a game of Terra Invicta. generally felt like a different story with the same characters and premise to me.

I bought the book after seeing the show and started reading it and became bored. I also struggle letting things that require investment taking purchase on my soul, so that was definitely a factor.

I still want to read it, though, and enjoyed the show on its own terms.