you're makin me wanna rewatch DS9 Xeo. Ahhh!

Finally re-watching Batman: The Animated Series. The writing is about as good as I remember (Damn good), and the settings and animation generally look excellent. Unfortunately, it seems Kevin Conroy is not yet the best Batman he can be, as his "growly Batman" affectation is really fucking obvious at times.

Do it.

The cameo's in season 3 have been awesome so far. Loving the Cardassian ships and such too (interior wise, the gold is awesome) and the makeup on them is damn good. That's another thing I'm liking about this one, way more variety in the races and such.

Yeah, I'm slowly watching this too, such a great adaptation! I have no problem with Conroy's voice though, he's no Christian Bale!

Y'all should watch Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, a series made by BBC and an adaptation of the book. It's very damn great so far. I don't really want to talk about the story, just watch it!

Glad you're liking DS9 so far, Xeo! Yeah, the action is pretty cool. I have like 10 episodes left in the second season of Enterprise and I like it a lot so far. I like the crew and most of the episodes are pretty good, even the calm/"filler" ones.

Thanks for the tip, Twonn, I forgot that was out. I remember hearing the book was really cool so hopefully it'll translate well to the screen. Like A Song of Ice and Fire, I don't really have time or inclination to digest it in full literary form, so the show had better deliver!

Speaking of Game of Thrones... god Michiel Huisman sucks. He just drains the believability out of every scene he's in. Worst casting choice, blows my mind it even happened.

Penny Dreadful has kept fairly strong in the second season, especially with the awesome third episode, though the writing has deteriorated some .

Halfway through Vikings season 3. So far this season has been fairly ho-hum. Some good stuff here and there but nothing I'd rank as on par with the best stuff from season 2. I get a feeling things will get amped up a bit in the second half of the season but unless it totally blows my mind I think I'd have a hard time rating s3 above s2.

btmn, I thought season 3 was good overall, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Still great stuff despite not being the best season so far.

DS9, Episode 3x11

Past Tense

All I can say is that I'm stoked this is a two parter. Had it going this morning before I had to leave for work, but it was feeling like one of the coolest episodes. 10x cooler than the Farscape episodes with them going back into the past/modern world. This is a bit further though, the year was 2020 something I think and if Robocop comes around the corner at some point, I'd have to put this show above TNG. The atmosphere was really cool.

Bashir and Dax are definitely growing on me this season. Damn she looked incredible in a dress showing off more of the cool spotted design. I really dig Sisko too. It seems nearly impossible to top some of the iconic characters in TNG that could probably star in their own series, but as a whole the DS9 cast is definitely pretty strong at this point and I'm loving all the mains. Might even be stronger than TNG's in as sense, Beverly was probably the weakest main character to me (though I dug her relationship with Picard), and Deanna was fun and cool after awhile... but both Dax and Kira seem like far, far more realistic, flawed, awesome characters in comparison. Still not sure about Oto, lol, but he completes the set pretty nicely. It'll be interesting to see how Worf fits in with this crew.

One thing I miss a little is probably the Holodeck. Opened the doors to infinite possibilities, but it's still cool to have something that sets TNG apart and still DS9 is having no trouble messing with my mind with some creative stuff while still sending the characters into unique areas.

I'll shit bricks of Q pops up at some point. I'd say more Borg would maybe be cool too... but I'm digging the crap out of the Cardassians a lot, so I just want more of them. I love how they're a bit more neutral gray line, sometimes helping the humans and sometimes not so much, they don't seem as black and white as the Borg or Romulans.

You realize he showed up in the 6th episode, right?

I watched season 1 two years ago before finishing up 80% of TNG, so I guess I didn't really notice or care at the time.

Yeah, he's just in that episode. DS9 basically stays away from most of the big "TNG" things, like the Borg and Q. Remember, for a few seasons they were both on the air at the same time, so they probably didn't want things getting too repetitive and samey.

I've heard there's Voyager crossover episodes which probably makes more sense. Not sure how I'll feel about those though, if they're in DS9, or both? I'm getting more interested in it though, but it seems obvious TNG and DS9 are on another level in comparison lol.

be sure to avoid the movie Northmen: A Viking Saga. even the worst episode of vikings is better than that.

Be warned, he is barely used.




For me the worst part of TNG was Troi. She was totally useless, her basic functions were 'point out the obvious' and 'wear a catsuit'.




What, with Voyager and DS9? The only thing I can think of is that Voyager launched from DS9 in the first episode. Nothing after that. There is a Voyager-Star Trek 6 crossover episode which is interesting if a bit half baked.

But when he is used...God damn, "The Visitor."

Yall actually like Jake? I thought his acting was pretty bad.

Rewatching The Wire on blu-ray is a thing of beauty.

No way dude, he's pretty charming. Certainly a million times better than Whhhil Whhhhheaton as Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhesley Crusher.

Wheaton may have been a joke on Star Trek (I dunno I'm not too familiar with those episodes) but I love him as himself on Big Bang Theory. And I generally enjoy his current day acting as well.

Big Bang Theory early on made a joke about Mario 64 and a memory card save. Mario 64 saves to the cartridge and I don't even think N64 memory cards were out yet (didn't the Rumble Pak drop first?)

I've utterly despised the show since.

It'd be like Sheldon crying that his Metroid save file got erased.

WRONG!

Shit show indeed. I'm ashamed Lego did a TBBT set!


Yeah, I liked Jake and his relation with his friend Nog! I liked that he grew up too and became a writer. I also liked the relation with his dad, I think it was progressive and fun to see on screen.

I decided to catch up on Game of Thrones so I've watched the 8 episodes of s05. I like it so far, I tried to stop being a "IT'S NOT IN THE BOOKS" person and I try to enjoy it for what it is.

I liked:


I didn't mind


I didn't like:

is it still square? 4:3, or have they edited it for modern screens (16:9)?

Dude, it was filmed in 4:3. "Editing" it for 16:9 would involve either squashing it to fit, or cropping the top and bottom.

According to blu-ray.com the BD version is 1.78:1 so yeah, it's cropped. That said they didn't just lop off the top and bottom, as this paragraph from the review on the site explains:



So it would seem that the 16:9 version actually has more image on the sides, not less at the top and bottom. It was shot on Super 35, which is a format specifically optimised for conversion between different aspect ratios.

'it's only cannibalism if we're equals'.


Hannibal is back

So uh, I have a lot of free time these days so I watch a lot of series so I decided to watch Sense8 (the new Netflix series by the Wachowskis) and eh, it's both good and bad, here's some bulletpoint explaining my thoughts. I watched the whole thing because the story is actually decent but it's cluttered. It's like if the Wachowskis decided to prove they can do some character development instead of their usual boom bang style.

Da good:
-The 8 main characters are well written, diverse and the actors are good enough.
-The 8 sensates (like they call them) all have their backgrounds and stories explored throughout the series, it's not shallow but more about this in the "da bad" section.
-LGBT themes, Lana Wachowski wrote her first trans character (transwoman actress Jaime Clayton is super good) and it's interesting and progressive.
-The cinematography is legit, there's some really nice locations (Iceland, India...) and you feel like you're there with them.
-The concept is good, these people are telepathic and can feel and interact with eachothers, it can lead to some seriously good things.

Da bad:
-The 12 episodes (50 minutes or so) is basically an overlong introduction to the setting as the characters are discovering their gifts. Yeah, it's cool to learn about them and see them interact with their surrounding at first but shit, nothing happens most of the time. I can see the 2nd season (if there's one) being more streamlined.
-The emotional weight and importance of certain storylines are all over the place. Like Tito, the Spaniard who has some troubles being a closeted gay actor versus Sun, the Korean businesswoman/martial arts badass having some problems with the law and her family. It feels like there's no cohesive whole and there's 8 stories (varied but not all worthwhile or important like the others). Like who cares if the Indian woman is stuck into marrying a dude she doesn't like, it just feels a bit more mundane than some other stories.
-Soooo.... there's 8 stories, some more intertwined together than some so it's all over the place and it's tough to have a common thread.
-The bad guy is an older sensate doctor (same "cloister" as Naveen Andrews's characters) who wants to eliminate and control them, sort of a generic villain...

Despite the bad things, I sort of liked Sense8, it's risky, emotional, progressive and I'll continue the series if there's another season.

Wait... Are you saying that the emotional weight of a western closeted gay man far outweighs an Indian woman's forced marriage?

Uh no? Don't put words in my mouth if you haven't watched the series, it was perhaps badly written but it's far from what I meant. It's not a forced marriage anyway, it's supposed to be a love marriage but she has serious doubts about whether she likes him or not. And I was comparing the Spaniard's dude story with the Korean woman story (closeted gay actor vs woman who takes the blame for her family's fraudulent affairs and goes to jail). This was just to show that the importance of certain stories are uneven, some are more dramatic and tragic than others, some are more about social progressive rights, etc. This is both bad and good, I think.

Sounds like something to skip and wait for True Detective season 2.

Sorry, was just asking for clarification.

So I'm about halfway through the first season of Penny Dreadful right now, and other than a few cool bits near the beginning with the vampire coven, I'm kind of at a loss as to what people think makes the series so special. The acting is pretty good, sure, but it seems wayyyyyyy too concerned with being "dark" and "edgy" in ways that aren't even related to horror - everyone fucking each other, OMG DUDES KISSING, etc. I really hate the term "try-hard", but that's really the only term for the impression I get. I guess it's different from most of what's on right now, but man, I just don't see what the hubbub is about. Do things pick up near the end of the season?

The "edginess" fits the "Penny Dreadful" theme quite well, and I think it's handled pretty tastefully all things considered. It's like complaining that Mad Max is nothing but cheesy car chases and explosions, IMO.

And to re-use OpsiusCato's vocabulary, "Vanessa rules divine!".

Vanessa is cool but I find the edginess to be pretty vapid, honestly. Maybe I just don't like this type of "car chase".

I thought the first season of Penny Dreadful was really good. It did what it set out to do surprisingly well, which was update/reimagine classic gothic horror through the lens of a contemporary sensibility. As ludicrous as the concept sounds on paper, they pulled it all off with remarkable skill. I mean think about how insanely terrible it could have been... It's kind of amazing that's it's as good as it is. "Everyone fucking each other" sorta makes it sound like it was written with pointless incestuousness in mind, whereas that's not really how any of the sexual aspects really played out in the show. It does have a fair deal of sex but no more than a lot of other shows in our sin-soaked and godless modern age. I didn't think they made a huge deal out of DUDES KISSING, either... that bit was handled in a relatively non-sensationalist way. I think it does get better as the season goes on in certain ways, and it certainly adds more solidity to the story.

The visuals are also a significant factor in the show's appeal... there's a ton of amazing aesthetic stuff going on in the show in general.

I definitely don't think it's a perfect show, it's got plenty of foibles and some slightly goofy stuff here and there, but overall it's pretty damn cool. I wish the writing was a little better at times, especially in the second season. It's been a little disappointing in that regard.

@Metantoine

I didn't read your post about Sense8 to avoid any spoilers. I downloaded it the other day.
Is it worth watching?

I don't think my post has a lot of spoilers, I think I managed to keep it pretty vague. Worth watching? Yes and no but you got it so might as well watch it!

right! I might as well

Anyone watch the new season of True Detective last night? I really liked it, despite the reviews being mixed. Good characterization among the cast, and the story looks like it's going to fall into an occult murder mystery like the last season, though under a California twist.

Yeah, I dug it. Couple of convenient coincidences, but I don't mind them much. Farrell's character seems pretty intense.

Love the intro/Cohen song too.