The Gaming Den

FrankTrollman wrote:On the TV side... gosh even the stuff I liked like Luke Cage has pacing problems so severe that I want to chew my leg off to escape.

-Username17

Yeah, I'm not a MCU completionist so Luke Cage season 1 is when I punched out on the TV universe. It was a television heartbreaker, really, because there was some inspired cinematography and tchotchke in there but it failed to keep me hooked because the pacing exacerbated the following problems and giant fucking spoilers:

1. Most of the empathy I had for Luke himself ended up being imported in from Jessica Jones rather than built by or enhanced by the series proper. Aside from the barbershop Luke doesn't really seem like he has normal human interactions. That shtick works for Batman because Batman stories rarely involve wanting to give up or refuse the cape for literal hours of run time and at the end of the day you can count on him to punch the Joker in the mouth. The women in the series had to do a lot of the moral heavy lifting for Luke and since it's not their show we're stuck waiting for him to shit or get off the pot. Also, I grew up with a home life that we will mercifully summarize as being "not great" and I binge watched Jessica Jones to catch up for Cage's release. When you have that sort of priming the scenes where Luke basically feels like he's negging Misty or just plain expressing low key but wholly unwarranted prickliness towards her feels super weird. Would I characterize him as an abuser? Not really, no, and Misty sure seems like she can take care of herself. But Luke came off like a fuckboy
and I doubt that is what they were going for.

Admittedly, I may also be even further biased by my suspicion that Simone Missick in a shelf bra and a little blue dress could convince me to try to fight crime in under 5 minutes.

2. Pacing the series as a slow burn that swaps out primary villains halfway through really made me feel like the writers had outsmarted themselves. Alfre Woodard can act and her character is fine, so I ain't mad at her. And I think Mahershala Ali's narrow eyed intensity was perfect for Cottonmouth, a man who is never satisfied with his lot in life. But again, this is a long ass series with long ass episodes, so I question if we really needed Cottonmouth around for so long if Mariah was just going to beat his ass with a stanchion.

3. Diamondback. The first and only time in my life that I've felt disappointed by a big black dude who introduced himself by yelling "Can you dig it?"

Yeah, I only watched the Marvel shows because I liked the MCU, and there was a bit of sunk cost fallacy going on, too, if I'm being honest.

rasmuswagner wrote:Swamp Thing over on HBO has me hooked in episode one. The scene in the lab where they think they are doing science and then there's a monster was genuinely scary to me, and that does not happen often.

I have been ruminating over what made the scene so compelling.
*Good build-up and cinematography.
*Engaging characters. Neither of the characters involved are the Exposition Idiot or the Everyman.
*The monster isn't your dad on Halloween but in CGI drag. It doesn't fuck around with intimidating noises or slowly shambling about.
*The characters are smart, resourceful, and still only barely make it out alive. Unlike 99,9% of horror protagonists, they act like I fantasize that I would act in the same situation. [/list]

I just watched the new THE GRAND TOUR: SEAMEN Special on Amazon Prime.
And yes, it was pretty damn good.

I just watched both of the new It movies. I enjoyed them.

Watched Ready or Not and it was great.

Pretty sure the movie is a metaphor for classism.

Ultraviolet, the Polish crime show available on Netflix, was even better during season 2. If you don't mind subtitles, it's a good watch. Looking forward to season 3.

I super-loved Messiah on Netflix. Honestly, I can't put why into words, but I thought the series was engrossing and well done. I really hope this is one show where they have the story plotted out for its full run because I can see it going horribly wrong very easily if they do the make-it-till-it-fails thing.

I'm on the last episode of the first Bubblegum Crisis series. It's a pretty good show, especially for its age.

But when someone zoomed in on a picture, they showed the zoomed-in image at a lower resolution, and didn't fix it by enhancing (because that isn't a thing). They actually injected realism in a way that makes sense.

The last episode of The Witcher is easily one of the best mid-level mage fights in fantasy. The show itself barely kept me on, and still barely keeps me on, but that episode was the tits. After several forgettable episodes it came out swinging with great effects, solid twists, and just bonkers mage action. The only dumb part was captain "my magic is SWORDS!" who did fuck all, but whatever. Shoulda sent the neck snapping mage to kill the big bad.

Pseudo Stupidity wrote:The only dumb part was captain "my magic is SWORDS!" who did fuck all, but whatever. Shoulda sent the neck snapping mage to kill the big bad.

Haha yeah that mage was terrible - instead of being a competent swordfighter or, maybe even, carrying more than 1 sword...or using his magic directly against his opponent...

Whatever happened to the assassin mage with the crazy pet thing? I guess he wasn't available to hire by either side...

phlapjackage wrote:

Pseudo Stupidity wrote:The only dumb part was captain "my magic is SWORDS!" who did fuck all, but whatever. Shoulda sent the neck snapping mage to kill the big bad.

Haha yeah that mage was terrible - instead of being a competent swordfighter or, maybe even, carrying more than 1 sword...or using his magic directly against his opponent...

Whatever happened to the assassin mage with the crazy pet thing? I guess he wasn't available to hire by either side...

That was possibly the funniest scene of the show. They tried to make it dramatic, but the guy just looked like a chump. He didn't even conjure that many swords! Meanwhile there's people making poison clouds and doing mind control. But conjuring up less than a half dozen regular swords is exhausting.

Pseudo Stupidity wrote:

phlapjackage wrote:

Pseudo Stupidity wrote:The only dumb part was captain "my magic is SWORDS!" who did fuck all, but whatever. Shoulda sent the neck snapping mage to kill the big bad.

Haha yeah that mage was terrible - instead of being a competent swordfighter or, maybe even, carrying more than 1 sword...or using his magic directly against his opponent...

Whatever happened to the assassin mage with the crazy pet thing? I guess he wasn't available to hire by either side...

That was possibly the funniest scene of the show. They tried to make it dramatic, but the guy just looked like a chump. He didn't even conjure that many swords! Meanwhile there's people making poison clouds and doing mind control. But conjuring up less than a half dozen regular swords is exhausting.

He was literally just teleporting the same sword back to his sheate.

For fucks sake, at least if you can teleport swords teleport it to your HAND.

Even if you can't teleport it inside a guys chest, just do a lunge and then when he goes to parry teleport your sword to your other hand and stab him!

That guy was literally a huge fucking comic relief fight scene waiting to happen he's so fucking bad at magic.

Kaelik wrote:

Pseudo Stupidity wrote:

phlapjackage wrote: Haha yeah that mage was terrible - instead of being a competent swordfighter or, maybe even, carrying more than 1 sword...or using his magic directly against his opponent...

Whatever happened to the assassin mage with the crazy pet thing? I guess he wasn't available to hire by either side...

That was possibly the funniest scene of the show. They tried to make it dramatic, but the guy just looked like a chump. He didn't even conjure that many swords! Meanwhile there's people making poison clouds and doing mind control. But conjuring up less than a half dozen regular swords is exhausting.

He was literally just teleporting the same sword back to his sheate.

For fucks sake, at least if you can teleport swords teleport it to your HAND.

Even if you can't teleport it inside a guys chest, just do a lunge and then when he goes to parry teleport your sword to your other hand and stab him!

That guy was literally a huge fucking comic relief fight scene waiting to happen he's so fucking bad at magic.

HE WASN'T EVEN MAKING NEW SWORDS!? Fuck that is incredible. Imagine being a wizard and deciding that is going to be your trick.

Neck snapping?

Poison mushrooms?

Mind control?

Fuck that, it's sword teleportation (into a sheath) time.

If you're a sword wizard and you can't make your magical swords float around you, what the fuck are you doing with your life? Even cheap D&D bad guys can do that.

Teleport swords into your hand? Conjure swords into people!

The Adventurer's Almanac wrote:If you're a sword wizard and you can't make your magical swords float around you, what the fuck are you doing with your life? Even cheap D&D bad guys can do that.

"Cheap"? "a II7th level human vampire"

He's a Fighter, it's fine.

Even though the protagonist annoys me. Kipo and the Age or Wonderbeasts on Netflix is pretty great. Every time I think “meh this is ok I guess” it has a minute or two of awesome. It’s new enough that I don’t wanna do any spoilers.

I will offer this: “mute” is slang for mutant. Not a beast that cannot talk. It took me 3 episodes to figure this out. My wife needed 4 to realize it.

So I watched 1917 with my daughter. The promotional materials make a pretty big deal about the fact the movie is all shot with a focus on the protagonist(s) - there are no aerial shots or wide panoramic views - and it really works well for this movie. The action and stakes are always very personal, even when major action is everywhere else.

There were some surreal(ish) elements that reminded me of Heart of Darkness. The movie was well done, accurate, and appeared respectful of the soldiers that served, but I'd argue that it has more anti-war sentiment than we usually see. People thought of WWI as 'the war to end all wars', and I think you can get a sense of why - you'd have to be crazy to do that all again. It was brutal in an entirely appropriate way.

Good film.

I just watched the season finale of The Good Place. I don't think a comedy has made me cry that emotionally that hard. The show was amazing, and it's kinda what the world needs... A story about people trying to be better, and who end up imperfectly good. I love it.

Maj wrote:I just watched the season finale of The Good Place. I don't think a comedy has made me cry that emotionally that hard. The show was amazing, and it's kinda what the world needs... A story about people trying to be better, and who end up imperfectly good. I love it.

Isn't that the show where they turned "No Exit" into a sitcom?

Hiram McDaniels wrote:

Maj wrote:I just watched the season finale of The Good Place. I don't think a comedy has made me cry that emotionally that hard. The show was amazing, and it's kinda what the world needs... A story about people trying to be better, and who end up imperfectly good. I love it.

Isn't that the show where they turned "No Exit" into a sitcom?

Sort of. Not really. But I see how that comparison could be made.