Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

[Maturin]

I've seen the first episode of Rings of Power and I'm really struggling to know what to think of it. I guess I'll see how the story develops.

The problem I have is almost all the performances seem pretty off to me. Nothing 'rings' true at all. A-ha.

I'm not concerned about all that stuff regarding what is 'correct' and what isn't correct for Tolkein, etc, I'm just treating it as an original fantasy tale (which it kinda is). I'm just not at all convinced with the writing/performances so far.

Great looking though. Hopefully the characters will bed in a bit more.

[Solitaire]

I quite liked it but only because it was better than the last three or four seasons of Game of Thrones, which isn't saying much. I'm not expecting great TV from it at all, but as a little look into a world which I like much of the lore of it is a nice distraction for an hour.

They've done well considering it is based off of one of the most tediously boring fiction books I've ever read.

[edit] Re: House of the Dragon
I've seen up to the third episode, which I need to watch again with captions on because either I'm going fucking deaf in my old age, or these actors love to mumble and whisper instead of enunciating. But anyway, watching grass grow is a better viewing experience than the last several seasons of GoT, so I was going to give this a big miss. But I've been stuck in hotels again, doing this travel nurse stuff in California (San Diego, this time: 104F the other day! Yay for extreme heat!) so I've wound up watching HBO shows and movies. I'm kinda digging the vibe of this one. I guess I enjoy decent political intrigue? I dunno. The characters are growing on me, for the most part, although I detest the main antagonist, something with his face is off... In between episodes they do quite the jumps in time, from months to years, but that's okay with me honestly. There's gotta be some downtime from all the melodrama, after all, and it feels like a novel come to life in this respect.

The bloody scenes seem particularly gratuitous in comparison to how GoT handled them - the good seasons, that is - but there haven't been too many of them, and they did establish character development, so I can just avert my eyes when/if I rewatch. It's fun to see so many dragons! I hope they'll be a big part of the series. I'd love to see them have a few hatchlings that grow through the seasons, although I have no idea if that's part of the novels at all. Anyway, not really hooked on it, but I'm interested enough to keep watching to see how things develop. Surely they can't make the same mistake twice, especially since Dumb & Dumber have nothing at all to do with this one, right? Right??

[Mantis]

All caught up with Rings of Power and House of the Dragon now and I think the latter has supplanted the former as the better show now. House of the Dragon has been consistently decent and Paddy Considine's performance has been really enjoyable to watch.

Rings of Power on the other hand took a significant nose dive this week. The entire episode was all over the place in so many respects. Whilst I'll stick with it, I feel like if it continues on this trajectory then it won't be quite a special as many were hoping it might be after the fairly promising start.

[Wrathbone]

Ha, I thought HotD episode 3 was the weakest so far and RoP episode 3 was its strongest.

Spoilers for both:

Spoiler

The action scene at the end of HotD was just daft. Not Battle of Winterfell daft, but nonsensical all the same. I think there are ways they could have shown Daemon to be unhinged, fearless and a fierce fighter without sending him on a one-man killing spree (only to have his army turn up anyway). I also didn't follow what the deal was with the malformed, diseased Stepstones rebellion leader who got cut in half.

RoP on the other hand I thought presented the orcs fantastically and established what's going on with the Southlands plot, tying it to Galadriel's story. The Harfoots... I like what they're doing with them in general, but I'm worried that they're setting up Mr Meteor as Gandalf because there's an important and poignant story we'll likely miss about his arrival on the shores of Middle Earth. I'm holding out hope that he's one of the blue wizards. Numenor I loved unreservedly - it's 100% on point, as is Elendil. Not sure about Isildur yet, because it seems like they're posturing him as a bit of a dick, whereas his eventual fate is more nuanced than that.

[Alan]

Yeah, still not a fan. I am however becoming a fan of Sandman! Two episodes in and I feel like episode 1 alone was a whole series in itself, what a great starter!

[Hatredsheart]

Yeah, still not a fan. I am however becoming a fan of Sandman! Two episodes in and I feel like episode 1 alone was a whole series in itself, what a great starter!

It's outstanding, genuinely does justice to the source material.

[Sly Boots]

Really pleased people have discovered and are enjoying Sandman, one of my series of the year.

And I just discovered they made a bonus episode, which is particularly brilliant...

[ManBearSquid]

It's in my list, and I know bugger all about it so hopefully it's my kinda thing.

[Sly Boots]

Surprised to see Solar Opposites getting such a hum-drum response, I think it's bloody great!

The epic saga of The Wall alone is worth the entry fee, IMO.

Yeah, I'm going to upgrade my opinion on it. It had actually been a while since I'd seen it, but I've been blitzing through S3 in the past few days and it's reminded me it's actually really good fun. It's no Rick & Morty, but then few things are.

[Lenny Solidus]

[Sly Boots]

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

I'm not really into anime, but this is pretty good imo. If you like Cyberpunk 2077 you should like it, if you like CP 2077 and anime, you should really like it.

[Animalmother]

I'll give it a gander.

Solar Opposites has really grown on me as well. It's not as good as Rick & Morty but it's not far off it.

[Mantis]

Ha, I thought HotD episode 3 was the weakest so far and RoP episode 3 was its strongest.

Spoilers for both:

Spoiler

The action scene at the end of HotD was just daft. Not Battle of Winterfell daft, but nonsensical all the same. I think there are ways they could have shown Daemon to be unhinged, fearless and a fierce fighter without sending him on a one-man killing spree (only to have his army turn up anyway). I also didn't follow what the deal was with the malformed, diseased Stepstones rebellion leader who got cut in half.

RoP on the other hand I thought presented the orcs fantastically and established what's going on with the Southlands plot, tying it to Galadriel's story. The Harfoots... I like what they're doing with them in general, but I'm worried that they're setting up Mr Meteor as Gandalf because there's an important and poignant story we'll likely miss about his arrival on the shores of Middle Earth. I'm holding out hope that he's one of the blue wizards. Numenor I loved unreservedly - it's 100% on point, as is Elendil. Not sure about Isildur yet, because it seems like they're posturing him as a bit of a dick, whereas his eventual fate is more nuanced than that.

I think the main thing that put me off RoP Ep3 was how jarring I'm finding this portrayal of Galadriel to be. She's so standoffish and stubborn that she's actively hindering her own quest and yet she's supposedly one of the oldest and wisest elves that sailed across from Valinor. It's not even the case that I'm finding she's too at odds with how she is written in the books, more that I'm just not liking her character very much. And the writing in some places of the most recent episode was woefully bad, on a "do these writers really think real humans would converse like this" level, mainly from the lesser characters in Numenor.

I'm also completely indifferent about the Harfoots and would have preferred if they'd just been omitted entirely from the story. The action is very video gamey too. Why they feel the need to have slow motion mid air back flips and all that stupidity whenever an elf is in combat is bewildering. It's like they've taken their inspiration from Legolas and his ridiculous stepping stone falling bridge scene from the third Hobbit movie.

That said, I am still enjoying it a lot and there were many good things about Episode 3.

House of the Dragon meanwhile delivered another really good episode this week.

[Wrathbone]

I think the main thing that put me off RoP Ep3 was how jarring I'm finding this portrayal of Galadriel to be. She's so standoffish and stubborn that she's actively hindering her own quest and yet she's supposedly one of the oldest and wisest elves that sailed across from Valinor. It's not even the case that I'm finding she's too at odds with how she is written in the books, more that I'm just not liking her character very much.

Yeah, I get that. It was probably a mistake to make her a protagonist from the start because I don't think she's meant to be especially likeable yet. She's a pariah and a rebel at this point, which to some extent isn't resolved until she passes the test in Fellowship. Is she sabotaging her own efforts by being snippy with everyone? Yes, though not without cause, which the show could have done a better job of portraying.

It's like they've taken their inspiration from Legolas and his ridiculous stepping stone falling bridge scene from the third Hobbit movie.

Nah, it's nowhere near that level of idiocy. Filming style aside, the elves should seem more adept at this point in history to what we've seen in the films, because they are. Everything in Tolkien diminishes over time, not least the elves, and while I wouldn't quantify it with a draining power bar or similar, they are certainly lesser by the end of the third age than they are during the second age. On those lines, I hope they emphasise in the show why Galadriel being one of the few elves left in Middle Earth to have seen the light of the Two Trees makes her enduringly elfier than most elves. Perhaps it could help evoke some viewer pity in her and explain why she's so salty as almost nobody she deals with understands what she's lost, why she won't / can't go back to Valinor and what she fights to protect despite that.

[Achtung Englander]

The Boys Season 1 - 2 (Prime)

Great fun

8/10