What are you watching? (television thread)

Walter said:
So you're saying it's a Netflix show then? :ganishka:

Yeeep. It drags on and on ... I felt like I was watching it for a whole month.

Big fan of Matt Berry, so I'm rewatching Toast Of London and switching on and off from Regular Show. I needed a bit of a break from serious and (boring) stuff.
 
A trailer for Castlevania season 2 has finally been released

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbb8zPQBmOw&ab_channel=Netflix

Looks sick.

I remember seeing complaints about the first season not having monsters from the games. In the trailer I could see the Slogra (0:20-0:23 and 1:22) and Gaibon (1:38) enemies from Super Castlevania and Symphony.

sotn-entrance.gif
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Sareth said:
A trailer for Castlevania season 2 has finally been released

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbb8zPQBmOw&ab_channel=Netflix

Looks sick.

I remember seeing complaints about the first season not having monsters from the games. In the trailer I could see the Slogra (0:20-0:23 and 1:22) and Gaibon (1:38) enemies from Super Castlevania and Symphony.

I enjoyed the first season (which was really just a movie cut in 4 parts), however I worry that they're planning to stretch this out as much as they can. Maybe there's a split second shot of a Slogra-like throwaway creature in the trailer, but we're treated to a lot of exposures to Dracula's "generals" that look like generic vampire villains to me. Let's hope they'll transform (like apostles) into more memorable enemies.
 
Aazealh said:
I enjoyed the first season (which was really just a movie cut in 4 parts), however I worry that they're planning to stretch this out as much as they can. Maybe there's a split second shot of a Slogra-like throwaway creature in the trailer, but we're treated to a lot of exposures to Dracula's "generals" that look like generic vampire villains to me. Let's hope they'll transform (like apostles) into more memorable enemies.

Apparently one of the generals we briefly see is Hector, the player character from the PS2 game Curse of Darkness. http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Hector

o9RZ59fNj5YewD-GQg38uhz_Ax04jVbV_QxaTrVUaSw.jpg


I'm guessing one of the female vampires will be Carmilla since she has been a reoccurring boss. The others might be based on characters from the series as well, but it might not be obvious just from the trailer because they have new designs. I've only played a handful of the Castlevania games (none of the 3D ones) so I'm not familiar with a lot of the series characters and lore.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Sareth said:
Apparently one of the generals we briefly see is Hector, the player character from the PS2 game Curse of Darkness. http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Hector

Hmm. Seems flimsy but why not.

Sareth said:
I've only played a handful of the Castlevania games (none of the 3D ones) so I'm not familiar with a lot of the series characters and lore.

I've played almost all of the games except the two PS2 ones (they were arguably not very good). There's honestly tons of characters and monsters to pick from, but their interest can vary a lot. I'm going to stay positive and hope this improves on the first season.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
I hate Apple so this was hilariously validating for me:

Apple's Upcoming Streaming Service Is Reportedly So Bland Staff Are Calling It 'Expensive NBC'

Heh heh, off to a good start already! :guts:

The Journal wrote that CEO Tim Cook personally shot down Apple’s first scripted drama Vital Signs, about the life of hip-hop magnate Dr. Dre, after he watched the already-filmed show and was alarmed to see scenes featuring cocaine use, an orgy, and “drawn guns”:

It’s too violent, Mr. Cook told Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine, said people familiar with Apple’s entertainment plans. Apple can’t show this.

Oh my, guns drawn! Excuse me while I unclutch my pearls. :carcus:

That included watering down a show proposal from, um, M. Night Shyamalan, whose post-The Sixth Sense career is not exactly considered edgy, to remove crucifixes

Hey Tim Cook, Nintendo called, they want their 90's policies back. :serpico:

According to the Journal, Apple also outbid rivals for a costly (up to or over $12 million an episode) drama about a morning news program starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. The show is now delayed after issues with an executive producer, but also because Apple “wanted a more upbeat show and took exception to some of the humor proposed, according to people working on the project.”

WTF? :???:

Finally, Apple also found new showrunners for Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories after concluding it was too “dark,” the paper wrote.

:ganishka:

So, like E.T.'s dying dark or the full Temple of Doom?

Good God, Dr. Dre is one thing, but M. Night Shyamalan, Jennifer Aniston, and Steven Spielberg are too risque for Apple TV? So, Apple's basically going to charge $10 a month for Disney Channel lite (why not just watch Qubo for free)? It'll probably make billions anyway as were all forced to submit to inoffensive blandness as actually good, "It just works!" :judo:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
It sounds so bad it's like it could honestly set entertainment back if it was somehow successful. I don't think that will happen since everyone will keep presenting a better alternative, but for what Apple lacks in substance and integrity it does make up for in money and influence among the lowest common denominator. Hopefully they give up on this shit one way or another; just call it something different from "Apple" like Disney with Buena Vista or Miramax and then do whatever to be relevant/competitive. Then again, they haven't had to do that in years. The extent of Tim Cook's idea of how to make great products is to put the Apple logo on them, so not doing that would be a pretty big stretch.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
I think my Disney comparison even does the Mouse House a disservice because they released some pretty cool Mickey cartoons recently (the kid loves it and dad secretly enjoys them too =):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWrMsIfye90&index=10&list=PLC6qIbU1olyXQe1WOKt8UJ4hErx3D7qt8

Pretty sure Mickey wants to blow his load here; we've all been there, Mick. :ganishka:


Anyway, I bit the bullet and watched the Magnum P.I. reboot and it was supremely underwhelming, and despite it's callbacks to the original everything from the writing to the acting just didn't have the charm. The closest they got was an early gag where Magnum is rescuing a family from North Korea and he tries to calm the crying kid with some flashy military device but it only makes him cry harder and Magnum makes a "yeesh, oops" face. Otherwise he just comes off too standard TV hero, douchey, or phony nice/serious but with no weight behind it (I mean, it's the first episode, but the original never had this problem). The most memorable part was how bad the CGI was in the climax, and Magnum and co. basically just straight up murder the bad guys instead of it being like, no choice, self defense, or something. *shrug* I pretty much expected this reboot to happen since they rebooted Hawaii 5.0 (because history repeats itself), and actually already fan-cast David Boreanaz but he's a little old now and already got another show (damn he works). Still, I think that would have been ideal for the rare combo of charismatic manliness, childishness, humor, and drama, but alas. The new guy is too small and can't pull off the humor and childishness (dramatic yet harmless yelling, etc) while still being serious and likable. I'm honestly more bummed by Higgins though, which while hilarious for the additional SEXUAL TENSION, basically means the erasure of the original character (but then, how do you do Higgins without a bunch of old British wars anyway?). I'm sure she'll be a stiff ass Brit and all that, but they're clearly going to write the character and the relationship completely differently from the get-go, and I doubt it's ultimately going to add a lot of girl power either (since there's bound to be a lot of, "hur hur you should fuck her, Magnum" jokes). They'd have been better off introducing Carol, Agatha and Lt. Poole early and making them integral from the start, and they've actually already messed up the adversarial relationship because Higgins was way too sympathetic towards him by the end, when Higgins was originally like a light antagonist that LATER became one of the gang. Speaking of, Rick and TC are ok but added nothing and I don't know what they were doing with Nuzo in there instead of Cook from the original pilot (they already botched two major storylines somehow). But, I don't know, I've seen some say they're trying TOO HARD to pay homage to the original, so they might get stuck pleasing nobody, we'll see. Well, not me. I'm NEVER watching this FUCKING TRAVESTY again! :azan: :mozgus:

*hears Magnum P.I. theme*

Oh shit, well maybe just a few minutes more...! :farnese:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Oburi said:

091117_gif_bearded_fan_med.gif


On behalf of everyone not from the New England area: eww, gross, you're the worst, but congrats on your successful brand of frontrunning, I guess.

Anyway, go not picking up Dave Roberts' contract! Hated all his moves, and this isn't hindsight because I hated them all in real time too. Everyone was going nuts after Puig's homer yesterday, then Madson's up in the pen for some reason and they're pulling Hill for him, and after that goes predictably awful Jansen is back up for another shaky six out save after blowing one the day before, and that goes the same too, of course. This was all AFTER benching our best power hitters the first two games for some bullshit matchup reason.

Dave Roberts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abq9Y7YVDWA

Not that it matters, the Sox proved they're the way better team and the players made Roberts look bad, but the Dodgers could have at least made it interesting by not being terrible and blowing every chance they get. Oh well. Go cleaning house on a two time WS loser; get dem bums outta here!
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Oburi said:
I have a feeling this will be a good year for New Englanders (in sports). :guts:

Well, that's been the case for almost the last 20 years (Pats are always there but it's still a crapshoot, super Celts still probably won't beat the Warriors, etc). I remember rooting for the "underdog" '04 Red Sox, which I saw in person, like everyone else. That seems like 200 years ago (which is also seemingly how many bad losses worth of time the Dodgers have managed to fit into the last decade). This year wasn't even so bad, at least we got beat by a team that pretty soundly scored on us every game; last year we managed to lose a series where we arguably could/should have won 6 of 7 games but always found a way to lose.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Sareth said:
Spent my morning watching Castlevania season 2.

"Eat shit and die."
"Yes, fuck you."

Alright, I'm mostly caught up. Episode 7 starts where this entire season should have begun, oh my fucking god, what a bunch of Netflix filler.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Walter said:
Alright, I'm mostly caught up. Episode 7 starts where this entire season should have begun, oh my fucking god, what a bunch of Netflix filler.

Yeah I'm honestly puzzled at some of the choices they made. I appreciate the ways in which they stayed faithful to the series, but instead of all that filler with the generals and devil forgemasters we could have had 2 episodes of the heroes actually dealing with the castle itself, fighting a variety of its denizens (like Olrox, I mean why not) and traps as they went up to Dracula's throne room. I mean the star of the games was always the castle, which is why it's the title of the series.

The fight with Dracula itself was also not so great to me. They had Alucard do most of the work so they could paint Dracula as a tragic figure, but it makes you wonder why Trevor and Sypha were there at all. I would have preferred to see all three of them battling him together, with Trevor whipping him in the face before Alucard staked him or something. Also a transformation or a hint of one would have been nice. Having Carmilla in there was nice and I guess it sets them up for a season 3 if they want to. I wish they hadn't included the PS2 game lore though (with Hector and Isaac)... It's kinda bad and I felt it just confused things uselessly.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Aazealh said:
Yeah I'm honestly puzzled at some of the choices they made. I appreciate the ways in which they stayed faithful to the series, but instead of all that filler with the generals and devil forgemasters we could have had 2 episodes of the heroes actually dealing with the castle itself, fighting a variety of its denizens (like Olrox, I mean why not) and traps as they went up to Dracula's throne room. I mean the star of the games was always the castle, which is why it's the title of the series.

I also kept waiting for them to explore the castle. That's more than half the fun of CV games -- experiencing the different weird environments. Oh well, I do think it deserves praise for the overall visual quality alone, and I think it's far better than other game adaptations we've gotten so far. But the pacing problems genuinely kept me from rooting for this thing. It seems to me they stumbled onto a successful formula in Season 1 (ahem, 4 episodes), garnering them a bigger budget. Only they didn't alter their original trajectory for the A to B plot. They just lengthened how long it took to get there.
The Camilla/generals plot was an absolute slog to get through, and ended up being circular, having zero consequence for the story.

I wish they hadn't included the PS2 game lore though (with Hector and Isaac)...

There was also a painting of Leon Belmont that was spot-on from Lament of Innocence :badbone:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Walter said:
I also kept waiting for them to explore the castle. That's more than half the fun of CV games -- experiencing the different weird environments. Oh well, I do think it deserves praise for the overall visual quality alone, and I think it's far better than other game adaptations we've gotten so far. But the pacing problems genuinely kept me from rooting for this thing. It seems to me they stumbled onto a successful formula in Season 1 (ahem, 4 episodes), garnering them a bigger budget. Only they didn't alter their original trajectory for the A to B plot. They just lengthened how long it took to get there.
The Camilla/generals plot was an absolute slog to get through, and ended up being circular, having zero consequence for the story.

Agree to all that, and if I may add one last complaint: the dialog was pretty bad most of the time. Dracula's voice actor was great though.

Walter said:
There was also a painting of Leon Belmont that was spot-on from Lament of Innocence :badbone:

Haha yeah I saw and was both appreciative of that and dismayed that they wouldn't reference the greatest Belmont: Simon. I also liked the 20 seconds long remix of Bloody Tears when they finally enter the castle and fight the underlings gathered there.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I just finished One Punch Man (the whole show?) on Netflix last night. Good stuff! I acknowledge this is not a nuclear take, given that the show has been out for years, but I admire how smartly they went about turning a simple concept into something continually interesting and funny throughout. That's quite a balancing act, given the premise. It subverts the traditional shounen hero story (making a mockery of it for the most part), and is instead a superhero example of "market disruption." I'm not sure how long they could stretch the concept, but I enjoyed the 12 eps I saw.

In other anime news, my son has been watching the original Pokemon series recently, and it's been pretty funny seeing some similar background key art from the 1997 Berserk series (same animation studio). In particular, the forests/grass/fields have pretty much the same painterly look.
 
Binged Neon Genesis Evangelion over the weekend. I've tried to watch it several times before and could never quite get into it, but I pretty much watched it in two sittings. Completely floored and unsettled by it. Also thought that Episodes 25 and 26 really stuck the landing, but I admit I'm probably a rare viewer insofar as I was immediately empathizing with Shinji. When he stabbed the Angel with his high school friends piled into the mech and was just screaming and sobbing, I was kind of breaking apart. I was incredibly invested in him and Misato, as well as Asuka to a lesser extent. If those episodes were all that existed as an ending for the series, I'd much rather live in a world where those character arcs got some resolution than one in which those episodes sidelined all that to tell us much more about the political situation. Gonna watch End of Evangelion after taking some time to process what I saw (and finishing my Berserk catch up for Friday!!) but looking forward to seeing that other take on the last two episodes.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Speaking of Eva, I just saw that Netflix will be hosting the series as well as all the related movies next month. Which is of slight interest to me since I've never actually seen the End of Eva in anything better than the shitty Media Blasters dvd that came many years ago. Compared to the series which was given a full restoration by ADV films, my appreciation of the End of Eva was always hampered by that. So, I might actually watch that when it hits Netflix. I imagine the visuals will be pretty cool in HD, at the very least.
 
Growing up with Evangelion, it makes me so damn happy people are still getting into it and feeling the same way my friends and I did in junior high school. I hope with it coming to it coming to Netflix it continues to break ground. It should hopefully pull more people into actual awesome anime.

I tend to stick with seasonal stuff when it comes to daily viewing. Really not much of a binge watcher at all. Can't really watch TV for more than an hour or two at a time.

Currently have:
Usual political shows (Daily show, Bill Maher etc).
What We Do In the Shadows, Veep, The Orville, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Twilight Zone, Cloak And Dagger, Doom Patrol, American Gods and Game of Thrones
And then a pile of seasonal anime that's caught my eye.

Pretty good season of TV right now.
 

Grail

Feel the funk blast
Anybody getting pumped for the new Dark Crystal series on Netflix? The first trailer dropped today:

 
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