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Post by ganews on May 2, 2024 6:46:38 GMT -5
There aren’t really independent car companies anymore—it’s very hard to make a profit as an automaker (there’s a reason DeLorean and Chapman reaorted to blatantly illegal financing strategies and pretty questionable subsidies from the government Ah, bringing the discussion back to Tesla.
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,660
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Post by Baron von Costume on May 2, 2024 10:45:58 GMT -5
I'm trying again to catch up on Discovery but man I don't know if there's been another show where I enjoy the characters so much but think the writers are just producing the first draft by whoever brought the donuts that day.
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Post by Ben Grimm on May 2, 2024 11:19:15 GMT -5
I'm trying again to catch up on Discovery but man I don't know if there's been another show where I enjoy the characters so much but think the writers are just producing the first draft by whoever brought the donuts that day. I accepted at some point that this was probably the first Star Trek hangout show for me. I really like everybody in it. The episode plots are generally ok at best, and the big arcs are usually completely nonsensical.
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,660
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Post by Baron von Costume on May 2, 2024 14:41:39 GMT -5
I'm trying again to catch up on Discovery but man I don't know if there's been another show where I enjoy the characters so much but think the writers are just producing the first draft by whoever brought the donuts that day. I accepted at some point that this was probably the first Star Trek hangout show for me. I really like everybody in it. The episode plots are generally ok at best, and the big arcs are usually completely nonsensical. that's fair. At this point my judgement for a successful episode is just "are the logical flaws that should have been caught at plotting 101 so bad that I actively facepalm"
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Post by Desert Dweller on May 2, 2024 15:58:38 GMT -5
I accepted at some point that this was probably the first Star Trek hangout show for me. I really like everybody in it. The episode plots are generally ok at best, and the big arcs are usually completely nonsensical. that's fair. At this point my judgement for a successful episode is just "are the logical flaws that should have been caught at plotting 101 so bad that I actively facepalm" I have a lot of difficulty watching it. The logic holes are too big for me. The writing is completely nonsensical. This renders characterization nonsensical too. There is no consistency to why characters do things, or how they react. It is all in service of this wacko plotting.
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Post by liebkartoffel on May 2, 2024 16:21:25 GMT -5
I've long since made peace with the fact that Disco just ain't my definition of Star Trek and if that makes me a reactionary crank among the fandom so be it. I love Strange New Worlds and I adore Lower Decks, so it's not as if I'm completely opposed to this Nu-Trek era, but Disco is just...bad. It occasionally takes a stab at taking on weighty moral and philosophical issues, but it invariably fails because it's written by people who are bad at writing Star Trek and bad at writing in general. For the most part, though, it's just...stuff happening in space and people feel very intense feelings about that stuff happening and then more stuff happens and then the episode ends.
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Post by Mrs David Tennant on May 2, 2024 16:46:37 GMT -5
I'm watching Young Sheldon (which is actually a pretty good show) and someone tells the dad "it's not a competition, George" and the dad says "we're in Texas, everything is a competition!". And you can't argue with that!
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ABz B👹anaz
Grandfathered In
This country is (now less of) a shitshow.
Posts: 1,872
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Post by ABz B👹anaz on May 2, 2024 21:39:01 GMT -5
that's fair. At this point my judgement for a successful episode is just "are the logical flaws that should have been caught at plotting 101 so bad that I actively facepalm" I have a lot of difficulty watching it. The logic holes are too big for me. The writing is completely nonsensical. This renders characterization nonsensical too. There is no consistency to why characters do things, or how they react. It is all in service of this wacko plotting. As I'm sure I've mentioned either here or in the Star Trek thread, Discovery is just okay for me. The plot is absurd, but they're trying to at least do sorta new things. I watch it because I like the characters. And I'm a huge Doug Jones fan and love Saru. I'm still angry that the last season of Picard shit the bed so badly. It was REALLY interesting for the first 3/4 of the season, despite my annoyance that they memory holed everything in S2. But the ending? Was SO! GODDAMN! STUPID! FUCKING IDIOTIC! ARRRRRRGH! So by comparison now Discovery seems okay. But I swear to God if they make THIS season about the goddamn fucking Borg again I'm going to break something.
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Post by Celebith on May 3, 2024 0:50:14 GMT -5
X-Men '97 - Episode 8. The series has been pretty good, with a couple of filler-ish episodes. Ep. 5 has still had the most emotional impact, but maybe I missed something while I was folding laundry and the stakes are higher than I thought. Definitely has the 'turned the corner into act III' feeling though. Looking forward to the final 2 episodes.
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Post by Prole Hole on May 3, 2024 3:38:49 GMT -5
I've long since made peace with the fact that Disco just ain't my definition of Star Trek and if that makes me a reactionary crank among the fandom so be it. I love Strange New Worlds and I adore Lower Decks, so it's not as if I'm completely opposed to this Nu-Trek era, but Disco is just...bad. It occasionally takes a stab at taking on weighty moral and philosophical issues, but it invariably fails because it's written by people who are bad at writing Star Trek and bad at writing in general. For the most part, though, it's just...stuff happening in space and people feel very intense feelings about that stuff happening and then more stuff happens and then the episode ends. Pretty much the perfect summary.
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,660
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Post by Baron von Costume on May 3, 2024 11:20:14 GMT -5
Apparently I've touched a nerve heh. Yeah I agree with everything everyone said here. I think my biggest problem is there's just such a root of a great show here if the writers weren't awful but yeah when you're tossing out all of your main character's growth arc basically every third week this season to justify a bad plot twist it makes all your other plot holes even worse. season 3: (Like everything else aside for Season 3 which I'm working through... if you actually wanted Michael to be a rogue force again have difficulty reintegrating with command etc... why would you not make the gap between her and disco arriving 5? 10? years. Her hair already grew a ridiculous amount for one year It's like one small change that someone at the writers table should have suggested that makes most of the first half of the season at least 50% less stupid.)
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Post by Desert Dweller on May 3, 2024 21:48:40 GMT -5
I just finished Sugar episode 6. This is the one with the big reveal that all the critics were complaining about.
The big twist reveal is.... exactly what everyone predicted it would be. WTF were the critics talking about who seemed to claim this came out of nowhere. This show spent several episodes heavily hinting at this.
Now, I do understand the criticism that this shouldn't have happened in Episode 6. There is no reason at all that this couldn't have happened in Episode 1. I just saw an interview with the writer/creator and he said when he pitched the script he had episode 1 and 2 written, and in those the reveal DID happen in Episode 1. Apparently it was Apple execs who told him he should hold it until later.
Once again proving that tech companies don't know a thing about art.
THIS SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED IN EPISODE 1!
At least now we know why the show seemed to be spinning its wheels for the last few episodes. Sigh.
Super. Now can you tell us what your show is actually ABOUT? Because it's clearly not about the thing you set up in Episode 1.
I'm going to go find out if Sepinwall got an interview with these people and what he has to say about it. He had the exact correct criticism. The problem isn't the twist. The problem is that you waste 6 episodes talking about something else that has nothing to do with what your show actually is about.
Edited to add: Damn, though, Colin Farrell is EXCELLENT in this.
Edited again: Here's Farrell in Variety:
But why? Your show isn't actually about any of that stuff in Episode 1? The human drama you're telling doesn't matter. This is so silly. Are these people saying their entire series is going to be about this missing woman and this Hollywood family? That seems dubious to me. And that's what these first 6 episodes have been about.
These people are saying this delayed reveal had "more narrative excitement". No it didn't. It made your show feel like it was spinning its wheels for several episodes. I'm pretty sure I commented on this in my Episode 4 and 5 posts here. Sigh.
Sorry I keep editing this: This is what I said about episode 4:
Here's what I said about 5:
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Post by Desert Dweller on May 3, 2024 22:20:23 GMT -5
Yes, this is from Vultures's review from Sugar episode 6. Just to dig in on this one more time:
Yes! Just tell us what your show is really about! Colin Farrell is GREAT in this. The directing from Fernando Meirelles is superb. It has all the bones to be a good show. Why the fuck did you waste your time with all this BS in episodes 1-6. Just make the show you wanted to make!
Now the audience only has two episodes to see what your show is really about. Let's see if this new show is any better than the one we saw in episodes 1-6.
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Post by haysoos on May 9, 2024 15:08:38 GMT -5
I have not seen Sugar, but based on this discussion I'm going to diagnose the problem as being a science fiction show was given to producers and writers who hate science fiction.
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Post by Floyd D Barber on May 9, 2024 21:32:28 GMT -5
I started rewatching the 2004 version of Battlestar Galactia, and the pleasure of rediscovering how well it was written and how interesting and nuanced it's characters were at it's beginning is almost overshadowed by the anger of remembering how badly it shit the bed at it's end.
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Post by Ben Grimm on May 10, 2024 5:42:07 GMT -5
I started rewatching the 2004 version of Battlestar Galactia, and the pleasure of rediscovering how well it was written and how interesting and nuanced it's characters were at it's beginning is almost overshadowed by the anger of remembering how badly it shit the bed at it's end. I've never been able to figure out whether the problem was that they were just winging it the whole time, hoping that they'd be able to figure out what was in the mystery boxes eventually (and didn't), or that Moore never really took the show that seriously and was just half-assing it the whole time.
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Post by DangOlJimmyITellYouWhat on May 10, 2024 18:48:13 GMT -5
Just finished an Interview With the Vampire rewatch to ramp up for season two, and I remain astounded at how shockingly good it was. Xxfingersxx for this season!
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Post by Desert Dweller on May 11, 2024 18:16:29 GMT -5
Watched episode 7 of Apple's Sugar. Spoilers ahead!
This was a much, MUCH better episode than the several ones preceding it. Now that the premise is revealed the show has some narrative momentum! Who would have thought?!
Colin Farrell was excellent in this episode, yet again.
This episode made yet another excuse for why this premise wasn't revealed earlier. "oh, some powerful politician found out, and we're being blackmailed." Gotta ask, if a guy running for US Senate gave a press conference to announce "There are aliens on earth!" would anyone actually believe this guy? This tv series didn't give the audience any indication that this guy had any evidence of this. I guess I will just wait and see on this. This seems to be where the dramatic push is coming from now, so hopefully we'll get more info here.
This episode was essentially an action episode. The exposition was delivered very quickly in one scene. I may have to rewatch it. The rest of the episode was Sugar running around trying to outrun the bad guys, and then a climax scene of him getting caught by a bad guy and fighting his way out of it.
Anyway, this was all quite a bit more interesting and intense than the rest of the series. Because, wow, there are now actual stakes and story drive.
Yikes, I will never understand why they didn't just put this reveal in the premier. They could have done so much more interesting storytelling with this known right away.
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ABz B👹anaz
Grandfathered In
This country is (now less of) a shitshow.
Posts: 1,872
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Post by ABz B👹anaz on May 12, 2024 11:07:57 GMT -5
On my return flight on Friday I was excited to have access to AppleTV in American's free in-flight entertainment again so I could continue watching Severance and/or Foundation. But they have a VERY limited selection of episodes on the flights now, and neither of those was there any more.
So instead I watched the first two episodes of Silo, which was okay. I feel like I've read or seen at least one other story so similar to this one that I couldn't remember if I know this story yet...
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LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,049
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Post by LazBro on May 12, 2024 22:28:59 GMT -5
My favorite part of bingeing shows you haven't watched for 5-10 years is when a new recurring character first joins the show, and you recognize the actor but can't quite place them. You're like, "Where do we know them from?", and it takes a good 15 minutes and two different Wikipedia searches to realize, "Oh, from this. We know them from this."
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on May 13, 2024 10:52:26 GMT -5
My favorite part of bingeing shows you haven't watched for 5-10 years is when a new recurring character first joins the show, and you recognize the actor but can't quite place them. You're like, "Where do we know them from?", and it takes a good 15 minutes and two different Wikipedia searches to realize, "Oh, from this. We know them from this." Every other episode of the X-Files for me.
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ABz B👹anaz
Grandfathered In
This country is (now less of) a shitshow.
Posts: 1,872
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Post by ABz B👹anaz on May 13, 2024 23:49:00 GMT -5
I just finished The Bad Batch. It wasn't the best show, but it was pretty good. And the final season, especially the last 3 episodes, were pretty great.
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Post by King Charles’s Butterfly on May 14, 2024 14:37:13 GMT -5
I've never been able to figure out whether the problem was that they were just winging it the whole time, hoping that they'd be able to figure out what was in the mystery boxes eventually (and didn't), or that Moore never really took the show that seriously and was just half-assing it the whole time. He both took the show seriously and winged it: winging it was how they did things on DS9 and if it worked there…
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Post by Desert Dweller on May 15, 2024 1:22:45 GMT -5
This Rings of Power show on Amazon is one of the most frustrating things I've ever seen. That trailer they released today is bad.
The first season wasn't bad. It was mediocre, but not terrible. What was so frustrating about it was that there is potential there to make a good show. They have enough building blocks to do this. But they are making creative choices that prohibit this.
The structure of season 1 was a mystery box, and it didn't need to be. They didn't need to be playing Where's Waldo? with Sauron. There's no need to have all these mysteries. The tales of Middle Earth are fundamentally not a mystery story.
They said they outlined 60 episodes to tell the story. I'm saying that this might be not enough to actually tell the 2nd Age stories if you really think about everything that needs to happen. But they wasted 8 episodes on this foolish mystery box structure.
It doesn't need to be a mystery box to be compelling.
And this new trailer is... more "Where's Waldo?" but this time with bad wigs. First of all, Sauron is a shapeshifter. You don't need to put the same actor in a bad wig. Have some trust in your audience, yikes. Secondly, why are we still doing this? Why is THIS the point of the trailer?
The Tolkien estate approved this project? With THIS as the storytelling in the outline?
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Post by Celebith on May 16, 2024 23:28:33 GMT -5
I started rewatching the 2004 version of Battlestar Galactia, and the pleasure of rediscovering how well it was written and how interesting and nuanced it's characters were at it's beginning is almost overshadowed by the anger of remembering how badly it shit the bed at it's end. Until HIMYM, this was the series ending that most angered me. But the first 2 seasons were amazing, and even with the terrible ending, Saul Tigh had one of the best character arcs on TV.
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Post by Floyd D Barber on May 17, 2024 7:53:34 GMT -5
I started rewatching the 2004 version of Battlestar Galactia, and the pleasure of rediscovering how well it was written and how interesting and nuanced it's characters were at it's beginning is almost overshadowed by the anger of remembering how badly it shit the bed at it's end. Until HIMYM, this was the series ending that most angered me. But the first 2 seasons were amazing, and even with the terrible ending, Saul Tigh had one of the best character arcs on TV. The antagonistic interactions between Tigh and Starbuck were always well written, but one of the many lose ends and other sins the show committed towards the end, one that always drives me nuts is an absolute throwaway bit that is never followed up on. In an episode on New Caprica, the camera roams through the camp, showing the changes that have happened during the year of the time jump. It pans past Saul, his wife Ellen, and Starbuck. As it pans by, not even really focusing on them, they all hug. WTF happened during that year??? This is never explained nor even mentioned again.
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Post by Desert Dweller on May 18, 2024 0:17:15 GMT -5
I watched the final episode of Sugar, on AppleTV.
Colin Farrell is superb in this. Truly. It's possibly the best acting I've ever seen from him. Amy Ryan is also great in a paper thin role. She made that role into a very interesting character, and she had wonderful chemistry with Farrell.
I still wish they'd revealed their big twist in episode 1. Clearly there is an entire other story here that they simply didn't get around to fully telling. Instead, it turns into a maddening series of "tell, don't show" cryptic comments. "Powerful people are hunting us down", "It was part of the mission", these powerful people may "find out about our pact", they're just "trying to protect our way of life".
What does any of this mean? Who knows? We may never find out if Apple cancels this. Does the creator of the show even know? I have no idea.
I will say that the final episode has a plot that went completely unspoiled by the reviews. The reviewers went nuts over "They're aliens!" and didn't bother talking about the semi-cliffhanger ending. That was actually nice, in that it made for a much more surprising and compelling finale.
No doubt, the episodes after this twist reveal were MUCH better than the earlier ones. There was a lot of wasted time and potential in this. There could be a really good show here. But they held back too much. This is a danger when these streaming services will cancel shows after one season if the viewership isn't good.
Ah well.
In any case, I'm glad I watched because wow, Colin Farrell's performance is worth it.
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Post by Desert Dweller on May 18, 2024 0:34:09 GMT -5
I'm also watching Bridgerton Season 3. This season is about Penelope, who is Nicola Coughlan's character. This is the character I liked the most in the first two seasons of the show, so I was hoping this would be good. Bridgerton is a wonderful frivolous romance show, and that can sometimes be incredibly fun. I didn't much like Season 1, but I did like Season 2.
So far, Season 3 is deeply silly and fun, like season 2 was.
I just passed the Big Romantic scene of this season. If you don't know anything about Bridgerton, the music coordinator on this show sometimes throws in these "classical" covers of modern pop songs. This Big Romantic scene had the most hilarious one of these yet. It was Pitbull's "Give Me Everything", played on violins. This was so incredibly funny that it undercut the scene in a horrible way. I laughed so hard I had to rewind the scene and start over. This is just an insane music choice.
Edited to add: I had to google for more information about this. I see I'm not the only one who found this to be crazy. There's already a piece up at Vulture about it. I swear, this was an absurd music cue.
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