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BarbarousBertha posted:I have already watched this series. (The whole thing.) My kids loved it (they were pissed it was a one-off) and I enjoyed it. Warehouse 13 Season 5 episode 4, Savage Seduction e: Welp, beaten.
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May 17, 2014 20:56
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Warehouse 13 is a SyFy series so it's de facto Canadian (in other words I have seen it, at least the first season maybe first two?).DivisionPost posted:Hmm. All right, how about Space Dandy, #1.4: "Sometimes You Can't Live With Dying, Baby". I have not seen this and have a fairly high tolerance for anime, so I accept.
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May 17, 2014 22:42
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MrAristocrates posted:Haven: Season 2 Episode 13 Life has gotten a bit in the way of TV and forums, but I've got the rest of the night (mostly) free, so I'll have my review/summary up by mid-afternoon Sunday. Sorry for the delay!
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May 17, 2014 23:56
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This sounds fun. Give me something to review! Some of the stuff I like: - A Nero Wolfe Mystery - Deep Space Nine - Hustle - The Persuaders! - Red Dwarf [edit] For a fun challenge, would anybody be interested in getting issued some cold war era Polish and Russian series random episodes, ranging from terrible propaganda crap to decent oldschool stuff? I'll guarantee issuing something with subtitles available on the net. Lichtenstein fucked around with this message at 00:18 on May 18, 2014 |
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May 18, 2014 00:09
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Full disclosure: I watched the first episode of this show when it aired back in september, haven't followed through and mostly forgotten everything, so lets go. Zaggitz, Kamen Rider Gaim, Episode 19 Man, Kamen Rider Gaim is loving weird. So Kamen Rider shows are kinda like power rangers except theres usually just one dude in a suit, who later gets a second rider buddy the same way the power rangers get an extra ranger. Kamen Riders are dudes who wear weird bug suits, ride motorcyles, and fight monsters with a variety of cool powers. Their powers usually derive from the name somewhat or fit some kind of theme exclusive to the show, for example, Kamen Rider Wizard's gimmick was magic, Kamen Rider Double was two people using two different powers at once, etc... Kamen Rider Gaim is... fruit.  Yes, that man is dressed like an orange swinging around a big ole orange slice. So, a big problem with this episode, this show in general really, is that normally KR shows operate in easy to follow two episode arcs, Gaim eschews this formula by making the whole show one giant arc about what I can only surmise are dance crews who rep certain fruits and fight evil pokemon? The problem this creates is that I didn't understand a goddamn thing in this episode, and neither would you, and if you wanna watch this show do it from the start. So here's the only gripping part of the episode. There's this dude who is like the radio announcer for all those sweet dance fights. Think of him as professor K from Jet Set Radio Future. Haven't played that game? Cool we can't be friends anymore. It's a great game, play it.  Anyway he shows up in a scene to inspire two of our heroes and this whole loving time he has these sun glasses on his head and he takes them off and its like oh poo poo is he gonna put them on.  Oh man this dude is such a tease.  MAN PLEASE JUST DO IT.  Nope, loving sunglasses blueballed. Maybe he puts them on in a later episode? I'm not finding out today. Weird show, probably good if you watch it from the start and like Toku(which I do on occasion.)
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May 18, 2014 00:19
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Space Dandy, #1.4: "Sometimes You Can't Live With Dying, Baby" Going in, all I know is that this is anime. The title card on Hulu shows the Statue of Liberty, in space, wearing a ball gag and massive bazookas coming off her tiara in all directions. Since it is anime the title may not indicate the show is about a man who dresses fancy and is some sort of astronaut. “Space Dandy is a dandy in space.” Confirmed in the opening title voiceover! He has a glossy pompadour mullet, tarted out uniform, and cheesy grin. This guy looks like the bastard progeny of Johnny Bravo and Sailor Mercury. He is a hunter and these are his adventures! There appear to be two sidekicks, bipedal but probably not human. I am oddly disappointed the sequence is so short, BUT NO IT ISN'T because this is apparently a BONES INC show (I watched Soul Eater, okay?) and bring on the hyperkinetic sidescrolling title sequence. THE COLORS. Kinda wish I had the sort of lifestyle that loans itself to Saturday afternoons spent high as gently caress. Our Space Dandy is running for a giant blinking sign that says BOOBIES and now he is in profile, close-up, blued out, and crying glitter sparkle tears that float off and turn into stars.  The subtitles I got on this episode's theme song were the phonetically written Japanese, so I had no idea how the lyrics might relate to the images on screen. The norm for these shows seems to alternate between the translations and the pronunciation for maximum weeaboo ease of use. It's kind of impressive how the character seems to be going through all the motions I associate with magical girl heroines?  Or Charlie's Angels. So the episode opens with a cargo hold in a spaceship and there is an alien in a cage who groans. This creature bites a sidekick who has a cat face shaped patch on the tail opening of his overalls. This seems to be Meow. I feel a zombie outbreak coming on. Space Dandy wants a drink (I hear ya) but Meow is just too slow fetching it. All he can do is shuffle and groan. Yup, zombies! It's a good thing the other sidekick is a squeaky robot. Robots can't be zombified. They take Meow to a hospital where it's suddenly the horniest Animaniacs episode. "Hellooooo, Nurse!" Space Dandy sure likes him some Boobies. For some reason "Boobies" is capitalized. ! “It was careless of me to think only of boobies,” says Dandy as he pants after every uniformed woman like an anime Ruby Rhod. He is now seen on a surveillance camera air humping at the reception desk while attempting to check himself in. My son (who is 8) now thinks this is the greatest show ever made. The gang is being watched from an orbiting spaceship by a guy who looks like a gorilla stole the wig off of a One Piece character.  This fellow either is named Admiral Perry or is the underling of Admiral Perry. Between the shots of the back of characters' heads and the fact the boss character is an immobile disembodied skull head (that might be floating over a Liberace Dracula suit? It's all very Filmation.) I cannot tell which voice goes with which character, but it makes me laugh that the episode villain (possibly the series villain) is named for the guy who opened Japan to the West. Anime: it's all our fault, really. Anyway! Wigorilla has been gifted a ton of mercenaries to take out Dandy & co. at the hospital. Presumably there are reasons for what seems to be a long standing feud, or this could be another Filmation thing. But, of course, Meow bites a chesty nurse and zombies.  The mercenaries attack and are zombied. Space Dandy uses the squeaky robot to beat the hordes off (seems sensible). He reaches Meow's room only to finally realize Meow is also a zombie. Dandy is pretty vacant. These aliens are really bizarre and I love their designs. There are humans, insectoids, slugbodies, and random appendage creatures. I wish I could do screencaps (I nabbed the images here from Google) because you all should see the alien that looks like a giant pair of wide-hipped legs with one dominant feature on its pelvis/face: a constantly expanding and contracting sphincter. Dandy is going to escape to the helicopter but must leave QT (squeakbot) and zombie Meow behind. OH NO WAIT the pilot is a zombie. We fade to black over a screaming Dandy.  They are all zombies. HOW IS THE ROBOT A ZOMBIE? Comedic license, it's cool, I'm okay. It has been several months (so we are informed by the narrator from before the credits) and the biggest problem they face is zombie slowness, which makes collecting bounties impossible. Time to cash in on Dandy's life insurance policy for money to go to Boobies! It is apparently a business, like Hooters but even more blatant. There are koalas on the logo because? But the place is a space station shaped like a titty burger. The buns are tits, you see, and the club itself is the patty. Zombie money spends just fine, so the fellas have a great time. Also they free the alien from the cargo hold, their senior zombie, who advises them to eat yogurt because lactobacillus will stave off rotting. Jamie Lee Curtis was right, folks. We check in with some of the other zombies. A nurse and mercenary hooked up and talk about how they always feel compelled to go to the mall (how Romero) and Wigorilla is told off by Admiral Perry then incinerated. I hope that didn't damage ballgag Lady Liberty.  I figured out who is the Admiral.Meanwhile, at the mall, zombie hunters are dispatched by the insurance companies to take out the zombies living off insurance company payouts. Dandy, too, who manages to avoid a headshot in a succession of comedic moments that make me want to go watch Archer. Poor Dandy, he just wants to watch a movie called "It's Zombie Day" but the hunter follows him into the theater. And is promptly bitten. Then bites the insurance people. And everyone is a zombie. Universal equality reigns supreme, the narrator tells us before trailing off into drawn out low pitched groaning. Cut to the movie theater where the film is finally underway. "Written and directed by George A. Romero" To be continued! The preview for the next episode shows the gang to be flesh-toned once again. I assume this means an episodic story rather than something more serial. loving adorable and a good time was had by all. It made me want to rewatch Ghostbusters 2, The Wall, Fifth Element, and Brave Starr. A- The kids want to watch the rest of the series. I am guessing this episode was misogyny-lite, so I am not so sure I feel like policing that action.
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May 18, 2014 02:25
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Lichtenstein posted:This sounds fun. Give me something to review! Something tells me you've seen this, but on the off-chance you haven't, I'm going to show mercy and throw you Leverage #4.9, "The Cross My Heart Job".
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May 18, 2014 02:25
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I did watch a few seasons of Leverage, before I had to take a break for unrelated reasons, so while I don't think I got to this episode, it still probably would be cheating. I literally only knew Timothy Hutton from Nero Wolfe series, so it was really weird seeing the slick Archie turn into an old hobo mastermind.
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May 18, 2014 02:34
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Forgive the double post, I took my time reading this and didn't want my words to get lost in the edit.BarbarousBertha posted:Space Dandy, #1.4: "Sometimes You Can't Live With Dying, Baby" I don't quite know what you mean by this, but if you have the chance, I'd recommend screening the other episodes for yourself before watching them with your kids. Granted, if you had no parental objections to this episode, most of the series should be fine, but I know the third episode goes way overboard with the fanservice (for a reason), so you might want to measure the rest of the show up to your standards. Glad you enjoyed it, and I apologize if I made things awkward around the house. If you continue on, I totally recommend the dub, BTW; they did a fantastic job with it. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 02:45 on May 18, 2014 |
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May 18, 2014 02:42
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Lichtenstein posted:I did watch a few seasons of Leverage, before I had to take a break for unrelated reasons, so while I don't think I got to this episode, it still probably would be cheating. Well, poo poo, now I am double-posting. Okay, time to start getting semi-random. Miami Vice #4.7, "Missing Hours"
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May 18, 2014 02:45
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DivisionPost posted:Forgive the double post, I took my time reading this and didn't want my words to get lost in the edit. Nothing was awkward, no worries. I only meant that of the female characters in the credits we only saw one of them for less than a minute. The series is marked MA and I saw a ton of what appeared to be inflating breasts on my foray into Google Image Search. By "policing that action" I was referring to exactly what you suggested: prescreening, which means having to watch twice and time plus lazy ends up mehhhhh... I'll probably just skip the third episode. If it isn't too serialized they won't even notice. They didn't notice the rear end in a top hat alien, so, bonus points for the naivete of youth. I'm mostly glad the boy read the subtitles, boobies *ahem* Boobies and all.
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May 18, 2014 02:54
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BarbarousBertha posted:Nothing was awkward, no worries. The good news is the first season didn't actually have an overarching plot (that I recall, anyway.) You're good just skipping that episode.
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May 18, 2014 02:56
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The person I assigned Northern Exposure S03E07 hasn't done it so if anyone needs something there you go.
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May 18, 2014 03:36
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Hey, Deadpool, go ahead and give me my week probation for  starting ASAP, please. Every time I sit down to watch and review this goddamned episode, some other retarded poo poo comes up and everything's a stupid emergency and I want to murder everyone in the world. So I give up. The episode is cursed.Oh, and take heart, Annakie - Walton Goggins is in scads of episodes of Justified, he's just not in that one.
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May 18, 2014 04:46
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precision posted:The person I assigned Northern Exposure S03E07 hasn't done it so if anyone needs something there you go. He had finals this week, but I know for a fact he watched the episode, I'd give him sunday at least to clear it.
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May 18, 2014 09:26
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I've had a death in the family and a couple of other things this past week so I haven't been able to write my review, but I have a little time now so let me try. Hopefully I won't disappoint Zaggitz too much. Supernatural Season 3 Episode 11 'Mystery Spot' So this is quite a well-known and well-admired show here, hence I knew a lot about it. It's about two brothers who roam around the country hunting demons etc and tumblr ships them a lot and there was originally a five-season plan that went well but it's kept on truckin' since then still being good for the most part. And there's an episode with a racist truck and a character called the Trickster whos episodes are usually really good and fun. I also knew this was a Trickster episode. So I turn the episode on and first I just want to say that if I hadn't known they were brothers I would have definitely thought Sam and Dean were dating from their whole dynamic. They're weirdly flirty for siblings. Dean is the dumb-looking one and Sam has this 90s heartthrob hair. Anyway they go visit this mystery spot and Dean gets killed, and as Sam is crying over his body he wakes up again in the morning. You guessed it, Supernatural goes full Groundhog Day. The next 10-15 minutes are basically what you would expect - they try to avoid it, but Dean always ends up dying somehow, and they go through it about a hundred times. To be honest the amount that it was just totally cavalier about death made me slightly uncomfortable - "ha ha, and then he got brutally murdered again! this poo poo's wacky, y'all!" - but I get how it's funny kinda. Eventually Sam notices how one of the patrons in the diner they go to every morning changes his jam or some poo poo and they follow him and he turns out to be the Trickster, who reminds me slightly of a young Robin Williams. Up til now, the episode has been on about a solid B level. It's fun and entertaining, but doesn't appear to have much of a personality. Very generic style banter. I don't know if this is the kind of criticism zoux would complain about. So the Trickster tells Sam that this is all about how he needs to stop giving a poo poo about his brother because their love for each other is their main weakness, and maybe if I'd seen every episode up til there it would have affected me but it just reminded me of the shipping again and how they already seem to be playing towards it in season loving three. Eventually he agrees to stop it and they wake up in the next morning FINALLY....and then Dean gets murdered by this random hobo guy from earlier and it doesn't reset. Cut to SIX MONTHS LATER and I am officially well aware that this is all going to be reset at the end and we're in the Steven Moffat school of storytelling here. Sam is all angry and gritty and roaming the country kicking rear end while looking for the Trickster and his mentor dude is worried about him. Then they meet up and Sam wants to kill a random innocent to do some kind of spell to summon the Trickster but mentor dude thinks that's a bad idea so he offers himself but then turned out to be the Trickster anyway?? I mean if I was a trickster god convincing this guy to murder an innocent would easily be the more fun path. So then Sam cries and begs him to reverse it all and the Trickster says no. And then Sam cries and begs some more and the Trickster says okay. So that's your resolution for ya. They wake up in the second day and Sam stops him from getting killed by the hobo and I think it ended with him brooding over it. The episode was good and I wasn't bored, but there was also absolutely nothing that stood out at me as being especially great. Did nothing to change my opinion that CW shows are bland as gently caress and not really worth a drat. B-
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May 18, 2014 13:15
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Irish Joe posted:I just started a two week trial of Hulu and I'm soooo tempted to start requesting telenovelas. La Tempestad Season 1 Episode 24 if you are still down. If not, someone else can pick this up on Hulu Plus. It has English subtitles which are a little spotty in quality. Solid Poopsnake posted:Hey, Deadpool, go ahead and give me my week probation for I was going to take this but it was an Arrow episode. Sorry, Solid Poopsnake. Unless it was a Huntress episode in which case you dodged a bullet and the probation is worth it. I would be happy to take on another thing! (If it helps provide entertainment value to loathe what I am watching, then I should note that I hate The West Wing and all things CSI/DickWolf. The last procedural thingy I liked was Life? Unless you count The Blacklist as a procedural, but I sure don't.) Also if anyone wants to try some super old TV shows I can hunt down episodes.
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May 18, 2014 18:47
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BarbarousBertha posted:La Tempestad Season 1 Episode 24 if you are still down. If not, someone else can pick this up on Hulu Plus. It has English subtitles which are a little spotty in quality. I'll give it a shot.
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May 18, 2014 19:03
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BarbarousBertha posted:I would be happy to take on another thing! (If it helps provide entertainment value to loathe what I am watching, then I should note that I hate The West Wing and all things CSI/DickWolf. The last procedural thingy I liked was Life? Unless you count The Blacklist as a procedural, but I sure don't.) I threw you something that I personally enjoyed last time, so I feel like I'm duty bound to switch it up with something chosen blindly from way out in left field. Shut Up & Let's Go, Episode 9. It's available on Netflix.
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May 18, 2014 20:02
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Ken Burns's "Baseball", Episode 2 I was completely unaware of the existence of this program, but it's on Netflix so let's have at it. I know that Ken Burns is a very popular documentary filmmaker who has a fruitful relationship with PBS and generally wins all of the Emmys any year he's eligible. I have seen not one second of his work but there was a 2-part Community S3 episode inspired by his style that felt so familiar that perhaps I have seen more of Burns than I'm aware of. That or historical documentaries tend to have the same format: booming narration over archival and/or re-enacted footage intercut with talking heads speaking authoritatively. It stands to reason that Burns's style has spawned a myriad of both parodies and imitators. Here's what I know about baseball: I played little league for many years as a youth and never saw a great deal of success. I was built like a slugger (read: medium-fat but tall) but I was secretly deeply afraid of being hit by a wild pitch. I was also easily distracted and bored most of the time. I would smile every time that I was assigned right field instead of being benched, because I was a very naive child and no one ever made fun of me for it. Don't get me wrong, I was solid. I wasn't afraid of catching hits like I was of pitches and I could throw to home like a beast. But it's hard to make plays when you're sitting in the outfield playing with mounds of dirt for 95% of your time on the field. Omaha is a town without a national sports franchise. We are however home to the minor league franchise of the Kansas City Royals, then known as the Omaha Royals. The KC Royals are known for George Brett and little else besides generally sucking and not having a post-season appearance since winning the World Series in 1985. Me? I was an Oakland Athletics fan because of Jose Canseco hitting 40 home runs and stealing 40 bases in one season. I had never watched him play but that statistic was really impressive and much was made about it at the time. (As it is with most notable achievements in baseball this would later be tainted by allegations of steroid use, but my interest had long since passed by then.) I even had a Jose Canseco poster that my parents bought and framed for me, surely in the hopes that I would glom on to something not involving the mass media arts of television, video games, and comic books. Sure, I collected baseball cards, but that's just what boys did. I didn't have a strong interest in the sport, but I liked collecting things and the idea of a complete set assembled from random packs enchanted me. Watching an entire 9-inning baseball game live under the hot sun is one of the more tedious things one can do to oneself. Without color commentary and play-by-play you are subjected to massive silences punctuated by light applause for each hit or a runner reaching home and a more raucous ovation for a home run. God help you if you see a game like the one I attended. It was the Summer of 1990 and my mom and aunt took me and my best friend to a KC Royals game. I was about to turn 10 and as always I brought my collection of Nintendo Power issues to excitedly read for the billionth time whilst winding down in the hotel room. I wore my Oakland A's hat because I felt it suited the occasion perfectly. It was a low-scoring affair (like 1-2 or thereabouts) and there were no home runs from either team. I don't remember who the Visitors were and I wasn't rooting for either team so it was a whole lot of Sittin' There, decidedly not one of my strong suits. 24 years on this outing remains the only professional sports event I have ever seen in person. Two things have stuck with me from that day (neither of which are what day it was or which team won): one, as I was walking to use the bathroom an older gentleman with a group of his buddies yelled at me, simply: "A's?!" and they all had a good laugh as I walked on silently. (Disdain for my team coming from a loving Royals fan? Seriously?) His tone implied that for how out of place my hat was, I may as well have strapped a neon dildo to my head. Secondly, my copy of issue #4 of Nintendo Power was somehow misplaced and left behind at the hotel. I made this discovery within minutes of hitting the road and was told we could not turn around to go find it. In my world, at the time, the issue was irreplaceable. I remember that I wasn't sad, but I sure was furious. Between that day and the release of Ken Burns's "Baseball" in 1994, my world grew smaller and I turned more inward, shying away from sports and going full-on indoor kid in my fantasy world where completing menial tasks in a video game merited praise and rewards and where comics wouldn't judge me for reading them in my own way. It was an easier, lonelier world. I lived driving distance from my school, so I couldn't spontaneously spend time with my school friends. I watched MTV and listened to my CDs in the basement without fear that my parents might hear someone use a swear word or talk about sex. Middle school was when things started getting really rough and by the time I was headed to high school I was informed that I would not be attending the public high school local to our home, but instead would be going to a parochial all-boys boarding school. I was mortified. I had given up on organized religion by then and wanted to be around people I lived near and had designs on developing a real social life. Then my hero Kurt Cobain blew his brains out. Several months later, I trudged off to my personal hell and Ken Burns released the 18 hour epic simply titled "Baseball". "Baseball" is cleverly divided into 9 innings, much like the game itself. I watched the second two-hour installment covering 1900-1910. The tone of the whole affair is very pastoral and patriotic, aligning America with the history of the sport. "The Star-Spangled Banner" plays in its entirety at the beginning just as it does at every game, to give you an idea. There is much panning over and zooming in and out of massive archival photographs, but (understandably) very little film. It tells the story of the formation of the American League out of the crumbling National League, the two leagues which remain to this day. The sight of tens of thousands of people attending the games and spilling out onto the field to argue with the players during play is astounding. There was some bloviating ad copy about a ham sandwich that transitioned into the introduction of hot dogs about 22 minutes in, just after the establishment of the World Series. There are a lot of stories about individuals that color the overall narrative, but this is very much educational programming with all of the style and wit of an encyclopedia article, though the many voices who contribute quotes give a strong effort. To recap this in the way I'm used to would be a total book report. The seeds are sown for the establishment of the Negro League and women's baseball. The words "the invincible Cubs" are deployed in earnest, and Boston is known for success. Apparently the person who wrote "Casey at the Bat" performed it over 10,000 times and baseballers supplemented their income in Vaudeville acts. We meet Honus Wagner, Christie Mathewson, Mordecai Brown, Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb and several others. Ty Cobb had a hosed-up life. Lip service is made to the uncertain origins of the game, but asserts its necessity as an American invention. My favorite team name of the show is the Lebanon Pretzel Eaters. We meet Rube Foster, eventual founder of the Negro Leagues. At 1:24 a title card reads "The Merkle Boner" and I finally get my first laugh. The story it refers to is a legendary comedy of errors that is quite nearly beyond belief. The New York crowds look and sound like a living nightmare. The stakes get raised in the last 20 minutes and things pick up once it's telling the thrilling tale of Wagner meeting Cobb. A quote from the Sunday Post puts a bow on it and we roll credits at 1:42 accompanied by a jarringly off-key rendition of "Gee It's a Wonderful Game". I am positive that there is an audience for this beyond American History classrooms, but it has to be incredibly small. Merkle's Boner taken on its own (heh heh) could make for a compelling half-hour, but here it's one of many four-minute vignettes. The bulk of the runtime consists of facts read from a sheet with interviewed reactions, most of them historians with only a few sports figures present. To be fair, it's about events that even then were 70-80 years in the past. I found it refreshing that much positive bluster abounds, but there is nothing controversial explored in any depth, and Burns's objectivity to his subject doesn't result in any kind of statement being made beyond "Ain't America Great?" This is a history lesson and it is well-executed given the limitations within which the documentarian needed to function. It is also dry as the desert air. Will I watch the rest of the series? Did I mention that it's 18 hours long? Suffice it to say, No. What did you learn? E PLURIBUS ANUS is a shitlord, but I thank him for the opportunity to reflect on my own history. Final Grade: B- eta: Oh, one last thing from Wikipedia. Wikipedia posted:The series had an audience of 45 million viewers, which makes it the most watched program in Public Television history. 
SHVPS4DETH fucked around with this message at 22:58 on May 18, 2014 |
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May 18, 2014 22:43
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Homeland Season 1 Episode 7 The Weekend What I knew going in: This is one of President Obama's "favorite shows," and focuses on the feds' attempts to prevent terrorist acts occurring within the US. It stars Damian Lewis, Claire Danes, Morena Baccarin, and Mandy Patinkin. Claire Danes is bi-polar, I think. And clips of the show feature her yelling a lot. In the time-honored Showtime tradition, the first season is universally praised, while the next two, not so much. Also, I've been watching Life recently so that's bound to factor into my viewing experience. So I was a bit thrown by this episode. Despite hearing a lot of comparisons to shows like 24, in this episode geopolitical intrigue and explosions mainly took a backseat to interpersonal drama. We open on a 30ish blonde woman entering a bus station and looking to buy a bus ticket to anywhere in Mexico. Decidedly not because it's the most magical place on Earth. Then we cut to Nicholas Brody (Lewis) and Carrie Mathison (Danes), who are skipping town for some fun after Brody passed some sort of lie detector test. They stop at a bar for some tequila and pool, and decide to engage in one of America's greatest pastimes: loving with a Neo-Nazi.  Not very Zen of you, Det. Crews After that, they head to Carrie's family cabin, where she has trouble locating the hidden key. A phone call to her sister establishes that she's roaming around without her meds (!). After finding the key, she sneaks inside to load a pistol that's sitting in a cabinet (!!). Clearly a weekend of drunken debauchery is not all that Carrie is here for. Following a night of drunken cabin shagging, Brody and Carrie go on a walk in the woods where Brody talks about his dissatisfaction with his marriage. Later, they share a sober, more intimate evening together, after which Carrie discovers Brody suffers from night terrors resulting from his time in captivity of Al-Qaeda. Elsewhere in the episode, Saul (Patinkin) heads down to Mexico to apprehend the woman from the beginning. Turns out she's the girlfriend of a recently killed terrorist and she was explicitly involved in his operation. During a long drive back to DC through middle America, he manages to get her to cooperate with the CIA, convincing her that her actions here more out of love for her boyfriend than out of political motivation. He even bonds with her in the process, disclosing that his wife had recently left him. We also spend time in the Brody household. Brody's daughter Dana effectively calls her mother Jessica (Baccarin) a whore and gets grounded. She decides to celebrate her accomplishment by inviting some friends over, drinking and smoking weed, and having an altercation with a glass door. Which she won, technically. Teenagers, folks!  This family drama came as a result of Jessica having a relationship with Brody's best friend Mike, which is also a major reason Brody left to have cabin sexy fun time with Carrie. After a trip form the hospital, Dana effectively tells Mike to get lost and let her family heal. All this leads to the climax of the episode, wherein Brody notices Carries knows something about him she wouldn't have (the kind of tea he drinks) and he deduces that she's been spying on him for the CIA. Carrie admits that she believes Brody became an Al-Qaeda turncoat during his time in captivity. Brody openly tells her to interrogate him, with the aforementioned gun. Brody gives Carrie a full disclosure that he had apparently not given the CIA earlier. He says he was forced to beat another Marine to death in order to spare his life. He had also converted to Islam during his time in captivity, for lack of other means of faith to fall back on. He even came to love Al-Qaeda leader and CIA target Abu Nazir for showing him kindness after years of captivity. But in spite of that, Brody insists he did not join Nazir's cause, because he was a broken man, with nothing left to give. Brody tells Carrie he's leaving, and starts walking to his car. With anti-clutch timing, Saul phones Carrie and tells her Brody is not the turncoat. The terrorist girlfriend identified the Marine whom Brody thought he killed as the real turncoat. Carrie stops Brody's car to attempt to apologize, but Brody tells her off and drives away. Carrie is in anguish, having severed the emotional connection she just made. Random Thoughts: -Well, I can see why people like the first season of this show, anyway. The "interrogation" scene in particular was top notch, with Lewis and Danes both putting forth great work. -The reckless teen behavior stuff did come off as a little silly, in light of the tone and focus of the series as a whole. I guess I'd need to see more of the show to get a better feel of things though. -The episode did have a nice theme of explaining how people could change in surprising ways and become complicit in horrible acts, given the right circumstances. It's kind of a shame this theme is exploring solely through the visage of attractive white people falling in love with brown people. But again, this is only one episode and I'd need to see more. -I'm undecided if I want to start from the beginning and give the show a full watch, mostly because of the apparent quality dip after Season 1. Think I'm gonna go finish Life, because that show at least has Sarah Shahi in it. Wait, can I count that as a demerit against this show? Yeah, I'm gonna do that. -This show does not have Sarah Shahi. Grade: A-.
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May 18, 2014 23:46
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Yo hcreight if you think the teenager stuff is bad NOW oh boy oh boy oh boy don't keep watching homeland because it only gets much, much worse But yeah my rec is to watch season one of homeland then just stop, honestly the end of season one of homeland works as a decent enough series finale and it only gets worse Also you watched the arguable (one other episode in season two, "Q and A", is perhaps better, but kicks off the arguably stupidest subplot the show has ever done as well) best episode of homeland just you know, fyi
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May 19, 2014 00:10
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TekWar: Season 2 Episode 6 “Alter Ego” Also known as “William Shatner did what?” Apparently, starting in the late 80s and continuing through the 90s, William Shatner wrote a series of science fiction novels that were later made into a TV show. As I wanted to go into the episode cold, that is about all I know about the books. The episode opens in a prison, where society has apparently taken a page from Demolition Man and is freezing convicts so that people a century from now can deal with them. Science fiction writers are evidently the only people who don’t realize how loving stupid- JohnSherman you are fined one credit for a violation of the Verbal Morality statute. Anyway, notorious criminal Miles Connor has been sentenced to 115 years as a human popsicle. The scene shifts to a conference room where we meet our protagonists, Jake Cardigan and Sid Gomez, as they are thanked for putting another Teklord (akin to drug lord, I think) away. The celebration is short lived, obviously, as Miles Connor makes an appearance to kill the Attorney General.  Our heroes head back to the prison, where the needlessly obstructive warden is adamant that yes, it is indeed Connor who is frozen, and no, they aren’t allowed to check. We also meet a new character at this point, Samantha Houston, who is now in charge of the task force that Cardigan and Gomez are working for. The rest of the episode is schlocky investigative fiction, filled with every stereotype that designation implies. Some notes: -Early in the episode, Cardigan meets with a contact who is particularly afraid of being discovered.  No explanation is given for why appearing as a fat man in a dress is less conspicuous than literally any other type of meeting. -At one point, the detectives believe that someone in Connor’s organization is impersonating him, so they run a search of people with a similar height and weight.  This man is apparently number 1 on that list:  Grade: C
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May 19, 2014 04:10
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DivisionPost posted:I threw you something that I personally enjoyed last time, so I feel like I'm duty bound to switch it up with something chosen blindly from way out in left field. Netflix says, "Five boys from a poor village who make up the popular underground boy band Rock Candy transfer to a new school full of snobby rich kids." This thread is turning into, "Bitch, your reading list is gonna be so neglected this summer." 
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May 19, 2014 04:58
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Zaggitz, I've been looking all over all weekend, and I cannot find The Head episode 7. Asked my friends and none of them have it either. Could you assign me something else?
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May 19, 2014 14:12
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Game of Thrones, Season 3, Episode 9
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May 19, 2014 19:18
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The Prisoner Fall Out Episode 17 I will have mine up tomorrow. It looks like its going to be pain.
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May 19, 2014 19:22
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Zaggitz posted:Game of Thrones, Season 3, Episode 9 You. You're the reason Senerio just howled with rage at me on AIM.
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May 19, 2014 19:24
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I'm signing up for this. Some shows I've seen are Agents of Shield, Review, The Trip to Italy, The Good Wife, Louie, Orphan Black, Community, Teen Wolf, (The Australian) Rake, Shameless, Rick and Morty, True Detective, Breaking Bad, Inside #9, Black Mirror, Archer, Person of Interest and an awful lot of british panel comedy shows. I've been enjoying the thread, but haven't felt I've had time to participate, but this week I've given myself the weekend off, so here I am.
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May 20, 2014 08:36
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BSam posted:I'm signing up for this. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Season 4 - Episode 2 - The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis
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May 20, 2014 09:07
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Sorry, seen it, and love that show. It's tough trying to remember everything you've seen ever.
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May 20, 2014 09:10
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BSam posted:Sorry, seen it, and love that show. I've done two reviews so I can do this, right? Yo Gabba Gabba Season 1 Episode 1
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May 20, 2014 09:26
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SHUPS 4 DETH posted:Yo Gabba Gabba Season 1 Episode 1 Awesome, I've not seen this apart from in a review from Charlie Brooker. Should be fun.
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May 20, 2014 09:38
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I'd like a go at this! I have Netflix. Some stuff I watch/watched: Arrow, Orphan Black, Game of Thrones, Fargo, Always Sunny, Bob's Burgers, Archer, Spartacus, Veep, lots of BBC stuff because I'm British (but I know how to access the American Netflix stuff).
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May 20, 2014 11:54
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Not a Twat posted:I'd like a go at this! I'm going to give you Alfred Hitchcock Presents, #2.22: "The End of Indian Summer". It'll be on American Netflix; if you run into trouble, let me know.
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May 20, 2014 12:03
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DivisionPost posted:I'm going to give you Alfred Hitchcock Presents, #2.22: "The End of Indian Summer". It'll be on American Netflix; if you run into trouble, let me know.
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May 20, 2014 12:13
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Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 9: The Rains of Castamere Well, I have never been so bored with an hour of television with as much death as this. What I knew going in: Everyone and their mother loving loves this show. George RR Martin wrote the novels this was based on and likes killing people. Peter Dinklage can do no wrong. He's someone named Tyrion in this. There's someone named Joffrey. He's apparently a dick according to some url on tumblr. There's something called a Red Wedding that has people all in a frenzy. That's in this episode, which I realize near the end of the episode. Okay, to get started, I did like the opening, even if it dragged on way too long. It was a nice setpiece for this. Episode begins with a man trying to figure out a battle. Apparently it's a bad idea. The woman he asks for advice says to show them how it feels to lose someone they love. He goes to meet Argus Filch to apologize. I immediately know he's not surviving the episode because he pissed off David Bradley. That's a bad idea. This scene goes too long while Filch just lists off the people he spurned to marry for love and then creeps on the woman he married instead. Cut to a bunch of people planning an attack. Some guy in peasant clothes is really mad that the leader of the attacking party wants to launch a surprise attack. Leaderman shuts him down. The queen (I guess) wishes them well and I don't care. Cut to two people in the snow. This doesn't matter for the rest of the episode, so I'm skipping it because I don't care. Cut to a man and a girl. The man helps some guy with his cart, and knocks him out. The girl stops him from killing him. Cut to a group of people. They talk about "wildlings" and then find shelter from a storm. Cut to the "wildlings" who plan to steal a horse and kill the old man. One of them argues not to kill the old man but they overrule him. They begin to raid the town. Cut back to man and girl. This is the scene where I got bored, and hope that something happens to get me at all interested. Hahaha nope. Man taunts girl, girl threatens to kill man. I lose interest. Cut back to group of people. I decide I hate them all here. The "wildlings" sack the town, and almost catch them when a dumbass pokemon won't shut up. Cut to a castle in the dark. Peasantclothes leaderman and a guy I will now call ninjamask kill the guards, until it looks like they're overwhelmed. They're not overwhelmed There's a wedding. Argus Filch's daughter and some guy associated with dumbass who pissed off Argus Filch (I'm just gonna call him dumbass from now on). One of the boys takes psychic control of a wolf and kill the "wildlings" when they try to kill the idiot who said don't kill the old man. Cut to queen lady. Turns out ninjamask peasantclothes and leaderman weren't overwhelmed. Shocker. Cut to the wedding reception. Some guy doesn't drink, and Filch says the newlyweds need to gently caress, so most of the partygoers go to watch them gently caress because  . The ones who stay are dumbass and everyone associated with him. Also Filch and a few people associated with him. Turns out dumbass's wife is pregnant. She wants to name the kid "Eddard." The kid named Eddard woulda been bullied in school. Ominous music plays.Turns out, shocker, Filch has decided to kill everyone associated with dumbass. Outside, man and girl get to the castle (girl is related to dumbass I guess). She sees the slaughter and tries to get to a horse, only to get knocked out by man because she's being an idiot too. I guess dumbassery runs in the family. Back inside, random guard comes up and stabs dumbass's wife in her stomach. Dumbass's mother pleads for his life, and takes Filch's wife as a hostage, Filch says gently caress you, gently caress her, and double gently caress him. Some guy working for the Lannisters kill dumbass. Momma dumbass kills Filch's wife, and End episode, and cue my sigh of relief. This episode was really boring. If I had any context, I'd probably be more interested, but as it is, I had no reason to care for any of the idiots except liking their actors, and even that couldn't save Tonks and the kid from the Family of Blood two parter. Worst of all, there was no Peter Dinklage. Did this make me want to see the rest of the show? NOPE. Not in the slightest. Would I recommend this to people? I would not. Partly because I don't like the show, partly because by the time someone comes to me for recommendations, odds are one of the millions of people they talked to first will have recommended it. D- (Apologies for the lack of images, imgur is down, and I didn't care enough to find images anyway) Senerio fucked around with this message at 20:21 on May 20, 2014 |
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May 20, 2014 19:31
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I watched the episode with him and tried to explain what was going on but obviously the Red Wedding was not the greatest place to leap in at.
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May 20, 2014 19:54
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Cue game of thrones nerds:  It took me a very long time to get into Game of Thrones. I find that it essentially has the opposite effect of what the Death and Return of Superman had on comic book death. Suddenly main characters are mortal, something that feels unusually rare in a series (although it shouldn't be). But what sealed these deaths was our attachment to the characters; you going in with no attachment whatsoever, and of course your dislike of the show, makes the deaths hackneyed due to Game of Thrones' famous penchant for character death. Ultimately, without any background, I couldn't see the show being anything but vapid and predictable. The character attachment builds denial more than anything. Sure we don't want Robb Stark to die, but it's not impossible to see coming. Ravane fucked around with this message at 20:55 on May 20, 2014 |
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May 20, 2014 20:52
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CuwiKhons posted:I watched the episode with him and tried to explain what was going on but obviously the Red Wedding was not the greatest place to leap in at. Why do you think I assigned it?
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May 20, 2014 20:59
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