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SirSamVimes
Jul 21, 2008

~* Challenge *~


VideoGames posted:

Bummed to have no more episodes of this for the moment, but overjoyed that the quality is still up there.
I would never have expected this show to be so consistent for so long. It is a real testament to the makers and actors.

Janets has to be my favourite episode of all three seasons, purely because Stephen Merchant is the perfect casting for that role. I have such a huge crush on him and love seeing him in things (he is one reason why Portal2 is my most favourite video game) :D

Bring on season 4!

Janet(s) is my favourite of the season but all time favourite will always be the Trolley Problem.

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Ellie Crabcakes
Feb 1, 2008

Stop emailing my boyfriend Gay Crungus

Klungar posted:

The characters are trapped in a purgatorial space where they learn what it means to be a good person is the rejection of selfish acts and motives and forming bonds with other people, i.e. what we owe to each other. Nadia being Eleanor and Alan being Chidi seem very straightforward parallels.
Nah. Alan isn't a moral person, really, just not confident enough to actively be a dick.

esperterra
Mar 24, 2010

SHINee's back




The Eleanor comparison doesn't really sit for me, either, other than the two characters being self destructive shitbags, which isn't exactly a trait original to those two. Maybe if Eleanor wasn't a network TV character I could see her being a much darker character like Nadia is in Russian Doll, but they're not really all that alike to me beyond the surface stuff. Alan doesn't give me Chidi at all.

That said everyone should watch Russian Doll, even if I wouldn't personally recommend it by comparing it to The Good Place.

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~
Russian Doll is comparable to The Good Place because they're both real loving good

esperterra
Mar 24, 2010

SHINee's back




Rarity posted:

Russian Doll is comparable to The Good Place because they're both real loving good

That comparison I can get behind! Tho I think Russian Doll is better.

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~

esperterra posted:

That comparison I can get behind! Tho I think Russian Doll is better.

Gurl u always get me :love:

Mistikman
Jan 21, 2001

I was born ready. I'm Ron Fucking Swanson.

esperterra posted:

That comparison I can get behind! Tho I think Russian Doll is better.

Your opinion on this is wrong, The Good Place is slightly better than Russian Doll, so therefore we should probably duel to the death.

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
I just watched ep 1 of Russian Doll, and I’m really not sure if I want to watch another. :raise:

Teddybear
May 16, 2009

Look! A teddybear doll!
It's soooo cute!


The_Doctor posted:

I just watched ep 1 of Russian Doll, and I’m really not sure if I want to watch another. :raise:

Give it another episode, if it goes by and doesn’t take you then it doesn’t take you. I loved it but it’s not to everyone’s taste.

carticket
Jun 28, 2005

white and gold.

It's got slow pacing. Give it the season, and if you don't like it at the end, then you can rest easy knowing I was wrong.

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

Russian Doll is a little bit more sloppy with the writing around its weird multiverse concepts than Good Place IMHO but it's still also very good.

Gaz-L
Jan 28, 2009
It was also co-created by Amy Poelher so there's your Schur-verse tie-in.

Hughlander
May 11, 2005

I just binged it over two nights and don’t mind for a moment. I think E4 was even the best place for a cliffhanger.

double nine
Aug 8, 2013

I was just in it for the raspy voiced main character's dialogue. It's delightfully sharp

Oasx
Oct 11, 2006

Freshly Squeezed
The main character in Russian Doll is not very sympathetic at first, but it gets better.

esperterra
Mar 24, 2010

SHINee's back




The season is only four hours, so it moves fairly quick. If it doesn't grab you by episode 2 or 3, then it might not be for you. I'd give it those couple more episodes.

QuoProQuid
Jan 12, 2012

Tr*ckin' and F*ckin' all the way to tha
T O P

Hey, the New York Times posted Tahani's obituary.

https://twitter.com/emilynussbaum/status/1097263199819386880

quote:

Lee Radziwill, the free-spirited former princess who shared the qualities of wealth, social status and ambition with her older sister, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but who struggled as an actor, decorator and writer to share her sister’s aura of success, died on Friday at her home in Manhattan. She was 85.

quote:

It cannot have been easy living in the shadow of one of the world’s most famous women, the wife of President John F. Kennedy, and Mrs. Radziwill was hardly immune to competitive instincts. [...] Like Jackie, she had cultivated passions for painting, music, dance and poetry. She made several attempts for professional recognition, but achieved only pale reflections of the spotlight on her sister.

quote:

In a brief telephone interview for this obituary, Mrs. Radziwill scoffed at the notion that she had had an affair with Mr. Onassis [Jackie's husband], and insisted that she had “no regrets, none at all,” about her relationship with her sister, which was widely reported to have been strained after Mrs. Kennedy married Mr. Onassis.

quote:

Lee grew up in the shade of her sister, who was nearly four years older and was her father’s favorite and an accomplished equestrian. [...] Her teachers at Miss Porter’s found her bright and imaginative, but her grades were average, whereas her sister was remembered as a star.

Tired Moritz
Mar 25, 2012

wish Lowtax would get tired of YOUR POSTS

(n o i c e)
Jesus christ

Democratic Pirate
Feb 17, 2010

Yikes

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Christ that's all from a single article?

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




Well I tried out russian doll in the exact same way I started watching the good place: watch the last episode of the first season as my introduction.

Good lord the actress for Nadia is really good. Alan...eh? Didn't pull me in as much.

Overall the show might be a little too intense for me in a way that the good place really really is not. I like the lightheartedness. Still, I might go back and watch the other seven episodes, maybe. The quip about looking like the girl from Brave was probably my favorite line from the episode. :3:

WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!

silvergoose posted:

Well I tried out russian doll in the exact same way I started watching the good place: watch the last episode of the first season as my introduction.
That seems like a terrible way to introduce yourself to either show, but especially Russian Doll.

Did anything even make sense? Russian Doll is barely a series; it's more like a movie split up into eight parts, and you watched the last 20 minutes to figure out if you liked it.

QuoProQuid
Jan 12, 2012

Tr*ckin' and F*ckin' all the way to tha
T O P

silvergoose posted:

Well I tried out russian doll in the exact same way I started watching the good place: watch the last episode of the first season as my introduction.

Ohhhhh, this is the Bad Place.

Regy Rusty
Apr 26, 2010

silvergoose posted:

Well I tried out russian doll in the exact same way I started watching the good place: watch the last episode of the first season as my introduction.

Good lord the actress for Nadia is really good. Alan...eh? Didn't pull me in as much.

Overall the show might be a little too intense for me in a way that the good place really really is not. I like the lightheartedness. Still, I might go back and watch the other seven episodes, maybe. The quip about looking like the girl from Brave was probably my favorite line from the episode. :3:

why

esperterra
Mar 24, 2010

SHINee's back




silvergoose posted:

watch the last episode of the first season as my introduction.

:yikes:

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




:D

So the actual story is that I hate almost all tv, my wife had binged most of season 1 of the good place, and was like "okay I have to watch the end of the season now" and I just watched it in the background and then decided yeah this seems *really loving good* let's watch the whole season. Note this was when only season 1 was out.

then it happened again for Russian Doll

Except I'm not entirely sure if I want to see the rest.

Yeah it mostly made sense, like, the split realities actually helped rather than confused because the personalities and conversations of both characters provided some heavy exposition?

Ishamael
Feb 18, 2004

You don't have to love me, but you will respect me.

silvergoose posted:

:D

So the actual story is that I hate almost all tv, my wife had binged most of season 1 of the good place, and was like "okay I have to watch the end of the season now" and I just watched it in the background and then decided yeah this seems *really loving good* let's watch the whole season. Note this was when only season 1 was out.

then it happened again for Russian Doll

Except I'm not entirely sure if I want to see the rest.

Yeah it mostly made sense, like, the split realities actually helped rather than confused because the personalities and conversations of both characters provided some heavy exposition?

You watched a puzzle box miniseries and started at the end? wtf

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

i think it's okay to see eps out of order once in a while / spoilers not mattering that much, but that's really fuckin dumb lol

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




Is it better to watch the end of the season and decide whether I want to watch it, or not watch it at all?

Cause, seriously, despite everyone's praise in here, I did not want to watch it at all, and now I'm pondering whether or not to. :shrug:

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

Why don’t you make up your own mind

Tired Moritz
Mar 25, 2012

wish Lowtax would get tired of YOUR POSTS

(n o i c e)
maybe you should just watch television with your wife because it's clear she has good taste

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




Tired Moritz posted:

maybe you should just watch television with your wife because it's clear she has good taste

Wungus
Mar 5, 2004

silvergoose posted:

Is it better to watch the end of the season and decide whether I want to watch it, or not watch it at all?

Cause, seriously, despite everyone's praise in here, I did not want to watch it at all, and now I'm pondering whether or not to. :shrug:

Live whatever life you want, experience content however, but the way you choose to watch tv sounds fuckin' stupid and unfun and if you want suggestions on how to experience a narrative everybody's going to tell you "in narrative fuckin' order"

Xelkelvos
Dec 19, 2012

Whalley posted:

Live whatever life you want, experience content however, but the way you choose to watch tv sounds fuckin' stupid and unfun and if you want suggestions on how to experience a narrative everybody's going to tell you "in narrative fuckin' order"

It's either narrative order like most series or in order that the creators intended to show it ala The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Also, it's called the 3 episode test silvergoose. Watch the first few episodes and see if it's worth the time. Espeically as the first is the Pilot in many cases and needs the second and third to really see how the series actually flows. Like, do you read the last chapter of a book to see if it's worth reading? Or the last 10 minutes of a movie to see if it's worth watching? Is this watching the last episode thing a normal thing for you or only because you did this with The Good Place?

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




Whalley posted:

Live whatever life you want, experience content however, but the way you choose to watch tv sounds fuckin' stupid and unfun and if you want suggestions on how to experience a narrative everybody's going to tell you "in narrative fuckin' order"

It's actually super fun for me and was more happenstance than specific choices, and also I didn't ask for such suggestions. :v:

So, how about that time knife, eh?

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




Xelkelvos posted:

It's either narrative order like most series or in order that the creators intended to show it ala The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Also, it's called the 3 episode test silvergoose. Watch the first few episodes and see if it's worth the time. Espeically as the first is the Pilot in many cases and needs the second and third to really see how the series actually flows. Like, do you read the last chapter of a book to see if it's worth reading? Or the last 10 minutes of a movie to see if it's worth watching? Is this watching the last episode thing a normal thing for you or only because you did this with The Good Place?

Oh it just happened that my wife was on the last episode again, like, it wasn't a conscious choice, it was just me not feeling like putting headphones on and tuning out the tv. I don't routinely do this, no.

WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!

Xelkelvos posted:


Also, it's called the 3 episode test silvergoose. Watch the first few episodes and see if it's worth the time. Espeically as the first is the Pilot in many cases and needs the second and third to really see how the series actually flows.
I do this exact thing too, and it has never failed me so far. It's actually a good thing I did it with Russian Doll, because I was not sold by the end of the first episode. Things don't really get moving until the third. But I ended up loving it.

With The Good Place, I was sold from the beginning. In fact, if I'd started watching with the season 1 finale, I probably would have said "this is stupid and confusing" and never touched it again.

Ubiquitous_
Nov 20, 2013

by Reene

silvergoose posted:

It's actually super fun for me and was more happenstance than specific choices, and also I didn't ask for such suggestions. :v:

So, how about that time knife, eh?

It's more that Russian Doll benefits from what comes before to prop up its otherwise slightly-confusing conclusion. There's so much backstory and character growth that you miss by just watching the end.

Coco13
Jun 6, 2004

My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.

Gaz-L posted:

Can't wait for the episode of TGP that is just an old Veronica Mars script with a loose framing device.

A long time ago, Chidi and Eleanor used to be more than just friends, but he hasn't thought of her lately at all.

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InsertPotPun
Apr 16, 2018

Pissy Bitch stan
Russian Doll stumbles by not defining anything. There's no real goal for the show until the last few episodes. Until then it's emotional stuff without permanence, no consequences, and the main character just kind of loving around like nothing is going on.

"The Good Place" has mystery and plot and goals to accomplish and things to do. It may radically alter from episode to episode but things need to happen. "Russian Doll" just kind of hangs around the apartment in its underwear. And, most importantly, I can't identify with the character that elevator crashes and kills all those people and she just lets it happen every single night. And even the gas leak is a toss in line that they sometimes remember. Even if those events only happen to her she doesn't know that. it's just hard to get excited to follow a character that's just sort of hanging out, the reset thing just kind of irritates her and has no real impact on her life for the longest loving time.
She wakes up, again at the mirror, and then just shakes her head and goes to work. The extraordinary is treated as "oh yeah *shrug*. She notices the guy that was at the bodega last night isn't there, she proceeds to absolutely ignored and put it aside. As if it wasn't the single most significant thing that has happened since her ordeal began.
I had no idea the thing on the bathroom door was significant and not just another decoration. But it was? Maybe give me a clue using music or dialog or cinematography?

I'm not asking for whizz bang zoom a minute, lord knows TGP doesn't have that, but I need some sort of goal. Something to try and either fail or succeed. I usually had no idea where she was going or why.

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