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This is a cool idea! I'm in assuming you can give me something available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or HBO GO. 5 Dramas off the top of my head that I like: Person of Interest, Arrow, Breaking Bad, Hannibal, and Scandal. Comedy would be Archer, Louie, Community, Parks and Rec, and Silicon Valley
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May 10, 2014 17:33
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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 20:13 |
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I'll stay in.
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May 10, 2014 17:48
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Deadpool posted:DivisionPost: Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 17 I plan on writing a proper review, but if you guys want to watch me react to this in real time, I set up a Google Doc for it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-Q4zhmsWE0USIQ0VJVvFJQPSQy9HcpQiJyrtVGz1KBc/edit?usp=docslist_api
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May 10, 2014 18:41
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Deadpool posted:Josh Lyman: Smallville Season 4 Episode 8 I'm betting on you being a huge Saved by the Bell nerd.
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May 10, 2014 20:53
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Deadpool posted:Close, but not close enough. Can I have another crack at it? Because if you didn't see ALL of SbtB, the I'm thinking it was just Saved Prime and College Years. Smallville's confirmed, so I'm thinking...Reign.
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May 10, 2014 21:07
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QUANTUM LEAP #2.17: "Leaping In Without a Net" You know why I'm so quick to defend mediocre actors and actresses in shows like, say, Arrow? Because of performances like the ones seen in this episode of Quantum Leap. Now let's be clear about something: Quantum Leap's a great show, based on what I've seen and remember (this is an episode I hadn't seen) and based on its undisputed place in the science fiction pantheon. Scott Bakula is fantastic in this role, and Sam Beckett's camaraderie with Dean Stockwell's Al is the stuff of legends. But it's a show that depends very strongly on their guest stars, and when they whiff on those...well, you know the saying: "Oh boy." "Leaping in Without a Net" finds Sam leaping into Victor, the eldest son of a family of Hungarian trapeze artists. They've fallen on hard times after the matriarch died attempting a dangerous trapeze stunt, and daughter Eva is obsessed with recreating it -- much to the chagrin of her father Lazlo, who blames Victor for his mother's death (he was supposed to catch her that night). Right off the bat you'll notice that nobody in this family is likable. Eva comes off as a gloryhound with absolutely no concern for anyone else's feelings, while Lazlo is overly possessive, prideful, and quick to guilt those who have wronged him. You have to figure that Sam's mission is to somehow talk down Eva and convince Lazlo to forgive him so they can all be a family again. But that wouldn't be very cinematic, so instead, Sam must catch Eva when she attempts "The Triple." (On the anniversary of her mother's death, no less!) See, in the original timeline, Eva dies after Lazlo fails to catch her (due to the torn rotator cuff he's been hiding). But if Sam catches her, that'll reunite the family under Eva's unhealthy obsession with glory. That'll totally work out in the long run! In all fairness, it could have worked. If I believed that if all this family had was the rush they get from pushing themselves to the limit and impressing the crowds in the process, I would've been in it with them. But when I should have been thinking, "Wow, I hope Eva can make it and become the kind of acrobat she's always wanted to be," I was thinking, "I could get blackout drunk if I drank for every time Eva says 'THE TREEPLE,' 'PAHPAH,' 'MAHMA,' and 'VEECTOR.'" But I can't call it a complete failure, at least. As expected, Al helping Sam get over his fear of heights gave the two buddies good material to play, and the scenes with the fortune teller -- noticing Al's presence, as well as how often Sam had been "reincarnated" -- was fascinating given what I know about the mythology's spiritual ties. But all in all, this is not an episode I'd like to revisit again. It's a hell of a thing when you actively root for the protagonist to fail. Here are my live-reactions in case anybody wants them; it has at least one other insight that I didn't have room for here. Deadpool, uno mas.
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May 10, 2014 22:38
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Sorry, Deadpool, I've seen Better Off Ted and will have to opt out. I'm glad you thought of me well enough to send me that, though!
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May 10, 2014 23:04
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Alright Rarity; if I had my druthers, I'd have thrown you into #2.7, "Critical" -- a standalone that plays within the established formula and unspools like a 42 minute long panic attack. HOWEVER, I can't say that you wouldn't have had the same problems that you did with "Endgame." Caviezel's acting is something you either get used to or don't, and a lot of the over-explanation is just what happens when your show is on the network that made its bones on the NCIS franchise. I DO want to point out how interesting it is that you think Reese (Jesus) and Carter (the cop) are in love, since a lot of fans see their relationship as something more complex and akin to siblinghood then, say, Castle and Beckett. However, they DO kiss in the next episode, which set off a relatively large uproar within the fan community. Anyway, I'm being annoying, I'm gonna smoke some more crack before I derail this thing entirely. Regy Rusty posted:Also it amuses me that you chose to call him Zombie Cho throughout, which is exactly what the Sleepy Hollow thread habitually called him for the whole season. Well, we trade off between that and John Cho, Demonic Intern.
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May 11, 2014 15:42
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I'd also be down for giving out assignments, but first I have to watch and review Vikings because God help me if I'm the first person to punk out on this thread.
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May 11, 2014 17:40
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CaptainHollywood posted:This but also with Lost : S4Ep5 The Constant I have a very basic frame of reference for Lost, so I'd be willing to do this after my Vikings review.
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May 11, 2014 18:09
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Bown posted:Okay, I’m down for another. I dare someone to throw me a CW thing, because I don’t think I’ve seen anything on that channel properly besides Reaper and Veronica Mars. No Arrow, please. Okay, I can do that for you, OR, I can throw you a knuckleball that has the danger of opening a sort of Pandora's Box. Your call.
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May 11, 2014 22:01
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Bown posted:I need to know what this is too, so I'd like to be greedy and take both. Well, Zaggitz is already giving you a CW show, so I'm giving you the Mystery Box. Some things to keep in mind, though, since this is setting a dangerous precedent. This show is... ...airing on American television. ...and contains no culturally objectionable content -- at least, no more objectionable than you'd find in an American HBO series. And I'm bending the rules a little bit and giving you two episodes because, though the spirit of this game is to throw you into the deep end, it's really not fair to give you one without giving you the other. I just can't do it. If Deadpool wants to overrule me (for any reason, really, including this one), so be it; I'll be happy to give you something else. But assuming that doesn't happen, Bown, you'll be watching Black Lagoon, Episodes 1 and 2.
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May 11, 2014 22:14
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Occupation posted:This is disingenuous as poo poo posting about something that doesn't happen until a full season after the episodes he is watching and is presented as horrific and fundamentally disturbing Yeah that's my defense, but still: Bown, if the fact that this is a series that would even have that makes you fundamentally uncomfortable, I'll give you the out. I had legitimately forgotten that was a thing and I'd hate for this to lead to something that would really throw this perfectly good thread into the shitter. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 22:30 on May 11, 2014 |
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May 11, 2014 22:28
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I'm going to be hitting Vikings in just a few minutes, HOPEFULLY "The Constant" after that.
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May 16, 2014 01:27
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VIKINGS #1.5, "Raid" You know, with all the good, detailed, funny reviews I'm seeing here I feel ashamed, because I have so little to say about this. It's GOOD, to be sure. Certainly worth watching, gives me a good sense of what people are talking about when they say it's a surprisingly cool show. Our hero is Ragnar, who I called "Mullet" in my notes, and who I thought was actually the villain for about three minutes based off the Previouslies and the general look of the character. (Typing that out made me wonder if I was actually 62 years old.) But no. He's our hero, but apparently he did something to piss off the king (?) of the Vikings, Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne). In this episode, Haraldson pays Ragnar back by visiting his village and burning it to the ground. His wife, children, and slave escape without a scratch thanks to his quick thinking, but he's gravely wounded and only gets out thanks to some sick reflexes and sheer luck. The rest of the episode concerns Ragnar and his family going into hiding while he licks his wounds, while Haraldson marries off his daughter. It culminates with a still recovering Ragnar asking his friend to challenge Haraldson to a one on one fight on his behalf. And again, it's really good. The actual raid was nasty, brutal, well-done. Haraldson isn't some one-note villain; I liked how he expressed an interesting, somewhat sympathetic defense of his daughter's arranged marriage. The acting is fantastic, and there are some surprising notes of humor to be found. This doesn't feel at all like the cheesy show I assumed it would be, given its place on The History Channel. But man alive, without the context of the previous episodes this was a chore to try and piece together, and...that's all I can say. Plot details, the finer points of each character? In one ear, out the other. This show will not suffer anyone who jumps into it midway. Then again, bear in mind that I have very little interest in the setting, and it was probably going to have to work twice as hard to be half as effective for me. Still, now I'm REALLY worried on how I'm going to react to The Constant.
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May 16, 2014 02:50
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LOST #4.5, "The Constant" Holy gently caress. I was TERRIFIED of this after Vikings. I was putting it off, putting it off, then I watched Vikings and that landed with a wet fart, mostly because I didn't have a clue as to what the gently caress was going on. So I was punting this even further because if I was grumpy over sitting through loving Vikings, I was going to be scratching at the walls after hopping into the second-most infamously serialized drama of the modern era (besides The Wire). Finally I realized that I was gonna get kicked out of the game if I didn't produce a review, so I gritted my teeth, booted up Netflix, and jumped in. Here's what I knew about LOST: I know there's a plane crash, a smoke monster (who is, by my understanding, eventually played in human form by Titus Welliver). I know there's a hatch. There are characters named Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, they're in a triangle. Jack's a doctor, Kate did some bad poo poo in her past, I THINK Sawyer's a con artist. Other characters include Sayid, who tortures people; Terry O'Quinn's character, who was apparently a paraplegic before crash landed on the island, Korean couple Jin and Sun, and some guy named Desmond played by the guy who was in that short first season of Scandal. At the end of Season 3, Jack is able to radio off the island and we learn that he and Kate, among a handful of others, eventually get off. That's about where they introduce time travel. Eventually there's a nuclear bomb, and I have the roughest idea of how it all ends. So imagine my despair when I realized that my prior swiss-cheesed knowledge of this show counted for precisely jack poo poo, save for "Desmond" and "Time Travel." And there were no previouslies. I started this episode thinking "Oh God, this is going to be the longest 43 minutes of my life." Holy gently caress I was wrong. Whereas "Raid" was just a middle chapter of the longer Vikings story, "The Constant" was a complete story, one that relied on the show's history without demanding more than a basic knowledge of it. In an effort to make contact with the people Jack radioed, Desmond flies through a rough storm along with Sayid and Jeff Fahey; in the midst of this, he awakens in a boot camp, swearing that he was in the midst of an intense dream. When he slips back to the helicopter, he has zero memory of Sayid and Jeff Fahey, and proceeds to freak the gently caress out. Desmond's mind continues to flit between the ship and the boot camp; when he is awake in one world, he's catatonic in the other. This is POWERFUL stuff: Henry Ian Cusick's panic and confusion in these scenes is palpable and horrific; it only intensifies when he is sent to the ship's med bay, where he meets another person that's been going through a similar ordeal. Sayid eventually manages to get Jack on the phone, who turns Sayid and Desmond over to the island's resident super genius, Daniel Faraday. Faraday susses out that Desmond has become unstuck in time, the world he's actually traveling to is his life back in 1996, where he broke up with his girlfriend Penny (even though he's still in love with her) and joined the Army. Meanwhile, the ship's doctor, concerned over a crazy person acting crazy, has hit the alarm, leaving Faraday with limited time to bring Desmond up to speed. Faraday tells Desmond to find him at Oxford in 1996, and gives him some information that will sell the story. Back in 1996, Desmond hops a train to Oxford and gets Faraday's attention. He learns that Faraday has done experiments of this sort with lab rats, sending their consciousnesses forward long enough for them to gather information that they're going to learn at a later time. The problem is that these rats eventually die of aneurisms. Faraday's theory is that the rats lose track of where they are, and their brains can't handle it. They lack a common bond -- a constant -- between the two time periods that allow them to stabilize. So in order for Desmond to survive, he has to find his constant between the two time periods. The best that Desmond can think of is Penny, but she's changed her number. So this episode, complicated as it is with Time Travel and various serialized elements, boils down to the simple story of a broken man desperate to reconnect with his love, and it's a story well told. Now on its own, I have questions about the nature of Penny and Desmond's relationship, and why they're so fixated on each other even after their relationship apparently ended. (My understanding, based on the information provided by the episode, is that he broke it off with her, so why can't he stop thinking about her? And if it was the other way around, what happened to turn her back to him? These are questions that I can imagine answers for within human nature, but detail would be nice.) So I suspect the episode would have been far more effective if I had the history of the series to this point behind me. But as it stood, that final phone call between Desmond and Penny was powerful stuff, and sold me on their relationship on its own. I can tell that Vikings was a good show despite being utterly confused and even bored by what was happening in "Raid." But "The Constant" kept me engaged despite having the barest idea of what was going on, and THAT'S the mark of something truly special. --- Okay, because of how long it took me to crank those two reviews out I think I'm going to hold off on asking for any more, at least for now. But now that my workload's clear, I'll be happy to give a few out to anyone who asks for them. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 03:10 on May 17, 2014 |
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May 17, 2014 03:05
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BarbarousBertha, I'm gonna toss you The Yard #1.3: "The Territories". If it's anything like the ten minutes I watched a couple of months ago, I'm so sorry. You can find it on Hulu+, censored or uncensored. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 12:52 on May 17, 2014 |
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May 17, 2014 12:50
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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. Hmm. All right, how about Space Dandy, #1.4: "Sometimes You Can't Live With Dying, Baby". It's Anime, so I'll give you the right of refusal; just let me know if you accept or decline. I'll start looking for a backup in case you decline.
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May 17, 2014 20:53
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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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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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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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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 20:13 |
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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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