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PaybackJack posted:I disliked how Shadow discovered the con and his "ambition" seems to really have come out of nowhere in the past couple episodes as he's started using his power so it kind of works. His convo with Laura was really bad because she what the gently caress do you say to someone who's got godly powers and wants to start flexing their muscles? Another moment where the writers needed something and couldn't come up with it. I'm glad I'm not the only one who dislikes Laura. I think Emily Browning is really attractive but I wouldn't be watching a show for a stupid superficial reason like that (yeah man, this show has got some HOT CHICKS on it dude). I've never seen her in anything else and it's interesting that she's Australian and Ricky Whittle is English -- seems to be a common thing these days where you have non-American lead actors playing Americans (like in Preacher, or The Affair, among others). Maybe the accent is easier to get down? Anyway, I digress, and she could certainly be a perfectly fine actor, but I've just grown to hate the character, at least the way it's written. "Let's make her say 'gently caress' every other word, cementing the fact that she's a real badass and means business, also she should be an unrelenting jerk and generally snide even when it's uncalled for." That being said, I liked her interactions with Mad Sweeney, so maybe it's just my general exasperation with this season that's driving my disdain. I get making a character brash and sarcastic, and it's usually difficult to make them likeable as well if they're a protagonist. I think Ruth Negga did an awesome job as Tulip and it seems like that might be what they were going for, as you mentioned (I read the book but it was so long ago that I don't remember all the fine points, I did enjoy it though).
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Mar 23, 2021 18:46
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So be for I gather my thoughts, I just want to say... UGH. The story arc of this season is just... bad. There is a massive difference between the con of the book and show, and I think it is because the show wrote itself into a corner so had to settle on something much dumber and less interesting. Massive book spoilers, don't read if you plan on reading the bookIn the book the long con was that Wednesday would insight a massive, winner takes all, final climatic battle between the old gods and new. At the start of the battle, someone would throw Gungnir across the center and declare that this battle was dedicated to Odin. This means that Odin would be impowered by every god death, old and new. Odin is a war god, so other gods dying in his name would be extremely potent, beyond what he would get with mortal tributes. That was the whole reason he put so much effort into recruiting old gods from the start. They were all just sacrifices for his level up, from Mr Nancy to Czernobog. Mr. World AKA Loki, recruited from the other side. Shadow's role in all of this was to be a distraction while Loki and Odin did their thing. They also made Shadow's time on the tree way less interesting. He was seriously just roped to a tree without it stabbing him with branches (although a book only enemy did stab him with a branch he was sent to retrieve). Instead he goes on a trippy vision quest where he: makes friends with a mythical squirrel, talks with the Egyptian hawk god Horus, talks to a still zombified Laura where he refuses her help in being cut down, hears color, and is sent to the afterlife and given the choice were to go, chooses to be nothing, but is later forced back to life by Easter and Whiskey Jack (Who was way more important in the book and I feel like the show didn't do him justice). If anyone is confused what the hell the Norns are, they are the Norse version of the fates of Greek/Roman myth and also the Zorya sisters of Slavic myth we see in the show. Zoben posted:I'm glad I'm not the only one who dislikes Laura. I think Emily Browning is really attractive but I wouldn't be watching a show for a stupid superficial reason like that (yeah man, this show has got some HOT CHICKS on it dude). I've never seen her in anything else and it's interesting that she's Australian and Ricky Whittle is English --
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Mar 23, 2021 23:38
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In which case, definitely go watch Sleeping Beauty and live-blog your reaction.
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Mar 24, 2021 02:11
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Khablam posted:In which case, definitely go watch Sleeping Beauty and live-blog your reaction. 
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Mar 24, 2021 04:57
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Dead Wife is easily my least favourite part of the show, and has been since the start. It's not Browning's fault that her character has so little substance, but her acting isn't helping things either.
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Mar 24, 2021 07:45
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I just didn't like all the gross imagery that came with her being dead.
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Mar 24, 2021 07:51
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Brown has done what she could, but 90% of her dialogue is shouting gently caress at someone. I thought they'd do something interesting by being allowed to show Laura outside of Shadow's POV, something the book never really did. But it just led to some very navel-gazey solo episodes and even then the show just didn't seem all that interested in showing her outside of the context of Shadow. Especially since now that Bilquis has a mission to. . reunite them? I don't know. In the book, Laura stays udead and shows up like, two or three times for brief moments to basically haunt Shadow but can't sticka round for too long. She's implied to have her own wild, wacky God roadtrip with some of the New Gods like how Shadow had with Wednesday. I just want to whine that I really wish this show was better.
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Mar 25, 2021 04:24
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even in the good season, Laura's signature episode was way too focused on unimportant nonsense and plot-adjacent because it needed to establish her character beats (that were eventually wasted) all in one shot but still fit into the cliffhanger ending of the last episode. also it hinged on a relationship that required Dane Cook having talent or chemistry with a real human being and that was a bad choice. her theme song in it was loving fire though
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Mar 27, 2021 23:28
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the best laura scene was when she smashed all those mr universe bots while shadow was being hanged
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Mar 28, 2021 01:19
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Was the new season any good? Last season was pretty bad and the way they treated Orlando Jones really, really put me off, is there any point in catching up or is it still a shadow (sorry) of the season 1 goodness?
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Mar 28, 2021 01:25
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this season was pretty much a wet fart the whole way through
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Mar 28, 2021 01:58
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And still better than season two.
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Mar 28, 2021 02:31
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Oh well, I'll just continue to be mad at network executives for not giving in to Bryan Fuller's unreasonable demands (yeah yeah he wants a lot of money, the results are worth it goddammit  )
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Mar 28, 2021 03:14
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Jerusalem posted:Oh well, I'll just continue to be mad at network executives for not giving in to Bryan Fuller's unreasonable demands (yeah yeah he wants a lot of money, the results are worth it goddammit It’s frustrating because he was doing a great job with the original budget anyway. The hell was he gonna do with 10M an episode?
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Mar 28, 2021 03:25
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Ugly In The Morning posted:The hell was he gonna do with 10M an episode? More costumes and hair/make-up for Gillian Anderson. Money well spent as far as I'm concerned 
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Mar 28, 2021 03:27
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oh man. this season didn't even have media. no media and no anansi  not that media last season was very good with the whole cable sex thing
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Mar 28, 2021 06:00
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Jerusalem posted:Was the new season any good? Last season was pretty bad and the way they treated Orlando Jones really, really put me off, is there any point in catching up or is it still a shadow (sorry) of the season 1 goodness? Another season of pointless wheel spinning.
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Mar 28, 2021 07:42
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ded posted:oh man. this season didn't even have media. Forgetting New Media existed was a vast improvement for S3, and turned out to be an rear end saver because I'm sure that characterization, which was already moldering and cringey at the time, would have aged like a corpse after the atlanta spa shootings. Ugly In The Morning posted:It’s frustrating because he was doing a great job with the original budget anyway. The hell was he gonna do with 10M an episode? He was overbudget so he was already pushing things (part of why house on the rock got pushed to S2, it was supposed to be the finale of S1.) I mean he did a great job but he was already working beyond his means. DamnGlitch fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Mar 28, 2021 |
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Mar 28, 2021 21:05
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DamnGlitch posted:Forgetting New Media existed was a vast improvement for S3, and turned out to be an rear end saver because I'm sure that characterization, which was already moldering and cringey at the time, would have aged like a corpse after the atlanta spa shootings. It was always bad.
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Mar 28, 2021 22:54
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Alright? You got me I was def arguing it used to be great??
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Mar 28, 2021 23:18
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Jerusalem posted:Was the new season any good? Last season was pretty bad and the way they treated Orlando Jones really, really put me off, is there any point in catching up or is it still a shadow (sorry) of the season 1 goodness? At this point, this show seems like those things people make for cats to watch. It's very pretty to look at most of the time, you have Ian McShane chewing the scenery every chance he gets, there's a lot of effects and so forth, but for the most part absolutely nothing actually happens. If you've had one of those dreams where everything's sort of pleasant and almost interesting, but you constantly feel like something more should happen? This show is that.
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Mar 29, 2021 03:50
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It's over https://deadline.com/2021/03/american-gods-canceled-no-season-4-starz-neil-gaiman-1234724166/
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Mar 30, 2021 02:08
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Chris James 2 posted:It's over https://deadline.com/2021/03/american-gods-canceled-no-season-4-starz-neil-gaiman-1234724166/ A mercy kill for sure. Now do a documentary about the behind the scenes stuff.
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Mar 30, 2021 02:14
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Wow, three seasons to tell a story consisting of pretty much nothing.
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Mar 30, 2021 02:18
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Chris James 2 posted:It's over https://deadline.com/2021/03/american-gods-canceled-no-season-4-starz-neil-gaiman-1234724166/ tbf there are apparently "discussions" about a finale movie or miniseries but who knows if that'll happen i'll watch that if it happens, but i can't say i'll miss the show, and that's as someone who loved the book and really liked the first season
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Mar 30, 2021 02:49
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Glad I didn't invest the time for season 3.Ugly In The Morning posted:A mercy kill for sure. This, right now. Chop-chop!
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Mar 30, 2021 05:07
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FoneBone posted:tbf there are apparently "discussions" about a finale movie or miniseries but who knows if that'll happen
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Mar 30, 2021 05:16
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Whether the show was liked or not it was still more interesting than most other stuff out there and am pissed off. Conjecture spoiler - haven't read the book. Maximillian was Mr. World and was also the one responsible for taking advantage of Laura's dad to gently caress her up and make her a weapon or generally ruin Odin's plans. Mr World was probably Loki. It was a long trick as much as Odin did long Cons. The requiem music played during Maximillian's intro as well as in the father seduction scenes. Also I worked out now that Henzelman was the thunder bird. The bird totem tossed in the water and the the shadow of the bird over the clunker in one scene.
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Mar 30, 2021 07:58
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Going to ask can someone spoiler the books for me? I'll never read them but would like to see where this would or could go story wise.
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Mar 30, 2021 08:22
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Gonz posted:The third season of Counterpart was made by Remedy Entertainment and is called Control. So if I liked Control, should I watch Counterpart?
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Mar 30, 2021 09:31
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Digital Jedi posted:Going to ask can someone spoiler the books for me? I'll never read them but would like to see where this would or could go story wise. Basically Mr World is Loki, and the whole war is long con between Odin and Loki. During a parley between the Old Gods and the New Gods, Odin is killed (not by Laura, I forget who). This galvanizes the Old Gods and eventually both sides meet to fight it out. Meanwhile, Shadow is bound by his contract to be pierced by a spear for nine days and hang from the tree. Horus convinces Easter to raise him from the dead, while one of Loki's MIB's takes a branch from the Tree. Loki was going to use the branch (which turns into a spear) and throw it over the battle, dedicating it as a blood sacrifice to Odin, while he fed on the chaos and trickery of it all. Laura (still a zombie) stabs Loki with the spear, Shadow shows up, and him and Odin's ghost spill the beans. Shadow in turns reveals the con, everyone goes home, Loki and Odin die. Shadow goes to Iceland and meets a more traditional, less lovely Odin.
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Mar 30, 2021 10:28
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Capn Beeb posted:So if I liked Control, should I watch Counterpart? 100% yes. Same aesthetic and everything.
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Mar 30, 2021 10:55
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In terms of story I don’t see many similarities. Control is pretty much a SCP action game with spooky vibes, while Counterpart is espionage with a little science fiction thrown in, although I dropped the show early in season two, so things might have changed.
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Mar 30, 2021 11:24
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Counterpart slipped completely under my radar but reading the description it sounds cool (and canceled  )
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Mar 30, 2021 11:24
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Hipster Occultist posted:Basically Mr World is Loki, and the whole war is long con between Odin and Loki. During a parley between the Old Gods and the New Gods, Odin is killed (not by Laura, I forget who). This galvanizes the Old Gods and eventually both sides meet to fight it out. Meanwhile, Shadow is bound by his contract to be pierced by a spear for nine days and hang from the tree. Horus convinces Easter to raise him from the dead, while one of Loki's MIB's takes a branch from the Tree. Loki was going to use the branch (which turns into a spear) and throw it over the battle, dedicating it as a blood sacrifice to Odin, while he fed on the chaos and trickery of it all. Laura (still a zombie) stabs Loki with the spear, Shadow shows up, and him and Odin's ghost spill the beans. Shadow in turns reveals the con, everyone goes home, Loki and Odin die. Shadow goes to Iceland and meets a more traditional, less lovely Odin. Just to add to book spoilers : Shadow figures out the con that Odin was pulling because throughout the book Odin was imparting his wisdom, teaching Shadow a lot of stuff that included his own examples of cons. And when everyone was busy with the war and Odin + Loki were ripe to level up, Shadow was like "I figured out the con. All your real con examples were two men cons, which when spread thinly over a 1000 page epic was like "Yeah, they had the seeds there the whole time. Just a neat moment that I distinctly remember even though I read the book like 10+ years ago.
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Mar 30, 2021 11:25
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Another great premise, cast, aesthetic and music squandered because of lovely writing. How does this keep happening? Jerusalem posted:Counterpart slipped completely under my radar but reading the description it sounds cool (and canceled It's great, ends well enough too despite the cancellation.
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Mar 30, 2021 12:37
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Capn Beeb posted:So if I liked Control, should I watch Counterpart? Have you watched Fringe? Seems that might be a bit closer to Control.
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Mar 30, 2021 12:48
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Yeah Counterpart really isn't anything like Control whatsoever other than the fact that there's a secret government agency looking into Weird poo poo. Fringe is the correct touchstone. You should still watch Counterpart because it's loving great.
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Mar 30, 2021 12:51
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At least I can happily say I contributed to the cancellation of the show, but binging the first season the second each episode aired, and slogging through the second season, and completely avoiding the third. Dexter taught me my most valuable TV lesson:. If you hate a show, stop.
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Mar 30, 2021 16:17
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Klungar posted:Have you watched Fringe? Seems that might be a bit closer to Control. Fringe is outright amazing
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Mar 30, 2021 16:40
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