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 LordofHats wrote:
I know. I'm just being trolly in calling out Firefly because I think the show is very overrated and the Gilligan's Island Problem is why.

There's only really 1 plot in the show, and that 1 plot only ever ends 1 of 1 ways because 2 is out the question. Mal can't get rich no matter how hard he tries if any of his get rich schemes ever worked the show would be over.

Technically if he got rich he could have drydocked the ship and fixed everything. Then he would be poor again...

Plus they were effectively criminals. The overheads can't be quite burdensome, I am always reminded of the Terry Pratchett line about bandits/rogues/highwaymen and the level of effort and discomfort and difficulty involved.


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 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Even - and I realise how sacrilegious it is to say this given it is the greatest piece of art humanity has ever created - Cowboy Bebop has this problem. They always come up against big bountyheads with huge payouts, and I think they have maybe 1 or 2 successes across the entire show's run. They are always running on empty, with next to no food, and most of their bounties end up with them never being able to collect.

For the same feeling in GW games, play Advanced heroquest. Turns out that job is not the money spinner Warhammer Quest makes it out to be.

The_Real_Chris wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
I know. I'm just being trolly in calling out Firefly because I think the show is very overrated and the Gilligan's Island Problem is why.

There's only really 1 plot in the show, and that 1 plot only ever ends 1 of 1 ways because 2 is out the question. Mal can't get rich no matter how hard he tries if any of his get rich schemes ever worked the show would be over.

Technically if he got rich he could have drydocked the ship and fixed everything. Then he would be poor again...

Plus they were effectively criminals. The overheads can't be quite burdensome, I am always reminded of the Terry Pratchett line about bandits/rogues/highwaymen and the level of effort and discomfort and difficulty involved.

See that's the solution to the Gilligan's Island problem.

Solve one problem? New problem.

But that takes the balls to actually change the status quo of a show and I'll give you one guess what is absolute radioactivity to the corporate 'we run it from the boardroom and you'll like it that way' media industry.

(It's changing the status quo)

They'd have to take a actual risk to fix the problem with the show, but given that risk includes the chance of failure most desk jockies choose to just do what they've always done; slide along the slow slide of mediocrity. Which works for people with MBAs because they can just cash out and be gone by the time their incompetence starts making problems but it doesn't work for the TV shows they meddle in.

Snippet from Mando S3. Official release, not anything dodgy

Bad Batch was better this week. Definitely signs of them finding their purpose in a changed Galaxy. And I do wonder if it’s perhaps foreshadowing a showdown with Cid re unfair employment terms.

It will certainly be good for Omega to get the sense that they can change things if only they're willing to commit to it.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
And I do wonder if it’s perhaps foreshadowing a showdown with Cid re unfair employment terms.

I didn't think of that. But what's next if you follow that line of thought through to the end? They start a union? Go on strike? Commit acts of terrorism? Cid is the good guy here, keeping the rabble in line. I think you're rooting for the wrong guys here.

Or they find out she’s not trustworthy, because she’s creaming off the profit they risk life and limb for, keeping them in relative poverty.

From there, start assisting Rebel Cells etc.

I don’t foresee things getting Much better for those miner kids. I’d wager that top earned was in the know about the hidden profits given his position and access, plus the way he looked at the data pad and the boss and his hesitation. I think he simply saw an opportunity to become the new boss. Improve the conditions for the others so they view him as much better but nowhere near equality. The thief’s invitation to come back later if they need his help makes me think we’ll get a look and a lesson that things aren’t so easily fixed.

 AduroT wrote:
I don’t foresee things getting Much better for those miner kids. I’d wager that top earned was in the know about the hidden profits given his position and access, plus the way he looked at the data pad and the boss and his hesitation. I think he simply saw an opportunity to become the new boss. Improve the conditions for the others so they view him as much better but nowhere near equality. The thief’s invitation to come back later if they need his help makes me think we’ll get a look and a lesson that things aren’t so easily fixed.

Sounds reasonable, although I don't think the inner circle was in the know. Maybe top earner had a suspicion, but it would be incredibly dangerous for the boss to keep him in the company of the other guys and keeping down his benefits if he was in any way involved in the scheme. Revolutions have been started for less. Especially if we take the depiction of food shares at face value rather than melodramatic exaggeration.

That doesn't rule out that he was prepared to take the first opportunity of becoming boss himself. That kind of ruthless competitive thinking would be deeply ingrained in all the kids, but most among those that already rose to the top of the heap.

But I agree that realistically the situation shouldn't improve much. I doubt any of them know much about statecraft and they'll probably default to the only system they know, albeit somewhat altered to account for the different circumstances. Could go like any communist paradise with equal shares. At some point the inner circle figures they should be that little more equal than the others and things start sliding back to where they were before.

Yeah, I'm super bored with this season. It's just not holding my interest enough and I'm only keeping on so I can discuss it with my mates.

Good news, it’s just a week until Mando returns!


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On the future for the Miners? So far as we saw, not only was Big Boss dedded, but seemingly all his enforcement Droids.

If Top Earner bloke does try it, he may not find it terribly easy.

Of course, one kind of doubts Big Boss was the only of his kind, so they may just be absorbed into the same situation under a different boss.

In that regard it's a good thing top earner has an established clique around him with whom he shared an elite status under the old boss. That might help. Mostly it's just a question of whether he can buy enough goodwill with the miner kids long enough to consolidate his position. Once he has cronies and weapons shares don't have to be equal anymore, and if he administrates the business he decides where the funds go and what gets imported.

 Gert wrote:
Yeah, I'm super bored with this season. It's just not holding my interest enough and I'm only keeping on so I can discuss it with my mates.

Really? I'd give it a solid three out of five gonks so far. Not outstanding but not terrible either.

They're trying to cover a lot of ground and as far as I'm concerned Crosshair has been underrepresented as a consequence. I suspect Cody will have a bigger appearance towards the end, or else I'd ask for some more about him as well. Aside from that it's a nice vista so far.

Top Earner, I suppose, just need ensure bellies are reliably filled. A happy, fed workforce is much harder to rouse than a hungry one.

 Geifer wrote:
Really? I'd give it a solid three out of five gonks so far. Not outstanding but not terrible either.

They're trying to cover a lot of ground and as far as I'm concerned Crosshair has been underrepresented as a consequence. I suspect Cody will have a bigger appearance towards the end, or else I'd ask for some more about him as well. Aside from that it's a nice vista so far.

It's the dragging out of the whole "Sid is going to screw over the Batch" and "The Batch are clearly going to help startup Rebels" stuff that's making it boring. The double episode and the Crosshair episode were really enjoyable but everything else has been "Sid is making bad deals and we also need to help people". That was fine in S1 where we also had Crosshairs POV and the side plot of the Kaminoans trying to get Omega back but now that's all there is.

Fair point. I wonder if it will look less dragged out once we look back on the complete season.

 Geifer wrote:
Fair point. I wonder if it will look less dragged out once we look back on the complete season.

Would you ever binge it to find out?

A better padding episode than I expected, but this show definitely has very little purpose. Its definitely more of a Saturday morning kids deal, particularly with Omega's little "knowing is half the battle" summary of the morality of the episodes at the end.

I did binge the first season on the suspicion that would be a better experience than watching it week by week (which I did, which was a drag). I found the first season a lot better when watched that way.

That's my expectation for the second season as well, although no way to be sure but to try.

It is a little skewed, though, since I know what's going on the second time around. Thus my question. I was way late to Clone Wars and as a consequence saw it all in one go the first time around, season seven aside. And I was pretty happy it went that way. I think Mando works better as a weekly show, with fewer episode and twice the runtime per episode. It's more substantial internally, and more focused overall to get the story told in only eight parts.

The first season was definitely better. It had a sense of direction even in its filler episodes. This season has mostly taken all momentum S1 gave it and seems like the writers had no idea where to go.

Yeah I’d agree with that.

I’m used to Animated Star Wars having a ropey first season - Rebels in particular.

But Bad Batch had a strong opener, and now definitely feels directionless. And the two objectively good episodes didn’t focus on the core protagonists.

Now don’t get me wrong. Nothing so far has been awful, and we need to keep in mind this is fundamentally a kids show, and we’re not kids. I just want it to get some oomph going.

Yeah.

It feels especially common in streaming shows. They're not usually bad exactly, but they really tow the line of mediocrity. S2 is perfectly watchable as much as I might joke at its expense, but it could have absolutely been better.

I could say much the same about many of D+ offerings honestly. Plus Netflex and Amazon. I don't think kids show is a good excuse.

Prodigy was a kid's show, and Prodigy was good. There's no rule that says a kid's show has to be mediocre. The merits of a good show don't change with age that much. Just their content and maybe their complexity.

I don't think that's something specific to streaming shows. Most..... everything really, has a lot of filler and mediocrity.

Thinking and reflecting a bit more? Bad Batch feels like it does have a direction and an interesting point, but for whatever reason it just keeps shying away from it.

To put it very crudely? It just lacks…..balls. It’s all mouth and no trousers.

As for streaming? Disney+ started leading the way, where a show might have a set number of episodes, but said episodes are of varying length.

I feel this is best seen in WandaVision, the first out the proverbial gate. Every episode has its own part of the wider tale. And because there’s no worry about “we might want to syndicate this”, or about Ad breaks? Each episode is exactly as long as it needed to be to tell it’s part of the wider story.

If this part has only 25 minutes of story? 25 minutes is it’s runtime. If the next needs 45, 50, 55 minutes? So be it. All that mattered is that each entry was compelling, to keep me tuning in.

Hopefully such an approach will percolate in due course and be embraced. Because man, it cuts out unnecessary filler.

That being said though, one of my favourite ever shows, Supernatural, was adept at using “filler” to spin some bloody entertaining standalone episodes, so there is room for a happy medium.

 LordofHats wrote:
The first season was definitely better. It had a sense of direction even in its filler episodes. This season has mostly taken all momentum S1 gave it and seems like the writers had no idea where to go.

It had a better sense of direction first season, but the writers basically squandered the sense of direction with yawn-worthy tripe and tropes. I think the second season episodes are individually better, they're just not going anywhere despite signposting the final destination every friggin' episode.

Voss wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
The first season was definitely better. It had a sense of direction even in its filler episodes. This season has mostly taken all momentum S1 gave it and seems like the writers had no idea where to go.

It had a better sense of direction first season, but the writers basically squandered the sense of direction with yawn-worthy tripe and tropes. I think the second season episodes are individually better, they're just not going anywhere despite signposting the final destination every friggin' episode.

They just need someone in the background loudly selling red flags as the group talks about Cid.

Less than 48 hours until Mando returns to our screens.

Oh how I’ve missed him!

Yeah I'm excited too, so much so in fact that I've been binging the first two seasons and Book of Boba to remind myself of what's come before (not that I needed an excuse to watch those again of course!).

I forgot what day of the week it was and got my hopes all up to watch it tonight…

 AduroT wrote:
I forgot what day of the week it was and got my hopes all up to watch it tonight…

This is the way!

It’s nearly time! Bad Batch first for me. Get the disappoints out the way.


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Ahhhhhh.

That’s better!

Bad Batch was cool. Mando even more so.

Oh my god! Bad Batch Season 1’s plot has suddenly become relevant again!


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Yeah, the creature fight was dumb. You don’t get into a prolonged shootout with an alligator, especially when it’s seemingly bullet proof, you just move away from the water. Random observation, in the show it had a turtle shell and a gator head. In the concept art during the credits it had a Gator back and a turtle head. Also, I thought that whole thing was a flashback to young Mando until he suddenly showed up.

I don’t like them bringing back IG. He got to do a good, noble sacrifice. Resurrecting him like this cheapens it. It’s especially dumb that the part of him that survived the explosion of the bomb in his chest is his upper torso.

Fair criticisms all.

My guess? They need IG back because no more Cara Dune.