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Ottoman : Mehmed v. Vlad mini-series (Netflix). 2022

Semi-documentary/Semi-drama movie.

#1. Charles Dance narrates the documentary/exposition parts. Sold!
#2. The actress that plays Mara Branković is an absolute smokeshow and they put her prominently in the thumbnails/previews. Sold!
#3. Feels very much slanted in favor of the Turks, particularly when portraying Mehmed the Conqueror.
#4. Probably sensationalized for the sake of drama, or historical corners were cut to make way for some compelling narrative.

As the History of Byzantium podcast moves ponderously to the Fall of Constantinople, I find myself more interested in Ottoman/Turk history. Probably better, more nuanced sources of info then this series, but it wasn't the worst few hours I've ever spent watching/listening while I painted some mini's with Netflix on. Gave me History Channel vibes, before they went full "It was Aliens!"

Good Omens Season 2

Loved season 1 but this didn't do much for me.
Really felt Terry Pratchett's absence and just not interested in the direction they're taking the show now.

Scot Squad

Police mockumentary, sending up the Scottish Police force. Narrator’s script is spot on, perfectly aping the usual tone and nonsense of such shows.

The officers followed are all good fun, and the comedy mostly comes from the mundanity of their jobs, and their quirky camaraderie. Certainly it’s not just “incompetent coppers lololololol”

It’s up on iPlayer, so easy enough to watch if you fancy giving it a whirl.

Farscape.
Still fantastic! One more episode in season two and it's on the season 3.

Would you say Farscape is a show you could watch comfortably with a tween? We are thinking of watching it, but worry it might have too many adult situations to watch with our son.

Tween? is that like 11? Probably. The first two seasons I can't say they are very "shocking" but I may not be the best judge. You might want to do a preview to be sure. It is quite a lot of fun and it has some interesting moral perspectives here and there.

Yeah, 11. He handled SG1 and Babylon 5 fine. It’s just that my wife and I caught part of an episode once and the muppet alien was dressed like a dominatrix and trying to seduce the human. So, we were wondering how common that kind of thing was.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Yeah, 11. He handled SG1 and Babylon 5 fine. It’s just that my wife and I caught part of an episode once and the muppet alien was dressed like a dominatrix and trying to seduce the human. So, we were wondering how common that kind of thing was.

I don't see it as any worse that SG1 or B5. There's some "seductive tension/ situations" every now and then like you describe but we're not really talking nudity or anything really graphic. Those situations are usually weird because aliens and humans and stuff lost in translation. There might be something inappropriate in season two but it's more that you know what's going on and less that you really see anything but it gets awkward with a third just hanging out and bitching. I think it was intended to be humorous, the situation is kinda funny. You may wait a year, I don't know. There is a brand new DVD blue ray set that's out or out soon I've read.


The Muppet thing was part of a bit in a wacky brain washing interrogation episode, "Wont get fooled again", I think was the tittle.

I am not even sure what the show is rated.
Hope this was helpful.

It was. Thank you.

Not sure it actually counts as a movie(once its released in its totality) or TV but here we go:

First episode of Pariah Nexus on Warhammer TV. Surprisingly solid.

Kicks off some time after the 40K 9th edition trailer ended. A few observations:

One Piece.

I know nothing about the manga.
I know nothing about the anime (other than it has around 60,000 episodes).

But I kept hearing good word of mouth, so figured what the hell? I'll give it a go. At least see if the first episode grabbed me.

In the end, the only reason why I didn't watch all 8 episodes in a row is because I started late in the evening and had to go to bed. Finished the remaining 4 the next day.

Once Piece is a breath of fresh air. A genuine and earnest attempt at proper storytelling without any cynical deconstruction, no attempts at winking at the audience, and no self-referential humour that attempts to paint the characters as being above it all or in on the joke (Marvel, take note!). It also tells a fantastic story that moves at a tremendous pace, gives us great character moments and tons of character development, with clear motivations and desires for everyone (Star Wars, take note!). It's a fully realised world that doesn't explain everything to its audience - just enough of a hook to get the story going and then the characters take it away. I like that it's not our world, yet there are still lots of recognisable (and downright anachronistic) things. Plus they have intercontinental communication via telepathic slugs with build-in rotary-dial phone mechanisms, and this is never explained!

If Ahsoka was One Piece, everything from the start of the first episode to Ahsoka going off the edge of the cliff in episode 4 would have been the one whole episode. Maybe 2. That's how little happens in those terribly paced/written D+ pieces of garbage.

It's just so nice to have a show where the world isn't serious, but the people in it are taking what they're doing seriously. They're all supremely confident people (over-confident in a lot of cases), but they're also not invincible and get their assess handed to them as much as they win. They learn from their mistakes as much as they do their victories. They strive. They fail. They have flaws.

Luffey isn't a joke character. When he gets serious, he really gets serious, and the actor playing him does a simply fantastic job of pulling it off. I mean, the character should be annoying, but he wins you over.

Zoro is the silent bad-ass sword-wielding bounty hunter, but he's not all powerful. He has doubts, he reluctantly lets people in, and he's not infallible.

Nami isn't a girlboss who deals with everyone by being a bitch, is better at everything instantly, and she's not constantly belittling and one-upping "the boys". She has flaws, vulnerabilities and has to ask for help. Even more amazingly, she's a red-headed girl that stayed a red-headed girl in a western adaptation. Hell, the fact that she's still even a girl is a miracle given this is a Netflix adaptation. Guess that's what you get when the guy who invented the whole thing retains creative control, sticks to the source material, and doesn't let modern Hollywood executives stick their noses in where they don't belong. If only the Witcher had done that...

There are other characters besides the main three, such as Sanji who's introduced quite late and is an absolute riot, and the larger-than-life bad guys (Buggy the Pirate Clown is a standout). It even does flashbacks correctly, something that a lot of shows waste too much time on, and absolutely nails the tone and emotion (Sanji's backstory is amazing).

As someone who generally dislikes anime, I was wary going into this one, but I was very impressed. Everyone should give this a go.

It's going to be a long wait for season 2.

I bit the bullet for AppleTV so you don't have to!

So, is Apple TV worth it?

Entry 1; Invasion

This series is maybe worth it. Depends I guess.

For me, this series is an exercise in frustration and intrigue that takes too damn long to pay off. Leading to more frustation. I still watched it though so there's that.

Not your standard alien invasion series. It takes a few notes from Arrival imo, focusing far more on the people than the aliens. Or even the invasion. Don't expect Falling skyes out of this show it's not an action series. It can be neat seeing a very character focused invasion movie that isn't told from the POV of anyone who knows what's going on and involves an ensemble of characters from different walks of life trying to sort things out.

It's mostly about the characters, but the annoying part is that it's all about the characters.

And the characters become annoying. I liked nearly all of them at the start of the show. There was a badass mom struggling to save her kids. A badass kids struggling to save other kids. Cool soldier guy. Awesome Japanese NASA girl.

The show had a fine and dandy cast, until they all became (nearly all of them) annoying little gaks who spend all their time bitching and stop being the engaging go-getters they were at the start of the series. The series also has the worst of child actors (the little girl character only exists to scream) and the best (the British kids have one of the better plotlines).

And season 2 doesn't make it better. Virtually every character's annoying habits from the end of S1 become their primary traits at the start of S2. And they added a banally obvious Elon Musk stand-in because that's what all TV needs.

If you like character-driven drama and are not easily annoyed by a very slow (very slow) plot, this might be for you.

It's better than the War of the World's adaptation with the comically unthreatening robot dogs and bad plot.

Apple TV is absolutely worth it, but not on a monthly "just leave it running" way.

Highlights include:
Ted Lasso,
Shrinking,
Prehistoric Planet,
The Morning Show.

I haven't dabbled with the stuff like Invasion, Silo and Foundation yet, as they present a little "harder" than I typically like my Sci-Fi, but I've got 6 months free, so I expect I'll get around to it.

Gotta agree on all counts with HBMC, regarding One Piece.

I have a co-worker who knew I had just resubbed to Netflix for a short while (mainly for Shane Gillis comedy special, which was awesome and to check out spooky season offerings) and told me to check it out. He knows the last and only anime I’ve ever watched was Ninja Scroll and I have no intetest in manga/anime.

I’ll give it a one episode try, I told him.

Before I knew it, I was on the 3rd episode and invested in the characters.

I hope this sends a message to all the creative folks out there. Maintain control of your work.

I tried out one piece as well off the back of HBMC’s effusive review. First episode was entertaining. The characters are currently genuinely likeable. The total lack of cynicism in the lead contributes to a nice experience. Not everything needs to be gritty and depressing with flawed and treacherous characters everywhere.

Nice to see live-action One Piece going down well with non-anime people, I thought it was good, but put that mostly down to already being a fan of the source material.

I'd love to see a second season, but I worry that as the show gets increasingly fantastical it's just going to get too expensive.

It's like watching a Pirates Of The Carribbean movie on hallucinogens.

This is not a criticism.

One Piece's original art style could honestly be described as drawn on hallucinogens.

Which also isn't a criticism. One Piece's distinct art style is a big part of its success.

Coming Friday is the long awaited John Wick spin off show. On Prime.

Well, I’ve long awaited it. YMMV. But I’ll remain hype.

Oh yes, that's right. Is it all 3 episodes, or are they doing them over 3 weeks?

[EDIT]: Wiki says over 3 weeks. Boo!

 Azreal13 wrote:

I haven't dabbled with the stuff like Invasion, Silo and Foundation yet, as they present a little "harder" than I typically like my Sci-Fi, but I've got 6 months free, so I expect I'll get around to it.

Don't know about the other shows, but I'm not a fan of Foundation.
As a generic sci-fi show it would've been OK, good even.
As an adaptation of Asimov's work, it was an atrocity.
So if you don't much care for the latter you'll probably be fine.

And as someone who has read/watched the One Piece manga and anime over the years...

Wow it actually isn't bad.

Especially after the fiascos with the FMA and Bleach live-action adaptations, I figured One Piece was just doomed because how but damn.

It's not terrible. It's actually good while still being an essentially faithful adaptation. In live action. Even the costuming, as ridiculous as it is, doesn't look bad. They even made live-action Zoro with three swords look borderline not absurd...

How many orphans were sacrificed to make this happen? Academically speaking.

Chucky

Well now. If like me, you’re a fan of Child’s Play in general, and fully embraced its increasingly campy nature? This is a hoot!

It picks up where Cult of Chucky left off, making it canon to the movie timeline.

And. It’s. Bonkers.

Seasons 1 and 2 are paid-for content on Prime. Dunno if it’s streaming elsewhere for free, as I don’t have or want Netflix.

But I’m loving it. The mix of comedy, drama and gore is just right for my tastes.

The Ghost Whisperer

One that I’ve heard of, but don’t think I’ve ever watched.

And it’s kind of Quantum Leap, but helping spirits move on than fixing the lives of the living.

Basic premise is Jennifer Love-Hewitt is able to see and interact with spirits. Her job in each episode is to riddle out what’s keeping them here, and bring about suitable closure. That allows the spirit to move on to whatever lies after.

It’s kind of sweet natured. Though I’m only on the second episode, so there’s plenty of time for it to properly delve into its own lore. And I’m enjoying it well enough.

Farscape

We’re still in the first season, but we’ll almost certainly stick with it to the end. The show is weird, but fun. It feels like the writers are still struggling to figure out Zhaan and D’argo 10 episodes in, but Crichton, Aeryn Sun and Pilot are all great, with Rygel as the show’s A-hole we love to hate. Knowing a bit about the franchise, I’m waiting for the bad guy named Scorpius (or something like that) to show up so the show will finally gel.


Unfortunately the DVD’s look all compressed and funky on the TV, so we’ve been watching on Tubi, home of the aggravating advertisements. We had the same issue with the TNG DVDs and had to adjust the image settings all the time and still ended up with an imperfect image. But man, if we have to hear that “Jitterbug” car commercial every ad break, we might have to…

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Farscape

We’re still in the first season, but we’ll almost certainly stick with it to the end. The show is weird, but fun. It feels like the writers are still struggling to figure out Zhaan and D’argo 10 episodes in, but Crichton, Aeryn Sun and Pilot are all great, with Rygel as the show’s A-hole we love to hate. Knowing a bit about the franchise, I’m waiting for the bad guy named Scorpius (or something like that) to show up so the show will finally gel.

Farscape is interesting, mostly because its trying different things.
Personally I think it goes hard off the rails as it goes along* (and characterizations get real muddy), but its worth watching. Just... keep a notepad handy for later seasons.


*

Farscape is one of those shows I just can’t get into. I like what I’ve seen of it, but I find plugging through a whole season kind of exhausting.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I am now getting hacked off by the Walking Dead spin off shows.

In this age of streaming, I can’t legitimately watch Tales Of, Dead City or Daryl Dixon in the UK. Which is frankly, pathetic.

This is how it was in the 90’s, where we’d get shows months or even years after the US airing. Then came streaming and all seemed fixed. Until it wasn’t.

I don’t want to pirate. Ever. And thanks to working from home I’m dubious about VPN.

And it’s not even coming out on disc!

I couldn't get into the walking dead I watched most of season one and quit, as much as I enjoy Zombies this wasn't for me.


Just watched the new FLCL Grunge. all three episodes of it. Meh. The idea of telling a story from three different pov in a limited amount of time was fine but over all this was not very good.
One more "new season' of three episodes in the pipe later this year or next month. In the end the real fooly cooly will be the friends we made along the way. Feels like nostalgia farming more than anything else. They ripped dialog directly from the original and turned some of it into catchphrases. It feels like chat GPT wrote this and they just ran with it.
Everything after the original series has been a bit of a let down...except for the Pillows. Their music is still fantastic.

FLCL: Shoegaze premieres Saturday at midnight. It looks like it will also be three episodes.

To be fair, Walking Dead isn’t a show of universal appeal.

I stuck with it through thick and thin, and it was a rollercoaster of quality - but I’d say it went out on a high.

But I need mooooooore!