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By vague I mean more that it isn't the main drive of the story. It's in no way the core appeal of why the story works. Its a story that doesn't need an end for the rest of it to have meaning the way a lot of shows do.

That's not what vague means.

 Quixote wrote:
Started watching Star Trek Discovery... I'm 5 episodes in to Season 1.

Is this an alternate universe show, maybe a sequel series to the Kelvin timeline?

Sure, let's go with that explanation.
But I don't think I'd class it as being related to the Kelvin timeline. Just another alt universe....

 Quixote wrote:
Started watching Star Trek Discovery... I'm 5 episodes in to Season 1.

Is this an alternate universe show, maybe a sequel series to the Kelvin timeline?

Without spoiling anything, is there a reason why everyone on this show is an evil douchbag, with giant high-tech ships and strange "Klingons," that don't look or act like Klingons?

The Discovery is more high tech than normal Federation ships due to its experimental nature. Other Federation ships don't look quite as advanced, although they do still look a bit off compared to the original series just as a result of special effects differences and budgets between the 1960s and now.

But no, there is no explanation given as to what the hell they were thinking with the Klingons in this show. They do walk back some of the design in season 2, giving them back hair and changing their armour designs.

Star Trek The Motion Picture was the first piece of media to introduce a new look for Klingons.
The next several movies refined the look and introduced a great deal of variety.
Especially Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The movie that focuses prominently on Klingons has some of the least conventional Klingon looks.

General Chang wouldn't look out of place in TOS with his minimal ridges. The rest of the Klingons have a more subdued and regal look relative to TNG/DS9 Klingons.

Undiscovered Country: Azetbur


TNG: Duras Sisters


They definitely don't look like the same species.

TLDR: The appearance of Klingons has been extremely fluid for 40+ years now and they're the de facto target for creatives to show that their Trek is different.

Hmm.

New show on Prime, Last One Laughing

Jimmy Carr, the least funny person on the face of the planet, hosts a show in which comedians try to make each other laugh.

But, Saint Bob Mortimer, comedy great and easily one of the silliest, nicest and funniest men on the planet is one of said comedians. Which means I’m tempted.

But….yes a second one, the first got all mucky, this is Bob Mortimer. I listen to Athletico Mince. I know how quickly and how often he’ll corpses in the middle of his glorious nonsense.

trexmeyer wrote:
I'm pretty sure I brought up Frieren before in this thread and got ignored.


https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/750/806646.page#11673392

Why the feth do I even post here ever?

If you stare into the void of Dakka Dakka long enough, eventually it stares back into you.

trexmeyer wrote:
Star Trek The Motion Picture was the first piece of media to introduce a new look for Klingons.
The next several movies refined the look and introduced a great deal of variety.
Especially Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The movie that focuses prominently on Klingons has some of the least conventional Klingon looks.

General Chang wouldn't look out of place in TOS with his minimal ridges. The rest of the Klingons have a more subdued and regal look relative to TNG/DS9 Klingons.

Undiscovered Country: Azetbur

Spoiler:

TNG: Duras Sisters

Spoiler:

They definitely don't look like the same species.

TLDR: The appearance of Klingons has been extremely fluid for 40+ years now and they're the de facto target for creatives to show that their Trek is different.

Right. But Discovery says that those Klingons have (except Chang) never been to war. Because all Klingons in war are bald.

Also, the Klingons in Discovery have elongated heads.

Just watched a video on YouTube which was a retrospective of BBC game show, Big Break, which combined a quiz with Snooker.

And, despite Jim Davidson being the host, I don’t half miss that show. It’s a solid and entertaining concept, and I’d love to see it come back.


Just without a racist, sexist, homophobic goit for host.

We’ve just started Futurama. It’s more comforting than laugh-out-loud funny, but we’re enjoying it.

Don’t worry, I’m confident Bender’s one dimensional character will get on your pip before the first season is out.

He starts out at full jerkass, and the writers are aware enough to rub it in the audience’s face. He’s more likeable than Jerkass Homer, and I think the writers try to make him less abrasive later on..? But yeah, once the show stops delivering the quality lines, it becomes unwatchable.

Back then jerkass characters with no redeeming qualities were all the rage, from Cartman to Seinfeld to Raymond to Jim Carrey. Today those types of characters aren’t as dominant in comedy, only politics.

Seinfeld is another show that’s just not for me. That slap bass punchline/transition just seems…smug.

Then again, I do tend to struggle with US Sitcoms in general.

Not Frasier though, which feels oddly British in its humour, skewering as it does two pompous idiots, with their pomposity most often being their downfall. That they’re both therapists charged with and trusted to help others manage their own lives is just the icing on that cake.

Futurama is great in its early days. I feel like after they got cancelled and came back something in the magic is "missing". I think they drop more of the concurrent story elements and lean more into quirky/one-off and "its based on that other film/tvshow/hot modern topic" type episodes.

So you have some story going on but it feels like its moved to a back-seat.

It's a shame because it loses an edge of the charm of the original seasons.


It's still great fun!

Finally getting into Mad Men(2007-2015).

Largely missed this series when it was new, and have been meaning to get into it since it started making waves, but I always ended up getting distracted by whatever was the latest hotness.

And as expected, its really good. I'll have the first season done in a few hours and may just dive into season 2 right away. January Jones is such a smoke show, and then there is Christina Hendricks...

Just finished Reacher season 3. I found it a bit meh. By focussing on an infiltration mission the bad guys were rather laid out early and it was all a bit predictable. The leads didn’t have a great deal of chemistry and I found the leading lady’s accent a bit annoying.

This was in sharp contrast to Season 1 that I rewatched just beforehand that didn’t have any of those problems. Oh well, maybe there will be a 4th season. They are only 8 episodes each.

Yeah.

I mean, it’s pretty much fine, but nowhere near as engaging as the first two.

Do you guys think it was rushed to get to the audience?

I honestly couldn’t say.

Overall, I’d just say the story isn’t quite as compelling.

It’s still perfectly decent tv like.

 Easy E wrote:
Do you guys think it was rushed to get to the audience?

No I don't think so. The production values are all the same I think. The gunfights are maybe a bit more simple than previously, and no huge set piece, but there are definately enough people getting their faces taken off.

As I said above, I think its the lack of cast chemistry and any real mystery. Just kind of feels a bit phoned in. I watched all of it though, so it was sufficiently compelling for that. It maybe bit a bit overly sentimental as well, trying to tug on heartstrings in between total maulings.

So from a story point of view I've enjoyed it much more than season 2 as it also had less just plain insane elements so far (disclaim I don't think I've seen the last 2 episodes). But I still rank season 2 higher because of the chemistry between everyone.

Season 1 still reigns supreme but honestly if any other show turned in season 3 it would be one of their top seasons (from a story/quality standpoint)

It’s still a billionty times better than the Tom Cruise attempts.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It’s still a billionty times better than the Tom Cruise attempts.

Are you saying when a character is described as 6 foot 5, blonde, heavily muscular with ice-blue eyes you don't immediately picture Tom Cruise!?

It was fine overall but not as strong as season 1. Hopefully Neagle's spin off is reasonably good.

Been getting back into anime lately.

Dark Gathering
A horror comedy about a cursed young man who befriends the cousin of his quirky female best friend, a weird little girl who is building an army of ghosts to take down a powerful evil spirit.
I quite enjoyed this one, the main trio have a good dynamic and all the hauntings they investigate are rather creepy and occasionally down right disturbing . My main issues with it are, it has the classic "Ends on a cliffhanger so you move on to the manga" ending, which I hate but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to (I guess I'm mellowing with age), and I have an issue with the best friend,
But despite that it's a good little show.

Akudama Drive
A girl in a neon dystopia ends up part of a crime gang through a series of unfortunate events.
I suspect this one is based on a gacha game, given how everyone is known by their job title rather than a name, and the fact it's very much style over substance.
That's not a bad thing though, you get some really good, if often over the top, action scenes and the main girl gets a surprising amount of character growth, particularly in the increasingly depressing second half of the show.
The censorship of the gore gets distractingly heavy-handed in places (Three of the main characters are serial killers, it was obviously always going to be a bloody and violent show, so I don't get while the makers couldn't come with a better plan than blacking out parts of a scene when things get a bit too gruesome), but yeah, overall another good show.

 nels1031 wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It’s still a billionty times better than the Tom Cruise attempts.

Are you saying when a character is described as 6 foot 5, blonde, heavily muscular with ice-blue eyes you don't immediately picture Tom Cruise!?

Yeah - stood next to Iceman

I liked the third Reacher season better than the second (too many side characters mini-Reachers) but less than the first one (neat, distilled story that does not try to juggle too many plotlines/characters).

What I was missing the most in the 3rd is that Reacher felt more like a cunning thug than a ripped Sherlock Holmes that he was in the first season.

 aku-chan wrote:

Akudama Drive
A girl in a neon dystopia ends up part of a crime gang through a series of unfortunate events.
I suspect this one is based on a gacha game, given how everyone is known by their job title rather than a name, and the fact it's very much style over substance.
That's not a bad thing though, you get some really good, if often over the top, action scenes and the main girl gets a surprising amount of character growth, particularly in the increasingly depressing second half of the show.
The censorship of the gore gets distractingly heavy-handed in places (Three of the main characters are serial killers, it was obviously always going to be a bloody and violent show, so I don't get while the makers couldn't come with a better plan than blacking out parts of a scene when things get a bit too gruesome), but yeah, overall another good show.

Nope, this show is a completely standalone, one and done anime original. Really enjoyed it myself. Glad to see it get some love.

 LunarSol wrote:

 aku-chan wrote:

Akudama Drive
A girl in a neon dystopia ends up part of a crime gang through a series of unfortunate events.
I suspect this one is based on a gacha game, given how everyone is known by their job title rather than a name, and the fact it's very much style over substance.
That's not a bad thing though, you get some really good, if often over the top, action scenes and the main girl gets a surprising amount of character growth, particularly in the increasingly depressing second half of the show.
The censorship of the gore gets distractingly heavy-handed in places (Three of the main characters are serial killers, it was obviously always going to be a bloody and violent show, so I don't get while the makers couldn't come with a better plan than blacking out parts of a scene when things get a bit too gruesome), but yeah, overall another good show.

Nope, this show is a completely standalone, one and done anime original. Really enjoyed it myself. Glad to see it get some love.

That surprises me, I was totally getting gacha game vibes off it, I could just see people getting annoyed that they kept collecting 2* Hoodlums when they were trying for a 5* Cutthroat.

One of my friends bought me all of StarGate SG1 for my upcoming birthday. I should be set on television for the next decade.