Been a listener since the first When-Wives-Attack... finally remembered to log in here to comment
Just got through the AiG segment of this ep.
Hobbit 2 - Yes, the Hobbit movies are bloated and overlong. But they're STILL good and better than 90% of the Fantasy movies and TV released over the past 30 years. So why would you complain about spending more time in a world you love? Because (I theorize) the Family Wakelin is irrevocably hung up on the deviations and additions to the text. No one seriously complains how BLADE RUNNER deviates from the original PKD novel, and few have issues with adaptation choices for Game of Thrones. Because once something is going for live adaptation, it becomes its own thing and must be judged on the standards of its medium.
- The Golden Dwarf ruse? Rather a clever improv I thought, and a cool look at the forges of Erebor. Anyone with an Inner Dwarf should have been massively geeking out over just that. Assuming that Smaug would've figured it out, or "It doesn't matter cause we know he lives" is just Hater-projecting - if you applied those standards to every action film you've loved, you'd have to hate 90% of them.
- Beorn was freakin' amazing!
- The ongoing tension between Bilbo and Thorin, and Thorin's questionable quest motives - is it for honor, vengeance, or simply greed? Is he putting all those people deliberately at risk just for his own selfishness? It was all great subtext in the film.
- Gandalf versus the rising Darkness - great expansion on the lore to tie to the later films.
- Tauriel was fantastic - a great strong female character addition to an otherwise complete sausage fest. And I can attest I cared far more about her and Kili than about Thorin's quest by the time they're at Laketown.
I'll just say this last thing on the Hobbit for any haters - can you honestly swear you won't go see the third one (and attendant Battle of Five Armies) if the first two are "so bad"? If not, your words are wind.
47 RONIN - Not great, but definitely not terrible. Probably the closest we get to L5R the movie. And I *loved* that they kept the downer historical ending. Why don't people like it? Because the ending is a quintessentially Japanese one that most of us don't get.,
ALMOST HUMAN - yes, an awesome show! Praying for renewal.
SUCKER PUNCH - I thought it was fun, and interesting psychology at play. Just too self-indulgent if you weren't on the same page.
Also dying to hear what Teras thinks of
BSG after the end. I'm a huge defender of the show locally, though even I often say to just stop the 2hr finale about midway through
Thanks guys for keeping the show fresh!
"Victory needs no explanation,Defeat allows none." 
