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Post by BakFu on Aug 17, 2022 12:52:16 GMT
Checked out the SERIES finale of Better Call Saul last night, I can’t believe it’s actually done. I liked how they wrapped things up, I expected a bloody resolution, but that didn’t happen. I liked how he remains in control even with everything dead set against him, I’ll miss having this show to look forward to, but as far as finishing off a great series, I think they did it right here. 👏
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Post by Nth on Aug 17, 2022 14:44:15 GMT
Yeah, I don't know what I'm going to watch now. I'm still catching up on The Orville. I probably won't watch the new Game of Thrones series until the entire first season is done, then I will binge it. I'm just not excited for it. It's pretty much got The Last Jedi taint where a present installment of something has completely tainted the rest of the series. You always think, what's the point when all roads lead back to Jake Skywalker on that fucking island or Jon Snow back to that fucking wall for no reason.
I have zero interest in the new Lord of the Rings series. In fact I probably will see plenty of it when I watch my favorite youtubers tear it apart episode by episode.
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Post by BakFu on Aug 17, 2022 16:34:48 GMT
Yeah, that’s odd, I don’t have any interest in the new GoT either. I loved most aspects of the first go, but I don’t think I need more. Same thing for lord of the rings, no interest, maybe something about it will suck me in and I’ll check it out, but right now, you can keep it.
If there were more Midnight Diner episodes on the other hand, I’d be turning a couple thousand consecutive kart wheels right now.
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Post by OrochiGeese on Aug 18, 2022 17:48:32 GMT
Checked out the SERIES finale of Better Call Saul last night, I can’t believe it’s actually done. I liked how they wrapped things up, I expected a bloody resolution, but that didn’t happen. I liked how he remains in control even with everything dead set against him, I’ll miss having this show to look forward to, but as far as finishing off a great series, I think they did it right here. 👏 I'm still blown away by it. There were just so many layers as to what happened, the character significance, and the themes, and I'm working my way through them days later. Masterful finale 😎 And I also can't believe that it, and possibly the entire canonical world, is done. I'm really glad they ended BCS the way that they did. They stuck the landing which is never a guarantee for even the best shows. If this is the end of the BB/BCS universe, I really love this flashback scene: Saul and Walter in Ed's bunker arguing with each other and talking about superficial regrets rather than taking responsibility for the bigger, active mistakes they made. I loved all of the flashback scenes but this one was my favorite as a possible "universe" ender. I liked Jimmy/Chuck as the finish of the BCS series.
Jimmy doing finger guns to Kim at the end, and her subtle reaction, was excellent.
Also loved the "Better! Call! Saul!" rallying chant on the prison bus! I started watching Sandman on Netflix. I know next to nothing about the original source material so I have no basis of comparison. But I really liked the first episode 😴 |
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Post by BakFu on Aug 18, 2022 19:33:04 GMT
I will have to revisit this thought in a month or so, but I honestly think I like BCS more than BB. I know Saul was always thought of as comic relief in BB, but the fact everyone took him slightly for granted as being weak or slimy was what I felt made him one of the most dangerous characters in a way, too (the iron needle in a cotton ball thing). I’m so glad this spin off ended up being so amazing, the casting, writing, and performances were incredible. I loved the scene between Saul and Kim in the Colorado prison where they share a cigarette like they did in the beginning. It was perfect, so much was said with no dialogue. Rhea Seahorn deserves big kudos for her role in this series, she is amazing.
I loved how he took one last kick at Bill Oakley as well, and how he put him at the kids table at his trial for old times sake! 🤣
Saul’s dismantling of the prosecutions confidence was a thing of beauty. Bargaining them down from 190 plus yeas to seven years at camp cupcake with a bucket of bougie ice cream delivered every week was amazing, all fine just to waste their time and otherwise f&$k with them! 😁
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Post by OrochiGeese on Aug 19, 2022 22:51:00 GMT
I will have to revisit this thought in a month or so, but I honestly think I like BCS more than BB. I know Saul was always thought of as comic relief in BB, but the fact everyone took him slightly for granted as being weak or slimy was what I felt made him one of the most dangerous characters in a way, too (the iron needle in a cotton ball thing). I’m so glad this spin off ended up being so amazing, the casting, writing, and performances were incredible. There are two reasons that I feel different about the two series: 1) I binged Breaking Bad over the course of one summer. 2) I watched Better Call Saul in "real time" over the run of the season. I feel like the two shows hit me very differently as a result. It's kind of funny too since Breaking Bad kind of works in that short term intense burst of watching whereas Better Call Saul is a better fit for watching it over a course of years. Also, the fact that I got to read more about what people were saying during the BCS run makes me feel more engaged with it whereas a lot of the discussion about BB had already ended by the time I watched it in 2012. That all being said, I do feel like I connected more with BCS for a number of reasons. It definitely is making me want to watch BB again though 😄 I loved the scene between Saul and Kim in the Colorado prison where they share a cigarette like they did in the beginning. It was perfect, so much was said with no dialogue. Rhea Seahorn deserves big kudos for her role in this series, she is amazing.
I loved how he took one last kick at Bill Oakley as well, and how he put him at the kids table at his trial for old times sake! 🤣
Saul’s dismantling of the prosecutions confidence was a thing of beauty. Bargaining them down from 190 plus yeas to seven years at camp cupcake with a bucket of bougie ice cream delivered every week was amazing, all fine just to waste their time and otherwise f&$k with them! 😁
It was such a dramatic jackknife turn in the last 30 minutes.
In that incredible conference room scene with the prosecution, we see the absolute highs of Saul's lawyer potential mixed with the lows of his morality. And then he pushes too far with the (hilarious) ice cream request. That undo's him completely. Once he hears about Kim going clean, you can just see Saul's entire demeanor start to unravel. The confidence, the selfish amorality, everything. And the next thing you know, one plane ride later and look at Kim, he's Jimmy again. The highs of Saul's abilities give rise to the highs of Jimmy's love for Kim and sense of doing the right thing. What a huge turn and I felt it was warranted. It didn't feel forced.
It's just shocking that the Gene who was about to kill two people turned back into Jimmy a few days later. Of course, Kim was the key to that so I felt it was legitimate. But it was certainly a huge about face.
Poor Bill Oakley didn't see any of it coming though 😂
Seahorn absolutely hit that courthouse scene and prison scene out of the park, as she did with the airport bus scene last episode. She was a force the entire show and was incredible at the ebd.
What a finale 👏
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Post by BakFu on Aug 21, 2022 15:07:41 GMT
I know it’s old news by now, but I finally saw the ESPN 30 for 30 Ric Flair documentary. Pretty good stuff all around, it was cool to see his early life stuff, how he broke in with Gagne, the stuff with Reid was gut wrenching, and the bit about Charlotte was actually pretty cool (hadn’t seen two seconds of her wrestling until this doc). Somehow, as awesome as his legacy in pro wrestling is and will be, his story seemed kind of pathetic in a way. I guess it’s a good lesson in finding balance in life, and when to let your passion, whatever it might be, move into its next phase when the time is right? I enjoyed this, and I wish I’d have gotten to see the territory stuff as it was happening, when these guys were in their prime, watching this stuff unfold in real time.
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Post by Nth on Aug 21, 2022 20:30:36 GMT
A very oppressively hot Sunday afternoon today, I said I was going to wait but I ended up watching the first episode of House of the Dragon because I have nothing better to do than sit in front of a fan. It was actually really good and thus far sticking with source material. I guess George R.R. Martin handpicked the showrunner for this series after HBO let the last couple seasons of Game of Thrones turn into ridiculous fanfiction. And I loved Blackfyre, Daemon Targaryen's Valyrian steel sword, which he names himself after later becoming Daemon Blackfyre and starting the Blackfyre dynasty. I might even have found this before the first episode ended.
Another for the collection it looks like. I already have Ice and Longclaw from the first series.
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Post by TheDenizen on Aug 22, 2022 16:24:50 GMT
Same thing for lord of the rings, no interest, maybe something about it will suck me in and I’ll check it out, but right now, you can keep it. I had been holding out some hopeful optimism for the LOTR series until they actually started releasing trailers for it. Everything they have shown off so far has eroded what little hope I had.
Amazon only bought the rights to the Hobbit, the LOTR trilogy, and the appendices from the LOTR...which is all set during the Third Age and only includes only a few scraps about the Second Age....but they stupidly decided they wanted to make a Second Age show. So instead of buying the rights to Tolkien's story of the Second Age, they have completely fabricated a story out of thin air using Tolkien's character names and settings and not much else. More than half of the named characters that have been shown simply do not exist in Tolkien's works. They have been entirely made up for the show. The named characters that do exist in Tolkien have been given complete personality makeovers.
In fact, they are legally obligated NOT to tell Tolkien's story of the Second Age...because they don't own the rights to it.
Every time the show runners open their mouths they bleat about how they are honoring Tolkien and constantly referring to the books for inspiration....but it's so obviously disingenuous....these guys are just stealing Tolkien's work as a background for their own fanfiction...and everything they have shown us is cheap looking generic fantasy garbage that Tolkien would have absolutely 100% hated with a passion.
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Post by Nth on Aug 22, 2022 18:25:04 GMT
Same thing for lord of the rings, no interest, maybe something about it will suck me in and I’ll check it out, but right now, you can keep it. I had been holding out some hopeful optimism for the LOTR series until they actually started releasing trailers for it. Everything they have shown off so far has eroded what little hope I had.
Amazon only bought the rights to the Hobbit, the LOTR trilogy, and the appendices from the LOTR...which is all set during the Third Age and only includes only a few scraps about the Second Age....but they stupidly decided they wanted to make a Second Age show. So instead of buying the rights to Tolkien's story of the Second Age, they have completely fabricated a story out of thin air using Tolkien's character names and settings and not much else. More than half of the named characters that have been shown simply do not exist in Tolkien's works. They have been entirely made up for the show. The named characters that do exist in Tolkien have been given complete personality makeovers.
In fact, they are legally obligated NOT to tell Tolkien's story of the Second Age...because they don't own the rights to it.
Every time the show runners open their mouths they bleat about how they are honoring Tolkien and constantly referring to the books for inspiration....but it's so obviously disingenuous....these guys are just stealing Tolkien's work as a background for their own fanfiction...and everything they have shown us is cheap looking generic fantasy garbage that Tolkien would have absolutely 100% hated with a passion.
Yeah, they fired Tom Shippey, the Tolkien scholar who was supposed to help keep everything canon. Although they are still boasting his credentials even though he told them they were bastardizing Tolkien and just making fanfiction at this point. |
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Post by OrochiGeese on Aug 23, 2022 17:31:53 GMT
The the Lord of the Rings IP is basically the one ring now and rights holders have become Gollum.
Firing the Tolkien scholar is such a gross yet not at all unexpected move.
On a different but kind of related side note: I don't have HBO Max but I'm pretty pissed off at the slashing and burning they did of their animation library over the past week. There were some excellent and creative shows that basically just poofed into non-existence due to the new owners over there.
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Post by BakFu on Aug 24, 2022 18:54:28 GMT
David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, seems like a bit of a slime ball. I read an article saying he aims to find 3 billion in savings post merger (redundancy in positions, departments, etc). Look up his compensation over the past ten years, I’m sure the rest of the board is similar, maybe you could start cost saving THERE, and quit taking away stuff that consumers actually want to see? I know nothing, just a thought.
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Post by OrochiGeese on Aug 25, 2022 5:47:42 GMT
This whole thing is causing a massive media stink that everyone smells.
There are a bazillion streaming services now and most of them have at least something worth watching. So it may be meaningless for me to say this but HBO Max was really one of the services I had my eye on subscribing to next. They have a ton of shows (especially cartoons and anime) that I was into.
Well, they had them a month ago and now they don't. So they don't have my interest anymore.
It's always easier to destroy then to build, but creators usually sense that and eventually steer clear. How is HBO Max an attractive destination for creators now? I don't know if this is going to be in HBO's long term corporate interest, even with the huge amount of money supposedly freed up. I get that this is a business. It's just that usually media companies don't go about this type of "asset liquidation" with such obvious intentions. The fact that many show producers/teams were still creating seasons, only to hear that their entire shows are now gone, just really sucks. They won't even have the IP rights to shop them elsewhere.
HBO Max abandoned art with the ferocity of jettisoning a facehugger into space.
The only thing left was for them to do was to wish the shows luck in their "future endeavors." 🤼♂️
This was a huge wake-up call that shows on streaming services will not always be accessible. Start looking for physical media for your favorites. The same goes for video games too.
(What the heck happens if Steam or Spike decide to take FPW down? 😶 )
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Post by TheDenizen on Aug 26, 2022 18:42:31 GMT
So the shills are out in force for the LOTR: ROP series. The review embargo has been lifted, so all the "influencers" and critics who got to see it early are now posting their reviews.
EVERY SINGLE review has been heaping nothing but glorious universal praise on the show, all using suspiciously similar wording....almost as if they were coached on what to write in their reviews. Seriously, I haven't read one review that has a single negative thing to say. I've seen tweets about the show that were almost identical in content. It's so transparent that Amazon knows they have a shitshow on their hands and are throwing money at silencing any objective critique of their work, and drowning out dissenting voices by flooding the internet with bots and shills endlessly repeating how awesome it is.
It's a very sad time to be a Tolkien fan.
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Post by Nth on Aug 27, 2022 8:34:34 GMT
House of the Dragon just renewed for season 2 after pilot episode.
Resident Evil season 2 mercifully cancelled.
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