Current TV Boxset Addiction

[Jim_Campbell]

I'm really struggling to see what fuss is about THE WITCHER. So far it seems like one of my more boring D&D campaigns from 1980.

Slogging through it slowly, but this is very much my feeling so far.

[von Boom]

I'm really struggling to see what fuss is about THE WITCHER. So far it seems like one of my more boring D&D campaigns from 1980.

Perfect summary. I keep hearing that it gets better by episode 4 but I'm not seeing how.

[The Legendary Shark]

I accidentally acquired the original Polish version of the Witcher, dubbed by an enthusiastic fan. It was like insects were living in my eyes.

[shaolin_monkey]

I stuck with it to the end and very much enjoyed it.

[Funt Solo]

I've been enjoying The Witcher series, but then I read all the books in a frenzy over the first half of 2019. So, I'm sure my love of the written material is having an effect on how I take the screen version.

The books are odd fish - the first one or two take up a series of short stories (often riffing on existing mythology), with characters such as Yennefer and Dandelion (Jaskier in the original Polish) cropping up here and there. By the time we get novels, the writer seems to lose interest in Geralt doing any actual witchering, and he becomes a frustrated warrior, swept up in the tide of greater events. By the time the plot spirals to a conclusion some books later we're left to either accept a terrible tragedy or grasp desperately at an alternative ending that's not quite so dire.

It's probably not clear, but I love the books - mainly because the writing is wonderful and is imbued with a lot of humour.

I'm up to about episode #5 of the TV series. I'm a bit bemused that they felt the need to structure it so oddly (although the books are certainly structured oddly), and add in a lengthy backstory for Yennefer that reduces her mysterious past to something more set in stone. Also: I don't know that the books ever had the part where Jaskier/Dandelion meets Geralt: instead opting for the approach of presenting an odd couple mid-stream. They seem much fonder of one another in the books, despite also getting on each other's nerves.

Nobody mention the games! The author thought they'd flop and took a lump sum for the rights: oops!

[Jim_Campbell]

‪Just sat through Episode 3 of The Witcher. I'm done. This really is Hercules/Xena with a bigger budget and pretensions of not being shit. Definitely Not One For Me.‬

[shaolin_monkey]

It has been a holiday season of box sets for me - The Expanse, The Witcher, Mr Robot, Watchmen, His Dark Materials, something bounty hunter related, etc.

All of them were excellent, although of the currently available stuff The Expanse came tops. Of the not so currently available, that other thing trumped them all.


Not sure what to watch next though.  Any suggestions?

[Professor Bear]

Lost In Space season 2 on Netflix - overall I enjoyed it more than the second season of Star Trek Discovery, but like the second dose of STD it never quite manages to achieve a balance between grimdark post-Lost mystery box nonsense, cluttered visual design, and resolving plot arcs with cheesy shit that anyone with an ounce of cynicism would denounce immediately as sheer laziness on the part of the writers at best, and a calculated insult to the audience's intelligence at worst.  Nitpicking Dr Smith's plot arcs alone would take forever, but the concept of identity theft on a spaceship where everyone has met everyone else is just the start of a daffy, unfocused journey for the character that never goes anywhere.

[Jim_Campbell]

All of them were excellent, although of the currently available stuff The Expanse came tops.

Up to the third episode of The Expanse S4 and so far it's been really, really good.

[broodblik]

Since Amazon taken over The Expanse its quality has not diminished. Season 4 is as previous seasons excellent.

[Mardroid]

Just finished The Witcher.

I enjoyed that a lot. Ended a bit too soon, but I'd imagine there'll be as second series.

Still watching Dark Shadows. So silly, yet enjoyable and addictive.

That blond actress's cockney wench routine with the really dodgy accent during the Victorian arc is very amusing.* Actually she seems a good comedy actress generally considering the other characters she's played too. (They even did a psychic dream sequence where her 1960s character kicking about with puppets  for no apparent reason.) I think maybe they should have taught her more than the one song, mind you.

[spoiler]Oh, and how often had Angelique been recycled by now? (I do like the character though.)
[/spoiler]

There's weird cult stuff going on now, and Barnabus is [spoiler]back to being a bad 'un.[/spoiler] He still keeps fluffing his lines and Maggie Evans tripped up on her way to answering the door, and covered it well, not reacting one bit. It's amazing how much they just allowed in without reshooting.

*More accurately, [spoiler], she is a prim and proper churchy type who has been possessed by the ghost of a cockney wench who was killed by a werewolf. She got possessed by being waved over by the magic hand of an evil century old Hungarian aristocrat. Yes, that's the actual story. Oh and she got the ghosts psychic powers too.[/spoiler]

[Tiplodocus]

WITCHER is shit.

Oh and Happy New Year.

[von Boom]

WITCHER is shit.

[TordelBack]

Picked up a mega-cheap (actual, physical) boxset of The Pacific while doing my pre-Christmas shopping and started watching it with The Boy this week.  I'm a big fan of Band of Brothers, but had never had the right channels or scheduling to see this, and bloody hell, it's strong stuff. The first episode in particular was masterful in the way it created a sense of directionless bewilderment as the various Marine companies marched to and fro through the jungle, wondering what was going on, punctuated by occasional terrifying night fights. Judging by this entry, Jon Bernthal has an almost Sean Bean quality to his career.

Knowing very little about the Pacific theatre (e.g. I had no idea Guadalcanal was in the Solomon Islands), it's even proving vaguely educational, especially when you watch the framing interviews.  About halfway now, looking forward to the rest. 

[Funt Solo]

Pacific theatre WWII is quite fascinating. I read an account of the US assault on Tarawa Atoll (which they needed for an air base), where the Japanese were robustly dug-in: it was a horror show. The marine landing craft were too deep draft to cross the reef and many got stuck out on the water. The preliminary air and naval bombardment of the small island of Betio didn't knock out the Japanese bunkers, so they were able to have a turkey shoot with the struggling invaders.

The marines lost 1009 dead, 2101 wounded over four days of fierce fighting. The Japanese defenders were mostly wiped out (4690 dead, 17 captured). 129 Korean indentured laborers also survived the battle.   

The (human) cost of these operations partly led to the decision to use the atomic bomb.

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Reader's Digest Illustrated Story of World War II (1969)
Atlas of the Second World War (1974)