Current TV Boxset Addiction

Keef Monkey · 19 February, 2018, 12:03:44 PM

It took 3 or 4 episodes for Altered Carbon to really get its hooks in for me, but I've been blitzing through it ever since and really loving it.

I've never read the novels and the show does do a bit of a messy job of establishing a lot of things, it's about 7 episodes before you get I got a solid chunk of backstory and actually figured out what the whole envoy thing was all about and what the motivations of the different factions were and that kind of thing. All the sort of stuff that would ideally be laid out in the first episode I guess, but the style and swagger of the whole thing carried me through until I was properly engrossed.

It probably helps that I unashamedly love all things cyberpunk, it's just an aesthetic that pushes my happiness buttons really hard, and this has really clicked with me.

It also has one of the coolest, most badass uses of White Zombie I've seen, and the fact that in a show that I've heard people call a rip-off of Blade Runner, they've straight up used a track written about Blade Runner showed a nice bit of self-awareness that it knows exactly how heavily it wears its inspirations and is fine with that.

Tiplodocus · 20 February, 2018, 08:03:09 PM

AGENT CARTER has popped up on Netflix.

One episode in and it looks jolly good fun.

TordelBack · 20 February, 2018, 08:16:17 PM

Quote from: Tiplodocus on 20 February, 2018, 08:03:09 PM
AGENT CARTER has popped up on Netflix.

One episode in and it looks jolly good fun.

Fantastic! I've been dying to watch this, after only catching irregular snippets before.

Jim_Campbell · 20 February, 2018, 08:48:11 PM

Quote from: Tiplodocus on 20 February, 2018, 08:03:09 PM
AGENT CARTER has popped up on Netflix.

One episode in and it looks jolly good fun.

First series is excellent, second not quite so excellent but still very entertaining. Damn shame it got cancelled, because I'd have watched a third season like a shot.

Tiplodocus · 21 February, 2018, 08:37:30 AM

It's on Amazon Prime not Netflix. Sorry.

TordelBack · 21 February, 2018, 10:12:05 AM

Quote from: Tiplodocus on 21 February, 2018, 08:37:30 AM
It's on Amazon Prime not Netflix. Sorry.

And there I was lamenting your extinction

Satanist · 21 February, 2018, 02:08:08 PM

Thanks to all who shouted out on The Good Place. Its just what I needed and has been thoroughly binged. Where's season 3 then?

Bolt-01 · 21 February, 2018, 02:23:52 PM

Another here who's just watched all of ALTERED CARBON. Thoroughly enjoyed it but i wonder if those without any knowledge of the book would be confused?

I must admit that I read the book a good while ago so I cannot say as to how much it was adjusted to suit the change to the visual medium (and I've just discovered there are more books so I'll be getting hold of them as and when...) and seeing as there are more books then I reckon its a safe bet we'll see a second season.

Theblazeuk · 22 February, 2018, 10:15:37 AM

The other books aren't as good as Altered Carbon but are enjoyable enough. They get a bit more space opera than straight cyberpunk, but it's cool.

TordelBack · 22 February, 2018, 10:28:43 AM

Up to the penultimate episode of Godless now, what a treat this is. I'm not generally fussed about horses IRL (too much mucking-out as a boy, I suspect), but I have been blown away by the lavish and inventive ways they are filmed in this show: I feel I could watch Roy (and Frank) wrangle and ride them all day long. There are slo-mo sequences of spray-drenched river crossings the like of which I have never seen, herds being driven at the gallop, skyline silhouettes, and just plain ordinary grazing groups that grip me more than all the herd scenes in all the Jurassic Parks. Boundless thanks to all those who recommended this, it's been like rediscovering Champion the Wonder Horse, but with added implacable violence.

Theblazeuk · 22 February, 2018, 11:54:55 AM

I too am enjoying Godless, three episodes in. The horse fancying hasn't kicked in yet but now I'm forewarned.

radiator · 22 February, 2018, 05:13:03 PM

Finally got around to starting season 2 of Stranger Things.

ISTR this being quite well-received, but to me, 5 episodes in, I've got to say that so far it seems a little meandering and directionless and doesn't have the same sense of momentum that season 1 did. The writers seem to be contriving quite a lot of stuff for characters to do, eg all the flashback scenes with Hopper and Eleven - did we really need 25-30 minutes of screen time to show us what we could easily have put together ourselves from the establishing scene?

TordelBack · 22 February, 2018, 06:17:23 PM

Quote from: radiator on 22 February, 2018, 05:13:03 PMThe writers seem to be contriving quite a lot of stuff for characters to do, eg all the flashback scenes with Hopper and Eleven - did we really need 25-30 minutes of screen time to show us what we could easily have put together ourselves from the establishing scene?

I liked Season 2 a lot (not least for the wall-to-wall anachronistic Invisibles references), but this is an alarmingly good point. I suppose the answer is that Hopper and Ele didn't really have any kind of relationship in Season 1, so for their conflict to have weight, we needed to see them growing together, rather than just take it as read. But there did seem to be an awful lot of domestic flashbacks.

radiator · 22 February, 2018, 07:13:52 PM

Quote from: TordelBack on 22 February, 2018, 06:17:23 PM
Quote from: radiator on 22 February, 2018, 05:13:03 PMThe writers seem to be contriving quite a lot of stuff for characters to do, eg all the flashback scenes with Hopper and Eleven - did we really need 25-30 minutes of screen time to show us what we could easily have put together ourselves from the establishing scene?

I liked Season 2 a lot (not least for the wall-to-wall anachronistic Invisibles references), but this is an alarmingly good point. I suppose the answer is that Hopper and Ele didn't really have any kind of relationship in Season 1, so for their conflict to have weight, we needed to see them growing together, rather than just take it as read. But there did seem to be an awful lot of domestic flashbacks.

As far as I remember, season 1 ended with Hopper leaving food for Eleven in the forest, so I didn't think the reveal of them living together in a cabin seemed like a stretch, or something that needed any explanation. It seemed like a perfectly logical progression given that a year has passed. I was a little dumbfounded that we then see everything laid out in multiple extended flashbacks when at a push a single line of dialogue would suffice. As nice as the scenes were in and of themselves, it feels a lot like wheel spinning.

I had some problems with the plotting of season 1, but it had a great sense of momentum that carried it through and helped me overlook those issues. Season 2 feels really fragmented so far - a bit like season 2 of Game of Thrones in some ways - and so those same faults (clunky plotting, awkward acting, slow pacing) are standing out a lot more.

I'm also finding Winona Ryder's character a bit of a 'Piper from Orange is the New Black' - ie ostensibly the lead (and the top billed actress) who is fast becoming dead weight.

I guess I'm not seeing much so far to dissuade me from the notion that Stranger Things should have been a self-contained miniseries.

TordelBack · 22 February, 2018, 08:15:31 PM

Quote from: radiator on 22 February, 2018, 07:13:52 PM
I guess I'm not seeing much so far to dissuade me from the notion that Stranger Things should have been a self-contained miniseries.

Which it was, really: it has an entirely satisfying conclusion, with no loose ends to speak of (apart from Barb). There was no need for subsequent seasons, but I see it as an entertaining bonus to get to spend more time with the characters, or in Will's case, any time.