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Current TV Boxset Addiction

Started by radiator, 20 November, 2012, 02:23:29 PM

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Professor Bear

I did, actually - but Brian Glover is also always watchable.

Hawkmumbler

Finished The Big O. Season 2 an' all. Over all, a masterclass in animation and a truely mind blowing good series. The conclusion to season 2 was conffusing yes, but only in the sense I felt it was going somewhere. Although I very much doub't it's currently on the cards a third (and final) season would be more than welcome.

Gonna start watching Gunsmith Cats next. Or maybe Baccano. I can't deciede.

Colin YNWA

I know Walking Dead has its own thread, but that seems to be focused on Season 3 and so I'm avoiding that to avoid spoilers as I've currently finally got around to watching season 2 thanks to my LoveFilm list. Last night I watched episode 7 and the big barn opening. Have to say I'm really enjoying it and the ending to that episode, though on one level quite poorly written so as to rather labour the point it was making about the group and its shifting dynamics, has certainly left me hankering for more.

As I recall, possibly incorrectly, Season 2 came in for a hard time? Is that right? Its far from perfect, but to date its been pretty good. At times out and out scary (the under the cars bit in particular) and seems to be handling the soap opera, human dilemma stuff really well. Each week seems to set up some new conflict or other, but no plot line seems to be left hanging for too long to outstay its welcome. In each episode since they've arrived at the farm there does seem to be one or two too many hand wringing, meaningful conversations on the poach, or the like, but never so much as it gets dull.

I think they handle the balance with the human transformation the post apocalypse world throws up and reminding us its also a zombie horror show, which sometimes will involve putting various tools and weapons through the heads of our living dead hosts in suitably gory fashion.

The bits of the comic I've read (and I've tried a couple of times) have left me cold (Kirkman really isn't such a great writer is he) but the telly show strikes me as much more entertaining and generally better put together.

Out of interest, if beefs with this season do exist, what were they?

On another note (and going back to the beginning of this thread, my wife has had Breaking Bad recommended to her and so it looks like we'll be watching that soon (she's marked it as a priority watch on our list), which I'm looking forward to after hearing such good thing about it.

michael kennedy

it was was double the episodes of the first season and also a somewhat slowburner but it pays off in the end.




HdE

Quote from: Hawkmonger on 21 April, 2013, 10:39:41 PM
Finished The Big O. Season 2 an' all. Over all, a masterclass in animation and a truely mind blowing good series. The conclusion to season 2 was conffusing yes, but only in the sense I felt it was going somewhere. Although I very much doub't it's currently on the cards a third (and final) season would be more than welcome.

Alas, a third season will never happen. Too bad, I say.

But now that you've seen the whole shebang, I'd say it's worth going back for a rewatch at some point. That ending is kind of mind boggling in terms of how much it throws at you, literally tying everything up within the last minute or so of the entore series. However, if you're the sort fo viewer who's inclined to go back and puzzle it out, all becomes clear.

Love that show!
Check out my DA page! Point! Laugh!
http://hde2009.deviantart.com/

Tiplodocus

With you on The Walking Dead. I never got the crit of season 2 and am eagerly awaiting 3 when it gets on Channel 5.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Colin YNWA

Just finished the second season and it was fun all the way through. The only problem I had with it and I felt that this was particularly the case in the second half, was the way each episode seemed to MAKE. ITS. POINT. a little to... well pointedly. Its not a subtle show and each episode seemed to be about something and rather labour that point. Almost like a set of vignettes exploring what would happen in the zombie apocalypse to the survivors. which just happened to have central characters and plot moving things forward. This was especially the case in the '12 Angry Men' (not the actual title) what do do with Randall episode. What could have been a real series highlight, turned into a rather one toned piece. This was somewhat underlined by Dale's fate, as if the only thing had to be dealt with and then the everything to do with it mopped up and put away.

The last episode also seemed to function as merely to set up the next series and again unsubtly underscore a new dynamic for the group, that will function for that series. Kinda like the impression I've always had of the bits of the comic I read. Mind love the way they dealt with the Zombies conveniently turning up on mass to move the plot on from time to time. That was a very nice touch.

Still, for all that apparent griping it was always a compelling and exciting story and zombies have never looked so scary and most the characters are really well realised as well.

Really looking forward to the next season.

shaolin_monkey

So I just somehow watched all 63 episodes of Arrested Development.  After my initial tirade I found myself getting sucked into it. By the last episode I was pretty sad it had come to an end. Some of it really made me laugh out loud. I loved the [spoiler]Yellow Submarine[/spoiler] pisstake, and how Gobs [spoiler]illusions backfired all the time[/spoiler]. Also, the various [spoiler] cameos were great, particularly Ben Stiller's rival magician[/spoiler].

So now I need to find another box set to get obsessed with.

radiator

If you haven't seen it already, try Community.

It takes a while to find its voice, but when it shifts into gear it becomes the greatest, most ambitious and defiantly weird sitcom since Arrested Development.

Also Freaks and Geeks is essential viewing if you haven't seen that.

Hawkmumbler


TordelBack

Quote from: Hawkmonger on 11 May, 2013, 08:06:05 PM
Just watch this. Really, it's stonking good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMXgHfHxKVM

Grud help me, but apparently I just cannot get into Anime.  I tried the first episode of this, and from the title sequence setting my teeth on edge to the awful character designs and ludicrously overwrought climax, I hated it.  Architectural backgrounds are nice, but you couldn't force me to watch another episode. 

Hawkmumbler

Quote from: TordelBack on 12 May, 2013, 12:12:37 PM
Quote from: Hawkmonger on 11 May, 2013, 08:06:05 PM
Just watch this. Really, it's stonking good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMXgHfHxKVM

Grud help me, but apparently I just cannot get into Anime.  I tried the first episode of this, and from the title sequence setting my teeth on edge to the awful character designs and ludicrously overwrought climax, I hated it.  Architectural backgrounds are nice, but you couldn't force me to watch another episode.
Anime is very much a median I find is marmite to say the least. Chances are if you like one (Cowboy Bebop not withstanding as it's universaly loved) you'll find a number of others to your taste. Like you I see a number of people who just dislike the general asthetic feel to it. At time's even I dislike the large eye's and other issues, but Attack on Titan is far from the worst offender (i'm looking at you One Piece!), but look to stuff like Cowboy Bebop, Baccano, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Big O for some more western like animated style's, these are the one's generaly most well recieved in the west.

TordelBack

Alright world, I'm going to makeyou  a deal:  I will watch Cowboy Bebop.  And if I don't like I will stop trying to watch Anime, and accept that it's not for me, and we'll say no more about it. 

Everyone's been nagging me about Cowboy Bebop for so long now that it seems like a suitable test.

sheldipez

I tend to be of the opinion that ghost in the Shell stand alone complex is anime for people that don't like anime. Great Sci fi show.

Professor Bear

The thing to remember about anime is that it's a huge myth that it has the respect of live action or "serious" drama in its native Japan when it's at best seen as a harmless distraction, but otherwise is for kids and nerds no matter what us western fans claim otherwise.  While trying to introduce others to its charms, it's worth remembering that this task is no different than trying to get a regular joe into Babylon 5 or Star Trek.

Also toys: the product placement in anime is often shameless and jarring even for its original audience, but for those in the west not realising they're watching a scene whose only purpose is to promote an action figure and which serves no narrative purpose, I imagine it is utterly baffling.

If I was trying to get non-nerds into anime, I'd start with Samurai Champloo (anachronistic mix of hip-hop soundtrack, over-the-top characters and period setting), Samurai 7 (Seven Samurai relocated to an abandoned mining asteroid in the far future that has regressed to fuedalism), or aforementioned Cowboy Bebop, but I'd avoid the pretentious Evengelion like the plague, if only because the constant re-releases make it abundantly clear that two decades after it finished the damn thing is still a work in progress.  If you like to watch your 'toons with little 'uns, I'd say the original Mobile Suit Gundam is a good bet, as it mixes a little bit of everything in there, with influences from Lucas to Heinlein, or Sherlock Hound, which wasn't really for me but went down a storm with my younger relatives.