OV9

Ascender wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 7:17 pm Loved the Mr Robot finale, all makes sense now (hat theory was a red herring) and was a brilliant way to end one of the most enjoyable series in recent years.

This. Just finished watching it. It was absolutely brilliant, no other word for it.

DeskJockey wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 7:28 pm

NotoriousREV wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 5:58 pm

DeskJockey wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 5:38 pm

But why were the Magisterium soldiers using German WWII machine guns?

The same reason people drive around in Rover 90s.

Which is?

Certainly the first book (tempted to dive straight into the second now rather than wait a year for S2) never gives any explaination of why there's a mix of piston engines, machine guns, airships, witches, and daemens in this particular world.

Enjoyed episode 1 of The Witcher, think it may be pandering to the fans a bit much though, it really should've taken a bit more care explaining who everyone was.

Just finished The Witcher tonight, quite enjoyed it as escapism but the time line thing got quite annoying by the end. And Yennefer is a basket case but I still would..

Matty wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:02 pm

Ascender wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 7:17 pm Loved the Mr Robot finale, all makes sense now (hat theory was a red herring) and was a brilliant way to end one of the most enjoyable series in recent years.

This. Just finished watching it. It was absolutely brilliant, no other word for it.

They totally nailed the landing. Was more than a wee bit emotional.

Barry wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 10:18 pm Just finished The Witcher tonight, quite enjoyed it as escapism but the time line thing got quite annoying by the end. And Yennefer is a basket case but I still would..

I’ve tried to finish Episode 3 for the second time... but can’t.

I’m out...

Anyone watching A Christmas Carol on BBC 1? I think it's fantastic so far.

Yes and yes, loving it

Gwaredd wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 12:53 am Anyone watching A Christmas Carol on BBC 1? I think it's fantastic so far.

Yes, a very different twist on it.


See what I did there...

Gwaredd wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 12:53 am Anyone watching A Christmas Carol on BBC 1? I think it's fantastic so far.

Yes. Loved it so far but it seems like a lot needs to be wrapped up in the last hour. Given the pace of the first 2 eps I hope it works out and isn't rushed through

Swervin_Mervin wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 12:07 pm

Gwaredd wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 12:53 am Anyone watching A Christmas Carol on BBC 1? I think it's fantastic so far.

Yes. Loved it so far but it seems like a lot needs to be wrapped up in the last hour. Given the pace of the first 2 eps I hope it works out and isn't rushed through

Nailed it. Utterly superb.

Gwaredd wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 10:22 pm

Swervin_Mervin wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 12:07 pm

Gwaredd wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 12:53 am Anyone watching A Christmas Carol on BBC 1? I think it's fantastic so far.

Yes. Loved it so far but it seems like a lot needs to be wrapped up in the last hour. Given the pace of the first 2 eps I hope it works out and isn't rushed through

Nailed it. Utterly superb.

Brilliant but I think it would have benefitted from another episode to give more time to flesh the end out.

Agreed!!
Still really good though

Matty wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:02 pm

Ascender wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 7:17 pm Loved the Mr Robot finale, all makes sense now (hat theory was a red herring) and was a brilliant way to end one of the most enjoyable series in recent years.

This. Just finished watching it. It was absolutely brilliant, no other word for it.

Yep that was most excellent.

Zonda_ wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 10:31 pm

Gwaredd wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 10:22 pm

Swervin_Mervin wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 12:07 pm

Yes. Loved it so far but it seems like a lot needs to be wrapped up in the last hour. Given the pace of the first 2 eps I hope it works out and isn't rushed through

Nailed it. Utterly superb.

Brilliant but I think it would have benefitted from another episode to give more time to flesh the end out.

Totally agree. 4 fps would have been perfect. But unlike so many other BBC dramas where a rushed ending undoes the good work beforehand, this still worked.

Really enjoyed it and great to see some classic Xmas tv but given a new dimension. And didn't feel out of character with the classic story either

Ascender wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 11:03 pm

Matty wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:02 pm

Ascender wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 7:17 pm Loved the Mr Robot finale, all makes sense now (hat theory was a red herring) and was a brilliant way to end one of the most enjoyable series in recent years.

This. Just finished watching it. It was absolutely brilliant, no other word for it.

They totally nailed the landing. Was more than a wee bit emotional.

I've just binged the entire series.

Bloody well done, that. Bloody well done.

Just shows what you can do if you actually know where your main plot is going to go, rather than making it up as you go along.

So, what to watch next? Expanse? Witcher? Anything else relatively new that warrants a watch?

Barry wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 10:18 pm Just finished The Witcher tonight, quite enjoyed it as escapism but the time line thing got quite annoying by the end. And Yennefer is a basket case but I still would..

Really enjoyed it. I think it’s really setting us up for the ‘main’ timeline to come though.

Ascender wrote: Thu Dec 26, 2019 11:44 am So, what to watch next? Expanse? Witcher? Anything else relatively new that warrants a watch?

Expanse took a few episodes to get into but I was hooked. It changes focus quite a lot between season 1 and 3 but all for the good, I think.

The Expanse is absolutely worth watching. It's fairly grounded-in-reality sci-fi that's really more politically and character based, but not as much as, say, the 2000s' Battelstar Galactica. It takes itself seriously, but doesn't play itself up as being important and meaningul like BSG did - it's far more tightly written and clearly written to be enjoyed for the sake of it, rather than being some kind of direct allegory or on-the-nose 'look, humanity bad' type show. It's more about how humanity deal with a properly sideways outside context problem*, given what a bunch of territorial numpties unable to deal with big pictures that humanity can be.

Also, just to go back to Mr Robot for a moment, the more I think about it, the more S4 E7 might well have been the highlight of the entire series, full stop. It sets itself up as one of their fun, experimental episodes tha they do typically once a season (structured like a play, only two sets, only three real characters - they do this every so often, like one episode that was shot in near real time and appeared to be 'one shot' all the way through) and you think, "ah, this'll be a bit of fun". And then it drops that fucking bombshell towards the end of it.

Wonderfully done. That has proper stuck with me today.


* The phrase was coined by Ian M Banks. From Wiki:

An OCP is the kind of problem "most civilizations would encounter just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop."

"The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbours were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass...

..when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests."

Will check The Expanse out tomorrow then. We’re just binging Mission Impossible.

Nice post about Mr Robot [mention]Beany[/mention]. Kid of want to watch it all over again during the holidays...