What are you watching?

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
Ghost Whistler Ghost Whistler that's supposed to be Anakin's tragedy - he joins the Sith for a power they don't have, one that the Jedi have.

Or it would have been in a later version of the script that never got written. Instead, the Jedi get the path to immortality from Qui Gonn after Anakin has fallen, and it wouldn't have saved Padme anyway.

Then that scene was cut from the script, so we got an infodump from Yoda that, miraculously, we can be immortal now.

Same with Sifo Dyas. I always figured it was a really bad pseudonym for Sidious: so bad that Lucas decided he was a real, separate Jedi but left the name in. Quite possibly by accident.

C Chris Brady With you on the Mandalorian. Not sure whether it's a mediocre genre piece pepped up by making it Star Wars or vice versa. Bit like Rogue One...
 
Last edited:
I watched The Witcher on Netflix - mostly out of curiosity. It was OK but nothing great, with some crap dialogue in places. While there was a story arc it did feel a bit monster-of-the-week-ish. Given that one of the central characters is actually a monster hunter, I suppose that was inevitable to some extent.

Isn't Triss Merrigold supposed to be ginger?

TL;DR: Main character is sterile and incapable of feeling emotion but nonetheless spends a great deal of screen time playing hide the sausage with various women.
 
Last edited:
TristramEvans said:
So I just discovered an etirely new genre of videos on Youtube that kinda fascinate me. Apparenty cows love music. They will gather around, seemingly transfixed by it. So there's a ton of videos of people going out into pastures and plasying instruments and the cows gathering around to listen.







Click to expand...

Cows are quite friendly. When I were a lad I used to live around several folks that had cows and if you went up to the fence they would come and say hello.
 
Nobby-W said:
central character is sterile and supposed to be emotionless but nonetheless spends a lot of screen time playing hide the sausage with various women.
Click to expand...

I could have sworn there was a scene where he admitted that was a facade he put on. I've seen a few discussions online that Witchers supposedly do have emotions, but act otherwise because people believe that all Witchers have none
 
The Trial of the Grasses causes a minority to have dulled emotions which led to the myth that they all have none. The majority capitalise on that. It's the same when Geralt makes up elements from the "Witcher's code".
 
Watched "Pilgrim of Eternity," the first episode of Star Trek Continues:


It was a very good sequel to the 1967 episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?" They even got the same actor, Michael Forest, to play Apollo nearly 50 years later (with a great explanation as to why he looks so much older even though the story takes place only 2 years later).
Apollo Then and Now (2).jpg​
 
Rewatched one of my favourite cop movies, Lumet's Prince of the City. A docu-drama about a cop who flipped for the state against croooked lawyers and cops, this is one is long and claustrophobically intense but that's because it drills down into the characters and their motives so effectively.

 
We watched Jason Bourne last night.

Also, there's a new bunch of episodes of Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020 up on Netflix! We had to refrain from watching too many at once.
 
Just finished Tidelands, a very classy Australian series about drug dealers and sirens, and was very impressed indeed.
 
Nobby-W said:
I watched The Witcher on Netflix - mostly out of curiosity. It was OK but nothing great, with some crap dialogue in places. While there was a story arc it did feel a bit monster-of-the-week-ish. Given that one of the central characters is actually a monster hunter, I suppose that was inevitable to some extent.

Isn't Triss Merrigold supposed to be ginger?
Click to expand...

In the novels she's more auburn/brown, but yes, she's supposed to be an attractive woman, instead of the frumpy character actress they found for her.

Nobby-W said:
TL;DR: Main character is sterile and incapable of feeling emotion but nonetheless spends a great deal of screen time playing hide the sausage with various women.
Click to expand...
I think that's more the personal opinion of all the people around them. Witchers aren't there to pick sides in a conflict between people, they're there to deal with the monsters. Not to mention that if some humans who got 'turned' into monsters get killed, but no one tells the populace, all of a sudden you have the Witcher having killed Farmer Postov, but no one believes that he was the werewolf that ate several cows and his whole family.

I tried to get into the show, but there was too much that threw me off. Like... Wasn't this a show about Geralt? So why did Yennifer get most of the screen time?

Also, the fact that it seemed like ever fifth actor was a Black person, or the Black Elves. In a world where the fasted method of travel is horses and there have been no African analog, that's a bit jarring to my sense of verisimilitude.
 
Chris Brady said:
Also, the fact that it seemed like ever fifth actor was a Black person, or the Black Elves. In a world where the fasted method of travel is horses and there have been no African analog, that's a bit jarring to my sense of verisimilitude.
Click to expand...
I have to agree.
 
Nobby-W said:
TL;DR: Main character is sterile and incapable of feeling emotion but nonetheless spends a great deal of screen time playing hide the sausage with various women.
Click to expand...

It is pretty clear that Geralt in the television show is not completely unemotional, but in any case I don't think that unemotional implies asexual.
 
Chris Brady said:
I tried to get into the show, but there was too much that threw me off. Like... Wasn't this a show about Geralt? So why did Yennifer get most of the screen time?
Click to expand...
Boobies. Nothing new under the sun. It probably comes down to the actress willing to show boobies :grin:
 
Mankcam said:
Boobies. Nothing new under the sun. It probably comes down to the actress willing to show boobies :grin:
Click to expand...
I was sold a show about a monster hunting badass, not some little mage that spent two entire games (about 60+ hours of play time) being a memory. Don't get me wrong, I love me some boobies, but...

Its as bad as The Mandalorian. I wanted a space bounty hunter having adventures in the Star Wars universe, instead we get a mediocre show about a space dad babysitting a cute muppet with super powers.

I don't as for much, just what's on the tin.
 
Chris Brady said:
I was sold a show about a monster hunting badass, not some little mage that spent two entire games (about 60+ hours of play time) being a memory. Don't get me wrong, I love me some boobies, but...

Its as bad as The Mandalorian. I wanted a space bounty hunter having adventures in the Star Wars universe, instead we get a mediocre show about a space dad babysitting a cute muppet with super powers.

I don't as for much, just what's on the tin.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree on both accounts.

I enjoy The Witcher, have no issues with the nudity etc, but the quirkiness seems to detract from the dark fantasy I thought it was going to be.
Cavill is absolutely spot on in his performance, the bard is quirky, and the show itself feels as though it has some in-jokes bubbling there. However it still hasn't really hit a home run for me yet. I'll watch the entire series, but it's just not something I am rushing home for at present.
I just thought it was going to be a bit colder in some way, a bit grittier than it has turned out to be.

Same goes for Star Wars: The Mandalorian. I love that show, and my kids also love it.
However the initial trailers had me thinking it was Mad Max Road Warrior-In-Space, and by the third episode I realised it was a long way from that.

I love both of these shows, but initially I thought both were going to be a little different from what they are
 
Last edited:
Mankcam said:
Yeah I agree on both accounts.

I enjoy The Witcher, have no issues with the nudity etc, but the quirkiness seems to detract from the dark fantasy I thought it was going to be.
Cavill is absolutely spot on in his performance, the bard is quirky, and the show itself feels as though it has some in-jokes bubbling there. However it still hasn't really hit a home run for me yet. I'll watch the entire series, but it's just not something I am rushing home for at present.
I just thought it was going to be a bit colder in some way, a bit grittier than it has turned out to be.

Same goes for Star Wars: The Mandalorian. I love that show, and my kids also love it.
However the initial trailers had me thinking it was Mad Max Road Warrior-In-Space, and by the third episode I realised it was a long way from that.

I love both of these shows, but initially I thought both were going to be a little different from what they are
Click to expand...
I'm sincerely happy you enjoy them, I couldn't get past certain episodes of both series. Oh well.

I'm watching a rogue cop show based in Africa, called Shadow and a Chinese science fiction drama called Rugal.
 
I had no expectations for The Witcher. Never read the books, never played the games.

I found it perfectly enjoyable all the way through. I thought Cavill himself was excellent.

Yennefer obviously got the screen time becuasse she's the only character with an arc, though I agree she wasn't especially interesting. I found her eventual revealed motivation to be a bit stupid. And I really noticed in the big "final battle" with the mage school that I was not at all emotionally invested. They honestly didn't give me much of a reason to care about the mages, and I kinda just spent the battle wondering what The Witcher was up to. I was at least interested in the Princess's story.

Honestly I was sold on it as a "monster of the week" show, but it didn't really deliver that as much as I wanted. There was what 3 monster battles altogether. Seriously, if the entire show was Henry Cavill talking to his horse while he made his way through bogs fighting creatures plucked from Eastern European folklore, I'd be down for that. But that's definitely not what this was.

I did kinda expect the show to feel more like it was taking place in a mythical Poland, the culture didn't really come through, it could've been essentially generic D&D setting #332 essentially, and I hate to sound unenlightened, but I think the emphasis on diversity in the casting contributed to this. Though I did appreciate the frequent allusions to classic fairytales.

I think the worste thing I can say is that in the time since I watched it I've had no desire to go back and rewatch any episode. I look forward to the next season when it comes, but I've got no burning anticipation. It didn't leave me wanting more, or wanting to go back and look for any hidden depths in what had come before.

I've heard it quoted online that people went in expecting a new Game of Thrones and got a new Xena: Warriotr Princess - and while I appreciate the quip, I don't think that's entirely accurate either. It's got a sense of humour to it, but Xena was 100% camp, Witcher is maybe 25% . I'd compare it more to Robin of Sherwood (no, I'm not saying it's as good as that, just that it's closer to that in approach and tone than the myriad Hercules clones of 90s TV).
 
TristramEvans said:
I had no expectations for The Witcher. Never read the books, never played the games.

I found it perfectly enjoyable all the way through. I thought Cavill himself was excellent.

Yennefer obviously got the screen time becuasse she's the only character with an arc, though I agree she wasn't especially interesting. I found her eventual revealed motivation to be a bit stupid. And I really noticed in the big "final battle" with the mage school that I was not at all emotionally invested. They honestly didn't give me much of a reason to care about the mages, and I kinda just spent the battle wondering what The Witcher was up to. I was at least interested in the Princess's story.

Honestly I was sold on it as a "monster of the week" show, but it didn't really deliver that as much as I wanted. There was what 3 monster battles altogether. Seriously, if the entire show was Henry Cavill talking to his horse while he made his way through bogs fighting creatures plucked from Eastern European folklore, I'd be down for that. But that's definitely not what this was.

I did kinda expect the show to feel more like it was taking place in a mythical Poland, the culture didn't really come through, it could've been essentially generic D&D setting #332 essentially, and I hate to sound unenlightened, but I think the emphasis on diversity in the casting contributed to this. Though I did appreciate the frequent allusions to classic fairytales.

I think the worste thing I can say is that in the time since I watched it I've had no desire to go back and rewatch any episode. I look forward to the next season when it comes, but I've got no burning anticipation. It didn't leave me wanting more, or wanting to go back and look for any hidden depths in what had come before.

I've heard it quoted online that people went in expecting a new Game of Thrones and got a new Xena: Warriotr Princess - and while I appreciate the quip, I don't think that's entirely accurate either. It's got a sense of humour to it, but Xena was 100% camp, Witcher is maybe 25% . I'd compare it more to Robin of Sherwood (no, I'm not saying it's as good as that, just that it's closer to that in approach and tone than the myriad Hercules clones of 90s TV).
Click to expand...
More dark fantasy tone with grim folkore plots and monsters would have worked better for me.

Let's see where things go next season
 
Binged the What We Do in The Shadows TV show, It was good.

Caught up on Atrocity Guide's Youtube channel. If you ever want some well-researched and presented mini-documentaries (around 20 50 minutes a piece) of really off-the-wall weird stuff, their content is highly recommended. The latest was a thorough piece on the rise and fall of one of those "real life superheroes", in this case a guy in Seattle who se work led to almost 200 arrests and quite a bit of fame until he ended up becoming the villain (don't want to spoil it if you're unfamiliar with the story).

Rewatched some select episodes of TNG. Started with all the Data episodes, then all the Barkley episodes, then a few of the better Picard episodes before I got burnt out.

Watched Rob Zombies latest: 3 From Hell, 3rd in the Firefly trilogy. I regard it the same as the last one, Devil's Rejects - it's a very well-made film - I just don't see the point of it. If you want to watch an hour and a half of horrible people doing horrible things, well it's the best possible example of that, but I feel like it's a shame that all that obvious talent and craft is wasted on a glorification of unpleasantness.

Also Siren, which is an expanded-to-movie length short from the first V/H/S horror anthology series (if you aren't familiar with this, the V/H/S series is handsa down the best horror anthology series I've ever seen, nothing comes close, and each film in the series is progressively better than the last). Anyways Siren is...not great. It worked as a short, but doesn't have enough plot to carry a film, and the filler just serves to water down the whole experience.

I found myself craving some good cosmic horror, but haven't found anything to satiate that after the incredible powerhouse of Black Mountainside, The Endless, The Ritual, Yellowbrickroad, In The Tall Grass and The Apostle. Settled for It:Chapter II. I'm only a little ways in; it's fine so far. I was a bit disappointed by Chapter I though, so expectations aren't high.
 
Last edited:
TristramEvans said:
I found myself craving some good cosmic horror, but haven't found anything to satiate that after the incredible powerhouse of Black Mountainside, The Endless, The Ritual, Yellowbrickroad, In The Tall Grass and The Apostle. Settled for It:Chapter II. I'm only a little ways in; it's fine so far. I was a bit disappointed by Chapter I though, so expectations aren't high.
Click to expand...

Have you seen the earlier films from the people behind The Endless? Resolution and/or Spring? I see that the two characters from Resolution are also in The Endless, so I've been interested in checking that one out. If you haven't seen it yet, I'd suggest Color out of Space. While it modernizes the story and makes some changes, I felt it was one of the more faithful adaptations of Lovecraft's work.

Also, glad to see someone else whose seen Black Mountainside and Yellowbrickroad

one last suggestion is Vivarium, which I saw suggested in a Delta Green group. The person who suggested it said it felt very Hastur Mythos

 
urbwar said:
Have you seen the earlier films from the people behind The Endless? Resolution and/or Spring? I see that the two characters from Resolution are also in The Endless, so I've been interested in checking that one out. If you haven't seen it yet, I'd suggest Color out of Space. While it modernizes the story and makes some changes, I felt it was one of the more faithful adaptations of Lovecraft's work.

Also, glad to see someone else whose seen Black Mountainside and Yellowbrickroad

one last suggestion is Vivarium, which I saw suggested in a Delta Green group. The person who suggested it said it felt very Hastur Mythos

Click to expand...



I've seen Spring, but not Resolution yet.

Want to see Colour Out of Space, but it hasn't hit any of my streaming services yet. Definitely on my watch list though.

Thanks for the heads up on Vivareium, I'll see if I can find it.
 
How was Spring? It's on Shudder, but I haven't checked it out yet
 
urbwar said:
How was Spring? It's on Shudder, but I haven't checked it out yet
Click to expand...


uh, a very different kind of film to The Endless. It's more like a travel romance if directed by 80s Cronenberg. It's kind of sad and sweet but not really horror, just occasionally horrifying in the vein of Naked Lunch.
 
I just finished Fast Color, a low key movie about a woman on the run from possibly government agents. She has special abilities, as does her mother and daughter. It's set in a future where water is a precious resource, as all wells have dried up, and there hasn't been rain in over a decade. I liked it, but it might not be to everyone's tastes

 
I watched Onward last night...decent flick, not Pixar's best but...

The one thing I wanted to note is that I never expected to see a Gelatinous Cube in a movie--and even if did, I never expected it to be in a Disney Flick.
 
JRT said:
I watched Onward last night...decent flick, not Pixar's best but...

The one thing I wanted to note is that I never expected to see a Gelatinous Cube in a movie--and even if did, I never expected it to be in a Disney Flick.
Click to expand...
I haven't seen it yet, but I hear there's a special thank-you in the credits to WotC for letting them use that (I've also heard rumors about a Beholder, but if they're true everybody's blinked when its been onscreen).
 
TristramEvans said:
and I hate to sound unenlightened, but I think the emphasis on diversity in the casting contributed to this.
Click to expand...
You too, huh. I've heared several people who I'd say are perfectly "sufficiently enlightened" complain about this as well, uncluding myself.
 
dbm said:
Just watched Hunt for the Wilder People; if you want to feel good, it’s a great film.

Taika Waititi is a great director.
Click to expand...
He's hit or miss for me. In his MCU stuff he doesn't seem to know when to stop trying to be funny, killing quite a few scenes that should have been impactful. But his other stuff he's good in.
 
TristramEvans said:
Binged the What We Do in The Shadows TV show, It was good.
Click to expand...
Matt Berry is a bit of an unsung comedy genius, IMO. He always plays basically the same character, but it is really funny and the vehicles he is part of have been excellent. Loved him in The IT Crowd and Toast of London.
 
Currently watching Between, a Canadian version of Under the Dome, but without the Dome. It's OK, has some interesting ideas. It does suffer with having lots of different areas in a small location, though.
 
Pannyworth is better than it has any right to be.

Hopefully the standard persists throughout season 1 and doesn't just descend into "Alfie and Wayne senior fight the Joker's dad"
 
dbm said:
Matt Berry is a bit of an unsung comedy genius, IMO. He always plays basically the same character, but it is really funny and the vehicles he is part of have been excellent. Loved him in The IT Crowd and Toast of London.
Click to expand...


I loved him in the IT Crowd. This performance is surprisingly a bit more subtle, despite the premise. I was ab bit reticent about 3 (4 including the familiar) new main characters for theshow, but they all grew on me quite fast.
 
I started watching Freaks on Netflix. Liking it so far, especially since Bruce Dern is in it, and he's playing a creepy old dude with an ice cream truck
 
High Life on Amazon Prime by the French director Clair Denis featuring Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche is a very dark sf film in the style of an extra chilly and uncompromising Kubrick.

It is about a crew of death row inmates and convicts given a second chance by being sent on a deep space mission to see if they can harness the power of a black hole but really it becomes more about the ship captain's attempt to implant a baby into one of the women convicts/workers.

Very slow burn, fragmented and brooding, bordering on becoming a horror film but with a surprisingly hopeful but very ambiguous ending, Pattinson is excellent here, who would have thought the guy from Twilight would turn out to be such a good actor. Great score by Stuart Staples of The Tindersticks.

 
Last edited:
TristramEvans said:
I was ab bit reticent about 3 (4 including the familiar) new main characters for theshow, but they all grew on me quite fast.
Click to expand...
we watched the TV show before the original film, so had the same experience in reverse :grin:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top