The Syndicate

I can't seem to find the time to rant and ramble about the Black Mirror new episodes, so here goes, quickie mode, no spoilie, worst to ok-est, none of them cracking the top echelon imo:

#6 Arkangel - lazy ass treatment of what-if-helicopter-parenting-but-hardwired, scattered approach out of which only, like, one storyline and one psychological aspect were interesting to cover, but of course they lead nowhere and the rest was just something Shonda Rhimes could have easily done herself
#5 Crocodile - most disappointing thing since my ex-gf, because dat sweet landscape cinematography and because it could have landed BM's biggest antihero(ine, whatever), but it challenges none of the tech implementation (or its legal ramification), it goes down grim alley with no reward and the twist is a total fart. I agree with basically every criticism that has been thrown at this one. What a fucking waste!
#4 Hang the DJ - I casually enjoyed this more than I see value in it, because sure, it sits clumsily in the repertoire, given San Junipero. It had an odd sort of Sims via Atwood and Orwell flavor to it, but idk, I enjoyed it overall, I believed the characters. The ending / twist left me "huh?" for a while.
#3 Black Museum - probably the most disliked episode, if you only count critics, which is what I went into expecting, but honestly I found it decent. First story was pretty good and true to the "what if tech, but you dun goof" BM formula, the second one was pretty ech and predictable in every way and the third just served the ending, so m'kay. I wonder if this episode wouldn't have been more interesting had the Netflix batch been 12 episodes as originally planned, in which case this episode would have rather served as a "meta-closer" to the whole season, considering all its Easter Eggs and its "burn it all" sort-of-cathartic final shot.
#2 Metalhead - I'm not saying I was won over by this one or anything, but I suppose it's a genre exercise that mostly works (instead of, say, Playtest, which I criticised for the exact same thing). Not sure how much of its ideas truly hold. I really wanted to put this lower, though, because its ending / tweeeeest is absolutely s t u p i d and undermines the whole thing, alas I have no other episodes above it, except... ugh [hating oneself intensifying]
#1 USS Callister - until this batch arrived, I would have seriously bet on my house that I was not gonna buy into whatever fancy genre pastiche this episode seemed to go for. Well, fuck me, it turned out the only BM episode of the season to truly take a stab at something real and have some fun with the concept in the process as well. Plus it stars my Fargo waifu.

insertnamehere wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2017 4:02 pm <snip>

Thoughts on Season 4, m'man?

insertnamehere wrote: ↑Tue Oct 31, 2017 7:21 pm
Part 12, 13, or 18?

12

Part 18 is perfect, don't be a hayta.

If anything, I'll have to heavily talk myself into liking the """""""confrontation""""""" from Part 17. I hated it at first watch - it felt like a rushed "fuck you" to an already clear disinterest shown in building the whole Coop vs. Dark Coop arch to any solid denouement.

tfw you have one hour to spare, check the channels, Twin Peaks The Reruns, yet it lands on the shittiest episode...

I was on a plane, so that helped.

Everybody ready for nostalgia dressed pastiche salad season 2?

insertnamehere wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2017 11:35 am

Ricochet wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2017 5:33 am Picked up Black Mirror to watch something during the next week or two, with a little incentive from a Nerdwriter vlog essay on its traditional or not use of tragic and cathartic motifs. I happen to like my coffee bleak and existentially burdening, so it should be an interesting watch.

I'm interested to see your take. Everyone I've talked to seems to respond differently, favoring different episodes over others. No two people seem to have the same Black Mirror opinions, except those that hate the whole thing.

Well those were some intriguing 13 days, though not mindblowing all the time or having constantly subjected me to the existential dread I was led to anticipate. I like the potential of this single-episode anthology and the Twilight Zoney vibe (minus any heavy dose of paranormal) of several such single story approaches - even with its shared-universe suggestions becoming less minimal and subtle as the series progressed [including that "Fifteen Million Merits" song becoming too much of a leitmotif... absolutely no idea, for instance, what the heck it was reused for (re-sung?) in "Men Against Fire" the way it was. It's especially refreshing as it transitioned towards the American public, most of whose TV products are still fixated on 8-, 10-episode minimum content arches (while not that surprising, instead, coming from the Brits, who can still approach a series' subject in a tighter format). Of course, though, that means each episode will live or die by its unique idea, content, presentation and actor choices. In most cases, the results were from positive upwards, though I'd say so far I have only a handful of favorite / memorable / got-me-deep-mang episodes. I noticed that the critics didn't always buy into everything presented here (at least until the season 3 boom, though not excluding it), which I think is actually a healthy reaction, not only in this "Golden Age of TV" climate, but also towards this show's methods, which can honestly tread between crafty / intuitive and gimmicky.

As for entertaining the favorites' game, here is my shot at it for anyone interested (aka just INH), with spoilery comments - though mind you, it's after only one viewing each (except San Junipero where I cheated and replayed it) and at minimum capacity to have captured all the essence in this one sit. I also think this show in particular needs to be judged by several factors: its basic TV drama qualities, its craftsmanship in the satire (tech, social or otherwise) it builds and its effect / affect power. So I'll be pretentiously toying with those as well.

#13
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#1

Well, before any of that, I couldn't help myself to come here and note that the first half of Nosedive felt like a total nightmare.

Five more episodes to go.

Picked up Black Mirror to watch something during the next week or two, with a little incentive from a Nerdwriter vlog essay on its traditional or not use of tragic and cathartic motifs. I happen to like my coffee bleak and existentially burdening, so it should be an interesting watch.

So I finished watching the first season of The Handmaid's Tale, a Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel. It was overall quite good, although, despite me being seemingly attracted to dystopian works in general and this show pumping serious, brutal doses of somber drama, I almost feel guilty for not feeling it was that gripping (I'm probably too desensitized).

If I were to recall Epignosis' complaints (stated once in Discord, I believe) about Atwood having the ideas, but struggling with pushing them till the end in her novels, I'd say the same issues of execution exist in the series. Being done in the American TV tradition of a 10-episode season bulk, that probably didn't even exhaust the book material and will now head into a second season, I'd say it had some stretchmarks, complete with backstories on each character midway through the season and such. Plus, if the first, say, three episodes or so are really tight, afterwards I felt with each episode a sort of tonal mellowing. The show exhibited both finesse (bleak, minimalistic art direction and visuals combined with the most striking, wild-ranging gamut of expressions and emotions via close-ups; very meaningful thematic juxtapositions of plot and backstory, adding weight to the individual episodes; dry, sharp humour to balance the gloom) and a few rough patches (with the exception of a handful of episodes, every other felt like they couldn't land an ending - tonally off and overdone; also, while the original score bits were excellently broody - think Enemy or Arrival - the insertion of songs / singles / schlagers were overkill and on-the-nose).

The performances were likely the strongest element of the show - you have Elisabeth Moss of Mad Men fame and Samira Wiley from Orange is the New Black, plus absolutely breakout stuff from Alexis Bledel (breaking out of her Gilmore Girly shell), Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck) and Madeleine Brewer (also Orange is the New Black). Plus, I feel this show would be worth recommending just for Ann Dowd's most spinechilling display of magnificence to date (making her Patti in Leftovers Grumpy Cat by comparison).

So yeah, well done and relevant all in all, but could have been a tad more subtle with its style, while at it.

I think Season 2's manner of dealing with particular topics (religion in family; online dating malaise; coming out in family) were hallmarks of smart, senseful writing. I sort of liked the Francesca romance way more than the Rachel one. Season 1 felt more quirky and swaggy. Season 2 felt like packing more real feels. My one wish would have been for more episodes set in Italy. I liked the idea of Dev taking an exodus abroad. I disliked that they timejumped that whole process and were forced to head back into NYC for their usual urban social skits and such. But seriously, this was overall great.

Meanwhile, Master of None is pretty amazing (and bingeable in its entirety on Netflix, as always). Must be something in the water for these 2nd seasons...

It's ok, but there's so little dialogue and the visuals are simplistic.

I... don't think I like Legion much. Picked it up because of the hype of the first episode (which was k) and it being helmed by Noah Hawley, who delivered the good with the Fargo TV adaptations. It going against the usual capeshit action trend is a good direction, but I feel each new episode has stretch marks all over, the main team is not too exciting or anything, all the literal fight scenes so far have felt insanely CGI'd and shitty and the whole psychic/schizo visuals feels like a bad mix of David Lynch, Silent Hill spooky sequences and Hannibal's (the TV series) lush visual porn - which was great a first, but also went completely overboard during subsequent seasons.

EXTRA: For any cinephiles out there, Sorrentino's English-language work so far ranks as the piece of garbage fire that was This Must Be the Place and Youth, which, apart from having a couple of dumb scenes, the stuff of Tommy Wiseau's creative sessions, I rather considered it too disliked by the general critics. (If anyone is paying attention to the new The XX album and their song Lips, the sample from there belongs to an original piece by David Lang... which was heavily featured in Youth, btw

/trivia)

So far, I get the vibe that YPope is mostly accepted as both ridiculous and yet enjoyable.

Sorrentino's style-frenzy [I've no doubt he aspires to be the Fellini of XXIth C], pop-culture-tinged [I've no doubt he reads Pitchfork and Medium too much], if a tad bullshitty work is something I should at least indulge in, but I found no time for this one, just like for any recent shows. Fleabag was the last one I managed to watch and that was during Christmas and it was done in three hours.

Epignosis wrote:

juliets wrote:Homeland starts again tonight. What the hell is Quin's status?? I hope they don't leave that dangling.

He's just getting Chinese food in Australia, as I understand it.

I bet they could just about come up with such a storyline, by the time the show reaches its 20th season.

'Hi. Can I have the sesame chicken, please?'

*staring and doubting intensifies while watching the clerk go in the back to get his order*

On a serious note, I think they've stretched the Quin narrative for quite some time, now. Is he seriously the only rogue assassin pawn figure in the entire Agency?

Season 5 was slightly better than the norm, so I'll prolly keep watching it.

I bet Danes will cry, at one point, too.

Nearly there in entering my two-week winter holiday window of massive procrastination and I've warmed up the past two days by binging a six-episode British dramedy called Fleabag (for those who were with me in Chatzy last evening, there's your answer). Picked it up after spotting it on multiple TV end-of-year lists, performance- and show-wise, then watching a few movie clips that were certainly teasing. Essentially a dark comedy around the story of a woman with a messy life, given by misbehaviours, awful choices and failure to connect with the people closest to her. The extra device/gimmick to this is that the protagonist constantly breaks the fourth wall - sort of in a Deadpool way, to use a really mainstream recent reference, except not just for easy, silly quip. This being British, of course, the humor is the strong cup of tea type, ranging from a bit kinky/dirty at times to well-timed absurd punchlines and also a damn lot of passive-aggressive dialogue. The series' structure is both episodic, in that it works around different situations for each segment, and as a single narrative arch, which pans out really well by the end of it: except for the pilot, the latter episodes are the stronger ones; without spoiling too much, the humor is revealed as a coping façade; the protagonist's weighty baggage open up little by little; and even the seemingly one-joke/one-note side characters get something of a pay off, once you get to the big picture. I think this is well worth watching.

Now, let's see if I can catch up with S3 of You're The Worst, another damaged-good comedy that really knows how to explore aspects of emotional depth and darkness, amid all the twisted ha-ha.

The reviews have not been very kind.

I feel the opposite, three episodes in and I feel worse about it with each new one. It exhibits a very "mystery upon mystery" quality, with build-up via unresolved, unexplained elements, that seems to mimick the worse of what Lost was (probably mentioned it before, but that show became unbearable for me once it started taking itself too seriously and blow up its mythos). It's also incredibly slow. The fact that one particular character (no need to spoil it, but viewers here will know) experienced certain revelations in ep2, only to go back to having one scene and a frowny look in ep3 is pretty telling. Similarly, I enjoyed the first episode very much (almost too much), but it now seems to have been a very polished episode, instead of giving me the vibe that the whole season is designed to hold up.

My mom.

Don't mean anything by that, she literally does.

Of the comedians in quiz shows I mentioned, I particularly like Bill Bailey, Sean Lock or Rich Hall. I really like Jon Richardson, though I haven't seen any actual skit of his, but he seems to be the mix of sharp character, deadpan humorist and chain-yanking-extraordinaire that I prefer.

I like David Mitchell, but I never got time to watch Peeps. (Also, I don't have any BBC except the News, to facilitate such opportunities in general. There was BBC Entertainment for a while, but has now vanished).

Speaking of brit comedians, I use(d) to watch them as guests on quiz shows. I wish Fry wouldn't have quit hosting Q.I. :tears: I also wish I would have caught up with Q.I. by now, I'm as far behind as the H or I series. I also watch some 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, whenever I find new episodes online.

Also, dat Walking Dead tweeest. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Was definitely nice waking up and reading everyone flipping off the showmakers in their reviews.

Ughh it seems The Leftovers finally couldn't resist the idea of veering into old Lost bad habits. The execution of this week's episode wasn't bad by any means, but it undeniably dipped my enthusiasm for what the show values more: walking a thin line between grounded intense drama and mystery-shrouded belief testing or simply toying with mysteries and the supernatural.

G-Man wrote:Now that my wife is on maternity leave (no baby yet though), we're going to binge watch season 3 of 24. We may go for season 4 as well.

We've also been catching up on the Republican and Democratic debates. It's been difficult to watch more than an hour of either at a time.

Season 3 of 24 of what?



I'm watching Fargo season 2 and it's amazing.

I'm watching The Leftovers season 2 and it's amazing.

I'm watching Homeland season 5 and eh it's alright, but I think it'll unfold in a predictable way. Plus it has a thing about not killing off secondary characters (that have appeared throughout all the season) when they're clearly at the end of their rope, as if this show has an actual massive fanbase that will just go nuts if that character dies, Sawyer-style.

Also, Man of Steel is a pretty low bar based on which to call other things "better".

I'm luvin the second season of Fargo.

...no hay banda...

Subject: The Leftovers season 2, episode 1

Dear Mr. Lindelof,

What the hell?

I finally finished Parks (wow, I'm surprised it took me the whole summer after all; I remember watching Season 2 in like four days) and I have to say, it went on auto-pilot a lot during the late seasons. Sure, it was fun putting on a 20-minute episode once in a while and laughing a bit (but not a lot), but it wasn't truly engaging. I didn't save any episode after season 2 and upon revisiting those saved early episodes, I found them and the characters much better, more likeable, simpler, even if not so polished. One of my last favourite moments in the series was probably Ron's Scotland gift trip in the Season 6 opener, because the pay off was like poetry.

I get that great series feature great arcs and evolutions, but to me the characters were given more the aura of self reference and exacerbated trademarks. After the City Council season-long elections, every next half-season or full-season arc felt like climbing yet another ladder (safe to say, I'm glad they stopped at Governor and not Veep/POTUS bullsuit). Even the core theme of friendship and mutual respect sort of became a template for every episode's progress: "yeah, so we're gonna bicker for 20 minutes and then, with a speech, we'll realize we are better than that and we love each other very much". Again, I enjoyed it and it probably just happens to be one of the series that doesn't work that well quasi-binged (because of the stereotypes really sinking in fast), but it wasn't gold.

Turnip Head wrote:

Ricochet wrote:I watched all Fringe, mainly for how lovable Walter was, but it being a J.J. Abrams Lost-school of mystery self-absorbtion and voodoo sci-fi (oh did I mention how much I hate Lost?), I didn't enjoy it to the fullest. The wrap-up of the official story was clunky as hell and the fifth season jump was a complete disaster.

The last season of Fringe is definitely my least favorite. But I felt like Fringe always had an endgame in mind, and it may have felt less clunky if the show had run longer... whereas with Lost they definitely made it up as they went along.

And yeah Walter is the best part.

Lost lost (hey-o) me starting season 3, it's "going along" was more and more excruciating for me. By season 5, I already felt there is no hope left for the show to redeem itself to my taste.

I watched all Fringe, mainly for how lovable Walter was, but it being a J.J. Abrams Lost-school of mystery self-absorbtion and voodoo sci-fi (oh did I mention how much I hate Lost?), I didn't enjoy it to the fullest. The wrap-up of the official story was clunky as hell and the fifth season jump was a complete disaster.

I'm watching Show Me A Hero on HBO, which is going slower here (one episode per week) than in the USA I think (two episodes per week). It's directed by Paul Haggis (Crash) and written by David Simon (The Wire) and you can almost feel both cinematic worlds colliding in harmony. Critics call it gripping television, but I'm not so fascinated by it yet.

MovingPictures07 wrote:
Don't worry, Parks and Rec is definitely good. And definitely worth it. Season 1 wasn't great, but it gets better.

Season 3 or 4 is probably my favorite, but I really don't know what my favorite season is.

So far s2 still hit it right with me, followed maybe by s4 > s3.

I binging Parks and Rec this summer (well, it'll probably take me less than that). This better be good, y'all. This better be good.

Aaand season 1 went by fast in two sits, because the whole thing is kinda short. I only laughed consistently at Book Club so far. Dat Swanson face when he realized he has to sit through Leslie's confession rather than having it on e-mail was priceless. Fat Pratt is pretty fat; and good, I can see why they kept him. Paul Schneider needs to go oh wait he will woo.

Ok, season 2 ep 4 was insane. That's more like it.

So season 2 was hella fun, but I'm not feeling it with season 3, at least the first half. Say it isn't so.

Rashida Jones needs to go...damn, I should have known lightning doesn't struck twice.

Canucklehead wrote:Everyone should watch "Silicon Valley". Probably the best supporting ensemble in any comedy since Parks & Rec (though a TOTALLY different vibe/tone than P&R). It's fucking hilarious, especially if you have personal experience in or connections to people in the Tech/software industry. My bf spends a lot of the show cringing because it's a leeeeetle too close to home for him, but HOT DAWG it's funny shit.

Agreed, second season has gotten real solid and its funniest bits were both the unforeseen and well prepared kind. Props to whoever played that Russ guy, one can easily play a brash buffoon and not much more these days, but his best bits of acting were kinda subtle.

S~V~S wrote:I have abandoned GoT the show. It isn't bad per se; had I not read the books, i would think it's fucking awesome. And I know GRRM is slower than a snail convention, and they have to go somewhere with the plot. But I hate that they changed things BEFORE the end of the last book. Hate it. Eliminated characters and changed major plot points that ARE part of canon. I read the episode syopses so I can rail at them ha ha, but I can't watch it anymore.

The whole Sansa story arc is killing me.

Oh fucking boy, you'll be glad you abandoned the show before seeing this new episode, then... I have yet to see it, because it airs on Monday here, but my Twitter is furious.

I have yet to meet anyone who read the books and didn't already or does not want to abandon the show and also cut the producers' throats in the process. I'm aware of the differences between the books and the show, but I myself refuse to read those brick-like books, so I'm sticking with the show, because it's a carefree hour of TV for me every week.

Anyone watching Mad Men? It's ending next week.