The TV Series discussion thread

I'm forced to wonder if there's some confirmation bias at play there. The switch to Netflix did not change anything about the people who make the show. I personally have seen no decline in quality or style whatsoever.
 
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I've been a little ill the past few days so I was searching for a new show to check out and stumbled across For All Mankind. I've only watched two episodes so far yet liking this one a lot!!
 
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Watched the first 5 episodes of Edgerunners.

It was quite enjoyable, to be honest.

Sadly, these episodes are very short. The credit sequence is also way too long - in my opinion. Thankfully, Netflix let's you skip it easily.

But if you discount the credits - they're basically around 20 minutes each.

I think this might have worked better as a two-part movie or something.

Anyway, not too important.

The show is very stylish - and the story is not exactly new material. But it fits wonderfully into Cyberpunk 2077, and it is certainly full of CDPR atmosphere and tone.

As in, lot's of sex and violence - but done with humor and what I can only describe as a genuine intention to entertain rather than be commercial. It doesn't have the nauseatingly obvious woke or political-point-scoring bullshit - which is always a relief these days.

It's a little too chaotic for my tastes - but I still enjoy it quite a bit.

I'd say around 7.5/10 for the first half.
 
Pladio said:
@DArtagnan Do you need CP2077 knowledge to watch or does it spoil the game ?
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As JFarrell said, nope to both :)

Well, not spoiled anything yet - anyway. I still have a few episodes to go.

I do think having played the game will help to understand some of the lingo and I imagine it might be hard to follow without some kind of experience with the setting.

On the other hand, I think it might be a cool introduction to the setting as well - and maybe the game is even better after having watched it.
 
Finished it and it stayed interesting and well done.

I can't say the ending was not seen coming a mile away, but it was still well done.

I'm going to be generous and give the whole thing 8/10.
 
Sandman (up to ep. 6). Everything is good and entertaining but undone by wokeness. Yes, the discussion of woke/antiwoke rears it's head again. We have a straight white male lead, and THREE straight white male villains. Everyone else is either female, black and/or gay. So far the only happy relationships shown are same-sex, disastrous ones are straight. I have not read the books, did they have the same agenda? @Redglyph @Arhu
 
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Philistine said:
Sandman (up to ep. 6). Everything is good and entertaining but undone by wokeness. Yes, the discussion of woke/antiwoke rears it's head again. We have a straight white male lead, and THREE straight white male villains. Everyone else is either female, black and/or gay. So far the only happy relationships shown are same-sex, disastrous ones are straight. I have not read the books, did they have the same agenda? @Redglyph @Arhu
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Are you sure you're not seeing what you want to see? It looks very far-stretched.
 
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Redglyph said:
Are you sure you're not seeing what you want to see? It looks very far-stretched.
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It may sound like it but we watched the episodes over a short period of time. John and Roderick Burgess, and The Corinthian are straight white male villains. Think about the other characters- Jo Constantine (gender swapped) is female and gay, Lucienne is female and black, Alex Burgess is gay, etc. Name one straight, white and happy character. Oh and looking at IMDB because I was curious about Death I see they race-swapped her to be black...
 
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Watched the first two episodes of Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Pretty good, though ripping chips out of people's neck without them noticing seems like a load of BS.

Needs more trannies, PoC, and people of indeterminate sex to upset you woke-phobes.
 
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Philistine said:
It may sound like it but we watched the episodes over a short period of time. John and Roderick Burgess, and The Corinthian are straight white male villains. Think about the other characters- Jo Constantine (gender swapped) is female and gay, Lucienne is female and black, Alex Burgess is gay, etc. Name one straight, white and happy character. Oh and looking at IMDB because I was curious about Death I see they race-swapped her to be black...
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Lucifer was gender-swapped, too. I read that the choice was made in part for practical reasons in order to distinguish her from the version in the Lucifer TV show, which was male but eventually diverged too much from the source material. I think it works well enough. Neil Gaiman gave similar reasons for Johanna Constantine: they used her for two different roles to save on actors - as her own ancestress and as the Constantine in the Sandman universe. I remember her from Doctor Who and really liked her as in this role. Again, there seems to be a different (chain-smoking, unkempt) Constantine in one of the DC shows.

All the gender and race swapping works in this universe because Sandman is about archetypes, which are fairly neutral to begin with.

I still wouldn't read too much into it though. A lot of the woke-ness in todays media is glaring because very often it's way too "in-your-face" and over the top. I think it's because the producers don't quite know how to properly deal with it yet. So instead of having stories that simply flow and just are, there is a lot of finger-pointing going on, both from the producers' and the viewers' sides. From the producers' side it's awkward because they are inexperienced and are working with tools they are not familiar with, so they tend to over-represent new themes. From the viewers' side it's awkward because the woke sticks out and everything feels off.

Today there also seems to be a whole anti-woke movement, which looks very much like an allergic reaction and is, by definition, too extreme. It also makes people point their finger at every little detail rather than enjoy something as a whole for what it is (supposed to be).

In Star Trek: Discovery I thought the woke was too much and cringey. In The Magicians the themes were handled very well and felt natural, in that I didn't notice them at all. And just today I read about a huge backlash for Disney's new The Little Mermaid trailer, because Ariel is played by Halle Bailey. That's an instance where it seems obvious to me that the problem probably lies firmly with the viewers, not with the film.
 
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Arhu said:
From the viewers' side it's awkward because the woke sticks out and everything feels off.

Today there also seems to be a whole anti-woke movement, which looks very much like an allergic reaction and is, by definition, too extreme. It also makes people point their finger at every little detail rather than enjoy something as a whole for what it is (supposed to be).

In Star Trek: Discovery I thought the woke was too much and cringey.
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I am decidedly ant-woke, but primarily it's just when producers screw around with pre-established characters. For example, although I see the messaging in Discovery and Orville, it doesn't bother me because they are original characters in an historically established multicultural universe. When I see a female Constantine, or black Jim Gordon, it's too jarring for me because I have known and loved these characters for 40 years in the comics.
 
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Philistine said:
I am decidedly ant-woke, but primarily it's just when producers screw around with pre-established characters.
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I'm not really anti-anything (I'd rather propose moderation), but that's a fair point. I had that with Ghostbusters. Generally speaking I'm the other way around: I don't mind the swapping of gender/race/color/culture if it makes sense and is inherently a matter of interpretation. Doctor Who is a good example - he's more of an idea rather than a specific person. What I do mind is when representation for the sake of it gets in the way of actual storytelling, because that helps no one. And it can go both ways - swapping someone in just to be more inclusive or swapping someone out in order to be more palatable to local audiences. I find both really unnecessary.

Back to your example - I guess ideally the industry would establish new characters that are (insert previously under-represented group), but that might take another 40 years. So by accelerating the process everything is effectively caught between a rock and a hard place. ... I'd still say it's preferable to keeping everything as it was in the past.
 
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Started watching Tokyo Vice - not expecting much.

It's pretty slow - and started out not very exciting. But it's sort of a slow burn, and I'm really getting into it after 6 episodes.

Sadly, there are no more than 9 episodes total - so it's not going to be a long ride.

I don't know how authentic it is (supposedly based on a real story - but we all know what that usually means) - but it does feel plausible to me.

I really like the characters and their relationships. I like the realistic take on violence - where people are not superheroes, and many don't want anything to do with it.

It's also an interesting view on Japanese culture and journalism.

Recommended.
 
Arhu, what you are describing it exactly how I feel. It's only when they try to force it in because they have a quota to meet that it really grates on me. That was Discovery without a doubt - they had to have a certain number of each gender/race/etc and there just had to be a few storylines about it as well. If it fits with established lore and is a natural part of the story then I have no problem with it at all.

For All Mankind had plenty of LGBTQ stuff going on but it was natural and not forced. In the 70s/80/s people hid their gender and the show accurately reflects that. There are even a few episodes where a gay relationship takes centre stage - but guess what? The characters are well written and quite likeable and the stories actually align with the overall narrative.
 
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