Anyone watching that new Like A Dragon series on Amazon Prime?
I’ve finished the 3 episodes that have been released so far, and it mostly feels like a completely different thing to the games. I think I am enjoying it as it’s own thing though.
It feels like someone wanted to make a very specific original story, but couldn’t get it funded unless it was attached to an existing property. Like pretty much any aspect of the original games they could have changed has been changed, but it’s also close enough to be kind of distracting. Like constantly there’ll be a character getting name-dropped and I’m like “wait, that’s supposed to be that guy?”
I also feel like they aren’t expecting this to go beyond one season, so they’ve grabbed elements from across the series and are just doing whatever they want with it. They’ve seemingly already killed off a major character from later in the series, and have merged in stuff like the Omi Alliance and the plot from Zero.
I think the main problem I have with it so far is that because they’re trying to do this dual timeline thing, with half of it being set in 1995 and the other in 2005, that both storylines feel a bit rushed or lacking much development. In the 3 episodes out so far (out of 6), Kiryu has barely had much time to do anything in the 2005 portion besides get out of prison and meet a few people.
If you are a real Columbo head and you’re tired of waiting for poker face season 2 I highly highly recommend Elsbeth. it is shockingly well put together for a modern network TV show… like it knows what it is in a way that almost nothing does anymore
Been watching Slow Horses, I know people have told me “Gary Oldman farts in it” but I was unprepared for just how much farting is in this show, he’s constantly letting em rip, he’s weaponizing his farts and stinky shits to jam up bad guys, he’s sneezing and farting to get his hands on a gun to get out of a tough spot. His farts are so famously rancid that britains best spies will put themselves in harms way to avoid him cutting the cheese, the mere mention of the lamb curry he ate earlier that day sends MI5 agents running for the hills.
Otherwise it’s kind of scratching that justified itch of idiots doing crimes badly though in this case a bunch of spies fucking up constantly.
my wife is the Like a Dragon lover of the apartment (although i’ve watcher her play most of them) and so we watched episode 1 and then she requested we watch the Miike film to wash the taste out
i think we went in with open minds but…yeah idk. i can’t say i really enjoyed anything about it. has sort of all the hallmarks of what makes modern shows not great - bad acting and writing, terrible lighting, etc
part of me thinks they should have made their own thing “set in the world of Yakuza” but even then it wouldn’t save it from the other things i mentioned
Yeah I think I enjoyed it enough as it’s own thing, but I am usually pretty interested in seeing how things get adapted, and doing a mental analysis of the differences and similarities etc.
I definitely think you can’t go into this expecting anything even remotely like the games. I usually describe the tone of the games as like “if Sukeban Deka was about grizzled old men instead of schoolgirls” but this show feels like it’s trying to go for something like, maybe Infernal Affairs 2 or something?
I thought the acting was fine, but I don’t have much to compare it to besides the hyper melodramatic Japanese dramas from the 80s.
I’d be interested to see how they try to adapt the Ichiban games if they get that far (they won’t)
Also I like how the Miike film feels like someone started from chapter 3, skipped most of the cutscenes and just messed around and did side stuff and then adapted that into a movie
i’ve been watching episodes of Millenium after people were talking about it here and it’s fun, i like watching lance henriksen think and not say anything he’s thinking about even when he’s not trying to kill jean claude van damme. i always laugh when this part pops up in the title sequence though. who care.
guys did you know that Mad Men is quite a good television show
i like how they’re like “OK here’s some THEMES and here’s a nice slow shot for you to think about them. also here’s a lot of very good performances and all the sets are gorgeous”
been blown away by Kiernan Shipka actually; is she in anything else or just that Sabrina show
she gets a lot of minor parts but I agree she’s got incredible presence and I’d like to see her do more. and I couldn’t really get into Sabrina despite being an objective fan of both her and Riverdale
I watched season 1 recently so I could follow along with The Relentless Picnic’s coverage of it. The podcast was much more enjoyable than the show, but the show had grown on me by the end of the season.
It’s always balancing on this uncomfortable line in its portrayal of 60’s office sexism. It’s making a genuine historical critique but it also really lingers on the prurient details in a way that feels like the showrunners are either secretly kind of getting off on it, or they’re trying to appeal to people who despise the sexism AND people who want to return to the norms of that time. Or maybe it’s just that Obama era vibe of “let’s pat ourselves on the back for how much our society has progressed”, which also feels stale these days.
But I’ve only seen season 1. I hear the show gets way better as it goes. The Relentless Picnic seems to be on another hiatus, but I hope they get back to it soon. If not I’ll probably just keep watching the show without them.
yeah the focus on Pete in season 1 is kind of weird and overemphasizes that feeling when it’s honestly not a big part of the show thereafter. it’s mostly just a very very good character study with a now-unusual balance of big and small ideas, but the whole thing with Peggy’s pregnancy is presented a lot more severely than Don’s philandering
yeah! i’ve been skipping around so actually just watched the ep where he has to interview the serial killer that stabbed him once by demanding they uncuff him and leave them both in a closet sized cell together and the guy keeps calling frank “meat” and they’re each goading each other into hitting the panic button on the table. instead of sending polaroids to his house they should just keep mailing his wife new homoerotic frank black x serial killer supercuts
