Incentivizes the binge watchers. 
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I only watched the first episode of Punisher but it looked like they put more effort into the one fight scene there than they did into the entire season of Guy Whose Power Is Super White Karate
Yeah the action is pretty rad especially for a television show
I tried rewatching some Earth: Final Conflict because I remembered it being good. Got about halfway through season 2 and wowowwow does this show fucking suck
They just like, completely give up after season 1. Everything else just feels like them desperately trying to fill 40 minutes.
I rewatched one of my favorite episodes of the New Twilight Zone the other night. Itās called āButton, Button,ā and itās based on Richard Mathesonās short story by that name. (Many episodes are based on short stories by famous writers.)
I remember that the producers of the show said in the commentary that they were not happy with the lead actress (Mare Winningham, who was also in Miracle Mile). I was surprised, as I had always thought her performance was quite entertaining.
The Twilight Zone episode has a different ending from the short story, and I actually like the showās ending better.
In 2009, that same short story was adapted into a movie called The Box. I was disappointed with that film, overall, though I could appreciate what they were trying to do with it. The weirdness just seemed too forced. (I felt the same way about Donnie Darko, by the same director.)
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Update on Earth: Final Conflict - I have almost bailed completely on this show five times, but Iām still here in the middle of season 3. This gets better. S3 seems to be where it hits its stride.
The series is never really āgoodā, just solid. There are some cool ideas here with the manipulation of the humans by a more advanced alien civilization, and the implications of all of our technology suddenly becoming obsolete (and the power loss/dependence that comes from that), but they donāt hit on it as much as they should.
I think my favorite one so far is āPaybackā, where a human scientist figures out a way to teleport things in a way the Taelons never imagined, so itās essentially a superior, fundamentally different technology than what they developed (which shifts between dimensions). That human scientist starts beaming bombs onto Taelon ships, and poisions into the bodies of human collaborators, and whatnot. Has a great little resolution at the end (warning: kinda gory - link) that feels like something out of Batman Beyond.
This show is also fucking hilarious as an artifact of the 90ās and early 2000ās. The protagonist is like a member of Lit trying to be Neo:
There are sooooo so many hacker characters in this show itās insane.
The king is Augur, one of the most confusing and bizarre character concepts Iāve ever seen:
He also kinda rules? Sometimes?
He is awkwardly trying to be cool in such a nerdy, ineffective way that Iām starting to love it.
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Confirmed Half-Life 2 ripped off 90ās syfy TV
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I just finished up True Detective Season 1
I liked it. I appreciate characters and therefore appreciated that it was more a character study, than a crime mystery detecting story. Frequently they would skip over details or just go ahead and feed us reveals rather than trying to maintain really tight mystery and tension. And thatās so they could go ahead and focus on how these two detectives were feeling and dealing with it all.
However, I did not like how they handled the main red herring plot. Because I didnāt believe it for a second. So the show dragged for me a bit in the middle.
And I would like to have had 1 more episode. Because there is a sheriff they set up for some plot details and then that thread disappears completely.
Now, donāt go saying anything bad about season 2. Because I have always always loved Rachel McAdams and youād better BACK OFF BEFORE YOU EVEN START.
Rachel McAdams is very good in True Detective season 2.
She is given a very one-note character with a lame gotcha backstory to work with but at least sheās not lifted whole from James Ellroy stories like the other leads?
I watched the first episode of Westworld season 2 the other day. It was pretty lame! The pacing was glacial and not in an interesting way. I donāt care particularly much about any of the various one-note characters. For some reason they decided to re-direct any potentially interesting plot threads back to the standard āmysterious intrigue inside the parkā plot template of season 1, but now that the park has broken down thereās no potential for the kind of interesting commentary on game design that made season 1 watchable.
It seems like this season wants to do another puzzle box narrative, but I donāt spend nearly enough time on reddit to give a shit. Having an entire season of a show revolve around a big complicated twist you need to follow 50 abstruse clues to understandā¦ thatās bad fucking writing. Thatās what you get when you try and make a TV show for engineering undergrads and nobody else.
Your first paragraph reminds me what I feared as soon the first season concluded, which I thought was excellently done! For the most part aside from some drifting episodes in the middle.
Iām still going to sit down with the first few eps of S2 real soon, hope it builds better. Everyoneās all hyped about Shogun World and sure itās cool, but I wonder if theyād have it (and other Worlds) developed with the same kind of āmazeā.
I havenāt watched past ep 2 yet, but yeah, it is now like, fully dystopian, and I donāt know if I care enough to keep watching. Season 1 at least had a mix of fun cowboy adventure and bleak horrifying real-world stuff. Season 2 is just all bleak horrifying real-world stuff nonstop.
Also didnāt love how they immediately established roughly how far into the future this show takes place when we saw the military using boats, guns with bullets, and fairly basic holographics.
episode 4 was maybe the best of the whole show?
Westworld continues to double down on being Lost Mk. II and just get worse and worse. Itās now blatantly a giant abstruse and unsolvable puzzlebox, stringing viewers along with constant cliffhangers, pop psychology, tons of plot points but no story. Itās fitting that the most recent episode was a remake of the Hatch reveal from Lost.
The crazy thing is Lost was a better show than Westworld. Individual episodes of Lost at least had a beginning/middle/end, there were a handful of compelling actors, and it had a sense of humor and levity.
The performances in Westworld range from boring to horrendous. There are no characters, everyone is just a plot point delivery system. The plot itself is not internally consistent and has nothing to say.
Itās become a wooden, self-serious, and very angry show. But what are they creators so angry about? Itās not like the show is about any modern or historical social or political issues. Are we expected to be upset on behalf of a bunch of fictional, unlikeable robots? The show has repeatedly shown the robotsā personality and goals can change after a few edits in ācodeā ā they sure donāt seem to have any agency or true character. Maybe it will all be revealed to be organic 3 seasons from now, but I need a reason to sympathize in the present.
Westworld reveals the issue with serialized TV dramas - there is no story that requires 20-80 hours of content (depending on how many seasons these single narrative shows last). Westworld, Game of Thrones, and all these other shows struggle to tell a satisfying story in an hour, how can they be expected to create something far more complex?
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into the badlands is like a 90s ova.
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āPost apocalyptic wild west in the American south except replace revolvers with swords. Yeah, no guns at all. I donāt know why, considering thereās running cars and oil pumps.ā
Itās got action. Thatās about all the praise I can give it.
True Detective Season 2 was a small mess. But, I still liked it. I think it had a lot of good scenes. Albeit felt pretty disconnected, most of the time.
Vince Vaughn looked surprisingly healthy for that role.
Now, Im gonna start The Sopranos. Never seen a second of it.
Iām also giving The Expanse another chance. Watched two eps like two years ago and didnāt really like it. Now Im about 5 eps in and itās fine. But not as engaging as I would like.
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i prefer tds02 to tds01!!
enjoy the sopranos, itās a beautiful gift
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arrested development season 5 is like worse than season 4
oh no! I usually agree with you on TV so this is a bad sign.