Star Trek Discovery

[ricketyclik]

... The only thing missing is hot women. Alien or local.

I was all set to download it until this.

[Uncle Sparky]

I've always taken about a season to get used to any new Star Trek. Other than the subtitled Klingon (I suspect there will be a lot more of it as time progresses), I'm really beginning to enjoy the central characters... and the new human/Vulcan is hotter than Spock (rah may disagree)

[ricketyclik]

Aaaand we're back.

[BeBMan]

Sonequa Martin-Green Let's just hope this ends for her better than her role in TWD

[ricketyclik]

I haven't watched TWD. Would you recommend it BeBro?

[BeBMan]

I like it a lot, even when I'm not a particular fan of splatter stuff, which can be pretty gross there. But may be that this is what ppl expect in a zombie show.

However, I think the show is best when it deals with morale dilemmas of humans in desparate situations. Like a constant topic is "civilization is going downhill, so do we still help other ppl, or turn completely egoistic/criminal/whatever". But yeah, action is cool too (usually)

Overall a great show, but it has weaker moments.

[ricketyclik]

Sounds good. I've just watched the first third of "It Comes at Night", which so far seems to cover the same sort of territory.

[BeBMan]

After watching all of season1 of Discovery I still like it a lot, but IMO the ending of that season was a tad disappointing. Also it felt that during the course of the season, they kinda rolled back on the "unusual for Star Trek" part, which is not per se bad, but to me means giving up some potential:

Spoiler:

It started cool with the main character responsible for mutiny, and it was certainly expected that she would work her way back into Starfleet etc, etc.

Otoh the more dark side of the captain turned out to be "just" a consequence of him being from the mirror universe - which kinda watered down the effect for me. I thought his more grim side was refreshing, but it seems he's dead now ...similar the thing with the security guy which turned out to be a Klingon - I actually liked that part, but him leaving is wasted potential too (tho there is the possibility he'd return at some point).

[ricketyclik]

Needed more full length body shots of attractive women in clingy uniforms.

[Dinner]

Are spore drive and mycelial network complete esoteric nonsense or is there at least a vague "science" side of them?

Without looking at all I am thinking made up.

[ricketyclik]

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet

[BeBMan]

I turn this now officially into a "recommend some good TV, warn/moan re bad TV" thread.

I have to say although I recommended TWD earlier, it seems to go downhill. IMO, best part was later season 2, season 3, and early season 4.

***

To make up for the lack of GoT, I watched (1) "Knightfall" because it has swords too!

It deals with the Knights Templar back from the Crusades, so moves on to the Templar's ehh... unpleasant end in France some yrs after 1300 (though the show is not there yet, but they are already at odds with the French King)

It mixes in some wildly unhistoric stuff, and it's not really super-great, but watchable if you're bored, and want to see, y'know, more swords.

I also started watching (2) "Troy - Fall of a City". Last time I watched something dealing with Homeric epics was the movie with Brad Pitt, of which I remember it had also Sean Bean as Odysseus, a breathtaking CGI shot with lots and lots of ships, and a cool Achill/Hector fight (with spears and....swords!)

This new tv show starts nicely....and descends into epic boredom soon...

The guy who plays Jon Snow's uncle Benjen is Odysseus here. He's not bad, but does not get much screen time (so far), which is mostly used for long winded, heavy dialogue, and short episodes of brutality in between.

Production value isn't so bad, Troy is looking ok, costumes are surprisingly bronze-age-accurate (some warriors look like directly inspired from the so-called "warrior vase") The budget wasn't big enough for nice CGI shots with many ships, so don't expect many.

They also bring the gods in so there is some fantasy element. And they put great attention into laudable (though sometimes bordering the banal) points for feminism and diversity (among others, Achill is black, and does a nice job, his friend Patroclos is too, but he's rather meh), I just wished they had put equal effort into making this thing actually interesting and entertaining. It's probably not enough swords or something.

[Dinner]

I didn't like Discovery.

[N35t0r]

I'm not a particularly good yardstick for gauging films/TV shows, since I'll pretty much watch anything with expensive special effects, but I'm enjoying "the 100".

[Aeson]

The first season of The 100 was very good.