Isolation TV choices

[CanadaOne]

Things being as they are, decided to revisit Babylon 5. What an excellent show! And coming from a decades long Trekkie, that's high praise.

 

Other than that, watching Star Trek: Picard and Better Call Saul.

 

 

Please wash your hands before responding and cough away from your monitor. Thank you.

[cardboard_killer]

My favorite US show that was cancelled after three episodes (but the first season was released on DVD) was Wonderfalls. Lots of talent on that show. A gen-x show if there ever was one.

 

 

 

A little known Australian show, Mr. Inbetween is worth watching; only six episodes a season, two seasons so far. Violent.

 

 

I've watched the first two seasons of Stranger Things, if you're a trekkie, it should please.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by cardboard_killer

[Feathered_IV]

Fellow trekkie here too, and currently working my way through the new Picard series.  Also revisiting some of my favourite TOS and TNG episodes, while following them up with their matching podcasts while puttering around the house and doing odd jobs.  Recommend Mission Log for inspired analysis on morals messages and meanings, and The Greatest Generation for your dose of dick and fart jokes.  

[unreasonable]

12 Monkeys.

[Feathered_IV]

Oh, and Firefly.  I do love a space western.  

[6./ZG26_Custard]

I've grown up watching Star Trek  the original series, next generation and Deep Space Nine are the Pinnacle. I will most certainly be watching these. Picard isn't Star Trek, so I wouldn't recommend watching that. Farscape is worth a watch as is Firefly. I'm currently trawling through Fraser's 11 Seasons. Also probably watch the complete collection of Jeremy Brett  as Sherlock Holmes. 

[CanadaOne]

56 minutes ago, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

Picard isn't Star Trek, so I wouldn't recommend watching that.

 

 

We are going to have words if you continue with this line of thought, sir.

 

I have been watching Star Trek religiously for 40 years, and I see no reason that ST: Picard does not qualify. Short of having Kirk show up with that beauty he bonked in the Roman prison cell, and having a beer with Picard, I don't see what is missing.

[cardboard_killer]

 

48 minutes ago, CanadaOne said:

I don't see what is missing.

 

Phisbin

[6./ZG26_Custard]

1 hour ago, CanadaOne said:

I don't see what is missing.

Everything. It plays about with Canon, it's dystopian and wants us to believe that the values instilled by the federation over the other shows are not worth diddly-squat. The writing is diabolical. We have to suspend disbelief and accept that "United Federation of Planets" has become isolationist and is run by a bunch of swearing arse holes. We also have to suspend disbelief that the Romulan Star" Empire" which is huge, needs federation ships to evacuate Romulan refugees. They have introduced borg beaming technology that would make them unstoppable. It continually emasculates all the male characters including Picard. We have the "mysterious" Commodore Oh wearing shades just to let us know she is "mysterious" because Vulcans and Romulans don't need to wear sunglasses because of their Planets harsh conditions. The list goes on and on.

Edit.

It's a long video but I find red letter media breakdowns more entertaining than the Picard show and I've seen all Picard  episodes to date. 

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by 6./ZG26_Custard

[CanadaOne]

47 minutes ago, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

Everything. It plays about with Canon, it's dystopian and wants us to believe that the values instilled by the federation over the other shows are not worth diddly-squat. The writing is diabolical. We have to suspend disbelief and accept that "United Federation of Planets" has become isolationist and is run by a bunch of swearing arse holes. We also have to suspend disbelief that the Romulan Star" Empire" which is huge, needs federation ships to evacuate Romulan refugees. They have introduced borg beaming technology that would make them unstoppable. It continually emasculates all the male characters including Picard. We have the "mysterious" Commodore Oh wearing shades just to let us know she is "mysterious" because Vulcans and Romulans don't need to wear sunglasses because of their Planets harsh conditions. The list goes on and on.

Edit.

It's a long video but I find red letter media breakdowns more entertaining than the Picard show and I've seen all Picard  episodes to date. 

 

 

It's evolutionary, dynamic. You can't say you have to suspend disbelief regarding the UFP and it being isolationist unless you disregard the fact that it never even existed at all at one point. It began, it changes, and it will end. Just like everything else. People change, countries change, and the UFP changes.

 

I grant you some of the writing is less than stellar, and some scenes have been cringe worthy, but... "Spock's Brain", "And The Children Shall Lead", and dozens of other examples through the years and series. There are episodes from every series that are worthy of being buried out back with grandma. And character development takes time. In every series it takes a while for the people to become who we want them to become. ST:TNG for example, the characters were cardboard cutouts at first, then they grew into it.

 

It's Star Trek, it's available while we are alive, and I'm enjoying it more than not.

[Rjel]

I've been a fan of the Star Trek universe since the '60s. I was still a kid during its first network run. I watched the original series often enough I could sometimes pick out episodes just from the star date. ST-TNG is my favorite series of them all. Most people dismiss the Enterprise series, but having watched it from beginning to end 4 times now, it deserved a better fate. Some weak episodes here and there but so did all the other versions of Star Trek have theirs. It was well acted with some cool story lines.

 

I'm not in lock down mode here yet but if I do end up in isolation, I'll spend plenty of time watching old films on Turner Classics. Plenty of Westerns, comedies and musicals. Don't know why. Zero dancing and musical talents but I find movie musicals fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable. Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse were amazing together.

[SCG_Tzigy]

Few of our favorites recent years..

 

Bridge (Broen)

Killing Eve

The Americans

Luther

Fauda

Altered Carbon

Witcher

GOT

WestWorld

Trapped

 

Watching Mandalorian with my 16yo, pretty fun

 

[CanadaOne]

3 hours ago, SCG_Tzigy said:

Few of our favorites recent years..

 

Fauda

 

 

 

The first two seasons were great. Really looking forward to season 3.

 

Mindhunter as well, but I would imagine all the shows are taking a break now.

[Bremspropeller]

According to CNN, the EU has asked Netflix to dial back their streaming-quality, so some bandwidth can be freed for people working from home.

Yeah...people are streaming... "Netflix" ?

[HBPencil]

Great to see some sci-fi fans around here. Never really cared for Star Trek but enjoy plenty of others, am working my way through Star Gate SG-1 yet again and I also enjoyed Babylon 5 and Farscape. Devs is seems interesting and several years ago there was an excellent two season spy thriller called Counterpart that I really enjoyed (it's sci-fi-ish but set in the present day).

 

I do like the occasional murder-mystery with a taste of Scandi-noir with shows like:

The Bridge/Broen (Danish/Swedish)
Midnight Sun (French/Swedish, but mostly in English language)
Unforgotten (UK)
Shetland (UK)

[CanadaOne]

1 hour ago, Bremspropeller said:

According to CNN, the EU has asked Netflix to dial back their streaming-quality, so some bandwidth can be freed for people working from home.

Yeah...people are streaming... "Netflix" ?

 

You mean people are streaming... cough!... "something else" ?

 

 Sips his coffee gently while avoiding the subject.

[Bremspropeller]

Well, the bathroom-tissue may be sold-out due to too many romantic movies on Netflix.

But maybe it's something else ?

[CanadaOne]

"Self love, my liege, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting."

 

Henry V: Act II: Scene IV

[6./ZG26_Custard]

On 3/18/2020 at 3:04 PM, CanadaOne said:

It's evolutionary, dynamic

It really isn't, Alex kurtzman and Co are becoming renowned for their plagiarisation. I'm sure they would call it a homage. 

"I'm commander Shepard and this is my favourite plagiarisation in the galaxy" 

 

 

[CanadaOne]

Yeah, and look at the first subtitle line in your video: "There is a universal energy from which all living things are formed."

 

Did Mass Effect plagiarize the Upanishads?

 

Almost all the stories we see and hear have an origin in another story. ST and ST:TNG fed off the Bible and Shakespeare incessantly. Now if Picard comes out and says "To be or not to be" and the writers claim that line as their own, then there is a problem.

[6./ZG26_Custard]

1 hour ago, CanadaOne said:

Now if Picard comes out and says "To be or not to be" and the writers claim that line as their own, then there is a problem. 

Oh boy, Alex kurtzman and his crew have been very busy. It's not the first time that he's been accused of copyright theft and plagiarism. 

 

 

 

 

Edit:

Picard has fallen very very far from the glory days of Trek. It's just another sci-fi show and a poor one. It's something we are clearly not going to agree on so I hope you continue to enjoy Picard ? 

Edited March 19, 2020 by 6./ZG26_Custard

[RedKestrel]

I have a bunch of recommendations, most of them are just the same stuff everyone watches LOL. I'll just split it into the different streaming services depending on what you've got. Also, some anime recommendations, because hell I might as well get laughed off the forum.

For the Normal Folks:

Netflix:

Castlevania: A sexy drifter, a sexy magician, and a sexy half vampire team up to kill Dracula, who is also sexy to at least one person, his dead wife. My wife and I just finished season 3..My only complaint was that it was too short. Very gory with disturbing elements contrasted with banter right out of a drunken D&D session. It works quite well for some reason.

Altered Carbon: Dystopian future where people can basically swap bodies at will, and the galaxy is ruled by the immortal super-rich. Warning: very disturbing at times. Season 2 just came out and was pretty good, not as good as Season 1 I thought. I feel like they dialed back a lot of the truly disturbing elements which I totally get, but it was really part of the whole dystopian far future feeling so it seemed like something was missing. Still better than a lot of stuff out there.
 

The Witcher: Everyone's watched this one, Geralt of Rivia fights ladies and F***s monsters while his bard serenades him...wait, I got that mixed up. Anyway I thought it was great, even if the only thing you really want is to see Henry Cavill drop F-bombs for several hours (he does this excellently, by the way).

Amazon Prime: 

the Expanse: Reasonably hard scifi with an interesting plot. It's great to see a Sci-fi show that makes at least a nod to how tech might actually work and the effects of space on human physiology.

The Boys: This is *bong rip*"What if superheros were psychos controlled by a megacorp, set against the backdrop of a critique of american Nationalism?? that would be F**** up!" The Show. Also very good, as long as you don't mind some pretty brutal violence and disturbing elements. Karl Urban as grizzled foul-mouthed australian (i.e. himself) is worth the price of admission.

 

The Tick is like the Boys but in a fun way with humor. Worth a watch after the Boys in case that one makes you depressed.

Weebs Only! Normal well adjusted folks turn back!: 

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (Amazon Prime and Netflix) -The Concept: Steampunk Feudal Japan Zombie Apocalypse. Good anime, very little trashy fan service and  this one is spread across a couple services, Amazon Prime has the anime series, Netflix has the follow up movie available. Don't ask why. 

Girls Und Panzer (Crunchyroll): Will I get made fun of for recommending this? Yes? Should I be made fun of for this? Also Yes! Is this show hilarious as hell and a wild ride? Definitely also yes. High school girls riding tanks around in a friendly competition with GI Joe level immunity to incoming fire while learning lessons about friendship and the relative advantages of WWII tanks. Each enemy high school team is a parody of a side in WWII for an added bonus. 

Kill la Kill (Netflix): Finally, an anime for people who enjoy trashy anime but know they shouldn't - a truly bizarre and somehow heartwarming parody of all the crazy "_______ in High School" animes, complete with truly unsettling amount of parody fan service. The head of the student council of the high school rules through super-powerful fashion clothing, until our dear protagonist arrives with her own sentient school uniform and half of a gigantic scissors to challenge her in combat."But RedKestrel," I hear you say "That sounds bats*** insane!". My friend, if that is too crazy for you then you probably shouldn't watch the show, it only gets more nuts. Soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano, which makes it an instant watch for me.

Aldnoah.Zero (Crunchyroll): Mecha Anime with a slightly legit MilSci slant. In the near future, Martian colonists discover an ancient civilization's power source and use it to establish a feudal society, then have a war with Earth using gigantic mecha piloted by their Knights. A decade and a half later, a tenuous peace has been restored, but because this is a mecha show you know it's about to go down again, and only the high-school reservists (yes, I know, just go with it) can save the world... This is a little different than a typical mecha anime since 'the good guys' largely fight the enemy through clever tactics rather than simply shouting power ups or whatever. Only slightly trashy at times, once more an excellent soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano.

Steins.Gate - A nerdy self-styled mad scientist has to deal with an international conspiracy revolving around time travel. Crazy but good. It starts out kinda weird and slow and then hits hard when it starts to come together. One of the few english dubs that are actually as good or better than the subs.

Anyway if you have my exact taste you'll like all of that, if not then don't say I didn't warn you.

Edited March 19, 2020 by RedKestrel
Forgot Steins.Gate

[Gambit21]

On 3/18/2020 at 7:01 AM, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

 The list goes on and on.

 

 

 

Sounds like a toxic, agenda-filled piece of crap just like 98% of all programming released anymore.

 

It’s called “programming” for a reason after all.

[CanadaOne]

4 hours ago, 6./ZG26_Custard said:

Oh boy, Alex kurtzman and his crew have been very busy. It's not the first time that he's been accused of copyright theft and plagiarism. 

 

 

 

 

Edit:

Picard has fallen very very far from the glory days of Trek. It's just another sci-fi show and a poor one. It's something we are clearly not going to agree on so I hope you continue to enjoy Picard ? 

 

I think with any decades-long love affair/obsession, there will be contrary views. Part of the fun, really.

 

We can argue about Pink Floyd albums next. 

Holy crap! ST: Picard really did rip off the Upanishads. Just watched episode 9 and in the space of five-seconds they say one girl's name is Djanna and the other is Sutra.

 

Not too obvious, eh?

[Gambit21]

1 hour ago, CanadaOne said:

 

I think with any decades-long love affair/obsession, there will be contrary views.

 

Yep, some right, some clearly wrong. 

 

1 hour ago, CanadaOne said:

 

We can argue about Pink Floyd albums next. 

 

You must mean the fact that they got better after Waters left. 

 

 

[CanadaOne]

12 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

 

Yep, some right, some clearly wrong. 

 

 

You must mean the fact that they got better after Waters left. 

 

 

 

Troublemaker.

 

It's tough call to say they got better after Waters left. They had a series of masterpieces with Waters at the helm. I saw Floyd three-times in Montreal and Waters once. The Floyd shows, especially the one at the Forum - 20th row on the floor dead center! - were spectacular. The Waters show at the Forum was a ton of fun. A real carnival atmosphere.

 

To say they got better after Waters left... no. They got different. But several of their earlier albums were masterpieces for the ages. 

[Ribbon]

-"The Expanse" is a must watch for space SF fans, on Star trek and Star wars lvl and above imo!

-Second i would recommend is "Death note", animated miniseries (18+) with amaizing twist and unique story.

 

For me; i could rewatch Alien, Das boot and some other movies.

 

[RedKestrel]

On 3/19/2020 at 8:38 PM, Gambit21 said:

 

Yep, some right, some clearly wrong. 

 

 

You must mean the fact that they got better after Waters left. 

 

 

As a fan of more than a few of the Waters-era Floyd albums, I think Waters' problem was that he was too fond of climbing up his own butthole when writing songs.

[CanadaOne]

19 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

As a fan of more than a few of the Waters-era Floyd albums, I think Waters' problem was that he was too fond of climbing up his own butthole when writing songs.

 

Yeah, a lot of really good artists are insane or arrogant or both. They even made allusion to it in the Pompeii movie when one of the producers says "Yes, Rodger, we all know you're god." Something like that.

 

But it's difficult to deny his brilliance.

[Feathered_IV]

I nearly made it all the way through a Pink Floyd album once.  

[CanadaOne]

22 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

I nearly made it all the way through a Pink Floyd album once.  

 

My guess is you just don't remember that you heard the whole thing.

 

Possible that the whole day is just a blur in your memory. A thick green fog of... I'm sorry, what?  humana-humana-bananana-shmoomana...

[unlikely_spider]

On 3/19/2020 at 1:02 PM, CanadaOne said:

Yeah, and look at the first subtitle line in your video: "There is a universal energy from which all living things are formed."

 

Did Mass Effect plagiarize the Upanishads?

 

Almost all the stories we see and hear have an origin in another story. ST and ST:TNG fed off the Bible and Shakespeare incessantly. Now if Picard comes out and says "To be or not to be" and the writers claim that line as their own, then there is a problem.

I found a great sci-fi book a couple of years ago, called Revelation Space, and thought that Mass Effect took its main idea from that book. It is definitely worth reading for hard sci-fi fans.

[Gambit21]

On 3/24/2020 at 6:34 AM, Feathered_IV said:

I nearly made it all the way through a Pink Floyd album once.  

 

I played “Pulse” beginning to end more times than I could count. 

[CanadaOne]

5 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

 

I played “Pulse” beginning to end more times than I could count. 

 

I saw that tour in Montreal at the Olympic Stadium. The sound was terrible for the first half of the show. The Olympic Stadium looks like a giant toilet bowl and has the acoustics to match. But for the second half it's like someone found the "push to improve sound quality" button and it was much better.

 

Comfortably Numb at the end was................................... transcendent.

 

I bought ten tickets to that show and had two left that I couldn't even give away to friends. Which surprised me. When we were outside the stadium a couple of guys were looking for tickets, so I gave them the two I had left, on the house. And if you thought they were happy then, you should have seen them during the show, they were at the end of our group, next to "Bob", and Bob never went anywhere without a great deal of "imagination".  So they were imagining all night.

 

Floyd is for sharing.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2020 by CanadaOne

[Trooper117]

Band of Brothers and Pacific are next on my list after I have finished watching The Expanse

[RedKestrel]

12 minutes ago, Trooper117 said:

Band of Brothers and Pacific are next on my list after I have finished watching The Expanse

Both are excellent. I have to say I found The Pacific to be wrenching to watch. It is grim in a way that Band of Brothers wasn't. After watching I couldn't go straight to bed, had to do something else, read a book or something, or I would have nightmares. Not to say its bad, just to say that the tone and feeling are something you should be prepared for.

[SCG_OpticFlow]

On 3/18/2020 at 4:55 AM, unreasonable said:

12 Monkeys.

 

The Seventh Seal

[LeLv30_Redwing-]

The Wire. You will forget anything outside your livingroom with this...

 

 

[CanadaOne]

The Wire was fantastic! 

[Trooper117]

2 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

Both are excellent. I have to say I found The Pacific to be wrenching to watch. It is grim in a way that Band of Brothers wasn't. After watching I couldn't go straight to bed, had to do something else, read a book or something, or I would have nightmares. Not to say its bad, just to say that the tone and feeling are something you should be prepared for.

 

I have watched both series before, I also have them on dvd... should have said that in my post.

Both I found to be very gritty and just about as realistic as you can get when sitting in front of a tv screen.

 

Can't say I found the Pacific worrying in any way, highly enjoyable though and I would encourage anyone who hasn't watched both titles to do so as they are first class.