The Sword and Laser discussion

Hah. I googled the low volume on dialog problem and the first link was Leo Laporte on The Tech Guy with Scott Wilkinson. I guess I need to get a receiver with "midnight mode". Hmm, I'm trying "leveling" on my tv and stereo output instead of 5.1 in the xfinity cable box. Or maybe I have a guitar compression pedal somewhere.

Oh I also set the tv picture mode to movie at night to try to cut down the blue light.

Watched the first 3 eps of Superman & Lois, and I like it a lot. It has a near-perfect balance between the family drama and the superheroics. The opening scene is amazing. After Superman catches a car that’s about to crush a boy — in a shot that echoes the famous first comic cover — he hands the kid his baseball cap.

“Cool costume.”
“Thanks! My mom made it for me!”

https://youtu.be/wXzo8JzRM0Y

So "The Bad Batch" is starting up. The first episode/movie came out on the 4th (it was 90 minutes long). And the first 30 minute episode came out today. It's good. If you liked the A-team aspect of this group from the last season of Clone Wars, I think you will dig this as well.

The animation just keeps improving. In this latest episode they really played with depth of field and near field detail. It really is a cool look when they use it.

I think I'm in for the long haul on this. And it looks like it will be a long season. IMDB is showing 16 episodes including the extra long first one. There has been a couple of fan service/ cameo's in each of the first 2 episodes. These are fun, but I really hope they explore some new ground with these charcters. But we will see.

I thought the Bad Batch was merely okay. Maybe I’m just not enamored of that era of Star Wars. I also thought Freddie Prinze Jr.’s voice didn’t suit the teen version of whatever-Kanan’s-name-used-to-be. Minor thing, to be sure, and it was the only reason I knew it was the same character.

I really liked the Bad Batch. Thought the art was outstanding, the plot line interesting and realizing I am not the target age group, totally okay with all the characters. Read the Star Wars: Kanan, Vol. 1: The Last Padawan for another version of the same event of young Caleb.

I really liked that comic. I’d forgotten his name was Caleb.

Watched Jupiter’s Legacy on Netflix. It’s better than the trailer but the superheroics aren’t up to CW standards. Doesn’t have an ending, either, which is annoying after 8 episodes.

I was listening to a recent episode of Ty and That Guy and the mentioned an Officer & A Gentleman and I realized I've never watched it. Turns out it's on Amazon Prime right now.

I thought it was pretty good. The training stuff was pretty good (which was the reason they brought it up on the podcast).

I remember watching that at a friends house in high school, I think it might have been on HBO, soon after it came out. I remember thinking it was pretty cheazy even then. I’m a bit shocked it held up.

Correction: I guess the movie came out in 1982, I was probably watching it around 1990. And also if you enjoyed it Rob, that’s all that matters.

I can’t even imagine anyone making Officer and Gentleman today. So many politically incorrect things and so many triggering events. It’s a genuinely dark film, despite that uplifting last scene.

Trike wrote: "I can’t even imagine anyone making Officer and Gentleman today. So many politically incorrect things and so many triggering events. It’s a genuinely dark film, despite that uplifting last scene."

Yeah. It's definitely showing its age a bit.

John (Nevets) wrote: Correction: I guess the movie came out in 1982, I was probably watching it around 1990. And also if you enjoyed it Rob, that’s all that matters.."

Yeah, I was born in 1982..so it's no real wonder I didn't see it back when it came out, and then somehow missed on seeing it until now.

In my area MeTV just started a complete rerun of The Addams Family. 6pm every week night.

Not SFF, but on HBO I watched the excellent thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead starring Angelina Jolie. Also Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road), Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger from GoT), and Jon Bernthal (Walking Dead, Punisher). The young boy at the heart of the story is really great.

Directed and adapted by Taylor Sheridan, who has been writing some of the best action movies of the past decade. Sicario 1 & 2, Hell or High water, Wind River, Yellowstone, etc. It’s another great flick in that vein, based on the book Those Who Wish Me Dead.

Edit: looks like Wind River is on Amazon Prime. WR stars Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch, so yeah, that’s up next.

Edit 2: Oof, Wind River is dark and brutal. Good, though.

A couple of years ago Wind River was on the in flight entertainment system for Delta when I was traveling quite often. And it seemed like every flight I’d get on somebody was watching it on a screen I could see. At first I had no clue what movie it was, but it looked interesting. I figured it out eventually, but instead of watching it with audio, I just shoulder surfed it as others watched it, and usually as I watched something else on my iPad. I got the plot, but probably not all the nuance. It also left me uninterested in watching it for real.

Just watched Greenland, the comet-hitting-Earth movie starring Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin, on HBO. It seems a bit more scientifically sound than Deep Impact or Meteor, but it’s an epic disaster film just the same. Of all of these types of movies, like Armageddon and 2012, this feels the most real. It’s a decent blend of that sort of spectacle with the emotional focus of indies like Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

Watching Babylon 5 Season Four on DVD from the library.
Planning to watch Babylon 5 Season Five and the Babylon 5 TV movies next.
Planning to watch Crusade the Babylon 5 spin-off also.
Then I plan to re-watch/watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Gary wrote: "Watching Babylon 5 Season Four on DVD from the library.
Planning to watch Babylon 5 Season Five and the Babylon 5 TV movies next.
Planning to watch Crusade the Babylon 5 spin-off also.
Then I plan ..."

You may already be aware of this article, but I followed this suggested viewing order in my big Bab5 watch a few years back and it worked for me

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/quest...

I finished Mare of Easttown on HBO. Kate Winslet was pretty good as a cop in a small town with her own baggage. I wonder if they can make a series out of it. Somehow I liked the last episode the least, but I enjoyed most of it. I'm a sucker for tough ladies. She was more imposing in personality than physically. At the end they do a little behind the scenes and you hear Kate's real accent.

Trike wrote: "Just watched Greenland, the comet-hitting-Earth movie starring Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin, on HBO. It seems a bit more scientifically sound than Deep Impact or Meteor, but it’s an epic disas..."

I wonder if it would have been any better if Neill Blomkamp had directed as he was originally listed to.

I don’t know what Blomkamp would’ve done differently. I don’t feel like he could have elicited that performance out of Morena Baccarin.

I watched M.O.D.O.K on Hulu. It's pretty good. I thought the family aspect wasn't very interesting but the workplace characters and storylines were funny.

So this version of “Tank!” Popped into my feed today. https://youtu.be/xoKpw-_AHm8 And with this group that title could have a second meaning.

Nice. She crushes that solo.

I watched Underwater last night, the Kristen Stewart Alien-meets-The-Abyss flick. It’s fine for what it is. It’s just a big budget monster movie, so I was more interested in the ways the crew members would get messily killed as well as the production design. In those aspects the film doesn’t disappoint, but that’s the extent of it.

It’s not exactly…

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

…deep.

YEEAAAHHH!

Trike wrote: "Watched Jupiter’s Legacy on Netflix. It’s better than the trailer but the superheroics aren’t up to CW standards. Doesn’t have an ending, either, which is annoying after 8 episodes."

Jupiter’s Legacy has been canceled. No season 2.

So if you haven’t watched it, don’t bother. It’s not very good and doesn’t have an ending.

While I've heard much the same about the TV series, the comic on the other hand I've heard many good things about.

Watched all 3 seasons of Cobra Kai and I really liked it. Heavy on the teenage drama but good. Almost made me regret that I stopped doing jujutsu.

Also, the second half of season 5 of Lucifer. I really like Tom Ellis as Lucifer.

And mostly just for the nostalgia I watched Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal - The Movie.

Trike wrote: "Jupiter’s Legacy has been canceled. No season 2.

So if you haven’t watched it, don’t bother. It’s not very good and doesn’t have an ending."

I'm 3/4 of the way through JL and it's a bit meh. So no great loss.

Just watched Raya and the Last Dragon on Disney+. It’s terrific and really beautiful.

I think they’ve only waived the upcharge for this weekend, so catch it now for no extra fee. Otherwise you’ll have to wait another couple months.

Thanks for the tip.

Trike wrote: "I think they’ve only waived the upcharge for this weekend, so catch it now for no extra fee."

Nope. The Premiere Access period has now passed, so it's free for all D+ users now.

Good to know!

I'm planning to watch it tonight

Oh, Awkwafina was the dragon. I thought it was Miley Cirus. Wash from Firefly was the spinning thing. I thought it was fairly conventional. Some humor and nice graphics here and there. For some reason Xfinity wants me to get a new box to use their Disney+ app, so I watched it through my tv's app. I'm thinking of getting some kind of easy soundbar/surround sound system for the kitchen.

I mentioned this is Discord, but I totally loved Sweet Tooth on Netflix. Great story and storytelling.

Started season 5 of Kim’s Convenience, a show I discovered relatively recently and instantly fell in love with. I was very much looking forward to this final season and… I’m not enjoying it. I found myself skipping ahead during the first episodes and then I bailed. I don’t know what happened, but it’s lost the spark.

I watched Eden on Netflix. It’s an animated show about a world run by robots after humans have disappeared. Then one day two robots discover a human baby.

It’s aimed at kids but it’s not dumbed down. It’s also only 4 20-minute episodes, so not a big commitment. Neil Patrick Harris and David Tennant are two of the voice actors.

3 stars from me.

I enjoyed Eden as well. It is a fun, short limited series.

I'd go 1/2 a star higher. Well worth the 80 minutes viewing time.

Tassie Dave wrote: "I enjoyed Eden as well. It is a fun, short limited series.

I'd go 1/2 a star higher. Well worth the 80 minutes viewing time."

As always, we are on the same wavelength.

Last night I watched Michael ("Transformers") Bay's 6 Underground with Ryan Reynolds, distributed by Netflix. One of the audiofile youtube channels (Andrew Robinson) recommended it as a test for surround sound systems. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with the story, but it's very flashy with lots of stunts and international locations and music, and a high body count. It has an offbeat storytelling style.

Apocalypse Now is a good one to test a surround sound system. Helicopters everywhere.

I never knew what Dolby Atmos was. It sounds pretty cool, but a pain to have at home. Even some music supports it.

I found the old Dresden Files tv show on Tubi for free. So far I'm strangely addicted. I thought the actor was someone else. Isn't Karrin the cop a blonde in the books? I started reading the first book too. Too bad there's only one season. I think it changes format towards the end. I like the bass heavy theme song.

^ My wife watched those so I casually saw a few. The lead actor played Black Canary's father in Arrow, so I knew him from there. Was an odd association for me and he's not near tall enough. Ah well, the TV shows are their own separate thing.

Tamahome wrote: "I found the old Dresden Files tv show on Tubi for free. So far I'm strangely addicted. I thought the actor was someone else. Isn't Karrin the cop a blonde in the books? I started reading the first ..."

You are right about Karrin being a blond. But for some reason, I could just never picture that. Every time I would form a picture in my mind of her, it was always as a brunette. Then I saw the old TV series a few years ago, and it was cemented even more. I don't know why, but her having blond hair just does not match with all the other descriptions of her from the books. I guess it is a bias I have, but I'm not sure why.

So I originally picked up the Dresden books because of the upcoming (at the time) TV show. I really liked the cast of the show.

I'm generally not a visual reader, so to me when I think of the characters when I read the books now I think of the actors from the show, despite them not really matching the book descriptions.

I didn't like how they turned Bob into Al from Quantum Leap though. I liked the actor, but Bob is a spirit trapped in a skull and I didn't like that he was basically a ghost instead. I think that was mostly for budget reasons, doing Bob properly back then would have been a lot more expensive than if they were to adapt it again today.

Also, they made Dresden's wizard staff a hockey stick IIRC. Not sure I ever understood why.

I honestly just think doing that show properly wasn't possible at the time they did it. I'm kind of hoping someone does a proper adaptation one of these days.

The series is perfect for some kind of serial "magic client of week" format, which is how I think they did the original show.

I'd still prefer they adapt the bigger plot that Butcher has been developing. The first 8 or 10 books are sort of stand alone stories. But the more recent ones really have built towards something. They could start our more serial and move towards the bigger plot in later seasons maybe. I'm just not sure how successful it would be if they did that.

In interviews he's always said each book is "Harry's worst week of the year", but that the upcoming book will be spread out over a longer period of time.

I could see a TV show going either way, but Netflix/streaming has spoiled me away from the "made for syndication" formula most Network TV shows still follow.

There are a few exceptions.

I also think media is a bit oversaturated with SFF right now after the popularity of Game of Thrones (among others) has led to a bit of a gold rush for the "next" GoT.

I won't say I'm getting burnt out on SFF TV and Movies, but I think it's so hard to get noticed among the glut of content coming out these days.

I watched Splice, which had been on my DVR for a while. There were a LOT of WTF moments.

Rob wrote: "So I originally picked up the Dresden books because of the upcoming (at the time) TV show. I really liked the cast of the show.

I'm generally not a visual reader, so to me when I think of the cha..."

I remember Butcher saying at the time that they changed Dresden’s VW to a Jeep because it was easier to film multiple angles that way. The VeeWee was always unbelievable because Dresden is way too tall to fit in a Bug. I spent a lot of time in my youth in Beetles and anyone over 6’5” would have difficulty getting in there. And basically impossible to operate it, because those big duck feet would press down on the brake and accelerator simultaneously.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I watched Splice, which had been on my DVR for a while. There were a LOT of WTF moments."

For more WTF, check out Rupture (2016), with Noomi Rapace.