The Sword and Laser discussion

Tamahome wrote: "The antsy thing is a running joke I'm trying to revive.

I actually read the short stories in the first Witcher book The Last Wish that were adapted to the show. They make much more..."

That was a Sword pick a while back, right?
I have memories of listening to the audio version while on a business trip in Montreal.
While that was the only Witcher I had consumed (well I did spend an hour on the first game, but not enough to be thoroughly immersed in the lore), it definitely helped me get a handle on what was going on in the first season of the show.
Have they announced when the 2nd season will drop? I have only heard that filming was underway.

Haven't been inclined to read much this month and only one day left in this miserable year.

I signed up for HBO MAX to see Wonder Woman 1984, which was disappointing. Not a bad movie; just not as enjoyable as the first WW film.

I've been checking out other movies and tv series on HBO MAX. I started Perry Mason a couple of days ago. I didn't know what to expect. Over the years I've seen many of the original black&white Perry Mason episodes. The HBO Mason prequel looks terrific and it has Tatiana Maslany too!

Mark wrote: "Haven't been inclined to read much this month and only one day left in this miserable year.

I signed up for HBO MAX to see Wonder Woman 1984, which was disappointing. Not a bad movie; just not as ..."

I enjoyed Raised by Wolves.

I also signed up for HBO Max (well used my free month trial from AT&T). So far I've started Harley Quinn and Doom Patrol.

Really enjoying the former. Not far enough along in the latter to have an impression yet.

Oh and I watched the Fresh Prince reunion. I loved that, but I grew up on that show.

I wasn't interested in Perry Mason until I saw you say Tatiana Maslany

Rob wrote: "I also signed up for HBO Max (well used my free month trial from AT&T). So far I've started Harley Quinn and Doom Patrol. "

Harley Quinn is great.

I gave up Doom Patrol early on in Season 2. It's ok, but I didn't find it was worth persisting with.

Rob wrote: "I wasn't interested in Perry Mason until I saw you say Tatiana Maslany"

She plays (view spoiler)[a radio evangelist who claims she will raise the dead (hide spoiler)] an interesting character.

I'll check out Raised by Wolves and Harley Quinn. Thanks for the recommendations.

Watched The Spy Who Dumped Me with the wife last night. It was a non-standard blend of violence and comedy with Kate McKinnon definitely doing the heavy lifting. Kind of reminded me of Shoot 'Em Up, but not quite as ridiculous and without a mustache-twirling villain. We had fun watching it, but I can't really in good conscience give it a recommendation.

I did not like Raised By Wolves or Harley Quinn. The former felt like a longer version of Prometheus and the latter I just didn’t find engaging.

Wonder Woman 1984 is a hot mess that needed a full rewrite. As much as I enjoy Pedro Pascal, his character was entirely unnecessary. You could remove Maxwell Lord from the story and it would be exactly the same, a sure sign of a superfluous character.

Speaking of Pascal, I feverishly binged The Mandalorian, which I thought was great fun.

Continuing my Deep Space Nine watch. Season 4 is quite good, although it’s way too easy for them to hop over to the Mirror Universe. The time travel episode where Quark, Nog and Rom crash in Roswell in 1947 was a hoot.

I heard somewhere the director wrote this Wonder Woman too, which wasn't true for the first one.

Tamahome wrote: "I heard somewhere the director wrote this Wonder Woman too, which wasn't true for the first one."

For someone who famously threw Warner Bros. under the bus for the terrible and dumb ending of Wonder Woman, I would’ve expected better from her. That really kills my anticipation of her Rogue Squadron movie. It’s storytelling 101.

"I See You" (2019) with Helen Hunt on Amazon. I thought it was well done. Lots of twists. Me and my Mom were on the edge of our seats. Plus I learned a new word. I don't want to give too much away. I'm surprised it's not based on a book.

Watched the latest Doctor Who. It was adequate. Daleks, a decent villain, some soul searching about what it means to be a Companion. John Barrowman chewed up the scenery and made it palatable.

The episode suffered greatly by comparison to the end of Tennant's run, which ran the day before. That episode was a masterpiece of subtle writing, and Tennant does anguish like no one else. Jodie Whitaker just sits there like a lump on a log. No expression to her face, no emotion. She delivers the lines, hits her marks, does a serviceable job, but Tennant was great. And Chibnall's writing is mediocre at best.

It was decent enough to make me want to see more . That's a victory after the awful retcon of last year's special. Apparently eight episodes are coming in the next few months. I'll give 'em a look.

Started watching Pride and Prejudice and Zombies the other night. I don't think we made it more than 5 minutes in (including the advertisements inserted at the beginning courtesy of our cable provider) before my wife exercised her veto. Too much gore. I did not disagree with her assessment.
We ended up watching Enola Holmes instead. That was a fun movie. I would probably watch a sequel if they make one. I could not help but think that Louis Partridge looked like he belonged in a K-Pop group, especially after (view spoiler)[they cut his hair (hide spoiler)].

Aaron wrote: "Started watching Pride and Prejudice and Zombies the other night. I don't think we made it more than 5 minutes in (including the advertisements inserted at the beginning courtesy of our cable provider) before my wife exercised her veto. Too much gore...."

To be fair, it IS a zombie movie. That’s kinda like watching a Romance and asking, “What’s with all the kissing?”

But it’s not actually a good movie, so you didn’t miss much.

Trike wrote: "To be fair, it IS a zombie movie. That’s kinda like watching a Romance and asking, “What’s with all the kissing?”"

Yeah, I think we were both expecting more period romance with some "comedic" zombie slaying and martial arts. That does not appear to be the style they went with. I might have stuck with it, but her tolerance for gross/bloody is much lower than mine. Glad to hear we dodged a bullet rather than overlooked a gem.

Watched last week Joyeax Noel on Crackle and the anime ,movie, Tokyo Godfather/ dub.
Ash lad: in the hall of mountain king and Nico the unicorn.

I think Warm Bodies is a fairly low-gore for a zombie flick, but it’s still bloody in parts. Based on the book Warm Bodies.

Have any of you the 1993 movie, the Nutcracker Amazon prime video.

Trike wrote: "I think Warm Bodies is a fairly low-gore for a zombie flick, but it’s still bloody in parts. Based on the book Warm Bodies."

Yeah, we watched that one a while back, it passed the test to be watchable as a couple :)

I just came back to first season of Earth: Final Conflict. Still consider it one of the best first seasons, but unfortunately the rest went downhill…

Joanna wrote: "I just came back to first season of Earth: Final Conflict. Still consider it one of the best first seasons, but unfortunately the rest went downhill…"

I quite liked that but never got to see how it ended due to its weird scheduling, because of the show being an independent production.

Bought my wife the original BBC Poldark DVD's for Christmas so we have been binge watching that.

I was watching The Expanse before I understood the entire season isn't there - why are they doing this? What's the point? ARGH etc. So now I'm catching up on His Dark Materials in HBO.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I was watching The Expanse before I understood the entire season isn't there - why are they doing this? What's the point? ARGH etc. So now I'm catching up on His Dark Materials in HBO."

I know, right? Watching once a week is how the cavemen did it.

I suspect they do it to build buzz and keep it top of mind for people. Worked for Game of Thrones and Mandalorian.

I'm enjoying "Mad Dogs", things go wrong for 4 "old friends" down in Belize

Trike wrote: "I suspect they do it to build buzz and keep it top of mind for people. Worked for Game of Thrones and Mandalorian."

This works for me for places I visit more regularly but with Amazon Prime I’ll just forget, out of sight out of mind. I’m not sure I remembered to watch the last season of Mrs Maisel either.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I was watching The Expanse before I understood the entire season isn't there - why are they doing this? What's the point? ARGH etc. So now I'm catching up on His Dark Materials in HBO."

As much as it is nice to watch everything in one go I am kind of enjoying the anticipation of looking forward to a new episode every week. It feels like it did back in the "good ol days" before we had multi-channel everything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Meth...

I watched Avengers: Endgame again last night, then a few episodes of Deep Space Nine, then got a full four hours’ sleep.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I was watching The Expanse before I understood the entire season isn't there - why are they doing this? What's the point? ARGH etc. So now I'm catching up on His Dark Materials in HBO."

I'm actually kind of enjoying it. The Save the Expanse discord server is doing weekly watch parties for the episodes too.

I haven't had a chance to join one, but I want to try before the season finishes being released.

Just watched Soul on Disney+. It was deep, man. Psychedelic. And jazzy. My Mom wished 2 of the characters ended up together. It would be good for a discussion group. Maybe I need to watch one of these youtube videos telling me what the ending means. I heard someone say adults would get more than kids out of it.

I'm also 4 episodes into the Queen's Gambit, and I'm enjoying it very much

I'm playing the computer on easy mode on chess.com right now.

I rewatched Kong: Skull Island last night, and it is still quite a lot of fun. Some really beautiful cinematography and it leans into the kaiju-ness of it all while remixing the elements from the original.

I followed that with Godzilla: King of Monsters, which is less rewatchable, but certain scenes are still pretty great, particularly the one where Rodan wakes up and emerges from the Mexican volcano.

Tonight I’ll probably rewatch the Dwayne Johnson video game flick Rampage to continue the kaiju theme. I enjoyed it the first time I saw it, because it also embraces the silliness of being a giant monster movie.

Recently I've had "Birds of Prey" mentioned as a pretty good movie in multiple places. A few people even said it was the better DC movie released this year. So I decided to watch it tonight. And I really liked it. I had a few minor quibbles, but overall I thought it was great, and even belly laughed a few times during it. It is a great combination of a decent, but traditional plot, told in a unique and new way. I think I realized I was going to dig it when the breakfast sandwich met it's untimely demise.

John (Nevets) wrote: "Recently I've had "Birds of Prey" mentioned as a pretty good movie in multiple places. A few people even said it was the better DC movie released this year. So I decided to watch it tonight. And I ..."

I didn't even know there was a movie. The TV series I have on DVD after finding at a bargain store for $5. Decent but nothing spectacular (hence it didn't last very long).

While the movie is called Birds of Prey it's subtitle is (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). And it really is mostly about Harley, but it does introduce a few of the BoP. While I didn't watch the TV series, I remember the commercials indicating it being a more serious take on those charcters, like many of the CW shows are. This is not a serious movie, it is an action comedy based on morally questionable protagonists.

The writing is what makes the movie, but the mostly over the top acting is great is well.

I watched reality TV all day.

Someone didn’t put an Infinity Stone back in the right place.

Trike wrote: "I watched reality TV all day.

Someone didn’t put an Infinity Stone back in the right place."

Got that right.

I got sucked into Bridgerton with my Mom and am halfway through the season. Maybe I'll read the first book.

Tamahome wrote: "I got sucked into Bridgerton with my Mom and am halfway through the season. Maybe I'll read the first book."

And then give Felicia and Tom's podcast a listen, maybe?

Undressing Bridgerton - Actors Felicia Day and Tom Lenk discuss the Regency-era romance TV show "Bridgerton" on Netflix. Each episode they will critique and gab about the fashions, the swoon...did I mention the fashions? Probably R rated so no babies.

Thanks for the tip! Oh I thought that was Tom Merrit, lol.

Just started watching Queen's Gambit - the first episode last night. Definitely not what I was expecting!! I heard good things about it so will try another episode.

The time period (was one of the things that) was different than what I was expecting. I was thinking 1800's or early 1900's... nope!

Louie wrote: "Tamahome wrote: "I got sucked into Bridgerton with my Mom and am halfway through the season. Maybe I'll read the first book."

And then give Felicia and Tom's podcast a listen, maybe?

Undressing ..."

Thanks for the tip, I love Felicity Day. I follower on Twitter not sure how I missed it, but since it is Dec 40th, 2020... that might explain IT.

I finally watched Chef with Jon Favreau. It was delicious.

Tamahome wrote: "I finally watched Chef with Jon Favreau. It was delicious."

The Chef Show on Netflix next? ;-)

Got bored with the new season of Sabrina and so I tried Bridgerton which was apparently regency era version of Gossip Girl with a hotter male lead. Kinda reminded me of Reign too. Anyway, I got tired of the romance quickly but I enjoyed the character Eloise and the apparently not-era appropriate costumes. It's super light watch; I did it while doing many other stuff. Still waiting for The Expanse to finish before I resubscribe to Prime.

I'm finished with Star Trek: Discovery (LOOOOOVE) and The Mandalorian (LOOOOOVE). I rarely watch slow-release episodic TV on time in the TiVO age, but I did it with these two (and Star Trek: Picard).

I binged the Bridgertons this weekend (LOOOOVE), and am one episode away from finishing S1 of His Dark Materials. I started The Stand (absolutely my wheelhouse as King is my author BAE) and am about halfway through Castle Rock S1. I finished Helstrom recently, and I'm sad there won't be another season.

My next big project is finishing The Expanse. Currently in early S2, so I have a ways to go.

Finished with Lovecraft Country. I liked it right up until the final episode, which was just OK. I liked some of the changes they made, but not all of them. i wish I had read the book more recently to compare.

I'm taking a break from darker stuff atm and going back to Great British Bake Off for now.

I may do Outsider next. My free month of HBO Max is ending next week, and I don't plan to renew. So I maybe only have time for 1 more series.

I just finished season 2 of Star Wars: Rebels. I watched it live, week to week, so bingeing all these episodes in a row is a different experience.

I noticed that they changed character designs as they went. Ezra’s hair went from bright blue to a muted blue-gray, and Ahsoka’s face changed a bit. Other than that, it really was pretty solid from the get-go.

I notice the Mandalorian shares a lot of structural similarities in terms of story. Even little things like a lot of the episodes starting mise en scene in the midst of a space battle or chase.