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Watched the first episode of Black Doves on Netflix-- which was pretty decent. It's a six-episode Season 1 that was already renewed for Season 2.
Nice to see Keira Knightley back, along with Ben Whishaw. The dialogue is pretty snappy, but it's edited with a lot of confidence that can generate emotion in regards to still-evolving backstories.
Babylon 5 has never been more relevant. Shadows, Vorlons, a fight against fascism on a wide scale where people had to come together. and some had to stand against their own government who had been seduced by shadowy evil with a charismatic salesman.
The future is all around us. Waiting in moments of transition to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us, we know only that it is always born, in pain.
This YouTuber does commentary on dating reality shows through the lens of MBTI and compatibility, in case anyone else needs an excuse to indulge in trash TV. I sometimes like to watch these more than the shows themselves.
Yeah I tried to get into this show. Felt like liberal guilt: the musical. Couldn’t do it, too cringey
I have trouble with the writing, every character is constantly super witty and sharp, everyone constantly has obscure bar trivia history tidbits or pop culture references up their sleeves. It’s like Gilmore Girls and the McLoughlin Group thrown in a blender. Not to mention those cringe moments whenever a character says some fake profound line and the music swells.
I do like some of Sorkin’s writing. I enjoyed Social Network and Steve Jobs.
Outlander is one I watched with my partner. It was wild as was handmaids tale. She likes futuristic shock dystopian grit.
I’m more traditional sci fi. In recent times I’ve seen Silo which has disappointed me in its scope and Fallout is wild too. Then the less known Lazarus is pretty good. And Foundation as I wanted to see the adaptation as I’ve read the books. The same with others. Those are recent.
So despite wanting to catch up on Andor Season 1 since Season 2 dropped today, I had to spend last evening watching the first two episodes of "The Last of Us" because people were starting to spoil it on Facebook. (They weren't spoiling on-the-nose details, but it was very easy to guess at what happened just by accidentally skimming their posts that were not flagged as possible spoilers.)
Apparently it's not a spoiler to people who have played the games, as they're still on the predicted path, but damn.
Things also go nuts with the zombies early on, with someone compared the situation to the battle of Winterfell. Yeah, I kinda see what they meant, and it was even without a lot of the stupidity of the GoT version of events.
I wasn't expecting to see Catherine O' Hara pop up, so that was a nice surprise.
Anyway, things are rocky between Joel and Ellie early on -- there's a five year jump, Ellie is getting older, and I also get the idea that she's figured out Joel had lied to her about what happened at the fireflies hospital last season and resents him on some level for it. Joel's always had his issues, but he seems to be trying at least as far his best goes, and Ellie isn't having any of it at the moment. Things seems kind of tense between them.
So then episode 2, everything goes sideways. There's a lot of harrowing action sequences, some of the best I've seen in these kinds of zombie shows. Kinda makes me hope TLOU has its plot mapped out and isn't going to waste season after season like TWD doing the same dumb shit over and over, right now it still feels pretty fresh as long as it never overstays its welcome.
So apparently the rest of the series is going to revolve around revenge, less preachy than TWD, showing how bad things can get when people with legitimate grievances take them to their harshest conclusions and perpetuate cycles of violence.
The show apparently makes Abby's motivations more apparent more quickly than the game did, which I suppose is good for Kaitlyn Dever, because I hope people don't harass her like they harassed Laura Bailey, the VA who did her in the game. We have a pretty good idea why she's so upset and hate-filled, and Joel does too because he doesn't really argue with her except to eventually tell her to STFU and just get down to business. Gotta give it to Joel that way, he gets it, and he has no regrets for what he did to save Ellie even if she hates him now and he's feeling frustrated by the whole thing.
Except when Ellie shows up, can't stop him from being killed, and instead begs for his life... maybe at least that is a good thing for Joel to take into the dark with him. At the end, despite all of the shit, and all of his mistakes, he knows there at the end that Ellie still loved him in her own way.
And this is going to end REALLY poorly for Abby and company. The dumbest thing they did was to let Ellie live -- because a few of them couldn't stomach killing and had their "code". They should have learned from Abby and the other asshat who never take half measures, because Ellie WILL kill them all. They don't know what they have set in motion. (And I appreciate that the members of their group each had a different level of taste for violence -- a few were into the beating, a few were really appalled and only hung out for sheer loyalty.)
Because Ellie has no compassion. And Joel was the closest to a father figure she had. She is obsessive and relentless and brutal, and she literally will not stop before they are all dead. She will literally hunt them down one by one and murder them in the worst ways possible for what they did to Joel and, by association, her. It make takes her more years than it took Abby to find Joel, but she will not stop. This will be her to-do list for the rest of her days, until it is done.
Did Abby realize there in that moment that she was doing to Ellie was Joel had done to her? She just killed murdered Ellie's father figure, after he had saved Abby's life, and when he was defenseless. It's Kill Bill all over again, with Beatrice Kiddo standing there in Vernita Green's kitchen, realizing she just murdered a mother in that daughter's presence, and telling Niki that "one day, if you still feel raw about it... I'll be waiting." Because that's where this is going.
Maybe the fungi is the enemy, but is it really the villain? or are the villains just, like always, us?
So despite wanting to catch up on Andor Season 1 since Season 2 dropped today, I had to spend last evening watching the first two episodes of "The Last of Us" because people were starting to spoil it on Facebook. (They weren't spoiling on-the-nose details, but it was very easy to guess at what happened just by accidentally skimming their posts that were not flagged as possible spoilers.)
Apparently it's not a spoiler to people who have played the games, as they're still on the predicted path, but damn.
Things also go nuts with the zombies early on, with someone compared the situation to the battle of Winterfell. Yeah, I kinda see what they meant, and it was even without a lot of the stupidity of the GoT version of events.
I wasn't expecting to see Catherine O' Hara pop up, so that was a nice surprise.
Anyway, things are rocky between Joel and Ellie early on -- there's a five year jump, Ellie is getting older, and I also get the idea that she's figured out Joel had lied to her about what happened at the fireflies hospital last season and resents him on some level for it. Joel's always had his issues, but he seems to be trying at least as far his best goes, and Ellie isn't having any of it at the moment. Things seems kind of tense between them.
So then episode 2, everything goes sideways. There's a lot of harrowing action sequences, some of the best I've seen in these kinds of zombie shows. Kinda makes me hope TLOU has its plot mapped out and isn't going to waste season after season like TWD doing the same dumb shit over and over, right now it still feels pretty fresh as long as it never overstays its welcome.
So apparently the rest of the series is going to revolve around revenge, less preachy than TWD, showing how bad things can get when people with legitimate grievances take them to their harshest conclusions and perpetuate cycles of violence.
The show apparently makes Abby's motivations more apparent more quickly than the game did, which I suppose is good for Kaitlyn Dever, because I hope people don't harass her like they harassed Laura Bailey, the VA who did her in the game. We have a pretty good idea why she's so upset and hate-filled, and Joel does too because he doesn't really argue with her except to eventually tell her to STFU and just get down to business. Gotta give it to Joel that way, he gets it, and he has no regrets for what he did to save Ellie even if she hates him now and he's feeling frustrated by the whole thing.
Except when Ellie shows up, can't stop him from being killed, and instead begs for his life... maybe at least that is a good thing for Joel to take into the dark with him. At the end, despite all of the shit, and all of his mistakes, he knows there at the end that Ellie still loved him in her own way.
And this is going to end REALLY poorly for Abby and company. The dumbest thing they did was to let Ellie live -- because a few of them couldn't stomach killing and had their "code". They should have learned from Abby and the other asshat who never take half measures, because Ellie WILL kill them all. They don't know what they have set in motion. (And I appreciate that the members of their group each had a different level of taste for violence -- a few were into the beating, a few were really appalled and only hung out for sheer loyalty.)
Because Ellie has no compassion. And Joel was the closest to a father figure she had. She is obsessive and relentless and brutal, and she literally will not stop before they are all dead. She will literally hunt them down one by one and murder them in the worst ways possible for what they did to Joel and, by association, her. It make takes her more years than it took Abby to find Joel, but she will not stop. This will be her to-do list for the rest of her days, until it is done.
Did Abby realize there in that moment that she was doing to Ellie was Joel had done to her? She just killed murdered Ellie's father figure, after he had saved Abby's life, and when he was defenseless. It's Kill Bill all over again, with Beatrice Kiddo standing there in Vernita Green's kitchen, realizing she just murdered a mother in that daughter's presence, and telling Niki that "one day, if you still feel raw about it... I'll be waiting." Because that's where this is going.
Maybe the fungi is the enemy, but is it really the villain? or are the villains just, like always, us?
I will never understand the hate towards Laura Bailey. Why not be mad at the writer if your hell bent on making someone else feel your Misery? I will say I was a tad disappointed with the casting in the series, the actress does a fine job, but I was really hoping they'd cast an amazonesque woman with big muscly arms like in the game. (Once upon a time you just know Michelle Rodriguez would have been cast for that character) Will confess I wonder what would have happened if Joel had answered differently. But Such is life.
As someone who is not familiar with the video game, that Last of Us plot twist sure through me for a loop. Unfortunately, not in a good way (and I say this as one who generally likes to be surprised).
As you say, I thought it was foolish to leave Ellie alive, but I get it is necessary as a plot device.
I don't like the direction the series will now head - as you implied 'the villains are always us'. That is the theme of pretty much every post apocalyptic series/show and that's what has now becoming boring and predictable. I was hoping for some more balance out of the Last of Us (I thought season one went that way). I'd prefer most people trying to save the world and fight the real problem (or just co-operate to survive), albeit with some groups trying to just use the inherent lawlessness of the situation for short term selfish gain. But when it becomes primarily about the selfish humans and the root cause of the apocalypse fades into the background like bad weather that simply rears up now and again, meh, that ground has been covered already.
www.polygon.com
(Once upon a time you just know Michelle Rodriguez would have been cast for that character) Will confess I wonder what would have happened if Joel had answered differently. But Such is life.
