Okay. Now that the first season is concluded, I stand ready to admit that Arcane is a masterpiece. At least, it is in terms of production, visual execution, world building, characterization, and overall attention to detail. The story isn't without the odd cliché, but it's well written, well paced, with enough twists and turns to never feel stale. Speaking of masterpieces, I'm watching Band of Brothers, which I haven't seen since it ran on television over here, which must have been... Let's see, it came out in 2001, so I'm gonna guess 2003 or thereabouts. I was just a kid then, probably too young to be seeing that kind of stuff. I was certainly too young to appreciate just how great this show is. The quality of writing, acting, and the raw grit is nothing short of intimidating. And damn, is it ever dark.
It’s a staggeringly brilliant series, nigh on perfect in every respect. Sublime characterisation and, as you say, brilliantly acted. As heartbreaking as it is exhilarating! I tried the follow-up The Pacific, but it pales into insignificance when compared.
Yeah, that was comparatively awful. Characters and actors weren't great, though an at the time unknown Rami Malek was awesome. I remember thinking at the time, I don't know who that kid is, but he's incredible. Years later it was like, oh yeah, that guy from The Pacific!
The Pacific is about Marines, so I'm bound by honor to like it better. Plus it doesn't feature David Schwimmer in any way, shape, or form. Anything without David Schwimmer (or any of the Friends cast, for that matter) automatically gets one extra point in the ratings.
I love Friends, but that’s probably because I’m English. It’s a bit like the Americans falling for all that Britishness, but in reverse.
But the Dave Schwimmer character gets humiliated and demoted as I recall so there's that. It's like how I hate Tom Cruise but I love Edge of Tomorrow because I get to watch him die horribly over and over. I did like Band of Brothers and agree the Pacific was inferior, mainly because it was so disjointed. But I read one of the memoirs the Pacific was based on (Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie) and it is excellent.
That was a great book. Read it after seeing the series. I also used the... umm, Pelelieu beach landing scene, I think it was, to show my Japanese students what the Marine side of the island hopping campaign looked like. They knew nothing about the war, of course, but anyway... Japanese high school history class:
Damn, that was him wasn't it I loved the first couple of seasons of Mr. Robot. I need to watch the rest.
Do any fellow Brits remember a sitcom from the 90s about two women sharing a flat in London? I could have sworn it was called Breakfast in Bed, but that doesn’t get any relevant results. It was Channel 4 and not The Liver Birds. [Edit] Man that was hard work. It was called Dressing for Breakfast.
Skipped out on my writerly duties to watch the first episode of The Witcher, season 2. It was really good, and I'm glad to see the show back. The urge to binge is strong, but I'm watching it with someone, so I gotta view it in fits and starts. Might go back and rewatch the first season if I can't manage to do anything productive.
tempted to watch the new series of dexter, but i stopped watching the 'final' season halfway through its release out of indignation at how bad it became. i'm at an impasse season 4 of mr robot was the only show i was ever glad to watch one week at a time as opposed to binging it (although i found it at season 1, hip) it had so little filler that I haven't rewatched it fully yet... i cannot ever watch Season 1 again after all the repeats. it gets very special. i genuinely made a reddit account to test my theory about the ending after discussing it with a friend and it ended up with like 550 upvotes, although someone deleted the post...unsure why. i dont like reddit. felt some level of synchrony with that show though nd it felt good to have made people think about it on such a level
I watched the first episode last night as well, and it's good. I liked it a lot. I am a huge Witcher fan (read all the books, played through the entire Witcher III video game twice), and this first episode is a great sign that the second series is going to be highly superior to the last one. I was able to enjoy the first run despite its problems, but the bafflingly poor effects and non-linear storytelling were too jarring to ignore. I'm surprised Netflix invested so much into the project, yet took some pretty big risks with their choice to start with the short stories rather than jump right into the main narrative. Looking forward to watching another episode or two tonight !
Yeah, I thought it seemed like a step up! I still liked the first season plenty, but as you say the jumping around got to be confusing. I'm not really familiar with the narrative of the books, though I have played the games (only finishing the third one)
I'll concede that the backstory provided in the first series will serve well for what's to come, especially for those unfamiliar with the books. I definitely enjoyed myself much more upon the second viewing; the first watch was a bit frustrating at times !
Apropos, I just started watching The Witcher over the holidays, without having any previous experience with the books/games. It is really good, way better than I was expecting, although based on the popular discourse I've seen I thought everyone was only watching it for Henry Cavill's nude scenes so maybe my expectations were artificially low. I think it does morally ambiguous characters really well, way better than eg Game of Thrones (I say, never passing up an opportunity to trash talk GoT).
Cobra Kai popped up in my Sky menu the other day. I knew of its existence some time ago, but even as a Karate Kid fan had serious reservations so never pursued it. However, finding myself bored shitless tonight I decided to give it a go and was pleasantly surprised. No where near as corny as I suspected, decent acting and a refreshingly underplayed tone that I wasn’t expecting. There doesn’t appear to be much hype surrounding it so I can only assume it pretty much bombed, but I’m enjoying it anyway.
Well, thanks to Cobra Kai I’m no longer a ‘binge’ virgin! Just sat through all 10 episodes of season one and can’t quite believe how brilliant it is!
