Dec 23, 2019, 10:42 PM
Good TV
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Good week.
Going to see Star Wars on Sunday.
I'll message you all about it on Friday.
People have been talking about this all week and it is legit sad to me that I had no idea what they meant because I have been so disappointed and disinterested in the new trilogy. I loved Star Wars as a kid and teen, but maaaaaaan did the prequels position the stake and the sequels hammer it into the heart for me.
(...That said, The Mandalorian fucking rocks.)
I'll message you, too.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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Good week.
Going to see Star Wars on Sunday.
I'll message you all about it on Friday.
People have been talking about this all week and it is legit sad to me that I had no idea what they meant because I have been so disappointed and disinterested in the new trilogy. I loved Star Wars as a kid and teen, but maaaaaaan did the prequels position the stake and the sequels hammer it into the heart for me.
(...That said, The Mandalorian fucking rocks.)
I'll message you, too.
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The Witcher is so much better then I ever expected it to be. When I first read that Henry Cavill would play Geralt I didn't think he'd be able to sell it but the finished product...
He's basically perfect. He must have spent an ungodly amount of time perfecting the voice and the combat movements.
My only real complaints about the series would be that it involves a lot of jumping backwards and forwards in time and they never explain when a particular scene takes place. To spare the rest of you the same confusion, Cirilla's storyline takes place in the 'present' while Geralt and Yennifer start their stories about 30 years in the past and eventually over the course of the season Geralt and Yennifer catch up with the present.
What is obvious to you may not be obvious to me and vice versa.
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Yeah, the witcher is awesome. Watching superman sexy his way through monsters is a delight, and they're really making a good horror movie out of many of the episodes.
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@Groth
I was also impressed with Cavill's performance. I was on the fence about him but he did very very well with the role. I will even dare to say that I think this is the best role he's done. -
@Jaded It doesn't hurt that he is a self proclaimed Witcher fanboi, and lobbied for the role even before word one of the script was written down. He fought hard for that role, and is putting his all into it.
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@Alamias It is very, very obvious that he's played the games because he nails Geralt exactly. You can't get that kind of characterization just from reading a script or a book. They better pay him whatever he wants because he is now the defining Geralt.
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Finished The Witcher.
I really liked it. I needed something a little different than the usual. My partner even got into it. What they did with Yennefer was fantastic, and while there was some holes in logic I could forgive lapses with the overall aims of her storyline.
I think it really captured what gamers came to expect from the series: a lot of side-quests; a funny bard; copious but not overwhelming nudity; and violence. I could have done with some more monster-killing, but that's not really what the books were about.
I'm looking forward to next season, definitely. Especially knowing that most of the scripts and direction will come from women.
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I also binged the Witcher over the holiday and really enjoyed it. I'm especially pleased to hear from some friends and family who also enjoyed it without having any background knowledge from the books or video games; it's nice to know it holds up even to an entirely fresh viewer.
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So pleased for (finally!!!) season 2 of Lost in Space.
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@Roz I'm in that boat; I knew nothing about the source material at all. It was still fun and I'm looking forward to their second season.
The time jumps initially were baffling since they could have used some sort of label for those viewing without context (until much later it became very obvious), but that's very, very minor.
I also never pictured Henry Cavill as a comedic straightman, but... yep, nailed it.
Oh fucking well.
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@surreality I actually really liked the little clues they gave to the timelines, but they were definitely subtle ones early on.
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@Roz Yeah, one of my issues is that I'm usually doing something else while binge watching anything, and glancing up and down throughout to some extent, so if they're visual cues especially, I can miss them on a first watch through.
(For some reason I decided to take up needlework again a bit over a week ago and was trying to chart a carpet or something in photochop if I have my RL timing right, to give you some idea.)
I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to 'make sure people know when things are happening unless that's the gimmick you're going for', admittedly.
Oh fucking well.
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@surreality They were mostly audible, but easily missed. Basically instances of a topic being referenced in one timeline and then again in the other, but in different ways. Like:
***=Spoilers***
click to showI do think they were going for the gimmick purposefully, though. I have a decent ear for those sorts of things, so I had fun catching them, but I am not at all surprised that lots of people were more confused, cause we all consume media differently.
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@Roz Yeah, those were the ones I did catch. I get lost in fantasy names a lot, which doesn't help.
It seemed like they were aiming for less a gimmick (like, say, Irreversible or similar, which rely on it) and something more like Pulp Fiction, where events aren't in sequence, but relayed in layers that add depth to the previously shown scenes. I do think this tends to work better in a movie with fewer scenes than a season of something, even if it's a short season, but I've seen it done well for seasons of things, too (Hannibal is a great example, but it is more an exception than the rule).
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Back from X-mas (the preferred pronunciation of the 31st century).
I am a pretty huge Witcher fan and enjoyed it immensely. Casting someone who actually likes the material? Man, it shows. If the larger industry takes away nothing else from the show, it should absolutely be that. Don't treat these IPs like disposable content that you cast some bankable but disinterested actor to 'I'm just here for the paycheck' their way through. Find people who are excited to do it.
Similarly, Yen blew me away. We had a good idea from trailers and leaked shots that they'd be filling out her BG and doing Sodden, but it was really far better than I could have hoped for. She's dead perfect in the role.
I loved the time stuff, but <insert read the book smug> (Poll: What's our Red Wedding equivalent?) Still, it didn't seem super obscure. The person I was watching with (who has only 'I saw the unicorn video on youtube' level prior Witcher experience) was wondering where Ciri's mom was right off, so I feel like the holes/inconsistencies primed the audience to anticipate the subsequent revelations.
Gripes are the things most folks are griping over (ballsack armor, and maybe Nilfgaard in general - hael Ker'zaer). I do wish the season was maybe 10 episodes, as there were clearly places where they had to cut and jam in stuff to make it fit (episode 2's non-Yen plot). Or well, just more money so we could have had Borch in his full glory. But who doesn't want more, better? I am mostly annoyed that I have to wait more than a year for more.
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Finally finished Witcher. Would like more right now. More now, right now, etc. Someone wake me in a year or two. Ugh,
Also yay Expanse, I'm finally getting my wife to watch it, so I'll have a good refresher before I dive into 4.
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Done with The Witcher. Over, it was good. The time jumps made it hard to absorb the lore, for someone that's never played the game before. But, looks like that's not going to be an issue for Season 2. Jaskeir is now my Bardic ideal...
On to Season 2 of Lost In Space