Soooo, What'cha Watching?

[StarlitOne]

Recently I last was watching an Aussie comedy called Kath and Kim. Figured I would watch since I never watched it before and I kept recommending it to people as an Australian staple of television down here. I am looking forward to seeing the reunion specials for it.

Also I should be starting up Season Four of The Dragon Prince which I am looking forward to.

[vanguard333]

Recently, I watched the show Arcane. All I knew about League of Legends beforehand was that my brother plays it... and that's all I really needed to know beforehand; the show is very straightforward to understand even for someone completely unfamiliar with the game it's based on, and I really enjoyed the show.

The characters were very well-written, the story was very engaging, and it was very well animated outside of one specific scene. I also really liked the way that the magical technology: hextech, was established: essentially that it's technology whose main function is to cast a specific spell.

My main criticism would be the one scene where I did not like the animation:

Spoiler

The Ekko vs Jinx fight. I get what they were going for with the very flashy imagery, and conceptually what they did was a neat idea, but it made my eyes hurt, and I'm not someone whose eyes are usually hurt by something bright on the TV.

 

[Lyn]

I'm re-watching Charmed. 

[vanguard333]

Last night, I watched the movie The Mask of Zorro for the first time.

I never saw it before, partly because it released only a year after I was born, but because of the movie being a big success and reminding people about Zorro, probably half the cartoons I watched as a kid had at least one episode that parodied Zorro. After hearing for a couple of years now that the movie was really good, I finally decided to watch it when it finally became available on a streaming service. So, I did, and it was indeed really good.

I think, between this film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and The Man in the Iron Mask, I'm pretty sure I have now seen all the attempts in the 90s to revive the swashbuckler genre.

[vanguard333]

I began watching Bleach.

My brother watched it for the first time several months ago. Once the Thousand-Year-Blood-War arc began, he and I have been watching it, so he managed to get me to watch Bleach from the beginning so that I would know what's going on.

I will say that it is definitely an interesting show. There hasn't really been a time where it was boring. The characters are interesting, the combat is more nuanced and interesting than I expected from everything I had heard about the show, and it is quite a visual spectacle. Plus, as I am a fan of the anime Black Clover, for which Bleach was one of its main inspirations, I'm finding it fun watching Bleach and noticing things from which Black Clover clearly took direct inspiration.

With everything I heard about the main villain Aizen; particularly that he's a very manipulative and scheming villain, I feared that he would be one of those boring manipulative villains that somehow planned out literally everything regardless of how contrived and nonsensical that would be. Thankfully, he isn't actually that; there have been a few moments where he boasts about having planning out everything, only for the subtext to make it clear that he's completely full of himself; the biggest example being when he claims that he's responsible for all of Ichigo's power and planned out every fight Ichigo ever faced: while it's clear that he planned some of it, it's clear from everything the audience is shown that Aizen is claiming credit for far more than he's actually responsible for.

[Phinius Dolphinius III]

My wife and I have been doing marathons of TV shows over the last few years:

• Friends
• Modern Family
• Fringe
• The Vampire Diaries
• The Originals
• Jane The Virgin
• Wednesday
• Teen Wolf (ongoing)

If I had to recommend one, Jane The Virgin was really fun to watch.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Phinius Dolphinius III

[vanguard333]

I just began watching the anime Record of Lodoss War. I had previously seen Record of Grancrest War, which was written by the same person many years later, and I liked that one, so I thought I'd try this one.

I will say, after previously watching a few different animated series that were made in the 2020s (Spy x Family, Arcane, etc.), it is weird to now watch an anime from 1990. The difference in animation is very obvious right away: there is far less movement overall, the art style is very obviously from the early 90s, but the art still looks good.

I had heard that the show was based on a bunch of novels that were essentially rewrites of the author's Dungeons & Dragons sessions, and it definitely shows. This and the Dragonlance book series are perhaps the only two examples of stories created from D&D that can actually be described as "good", and even then, a lot of the Dragonlance books really aren't good.

I definitely can see the appeal of making a story derived from a D&D session or even just from a specific edition of D&D: the worldbuilding and magic system is already there, but the author still has free reign for creating the characters and plot. The thing is, people tend to think that that makes it a lot easier to write something good, and it doesn't.

As for this show, if I understand correctly, it pretty much was one of the earliest examples of a medieval fantasy story to come out of Japan (though not the earliest, as Ys, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest all began around this time), and I will say that it is easy to see Lodoss War's influence. As early as episode 4, there's an invasion from an evil emperor, and the emperor's court mage is secretly plotting to awaken an ancient draconic evil for their own goals; that's basically the template from which almost every Fire Emblem game is built.

[joevar]

I finish watching Alice in Borderlands from Netflix. its 2 season from start to finish. both season has 8 epsiodes. Although, if you count the actual length of each episodes, the show is equal to  45-50 episode of normal TV show if you cut it down into 20 minutes each. (the final episodes actually even 120 minutes long, basically longer than most films). So from that alone you know they are quite lengthy and had big budget. this is hands down one of the best netflix-backed adaptation of any manga to date, which is very surprising considering their track record.

its a survival game type story done right with clearly high budget and also quality. theres also plot twist and good characterization from many characters. usually this kind of story dont have satisfying ending due to the nature of it. This is even a genre that i dislike usually. But it caught me by surprise how satisfying and how the ending is just finished-finish. Some people already draws comparison with highly popular Squid game, and many even agree this one has better story and more engaging. With Squid game iirc theres only death from gunshot by losing or violating rules, but here its more varied and unexpected because theres no visible judges who constantly watch you. Some death are gruesome and contain gore. This is definitely an adult show not just because its a death game but for other reason too like nudity, attempted rape, etc.

After finishing the show and checking the manga sources, the actual manga is not even that amazing in terms of visual and story flow (i think), but rather very good at the concept, which the shows took at heart but also add visual flair, choreography that can match a hollywood-movie level of quality. The title and story is a reference to Alice in Wonderland, with "Borderland" part is not only a wordplay but also had deep meaning about the whole story.

[Jotari]

7 hours ago, joevar said:

I finish watching Alice in Borderlands from Netflix. its 2 season from start to finish. both season has 8 epsiodes. Although, if you count the actual length of each episodes, the show is equal to  45-50 episode of normal TV show if you cut it down into 20 minutes each. (the final episodes actually even 120 minutes long, basically longer than most films). So from that alone you know they are quite lengthy and had big budget. this is hands down one of the best netflix-backed adaptation of any manga to date, which is very surprising considering their track record.

its a survival game type story done right with clearly high budget and also quality. theres also plot twist and good characterization from many characters. usually this kind of story dont have satisfying ending due to the nature of it. This is even a genre that i dislike usually. But it caught me by surprise how satisfying and how the ending is just finished-finish. Some people already draws comparison with highly popular Squid game, and many even agree this one has better story and more engaging. With Squid game iirc theres only death from gunshot by losing or violating rules, but here its more varied and unexpected because theres no visible judges who constantly watch you. Some death are gruesome and contain gore. This is definitely an adult show not just because its a death game but for other reason too like nudity, attempted rape, etc.

After finishing the show and checking the manga sources, the actual manga is not even that amazing in terms of visual and story flow (i think), but rather very good at the concept, which the shows took at heart but also add visual flair, choreography that can match a hollywood-movie level of quality. The title and story is a reference to Alice in Wonderland, with "Borderland" part is not only a wordplay but also had deep meaning about the whole story.

I watched that show recently too. I was amazed and the massive discrepancy in episode quality. Some parts of it I thought were great while others were just so milk toast. I think the protagonist himself just isn't written that well. Solid overall, though.

[joevar]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I watched that show recently too. I was amazed and the massive discrepancy in episode quality. Some parts of it I thought were great while others were just so milk toast. I think the protagonist himself just isn't written that well. Solid overall, though.

maybe the budget for each episode are just different since its length varied greatly too. especially the second season i feel the quality gap between scenes feels worse. the high were so high, while the low is very low compared to season 1. thankfully in second season there are scenes thats more focused on other character than the Arisu alone, so the show doesnt suffer too much even if he's not well-written.

[indigoasis]

Oh man, I totally forgot this thread existed.

Well, I can confidently say that I've watched all of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul (and El Camino, of course). Great stuff, it's no wonder why it's considered some of the best stuff on television, if not outright the best.

As for other things, I've jumped into the second seasons of Tokyo Revengers and Vinland Saga. I still have to finish JJBA Part 6, but it's kinda hard since Netflix killed the hype for it, honestly.

[helumeyers]

I'm now watching The Vampire Diaries in the sssniperwolf merchandise store with some buddies.While imprisoned in adolescent bodies, rival vampire siblings Stefan and Damon vie for the attention of entrancing youngster Elena.

Edited May 17, 2023 by helumeyers

[Phinius Dolphinius III]

22 hours ago, helumeyers said:

Currently i am watching The Vampire Diaries with my friends. Conflicting vampire brothers Stefan and Damon compete for the attention of enthralling youngster Elena while trapped in adolescent bodies.

Vampire Diaries was fun. My wife basically twisted my arm into watching it and I'm glad she did.