Television
- Thread starter gouis
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TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Great Choice!
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
I was kinda disappointed mainly because they lean way too hard into to “twist”. The twist itself is fine dudes an alien though it really reframes the show and I was enjoying the idea of a modern neo-noir detective show. I think had they just revealed the twist in the first episode or beginning of the second, I would have enjoyed it much more but they don’t fully explain what’s going on until the 6th episode and by then that feels like a bigger mystery than the actual mystery that Sugar is supposed to be solving. I feel like it was teased out in a way to hopefully create Reddit discourse/speculation similar to West World or Lost. It all felt a bit forced.
Overall it’s fine but the best part of the show is the first episode and I was a bit let down overall.
Watch Shogun or Ripley instead.
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tvham
Well-Known Member
+1
How you mess up a crime noir set in modern day LA with Colin Ferrell is beside me.
Bull Shannon
Well-Known Member
apparently it's as big a blunder as getting involved in a land war in Asia.
jamieanderson1968
ninniest jackaninny
On a similar note, I have given up on The Veil after 3 episodes. Probably would have only done 2 eps before dropping it but Elizabeth Moss gets a bonus watch just in case.
Also, I loved Josh Charles in Sports Centre and a few other things, but he lately has settled into cruise control with “smarmy Ivy League douche bag” roles
Also, I loved Josh Charles in Sports Centre and a few other things, but he lately has settled into cruise control with “smarmy Ivy League douche bag” roles
jamieanderson1968
ninniest jackaninny
I have a theory that if Colin is not doing an American accent then the results should be good. The more Oirish he sounds the better the show/movie
jamieanderson1968
ninniest jackaninny
Its not 100% but a good rule of thumb
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
[COUGH] True Detective [COUGH]
LiamGallaghersBucketHat
Go on, geezer.
This is currently streaming on Paramount +
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
I liked it well enough up through the episode where they looney tuned that ship in the Panama Canal (that scene was the high point). After that episode I felt like the show kinda lost momentum and drama. there are a lot of interesting ideas that they barely scratched the surface on. Considering how much money Netflix spent on this show I feel like it should have been better. I watched the season finale and was surprised that the show had ended. I was sure there had to be another episode or two.
jamieanderson1968
ninniest jackaninny
I just want a cop show with Benedict Wong and Liam Cunningham
kvetcha
Chet Hanks' Filmography Buff
I liked it, honestly. It’s a bit of a speed run of the plot, but I thought they executed the novel’s core elements pretty well while having to pull off some rather tricky adaptation in the process.
My biggest complaint is that it looks pretty prosaic for something that cost as much as it did.
kvetcha
Chet Hanks' Filmography Buff
I’m curious: are you approaching from the standpoint of an adaptation or as it’s own thing? I was kind of impressed by the adaptation work they did and would be interested to hear more about what you disliked.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Be pedantic about the whole thing.
Mather
Unknown Member
I have not read the books but I've heard they're well done and I know that this was heavily adapted with the setting changing from China to London and the main character being split into five characters among other things.
But not having read the books and watching this show, I'm just astonished this was the final result. Caveat that these are just my opinions, I don't want to ruin it for anyone so I really wasn't going to get into it. So stop reading if you liked it or haven't watched it yet... HOWEVER, since y'all want to know... The script seems to have been written by an algorithm or at the very least someone with a very tenuous grip on the English language. Either that or it was so heavily edited in order to make it fit into 8 episodes that it borders on unintelligible. The characters do not speak like actual humans, they jump in and out of topics, emotions, motivations at the drop of a hat with almost zero connecting fibres between them. They're all almost completely one dimensional save for the main antagonist who at least has enough screen time and back story to give us a small amount of insight into their motivations (Dr Wenjie). And this makes sense because from my understanding she's the one main character who was taken wholesale from the book. The gaggle of scientists created for the show are paper thin and completely forgettable from scene to scene.
The rules for the universe that are created within the show are ignored almost immediately within the same scene in order to further the plot, completely ignoring that they just got through explaining that none of the actions they are currently taking make one iota of sense or should even be possible considering the rules they just established. It's a very simple story that's presented within the show and yet they're incapable of progressing the plot without tripping over their own plot devices.
I feel sorry for the actors because most of them come off horribly which really isn't their fault as they had almost nothing to work with script wise. But some of the performances are just terrible, the lead scientist probably coming off the worst (Gonzalez) but aside from Wong, Bradley and Chao the rest of the mains are pretty painful, but again, a lot of that is scripting.
I'm not going to waste any more time on it but I'm stunned after all that money this is what they came up with. Especially when from watching it it's hard to actually see where most of this money went.
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TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Netflix made the announcement during upfront a few weeks ago that they plan on “finishing the story” but were fairly ambiguous about what that would entail. I don’t think the higher ups were happy with the results (or viewing numbers) either. I am curious how they decide to proceed. I know Beneoff and Wise will still be involved but I doubt they get a blank check this time. Also, if they just get a single season to complete the story or maybe a series of movies? I will probably watch it because sometimes I just want something on the TV it’s not something that I am necessarily excited about.
Mather
Unknown Member
Yeah that was interesting, that announcement. I know this got beat in the ratings by shows that had been out for months so generally that means Netflix would turf it. So I don't know if they'll do a couple of episodes to try to finish it off or something, although from my understanding there are like 2-3 more books worth of stuff so I cannot imagine how they would possibly wrap that up without literally seasons worth of additional episodes.
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