TV: What Are You Watching?

[Jormi_Boced]

I watched Falling Skies last night too and really enjoyed it. Kind of reminded me of Walking Dead with Aliens instead of zombies.

Also watched a bunch of Claymore this weekend and the finale of A Game of Thrones.

[stubobj]

Been watching Master Chef. I really enjoy the competitive cooking shows. Chef Ramsay makes me laugh with some of the things he says. Not as good as Hell's Kitchen but pretty darn close.

Also started watching The Mentalist. Ive caught half an episode here and there at work and have been meaning to watch a full one to see if I like it. Im starting with episode one and I think itll be one I continue with.

[Aldin]

I've been watching Expedition Impossible. The narrative is weak, but the simple challenge of getting from point A to point B is physically pretty brutal. I'm hoping that the narrative develops as the series continues because right now I'm just not invested in any of the teams.

~Aldin, not sure if there is going to be a second season of this one

[ollie]

Just (re)started the West Wing with Season 1, Episode 1. I fondly remember watching it during the Bush era as some sort of fantasy/comfort blanket of what US politics could/should/might be. I suspect there'll be similar sensations this time around...

[nate the dawg]

My wife just got me into Falling Skies. So far, it's pretty neat (jumped into it on ep.3, I think), but I've got a feeling that it'll be just another flash-in-the-pan. Noah Wylie doesn't hurt.

EDIT: Finished watching Spartacus:Blood and Sand last night, after having gone through season one of Gods of the Arena. Loved it! Watching Crixus' transformation from the character in the (chronologically) earlier series into hard-as-diamonds champion/former champion in the latter series was cool.

Oh, yeah. Oenimaeus in freaking awesome. How on earth he let Asher get away from him at the end I'll never know.

[jschild]

Wow....this is absolutely horrid. I love DC's animation work over Marvel's typically, but this is just painful to watch.

Was this made 10 years ago? Do they not know how to texture anything?

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/07/...st_cg_work.php

[ollie]

Originally Posted by nate the dawg

Better than double posting

Evidently this is my new pet peeve, but no, no, no, no, no.

If you have a different point to make four days after the last one, make it in a new post. It's not an edit, you're adding something new to the thread. Adding it as a new post makes the thread show up as having a new comment, as it should.

There is nothing instrinsically wrong with double posting, and as far as I know none of the rules here say that there is. Where did this stigma come from? If you want to edit your post then edit it; if you want to say something else then post it, regardless of whether it was you who made the last post or not. Am I out of the loop here? Is there an argument or a rule that says double posting is a bad thing?

To add something to the topic of the thread, so that this isn't just a rant about forum etiquette...

Season 1 of the West Wing continues in the Ollie household. As good as it ever was, though the bagginess of the suits and the hugeness of the cellphones is more entertaining this time around.

[cavebehr]

Hot in Cleaveland. Betty White still the sexiest gal on the show!!!! Ok maybe not but it is a great show.

[Jormi_Boced]

Watched Chuck last night.

['Scaper94]

Over my summer vacation (since May, to be specific), I've been watching some different anime series on youtube:

Clannad: This series was pretty good, I thought. There are some funny parts, and a fair amount of sad parts to it. The theme is well-done.

Clannad After Story: It's the sequel series to "Clannad," describing what happens to some of the characters later on in their lives. This series was a lot more emotional than its prequel (I'll be honest, I cried many times). It's sappy, yes, but extremely well-done. My favorite anime so far, I strongly recommend it.

Angel Beats: A nice sci-fi shooter, taking place in the afterlife. The theme was pretty good, and the last episode was most emotional. There are a lot of plot twists, which I enjoyed. Overall, I liked it.

Air: Youtube didn't have the first four episodes dubbed in English, so I had to start it at episode 5. But I liked this series, it was similar to "Clannad" because of the emotions. The theme was similar as well.

Kanon (2006): Another great series! This one was very similar to "Clannad" in the emotions department. Although I didn't cry as much with this one. It also had some nice bits of comedy. I recommend it.

Spice and Wolf (Season 1): This series is the "odd-one-out" from the animes I've watched so far. It takes place in the medieval times, following the adventures of a merchant and the goddess of harvest, who is half wolf, half human. There is a nice amount of clever humor, especially when the merchant is negotiating. I liked this series.

[Jormi_Boced]

Friday Night Lights

[chas]

Wish I could say I was watching great new TV, but sometimes you take what you can get:

The Aquaman pilot (last year?), which is supposed to be very good, starring the guy who played Green Arrow on Smallville, is apparantly now available for the first time on DVD. I don't have the particulars, as a pal is getting me a copy.

Night Raid 1931, an anime set in China in the 1930s, is dealing with a sensitive period of Japanese history where they took over Manchuria from China, before later attacking China itself. Its good to see them looking at it, even in a pop framework.

**********************************************************

Finished watching last month's major coup buy, a DVD set of the entire 5 seasons of the 1990's X-Men animated series! Incredible stuff--80 episodes, including the Phoenix Saga and many other great comic arcs wiith most of the major X-Men stable of characters--and that takes in a lot of ground. While its a terrific series, the last three episodes of the set I'd never seen were particularly interesting:

A. A WWII flashback episode ("Old Soldiers") which did for Marvel what the much later JLA did for DC in a 3 episode arc; include a number of its WWII characters. Wolverine, on an OSS mission in France, is briefed by Captain "Happy Sam" Sawyer, partners with Captain America to go up against the Red Skull; Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandoes show up at the end.

B. A Victorian episode ("Descent") with the grandparents of Prof. X and Jean Grey, featuring Charles Darwin and Jack the Ripper, explores the question of human mutation. I don't know if this is comic based as most of these episodes were, but one character turns into a familiar immortal modern villain!

C. "Pryde of the X-Men," the pilot episode for the series probably never shown on TV, is very Eighties in concept and execution, with Shadowcat substituting for the later Jubilee as the young apprentice character. Other X-Men regulars included the Professor, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine as later featured, but also Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Dazzler (as opposed to additional actual series regulars Jean Grey, Beast, Rogue, Gambit, and occasional appearance by the TV created Morph). A different membership roster, opening theme," voice actors, etc. were topped off with some narration by Stan Lee himself! Magneto's "terrorist mutants" included White Queen, Blob, Juggernaut, Pyro, and The Toad with a sniviling "Igor" voice (hey, he was an original Evil Mutant), and even Lockheed the baby dragon. Magneto kicks the poor creature around (literally) all episode, so he decides to hang out with Kitty instead. Lots of fun, and a rare look into early draft animation history.

Also included, a long interview with secondary creator Chris Claremont (after a very short one with Stan Lee himself), who discusses things like why Jean Grey was killed off in the comics after great controversy among the staff (she had to pay for Phoenix's destruction of an entire planet full of intelligent beings). In the animated show, she lives on! He also does commentary on some episodes, in one of the first DVDs to do this that I know about.