It's also produced by the team that produced GoT. Episode 5 brings that point in perfect clarity. That's as far as I am, with plans to finish it this weekend.
Fallout on Prime. Very enjoyable. I'm not a games player any longer, so have never played Fallout, but it's a fun TV show that seems to be getting praise even from those that have played it. Walton Goggins is in it too, and I don't recall ever seeing him not being good in whatever he does.
I know Goggins mainly as the secondary bad guy in Ant Man 2, where he's really good. I played Fallout 4 when it came out nine years ago, but not since. They've been planning a big next gen upgrade, which will be released in a few weeks, and I'm going to give it another go then. I'll eventually check out the show as well. Despite playing the game, I'm not much of a fan of the universe that its set in.
Walton Goggins was the best thing about Justified (sorry, Timmy Oliphant, who was fantastic too). And although I've only seen the first two episodes of Fallout, he's chewing up the scenes and making it fun. The production is top notch and the direction is great, especially because of the music. Can't wait to see where it winds up.
Yeah, Justified was the first show that I saw Goggins in and, as you say, he was the standout in what is one of my favourite shows of recent(ish) times. I'm hoping there's a sequel to last year's Justified: City Primeval too, going by the last scenes in that show...
I watched the first two episodes of Fallout, and holy crap that's dark and gory. If it was a source material I'm not familar with, I'd be noping out, but I think I'll see it through.
Yeah, I did think you might not be keen on the amount of gore in it but, as you say, from what I know (very little) of the game, it's in keeping with it. At least it's not relentlessly dark, which I know you also don't like, as there's plenty of humour too.
I'm going to gut it out. The big battle scene where all of the main characters met was a lot. I had to turn away for a while because it turned my stomach. The show is certainly more graphic than the game, in part due to the fairly primitive graphics back then compared to whats possible now.
Fallout has been renewed for season 2. No surprise seeing as it seems to have been a big hit for Prime.
I’ve started watching “Wu Assassin” and I’m really enjoying it. It has tons of action, and some gore, but for those of you squeamish to those things it’s not too graphic. The acting is good. The writing is good. The story is good. Highly recommend it…
When I got Netflix, now almost six years ago, I added that to the list and never got around to watching it. I should.
My goodness... The world building on Fallout is the best that I've seen on TV. Maybe the best that I've seen on film. There is nothing about it that I don't absolutely love. I started watching Parish, Giancarlo Esposito's new show, the other night. Brutal, but the first episode has me wanting to see more.
Shogun on Hulu... Remake of the 70s movie based (very) loosely on the life of William Adams via James Clavell's novel of the same name. Adams was the first Englishman to visit Japan in the 1600s, but in the story the names are all changed and there's a lot more intrigue in good ole feudal sword slinging Samurai land. There’s something about samurai movies that are compelling to watch. The dicotomy between the harsh, guttural ways the men speak vs the soft, sing song way the women speak. People walking around slowly, carrying legendary weapons that are desired and feared to this day as they enjoy baths or poetry until their societal codes, personal interests, and slashing swords come into conflict. The violence is somewhat sparse given how many people die in it, but when they do show it, it's fun to watch. None of that cheesy pop Kill Bill farcity, but well done and realistic. There's some graphic bleeding, amputation, gutting, and decapitation effects. I could do with a little less of the girl power stuff, but overall it's a nice series.
Yeah that was a very solid watch and set up nicely for another season or two. Wong and the GoT alums do a solid job and the rest of the cast works pretty well too. I've not read the source novels, but I am good with the location and character cast. I thought it did well unravelling the first mysteries and setting up the conflict before dropping reveals and then setting up the next season. Very solid for a science-based mystery thriller. I got a month of D+ for reasons unrelated to the show, but I've also picked up Ahsoka again. I like it, good not great. I did watch the trailer for that pre-prequel era show Acolyte which looks fun as well.
I'm ashamed to say that I started watching Knuckles this week and every episode makes me laugh my *ss off. I cannot and will not recommend it and couldn't watch more than 10 minutes of the first Sonic movie, but some childish part of me is happy that I gave it a try.
I just saw that Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power was returning for a second season in August, so I'm watching season 1 again. I love this show and hope they don't let me down with another run.
I enjoyed the first season. I shake my head at the enormous amount of hate that it gets in line. Partly due to the fact that its only OK instead of a masterpiece like the movies, and partly racism/misogyny.
It was on the tip of the "woke" spear for people who wanted something to be angry at. And some Tolkien fans/armchair scholars nitpicked at it because it missed the canonical mark when they checked their numerous concordances and reference materials. I thought it was cool to give backstory on Galadriel, Elrond, Isildur, Numenor, the South Lands, and more. I also liked the Sauron reveal and the birth of Mordor. Especially the latter. Surprisingly, I like it as much on second watch as I did the first time.
I hate when people get lost in the minutia of "the source material" man. It's not a Bible. We are working with a totally different medium - Screen vs Paper, visual vs written word. People need to learn things can be fun and a great watch even when they don't religiously adhere to the source.
I agree. And Tolkien's stuff beyond the LOTR and Hobbit is so deep and scattered, that its renowned for how difficult it is to read and understand in the first place. Its basically mandatory that whoever was going to make a project for TV would have to more use it as an outline than a shot-by-shot reference guide.
Did you manage? It seems like the graphicness kind of went in spurts, you'd have large chunks of nothing then a somewhat sudden and bloody, violent encounter. I'm not a huge gore person either, but I just finished the last episode today and really enjoyed it. Some strong acting performances and as noted, the worldbuilding was amazing. The flashbacks peppered into the "modern day" reality which itself had the contrasts of the vaults vs. surface, all the developing conspiracies leading to the conclusion. It was shockingly well done across the board. I've only dabbled in a few of the games so I can't really speak to source material, but it felt very authentic in what it was trying to portray and accurate to the tone of the game series.
I did finish the show. It was certainly intense throughout, and filled with characters that aren't likable. The Fallout Universe is a dystopia even before the bombs, so its really an unpleasant place, and they do certainly capture that. Visually, the got so many of the things exactly right that they clearly were dedicated in that way. Overall, far darker than most of what I'd watch.
I also got around to watching Ahsoka, and even though I've watched very few of the Star Wars cartoons, I thought that it was very well done. Rosario Dawson, as she usually is, was excellent in the lead role and I really thought that the series looked and felt like SW is supposed to. Unfortunately, though it was well written and acted as well, it didn't really go much of anywhere, and often left bits hanging here and there that I wanted to know more about than what they were actually focusing on.
A lot of folks are complaining about The Acolyte. Some of the complaints are critical of the product on screen but a lot of it is folks who don't appreciate the clear effort to put diverse races into the Star Wars mythos and to focus on something other than a white male protagonist. Basically, 90% of what I read about the Sequel Trilogy (although there was plenty of room on the bandwagon for actual harsh critique from a quality standpoint). Personally, I'm watching it and I'm confused about how somebody can watch a movie with every odd species of alien imaginable - some with pivotal roles in the stories - which basically shows the universe is *diverse*, and fans can accept Wookies, Gungans, Jawas, Kaminoans, Hutts, Mon Calimaris, and many more, but lose their sh*t because some of the humans aren't white and several lack penises. The Acolyte isn't perfect, but it's better than a lot are pretending. Episode 3 was actually pretty good and like Andor, it shows that Star Wars can have mature themes. With that being said, like The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, Kenobi, and Ahsoka, there's a lot to criticize. Disney's Star Wars movies are pretty much crap for me at this point, but the TV series are better than the MCU TV offerings, IMO.
I haven't watched yet, but I will eventually. I don't really ever want my stuff to be "mature", if that makes sense. Andor was just not my cup of tea, no matter how well made it was. I really want things that are closer to what the original trilogy was, like Rogue One. I want an interesting plot, high production values, action and adventure mixed with humor and levity, and actors and actresses who get the job done. I don't care at all about race, gender or ethnicity as long as it makes sense. Ahsoka accomplished that, despite having the characters make questionable choices more often than should be reasonable.
I respect that. The Acolyte isn't like Andor in tone or quality. It's much closer to the established universe but as it concerns someone murdering Jedi masters and shows the reason why, it's a little less grand in scope than the movies and probably a little heavy for kids. I watched the Original Trilogy as a boy and young man and the experience changed me. The Prequel Trilogy fell short for me and the Sequel Trilogy pretty much stuck a fork in my hopes that I could experience anything that my 14-year old self enjoyed 47 years ago. I liked Rogue One a lot. Contrary to most Star Wars fans, I enjoyed Solo. But for me, the magic is long gone. By the way, Tales of the Jedi is really good (in my opinion). You can watch all six episodes in less than two hours but again, it's rather dark in tone and content. It's too bad the live action Star Wars properties fall short of The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Bad Batch, and now, TOTJ.
