2015 - 2016 TV Season

[Drunk Monk]

I was sort of kind of excited by Preacher despite it's Seth Rogen progeny. I watched the first two episodes and felt a tremendous sense of 'meh'. 

It gets better.  And I don't just say that because there's a character named Eugene.  With an ass for a face.  SPOILER who gets sent to hell END SPOILER.  I mostly like it for its David Lynchian sense of humor.  Did anyone read the comic?  I didn't.

I'm also enjoying Season 2 of Marco Polo.

[thatguy]

DM, how come you have not yet told us about Thunderbolt Fantasy?



--tg

[Drunk Monk]

It reminds me of Legend of the Sacred Stone, which I showed at some DOOM gathering many years ago.

[thatguy]

The Tick is coming to Amazon Prime Video. The pilot airs August 19th...

http://nerdbastards.com/2016/08/02/spooo...-the-tick/

Patrick Warburton was cast perfectly as The Tick in the last live-action version. I wonder how this new version will be...



--tg

[El Dingo]

I have ridiculously high hopes for this. I thought the original cartoon and live-action series were pretty funny.

[thatguy]

Stranger Things on Netflix. 8 part series set in 1983 in small town Indiana. Nerdy science kids encounter weird goings on and it's up to them to save the town/world/etc. There's lots of homages and calls out to movies from the time. I see bits of Carpenter's "The Thing", "Phantasm", "Poltergeist", "ET", "Stand By Me", "Super 8", and more. The synth soundtrack as well as songs from the 80's (eg: "Elegia" by New Order) were spot on.

Winona Ryder is either crying or screaming her parts for most of the show. Matthew Modine could have had more lines and his character could have been built up a little more, but all in all, the writers/director nailed the genre. 

I watched episode 1 last week sometime, and then last night, I watched episode 2 around 9pm and ended up binge-watching the entire series until the wee hours of the morning... 

Recommended!



--tg

[Greg]

It's on the list.

[Drunk Monk]

Mine too. But I still haven't finished Marco Polo.

[Drunk Monk]

Finished Marco Polo season 2 on Netflix. Still stunning for tv with locations, sets & costumes. Great to see so many Asian leads speaking English. Sexy, although that mostly kicks in in the middle episodes then evaporates in the final ones. Decent fights all the way through, not ground breaking but digitally bloody - lots o swordfights. Michelle Yeoh does what she always does but the rest of the cast shines.
I'm down for season 3.

[King Bob]

I just watched a couple of episodes of Forged in Fire (posting here since it's the only mention of it I could find, and it's not really deserving of it's own thread). I liked watching them make things, but the whole tone of it is ridiculous. It almost could be called Fat Dorks Who Make Knives. The most ridiculous is the "martial-arts expert" judge, who has a weird speech pattern, perhaps trying to be more Asian. When he does a cutting test, he swings the knives (with about 10in blades) around as if they were katanas. 

And I was surprised that they didn't have people with more experience. Most had under ten years, except for a lady who was a farrier by trade, who had 20 years. She won of course. I guess real craftsmen are busy working and don't have time for this malarkey.

[Drunk Monk]

One of my castmates on Man at Arms won Forged in Fire in one episode.  He dished mightily about what a sham that was.  I keep meaning to look up that episode.

[El Dingo]

One of my castmates on Man at Arms won Forged by Fire in one episode.  He dished mightily about what a sham that was.  I keep meaning to look up that episode.

I love this show. I understand all 'reality' shows are heavily scripted but I enjoy the creation/restoration genres. I'd be curious which one your castmate did.

I'd like to see similar shows for glassblowing and general metalworking.

[King Bob]

After slagging on this show, I suppose I should add that my guilty pleasure show is Counting Cars.

[Drunk Monk]

Well y'all forced me to look it up as I have yet to see that FiF ep. It's S2E4 Spiked Shield. My cast mate is Ilya Alekseyev. He is quite a character, razor sharp wit, mad skills with blades and bows, a self-proclaimed asshole who constantly fux with you. I wound up really enjoying his company.

[Drunk Monk]

So I was inspired to watch that ep, which I've been meaning to do since meeting Ilya. It catches him pretty well actually. He's abrasive, but it's because he's better than most and knows it. Backstory on that (and this is just for DOOM eyes only) the host is an asshole and none of the others finished their blade in 3 hours in the initial round. They were all given an off camera extension because it would've been a dumb ep if only Ilya cleared round 1. But with the shield, you can see how he totally outclassed his competition. Notably, Ilya was not originally part of the cast. He was BKS's pitch hitter, or cutter actually. He was the best cutter and shooter in the warehouse. He could pull a 100 lb bow with ease, and performed most of the trickier cuts. Cool dude. He wore that vest everywhere. I have some interview material with the BKs guys that I'll publish when the premiere is closer.