The Acolyte was by far the worst live action SW ever made

I liked many things, but man did they fumble the ball in so many ways this season.

For example, explaining important backstory in a Broadway stage play accessible to only like .1% of your viewing audience. Not only this, but then making that backstory inconsistent with established lore. Hawkins was, according to Hopper, a boring town where nothing happened. But now there were those supernatural murders years ago. I guess he just forgot.

I have many more criticisms for the season, but I’ll limit this to the finale here on out. The main thing is, just be consistent.

One gripe is where were the other creatures in the Abyss? The Mind Flayer is supposed to be a hive mind, but there were no demogorgons, demodogs, bats, or other alien creatures. It just seemed like the MF was hanging out on this planet by itself.

Another is, why isn’t everyone under surveillance after they lost El? Are we supposed to believe the military just let everyone go and isn’t looking for any sign that she could be alive? They e done that in previous seasons, hell that was the point of using the radio station to deliver coded messages. Now they gave up? Ok.

A minor one: I’d have thought that with facing death Mrs Wheeler would finally either work on or leave her failing marriage, but there didn’t seem to be any character growth after all.

That said, I liked that they killed El and that her sacrifice had meaning. It felt earned. I really hope they don’t undo that. The talk with Mike and Hopper was great.

I was thinking the s1 opening but this was great too, especially since this was pre streaming and everyone was coming up with theories by the week

EDIT: https://youtu.be/xrkFsSgp6MI

Lost

Love this show and the books, especially the audiobooks narrated perfectly by Jefferson Mays. If you haven’t checked out the books, you’re missing out on some of the best sci-fi in ages. I love that they are set in a very unique time period in the future that we don’t see a lot of: earth has colonized the solar system but interstellar travel is not possible. No warp drive or hyperspace. That means traveling from one planet to another can take months.

The show does such a great job of showing and explaining accurate space physics. No artificial gravity. You want gravity? Best we can do is engine-generated thrust.

All the characters have great arcs too. I was sad that the final three books were never adapted, but the way the books were written means that they can easily finish the series with a movie trilogy if they want.

James SA Corey started a new sci-fi series I am digging so far, The Captives War. VERY different from The Expanse but still fascinating

The Mighty Nein

I started the animated series Pantheon on Netflix and it’s really good so far. It has to do with a company that has developed the technology to upload a human brain onto a mega computer. Uploaded Intelligence as opposed to Artificial Intelligence. One major limitations of the tech is that it kills the human body because it literally burns away the brain layer by layer while each cell is digitally replicated. One of the developers of this tech volunteered to test it in its early phases because he had a terminal diagnosis. It was assumed to have failed, but that may not be the case.

It’s smart despite the outlandish premise. I’m 2 episodes in and it feels more like a slow burn mystery than most animated shows. There are multiple characters that get focus even though they don’t clearly connect to each other yet. Most characters behave realistically too instead of just in service to the plot.

I did read that the two seasons available tell a complete story and it’s generally regarded as having a satisfying conclusion, so that’s reassuring.

I tried to give The Acolyte a chance. It was so unbelievably bad I couldn’t make it past 3 episodes

Counterpoint: Vince Gilligan

Yeah, Leno never talked about Clinton during the Monica Lewinski scandal /s

Not a movie but Arcane s1.

Silco wants the undercity to govern themselves because the wealthy elites of Pilotver can’t be bothered to care about the people down there. Every time there’s an uprising it’s beat back down with police force and the cycle continues.

It’s fantastic because when he’s first introduced the writers play on stereotypes to make you think he’s just a run of the mill villain with a weird facial feature. No, he’s trying to achieve revolution.

Not to say he doesn’t do some fucked up things to achieve this dream. But that’s why he’s an actual villain not just a misunderstood good guy. One whose motivations make complete sense.

Dexter for sure, but also Sons of Anarchy

They both jump the shark and never recover

I tell you hwhat

That background character is definitely Airbender coded

Here in San Antonio we have zero rail so…

Idk if this is the worst per se but a good example is Russian Doll.

When I see questions like this I’m not just thinking of shows that had a good first season but then a step down in quality. There are lots of shows like that.

I’m thinking of shows where the first season completely stands on its own, perhaps even intended to be a miniseries, but for whatever reason a second season is greenlit.

Russian Doll had a fantastic first season that told its own story. The second season just felt unnecessary and was pretty forgettable.

Fist my bump!

Ask her to imagine the following: let’s say she ends up being really close to your spouse one day, like she couldn’t have imagined a better pick. The two of them become super close, but as the years go on, for whatever reason, you end up having an affair. Now ask her if she would go no contact with you because maintaining a relationship would condone your actions and ignore your spouse’s suffering.

If she says no, then maybe she could see a bit of where you’re coming from. If she says yes, well then I would wonder if a lack of empathy was part of the reason your dad sought a relationship elsewhere (not that that justifies cheating).

Get ready for the Bond Cinematic Universe, only on Prime and in select theaters

I feel like this has promise.

I love that it leans into comic-book-iness instead of trying to make Superman grimdark. The colors are bright. It unapologetically includes Krypto. There’s a kaiju. This is what comics do. It also pays homage to the original movies with the John Williams score, but with a twist on the electric guitar so it’s also unique.

I also actually like that it’s not going to be an origin story and that other heroes already exist and are acknowledged. I don’t think the other heroes are going to play a major role, but the fact that they’re there at all is another sort of thing that the comics do. New readers just have to accept that these characters exist and don’t require a lengthy intro. I think movie audiences will be able to do the same.

Most importantly it shows that Gunn seems to understand the character. Supes isn’t dark and brooding. He’s bright and cheesy but a source of hope. Clark looks like a dork, as he should. He has chemistry with Lois.

Yes the effects are a bit rough. It’s a teaser. They will probably improve by release.

But if James Gunn can make the Guardians of the Galaxy, a team that only the most hardcore comic book fans even knew about, into a household name, I’m excited to see what he can do with Superman and the DC Universe.