Movies/Shows you're watching.

[sandelic]

I liked the ending, even if it was a little too hastily concluded, and you also can't
expect everyone to be happy.
But I really don't understand why people talk in absolutes about such things.
No, GoT was not a 'total failure', just as Last Jedi was not 'complete disaster'.

[Enjoyed]

Fair point. The hyperbole is largely unnecessary. I was severely disappointed with the whole thing though. I didn't mind the penultimate episode and, despite the hasty character arc conclusions, I actually kind of enjoyed the twist

Spoiler

of Danny straight murdering an entire city

but the finale just lacked... I don't know what. It was just lacking. The characters I had grown with over 9 years, almost felt like NPCs by the end of it. The rush through the entire Long Night storyline left a weird air about the rest of the narrative. Like, none of it truly mattered? Obviously an entirely personal reaction to the episode, and the season as a whole, but with such a long wait, and after taking such a long time to (expertly, I would say) build all the characters - I really felt very let down by the time it all came to a conclusion. I loved the early seasons, and even enjoyed much of the later ones. But unfortunately, with such a lackluster finale season, my appreciation for the series as a whole has dropped significantly, and I can't say I'll be out there recommending it to people.

---------

I am, however, pretty fucking stoked about His Dark Materials. The Subtle Knife is one of my all time favourite books and the trailer for the new show looks like it will be doing a lot of the darker side of the story and the characters right. I'm not entirely sold on Lin-Manuel as Lee Scoresby - but the rest of the casting looks great. Dafne Keen was great in Logan and she seemed to be doing a solid Lyra in the short trailer.
Pumped!

[sandelic]

The characters I had grown with over 9 years, almost felt like NPCs by the end of it.

Nicely put. At times they indeed feel like NPCs.
What pissed me off more than hasty conclusion for series is over-usage of Deus ex Machina.
One of your main character died but plot needs him alive? Never fear, Lord of Light is here!
What is it? What does it wants? Never mind, look, there are dragons! /s
To name only one such instance, and there were sooo many I lost count. Martin use that heavily in the books, too. Lazy, lazy, lazy.
Next person who argues that Martin is Tolkien of our time will get extremely rude e-mail from me. 
It would be better all around if Danny went full Targaryen and killed them all, methinks.
But the story is over, such as it is. I'm seriously not interested in Martin's version of it or in some potential re-shooting of last season. I'll take this as 'canon' and move on.
There is still Westworld to look forward to and Star Wars conclusion to be disappointed by.   
Oh, yes, and Good Omens. I'm so looking forward to next Friday. Love the cast choice and I'm glad Neil is honouring Terry's last request. God, I miss that man.

[Ben_j]

Same as sandelic, I liked the ending, but it was rushed...
It was a satisfying ending that I did not see coming. I did see the first part coming with Jon and Dany, but didn't think it through and had no idea what would be next.

[Stefan]

Oh, yes, and Good Omens. I'm so looking forward to next Friday. Love the cast choice and I'm glad Neil is honouring Terry's last request. God, I miss that man.

One of my favourite books, I'm cautiously optimistic about the adaptation.

[inchemwetrust]

Saw Brightburn!

A movie that anyone on this earth could've thought of, but Its basically the origin of Superman gone evil. a paint by the numbers, with a slight side of gore, but a none-slasher type movie. I give it credit for such a below budget movie, even though I prayed for collateral damage throughout the film. It's somewhere between C+/B-.

[sandelic]

Good Omens stared good, watched first episode.
I'm really happy they stayed true to source material so far.
David Tennant was superb choice for Crowley. It's Crowley just as I imagined him.
I'm so on next episode as soon as I catch some time.

[satur8]

Sandelic...I'm about halfway through and enjoying it as well.

[ThePumisher]

Chernobyl

God damn, everybody knows what happens back then and why and so, but this masterpiece of a mini-series gives me goosebumps and sets my pulse to 200.

[whirlygirl]

Chernobyl

God damn, everybody knows what happens back then and why and so, but this masterpiece of a mini-series gives me goosebumps and sets my pulse to 200.

This is so good. Fantastic show and so devastating to watch.  It's definitely not something I could binge. One episode and I'm emotionally spent.

[Bosco]

Thirded on Chernobyl recommendation. It's heartbreaking to watch. But amazingly informative for me.

I'm genuinely curious about the opinion of this series from people who are from former Soviet States.

Sorry for my ignorance, but I've never heard of Boris Shcherbina and Valery Legasov. Are they truly unsung heroes as depicted in this series?

[Explud]

I'm genuinely curious about the opinion of this series from people who are from former Soviet States.

I know one doctor, he worked at that time in the 6th Moscow hospital.
He says that everything is depicted very authentically in this series.

Sorry for my ignorance, but I've never heard of Boris Shcherbina and Valery Legasov. Are they truly unsung heroes as depicted in this series?

Sad, but it's true. Scherbina after Chernobyl was sent to elimination of consequences of 1988 Armenian earthquake. His health was getting worse and worse, he died in 1990 from an illness.
Legasov committed suicide exactly 2 years after the disaster, probably because of the emotional pressure on him.

[Bosco]

I hope they now get the notoriety they deserve.

I know throughout my schooling we barely touched upon anything related to the incident. I hope this becomes a mandatory subject mater moving forward. Not to point fingers, but to understand the repercussions and totality of energy dependency that we so heavily lean on.

[satur8]

I highly recommend I Am Mother from Netflix.

It's an intelligent sci-fi thriller. The trailer may give away a bit too much, so here is a short synopsis: after an extinction level event, an android raises a human child as her own. The story, acting, direction, and CGI all get top marks, and it gives you a lot to think about.

[Enjoyed]

A curious, but perhaps very appropriate lack of discussion of the latest Black Mirror episodes.

I enjoyed them all. None of them were anywhere near the best episodes. But they also weren't the worst.
I've been debating with a friend whether the Miley Cyrus one was intentionally bad. I argue that it is made to be like a C movie with a stupid premiss and cheesy acting - but it plays on the fact that, actually, the scary future technology is not even remotely a far stretch

Spoiler

OK, maybe not the dreams into music part, or copying a conscious but limiting it's functions - but the hologram take over, the complete over production of a song to the point where you can control attributes like "cuteness" and "optimism" - I personally thought that was hilarious!

.

[Fine Time]

A curious, but perhaps very appropriate lack of discussion of the latest Black Mirror episodes.

I enjoyed them all. None of them were anywhere near the best episodes.

Season 5  Black Mirror  fantastic & essential viewing  ,  other brilliant episodes for me ,  . .  Fifteen Million Merits ,  San Junipero ,  USS Callister ,  Metal Head ,  Black Museum  and Hang the DJ.  Hope we get some more of this genius series exploring how consequences of future tech could effect the human experience.  Recommended to anyone who likes  sci-fi ,  Twilight Zone and  Tales of the Unexpected. 

[sandelic]

Anyone watched Stranger Things season 3?

[Bosco]

^ I watched the first episode of season 3, and I couldn't be more unimpressed. I'm trying to remind myself this was a really awesome series before a bumpy 2nd season, but the tone of the first episode for season 3 was so horrendous, I'm feeling ready to jump ship.

What has emerged as a superior series; 'Dark', just wrapped up its second season. I highly recommend if you enjoy brain twisting plots. It requires a little more patience, especially if your non German speaker (Don't do the English dub, Sub titles are must English speakers!). You literally might have to write down your thoughts and graph out a timeline to stay on pace with the show.

Spoiler

I think open ended likelihood of season 3 might be overkill for this series. I'm starting to grow frustrated with the Characters and feeling they're a bit selfish. Love and desire might make you do dumb shit, but at what point do these characters understand there is a world beyond their fucked up little Germantown.

Movies I caught on consecutive nights:

'Under the Silver Lake' and 'Blue Velvet'


Starting with the former... I think it was pretty great. It's a extremely difficult film to pinpoint the tone, and at the beginning I thought I hated it cause it was going to dissolve into hipster trash. But no, this has to be one of the more unique films I've seen in a long time. It's part of Amazon Prime right now and I think you guys should go checkout what has been (so far) a poorly rated film and what is bound to be a cult classic.

As for the later (Blue Velvet)... I think I made a mistake watching this right after 'Under the Silver Lake'. It's clear the director of UtSL took influence from David Lynch's work and more specifically, 'Blue Velvet'. But as for my first viewing of Lynch's "magnum opus", it was a miss for me. I must have been desensitized over the years from extreme exposure of violence, perversion and degeneration, because I became very bored as I watched this film. I did enjoy the oddball Dennis Hopper scenes in the sense of exposing a completely unbridled sociopath with some of the quirkiest of sexual manifestations. But I ultimately feel the yin and yang symbolism wore thin on me pretty quick. I'll probably revisit at a latter date. At least I understand the Dennis Hopper one liners that have been constantly quoted from this film.

[ThePumisher]

In other news, I saw The Dead Don't Die and it's brilliant. Everything I love : dark humour, meta jokes with references that I sometimes were the only one to catch in the audience, Bill Murray, zombie Iggy Pop, blasé Adam Driver... Go see it !

came back from the cinemas watching this. yes, it's brilliant, except for

Spoiler

the moment where tilda swinton is lift up by the flying saucer

[sandelic]

I've watched Blue Velvet as a kid and still remember how deeply disturbing it was, even years after.
I bet you would love it if you've watched it in 80's. It was singular movie experience then.
I have same problem with Star Wars. I've watched first episodes only in late 90's and was very unimpressed. I guess you had to watched it as a kid to fall in love with it.
I had a good time watching Stranger Things. Not as good as first season, but not bad. There are things that were 'OK, I'll let this pass' in it, but nothing that would spoil it for me.