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Post by GamerL on Oct 13, 2017 21:19:53 GMT -5
The simple act of having the character die or suffer at the end for their action does nothing to turn off people who look up to them because it can be dismissed so easily ("oh, of course they had to do that to get it on TV"). Supposedly American History X is a cult movie among neo nazis, for example. Roger Ebert used to say a movie always argues in favor of whatever it's about, regardless of what it thinks it's saying. I can see what he meant, though I don't think it means we should always tell stories about heroic characters, necessarily (and neither did he). Smart people will get it, idiots will be idiots. The Sopranos is probably the best thing to ever follow an anti-hero character, Tony Soprano is a bad dude but he still has many layers, he's still a complicated human being, there's more to it than a "cool badass guy you secretly wish you were" and the show overall does a good job not glamorizing the mafia life too much and making the ugly and violent side of it clear.
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Post by toei on Oct 13, 2017 21:24:02 GMT -5
The simple act of having the character die or suffer at the end for their action does nothing to turn off people who look up to them because it can be dismissed so easily ("oh, of course they had to do that to get it on TV"). Supposedly American History X is a cult movie among neo nazis, for example. Roger Ebert used to say a movie always argues in favor of whatever it's about, regardless of what it thinks it's saying. I can see what he meant, though I don't think it means we should always tell stories about heroic characters, necessarily (and neither did he). Smart people will get it, idiots will be idiots. The Sopranos is probably the best thing to ever follow an anti-hero character, Tony Soprano is a bad dude but he still has many layers, he's still a complicated human being, there's more to it than a "cool badass guy you secretly wish you were" and the show overall does a good job not glamorizing the mafia life too much and making the ugly and violent side of it clear. I wish I could have liked The Sopranos, but the focus on boring suburban american life and his goddamn mother made me stop after the first season.
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Post by JoeQ on Oct 14, 2017 5:49:46 GMT -5
I'm feeling kinda conflicted about Sopranos. I loved it when it was about the mob stuff, warts and all, but the show always lost me when the focus shifted to Tony's family. I can appreciate it more than I actually like it I guess.
Griff is right though, it's a good example of how to portray a bad guy protagonist without making him cool and awesome. I don't think anyone has ever wished they were Tony Soprano or any of the other guys in the show (well, maybe Silvio).
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Post by silentstorm on Oct 14, 2017 15:45:26 GMT -5
I have just watched the last current episode of The Good Place and, a show about a bad selfish woman dying at the same second another woman with the same that is pratically a saint at the same place, and because of that, heaven and hell getting both of them confused with the bad woman now having to pretend she is good and make sure that heaven doesn't realize it's mistake and send her to hell like they should have...it's suprisingly better and more fun than i was expecting.
What with the comedy being funny, the setting being interesting(turns out every religion is wrong), oh, and there actually being a plot with things changing all the time, plot twists and actual character development.
And thankfully, the second season is keeping up with the first one so far, and i hope it stays that way.
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Post by toei on Oct 14, 2017 17:18:20 GMT -5
I'm feeling kinda conflicted about Sopranos. I loved it when it was about the mob stuff, warts and all, but the show always lost me when the focus shifted to Tony's family. I can appreciate it more than I actually like it I guess. Griff is right though, it's a good example of how to portray a bad guy protagonist without making him cool and awesome. I don't think anyone has ever wished they were Tony Soprano or any of the other guys in the show (well, maybe Silvio). Actually I remember discussions about just that - people thinking Tony Soprano was just a cool, badass character and he was right about everything. This isn't the writers' fault; to paraphrase David Simon, all the clues are there for why Tony is a destructive force in his community. But when an asshole sees an asshole on TV, isn't he gonna think the asshole's just great?
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Post by lurker on Oct 18, 2017 16:45:11 GMT -5
This seems ill-advised...
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Post by eatersthemanfool on Oct 18, 2017 22:29:55 GMT -5
Oh yea I really like The Good Place. Aside from being just a good comedy, it's also nice to see a show diving headfirst into an exploration of ethics.
I've started watching The Orville. I'm not generally a big fan of Seth McFarlane (Only thing of his I like is Robot Chicken because it's honest about being just nostalgic masturbation) but I'm digging this show. It takes itself just seriously enough to be interesting. It's essentially what an organization like Starfleet would be like without Roddenberry's utopianistic views of humanity.
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Post by JoeQ on Oct 23, 2017 10:13:56 GMT -5
Working my way through the Star Trek franchise. Greatly enjoyed TOS and TAS, campy, silly fun backed by solid characters and occasionally profound writing. Now watching TNG and damn, I sure didn't expect the most venerated part of the franchise to start this badly. The first three episodes were just awful, hopefully it won't take too long to get to the good parts.
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Post by silentstorm on Oct 25, 2017 9:30:12 GMT -5
The new Ducktales cartoon, don't know why i waited till seven episodes aired but whatever, it's actually a pretty fun show and i love the characters, i particularly am suprised at liking Beakley and Webby so much this time around, with Lauchpad suprisingly being my least favorite of the group so far.
It also helps that they gave the triplets actual personalities and designs without making them annoying, oh, and having Donald actually be a character this time around is great too since he is my favorite Disney character, even better, he is not an one note angry guy like in some old cartoons, i love the time he is around some assassins and is just showing pictures of his nephews clearly proud of them and showing just how fatherly he is.
Actually, this is an interesting change for this new cartoon, Della Duck, the triplet's mother, is actually a deal in this show with the kids wanting to find out what happened to her and Donald and Scrooge wanting to keep it a secret for some reason, even moreso since Donald's pictures shows that he has been raising the kids since they were babies, even having pictures of Dewey's first steps, showing that he is more their adoptive father than an uncle at this series even if the kids still call him uncle, so something clearly happened to her a little after the kids were born, whatever it was, it was bad enough that when junk mail came for Della, Scrooge bought the post office and even fired the mailman who brought the junk mail, some shit happend there.
Oh, and i can't wait until the Darkwing Duck episode!
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Post by Snake on Oct 25, 2017 14:30:05 GMT -5
The Walking Dead.
Meh. Just watching it to see how it all ends. Overall, it is beginning to feel long in the tooth.
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Post by Snake on Oct 30, 2017 21:03:30 GMT -5
Been watching F is For Family. Pretty good stuff. Love the '70s vibe. I noticed Debi Derryberry voices one of the characters, which I totally recognize for Feena on Ys Book 1 and 2, Turbografx CD.
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Post by moran on Oct 31, 2017 14:24:15 GMT -5
That time of year for Arrow and Flash. I don’t know what it is about Arrow that gets me hooked. It’s so soap opera-like and I usually can’t stand that on TV, but it sinks it’s claws into me every season.
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Post by Woody Alien on Nov 1, 2017 18:26:00 GMT -5
Just finished season 2 of Stranger Things. Loved the first one last year, this one a little less so. I'm copypasting here the reasons why I found it less interesting that I wrote elsewhere:
It was pretty solid but not as great as the first one, which is really an excellent piece of television. Here's my reasons: the 80s references are far too blatant this time (and these weren't exactly subtle the first time around), too much stuff going on at once (they could have removed a couple subplots), and they gave less screen time to some interesting characters because of some of the new ones, which aren't as compelling: e.g. the awesome science teacher does pretty much nothing this time (and Dustin even mocks him!), while the new psychic girl 008/Kali is cool but ultimately irrelevant and Californian stud Billy is an useless antagonist. The new menace is much cooler and eviler however.
Has anyone seen the show? What do you think about it?
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Post by moran on Nov 4, 2017 16:33:43 GMT -5
Overall I liked the new season. Not as great as the first but still good. Started slow, I liked the addition of Sean Astin, Eleven’s Story was a slog, Will’s was great, and I really liked the climax of it all. And Steve’s expanded role was pretty good as well.
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Post by Woody Alien on Nov 7, 2017 13:13:32 GMT -5
Overall I liked the new season. Not as great as the first but still good. Started slow, I liked the addition of Sean Astin, Eleven’s Story was a slog, Will’s was great, and I really liked the climax of it all. And Steve’s expanded role was pretty good as well. Yes, Steve was probably the biggest surprise, from a random asshole bully to a caring and considerate young man, and his friendship with Dustin is quite sweet and funny. Interestingly, I've read that Sean Astin auditioned for the role of the crackpot journalist, and even when he was chosen as Bob originally they planned to have him around just for a brief time, but he was so good they ended up greatly expanding the character's role.
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