Topic: Rate the last TV show you've seen

[Shorty McNostril]

Daredevil S2 had Turk almost getting his foot sawed off by a member of the Hand! Punisher shanks like six prisoners in a hallway!

Oops. that was a type.  I means Season 3 lol.  As you correctly mentioned S2 had some quite horrific scenes in it too.

[Adrock]

Castlevania

Season 2 was excellent. It wraps up the story of “Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse” while making some drastic changes namely that Alucard is convinced not to re-enter protracted sleep. To my surprise, Hector and Isaac from “Castlevania: Curse of Darkness” make their debut. They were apparently announced in July. Hector and Isaac fit in a lot better than the game retcon. Their stories are far more fleshed out here. Isaac, in particular, received a dramatic makeover. He’s no longer the that tattooed, sadomasochist weirdo. Hector remains close to Ayami Kojima’s original design though his personality was completely changed. He’s manipulated into betraying Dracula rather than voluntarily leaving out of protest. He ends the season as Carmilla’s slave. If the Netflix series attempts to adapt “Castlevania: Curse of Darkness,” I’ll be interested to see what happens to Hector.

The fight against Dracula in the penultimate episode doesn’t disappoint though Trevor doesn’t do a ton. He has his moments, but the fight is mainly between Dracula and Alucard with the former allowing the latter to stake him through the heart. It works in terms of character arc though it moves “Castlevania” away from being a story about a legendary clan of vampire hunters. I don’t see how any human could stand a chance against this Dracula. Still, the stated goal by the writers was to show Dracula as a tragic figure, and to that end, they succeeded.

The writers did an excellent job of adapting the series while making it their own. While I always look forward to the Death fight in the games, they wisely didn’t bring the character over. Death should be neutral rather than a servant of Dracula, and trying to explain Death probably wouldn’t be worth the fan service. Grant Danasty and his bandana were also cast aside. I was never a fan of the character, and I never felt like he was missing here.

I hope the writers choose not to resurrect Dracula a bunch of times. After addressing the power vacuum in the vampire world after the death of Dracula, none game really lends itself to an adaptation until “Rondo of Blood” and “Symphony of the Night.” Every game in between involves a Belmont walking up to the castle to defeat Dracula. This would mean no Simon. The show has, thus far, not felt like a cash-in. Continually bringing back Dracula would do more harm than good to the story that has been told thus far. Maybe the show just ends before getting to that point. They can maybe try it once.

[Stratos]

Oooh! S2 of Castlvania dropped? Will have to check it out.

[Plugabugz]

Supergirl was accidentally really funny this week.

J'onn and a Daxamite destroy the family home and sets it on fire, J'onn stops the Daxamite, says YOU ARE SAFE NOW and flies away while their house is still ablaze.

[oohhboy]

Thanks for the heads up. Did know she was back on.

[BlackNMild2k1]

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (the teenage witch)

anybody check this out yet? It was actually pretty good.
It's only 10eps long, but I initially started watching it because my daughter wanted to watch it... so I thought I would check out the 1st episode. Several days later, I finished the entire show, and haven't watched a single minute of it with her yet. LOL

There is a reference to Riverdale in the show, so I'm not sure if anyone here watches that show. I know this was put together by someone that was working on Riverdale on The CW, but I'm not sure if the 2 shoes are supposed to be connected in any way.

[oohhboy]

RE: Sabrina

No cat, no sale. Salem chewing everyone out is half the show.

[BlackNMild2k1]

RE: Sabrina

No cat, no sale. Salem chewing everyone out is half the show.

Salem is there, but he doesn't talk. At least not in this season of the show there may have been a tease that the familiars can speak, but I'd have to go back and rewatch a specific scene to know for sure. Seems like it may be a 2nd season thing
But then there is Ambrose, member of the fam that's under "house arrest" who also tends to be liberally opinionated and a bit outspoken at times.

I haven't read the comic, and barely remember the old tv show, so I don't remember if there was an "Ambrose" in those versions.

I'll have to say, this show wasn't perfect, but it was entertaining, and I will tune in for a 2nd season.

and speaking of 2nd Seasons, I just finished Castlevania this morning.
This was just renewed for a 3rd season. I'm looking forward to that as well.

[ThePerm]

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: I liked it. It's going on my future to watch list. There was an episode of Fatman on Batman where they joked about how it would be cool if there was a Sabrina that went dark. This is it.

[oohhboy]

Legends of Tomorrow is back and stronger than ever. Bear hugging "Is it absurd and fun yet makes sense?". Demonic Unicorn that sprays rainbow coloured LSD, kills people with its horns and eats the victim's heart.

It continues to stay true to "Bunch of **** ups on a time ship" adventures. So far they haven't added some annoying git to lug around for the season. If Constantine is this season's +1 sign me up.

[BranDonk Kong]

The Walking Dead S09 E05 - 9/10
Great episode...I actually called that ending (well, not the very ending), but that was pretty great. Keeping Judith around was a great insurance policy by the writers.

[BlackNMild2k1]

The Haunting of Hill House.... (Netflix)

HOLY.****
this is some legit horror in TV format. I just finished ep5 and daaaaamn man. Wow.

There's a lot of time skip back and forth, and it took me a minute to figure out who was who, but it's really well done, and it's more my fault for attempting to multi-task early on.
Give yourself time to get into this one, and I pretty sure you won't be disappointed. But I say this only being halfway though the show.

[BranDonk Kong]

Sweet, I was curious about that show.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Sweet, I was curious about that show.

I'd say more, but I don't really want you to go in expecting anything from anything or anyone in particular.
Cold blind start is the best way to go.
Netflix style of long form story telling of a movie in TV episode chunks works great for this one.

[BranDonk Kong]

The Midterm Elections - 6/10
Looks like some of the gooD guys won, but some otheR bad ones did too.

[oohhboy]

Not sure about all the complaints about Doctor Who. The episodes are a bit clumsy outright stating the theme a bit like a villain rant at the end of the episode but the underlying premise of each episode is pretty good. Jodie is fantastic, certainly better than Matt Smith.

The companions aren't interesting as individuals but are as a group they are nice. However they aren't kept together often enough for more interactions.

Peak Doctor Who is still Tenant and Tait. OIOIOIOIIIO.

Supergirl: RIP Mercy and Otis. May your god awful editions rest in peace for your namesakes did not deserve this.

WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU JIMMY. Bloody hell, SHE LOVES YOU THAT MUCH YOU TWIT. That wasn't the time, place or reason to get all high and mighty. Cate Grant needs to come back just to slap you.

I still can't believe they threw SG under the bus by having Johnoss imply that she was being (accidentally)racist in the first episode. WTH.

Manchester Black is cleaning house.

[broodwars]

Wasn't sure whether to stick this in the TV show or Movie thread, considering how I watched it, but yeah...I finally got around to starting RWBY, a show I've put off seeing for a very long time based on how it visually looked like utter garbage every time I saw it.  However, I stumbled across a BluRay set on Black Friday that had the first 5 Seasons or "Volumes" for $25, so I figured...what the hell?

The series is a series of micro episodes of varying length. The 1st & 2nd volumes let you watch the episodes either individually or strung together as a movie, and so far I highly recommend the latter.

So far, I've watched through the beginning of the 2nd "season/volume", and yeah...I'm onboard with this. The subject matter is as cliche as it comes so far (a bunch of students wanting to become monster hunters with absolutely fucking ridiculous weapons train to do so at an academy), but the show makes it work. The first season looks particularly bad, at some points even worse than the 1st season of Reboot. However, the show has a nice sense of style and energy that manages to cover for that, particularly in the excellently-scripted fight scenes (so far).

I'm a little wary of just how awesome the fight scenes are so far, as they are incredible to watch but they're already trending close to the line of being so over-the-top and elaborately staged that they cross into DBZ territory, where it's just a bunch of noise & flash without stakes or weight. They haven't crossed that line yet and they're damn entertaining, but the guy behind this show was also behind those old Final Fantasy fighting videos on Youtube and that's where those went eventually.

So far, I'm invested and I'm looking forward to seeing where this show goes. It's clearly setting things up for later story arcs.  The 2nd season already looks like it got a noticeable bump in the animation budget, as characters seem higher res now with sharper outlines.

[oohhboy]

I tried RWBY a couple years ago and that was a big no. While I wasn't a fan of the art style that wasn't the problems I had with it. Sort of.

Like you I have problems with the fight scenes which for me crossed the line from the very beginning. There wasn't any substance to it and I just didn't care no matter how much the show insists upon itself. The art style and poorly animated/realised character movement added to the weightlessness. Not that I don't or can't enjoy flash level animation it's just not money level work.

Then there is wasting time. I didn't get very far into season one but I distinctly remember 2 episodes outside of school where nothing happened. Just standing outside of school chatting about nothing. It didn't advance the plot, tell you anything about the characters, or anything, completely vapid.

LOL at the insistence that it's animé, it sure doesn't feel like it.

[broodwars]

I tried RWBY a couple years ago and that was a big no. While I wasn't a fan of the art style that wasn't the problems I had with it. Sort of.

Like you I have problems with the fight scenes which for me crossed the line from the very beginning. There wasn't any substance to it and I just didn't care no matter how much the show insists upon itself. The art style and poorly animated/realised character movement added to the weightlessness. Not that I don't or can't enjoy flash level animation it's just not money level work.

Then there is wasting time. I didn't get very far into season one but I distinctly remember 2 episodes outside of school where nothing happened. Just standing outside of school chatting about nothing. It didn't advance the plot, tell you anything about the characters, or anything, completely vapid.

LOL at the insistence that it's animé, it sure doesn't feel like it.

That's why I said I think the show works better as a "movie", with the opening & closing credits removed so the show just keeps moving without the subconscious expectations of an episode.  And yeah, this show REEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAALLY wants to be the mid-2000s Teen Titans when it comes to the whole "American Anime" thing.

[broodwars]

So, I've watched all of season 2 & most of season 3 now of RWBY.

Well, I'll give it to the creators: they worked damn hard in the 2nd & 3rd seasons to address to criticisms of the 1st. Season 2 has a marked animation improvement over the 1st season, with higher resolution & more numerous character models. The story also continues the 1st season's task of setting things up to come. However, the fights are still a bit weightless & the story is still a bit slow.

However, holy **** does season 3 take everything WAY up. The character models actually fairly resemble their concept art now, there is a dramatic improvement in lighting; coloring; and effects, there's a much more dynamic camera that often tracks characters through a sequence, and there's actual goddamn weight in the fight scenes.  The show kind of looks gorgeous now, despite some budgetary limitations.

Most importantly, though, **** gets real this season, despite it appearing to start as a tournament arc initially. The plan the villains were setting up in the 1st 2 seasons comes to fruition here & the show finally lets the viewer in on the show's real stakes. Pretty much the entire last hour and a half of the 3 hour runtime is pure win, as utter chaos reigns and the heroes are definitely brought to that fabled "lowest point".

Oohboy, given your issues with the 1st season, you might want to consider jumping straight to the 3rd. Aside from a few minor story beats largely from season 2, there's nothing you can't pick up pretty quickly here.

[broodwars]

So yeah...RWBY's art in Season 4's improved just a TAD over even the 3rd season. You should even be able to tell from my crappy phone pics of my TV. -_-





By comparison....Season 1

[ShyGuy]

That doesn't look good to me.

[broodwars]

That doesn't look good to me.

As I said, it loses something in the translation to off-screen camera picture, since Sony prevents share button functionality on the PS4 while watching BluRays and I can't be bothered to find & hook-up my external BluRay drive on my computer; grab screen captures; post them to Twitter; & then link them over here.

Suffice it to say that each season of RWBY has dramatically improved the quality of the art & animation over the previous one. Season 2 added higher definition models, Season 3 added dynamic camera, cleaner models, & better lighting. So far from the hour I've watched of Season 4, it looks like shading was the focus of this season along with redesigning all the models to new character designs.

Direct screen grabs from BluRay.com.

[oohhboy]

Looks like they finally caught up with GameCube level graphics.

Considering by your own admission it took until season 3 to get good, that's a hard pass.

Legends: They brought back the animal talisman lady, not really. Shape shifter, same actress. Better character, better acting but not really sure what her function on the show is. If Constantine is the +1, she is more +5. They are literally doing 2 redemption arcs in parallel. They are somewhat different takes between her and Nora with one feeling rather redundant.

The show runners have been pretty good so if it does go bad it would be annoying rather than crash and burn.

Supergirl(The character) is in a really weird place. Kara spends 95% of her time as SG in a story arc where she is just muscle. The story is begging to have Kara use her reporter skills and investigate instead of getting stuffed into death traps. She doesn't really interact with the other characters. The friction with her and Lena isn't there because they don't interact.

lol "This is the DEO".

[broodwars]

Looks like they finally caught up with GameCube level graphics.

I think your recollection of GameCube-level graphics is a bit rose-tinted, there, outside of maybe Symphonia.

Considering by your own admission it took until season 3 to get good, that's a hard pass.

Well, I wouldn't call Seasons 1 & 2 "bad", per say, but Season 3 is definitely where things got taken up a notch and the show started fulfilling its potential, I'd definitely agree there.  In that sense, I'd say it's pretty similar to just about every Star Trek series.  And given that it only takes a few hours to sit through each of the 1st 2 seasons, I don't think it's that bad a time investment, but oh well. To each their own.

At some point, I'll get back to the Arrowverse shows. I only watched Legends & Flash from last season, along with roughly half of last season's Arrow. I'm finding it increasingly hard to care about those shows.