Well, it turns out my system is not fully 4k compatible. Or rather my system is, but the HBO Max application for PS5 is not! :person_facepalming: When I cancel my service I will be sure to list that as one of the reasons. I had the same problem with crushed blacks.
House of Dragons
I am caught up on this show now. Overall it’s been a pretty disappointing experience. Seven episodes in and I haven’t found a character to root for. They are either spoiled, petty, and cruel people or they are dead. Even the children! They just don’t have enough redeeming qualities for me to feel bad for them when things don’t go their way. I don’t care who wins this game of thrones. Every one of these malevolent morons can burn in dragonfire for all I care.
Misc Notes:
- During the tournament, they kept cutting away from the action. Did they have no money for choreographers? Show us some damn sword fights, not just heads being caved in!
- The 10 year time skip ultimately killed any connection I felt to the characters.
- Milly Alcock and Emma D’Arcy don’t look or act anything alike in the role of Rhaenyra. This recasting was terrible. Alicent’s was much better.
- Bought a month of ad-free HBO Max for this—turns out ads for HBO products don’t count!!! Piracy is just better i guess.
- Turns out the PS5 app is not 4k compatible despite the PS5 being a 4K system owned by over 20 million people.
I felt exactly the same way about the two episodes of the HBO series “Industry” that I suffered through. I tried the show a second time to be fair. I came away wondering who would want to spend their precious free time engaged in the lives of these nasty people with no discernible redeeming qualities?
And it is made worse by the obvious disdain the show’s producers and creators have for us. They seem to think we need regular intervals of sex in our television programs in order to be interested. They punctuate the script with scenes that are supposed to be sexy, but which come across as simply pathetic. No thank you.
I agree with you on the unnecessary sex scenes. There is a high incidence of incest in this series which makes the sex scenes even weirder and more awkward than typical HBO. If they had cut them out and included a few actually-good combat scenes in HoD it would have improved the show. I’m sure there were similarly better uses for the time wasted in the Industry series.
I just don’t understand. Is there a demographic of people who prefer to get off to TV shows and are willing to watch 10-20 hrs of material just to see about 15 minutes worth of smut? And apparently these people are blinded to the other flaws in the show by those few minutes of wanking? I can only assume the answer is “yes” or HBO wouldn’t keep making this stuff. It’s just bizarre.
Edit: BTW, I’m not saying that all HBO shows are bad shows propped up by sex scenes. The original GoT was a quality show in the earlier seasons and the sex just happened to be there as part of an existing formula from what I can tell.
Yeh, HBO had some good series that didn’t necessarily rely on sex, look at The Newsroom or Westworld, for instance… (well maybe Westworld did a bit…)
Been watching “Bosch”
About 4 episodes in. Like it.
Started “Outer Range” Not sure about this one yet.
All the Best,
Jeff
Speaking to the Dim Dragons,
This guy pokes holes in the “It’s Creative” BS from HBO.
It was shot in daylight and darkened in Post.
Much of the beach scenes are below 1 nits. Which is way dimmer than Dolby or anyone else recommends.
At the end he shows some adjustments to make it watchable.
All the Best,
Jeff
I grew up in Los Angeles, but now live in the UK. Recognise so many of the locations.
Season 2 confirmed yesterday.
Perhaps Amazon aren’t sure about this one either. They cancelled Night Sky almost right away but kept quiet about Outer Range for months.
Looking forward to The Peripheral. Maybe. It would be easy to produce something expensive and mediocre.
I read the book ten years ago. If it weren’t for the pandemic, I doubt the show would have been made.
For those that haven’t read it, The Perhiperal is in part set an empty post-pandemics London. Peripherals are lifelike human robots used by survivors to get out in the world.
During lockdown it occured to me that Gibson must have thought about what day-to-day life would be like after 70 years of lockdowns.
I recognised the story five seconds into the trailer but couldn’t belive it was coming to the screen.
But that’s what makes them interesting. Killing off likeable characters makes the show less predicatable.
You probably aren’t a fan of Shakespeare either. His King Richard III is ugly, amoral, murderous.
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown” is from Henry IV. Not only is the line almost quoted verbatim in House of Dragons, the crown falls from King Viserys and he struggles to put it back.
My issue isn’t that they kill off likeable characters—it’s that I just don’t care about the ones who are left living. Also, if ALL of the decent characters die or turn into assholes then that isn’t very unpredictable, is it?
Just started watching this. OK so far, will need to watch a few more episodes to make up my mind about it.
Yep, Saul Rubinek. He is great as a character actor, but as a primary or lead? Meh… not so much. I don’t know if it’s just acting chops or luck of direction, but frankly I found him uninspiring in Warehouse 13.
This is a cool series premise… like that mysterious warehouse in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where the Ark of the Covenant was stowed away. Tons of artifacts in there, leaving much to the imagination. And so Warehouse 13 seems to attempt that uncovering. It is kitschy, campy, and… very much hit-or-miss. Some episodes are good, but some are awful. I have a Roku and I’ve been streaming it for free on it, catching episodes here and there. I’m not engaged in it… much like Sliders. Now there’s another one that had so much potential. Kind of like a quantum leap but into alternate realities. Quite a few fun & interesting episodes, but the formula gets so tiring after a while.
Anyway, there’s 5 seasons to Warehouse 13 — does it get better at some point? I’m still slogging back in Season 2.
Started “”Big Sky”:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Sky\_(American_TV_series)” about a week ago. It’s a crime-drama thriller, set in Montana. Overall, pretty good so far. The 3rd season just started last month. I’m a few episodes away from finishing Season 1.
Most TV series that have a general theme will lock into a set of characters and move forward with them for the whole thing. It wasn’t clear who that was going to be at the start. There are many interesting characters and some who are unclear (antagonist or protagonist)… but a few episodes in and things really shake up. By the 5th episode the two characters who will carry the series start to emerge (Cassie and Jenny). There are a few good twists & turns. Not too bad on the plausibility stretching, tough there are a few big holes here and there (“who paid for that tombstone?”).
Anyway, it’s good enough that I feel like keeping up with it. Will chime in again when I’m into season 2.
Anyone seen Station Eleven ?
Only one season. Thinking of giving it a try.
Interesting that they started shooting this just before the pandemic hit.
I almost don’t even want to think about pandemics… we’re still in one, despite some having said “it’s over.” COVID19 is still out there, mixing & morphing… it isn’t vanquished, which means it can ressurge at any moment and wreak havoc again as most people have mask & social distancing fatigue.
I saw the first two episodes of The 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time (2022).
This TV show seems to be rated R.
I don't agree with all of the choices, but the show is entertaining.
I have seen many of the movies featured in the first two episodes, but some of the movies aren't very good in my opinion.
This mini-series is eight episodes long, and I plan to watch them all in the coming week or two.
I saw yesterday's SNL.
It was much better than the previous episodes of this season.
I even liked the musical guest's music, which is rare for me.
It was SNL's Halloween special, and I frequently laughed out loud. 
I started to watch it and fell asleep. 
I had a long day…
Cool. Will check it out. I’ve been seriously disappointed in the season thus far. I record it and so often I’m fast-forwarding through crappy skits. Musical guests are usually way out of my interest range. But man… some skits are just so glaringly awful. Pretty much for the writing. Just terrible comedic choices. Even Weekend Update has started to sag, which is usually the ‘saving grace’ nugget of the show.