The TV Series discussion thread

Pladio said:

There's a new stargate?

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Yeah, Stargate Origins, in a couple of ten minute webisodes, kind of thing. I was curious, but it's as bad as you might fear. In fairness, the original series was also terrible in its early episodes (and then got considerably better), but this is another level of cheap opportunism.

I've watched the first three episodes of Altered Carbon, and I don't find it nearly as interesting as I did the books that I read years ago. The wife bailed after the first episode.....

Ripper said:

Yeah, Stargate Origins, in a couple of ten minute webisodes, kind of thing. I was curious, but it's as bad as you might fear. In fairness, the original series was also terrible in its early episodes (and then got considerably better), but this is another level of cheap opportunism.

Click to expand...

Oh, I don't really enjoy these types of mini-shows myself. And if you're saying it's not good then I'll stay clear.

Ripper said:

Tried watching ten minutes of the new Stargate. Oh dearie me…

It was a festival of cheap production, awful writing, and bad acting...

Click to expand...

It sounds exactly like the old Stargate.

JDR13 said:

It sounds exactly like the old Stargate.

Click to expand...

Yeah, you're not wrong. It did become somewhat better for a desperate sci-fi fan, over time. But it was always third rate stuff. This latest effort just seems so obviously like it should be immediately flushed.

re: the new Stargate
I quickly checked it out because I did not see this coming. I actually still watch old SG1 and Atlantis episodes on the Elrey network. SG1 is one of my favorite all time series, diverse cast, interesting story telling and with the Gate they were able to explore a multitude of ideas both future and past.

My quick check of the current new series did not appeal to me at all. Just do not feel like watching a show with a bunch of Nazi hijinks. Yawn . . . . .

Here's a tv series I've been wanting to see since forever. OZ. I just started. It's really jarring seeing the video ratio so small, and I'm watching it on a ultra-wide screen. Really jarring, but really like what I'm seeing. After this I think I plan on starting The Wire again.

Carnifex said:

I've watched the first three episodes of Altered Carbon, and I don't find it nearly as interesting as I did the books that I read years ago. The wife bailed after the first episode…..

Click to expand...

It gets better after the 2nd episode. Of course, my opinion is based solely on the show since I didn't read the books.

I couldn't get into Altered Carbon either. For me, it's mostly about the lead actor. Not sure how he got the part, but I think he was a poor choice.

I'm slowly going with Altered Carbon, don't want to binge it, 3 episodes left. But so far...

- It's not just the lead actor, almost whole cast feels like a miss. Sure, imagination is the most demanding part while displaying a scifi character, in case of this show the performance is often lacking of passion, often is not believable and is mediocre.

- In hands of a master those stunning visuals, and the show is rich of those, we'd see contrast of nature beauty and ugliness of species. Blood on snow, burned down something in a middle of "paradise", horror in Alice in Wonders, something like that. Sadly, visuals are just props that have absolutely no function except looking nice to dumb audience. Nature acts as Jessica Alba.

- Sound and music are meh. Sorry about that, wasn't impressed absolutely anywhere so far. It's just not normal that just one (albs) scream in a videogame The Witcher 3 is more impressive than everything in this show. Since when videogames are supposed to have better sound quality than movies/television?

Okay, I won't say I'm utterly disappointed. The whole idea of preserving consciousness and then "import" it in different bodies that don't have to be clones is intriguing enough to be explored more. But somehow I can't care less who abuses it and who's the victim in this show.
Mentioned it's three more episodes for me, if something radically doesn't change, I don't think I'm gonna recommend this one to freinds.

I finished watching Altered Carbon. All in all, it was entertaining but it's not in my 'Wow what an awesome show' list. Didn't like the final episode.
I have one question:

I’m happy with Altered Carbon but I’m not thrilled with it. I agree with a lot of Joxer’s criticisms but I still think it’s worthy. Personally I’d slow the show down and shoot for Blade Runner pacing and make it dead serious. Instead they went with a style like the “Ghost in the Shell” live action adaptation which was very mediocre and didn’t take itself seriously at all. It treads close to being “B” movie quality.

We gave up on Altered Carbon, I'll just have to remember how good the book is, and how much I enjoy reading it.

My current favourite would be Counterpart, if you like spy/thriller shows and are not watching this, you should give it a go. In my opinion, Simmons is simply killing it in an outstanding duo-role performance. He'll be an easy shoe-in when award time rolls around.

I just watched an episode of the X-files that is, by far, the worse episode of that show I've ever seen. I put up with Doggett and Reyes, and their collective episodes were head and shoulders above this drek. Highlight number one: the ten to fifteen seconds of the Six Million Dollar Man that was briefly on Mulder's television. Highlight number two: when the episode finally ended. That's the first time I've ever reached for a book during an hour of that show.

wolfing said:

I finished watching Altered Carbon. All in all, it was entertaining but it's not in my 'Wow what an awesome show' list. Didn't like the final episode.
I have one question:

Spoiler

How did Lizzy transform from the naked woman into herself (and create clothes out of nowhere too) in the final episode?

Click to expand...

My take

Dajjer said:

My take

Spoiler

. . . is that we are looking at the digital Lizzy (that had transformation powers in the digital world) that made the escape to our world, not the physical Lizzy that was in a coma. I believe at one point in the script digital Lizzy even questioned her very existence and wondered if she was the same person as the Lizzy that was in a coma. She ended this pondering by stating she felt like the same person and she was just going to have to live with that dilemma

Click to expand...

I did some more research and basically she uploaded into a 'synth', which are synthetic sleeves, and they have the ability to morph (like in one of the first scenes where you can see strippers change their face). They never explained how synths can do that though.

To get the memory of that awful X-files episode out of my head, I watched the first episode of the Frankenstein Chronicles yesterday. I thought it got off to a great start, looking forward to perhaps a few more hours with it either tonight or later this weekend.

Altered Carbon - was pretty good though in some moments was turning into a soap opera; good atmosphere and the main dude played well

Farscape season1 - finished yesterday, pretty good, wanted to watch it for a long time

Ripper said:

Yeah, Stargate Origins, in a couple of ten minute webisodes, kind of thing. I was curious, but it's as bad as you might fear. In fairness, the original series was also terrible in its early episodes (and then got considerably better), but this is another level of cheap opportunism.

Click to expand...

I knew about your warning, yet I was just too curious for my own good. "It can't be that bad", I said to myself. But it really was!

Then again, it has been quite some time since I watched sg-1. The stargate I remember had decent production values and actors did decent job portraying their characters. Sg-1 walked that fine line between serious and cheesy which I think made it really successfull. It was fairly serious at times for sure, but there was plenty of comedy elements as well.

Not to mention the fact that the main cast was really likeable and they had true chemistry. In addition there were few talented veteran actors in the sideroles, such as Don S. Davids as General Hammond. When General Hammond said that safety of Earth was at risk due to imminent Goa'uld/Replicator threath, I didn't blink an eye. He made the script work.

The orginal series could have not been that cheesy? Or maybe it was? When it orginally aired here, I think it was 1998. That is insane: atleast 20 years ago! There weren't many scifi series on tv back then. Great scifi series I remember from the 90s were: Babylon 5, Star Trek, X-files and Stargate.

Just finished Altered Carbon. Enjoyed it overall. Now i've moved on to Peaky Blinders. Quite a contrast.