@Leo mentioned NEXT on TWiT or The Tech Guy last weekend. Looked into it. If you’re not finding it: got it on PRIME VIDEO. Which is kind of funny considering Iliza seems modeled after Alexa. Anyone watching too and up for discussion?
Most random but not-unseeable starting point: how big is the FBI agent’s phone, please? Either she’s got a rather small head or that phone is humongous.
…and the router they pulled from the densely packed rack cabinet will have gotten horrible reception. That poor AI must have squeezed through a cheese grater of a web connection.
Probably going to skip unless I hear really good things. I saw a promo for it during the Eagles game on Sunday and I was laughing my a$$ off at how basic it seemed - cue dramatic music, protagonist shouts “It’s the AI!!” and fires a few shotgun rounds in the air. Come on.
It certainly is a bit cringy. We’ve been eye-rolling at the screen a few times. From the tech to the seemingly-never-ending rehash of the Steve Jobs creative-genius-type-with-architect-designer-style-and-estranged-from-daughter. But hey - why write something new if rehashing reality is all it takes?
However, there can be fun in some good cringe. Recommendation: “Into the night”. There is a reason why Belgium is known for chocolates and not for series. No offence, fellow Belgian forum users…
I love it! Can’t wait to see episode two. I did pause it to check out the code. It’s Python. And silly. But still a fun show.
I noticed the thing about the FBI agent’s phone. I wrote it off to making it not look like anything current. Which makes sense. Nothing dates a show or movie faster than an out-of-date phone.
This is strange: first two episodes of NEXT were aired seven days apart. The third episode is scheduled a month later, for November 10th. It’s like they want you to lose interest. “I’m not OK with this!” (which applies here but does not matter and) is another excellent show which was cancelled due to Corona. But the first season sure was fun. Had a stranger things first season vibe.
That makes sense. I suppose that must be a downer for the writers (and some viewers) of the show. Somehow, the scheduling of many new shows seems off. Even before Corona it seems like there are twice or three times as many new formats launched but most of them with only two hand full of episodes, seasons very far apart if at all, and many to be cancelled just after one season. Must be a gigantic waste of investment, no?
Also, many people (like myself) don’t start a series until the entire first season airs or is available for binging. Nothing worse than investing in something that gets cancelled before the first season fully airs. (Granted that seems less likely these days when people are so desperate for content.)
Episode three is out. Stuff is getting more intense. Partially clever writing, but also a protagonist lacking a character arc. Might be that is been a month between episodes. Boston Dynamics made a cameo. How did you like it?
Alternatively, this week’s Star Trek Discovery is well worth a watch. Certainly high on the cheese-o-meter, but also pretty epic, visually stunning, and heartfelt. Might be something soothing in a turbulent time.
Indeed it is… With Discovery I always wonder if they are not moving too fast and changing too many premisses at once each season. But the original Enterprise lore seems to have provided enough episode templates (ship crashes onto planet, visit to earth, crew member focus) to strike a connection to the past. Plus, I suppose, viewing preferences changed so we cannot have the ship just trundle from one planet to the next each week like it’s the 90s.
With this one I really liked the acting of the younger, new crew member. Especially since the acting of Michael Bernam often feels a bit “on the nose”.
Do you have any TV series recommendations? I cannot seem to find much exciting material even though all platforms are full of new launches which fail to catch my excitement.
I agree, also on Next. While Next had a few nice turns in the past episodes, the acting and our script simply feels off.
As a little bit of an experiment, we’ve started watching a very old, mid eighties, German hospital soap which was cheesy when it came out. The station that produced it way back when seems to have decided that it’s quite hipster from today’s perspective and I have to say: it is perfectly and surprisingly bizarre from the first episode. You could imagine it like an ethnographic document on a upper and lower middle class in the 80s. It’s quite entertaining since it’s really hard to predict how people will react to certain information. (An affair comes out and the husband… worries exclusively about his standing in the job while his pregnant wife… takes it as part of life. / A homeless traveler gets cared for but is not insured to which the head of medicine responds by… taking up the bill but making him do chores in his house.)
So it might just be horribly written, but it might also be the 40 years of age. Probably both. The point that makes this entertaining is that predicting an outcome or a dialogue is near impossible and most of the time surprising. As for today’s shows, they are in so many cases just a rearrangement of a fixed set of expressions, lines, responses, tropes, challenges, solutions, and initiatives that we’ve simply seen countless times. At least it seems like it to me.
Hmmm If you like that sort of thing, have you ever seen St. Elsewhere St. Elsewhere (TV Series 1982–1988) - IMDb ? It’s a hospital drama from the 80’s that might be comparable.
No offence, fellow Belgian forum users…
But the first season sure was fun. Had a stranger things first season vibe.