Watched most of the first episode last night before bed called, reminds me of Rome, has that same “really, we can do CGI” look and a cast of what feels like English thespians from TV and stage. Enjoying it so far, curious to know how much is utter fictitious (98%?) and how much is close to the mark
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First, Tales of the Jedi, six short animated episodes. 3 for Ahsoka, 3 for Dooku.
They’re… good. The first one is the weakest. The three Dooku episodes are… good? Not great. They humanize him somewhat. They make his fall seem… not-totally-unreasonable. It’s still a big leap, and it doesn’t quite earn it, but it’s not bad.
The last two Ahsoka episodes, though. Wow. Those two alone are worth watching the rest, but you could also skip the first 4 episodes and just watch the last two. Granted, I’m a huge fan of Ahsoka… I hated her first appearance in the original Clone Wars animated movie, but in everything else she’s been in she’s been great. I think she is officially my favourite Jedi.
Have started watching Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and its got its hooks in me. I’m 2 episodes in, and aside from some gratuitous nudity (which was completely unnecessary… but whatever) it’s been perfect. I love… love love the Cyberpunk genre, and this has been a wonderful glimpse at somebody’s neon-and-blood view of it. I can’t wait to watch the remaining 4 (I’m already braced for the ending, which I know nothing about but I know Cyberpunk… the genre doesn’t do happy endings. It can’t).
And Franz Ferdinand for the opening… phew.
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I enjoyed the first 3 episodes of The Peripheral. William Gibson is the hook (though I am not familiar with the source material), but the execution also seems good.
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I started watching The Legend of Vox Machina last night, started with the first two episodes. I must admit I loved the quality of the drawings, very inspired on Japanese style, but still recognizable and not too caricature-like. I just have seen/listened to about 30 or so episodes of the Youtube series, but I think that will be more or less half of the season, so I may leave it there not to spoil myself on future Critical Role adventures (I enjoy listening to them while doing chores or similar, they give me a bit of the impression of being like old times radio serials)
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Watched the first two episodes of Blockbuster. I can’t say it really grabbed my attention. There were a few laughs but nothing special.
Still love the idea of Netflix making this show tho - its extremely cruel of them
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I’m only a few episodes left of the cabinet of curiosities on Netflix. It’s brilliant.
The quality and variety of the horror stories picked so far is really strong and the execution by the directors really elevates them above schlocky horror that most of these anthology horror programs and movies end up achieving (imho).
Pickmans model is some good lovecraft which makes me need to look up if Guillermina Del Torro is still making a mountain of madness movie.
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On the other hand, they managed to f… up „The Witcher“ so maybe making this show is an omen.
For those who aren’t following along on reddit et al: Henry Cavill quit, the joke on reddit was because his back hurt from carrying the show. And by all reports he is the „The Witcher“ superfan (autocorrect made this into Superman oO) so quitting that show is surely a hard decision. I feel bad for the guy that steps into his shoes.
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We also watched Shadow & Bone. Which was weird because some years ago I had read two of the books in the series which I swore were the only ones Six of Crows and the next one were a „duology“ at that time I think. And yet the first season took place before that. Ah well, the first episode had horrible dialogue because they just had to introduce everyone by mentioning their name. And sometimes I am just too old for the genre. (YA) All the characters are so young. And the love triangle tropes are more clichés now than tropes and… in any case the characters (Jesper, Kaz & Inej especially) are what made the books fun to read and the show worth watching.
The black general though, how does that even qualify as acting?
And … I am kind of not watching, watching Vikings as my partner has been watching the show and sometimes I am in the room and so I am kind of following but not following what is going on. It seems to be a good show, just I cannot deal with Viking Buddenbrocks drama right now, so when things get stressful I just leave—after all I am not watching the show. Though when my partner is done for the night, I am asking him who went crazy, who died and what is going on with Floki. (It‘s the final season now. Almost everyone is dead.)
The decision is made, Liam Hemsworth will replace him. Which I a not completely against. There’s far worse out there to chose from, but I think Cavill can be a lot more subtle with his acting, and he was a great fan of the IP. Which rumour has it it was the main reason that made him decide to quit from season 4, apparently he is all about being loyal to the books, which is not a trend these days. Scriptwriters left right and centre think they can be better than Robert Jordan, Tolkien, Sapkowsky and so on… which they are not.
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We have been watching The Midnight Club on Netflix. Based on books by Christopher Pike, who I have never read, but my wife has. Main storyline is teens with terminal illnesses in a hospice bonding by meeting up and telling stories at night. The titular Midnight Club. With some spooky shenanigans going on.
But then the stories they tell give the series an anthology feel, each one with a different vibe. There have been some real heartfelt bits as well. We have two episodes to go, so curious to see how it all turns out.
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Finished Cyberpunk.
It has 4 more episodes than I was expecting (I thought it was only 6, it’s actually 10). It’s… it’s a helluva thing. Actually made me cry after it was all done. Even knowing, going in, that it could almost certainly end no other way.
Phew. Helluva thing.
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Sadly Mountains of Madness is no more 
The full script is available online somewhere though - so you can “watch” it through that.
Cabinet of Curiosities was rather excellent with my favourite being The murmuring - good old fashioned ghost story!
I recently watched The Devils Backbone by Del Toro - what a film!
Looking forward to Enola Holmes 2 at the weekend - I rather enjoyed the first one.
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Totally agree devils backbone is brilliant. I really enjoy how his films use horror as a backdrop for the drama.
I finally realised that I think the series felt a bit coen brothers ish to me, which might be why I enjoyed it soo much.
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I watched El Espinazo del Diablo ages ago when I was still in Spain, not knowing that it was a Del Toro movie (he had just released Hellboy) and even though I am not a great fan of horror movies, I did love it.
If you haven’t, you must see his best movie, Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)
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We finished The Devil’s Hour. Nice tight show. The central conceit revealed in the final episode was refreshingly different than what I was expecting and what I’ve seen done elsewhere. The statement that Isaac was not supposed to be doesn’t hold up under scrutiny (since there were would be many others like him). I hope the proposed Seasons 2 and 3 get made.
The Midnight Club is also good, though “what do you expect to happen when you put a bunch of teenagers with nothing to lose under one roof” came to mind a few times under different contexts.
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Watched Everything everywhere all at once with my girlfriend last night. Still deciding if it’s family drama or intense multiverse SF. In fact it’s both and really good. Didn’t quite stick the landing for me but I won’t resent it because there’s a huge amount to enjoy.
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That is an incredible film. Even if I don’t love everything he makes, Guillermo del Toro does fantastic work.
I once made this for a mash-up contest:
Edit: original poster.
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I’d totally watch that. If I am not wrong, the movie is supposed to be just after the Spanish Civil War, so Panzers would be around!
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Just finished The Midnight Club, I enjoyed it a lot. I s really looking forward to it as I really enjoyed Christopher Pike books as a kid. I read at a college level at 11, but I had some gaps that made reading adult level books hard. Blitzing through his books helped fill those gaps.
When they announced the show, I had a theory about how they could incorporate Christopher Pike’s other books into the series. Which I’m sure any reader would have expected. Most of the episodes are named after his other books. It was also fun to catch other book references and see what they kept and what was tweaked, changed, omitted, or added. The bones of the story and spirit of things were definitely kept, but since things were changed, I didn’t know exactly what’s going to happen, which kept me guessing even though I read the book.
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