What TV series have you watched?

[Replicant]

I am looking forward to that 10 way melee. I don't think much about the 'fog of war' gimmick though.

I notice nobody has mentioned season 3 of Mr Robot yet. I only just found out that it started a month ago and that Amazon are releasing episodes on a weekly basis.

[Johnmcl7]

I haven't watched the second series of Mr Robot as I wasn't getting into it after a few episodes, I've been meaning to have another go but I've not heard anything good about it.

John

[Replicant]

I found Series 2 a bit of a struggle at times but it kind of makes sense in the end.

[EviL Ras]

I liked season 2, didnt realise season 3 was out!

Grand tour is out on 8th december.

Need to "acquire" stranger things 2..

[Replicant]

Source of the post I liked season 2, didnt realise season 3 was out!

Grand tour is out on 8th december.

Need to "acquire" stranger things 2..

Not interested in GT. The first 2 episodes were enough.

Get a new Gmail address and sign up for a 30 day trial and while you are at it try watching Mindhunter.

[Johnmcl7]

I don't think I watched past the first couple of episodes of the Grand Tour either as it didn't sound like the rest of the series was that good.

John

[Replicant]

Source of the post After a very long break the unthinkable has happened and we have a new Star Trek TV series which felt quite odd seeing the new opening sequence, also quite impressive Netflix have it the same time as the US. I hadn't really been paying much attention to it as I thought it would be more JJ Abrams influenced but gave it a go and it feels a lot more like Enterprise than anything else. The setting is very confusing as it goes with the JJ Abrams look with dumpy looking ships but very fancy interfaces, it's apparently set after Enterprise and before The Original Series and focuses on the Klingons. The Klingons have had a pretty big facelift and don't really like the 'human' version they should be in this timeframe or their normal Trek versions either so I'm not sure if it's meant to be a third universe but it's definitely not the Prime one.

I guess I can understand why they're going for a prequel to a prequel to a sequel (I don't know..??) given the popularity of the recent films but it would work a lot better if they dumped all that and set a new series after Voyager, just about everything they've shown so far could easily have been in a future time and just change the Klingons for some unknown species. After Deep Space Nine the Federation were massively weakened anyway so would be vulnerable to a new alien species and it would make everything much simpler as they'd be free to make the fancy looking ships they clearly want to. It sounds like it's just being pedantic but like Enterprise it's very jarring having the mix of old and new which never looks like it's really old at all.

The episode largely focuses on 'Michael', the Vulcan first officer who may or may not be a sister to Spock which it feels like we've done many times already and given the Vulcan aspect of Enterprise wasn't that popular it seems an odd choice to do it again. The science officer played by Doug Jones seems a more intriguing character but can see how it goes in time.

Spoiler:

Putting Michelle Keoh in as a guest star was not a good idea as you knew from the very start she was a goner and it's a shame as I much preferred her character over Michael who I believe is going to be the Captain of the Discovery ship which we've yet to see.

I have been watching this series and it just doesn't fit. The spore drive and ships seem way more advanced than any of the stuff that follows in ST or TNG etc

[Johnmcl7]

Star Trek Discovery spoilers

Spoiler:

Just to avoid any potential spoilers particularly regarding the spore drive

In terms of it just not fitting I of course entirely agree and what's frustrating is I do like some aspects of the show but think it would work so much better if it was set after Voyager. The difference in technology is jarring particularly with the series frequently trying to remind us it's a prequel with the original Constitution class alert audio and characters like Mudd yet watching old Voyager episodes, the Intrepid-class ship now looks almost hilariously outdated rather than a ship centuries newer. There's also no consequence to anything as we know the spore drive will ultimately not work as future ships will all use warp drive and we know the Federation will survive against the Klingons. I also really dislike the way the Klingons are portrayed not just because it's different to the original Klingons but just because I find them annoying, I definitely much prefer the episodes where we see less of the Klingons.

All that said I have been looking forward to each of the episodes as I do like some of the ideas particularly Stammets being a scientist being pulled into the war and Lorca being a warmonger. It does feel clumsy although I don't know if that's just it finding its place as it is just the first series or it's the constant conflict of it being a prequel that looks and feels like a sequel.

[Replicant]

I have to agree John. I do like the show (despite the odd ropey CGI effect) but it just feels out of place when compared to the others.

Spoiler:

Although after last nights show we might just find out why some of the tech isn't about

[Johnmcl7]

Discovery spoilers:

Spoiler:

Are you thinking the result of last night is that it shows it's not the main Star Trek timeline or that they won't exist in the main timeline any longer? That's an interesting thought particularly as they've been hinting at different universes now and there was an accidental spoiler a few weeks ago from a promo shot (don't look it up).

I didn't think last night's episode was that good as a lot of it didn't make much sense and as they've done in previous episodes, they've chosen the outcome and then can only think up a clumsy way to get there. In this case they obviously wanted to push Stammets over the edge but I thought this 133 jump idea was just bizarre and even watching it happen I thought why not just fly round the Klingon ship if they're simply needing a variety of readings. Then knowing how much damage had been done to Stammets and volunteering to use the spore drive again even though there was no indication the ship was in any danger just seemed daft as well. The whole idea of the critical Klingon ship appearing on its own with the leader and no back up firepower made little sense particularly when no-one was fearing the abilities of the Pahvans.

[Johnmcl7]

Two week for the next Robots Wars

Spoiler:

An odd mix of robots this week although mostly good apart from the rather rubbish play off between Iron Awe and Androne which was reminiscent of the old robot wars.

Nuts 2 - I thought this would be another Gabriel but fair play to them, the robot could do a decent amount of damage when it connected. I'm not sure how it will do in the final though as despite the claims about the intelligent drive system allowing them to move while spinning, that didn't really seem to work and unlike gabriel it didn't look like it could take much damage. I also wonder how much damage it could do against the better armoured robots as those it damaged had exposed wheels or mechanisms. Still it was good to see a different design doing well.

Concussion - Was wanting them to go through although it's a good lesson in why not to make last minute changes to your robot, while the additional polycarbonate protection screwed them over it looks like it took several hits from Nuts 2 so without that they'd have likely had a damaged wheel again. Driving twice onto the flipper was a bit stupid and it looked like although they only had a glancing blow against Nuts 2, they did quite a bit of damage.

Androne - It was good to see a decent crusher although despite the claims it was the strongest one ever on robot wars, it wasn't as powerful as Razer (which had nine tons of pressures rather than eight) and the few times it did manage to crush, it didn't really seem to do that much damage. Plus of course the entire crushing mechanism was clearly very fragile and too exposed.

Tauron - I thought these guys were unlikely to be knocked out as I thought they'd get through against Androne for doing more damage.

Iron Awe - I thought this team were a bit full of themselves and a bit laughable given their flipper never worked once despite them claiming it worked fine when testing. I was also dubious about their claims that they were the originator of that flipper design as I don't remember them at all, it was Chaos 2 I remember as being one of the first pneumatic flippers and now I've checked, the original Chaos took part in the second series, Chaos 2 in the third series (along with another pneumatic flipper called Facet) while Iron Awe was behind them in series 4. They were extremely lucky to get as far as they did given without the flipper the robot was poor unlike some of the other decent flippers which are still fast and maneuverable when the weapon isn't working.

I'm getting quite excited about the ten way battle as it has the potential to be completely ridiculous although I do wonder if the robot that does survive that will do so without taking significant damage of its own given the number of power spinners and flippers that are going to be there. What was the name of the robot with the blue vertical spinner? I thought it was terror hurtz but that's the one with the axe, did they get knocked out? I thought I didn't seem them in the picture for the ten place knock out.

Edit - It was Aftershock I was thinking of and it went out against Big nipper in the play off

Edit2 - Randomly came across some stuff about Apex while browsing the wiki, they apparently had another group battle that wasn't shown where they broke the arena. They did also try to get it going after it destroyed itself but they couldn't get it working. Also it was meant to be a 'shufflebot' which along with walking robots have a higher weight limit whicih would make sense with that heavy spinning blade, the shuffling part broke on one side when trying to get it going so they switched to the wheels

[Johnmcl7]

On Chris' recommendations I've been watching Mindhunters which I had read reviews of and didn't interest me at all but just finished the third episode and liking it so far. What I'm surprised at is that after reading about it, it's nothing like what I expected at all - the review gave this impression that it's just these two guys interviewing murderers but while that's the core idea that forms a minor part of the program and there's much more to it than that.

[Replicant]

Source of the post On Chris' recommendations I've been watching Mindhunters which I had read reviews of and didn't interest me at all but just finished the third episode and liking it so far. What I'm surprised at is that after reading about it, it's nothing like what I expected at all - the review gave this impression that it's just these two guys interviewing murderers but while that's the core idea that forms a minor part of the program and there's much more to it than that.

We found ourselves googling some of the killers as they were being interviewed. Some interesting, if disturbing, reading.

[Johnmcl7]

I didn't actually realise the people they were interviewing were based on actual murderers particularly when as you say some of them are extremely disturbing and it's horrible to believe that could happen.

[Johnmcl7]

The Punisher has finally been unleashed on netflix which I've been curious to see how they would handle as he's quite different and a lot more brutal than the usual Marvel characters feeling more like a DC Character. Oddly this time though the Punisher is now on his own with no sign of any superheroes to come to blows with over their different approaches to sorting out criminals, it feels stranger since we've already had an intro to the Punisher with Daredevil and we've seen the superheroes get together in Defenders but it's back to a series mostly existing in its own vacuum. In general it doesn't feel much like a superhero film and felt more like reminiscent of a Jack Reacher film with the Punisher trying to work out a mystery and the various people involved.

Jon Bernthal however is superb at the Punisher and looks spot on with the big boots and the rough white skull sprayed onto his body armour with an utterly brutal side that has anyone that knows him scared. Netflix have made the sensible choice and gone for an 18 rating which allows the Punisher to be extremely brutal at times which is obviously as it should be. It's quite a slow burning series with some good glimpses of the Punisher in action but it struggles near the end and I was disappointed with how it finishes, the fact there's not really anyone who can properly take on the Punisher means the writers don't give him much action.

John