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I didn't love a lot of the confusing cinematography during the battle scenes here, there were weird pacing issues, and the battle plan was pretty dumb. Maybe you should put your heavy infantry in front of your siege weapons? And surely there must be a better place to defend Bran than out in the open in a courtyard? But I will say that the episode did have me actually convinced that everyone in Winterfell was going to die. Also I liked the circularity of the Valyrian dagger that kicked off the… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 9:58 PM on April 28, 2019

shouldn't the NK have used a siege strategy? It's not like his army needed food. He's waited thousands of years already, what's a few months?

I agree, and we've seen him do exactly that in the past, when the Magnificent Seven were trapped on that island north of the Wall.
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:00 PM on April 28, 2019

The shot of the two kids biking around the neighborhood just like the Purcell kids did definitely mixed a little extra darkness into the ending for me.

I thought the audio cues in the soundtrack when Hays is drinking that glass of water were meant to strongly suggest that he did recall why he came out to the house, if only for a moment or two.
posted to FanFare by whir at 9:57 PM on February 25, 2019

Here's my guess as to what's coming in the finale. Hoyt tells Hays to back off, but Hays doesn't and Hoyt has Amelia killed, which breaks Hays's mind. I'm guessing the pedophile thing is a red herring, or maybe it was the impetus for the documentary crew to start poking around but it isn't tied into this season's case. It seems pretty clear so far that the Purcell kids were sold my their mother to the bereaved Hoyt daughter, who kept the daughter alive and well in the basement as a sort of… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 11:04 PM on February 18, 2019

A Leng reference ain't enough.

I didn't catch the Leng reference, where was it?

Overall I really liked this as somebody who loved the first season and finally threw up my hands about the second one. (I recently ran across this hilariously convoluted and accurate recap of the state of play just prior to the season 2 finale, spoilers for that season, obviously.) So far I am not just cautiously optimistic but regularly optimistic about season 3.
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:27 PM on January 14, 2019

I liked the book, though I thought it was a tad overrated (and I also felt A Quiet Place to be a tad overrated, so maybe I'm just snooty about this subgenre or something). The movie is a very faithful adaptation, but to its detriment since it doesn't have time to do things like develop the characters in the house.

In particular, the two creepiest parts of the book to me are the conversation with the guy in the river, which goes on for a very long time stretched out… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 8:27 PM on January 2, 2019

The thing about people who were "insane" before are immune to the creatures is apparently also a lifted directly from the book.

It's been several months since I read the book, but I'm 99% sure that it doesn't say anything like this.
posted to FanFare by whir at 4:56 PM on January 5, 2019

I mean, who are you going are you going to trust, a person who read the book or a wikipedia editor who doesn't know affect from effect? If you dig back through the history there you can see that the paragraph in question was originally titled "Present day (film adaptation)" and most of the text still survives from that version. (It's also possible that I just missed this in the book, of course.)
posted to FanFare by whir at 5:25 PM on January 5, 2019

...anyways, all of that aside, sorry for the derail and I agree that the implication in the movie version is ill-considered.
posted to FanFare by whir at 5:29 PM on January 5, 2019

I was pleasantly surprised by this season, and it made me go back and binge out on seasons two and three while I was laid up last weekend - I originally started to watch the first season, but it never quite got me, because I'm sorry, but puppets just aren't remotely scary. (You heard me, Thomas Ligotti.) I thought season 2 made an admirable and unpredictable jump into crazy high-concept sci-fi territory, and season 3 turned into a kind of low-budget latter-period Clive Barker story, with some… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:12 PM on November 7, 2018

I'm confused by the timeline. Didn't Henry go to the widow Lacy's house not long ago and see the lock on the basement? Did she just up and sell the place offscreen, or did I miss something?
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:39 PM on September 1, 2018

I don't know if I exactly read Naomi as being the bad guy here, and there is that whole sequence in the books where she and Holden break up for a while - I'm taking this "Holden is pissed about the protomolecule" bit as sort of an extended version of that story, since they didn't have much time to spend on it when it actually happened in the show last season. In the books it's Naomi pissed at Holden getting too gun-happy, here it's Holden being pissed because Naomi is too eager to… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 11:28 PM on May 2, 2018

going to the infected ship to get the transponder codes was the hero's path for Holden at the climax of a book, was that correct?

Yes, in the books it's Holden who goes onto the Agatha King. He finds Nguyen but can't get the transponder codes and shoots him. (I had to double-check the Expanse wiki synopsis for this, which is thorough but mysteriously trapped in a little scrolling window.)

And… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 6:50 PM on May 21, 2018

I liked how Bobby was able to talk her way out of this bad situation rather than blasting through it, and Avasarala's two-pronged approach to distributing the damning video of Errinwright seems like a smart move.
posted to FanFare by whir at 5:23 AM on May 3, 2018

One thing that occurred to me during this episode is that surely somewhere inside the vast apparatus of the KGB (or is it the GRU now?), somebody has the means to find a group of teenage girls on their first trip to Greece and arrange it so they are caught with drugs and transported to Bulgaria. Why does it need to be Phillip?
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:26 PM on April 26, 2018

Not to get all pedantic about it but Legion isn't part of the MCU (Disney), it's in the Fox-owned X-Men universe.

I liked this OK, but I felt like both it and the previous episode lost a lot of the momentum that had going into the start of the season (unusually, since the show's plot is usually quite fast-paced).

I'm still not entirely sure whether I'm supposed to like David, but I generally don't all that much, although I do sympathize with him.… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 7:17 PM on April 25, 2018

I liked this, though I'd be inclined to call it one of the better short stories of 2017 rather than one of the better novels of 2017. The Audible audiobook is very well-produced and I'd recommend it to those who are inclined towards audiobooks - it's kind of perfect for the format, with a very limited set of characters and a plot which skips around just enough, but not too much.

To actually talk about the book, what are people's opinions about the plot? Is David really… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 9:50 PM on April 13, 2018

I really like the various ways this show is able to demonstrate psychic combat, like the wrestling scene here or the dance-off in the last episode. I always love reading about these kinds of things in novels and it's never seemed obvious how one could put it on screen - generally movies and TV go with furrowed brows and bloody noses as shorthands for invisible mental effort, with the occasional exploding head thrown in for emphasis. With the entire show having a general hallucinatory quality,… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 6:46 PM on April 11, 2018

Yeah, that was really infuriating. Just apart from the basic "let's think about what might happen if somebody dies overnight in the infirmary" aspect, they have just been attacked the night before. And a zombie falling down a full flight of stairs didn't wake anybody up? And everyone sleeps in a big puppy pile in the drawing room, really?
posted to FanFare by whir at 9:47 PM on March 28, 2018

This was an interesting show; I hadn't known many details about the Rajneesh community other than the Rolls Royces.

One thing I would have liked to see was some questioning of the Baghwanees (the lawyer, for one) about some of the less sympathetic actions of the community - they sort of imply that Sheela is solely responsible for the salmonella outbreak, but they never seem to directly ask her about it, and they never ask any Sinyasan about the other hostile actions… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 4:44 PM on March 28, 2018

I thought this was pretty ok, but I went into it with extremely low expectations - especially with David S Goyer on board as a writer, since given his abysmal track record with Supes he seems like he doesn't have the first clue about what makes people like the character (or how to make an enjoyable blockbuster, for that matter).

Without the Man of Tomorrow actually being present in the show, though, it seems to be more of a semi-dark sci fi show along the lines of the… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 7:45 PM on March 23, 2018

I liked the book a great deal, and I liked the adaptation. I'm not really sure what those who feel like this is a failed adaptation feel is missing from the movie. The tunnel/tower thing is basically unfilmable by its very nature. I suppose some of the hypnosis stuff would have been cool, and the bit about (book spoilers) this actually the 50th expedition or so. The big pile of journals is a very cool image in the books but I think it would be faintly ridiculous on the big screen. Overall I felt… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 4:43 PM on March 4, 2018

Yeah, I dunno. As a finale this made no sense to me, both in terms of what actually happened and in terms of what they decided to spend their time on (to wit, comic relief in the Tatooine cantina with Blade Runner splashed on it). I'm still not buying the solution to the Klingon war in the slightest - for one thing, I'm not sure what motivation L'Rell would have to call off the attack on the Federation when her forces have conquered 80% of it already and she's literally just been… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:24 PM on February 17, 2018

I dunno, I agree the fight choreography was really good in this but the whole thing felt very... Star Wars-y, right down to the "get the timing just right to hit the weakness in the space superweapon" and "lets all stand around shooting each other in a corridor". And I know they're in dire straits, but really, they are going to kill every last man, woman and child on the throne ship to get back to their own universe? I mean, ok, sure, threat to all life, but there's not one… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 9:34 PM on January 29, 2018

I really wanted to like this more than I did. I thought the scene where the DeHane character is lost in the steam rooms was really well-done and atmospheric and probably the best scene in the movie overall. But the movie couldn't stick the landing; despite jacking up the gore level to 11, the whole conclusion just came across as funny in a stupid way. I wasn't crazy about how much titillation was attached to the incest scenes, either.
posted to FanFare by whir at 11:08 AM on January 28, 2018

it pretty singlehandedly deals with the complaints that Discovery and Lorca didn’t fit with the principles of Starfleet - that’s because under his helm *it wasn’t* Starfleet.

Interestingly, this also points to a subtle critique the show makes of Starfleet itself - that its adherence to a rigid hierarchy makes it unable to deal with commanders of questionable ethics leading its crews to do things that conflict with Starfleet principles, and that those… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:37 PM on January 23, 2018

Personally I'm of the opinion that we should let a thousand flowers bloom, I don't see that having a book thread hurts the show-only thread.
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:02 AM on January 21, 2018

I loved the exploding kitty, it was so over the top. Generally I liked how fast-paced this episode was, with a minimum of brooding.
posted to FanFare by whir at 9:55 AM on January 21, 2018

I'm currently banking on Mirror-Universe Culber (sans goatee, presumably) becoming the new Culber, because Stamets can change him. With the power of love.
posted to FanFare by whir at 6:09 AM on January 9, 2018

Speaking of tribbles, am I going nuts or was there one inside Lorca's ready room underneath the holographic star-map? It was like a tribble on one side and a big bowl of Doritos on the other. I even thought it made a little squeaking sound.
posted to FanFare by whir at 4:15 PM on January 9, 2018

Anyone recognize the passage Martha was reciting on stage? I'm guessing it's Goethe, what with all the other allusions to him, but my search fu is failing me.
posted to FanFare by whir at 12:54 PM on December 5, 2017

I did not love the little kid, nor how he made Elliot's heart grow three sizes larger or whatever; as far as I'm concerned you can keep that TV movie stuff in the sitcom parody alternate universe Elliot goes to when he's being beaten within inches of his life. I also didn't really buy that Elliot really wanted to kill himself - not that I think the character is incapable of that, but I didn't really feel like the show set it up so that I felt it was a real possibility. I did think Rami Malek… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 8:44 PM on November 30, 2017

This was a pretty great episode. Is Whiterose a transhumanist? Is he building a giant virtual world on mainframes in the Congo? I'm not sure how else to interpret Angela's apparent belief that he can bring her mom back from the dead.

One potential anachronism: I don't remember exactly when Signal added voice calling, but their video-calling was released in March 2017, well after the Obama administration.
posted to FanFare by whir at 8:37 AM on November 16, 2017

Now I'm thinking that Angela has her own Ms. Robot that has been guiding her to seek revenge at all costs

That's an interesting thought, and it might explain some of her odder choices, like deciding to go full-on dark side and join up with E Corp. I'm having trouble thinking of more concrete evidence in the show to support it though. Presumably at some point we'll be let in to what it was in her conversation with Whiterose that guided her actions in the time afterwards.
posted to FanFare by whir at 9:36 AM on November 18, 2017

I'm not really sure why they couldn't just teleport a big bomb in there on a timer, since they were just going to blow the ship up anyways. Saves wear and tear on the tardigrade DNA.
posted to FanFare by whir at 12:32 AM on November 13, 2017

This show is frustrating. I enjoyed the stealthy takedown of whatever place it was that Morgen et al were in, but I had no idea where the fuck Rick and Darryl were or what they were trying to do, and the interminable attack on the weapons lab or whatever was just really poorly directed, like I think I've seen better shootouts on The A-Team. And who was that Morales guy? Am I supposed to care? Was he one of the dudes in the latinx retirement community or something? I guess… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 7:36 PM on November 2, 2017

What's the money on Dart being a baby demogorgon?

I'm only up to this episode so far, but my theory is that the pollywog is the nascent form of the giant tentacle-monster in the Upside-Down, and that the Upside-Down is actually just a little ways forwards in time from the current moment, after it has grown up into a Cloverfield-sized menace, devastated the countryside, and spawned off the demogorgon.

About Bob, I thought for… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:22 PM on October 31, 2017

Are we supposed to be clear he's a separate human being, not a third aspect of Eliot/Mr Robot?

I think we're definitely supposed to be clear about that at this point, yes - I thought when the show went back to the scene where Eliot meets Tyrell in the SUV and thinks he's just a figment of his imagination, but showed it from Tyrell's point of view, that was a pretty clear indicator. (I supposed you never can tell with this show, though.)… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:00 PM on October 29, 2017

I didn't actually like this one that much, it was the most episodic episode so far and I guess I'm finally kind of tired of Groundhog's Day stories. This seems like the kind of episode that you would run late into the season when the writers are out of ideas and just want to put in a scene with Michael and Lt Tallguy kissing.

Also, while I thought Rainn Wilson did a fantastic job playing Mudd (maybe it's an extraneous consonant thing), and I'm not like crazy attached to… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 9:36 PM on October 29, 2017

I liked the Joe conclusion, mostly because it made me feel sad for Joe (and I feel like he's probably unhappy teaching after having almost grasped greatness).

Overall, I thought it was a good conclusion. Some things felt a little forced to me, like Joe and Cameron's breakup and Donna's speech to the Silicon Valley women, but overall it seemed like a worthy send-off to the show.
posted to FanFare by whir at 9:01 PM on October 16, 2017

I actually really liked this. I don't know that there was anything to resolve, really; they took her to a planet that was not Earth, ran out of oxygen and perished. I suppose all the "life is a dream" red herrings were a bit unnecessary, but I didn't mind them. It was a story about the magic of storytelling, which, yes, is a little hoary but I thought they did it rather nicely here without laying it on too thickly. And I liked how the robot played along with the ruse out of apparent… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 12:19 AM on September 26, 2017

I thought the acting and production was pretty good in this, but some of the dialogue was wanting - "you can read my mind... now read my heart!" was truly one for the ages. I suppose that's true to PKD's style, though. Overall it was a promising start.
posted to FanFare by whir at 12:19 AM on September 19, 2017

They really have to have changed out fight coordinators from the first season of Daredevil to now.

I definitely noticed that too. In this season when someone got punched they would spin three times in the air instead of just falling down. The Daredevil scenes were a lot more enjoyable to me.

About that corridor scene, I've noticed that it's turned into a bit of a trope for the Netflix Marvel stuff - there's the first one (a… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 10:52 AM on September 4, 2017

Mantlo's Hulk run featured Dr Strange very prominently, so it was fairly Defendery. I never did follow the actual Defenders book very closely, so beyond that my knowledge runs out.
posted to FanFare by whir at 9:04 PM on September 6, 2017

I actually had the opposite impression, I really liked the timeline-jumping stuff and the way it made me need to work a little bit to figure out what was going on. I tend to be kind of a sucker for these formalist exercises, though. Like Memento, I feel like if the events were just told in chronological order it wouldn't be nearly as interesting.
posted to FanFare by whir at 4:42 AM on August 11, 2017

I reread the comics recently, and I have to say I'm getting a lot more enjoyment out of the show than I did reading the books. Most importantly, Tulip seems to be an actual character instead of just an obstacle Jesse has to deal with / thing he has to possess. My biggest regret is possibly that they didn't manage to get a whole set of actors with the exact same facial features to play everybody, for the Steve Dillon effect. (Mostly kidding! I love Steven Dillon. Those faces, though, c'mon.)
posted to FanFare by whir at 7:38 PM on August 2, 2017

Not sure how I feel about this episode. The extended intentionally-slow bits, like the phone call, seemed like epic, Lars von Trier levels of trolling the audience, and it seemed to be composed of about 90% reaction shots. At the same time, the scene where Sarah Palmer goes to the grocery store was terrifying.

I looked up that Joe Frank episode, by the way, it is called Home. (There is a little more info about it on the Joe Frank wiki, which is apparently a thing that exists.)
posted to FanFare by whir at 7:25 PM on August 2, 2017

Honestly, the Lannisters can't spare a few guys to hold Dragonstone? There isn't some minor Baratheon lord who wants to live in a big castle? It's only the historical site of the first invasion of Westeros by Targaryens with dragons.
posted to FanFare by whir at 8:40 PM on July 16, 2017

Someone reminded me yesterday of the scene from early in the series when Cooper and Truman are at the shooting range, and Cooper manages to put one bullet through each eye of his paper target; the constant eyeball-shootings in this new season are maybe a callback to that (and to "Bunuelian eye-damage," as someone said in the post for the last episode).

I have to say I didn't love the Michael Cera bit - I like him as an actor, and I'm certainly game for some… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 8:18 PM on May 25, 2017

I finally finished this season, and I dunno, I'm just kind of meh about the whole show. I really like the main triumvirate of actors, but I just can't bring myself to care that much about the plot.

I think part of the problem is that the show goes out of its way to show Meyerism as specifically not a cult, but rather a loose amalgamation of anodyne New Age platitudes. There's nothing wrong with that, but I guess I was hoping for more of either some spooky… [more]
posted to FanFare by whir at 6:32 PM on May 16, 2017