TV news and views

[Polident]

It might’ve been a shitpost I saw but before this season, they announced a movie sequel with Jackie Chan returning? They’re making that reboot canonical or something? I’m not halfway through but I wouldn’t be surprised if Hilary Swank shows up. More or less every fan service want actually happened. Like, the dude playing Terry Silver retired from acting in the 2000s and came back.

[D3RANG3D]

That movie sounds like dog shit...

[Polident]

Ok I was wrong. Cobra Kai final season is split into three parts. Next five episodes are in February.

I kept wondering how they would wrap everything up in the “last” episode. These release schedules get weirder.

[Potato]

Fuck that shit. I guess I wait until February.

Meanwhile, I'm catching up on Vox Machina s3. Still a great show, but it's getting a little too much into the saving the world from the existential threat tropes.

Like, the world is literally gonna die in flames and ONLY Vox Machina are doing anything to help.

[Potato]

Started watching Love Death + Robots season 1.

Always ignored it because it was a bit of a Resetera darling, but I've enjoyed a few of the episodes so far. Sonnnie's Edge was quite good. 

I'm also glad to see they are actually using the short story element of having a twist at the end of most of these too.

[DavidCroquet]

I finished all 4 seasons of Baskets.

I felt like I simultaneously appreciated the frustrating but realistic tendency of the characters to improve themselves in fits and starts--2 steps forward, 1.75 steps back--but also wanted the show to "do more". I'm not even sure what mean by "do more", which is why I am hesitant to hold that against the show.

Season 3 was really uneven but I enjoyed all of the rest. The ending--as in the last 10 minutes of the very last episode--was especially good.

[Eric Cartman]

watched Secret Level Part 1 because of fucking course I did, and like Love Death & Robots the animation is uniformly great, the actual quality of the short varies widely.

A lot of them just seem like promo materials or cutscenes that got cut for time or budget - the D&D one especially felt like the fade to black at the end was supposed to be a promo card for something or other - but are generally watchable. I think they might overall be stronger than LD+R actually.

• "Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen's Cradle" - its fine, I liked the Chris Pine film more. 5TH EDITION AVAILABLE NOW AT ALL GOOD STORES
  
• "Sifu: It Takes a Life" - pretty good, nice standalone
  
• "New World: The Once and Future King" - one of the better ones, starring AHNULD in a sort of king conan self parody, works great as a standalone story which is probably a good thing as about that amazon mmo
  
• "Unreal Tournament: Xan" - sure, whatever.
  
• "Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear" - actually fucking great, watch this one even if you skip the rest whether you know the WH40K property or not
  
• "PAC-MAN: Circle" - pretty interesting, in that it reimagines pac man as an existential threat trapped in a sci fi maze planet as a containment protocol, but then TGA just promo'd this:
  
  and now Im wondering if this legit just spoiled a major game plot twist
  
• "Crossfire: Good Conflict" - its fine?
  
• "Armored Core: Asset Management" stars KEANU but is also generally just fine... another one that seems more like a promo trailer or ingame cutscene than a standalone story.
  

[Potato]

Watching Secret Level now.

Had to stop halfway through the New World thing. WTF? Is the game this kooky? Also, Atlantean sword for the win!!!

Edit:
Ok so thoughts so far:

DnD: Fun but shallow. Plays like a video game intro 
Sifu: Really nicely done. Great little moral tale of revenge and what it costs. 
New World: Got the in the end, but damn that was really kooky and silly. Arnold is NOT a voice actor. 
Unreal Tournament: I'm 14 and this is deep.
WH40K: Holy shit Henry Cavill's prime show can't come soon enough. Visuals were too dark though.
Pacman: WTF? I'm interested in that game now
Crossfire: Never heard of the game and the short was...ok. Some tension and a hamfisted attempt at morality of mercenaries.
Armoured Core: Boring as fuck. Indestructible Keanu says fuck a lot and then tells us all how indestructible he is. Boring.

Overall, a success. I will watch the second drop. Great animation all round, but they probably should have left some of the video game writing at the door.

[Eric Cartman]

AFAIK New World is a pretty by the numbers MMO, so the short works fine as a standalone but with some nods to general MMO type stuff, like Main Character Syndrome level 1 newbie getting rekt by starting a fight on a higher level, going off and doing a questline for an armour set and a new skill, and still getting rekt by endgame PvPers, then just giving up and doing some crafting instead

Crossfire is one of those games that were absolutely fucking massive globally but never got talked about in western press, because it was basically OG Counter Strike F2P, and that short is basically a dramatic retelling of a round of VIP - I think it was a merc vs merc setup which is why it kept hammering home the 'are we the baddies?' from each sides perspective.

[Potato]

That New World short makes more sense now. Not really an MMO guy so it's all lost on me

[chronovore]

I'd also recommend Elsbeth (the latest installment in The Good Wife / The Good Fight Cinematic Universe) as basically Columbo and not shy about it (one of the cops in an episode makes a quip along the lines of 'i'm not a fan of your make friends with the murderer until you can trip them up into a confession style, but it seems to work' ) and High Potential (not to be condused with Promising Young Woman, which is also great but a very different kettle of fish) which is basically Monk except instead of OCD she's a single mom

Michael Emerson! I've been a fan since Person of Interest!

[Eric Cartman]

I'd also recommend Elsbeth (the latest installment in The Good Wife / The Good Fight Cinematic Universe) as basically Columbo and not shy about it (one of the cops in an episode makes a quip along the lines of 'i'm not a fan of your make friends with the murderer until you can trip them up into a confession style, but it seems to work' ) and High Potential (not to be condused with Promising Young Woman, which is also great but a very different kettle of fish) which is basically Monk except instead of OCD she's a single mom

Michael Emerson! I've been a fan since Person of Interest!

everything about that trailer says hes the murderer of the week
(if you missd it, the actress who plays elsbeth was his abandoned wife in POI )

If you like Emerson, I can't recommend Evil enough (by the same creative team as Elsbeth) where he is the ongoing antagonist, and is just great

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

(if you missd it, the actress who plays elsbeth was his abandoned wife in POI )

Also his wife in real life (not abandoned).

[Eric Cartman]

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

I loved Evil, but I'd like to know if they had any particular plans for a full final season, because boy did Andy get screwed over.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

Dexter Original Sin, so far so good.

Lots of throwbacks and little easter eggs.

Laguerta not having a heavy accent though. 

[Cauliflower Of Love]

What the fuck was this godzilla-hulk voltron shit on What if?

 

[chronovore]

Watching White Lotus with the wife. Normally we watch procedurals. It's very clear what an episode is about: catch a murderer, rescue a kid, uncover a conspiracy… WL appears to be about white privilege and transgressing personal boundaries?

[Snoopy]

It's also about murder. I enjoyed it a lot. Murray Bartlett's Basil Fawlty impression was spot on. The 2nd series was good as well. Christopher Moltisanti's in it. What you also want to look out for is Poker Face. That was about as close to 70's detective style shows as we're going to get.

[chronovore]

Saw and loved all of Poker Face. I was lucky enough to be in the USA shortly after it came out, and my BIL enrolled in Peacock just to get ahold of it. Lots of fun. 

White Lotus: The opening episode makes it clear that a body is being loaded onto the flight back to the mainland, and that entitled mama's boy Shane is alone at the boarding gate, but I didn't remember that it was murder. You're right: failing in-recovery Basil Fawlty is pretty entertaining. 

People say sometimes actors do too good a job in a role, and people can't see them any other way afterwards. Sydney Sweenie's Olivia makes me think I'll never see her as anything but Olivia in future roles. I grew up around heaps of Olivia types, and she nails it.

[Potato]

Just got through the Concord episode on Secret Level. 

How did they sink $200+ million into this and think it was going to resonate in a post-MCU world?

Edit: What the hell was that last episode all about? That was what I imagine a Kotaku editor would come up with if you handed them an unlimited budget to produce their wet dream PlayStation experience. Embarrassing, but pretty par for the course for video games.

[Nintex]

I started watching The Gentlemen on Netflix because in general I like everything Guy Ritchie does and his type of character building and story telling works well for a TV show.

And lo and behold I'm immediately sold on the Susie Glass character.

[Potato]

First episode of Skeleton Crew was really slow, but I like the kids and I'll keep watching for now.

Edit: Episode 2 was quite good. Fun even.

[Polident]

Squid Game 2 is pretty weak but I’ll blame Netflix for yet again milking this stuff by doing half seasons.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

The 456 guy and cop are each faced with the most obvious traitors in their circles and are oblivious. Both act like idiots despite experiencing these circumstances and having years of preparations.

456 guy’s whole plan in the last episode is to steal guns and kidnap the Front Man. Expected a twist where he knew the incredibly suspicious guy who got close to him was the Front Man and he waited for this opportunity. Because these circumstances happened last time. 

[chronovore]

First episode of Skeleton Crew was really slow, but I like the kids and I'll keep watching for now.

Edit: Episode 2 was quite good. Fun even.

God, glad to hear it. I wasn't really ready for "suburban" Star Wars, and the first episode was so slow. I'll give it another shot.

[Eric Cartman]

Squid Game 2 is pretty weak but I’ll blame Netflix for yet again milking this stuff by doing half seasons.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

The 456 guy and cop are each faced with the most obvious traitors in their circles and are oblivious. Both act like idiots despite experiencing these circumstances and having years of preparations.

456 guy’s whole plan in the last episode is to steal guns and kidnap the Front Man. Expected a twist where he knew the incredibly suspicious guy who got close to him was the Front Man and he waited for this opportunity. Because these circumstances happened last time. 

I liked Squidgame Vol 2.1

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

I'm pretty sure VILLAIN NUMBER ONEs endgame is to try and make 456 his voluntary replacement.
The so far pointless focus on Cop Guy and NK Sniper Wolf makes it transparently obvious this is one season chopped into 2 for subscription reasons.
Thanos made me laugh, as I imagined him as korean jeff marvel.

[Potato]

Against all odds, Skeleton Crew was decent fun for a kids adventure show.

[MMaRsu]

Started watching Severance, pretty cool first episode.

[Potato]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2025/01/29/the-acolyte-basically-killed-skeleton-crew-by-destroying-faith-in-the-star-wars-brand/

An actual intelligent take on modern Star Wars by someone who clearly cares (cared?).

[Snoopy]

Browsing the Apple store. Noticed The Wire is on sale. Get in.