My favourite trek series was Enterprise. It really should have lasted more than four seasons and from a historical perspective, there were so many good first contact stories with original federation players. There was not a single character on that show I did not like. Every other trek has had a fluff character (e.g., the cook in Voyager, Wesley in the TNG, etc.).
I like Discovery because of the violence and special effects but character development for some of the crew is weak. That being said, I can`t wait until S2âŚ
Has anybody watched the Twin Peaks reboot yet? I just rewatched the original series and movie in preparation, but havenât gotten to the new season yet. The original series has aged surprisingly well. Not as dark as I remembered it (the movie is very dark), and I really appreciated the humor, which Iâd kind of forgotten about.
I watched the first couple. Itâs really weird, as you can imagine. Good weird. Thereâs a brain tree and a glass box and stuff. Some of it is disturbing, but I think itâs Lynch at his most Lynchy.
I have the original series and movie on blu-ray so want to go through that before continuing on the new series. The new stuff really is a continuation of the original.
Really liked s1. Minus the punisher parts (which were bad ass), s2 got kinda meh for me. Will give s3 a shot though (per ep basis). Most looking forward to JJ s2 and (to a lesser extent) LC s2.
âEverything Sucksâ on Netflix is pretty good so far. Ive watched the 1st 2 episodes and Im willing to watch more. Reminds me a lot of my high school days. It is about high school kids in the 90s. The actors are doing a great job and Netflix nailed the 90s era theme.
As am I, but itâs gonna be tough sledding to match the pure evil of Kilgrave. He is up there with Hannibal and that little sister in Big Love in the pantheon of characters I love to hate.
I picked up Brooklyn 99 on Tuesday evening and I havenât stopped watching it. Iâm halfway into season 2 as of last night. The rain helped to keep me in yesterday.
I also agree that Andy Sambergâs character is a bit over the top at times, but the ensemble cast works really well together. At first, I thought it was going to be sketch after sketch after sketch, but glad they included some actual story in there.
Iâm glad to see that thereâs still a lot of episodes for me to watch.
The end of the pilot episode of This Is Us is something else. I havenât got through the first season but itâs not bad. Almost every episode offers you a gut-punch ending.
If anybodyâs interested in it - and wants to see it legally - it is on Prime Video here in Taiwan.
Gotta temper that expectation though. Youâre right that Kilgrave is going to be tough to beat. I also find it odd that these Netflix Marvel shows donât have more standalone episodes. Because they have more episode orders than actual story, they generally meander a lot (DD) or fizzle out towards the end (LC) - and thatâs always a little sad to see. Especially with JJ, they can totally do it organically - sheâs a P.I., her job practically lends itself to the case-of-the-week type episodes.
Talking about seriously stoked, Iâm really looking forward to AMCâs The Terror coming up at the end of this month (March 26, including Taiwan).
Dan Simmonsâs novel is one of my favorite horror novels of all time. The ending is controversial, but I loved it. A terrific page turner. It was nominated for a British fantasy award in 2008.
Stars Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, and CiarĂĄn Hinds with Nive Nielsen as Lady Silence.
If youâre not familiar, Simmons novel is based on the known facts of the Royal Navyâs lost Franklin expedition of 1845. Two state-of-the-art arctic ships, HMSs Erebus and Terror were charged with finding and mapping the fabled Northwest Passage. The two ships were last seen in late July of 1845, in Greenlandâs Baffin Bay. They wintered on Beechey Island, where they buried 3 crew members (these bodies were exhumed in 1984; the images of the exhumed bodies were stunning). Both ships became frozen in flow ice in the Canadian arctic in September 1846 (we know this because paper messages were left in stone cairns on nearby Prince William Island). After that, though ⌠the ships disappeared. Roughly 120 men, too, disappeared.
Most of the characters in Simmonsâs novel are based on the actual expedition members. Simmons did a ton of research into the expedition, made up a story that fits the known facts, and the novel was born.
If youâre Canadian or British, odds are good you know all about the history. If you havenât read the novel, you should.
I also read âSummer of Nightâ and liked it. Itâs his version of Stephen Kingâs âStand By Meâ coming-of-age tale, but with supernatural elements (a church bell once owned by the Borgiaâs that is more than a mere bell).
Simmons is probably most famous for his Hyperion Cantos series, the first book of which won a Nebula award.
âThe Terrorâ is far more than a horror story. The lost Franklin expedition is a great story all by itself and the novel doesnât stray from the facts much. For example, the two ships were actually found within the past two years just off the west coast of Prince William Island in the Canadian arctic. Simmons takes liberties with the fate of HMS Terror, but the novel pretty much nails the location where Erebus was found (and the reasons it was found there).
The Royal Navy sent out search parties for the rest of the 19th century, all trying to figure out what happened to Franklin. In fact, much of the Canadian arctic was mapped as a result of this search effort. Raold Amundsen made the first successful ocean voyage through the Northwest Passage in 1903-1906. He first stopped on Beechey Island in tribute to Sir John Franklinâs lost expedition some sixty years earlier.
I have always thought that horror is enhanced by an arctic setting. âFrankensteinâ, âThe Thingâ, etc. âThe Terrorâ is also on the list.
Edit: Ha. Itâs actually KING William Island in the Canadian arctic. Figures. I am terrible with British nobility stuff.
I enjoyed it all the way through, but I wouldnât be surprised if I started to like the characters so much that I was overlooking weaknesses in the writing. I also wish Holtâs facade had continued to crack roughly once per season, rather than the once or twice per episode of Season 4.
I do like thereâs some change in each of the characters throughout the seasons, but yes, you make a good point about Holt. One of the episodes that stands out is an early one where they were saying Holt is amazingly hard to read his emotions.