7th Station ~TV, movies, games~

[Moh]

Anyone have any Hulu show recs? I mostly lean toward comedies or dramas, but I'm open to just about anything except for stuff that might be Marvel or DC adjacent.

I started watching Reservation Dogs and it's exactly the kind of messed up show I like.

[Zunu]

Someone just recommended Reservoir Dogs to me yesterday... have to check it out!

..oh, you wanted recommendations as well, right...um Hulu's kind of sparse with original content but Letterkenny, if you haven't seen it. Also, for classics, Peep Show is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen.

EDIT: Some guy put the entire Peep Show up on YouTube might be worth checking out for those who like misanthropic humour but don't have Hulu.

Spoiler: show

[Celedam]

The long nightmare might (not) be over…



For anyone who doesn't understand the significance of this…

Spoiler: show

Director Hideaki Anno has been "rebuilding" the legendary Neon Genesis Evangelion as a tetralogy of theatrical films, but the fourth and final film has been repeatedly delayed over the last five years. This indicates it is finally scheduled to be released on January 23.

For anyone who might be interested, all four parts of the tetralogy are (not) available on Amazon Prime Video…

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B08SVYJ996/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B08SW5SK5V/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B08SW4G3FL/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B098W3B7TQ/

[erilaz]

The Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Theater in San Francisco just reopened, and the picture that they used in their proof of vaccination reminder cracked me up:

Spoiler: show

"Leeloo Dallas Multipass."

[JonCC]

3 new Gundam projects announced for 2022.



Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Series
Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island Movie (Yes, the Doan from that episode. Could also be based on the later manga though)
Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans: Urdr Hunt (IBO mobile game tie-in)

[Celedam]

I finally watched the second and third seasons of Legion (2017–2019).

Spoiler: show

The pros:

- Incredible casting. I especially liked Jemaine Clement as Oliver, but they were all good. Even Amber Midthunder as Kerry, once I understood that her pouty petulance was part of the character; she had lived a sheltered life, in the most extreme sense.

- Gorgeously surreal art direction, genuinely making me wonder what was real at any given point in the story.

- Impressive effects for the handful of times that superpowers were visibly manifested. Most of the superpowers were telepathic or otherwise metaphysical (e.g., Syd's body swapping, Cary and Kerry's body sharing), and therefore could be depicted solely with editing tricks. But they occasionally cut loose with the psychokinetics, and I enjoyed it when they did.

- A nifty but still horrifying twist to explain Lenny's resurrection.

- I thought they were going to go the entire series without actually saying "Charles Xavier" so as not to screw with the licensing and/or movie canon. But they eventually did, just before the end.

The cons:

- The second season was much longer than it needed to be, considering what actually happened storywise. The monk's subplot in the first half of the season seemed particularly pointless. I understand that the monk was hiding from both sides and therefore used the Maze to obscure his trail, but they just got the information from the driver instead.

- The third season was obviously rushed and did not properly build on what happened in the second season. I understand that they had to wrap things up because they knew it was their last season, but still.

- Uneven use of music. I think I've had my fill of "alternative" covers of classic rock hits.

- Uneven use of musical numbers. The telepathic dance battle? Great. Oliver and Lenny invading Division 3? Also great. But then things went downhill…

- The limited number of interior sets made several episodes feel inappropriately claustrophobic. Some of that was offset by the art direction and editing, but there were still a lot of face-to-face talks over kaiten sushi. Ah well, at least they had a different set of sets for each season.

- I was disappointed by how they depicted "Legion" as basic-bitch schizophrenia. In the comics, David actually absorbs the powers and psyches of other beings (mutants, aliens, psychic constructs, whatever gets in his way), and all of them together form "Legion".

- I was also disappointed by how they depicted the young Charles Xavier as tentative and pacifistic. That might have made sense if his story ended with the end of the series and he lived happily ever after with his wife and uncorrupted son, but he's Charles freaking Xavier. In the the comics, he is a hardened soldier who takes what he learned in the previous war and then uses it in the next. Yes, he goes on to become a teacher and a scientist, and yes, he wants to build a better world in which humans and mutants can live together in peace, but he's not a damned fool about it. There is no way the real Charles Xavier would make a deal like that with the Shadow King. No way in hell. Yet that twisted sort of morality has been creeping into a lot of Marvel stuff over the last few years, both in print and on screen.

[Amped]

Squid game is another "Battle Royale"-ish show, except they play children's games

[Zunu]

^ I just finished it. It was pretty entertaining overall, although I was slightly disappointed by the ending.

Spoiler: show

They spent the entire series showing how loser Seong Gihun really had a good heart as his core, only to throw it away in the last second when he sacrificed his future with his daughter for inexplicably returning to the game.

Are we supposed to believe that he was going back to use his money to try to take down the organization? Is attempting that worth this one chance he has to live up to his promises and keep his appointment with his daughter? The last time he went back to the game he ended up losing his chance to save his mother, so why would he take a similar risk with his one remaining loved one, no matter what the cause?

Or maybe he was overcome with a compulsion to return to the game as a player? Some dark gambling itch coupled with survivor's guilt? But during his entire time in the contest he seemed to find it utterly joyless; he never seemed to experience that dopamine gambler's rush, certainly not by the end when he was willing to entirely forgo the prize.

Either way, his missing that flight threw away all of his character development for a pointless "twist" ending which was already anticlimactic after the other twist involving the old man Oh Ilnam. At least Oh had good reasons for thrill-seeking -- his own impending death and his ennui from being mega-wealthy for years. Maybe if they had first showed Seong spending some of the wealth in pointless revelry and consumption, yet never being satisfied, then it might've made sense that he'd follow in Oh's footsteps. Anyway, like I said, on the whole the show was pretty thrilling and I enjoyed it, particularly the back and forth between Jang (the gangster) and Han Minyeo (the middle aged thot). And regarding the end, on the plus side, I do like that they resisted all the way to the end showing the fate of the young cop. Undoubtedly he'll be back in another "twist" but at least they were disciplined about preserving the mystery.

[Celedam]

Campaign 2 ended last night with Episode 141. I'll let you know when Campaign 3 begins..

I appreciate it!

The news just dropped. The main cast is taking a break and Campaign 3 will begin around the end of summer.

[Amped]

if you watched squid game, you know what would happen if you got this in the honeycomb

Spoiler: show