Last Series Watched

Finally finishing the last two episodes of Welcome to Derry over here, and this show is constantly hitting huge with my wife and me both. Absolutely love this show, and as someone who read It cover to cover at least six times as a little kid it is amazing to see Pennywise brought to life like this. Bill Skarsgård truly is the Karloff of our time, but even greater.
 
I never quite recovered from Fallout 4 because I made a character that looked like me for a laugh but FOUND MY OWN STREET SIGN in a nuked out Salem MA, in a place that was reasonably close to where it would be blown away if the bombs fell, and I think about that a lot more than I expected to. Just the fact that so much of it was recognizable as a local was crazy.

Finished part two of Stranger Things S5 tonight and I stand by there being some dialogue tomfoolery happening because there really are some GOOD scenes in there. When it's just two characters connecting it feels okay but scenes that propel the action it feels like they don't trust the audience to be following what's happening.

What's fascinating is a lot of the online discussion has viewers NOT understanding what's happening, often in the same episode they just watched.
 
docsilence said:
What's fascinating is a lot of the online discussion has viewers NOT understanding what's happening, often in the same episode they just watched.
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I am often impressed by how much average viewers miss and at this point I can only assume it's because nobody is just watching anymore. It's all "second screen content".
 
Honestly, in this case, BOTH. I do think a LOT of people miss shit by not actually watching what they're watching, but also there's a peak popularity level for shows where the audience is so big and so broad that a fair percentage of watchers, often loud ones, are just fucking morons. The discourse aka people shouting at each other online with the ST finale is wild because you've got folks who missed obvious clues ("wait that character is GAY???") vs people who want everything spoon fed to them (it's a show about different dimensions 'n shit, those types of stories are ALWAYS messy and you kinda have to go with the vibe a bit cos sometimes it's okay to just let a show be weird and illogical) vs people who go in the opposite direction (you just don't get it because you're not smart enough to understand the plot). Once a show gets popular enough, a solid percentage of viewers are really just there to make their take on the show is everyone else's problem.

(One of the sad "people are dumb" things to come out of this show is how so many people are unaware of how hard it was to be gay in the 80s/early 90s... there's a backlash about one subplot and I'm over here like babies, I have friends in their late 40s or early 50s who are still not out-out because they're afraid the country will backslide into how they were treated when they were the age of these characters...)

On the second screen viewing thing, I swear this is why I'm struggling to find my winter "treadmill show." Every winter the past few years I've gotten hooked on a show that I binge while I can't work out outdoors and NOTHING is clicking lately, and I think it's because a "treadmill show" has to be engaging enough to be good for mono-tasking/mono-screen viewing. I don't enjoy cringe storytelling which cuts out about half of modern television and then solid chunk of what's left is written with the idea that you're not 100% paying attention to the show you're watching. What I really need is an extremely violent show with decent writing, preferably with swords and/or space ships, those have been my best treadmill shows. (Last Kingdom, Expanse, Bab5 rewatch, and Vikings have gotten me through the past four winters).
 
docsilence said:
On the second screen viewing thing, I swear this is why I'm struggling to find my winter "treadmill show." Every winter the past few years I've gotten hooked on a show that I binge while I can't work out outdoors and NOTHING is clicking lately, and I think it's because a "treadmill show" has to be engaging enough to be good for mono-tasking/mono-screen viewing. I don't enjoy cringe storytelling which cuts out about half of modern television and then solid chunk of what's left is written with the idea that you're not 100% paying attention to the show you're watching. What I really need is an extremely violent show with decent writing, preferably with swords and/or space ships, those have been my best treadmill shows. (Last Kingdom, Expanse, Bab5 rewatch, and Vikings have gotten me through the past four winters).
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Have you ever watched Hell on Wheels?
Not sure how you feel about cowboy shit, but it's one of my favorites ever in that regard. There's also that new Robin Hood show, but I haven't started it yet so I can't speak to the quality.
 
docsilence said:
"wait that character is GAY???"
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That is hilarious. I would never act like I knew all along, but it's been a question for a few seasons now. If nothing else, they all but said as much last season, but Stranger Things is definitely a show I give my undivided attention when watching. We're going to my Brother-in-Law's for New Year's Eve and I told him and his kids that I'm watching the finale and if they disrupt it in any way I'm flipping out.
 
Attention span is at an all time low, I'll admit, but I also wonder how much of it is just because something doesn't align with their personal wants and opinions. I had an old work acquaintance who, though I can't remember what show it was- GoT, maybe? Walking Dead? - would miss incredibly obvious things, even things that were spelled out, just because it didn't align with where they wanted certain characters to go or things to happen. The willful ignorance is just as bad as the inadvertent. I feel like it happens a lot with character deaths and romances- there's always the "well, we didn't see a body" or the "so-and-so could still get together even if one of them killed/assaulted/expressed their disinterest, etc." No matter how much the writing tells you something just isn't going to happen, people will still choose to believe otherwise.

Maybe it's a side effect of writers giving in to fan demands one too many times? Or fans feeling like they've guessed a beat/twist, regardless of how easily spottable it was. There is a weird sense of entitlement when it comes to some people and their favorite shows.
 
joshsquash729 said:
Attention span is at an all time low, I'll admit, but I also wonder how much of it is just because something doesn't align with their personal wants and opinions. I had an old work acquaintance who, though I can't remember what show it was- GoT, maybe? Walking Dead? - would miss incredibly obvious things, even things that were spelled out, just because it didn't align with where they wanted certain characters to go or things to happen. The willful ignorance is just as bad as the inadvertent. I feel like it happens a lot with character deaths and romances- there's always the "well, we didn't see a body" or the "so-and-so could still get together even if one of them killed/assaulted/expressed their disinterest, etc." No matter how much the writing tells you something just isn't going to happen, people will still choose to believe otherwise.

Maybe it's a side effect of writers giving in to fan demands one too many times? Or fans feeling like they've guessed a beat/twist, regardless of how easily spottable it was. There is a weird sense of entitlement when it comes to some people and their favorite shows.
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Aaron Mahnke, the Lore podcast guys (I was on a panel with him a few years back, smart dude) pointed out that everyone's enjoyment of entertainment would be improved by us going back to not "I wish the story would do THIS" but rather "I wonder what the storytellers are going to next?" Because we are absolutely in a stage right now for viewers/fans where if they don't get what they want the show is "bad" versus just enjoying the story for what it is. There's a character relationship thing in ST this year that didn't go the way some fans wanted and they're in revolt. (Personally, having seen how it's handled? One of the best scenes in the final season. Beautifully written and performed).
Damien said:
Have you ever watched Hell on Wheels?
Not sure how you feel about cowboy shit, but it's one of my favorites ever in that regard. There's also that new Robin Hood show, but I haven't started it yet so I can't speak to the quality.
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Oh fuck I watched the first six episodes of that and then whatever service I was watching it on lost the rights and I never went back to finish it! Now I gotta track that down. What I saw was really enjoyable. Anson Mount can carry a whole-ass show on his shoulders, too.
Ru1977 said:
That is hilarious. I would never act like I knew all along, but it's been a question for a few seasons now. If nothing else, they all but said as much last season, but Stranger Things is definitely a show I give my undivided attention when watching. We're going to my Brother-in-Law's for New Year's Eve and I told him and his kids that I'm watching the finale and if they disrupt it in any way I'm flipping out.
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I joke around about my eidetic memory for story beats but I do know they TEASED it in S1, but it was easy to overlook. They telegraphed it HARD the last two seasons though, like not even remotely subtle about it. I could easily see someone not picking up on it in the first year but man if they missed it during S3 and 4, they need to reboot their brain.
 
I think the season one bullies referred to him by a slur or something, which is easy to overlook because bullies tend to have only so many go-to terms and aren't too creative or specific, so I wouldn't think they'd put effort into curating a unique bullying experience for each victim, BUT I imagine the writers felt it was a breadcrumb.
 
Ru1977 said:
I think the season one bullies referred to him by a slur or something, which is easy to overlook because bullies tend to have only so many go-to terms and aren't too creative or specific, so I wouldn't think they'd put effort into curating a unique bullying experience for each victim, BUT I imagine the writers felt it was a breadcrumb.
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They tease it in a convo between Joyce and Hop in the first season, too. But yeah, more subtle in S1 (when you don't want to commit to long-term b-stories too, so it makes sense.)
 
docsilence said:
Oh fuck I watched the first six episodes of that and then whatever service I was watching it on lost the rights and I never went back to finish it! Now I gotta track that down. What I saw was really enjoyable. Anson Mount can carry a whole-ass show on his shoulders, too.
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It was on Netflix for a long time. That's where I first watched it and they took it off Netflix when I was about half-way through my second watch, I believe. And yeah, I think this might be my favorite Anson Mount role. He's so good and convincing in it. Just all around a terrific show. And for a show with 5 seasons, I think it's a huge compliment to say it only has like.. one bad episode.
 
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