What you watching? - Quarantine Edition (1 Viewer)

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zatsnzapps said:
Cool, and thank you for the rec. I just looked up Snowfall and that's right up my alley.

I'll give it a watch.
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Also... for the documentary - anytime any environment is cult-like, it’s not gonna end well. I once worked at a place like that (obvs not on that scale) but if you weren’t all about their cult-like culture, you wouldn’t get far.

About 6 months after I quit, they were raided by the FBI & went bankrupt for Medicare fraud and all kinds of shirt. When I worked there, I always wondered how they got away legally doing the things they did. It didn’t last. Never does.
 
guidomerkinsrules said:
I don’t know what to make of this
Every cultural/political element of seasons 3-4 are part of 1&2
The other odd part is that once it moved away fromSyFy it got MUCH better at depicting the actual science (especially gravity)

Now I guess if you tell me that you like pirate shows but only when they’re on boats and lose interest when they’re on land- then maybe I can see you being less interested when The Expanse goes to Earth and Mars
But this is widely regarded as the best space/hard sci fi show out there

Out of curiosity which space sci-fi shows would you put above The Expanse?
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I think I liked the focus on the detective, the space station, and the alien particle in the early going more than the other stuff. I just found it more personal and compelling. I also think that the transition to it all being an evil corporate/government plot to be kind of heavy handed. I'd like more focus on whatever is going on with the original particles. I mean, it's been quite awhile since I watched it so I don't recall all the plot details or the shifts, but my recollection of the show is that is started off great and just got slowly worse and less interesting over time. I'm not sure I can tell you the exact plot stuff that did it to me because I really don't recall all of it.

I also think that they spent a lot more time bothering with gravity earlier in the series. At some point they start to just include it so they can say see, we are hard sci-fi. I mean, beyond showing gravity as a real thing, I don't recall much real science stuff going on after the first season or two. After that, it was more about political intrigue that could have more or less taken place in any setting.

I'd put many above The Expanse. If we are just talking TV and not movies or books, I'd go with Farscape, Star Trek, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica,and Doctor Who off the top of my head. Admittedly, none of those are really hard Sci-Fi, but I'm not sure anyone has really done hard Sci-Fi well on TV or movies for that matter. It's really best done in books where you don't have to figure out how to naturally fit the science discussion into the plot. And, it's hard to keep up production values in live action TV based in space. Frankly, hard sci-fi might be best done with animation where you can keep production costs relatively low. So, regardless of if it is regarded by many as the best space/hard sci-fi show, that's not really saying much and I don't really tend to care what the popular opinion of something is. I mean, it's not a bad show and it started out as an amazing show. I just think it lost its way and became kind of boring at some point. I think it's a story that really could have and should have been done in 3 seasons.
 
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St. Widge said:
I think I liked the focus on the detective, the space station, and the alien particle in the early going more than the other stuff. I just found it more personal and compelling. I also think that the transition to it all being an evil corporate/government plot to be kind of heavy handed. I'd like more focus on whatever is going on with the original particles. I mean, it's been quite awhile since I watched it so I don't recall all the plot details or the shifts, but my recollection of the show is that is started off great and just got slowly worse and less interesting over time. I'm not sure I can tell you the exact plot stuff that did it to me because I really don't recall all of it.

I also think that they spent a lot more time bothering with gravity earlier in the series. At some point they start to just include it so they can say see, we are hard sci-fi. I mean, beyond showing gravity as a real thing, I don't recall much real science stuff going on after the first season or two. After that, it was more about political intrigue that could have more or less taken place in any setting.

I'd put many above The Expanse. If we are just talking TV and not movies or books, I'd go with Farscape, Star Trek, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica,and Doctor Who off the top of my head. Admittedly, none of those are really hard Sci-Fi, but I'm not sure anyone has really done hard Sci-Fi well on TV or movies for that matter. It's really best done in books where you don't have to figure out how to naturally fit the science discussion into the plot. And, it's hard to keep up production values in live action TV based in space. Frankly, hard sci-fi might be best done with animation where you can keep production costs relatively low. So, regardless of if it is regarded by many as the best space/hard sci-fi show, that's not really saying much and I don't really tend to care what the popular opinion of something is. I mean, it's not a bad show and it started out as an amazing show. I just think it lost its way and became kind of boring at some point. I think it's a story that really could have and should have been done in 3 seasons.
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ty for the write up
i find it very interesting - i think i am generally in agreement with your take on things, but we are polar opposites here (even to the point that i thought the detective storyline was derivative and the reason that s1 dragged for me)
BSG had been my #1 sci-fi until Expanse which beats it in Sci by a long shot and is on same level for Fi (i give the nod to BSG for its mythos)

interesting that you say 'done after 3 seasons'
essentially there are 9 books which they (the 2 authors) laid out as 3 trilogies
and the tv seasons loosely track the books - so 1st 3 seasons was the 1st trilogy

s4 is the most 'fantasy' season bc it's dealing with alien tech - but they used a very smart narrative device to keep it within some plausibility
s5 comes back to 'real world' with a throughline of terrorist v freedom fighter but with the plot devices of orbital mechanics and stealth technology
 
guidomerkinsrules said:
i am done with drug stories for awhile
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Yeah, I'm there as well. I want some more sort of Game of Thrones style shows. I know The Witcher season 2 is ahead, so looking forward to that. Disney and Netflix are keeping me pretty occupied as it is. I'll throw in a different movie or series every now and then. But yeah, I'm over drug shows.
 
guidomerkinsrules said:
ty for the write up
i find it very interesting - i think i am generally in agreement with your take on things, but we are polar opposites here (even to the point that i thought the detective storyline was derivative and the reason that s1 dragged for me)
BSG had been my #1 sci-fi until Expanse which beats it in Sci by a long shot and is on same level for Fi (i give the nod to BSG for its mythos)

interesting that you say 'done after 3 seasons'
essentially there are 9 books which they (the 2 authors) laid out as 3 trilogies
and the tv seasons loosely track the books - so 1st 3 seasons was the 1st trilogy

s4 is the most 'fantasy' season bc it's dealing with alien tech - but they used a very smart narrative device to keep it within some plausibility
s5 comes back to 'real world' with a throughline of terrorist v freedom fighter but with the plot devices of orbital mechanics and stealth technology
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Interesting. I think it was the season 4 stuff that turned me off of it. Maybe I should pick it back up.
 
St. Widge said:
Interesting. I think it was the season 4 stuff that turned me off of it. Maybe I should pick it back up.
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Yeah if the show is typically 80% space/20% land, s4 is the inverse
But they’re leaning into both the physical and cultural issue of Belters being terran
The main antagonist being a faceless Corp is kinda meh, but the mouthpiece for that Corp is very compelling who always knows how to pull back when he’s about to get too Arch
 
Anyone watch the premiere episode of the Nevers on HBO Max? I just started it, so wasn't sure what to expect.
 
Grandadmiral said:
I watched the first three episodes. It's pretty good. Definitely a different take on the Holmes genre of mystery. In three episodes, the only view of Holmes was his feet and vomit. In many ways, Holmes and Watson are just plot points to say they're in Victorian England. But it's only three episodes and I'm in for the long haul.
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so far 3 in, i like it. interesting twist on doyle's world.
 

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