Entertaining, well made, and worth watching while you're watching it.
But not much memorable to take away.
But not much memorable to take away.
Monday, December 14, 2020
Friday, July 24, 2020
Dark Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)
2020.07.24
Watched/played for an hour, seemed to hit a dead end which I could not get back from. Try again.
Watched/played for an hour, seemed to hit a dead end which I could not get back from. Try again.
Later that year...
I remember going through most of the major paths.
Interesting, worth trying. It's a choose your own adventure movie, so its worth trying for that alone.
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Dark season 3 (2020)
2020.06.24
rewatched seasons 1-2. avoiding spoilers of 3.
* spoilers below *
2020.07.05
watched 6/8.
this feels tacked on.
seasons 1-2 feel like part of a whole.
most tv shows feel, at best, like 2d chess.
seasons 1-2 feel like 3d chess. when you finally get to the end and understand all the parts of the whole it is satisfying to get there.
then you get to the end of season 2 and it hints at 4d chess to come.
then you get to season 3 and it is absolutely 4d chess; you can't help but wonder if its maybe 5d chess.
only 2 episodes to go. can they make this work?
2020.07.09
answer to the above question: no
No ratings, no stars, no likes, no rankings - the only rating I am interested in is "do I still think about it?" And maybe "how does this change things."
Saw the end of Season 3 a few days ago and it leaves me with little to think about (or feel about).
The end of Season 2 left me feeling a curious sense of hope (Martha and Jonas reconcile with their fate, and decide to try and make it work), and a sudden punch in the gut (no they won't, as Adam kills Martha). That would have been fine, but then amazingly alt Martha walks in to rescue Jonas from the Apocalypse with a yet unseen time machine. We are on the ride as Jonas goes from hope to grief to bewilderment to gone and into a new mystery.
That's one of my favorite few minutes of TV I have seen in years. So many things are wrapped up, concluded, and explained, and then ripped apart as new questions are raised. It set a high bar for Season 3, and raised the bar of expectation on an already great TV show. I should have expected disappointment, but I was hopeful.
Not that Season 3 ends with a whimper, but it kind of does. I like the idea that your universe is not the prime universe at all, but just one of several forks. I like that a lot. I like the idea that to fix the fork they need to go back to the prime universe to prevent the fork from ever happening. I like that its a Claudia that figures this out, as she was the scientist who studied and experimented on it for decades. So far this all sounds good.
Unfortunately the first 7 or 8 episodes and this last episode don't seem to be parts of a whole. There's no hint that an older Claudia is figuring out this problem, and coming to this great realization. Most of the season is spent just exploring the other fork universe, showing characters and connections that are all about to be unceremoniously undone anyway.
In retrospect it feels like filler, because all the clues and reasons that come in to play at the end are just dumped on you out of nowhere at the end, and has little to do with all that you've been learning.
There are other problems, like who was in the truck that ran Tannhaus' family of the road in universe prime? Why deliberately set it up that way if its just some bad random thing that happened. The way the culture of the show has been building up you know its going to be important who's in that truck and why they are doing this. But no, its nothing, unless it was supposed to be a red herring, but it turns out there's nothing its distracting you from. It was just an accident.
So how does Tannhaus create such a sophisticated time machine, when the first two seasons take care to set up that nobody invented the machine, it took multiple time travels, delivered blueprints, a future book, and a mobile phone to make it work (i.e. time magic). And yet a bereaved Tannhaus just cooks one up out of sheer will. It's a bit of a mixed message.
The time travel gets faster and looser as we go along. In the early seasons we are shown that time travel requires a device (which requires fuel), or a hard won map of the cave system, and/or being in the right place at the right time, etc. By the end characters are deciding they want to go somewhere and somewhen, and are basically just walking off one set, and then shown walking back on to the next set. It starts to cheapen the time travel.
Also cheapening time travel, in the early seasons it was a moment of wonder when characters met their other time selves. Now routinely you are getting three of a kind characters in one room, and sometimes four. One character (Martha and Jonas' kid, 'the knot'?) seems to only walk around with his older and younger self in tow. And he's set up early as some major character that will be important to the story, but no, he's just a henchman of old alt Martha. Nothing special, really, she could have sent anyone. The assassin 'team' doesn't even end up being something that needs to be dealt with at the end. You can really just cut them out of the story; its as if they were added just show off cool new 3 and 4 same person time travel meetings.
So much effort in the first seasons was put into making good characters. Even the jerkiest and most annoying characters have a back story that develops and makes them seem like they could be actual people. It creates empathy, even as the characters struggle against each other.
And it removes simplistic concepts like good and evil.
As for Jonas and alt Martha's mission, wouldn't it be more effective (though ruthless) to just kill Tannhaus? Sure, you save his family and prevent this forking of the universe, but what if something bad happens later? Part of the appeal of this show is the lengths to which people will go when pushed. But not this time. The lasting solution to this multiverse problem that has been building over three seasons is to simply give somebody in a car some false road condition info so they'll just go home. It's so underwhelming its almost ridiculous. I do see the value in it though, as it makes a wonderful contrast to all the heaviness and violence that got us here.
The show is called Dark; if you didn't get a dark ending that would be the surprise. So of course, everyone in the fork universes dies. Well, not dies, just disappears into glowing light. So yeah, dies. The fork has been prevented, there is only the truly prime universe again - so why do Jonas and Martha disappear? The physics of this show allows your matter to go to another time and interact with the same matter, even allowing exact duplicates of things to exist side by side. So why would anything that already exists be undone now?
It would have been far more interesting if the fork universes have been closed (or rather, just blink out of existence), but Martha and Jonas still exist in the prime universe, as refugees from places that no longer exist (and its the 80s?). Probably that wouldn't be considered Dark enough.
For a show that almost certainly would reject a happy ending, why show all the other versions dissolving into golden light, and everyone being OK with it? Yeah, sure, to give them (and us) closure, but it is heavy handed.
I guess the show made me feel something, if only frustration at the end. Instead of mostly filler and one wrap up episode, the last season might have been told better as a single movie. They could have boiled all that down to 2-3 hours, and better set up how Claudia was always working on the problem, discovers the nature of the prime and fork universes somehow, and make how to travel there a bigger part of the plot.
Maybe I'll see it again, or read about it, and change my mind. For now I am underwhelmed. Seasons 1-2 were so well done, and there was such a great heavy dark ambiance to the story, and the third season is just a lot of confusion and senseless struggle, just to end on a rather casual solution.
Time travel stories are hard, and Dark did very well for most of it. The oppressive mood and struggle against fate in the first two seasons is very strong and memorable, and that's what I will hold onto.
rewatched seasons 1-2. avoiding spoilers of 3.
* spoilers below *
2020.07.05
watched 6/8.
this feels tacked on.
seasons 1-2 feel like part of a whole.
most tv shows feel, at best, like 2d chess.
seasons 1-2 feel like 3d chess. when you finally get to the end and understand all the parts of the whole it is satisfying to get there.
then you get to the end of season 2 and it hints at 4d chess to come.
then you get to season 3 and it is absolutely 4d chess; you can't help but wonder if its maybe 5d chess.
only 2 episodes to go. can they make this work?
2020.07.09
answer to the above question: no
No ratings, no stars, no likes, no rankings - the only rating I am interested in is "do I still think about it?" And maybe "how does this change things."
Saw the end of Season 3 a few days ago and it leaves me with little to think about (or feel about).
The end of Season 2 left me feeling a curious sense of hope (Martha and Jonas reconcile with their fate, and decide to try and make it work), and a sudden punch in the gut (no they won't, as Adam kills Martha). That would have been fine, but then amazingly alt Martha walks in to rescue Jonas from the Apocalypse with a yet unseen time machine. We are on the ride as Jonas goes from hope to grief to bewilderment to gone and into a new mystery.
That's one of my favorite few minutes of TV I have seen in years. So many things are wrapped up, concluded, and explained, and then ripped apart as new questions are raised. It set a high bar for Season 3, and raised the bar of expectation on an already great TV show. I should have expected disappointment, but I was hopeful.
Not that Season 3 ends with a whimper, but it kind of does. I like the idea that your universe is not the prime universe at all, but just one of several forks. I like that a lot. I like the idea that to fix the fork they need to go back to the prime universe to prevent the fork from ever happening. I like that its a Claudia that figures this out, as she was the scientist who studied and experimented on it for decades. So far this all sounds good.
Unfortunately the first 7 or 8 episodes and this last episode don't seem to be parts of a whole. There's no hint that an older Claudia is figuring out this problem, and coming to this great realization. Most of the season is spent just exploring the other fork universe, showing characters and connections that are all about to be unceremoniously undone anyway.
In retrospect it feels like filler, because all the clues and reasons that come in to play at the end are just dumped on you out of nowhere at the end, and has little to do with all that you've been learning.
There are other problems, like who was in the truck that ran Tannhaus' family of the road in universe prime? Why deliberately set it up that way if its just some bad random thing that happened. The way the culture of the show has been building up you know its going to be important who's in that truck and why they are doing this. But no, its nothing, unless it was supposed to be a red herring, but it turns out there's nothing its distracting you from. It was just an accident.
So how does Tannhaus create such a sophisticated time machine, when the first two seasons take care to set up that nobody invented the machine, it took multiple time travels, delivered blueprints, a future book, and a mobile phone to make it work (i.e. time magic). And yet a bereaved Tannhaus just cooks one up out of sheer will. It's a bit of a mixed message.
The time travel gets faster and looser as we go along. In the early seasons we are shown that time travel requires a device (which requires fuel), or a hard won map of the cave system, and/or being in the right place at the right time, etc. By the end characters are deciding they want to go somewhere and somewhen, and are basically just walking off one set, and then shown walking back on to the next set. It starts to cheapen the time travel.
Also cheapening time travel, in the early seasons it was a moment of wonder when characters met their other time selves. Now routinely you are getting three of a kind characters in one room, and sometimes four. One character (Martha and Jonas' kid, 'the knot'?) seems to only walk around with his older and younger self in tow. And he's set up early as some major character that will be important to the story, but no, he's just a henchman of old alt Martha. Nothing special, really, she could have sent anyone. The assassin 'team' doesn't even end up being something that needs to be dealt with at the end. You can really just cut them out of the story; its as if they were added just show off cool new 3 and 4 same person time travel meetings.
So much effort in the first seasons was put into making good characters. Even the jerkiest and most annoying characters have a back story that develops and makes them seem like they could be actual people. It creates empathy, even as the characters struggle against each other.
And it removes simplistic concepts like good and evil.
As for Jonas and alt Martha's mission, wouldn't it be more effective (though ruthless) to just kill Tannhaus? Sure, you save his family and prevent this forking of the universe, but what if something bad happens later? Part of the appeal of this show is the lengths to which people will go when pushed. But not this time. The lasting solution to this multiverse problem that has been building over three seasons is to simply give somebody in a car some false road condition info so they'll just go home. It's so underwhelming its almost ridiculous. I do see the value in it though, as it makes a wonderful contrast to all the heaviness and violence that got us here.
The show is called Dark; if you didn't get a dark ending that would be the surprise. So of course, everyone in the fork universes dies. Well, not dies, just disappears into glowing light. So yeah, dies. The fork has been prevented, there is only the truly prime universe again - so why do Jonas and Martha disappear? The physics of this show allows your matter to go to another time and interact with the same matter, even allowing exact duplicates of things to exist side by side. So why would anything that already exists be undone now?
It would have been far more interesting if the fork universes have been closed (or rather, just blink out of existence), but Martha and Jonas still exist in the prime universe, as refugees from places that no longer exist (and its the 80s?). Probably that wouldn't be considered Dark enough.
For a show that almost certainly would reject a happy ending, why show all the other versions dissolving into golden light, and everyone being OK with it? Yeah, sure, to give them (and us) closure, but it is heavy handed.
I guess the show made me feel something, if only frustration at the end. Instead of mostly filler and one wrap up episode, the last season might have been told better as a single movie. They could have boiled all that down to 2-3 hours, and better set up how Claudia was always working on the problem, discovers the nature of the prime and fork universes somehow, and make how to travel there a bigger part of the plot.
Maybe I'll see it again, or read about it, and change my mind. For now I am underwhelmed. Seasons 1-2 were so well done, and there was such a great heavy dark ambiance to the story, and the third season is just a lot of confusion and senseless struggle, just to end on a rather casual solution.
Time travel stories are hard, and Dark did very well for most of it. The oppressive mood and struggle against fate in the first two seasons is very strong and memorable, and that's what I will hold onto.
Monday, May 18, 2020
Have A Good Trip: Adventures In Psychedelics (2020)
2020.05.19
Tried this last night. I was hoping for a balanced infotainment piece, but its mostly boring celebrity anecdotes. I hung in there for the Anthony Bourdain segment; couldn't go any further.
Tried this last night. I was hoping for a balanced infotainment piece, but its mostly boring celebrity anecdotes. I hung in there for the Anthony Bourdain segment; couldn't go any further.
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Rick and Morty season 4 (2019-2020)
2020.05.12
First half last year, second half this year.
Was thinking of waiting to find a free version to watch second half, but for less than $20, this is exactly the kind of problem money exists to solve.
"Never Ricking Morty" how can this show keep topping itself? Surely we must be at peak meta in our culture now.
2020.05.19
A step back to a more typical episode, but still at a high level.
2020.06.24
Did this end on a Beth episode? I guess.
First half last year, second half this year.
Was thinking of waiting to find a free version to watch second half, but for less than $20, this is exactly the kind of problem money exists to solve.
"Never Ricking Morty" how can this show keep topping itself? Surely we must be at peak meta in our culture now.
2020.05.19
A step back to a more typical episode, but still at a high level.
2020.06.24
Did this end on a Beth episode? I guess.
Somewhere South ()
2020.05.12
Saw the last episode of the season a few days ago.
Overall good, but they put the best episodes first and the worst last, leaving one with an empty and disappointed feeling.
They obviously filmed the whole thing before release, so it was an avoidable problem.
Still, there's nothing quite like it out there, will watch whatever Vivian does next.
Saw the last episode of the season a few days ago.
Overall good, but they put the best episodes first and the worst last, leaving one with an empty and disappointed feeling.
They obviously filmed the whole thing before release, so it was an avoidable problem.
Still, there's nothing quite like it out there, will watch whatever Vivian does next.
Monday, March 16, 2020
Westworld season 3 ()
2020.03.16
Saw premier last night.
2020.03.23
Episode 2 is out but haven't watched it yet.
Before watching episode 1, we watched several YouTube amateur catch up videos that summarized seasons 1-2. They varied in quality and content, but after about 3 of them you had a really good picture of the story up til now. After watching episode 1, I feel like I might not have needed to bother, because it seems to use almost none of it. You could have said this is a prequel to Battlestar Galactica (2004), and the AI/robots are plotting their overthrow, and it would have mostly worked except the technology of the Real World is too low.
Speaking of low tech, the technology of AI and synthetic humans seems way more advanced than the real world. A new character has PTSD from some war that looks like something from our present. This world already has bots that are about as good as the terminator (mostly immune to bullets, super strength, highly moddable, etc.). There's no way something as big as Westworld (the park) comes up with bots at least as good as the terminator (and in some ways much better, as in they can pass for human much better) in a vacuum.
This world would have integrated artificial humans as servants (for war, labor, sex, etc.) into society and daily life long before anyone could build a theme park around them. It's as if these bots are stepping out of the future into our world. It's not how ideas work (they tend to be invented in multiple places at once), its not how competition works (as soon its proven possible, your competitors are already improving on it).
It's not that you can't have different levels of science and technological advancement, that happens. But you can't introduce something on a large scale and expect to also keep it a secret from the rest of the world. You might have an advantage for a little while, but this story assumes one corporation could keep a secret for decades.
Of course the writers were just trying to drop some future tech into our present world, so we could talk about what happens to us, and relate to it. But it would be like dropping the internet into the 1950s, it just doesn't make any sense. If AI robots are being developed over generations, we have time to integrate living with them into our culture. A theme park like Westworld wouldn't happen, it would be part of daily life.
Speaking of integrating new technologies into our culture, the notion that we can study the customer of Westworld to somehow create immortality is glossed over very poorly, almost as awfully as The Matrix glosses over the batteries explanation. Since when does creating a replica of you mean immortality? If you could just transfer a human into a robot body, that would be a far more interesting to explore, just like it would be far more interesting to explore humans as co-processors for the AI in The Matrix.
There is a noteworthy exception that makes the show's real world somewhat futuristic. The giant AI that seems to have a hand in running the world could be very interesting.
This is too much conjecture for one episode, let's see where it goes.
2020.05.12
Saw the finale some time ago. Leaves no lasting impression. It would be fine if they would just end it now, but I've already heard season four has been greenlit to keep milking this dry cow.
This show is reminding me more and more of Battlestar Galactica reboot. Looks good, good characters and actors, interesting situations, but it doesn't really have anywhere to go. It's entertaining while you watch, but afterwards you are left with nothing to keep.
Saw premier last night.
2020.03.23
Episode 2 is out but haven't watched it yet.
Before watching episode 1, we watched several YouTube amateur catch up videos that summarized seasons 1-2. They varied in quality and content, but after about 3 of them you had a really good picture of the story up til now. After watching episode 1, I feel like I might not have needed to bother, because it seems to use almost none of it. You could have said this is a prequel to Battlestar Galactica (2004), and the AI/robots are plotting their overthrow, and it would have mostly worked except the technology of the Real World is too low.
Speaking of low tech, the technology of AI and synthetic humans seems way more advanced than the real world. A new character has PTSD from some war that looks like something from our present. This world already has bots that are about as good as the terminator (mostly immune to bullets, super strength, highly moddable, etc.). There's no way something as big as Westworld (the park) comes up with bots at least as good as the terminator (and in some ways much better, as in they can pass for human much better) in a vacuum.
This world would have integrated artificial humans as servants (for war, labor, sex, etc.) into society and daily life long before anyone could build a theme park around them. It's as if these bots are stepping out of the future into our world. It's not how ideas work (they tend to be invented in multiple places at once), its not how competition works (as soon its proven possible, your competitors are already improving on it).
It's not that you can't have different levels of science and technological advancement, that happens. But you can't introduce something on a large scale and expect to also keep it a secret from the rest of the world. You might have an advantage for a little while, but this story assumes one corporation could keep a secret for decades.
Of course the writers were just trying to drop some future tech into our present world, so we could talk about what happens to us, and relate to it. But it would be like dropping the internet into the 1950s, it just doesn't make any sense. If AI robots are being developed over generations, we have time to integrate living with them into our culture. A theme park like Westworld wouldn't happen, it would be part of daily life.
Speaking of integrating new technologies into our culture, the notion that we can study the customer of Westworld to somehow create immortality is glossed over very poorly, almost as awfully as The Matrix glosses over the batteries explanation. Since when does creating a replica of you mean immortality? If you could just transfer a human into a robot body, that would be a far more interesting to explore, just like it would be far more interesting to explore humans as co-processors for the AI in The Matrix.
There is a noteworthy exception that makes the show's real world somewhat futuristic. The giant AI that seems to have a hand in running the world could be very interesting.
This is too much conjecture for one episode, let's see where it goes.
2020.05.12
Saw the finale some time ago. Leaves no lasting impression. It would be fine if they would just end it now, but I've already heard season four has been greenlit to keep milking this dry cow.
This show is reminding me more and more of Battlestar Galactica reboot. Looks good, good characters and actors, interesting situations, but it doesn't really have anywhere to go. It's entertaining while you watch, but afterwards you are left with nothing to keep.
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Devs season 1 (2020)
2020.03~
As usual, Hollywood gets technology wrong. I could almost live with that if it didn't also get people wrong too.
*spoilers for episode 1*
What CEO (or any powerful person) is going to get his hands dirty and be at the location when a killing they have ordered is going on? And why do it on company property? Then, why fake it to look like suicide on company property? Do you want to get caught? Do you want to bring negative attention to your self? The news is filled with incidents of small plane crashes, suicides out of nowhere, etc. And yet this show seems to have an elementary school notion of how business is done.
Still, nice dark atmosphere and visuals. I might watch more.
As usual, Hollywood gets technology wrong. I could almost live with that if it didn't also get people wrong too.
*spoilers for episode 1*
What CEO (or any powerful person) is going to get his hands dirty and be at the location when a killing they have ordered is going on? And why do it on company property? Then, why fake it to look like suicide on company property? Do you want to get caught? Do you want to bring negative attention to your self? The news is filled with incidents of small plane crashes, suicides out of nowhere, etc. And yet this show seems to have an elementary school notion of how business is done.
Still, nice dark atmosphere and visuals. I might watch more.
Friday, January 31, 2020
Star Trek Picard season 1 ()
2020.01.31
Saw first episode free on YouTube.
2020.02~
subscribed to CBS to keep watching.
2020.03.10
Watched through ~5.
If this wasn't set in the Star Trek universe, it would just be a great sci-fi show. Because its Star Trek, you have to evaluate it against the decades and hundreds of episodes and movies that have gone before. So it only makes sense that's it different, and it may work better or worse in some ways.
Its definitely not like stand-alone morality tales of old but, like most shows today, a long movie in episode form. The writing is more modern, sometimes too modern. I like the darker edgier Trek of Deep Space Nine, but it was still recognizably Star Trek. This has strayed rather far. Too soon to say more.
For now, its good enough to keep watching.
2020.03.23
Saw penultimate episode last night. It's starting to get interesting, its starting to go somewhere, and you feel a little cheated that they wasted most of the season getting here.
Let's see where this lands.
2020.03.29
Saw last episode the other day.
That seemed to end rather quickly and neatly. And forgettably.
It continued the arc of being not really Star Trek, and maybe OK sci-fi. I don't regret watching it, but I'm not left with much.
If there's a season two I'll probably watch it but they could just leave it and that would be fine.
Currently working through the RedLetterMedia re:View's of this.
2020.05.19
The RedLetterMedia reviews really helped open my eyes to just how bad this show was. I was giving it a pass - because it was based on Star Trek TNG - that it wasn't earning. I like how they drilled way down into it, hour after hour, because they really do care. I know its not cool to care this much about a TV show, but if you can make anything a topic of study, Star Trek is worth more exploration than most shows.
I think I've spent as many hours watching RLM talk about Star Trek Picard as I've seen of the show, and most of the time RLM was better. RLM pointed out so many lost opportunities that I started to feel cheated in ways I didn't when watching the series. For a while I was thinking further about all of the good things they could have done and didn't, but it faded while waiting for the final RLM episode on the matter. And now its finally on YouTube.
Halfway through. Very efficient deconstruction. Takes out any and all rose colored tint you may have left in your vision of this show.
Saw first episode free on YouTube.
2020.02~
subscribed to CBS to keep watching.
2020.03.10
Watched through ~5.
If this wasn't set in the Star Trek universe, it would just be a great sci-fi show. Because its Star Trek, you have to evaluate it against the decades and hundreds of episodes and movies that have gone before. So it only makes sense that's it different, and it may work better or worse in some ways.
Its definitely not like stand-alone morality tales of old but, like most shows today, a long movie in episode form. The writing is more modern, sometimes too modern. I like the darker edgier Trek of Deep Space Nine, but it was still recognizably Star Trek. This has strayed rather far. Too soon to say more.
For now, its good enough to keep watching.
2020.03.23
Saw penultimate episode last night. It's starting to get interesting, its starting to go somewhere, and you feel a little cheated that they wasted most of the season getting here.
Let's see where this lands.
2020.03.29
Saw last episode the other day.
That seemed to end rather quickly and neatly. And forgettably.
It continued the arc of being not really Star Trek, and maybe OK sci-fi. I don't regret watching it, but I'm not left with much.
If there's a season two I'll probably watch it but they could just leave it and that would be fine.
Currently working through the RedLetterMedia re:View's of this.
2020.05.19
The RedLetterMedia reviews really helped open my eyes to just how bad this show was. I was giving it a pass - because it was based on Star Trek TNG - that it wasn't earning. I like how they drilled way down into it, hour after hour, because they really do care. I know its not cool to care this much about a TV show, but if you can make anything a topic of study, Star Trek is worth more exploration than most shows.
I think I've spent as many hours watching RLM talk about Star Trek Picard as I've seen of the show, and most of the time RLM was better. RLM pointed out so many lost opportunities that I started to feel cheated in ways I didn't when watching the series. For a while I was thinking further about all of the good things they could have done and didn't, but it faded while waiting for the final RLM episode on the matter. And now its finally on YouTube.
Halfway through. Very efficient deconstruction. Takes out any and all rose colored tint you may have left in your vision of this show.
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