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.
Monday, March 16, 2020
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.
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)
20xx?
first watch on other blog
July 25, 2019
ordered Blu-ray, watch it all few weeks later.
first watch on other blog
July 25, 2019
ordered Blu-ray, watch it all few weeks later.
Monday, July 15, 2019
Black Spot season 1 (2017)
2019.07.16
Two episodes in and I'm interested but I'm having trouble getting attached to it.
It's hitting a lot of the right notes, bits of X-Files, Twin Peaks, deep back story to learn as you go along, tough but wounded protagonist, oozing with atmosphere, etc.
Definitely enough here to keep going. The subtitles are giving me a bit of a disconnect, but when there's no dialogue you realize you could probably watch this with subtitles off and it would still be interesting.
Another problem is this is the third supernatural mystery tv series I'm watching in a row. I'm mixing up elements of Stranger Things and Dark and now this show. I probably should have watched a documentary or something first. Maybe I'll do that and come back later.
Two episodes in and I'm interested but I'm having trouble getting attached to it.
It's hitting a lot of the right notes, bits of X-Files, Twin Peaks, deep back story to learn as you go along, tough but wounded protagonist, oozing with atmosphere, etc.
Definitely enough here to keep going. The subtitles are giving me a bit of a disconnect, but when there's no dialogue you realize you could probably watch this with subtitles off and it would still be interesting.
Another problem is this is the third supernatural mystery tv series I'm watching in a row. I'm mixing up elements of Stranger Things and Dark and now this show. I probably should have watched a documentary or something first. Maybe I'll do that and come back later.
Monday, July 8, 2019
Stranger Things season 3 (2019)
After struggling to get through the show Dark, Stranger Things is like going back to an earlier time where everything is simple and makes sense. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit to myself that a little mindless entertainment at the end of the day is more practical than something that requires a 4D flowchart to understand.
This show has always been flirting with the line between sci-fi and fantasy, but having a Russian base underneath the town mall is a bit of a declaration. Even more fantastical and immersion breaking is all the present day self-awareness set in the 1980s.
It's a show about 2010s stories and politics, with a thin 1980s coat of paint. Not a 1980s story with some 2010s sensibilities. It was good enough but its wearing thin. I kind of hope with this trajectory they don't make a fourth, but from what I hear the income would make it inevitable.
This show has always been flirting with the line between sci-fi and fantasy, but having a Russian base underneath the town mall is a bit of a declaration. Even more fantastical and immersion breaking is all the present day self-awareness set in the 1980s.
It's a show about 2010s stories and politics, with a thin 1980s coat of paint. Not a 1980s story with some 2010s sensibilities. It was good enough but its wearing thin. I kind of hope with this trajectory they don't make a fourth, but from what I hear the income would make it inevitable.
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