Ben X

Not that I've played Last Express (yet), but this sounds like a comparable concept...

Thank you for the link and spoiler warning/tags, I'll check it all out when I'm done with the season!

Nothing to match those, I'd say...

You seemed to think that happened in season 2 when you posted about it in the Crazy Ex Girlfriend thread. I didn't notice the change, but that's probably because I skip the titles every time because of the nauseatingly chipper theme tune. Anyway, turns out I am enjoying Ash Vs Evil Dead season 2 more! It has a lot of the same problems, but the sections were fantastic. Hilarious, gruesome and inventive. This is what it's been missing! (Now if it could just chill out on the lore and the ham-fisted character arcs...)

A video about Bright which touches on some similar stuff: Interestingly, Ellis cites District 9's aliens not being indigenous as a boon to the allegory...

Just read this Cracked article [EDIT: forgot to link to it, thanks Spenny!] about how the allegories in Bright, X-Men etc are flawed. I was hoping for some examples and explanations of it being done right. So, does anyone disagree with the article? Or, if not, can anyone think of any examples of successful prejudice allegories in genre fiction. One that comes to my mind (without much thought put into it or a recent viewing, so feel free to destroy me) that at least got closer is District 9, because while the aliens were supposedly repulsive due to their insectoid looks and cat-food diet, that comes across to me more as the humans' judging them to be repulsive or fearful because they're different. They're generally friendly and non-violent; they do get a bit rowdy, but to a level that seems mild when they've been stuck in an internment camp slum for 25 years - perhaps it's less ham-fisted this way than to have them all angelic and meek? I have read criticisms of it that most of the actual black people in it are voodoo gangsters, though...

Also, why not watch the 5-10 best Original Series episodes first? Tick all the boxes!

Yeah, watch the last four or so episodes of season 2 and continue from there (the start of Season 3 has a sum-up of the previous two seasons to fill in the gaps, but I don't think there's anything you wouldn't have figured out already and certainly nothing important). I asked the same question as you elsewhere when I was bouncing off season 1, and that was the overwhelming consensus.

I think he may have been trying to get to "there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand in all Earth's beaches and deserts".

I'm not going to click on that spoiler until I've finished S2! Yeah, it still has enough good stuff going on that I can enjoy, I just feel like it's still finding its feet (maybe I'll disagree with JKO and find it massively improves in later seasons!). Anyway, I happened to stick my head into the Thumbs Discord yesterday right when someone was slagging me off for shitting on everything all the time. So in the interest of balance, here are some shows I am watching and enjoying: Two that have been discussed already are Bojack Horseman and Parks & Rec. The former is so dense with different modes of humour but also brings the pathos, the latter is very broad but lovable and feel-good (at least once it suddenly improves a ton towards the end of S2). Two that haven't are Frankie And Grace and Love. The former is a comedy drama with an amazing older cast (Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterson, plus a strong supporting cast and some great recurrings like Ernie Hudson, Sam Elliot, Craig T Nelson). It doesn't have a lot of bite, but it's a cosy watch. The latter is a Judd Apatow production and basically feels like the second act of one of his movies carrying on indefinitely (which Bojack would tell you is what his second acts feel like anyway). It's more of a Funny People/This Is 40 vibe than a Knocked Up one; that is to say, it's not so much gregarious and laugh-out-loud funny, more well-observed character stuff.

Yeah, you know what, I watched another episode and there are a lot more practical gore effects than I'd thought. I think either the occasional obvious CG effect overshadowed them in my mind, or it was more CG heavy in the early episodes. I'd still like to see a good practical headsplosion though!

I wasn't going to watch Black Panther at the cinema, but then Civil War hit Netflix so I spent the bank holiday weekend re-watching that and Winter Soldier so I could go watch BP in preparation for Infinity War. I thought Black Panther was pretty dreadful. Basically, my issues with it were:

I didn't mean cheap in a budgetary way, more 'shallow', I guess. Poor choice of word! I'm surprised you've been enjoying the lack of CG though because I've been annoyed by how much it's favoured over practical effects and how crappy it looks! (It was pointed out to me that having crappy CG echoes the movies having a lot of crappy compositing etc, though.)

I just watched Annihilation. There weren't any picture issues on Netflix that I could tell. The movie looks very strange, but purposefully so, I think. Indeed the movie looked gorgeous throughout. Lovely cinematography, tangibly creepy and very impressive production design and really solid effects. The score was great, too. The only issue I had really was story-based: I'm glad I watched it, but I don't think I'll ever go back to it.

That is the first (and likely last) Steamed Hams video I have ever watched. I enjoyed it and yet can only imagine it's utterly dull as an ongoing meme.

Just mentioning that Ash vs Evil dead is pretty fun. But it's pretty dumb and the way it handles all the leads is even dumber. Ash is condescending and gross in a Chevy Chase/Pierce Hawthorne way, the mexican sidekick is dim and dependant for most of the time, of course the girl needs saving. But if you have a need for more evil dead stupidity then the show has you covered. I never finished the whole season but i think there is an undercurrent of tongue in cheek self awareness. It just might not be enough to satisfy many people. I'm about halfway through season 1 of Ash Vs Evil Dead and I'm pretty disappointed so far. In making changes to become a tv show rather than Evil Dead 4, it's really lost a lot of the ED feel and turned into a cheap Supernatural knock-off. It still has moments of charm and fun, but I'm really hoping it finds a strong identity soon, even if it's not a carbon copy of the movies. Oh and, incidentally, the sidekick isn't Mexican. I probably wouldn't have realised if he hadn't said it in ep 3, though, and I definitely wouldn't have known he was Honduran if I hadn't Googled it.

I got to episode 5 and I was like "this is three episodes of content stretched out to five". Now I've watched episode 8 and it's still on about three eps of content. It's really frustrating that they let this show get so sluggish and dull.

Effortlessly riding the line between creepy and entertaining, as is his wont. I wonder how he feels about the fact that media outlets seem to have realised it's better to just show him a series of things and have him Goldblum about them than to ask him a bunch of promotion-specific questions. I guess it's more fun for him. Wish Aiofe had asked him about that Trespasser ending, though.

After everything I've heard about your job, hearing this I was relieved and excited for you! Seems like you've got a bunch of transferable skills, a ton of experience and a cool resume (having NUCLEAR POWER PLANT on your CV will always turn heads). So take this opportunity to find a job that challenges and excites you and doesn't treat you like shit. They're out there, so aim your sights high, stride in there and take one! #YOLO

*shakes fist at Clyde* I'll keep my guess spoilered just in case it happens later in the game.

Wait, really? I was kidding, I didn't imagine that could be true! I've gone back and spoiler tagged in case you're serious and Cordeos hasn't caught up on the thread yet.

EDIT: actually, my reading comprehension failed me here, never mind

Yeah, I'm 4 eps in and feeling the same. I think it gets away with being slow a little more than the other shows, perhaps because I already like the characters or perhaps because the PI set-up lets them move cases and characters in and out rather than introduce the villain up-front and then have them spin wheels for half the season (like Iron Fist with zombie dad and evil lawyer son). But even so, it's really suffering from not having a Kilgrave.

You made it, so I guess you get to classify it...