OT: Art, Music, Literature, Media, and More! Part 2

[Marvel]

1883 is ok a bit meh at the moment.
Really enjoying Dexter: new blood
Watched Ida Red if anyone's seen it. Not too bad.
Old Henry was awesome. Bit of a under the radar flick but good.

[rzzzzz]

If Pazz and Jop was still alive, this undoubtedly would be their album of the year.

Watch on YouTube

Pharaoh Sanders at 80 making the sax relevant again.

[zoyathedestroya]

Possibly not for everyone and this could be an overreaction, but Station Eleven (5 episodes in) is simply perfect television.

[bisme37]

First time they made a video for this song I guess. Such a pretty song and hits the spot for Xmas.

Watch on YouTube

;t=180s

[BostonCouchGM]

The Wheel of Time series is an abomination. The inexperienced, hack, SJW show-runner thinks he writes better than Robert Jordan and in just 8 episodes has completely ruined the story. No chance they make it to Season 8 as planned. If you've read the books I suggest you hard pass

[zoyathedestroya]

Never read the books. But watched the series and found it underwhelming.

[bucknersrevenge]

Late to the show but I'm currently burning my way through Money Heist and it's been fairly enjoyable.

[Fencer reregistered]

An oldie I just discovered -- Gene Kelly arguing that athletes' movements are underpinnings of dance. He's assisted in this by a number of star athletes, including three who are still hugely famous today: Johnny Unitas, Sugar Ray Robinson ... and Bob Cousy.

Watch on YouTube

[Smart2Nesmith43]

The Wheel of Time series is an abomination. The inexperienced, hack, SJW show-runner thinks he writes better than Robert Jordan and in just 8 episodes has completely ruined the story. No chance they make it to Season 8 as planned. If you've read the books I suggest you hard pass

Even for non book readers I wouldn't recommend the series, there's much stronger fantasy material out there. Considering the books are some of my favorites, this hurts to say but I just can't defend the show. I'm sympathetic to the fact they need to bring in a larger audience than just book readers for the series to be viable financially and it's a fine balance between pleasing the book readers and making the show more accessible to everybody else. I'm really not the person to hate on a TV show because they deviate from the source material. I understand that it's a different medium and adjustments need to be make and I usually enjoy trying to find the differences with the books and figuring why the showrunners went in another direction.

I think the books all told have like ~250 POV characters and the middle books can grind to a halt at times (think Celtics late game offense circa 2021 ) with so many different plotlines. Even if the richness of the worldbuilding and the cast of characters is a big reason the Wheel of Time is what it is, I have no issue with and I expected the show to trim some of the fat. But like not so we could spend an entire episode on a couple of characters that aren't even in the books and are completely irrelevent especially when there has been very little development of the main characters. Overall the changes make no sense and just prove that the people making the adaptation are in way above their heads.

Even what they keep from the books shows a profound lack of understanding of the series and what's important or not in the story.

Spoiler:

When Logain gets paraded through the streets of Tar Valon, it's actually a scene in the book except it happens in another city. I guess they didn't have time to go to Caemlyn this season, whatever, but the sole purpose of the scene in the books is to introduce Mat and Rand with Elayne. Which can't happen in the show because it would make no sense for her to be in Tar Valon at that point in time. So good job you stayed true to the book you kept that scene, you just voided it of any meaning.

The simplest tasks are botched so badly they should be on the shaqtin a fool of book adaptation. The beginning of the Wheel of Time is one of the greatest prologues ever written in fantasy. Robert Jordan just gift wrapped you the best opening sequences you could ever ask for, just take it and say thank you. To start the TV show with anything else is indefensible. To start with whatever that first sequence was is malpractice.

Spoiler:

I can't wait to see how they mess up Falme, Dumai Wells, the cleansing of Saidin and the siege of Maradon which are probably my favorite sequences from the books.

[bisme37]

Wheel of time... I haven't read the books so it was all new to me. And yeah I agree the show is only so-so. One thing tho, I started watching the "inside the episode" videos after each episode, and they really helped me get more into what was happening and enjoy the show more. Like there was some really good stuff going on but it somehow didn't translate for me until I saw the cast and show runners explaining it and hammering it home.

[zoyathedestroya]

Re-watching Fringe made me wonder which famous TV shows are set/shot in Boston/New England area. There are so many NY and LA, even Chicago.

Also, STATION ELEVEN YOU GUYS!!! If a fictional pandemic still has room for your psyche (but really, the show is way more than being about a pandemic).

[sam_I_am]

The Wheel of Time series is an abomination. The inexperienced, hack, SJW show-runner thinks he writes better than Robert Jordan and in just 8 episodes has completely ruined the story. No chance they make it to Season 8 as planned. If you've read the books I suggest you hard pass

Even for non book readers I wouldn't recommend the series, there's much stronger fantasy material out there. Considering the books are some of my favorites, this hurts to say but I just can't defend the show. I'm sympathetic to the fact they need to bring in a larger audience than just book readers for the series to be viable financially and it's a fine balance between pleasing the book readers and making the show more accessible to everybody else. I'm really not the person to hate on a TV show because they deviate from the source material. I understand that it's a different medium and adjustments need to be make and I usually enjoy trying to find the differences with the books and figuring why the showrunners went in another direction.

I think the books all told have like ~250 POV characters and the middle books can grind to a halt at times (think Celtics late game offense circa 2021 ) with so many different plotlines. Even if the richness of the worldbuilding and the cast of characters is a big reason the Wheel of Time is what it is, I have no issue with and I expected the show to trim some of the fat. But like not so we could spend an entire episode on a couple of characters that aren't even in the books and are completely irrelevent especially when there has been very little development of the main characters. Overall the changes make no sense and just prove that the people making the adaptation are in way above their heads.

Even what they keep from the books shows a profound lack of understanding of the series and what's important or not in the story.

Spoiler:

When Logain gets paraded through the streets of Tar Valon, it's actually a scene in the book except it happens in another city. I guess they didn't have time to go to Caemlyn this season, whatever, but the sole purpose of the scene in the books is to introduce Mat and Rand with Elayne. Which can't happen in the show because it would make no sense for her to be in Tar Valon at that point in time. So good job you stayed true to the book you kept that scene, you just voided it of any meaning.

The simplest tasks are botched so badly they should be on the shaqtin a fool of book adaptation. The beginning of the Wheel of Time is one of the greatest prologues ever written in fantasy. Robert Jordan just gift wrapped you the best opening sequences you could ever ask for, just take it and say thank you. To start the TV show with anything else is indefensible. To start with whatever that first sequence was is malpractice.

Spoiler:

I can't wait to see how they mess up Falme, Dumai Wells, the cleansing of Saidin and the siege of Maradon which are probably my favorite sequences from the books.

The Wheel of Time series is one of the lamest I ever tried to read - I had to bail after book 3 as it just got worse and worse. However, it’s understandable why the books had a following - the fantasy genre was left for dead until Harry Potter jump started it again - and at the time it came out there was little else to choose from unlike today. That said, the first book was pretty fast paced and ended well, 9probably because Jordan ripped off Tolkien so heavily). How the show managed to make the ending of season 1 so lame is mind boggling. I looked forward to the show because I hoped Amazon backed writers could do to the source material what Marvel/Disney has done for the Avengers. Anyone looking for the next GOT, this isn’t it. I’m still hoping the Witcher on Netflix will get as good as the books but that too has been a let down.

[sam_I_am]

Re-watching Fringe made me wonder which famous TV shows are set/shot in Boston/New England area. There are so many NY and LA, even Chicago.

Also, STATION ELEVEN YOU GUYS!!! If a fictional pandemic still has room for your psyche (but really, the show is way more about a pandemic).

I got the book as a gift when it came out and it was one of the best post apocalypse books I’ve ever read (The Road being the best). Glad to hear the show is good.

Speaking of The Road, I read it in a day and half during a rain storm while on vacation at the beach in 2008. Then my day got even better when Paul Pierce, KG and Ray beat the Lakers to win #17!

[canman1971]

New Cobra Kai is really good so far. Only on episode 4. Quick watch.

[zoyathedestroya]

Weakest season of Yellowstone so far. Missed opportunity after that S3 finale. It just felt like they were unsure about the direction of the story which would advance their characters. Too many subplots that didn't interest/appeal to me or were half-cooked. Still a good show though. S4 was an easy watch, breezed through in 2 days lol.

[canman1971]

Weakest season of Yellowstone so far. Missed opportunity after that S3 finale. It just felt like they were unsure about the direction of the story which would advance their characters. Too many subplots that didn't interest/appeal to me or were half-cooked. Still a good show though. S4 was an easy watch, breezed through in 2 days lol.

Really? I thought it was great. I guesses where they are going with this, but I don't want to give any spoilers trying to explain it.

[Ed Pinkney]

Just watched Season 1 of Foundation. I haven't read any of Asimov's books, and I know a few people who really didn't like how much they changed it for the show, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's crazy seeing TV shows with that level of production value these days. It will be interesting to see Amazon's Tolkien show when it comes out, because I think they threw stupid money at that series.

[canman1971]

Anyone watch the series "Crashing"? Only 3 episodes in, but pretty funny.

[Bad-Thoma]

Just watched Season 1 of Foundation. I haven't read any of Asimov's books, and I know a few people who really didn't like how much they changed it for the show, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's crazy seeing TV shows with that level of production value these days. It will be interesting to see Amazon's Tolkien show when it comes out, because I think they threw stupid money at that series.

No matter how good/bad it is I think it's going to get ripped apart by Tolkien fans, the bar is high. Fans are rough these days. I'm looking forward to it but I keep my slate of expectations clean.

[Curmudgeon]

Sidney Poitier has died. Somewhere I have a copy of "Go Man Go," the 1954 movie about the Globetrotters starring Dane Clark as Abe Saperstein and Poitier as a disgrunted basketball star. That was 5 years before Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones, in which both Poitier and Tony Curtis were nominated for best actor. Poitier should have won, but the Oscar went to David Niven for his role in Separate Tables, a decent but inferior movie.