OT TV and Movies (Please use spoiler tags)

[Ron Swanson]

I'd say you guys are definitely in the extreme minority on Alien Earth. As an Alien and Ridley Scott purist, I thought it was great. Re: Paradise, now that was a great season of television that could have been an all-time great season of television if they didn't completely fumble the bag on the finale...

[Prez]

I was enjoying Alien Earth quite a bit up until the last 3 episodes, where it got really **** stupid imo, and happy to get into details on that. There were a number of things even in the first 4-5 episodes that were weird to me but I kinda just gave them the benefit of the doubt that it would all lead to something special/wrap up nicely later in the season, and overall the positives outweighed the negatives. But seeing how annoying the last few episodes were handled it almost makes me look at the first 4-5 less favorably.

I also don’t think negativity on Alien Earth is an extreme minority opinion anymore. I’ve seen quite a few negative takes/reviews of the show after the last few episodes.

[BUCKnation]

I was enjoying Alien Earth quite a bit up until the last 3 episodes, where it got really **** stupid imo, and happy to get into details on that. There were a number of things even in the first 4-5 episodes that were weird to me but I kinda just gave them the benefit of the doubt that it would all lead to something special/wrap up nicely later in the season, and overall the positives outweighed the negatives. But seeing how annoying the last few episodes were handled it almost makes me look at the first 4-5 less favorably.

I also don’t think negativity on Alien Earth is an extreme minority opinion anymore. I’ve seen quite a few negative takes/reviews of the show after the last few episodes.

I'd say most people basically feel the same as your take here.

[Ron Swanson]

It's currently 94% on Rotten Tomatoes so I'm not really seeing that as a trend at all.

Edit: Oh sure, the audience score is way lower at 66% but that discrepancy is basically a telltale sign that it's actually great lol. I don't care about all the review bombers and toxic nerds who probably can't get past some unimportant lore bull **** that Hawley allegedly " butchered".

[ReasonablySober]

It's currently 94% on Rotten Tomatoes so I'm not really seeing that as a trend at all.

Edit: Oh sure, the audience score is way lower at 66% but that discrepancy is basically a telltale sign that it's actually great lol. I don't care about all the review bombers and toxic nerds who probably can't get past some unimportant lore bull **** that Hawley allegedly " butchered".

I think it's probably more likely that critics reviewed only a few episodes and not the full season. I haven't really seen anyone say that the back half was any good.

[Prez]

I don’t really care too much about “Alien lore” or whatever it is we think is the cause of “review bombing” and I don’t think it’s fair to boil down the lower audience score to just “toxic nerds”. My criticism, and the criticism from most of the reviewers I’ve seen that are negative about the show, is just flat out dumb writing in the latter half of the show. Again I thought wasn’t as bad in the early episodes and to an extent you want to be open minded about where it might be leading, but once it’s done, much less so.

Also agree with RS that I wonder if the overall RT% is from critic early reviews that only had the first handful of episodes available. I find it extremely hard to believe it’s for the entirety of the show after it fully aired.

[BUCKnation]

For whatever reason I also lost some interest in the final few eps, but I definitely noticed a less favorable vibe from those covering the show and just less talk about it in general on twitter, reddit, etc.

[MickeyDavis]

Read on Twitter

[Licensed to Il]

Read on Twitter

LOL… Mickey… how old are you?

[stellation]

Read on Twitter

LOL… Mickey… how old are you?

No time for jokes, he dated June when they were in their 20s.

[MickeyDavis]

Lost in Space is a classic for all ages

[stellation]

Lost in Space is a classic for all ages

Absolutely! I was raised a sci-fi fan in a sci-fi house, I have fond memories of staying up past my bed time to watch reruns of it with my Dad.

[Finn]

Lost in Space is a classic for all ages

Loved "Lost in Space" growing up. Must see after school TV.

[Siefer]

It's currently 94% on Rotten Tomatoes so I'm not really seeing that as a trend at all.

Edit: Oh sure, the audience score is way lower at 66% but that discrepancy is basically a telltale sign that it's actually great lol. I don't care about all the review bombers and toxic nerds who probably can't get past some unimportant lore bull **** that Hawley allegedly " butchered".

I think it's probably more likely that critics reviewed only a few episodes and not the full season. I haven't really seen anyone say that the back half was any good.

Yes, TV show reviews on RT (which is a simple pass/fail aggregate) are usually based on a batch of provided early episodes. The first half of the season was pretty enjoyable! I think episode 5 was a good vibe, with a lot of question marks, and it looked worse in retrospect given how silly the last 3 episodes were.

Chandler's performance wasn't my favorite, but I don't know if anyone could done much with some of the dialogue she was given.

I'll also say, being in the minority, or majority opinion doesn't mean much to me, but the median opinion from folks who finished the season seems closer to negative on the back half.

[ReasonablySober]

Didn't know anything about House of Dynamite before seeing it. I was incredibly in for 80% of the movie, but man. It really, REALLY, fumbled the last 20 minutes and the ending. IMO.

[emunney]

There's a lot of unjustified stuff going on in Alien Earth but I think that's also the case for all of the Alien movies. The xenomorphs are super fast and strong unless they're chasing a main character, for example. There are a couple things that happened that I distinctly did not like.

Spoiler:

1. It felt like the fact that the childrens' tracking could be turned off warranted a justification and did not get one (that I noticed).

2. The eyeball alien inhabiting a corpse bridged from sci-fi to supernatural, and was not remotely necessary.

[emunney]

Generally speaking I feel like Hawley is the Drake of TV. Talented craftsman, not a lot of substance that isn't cribbed from something better. Alien Earth was full of cool big ideas, though, was overall far more thoughtful than I expected it to be

[machu46]

Final two movies in this year's Sunday Scaries ended up being When a Stranger Calls (1979 one) and The Night House. Had already seen Night House before but was very excited for a rewatch and it still delivers; definitely one of my favorite recent horror movies. For When a Stranger Calls, I had no idea how little time we would actually spend with the babysitter in the beginning. I thought that would literally be the entire movie. I found the movie more funny than scary but it was a fun group watch after the much heavier/slow burn Night House.