The Official TV Thread

I watched two series over the last week.

First up: Invincible

The son of a super hero finally develops powers, and has to learn not only how to use them, but how traumatic being a hero can be.

I really enjoyed this one. It got pretty dark. A lot of humor too, but what many people will probably remember is the blood and dismembered bodies, so many bodies.

Second up is Alice In Borderland, a japanese series based on a manga. Imagine a cross between Saw, Cube and Gantz.

Three friends find themselves in a deserted run down tokyo. A small number of random people are around, with no idea what happened to the world. To survive, they must compete in games of death, otherwise they die.

The Netflix trailers show way too many spoilers, I'd be annoyed if I saw them first. So I just included a teaser trailer (fairly light on spoilers compared to the others).

If you like post apocalyptic feeling mysteries with puzzle solving against a clock to live, give it a go.

Netflix has got another MOTU.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

It looks like it targets a younger audience. The art style looks very toy-like.

I watched Primeval New World on Amazon.

It's a canadian spinoff of the british dinosaur time travel series.

Strange time portals are appearing around canada, letting dinosaurs wander into our time. A small team has to round them up and get them back to where they came from to avoid corrupting the time line.

The british series was ok, it started off good but declined. The canadian one isn't a reboot/remake, it's the same world (and have a little cross over).

Kind of stupid (annoying characters that loudly whine about relationship stuff while trying to stealthily hunt a velociraptor, etc), but not bad. It's fun playing "spot the stargate / eureka actor", there's a bunch of them. Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter from Stargate SG1) even directs some episodes.

The biggest flaw with Primeval New World is it's a 13 episodes season 1 with a cliff hanger ending, but it's been 9 years and there's no sign of a season 2. 😞

Unfinished shows with cliff hangers should be marked.

I started on another series: Katla

It's an 8 episode Icelandic series about something odd happening at a volcano. A naked woman covered with ash and suffering hypothermia appears out of nowhere in the volcano research town of Vik.

It looks quite unique, everything is black with ash.

I've only seen 3 episodes so far, but I like it. Kind of reminds me a little of Fortitude (another cool series).

If you like slow burn, slightly creepy, mystery shows then give it a go.

Time for another death challenge show.

I just finished watching Squid Game on Netflix. I watched the entire 9 episode series today.

It's similar to Alice In Borderland, but no unnatural event side to it.

456 people in Korea who are in serious debt are given a chance to win millions of dollars by competing in 6 children's games. But the losers are executed.

This was a really great show, and I never want to see it again because I feel depressed now.

I've been watching Midnight Mass, another Netflix series. Only 7 episodes long.

It's by Mike Flanagan, who directed Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, and (coincidentally) Oculus and Oculus 3. 🙂

It's a thriller / horror series with a very strong religious focus. It has long single take dialog scenes that are great and some good performances. Hamish Linklater is awesome as Father Paul.

The Expanse has completed. The last episode of season 6 just came out, and there isn't going to be a season 7. 😞

This season felt rushed. It was only 6 episodes and left some hanging plot threads. (Season episode counts: 10, 13, 13, 10, 10, 6)

Most of the seasons roughly line up with the books (some overlap in the early ones). Season 6 is based on book 6. There's 9 books altogether, so there's still potential story material for the show if it ever resumes.

The Book of Boba Fett is... interesting. I'm enjoying the past timeline parts, but the current timeline isn't as fun.

But the most interesting thing is reading posts from Boba Fett fanboys angry that Boba isn't being bad-ass enough. I'm certainly NOT a Boba Fett fan. His entire time in Star Wars Episodes 4-6 was 5min, which included: shooting his gun 5 times (all misses), wrapping Luke in a cable for about 2 seconds, standing around, walking past the camera, getting accidentally knocked off the skiff by a blind Han. So for me his portrayal in The Book of Boba Fett seems pretty accurate. 🙂

I love watching the TV and I seriously spend waaaay too much time watching 😂 But actually most of the time I spend watching live sport and not actual TV shows. I also like watching sport documentaries, like The Last Dance, which is about the Chicago Bulls and stuff like that. Nothing beats the feeling of live sport though! I'm in Australia and there's the Melbourne Cup which is known as the race that stops the nation, and everyone stops what they are doing to watch the TV for this race. Or even an event like the Super Bowl, I know I'm not alone when I say that SOOOOO many people watch this sporting event on the TV!

Just bought this show: 

It's the greatest show I've seen for long, but I do have a weak spot for Dexter. And great to see him again - had to stop the first episode and get me a glass of cognac - seeing Dexter back in great shape is worth celebrating! 🙂

Also one of my high-end blu-ray players has a QDeo processor, and getting that processor to clean up the blu-ray image and upscale to 4K on my Sony 4K 85" 120Hz TV, the image quality got a lot better - really looks like true 4K. You can literally see all skin imperfections etc, thus feels very close to the actors. Sound is great too (Dolby TrueHD, not Atmos). 

Of course Dexter Season 10 is a 10/10 - but I've only seen the first 4 episodes, will get back later this evening!

I'm not fond of streaming services killing of disc producers, but I finally gave in and just bought 1 year of Disney+. I've waited long for this show to arrive on 4K discs, but seems Disney uses it as kinda blackmail to force new users to Disney+ - that is, you can only watch this show on Disney+, there are no discs and none planned - and you get the show in 4k res and the Atmos sound:

I'm late to the show, but it has blown me away. Like 10 times better than Breaking Bad. I have not enjoyed Star Wars more since the 1980s - this is the quality I've been looking for for about 40 years, lol - each episode did cost about $15 mill, I guess you can make a movie for that budget 🙂 

I fully agree with this piece:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/11/14/mandalorian-is-first-tv-show-that-actually-looks-like-movie-that-might-be-problem/

"If fans get accustomed to feature film-quality production from their television shows, and if they enjoy watching them curled up on the couch at home, who’s to say they’ll be willing to head out on a cold winter night to drop upward of $10 for a movie ticket?

Each episode feels like a small real movie, quality feels as high as the first 3 Star Wars movies (in the late 1970s and early 1980s). So far the first 3 episodes I've watched already feel enough for my entire payment, lol - I don't recall ever having been this excited for a TV show, but again, this feels like a real movie, not a TV show. - But I still need to see the remaining 13 episodes of Season 1 and 2 🙂 

Just got this - 16 discs, 45 hours:

There's also an even more expensive version with some 4K recordings, but it's one two episodes or so - so I figured out it's not worth the significantly higher price.

The blu-ray quality looks like 4K to me - but that's using 2 x upscaling, first the QDeo processor in my blu-ray disc player upscales (and cleans the image) to 4K, and then the Sony X1 processor in the TV takes over - the final result is so close to real 4K movies I don't notice the difference, especially for Season 3, it's really razor-sharp, you can see the tiniest skin imperfections.

I'm watching it with my 15 year old son, he loves the show - but Season 3 is hardcore, I've forgotten how brutal it is. Well, as long as my wife doesn't find out 🤗 😇