Trakt for iOS
Works on iPhone and iPad.
Until this point, Bebop is a fun anime with a neat aesthetic. This episode changed a lot of that for me. The montage as Spike is falling from the cathedral is magnificent.
loading replies
@filmboicole got it, that makes sense (it seems they changed the right order for a messed one)
Review by dogg724
VIP3Another week, another unnecessary reboot of a fetishized show. A lot of time and effort is put into apologizing for "surrealist" works. When something seems bizarre or off-putting, it's really the symbol of [blank] that has kept the particular reviewer up for many sleepless nights and changes in meaning for them over years. It would be too simple, it is supposed, to only say the plot was weak and dialogue boring. To suggest camp as a lazy crutch to account for bad acting is to just miss the point! It's a flexible genre that not everyone tunes into for its ability to... make sense... or frame its alleged message in a way you particularly care to hear. ::huff:: Fine. There's some truth to the notion that one person's art is another's self-indulgent waste of time and resources. And in terms of "cultural impact," one must concede this is a "great" show that captured the momentum and fervor of its time and has carried such a special place that it's managed to reboot even if the notion of rebooting has smelled sour for longer than anyone cares to admit.
Whatever else I might figure out to say about this show as I carry on, I cannot get over how horrendously bored I am. One dimensional characters bouncing from one boring ass conversation to the next before schizophrenically altering their personality and plot line to be doing something that isn't better or worse than before and probably won't be given a resolution. The main arc and mystery could have ended it all mid-way in season 2, but they keep going...because. The forced introduction of painted-marionette characters to continuously drag the story along must exist in a collective blackout by the show's most ardent fans.
Check out my viewing habits. I watch nearly everything. Across cultures, eras, and languages I peek. I get that some people have very niche voices and that it can be nice just to find that someone does indeed have a voice. I get that some things are complex or difficult. I get that some things are goofy. I just don't get this. It feels bored with itself. Like someone with the resources to make a parody, or pay homage, or experiment in a bend or twist, just threw it all in a blender and poured it out on the table, dryly proclaiming, "eat." I liken it to the kind of "comedy" that comes from Comedy Bang Bang or Tim and Eric. "WE DID SOMETHING! ACCEPT US! NOT ALL COMEDY IS ABOUT LAUGHTER, DUH!" Okay, you complex, tortured souls you. So it goes not all drama has to feel particularly dramatic nor do all mysteries need to make you think, I guess.
It feels like when True Detective got undermined by its own popularity. Forcing more layers and conversations than were ever needed. It feels like if an X-Files subplot got particularly out of hand. It feels like the original college junior script for Fringe before it went through a 95% rewriting process. It feels like Wonderfalls in a universe where the word "charm" never existed. It's Carnivale without the mystery, style, or acting. It's an episode of Bate's Motel where it's 38 minutes of just Norman and Norma folding sheets and sweeping up the hotel before a slightly awkward conversation at dinner andthenohlookabloodstain cut to black. It's so goddamn boring I'm staring at a frozen frame of it because I had to capture the void and every time I look up it makes me feel even emptier. Now, go on, tell me that's Lynch's intent all along and now I'm finally starting to see the inherent brilliance and wisdom of his sad take on life. Or, let the conversation die like the show should have died in 1991, or whenever the middle of the second season aired.
loading replies
@dogg724 Listen, I'm not trying to get into an essay writing contest with you nor am I insulting you but it is very apparent that you just have a giant misunderstanding of what this show is trying to say and it's due to not being open to how it is saying things. You keep on saying it doesn't have coherent storytelling but I'm not sure what you mean by coherent. In terms of having a point that it is trying to get across it is absolutely coherent, in fact, every single minor detail in the show is working towards the same goal, but if you're just talking plot point to plot point then yes, you'd be correct, not everything is closed up in an envelope at the end, not every scene will be relevant to the main storyline, certain scenes just kind of happen and then fade away. But like I said you misunderstand why Lynch and Frost have decided to include these parts anyway.
"The claim is immediately false given the sheer amount of shows I watch and can see the point of that have all sorts of conflicting narrative structures and styles. I watch 250 shows a year. I can see the point of every single one of them besides Twin Peaks"
First off, no you don't watch 250 shows a year, you don't need to lie here. Secondly, numbers don't mean anything, there are plenty of people who watch dozens of shows and only understand half of them.
"What makes Twin Peaks special? Its sheer lack of coherence or point beyond self-indulgent screed."
It is coherent, it just takes a little bit of deeper thought to understand. This is like saying a surrealist painting has no meaning because it doesn't fit the image in your head of what it should look like.
For the acting bit, yes you did mention the acting was bad in the OP but whatever fine.
"No, I'm not going to imbue my own pick-your-own mystery on top of what doesn't exist there in the first place. I've already spoken to the idea that maybe it's just shitty and lazy writing. Maybe they're just "one-dimensional" because the mind conceiving them was. You're not asking yourself why you're compelled to make excuses."
This is exactly why you aren't enjoying it. You aren't being open to a different form of storytelling than what you're used to. How can you call it lazy and say something doesn't exist when you don't even try to understand the characters in the context of the story being told? Other people are clearly getting gold when they dig, you're just sitting there looking at the ground thinking "There's no gold there anyway so I won't dig."
... You babble for a bit trying to sound like you know more than you do and still misunderstanding the point about the characters in Twin Peaks being there not to be appealing characters but to serve the purpose of the story. I guess if you don't try to find the purpose you won't see what their place in it means though...
"You reference a handful of shows I rate the highest and think this accounts for all I've watched? What's the "argument" of Game of Thrones? What is Rick and Morty "preaching?" What are you even talking about?"
I mentioned these shows because your top rated shows generally give a good idea of what you want to see in a show. These shows are obviously very different types of shows as I explain.
"Twin Peaks isn't concerned with a lot of things well before you might bother searching for a "solution" or "argument." It isn't concerned with anything. That doesn't make it brilliant or special or worth watching. It's fucking around with a big budget."
Budget has little to do with anything. The point of what I was saying is that certain shows like the Wire or whatever are arguing about a proper solution to a perceived problem or flaw in the world. Twin Peaks and other shows like Lost or Boardwalk Empire are making statements about how the world works. Specifically Twin Peaks is talking about how the randomness of our world gives rise to both the best and the worst things in our lives.
"A proper actually intriguing mystery does this without pretending it can happen without a coherent narrative. Again, you think I'm not asking myself the right questions. I'm not inventing a story to supplement the lack of one. It gets you into a bored and dismissive state."
A proper mystery can't happen with a non-traditional narrative? seriously? I mean that's an opinion but it's clearly wrong. Even people who don't like Twin Peaks would disagree with that one. You don't need to supplement the story but you can take the cues given by the show to actually think about what the show is trying to say.
Basically all you have actually said here is "I don't get it. I shouldn't have to ask any questions. I shouldn't have to understand the plot of the show to judge the scenes and characters because their role in delivering a message is not the most important thing. I don't want to even try to understand this. I just want to be spoonfed everything and be lazy while rapid fire watching 200+ shows every year." I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but that's really all your argument boils down to.
When do the good episodes start?
loading replies
@mattdeezly1996 Ah yes. To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand WandaVision. The humor is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Wandas nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into her character. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike WandaVision truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humor in Visions existential catchphrase “I “can’t let you”. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Kevin Feigis genius unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools... how I pity them.  And yes by the way, I DO have a WandaVision tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.
I think I see the need for last episode now, but I still assert this show would be much more interesting if it could be entirely sitcom.
My issue is that I don’t entirely see this series as more than an experiment. As we see more and more, Wandavision is little more than doses of things we’ve seen elsewhere: Truman Show, Annihilation, Pleasantville, Inception. It makes for something decently interesting, but it brings up a branding problem that it feels as though it’s fighting really hard to course-correct. Marvel has built a brand mercilessly for nearly thirteen years now and although we were given the heads up that Phase 4 was going to get a little more out there, I’m not sure how this is correlating yet. When I think Marvel, I’m not sure something like Wandavision is what I’m expecting/wanting and yet when I think of weird, surrealist cinema Wandavision doesn’t really reach the depths of brilliance there either because it has to retain elements of the MCU when it could be David Lynch directs Marvel if they’d run with it.
loading replies
@filmboicole totally agree. This was a missed opportunity to do something unique! The unimaginative by-numbers voices complaining endlessly on here are presumably a big part of the reason they didn't.
I think I see the need for last episode now, but I still assert this show would be much more interesting if it could be entirely sitcom.
My issue is that I don’t entirely see this series as more than an experiment. As we see more and more, Wandavision is little more than doses of things we’ve seen elsewhere: Truman Show, Annihilation, Pleasantville, Inception. It makes for something decently interesting, but it brings up a branding problem that it feels as though it’s fighting really hard to course-correct. Marvel has built a brand mercilessly for nearly thirteen years now and although we were given the heads up that Phase 4 was going to get a little more out there, I’m not sure how this is correlating yet. When I think Marvel, I’m not sure something like Wandavision is what I’m expecting/wanting and yet when I think of weird, surrealist cinema Wandavision doesn’t really reach the depths of brilliance there either because it has to retain elements of the MCU when it could be David Lynch directs Marvel if they’d run with it.
loading replies
@filmboicole That's just it! It's actually refreshing to see something done with passion and respect for the past. It awakens the purist in me.
I think I see the need for last episode now, but I still assert this show would be much more interesting if it could be entirely sitcom.
My issue is that I don’t entirely see this series as more than an experiment. As we see more and more, Wandavision is little more than doses of things we’ve seen elsewhere: Truman Show, Annihilation, Pleasantville, Inception. It makes for something decently interesting, but it brings up a branding problem that it feels as though it’s fighting really hard to course-correct. Marvel has built a brand mercilessly for nearly thirteen years now and although we were given the heads up that Phase 4 was going to get a little more out there, I’m not sure how this is correlating yet. When I think Marvel, I’m not sure something like Wandavision is what I’m expecting/wanting and yet when I think of weird, surrealist cinema Wandavision doesn’t really reach the depths of brilliance there either because it has to retain elements of the MCU when it could be David Lynch directs Marvel if they’d run with it.
loading replies
@filmboicole This is exactly what I've been saying! The sitcom is the best part, and I actually sort of enjoy the first two episodes even without the creepy context.
I think I see the need for last episode now, but I still assert this show would be much more interesting if it could be entirely sitcom.
My issue is that I don’t entirely see this series as more than an experiment. As we see more and more, Wandavision is little more than doses of things we’ve seen elsewhere: Truman Show, Annihilation, Pleasantville, Inception. It makes for something decently interesting, but it brings up a branding problem that it feels as though it’s fighting really hard to course-correct. Marvel has built a brand mercilessly for nearly thirteen years now and although we were given the heads up that Phase 4 was going to get a little more out there, I’m not sure how this is correlating yet. When I think Marvel, I’m not sure something like Wandavision is what I’m expecting/wanting and yet when I think of weird, surrealist cinema Wandavision doesn’t really reach the depths of brilliance there either because it has to retain elements of the MCU when it could be David Lynch directs Marvel if they’d run with it.
loading replies
You captured everything I'm feeling about this show!!!! it would be much more enjoyable if it was truly funny and then made a dark turn. Everything just feels half assed
Confusing and boring
Don’t believe what you see in the trailer, it was very slow paced and all the “ghosts” in this movie were just all confusing. Nothing made sense and all the scary scenes were all over the place.
This movie could have had potential if it focused on the refugees doing good for the country they are staying in.
But combining this with horror just didn’t work out
loading replies
@usagiwhitenight "This movie could have had potential if it focused on the refugees doing good for the country they are staying in." You've missed the point so completely it's honestly embarrassing.
Shout by Neal Mahoney
VIP8Just when Marty had everything worked out, Boom headshoot! Never call a redneck "a redneck" to her face. It will be interesting to see what the cartel does next. They don't mind removing a couple toe nails. I'm sure we will find out in a second season.
loading replies
@nmahoney416 I thought the problem was calling hillbillies, rednecks. oh well, I am not even from the US.
How do you write about television? As a medium with so many individual pieces, prestige TV maximizes those pieces to the absolute limit, particularly when we have various creative talent that slide in and out from episode to episode.
Bly Manor is a deeply unsatisfying package, but even those packages have bits of goodness in them. This episode felt like the tiniest nugget of gold in a haystack I haven’t been able to care about. I felt like we finally got to the meat of the conflict here, but at what cost? We have floundered for six hours before we get to it, only seeing the slightest morsels of intrigue. I don’t care that the show isn’t scary—horror has never :asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol:really:asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol: been about scaring people, even though that’s ultimately what they do. But I can’t shake the fact that the whole interpersonal drama of Bly Manor is frustratingly misplaced and doesn’t really coexist within the genre to which it so desperately wants to belong. I don’t really recommend this series. I recommend other projects like it though: Crimson Peak or Hereditary to name a few. At the very least, I got my one morsel.
Who knows. Maybe I’m just a fool.
loading replies
@filmboicole lmao deep.
actually, well played. this comment explains your stance, as opposed to your previous ones.
Nice to see this season stop dawdling around and actually advance the plot forward in a meaningful way. The fact that the large questions The Good Place has been asking for years might actually have a resolution is exciting, even if the conclusion will likely end positively--it would just be so tonally off-brand and against the show's thesis for the protagonists to fail.
But what gripe I really have is with the logic of the judge's ruling. It really doesn't make sense. How would a hard reboot of Earth even sort of start to guarantee that things would improve? A hard reset feels blatantly unfair and although that's the necessity in order to incite the show's next act, it doesn't make sense coming from the being who is supposed to be literally the most fair person in the universe. I'm not sure what would have been a better move, though. But because this is the path that we've set forward, it feels as though the season arc didn't need as many episodes as we're getting. Considering so many episodes have been spent spinning their wheels, it almost feels like perhaps this show could have wrapped up with a significantly more truncated season--but I wouldn't be surprised if NBC wouldn't go for it.
That said, there is good stuff in this episode. I like seeing characters showing deep understanding of each other. And hearing Bad Janet say "I don't have to poop, I choose to" was fantastic.
loading replies
@hcolesmith95 Yeah, rebooting the Earth doesn't make sense. She claims it is because humans became too complicated to measure with points. But if Earth is rebooted, a billion years later, the exact same issue will arise. Evolution complicates things. If they can't evolve with it, they should not be the celestial beings in charge of people's fates.
The best option would be to do away with the point system and judge people on a more empathetic level. The point Michael made that changed the judge's mind was that points don't show an individual's potential. So, the best option would be to allow such potential to be shown. The Neighborhood (and others like it) should become an official part of the system. When people die, they go to a Neighborhood and the quality of their souls is judged a certain amount of time. At the end of that time, it is decided whether they good to the Good Place or the Bad Place. This is the ideal way to handle it. The only issue is finding the right people to run the Neighborhoods and providing the best environment in which people can reveal their true natures...
I am just more and more underwhelmed by what we're seeing with this series. It's not bad, but it's certainly not very meaty either. What, exactly, are the themes? The overarching struggle that I'm supposed to attach my empathy to? Baby Yoda is incredibly cute, but one off episodes of The Mandalorian thwarting unconnected threats feels like it's just going to get more and more stale. These episodes have been entertaining (this one least of all), but I want something to chew on.
I have to laugh though. The Star Wars fanbase is incredibly fickle and hypocritical. The idea that we hear so much hate for the sequel trilogy and then this series is being lauded by those same fans is hilarious. What are some of the major complaints they have for the sequels? Rey is a Mary-Sue and Star Wars is being Disney-fied?
Have they actually watched this show then? Or are they just enamored by the cuteness of Baby Yoda? The Mandalorian is arguably a bigger Mary-Sue than Rey (who honestly isn't a Mary-Sue, but if she is then so was Luke Skywalker in the originals lol). And this series is far more Disney-fied than either The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi.
:person_shrugging::male_sign:
loading replies
@hcolesmith95 Exactly. This show is only saved by Baby Yoda's cuteness. But it's all style over substance. This show is Disney right to the core.
Doesn't really juggle its messages and influences as skillfully as it seems to think it does. I had a hard time watching this in the theater because so much of it was just plain cringe-y to me. I know people are absolutely adoring this film, but it felt like a shallow misunderstanding of The King of Comedy and Taxi Driver to me.
Phoenix gives a solid performance and the cinematography is good though.loading replies
Finally someone speaking common sense. 100% agree with you.
It's just not as clever as it thinks it is.
Frequently descends into a wash of confusing and cerebral devices. Never bad, but often I found that I got far more enjoyment out of this season when I didn't try to focus so intently on the show. I'd be more likely to give this season a five if it weren't for the visuals and the narration by Jon Hamm, which make the season far more watchable than if they were absent.
Special shout out given to the fact that this show wants to treat its audiences with so much intelligence but is often undermined by the choices in the editing and sound design (which repeat bits and pieces of content that I'd much rather have to remember on my own). It became a much more passive experience to watch than I would have hoped, but oh well.
I will need to take a break on this show before tackling season three. A shame. I already had to take a two month break in the middle of this season.
loading replies
@hcolesmith95 I hate to tell you this, but you probably won't make it through Season 3. I barely did, and I'm a big fan of this show's aesthetic. They stretched a very simple plot to the point of almost breaking, and introduced two of the most useless characters in the history of televised entertainment. Plus, time travel. Ugh. It was a shame.
