They add woke drama, too far from the true story. The character is not like the real Miep, Disney keep doing it, good actors, bad directors, bad writers, instead a good show, it is like a soap opera based vaguely in real persons. Skip it.
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@edgrande If you use the word 'woke' it renders the rest of what you're saying is disregarded. I'm assuming the problem you have is that the Nazis aren't the good guys.
Wow. This is just terrible. There's no other word for it other than that.
Firstly, the casting is just plain awful. Diversity for the sake of diversity takes its toll yet again, with people being cast into roles with the wrong ethnicity for that particular part. This is even more insulting considering the fact that the world all of this takes place in, already has tons of diversity in it to begin with. Don't shove it in where it doesn't belong!
Storywise... ooh boy. So much has been changed. And look, I get that book adaptations need certain elements changed in order to better fit a visual medium. And some changes they made, are fine. But let me just list some things that are completely wrong:
The whole concept of the Dragon. The show opens with a very brief description of who the Dragon is. The Dragon is the reincarnation of a male Aes Sedai who broke the world in ages past. Concise, but true. Good enough. But then they go on and say that this reincarnation could be either male or female? That makes no sense at all! The Dragon has to be male, because he's the reincarnation of a male Aes Sedai, and he will break the world a second time, just like he did before.
Finding the Dragon. Nobody knows who the Dragon Reborn is. People find out because he starts fulfilling the prophecies written about him just by being born in a certain place and on a certain time. That's how Moiraine narrows it down to the Two Rivers, by finding out about some young people there that fit those criteria. In this adaptation, all Aes Sedai have some sort of spidey sense that can pinpoint the Dragon. Lazy writing at its best.
The world itself. It should be winter, due to the Dark One's grasp increasing on the world. This is a big plot point, which causes visible distress with pretty much everyone, affecting their doings and thoughts, and in this adaptation they just dumb it down to "something drove the wolves down the mountain". It's spring in this version, and birds can be heard in pretty much every scene.
Characters not acting the way they should. Nynaeve is much too serene, Moiraine isn't serene enough, Egwene is much too mature, Perrin is much too jokey, Mat isn't jokey enough and much too responsible, and so on.
Characters' backstories changed to completely change their personality even further. Mat suddenly has abusive parents. Perrin, who is consistently described in the books as a shy, awkward, careful, peaceloving guy, not only has a girlfriend in this adaptation (his finding his first love in Faile Bashere later on is also a huge plot point that they dismissed by doing this), but he murders her in a fit of blind rage. Nynaeve is suddenly a "lost child", just so they could add her to the possible list of nonsensical Dragon candidates. Because suddenly the Aes Sedai spidey sense doesn't work anymore. Rand and Egwene having a full on sexual relationship while they're supposed to be a coming-of-age story that never works out for them.
Forced edginess. Nudity and sex scenes, while sparse, are shoved in your face so forcefully that you can just tell one of the producers saw Game of Thrones and told the script writers to shove "some of that" in there.
There is a LOT more wrong with this cesspool of an adaptation in terms of story, but those are some of the big ones. Also just overall bad acting and bad CGI. The CGI looks like a videogame from the mid 2010's.
I really wanted to like this, but no amount of goodwill can save this absolute mess of a show.
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@treiden Did we watch the same pilot? Let's see. Bear in mind I'm not going to argue with you about your clueless commentary on diversity in this particular comment, because I've sufficient to say about that elsewhere, and I don't need drama from someone like you. But the rest?
Mat's mother was an abusive parent, at least when drunk, in this adaptation - but there's no indication his father was one here. Cheating on his wife doesn't make him an abusive parent - just a lousy husband.
Perrin didn't "murder [his girlfriend] in a fit of blind rage"; he was in the midst of defending himself from a Trolloc, someone grabbed him from behind, and he swung his weapon, being so deep into that self-defence that he obviously thought her another attacker, and couldn't pull his blow in time. That wouldn't be considered murder in any reasonable court of law; it was clearly an accident.
As for the last, having played video games myself for decades, there's nothing particularly bad about the CGI here, either. I can't imagine what you're comparing it to, to make such a broad claim about its quality.
Why even write something about it?
Those who hate it, too, will probably agree, those who like it may call me a disgruntled Trekkie. What the heck, I've been called worse.
I've endured the Abramsverse, Discovery, and Picard but this is where Star Trek dies.
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@finfan aw, so disappointed to read your negative opinion about this show. For me, it's the best thing out of the Star Trek universe since Voyager (bear in mind I have yet to watch Enterprise). It didn't impress me at first, but it gets hilarious with time. I guess it's just not for hardcore Trekkies, but I'd say that for anyone who enjoys the Star Trek universe and is fond of shows like Futurama and Ricky and Morty, this can be top shelf stuff! I'm loving it, now, and seriously considering bumping my rating up a notch!
An easy watch and pretty entertaining, but it felt very basic for me. It's like it was made for people who have never played video games. It focused on all the obvious culprits and had a pixelated bleep-bloop aesthetic that bears no relation to what games have become. Fair enough, this is focusing on the '80s to early '90s, but there's something almost insulting about doing that. And having the focus be on only America and Japan felt like a missed opportunity (it was called the Sega Mega Drive, you monsters! ;) ).
One thing I did like was the personal stories that cropped up throughout. Although, I don't know why there was so much focus on people who won gaming tournaments, were three necessary? (In fact, eSports as a whole felt completely inappropriate to what the series was about). In particular, the story of the creation of the first console to use cartridges was lovely. The representation of various minorities in gaming, their stories buried in history, was also very welcome.
As someone who grew up as a PC gamer in love with adventure games, I was delighted to see Roberta Williams and her husband were featured, but also sad that there was no dive into King's Quest or how the genre grew and evolved into the '90s.
This is good introduction to the history of gaming, but it only scratches the surface. Mostly it succeeded in making me nostalgic for older games.
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@lefthandedguitarist Thanks so much! I'll check them out :) Cheers
An easy watch and pretty entertaining, but it felt very basic for me. It's like it was made for people who have never played video games. It focused on all the obvious culprits and had a pixelated bleep-bloop aesthetic that bears no relation to what games have become. Fair enough, this is focusing on the '80s to early '90s, but there's something almost insulting about doing that. And having the focus be on only America and Japan felt like a missed opportunity (it was called the Sega Mega Drive, you monsters! ;) ).
One thing I did like was the personal stories that cropped up throughout. Although, I don't know why there was so much focus on people who won gaming tournaments, were three necessary? (In fact, eSports as a whole felt completely inappropriate to what the series was about). In particular, the story of the creation of the first console to use cartridges was lovely. The representation of various minorities in gaming, their stories buried in history, was also very welcome.
As someone who grew up as a PC gamer in love with adventure games, I was delighted to see Roberta Williams and her husband were featured, but also sad that there was no dive into King's Quest or how the genre grew and evolved into the '90s.
This is good introduction to the history of gaming, but it only scratches the surface. Mostly it succeeded in making me nostalgic for older games.
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@lefthandedguitarist good review! I fully agree with you. Do you have any recommendation for similar documentaries? Cheers
Was really enjoyable to watch. You could tell the writers took a lot if inspiration from different places. Was sad when it was over because I wanted the story to continue. I think my biggest hang up was Rylas voice acting, the fake Irish accent was a little much. Other than that, cant wait till next season.
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@madamemarauder , you do know that the actress that does the voice is actually Irish or Scottish, right?
Just when you thought CBS couldn't make any worse Trek, they vomit out this garbage. Not a funny thing in it and the animation is appalling. Roddenberry must be spinning in his grave at warp 9.
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@taomyn I don't think he would. Behind the goofiness they do touch on similar subjects that TOS and TNG did. You might not like the humor, and that's your right, but the themes are very much Star Trek-y. And they call out Starfleet on a lot of their bullshit, especially in the second half, and that was refreshing.