OT 19/3: COVID-19 Isolation Chamber/Panic Room

[DistantThunderRep]

Merry Christmas. May the flow charts bring you all warmth and happiness !

 

[Hoek]

Merry Christmas I hope you all are enjoying the holidays!

 

[DistantThunderRep]

I assumed you meant Red Dead Redemption 2 (“western RPGs”) and that was the first game I ever bothered to get the 100% achievement/ trophy for because I wanted to see everything in the game. But maybe you meant “western” as opposed to “Japanese”.

Thanks for the tip.

You're always thankful for just the tip...

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Wife being best wife bought me a new belt for my collection for Christmas (the bottom tv title). Good wife is good.

 

[Hoek]

Finished The Man in the High Castle. I was fine with everything except the last few seconds. What the heck was that?

 

[Felonious Python]

Finished The Man in the High Castle. I was fine with everything except the last few seconds. What the heck was that?

It's very ending wasn't all that great, but they sort of had to do something with the biggest thing they were trying to set up. The book is only really the first season of the show, but the

Spoiler

traveling between alternate worlds

formally introduced in S2 didn't really work, and dragged down the middle seasons. Season 4 kept that stuff to a minimum and benefited from keeping it on the characters, their worlds and not on the plot device itself.

In fact, there was a plot hole late in the final episode that made for good drama, but the over-emphasis on technical explanation in earlier seasons would have fixated on it.

Spoiler

John wanted to take Helen to the other timeline to see their Vietnam-bound son. Your alternate version can't exist/be alive, or you explode when you go through the portal. (Although without daughters in the other timeline, he would have maybe killed alternate Helen, but that didn't seem to have happened yet.)

The show did change its showrunner after season 2, to their benefit.

 

[Hoek]

I just don't understand

Spoiler

why normal people would go to the horrible universe where the Nazis won, unless they're coming from an even worse universe where nuclear war breaks out or something. Maybe that's the answer.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

I haven't finished s4 yet. On episode 7. Will come back and show you charts in how you're both wrong.

 

[Felonious Python]

I just don't understand

Spoiler

why normal people would go to the horrible universe where the Nazis won, unless they're coming from an even worse universe where nuclear war breaks out or something. Maybe that's the answer.

Spoiler

That seemed to be what they were trying to convey.

"They're coming from where?"
"Everywhere."

They were trying to be uplifting at the end I suppose, despite the rest of the world being under Axis control (although those days seemed to be numbered).

 

[Felonious Python]

The Talos Principle on the Epic Games Store is free today. I gave it a try, not putting too much faith into it, since I didn't like The Witness.

I like The Talos Principle. I don't like The Witness.

 

[The Macho King]

The Witcher on Netflix. A simple story told complexly. It's better than The Last Kingdom though, which is somewhat superficially similar. I'd say that's a simple story told simply.

GoT at it's best was a complex story told simply. The best combination.

Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia is surprisingly good. Maybe too accurate to the games as the fantasy world he inhabits needs constant explaining, which no one wants to do. Normally you'd have the main character be a charismatic fish out of water and need everything explained to them, but the point of Geralt is that he's very savvy and normally pretty serious with some sly wit. In later episodes, they do start pairing him up with characters that start explaining things, but most of the first episode is pretty rough with introducing its concepts.

I'm through 3 episodes and it seems to be a series that rewards you the more you watch.

The excellent Witcher games though are on sale. The Witcher 1 is $1.50 on GoG and The Witcher 2 is $3 on GoG and Steam. The Witcher 3 is $12 with the Game of the Year edition at $15.

The series developer owns GoG, so they'll always be available there.

Well put. There's just no excuse for the complete lack of grounding the viewer in place or time until the last episode. I understand that Yenn's, Geralt's, and Ciri's stories are all taking place over different periods, but you want them in all 8 episodes - find a more elegant way of getting that across. The disjointedness of the narrative did not advance the *experience* at all, it just forced the viewer to go "wait, what?" at various points.

 

[Felonious Python]

Well put. There's just no excuse for the complete lack of grounding the viewer in place or time until the last episode. I understand that Yenn's, Geralt's, and Ciri's stories are all taking place over different periods, but you want them in all 8 episodes - find a more elegant way of getting that across. The disjointedness of the narrative did not advance the *experience* at all, it just forced the viewer to go "wait, what?" at various points.

It wasn't a very well done 'surprise'. When they're important and done well, they're worth it, but The Witcher pulled a sneaky on us to accomplish what exactly? The realization in itself that these events aren't happening at the same time? And do nothing with it?

The showrunner has admitted that they needed to compress things to get Ciri into the story early, so it wasn't present in the short stories season 1 was based on. (the show is based on the original books, and not so much the games, which is why Triss is a pretty minor character)

Netflix's The Witcher Showrunner Addresses Common Criticism

Season 2 won't be out until 2021, although I'm concerned that with the confusing parts of season 1, that's a long wait and hype will have cooled off. With a full staff of writers, they should have plenty of opportunities to iron out the issues.

I'm becoming more convinced that the traditional model of releasing an episode a week is the better model. Netflix dumps them all at once, but the 'lifespan' in the public consciousness is way shorter than it is for say, The Mandalorian, or Game of Thrones, where the internet discusses, memes, and dissects every episode.

 

[The Macho King]

It wasn't a very well done 'surprise'. When they're important and done well, they're worth it, but The Witcher pulled a sneaky on us to accomplish what exactly? The realization in itself that these events aren't happening at the same time? And do nothing with it?

The showrunner has admitted that they needed to compress things to get Ciri into the story early, so it wasn't present in the short stories season 1 was based on. (the show is based on the original books, and not so much the games, which is why Triss is a pretty minor character)

Netflix's The Witcher Showrunner Addresses Common Criticism

Season 2 won't be out until 2021, although I'm concerned that with the confusing parts of season 1, that's a long wait and hype will have cooled off. With a full staff of writers, they should have plenty of opportunities to iron out the issues.

I'm becoming more convinced that the traditional model of releasing an episode a week is the better model. Netflix dumps them all at once, but the 'lifespan' in the public consciousness is way shorter than it is for say, The Mandalorian, or Game of Thrones, where the internet discusses, memes, and dissects every episode.

I think there's room for both - although generally the number of shows that are truly "binge-able" is overstated, and probably not best suited for dramas.

I mean - on one hand, it allows you to build hype. On the other - if your first episode bombs, there's probably less of a chance you see a second.

I figured the reason was to get Ciri in, but... ya know... just address the time jumps? It might even add something if you realize that Yennefer is 200 years old (or whatever) and Geralt is 80 years old (don't know if these numbers are accurate - just saying) and she had been toiling away at helping dudes get boners for 30 years or whatever.

I actually read the books back in the day. Ultimately I wasn't a huge fan because it felt fairly derivative, but it doesn't completely suck - it's just there is a ton of competition in the fantasy genre, and you are forced to read something translated from Polish, which while competently translated, isn't the same as reading native writer.

One day someone will do Malazan, and hopefully do it right.

 

[Coopers Gum]

Yeah. I played W3, and understood some of the show's background. It could have been done better, for sure. At least address the time jumps.

But that Butcher of Blaviken scene in epi 1... damn.

 

[Felonious Python]

If they went back and put subtitles to say the year, would that be an okay change, or is that 'maclunky' type meddling? Could the audience infer Witchers live very long lives, because I don't remember them really focusing on that.

It'd recontextualize the whole season, which would be a major change.

As I see it, one of the benefits of releasing weekly is that it allows the creators to address the issues of the early episodes before the season is over. They can cut scenes, put previously removed scenes back in, etc., based on the feedback they're getting.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Happy New Year!

 

[Stormbreaker]

 

[Lord Stan 2020]

any of you guys gamers epic games is giving away free darksiders 1 and 2 for pc .... they are 22 and 13 gigs story is characters are the 4 horsemen have to jan 7th to download

 

[JoVel]

any of you guys gamers epic games is giving away free darksiders 1 and 2 for pc .... they are 22 and 13 gigs story is characters are the 4 horsemen have to jan 7th to download

That's cool but Goat Simulator will be free on PS4 this month.

 

[Felonious Python]

That's cool but Goat Simulator will be free on PS4 this month.

That's a Streamer/Let's Player type game. There's nothing there for a typical player after like 30 minutes.

 

[Felonious Python]

I binged 'Dracula' on Netflix last night. It's from former Doctor Who and Sherlock showrunner Steven Moffat and his frequent collaborator Mark Gatiss.

The book on Moffat is pretty well established now. He does great one-off and first episodes, but doesn't know how to continue anything. After the last episode of Sherlock (to date), there was a lot of reflection on the show, and if it was ever actually good. It was quite the episode.

Moffat and Gatiss have learned nothing. They make entertaining, but incredibly stupid TV. Have zero expectations of them making a decision that will matter ever. You watch it for the great start, then to see a trainwreck, and the trainwreck does happen.

H. Bomberguy's video on Sherlock covers exactly the faults you see here. (language)

 

[Felonious Python]

The showrunner for Netflix's The Witcher did an AMA with a Witcher subreddit.

It's very positive that she's engaging with fans who know the series in depth (unlike some 2D showrunners). Facing the questions and giving explanations of why decisions were made (and admitting when certain things didn't work). She's at least seeing their issues instead of plowing ahead like everything was an A or A+. It was still a very good season, but with some flaws.

 

[Felonious Python]

Official petition to rename this thread: "Bob McKenzie is My Waifu"

edit:

 

[Felonious Python]

I don't really go for the tabloid Royal Family stuff, but #Megxit is kind of interesting because they're completely on their own program right now.

edit: really, I'm just interested in the implications for future seasons of The Crown. If we understand what's happening here, wouldn't that change characterizations?

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Watching The Messiah on Netflix. Pretty damn good show. Not many people are talking about it.