Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

[Snowy]

It hit the spot for me, although they did mess it up a little bit:

Spoiler

They let on way too early that it was about counterfeiting. In the book it teases the whole Pluribus aspect far more and when the penny drops it was a much bigger "Ohhhhhh right" feeling. Reacher magically worked it out very early on. Also the ending was quite poor, although the warehouse full of counterfeit cash being burned down before Reacher walking off after a farewell shag is how it ended, it felt a little too hollywood.

All told though they nailed it. Reacher the 6'5" monster delivering crushing beat-downs and being a supreme bad-ass investigator came through way better than with the half-pint cultist in the starring role. They told the story well and faithfully and I will be there for my next seasons gluttony just as soon as they can get it filmed.

[Rusty]

Yup, I'm still onboard with anything else they produce.
I think I have a small mancrush on the lead bloke. I've never seen him before but thought he acted it all quite well with some emotional range. (I've since looked him up and he's been in some marvel type stuff)
The female cop was also cute

[Snowy]

For me the biggest thing is that they followed the story from the book. It seems a strange thing to need to comment on but having watched the train wreck that was Wheel of Time, and to a fair degree The Witcher...

[Sly Boots]

The Book of Boba Fett

It's a weird state of affairs when a show about Boba Fett is best when Boba Fett takes no real part in it. I've really enjoyed the last two episodes, but that's because they're The Mandalorian season 2.5. Spoilers for the latest episode:

Spoiler

How is it that the CGI for Luke is extraordinary (a huge leap over Rogue One's efforts with Tarkin and Leia), yet the voice acting for him is inexplicably terrible and wooden? It's not that the voice doesn't resemble a young Mark Hamill, it's that the delivery barely registers as human. I won't say it spoiled the episode for me, but it was a frequent niggle. The scene with him and Ahsoka was nice, at least.

EDIT - Good Jebus, I've just checked and it's actually Mark Hamill voicing him. Digitally altered to sound younger, but him all the same. I'm astounded - I was sure it was someone doing a flimsy impersonation. I guess he's just phoned it in? His feelings on The Last Jedi are hardly a secret.

Incidentally, I just read that Hamill's voice in that episode was done entirely digitally:

Luke 2.0’s voice is entirely digital, the result of a sophisticated “neural network” that learned Hamill’s voice from old Star Wars dialogue and even a vintage audiobook.

Which probably accounts for it sounding off.

[Wrathbone]

That’s such a weird choice. Why not just get someone who can do a reasonable impersonation? Maybe even digitally alter their performance? No doubt they spent such an obscene amount of money on it that they couldn’t justify not using the terrible robotic monstrosity they’d produced.

[Raid]

The people in charge of Star Wars seem pretty keen on not recasting any character they can reasonably fake digitally, and if they're spending the money on it now then it's only going to improve. Luke's voice was pretty flat, but I'd say it was convincing (to the point we thought it was manipulation of Hamill delivering those lines), and that lack of energy arguably isn't *too* big of a problem when he's doing his Jedi mentoring.

I really don't think we're that far away from breaking out of the uncanny valley with this stuff. Whether that's a good thing or not is certainly worth discussion.

[Wrathbone]

Visually I think they've nailed it - certainly still room for improvement, but Luke essentially looks real. I'm not at all convinced by the voice yet though, as it lacked any performance. Like I said before, it's not that it sounds unlike Mark Hamill, it's all in the delivery (i.e. there wasn't one).

Whether it's a good thing... I think like all digital tech used in films and TV, it should be treated as a tool, not the default. If it can be used to achieve something otherwise not possible then it's fair enough. In this case I fully agree with their choice to use a visually digital Luke, especially as it's the face superimposed on a human actor, which helps take it out of the uncanny valley. I think there were few good reasons to do an AI voice, though. Also, I'm not sure I agree with the calls from some people to cast Sebastian Stan as Luke, partly because I don't rate him much as an actor and partly because they tried that with Han and Lando in Solo and I found it really distracting. Re-casting is always a risky and delicate thing to get right, not least when you're dealing with characters and actors that are iconic.

[Animalmother]

Watched the first 2 episodes of Reacher. I know nothing about the character or the books so truth be told I'm not overly blown away by it so far. I think it might be the lead actor who I'm not feeling it for, he's a bit wooden in the performance. Also the little self satisfied smile he has after explaining something to one of the other characters irks me. I'll give it a couple more episodes to see if I'll stick with it.

[Sly Boots]

Just finished Season 5 of The Expanse, and goodness the finale delivered a series of gut-punches. I was in bits watching the death of a major character, then looking up afterwards and finding out why he was written out made me feel very let down. The showrunners did a good job given the circumstances.

[Raid]

It was... alright. Under the circumstances they probably did the best they could, but the party scene does feel a little off with no mention of the event. I went into it knowing that the actor had left the series, but not the circumstances surrounding it. I think it's literally my only criticism of the show, but it's not something they had any real control over.

[Sly Boots]

It was... alright. Under the circumstances they probably did the best they could, but the party scene does feel a little off with no mention of the event. I went into it knowing that the actor had left the series, but not the circumstances surrounding it. I think it's literally my only criticism of the show, but it's not something they had any real control over.

Yeah, apparently everything came to light after filming had wrapped, so they were quite limited with what they could do via editing and reshooting a scene (without that actor). The party scene apparently had to be CGId to remove the actor, hence why his death wasn't mentioned in it! It was better for him to go out on-camera rather than have something happen off-screen between seasons, which was probably their only real alternative.

[Raid]

Yeah, I know that resuming a production the size of The Expanse (Adam Savage did a lot of interviews for his Tested Youtube channel with production and cast members a few years ago when he made his cameo at the end of season 2, and there are a hell of a lot of people involved with shooting, costuming, continuity etc.) wouldn't have really been possible to shoot just one or two extra shots.

I know there's a re-shot scene beforehand that deals with it, but at the party everyone is smiling and it's a bit of a tonal shift. It's entirely forgivable in the circumstances, it just feels a bit wrong.

[Snowy]

Just finished Season 5 of The Expanse, and goodness the finale delivered a series of gut-punches. I was in bits watching the death of a major character, then looking up afterwards and finding out why he was written out made me feel very let down. The showrunners did a good job given the circumstances.

Spoiler tags please Alan

[Sly Boots]

Just finished Season 5 of The Expanse, and goodness the finale delivered a series of gut-punches. I was in bits watching the death of a major character, then looking up afterwards and finding out why he was written out made me feel very let down. The showrunners did a good job given the circumstances.

Spoiler tags please Alan

Lol I did avoid any specifics, and to be honest they adopt the Game of Thrones approach to major characters throughout, and the ending of that character was only the latest surprise in a series of them.

[Raid]

If it's of any consolation, when you see the context you'll perhaps understand why it doesn't feel like much of a spoiler.