The bridge was already burned, that was just the ghost of the bridge.
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The first three episodes of The Wheel of Time are out on Amazon Prime! I think they did a fantastic job with it and I canāt wait to see more. There were definitely some changes, and a lot was condensed or cut for time - but that was inevitable.
As someone whoās been waiting 25 years to see this on screen, they absolutely nailed it.
Thereās a Netflix exclusive series called Hellbound. Itās got some issues. I only watched 3 of the 6 episodes.
All I have to say is, whoever wrote this is very heavily influenced by Naoki Urasawa, only they are nowhere near as good.
Hit Monkey is wayyyy better than it should be. A cross between John Wick and Archer.
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So eps 1-3 of WoT.
I somewhat understand a lot of the changes at the start, The first part is super slow and nothing exciting happens for a long time. It feels like they added a lot of new details to supercharge the character building/motivations and get stuff moving forward.
Iām not 100% sold, maybe 60%? I keep thinking about what it must be like to watch this if youāve never read the books and I keep thinking that it wouldnāt be as great/compelling as say Ep1 of GoT.
But honestly, how would you top yeeting a 10 year old off a tower?
I havenāt read GoT or WoT, and have no interest in reading either. I watched GoT to the end of season 7 but stopped caring afterwards - never finished it, no interest in doing so.
Iāll be honest, GoT wasnāt that epic in the beginning. I mean it was shocking sure, but it was a cheap thrill. There was a sense of the scope to be sure, so I suppose literally āepicā in the sense of āthis is a big world with a lot of moving parts,ā but the action itself was not particularly grand.
WoT seems very Standard Fantasy, but I also recognize that it created a lot of those tropes. Plucky farmboy with a Secret Destiny flees bumfuck town to seek adventure. Iām here for it.
The first episode was fairly slow, especially given that the story trope it sets up is extremely common now - but episodes 2 and 3 hooked me, and it seems to avoiding a lot of the pointless titillating ugliness of GoT, so thatās actually a point in its favor.
The thing it wonāt compete with is the acting talent in GoT - so far, the actors in WoT are doing fine, but theyāre not particularly awesome. Theyāre solid, though.
So in the end, Iād say they honestly rank about equally with me, for different reasons.
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Iāve watched some reviews and commentary on the first episodes of WoT from non-readers, and they seem really excited and invested in it. Not many were comparing it to GoT after they got through the first episode, even if they referenced it before starting. The biggest criticism I saw was that they were a bit confused about some of the lore and rules of the world, since they didnāt touch on how magic works too much in episode 1. In fact, I heard more comparisons to Avatar: The Last Airbender than to GoT, thanks to what we saw of the magic system.
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Well thatās exciting all around!
The magic system definitely lands more like Avatar for me too, or maybe something like The Force - itās a common power into which various people can tap, not an individual ability. Or at least, thatās what it sounds like.
Thereās a bunch of nuances there, but yeah, calling it similar to Avatar is fair.
Iāve always described it as very similar to The Force, but broken up into the elements. Youād tap into the Power and weave together different combinations of the elements to create the effect you want. Some people might have natural ability in one or more of the elements, finding it easier to do more complex or difficult things with that element, but everyone can use them all to varying degrees.
(I have not seen Avatar, so Iām not sure how that compares to the elemental nature of that system.)
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Alright, so first season of Foundation is in the can. What did everyone think?
Show Spoilers
For my money, I keep hearing that Goyer is a hack, and based on the finale of the show, I 100% agree. Iāve never seen an easier case of addition through subtraction in recent cinematic memory. Watching Demarzel tear her face off in agony, after her programming forced her to kill Dawn was an awesome character beat and effects shot, and would have been a great, intimate shot to end the season on. More broadly speaking, I think everything theyāve done with the genetic dynasty is a fantastic addition to the show, and gives a great human face to the fall of the empire. I really hope they keep following through with it.
On the Terminus side of the show, I feel like they were less successful. I agree that most of the original, and while I enjoyed the initial setup they have, i.e. they find an ancient superweapon, a symbol of the failing might of the empire, to use against them, I feel like the speech at the end of the show doesnāt really work as the āAll coming togetherā. I think all of the actors gave between solid and excellent performances, but there are some lines you just canāt sell. I also donāt like the fact that Harry Seldon is a virtual intelligence on Terminus. The whole point is that the foundation is a Called Shot for a thousand years and I feel like it makes the characters work a little less neat if there is a Harry that periodically wakes up to help out
Full Series Book Spoilers
Except, Oh shit; he DEFINITELY should be an artifical intelligence on Second Foundation. I really like that what they did to set up the second foundation with Gail, although I felt like they spent too much time setting it up. and I really like that Harry doesnāt forsee the psychics, but has to roll with it with his second foundation. That said, people I was watching it with were completely lost on the psychic powers, so I think you have the characters comment on these peopleās incredible āLuckā
All told, I loved more than I didnāt like with the first season, and I am excited for the second season.
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I felt for a first season, and for the cast lineup, they could & should have done better. That said, it appears the rona significantly interfered with their process. There were moments that should have evoked big emotions, but just didnāt? The Empire team did a great job, for the most part. i think Lee Pace acted his beautiful face off.
Iām still looking forward to the next season, but I sincerely hope they iron out the pacing and climactic direction.
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Also, I could have sworn we had a book club for foundation, but for the life of me I canāt find the thread. Did it get nuked or am I just forgetting things?
Old forum
Episode pages on the web site have a link to the forum discussion (mostly).
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Watching the WOT show try to dodge the gender essentialism of the books is interesting, and iām sure there are some very mangry fanboys. seems futile overall considering the white boy messiah plot, but ok. also the guy they cast as rand looks like anakin from the prequels. lol.
School of Chocolate is a good cooking competition show on Netflix that breaks the mold of similar shows by not having any elimination. Itās really interesting how things change when none of the contestants leave as the show progresses and how that affects the politics of the show. Despite this, School of Chocolate is very much in the vein of Great British Baking Show in that thereās no real back-biting or meanness, and everyone is generally nice and helps each other.
If youāre looking for a light fun show, check it out. Also, the chocolate sculptures that the main judge makes are just amazing.
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We just binged the first four episodes of that and itās really good. I donāt think I ever want to watch another reality challenge series with eliminations. Keeping the contestants makes everything way more meaningful and interesting.
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It really does change how things work. Iām surprised no other show had tried it before. I think itās great!
I think Iāve seen it before, but eliminations create so much drama, and also have a built-in story to the entire series. Itās hard to go against that so-successful formula.
But then Task Master keeps the same contestant for the entire 10 episodes of a season, and it doesnāt matter that two or three of the contestants have no chance of winning by the end. The useless ones sticking around makes every episode more entertaining.
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